Foxfire Bride (11 page)

"You're out," Fox said.

Brown looked angry enough to tear something apart. But when Hanratty stepped up to shoot, he turned and walked away.

Peaches moved the target twice more before dusk settled and Tanner decided it was time to halt the competition. He moved up to the line. "At this point it's no longer a shooting contest, it's more of an eyesight contest with some luck thrown in. I declare the competition a tie between Hanratty and Fox." Both protested vigorously, but Tanner held his ground. "It'll be full dark in a few minutes. Time for supper." He divided the money between them. "That was impressive shooting," he said, meaning it. "Congratulations to you both."

No one had much to say during a three-B supperbacon, beans, and biscuitsbut Tanner noticed Hanratty and Brown scarcely glanced at their plates. Both of them stared at Fox with hard expressionless faces.

It occurred to Tanner that she had made the same point with them as she'd made with the Indian boys.

"How did you learn to shoot like that?" Brown asked over coffee.

Fox didn't look up from scrubbing the plates with sand. "The same way you learned. Lots of practice." The noise of the fire popping and sand scraping tin was the only sound for a full minute, then Fox looked up and smiled. "Want to go again tomorrow? With pistols?"

Hanratty and Brown laughed and Tanner felt the tension evaporate. The remainder of the evening passed quickly in talk of rifles, specifically a Sharps, versus pistols, particularly a Colt repeater, stories of various target shoots, and what weapons were reputed to be favored by famous outlaws and lawmen. For the first time since the journey began, Fox stayed at the fire with the men and they actually asked her opinion and listened when she responded.

Before Tanner called it a night and rolled out his bedding, he took Fox aside, needing to satisfy his curiosity. "What would you have done if you'd lost the contest?"

Her eyelids flickered, then her chin came up in a gesture of bravado. "I never considered that possibility."

"Consider it now."

Peaches had banked the coals in the fire pit. There wasn't enough light to see her expression. All he could make out was the pale oval of her face and the line of her throat. Imagination filled in blue eyes and a full shapely mouth.

"I wouldn't have lost. Good night, Mr. Tanner."

He sat beside the fire pit another five minutes, thinking about the day. Most of the events centered around Fox, her direction, her expertise, her assistance, her skills.

This was a unique situation for Tanner. In his world of design and mines, others looked to him for direction, expertise, and skill. He was as good in his field as Fox was in hers. For reasons he could not have explained, he regretted that Fox would never see him in his natural role as he was seeing her in hers.

The thought made him smile and shake his head. Ordinarily he didn't feel a need to impress a woman or court her admiration. But he'd never met a woman like Fox.

They spent a chill frosty night at altitude in the Shoshone mountains. In the morning, after crossing a rough divide, the company descended to a canyon that housed the deserted remains of a pony express station. Indians or settlers had stripped the station to the stone foundation. Here the well was dry, and if Fox hadn't earlier ordered everyone to carry extra water, there would have been no coffee for supper or breakfast.

The following day stretched long and tedious, skirting house-size rock formations before crossing the Reese River. The water level was low at this time of year and the mules plodded across without incident, but Hanratty's mount balked at entering the water.

He tried shouting, then spurring the animal, and finally jumped to the ground and attempted to lead the agitated horse down the bank. The horse reared and foam bubbled on his lips, his eyes rolled.

Red-faced and angry, Hanratty cussed and pulled on the reins, river water washing over his boots.

Before Fox could hand off the mules and start back across, she saw Tanner ride up to Hanratty and insist that Hanratty take Tanner's horse across. Words were exchanged then Hanratty swung up on Tanner's bay and ran it across the shallow river.

Curious, Fox pulled her hat down against the sun and watched to see what Tanner would do. First, he led Hanratty's horse away from the water, talking softly. Continuing to murmur, he stroked the horse's neck until the animal was calm. Then Tanner tied his bandanna around the horse's head and eyes before he led the horse into the water and walked it across the river.

"Hell, I could have done that," Hanratty swore.

"Yeah, but you didn't." Jubal Brown smirked.

Once the men were on their own mounts and the company moving again, Fox turned in beside Tanner. "How'd you know what to do back there?"

"Mules are used in the mines to haul the ore carts. Occasionally something spooks them and they balk." He turned his head to look at her. "This strikes me as being in the category of asking how you know where north is."

"Sorry," she said with a smile. "I didn't mean to sound as if I'm surprised." But she had been, a little.

And that wasn't fair. None of the men were the greenhorns Fox had expected, and that included Tanner. It hadn't been necessary to instruct anyone how to dig a fire pit or how to fold a bedroll efficiently. Even Tanner took his turn cooking and served up a meal as competently as Fox could have done.

As if he'd read her mind, he said, "I've spent a lot of time in the wilderness looking for Jennings's mines." His eyebrow lifted. "Did you think you were going to nursemaid a novice?"

"The thought crossed my mind."

Her mustang shifted to avoid a rock, pushing her leg against Tanner's. Lightning flashed up to her thigh and her cheeks heated. Damn it. What was it about this man that turned her into a quivering adolescent? He gave her a look that made her mouth go dry. Her leg brushed his and suddenly a fire ignited in her stomach.

"You make me mad," she said, scowling at his broad shoulders and open collar.

"Really? How's that?"

"I don't know. You just do." Touching her heels to the mustang's sides she trotted away from him, her face still hot.

On the positive side, Tanner's mention of Jennings was exactly what Fox needed. She hadn't spent as much time planning her revenge as she had expected she would. Worse, some days she forgot to apply Peaches's sun protection, and sometimes she simply didn't feel like sleeping with her hands immersed in bacon grease. If she was going to have the choices she wanted, she needed to focus more on Jennings and stick to her beauty routine.

Riding up next to Jubal Brown, she extended her hand for the mule's lead rope. "Thanks for spelling me. I'll take them now."

"I don't mind leading them a while longer."

Well, well. Hiding a smile, Fox stayed beside him. "So you're going home to join the war."

"Might as well. Seems I've worn out my welcome in the west."

Meaning the law was after him. Fox nodded, wondering how old he was. Twenty? Twenty-five? Some men weren't destined to die of old age.

"Do you really believe it somehow demeans you to assist Mr. Hernandez?"

"He's a Negro."

"He's an old man with rhumitiz and a cough."

"If he can't handle the job, he should have stayed home."

"It that were true, he would agree. But it isn't true. Mr. Hernandez and I both believe he can handle the job. The thing is, we're a team here, Brown. If one of us could use a helping hand, the rest of us have an obligation to offer that hand."

"I'm doing it, ain't I? So why are you chewing on me?"

"Because I'm sorry you made me punch you," Fox said, fixing her gaze ahead. "Some times that's the only way to get a man's attention."

"I can think of other ways a woman can get a man's attention."

She gave him a look cold enough to wipe the grin off his lips. "You best forget that I'm a woman, Mr. Brown, or you could get yourself shot or knifed."

"I just meant"

"I know what you meant, and you can keep those kind of remarks to yourself."

Riding forward, she slowed near Hanratty. "Is everything all right?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

Damn all. Every man in the group had a burr under his butt today. "Have you seen anything that might be Indians?"

"Are you fixing to give me another lecture about our noble red brothers?"

Fox strove for patience. "Outside of me, you have the best eyesight in the company. I'm just asking if you've seen anything."

"I've seen some antelope, a couple of rabbits, and a coyote."

"All right," she said, narrowing her eyelids down to slits. Leaning forward, she prepared to ride ahead where she could be alone and away from surly men.

Hanratty reached out and touched her arm. "Tell me something."

"I've seen some rabbits myself, and a couple of deer."

A grin broke across his whiskery face. "I ain't seen any Indians. I did see two men about two miles that way." He tilted his head south. "Riding the same direction as us, only traveling light and moving fast."

"I saw them, too. So what do you want to know?"

"Does Tanner think me and Jubal Brown stole the missing gold pieces?"

Fox hadn't seen that one coming. She stared at him. "There wasn't a hint that Tanner thought the coins were stolen. He appeared to believe like I did that we overlooked the missing coins when we searched. It would be easy to do. They were scattered over a wide area."

Hanratty nodded and pulled down his hat brim.

Fox didn't ask if he or Brown had stolen the coins. That was the kind of question that got a person killed. Surely neither of them were that stupid. She drew a long breath, inhaling the scents of sage and grass, man and horse.

"We're looking for a lake. Should be over that next rise."

"I'm going to ride ahead and kill something." When Fox raised her eyebrows, Hanratty added, "For supper."

"I wouldn't say no to a couple of fat rabbits."

She watched him gallop east, kicking up coils of sandy dust. Maybe they all needed a hard ride and a chase to soothe tempers sharpened by the daily tedium and by having to live in close quarters with other loners like themselves. Tomorrow or the next day, Fox would send Brown out by himself. Tanner, too.

She mentioned the idea to Tanner after they had set up camp between the lake and a small meadow where the grass was lush and starting to turn green. The horses and mules had found heaven.

"I wouldn't mind doing some exploring on my own," Tanner commented, taking in the scenery. "This is beautiful country."

"You don't think every range looks the same?"

They climbed one mountain range, searched for the pass, then dropped down to a valley, climbed the next range, dropped down to a valley. Fox had made the journey enough times to see and recognize shapes or faces in rocks and peaks, and the valleys were subtly different, each with its own character. But to most people, particularly to people like Tanner who hadn't grown up in the west, the ranges and valleys usually looked monotonously alike.

"Why did you ask that?" Tanner gazed at her with an intense expression that made Fox half believe that her emotions were writ large across her forehead. "Do you think each range looks like the next one?"