Chapter 13
Tex woke up with his hands and feet bound and with Stella Duncan sitting near him. She was a terrible mess of dirty clothes and wild hair. He saw her watching him carefully. Then she struck a spark on a flint that she’d probably fished out of his pocket, though she might’ve had her own.
The kindling was neatly piled, a little bird’s nest ready to ignite. Because he was annoyed with himself for being caught, he kept silent as she started the fire while he watched.
Glancing up at him frequently as if he could escape as easily as she had, she said, “Before I untie you, I want to say something. I promise to cut your bindings after I’ve had my say. Although I doubt the word of a Duncan is worth much to you.”
She had that right. He tugged against the ropes on his wrists and found them very securely bound.
He rocked himself up into a sitting position. Every move and breath hurt after yesterday’s battering. She watched him through suspicious eyes, then got back to tending her fire.
“I have been trying to escape from my family ever since my ma died and Pa took me with him on his wandering.”
She stopped talking and got a little curl of smoke to rise from the bird’s nest, then gently blew on it, focusing on the fire. He got the impression she’d had it ready a while ago and had sat there waiting for his eyes to open.
“How old are you?” That was a dumb question to be the first out of his mouth, but they both had to live with it now.
“Twenty-five,” she answered. “I have to tell you, I don’t think my pa and Uncle Gordy are outlaws. I know you believe Clive is a murderer, but—”
“He is a murderer. He killed a cavalry private in front of witnesses.”
“He escaped and stayed out of sight for months. I had plenty of time to talk to him. He’s a reckless young man who makes plenty of foolish mistakes, I won’t deny that.
But I don’t believe he’s a killer. He admits he killed that man, but he didn’t start the fight.
He saw the man grab a woman and drag her into an alley.
Clive fought him, and when the man drew a gun, Clive was faster. He was defending himself.”
“Not according to witness testimony.”
“The witness was Calan MacNeil, a good friend of the victim, Private Finlay MacNeil. And they weren’t just friends since the time they met at the fort.
They were Scots, cousins, who’d been together all the way back to Scotland.
Finlay’s cousin lied about the woman; he was in on that.
He also wanted vengeance for Finlay and didn’t care to be tied to what they were planning to do to that woman.
So he accused Clive of cold-blooded murder. ”
Tex could see that Stella sincerely believed all of what she was telling him. He looked her in the eye and shook his head. “Your brother told you what he wanted you to believe. He cast himself in the best possible light.”
“I’m telling you this story so you’ll look into it when you take us to the fort.
My brother Leland opened fire on you when he saw Clive.
He always was a headlong fool. He died when you shot at us as we came riding up that first slope.
The man who shot your Marshal is dead. No one else opened fire.
And my pa is a stubborn, cantankerous old goat, but he isn’t an outlaw. ”
“Him and your family are behind a rash of bank robberies all over Colorado.”
“No, they’re not,” Stella insisted. “They’re wandering men.
They’ve always lived off the land. Pa and Gordy built cabins together in a hard-to-get-to spot west of Pikes Peak.
I lived there with my ma and with my aunt Ethel for years while the men hunted and ran traplines and mined for gold.
They’d pass through a few times a year, sometimes stay a few weeks or through the winter.
Pa is a cranky man. We were always glad to see him go away, hunting or trapping.
As the boys got old enough, they’d ride off with Pa when he left.
I had a younger sister, Sissy, and she and I always stayed at home.
“Aunt Ethel died five years ago. Ma died two years ago, along with my sister, in a house fire. Pa rode in with his crew before Ma and little Sissy died. He rebuilt the cabin in hopes they’d survive, but neither of them did.
That left me alone, so he decreed that I should go with him.
He gave me no choice. It was a rugged life, but I was with them all the time for the past year since Ma died.
There were no bank robberies. Fistfights aplenty and a few too many nights in the saloon.
I was made to stay out of town. One of my brothers or cousins was always assigned to stay with me. ”
Tex was afraid that more went on in those towns than fistfights and whiskey drinking.
Stella wasn’t done yet. “I liked being left behind. I could hunt, and it got to be my job since Pa and Clive and two older brothers were gone most of the time. While they were away, I’d go hunting with whatever poor, abandoned brother or cousin was with me.
We’d feed the family. I learned plenty of what I know about living in the wilderness from my pa.
But my ma was good with a gun and could fish and trap. ”
“But didn’t you say you wanted to escape?” Tex asked.
“First of all, it wasn’t the life I wanted to live.
I didn’t see how I’d ever have a home of my own because Pa never stayed in one place long enough for me to meet a man.
And when a suitable man did wander close, Pa wouldn’t let them near me.
I believe my family is innocent, but they traveled through wild land, and some of the men we crossed paths with were criminals, maybe the bank robbers you mistook us for.
I figured out we were running with outlaws.
I’m not even sure that bothered me overly.
I knew no other life. The only book in our house was the Bible, and Ma taught me to read with it.
But there was no church, no preacher around.
Anyhow, I didn’t like riding with Pa, but I knew better than to say such a thing. ”
“If that was first, what’s second?”
“Ma and my younger sister died. Our cabin burned down. We all got out alive, but Ma and Sissy were burned and breathed in too much smoke. They’d survived the fire, and we were so far out, I had no way to get to a doctor.
I didn’t even know where a town was. Then Pa returned home, and I begged him to help me get them to a doctor.
He said none of the towns within a day’s ride had a doctor, and with their injuries I knew they’d never survive a long ride.
He said they’d live if they had the strength.
I had to tend them for days. Ma had burns all along her back and legs.
Sissy wasn’t hurt as badly, mostly her arms got burns on them.
I knew Ma was in terrible danger, but I thought Sissy would make it.
It took Ma a week to die. Sissy lingered for a month before her wounds became infected and a fever caught hold. It was a dreadful thing to watch.”
Tex had seen a few badly burned folks in his life. She was right. It was dreadful.
“While I tended them, Pa built a new cabin. But Ma died before he could finish it, and Sissy was moved to one of the two bedrooms. When she died, Pa told me to saddle up, that I’d be riding with them.”
“And that’s when you robbed your first bank?”
Stella’s eyes narrowed. She threw a log on the fire.
“I did not rob a bank. None of us did. But I didn’t want that wild, wandering life.
Pa as good as kept me under guard. I’ve been with them ever since.
I’m telling you this because I don’t want to be taken back to Pa.
I want you to get me somewhere I can hide. ”
Tex studied her, probably for too long. He considered himself a good judge of liars. Of course, he dealt mainly with outlaws and Marshals. He assumed all the outlaws were liars and all the Marshals were honest, so maybe he was kidding himself.
Even so, what she’d said struck him as the truth. Or maybe it was just the truth as she knew it. Maybe her menfolk got up to things she didn’t know about.
“We have no way back to where the rest of our group is.” Tex looked at the wild river they’d come flooding down.
He wondered if it was the Colorado River.
If it was, they could have gone miles and miles to the south.
Probably it was a smaller river or stream that emptied into the Colorado, and maybe they’d ridden it long enough that they were now in the Colorado.
They’d been swept into a lake, but he still felt the current.
He knew that lake had a way out that ran westward.
If they got back in the river, hoping to be taken to somewhere more hospitable, they could be swept all the way to Mexico, assuming they didn’t drown first.
“Where would you go so your family couldn’t find you?”
An expression of mulish stubbornness tightened her jaw. “I’ve been giving that some thought.”
“Just now?”
“No, I’ve been thinking about it for years, long before Ma died.
But while she was alive, I didn’t feel quite so desperate.
If you could get me to the train, give me enough money to climb on and head for California, my family would never find me there.
I’m a decent cook, and I can clean rooms in a hotel or do their washing if I have to. ”
“Women are mostly either married or schoolmarms.”
Looking chagrined, she said, “I can’t be a schoolmarm. They’d probably want me to be able to read better.”
“Most likely a requirement,” Tex agreed. “Some women work in a store of some kind alongside their husbands.”
“I’ve never met a man worth marrying, just wild-riding cronies of my pa’s. And if I did meet and marry someone decent, he’d be in danger if Pa caught up to him.”