Twenty-Five

The meeting adjourned, and Elam silently thanked God for his stalwart neighbors upriver. Now to do something about the one downriver.

Elam didn’t like the thought of Keara being on the road with the marshal and others so close. She should be back shortly. She had never been one to linger in the city any longer than it took her to make her purchases and get back out of town, and he didn’t want to leave until she made it home safely.

Penelope picked up Cash and carried him over to Elam. “I’m taking Britte, Rolfe, and this little one home with me until you get things straightened out.”

Jael joined them and reached for the baby. “You have your hands full right now, Pen. I’ll take them with me, at least until David gets home safely. You’re going to be distracted worrying about him.”

“I’ll be no more worried than the rest of the family, and the cousins all love Elam’s little ones.” Penelope bounced Cash and grinned at him when he laughed. “You’re the better shot, Jael. Why don’t you stay here with Susanna while Elam and the men reconnoiter. Your children are already at our house, so everyone can camp out on the floor tonight. The older ones will be a lot of help to me.”

“Keara should be back soon,” Elam said, “but I don’t want to leave Susanna alone.”

Susanna stepped over to their little group and tickled Cash under the chin. “I don’t know if the marshal will still be interested in getting to me, but I don’t want my presence here to endanger anyone else.”

“I don’t think they’re going to make an issue of it now,” Elam said. “Those men gathering in town all winter wouldn’t be here for you, and for secrecy alone, they won’t want to raise a ruckus.”

“I can ride,” Susanna said.

“Not without it costing you,” Jael said. “Besides, if that ex-marshal is still watching the house, you don’t want to go outside and remove any doubt from his mind that you’re here.”

“Then it’s settled,” Penelope said. “I’ll collect the children. Elam, where’s that mixture you’ve been feeding Cash? I’ll take a jar of it with me.”

Keara slowed at the track that led from the road to the McBride farm. Sure, the farm didn’t legally belong to her family anymore, but she still thought of it as her home. She studied the tracks that led to the trail, the horse droppings, and dog tracks as well. This trail had recently been well-used, because she’d checked on her way to town, and neither the dog tracks nor the horse droppings, nor half the other shoe tracks, had been there earlier.

The men were at the farm right now. There was an assembly taking place, may already have taken place.

She glanced at the packages on the board seat beside her. No one knew the house where she’d grown up better than she did. She had the items she needed right here with her, right now, and if she waited even thirty more minutes, who was to tell if it would be too late to find out what these men were planning? Especially if Carl Lindstrom already had the contagion and had enough men to spread it.

She climbed from the wagon and led Elijah across the road and into the forest. She tied him behind a huge boulder so neither he nor the wagon could be spotted from the road in case more men came to visit. She’d passed no one on her ride out, but there were other paths from town a person could walk if he didn’t mind a little climbing.

She grabbed the cheese and the meat and left the canned fish in the wagon. She opened the laudanum and soaked the meat well with the medicine. She’d only noted a single set of dog tracks, and Elam had only mentioned hearing one dog bark the other night, but one couldn’t be too careful.

She was halfway between the road and the farm when she heard the sound of a horse trotting along the road. There was too much brush to see who it might be, but she didn’t want to be seen here. She left the trail and plunged more deeply into the undergrowth, where she used to pick blackberries.

No sooner had she concealed herself from the trail than she heard the sound of dogs barking. Two at least…no, there were three of them. The barking continued and grew louder as the dogs came nearer. She pulled out the limburger cheese and the laudanumsoaked meat and divided them into three portions.

Moments later, after the dogs had stopped barking and began to whine at the scent of the fresh meat and smelly cheese, they came plunging through the brush. They saw Keara and started to bark and growl again, huge animals, big teeth, but she held out the meat for them, one by one.

It didn’t take long, with gentle talk and good food, for the ferocious-looking dogs to settle and start licking her hands for the remainder of their treat. She prayed she hadn’t given them enough to kill them, but that she had added enough laudanum to calm them down long enough to get in and out.

If she’d brought twine, she could have tied and muzzled them, but how could she have guessed at the upcoming day’s events when she left the house?

Only a half mile up the way, Elam and the others had probably ended their meeting. She only hoped she could overhear something helpful and get back to Elam quickly enough for him and the others to make their move.

Elam and Kellen were in the barn saddling Moondance when Elam heard a horse-and-buggy pull up outside.

He stepped to the door and then groaned.

“What is it?” Kellen asked.

“Miss Harper.”

“Raylene? What’s she doing here?”

Elam shook his head. With that girl, there was no telling. “I’ll be right back.”

“I’ll finish with Moondance.”

Raylene guided her horse, Honey, to the hitching post beside the barn and stepped down from her fringed surrey. “Hello, Elam.”

He nodded. “Raylene.”

She reached into the surrey for a paper-wrapped package. “I brought Keara a gift of apology. I’ve turned my back on a good friend to go trailing after a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and I think Keara will look beautiful when these are finished.” Raylene looked toward the front porch. “Is she in the house or in the barn? With her, it’s hard to tell where she’ll be. I swan, that woman will work her fingers to the bone if you don’t stop her.”

“Keara isn’t here right now,” Elam said. “She went to town for supplies.”

“Yes, I know, I saw her there at the mercantile, and she left me halfway through our material selections to get word to you about what we were discussing.” Raylene looked around the ranch, eyes darkening with alarm. “At least, I was sure she was coming back to you. She wouldn’t have lingered, she was in a hurry. Do you think she might have gone to the sheriff instead?”

Elam took a slow, deep breath. Young Raylene had always had an excitable streak about her. One of the reasons her parents allowed her to have so many animals was because the animals tended to calm her.

“What did the two of you discuss?” he asked.

“Timothy’s arrest and that crazy marshal and Carl’s silly snooping through the isolation building for the smallpox victims last—”

“She told you these things?”

“Well, I told her about Carl’s snooping. She told me about Timothy’s arrest, and when she left the mercantile like a fox after a rat, I thought she’d come straight here. I was so grateful that she forgave me—well, we didn’t actually have time for the whole forgiving and hugging and pledging to never do anything like that again—anyway, I went ahead and bought the materials we looked at, plus one more that I think will suit her coloring, and—”

“You didn’t see which way she went when she left?”

“No, I just took for granted she was coming back here.”

“Frey.”

She blinked. “What?”

“Marshal Frey arrested Timothy. Word has it that he’s between here and your home. Raylene, I’ll have to apologize to your father later, but I can’t let you go home right now. It could be dangerous.”

“For me? But why? I rode here without being stopped.”

“But you came here. To my ranch. If Frey realizes that, he—”

“May stop me to torture me for information!” Raylene’s eyes widened with both fear and excitement.

Elam rolled his eyes. The child had a lot more growing to do. But what was he going to do with her right now? Let her in the house so she’d see Susanna? If his guess was right, this whole mess would be over with today, but what if it wasn’t? Raylene had no sense of secrecy whatsoever.

Raylene gasped. “You think that awful marshal has Keara?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to need help to confront him. There are quite a few men at their new hideout.”

“Where’s that?”

“The old McBride farm. Raylene, I’m going to unhitch Honey and put a saddle on her. I need you to ride to each home upriver and tell them I’m moving in. The men will know what to do.” And it would keep Raylene from entering the house until she returned from her mission.

Keara had known the barn would be the best place for a bunch of people to meet, and she heard the voices from inside as she drew near. She knew just the place she could listen, and even watch.

Pa had built an indoor toilet and bath for Ma when she was first paralyzed, but the outhouse connected to the barn was still there, and at Keara’s demand, it had been used when anyone was working outside, in order to keep the house cleaner.

When she reached the outhouse she pulled open the door slowly to keep it from squeaking. Stepping inside reminded her why she’d been so happy to have an indoor toilet. Ugh.

Still, she eased the door shut behind her and pulled the lock down in case anyone was crazy enough to try to use this instead of the indoor toilet.

There was enough light coming in from the sun-moon cutouts at the top of the tiny building that she could see her way to step up on the toilet seat ledge and peer through the knothole into the barn.

Light filtered in from several open, glassless windows, and she counted at least twenty men seated on makeshift board benches in a semicircle, with the marshal standing in the center, facing them. Carl Lindstrom stood to his right, as if he was the second in command.

“…recruited a good team,” Frey was saying, “and though we had hoped for twice as much help, we don’t have time to screen more men. Your pay will come after you’ve done your jobs, and though your names will never be mentioned on lists of praise for valor, you will always have the satisfaction of knowing you’ve served your country in this silent war. The enemy will be thwarted with these containers instead of bullets, and you will survive because you’ve been inoculated.”

Keara felt the ice of dread as he continued to praise these killers for what they were about to do.

He began to call out names, and as he did so, each man stepped forward to receive his utensils—a canning jar, apparently sealed, and a stack of terrycloth towels. Carl gave each man a map.

They were going now! They had to be stopped today. Keara had to get to Elam, to the sheriff. They had to call for help.

She unlatched the door and eased it open, eased it shut, and turned to run.

She’d gone three steps when someone grabbed her from behind and threw her to the ground. A big man with beefy hands and a red face leaned over her.

“I saw what you did to the dogs.” He raised his fist, and all went dark.