Dorothy Garlock (30 page)

“I like talking to you,” he said in a desperate attempt to keep a conversation going so she wouldn’t suddenly vanish.

“Why?”

“Well . . . you’re nice to talk to. You seem to be at home in the woods.”

“I like the woods.”

“Do you always walk?”

She shook her head. “I run. I like t’ run.”

“Do you have a horse?”

“No.”

“Would you ride a horse if you had one?”

“No.” She tilted her head, but kept her eyes on him.

She was listening. Goddamnit! Was Hartley coming back? “Will you come talk to me again?” Jason desperately tried to think of a reason to keep her from fleeing.

She lifted her shoulders in a careless shrug, then with a movement so quick he scarcely registered it, she was around the boulder and gone. He darted after her, but she had disappeared into the woods like a wisp of smoke. His eyes caught the flutter of something white, and he cursed viciously. She had left the scarf he’d given her draped over a berry bush. He hastened to retrieve it before Hartley arrived.

•    •    •

It was evening.

Jason had been unable to get the beautiful wood nymph out of his mind. Hartley and the black had come back and the three of them returned to the house. The slave picked up clean garments for them and they went to the creek to bathe. Jason knew there was a big tin tub in the shed that was used for bathing during the winter, but Jefferson hadn’t offered it. A creek bath was better than nothing, and besides, Hartley didn’t seem to mind.

Callie and Amos took their places at the supper table. Jason ignored them. There was no pressure on him to make conversation when Hartley was around. He was charming to the women and discussed with Jefferson the possibility of all the territory included in the Louisiana Purchase breaking up into individual states.

Jason left the kitchen after the meal and almost stumbled over Antone squatted outside the door. The black had a mark across his face. Jason chuckled. Hartley must have lost his temper and taken a willow switch to his slave.

He walked out toward the outbuildings. When he left here before, he was in a hurry and traveling light. He had left some things that had belonged to his pa behind. More than likely Jefferson had put the bag in the shed, and rats would have chewed it up by now, he thought resentfully. But if he could find it, there might be a few things he could salvage. He entered the semidarkened building and waited until his eyes became accustomed to the gloom, then moved toward the back and a shelf built close to the roof.

He was reaching for the flat leather pack when an arm locked about his neck, digging into his windpipe and choking off his breath. His hands clawed at the arm. He was acutely aware of the knife point in his back. The arm tightened viciously and he felt himself begin to black out. He never thought he’d die like this, he thought just as the arm loosened. He took great gulps of air into his lungs, feeling the bite of the knife even more distinctly now.

“I promised Jeff I’d not kill ya, but, Gawd, how I’d like to shove this here knife into yore gizzard ’n twist the life outta ya!”

“W—ill? Will Murdock?”

“Will Murdock, ya gawddamn hunk a useless horseshit!” Will spun him around, letting the knife rake across his back, and shoved him against the wall. “I never said I’d not beat yore face in.” He hit him with such force that Jason stood for an instant, then slid down the wall to the floor. “Shitfire! Don’t ya black out on me, ya fuckin’ bastard! I want ya to feel ever’thin’ I’m goin’ to do to ya.” Will grabbed a bucket and dipped it into the water barrel. The full force of the water hit Jason in the face and he shook his head groggily. The next bucketful brought him to full awareness.

“Ahh . . . What?” He rolled onto his knees and got shakily to his feet. He stood swaying and dabbing the sleeve of his shirt to his face.

“Are ya in the mood to talk or do ya want more?” Will stood on spread legs, arms crossed over his chest, the knife still clutched in his hands.

“What the hell’s eatin’ you? I never did anything to you.”

“It’s fer what ya done to Callie ’n the boy, ya shithead! Not for leavin’ her. That was the only decent thin’ ya done for her. But I’m goin’ to beat the shit outta ya for the beatin’s ya give her ’n the marks on the boy.”

“What’s that bitch been tellin’ you? I whipped him, is all. All kids need a taste of the strap once in a while.”

“Ya gawdammed sonofabitch! Ya whipped him till he bled an’ ya held his hand over the fire with his ma afightin’ and beggin’ ya to leave him be!” Will’s voice was thick with suppressed rage and the veins stood out at his temples. “Ya tied a string ’round his little dinger ’cause he wet the bed! Yo’re a gutless excuse fer a man! Not even Jeff knows what ya done to Callie and that boy!”

“The kid wouldn’t mind me,” Jason said defiantly.

“If’n ya ever touch her or
her
boys a’gin, I’ll kill ya! I’ll hunt ya down if’n it takes the rest of my life. I’ll kill ya, an’ it’ll take ya a long time to die.” Will placed the tip of the knife beneath Jason’s chin. “Be gone by tomorry an’ in a week get yoreself on a boat a headin’ downriver, else you’ll be floatin’ down with a knife in yore belly.”

“I can’t do that! I don’t have any money and the only way I’ll get some is by sticking to Hartley and his plan to run the keelboats.” Jason tilted his head as far back as he could to keep the knife point from piercing his skin.

“I’ll give ya money.”

“You’ll what?” Jason wasn’t sure he’d heard correctly.

Will removed the knife and stepped back. “Ya heard me, ya rotten piece of scum! Ya’ll head downriver with money in yore pocket and a draft from my bank in Virginia. Yo’re to go to Governor Wilkinson and petition for a divorce from Callie. Ya’ll pay the sonofabitch off, and send me the papers. I’ll see to it ya have a thousand in gold.”

Jason began to laugh. “So that’s—”

Will grabbed him by the throat. “Don’t laugh at me. I’d get the same results if’n I kill ya and throw ya in the river. Jeff’s friendship is all that’s keepin’ ya alive.”

“Where’d you get that much money?” Jason said when he could catch his breath.

“That’s none of yore gawdamned business!”

“What are you doing here in this hellhole if you could be someplace else?”

“I’m here because I want to be, but you’d not understand that. Hit’s none of yore gawddammed business no how.”

Jason was beginning to feel a little more sure of himself. Will wasn’t going to kill him. He had something Will wanted: Callie. He couldn’t resist taunting him a little.

“So you’re hot for my little backwoods woman. She must have showed you something she didn’t—”

Will’s fist slammed into his face and Jason’s head slammed into the wall. He didn’t lose consciousness, but his jaw wished he had. He leaned against the wall, holding his sleeve to his face.

“Ya rotten sonofabitch!” Will’s knife lashed out and ripped Jason’s pants from the waist to the crotch. Jason’s yell was one high-pitched screech of terror as the knife nicked the soft skin of his stomach. Will reached out and grabbed his soft male sex in a big, hard hand and posed the knife over it. “One slice from this knife is all it’d take to geld ya. It’d give me a heap a pleasure to do it, too.” His voice was deadly quiet.

“No! No,” he croaked. “No . . . pl—please . . .” He was sure he was going to faint.

With a vicious twist, Will pushed him from him. Jason let out another cry of pain and doubled over. It took several minutes and all the effort he could muster to straighten up, but he managed to do it.

“I’ll go,” he gasped. “I’ll try to get Hartley to go.”

“I don’t give a gawddamn about Hartley.”

“I’ll talk to him tonight. I can’t run out on him and leave here by myself.”

“A’right,” Will said reluctantly. “When yo’re ridin’ outta here, I’ll meet ya in the woods with the money.”

“I don’t want Hartley to know.”

“He won’t. But if ya doublecross me, Jason, I’ll find ya, ’n brother to Jeff or not, I’ll kill ya. I want the papers in my hand six months from now. Is that understood?”

“I understand. You’ll have them.”

“If not, I know where to find ya—suck-assin’ up to another shit like Van Buren.” Will backed to the door and was gone.

A few minutes later, Jason came out of the shed. It was dark and he headed for the creek to bathe his face. The only thing that had happened that angered him was the beating and the verbal abuse. The rest of it was almost too good to be true.

•    •    •

Antone was in the room when Jason reached it an hour later. The black man was bending over Hartley’s bunk, smoothing the covers. When he straightened up, he saw Jason’s cut face, the blood on his shirt, and the split britches he was holding together with one hand.

“What are you looking at?”

“Nothin’, suh.”

“Get the hell outta here!” Jason’s hand flew out and slapped the black man across the face. It was almost as if he was compelled to show his superiority over someone after the beating he had taken.

“Yas’sah.” Antone walked stiffly from the room, his dignity taking away some of the satisfaction Jason had received by slapping him.

When Hartley came to the room later, Jason began his argument for leaving.

“I want to leave here in the morning, Hartley,” he said casually. “I think it was a mistake to come traipsing through the woods when we could have come upriver by boat.”

Hartley sat down on the bunk and held out a booted foot. Antone straddled his leg, and Hartley put his other foot on the man’s posterior and pushed.

“We’re making headway. I’ve already found a couple of sites that will be suitable. Everything worthwhile takes some work.”

“If we go back to Saint Louis we can hire a boat to bring us upriver, and we can find our locations from the water. It makes more sense to me.”

“We don’t have that kind of money, Jason,” Hartley explained patiently. “I told you when we started this trip that we had to be careful with what money we have. It will be quite some time before we’ll realize a profit.”

“I think I can get money from Jefferson, in fact I’m sure I can.” Jason laughed and hoped it didn’t sound too forced. “I suppose you’ve noticed there’s not much love between me and my prude of a brother.”

“Then why would he give you money?” Hartley asked quietly.

“To get rid of me. I’m sort of a thorn in his flesh. Jefferson can’t tolerate anyone unless they think as he thinks, act as he acts, live as he lives. He’s a sanctimonious bastard who is sure his way is always the right way.”

“Is that why he busted your face?”

Jason gritted his teeth and winced as pain shot through his jaw. He’d thought Hartley was too much a gentleman to ask about that. “You might say so,” he answered stiffly.

“Have you told him you want to cut our visit short?”

“Not yet. I wanted to talk to you first.”

“I suggest we stay over one more day. I want to treat Miss Jester to some of Antone’s fish chowder and repay in some small way for their hospitality. Do you think you’d have any trouble catching us a nice, big catfish, Antone?”

“Naw’sah.”

“Good. It’s settled, then. We’ll leave at dawn the day after tomorrow. God, but I’m tired and sore. Rub my back, Antone. Not there, you black bastard! Lower.”

Jason congratulated himself. It had been easier to get Hartley to agree to leave than he’d anticipated. Now he’d give Jefferson the news. He was sure to pass it along to Will. One more day, he thought, and I’ll leave this place with money in my pocket. It was far more than he’d hoped for.

*  *  *

Annie Lash and Jeff sat on the bench beneath the sloping porch roof enjoying the evening coolness. It had been a warm, muggy, trying day. Nervous tension had sapped their strength.

“This is good growing weather,” Jeff explained. “The corn is already ankle high, and it’s only the end of June.”

“When will it be ready to harvest?”

“About the first of November, if we have a dry fall.”

“We’ll have a harvest party and ask the Cornicks and the two Gentry families. Or maybe we should wait until Thanksgiving and have a feast like the Pilgrims did.” Her voice had a lilting, happy sound.

Jeff hugged her to him. He couldn’t bring himself to tell her that he wouldn’t be here in the fall, that he’d be in Virginia testifying at the trial of Aaron Burr. God almighty, it was going to be hard to leave her! She had been beautiful before, but now, basking in her newfound happiness, she radiated a beauty that caused his hungry eyes to devour her and aroused him so strongly that his breath stopped in his throat.

“Sweetheart.” His voice was all tenderness and pride.

“I love you,” she said simply, but they were the most important words in the world to him. She reached to caress his smooth face with her fingertips. The joy of being in love had smoothed the stern lines from his face and he looked years younger despite his worry over Jason.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, brother.” Jason’s voice came out of the darkness. “I thought you’d be pleased to know that Hartley and I plan to leave the day after tomorrow.”

Jeff kept his arm tightly around Annie Lash. “You’ve found the locations for your landing sites?”

“You might say that.” Jason laughed nastily. “I’m sure you’ll be glad to see the backside of me.”

“Yes, I will,” Jeff said honestly. “I’ve finally realized there’s no more I can do for you. Now it’s up to you to do what you will with your life.”

“Yes, it is up to me, isn’t it?” There was a sneer in his voice, but Jeff ignored it when he spoke.

“The decent thing for you to do now is to divorce Callie. Set her free to make a new life for herself and her children. You don’t want them, Jason. They don’t fit into your scheme of things.”

“No, they don’t, but a divorce takes money.”

“You could manage it. You always manage to get the other things you want.”

“Can I expect any help from you? It takes money to pay off the officials.”

“Afterwards. Not before.”

“How do I know you’d come through with the money?”

“That’s a chance you’ll have to take. I’ve been taking chances on you all your life, now it’s your turn. Set Callie free and I’ll give you a sum in gold.”