In the Face of Danger (16 page)

As Megan read Mike’s letter about the Friedrich family she gasped in indignation, then grunted with anger. Finally she let out such a joyful whoop that Emma popped into the doorway, her eyes wide.

“What’s the matter?” Emma asked.

Megan waved Mike’s letter and laughed. “Oh, there’s so much I have to tell you about Mike!” she said. “Some of it’s dreadful enough to chill your bones, but there’s a good part. Mike’s living now with that fine Captain Taylor we met on the train! The captain and his wife took Mike to live with them at Fort Leavenworth! Imagine! Mike was always so excited about the West, and now he’s living on a real army post!”

Emma grinned with Megan and held out a hand. “Don’t forget the letters you’ve written to your family. Better give them to Clem. He’s almost ready to leave.”

Megan scooped the letters from the top drawer in the little chest and quickly printed Mike’s new address on
the one she’d written to him. She had some exciting stories to tell her family, too. Just wait until they read about her escape from the wolves!

The snow had melted completely by the time the Parsons came for a visit. The children hopped down from the wagon bed and ran shrieking toward Megan.

“We brought candy!” Teddie shouted.

“Mama made it!” Thea screeched.

“Vinegar taffy, and I helped pull it, and Thea couldn’t because Mama was afraid she’d drop it because she did last time and—”

“No fair! You told, and you promised Mama you wouldn’t!”

Thea raised a small fist, but Megan skillfully intercepted it. Holding one of Thea’s hands and one of Teddie’s, she led them into the house. Thea squealed when Moby scampered to her, and both children dove to the floor to play with the puppies, not taking the time to remove their heavy coats and caps.

“Would you like a pup for your very own?” Emma asked them.

“Oh yes! This one!” Thea shouted as Moby’s pink tongue licked her face.

The Parsons brought not only the taffy, which was so wondrously chewy that Teddie lost a loose front tooth, but also a Christmas cake thick with currants, a cured ham, and loaves of dark wheat bread. Will Parson carefully unwrapped his fiddle. “We’ll have some music of an evening,” he said.

Emma and Nelda Parson chattered to each other without stopping from the time Nelda entered the house. Occasionally they added their opinions to the men’s conversations about prospects for their spring crops,
new settlers in the territory, Kansas politics, and the unrest in the South which President Buchanan couldn’t, or wouldn’t, handle. For the most part they talked eagerly, hungrily, to one another about their own concerns, the many things only a woman would understand. Megan recognized the loneliness that caused them to bubble over with words and shut out everything else, so she kept Teddie and Thea busy with games and stories.

That night Nelda and Will took Megan’s bed, and Megan bedded down with the Parson children on pallets near the fireplace. With just a minimum of whispering and giggling, the two little ones fell asleep, but Megan lay awake, thinking over the busy day. There had been laughter and fun, and the music was the grandest treat of all, but she couldn’t help thinking of her own brothers and sisters. Why was there always sorrow, like the darkest shadow of night, slipping in to turn laughter into tears? She hunched down under the quilt, rolling into a ball, picturing her family and hoping with all her might that they were happy. She wondered how they would be celebrating Christmas. Would they miss her as much as she missed them?

For some unknown reason, as she saw Peg in her mind, she shivered. Did it mean something good or something bad? Why hadn’t Danny and Peg sent her a letter? Couldn’t someone in their new family have written for them? Surely they were all right. Or were they? Oh, how she wished there had been a letter from Danny and Peg!

The next morning, while Ben and Will were working in the barn, Teddie screamed, “There’s a man coming!” and dashed toward the road. The others hurried after him, watching the large, bulky figure on horseback approach.

The man raised a hand in greeting and shouted, “Halloo!”

“It’s Marshal John Avery,” Ben said, and called back a greeting.

The marshal swung from his horse in the Browders’ front yard and pulled off his hat. After he had greeted the women and had been introduced to Megan, he clapped it back onto his head.

“Come inside, John,” Emma said. “You could probably use a hot cup of coffee and something to eat.”

He shook his head. “Thanks, but I haven’t got time. I just stopped by to see if Ben would lend me a hand. I’m glad to see Will is here, too. We can pick up Farley and—”

“Farley left the territory,” Ben said.

Marshal Avery shook his head slowly. “I never thought the land would be too much for Farley. The man had real purpose.”

“Farley got married,” Ben said, “and he and his wife decided to go back east.”

Megan waited, but neither Ben nor Emma added any information about Ada.

The marshal didn’t seem curious. He just said, “I got word from Joe Dawson, marshal in the territory east of here, askin’ me to look out for a man name of Cully Napes. Dawson personally thinks Napes headed south toward Texas, but someone who knew Napes was sure he’d travel in this direction, and Dawson has got to check it out.”

“What did this Cully Napes do?” Ben asked.

“Killed a man,” Marshal Avery said, and Megan felt a cold chill in the pit of her stomach. “Napes and two other rowdies got to actin’ up over near the Missouri border,” the marshal continued. “They was tryin’ to bully
some folks in a tavern and, whether on purpose or accidental, set fire to the building. Everyone got out, but the tavern owner went after the troublemakers with a rifle. Unfortunately, Napes is a good shot drunk or sober. Before the man could do more than lift his rifle, Napes killed him.”

Emma gasped. “That’s terrible!”

“I hope they find him!” Nelda was indignant.

“What does he look like?” Will asked.

The marshal pursed his lips and squinted. “He’s young and stocky and tall—close to six feet. Black hair, with long moustaches. No beard. Dressed like just about anybody, ’cept for a fringed leather jacket sort of like those the mountain men wear.”

“What about the other two men?” Megan asked.

“They arrested the two who were with Napes, but Napes got away. My job right now is to get some volunteer help, fan out, and take a look for any signs he may be in these parts. And that’s why I’m here.”

“We’ll go with you,” Ben said. “I’ll get my rifle.”

As Ben and Will strode toward the house, Megan could see the worry in Emma’s and Nelda’s eyes. She squeezed shut her own eyes in fear, only to see the gypsy, laughing and pointing at her. Quickly she opened them again to drive off the taunting face, but she couldn’t escape the thought that something awful was about to happen, and somehow it was all her fault.

Megan wanted to cling to Ben’s arm and beg, “Please don’t go! Nothing bad can happen to you, because Emma needs you.” But she knew no one else would understand why she was so afraid, so she had no choice but to follow Emma’s lead and, without a protest, watch the men ride away.

“It won’t take long,” were the marshal’s last words to
the women. “I’ll have your husbands back here before nightfall.”

Megan watched the dust kicked up by the horses’ hooves swirl and shiver and settle. She came to with a start, though, when Emma tucked a finger under her chin and smiled at her. “Don’t look so worried, Megan. That horrible Cully Napes is probably far away from here by now. Ben and Will will be all right.”

“I—I just wish they didn’t have to go with the marshal.”

“Where people live far from each other, with wide spaces in between, they need each other all the more. No one who refused to give help when it was asked would be able to exist on the prairie.”

Nelda wrapped her shawl more tightly around her shoulders and shivered. “It’s so cold! Why are we standing out here, when we could be warm in the house?”

Her children raced ahead to see who could be first inside, but Megan stepped back. “No one’s gathered the eggs yet,” she said, “and since I already have my coat on, I’ll do it.”

Emma smiled her thanks and hurried after Nelda, while Megan went to the coop. The hens, sleepy and cold, had burrowed into their nests, and there were eggs, warm against Megan’s fingers as she scooped them into her basket.

She went toward the barn, intending to make sure that Ben and Mr. Parson hadn’t left any unfinished chores for her to do, but she stopped suddenly as a movement just inside the small door caught her attention. She looked carefully, straining to see, but there was only quiet shadow. It wasn’t unusual for the door to be left open during the day, so there was nothing suspicious in that.

Could one of the children be hiding there? No. The children were inside the house. She could hear them
laughing and shrieking as their mother tried to raise her voice over theirs, shouting to them to calm down.

An animal? With a gasp she remembered the wolves, seeing in her mind their terrifying, gleaming eyes. But a wolf would have sprung out at her by this time. They’d heard no wolves for weeks. It couldn’t have been a wolf.

Megan began to doubt she had seen anything at all. It had probably been a trick of the light, and her imagination had taken over. But instead of going into the barn, she went back to the house.

As she placed the basket of eggs on the table, she glanced up at the gun rack. Ben had taken his favorite rifle, but the Henry rifle was still in place. Quietly, so she wouldn’t unnecessarily alarm anyone, Megan took the rifle from the rack, checked to make sure it was loaded, and placed it near the door behind the coatrack, where it was hidden by the layers of coats. She’d have to keep a special watch to make sure the children didn’t discover it, but she felt safer with it hidden and close at hand.

Just then Teddie whizzed past her. He flung open the door and raced outside, Thea on his heels. They had dashed down the step and across the yard before Megan could stop them.

“You’re it! You’re it!” Thea screamed so loudly that neither of them could hear Megan shout, “Come back!”

“Megan.” At the fireplace Emma straightened, one hand pressed to the small of her back. “Will you watch the children? They’re so excited, there’s no telling what—”

But Teddie and Thea were racing back, screaming, “There’s a man hiding in the barn!”

M
EGAN RAN TO
the children, grabbed their hands, and pulled them toward the house, but their short legs were no match for the man’s long strides. By the time Megan reached the door, he was beside her, roughly shoving all of them into the room.

“Shut the door!” he yelled at Megan, brandishing a large handgun.

Nelda shrieked and started toward her children. Emma raised a stirring paddle as though she could protect them with it. Her face pale with fear, she shouted at the man, “Leave those children alone!”

Teddie and Thea ran to their mother and clung to her, and she stooped to wrap her arms around them.

Megan was frozen where she stood, too frightened to move, but when the man yelled, “I told you to shut that door!” she quickly obeyed.

This had to be Cully Napes. He fit the marshal’s description. But the marshal had left something out. Napes was so dirty that he smelled like a privy. Megan wrinkled her nose in disgust.

He waved his gun again as he barked, “All of you—get over to that side of the room. Now!” He grabbed Megan by the shoulder and gave her a shove that almost knocked her off her feet.

Emma’s voice was firm. “We’ll do as you say. There’s no need for you to behave like that.”

“Behave like that?” he mocked. “You sound like a schoolmarm.” He pulled Ben’s chair up to the fireplace and dropped into it, stretching out his legs, his gun laid across his lap. His glance swept the room, and he smiled when he saw the empty gun rack. “I saw your menfolk ride off with the marshal,” he said. “Any others around this place? Any hired hands?”

“No,” Emma said. Pink blotches stood out on her pale cheeks, but she spoke quietly and calmly, trying to hide her fear.

“Fix me something to eat,” Napes said.

At that moment Patches scrambled to the top of the box, teetered a moment, and flopped to the floor. He picked himself up and tottered toward Napes.

“Get that dog away from me!” Napes snarled.

As though she were moving in slow motion, Megan stepped forward as Napes kicked Patches aside with the toe of his boot.

Patches let out a yelp, and both Megan and Teddie rushed toward him. Teddie scooped up Patches and tearfully yelled in Napes’s face, “You’re a bad man!”

Before Megan could pull Teddie away, Napes reached out and cuffed the little boy, who staggered back, shrieking in terror, and ran to his mother. Napes raised his hand again, this time aiming at Megan, but Emma rushed forward and grabbed his arm.

“Don’t you dare hit the children!” she screamed at him.

Napes jumped to his feet, grabbed Emma’s shoulder, and roughly shoved her across the room. Megan gasped in horror as Emma hit the wall and fell heavily to the floor.