Texas Blue

chapter 32



AT DAWN DUNCAN HAD EVERYONE UP AND READY TO travel. He’d talked possibilities over with the group and come up with only one logical answer. They’d all have to stay together until Austin. The wagon would double the amount of time it would take, but the cooks couldn’t ride a horse, even if they had an extra few, and he couldn’t leave them behind. If Toledo’s men crossed the border, they’d have little trouble tracking the wagon and the women would be killed.

Duncan frowned, thinking that for a man who always traveled light, he was collecting far too much baggage. The men could all take care of themselves, but Duncan couldn’t forget that they were in this mess because of him. Anna was always in his shadow, looking for him to protect her. Emily might be a fine horsewoman and a great shot, but she would be no match for the cutthroats who worked for Toledo. The two cooks didn’t even seem to know what direction to go.

Wyatt offered to ride ahead and get help, but if trouble came it would be soon and Duncan might need his friend’s gun. The hardened ranger didn’t seem to know how to talk to any of the women, so he stayed out of their way as much as possible.

To make matters worse, if things could get worse, Lewt and Emily weren’t speaking to each other. Sumner thought the two murdering cooks should be tied up until he could find out more about them. Em refused to ride in the wagon, where she’d be safer if they were attacked, and Wyatt looked at him now and then as if he thought Duncan had completely lost his mind.

So, with his band in tow, Duncan set out to Austin, hoping to get there as fast as possible. Within an hour it became obvious that if they wanted to keep the mules on the road, someone who knew how to drive a wagon was going to have to relieve the cooks.

Duncan tried not to swear as he climbed on the bench beside the cooks and took the first shift as their driver. His hope that they might not talk evaporated in seconds.

“Well, Ranger, tell us, will it go worse for us now that we’re not only murderers, but thieves as well?” Sarah J looked thoughtful. “I told Sister not to take the money we found in Toledo’s desk, but she thought we might need it.”

“And,” Rachel interrupted as usual, “once we started taking things, each got easier, and before long we were loading up the wagon while Toledo was busy planning how to kill you and everyone who helped you.”

Sarah J agreed. “It’s a slippery slope to becoming a criminal. Murder, stealing, lying. Once you start, there doesn’t seem a place to stop. First we took the bread, and then, of course, we had to take the butter and jam, and then I thought of the pans we’d need to make more and Rachel remembered the bowls and spoons.”

Duncan had no idea what to advise them. These two were a lawyer’s nightmare. He had a feeling that if he talked to them long, other crimes might pop up along with recipes. “Mind telling me who you ladies think you killed? You know, the first crime you committed that sent you on the run?”

Sarah J glanced at her sister. “Our husbands,” she finally said. “We fed them mushrooms in the gravy.”

Duncan smiled. “Ladies, that’s not murder, that was an accident. I’m sure you didn’t know they were poison.”

Both shook their heads slowly as if easing into a new lie.

“You did know they were poison?” he tried again.

They both nodded.

He didn’t ask more, but he decided he’d probably turn down any dinner invitations.

Rachel looked like she might cry. “They rode off after supper and we never saw them again.”

Duncan had to ask, “You found no bodies?”

“No, but we know they’re out there. Both complained about not feeling well, and after they left, we fed the rest of the meal to the dog. He died before morning.”

“We killed them,” Rachel whispered, “dog and all.”

The day passed. When Duncan drove, he tried not to talk too much to the cooks. Lewt, however, seemed to enjoy visiting with the women when he took his turn driving the wagon. The gambler liked people, all kinds of people, or at least he pretended to.

Duncan preferred traveling with Sumner. He caught up on all that had happened at the ranch. The old man never gossiped, but he did relay facts when one of the McMurrays asked. By the end of the day, Duncan felt sorry for Lewt. The gambler was a good man, honest as anyone in his profession can be. He didn’t deserve the trick his cousins had played.

Duncan wasn’t sure, and he couldn’t tell by the way they acted, but he guessed Lewt had feelings for Emily. Em, on the other hand, had never liked any man who wasn’t related to her, and most of the time she wasn’t too fond of relatives either. When she was little he thought of her as the silent one because she didn’t talk enough for anyone to notice her. Once she started talking, it was mostly to pester him. They were opposites in almost every way, except one. They both loved horses and riding free across Whispering Mountain.

By midafternoon clouds began to form to the west. The choices were to camp out in the open or try to make a run for a mission almost ten miles away.

They ran, with the cooks’ screams carrying on the wind. The road was well traveled by now, but Duncan knew that five minutes after the rain started, it would be a river of mud. If they didn’t make the mission, the wagon would be stuck.

He laughed. Even if Toledo heard the screams she’d have to be flying to catch them, and once they were in the mission, she’d never find them. The missions of Texas had long been a place where rangers could rest or vanish for a time if they needed to.

They reached the mission door just as the downpour hit. Duncan pulled the wagon as close as he could to the chapel and helped the cooks in, then went back to carry Anna through the rain. As always, she didn’t say a word, but clung to him.

When he set her down inside the thick walls of the mission, her eyes were huge, not so much with fright, but with wonder.

“It’s all right,” he whispered, pushing the hair out of her eyes. She was back to looking very much like a child again. “The priest likes rangers. He’ll put us up for the night and make sure the gates are locked. There are nuns here too. They work with the school. You’ ll be safe among them.”

Anna nodded slightly, but he wasn’t sure she believed him. She stayed right beside him as they were served soup and hot tea. He watched her closely as she seemed to study every detail around her.

Duncan told everyone the story that his family believed—that their grandmother and grandfather met at this very mission. He’d been a teacher without a job who stopped here to help teach reading to the Apache. She’d been the daughter of a chief. “The story goes”—Duncan smiled at Em—“that our grandfather fell in love when he touched her hand beneath the book.”

“They were barely twenty when they married and settled at Whispering Mountain.” Em picked up the story. “They had kids and started the ranch, but the strange thing is, my grandfather on my papa’s side died thirteen years after he married at another mission called Goliad.”

Duncan glanced at the cooks, who looked as if they’d lost the thread of the conversation. “Goliad wasn’t much of a battle compared to the Alamo. The men were shot by firing squad, but they died for Texas. Some say it made the rest of Texas so mad that Houston’s men yelled, ‘Remember the Alamo’ and ‘Remember Goliad’ as they overtook Santa Ana’s camp a few months later.”

As the others talked on, Duncan thought of his adopted grandfather. All Andrew McMurray ever wanted was his family and his ranch, yet he’d given it all up to stand and fight for Texas. All Duncan wanted was the adventure, the fight, but he knew with all the men gone from Whispering Mountain, he might have to go home and stay for a while. He’d have to give up his freedom for the ranch. Strange how one man’s dream is another’s prison.

He finally realized why his cousins had never married. There hadn’t been time. The little ranch Andrew and Autumn McMurray started had grown so huge it threatened to consume the family. Duncan didn’t want to think about his responsibility.

As thunder stormed outside and rain pounded, the priest showed the women to their rooms in the hallway called the Sisters’ Wing. The rooms were all small, meant for one person. When Anna saw that she had a lock on the inside of her door, she smiled for the first time.

Duncan stepped inside and set her tiny bundle of clothes down. “Will you be all right in here?”

She nodded, looking around the simple room as if it were grand.

“I’ll tap on your door when it’s almost time to leave.”

He left her there, almost sad that she didn’t need him tonight. Moving along a winding veranda, he finally crossed a courtyard and joined the men bunking in the shed. It was cold, but dry.

“Where’s your shadow?” Sumner asked when Duncan reached the circle of their lantern.

“I’ve been replaced by a lock.”

“She’s safe tonight,” Wyatt said, “but I don’t think it would be a bad idea that we post a guard. I’m not sure one lock at the gate will keep anyone out who wants to kill us.”

They all agreed.

Duncan knew he wouldn’t sleep until they were back in Austin—or even better, he thought, back at Whispering Mountain. Anna would be safe there while they looked for her relatives.