Gingham Mountain (17 page)

Five children, most fairly young, looked up with wide eyes.

Hannah honestly didn’t know quite what to do about her absentees.
“I thought there would be more students here today. Was I mistaken?”

One little girl with two dark braids hanging down nearly to her lap shook her head. “Lots of kids didn’t get here cuz of the trouble.”

Hannah gasped. “Trouble? What happened?”

Another young boy, this one buck-toothed with serious eyes, said, “Someone came riding in for the doctor. They both tore out of town so fast no one had a chance to ask her what happened. Ian from the blacksmith shop tore out next in the opposite direction. Then he come back through town with Will, Ian’s brother. So we knew it meant trouble. Will would’a brought his family to school. But Will lives a ways out so, without him, his kids couldn’t come.”

Another child chimed in. “And the doctor’s got four in his family, but his wife keeps them to home when there’s a ruckus. My ma says Mrs. Doc gets notional and we all just have’ta let her do what she wants.”

“And the blacksmith’s wife is getting on with a baby,” the dark-haired girl added. “So like as not she won’t try and get Gordy to school on her own.”

The children added new names, all kept home because of the trouble. Several said their fathers had headed out of town after the doctor.

“Why would everyone follow after the doctor? Surely he doesn’t need that much help.”

“Can’t never have too much help, Miss Cartwright,” the dark-haired girl said.

The serious boy said, “ ’Sides, they’re mostly all family. I mean not all, but those that ain’t connected still might want’a ride out and see what’s what. So it’s not likely they’ll send their kids if they’re busy waiting on news.”

Hannah kept the scowl off her face by pure will power. “School should be a priority.” First the town had no school. Then it hired her with no care. Now they didn’t send their children. She started working up a nice head of indignation.

“Well, they’ve all made a mistake. This town needs to realize that
education is important. Where did the doctor go? Who exactly is it that’s more important than school? I intend to tell them that they’ve got their values all wrong. They need to change their ways and make sure that nothing short of God comes between children and schooling, and that’s that!” Hannah’s voice rose as she worked her fury up to a full boil. “Where did the doctor go? Who exactly is it that’s more important than school?”

“One o’ them orphans from out to the Rocking C.”

“Class dismissed!” Hannah slapped her hand flat on her desk.

The children erupted from their desks, gleefully screaming in delight.

Hannah barely noticed, her heart thumped until it pounded in her ears. She hurried after them. What had happened? “Libby!” Hannah broke into a run. What if Grant had finally realized fully what it meant that Libby couldn’t talk or do heavy work? What if he’d done something to her? Maybe Grant had gone too far with a thrashing.

Hannah dashed toward the livery. She needed to save her little sister and all of those other poor children!

G
rant, Will, and Ian left the cabin and found half the town standing outside waiting for news. Someone had set up a makeshift table, and ladies had brought food and were serving the children breakfast. Several men came forward to see if Grant needed any help. Grant noticed a new pile of food, clothing, and supplies in the back of his wagon.

Harold Stroben from the mercantile lumbered over. “What happened?”

“The boy had a fall. He’s badly battered, but the doc says he’s going to be all right. Thanks for checking, Harold.”

Grant waited until the first flurry of questions and concern had passed, not wanting to raise suspicions. Impatience beat against his chest, but he waited until everyone seemed satisfied.

“I need to ride out to where he fell.” He pulled his gloves on with hard, jerky motions. He only held his temper through years of practice.

As he, Will, and Ian walked to the barn, Will said, “Joshua didn’t trip and fall off that north bluff.”

Ian snorted. “Not possible. My little brother could scale a greased rainbow.”

Grant took a second to note Ian’s bright red hair and the freckles so thick on his face it was hard to tell where one stopped and another started. Ian and Josh, brothers? Only at the Rocking C. But this
was
the
Rocking C and they
were
brothers, as close as blood. Grant would have smiled if he had one ounce of humor left in his body. “I’m gonna scout the trail up that hill.”

Will untied his chestnut gelding from a mesquite bush. Ian swung up on the back of his paint mare. They met Grant as he emerged from the barn on his roan.

Grant looked over his shoulder to see two more of his sons riding up. Several folks were heading back for town. Sour Springs had a lot of good people, Grant decided. A few bad apples had forced him to stay isolated. With the Brewsters gone—they’d been the source of so much trouble—maybe he needed to give the whole town another chance. Including the school.

Will set out at a gallop for the bluff, Ian hard on his heels. Grant fell in behind and he heard more hoofbeats following. His family. He’d created it out of his desperate loneliness. But created it he had. He’d done a good job.

He never had to be alone again.

“Just wait until I get that man alone!”

Trying to dismount, Hannah swung her leg over the horse’s rump. She’d been pleasantly surprised at the amiable nature of the horse she’d gotten from Zeb Morris. A far nicer mount than Sunday’s. Zeb had acted nervous when she’d come in. He’d apologized for her trouble with Rufus and given her the use of the horse for no cost. He’d also boosted her on.

No one was handy to help her down. Her boot heel hung up on the back of the saddle and she shrieked as she toppled backward and landed with a dull thud in the dirt. She blinked her eyes and looked up at people rushing to her side.

“Are you all right, miss?” A man carrying a doctor’s bag crouched by her side as if ready to examine her.

She gave her head a brisk shake to clear it and sat up. Everything seemed to work. “I think I am.”

Several smothered giggles drew her attention to Charlie, Benny, and Libby. Libby laughed behind her hand. And her little sister was also, obviously, not hurt. The panic cooled inside of Hannah, and her cheeks heated up with a flush of embarrassment.

If Libby was safe, then what had happened out here that needed the doctor? There were a lot of children Grant could have been too harsh with. Hannah sat up.

“No, wait, we should check for broken bones before—”

Hannah was on her feet looking down at the crouching doctor. “Before what?”

“Never mind.” The doctor stood. “You seem fine.”

“Of course I am.” Hannah gave one fast jerk of her chin in agreement. “What happened? Who was hurt?”

The doctor looked back at the cabin. “Joshua. He fell off a bluff this morning. He’s pretty beaten up.”

“You’re sure it was a cliff? He wasn’t hurt by someone. . .you said beaten.”

Several people gasped.

“Grant actually—” The doctor cut off whatever he was going to say. “He fell. Yes, he was found at the bottom of a steep bluff. He was out chasing strays.”

Hannah could tell the doctor had started to say something. Would he lie for Grant? She well remembered people ignoring her plight. “Who found him?”

“Grant.”

So there was only Grant’s word for it that Joshua had fallen. Hannah thought of Grant’s teasing last night. She’d decided he wasn’t so bad. It hurt her heart now to consider that the man, although certainly not a proper father, might have that cruel side. But Hannah knew she couldn’t let her feelings rule. “Where is he?”

“Grant?”

“No, Joshua.” Hannah resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Why would she want to see Grant?

“He’s asleep.”

“I’d like to take a turn sitting with him if I may.”

The doctor nodded. “Sadie’s with him now, but I shooed everyone else outside. I’ll bet she’d appreciate the company.”

“Thank you, Doctor.” Hannah brushed at her dirty dress, wondering if she’d ever dismount a horse without it leading to disaster.

She headed for the house, taking one long look backward to reassure herself Libby was alive and well. Libby grinned at her, waggling her fingers in such a lighthearted way Hannah had to believe her little sister was reasonably well treated. Libby turned to chase after Benny. Hannah noticed that with her boot fixed Libby hardly limped at all.

Hannah went inside, not to sit with Joshua but to guard him. And she wasn’t budging until she’d gotten the truth out of someone in this strange family.

“That’s blood!” Will rushed past Grant.

Grant jumped aside as Will charged past him. They’d just now topped the cliff, and immediately his eyes had gone to a red splash on a large rock.

Ian crouched by the man-sized boulder and touched the still damp blood splattered on the stone. As he knelt, he flinched and held up a harmonica from under his knee.

“Josh’s.” Grant recognized the prized possession. “He was playing it just last night. That proves he made it to the top. It proves he somehow started bleeding up here, not from the fall.”

“What it proves is,” Will said, his mouth a grim line, “someone hit Joshua and shoved him over the cliff.”

A tense silence fell over the threesome as they looked at the evidence of attempted murder.

“If someone pushed Josh over that cliff, he’d expect the fall to kill him.” Ian rose and handed the harmonica to Grant.

“And when he learns it didn’t kill him,” Will said with a scowl, “he may worry about Josh turning him in to the sheriff.”

The words burned. So furious he barely trusted himself to speak without raging, Grant said through clenched teeth, “Ian, you’re in town all day. Put out the word that Josh lost his memory. Talk to anyone who comes into the blacksmith shop then stop at the diner, the mercantile, Zeb’s livery, anywhere you can think of. Tell ’em all Josh doesn’t remember a thing. Maybe that’ll keep him safe. The doc needs to know so he can back our story. Ask him to spread the word, too.” Grant turned the metal and wood instrument that had meant so much to Josh over and over in his hands. “I want everyone in Sour Springs to know about this before the day’s out so whoever tried to kill him loses his reason for finishing the job.”

“I’ll talk to Doc Morgan,” Ian offered. “Megan was going to have to see him one of these days because of the baby, so we’ll use that as an excuse.”

Grant’s eyes strayed from the mouth harp to the blood-splattered stone, and his boys turned to look at the grim evidence of treachery.

Grant broke the silence first. “You can do that later. For now, we don’t leave here until we trail this varmint to his lair.”

Grant and his sons rode to the ranch house, exhausted, demoralized, and furious.

The ground was too rocky for a trail to show anywhere around that bluff. There was nothing to identify Joshua’s assailant. They’d climbed all the way down the other side of the hill, past the stinking oily water
of Sour Springs, and found nothing.

Will and Ian had stuck with him well into the afternoon. His boys headed on home while Grant rode up to the cabin, saddle sore, filthy, and starved.