Dorothy Garlock - [Wabash River] (20 page)

The man who sat quietly looking down at her was big, even taller than Farr. He wore a felt hat with a wide ribbon wound around it for a band. Into this was thrust a long-stemmed pipe. His light hair was braided into a queue, the end tied with a colored ribbon. He was a man in his middle thirties with a broad, handsome, completely shaven face and large, wide-set eyes so light a gray they were almost colorless. Taking his time, he slowly wound the reins around the brake handle.

“That’s no way to greet a friend; Libby.”

“Friend? You belly-crawling snake! You’re no friend of mine! You’re nothing but a damned, dirty bastard! You’re a cheating, lying, smooth-talking son of a bitch!”

“Libby!” Elija shouted. “Watch yore mouth!”

Liberty jerked the whip from the holder on the side of the wagon. “Get off my wagon!” she shrieked. “Or I’ll strip the hide off your rotten carcass!”

“Libby, fer Gawd’s sake! Yo’re shamin’ us all ’n making’ a show of yoreself is what yo’re doin’.” Elija grabbed the whip from her hand and threw his arm across her chest to hold her back. “Ya got here soon’er I figured ya would, Stith. Step on down. Pay no mind to Libby. She’s jist a mite upset ’n don’t mean nothin’—”

“Papa! Shut up! For once in your life let me do my own talking!” She turned on the man climbing down over the wheel of the wagon. “I mean exactly what I’m saying, Stith Lenning. I don’t want anything to do with you. Stay away from me and Amy. Hear?” She turned to Elija. “How could you do this, Papa? You know how I feel about him, yet you told him we were coming here and made plans to meet him. You did this in spite of all Jubal did for you.” Liberty never felt more like crying in her life, but anger kept the tears of betrayal at bay.

“Don’t get yoreself in a snit. It’s best Stith has come now that Jubal’s gone ’n ya don’t have no man ta look after ya.”

“Jubal didn’t last long, did he? Carroll said you buried him back on the trace.” A half-smile changed the shape of Stith’s thin mouth. “I told you what you needed was a real man, but you wouldn’t listen.”

Liberty saw the satisfied smirk settle on Stith’s face. Her hand lashed out and she struck him with a resounding blow on his cheek.

“You’re not fit to mention his name!”

As fast as a striking snake, Stith’s big hand clamped down on her wrist. He held it up between them and nudged her chin with her own fist while stepping back to avoid her feet that were aiming for his shins.

“I’ve warned you about striking me, Libby.”

“Get your hands off the lady.” Farr spoke quietly from behind Liberty.

Stith looked up from Liberty’s furious blue eyes into green ones as cold as a well. The two men stared at each other over Libby’s blond head.

“Who are you?” Stith asked.

“The man who’s going to tear you up if you don’t move your hand . . . now.”

Stith dropped Liberty’s wrist, but he didn’t back up. His big head jutted forward, and he eyed Farr like gentry eyeing a peasant.

“The
lady
is a hot-tempered little shrew who needs a wallop daily. She was promised to me and I intend to wed her before the week is out.”

“That’s for the lady to decide.”

“That’s for me and her pa to decide. He promised her to me before she up and wed Jubal Perry. She’s soiled now, but that don’t matter. She’s mine.” Stith ignored Liberty’s gasp of anger as she moved back beside Farr, and his voice rose to a near shout as he continued, “I keep what’s mine if I have to travel a thousand miles to fetch it. My advice to you, mister, is keep your nose out of my business, or you might find it smashed all over your face.”

Farr knew he was going to hit him, not only for what he had said about Libby, but because he didn’t like his looks or his attitude. He just wanted to hit him, and he did. He put all his strength behind the blow that caught Stith square on the chin. It propelled him backward a half a dozen steps before he hit the ground like a fallen timber.

There was a murmured grumble from one of Stith’s men, a saddle creaked, and then an instant quiet. It was as if no one present even breathed.

Stith lay where he had fallen, then slowly raised a hand and wiped the blood from his mouth. There was stunned disbelief on his face.

Farr followed to stand over him.

“My advice to you,
mister,
is stay away from Mrs. Perry unless she invites your attention. Now get up from there, get your wagons, and get off my land.”

“Oh, Lordy! Oh, dang bustit!” Elija hopped around Farr to help Stith to his feet, but Stith angrily shrugged off his hands. “Ya ain’t ort a done that, Quill. Stith here’s a friend a mine.”

“You have some mighty ill-mannered friends.”

“He didn’t mean nothin’. Ain’t that right, Stith?”

“Papa! Stay out of this.” Liberty placed her hand on Elija’s arm, but he shrugged it off. “Haven’t you done enough?” she asked angrily. “I’ll never forgive you for telling him we were coming here!”

Stith got up off the ground and stood swaying like a wind-rocked tree. Elija picked up his hat, stuck the pipe down in the band and handed it to him.

“What’s your name, mister?” Stith spoke out of the side of his mouth.

“Farrway Quill.”

“This isn’t the end of this.”

“I didn’t think it was.”

“I’m going to be the most man in these parts. The time will come when you’ll come to me if you want something.”

“I doubt that. You won’t live that long.” Farr looked steadily at him. “Popinjays like you come through here all the time. They don’t last long.”

Stith slammed his hat down on his head, his colorless eyes turned to Liberty and then swept the area and focused on Amy. “I’m not giving up on you, Libby. Get yourself ready to leave. We’re going to Vincennes to be wed, all legal and proper.”

“You . . . popinjay,” it was the only word that came to her mind, “I wouldn’t marry you if my life depended on it!”

“No? How about someone else’s life? Huh? You thought to escape me by marrying that milksop Jubal Perry. He was nothing. He up and died on you before you got here.”

“Jubal was ten times the man you are. You don’t scare me with your threats.” But she was afraid. She knew he was capable of doing anything to get what he wanted. Her anger goaded her to say, “You’re nothing but a big mouth! You run roughshod over everyone. The people in Middlecrossing hated you, but you always arranged it so they had to trade with you and you got the best of every—”

“Hush up! You’ll not run off at the mouth when you’re wed to me.” Stith cut her off. His body was stiff with resentment when he turned to speak to Farr. “I’m here to get my woman. I’m a man who stands by his word. Ask Elija. He’s known me twenty years.”

“I know all I want to know about you,” Farr said. “I saw it all in one look.”

“Come on, Stith. Let’s go off somere’s ’n cool off.” Elija fidgeted from one foot to the other and refused to look at his daughter’s resentful face.

“All right. Turn them wagons round, men. We’ll camp down there in that clearing by the river.”

“No, you won’t. That’s my land. Go on down the road, or back the way you came from.” Farr stood with his feet spread, his arms folded across his chest.

Stith turned to face him, anger a flat shine in his eyes. “You’d better stop pushing me, mister.”

“Come on, Stith,” Elija said hurriedly. “Come on. I’ll show ya a place to camp.”

Stith climbed up onto the wagon and Elija took a seat beside him. Liberty watched them leave and tried hard not to let the last bit of love she had for her father leave with them.

Farr stood motionless; Colby and Rain still sat their horses. Juicy lounged in the doorway of the cabin. Even the children were quiet. Liberty noticed Colby’s hand was on his rifle, and the boy, Rain, sat with his rifle across the neck of his horse. Juicy’s old musket was tucked in his belt. It was then she realized how dangerous they considered the situation to be. They were ready to back Farr.

“Why did he have to come, Libby? I hate him!” Amy cried. “Papa don’t have no sense at all or he’d see he’s just a rotten old scalawag!”

“Papa only sees what he wants to see,” Liberty said tiredly. She was so ashamed she couldn’t look at Farr when she murmured, “Thank you, Farr. I’m sorry we’ve brought this trouble down on you.”

“Don’t give it a worry.”

Liberty rejected that with a slow shake of her head. “He won’t forget it. He’s a mean enemy. He has no rules of fair play.” There was a tremor in her voice as she issued the warning.

“Neither do I. If a snake needs killing, I kill it. I’ve locked horns with some of the meanest.”

There was no brag in his voice. Liberty’s eyes searched his face. She found herself suddenly in awe of this big, quiet, self-assured man. The look of complete sincerity in his green eyes rendered Liberty less and less sure of herself. When Amy’s excited voice drew his attention, she was relieved.

“Oh, I’m so glad to see Molly and Sally.” Amy rubbed the spaces between the eyes of the patient oxen. “Thank you for bringing them, Mr. Carroll. You, too, Rain.”

“Yes. I thank you, too.” Liberty walked around to the end of the wagon and looked in. “Everything seems to be here.”

Rain slid from his horse. “I’ll unhitch, ma’am. We pushed hard and the beasts are plumb wore out. Where do you want the wagon?”

“Pull it up alongside the cabin, Rain,” Farr said.

“I’ll help you, Rain.” Amy took hold of the yoke and tugged. “Come on, girls. Just a little more and you can go rest.”

“I don’t need help,” Rain said and swatted Molly on the rump.

“I can help.”

“I don’t need no help,” he repeated stubbornly.

“Yes, you do too,” Amy retorted sassily. “They know me. They don’t know you.”

“They don’t have to
know
me—”

“Why are you so mean? They’re our oxen and I’ll help if I want to.”

Amy was so childishly direct, Liberty thought. She would be thirteen in a few days. At that age many girls were preparing for marriage and were mothers by age fourteen. Her sister was physically mature; rounded, lovely, graceful, but she showed no other signs of growing up.

She heard Farr chuckle and turned to look at him. In the last light of evening she could see that he was watching Rain and Amy.

“What’s funny?” she asked.

He looked at her then. “I was just thinking that in another year that young lady will be a handful. You Carroll girls have more spunk than you know what to do with.”

“Oh, fiddle! I know how to handle oxen.” Amy’s sputtering voice came out of the darkness. “Didn’t I come all the way from New York State with them? Didn’t I? Rain? Listen to me, Rain—”

Colby walked over to Liberty and nervously cleared his throat. “I’m plumb sorry about bringing that fellow here, Mrs Perry. We found your wagon and went on down the trace to the massacre site like Farr told us.” Colby turned to Farr as if suddenly remembering something he hadn’t told him. “There wasn’t anything there, Farr. Somebody come through and carried off every board, almost. All that was left was the burned-out wagon and a few rags.”

“I thought that might be the case,” Farr said. “It was worth a try for Daniel’s sake. I wish now I’d brought something along that was his. At the time I was thinking only of getting the women away from there.”

“It’s what I’d a done.” Colby looked anxiously at Liberty. “When we run on to Lenning, he asked if you had come through. He said he was your kin, and you were to meet up at Vincennes.”

“He’s a distant cousin of my mother’s, I’m sorry to say. It doesn’t matter, Colby. He’d have found us sooner or later.”

“Your pa seems to set store by him. Why is that?”

Liberty looked up at Colby and then away to where Daniel and Mercy sat on the doorstone. Mercy was asleep, her head in the patient little boy’s lap.

“He has a way of getting around Papa,” she said finally. “Papa thinks he’s grand because he’s rich. He can’t see what he’s
really
like. Sometimes . . . I’m not proud of Papa.”

Liberty went to the end of her wagon, now pulled up close to the side of the cabin. More than anything in the world she wanted to climb in the wagon, lower the end flap, and let all the misery flow out of her. She reminded herself that she had known that this day might come. The shock of seeing Stith again in this place was even more horrendous than she had imagined.

Nothing would be gained by sulking in the dark. The thought came to her out of the chaos in her mind. She had long been trained to face whatever had to be faced and do the best she could. She took a long, deep breath and tossed her braid back over her shoulder. Daniel’s little head was bobbing, and she couldn’t afford the luxury of feeling sorry for herself right now. She turned on her heels and went to the children. Farr was by her side when she reached them.

“Let me help you.” When he picked Mercy up in his arms. Daniel roused. “It’s time for bed. Daniel.”

Liberty lit a candle from the glowing coals in the fireplace and saw Willa sitting on the edge of the bunk, a blanket around her shoulders.

“How do you feel?” Liberty went to her and laid the palm of her hand on her forehead.

“Better. Much better. Is it true? I don’t have to go back to the Thompsons?”

“It’s really true. Mr. Thompson promised to send your papers to Mr. Quill. He’ll be kind to you, Willa. No one will strike you again.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” She grabbed Liberty’s hand and held it to her cheek. When she looked at Farr, tears streaked her face. “I’ll be a help. I’ll work hard, sir.”

Farr placed Mercy on the bunk and Daniel crawled up beside her. He covered them with a blanket before he spoke.

“What I had in mind was for you to help Mrs. Perry, Willa. She’ll need help if she keeps Daniel and Mercy. Are you still of a mind to go on to the Shellenberger place, Liberty?”

Liberty looked at Willa’s expectant face and then up at Farr. Tiredly she brushed the hair back from her face with the back of her hand. She had been able to keep from crying only by keeping her anger alive. Now that her anger was dead, depression held her in its tight grip.

“I’ve got to think about it. Things have changed now. Willa, you’d better eat something. You’ve not eaten all day,” she said absently and walked out the door.