Chapter 27
Theda couldn't believe her eyes.
Declan and Leland came a little after sunrise the next morning, Tolliver between them, hands bound behind his back. His lip was split and dried blood clung to his chin. His boots dragged with every step.
They’d caught him.
Her eyes scanned the gathering crowd for Jem. She found him at the edge of it, still, watching. He looked a little pale, hesitant.
Phineas stepped forward. “Get him away from the wagons. We'll deal with this privately.”
Declan and Leland nodded and started to pull Tolliver toward her and Phineas’ wagon. Tolliver laughed, short and ugly, and planted his feet. His arms went taught against the two men pulling him.
“I don't think so.” His voice carried across the camp. He looked out at the gathered faces. Theda’s heart skipped a beat. “Since you all seem so angry there was a criminal in your midst, don’t you want to know who my partner is?”
Leland’s jaw clenched, and Theda saw him exchange a look with Jem. His words from the other night came rushing back. Was that what he’d wanted to tell her? That he remembered being Tolliver’s partner?
“The man you call Jem.” Tolliver let that hang a moment. “That's not his name.”
Theda's stomach dropped.
“His name is Josiah Redmond.” Tolliver's eyes moved across the crowd. “Second in command of the Redmond Gang. Not only that, but I have a hunch by the way he’s staring at me, that he knows that now.” Tolliver laughed, a hint of mania rolling off of him.
Nobody spoke.
“He was sent to shadow this train before you ever left Missouri. His job was to ride alongside you, learn your habits, and find out who was carrying the diamonds.” His voice stayed level, almost conversational. “And then deliver this entire company to his brother.”
Someone near Theda made a sound. Her eyes stayed on Tolliver, then moved to Jem. If he’d been following them for so long… had he ever been injured? She almost swayed from the thought of it.
“Ransom Redmond.” Tolliver let the name settle. “That's who's been trailing this pass for two days. That's whose tracks your scouts found this morning.” His eyes moved to Phineas. “Your man Jem found them too. Funny he didn't mention where they came from.”
Phineas said nothing.
“They're already close.” Tolliver looked back at the crowd. “And they won't stop, not when Ransom wants something. You've got no chance of holding them off, Especially not with Josiah working for them from the inside.”
Bodies turned, eyes toward the edge of the gathering where Jem stood apart from everyone else. She turned with them.
He was looking at Tolliver. His face was still. She searched it the way she always did, for what was real. She'd thought she knew how to read him by now.
His eyes found hers.
She waited for something, denial, anger, any of it. Instead, he looked back at her like he'd known this moment was coming. Her throat tightened.
How long did he lie to me?
Did he lie to me?
How can I know?
Maybe if she’d heard it from him first… Around her the camp erupted, voices climbing over each other, Phineas and Leland worked together, trying to get hold of the situation. Declan kept his hand on Tolliver's rope. Theda stood in the middle of all of it with her eyes on Jem.
She waited for him to tell her what part of it was true . How well did she really know Jem? Could his motives be trusted?
Phineas didn't waste time.
“Get him tied up by the supply wagon.” Phineas pointed to Tolliver, who still looked as if he were amused at playing with everyone’s minds while hurting Jem.
Declan and two other men moved Tolliver toward the rear wagon without ceremony.
Tolliver went this time, the fight gone out of him, or maybe he just thought it was no longer worth it to put up much of a fight.
“We’ll turn him over when we get to the base.” Phineas said to the gathered company. “Nobody goes near him. Nobody talks to him. We move out in an hour.”
People began to disperse. Slowly at first, then faster. Theda stayed where she was. She kept her hands still at her sides and her back straight and watched them go. She needed to talk to Jem.
She turned to find him and stopped.
Walt had crossed to where Jem stood at the edge of the crowd, and Phineas was right behind him. She watched Walt put a hand on Jem's arm.
Phineas said something to him low enough that she couldn't hear it from where she stood. Jem nodded once, and then Walt was binding his wrists.
Theda’s heart leaped into her throat. She hated to see him tied up like a criminal, because despite everything, she couldn't really bring herself to believe he was.
Jem didn't pull away. He just stood there with his arms in front of him and let Walt work the rope around his wrists, his eyes down. That stillness was the thing that stayed with her.
Phineas pointed toward the horse line, opposite from where Tolliver had been taken. Walt nodded and took Jem's arm and they started walking. Theda followed, keeping enough distance that Phineas wouldn't notice her right away.
She watched Jem's face as he walked. He hadn't looked at her again since their eyes met across the crowd. She didn't know if that was guilt or something else, and the not knowing sat in her chest like a stone.
Had any of it been real?
Walt settled Jem against one of the picket poles, looped the rope around a few times, and checked the knot twice. Jem sat with his bound wrists resting on his knees and said nothing. Walt straightened, glanced down at him once, then walked back toward Phineas without a word.
Theda waited until Walt had rounded the wagon before she moved forward. She made her way all the way to him, not thinking about what she would say when she got there.
She stopped a few feet away. Jem looked up when he heard her footsteps, and something moved across his face when he saw it was her. She stood there for a moment, looking at him.
“What part of it was true?” she asked softly.
She had to know.
Jem held her gaze. He didn't look away.
“All of it.” His voice broke, his tone gruff, full of emotion.
When she said nothing, Jem shook his head.
“When I opened my eyes that first morning and saw you standing over me, I thought I'd died.” He held her gaze.
“I thought you were an angel.” Something moved in his expression that made her heart ache.
“Then I found out I'd lost everything I'd ever known, and I thought maybe that was mercy.” He paused.
“There are moments I wished the memories would never have come back.”
Theda said nothing, waiting.
“But if they hadn't, I couldn't protect you from Ransom.” His jaw tightened slightly. “So I'm glad they did. Even if it costs me everything.” His eyes stayed on hers. “My freedom, most likely. And possibly my heart at the same time.”
Theda couldn’t answer him, tears gathered in her eyes, as she captured his gaze with her own. She was so caught up in it, in him, that she didn't hear Phineas until he was stepping in front of her.
“Not now, Theda.” He swept a hand over his face, as if trying to remind himself what he was supposed to be doing.
“Phineas--”
“I need you to go check on Joe Pruitt.” His voice was quiet. “Please. Spend the night with Della and let us all figure this out.”
She looked back at Jem. He was watching her. She wanted to stay. She wanted to stand there until she had every answer she was owed.
Instead, she turned and walked toward her wagon to check on Joe, her back straight, her hands at her sides, each step deliberate. She didn't let herself look back. She’d talk to him when she could, as soon as she could.
She had a feeling that whatever was said the next time they spoke was going to change things, and she wasn't sure she was ready for that yet.
Theda kept her back straight, each step deliberate. She made it perhaps twenty feet before her eyes blurred.
She pressed her lips together and kept walking, keeping her chin up until she rounded the far side of the supply wagon where the space between it and the next was narrow and shadowed and empty. Then she stopped.
She pressed the back of her hand against her mouth and stood there, and let it come. She didn't even know exactly what she was crying for. The lie, maybe. Or the truth. Or the way his eyes had stayed on hers when he said it, steady and sorry and something else that made her heart flutter.
She wiped her face with her sleeve and straightened up. She had to stay strong, to figure out, who was Jem and who had he become?