Blood Gold (8 page)

‘How do you feel?’ Gideon asked.

Patrick opened his eyes to look at Gideon.

‘Not good.’ He coughed to clear his throat. ‘What was that noise about earlier?’

Gideon hunkered down beside Patrick. He laid a hand on his brow, nodded, and removed the hand.

‘It was Rusty.’

Patrick sneered. ‘What’s that no-good varmint doing now?’

‘He tried to sneak into the fort and Strang saw him.’

Patrick raised his eyebrows, the hint of a smile on his lips.

‘Did Jack kill him?’

‘No. Rusty got away. But Jack nearly killed me.’

Patrick snorted and shook his head.

‘I’m sorry. No other good men should suffer because of that man.’

‘I talked with him. He’s sorry. He wants you to trust him again.’

With a lunge, Patrick grabbed Gideon’s collar and
tried to lever himself to a sitting position, but when his guts twinged, he relented and lay back.

‘I ain’t ever trusting him again,’ he grunted, his voice shallow. ‘He lied to me.’

Gideon sighed and glanced away from Patrick, then rolled round to sit on the ground.

‘He’s determined to save your life, even if you’ve embarked on a determined effort to end it.’

Patrick rubbed his chest.

‘You ain’t making me feel any better about Rusty. That man’s a repeated liar and a yellow-belly.’

Gideon opened his mouth to argue some more, but then decided that prolonging this discussion was just wasting his time and closed his mouth. With a long shake of his head, he stood.

‘Then I’ll just tell you this. Salvador Milano attacks at sundown.’ Gideon glanced through the doorway. ‘And that comes any minute now. Rusty will try to get you out. When—’

‘I don’t want him to save me,’ Patrick snapped.

‘Then you can discuss that with him, but in the confusion, you can either go for the gold, kill Rusty, or save yourself, but frankly, I don’t care.’ Gideon glanced down at the bandages encasing Patrick’s chest. ‘Whatever I do or say, you’ll find some way to kill yourself.’

Gideon turned from Patrick and strode to the door.

‘Thanks, Gideon,’ Patrick shouted after him. ‘My quarrel ain’t with you. You’re a good man.’

Gideon stopped. He rocked on his heels, then
turned back and nodded.

‘Obliged.’

Patrick took a deep breath. ‘And I hope you can get that … Hannah out safely.’

‘Hope is all I have,’ Gideon said, then departed from the room.

In the parade ground Jack’s men had spread out, taking positions in the doorway to the powder
magazine
, hiding beside the stable, and at regular
intervals
along the raised platform. They’d left the gate unguarded.

Gideon joined Hannah and leaned against the stable wall facing the gate. Over the raised platform opposite, the sun had already edged below his view. Only the apex of the powder magazine’s tin roof was catching the last red rays of the dying sun.

‘Rider approaching,’ Strang shouted from the raised platform.

‘Everyone into position,’ Jack shouted. He stalked along the side of the wall to Hannah’s side. ‘And you can stay with me in the powder magazine until the shooting’s over.’

Hannah glanced at Gideon, then headed past Jack towards the powder magazine.

Gideon moved to follow her, but Jack grabbed his arm and shook his head.

‘I can’t help out here,’ Gideon said.

‘I reckon your doctoring skills might be useful any minute now.’ Jack chuckled. ‘If you live long enough.’

Gideon shrugged and hunkered down beside the
stable wall, making his profile as small as possible.

From the ground he watched Strang crawl fast along the raised platform, then skid down the ladder with his feet on either side. He scurried across the parade ground towards the gate.

‘It ain’t Salvador,’ Strang shouted over his
shoulder
. ‘It’s Leland.’

A subdued whoop emerged from around the parade ground as Strang swung the gate open to let Leland Ashley ride into the fort.

Strang immediately swung the gate closed, then tipped his hat to Leland.

‘Mighty glad to see you’re back,’ he shouted. ‘We reckoned you’d taken off.’

‘Nope.’ Leland swung down from his horse. ‘I just had me some trouble.’

Leland dashed across the parade ground. Jack wavered a moment, then gestured for Hannah to head into the magazine alone.

‘So where were you?’ Jack asked, a huge grin emerging as he patted Leland’s back.

‘Tracked down Fernando and Cliff, but those
gold-diggers
got to them first. We had a mighty battle. They killed Tort and I only just got out of there alive.’

Jack kicked at the ground. ‘I should never have let them live.’

‘And I got some more bad news for you. Salvador Milano and a whole mess of troublemakers have followed you. I reckon he’s planning to attack.’

‘I know that.’ Jack pointed at the men along the raised platform. ‘We’re just waiting for him.’

‘How do you know about him?’

Jack strode to the stable wall, grabbed Gideon’s arm, and dragged him to his feet. He swung him round and pushed him forward.

‘Gideon’s helping us.’

‘Him!’ Leland looked Gideon up and down,
shaking
his head and sneering. ‘He ain’t reliable. Gideon is one of Salvador’s followers. I saw him in the group when Tort and me passed them yesterday. He was riding alongside that whore you liked.’

Jack’s one eye blazed. His jaw muscles tightened so hard they seemed set to burst.

‘Get Hannah!’ he roared, his voice echoing across the parade ground.

Strang chuckled, then scurried to the powder magazine.

‘I can explain,’ Gideon said, turning to Jack. ‘I told you—’

‘Be quiet!’

Jack swirled round and hurled a round-armed fist at Gideon. The blow slammed into his cheek and sent him sprawling.

On the ground Gideon moved to rise, then decided that that would only lead to another blow and lay back.

With a wide grin on his face, Strang dragged Hannah from the powder magazine and led her across the parade ground to Jack’s side. He pushed her forward a pace, then with a last grin down at Gideon, scurried to the raised platform.

‘Yeah,’ Leland said with a snort, ‘that’s her. She
was with Salvador too.’

Jack slammed his fist against his thigh and stalked around Hannah, looking her up and down.

Hannah stood tall and glanced at Gideon on the ground, but Gideon couldn’t meet her gaze and looked away. The topmost part of the powder
magazine
had the faintest red glow of the sun and as he looked, it closed to nothing.

Jack swung to a standstill. His firm gaze washed over Hannah and rested on her eyes.

‘You said you didn’t know Salvador Milano,’ he muttered, ‘but Leland saw you riding with him. So no more lies, Hannah, are you working with Salvador?’

Hannah gulped. ‘We did ride with Salvador. But everything else Gideon told you is the truth. We had no choice but to go with him.’

Jack nodded and glanced down at Gideon.

‘And what’s your story, Hannah’s
brother
?’

Gideon took a deep breath and rolled to a sitting position.

‘The same as my sister’s. Salvador gave us no choice but to help him get the gold from you. But I don’t care about helping him, and Hannah just wanted—’

‘You don’t tell me what Hannah wants.’ Jack slammed a firm hand on Hannah’s shoulder. ‘She tells me. So, Hannah, look me in the eye and tell me the truth. Did you come here for the gold or for me?’

Hannah sighed and held her hands wide. The calmest and most benign of smiles spread across her face.

‘There’s only one thing I want, and you must know what—’

‘Salvador,’ Jack muttered, staring over Hannah’s shoulder.

Hannah glared at Jack a moment. Then she and everyone else turned to the raised platform.

Strang was gesturing down at them with a circular motion above his head – the signal that Salvador’s assault was starting.

‘Positions everyone,’ Jack muttered.

On his back, Patrick Grady listened to the men outside the officers’ quarters scurry around the parade ground. From the sudden drop in the light streaming in from outside, he guessed that Salvador’s assault was imminent.

He prodded his chest, but the flesh was no sorer than before, so he rolled to his knees.

A clatter sounded in the adjoining room, as of someone jumping to the ground. Then footsteps paced towards him. He looked to the side. Rusty stood in the doorway to the second room.

‘You,’ Patrick spat. ‘Get away from me.’

Rusty stalked to Patrick’s side and slammed a hand over his mouth.

‘Be quiet or you’ll get us both killed.’

Patrick glared at Rusty, then shrugged out from beneath the hand.

‘How did you get in here?’ he whispered.

‘I’m a miner. I’ll sneak through any hole to get where I want to go. I have a way into the fort, and
that means I have a way out.’

‘Gideon said. But I don’t care. I ain’t leaving
without
the gold.’

Rusty rolled back and appraised Patrick from head to foot.

‘You ain’t in a state to fight anyone.’

‘I’ll take on …’ Patrick narrowed his eyes as Rusty extracted a pad from his pocket and slammed it over his mouth.

Patrick threw his hands to Rusty’s hand and tried to prise the fingers from his mouth, but Rusty pressed down even harder. Thick, cloying fumes invaded his nostrils and ripped through his senses.

As his fingers numbed, his vision blurred, then darkened.

On the raised platform Strang was gesturing
feverishly
.

Gideon didn’t know what the gestures meant, but he guessed that Salvador was now on the other side of the gate.

As Jack’s men scurried into hiding down in the parade ground, Jack glared at Hannah and Gideon in turn, then shook his head.

‘I ain’t got time to deal with you right now.’ He glanced at Leland, then stalked towards the powder magazine. ‘Tie them up.’

Leland grabbed Gideon’s arm and dragged him to his feet.

Gideon slackened his arms and let Leland bundle him to the stable wall. There, Leland pulled his
hands behind his back and wrapped a rope around his hands.

Hannah stood by Gideon’s side and placed her hands together before her, but when Leland had pulled Gideon’s bonds tight, he batted her hands away, then dragged them behind her back. When he’d tied Hannah too, he pushed them both to the ground and hurled a blanket over each of them, then dashed away to join Jack in the powder magazine.

‘Gideon,’ Hannah whispered, lying back and staring at the sky, ‘you’re an idiot. Your tales have destroyed the trust I’d built with Jack.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘It’s too late for that.’ From the corner of her eye, she glared at Gideon, her gaze accusing. ‘You came here to help me, but you’ve just ensured I don’t get out of this alive.’

Gideon set his jaw firm, forcing this truth from his mind.

‘Even if I wasn’t here, Leland would still have seen you with Salvador and I reckon Jack would still have been unimpressed.’

Hannah sighed, but then provided a reluctant nod. ‘Perhaps. But Jack doesn’t believe you’re my brother and—’

‘Quit accusing me and start thinking how we can escape from this.’

Hannah turned to glance at the gate, then at the powder magazine.

‘If you keep your mouth shut and let me talk, we
might have a chance.’

‘Suppose I deserve that.’ Gideon glanced at the gate, from behind which he heard scuffling sounds, as of Salvador and his followers preparing to barge in. ‘But if you’re still talking to me, have you
discovered
anything about Jack that we can use?’

For long moments Hannah didn’t reply. Then she sighed.

‘Just one thing. And when I discovered it, I learned everything about him. But I’m not sure how it might help you.’

‘We don’t have much time. Don’t keep it quiet.’

‘It’s not something I can tell you. It’s something I can give you.’

Under her blanket, Hannah shuffled to Gideon’s side and clawed her hand into the waistband of her skirt, then rolled on to her side. She lay against Gideon and slipped something into his pocket.

‘What was that?’ he asked.

Hannah rolled back to lie separately. ‘If they remove your bonds before Jack kills you, try to use it, otherwise it’s no use.’

Gideon nodded. He glanced around the deserted parade ground. Fifty yards away, the fort gate swung open.

Gideon sighed and returned to staring at the sky.

Uneasy scraps of dreams invaded Patrick’s mind. Then, a timeless period later, he opened his eyes. His vision was blurred, but he saw a face peering down at him. He blinked repeatedly until his vision focused.

Rusty stood over him, a pensive smile on his face.

‘What did you do?’ Patrick murmured.

‘I saved your life – again.’

Patrick glanced around. He was no longer in the fort. Trees surrounded him in a small clearing. Tethered beside him was his horse.

He sat and stretched. ‘Where are we?’

‘Far enough from the fort to be in no danger from Salvador’s and Jack’s fight. You can leave when that’s over.’

‘How can I trust anything you say?’

Rusty gulped and rubbed fingers through his thick beard.

‘The truth is hard to tell. And it’s hard to admit to yourself. Now that I’ve done that, my duty is clear.’

‘What have you admitted?’

‘That I’m a yellow-belly.’

Although Patrick heard the words that he’d waited days to hear, they still left a hollow feeling in his gut. He shrugged.

‘What you did was weak,’ he said, surprising himself with the gentleness of his tone. ‘It doesn’t make you a yellow-belly.’

‘I’m a yellow-belly because I couldn’t tell you the truth.’ Rusty snorted. ‘And even myself. But now, I reckon I can.’ Rusty laid a hand on Patrick’s shoulder. ‘I did shoot you, but I shot you to save my own life.’

‘You what?’ Patrick roared, hurling Rusty’s hand away.

‘I didn’t shoot you accidentally. You only lived because my hand was shaking. Jack let me live
because he could see what I’d done in my eyes.’

As he glared at Rusty, Patrick clenched his fists so tightly the bones cracked.

‘You’re wrong if you reckon saving my life puts that right.’

Rusty hefted a bag from his pocket and dropped it at Patrick’s feet.

‘I know, but I got some of the gold here. And as for the rest …’ Rusty tipped his hat, then turned and raised a hand. ‘Now that I’ve freed my conscience, don’t follow me. You ain’t strong enough. Just take this gold and enjoy the rest of your life.’

Patrick rolled to his knees and with his vision still clouded with anger, he watched Rusty disappear into the trees. He took long deep breaths, then glanced at the horse, then at the bag of gold-dust at his feet. With a hand clutching his guts, he staggered to his feet and shuffled ten paces to his right.

From his new position he saw that Rusty was
heading
back to the fort.

Patrick glanced at his horse again. Then, with a shrug, he tottered after Rusty.