HT02 - Sing: A Novel of Colorado (46 page)

Odessa let out a little scream when she struggled to rise and realized she was atop a human skeleton.

“Shut up!” Reid hissed, rushing to her, lifting her partway and shaking her. “Shut up!” He hauled her to her feet, his hand clamped over her mouth as he glanced out to the bright round of sunlight that came from the canyon. There were no questioning shouts, no gunfire responses. Only silence.

He turned to the back of the cave, moving her forward as if she were his shield. There were two more skeletons, one on either wall, clearly once guards at the entrance. Reid bent down and lifted a sword, wide and ancient, from the dust and gravel that covered it. He raised it to the light and smiled as her eyes met his. “This is ancient … not forged in my lifetime, or even my great-grandfather’s.” He set it aside and peered into the darkness. “Go see what you find back there,” he instructed.

She turned and frowned. She knew what he feared. A mountain lion, leaping from the dark recesses of the cave where she sheltered cubs. “You want the gold?” she said, backing away and shaking her head. “Then you go find it for yourself.”

He reached for her but she dodged him, which only made him more angry. He lunged again, and again, she narrowly escaped him, scrambling over a pile of rocks.

“Get away from her,” said a man at the mouth of the cave, gun drawn.

Odessa’s heart leaped with hope.
Bryce
.

Reid slowly rose, his hands clenched.

Why was he not afraid? Bryce entered the mouth of the cave, drawing closer to them.

“How is it you escaped my men, McAllan?”

Bryce ignored his question. “You won’t threaten me or mine again, Bannock. It ends here.”

Odessa edged away toward Bryce, but Reid reached out fast and grabbed hold of her wrist, pulling her back to him. “No, no, no. No reunion for you yet.” He threw a handful of rocks and gravel at Bryce’s face, blinding him so he couldn’t see Reid coming. Bryce called out for Odessa to run but Reid took him down to the ground. He pounded his fist into Bryce’s face, but Bryce managed to avoid the second blow.

The men rolled and Bryce pummeled Reid’s belly.

Odessa moved along the edge of the cave, back to the conquistador sword. Three feet away. Two feet. She reached out.

The men rolled again, knocking Odessa to her knees.

Reid was atop Bryce, choking him. “How’s it feel, McAllan? To know you’re about to die and I’ll be free to do as I please with your wife? Then return for Moira, do her a favor and kill her, put her out of her misery.”

“No,” Odessa said, standing behind Reid with the old sword. “You won’t.”

And with that she plunged the sword down.

Reid’s face went from spiteful glee to terror. He stiffened as Bryce pushed him away, off of him, and he fell to the side, in the center of the cave. He seemed paralyzed and he struggled to catch a breath. Bryce rolled to his feet and moved over to Odessa, taking her in his arms.

Tabito arrived at the mouth of the cave, panting, knives drawn, but he slowly turned to keep watch for Reid’s men. Bryce took Odessa’s trembling hand and led her into the dark recesses of the cave. He reached down to lift a gold bar, identical to the one they had once hidden in their kitchen. He blew the dust from it and then smiled over at Odessa. She was too shaken to return the smile, and Bryce’s own grin faded. He strode back to Reid and put the bar inches from the man’s face, so he’d be sure to see it. “You found the gold. But you’re about to lose your life.”

“Kill me,” Reid panted. “End it.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head and leaning closer. “I’d use the seconds you have left to make peace with your Maker, or you’re about to enter a prison where no man is ever given parole.”

Bryce rose and reached for Odessa. “Let’s get out of here. Com’on, you’re safe, sweetheart. We’ve taken out most of his men.” He eyed Tabito, silently telling him to keep watch over Reid. And then he brought Odessa out into the warm sunshine.

He sat her down on a small boulder and took her trembling hands, kneeling before her. “It’s done, Dess. He’s never going to hurt us again.”

“I-I killed him, Bryce.”

“You defended me. Even if I hadn’t found you in time, he would’ve had the gold. You think he would’ve turned you loose at that point? It was self-defense.”

“I k-killed him,” she repeated.

“Dess,” he said, stroking her face, staring at her until she met his eyes. “You wounded him. Now it’s up to God whether he lives.”

They shared a long look. They both knew Reid would never leave this cave.

“It’s been a lot,” Bryce said. “I know. It’ll be okay. Can you make it?”

Odessa stared at him a moment, as if seeing the fateful moment when she struck Reid again in her mind. But then she focused in on him. “Don’t leave me, Bryce. Don’t leave me alone.”

“Never,” he said, pulling her up and under the crook of his arm.

Chapter 29

The remnant of Bannock’s men—the four who survived—were ushered down out of the mountains, bound and pulled behind the men’s horses. Every Circle M man and the neighbors who had come to their assistance carried a gold bar in their saddle pocket. Tabito had loaded the rest on two of Bannock’s mules and led them in a line down the curving trail.

At Odessa’s request, Dietrich rode ahead. Moira spotted him first. She ran down the porch steps and over to him, taking his reins as he dismounted. “Is it over?” she asked the man anxiously. “Is Odessa safe? Bryce?”

“They’re all safe, ma’am,” said the man, averting his gaze as if embarrassed to look upon her burns, her hair. Moira ignored it. She was too relieved that her family was all right to care about it now.

“Bannock’s dead,” he said. “His men all captured.”

“Dead,” she repeated in a whisper. She turned and ran inside the house. “Daniel, Daniel,” she said trying to elicit a response. He lay on the couch, hot, as if with a fever, and didn’t move. He hadn’t moved in the past hour. “He’s gone, Daniel,” she whispered, leaning her head into his chest. She gently pulled the rifle from his hands. “It’s over. Now we just have to take care of you.”

Cassie moved in with a bucket of water and cloths, as if Daniel were a spill to clean up. But Moira was too weary, too weak to do any more herself. She sank down on the floor to watch. Cassie unbuttoned Daniel’s shirt and pulled it away.

Moira gasped at the blood-soaked bandage beneath it, but Cassie turned to her and said, “Ma’am? Can you come and help me?”

Moira moved, and held the unconscious man as the girl indicated so she could unwind the bandage. When it was off, Cassie peered over his shoulder and grunted. “Wonder if he stayed put long enough to let a doctor fish it out, or if he took off after you.”

“After me,” Moira said dully. Shot because of her. Risking his life to come after her again.

“Lay him down, Miss Moira,” Cassie said.

Moira did, trying to ease the big man back, but he was heavy, and he fell to the settee with a groan. “Do me a favor, Moira,” he said, his eyes still shut, “and never become a nurse.”

She laughed, so happy was she to hear his voice again. “I’ll do my best,” she said, “to try and avoid that.”

“Is the bullet still in there, Daniel?” Cassie asked.

He waved her off. “No, no,” he mumbled. “It’s out.”

“Good. At least the man showed some sense.” The girl dipped the cloth in water, wrung it out, and then washed away the blood, the farthest away from the wound first, then moving in, dabbing as she got closer. He fell unconscious again, but moaned when she was directly atop the bullet wound.

Cassie reached for some strips of cloth, couldn’t quite reach them, and then looked again to Moira. Moira moved over and handed her the cloth. “How do you know how to do this, Cassie?”

“Five brothers. Two of them have had bullet wounds.”

Moira frowned and looked her in the eye. “How’d that happen?”

“Tomfoolery. Mother says that it would’ve served ’em right, dying. She didn’t mean it, o’ course, but boy, she was mad. ’Specially with the second one. But that was a hunting accident.” She looked at Moira doubtfully. “Think you can hold him upright again?”

“I-I think so,” Moira said. She reached around to hold Daniel around the torso, keeping him upright. His head hung to the side. He was so broad and finely muscled …

“He’ll live, Miss Moira,” Cassie said. “Gotta get the doc out here, o’ course, but he’ll be okay. He’s just weak from loss of blood. And his wound is festerin’ a bit, givin’ him the fever.”

Moira nodded, taking strange comfort in her words. If anything happened to Daniel … on account of her—

“Fine-looking man,” Cassie interrupted her thoughts, still wrapping. “Lift up your arm there. That’s it. Now I got it. This ’un yours?”

“Mine?” Moira asked blankly. “Why, no. I have no claim on him.”

“But he came all this way to get you back from that Bannock?”

“He did,” she said softly, easing back to look at him and giving Cassie room to wind the bandage around again. “And more. He did much more for me,” she whispered. She thought of Daniel’s many kindnesses to her, how he had saved her aboard ship, always treated her with respect, even after she had told him of her indiscretions and her pregnancy.

They had just covered him with a blanket when Odessa and the rest entered, a mass of excited conversation. Bryce and the men were intent on taking the prisoners to Westcliffe. “There’s no sheriff or deputy, but there’s still a jail. They can sit in there until the judge can get to us,” Bryce said.

Odessa was moving across the floor to Moira, and Moira to her. The sisters embraced. Odessa, weeping, reached back for her husband, pulling him into their circle. “Oh, Sissy, do you know how I’ve longed for you? Missed you? Wondered about you?”

“I’m so sorry, Dess. Sorry about Reid, about everything. There’s so much I have to tell you—”

“And there will be time, plenty of time,” Odessa said. “You aren’t going far from me again, not if I can help it.”

“It’s all right then, if I stay a while with you?” She held her breath, fearful of the answer. After all she’d done … not done …

Odessa lifted her head and looked at her, still holding on to her as if she’d never let her go. “Don’t you know, Moira? Having you here, the thought of being together again … it makes my heart sing.”

A singing heart.
Moira puzzled over that a moment, then felt her own skip a beat at her sister’s wide, beautiful smile. Odessa loved her, after all this time. Regardless of where she’d been, what she’d done. Regardless of how she appeared or what she did in the future. She was loved. Could she learn to know what a singing heart meant? Perhaps, in time.

But for now, this feeling of homecoming, the first step of restoration, made her want to hum. Hum a song her mother had taught her as a child.

Do you see us, Mama?
She imagined their mother, standing on the stairs, looking down at them. She had been so beautiful, but remembering her now, Moira thought the most beautiful thing about her was the love she always held in her eyes.

I see you, baby. I’m so glad you’re all right.

But we’re not all right, Mama. We’re damaged, injured. Hurting.

Best you’re home now, then. Where you can heal.

But I’ve lost everything that you and Papa worked for. All the money.

It wasn’t the money we worked for. It was for you. Remember that. Your father and I loved you. Stay with Odessa. Remember how you were raised, what you were taught. Rest in the memory of love.

Rest in love.
Moira looked to Odessa, wincing as she squeezed her again, forgetting her burns. And she glanced to Daniel, blinking back to consciousness again, smiling shyly at the sisters, the sorrow in his eyes momentarily gone.

And for the first time in a long time, she remembered what it was to have hope.