Salvation's Secrets (The Loflin Legacy Prequel) (4 page)

***

The sun broke free of the cloud cover at
dawn. Seth slipped past the kitchen and eased into his room without
a sound. Thank God, his father wasn’t home. His Choctaw wife
probably kept him busy in her little house down by the creek. Seth
liked Running Deer, she was Tyron’s mother after all. She refused
to set foot in Laura’s house, saying Laura’s spirit still lived
there. Running Deer hadn’t crossed the threshold since Earl brought
her to Shooter Creek after she gave birth to Tyron.

Dreaming of a long soak in the hip tub, Seth
eased into his room and rang the bell for the boys to bring water.
He’d no more than kicked out of his pants when Charles strode in
like he owned the place.

“Where the hell have you been?” Standing
inside the door, he jammed his fists in his front pockets and
waited. When Seth didn’t answer, Charles strode over, yanking him
around to face his scowl. “Do you know what you’ve done?”

“No, what have I done, old man?” Seth’s
snide use of the name Charles saved for him didn’t set well with
the elder man. “I didn’t know you could be so stupid. You certainly
aren’t thinking with the right head.”

Seth cut a cool sneer at his antagonist.
“Like you do.”

“I’ve got better sense than to sleep with
the enemy’s daughter.”

“She’s not the enemy’s daughter. Lone Eagle
isn’t the enemy. He comes to hunt – in peace, remember?”

“Yeah, when did you start believing
everything an Injun said?”

Yanking up the collar of the taller cowboy,
Seth got up in his face. “Be careful, old man. You’re poking at
things that don’t need your attention.” Releasing him, Seth gave
him a shove and turned his back on Charles.

“I’m not talking about Ty or his maw. I’m
talking about you sniffing around a chief’s daughter and starting
an Injun war, that’s what I’m talking about.”

“There won’t be a war. Not if I can help it.
Let it go, damn it.” He waved his long arm at Charles in dismissal
before striding to the tub. The water boys had slipped in and out
as if nothing of consequence was transpiring in Seth’s room. He
turned, giving Charles a cold stare. “I don’t go reminding you of
what a fool you are, do I?”

“Fuck you, Seth. You don’t give a rat’s ass
about anybody but yourself. Never have and never will. This could
cause big problems. You just don’t care, do you?”

“Take it back!” He strode back, giving the
dark haired man another shove. Take it back or else.”

“Or else, what?” The grit in Charles tone
bode ill. “You gonna do something about my opinion, huh? Is that
what you’re saying, old man?”

Lights flashed in front of Seth’s eyes. His
vision filled with a red haze as he swung out. The blow caught
Charles under the jaw, sending him backward and into the wall. The
thud was loud. Feet racing away from the door sounded down the hall
in echoes.

Rebounding, Charles blocked Seth’s next blow
and delivered one of his own to Seth’s midsection.

Bent double, Seth wheezed. With enough air
to be dangerous, he didn’t straighten, but rather charged forward,
tackling Charles around the waist and sending both of them
sprawling on the floor. With the advantage now, he drew back intent
on drawing blood.

The door to his room opened with a flurry of
jolts and bangs against the wall.

“What the hell’s going on here?” Earl Loflin
stood in the doorway, feet braced, ready to quell the fire brewing
between the two. “I said stop it!” With large beefy hands on both
boys, he pulled, sending Seth stumbling backward against the tub.
Glowering at Charles sprawled in the floor with blood running from
a cut lip, Earl snarled. “You two don’t have anything better to do
than fight? Huh? Well, I got an answer for that.” He pinned Seth
with a chilly stare. “You got muck duty tomorrow until all the barn
stalls are clean. Then you can start on mending the hog pen. When
you’re through with that, there’s brush to burn.” Turning to
Charles, his mouth set in a thin line. “I don’t want to hear
another peep out of either one of you, is that clear?” Wagging a
finger in Seth’s face, he firmed his jaw. “You can’t seem to
understand, can you? You’re a grown fucking man acting like a
whining brat still sucking tit. I’m not putting up with anymore of
this. Do I make myself clear? One more problem and I’m shipping you
off to school.” With the flat of his hand, he shoved Seth aside as
he turned to leave. “Get this mess cleaned up.” With that, Earl
disappeared, slamming the door in his wake.

Each of them starred at the other. Breath
came in hard pulls as Seth forced his temper under control. “You
got no right telling me I’m wrong. Not when you hire out to any
bastard with a dollar and kill men simply because.”

“Fuck you, Seth. You don’t understand the
reason I do what I do any more than Father Samuel does. If you
think you’re not starting a shit-storm, then I pity you, brother. I
really do.” Wiping his lip, he looked at the blood on his hand. “I
gotta get outta here.” Wheeling, he left Seth standing there trying
to figure out what he meant.

Chapter 3

Charles saddled his horse and left the ranch
house in record time. He needed space. The pressure of living in
the Loflin household always reminded him of his own old man, the
man he’d killed when he was only fifteen. Maggie quietly assured
him that he had no choice – the bastard needed killing. Still, he’d
never forget the blank stare in his paw’s eyes when he’d come to
and discovered he’d buried a hay hook between his paw’s shoulder
blades. Forcing the pain from the beatings to the back corners of
his mind, Charles managed to harbor guilt for what he’d done to
survive. Earl said he should face up to the truth. He’d done what
he had to do – what needed doing. Charles still wished there’d been
a better way. His debt to Earl Loflin was long. If it hadn’t been
for Earl, he’d have already died at the end of a gun. As it was, he
tempted fate on a regular basis without Earl knowing.

A horse snorted.

He glanced up to see Jake long riding in his
direction.

“Planning on disappearing again?” Jake, the
Shooter Creek foreman, pulled up and dropped the reins over the
saddle horn.

“No, I just needed some space, that’s all.”
Charles worked on remaining civil to the man he looked up to more
than most. “I just got a lot on my mind is all.”

“Would have anything to do with Seth
spending the night with the Comanche half-breed now would it?” His
eyes, squint in the sunlight peered at Charles from under his
Stetson. “I can tell you didn’t know I knew ‘bout that.” His chin
jutted as he stared out over the horse’s ears at the view from one
of the bluffs dotting Shooter Creek land.

“He’s gonna get hurt. I can’t get him to
understand, she ain’t like us. She’s part Comanche, which makes her
dangerous. You should’ve seen the way her cousin, Red Bear eyed us
when I followed him out there to visit.” Charles shook his head.
“Hell, Seth’s sees his trips out there as a Sunday social. He can’t
see any of the danger. All he sees is her.”

“Yeah, that’s the way his paw was with
Running Deer, Tyron’s maw. He courted her like a white woman,
sending presents and inviting her to take buggy rides and the
like.” Jake huffed out a laugh. “It didn’t matter she was
Injun.”

“She’s not Comanche either, Jake. The
trouble with the Comanche could just as easily be right here in
east Texas as it is further west of here. Seth don’t see that.”

“Charles, if there’s one thing I’ve learned
over the years, you can’t change a Loflin’s mind once it’s made up.
You just gotta be ready for the fall out.” He winked at him before
tugging on the reins. “Come on, there’s mucking needs doing or I’m
in trouble too.”

Turning to follow, Charles considered the
elder cowboy’s words. Jake had signed on when Earl made his first
land claim back in ’32. He’d fought with Earl and figured he’d work
with him after they mustered out of the Army together. Hard living
and straight shooting, he spoke the truth and never cheated a man
or at cards. Charles couldn’t lay claim to either of those traits
yet he admired Jake simply for being somebody you could depend on
to steer you straight no matter what.

They rode companionably without the need for
words, each comfortable with the other’s company.

“You planning on taking out those rustlers
over at the Triple M?” Jake eyed him coolly beneath the shade of
his Stetson.

“I’m thinking on it, why?”

Jake shrugged his shoulders. “Just wondering
is all. It’s a hard job for one man.”

“It’s the way I work – alone.”

“Yeah, well…suit yourself. I don’t suppose
you’ve considered what Earl’s gonna have to say ‘bout you still gun
slinging, have ya?”

“Don’t start on me, Jake. Seth’s been riding
me hard already.” Turning away to stare hard at the side of the
road, Charles sighed. “Not much I can do about the trouble I’m in
except keep paying the debt.”

“If you’d ask Earl, he’d help you. You know
that, right?”

“Can’t, Jake. I can’t. I’m already beholden’
to him enough. I’ll never be able to repay all he’s done for me as
it is.”

“Sometimes, it ain’t about repayment, it’s
about gratitude.”

Charles cut a bemused eye at Jake rather
than ask what the hell the elder cowboy meant. The statement would
be all he’d get out of the ranch foreman. They continued back to
the barn in silence.

***

“You going somewhere?” Maggie beat the bread
dough into submission as she listened to the footsteps headed down
the hall.

“Yeah, I gotta hot poker game to get in on.
Why?” Hating the defensiveness in his words, Seth made a point of
settling a kiss on the housekeeper’s cheek before he snagged a pear
from the bowl of fruit on the kitchen table. The woman who’d run
Shooter Creek Ranch house singlehandedly for more than eight years
since the death of his maw was a no no-nonsense woman and he loved
her. She’d been the glue holding the family together and shored up
the edges when his world had fallen apart the evening of July
20th,1838. The baby had been still born and Laura Loflin bled to
death following the birth. He didn’t want to think on what happened
in the days following his maw’s death. Earl locked himself in the
room with her body and it took Jake, Maggie, Charlie and Father
Samuel to convince him to bury his wife. Though he’d only been ten
at the time, Seth overheard them. They’d talked of how Earl didn’t
want to see the baby girl’s body. He told them to, “
Get rid of
the thing.
” He’d stood on the hill in the graveyard next to the
newly dug grave of his mother and the smaller grave for his sister.
It seemed cruel not to grieve for her as well as his maw. The tiny
little thing hadn’t deserved the hatred Earl harbored for her. Over
the years, Seth visited the graves from time to time. Wondering
what it might have been like to have a sister, he figured she’d
been blessed to have left the world rather than bear witness to
Earl’s demented nature.

“You’re my girl, Maggie. Gotta run.”

“All right, Seth but take care.”

“You know me, Maggie, always.”

He breezed past her and out the back door,
only glancing at the garden and chicken coup. A pang of guilt
slapped him back a step when the reminder of where he headed nudged
his conscious. “Don’t go brooding over things. Nothing’s gonna
happen tonight.” Whistling for Sarge, Seth leapt into the saddle
when the bay trotted to the barn door. Already saddled and waiting,
he paused only a minute as his younger brother, Tyron appeared in
the same door. “Did you saddle him all by yourself?”

Ty nodded with an easy grin on his handsome
face. The young boy’s features resembled his Choctaw mother’s
heritage so much; it proved hard to find any of Earl in Ty’s face.
Seth loved him though and found solace in a younger brother to look
up to him.

“I’ll bring you back a surprise, all right?
Now, remember, I’m playing cards.” Winking, Seth smiled openly.
Finding it necessary to include Ty in his lies bothered Seth for a
few minutes before he shoved the scheme to the back of his mind and
focused instead on who waited for him behind the waterfall on the
bluff.

***

An owl hooted above them in the trees. He
led the way. “Here, let me take your hand.” Ducking under the
water, he rushed through with her in tow. Laughter filled the small
space. “Celia, you’re cold. I need to warm you up. Seth’s hands
traveled over her back and arms. Celia shivered, leaning into him
accepting of his warmth. “Does your father know you’re here?”

She raised her eyes to his. “No, Broken
Horse is the only one who knows I’m here.”

“Ah, Broken Horse.” Seth gathered her close,
allowing his arms to wrap around her. “I owe him for this.”
Nuzzling her neck, he eased down on the rock slab, serving as their
lovers’ hideaway. “Better?”

“Yes. I’m happy to see you.” Tilting her
head, she smiled for him. Slowly, she wrapped her arms around his
waist, snuggling against his length.

Her innocent movements warmed his blood and
did queer things to his senses. “Sit down. There’s something I want
to give you.” He pulled a rose from his vest pocket and handed the
flower to her.

Her eyes lit with pleasure. Her mouth opened
on an exclamation. “It’s lovely. Where did you get such a beautiful
flower?” Burying her nose in the flower’s center, she smiled again
as her eyes drifted shut with the scent.

“I stole it from Maggie’s garden.”

Her eyes grew enormous. “Oh, no, you
shouldn’t have.” Her hand rested on his forearm.

He laughed from deep in his throat. “No,
silly. That’s a euphemism for took. Don’t worry, she has plenty.
Besides, she doesn’t mind if I take one for my best girl.”

She paused in mid sniff. Glancing up slowly,
her eyes narrowed. “I’m your best girl?” Shaking her head, her
forehead furrowed. “What about the others? Won’t they be upset?”
Her jaw tightened over the words as she turned away.