Chapter 13 #2
“I wouldn’t mind helping you, Stella. Near as I can remember, there’s no wanted poster on you.
I’ve never witnessed you commit a crime.
But to just cast you out into the world like that is wrong.
Come with me to find Owen and Morgan. We’d have to check the latest wanted posters first, but if we don’t find you there, we’ll figure out a way to get you free of your family. ”
She frowned and replied, “No, that won’t do.
Pa would be angry if he got wind I was around and with all of you.
What I’d prefer is to get myself on a train heading west, and you could .
. . well, you could go on to find your friends and tell them I died.
It’s amazing I didn’t. Then Pa would never hunt for me. I’d be safe.”
“Except for being penniless and alone in the world.”
“Yeah, except for that.”
Stella turned her face toward the steep bank that rose high over their heads. “Maybe you could help me find a place to lie low. Or maybe I could sneak onto a train and ride in secret. I’ve heard of folks doing that.”
Tex thought of the brutal men who guarded trains. “Conductors sometimes find hideaway passengers, and when they do, they toss them off the moving train. They tend to use their fists, too.”
He considered at her pretty blond hair, a ragged mess but still a shining gold that might put the sun to shame if it wasn’t so full of snarls and dried mud. Would they beat a woman like her if they came across her hiding on a train? Would they do worse than that? His stomach clenched.
“H-how much does a ticket cost? I’d pay you back, I promise.” Stella’s expression was earnest. “I’d prove I was honest by paying you back, if you’d just trust me this once.”
Tex saw no reason not to admit the truth. “All the money I had in the world was in the saddlebags on my horse. I don’t have the money for a train ticket.”
Stella fell silent. He could see it had stung her to ask for him to pay. Now to be told no only deepened an already awkward situation.
Tex shifted around until he could rest his back against a boulder. He never took his eyes off her. Was she telling the truth?
Stella looked glum as she reached over, knife in hand—his knife, he noticed—and he tensed up, ready to fight even with his hands bound.
With quick, graceful moves, she cut the ropes binding his hands and feet.
A surge of relief coursed through Tex. This really did make her seem like an honest woman. When an outlaw comes at you with a knife, a man can’t help but be wary.
He rubbed his wrists for a few moments.
“Can you tell me what to do?” she asked.
Tex thought of one job he had some control over. What’s more, she was made for it. “This won’t solve your problems with your pa.” Although he was from Texas originally and a former Texas Ranger, he’d hired on to the U.S. Marshals Service to see more of the country. No reason he couldn’t . . .
Their eyes met. He thought of a whole lot of reasons it was a mistake to say this. “I need to hire a deputy.”
There was a long pause before she spoke. “A deputy?”
“Yep, and you have the skills for it, Stella.”
“You mean I think like a criminal?”
Tex winced. “No, I don’t mean that.” Although, now that she mentioned it . . .
“Can women really be deputies?”
Tex couldn’t exactly say he’d ever heard of one. But then he got to choose his own deputy, so why not? “Sure they can.”
It wasn’t against the law. Not one he’d ever heard of anyway.
“I’ve worked out of Colorado for a long time. By the time this is over, we’ll have the whole Duncan Gang in jail.”
“I told you—they’re not outlaws. I just don’t like the life they have forced on me. There are plenty of things wrong with my pa and cousins, but they’re honest men for the most part.”
“Including the jail-breaking killer?”
Stella swiped a hand at Tex. “Yes, including him. My family runs around with ruffians. I’ve got some no-good cousins who cast shame on the Duncan family name. But the men I ride with shouldn’t have wanted posters on them.”
Tex forged ahead. “You could work for me. Or if you don’t feel safe here, we could find another place to serve.
I could go back to Texas and work there as a Ranger.
You know, not all Marshal work is this dangerous.
There are documents to deliver and reward money to transport.
Some Marshals stand guard during trials in federal court.
I don’t have to live in such dangerous territory.
The posting is for four years. I have to submit papers to be reappointed, and it’s nearing time to do that.
I figured to ask for a second term, but it would be easy, I think, to change back to a Texas Ranger.
By then we could find a place for you to live, and a job in some small town in Texas where it’s safe. ”
After he finished planning her whole life, Tex smiled at her.
She was frowning. “I don’t want to be a U.S. Marshal. I just watched your deputy get shot. And besides that, I don’t want to go to Texas.”
Tex thought she sounded mighty ungrateful considering he’d just offered to upend his life for her. And he was mildly outraged that anyone would not want to go to Texas. He decided he’d concentrate on what he could do if she was too stubborn to let him manage things for her.
“The fact remains that we can’t get back to Owen and Morgan and the others.
I don’t see enough shoreline that we can walk along, and I’ve no idea how to climb a cliff if we ever got back to where we fell.
The current is too fast and deep to try wading back the way we came.
Down here in the shadows, I can’t even see the sun.
I don’t know what to do except climb out of here somehow, get a notion of where we are, and head for Fort Russell.
I’m hoping Owen, Morgan, and Marley are already headed there.
How about I find a place to hide you near the fort until I can figure out what to do with you? ”
Her eyes narrowed.
He was making her mighty unhappy, and he had no idea why.
Since he couldn’t seem to say the right thing, he decided to quit talking and get to work. They had no food, not a single bite. He slapped at his holster and remembered he had no gun.
She had his flint and had gotten the fire started with it. But he noticed now that there was no great stack of firewood. She must’ve picked up every branch and twig she could find down where they were.
So she had his knife and flint, and that was perilously close to all they had.
Down in the belly of this canyon, there was no food to be seen.
He glanced at the water. He might be able to spear a fish.
He contemplated that for a few minutes but didn’t feel up to going back in the water.
He wanted to stay here with Stella to protect her.
But he got the feeling—considering he’d woken up to find she’d taken him prisoner—that she might be useful to have around to protect him.
Yep, they needed to stick together, and right now the way to do that started with their staying put on land.
“I’ve made a bowl with a strip of bark. Here. Have a drink of water.” She was a useful woman for a fact. “Then let’s climb on out of here.”
Tex decided to do his best not to start liking her. That would pinch if the law at Fort Russell came up with a wanted poster with her name on it.
“How about we get to the top of this wall.” He turned to give her a look. “Can I have my knife back?”
She handed it over. Nope, not a criminal.
Unless she knew she wasn’t getting out of here on her own.
She could still be a criminal, just a wily one.
And the Duncan Gang had run roughshod over Colorado and Wyoming for years—unless Tex was wrong about that, too.
And what had she said about cousins ruining the family name?
Her pa was nicknamed Sly. So wiliness might come though the blood.
Tex just couldn’t be sure.
Until he decided if he could trust her or not, he went and started scaling another cliff. He was on about his fourth today . . . or was it more than that? He’d lost count.
“Delaney was here.” Grizzly stormed out of the telegraph office, furious. “We should’ve turned off when we saw that trail. It could’ve been theirs.”
Hester knew him well. Under that fury, Grizzly was scared for their children.
She’d stayed on horseback, told him to go on in and that she’d hold his horse.
She was tired and worried and saddlesore.
She didn’t admit it because sore and exhausted didn’t matter.
They’d keep going until their children were safe regardless of how hard it was.
They were in complete agreement on that without saying a word to each other about it.
Grizzly had ridden hard to get here, and Hester had stuck with him every step.
It was the end of the second day. Last night they’d slept in Fort Collins in Colorado, which was no longer a fort.
Now they were in Elk Point, where the telegraph operator had already locked up for the night.
But he lived above his office, so Grizzly had banged on the man’s door until he came down to see what all the fuss was about.
“What did the telegraph operator say?” Hester asked.
“Delaney and Boone both came here. The operator remembered them well. They’d been riding with several other men.
The telegrapher wasn’t sure if it was five or six of ’em.
He’d been busy sending the wire. The rest of the group had remained on horseback.
They’d rushed through the request and payment, then were gone.
The group galloped away to the north, headed along the Front Range. They used the road we came in on.”
Hester clamped her mouth shut to cover her impatience, though she hadn’t done a very good job of it.