Death Rides Alone (24 page)

Kate Kerrigan stood on her hearthstone and watched the rider. He was still a distance off and held his horse to a walk. The weight of the Remington .41 revolver in the pocket of her dress gave her a measure of reassurance. The little rimfire was a belly gun to be sure, but effective if she could get close enough.

That Kate could stand on her hearthstone and see the man at a distance was not surprising since her new home was still only a frame and a somewhat rickety one at that. She'd scolded the construction foreman, but Black Barrie Delaney, captain of the brig
Octopus
, had assured her that he had inspected the work and the basic structure was sound. As she often did, Kate recalled their last conversation with distaste.

* * *

* * *

Kate shook her head at the memory. As she watched the rider draw closer, she pushed on the support stud next to her. It seemed that the whole structure swayed and she made a mental note to hang Black Barrie Delaney at the first convenient opportunity.

Kate's daughters Ivy and Shannon, growing like weeds, stepped out of the cabin, butterfly nets in hand, and she ordered them back inside.

Ivy, twelve years old and sassy, frowned. “Why?”

Her mother said, “Because I said so. Now, inside with you. There's a stranger coming.”

“Ma, is it an Indian?” Shannon asked.

“No, probably just a passing rider, but I want to talk with him alone.”

The girls reluctantly stepped back into the cabin and Kate once more directed her attention to the stranger. He was close enough that she saw he was dressed in the garb of a frontier gambler and he rode a big American stud, a tall sorrel that must have cost him a thousand dollars and probably more.

The rider drew rein ten yards from where Kate stood and she saw that his black frockcoat, once of the finest quality, was frayed and worn and a rent on the right sleeve above the elbow had been neatly sewn. His boots and saddle had been bought years before in a big city with fancy prices and the ivory-handled Colt and carved gun belt around his waist would cost the average cowpuncher a year's wages. He seemed like a man who'd known a life and times far removed from poverty-stricken West Texas. His practiced ease around women was evident in the way he swept off his hat and made a little bow from the saddle.

“Ma'am.” The man said only that. His voice was a rich baritone voice and his smile revealed good teeth.

“My name is Kate Kerrigan. I own this land. What can I do for you?”

“Just passing through, ma'am.” He'd opened his frilled white shirt at the neck and beads of sweat showed on his forehead. “I'd like to water my horse if I may. We've come a fair piece in recent days, he and I.”

Kate saw no threat in the man's blue eyes, but there was much life and the living of it behind them. His experiences, whatever they were, had left shadows.

“Then you're both welcome to water,” Kate said. “The well is over there in front of the cabin and there's a dipper.”

The man touched his hat. “Obliged, ma'am.” He kneed his horse forward. His roweled spurs were silver, filigreed with gold scrolls and arabesques.

Kate fancied they were such as knights in shining armor wore in the children's picture books.

The rider swung out of the saddle, loosened the girth, and filled a bucket for his horse. Only when the sorrel had drank its fill did he drink himself, his restless, searching eyes never still above the tin rim of the dipper. Finally he removed his coat, splashed water onto his face, and then ran a comb through his thick auburn hair. He donned his hat and coat again, tightened the saddle girth, and smiled at Kate. “Thank you kindly, ma'am. I'm much obliged.”

To the Irish, hospitality comes as naturally as breathing and Kate Kerrigan couldn't let the man go without making a small effort. “I have coffee in the pot if you'd like some.”

To her surprise, the man didn't answer right away. Usually men jumped at the chance to drink coffee with her and she felt a little tweak of chagrin. The man was tall and wide-shouldered. As he studied his back trail, a tenseness filled him, not fear but rather an air of careful calculation, like a man on the scout figuring his odds. Finally he appeared to relax. “Coffee sounds real good to me, ma'am.”

“Would you like to come into the house?” Kate said. “Unlike this one, it has a roof and four walls.”

The man shook his head. “No, ma'am. Seems like you've got a real nice sitting place under the oak tree. I'll take a chair and you can tell your girls they can come out now.”

“You saw . . . I mean all that way?” Kate said.

“I'm a far-seeing man, ma'am. I don't miss much.”

Kate smiled. “Yes. Something tells me you don't.”

After studying the cabin, the smokehouse, the barn and other outbuildings, the man said, “I reckon your menfolk are out on the range, this time of year. Branding to be done and the like.” He saw the question on Kate's face and waved a hand in the direction of the cabin. “The roof's been repaired and done well, all the buildings are built solid and maintained. That means strong men with calloused hands. Your ranch isn't a two by twice outfit, Mrs. Kerrigan. It's a place that's put down deep roots and speaks of men with sand who will stick.”

“And a woman who will stick,” Kate pointed out.

“I have no doubt about that, ma'am. Your husband must be real proud of you.”

“My husband is dead. He died in the war.” Kate smiled. “Now let me get the coffee.”

As Kate walked away the man said after her, “Name's Hank Lowery, ma'am. I think you should know that.”

She turned. “Did you think your name would make me change my mind about the coffee?”

“Hank Lowery is a handle some people have a problem with, Mrs. Kerrigan. They rassle with it for a spell and either run me out of town or want to take my picture with the mayor. Either way, they fear me.”

Kate said, “Now I remember. I once heard my
segundo
mention you to my sons. A lot of unarmed men were killed in some kind of fierce battle wasn't it?”

“The newspapers called it the Longdale Massacre, but it was a gunfight, not a massacre. The men were armed.”

“We will not talk of it,” Kate said. “You will drink your coffee Mr. Lowery and we will not talk a word of it. Does that set well with you?”

Lowery nodded. “Just thought you should know, ma'am.”

“Well, now you've told me. Do you take milk and sugar in your coffee? No matter, I'll bring them anyway.”

* * *

“Is the sponge cake to your liking, Mr. Lowery?” Kate asked.

The man nudged a crumb into his mouth with a little finger. “It's very good. I've never had sponge cake before, and seldom any other kind of cake, come to that.”

“I'm told that sponge cake is Queen Victoria's favorite, one with a cream and strawberry jam filling just like mine.”

Lowery smiled. “You're a good cook, Mrs. Kerrigan.”

“No I'm not. I'm a terrible cook. I can't even boil an egg. The only thing I can make without ruining it is sponge cake.”

“Then I'm honored,” Lowery said. “This cake is indeed your masterpiece.”

“Thank you, Mr. Lowery. You are most gracious. Ah, here are the girls at last and Jazmin Salas is with them. She's the one who cooks for the Kerrigan ranch and her husband Marco is my blacksmith.”

Kate made the introductions.

Aware of her blooming girlhood, Ivy played the sophisticated lady and shook Lowery's hand, but seven-year-old Shannon was predictably shy and buried her face in her mother's skirt.

“Beautiful children, Mrs. Kerrigan,” Lowery said. “They do you proud.”

Jazmin's gaze lingered on the man's holstered Colt, fine clothes, and the silver ring on the little finger of his left hand. She guessed that Mr. Lowery had never done a day's hard work in his life. Although she had heard of such men, they were as alien to her as the strange little Chinamen who toiled on the railroads.

“Is the gentleman staying for supper, Mrs. Kerrigan? If he is I'll set an extra place at table.”

Kate hesitated.

Lowery read the signs. “There's no need. I should be riding on.”

“Of course you'll stay for supper, Mr. Lowery,” Kate said, recovering from her indecision. “I will not allow a man to leave my home hungry.” To lift the mood, she added, “We're having chicken and dumplings. Is that to your taste?”

“If it's as good as the sponge cake then it most certainly is.”

“Better,” Kate said. “Jazmin is a wonderful cook.”

“Will we eat in the dining room . . . again?” Jazmin wondered.

“Of course. Where else would we eat?”

Jazmin's eyes lifted to the table and chairs set up within the wobbly frame of the new house. “Yes, ma'am. Let's hope the weather holds and there is no wind.”

If Hank Lowery was amused, he had the good manners not to let it show.

Kate Kerrigan's menfolk rode in just as day shaded into night and Jazmin lit the candles on the dining room table. The men waved to Kate as they rode to the bunkhouse to wash off the trail dust. By the time Frank Cobb, her sons Trace and Quinn, Moses Rice, and eight punchers she'd hired for the gather and drive up the Chisholm had finished with the roller towel it was black. Moses changed it in a hurry, fearing Kate's wrath because he hadn't done it earlier.

Hired for the gather and drive up the Chisholm, the hands ate in the bunkhouse, but Kate and her children considered Moses family, even though he was a black man. He sat at the dining room table, as did Frank Cobb. The tension between Frank and Hank Lowery was immediate and obvious. As a guest, Lowery sat on Kate's right side and Frank opposite him. In the flickering candlelight, the two men's eyes clashed, challenged, and held. Trace Kerrigan, seventeen years old that spring and used to being around rough men, dropped his hand to the Winchester he'd propped against his chair. He would not allow gunplay at the table and certainly not with his mother in the line of fire.

Lowery broke the silence and talked into an atmosphere as fragile as a glass rod. “Howdy, Frank. It's been a while.”

Frank gave a brief nod. “Seems like.”

“You don't want me here, do you?” Lowery said.

“No, I don't.”

“I stayed for the chicken and dumplings,” Lowery said. “No other reason.”

“Yes, there is another reason,” Kate put in. “Frank, I asked Mr. Lowery to have supper with us. The decision was mine.”

“Was that before or after he told you about Longdale, Kate?” Frank's voice was tight, thin, and menacing. “Ask Lowery about Levi Fry . . . or did he already boast of it?”

“Why don't you ask me, Frank?” Lowery said.

“Damn you, I will. Tell me why, when the old man was down on his hands and knees and coughing up black blood, did you put a bullet in his head?”

“Whoever told you that is a damn liar,” Lowery said. “And you were a damn fool to listen to him.”

“I won't let you play Kate for a fool!” Frank's chair tipped over as he jumped to his feet, his hand dropping for a gun.

Two things happened quickly. The first was the
clack-clack
of the lever of Trace's Winchester.

The second was Kate's shout of, “Enough!”

“Both of you, back away from my mother,” Trace yelled. “By God, Frank, if I have to, I'll kill you both.”

“Stay right where you are,” Kate said. “Trace, put down the rifle. The other two of you sit down. It's a beautiful evening. We're sitting in my new dining room of my new home and I don't want this occasion spoiled.”

“Ma, will the house fall down while we're eating?” Shannon asked.

The girl's question made Kate smile and did something to ease the tension.

As Frank picked up his chair, Lowery said, “Mrs. Kerrigan, it was far from my intention to spoil your dinner. Please forgive me.”

“There is nothing to forgive, Mr. Lowery,” Kate said. “Now unbuckle your gun belt and you too, Frank. Jazmin, take the revolvers into the cabin before you serve. Trace, you may give Jazmin your Winchester.”

“I bet Lowery's got a hideout stashed somewhere, Kate,” Frank said. “He's not a man to be trusted.”

Kate looked at the man in question. “Mr. Lowery, do you have a second weapon?”

“No.” He opened his frockcoat. “Satisfied, Frank?”

“I'll only be satisfied when I see you dead.”

“Everyone sit down,” Kate said. “I will not have our meal spoiled by bickering.” She looked around the table. “Ah, there is Jazmin with the food at last. A hungry man is an angry man, my grandmother always said. Once we have eaten, we'll all be perfect friends again.”

“I doubt it,” Frank said under his breath.

Kate chose to ignore that statement.