Come Spring (35 page)

Annika watched as Virge stomped over to the men who sat staring down at him. As they mumbled together, one after the other took turns staring at her. She stepped back over the threshold, moving slowly, hoping to barricade herself in the cabin while they were engaged in their hushed discussion.

Before she was all the way inside, Denton looked her way and pointed, “She’s sneakin’ inside.”

Virge crossed the yard before she could slam the door closed. He shoved it open with a booted foot and pushed his way inside. “We’re takin’ you and the kid, and we’ll take you with the clothes you got on your backs unless you pack up now.”

Annika wanted to laugh in his face and tell him that nearly all they had was the clothes on their backs, but instead she set Baby Buttons on the bed and pulled out her satchel, hoping to stall for time. Slowly, meticulously, she began folding her nightgown and Buck’s flannel nightshirt. It was part of him that had become hers, she would not leave it behind.

“I have to leave a note,” she said, opening her journal as she prepared to rip a blank page out of the back.

Virge stared at the girl, trying to figure out why she didn’t want to leave when he thought she’d be damn thankful to be rescued, and then wondered why she’d want to go so far as leave her kidnapper a note. He squinted at her as he tried to reason it out. Denton and Cliff were still talking outside; he could hear them arguing. The two were the biggest mealy-mouthed cowards he could have ever hooked up with and right now he wished he’d never laid eyes on them. He was damned sick and tired of Denton, who’d been riding him since they left Cheyenne. If he had the chance he’d leave them both behind—they were nothing but a nuisance—but they were in on the plan and there was nothing he could do about it.

“No notes,” he blurted out. “Let’s go.”

Annika tried to persuade him. “Are you sure? It won’t take long, I promise, I’ll just—”

“No note. Hurry up.” He didn’t want to pull his gun and frighten her; after all, he was supposed to be her rescuer, and if he intended to collect three times the reward money, it wouldn’t do to frighten her more than they already had. Still, he fingered his holster just to let her know he wasn’t a man she should rile.

Annika packed the journal next, then inkwell and pen, and her comb, and brush. She tried to keep one eye on the man as she packed. She turned to Baby Buttons, wishing she hadn’t been so hasty in getting the child dressed for the day. Every minute she could stall would give Buck that much more time to return, if he was planning to come home before dark.

But Buttons was already dressed in her black dress, her shoes and socks on her feet, her hair neatly combed. Annika picked up one of her old gowns and tossed it in the bag. “Get your dolly,” she whispered to Baby, who shook her head and would not budge with the stranger in the room.

Annika found the doll and the flannel rag that was its blanket and slipped it in the satchel.
Please find us, Buck. Please find us fast.

“Let’s go,” Virge barked, unhappy with the way the girl kept stalling, the way she kept watching the door. “That’s all you need.”

“What about food? There’s plenty in the smokehouse.”

Virge started to tell her to mind her own business, then yelled out to Cliff, “Raid the smokehouse. The girl says there’s meat to be had.” He hoped new provisions would make the ever hungry Denton happy.

“Now, come on,” he prodded.

“Buttons!” Baby cried out. The button can lay in the middle of her bed and she pointed to it.

“Shut the kid up,” Virge warned.

Annika looked from Baby to the man who was standing so nervously in the doorway. If Baby proved to be too much trouble, perhaps her would-be rescuers would think twice about taking them.

“No buttons,” Annika said harshly. She picked up the tin and set it in the center of the table as a silent message for Buck. Surely he would realize she would never intentionally leave the buttons behind, not after the fuss she’d put up to keep them. He would see the tin and know she didn’t leave of her own free will.

Baby Buttons whined as Annika made her put on her coat. She slipped on her own, remembered the hours it had taken Buck to fashion it for her, then lifted the child onto her hip. She picked up her satchel and paused long enough to look around the room again. If only there were time to leave Buck some other sign.

Virge grabbed her arm and pulled her outside. Denton was holding a mule, waiting for Virge to help Annika mount up. The three of them argued over who would hold Baby until Annika was settled. Finally they opted to put her on the ground.

Once Annika was on the mule and her satchel was tied on behind her, Virge made Cliff lift the child up to her. Baby howled and clung to Annika, softly sobbing out her fear of the three strange men. It was all Annika could do not to cry herself, but she hadn’t fallen apart when Buck abducted her and she didn’t intend to now.

She held Baby close and then set the child astride in front of her. Wrapping her arms about Buttons, Annika clung to the mule’s mane with all her strength.

“Hold on, Baby,” she whispered in the little girl’s ear. “Buck will find us as soon as he can.”

“Not... Baby,” the child sobbed. “Buttons.”

As the three men prodded the mule up the hill ahead of them, Annika looked for some sign of Buck in the trees, wondering at the twist of fate that caused her to hope that the man who had kidnapped her two months before would come to her rescue now. She turned around, hoping for one last look at the cabin, but the fat man whipped her mule and it lunged forward, forcing her to pay close attention to the steep trail.

   18   

“F
ORT
Sanders is on the other side of Cheyenne Pass. Maybe they can send out a search party’ from there.” Zach Elliot stood shoulder to shoulder with Kase Storm, squinting down at Holt’s New Map of Wyoming spread across his desk.

Kase looked at the minute, concentric lines that represented the peaks of the Laramie Mountains. “There are over two hundred miles of mountains up there, Zach. Passes, valleys, and hollows. Annika could be in any one of them.” With his hands planted on either side of the map, Kase leaned down, arms spread wide and studied the spiderweb lines and carefully lettered words.

“What else did you hear in Cheyenne?” Abruptly Kase turned his back on the map and Zach and walked to the window of the jail where he stared out at the muddied streets of Busted Heel. One of the first signs of spring was the mud that came with the thaw.

“Talk is, everyone’s wantin’ to collect the ten thousand you offered. The sheriff there says there’s been a run on supplies with this warm weather that’s set in. Everyone’s bettin’ on when the passes’ll be clear and who’ll be the first in and out to collect the reward.”

Kase lifted his tall-crowned hat, smoothed his hair back, and settled his hat back in place. “Damn, but I wish I could ride in and get her myself, but with the baby due at the end of the month, there’s no way I can leave Rose.” He turned to Zach, “Not after what’s happened to her before.”

“Hell, I know that, boy, an’ I don’t blame you. ‘Sides, half the state’s out beatin’ the hills for your sister. She’ll be home soon enough.”

“I just hate to think what she might be going through in the hands of that man.”

“Put yourself in his place.” Tired of staring at the map, Zach pulled out the rolling desk chair and sat down, then worked a hunk of chewing tobacco out of a muslin bag he extracted from his pocket. “The man probably just made an honest mistake and is living to regret it right now. What if he brings her back hisself?”

Kase turned on Zach with fury in his eyes. “She tried to tell him she wasn’t the woman he was expecting and he took her anyway. Rode off with her at knife point, for God’s sake. Besides, there’s more you don’t know.”

“More?”

Miserable with worry, Kase walked to the far wall and leaned against it. He crossed his ankles and stared at the tips of his shining black boots. “Leonard Wilson, the rancher whose land borders mine, read about what happened and came over to tell me he’d heard of this Buck Scott a few years back. It seems his wife is an acquaintance of an old Scotch woman named MacGuire who lives out by Indian Springs near the Nebraska border.”

“I know there’s a story here someplace.” Zach grunted as he worked the chaw in his mouth.

Kase glowered. “About three years ago, Buck Scott looked her up and asked her to take in his sister and care for her. Scott still pays for care and room and board.”

“Sounds like a decent sort to me.”

“He took his sister to live under Mary MacGuire’s care because she’d lost her mind.”

“The MacGuire woman?”

Pushing away from the wall, Kase walked to the desk and stared hard at Zach. “Buck Scott’s sister is insane. Out of her mind. Crazy.”

“That don’t mean he is.”

“No, it doesn’t, but it seems this Mrs. MacGuire claims Scott’s sister went crazy when she witnessed her husband’s murder.”

Zach’s face showed true concern for the first time. “You ain’t gonna tell me this Buck Scott did it?”

Kase shook his head. “Worse. It seems old man Scott was crazy as a loon, too. They used to keep him tied up, but he got loose one day and killed the girl’s husband. Then he tried to skin the man.”

“Shee-it!” Zach’s eye was as wide as the holes in his underwear. “Always knew a buffalo man was lower ‘n a snake.”

“I couldn’t have put it any better,” Kase said. “Buck Scott came home and caught his old man in the process and shot him. I guess his sister was never the same.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

“It seems there was another sister, too. A younger one. My neighbor didn’t know much about her, except that she was supposed to be a little, well... vacant.”

“I’m afraid to ask what happened to her.”

Kase shrugged. “They didn’t know, but it seems she died sometime back, just after the murder.”

Zach aimed to spit into the trash can beside the desk, missed, and shook his head. “And Annika’s been up there with Scott for two months now? No tellin’ what she’s had to put up with.” He looked up quickly, concern etched on his face. “Your Rosie don’t know all this, does she?”

“No, thank God. I talked to Wilson out in the barn.” Kase ran his hand over the lower half of his face and then rubbed his chin. “If I don’t hear something soon, I may just go insane myself.”

Hitching up his pants, Zach stood and walked around the desk. With a hand on Kase’s shoulder, he looked up at the taller man and said, “Don’t worry, son. Annemeke’s made of strong stuff. Runs in the family. Mark my words, she’ll be fine. Has to be, ‘cause I got money on it.”

T
HE
afternoon sun had slipped behind the mountaintop, casting the hillside in blue gray light. Buck paused and wiped his brow with the back of his sleeve, his bloody hand clutching his skinning knife. A half-dressed deer lay on the ground at his feet, but he ignored it as he paused to take in the sight of the sunset reflected on the mountains on the opposite side of the valley. The remaining snow was stained with a light roseate glow, the pines stood out vibrant green against it. The sunset translated itself into reds and pinks across a sky that stretched from one side of the valley to the other. He wished Annika was here to see the display.

Anxious to get down the mountain before dark, Buck decided to take the hide and the antlers from the buck and leave the carcass to the wolves. He wiped his knife off on the ground and sheathed it, then began folding the scraped hide. Tomorrow he’d stretch it and begin working it into the fine piece he knew would bring him good money in Cheyenne.

He heard his horse nicker and paused, immediately alert to any danger that might be at hand. He left the hide where it lay and started toward the big bay.

“Easy, boy, what’s the matter? You hear something you don’t like?” Buck scanned the woods behind the horse for any sign of a predator. “Probably just a wolf anxious for us to leave.”

He took two more steps toward the terrified animal that was pulling at the reins Buck had loosely tied to a tree. With its eyes rolling in fear, the horse pulled free before Buck could reach it. He watched the animal bolt down the hillside.