Legacies (48 page)

"I hope you're right."

"I know I am. She's a good girl who's a little mixed up now." Hearing footsteps pass by the study door, Deu set his cup on the desktop and pushed out of the chair. "That sounds like Miss Temple. I'll go carry that tray up for her, then come back."

The Blade watched the study door close behind Deu, then looked at the food on the plate before him. Sighing, he pushed it aside and picked up his coffee cup. Rising from his chair, he stood behind the desk for several seconds, then wandered to the side of it, conscious of the cool breeze blowing in through the open window.

 

Hugging the shadows, Alex crept along the wall toward the study, his gun drawn. He thought he heard voices coming from the room and flattened himself against the wall, feeling the blood slugging heavily through the vein in his neck. He listened, but there was only silence now. He inched closer to the windowsill, then crouched down to peer inside.

The Blade was standing in full view, calmly sipping coffee from a china cup. No one else was in the room. Slowly and carefully, Alex edged himself into position. The Blade started to turn toward the window and Alex ducked out of sight. He waited, afraid to breathe, listening intently for the sound of footsteps approaching the window. None came. There was no sound of any movement. Warily, he stole another peek inside. The Blade was still in the same place, his back to the window. Alex smiled.

 

Lije walked out of the drawing room and noticed a movement on the staircase. He turned, half-hoping it would be Sorrel, but it was his mother, a third of the way up the stairs, struggling with a food tray.

"Let me carry that for you, Mother."

"You don't have to do that, Master Lije. I was just coming to help her." Deu crossed to the staircase.

"Lije, is that Deu I hear?" Eliza called from the drawing room. "Ask him to tell Phoebe to bring us some coffee?"

"Go ahead, Deu. I'll carry the tray for Mother." Lije relieved her of it. "Am I right in assuming you're taking this to Sorrel?"

"Yes." Temple continued up the staircase with Lije. "She hasn't eaten all day. Maybe this will entice her to unlock the door."

"I wouldn't get your hopes up."

When they reached his sister's bedroom, Lije stood to one side while Temple knocked on the door. "Sorrel? I've brought some food."

Silence.

"Sorrel, I know you're in there. Will you please answer me?" She waited again for a reply that never came. She knocked again, louder. "This has gone on long enough, Sorrel. You proved your point. You didn't go to the graduation. It's over. Now I want you to unlock this door immediately."

Lije frowned, suspicious of the continued silence from inside. "Try the door."

"It's no use," Temple answered irritably and reached for the knob. "She has it lo—" But it turned under her hand. She cast a startled glance at Lije, then pushed the door open and swept into the darkened room. "Sorrel?"

Lije was right behind her, his glance skimming the black shapes as he set the tray on the vanity table. Even before his mother lit a candle, he knew Sorrel wasn't there.

"She's gone." Temple breathed the words in shock.

"Damn her," Lije muttered softly.

"Where would she go?"

"To find Alex, where else?" he snapped and silently cursed his sister for being thirty kinds of a fool.

From downstairs came the sound of a muffled report. Lije swung toward the door.

"What was that?"

He bolted from the room without answering his mother's question.

 

A curl of blue smoke drifted from the muzzle of his gun as Alex watched the arching jerk of The Blade's body. He pitched forward, falling heavily to the floor, the cup flying from his hand. Alex smiled coldly. It was done. The Blade was dead.

To his amazement, the body moved. The Blade was trying to push himself up on his hands. The bastard wouldn't die. Angrily, Alex squeezed the trigger, sending another bullet plunging into the man on the floor. It drove him down. But was he dead? This time Alex had to be sure. He swung a leg through the open window and started to climb into the room.

At that instant, the door burst open and Deu charged inside, stopping abruptly when he saw Alex straddling the windowsill. Alex fired instinctively, thumbing two quick shots at the Negro before he hurriedly dodged back through the opening and took off at a run.

 

With Rans at his side, Lije rushed into the study. The others crowded in behind them. He faltered briefly at the sight of his father motionless on the floor with Deu struggling to crawl to him. The curtain at the window fluttered from the breeze blowing in.

Kneeling beside his father, Lije felt for a pulse. There was none. A tightness gripped his chest, painfully squeezing all the air out of his lungs. For an instant, Lije bowed his head, closing his eyes and doubling his hand into a fist.

Above the jumble of other voices, he heard his mother scream, "No!"

He rose, catching her and stopping Temple before she reached The Blade. The stark terror in her eyes stabbed him like a knife. He shook his head. "He's dead, Momma."

"No! He can't be!" She pulled free and fell to her knees beside the body.

Frozen, Lije watched her, barely noticing when Eliza brushed past him to go to Temple. Abruptly, he turned away, fighting the waves of rage that swept through him.

"Lije," Rans called sharply to him. "Deu is still alive."

Rans had an arm under the old man's shoulder, supporting him as Susannah tried to staunch the flow of blood from the wound in his chest. Lije knelt down beside them. Deu's eyes were closed. He made a weak attempt to open them.

"Master Bl . . . Blade?" His voice was a thready whisper as he tried to focus on Lije. Lije shook his head, unable to say the words again. Deu moaned. "I should . . . stayed with . . . him. He . . . he wanted me to."

"Deu, who shot you? Did you see who it was?"

There was a small, affirmative nod of his head in response, then he moistened his lips and framed the word. "Alex."

"Alex? It was Alex?" Lije had to be sure.

Deu nodded again.

"That is enough, Lije," Susannah warned as a sobbing Phoebe crowded close. "He's too weak, and I can't stop the blood. Mother, go fetch Temple's basket while I keep pressure on this wound."

But Lije had what he needed. He stood up, surprised at how calm he felt inside. He crossed to the gun cabinet and removed one of the gun belts. After checking to make sure the revolver was loaded, he strapped the belt on, took one of the carbines, and grabbed a supply of ammunition. When he turned to leave, Diane stood before him.

"The feud—I never really understood." Her eyes were filled with tears and hot with anger. "You have to get him. You must go after Alex, or it will never be over."

Her words rushed through him like a reviving wind, filling him, lifting him
.
She understood. A
deep tenderness swelled up inside him, making this a moment to be savored. But there was no time. No time.

He cupped the smooth curve of her cheek in his hand. "Stay with my mother."

Diane nodded. "You come back to me, Lije Stuart."

"I will." Lije turned to leave, but Rans was there in his way. He brushed past him straight out the study doors.

In the foyer, Rans grabbed his arm. "What do you think you're doing, Lije?"

"I'm going after Alex."

"Dammit, you can't. Think of your mother."

"I'm thinking about my sister," Lije snapped. "She's gone—probably to find Alex. I have to get to him before she does."

"I'll go with you." Rans released Lije's arm.

"No. Stay here." Lije glanced back at the study. "The family will need you." He went out the door.

A keening wail broke from the study. Rans swung from the door, his jaw clenched on the helpless feeling that swept through him. He strode back to the room, arriving just as Eliza came running with Temple's medical basket. Phoebe was on the floor with Deu cradled against her, rocking back and forth as she cried. Susannah turned to them, her hands wet with blood, Deu's blood. Her eyes were filled with grief, appeal, and apology.

"I . . . couldn't stop the bleeding," she murmured. "The bullet must have severed an artery." There was sadness in every line of her body, but she didn't cry. Somehow Rans had known she wouldn't. The others needed her strength right now, not her tears. He put an arm around her shoulders, offering her a measure of comfort before she had to do the same for them.

At the same time Nathan and Jed helped a softly weeping Temple to her feet and gently drew her away from The Blade's body. Eliza went to her. "After . . . all these years, Eliza," Temple murmured brokenly. "After all these years... it finally happened."

"I—I know, Temple." Eliza's voice wavered. "I know."

Temple looked around a little blankly. "Now Lije has gone after Alex. Oh, God." She clutched at Eliza's arm. "It's history repeating itself all over again with Lije."

"He'll come back, Temple," Diane stated with certainty. "Lije will come back."

When Temple saw Phoebe reluctantly lay her dead husband onto the floor, she went to the grieving woman. "Phoebe." She waited for her to rise. They looked at each other for several tearful seconds. "I am sorry, Phoebe." Temple gathered her into her arms and hugged her tightly. "I am so sorry."

 

 

 

32

 

 

Alex galloped the mare for five miles, trying to put as much distance between himself and Grand View as he could. He approached a small settlement and slowed the mare to a walk, taking a back trail that cut off ten miles.

Instinct warned him to keep riding north and not slow up until he was beyond the Kansas border. But all his supplies and most of his share of old man Scott's gold were in the cabin hideout east of here, in the rugged hills of the Boston Mountains. Morgan Bennet waited for him there as well.

For a mile, Alex walked the mare over the rough trail. When the moon came up to silver the path, he pushed her into an easy gallop for another three miles. Walk one, gallop three; Alex kept that combination until he neared the intersection with the main road. Halting short of the road, he dismounted in the cover of some trees and checked to make sure the road was clear.

He started to loosen the saddle cinch, then heard the rhythmic three-beat tattoo of a cantering horse. Instantly, Alex moved to the mare's head and placed a hand over her nose. He watched the moonlit road.

A lone rider appeared and cantered into the path of the moonlight. Alex stared in disbelief. It was Sorrel. How? Why? Did she know about her father? She couldn't.

He hesitated a second longer, then swung into the saddle and rode onto the road to intercept her. She pulled her sorrel gelding in sharply, showing alarm.

"Sorrel, it's me. Alex."

"Alex?" She laughed in relief. "I was coming to find you."

"Does your family know where you are?" he asked warily.

"No," she said with a defiant toss of her head. "They think I'm still in my room with the door locked. After you left, I refused to go to the graduation. While they were eating supper, I snuck out. They won't miss me until morning."

Alex knew they would miss her sooner than that. He couldn't send her home . . . not now. He wished he hadn't stopped her, that he had let her keep riding. But that wouldn't have worked either. She knew about Washburn—and Washburn could point them to the cabin. He had to take her with him.

"I have a cabin about ten miles from here. We'll go there." Alex swung the mare around and pointed her up the road.

"A cabin? I didn't know you had a cabin, Alex."

There were a lot of things about him she didn't know. He planned on keeping it that way.

 

Sorrel stood on the small porch of the two-room log cabin built against the side of a steep hill. The morning sun was full on her face, the air fresh and cool. She tore off another chunk of jerky with her teeth and chewed it while Alex finished tying the supplies on the packhorse.

"I never thought jerky could taste so good," she said. "I guess you have to be hungry."

"I guess so." He tossed her a smile, then patted the pack-horse on the neck.

"Why do we have to leave so early?"

"You want to go to Kansas City, don't you? It's a long ride, and the longer we wait, the longer it will take."

"I know." Sorrel tried to smile. Last night, going to Kansas City with Alex had sounded fun. But she knew her parents would be wondering where she was—worrying about her. Alex said she could write them and let them know she was all right. Still . . .

"Alex," Morgan Bennet called from the lower edge of the clearing. "We got company coming up the trail."

Curious, Sorrel followed Alex when he walked over to look down the hill at the switchback trail. It was dark when they had arrived here last night. Sorrel hadn't realized the trail could be seen from the clearing. She recognized the rider the same instant that Alex did.

"It's Lije," he announced grimly.

"We can make it out the back way before he gets here," Morgan said.

"No. He would be too close behind us."

Sorrel bit at her lower lip, fully aware that Lije was coming after her. They must have discovered she was gone sometime last night. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Morgan's hand pull the revolver from his holster.

"We'll fix that." He leveled it at Lije.

"No," she breathed in shock. At the same moment Alex reached out to push the hand down.

"I have a better idea." Alex backed away from the vantage point and turned toward the cabin. "I'll hide the horses behind the cabin. Morgan, you get in the back room. Sorrel, you get Lije in the cabin, tell him you're alone, that we're not here. But stay on the right side of the room out of the way. I'll sneak around front. We'll get the drop on him." His hand was at her elbow, propelling her back to the cabin.

"What are you going to do?" Sorrel murmured uncertainly.

Alex shot a quick glance at Morgan, then smiled. "Tie him up and leave him so he can't follow us—at least not until he gets the knots free. What did you think we were going to do? Kill him?"