Donners of the Dead (3 page)

Avery climbed halfway down the ladder and jumped the rest of the way, running stealthily through the pigs and dairy cows before going in through the pantry’s screen door. I followed behind, hiking up my dress so my boots wouldn’t trip on it, and moved quickly. I got to the screen door just as I heard June and Rose from inside, asking Avery what was wrong, their voices bewildered.

“It’s fine,” I told them as I carefully shut the door behind me. Still, it probably didn’t assuage their fears when I picked up a butcher’s knife from its place on the wall. Their eyes widened at the sight. Rose huddled under June’s arm as Avery scampered over to the front door just as a knock sounded from it. There was no time for me to run upstairs and warn my mother to stay in her room, I just had to hope she’d be smart enough to do so. She never spoke and she was a little neurotic, but she wasn’t stupid.

“Who’s there?” June asked, her voice breaking. “What is it now? Is the rabid horse back?”

I made the motion for her to be quiet, and then stepped in front of them, keeping them confined to the kitchen while Avery grabbed the shotgun off the wall before putting his hand on the knob. “There are a few men here,” I whispered. “We don’t know who they are or what they want.”

“Are they Indians?” Rose asked with big green eyes.

“No,” I said, gazing at her coldly, wondering why I wanted to protect her and her ignorance again.

I turned back to see Avery opening the door a crack, keeping the shotgun behind his back and out of sight. Thank heavens the damage that Nero did last night didn’t affect the door as a whole.

“Yes?” he asked.

I could only see Tim, the older, grey-bearded fellow clearly, though I sensed the other two were right behind him.

“Good afternoon, pardner,” Tim said in a thick Texan drawl. Ooh boy. I’d only met a couple of Texans in my lifetime, and both of them had been trouble. Up close, his eyes were a deep blue and possessed a startling clarity that contrasted with his lined face. “I was wondering if I could speak to the master of the house.”

I could see Avery flinching slightly, wondering if he should lie or not. Though Tim gazed directly at him, I knew he’d seen us in the background. Those kind of eyes saw everything. They reminded me of my father.

“He’s out yonder,” Avery said, and I winced when I heard the warble in his voice. “I work for him. I’m Avery Packwood. How may I be of service?”

Tim smiled, displaying a few missing canines that looked like black piano keys. I could hear Rose suck in her breath behind me, as if people in River Bend were known for perfect teeth.

“Do you know when you expect him back?” Tim was being polite, but I knew the other men behind him, Mr. Scar Face and Mr. Snarl, were otherwise. I didn’t know what these men wanted but I knew it wasn’t trivial.

Avery squared his shoulders, and as he did so, the muzzle of his shotgun tapped against the door. Tim looked down and raised his brow but didn’t say anything.

“He should be back for supper,” Avery said.

“Is that your supper cooking in there now?” a lecherous voice said from the porch. I could hear the man sniffing, Mr. Scar Face, and I immediately felt disgusted, as if he were smelling us—the women. “Maybe we could all have a feast.”

“Ease up, Hank,” Tim warned, his mouth turning grim. He looked apologetically at Avery. “Sorry about that, pardner. We’ve been on the road for an awful long time and it’s been a while since we’ve had a hot meal.”

While I started cursing Avery inside my head if he dared to invite them in, Tim continued. “No matter, we’re used to the lack of hospitality up north here. You see, we only need to ask Pat Smith a question, that’s all. Get his permission for something that we’re doin’. See, who we really want to talk to, who we’re really here for…is a half Injun’ girl called Eve Smith.”

Tim looked past Avery’s shoulder and met my eyes with an air of victory. They were here for me.

Aunt June gasped.

My blood ran cold.

I tightened my grip on the knife.

“I
’m Eve Smith,”
I said, my voice surprisingly loud and clear. I could hear June and Rose fretting behind me, but there was no use in pretending I was someone I wasn’t. Besides, I wanted to know why these strange men were here and looking for me. I barely even existed at times.

“Ignore her, she’s lying,” Avery said, trying to block Tim’s eye line. Any other time I would have been touched by his loyalty to me but not now.

I walked across the room, holding the knife in plain sight, and stopped on the other side of Avery. Up close, I could see the puffiness under Tim’s eyes and the red tinge of his nose, more signs of his age. Still, his eyes remained clear as day, even as they crinkled at the corners as I approached. He barely noticed the knife.

“I said, I’m Eve Smith.” I looked dead at Tim, resisting the compulsion to look behind him at the two others. Their silence continued to be menacing.

“Well, how do you do, Eve Smith?” he greeted cordially, tipping the brim of his weather-beaten hat.

“I do just fine. Now how may we help you?”

“Why, aren’t we well-spoken,” he commented. I waited for the comment about never meeting a well-spoken Indian before, but it never came. A smile twitched at the corner of his dry lips as he appraised Avery. “Your friend here was trying to protect you, I reckon, but the fact is, ma’am, we don’t mean no harm.”

“Then what do you mean?” I questioned boldly.

He raised his brow, taking a moment before he spoke. “Me and my friends here, we’re a makeshift search party of sorts. This is the last settlement before we head off into the mountains, and after inquiring at the general store for a local tracker, boy weren’t we surprised when a woman’s name kept coming up.” He looked me up and down. “However, now I see you’re more of a girl than a woman.”

“She’s a lady,” Avery said, his shoulders tensing. “I don’t think you should call her anything less while you’re standing outside her home.”

“My apologies,” Tim offered quickly, though he and I both knew I was the furthest thing from a lady. Aunt June and Rose were ladies. I was just impressed he called me ma’am.

“Besides,” Avery went on, “there are other trackers in the area. I can certainly be of help.”

My heart squeezed at the thought of him going off with these men.

“We might right need the help of a young man like yourself, Avery Packwood,” Tim said. “But Eve’s name kept on coming up. And though we know we might find someone—a man, perhaps—at one of the local tribes, our general consensus is that you can’t trust a savage.”

I bristled at that and Avery shot me a warning glare over his shoulder, knowing I was seconds from saying something hot-tempered. Tim seemed friendly enough, but we certainly weren’t safe yet.

I took in a deep breath. “I’m
half
-savage. Will that be a problem?”

Tim grinned. “Not with me. Besides, I hear you’re a lady. Now, what we want to know is if you’d be willing to join us on our expedition.”

The moment he said that, there was a flurry of hoofbeats as the rest of the riders appeared just off the porch, obviously coming up empty-handed from the Millers. I could feel the stares as they rode high on their horses, could smell the gunpowder at their sides.

“There is no blazing chance she is going on an expedition with a posse of strange men,” Avery said. Once again, my heart did a skip at how protective he was being, even though I wished he would let me handle this.

“Can the lady not speak for herself?” Tim asked. “Decide for herself? Are you her father?”

“Her uncle acts as father to her,” Avery said. My eyes flitted down to see two drops of sweat slide off the barrel of his shotgun, his hands pale and clammy.

“Then what does her mother say?” Tim looked over me and into the house, his eyes curious, and I knew my mother was there.

I looked behind me quickly. My mother was at the foot of the stairs, her plaid shawl wrapped around her, the ends fraying and moth holes littered throughout. It had been a gift from my father, and as such, she never let anyone touch it or wash it. It was on her all the time. Her golden hair was a mess and sticking out every which way, while her green eyes held only sadness. My mother would have been beautiful, even more so than Rose, whom she deeply resembled, but life had other plans for her.

“She doesn’t speak,” I said slowly, looking back at Tim. “But even if she could, I’m quite sure she’d ask why I should help a bunch of strangers like yourselves.”

Tim leaned against the doorframe casually, pausing briefly to examine the broken pieces of wood. “What happened here? Someone try and break down your door?”

No one said anything. We waited for him to continue.

He did with a tepid sigh. “I’m sure you’re all familiar—more than most folk—with what happened in them mountains over there.” He jerked his head in the direction of the Sierra Nevadas that rose up from the valley. “About them poor Donners.”

“They disappeared,” I said. “A few years ago. Got stuck in the snows.”

“Four years, to be exact,” Tim said. “Then I’m sure you know that one of the search parties that went after them never reported to Sacramento.”

I shook my head. “No, I didn’t know that.”

“Isaac over there,” Tim gestured to the skinny man behind him, the one who had originally told the group to fan out. “His uncle was in the Donner party. And his nephew was part of the search party that went after him. What Isaac wants is to find his uncle and nephew. See, it was last August that his nephew, George Clark, and his search party should have reported into Sacramento. They were supposed to go up the same route as the Donners and find out what really happened, and then report to Sacramento with news. You see, while most of the party had been rescued from the other side of the pass, George didn’t quite believe the tale was so simple. He thought there was more to the story, perhaps more survivors than reported, perhaps his family. But the thing is, George Clark and his team never showed up. It’s been a year now. Just over. No one has seen or heard of them. There were records that the party passed through here last June, but no one has seen them come out the other side. It don’t matter if you’re asking in Oregon City or Fresno, no one has plumb seen ’em.”

“When you say, find out what really happened to the Donner party,” Avery spoke up, “what do you mean? From what we heard, they came across hard times, hard weather. Lost a lot of men, women, and children. Nothing too unusual about that.”

“Well, let’s just say then that George Clark still believed his father to be alive in the mountains there. There were also some, well, let’s call them rumors, that George refused to believe.”

Rumors? I raised my brow but Tim carried on. “Regardless of what happened to the Donners, it’s George’s party we’re concerned about.”

“It’s been a year,” Avery pointed out. “How can you be sure they’re still alive out there?” He gave Isaac an apologetic glance. “Sorry for being so crass, but you must agree.”

Isaac shifted on top of his grey mount. “I have reason to believe he—they—might have found a way to stay alive.” Whatever he believed, however, Isaac sounded awfully grim. His face was both long and pinched, like his cheeks stuck out more than his nose. “Of course, we aren’t from these parts, Ms. Smith, and neither was George. That might have been one of the reasons why they were unable to locate what they were looking for. It could be why they never made it across the pass. I put together this expedition here in hopes of finding George, or at least some answers. Now, I think we have a shot at doing this on our own. But we’re all from Texas and Tennessee and Missouri. We don’t know your land, your terrain. If we had a tracker such as yourself, as well as a few locals such as Avery, we stand a much better chance.”

“Naturally,” Tim said, adjusting the holster around his waist, “we don’t assume you’ll be doing this out of the kindness of your pretty heart. There’s a lot of money in it for you and anyone else who wishes to help out.”

“How much money?” Avery asked. I looked at him, surprised by the sudden eagerness in his voice.

Tim let out a soft laugh. “So, we be speaking your language now, boy? Well, I reckon the lady here would get one hundred dollars, plus a safe route back. You and anyone else who wishes to join us would get fifty. Perhaps seventy five, if you can provide us with an extra horse or mule. We’re needing a pack animal.”

I couldn’t breathe. A hundred dollars. I’d never heard of anyone in these parts having that much. I was sure the only thing that was worth more than that was Uncle Pat’s ranch.

We were all shocked, the silence coating us. I could almost hear the wheels turning in Aunt June and Rose’s heads, coming up with all the stuff they could buy. New wristwatch, new dresses, a new carriage, new breeding stock. I also knew that the money would never truly be mine, so long as I was under this roof.

Somehow, Avery lifted his jaw off the floor and cleared his throat. “You understand that this will have to be discussed with Mr. Smith when he gets back. He is legally in charge of Eve, and I am his employee here at the ranch.”

“I understand,” Tim said, “though I reckon you’d never make so much money even if you worked here for the rest of your life. We’ll give you all time to think about it. But not too much time. We want to get up in them mountains before the first snow falls. We’ll be back tonight.” He dipped his hat to me and the women in the house. “Ma’am. Ladies.”

He turned to leave, striding over to his horse. I stayed at the door, watching them until I saw Mr. Snarl pass by. He glanced at me under his hat and I was struck by how dark his eyes were and their intensity as they looked me over. I realized the whole time we’d been talking with Tim, I’d been waiting for him to say something, to make his presence known. Instead, he and the scar-faced man had stayed silent. I felt like they would have been the enforcers if things had gotten out of hand.

Avery gently pushed me out of the way as he closed the door, making sure to lock it behind him.

For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, I felt like the only thing standing between me and danger was a wooden door.