Bride Gone Bad Page 20

  “Don’t give up on Mercy. He’s not planted on Boot Hill yet.”

  “You’re right. There’s still time.”

  “What’s in the third letter?”

  Tempest opened it, read the contents, and glanced up. “You’re not going to believe this one.”

  “Try me.”

  “Mrs. Bartholomew and the TSPT returned to the Bend with most of the outlaws from Burnt Boggy in tow.”

  “They called in Texas Rangers or Deputy U.S. Marshals?”

  “Neither.” She couldn’t hold back a giggle. “Remember how much Chancy Clancy admired Mrs. Bartholomew?”

  “That bosom? Yes.”

  “They’re engaged.”

  “What!” Lucky laughed, shaking his head. “I bet she got him cleaned up.”

  “And not just him.”

  “She’s engaged to them all?”

  “No. However, Mrs. Bartholomew and the Texas Society for the Promotion of Temperance and the Chancy Clancy Outlaw Gang are going on tour. They will give lectures on how the TSPT showed the bandits how to mend their ways and become upright, sober citizens.”

  Lucky shook his head, chuckling. “Might work. How are they funding it?”

  “Mrs. Bartholomew is a wealthy widow and committed to the cause. Also, I believe they’ll sell tickets.”

  “Do you suppose Burt and Bob put that bee in her bonnet?”

  “Maybe. But they didn’t get her engaged.”

  Lucky laughed again.

  Tempest carefully slipped each letter back into its envelope. She’d reread them later. She was so pleased for Elmira and Lamira. She couldn’t wait to talk with them. Maybe happiness was moving to a new town and starting a new life. She’d broken free. Now they had followed her.

  As she was tying the ribbon around the letters, she felt an odd sensation that reminded her of the slithering rattlesnake at the creek. And then the Soleil Wheel over her heart hurt. She tried to ease the pain by massaging it.

  “What is it?” Lucky asked.

  She felt compelled to glance toward the stairs. A man walked down them, intently focused on her. He was of medium height, but twice as broad, with solid muscle packed into a dark blue suit. He appeared to be in his late thirties. His pale head was bald as a billiard ball and he had no facial hair, either. He appeared stark, austere, and ruthless.

  “Crawdaddy.” Lucky stood up abruptly, knocking over his chair.

  She stood, too, feeling as if she’d stepped into a viper pit.

  Chapter 39

  Lucky walked around the table to Tempest’s side. He put a hand on her waist and drew her close. She trembled against him.

  He watched Crawdaddy stalk toward them, as if he had antennas out to gather information.

  When Crawdaddy stopped in front of Tempest, he looked her up and down. “You do understand that his interest is not in you but in what you can do.”

  “You’re too late.” Lucky felt Tempest stiffen at his words, and knew he had to say whatever it took to keep her safe.

  “Time is meaningless.” Crawdaddy nodded his head at Tempest. “Lucien, you do attract the most interesting women. If I had more looks than power like you, perhaps I would have similar luck.”

  Lucky felt Tempest stiffen again. “Tempest is my ladylove.”

  “They’re all your ladyloves . . . for a time.”

  “She’s my bride.”

  Crawdaddy cocked his head again. “She’s not wearing the ring or necklace.”

  “I carry them for safekeeping.”

  “For some pathetic reason, you think I might care what she means to you. No. She is a tool, nothing more, nothing less.”

  “She’s a woman.”

  “I can see that very well. I agree with you. She is a tool with many uses.”

  “She’s not for you.”

  “I need a particular tool at this time, as you well know. Thank you for bringing her to me. I owe you a favor in return.” He snapped his fingers to one side.

  A man stepped into Lucky’s sight, seemingly out of nowhere, but he knew Crawdaddy had the power of illusion at his fingertips.

  “Haig!” Tempest gasped.

  Lucky had expected more of the man. If not for eyes the color of stagnant water, Haig was forgettable. He was a little taller than average, of medium build with light brown hair and brown eyes. He was clean-shaven except for a large, droopy mustache. His skin was tanned and weathered. But he’d be fast. He had that nervous quality found in gunslingers. And he was a lefty. That could throw off some folks. He wore a fancy tooled gun-belt low on his left hip with the grip of a Colt .45 visible. But it was the eyes that told the true tale. He had the dead eyes of somebody who hadn’t felt anything for a long time.

  To Lucky’s surprise, Tempest drew her .32 and threw down on Haig. “Give me my money, you sidewinder, or I’ll blow a hole in you the size of Texas.”

  Lucky had to hand it to her. Surprise, or total shock, could beat a lefty gunslinger.

  Haig blinked at her as if trying to bring her into focus.

  “Do you know this lovely lady?” Crawdaddy asked in a deceptively soft voice.

  “Wife.”

  “You’re married to her?” Crawdaddy turned to look at Haig.

  “We’re divorced,” Tempest said. “He abandoned me at our reception and took off with Grandma’s money. A year ago.”

  “Idiot,” Crawdaddy said. “You couldn’t tell that she’s worth more than any amount of gold?”

  “She’s creepy.” Haig stepped back. “She’s tetched in the head. I saw her talk to thin air. Where she’s from, folks know she’s no normal calico.”

  Tempest cocked her S&W. “Haig, maybe I’ll blow a hole in you even if you do give back Grandma’s money.”

  “And I’m backing her play,” Emma said.

  Lucky glanced up in surprise. Emma had a shotgun pointed at Haig. Maybe luck was turning their way.

  “Is this the way you treat guests?” Crawdaddy asked, adjusting the cuffs of his white shirt.

  “There’s no call for disrespecting and stealing from elders,” Emma said. “Pay her back and pay her now.”

  “Haig,” Crawdaddy said in an ominous voice, “you are turning out to be a disappointment.”

  “How the hell was I to know I’d ever see her again? She’s from way down in East Texas. She’s a Southern belle, not a Belle Starr.”

  “Belle’s a friend of the Cherokee just north of here,” Emma said. “I’d be careful how I used her name if I was you.”

  “My trigger finger’s getting itchy,” Tempest said melodramatically. “I’ve been waiting a long time for my money. I’m not willing to wait much longer.”

  Crawdaddy sighed. “Miss Tempest, I regret that my employee would treat you with such disrespect. I apologize for his uncouth actions.”

  “I’m not hearing the jingle of gold,” Tempest said.

  “Neither am I,” Emma echoed.

  “If you will allow Haig to go upstairs, collect our saddlebags, and return, I will see that you are repaid in full,” Crawdaddy said.

  “If he even looks like he’s going to move, I’ll blast him all the way to Texas,” Tempest said in a clipped tone.

  For the first time, Lucky realized just how long and deeply Tempest had been angry with Haig. He didn’t blame her. But standoffs like this couldn’t last long before somebody got twitchy.

  “Let’s settle this matter peacefully,” Lucky said. “Got any double eagles with you?”

  “Yes,” Crawdaddy said. “Upstairs. There’s a pouch in my saddlebags.”

  “You don’t owe me,” Tempest said.

  “This is a loan I’m making to my employee,” Crawdaddy said. “Haig will repay me later. Is that acceptable?”

  “No! I don’t owe her a dime,” Haig said. “I deserved payment for having to sit on their stupid verandah, drink their awful tea, and listen to their boring stories.”

  “You wouldn’t recognize kindness if it bit you,” Tempest snapped.
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  “Haig, I’m not asking you,” Crawdaddy said. “It is plain that you can’t go around stealing the life savings of grandmothers without repercussions.”

  “I was doing just fine till—” Haig started.

  “Not another word.” Crawdaddy focused on Tempest. “Will payment through me be acceptable to you?”

  “Yes, I suppose so,” Tempest said, “but he must repay you.”

  “He will,” Crawdaddy agreed.

  “Hornswoggle!” Haig said. “I ought to shoot the bitch and be done with it.”

  “Another outburst like that,” Crawdaddy said, “and you’ll be the one in agony.”

  Haig grumbled under his breath, but didn’t say another word.

  Lucky recognized an impasse. He wouldn’t leave Tempest alone with Crawdaddy, not even for a moment, but somebody had to go upstairs and get the gold. He glanced at Emma and her shotgun. She’d do.

  He stepped back from Tempest and dropped his hand near his S&W. Haig instantly went on alert. “Take it easy. I want Emma to go upstairs and get the eagles. While she’s gone, I’m taking her place with my .44. Does that sound fair?”

  “Go ahead,” Crawdaddy said. “Tempest has us covered anyway.”

  Lucky stepped back another pace and drew his .44. He nodded at Emma, and she quickly set down her shotgun and hurried up the stairs.

  “You know this doesn’t settle anything,” Crawdaddy said.

  “It certainly does,” Tempest said. “I’m getting my family’s money back.”

  Crawdaddy shrugged. “That’s simply Haig’s stupidity.”

  “Maybe to you, but not to me,” she said.

  Lucky noticed her .32 waver, and he wouldn’t have been the only one. It was getting heavy. They all knew it’d happen, sooner or later. But they had him to contend with now, and he was a different matter.

  “I’ve got it,” Emma called, rushing down the stairs.

  Tempest glanced up, and it was all the chance Haig needed. He punched her in the jaw. Her gun discharged into the ceiling and went flying. She careened back into Lucky, who grabbed her with one arm as he went down on a knee, still holding his .44. But it was too late. Crawdaddy and Haig were already heading out the front door.

  Crawdaddy paused and glanced back. “May the best man, or Rattler, win.”

  Lucky sent a shot after him, but it went high out the door. He eased Tempest to one side, raced to the door, and hit the front porch at a run.

  Haig and Crawdaddy had already leaped into their saddles and were riding hell-bent for leather out of town.

  He wanted to fire after them, but he stayed his hand. It’d be wasting bullets and shooting up the town for nothing.

  And it wasn’t like they could get away. He knew where they were going. And he’d be right on their tail.

  Chapter 40

  At sunset, Tempest stopped beside Lucky atop Swallow Rock near Fort Coffee overlooking the Arkansas River. The rays of the lowering Sun burnished the wide river in shades of copper as breezes swept across the lush grasslands of the terraces below. Livestock grazed in pastures separated from cropland. A few log houses dotted the area.

  “Do you think Haig and Crawdaddy are down there?” She glanced at Lucky.

  He nodded. “They didn’t get too much of a head start on us, but enough to beat us. Crawdaddy won’t let this go.”

  “I hope I never see him again.”

  “If we’re cautious, maybe we won’t.”

  “Thanks for helping me get Grandma’s money.”

  “Glad to help.”

  “Emma was really brave, too.”

  “That’s a Choctaw. Honorable and brave.”

  “I agree.” She thought of Lucky and how he’d stepped in time and again to help her. She wasn’t so angry with him anymore, but she wasn’t sure how to go forward with him, either. “I wish Haig hadn’t gotten away. I want him put in jail.”

  “Don’t give up. I know a couple of Deputy U.S. Marshals in Fort Smith. Rafe Morgan and Rune Wulfsson. Once we get the Soleil Wheel, we can contact them about Haig.”

  “I like the sound of that.”

  She could see grassy hills rising like sentinels above the flat land below. She counted seven set almost in a triangle with a large, long one set a distance to the east and several smaller ones below it.

  “Are those the Mounds?” She glanced at Lucky again.

  “Yes.”

  “They look like hills.”

  “But they’re not normal in river bottoms. And they’re found elsewhere on Turtle Island.”

  “How do you think they were built?”

  “Many baskets of earth piled up in layers over time.”

  “That’s a lot of work.”

  “The Mounds were important.”

  “Are they burial sites?”

  “One is here. The people also built homes and temples of adobe with thick grass roofs on top of the Mounds. They were very religious and kept the Sacred Fire always burning in their temple.”

  “It’s amazing.”

  “From our oral tradition and more recent research, this was once an important hub that coordinated a vast area from east to west. They had river access to the rest of the country and utilized trade networks to the gulf and oceans. Can you imagine a confederacy of seventy tribes and millions of people?”

  “It sounds like a bigger United States.”

  He nodded. “Right here, there are twelve mounds on about one hundred fifty acres, and the city covered five square miles. Five hundred people lived in the ceremonial center surrounded by about ten thousand folks.”

  “That’s a lot.”

  He pointed. “If you look to the lower right of the Mounds’ triangle, you’ll see what used to be the plaza. The solstices and equinoxes triangulate at an exact spot where a house would have stood. The sunlight coming through a pinpoint in the building during the year would have created a lazy eight.”

  “They knew enough to be so exact?”

  “Yes. And they knew much more. The third Mound lines up with the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. The sixth Mound lines up with the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. Priests and chiefs used these powerful times of the year for celebrations and to decide when to plant and harvest crops as well as other vital matters.”

  “That’s impressive. But what happened to the folks who lived there?”

  “We don’t know exactly why, but they abandoned the area. Yet they inhabited it for about eight hundred years.”

  “That’s a long time for a government to last.”

  “There were no wars.”

  “I guess that makes a big difference.”

  “It does.” He pointed toward the west. “Twilight soon. It’s about time for us to head down to the Mounds.”

  “I hope I’m able to help find the Soleil Wheel.” She looked at Lucky, feeling the familiar stirrings in her heart. She wanted to love him, but she was no longer sure she could trust him.

  “You’ll do fine.” He touched his vest pocket. “I’d like you to wear your necklace and ring. You’ll be stronger and safer.”

  She hesitated, even as she felt a deep connection to the objects. “Crawdaddy said you’d had a lot of ladyloves.”

  “He was trying to upset you.”

  “But is it true?”

  “No. I’ve known a lot of ladies, but you’re my only ladylove.”

  She felt the solar cross over her heart tingle at his words and she absently rubbed it. “I want to trust you.”

  “Tempest, you’re my love, my life, my future. Nothing can ever change that fact. I admit I’m not perfect. I’m doing the best I can to protect us. And keep the Soleil Wheel away from Crawdaddy.”

  “Now that I’ve met him, he’s a strangely terrifying man. He makes Haig look weak.”

  “You’re right to be wary of Crawdaddy, but Haig’s a fast gun, so don’t discount him, either.”

  “I won’t.” She felt the S&W at her waist. “You’re sure I didn
’t hurt my .32 when I dropped it?”

  “I checked. No damage.”

  “Good. I may yet have to shoot Haig.”

  “Hopefully, nobody gets shot. I want to find the Soleil Wheel and get out with nobody the wiser.”

  “They don’t know where to dig?”

  “No, as far as I know. You’ll help us find the right Mound, but I already have a fair idea of its location.”

  “Good.”

  “Crawdaddy may have a gang down there hidden till dark.”

  “Does he know we’re here?”

  “Can’t miss us. We’re silhouetted big as life up here.”

  “You want him to see us?”

  “I want him to know that we aren’t afraid and that we’re going to get the Soleil Wheel.”

  She felt a shiver run up her spine. She was caught up in forces bigger than anything she could ever have imagined in her life. If she didn’t trust Lucky, she might not make it out alive. She held out her hand. “I’ll do whatever it takes to help us. Afterward, we’ll see.”

  He smiled. “That’s enough for now.”

  When he set the necklace and the ring in the palm of her hand, she felt warmth from his body heat. He closed her fingers and held her fist for a moment. She felt energy flow from him to her in the form of promise, protection, power. And her feelings for him opened like a flower to the Sun.

  “Let’s go.” He pointed toward the west. “The Sun is setting. There’s no time to lose.”

  Chapter 41

  As Lucky led Tempest across the river bottom, he kept watch, not only with his eyes but with his senses. They were at the center of the spiderweb now. He could feel it tighten around them, drawing them inward.

  Spread out to the north and west, the Mounds cast long shadows in the last rays of the sun. Crawdaddy, Haig, and who knew how many others were out there, but it was a big area. Lucky figured Crawdaddy would ride from one of the central Mounds to another in his hunt for the Soleil Wheel. And Tempest.

  But Lucky wasn’t going near the ceremonial center. He’d been in the area before he went to Delaware Bend and he’d spoken with the farmers. A Choctaw Freedman had led him to the Mound set at a distance from the others. It rose to a rounded peak with three smaller attached rounds spreading southeast. Animals had dug into one side and exposed artifacts from an ancient culture. He’d touched a string of freshwater pearls and a broken piece of pottery, and then the farmer had reverently put them back and re-covered the hole. If the Soleil Wheel was anywhere, he figured it would be in that burial Mound.