Before the Dawn (21 page)

“Be my guest,” Cordelia offered frostily.

His eyes brushed Leah in parting, and he moved on.

Leah didn't know what to make of any of this. The hostility in the air around the table was thick enough to cut, but Cordelia and the others had been as deferential as if Ryder were some dangerous predator they didn't want to rile.

When Ryder was out of earshot, Helene cracked nastily, “Squaw Boy.”

Leah couldn't help herself, she had to know. “So, it's true? People here really did call him Squaw Boy?”

Seth admitted drolly, “Yes.”

“Everyone?” she asked, unable to keep the temper out of her voice.

Seth shrugged as if he didn't wish to answer.

Helene had no such reservations. “Yes, because that's who he is.”

Barkdsale cracked drolly in response, “Now Squaw Boy owns everything and everybody around.” He then added, “Excuse me, folks, but I need another drink.”

The subject of Ryder was dropped. Leah and Seth made their round of the buffet table then found seats, but she noticed that all the guests seemed to be covertly watching the younger Montague son, and she proved no exception.

It seemed not all of the women were as averse to his presence as Cordelia and Helene however. More than a few gave him secret smiles as he passed by. Dorthea Ross, the pale, red-haired wife of one of the cattlemen, had been very chilly when introduced to Leah, but now she looked as warm as a hot rum toddy as she stood across the room talking and smiling up at Ryder with flirty eyes. Her elderly husband stood beside her, jaws tight, trying to appear cordial.

Seth must have noticed where her attention lay, because he said, “Dorthea's new around here, only been married to Charlie Ross six weeks or so. She wouldn't know Ryder's reputation with women.”

He paused in his eating. “I'm sorry, you probably didn't want to hear that.”

Leah had to know. “Is he very popular with the ladies?”

“Let's just say, he has a well notched bedpost.”

And now, Leah was one of those notches. She decided to change the subject. “Tell me about this town you want to start.”

So for the next ten minutes Leah listened to Seth's hopes
and dreams for his town. At least, she tried to listen. Ryder had positioned himself in a spot across the room at his brother's back. Every time she looked up his eyes were waiting. Even though she would hastily glance away, it was never quickly enough to avoid the heat of his silent touch.

“Leah—”

She quickly gave her attention back to Seth. “I'm sorry. I was woolgathering. Go on, you were saying?”

He chuckled. “I'm sorry. Let's talk about something else. Financial talk's always pretty boring for most females.”

Leah hated to be judgmental but found his words mildly condescending. “I see. Why do you think that is?”

He shrugged as he forked up a fat piece of ham. “Females care about dresses and shopping mostly. And that's okay because they shouldn't have to worry their heads over business things—that's what men are for.”

Leah's punch became strangled in her throat and set off a coughing fit that doubled her over. She took Seth's hastily offered handkerchief and placed it over her mouth, but she coughed and coughed and coughed. Folks were staring, possibly wondering if she were about to succumb, but she finally found her breath. And when she did, she stood, and said, “I need a bit of air.”

He stood, too.

She raised a palm. “No, you stay. I'll be right back.”

“Are you sure? I can go with you.”

“No, I'll be fine.”

Aware that every eye was now turned her way, Leah ignored them and headed for the door.

Outside on the large verandah, she drank in the night air. She wondered what the folks inside would say about her if she shanghaied a coach and drove herself away. She didn't like this place or its people. The women were cold and stiff-backed, and the men seemed content to follow
their wives' leads. Right now, she didn't blame Monty and Cecil for turning their backs on this decidedly unfriendly lot. And Seth. He was charming and handsome, but did he actually believe women had no heads for business? The views he'd expressed were terribly out-of-date in light of the strides achieved by women since the end of the war. Granted there were those women content to fill their heads with nothing but shopping and fashion, but so many others, like Leah, knew firsthand that thoughts of shopping and fashion wouldn't pay one's bills, nor put food on the table.

“You know,” Ryder Damien drawled from behind her, “the longer you're out here, the more the gossips inside are going to savage you.”

For some reason his arrival didn't surprise her. “I don't care. The sooner I can leave here, the better I'll be.”

“Not impressed by Denver's representative elite?”

“No.”

It was a beautiful night—the air was warm and the sky so clear Leah could see the stars shining like diamonds against dark velvet. “Did the Cheyenne have their own names for the stars?”

“Yes.”

While Leah followed the movement of his finger, he named some of them for her: Raven Carrying the Sun, Spider God, the Star That Never Moves. He showed her the Three Hunters and the Bear, and the Headdress.

He then asked, “Do you know how the Big Dipper came to be in the sky?”

Fascinated by this side of him, Leah shook her head, saying, “No.”

“Coyote.”

“Coyote?” she echoed skeptically.

“Yes. Coyote's a legendary trickster—a joker. Some
times his tricks are good, sometimes bad, but he always comes out on top. Only rarely is the trick played on him.”

“So, how'd he put the Big Dipper in the sky?”

Ryder explained, “According to the legend my grandmother told me, there were five wolf brothers who saw some grizzlies in the sky one night and wanted to go up and visit, but had no way to get there. Coyote came along, heard their story, then offered his help.”

“So what did he do?”

“Took out his bow and shot an arrow into the sky. When the arrow stuck, he shot another one into the end of it, then another, and another. He kept shooting arrows until they formed a long ladder down to the earth.”

“And the wolf brothers used that?”

“Yep, the eldest wolf brother even took his dog.”

“The wolf—had a dog?”

He sounded amused. “Sure, dogs were as much a part of tribal life as the legends.”

Leah shook her head. “Okay. So, were the grizzlies in the mood for company, or did Coyote send them up there just to get eaten?”

“No, the bears were pretty hospitable. The wolves sat down with the bears—”

“The dog, too?”

“Yes, the dog, too, but Coyote didn't trust the bears so he stood a ways off and just watched.”

“Then the bears ate the wolves,” Leah interjected.

“No, the bears didn't eat the wolves,” he told her with amused exasperation. “Do you want to hear the story or not?”

A chastised Leah apologized. “I'm sorry. Go ahead.”

He shook his head. “Anyway, Coyote didn't trust the bears, but he thought the bears and the wolves made a nice picture, so he decided everybody down on earth would en
joy seeing them, too. He also wanted everyone to be able to say Coyote was the one responsible for the picture so he climbed down and took the arrows with him as he went.”

“So they were stranded?”

“Yep, and they're still up there today. If you look at the Big Dipper you can see the three wolf brothers that are the handle. In the middle is the eldest one,” and, he added pointedly, “with his dog.”

Leah tried to hide her smile.

Ryder continued, “Right under the handle are the two youngest brothers.”

“And the grizzlies?”

“Are the other side of the bowl, the side that points to the North Star. In fact, Coyote was so proud of how it looked, he turned all the other stars into pictures, too.”

Leah knew she'd never look at the Big Dipper or the stars in the same way again. She glanced up at him and wondered why all of their encounters couldn't be this easygoing.

As if he'd read her mind, he said, “Maybe we should stick to talking about constellations when we're together…”

Leah replied softly, “Maybe we should.”

Silence reigned for a few more moments before Ryder said, “You know, you didn't have to pay for the funeral yourself.”

“I'm already beholden to you enough, and it was still your money after all.”

“That's not the point,” Ryder said.

“Yes, it is. I owe you enough.”

“But not the truth.”

Leah wondered why he'd intentionally sabotaged this moment. She turned to go. She didn't want to have this conversation.

He stopped her with a gentle hand on her arm. “I apologize. That was unnecessary. We both know where we stand.”

“Yes, we do,” she echoed. “I need to get back inside.” Leah was becoming more and more vulnerable to everything about him, and she didn't want to.

Short of using force, Ryder knew of no other way to make her stay, so he let her go.

When Leah reentered the house, chairs were being set up in Cordelia's grand ballroom. Putting Ryder from her mind, she searched for Seth and found him waiting for her just inside the ballroom door.

“I saw Ryder follow you out. Did he say something that offended you?”

She shook her head. “No.” She didn't need them fighting. “What's going on here?”

“Cordelia's invited the famous Hyer sisters to perform portions of their plays.”

Leah'd never heard of the Hyers, but Seth explained who they were as he led her to a seat. According to Seth and the program Leah was handed, Anna Hyer had been eleven and her sister Emma nine when they made their debut as concert singers at the Metropolitan Theater in Sacramento.

Seth said, “They were child prodigies back then, but in 1875 they founded the Coloured Operatic and Dramatic Company, and began touring the country doing Black plays and musicals about the history of the race.”

Leah was impressed. “I've never heard of such a thing.”

“Many folks haven't, but the Hyers are the first stage troupe to perform plays that are about us and written by us. In some places, they're very well known.”

And as the performance began Leah understood why. The cast's voices were superb, the characterizations full and true to life. For over an hour, Cordelia's guests were treated to scenes and songs from some of the women's most successful productions:
In and Out of Bondage
, a musical drama in three acts adapted by Sam Hayes;
Colored Aris
tocracy
, another three-act drama, but written by the Black novelist, Pauline Hopkins; and,
The Underground Railroad
, another Hopkins piece.

The high point of the evening came when Anna Hyer, exotically dressed in beads and a bejeweled turban, came out to portray the lead role in
Urlina, or The African Princess.
She was a gifted actress and her part of the program so moving that it ended to thunderous, appreciative applause.

It was a truly enlightening and enjoyable event, and Leah was glad she'd been invited. “Does Cordelia do this sort of thing often?” Leah asked as she stood on her feet like everyone else, vigorously applauding the end of the performance.

“She's had poets, singers, and lecturers, but nothing like this.”

Leah admitted to not liking Cordelia's personality, but she adored her taste in the arts.

“Are you glad you came?” Seth asked.

Her eyes glowed with happiness. “Yes, I am.” After the week she'd had, this was just what she'd needed to refresh her spirits. “Thanks for inviting me, Seth.”

“You're more than welcome. Now, let's go see if Cordelia's desserts can equal the treats we just witnessed.”

Leah thought that a splendid idea.

The dessert buffet consisted of more choices than Leah could possibly eat in one night. There was ice cream, and trifles, fools, cakes, and puddings. She saw pies, cobblers, and finally decided on some ice cream and a small piece of chocolate cake.

She and Seth took their dessert outside on the verandah. A few of the other guests were like-minded it seemed, finding it quieter and much cooler out here than inside. Seth wove them past softly talking couples and others laughing uproariously over to a spot on the vast verandah's far edge, away from everyone else.

He motioned her to take a seat on a wrought-iron bench
shining in the moonlight, so she did. The night was just as beautiful as it had been earlier. The stars brought back memories of Ryder, so she didn't look at them. She and Seth were just settling into the silence when they heard his name being called loudly by someone hidden by the dark.

A confused Seth called out, “Over here.”

Out of the darkness appeared one of the liveried waiters Cordelia had hired for the evening. “Mr. Seth Montague?”

“Yes.”

“I've a message for you sir.”

He handed Seth a folded sheet of paper. Seth gave the man a coin for his trouble, and when the waiter faded back into the shadows, Seth lit a match so he could see what it said. “Well, I'll be—Leah, I have to meet someone back in town. He says he wants to invest in my town enterprise, but he's leaving for Sacramento first thing in the morning. He can only see me tonight.”

Leah was happy for him. “Then go. I'll find someone to take me home.”

“But—”

“The time you waste taking me back to Eloise's and then driving all the way back to town could be better spent detailing your plans to him. Go on.”

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

Their eyes held for a moment, then he said, “You're a beauty, do you know that?”

Leah grinned. “Good luck, and let me know how it turns out.”

A second later he was gone, leaving Leah with the task of finding a way back to Eloise's. She knew Ryder would escort her, but she hoped to find someone else; they'd only wind up arguing the entire way, and she didn't want to end this evening engaged in a round of verbal fisticuffs.