Chris’s head came up as she heard the blast of a shotgun from somewhere close.
Pilar leaned back against Asher. “It’s the old man,” she said. “It’s the man that found Tynan when he was born.”
“The miner?” Chris asked.
“Whatever he calls himself. Mostly he sells whatever comes his way.”
“Like six-year-old little boys,” Chris said with disgust as she recapped the canteen.
Pilar didn’t answer as she continued leaning against Asher, while Ash gave Chris a look that told her they needed to rest soon.
Tynan came back, moving silently through the trees, appearing almost as if from nowhere. “We have a place for a couple of days but no more,” he said as he watched Chris remount and looked at Pilar with concern. He stayed back and let Asher go first, then started out beside Chris. “He’s not like other people,” he said to her, his eyes on the narrow trail ahead of them. “Don’t turn your back on him and don’t trust him. Don’t tell him who your father is and don’t think there’s anything good about him. And don’t ask him questions.”
“You really hate him, don’t you?” she whispered.
“Yeah, I really hate him,” Ty said as he moved his horse forward to lead them up the steep hillside to the miner’s cabin.
It was a nasty little building, filthy beyond belief, clinging to the side of a rock wall that fell down into a ravine below. Chris thought that the rock probably wanted to rid itself of something so dirty. There were half rotted carcasses around the doorway and the flies were so thick that they were like a black, moving curtain. Nearby were piles of animal skins and a pot of rancid meat. A scrawny dog that Chris had at first thought was dead was tied to the front wall.
“We’ll leave Pilar out here while we clean this place up,” Ty said as he yanked away the rope that held the starving dog in place. The poor animal limped to a pot of water with scum on it and began to lap greedily.
Ty helped Pilar off the horse while Chris stood and stared at the place, brushing away flies, trying to cover her nose at the smell.
“I ain’t givin’ no charity,” came a voice from behind her. “You pay for what you take. I never asked for you to come here. What’d you let that dog loose for? He’ll eat ever’thin’ in sight.”
Chris turned to see a gnarled little man with black, rotten teeth, his face twisted into an agony of misery as he saw that Tynan had begun to throw the rotten meat carcasses into the canyon below.
The old man ran toward Ty. “What are you doin’?” he whined. “That’s my food. You’re tryin’ to kill me, just like you done your own mother. You wanta starve me.”
Tynan ignored the old man’s hands clutching at his arm and looked over his shoulder at Chris who was staring dumbfoundedly. “See to Pilar,” he commanded, “and, Prescott, see if you can shoot us some fresh game. Chris, take that pot and scrub it out with sand and go up that hill to the stream and get some fresh water.”
“Take, that’s all you ever do. Took a woman’s life before you took your first breath. Now you want to take what’s mine.”
Tynan took a tool that had once been a shovel and began to use it to remove a half foot of debris from in front of the cabin, throwing it into the crevasse far below. At one animal carcass, he stopped to examine it, then tossed it to the dog that was cowering a few feet away, its breath coming quickly against its ribs.
The old miner made a lunge toward the dog to grab the meat from the starving animal, and the dog, reverting to instinct, began to fight for its life. As Chris watched, the old man took an ancient pistol from inside the layers of filthy clothes he wore and shot the dog in the leg. The animal began to whimper.
With a look of triumph, the old man took the half-rotten meat from the dog, put it under his arm, and started back toward the shack.
Tynan, with unhurried steps, walked to the old man, took the meat from him and went back to the dog. “Chris,” he said as he examined the dog, “can you look at this? I don’t think it’s bad. He never could shoot.”
It took Chris a moment to react and move from Pilar’s side. With eyes wide, she went to where Ty kneeled by the dog.
“Put a bandage on its leg and, here.” He handed her his gun. “If he bothers the dog again, shoot him. It won’t be any great loss to the world.”
Chris watched, with her mouth open, as Ty gave the dog the meat and the wounded animal began to eat.
Ty put his hand under her chin and shut her mouth. “With this many flies around here, you can’t afford to be astonished. Fix the dog then go get us some water. And then there’s the cabin to be cleaned. You think this place is bad, wait till you step inside.”
“Does he have a name?” she asked, nodding toward the old man.
“Not any that he ever gave anybody. Of course, I never tried paying him for it.”
“You mean, you’ve been around him since you were born and you don’t know his name?”
“That’s right.”
“You came after my gold, didn’t you?” the old man wailed. “You want everything I have.”
“All I want is shelter in a place that’s hard to find,” Ty said as he went back to cleaning the area. “I sure as hell don’t want anything else from you.”
Chris saw that the dog was indeed only grazed then she went to get the water bucket. It was slippery with slime. “Ty, your leg,” she said, looking back at him. The tourniquet was gone and there was dried blood about the wound but now, with this new activity, it was beginning to bleed again.
“I can’t stop now,” he said. “Go get the water.”
As Chris took the bucket and started up the hill, the old man stopped in front of her. The foul smell that rose from him took her breath away. “He don’t have a mother. He killed her.”
Chris moved away from him as she’d moved away from the piles of rotting meat.
By the time she returned with the newly clean bucket and fresh water, Asher was back with a deer he’d shot and Tynan had cleaned a place under a lean-to for Pilar. Chris saw that his leg was bleeding steadily.
Asher prepared a fire and began to roast the meat while the old man crouched on the outside of the group watching them suspiciously.
Tynan eased himself down onto the ground near where Pilar rested on a blanket covered pile of hay. For just a moment, Chris saw pain register on his face. It was growing dark now and the only light was from the fire.
“We have to make some plans,” Ty said and he sounded very tired. “Prescott, we’ll have to take turns keeping watch.”
“Watch?” Chris asked. “But surely Dysan’s men won’t be able to find us here. The dogs won’t be able to track us after the number of streams we crossed, and, Ty, you need to rest.”
“I thank you for your concern, but it’s not Dysan who needs watching. It’s him.” He nodded his head toward the old miner. “If he thinks there’s a reward for us, he’ll find whoever wants us and bring them here. We have to stay awake to make sure he doesn’t leave.”
“Oh,” Chris said, taking meat from Asher and moving to lift Pilar. Tomorrow she’d try to make a broth but for now this would have to do. “Then as long as we stay here someone has to stay awake and watch him.”
“If we want to stay alive,” Ty said.
Asher cut off chunks of the roasted meat. “Pilar needs a doctor and she needs to rest. And you’re in worse shape than you let on.”
“I’ll be all right,” Ty said. “But I agree that we have to take care of Pilar, it’s just that I don’t know anywhere else that’s as safe as this—or it would be safe if he weren’t here.”
Asher threw the old man a piece of meat as if he were a dog, and the man grabbed it, hiding it from the others, eating it with watchful eyes. “What we need is some help,” Asher said as he looked at Chris. “If we could get a message to your father, he could send an army of men to escort us back to his place. I don’t think even Dysan wants to take on Mathison’s men.”
Chris drew her knees to her ch
est and gave a little smile. “Yes, my father could defeat him. But he’s there and we’re here.”
“You have to go get him, Prescott,” Tynan said. “You have to leave the women and me here and travel as fast as you can and bring Mathison back.”
“And leave you to the mercies of that?” Asher asked, motioning toward the old man. “Do you have any idea how many people are looking for you?”
Tynan looked toward the dark sky for a moment. “About half a dozen Chanrys, a hundred or so of Dysan’s men and…”
“And Rory Sayers would probably like a piece of your skin,” Chris added.
“And what was the name of that man on the far side of the rain forest?”
“Ah, yes,” Chris smiled. “Hugh Lanier. I don’t imagine he’s over his anger at what I wrote.” She smiled at Tynan, remembering the way he’d helped her that day.
Tynan leaned back against a post. “So half the world is looking for us, two of us are damaged, and we have a traitor—if he were given the chance to be—in our midst. It doesn’t make for a secure, healthful future.”
“I’ll take him with me,” Asher said softly. “I’ll take the old man with me and leave the three of you here alone and I’ll bring back Mathison with every man he can spare.”
“He’ll slit your throat the first time you turn your back on him or the first time you sleep.”
“I’ll not turn my back on him and if I sleep, I’ll tie him up. It’s our only chance and you know it. You can’t take care of him here and all I have to do is get him fifty miles south of here and then Mathison can have him. It’s our only chance. One man might make it out of here, but not two women and a wounded man.”
Chris could see the way Tynan was considering Asher’s words. She could see how much he hated them, how much he hated being put in such a position. And she also realized that he must be hurt more than he was allowing them to know if he were so much as considering what Asher proposed.
“Ty, it’s the only way,” Chris whispered. “We can’t move Pilar and we can’t leave her here. Dysan is out there and someone has to go for help.” She arched one eyebrow at him. “Are you afraid you won’t get your pardon if someone else brings my father to me?”
Tynan looked at her for a long time before he spoke. “Prescott, you’ll leave early in the morning. I’ll stay awake tonight and watch the old man and you sleep. I want you rested in the morning. Now, the both of you go to bed.”
Chapter Twenty-two
Once Tynan sat down, he didn’t seem able to get up again. Chris rebandaged the wound in his leg, finding that the bullet wasn’t in it as she’d feared. While she worked on him, he lay still, leaning back against the post, his eyes closed, seemingly unaware of Chris’s hands on his thigh. She tried to touch him as little as possible, tried to not show how the sight of his torn flesh upset her.
“I don’t think Prescott can handle the old man. Prescott’s not mean enough. He’s too trusting.”
“Ty, how long did you spend with that man? Did you really have to live with him?”
“Off and on until I was six, but kids learn fast. It didn’t take me long to learn that I had to take care of myself.”
“As independent as you are, why didn’t you run away when he…when he sold you? Couldn’t you have gone back to Red’s?”
Tynan opened his eyes and looked at her. “I was drunk, and he kept me that way for two days before the”—Ty grimaced—“sale.”
“But you were only six years old.”
“I’ve never met a little kid yet that didn’t like beer. You ought to get some sleep now. You’ll need rest for tomorrow.”
Standing, she took the bucket of bloody water and moved away from him, watching him as he leaned against the pole. He looked as if he were asleep but she could see the dark light of his eyes between his lashes. He planned to stay awake all night to protect them from the old man—but he didn’t tie the man or incapacitate him, and she wondered why.
She moved away from Ty to go back to the spring to get fresh water.
“Chris.”
She was startled to hear Asher’s voice so near.
“May I speak to you?”
“You should be asleep. You have a hard ride ahead of you tomorrow and Ty says—”
“Ty says! That’s all I hear, that Tynan says this and Tynan says that.”
“He is the leader of this group,” Chris said, “and it’s been his decisions that have kept us from getting killed.” She continued on her way to the spring.
He caught her arm. “I didn’t mean to be angry. I guess I’m just jealous. Chris, the real reason I wanted to talk to you is…”
“Yes,” she said, looking up at him in the moonlight. “What did you want to say to me?”
“I wanted to ask you to marry me.”
Chris was taken aback for a moment. All she’d been able to think about for the last few days was getting away from Dysan. “Isn’t this rather sudden?”
“You know it isn’t. Chris, I’ve fallen in love with you, with your spirit and your courage. Any woman who’d chop through the back of a wagon to make herself heard is the woman I want to spend my life with, no milksop women for me.”
“And it’s not my father’s money? Or the fact that he’s offered you a position in his business? That doesn’t make me more attractive to you?”
Asher opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. Instead, he drew Chris to him and kissed her softly and gently. “At one time, I thought that I’d have married Del Mathison’s daughter if she were as ugly as my father’s favorite mule, but then I met you and everything changed. Chris, you’re like no other woman I’ve ever met. I wish with all my heart that you’d marry me. And if it’s your money you think I’m after, I’ll give up all claim to it. I think that with you at my side, I could start over again, and this time I wouldn’t fail.”
Still holding her in his arms, he smiled down at her. “I don’t think you’d allow any failure on my part. I think if there were a setback in my finances, you’d crack a whip over my head, and not allow me to give up.”
She smiled back. “No, I don’t guess I do give up, not if I want something badly enough.” Suddenly, she thought of Tynan. “Unless I have to give up,” she murmured.
“I think we’d make a good pair,” he said. “We’d have my level-headedness and your spirit. I could keep your feet on the earth and you could prevent me from giving up when the going gets rough.”
She laughed. “You make us sound like a merger.”
He snuggled her closer. “Some mergers can be quite good. Chris, please say you’ll think about it. I’ll do whatever you want. If you want me to renounce your father’s money, I’ll do so. Whatever you say.”
“That seems rather drastic and my father does want someone to help him run the place.”
“Are you saying you’ll marry me?” he asked, his eyes alight.
“Like hell she will,” came Tynan’s voice from behind them. “Get your hands off her, Prescott. And if you don’t, I’ll shoot them off.”
Chris moved away from Asher. “You’re supposed to be asleep.”
“Is that what you were hoping? That I was asleep so you could meet him behind my back?”
“Now just one minute, Tynan,” Asher said. “I have every right to do whatever Miss Mathison wants. After all, you were hired to help me win her. Oh, Chris,” he said as he realized what he’d revealed.
“It’s all right, I knew. Tynan, you have no right to interfere in what I do. Now, I want you to go back to—”
She didn’t finish the sentence because Tynan grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. He couldn’t walk very well as his leg was stiffening, but he could force her closer to him. “Prescott, go back to the camp and see to Pilar and watch the old man. I’ll be there in a minute.”
Asher started to protest, but one look at Tynan made him decide against it and he turned back toward the cabin.
“Get your hands off of me!” Chris said, trying to je
rk away from him, but not succeeding. “You have no right to interfere in this. Besides, I believe my father hired you to help him fall in love with me.”
“I don’t even want to know how you found that out, but that was before…”
“Yes? That was before what?” She was looking up at him with anger flashing in her eyes.
He grabbed her to him, burying her face in his shoulder for a moment, then kissing her as if he were starving.
“Please don’t, Ty,” she said, her voice sounding as if she were in agony. “Please leave me alone.” She tried to push away from him, but he wouldn’t release her.
“Chris, I can’t stand to see him touching you. I just can’t stand it.” His hands were going up and down her back, caressing her, touching her neck, his thumbs toying with her ears.
She managed to push away far enough to look at him. “You can’t stand it? What right do you have to prevent me from doing anything? What right do you have to even voice an opinion? I made an absolute fool of myself over you and you threw everything in my face and now you stand here and tell me I can’t talk to a man who has the most honorable of intentions.”
“My intentions toward you are honorable. I’ve always been fair and honest with you. And now I’m saying that if Prescott touches you again, I’ll shoot him. I can’t be more honest than that.”
“You!” she gasped and gave a lunge that separated her from him. “What you want from me isn’t honorable. All you want is a…is for me to…” She was glad the darkness covered her red face.
“So what’s wrong with that? You didn’t seem to mind the last time. Ah, Chris, I don’t want to fight. We had a good time that night and, besides, I haven’t had any women since then.”
Chris was sure that her anger was about to make her explode. “You haven’t had any women—plural—since then? Am I supposed to feel sympathy for you? Am I supposed to do what you want merely because you’ve been on the run and haven’t had time to—”
“I had time,” he said. “I just didn’t want any that were offered.”