She didn’t have a chance to tell him to go to hell. Too many things happened at once.
A light caught her eye and she looked toward the space between Luther’s and Ward’s wagons. Dimly she registered Luther standing at the end of the wagons holding a lantern. But what fixed her attention was the scene between the wagons.
Les sagged against the side of one of the wagons, silent tears running down her cheeks. Ward stood over her, his face twisted in anger. Horrified, Freddy gasped as his hand descended and he slapped her sister hard enough to snap Les’s head to one side.
Luther dropped the lantern and ran into the space between the wagons. Fire spewed out of the shattered lantern and ignited a patch of dry grass. Screaming for help, Freddy raced around the wagons, and stamped on fingers of rapidly spreading flame. In less than a minute, the drovers were there, lifting the tongue of the wagon in greatest peril, pulling in front, pushing behind, moving the wooden wagon bed away from the flames. Grady and a man she’d never seen before arrived with buckets of water. They doused the flames and ran toward the barrel for more water.
Everything happened so swiftly that the fire was extinguished just as Dal pulled Luther and Ward apart. Les had crawled away from the flames and the fighting men and sat on the grass, wiping her eyes. When Alex rolled up beside her, she turned and put her head in Alex’s lap.
Freddy had never seen Luther so furious or even imagined that he might be combative or willing to settle something with his fists. Spitting with rage, he struggled to shove past Dal and reach Ward, who already had a bloody nose and a cracked lip.
Luther shouted, “You miserable bastard… if you ever raise a hand to her again—”
Dal pushed him back. “What the hell happened here?”
With everyone listening, Luther explained what he had seen.
Dal turned a stare on Ward. “Is that true? You hit a woman?”
Dark color rushed into Ward’s face, and he glanced at the silent ring of people watching him, condemnation glittering in their eyes. He glared at Dal. “This is between my fiancé and me and none of your concern.”
Dal pushed his face next to Ward’s. “Everything that happens on this drive is my business.” The expression on his face suggested that a lot of things were falling into place in his mind. As they were for Freddy. Ward was beating her sister.
She watched Les lift her head from Alex’s lap and look at Ward. Pain, embarrassment, and exhaustion pinched her face. A nasty bruise had already begun to form on her cheek.
“She’s going to be my wife. Les is my property,” Ward said belligerently.
Freddy lowered her head and swore.
Dal snarled. “You son of a bitch!” He pushed Ward hard enough that he stumbled and almost fell. Then he turned and strode back to the campfire. The drovers stared at Ward, then followed.
“He’ll do it again,” Freddy said bluntly when she reached Alex and Les. “Get rid of him.”
“Freddy’s right,” Alex said softly, smoothing a lock of hair off of Les’s forehead. “You don’t have to take that kind of treatment. You shouldn’t take it.”
Anguish filled Les’s eyes. “Ward sold the store at a loss to come with us,” she whispered.
“You don’t owe him a damn thing.” Freddy sat down on the grass and wrapped her arms around her knees. She wished Luther had broken Ward’s nose instead of only bloodying it. “He’s hit you. He criticizes you constantly. He’s demanding and tyrannical. And he almost killed you, making you work when you were feverish and out of your head.”
Alex nodded. “We begged him to let you withdraw. We told him that we would give you a full third of the inheritance even if he pulled you out of the drive as we wanted him to do.”
Les’s eyes widened and filled with tears. “The two of you would have done that for me?”
“He didn’t tell you?” Freddy asked in disgust.
Les peered at the observers’ camp. “He told me that he saved our share.”
Freddy struck the ground with her fist. “Damn it, Les. It isn’t our share. It’s your share.”
“I just… I… What am I going to do?”
“You know what you need to do,” Freddy snapped.
“I… just can’t.”
They sat in silence in the shadowy patch between the two campfires. “Well, we can’t force you to do something you don’t want to do,” Alex said finally.
Freddy shook her head. “Before this drive began, I would have sworn you couldn’t do anything worth doing. But I was wrong. You should feel proud of yourself, Les. You’re working as hard and as well as anyone here. You don’t have to bow your head to anyone. Especially not to Ward. Think about that.” Standing, she stretched and yawned, wishing she’d told Jack to go to hell. “I’ve got an early watch tonight.”