Chapter 12 #3
“He wasn’t in his right mind? Pa was always a wild man and a loner. I never could figure out how my ma tamed him enough to get him to build a cabin and have two sons. But I’d’ve never said he was a madman.”
“I think losing Gavin was just too much for him.”
“He always preferred him over me. I think he blamed me for Ma’s death. She died giving birth to me.”
“I remember Gavin was his shining star.” Roz shook her head. “But he loved you too, Morgan, and was proud of you . . . until you picked what he saw as the wrong side in the war.”
“He didn’t want anything to do with the war.
He didn’t think I picked the wrong side as far as what the war was about.
I picked the wrong side because I’d made it to be brother against brother.
That’s what he couldn’t forgive. Since Gavin went first and threw in with the Confederacy, he thought I owed it to my brother to side with him. I just couldn’t do it.”
“I remember the day you came by to tell me you were heading out. One of the saddest days of my life. Not as sad as losing Pa, I reckon, but far and away sadder than losing Herman. That man never did much but make more work for me, right up to the end when I had to dig him a grave.”
“When you—” Morgan had a whole lot more to say just as the trees cleared a bit and he spotted a man being lowered on a rope down the side of a cliff.
Owen was up top, Delaney halfway to the ground, standing on a narrow ledge.
Clive Duncan hung halfway between. “Well, look at that. Owen and Delaney seem just fine. They got their man, too.”
Morgan and Roz rode toward the steep slope. Since he was already here, he’d help out, although showing up now felt like he didn’t trust Owen to handle his part of the job. He should have gone after Tex instead.
Owen looked up as Morgan reached the base of the slope and dismounted. His expression brightened, and being distracted, the rope slipped. Clive dropped a few feet and slammed onto the rock ledge. Delaney grabbed for him to stop him, but then she tipped over the edge, and both of them fell.
Owen yelped.
Morgan came a-running just in time to break Delaney’s fall after they plunged off the ledge the last few feet alongside the cliff. He caught her neatly but didn’t even try to catch Clive. Their prisoner hit a little bit hard, but the ground was soft there. He’d survive.
Maybe now the man would sleep through the next few days until they got him to Fort Russell.
Owen tossed the lasso down and climbed to where Morgan was setting Delaney back on her feet. She dusted herself off.
“Are you all right?” Owen studied her for scrapes and bumps, and just in case, for broken bones. She’d come through in good shape. Then he lifted both her hands, remembering how battered they’d looked up on the ledge. The fall hadn’t made them any worse.
“That was my fault.” He looked at Morgan, and then aware it was almost painful to look away from Delaney, he went back to studying her and knew it had nothing to do with checking for bruises. “I saw Morgan come riding into the clearing and was distracted for just a second, and I let Clive slip.”
Delaney waved him back. “I’m fine.” She turned to Morgan. “Thank you for catching me. Are you all right?”
Morgan picked his hat up off the ground, studied its squashed crown, punched it back into shape, and said, “Yes, I’m fine.”
They all turned to Clive, who lay facedown again, breathing steady but unconscious.
Morgan said to Owen, “No sign yet of Tex. I took off after you first because Boone was itching to go after his sister himself, and I don’t think he’s quite as ready for that as he hopes.
Roz and I caught Sly in a few paces, so we got to camp a while ago.
We’d better get back before we lose the light. ”
Owen caught Morgan’s arm when he started to turn, then narrowed his eyes when he saw the red welt that crossed his cheek. “What did you get hit with? You’ve got a slash across your face, but it doesn’t look like a cut from a knife, but more like from a stick.”
Morgan touched his face and seemed to look through Owen into the past. “I didn’t think of it until you mentioned it, but he did hit me with something, and now that I know it’s there, it stings.
I don’t know what he had or how they all got loose at once.
I dove off my horse and had him hog-tied fast. I didn’t search him again for weapons I might’ve missed.
And if he had a stick, he must’ve dropped it when I took him down. ”
Owen’s eyes were drawn to movement near where the trees opened up in front of the cliff. It was Roz. She had rounded up all the horses while still on horseback and was leading them over.
Owen gave Morgan a sly smile. “It was a good idea to bring help.”
Morgan glanced over his shoulder, saw Roz, then looked away. Owen might be imagining it because it was faint, but he might’ve been a witness to Morgan Sawyer blushing.
So quiet Owen barely heard it, and for certain Roz couldn’t, Morgan said, “Can’t seem to get shut of her. But she’s a handy woman.”
Owen noticed the horses and that she’d led one of them over to stand near Clive. Owen reckoned that if they didn’t get moving, she’d have the varmint loaded on his horse and hauled all the way back to camp.
Handy for a fact.
“We’ll keep a closer eye on all of them.” Owen headed toward Clive.
Morgan threw in to drag the man to his horse, untie his feet, and toss him over the saddle.
Delaney said, “We’ll keep a closer eye unless we’re scaling the sides of canyons.”
Owen grunted, and they all mounted up. Not counting Roz Beck, who’d never dismounted.
They didn’t talk much on the ride back to the campsite.
Owen had a firm belief in not worrying. He felt like it was a waste of time and energy, and it didn’t sit right with his faith in God.
Instead, if he had something to worry about, he set out to fix it.
Because fixing it was something he couldn’t do right now, he tried to keep his mouth shut and his thoughts on finding Tex, then eating supper and sleeping with one eye open, thanks to these lawbreaking Duncans.
And do all of that before full dark. The lowering sun told him that wasn’t going to be easy.
It’d solve all his problems if he got there and found Tex had returned with Stella—yet another troublesome Duncan.
When they finally arrived at the camp, Boone’s eyes went straight to Delaney. He heaved a sigh of relief.
But there was no Marley, no Stella either. And precious little sunlight left. Owen had hoped to get out of the mountains today, though he had no idea where he was exactly.
“You’d think of the three of them, the woman would be the easiest to corral,” Owen muttered. He didn’t say it for anyone’s ears but Morgan’s because they had two feisty women with them, and he’d prefer it if they weren’t mad at him. Especially the one he’d kissed less than an hour ago.
Morgan shook his head and looked at Roz, then Owen. “We can’t track him until daybreak.” Morgan was likely thinking the same thing they were. It’d been too long. Tex was in trouble.
Right then Marley came riding in, leading two horses. He would have brought bodies back if others had died. Still, this was a bad sign.
“Tell us what happened,” Owen said. “Can you take us to them?”
Marley shook his head. “They went over a cliff. Tex had caught up to her and was about to grab her horse’s reins when their horses as good as sat down, they’d come so close to the edge. I saw them both go flying over their horses’ heads. I was just far enough behind them I got my horse stopped.”
“They’re dead?” Owen’s stomach wrenched. Tex had been one of his best friends in the world. He didn’t have many.
“Not so’s I could tell.” The way Marley sank to the ground and poured himself coffee, like it was taking his last bit of strength, reminded Owen that Marley was still tender from getting shot in the leg.
“By the time I got to the ground and could look over the cliff, there was nothing left but a trail of dust. They took a header over the cliff and fell out of sight fast. Tex is tough, so I won’t believe he’s dead until I see his body.
But one of the reasons I’m so slow getting back is that I scouted around for a long time trying to find a way down, and there ain’t one.
I got an angle on the bottom enough I could see a river.
If they hit water, there’s a real good chance they survived the fall. ”
“I’ve seen that river,” Roz said, crossing her arms. “There’s a curve of it closer to my place.
It’s a mean one. A fast current studded with rocks in the narrow stretches.
More than one waterfall and plenty of sheer rock lining it.
Hard to get out.” She looked up at Morgan.
“It’s survivable, though, and you said your friend is tough.
Stella strikes me as tough, too. But I don’t know any way to get down there from up here.
The only trail I know out of these mountains veers away from that river. We’ll never even see it.”
“What direction does the current flow?”
Shaking her head, Roz said, “The wrong way. They’d be moved along west while we are headed east. We won’t cross paths with them.”
Still determined to find Tex, Owen turned to eating the food Boone had prepared. Somehow Boone had stood guard over Sly, who was unconscious, watched over Roz’s kid, and rustled up a meal.
When they’d finished their supper, they set up a night watch between Owen and Morgan, though all four of the others—Delaney, Roz, Boone, and Marley—offered to take a shift.
Owen trusted them, except for maybe Boone with his head injury.
But it was the Marshal’s job, and they’d do it.
He’d’ve trusted Marley to help, but his face was drawn, and his limp was back with a vengeance.
Marley needed to rest that leg. They had a long ride out of here, and there was still a risk Marley’s leg could fester and he might lose it.
Those in the camp settled in to sleep, except for Owen who’d volunteered to keep watch for the first shift. So he roamed around the campsite, leery and on edge, telling himself not to worry but failing miserably at it.
It was a beautiful night. The stars were glowing all around the sky like they’d been blasted up there with a shotgun loaded with diamonds.
Owen decided not to feel confident about anything, including the Duncan Gang’s whereabouts.