The One Who Waits for Me (30 page)

“Beth,” Pierce warned in a low voice.

“No.” She lifted a hand to stop him from saying anything else. “It's the only way, Pierce. I can't involve innocent women in my troubles.” She had prepared for this moment. She had agreed to her role when Pierce shared his plan with her. She was the bait, and Walt had just taken it. Her heart thumped like a war drum. Swallowing, she faced her uncle and cousin. “Let the sisters return unharmed to their rooms, and I'll go with you.”

Bear glanced at his father. “I don't know, Pa.” He rubbed angry red welts. “It could be a trick.”

“It's not a trick,” Beth assured him. “I promise I'll go with you without a fuss.”

A sound like a growl came from Pierce's throat. “No, you won't—”

“Yes, I will. I have to, Pierce. This is my fight.”

“It was your fight until I took on the problem myself and let the bees express my anger.”

“Yeah.” Bear sniffed. “Me and Pa are gonna get you for that, mister.” He glanced at his father. “Ain't that right, Pa? Gonna git him real good.”

Fear nearly blocked Beth's airway. She tried to find comfort in Piece's words running over and over through her frightened state. “
He'll set his own trap. We'll just spring it
.” She hoped he knew what he was doing.

Her calm voice shattered the tense silence. “I'll go with you, Uncle Walt, and I'll take you to the deed.”

Walt's head tilted.

Beth smiled.
Come on. Take the bait
.

His thick brow lifted. “You'll take me to the deed?”

“On one condition.”

His burly brow furrowed. “I don't bargain. You belong to me, missy. Now git your sister, and we'll be leaving these fine folk alone.”

“That's the condition.”

“What?” He leaned and spat on the floor. Mary Margaret's eyes widened in disapproval.

“Joanie stays here. Those are my terms.”

“Not a chance.”

“Come on, Pa.” Bear was growing more nervous by the minute. “Let's git the women and hightail it outta here.” Bear's beady eyes skimmed the nuns' indignant expressions. “Religion gives me hives.”

Walt's black eyes turned to the captain. “We need a couple of fresh horses.”

“Well, as much as I hate to admit it, I guess you and your son have us over a barrel. Leave the nuns unharmed, and I'll not stop you taking your nieces,” Pierce said, crossing his arms over his chest. “But I need to warn you. Those Jornigan women are a handful.”

Walt gave a nod.

“And if you like, I'll ride with you.”

Walt let out a scoffing laugh as his eyes narrowed. “What do you take me for, Montgomery? A fool? You ain't ridin' with us. You're stayin' put. Got that?”

“Got it.”

“Bear here will make sure you stay put.” Walt's eyes indicated the shotgun. “Afore we ride out.”

“Yasser, Daddy.”

Beth glanced to Pierce and then to Walt. “I won't go with you unless Joanie stays where she is.”

An angry red flush dotted her uncle's cheeks. “You don't have a say, girl!” he shouted. “I said
both
of you were a'comin'.” He lifted the shotgun.

In a firm yet calm voice, Pierce said, “Your niece said she wasn't going with you unless her sister is allowed to remain in camp. She's offering to take you to the deed. What more do you want, Jornigan? The truth is, Joanie's a sickly woman who hasn't got long left on this earth—”

Reverend Mother cleared her throat, halting Pierce's words.

The heavily bearded man scratched, appearing to weigh his options.

“It could be a trick, Pa,” Bear warned. “You know this here is a wily bunch.”

“No trick,” Pierce said. “What interest would we have in these women? We're just bystanders, caught up in a situation we had no control over nor did we ask for.” He turned to face Reverend Mother. “I'm sure the same goes for these women.”

Nodding, Mary Margaret piped up and said, “Why would we want trouble?”

Walt's eyes slid from one nun to the next. “That right, Sisters?”

If Beth didn't know better, she'd swear Pierce was stating his true feelings on the matter. Did he care about her? Doubt flared and then it receded when the captain's earlier words flashed through her mind. “
Do what they say. Play along. Let them set the trap
.”

Walt's gaze focused on Beth. “You sayin' you will take me to the deed if I let Joanie stay here?”

“That's what I'm saying.”

“If you lead me astray, Bear will be here to take care of Joanie and these women.” He turned back to his son. “Don't ride off until I get back, boy. You hear?”

“I hear, Pa.”

Walt's eyes turned to flint. “And you'll not move a muscle.”

“But Pa—”

“I said you'll not move a muscle!”

“Yasser,” Bear conceded, though none too heartily.

Walt's wild eyes pivoted back to Beth. “That deed is gonna be mine now after all. Yore pa thought he was pulling some big joke on me, hidin' it an' all—well, the joke's on him.”

“You know Pa. He was a laugh a minute.”

Frowning, Walt motioned to Pierce with the gun barrel. “Get her an animal and let's get started.”

Outside, with Walt holding a gun on them, Pierce lifted Beth into the saddle and their eyes met. She read something in their compassionate depths she'd never seen in another person in her whole life. True concern. Love—perhaps?

The idea was so foreign to her that she wasn't sure if that's what she saw. The only certainty in her mind was that she trusted this man with all her heart and soul. Squeezing her hand, he said quietly, for her ears alone, “Take your uncle to the deed like a good niece and then come back to me.”

“Take good care of Joanie,” she whispered.

“I won't have to. Gray Eagle will.”

Gray Eagle would. She took comfort in his calm assurance.

Lifting her head high, she turned her mare and followed her uncle through the moonlight.

I
t was still dark when Walt's plantation came into sight. Beth took the lead then and walked her horse past the house and toward the ravine, stopping well away from the edge. Reining up, he spat on the ground and then pinned her with a hard look. “What is this? A joke?”

“No joke. This is where Pa hid the deed.”

Was Pierce far behind? Or was he still under Bear's watchful eye? Beth didn't see how Pierce could know that everything would turn out well, but she was determined to play her part as though she knew the ending.

Dismounting and tying off the reins on a nearby tree limb, she turned to face her uncle. “The deed is buried in the fifth cave on the right.”

Walt's jaw dropped when his eyes followed hers to the caves. For the first time in her life, Beth witnessed the man's total astonishment. “This ain't funny, Beth.”

“No, sir,” she agreed. “But like I said, Pa had a sense of humor.” Correction: He was downright brilliant.

“Why…why…the low-down, conniving…” He paused and then spat on the ground again, his eyes assessing the deep gorge by the light of the moon. “How did Emmett get to the other side without killing his fool self?”

Beth didn't say anything.

Walt focused his attention again squarely on the ravine. “Girl, if you're lying to me, we're going back, and I will horsewhip Joanie and make you watch.” His angry words broke through her silence.

“I'm not misleading you. The deed is in the fifth cave on the right. Pa said it was in plain sight.”

Walt snatched off his hat and threw it on the ground. “Of all the…”

Beth turned away at the string of oaths pouring from her uncle's mouth. If Mary Margaret were present she would probably pray for him, but Beth felt nothing but revulsion.

They stood, silence settling around them. Now what? She glanced toward the woods, straining to detect any sign that Pierce was nearby. Instinct told her he wouldn't follow that closely. It would take a while to overcome Bear, escape, ride to the plantation…

What if he doesn't come? What if he mounts up and rides in the opposite direction?

She wouldn't blame him, yet somehow she knew he'd be there for her. Maybe Preach would come with him, but Gray Eagle would never desert Joanie. Her heart longed for the same devotion. How she'd changed. In the brief time that she'd known Captain Montgomery, he'd stolen her heart like a seasoned pickpocket.

Wasn't that just like a man?

“Well?” She asked as the silence stretched between them. “You're not going to cross that ravine, are you?”

Walt focused on the gaping chasm, and she knew he was weighing the matter. “Your pa made the jump?”

“He said he did, but he was lucky. If the rope had slipped or frayed, he would have been at the bottom of the ravine.”

“But he made it.”

She didn't intend to lie. “He did. He said he did.” Her eyes discreetly searched the brush lining the gulch.
Pierce, where are you?
The sounds of night birds were her only answer.

Time stretched. Walt sat on the ground, deep in thought. Beth saw all sorts of emotions play across his frazzled features. Fear. Logic. Greed. Anger.

Greed won out. “Come daylight, I'm going to make the jump.”

“Uncle Walt, I…I wouldn't.” She detested the man like raw liver, but she couldn't watch him leap to his death without arguing on behalf of sanity.

“Shuddup. That deed will set me up for life.”

“Not if you don't
have
a life, which you might not if you attempt that jump.”

“I can do anything Emmett did.”

“True, but Pa might have had the Lord's blessing.”

“Emmett's dead. Hardly seems like one of them there ‘blessings' to me.”

The party of three rode through the darkness. Bear had proved no match for the Cherokee warriors who had followed behind the nun, Pierce, and Beth. Bear was now secured to a pole in the sweat lodge, whining and crying for his pa. Pierce hoped time spent in the sweltering tent would sweat the meanness out of the headstrong cousin.

Gray Eagle, who was more than willing to support his friend and help rescue Joanie's sister, knew of a back road to the cotton plantation, so the three men arrived undetected. They now squatted in the thick undergrowth watching the scene play out before them. Beth stood back while Walt knelt, fashioning a thick rope.

“Obviously, he's planning to make the jump,” Pierce whispered.

“He won't make it,” Preach predicted.

“Beth's pa did.”

“He was lucky,” Gray Eagle said.