Mercury's Rise (Silver Rush 04) (28 page)
He slanted a glance at Inez. “Never fear, Mrs. Stannert. I may wear my heart on my sleeve, but I am, above all, a gentleman, one who appreciates outspoken, creative, intelligent women. I very much admire and salute Miss Carothers, and would do nothing to hurt her, in any way.”
Calder offered his arm to Inez, and she took it. They began walking toward the group. He added, “I will be picking up Miss Carothers and her photographic paraphernalia tonight so she can join us for dinner and take photos of the
tableaux
afterwards, at Mrs. Underwood’s request.” He sobered. “Why don’t you and I take a stroll around the hotel’s garden later this afternoon. Perhaps about four, when most are resting before dinner and the evening’s activities. We can talk more, and there is something I’d like to show you as well.”
“Four o’clock, it is then.” They reached the picnickers, and Inez met Harmony’s questioning gaze with a forced smile.
I do hope whatever Mr. Calder has to share will shed more light on this mystery.
After an “après meal” of leftovers, taken together, everyone prepared for the return drive to Manitou.
“We’ll make quite a merry wagon train, coming into town,” remarked Susan, as she tightened the ribbons of her straw hat under her chin.
Inez held the buggy steady as Harmony climbed in, slid to the right side, and picked up the reins. Lily helped William up into the seat before getting in herself. Their horse tossed her head with an odd whinny and sidestepped first one way then the other. The shafts of the buggy shuddered, causing the buggy to sway.
Inez stopped, one foot on the buggy step. “Goodness, what has gotten into her?”
Harmony tightened the reins to stop the horse’s dancing. “Perhaps she’s eager to get home. Mr. Morrow assured me she was gentle, but had a great deal of enthusiasm.”
“Well, then, since we should get back quickly so that you and William can take your afternoon rest, we shall accommodate her,” said Inez. She stepped up, and settled in next to William, putting an arm about him. Lily, who also had her arm around William, glared sullenly at Inez, and withdrew her own hold.
“Everyone ready?” Calder asked. He’d helped Mrs. Galbreaith and Susan into their wagon after picking up the picnic things for them all, had retrieved the nosebag, and was mounted ahead of them. He trotted up to their buggy, frowning slightly. “Your little mare seems agitated.”
“The sooner we are on the move, the easier it will be, I’m certain,” said Harmony.
“Would you like me to drive?” Inez asked.
“No, thank you!” snapped Harmony. “I’m quite capable of handling a horse and buggy. I’m not an invalid.”
Inez bit her tongue, and glanced at Calder. He raised one eyebrow, but only said, “Why don’t I go ahead of you. That’ll give her a horse to follow, and she might settle a bit.” He guided his horse to the head of the party and they moved up the incline, through the Gateway, and out of the Garden.
Inez twisted around in her seat, catching a last look of the Gateway, with Sentinel Rock guarding the entrance.
She’d no sooner twisted back when their horse gave a loud, nervous snort, jumped as if she’d seen a snake, and bolted. Harmony gave a cry of warning as the buggy streaked past Calder and his mount. Inez had a flashing impression of a bucking horse, ears pinned, and Calder yanking his horse’s head away from the runaway carriage.
William let out a sharp, scared cry. Inez hugged him. Harmony fought to hold the reins, feet braced on the dash. Inez sensed she was using all her strength to keep the horse from zigzagging.
Inez shouted at Lily, “Help her!”
Then, seeing Lily’s scared eyes and frozen face, Inez instead pushed William roughly toward her. “I’ll do it! Hold him tight!”
Lily wrapped her arms tight around William.
Inez leaned over, glad that she wasn’t using her injured shoulder, and shouted at Harmony, “Hand me a rein.”
The horse began to weave. The buggy tipped dangerously from one side to the other. William was crying. Lily let out a terrified squawk. Inez tried not to see the sharp rocks lining one side of the road and the ditch off to the other. She said to Harmony, calmly as she could, “Give me the other rein, then you pull on the brake.”
Harmony moved so Inez could grab her rein. Now she held both, but the pull on the reins was crosswise. The carriage began to drift toward the ditch, the horse fighting to continue running.
Inez scooted right on the seat, nearly squashing William, and said, without taking her eyes from the road, the lathering horse, and its pinned ears, “Lily. Hold William on your lap.”
With William off the bench, she was able to sit more to the center and keep the reins straight. “Harmony, pull slowly on the brake. Slowly. We don’t want it to snap and fail.”
Sweat ran into Inez’s eyes, and her hair whipped across her face, stinging and blinding her. Somewhere along the way, her hat ribbons had come loose and the hat had disappeared. Into the back of the buggy, she hoped. It was a nice hat. She didn’t want to lose it.
She tried to concentrate on controlling the horse and keeping the buggy upright and on the road.
With William’s sobs ringing in her ears, she said, “Lily. You must make him stop. The noise will only scare the horse more.”
The crying was immediately muffled. Inez didn’t dare look over, but she imagined that Lily’s hand was involved. She vaguely heard Lily murmuring softly to soothe William. She took the same tone, only slightly louder, for the horse. “Whoa, girl, whoa.”
She could feel the drag of the brake as Harmony engaged it ever so slowly. Inez’s right arm was beginning to burn and she couldn’t hold the rein as tautly as she wanted. The horse and buggy began pulling to one side. She struggled to bring the two reins together so she could hold them mostly with her good hand. The curve looming ahead looked nearly impossible to make.
The carriage slowed further. One front wheel dipped over the lip of the ditch, throwing Harmony hard against the arm rail, then righted again.
Hooves pounding up behind them. The pounding decelerated to a pace just slightly faster than the buggy. Calder trotted by, swung his horse in front of theirs, and slowed down further. Suddenly, without warning, the buggy horse stumbled, and stopped. Head hanging low, sides heaving, the beast let out a piteous groan. Inez hopped out of the buggy. Lily took her hand from William’s mouth, and he let out a hearty scream as if he’d stored it up special just for this moment.
“Get him out!” snapped Inez. “Take him to the wagon!”
Lily squeezed past Inez and almost stumbled in her haste to disembark. Clutching William close, she ran back to where Susan and Mrs. Galbreaith had stopped.
Calder was by the mare’s head. He looked up at Inez, sweat-plastered hair hanging about his face. “Can ye take my horse? I must get her free of the traces.”
Inez slipped from the carriage and ran to grab the reins and lead Calder’s horse out of the way. Calder unharnessed the distressed horse. He led her away, off the path, and behind a low outcropping, talking to her low and soft the whole time. Inez held her breath, watching them go. Calder’s mount jerked his head, as if wanting to follow, and Inez had to switch her focus to calming him down. She glanced back, just in time to see the mare’s head weave up and down in a strange twitchy motion, and then she collapsed, out of sight behind the rocks. Calder immediately knelt and disappeared as well. Inez started in distress, wanting to go help, but needing to stay with Calder’s horse, who was becoming increasing agitated. The women’s voices, rising in horrified exclamations, and William’s loud wails did nothing to improve the situation.
Harmony finally hurried back to comfort William. Mrs. Galbreaith turned the reins over to Susan and hurried behind the outcroppings. She, too, knelt and disappeared from sight. Long minutes ticked by, until Calder and Mrs. Galbreaith rose and, sober-faced, returned to the road.
“What happened?” Inez said anxiously. “Should we fetch her some water? Is she unable to move?”
“She’s dead,” said Calder. He ran a sleeve across his sweating face.
Disbelief rolled over Inez. “But how?”
“What on earth just happened?” Harmony asked. She was approaching, carrying William and looking shaken. “She just bolted, as if she’d seen a snake.”
“There was no snake, nothing to upset or frighten her,” said Inez. “She was agitated before we even departed from the picnic spot, remember? She was so restless, we could hardly set foot in the buggy.”
Mrs. Galbreaith added, “That was not a natural death. The poor sweet mare. Perhaps she ate something along the way? Didn’t you say, Mrs. DuChamps, that Mr. Morrow had said she was indiscriminate in her tastes? Perhaps she took a mouthful of something bad. But it would have to have been something dreadful for her to die as she did, and so quickly.”
Calder looked at Mrs. Galbreaith, an awful light growing behind his eyes. Without a word, he came over to his own horse. Inez held the horse still while Calder rummaged through one of his saddlebags. He pulled out the nearly empty nosebag, opened it, and sifted among the remaining contents.
Inez asked, “Could the grain have gone bad? I’ve seen horses react to spoilt grain, but not so rapidly.”
A whispered curse, said low so none but Inez could hear. He pulled something out of the bag and held out a clenched hand to Inez, saying, “This is nae spoilt oats.” He opened his fist. Sprinkled amongst the expected oats, corn, and barley, several small, smooth, blue-black berries glinted dully.
“I don’t recognize those berries. What are they?” Inez asked as Calder slipped them into his jacket pocket.
With a face full of thunder, he said, “I know what they look like. But, if I am correct, they are a far way from home.”
“Well, what do you think they are?”
“
Paris quadrifolia.
Herb Paris.”
She frowned, shook her head.
“I’m not surprised the name is unfamiliar to you. I’ve only seen the plant in the old forests of Britain and on the Continent. Another name for it is Truelove.” His lip curled. “Herb Paris is poisonous, fatal to human and horse alike. The plant itself smells beastly when in bloom. Like a plant of the devil himself.”
“What is it doing here, in Colorado? And why? Was it an accident that it ended up in the feedbag?”
“I intend to find out. That an innocent animal would die sets my blood aboil.”
“Who would want to kill a horse?” She glanced involuntarily at the rock outcrop that hid the mare’s body.
“Not just any horse. My horse. The feed was meant for the horse I rode.”
Inez stared. “But, anyone could have taken him out.”
He shook his head. “I bought that horse from Morrow when I arrived early this summer. It’s mine and mine alone. No one else rides him.”
“Someone meant to do you harm?” Although it was a blazing hot afternoon and Inez had nothing to shield her head from the heat, she felt suddenly cold, as if winter had descended. She couldn’t help but glance around at the foreign landscape of red rocks, dead grasses, and gray-green brush.
His mouth twisted. “I always ride on less traveled paths. Had I not found the stream with ready grazing nearby, I would have fed the horse the grain prepared, without a second thought. Who is to say what would have happened on some of the steep rock slopes we traversed, if he had…” Calder didn’t finish.
He didn’t have to.
After a short conversation by the side of the road, the group decided that nothing could be done but to leave the dead mare where she had fallen. They lashed the buggy to the back of the wagon, such that it could trail behind.
It was a very subdued wagon full of people who finally arrived back at the Mountain Springs House. Mrs. Galbreaith had managed to fit everyone in her wagon, by shifting photographic boxes and equipment about. William had sobbed himself to sleep in Lily’s arms, one dirty thumb plugging his mouth. Calder followed behind, keeping his horse at a sedate pace. Inez’s recently injured shoulder ached, but at least it did not seem re-damaged. She ignored the muted pain, preferring to focus on the odd findings in the feedbag and the sobering demise of the horse.
Billy came from the livery and stared at the buggy behind the wagon. “Ain’t thet one a’ ours?” he asked. “Whar’s the horse?”
Calder dismounted and said, “I’ll explain to Mr. Morrow, lad. Is he in the livery?”
Billy nodded.
“Help the ladies with their baskets and unfasten the buggy and wheel it around to the back, then,” said Calder. He leaned over to Susan, still in the carriage, and said, “I shall arrive for you about five, as we planned? I’ll bring a carriage for you and all your boxes, cases, and camera, for the
tableaux
tonight. Will you still be my guest for dinner and the evening, despite these unfortunate circumstances? You must come, or face my profound distress and Mrs. Underwood’s wrath. She’s counting on you to take photographs of her scenes, you know.”
Susan’s smile was but a ghost of its usual self. “Yes, of course, Mr. Calder. I said I would, and I will.”
At the porch stairs, Harmony placed a hand on Lily’s shoulder, stopping her before they went up. Harmony addressed Inez saying, “I don’t know how we—I and Lily—can thank you, Inez. I remember, even as a young child, that you always had a way of staying calm, even under the most stressful of situations. If you hadn’t been there today, I don’t know what might have happened.”