Rainy Day Dreams: 2 (30 page)

“It’s secure enough,” he told David. “You’ve done a good job.”

“
We’ve
done a good job.” David let a satisfied smile roam over the men. “I’d venture to say half the town has hammered a nail or two in the past three weeks.” Then he shook his head and fixed a sardonic eye on Jason. “The other half prefers taunts to hammers.”

“They’ll come around.” Jason set his jaw with grim certainty. “When the fighting starts they’ll be falling all over themselves with gratitude.”

They shinnied down a pole to join the others. Noah approached and shook their hands in turn. “Some of us were talking just now. We’re going to need to stockpile supplies in here. Food, water, gunpowder.”

David agreed with a nod. “I’ve thought the same. Been meaning to take a wagon out to the cabin for a week now. I’ve got some watertight barrels, camp bedding, and the like stored out there. Louisa has a bee in her bonnet over fetching them back here. We might need them before this is over.”

“Why don’t I go after them now? There are still a couple of hours of daylight left.” Noah glanced around the area. “You stay here and see to cleaning up, then go on home. Surprise your wife by showing up early for once.”

“I’m not going to let you go alone,” David protested. “That’s asking for trouble.”

Jason eyed the sun. In another hour or so they’d have this place cleaned up. Plenty of time to head back to the restaurant for the first decent meal since construction on the blockhouse began. Noah had informed his wife that there would be no need to deliver sandwiches tonight, and she’d announced her intention to cook up an extra special supper to celebrate the end of the long days. An uncomfortable twitch began in his gut. Kathryn would be there, helping Evie dish up generous portions and talking with the customers. Talking with
him. Would she mention that terrible painting? Should he mention it? And if not, then what else did they have to talk about? For the first time in a long time he felt tongue-tied around a woman. And the realization made him want to escape.

“I’ll go,” he volunteered with a quick smile at Noah. “I’ve been in Seattle three weeks and the only thing I’ve seen is the mill, the hotel, and this blockhouse. Been itching to get out into the forest and take a look around.”

David cocked his head. “It would be good to get home early for once.”

“It’s settled then,” said Noah. “Let’s get the extra timber out of that cart and get going.”

They recruited some men to unload the wagon they’d used to haul wood from the mill and then hitched up David’s horse. Jason found himself looking forward to getting out into the trees. He’d been raised in the Michigan forests, hanging around his dad and other lumberjacks from the time he was ten years old. There was a peace to be found in the woods that he’d never felt anywhere else. And
this
forest was like nothing he’d ever seen back East. The giant cedars and fir trees surrounding Seattle had been calling to him since he first saw them from the deck of the
Fair Lady.

A thought occurred to him as they started walking down the sloping side of the knoll. “I guess we’re safe enough?”

“Oh, yeah.” Carrying the horse’s lead rope loosely, Noah nodded. “The cabin’s not more than a couple of miles from here and the road’s well-traveled. We’d have heard if there’d been any hostiles sighted in this area.”

“That’s good enough for me.”

“You ever hear about how we came to pick this place?”

Jason shook his head. “No, but it sounds like a good walking story.”

The two men set an easy pace, and soon the last of the town’s buildings fell behind them and they passed into the forest.

Men crowded into the restaurant as expected, their moods high while they congratulated each other over heaping plates of venison, stewed tomatoes, corn cakes, and potatoes drenched in butter. The arrival of fresh supplies on the
Leonesa
had filled the café’s storage room to capacity, and Evie dipped into her supplies generously.

Kathryn bustled from table to table, refilling coffee mugs and empty platters and serving up unstinting gratitude along with huge slices of raisin pie and sweet cream. The news of Jason’s and Noah’s errand came as a relief. After her startling realization this afternoon she was not looking forward to seeing him. What would she say? How would she act? Would he detect her feelings when he looked at her? She devoutly hoped not, and whispered a prayer to that effect.

The pies were quickly becoming a memory when a messenger arrived. An Indian woman ran into the dining room and immediately doubled over, panting.

One look at the fear in her wide eyes and everyone fell silent.

“Kikisoblu sends word,” she stammered. “White woman come. She hurt, bleeding. Say husband dead, house burned. She run away with girl, come here.”

While Kathryn tried to make sense of the broken English, Red jumped out of his chair. “Who did it?”

“Nisquallies.” The woman choked out the word. “They coming! They coming!”

“Now?” Kathryn’s voice rose on a panicked note.

But the woman shook her head, dark hair waving around her head. “Soon. Very soon. Kikisoblu says three days, maybe two.”

Evie went to the woman’s side with a mug of water and waited while she drained it. “Are the injured lady and her daughter going to be okay?”

“Girl scared, but okay.” She shook her head again. “Kikisoblu take lady to white doctor man and send me here.”

“She’ll be at Doc Maynard’s then,” said someone.

“Who is it?” asked Evie. “Did Princess Angeline tell you her name?”

“Yes. She named…” The Indian woman screwed up her face, and pounded on her head with a fist. Then her expression cleared. “Cox.”

Evie’s hand flew to cover her mouth. “Not Rebecca Cox?”

The woman nodded. “Rebecca Cox. And a girl with her.”

“That’s William Cox’s wife.” Red spoke in a grim voice. “That means William is dead.”

Evie wavered on her feet, and for a moment Kathryn thought she might faint. Her face turned deathly pale and she spoke in a horrified whisper. “Indians have burned the Cox cabin. Dear Lord, no.”

Silence reigned for a few seconds, and then the dining room erupted in activity. Men leaped out of their chairs and headed for the door.

“Don’t you worry, Miss Evie,” said Big Dog as he snatched his coat off the peg. “We’ll get them.”

Kathryn stood to one side, watching the restaurant empty. When every man had gone, leaving her alone with the Indian messenger and Evie, she shook her head. “Surely they don’t intend to launch an attack against the Nisquallies.”

“That’s not where they’re going.” Evie’s voice choked on a sob. “The Cox house is less than a mile from David and Louisa’s cabin.” She pressed a fist against her mouth and drew a shuddering breath. “Jason and Noah are walking right into their path.”

“And that’s how I ended up with the prettiest wife in all of Seattle.” Noah finished with a grin.

Jason shook his head, laughing. “I can’t believe she and a handful of women cleared that patch of land with a handsaw and axes.”

Noah raised a hand in a vow. “It’s the honest truth. You should have seen her expression when I told her it was
my
land. Why, we were at Arthur’s place, not too far from here over that way.”

He pointed westward, and Jason automatically followed the direction of his finger. His gaze was drawn upward, above the canopy of trees, where a thick cloud of black smoke billowed into the sky. The odor struck him then, and he realized he’d been smelling smoke for the past few minutes.

“Something’s on fire.”

Noah looked, and his laughter dissolved. “That’s too big to be a cook fire.”

They both came to a halt. A bad feeling settled in the pit of Jason’s stomach. “You say Arthur Denny’s place is empty these days?”

“Yeah, but it’s a mile or two beyond that. I think that’s close to where William Cox’s place is. I hope everything’s okay.”

A heavy suspicion stole over Jason that everything was
not
okay at the Cox place. “We’d better go see if he needs help.”

Noah was already leading the horse to the side of the path, where he looped the lead around a low-hanging branch. The wagon, piled high with collapsible cots, a couple of barrels, and two crates full of odds and ends left over from Seattle’s early lumberjack days, was far too wide to navigate the dense forest. Jason grabbed the rifle he’d borrowed from David and tossed Noah’s to him, and then they took off through the trees.

Having been raised in the woods, Jason prided himself on his ability to tread silently, a skill necessary for hunting deer and other wild game to add to the camp’s supper pot. He was glad to see Noah possessed the skill as well, and fell in behind him as they slipped from the cover of one thick tree trunk to the next. After every step or so, they paused to listen. The only sound besides the call of birds and the occasional scurry of an unseen animal was a distant drone that grew louder as they neared the source of the pillar of black smoke. A chill rose up his spine when he identified the sound as burning
wood. A loud crack echoed toward them, as though of thick logs giving way.

The space between the trees in front of them grew lighter, and Noah slowed. The smell of smoke was stronger here, and now Jason glimpsed the glow of flames just ahead. Bending almost double, they crept forward, heads in constant movement as they scanned the area for signs of life. Nothing moved.

They came to a halt inside the tree line. In front of Jason was a wide clearing. On the far side stood the burning remains of a cabin, one wall still standing but the rest reduced to a pile of blazing rubble. A long rectangle at the other end of the clearing had been plowed for a garden, empty at this time of year. Between the two the ground was littered with what proved to be, on closer inspection, broken dishes and smashed furniture.

Noah let out an exclamation and dashed from the cover of the trees. At first Jason started to call after him to come back, but then he spied the reason. On the other side of the clearing lay a man’s inert form. With a cautious glance around the area, he ran after Noah.

He came to a halt beside his friend, who stood looking down at the body.

“It’s William.”

Noah turned away, eyes closed, and after a glance Jason did too. Blood stained the man’s clothing from at least half a dozen wounds, and three arrows were still embedded in his flesh. But the sight that Jason knew would haunt his dreams for years to come was far more gruesome. William Cox had been scalped.

“I don’t see anyone else.” Clearly shaken, Noah’s head moved as he scanned the clearing. “I guess we’d better search the area. He has a wife and daughter.”