There All Along (8 page)

She laughed. “Yes you do. I can see you already starting to think on the garrison defenses again. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here when your day is done and they send you back here to rest.”

•   •   •

H
e thought about her words as they walked down the hill to the garrison barracks. He’d never had that before. A woman waiting when his day was done.
Anyone
waiting when his day was done.

Roots.

He’d grown up poor, without too many and then his family had been taken from him in a violent act. At fifteen he was thrust into the military and had gravitated to the lawmen because it had been solitary. He drove in his vehicle in a team, yes, but alone too.

It had suited him for a long time. The life without roots. But mainly it was that he did something worth doing that kept him getting back into his seat each time. He was needed. Necessary. He kept people safe, kept commerce moving. He’d been told plenty of times in his life that he was worthless. But each time they drove through the gates of a garrison town he proved his father wrong.

Jackson’s eyes lit when he caught sight of her as they came through the doors some time later. She smiled back, holding up her basket. “I brought some food. Figured you all might need something to get you through the day.”

They all set on her, though, Loyal noted, they were orderly. No one pushed and every single person said thank you. She seemed to evoke that.

Stace came in with some others just as she was packing up to leave. “They’ve turned back and are headed to the main bridge. They tried to burn the brush and tree cover on their side of the river but it’s too wet to catch.”

She turned and nodded. “I’ll be getting back home. Jackson, I’ll be up on my roof keeping an eye. I’ll let you know if I see anything.”

“No you won’t. You need to stay inside.”

She gave Haldeman a raised brow. “It’s my house and my roof and heaven knows I’m safe there. No one can get to me. Especially from the other side of the bridge. They won’t even be able to see me. But I have field glasses and I’ll see them.” She gave Haldeman her back, which was good because Loyal caught the annoyance on the other man’s face.

Verity Coleman wasn’t a female to be managed. Strong. With a mind of her own and if she wanted up on her roof she’d go there. Best to urge her to keep back and report anything she saw than to go forbidding her from something she was going to do no matter what.

“Stay back. They can’t reach you from the other side of the bridge, but we don’t want them getting any ideas as to strategic points to take either.” Loyal escorted her to the door.

She smiled. “Of course. I’ll send Tobin with any news.”

And she was gone with a swish of skirts.

Y
ou want to tell me what is going on with the lawman?” Tobin settled in next to her on her roof. She scanned the area with her field glasses.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re more a friend than an aunt, really, Verity. I can see the way you look at him. Have looked at him for years. And the way he looks at you. The energy between you two has changed. Even my mother has noticed. He’s . . . what do you think is next?”

She thought about it. Thought about telling him to mind his own business. She couldn’t really talk to her sister. She loved Constance, but Constance would only tell her Jackson was a better match and the lawman’s lifestyle was unsuitable for her.

And her sister would be right in a lot of ways.

“I’m in love with Loyal. I have been for at least a year. We’ve gotten closer lately.” She sipped some water and kept her scan up. “I don’t know how he feels for me. Not precisely. I know he cares about me.”

“You want to leave Silver Cliffs, don’t you?”

She swallowed back her automatic rejection of the idea.

“I want to see the world outside the gates. I want to hear other accents, see how people live elsewhere. There’s so much outside and I haven’t seen most of it.”

“Do you want him because he’s your ticket out? Or because you want him?”

“I’ve been saving up for several annum now to get on the list to travel to Shelter City. Since before James was killed. I’m going whether I do it with Loyal or not. I don’t know that I’d go forever. But . . . I am dying here. Slowly dying.” She put the glasses down and turned to Tobin. “My heart aches to know. To learn. To see. And I can’t. Not here. Do you see?”

He took her hand, squeezing it for a moment. “I do.”

“I want him to take me with him. I know lawmen have lives. Families even. I wouldn’t have babies out on the road. I don’t think that would be fair, or easy. But Marcus and Trinity travel together.”

“She’s a lawman too.”

“Yes, I know. I know all of this. I want to be with him. Before, when he left I was sad. But now? Now that things are different between us? It tears part of me away when he talks of leaving. I never had this before. If James had left for moons at a time I’d have rejoiced. I like being with Loyal. He makes me happy.”

“Probably because you do all the talking.” Tobin winked with a grin. She laughed.

“A plus of a taciturn man, Tobin, for a chatty woman. He says what he needs to say, but he doesn’t waste anything. Not words, not movement. He’s economical, but in the best sort of way.”

“Dangerous world out there.”

“Yes. But it’s not always so. Most of the time they escort the official transport without incident.”

“My mother is going to fight you on leaving.”

She nodded, picking up the glasses again to scan the path on the other side of the river. “Aye. She will.”

“She’s not curious.”

“She thinks curiosity is dangerous. It’s how we were raised.”

“I’m on your side.”

Tobin settled back, picking up his own field glasses.

“Thank you.”

“Will you support me then? When I tell them I want to be a lawman?”

She turned to him, not entirely surprised. “Is that what you really want?”

“I sent in papers, two visits ago, to apply to the training school.”

And he’d said nothing. She nodded, reaching out to squeeze his hand. “Then yes, I’ll support you. I can talk to Loyal if you like, see if he’ll share what it’s like.”

“He has. I mean, mainly I’ve spoken to Trinity because she’s a tracker and that’s what I want to do. I’d have to go to their academy. It’s a bit of money to get there. I’m saving for it.”

He was one surprise after another.

“I can help you. I have credits set by.”

“You do. But for your trip to Shelter City.”

“I can do that too. So I have to wait longer.” She shrugged. “This is more important. We’ll make it happen for you one way or another.”

“They won’t like it. My parents.”

“Probably not. It’s not a safe or easy life. They’ll want that for you.”

“As if it’s an easy life here? Behind a plow or whatever I’d find a place doing?”

“You could enter service at the garrison. They’ve always a need of strong soldiers here.”

She wanted to be careful. She loved Tobin and wanted him to be happy, but at the same time, she wanted him to be safe too. Wanted him to make choices that would keep him that way. And without a doubt her sister would blame her for this turn of events.

“I could. I may still. It’s an option after academy. I just don’t want to be trapped here. I want options. Is it so wrong to want that?”

She shook her head. “No it isn’t. You have every right to want that. Every right to pursue a life of your own choosing.”

“Sometimes it feels like wanting that is selfish.”

She shrugged. “Maybe it is. But if you can’t be selfish about creating your own future, what can you be selfish about?”

He was silent for a while as he thought. “Is that what you’re doing?”

“My parents traded me like livestock to a man more than twice my age when I was fourteen. I never had a life of my own choosing. Ever. The only freedom I did have was in my imagination. On the page of a book. After he was killed I had a sort of freedom I’d never had before. If it makes me selfish now to want to leave this and see what’s out there? If I choose to come back here for good, so be it. I’m capable of more than having babies and wiping down counters in a general store. I may
choose
that in the future. It’s not a bad life. I’m not saying that. I’m saying I want to know. I want my choice to be made with more information.”

•   •   •

S
he’d been scanning the trail and saw movement. Verity leaned forward, peering carefully, noting the shiver of some bushes. Moments later the brigands emerged and marched in the open.

“Tobin, go. Run down to the garrison and tell them I’ve sighted the brigands near the big tree.”

He got up and scampered away without argument and she kept watch.

Moments later it wasn’t Tobin who returned, but Loyal. “Where?”

She handed the field glasses over and guided him to the spot, which wasn’t hard as a whole band of them had emerged from the treeline.

They were fearsome. A shiver worked through her at the sight. The night was chilly, but they wore little more than some animal skins about their waists. The light of the waning moon, giving way to early morning lit them with purple-blue light. Their faces had been painted, or maybe marked with inks and tattoos.

“Their teeth are filed so they can tear into people when they attack.”

She’d heard but had hoped it was rumor.

He turned to her and saw Tobin standing behind. “Go back to the garrison barracks. Tell them two score and five. They’ve got the usual weapons. I want full lights on that bridge and the sentry fires set immediately.”

Tobin raced off.

“What next?”

“The sentry fires will be set along the walls. That’ll let them know you see them.”

“Obviously we can because they’re standing out in the open!”

He turned, taking her hands. “I’m not going to let anything harm you.”

She swallowed her fear back. There were twenty-five of them and at least five hundred fighters, more if everyone took up arms who had them and could use them. She could use a weapon. She was all right. They’d be all right.

He caressed her face. “I’d never let anything happen to you. I swear it.”

Loyal Alsbaugh wasn’t the kind of man she expected sweet words from, though certainly he said lovely things to her from time to time. But he made her feel safe. In a world like theirs, it meant everything to feel that way.

“You’re not helpless. Even if I wasn’t here, you’d be safe.” He paused for several long beats. “But I’m grateful I am. If I’d been elsewhere and got the news, if I hadn’t been here knowing you were under siege?” He swallowed and she stood, held by his words, the breeze sending her skirts swaying around her legs, catching a stray curl and bouncing it from her cheek. She could smell his skin. Woodsmoke and gun oil.

The sun was up somewhere, not quite there yet. But the promise of it lightened the sky and she looked up, caught by the masculine lines of his features.

“I’m grateful you are too.”

He brushed his lips against hers. “I’m going to send someone up here to keep watch. I want you back inside. Please,” he added after she’d given him a look.

“Can I be of help anywhere else?”

He chewed his lip for a time and sighed, deciding to just be blunt. “If you’re safe in your house I’ll be able to work better. I’ll worry if you’re out anywhere. I need to focus and gods help me, you’re on my mind so much as it is.”

The fierce look she’d been wearing softened. The fear and anxiety were gone, replaced by a smile that shot straight to his gut.

But she didn’t push it. She nodded.

He escorted her back and resisted re-checking her weapons. He’d already done so when she hadn’t been watching.

“You know all the warnings. If there’s any emergency communication, use the whistle and we’ll send a runner. I don’t think they’re going to get over the bridge. But it’s best to be smart and prepared.”

She nodded again. He pulled her close, kissing her until she lost all the stiffness in her spine. Until he throbbed with each heartbeat with the need to take her to the floor and fuck her senseless.

No time for it though.

He tore his mouth away. “I have to go.”

She followed him to the door. “Don’t get hurt or I’ll be vexed.”

He grinned and jogged away.

•   •   •

H
e was pleased to see his orders being carried out; the sentry torches lined the entire wall surrounding the garrison and could be seen from the highway.

“You think that’s it?” Haldeman tipped his head toward the bridge where the brigands had begun to gather.

“I wouldn’t count on it. They can travel in bands of several hundred. They often send out smaller raiding parties to reconnoiter the prey.” He’d sent out three scouts to see if there were others hidden elsewhere on the way up to the garrison and expected them to report back soon. If they had indications there was a large gathering of brigands he’d put in a blip and send for soldiers from Table Mount.

Otherwise, they’d be expected to repel the offensive force themselves. It wasn’t expedient or even possible to have the central government in Shelter City ride out to protect the garrisons outside the main security zone surrounding it. It was simply an accepted fact that the cost of independence for those who lived outside that safest zone was the necessity to protect themselves when they were threatened by outside forces.

“So do we tell them to back off or what?”

“They won’t make an immediate attack. They’re going to make a camp right out there on the other side of the bridge. So you can see them. It’s part of what they do. Build up your dread and terror.”

“We have sharp shooters. Let’s kill them all and be done. Why are we so afraid of a bunch of animals?” One of the garrison soldiers shrugged a shoulder.

“You’ll find that they’re close enough for you to see, but just out of range for that. They’re feral, yes, but they understand strategy. Don’t underestimate them. They live this way. For generations this is how they have survived. Understand that.”

“So what do we do then?”

“You need a show of force. Put men up on the sentry points in full view. With weapons. They’ll respond to that. You make yourselves a poor target. Show them you can fight back. That you have excellent defenses and will repel an attack. They’ll watch you, see how you react. Hold steady and if you’re lucky, they’ll leave. If they make a move we will react fiercely and immediately. You have to kill them. All of them. Your reaction is what will gauge whether or not they come back. And how soon.”