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Cameron was the first to wake. The others rose quickly, each man eager to start the return journey to White Creek. While Ingersoll put out the fire Thomas and Harlan joined him in heading to their horses.
“We’ll have to come here again some time,” Cameron said.
“It would be good for us all to do that,” Thomas said.
Cameron noted his emphasis. “You’re right. Proof that our two families can get on would help everyone move on.”
“I doubt it’ll help the Millers after all these years,” Harlan grumbled, and then shrugged at Thomas. “Not that any of us have a problem with you.”
“And not that any of us have a problem with you,” Thomas said.
As Lewis and Elizabeth hadn’t returned to the fire last night Cameron veered away to ensure they were ready to leave. He coughed several times and made plenty of noise before he headed toward the mound of rocks where they’d taken up residence, but Elizabeth was already awake, sitting on the rocks and facing the lightening horizon.
“We’re heading back to White Ridge,” he said.
She didn’t reply so he had to repeat his comment before she stood up and headed over to him.
“I’m not,” she said. “Lewis has gone, and I’m going after him.”
Cameron sighed, feeling in two minds. He was pleased that his brother’s departure stopped him from having to suffer the constant disagreements, but the fact that Lewis had been right about Jesse’s past mistake being responsible for what was happening now meant that he had started to appreciate his viewpoint.
“Then I wish you luck,” Cameron said.
Elizabeth frowned. “There’s more. You heard what Thomas said last night. Norton reckons more than one person killed his father.”
Cameron nodded, now seeing what was distressing her the most.
“Norton thinks Lewis was involved, too, because he originally rode off with Jesse, so Lewis has gone after Norton?”
She nodded and, in guilty embarrassment because he hadn’t thought about the danger Lewis might be in, Cameron beckoned the others to join them. He explained the situation and Harlan provided the answer he’d expected.
“That’s good news,” he declared. “It means we won’t have to put up with him no longer.”
Harlan’s contemptuous attitude helped to put Cameron’s thoughts in order.
“That doesn’t go for me. I’m going with Elizabeth to find Lewis before he finds Norton.”
“Why?” Harlan spluttered.
“Because despite everything, he’s my brother and he’s sorting out a family problem.”
“But . . . but. . . .” Harlan said, waving his arms as he struggled to voice his opinion on just how bad an idea this was, letting Ingersoll speak.
“I’ll come with you,” he said. “If Lewis reckons he can find Norton, I need to be there.”
“But we can’t risk our families,” Harlan snapped, finally finding his voice. “We don’t know for sure that he can find Norton. While we’re standing around here talking, Norton might already be in White Creek planning to attack our home.”
“You’re right, and for that reason you should go back with Thomas.”
“I’m not going back there either,” Thomas said. “I started this when I found Norton, so I’ll stay with you.”
With everyone displaying firm expressions that said they wouldn’t change their minds, Harlan muttered an oath and slapped his thigh in exasperation.
“All right, if you’re all going to act like damn fools, I might as well do so, too,” he said.
––––––––
While they tracked east and then south, Elizabeth remained as quiet as Lewis had been, providing no details on how she knew where he’d go. Cameron had expected that she would direct them back toward Liberty, but when she didn’t his skepticism that she had taken the right route grew.
He relaxed when, in the afternoon, Marshal Ingersoll used his uncanny ability to find people in the most deserted of places to confirm that a lone rider had been seen three hours earlier. Despite adopting a mile-eating pace they had yet to catch sight of him, but late on the second day after leaving Parker’s Gulch Elizabeth told them their destination.
“It’s near Fort Lord at a homestead about ten miles out of town,” she said. “I don’t know where exactly.”
“How do you know this?” Cameron asked.
Elizabeth didn’t answer immediately, her darting eyes suggesting she was thinking about her response carefully.
“The men who held Thomas said they planned to take us somewhere. This is the place.”
Cameron was skeptical, but when Ingersoll picked up a trail they accepted her word for now. He led them across an area of scrub until a homestead appeared ahead. Disturbingly, it was similar to the one they’d left behind, consisting of two abandoned buildings, both being fire-damaged.
This made everyone murmur uncomfortably about the coincidence, that murmuring only ending when Cameron pointed out that a horse was tethered beside the derelict barn. The walls were only a few feet high in both buildings, but Lewis wasn’t visible.
Ingersoll moved to check out the house, but before he reached it Elizabeth dismounted and hurried to the barn. She leaned over the short wall, put a hand to her chest and then sighed with relief.
She said something. When she appeared to get an answer she smiled. Then she swung her legs over the wall and ducked down, disappearing from sight. The men gave her several minutes to emerge, but when she didn’t, they decided that Cameron should approach the barn first.
He followed the route Elizabeth had taken and found her sitting with Lewis. They both had their backs against the wall and were silent.
“As we’ve spent the last two days finding you,” Cameron said, “I reckon you should pay us the courtesy of explaining what you’re doing here.”
“I don’t have to answer to you and I never asked you to follow me,” Lewis said. “Go back to White Creek and look after your families.”
“As we reckon you’re after Norton, we’re staying to help you. Wherever you go, we’ll go, too.”
“What good will that do?” Lewis snorted a harsh laugh. “I saw you and Harlan cowering in that gully when Norton’s men attacked us. You both think you’re tough, but I had to save your hides. I’m not doing that again. So run along and keep yourself safe.”
Cameron bit his lip, trying to avoid Lewis riling him into having another pointless argument. Harlan, though, had no such qualms. He hurried over to join them and clambered over the wall to face Lewis.
“We’re not listening to your demands and as we’ve seen no sign of Norton Crockett, tell us why you reckon you can find him. If we like your reasoning, we’ll stay with you. If not, we’ll leave.”
“I’m not saying nothing,” Lewis said. “So go away.”
“I’m staying until I get an answer, one way or the other.” Harlan shook a fist. “We got interrupted back outside Liberty, but we can finish what we started now.”
“I’m not fighting with you in this barn of all places,” Lewis said, his voice sounding tired.
“Why not?” Harlan demanded.
Lewis merely sneered at Harlan and then rolled around to kneel and face away from him. Harlan rocked back and forth on his heels, but with Lewis ignoring him, he said nothing else beyond muttering to himself.
Cameron moved to the side to stand in Lewis’s eye-line. He still didn’t get a reaction and after a minute of waiting he climbed over the wall to join Harlan.
“You can’t ignore us forever, Lewis,” he said, facing his back. “You’ll never make me believe that you want us to go because you care about what might happen to us. You don’t care about anyone. You still don’t care about Jesse, and you even abandoned Elizabeth.”
Lewis snorted his breath through his nostrils and then slowly stood up. He turned to them.
“You’re right. I don’t care about anyone right now, but that doesn’t mean I’m not capable of doing so.”
Elizabeth’s only reaction was a slow nod, while Harlan muttered that he didn’t believe him. Cameron sneered and took a pace closer. His movement made Lewis grip his hands tightly and then lower his head.
“You’re not capable of caring,” Cameron shouted, waving his arms as the anger that had festered in his mind for the last two weeks overcame him. “You’re Lewis, a man who doesn’t care about anyone but himself; a man who ran away from us; a man who ran away from the first decent woman he’d met. You’re a worthless varmint, Lewis, who causes trouble wherever he goes and who I hate for a whole heap of reasons, the biggest being that you soil the good Coltaine name.”
Cameron had wanted to say something like that after Lewis had been unmoved by Jesse’s death, but his words didn’t appear to concern Lewis. Only the fact he was standing close to him appeared to interest him as he kept his head lowered.
“I’ll tell you this only once,” he said with steady menace. “You’ll move away from that spot or brother or no brother I’ll tear you apart with my bare hands.”
Cameron viewed that comment as at least being a sign that he was getting through to him so mockingly he kicked dirt from side to side.
“I like standing here, so why should I move, you worthless heap of trash?”
“Because this building once used to be my barn and that’s the spot where six months ago I found my wife’s body.”
Elizabeth shrieked and then put her hand to her mouth, although Cameron reckoned from the way she then stood up quickly and placed a hand on Lewis’s shoulder that this wasn’t news to her. For his part Cameron placed his raised foot to the ground, feeling giddy, ashamed, embarrassed. He moved aside, an apology on his lips, but he decided it would sound too trite after the enormity of the insult he’d just uttered.
“You were married?” he said.
“A year after I left White Creek I settled down,” Lewis said, his voice gruff. “I built this home. Then it all got taken away.”
“Norton Crockett?”
“Yup.” Lewis shrugged. “He hired someone to do it, but no matter, he was behind it. So you and Harlan ride off home and make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to your families. Or you’ll turn out like me, not caring about anyone but yourself, a worthless varmint who causes trouble wherever he goes and who soils the good Coltaine name.”
Cameron reckoned he deserved that sarcasm. As he struggled for the right words to say it was left for Harlan to convey his thoughts.
“We’re not leaving you until we get Norton,” he said in a matter-of-fact manner.
Cameron nodded. “I agree. We get him together.”
“I can’t stop you,” Lewis said.
Cameron wondered if he should apologize, but on considering the unexpected common purpose his outburst had instilled in them, he reckoned it had done everyone some good.
“How do we find him?” he asked instead.
“We don’t. He’ll come here.”
“How can you be so sure that this is the place those men planned to take us?”
“Because Norton has always been one step ahead of us.”
He walked off to the corner of the barn. There, burned wood was piled in a heap. Lewis gestured at it and Cameron moved a large plank aside to reveal a moldering coffin. Rents in the sides displayed rags and yellowed bones.
“Is this the infamous Mason Crockett?” he asked.
“It has to be, and that means Norton is out there somewhere.”
Cameron let the plank drop to cover the body of the man his brother had killed in error twelve years ago.
“Then we wait,” he said.