Foxfire Bride (26 page)

As they raced toward the dust and confusion swirling over the campsite, Tanner spotted large dark forms running between him and the firelight. He and Fox were almost on top of the animals before he realized it was a herd of elk.

Shouting, he grabbed Fox's arm and spun her off to the side, concerned about the gunshots. Hanratty and Brown were trying to turn the elk away from the campsite, but the shots hadn't been effective. The question was which direction they were firing. Into the herd? Above the herd? Toward him and Fox?

"Elk," Fox gasped. Bending, she placed her hands on her knees and a curtain of loose hair swung forward to hide her face.

They waited as the animals, oddly silent for such big animals, ran through the camp. When the last one had rushed into the darkness and the bullets stopped flying, Tanner and Fox walked forward to inspect the damage.

The fire pit had been knocked asunder. Hanratty threw the camp's water supply on fingers of fire traveling out from the scattered stones. Brown beat at the flames with his saddle blanket. Once Tanner was certain the fire had been contained, he moved over the trampled ground and examined the destruction.

The tents were destroyed, stakes broken, the canvas torn and crushed into the ground. Hooves had gouged the saddles and ripped the leather in spots, but they still appeared serviceable. Foodstuffs littered the ground, and clothing. Several cooking pots were smashed beyond repair.

Gold coins glittered in the starlight, strewn across the camp and beyond.

Fox was first to speak. She pulled back her shoulders. "Is everyone all right? Any injuries?"

"Jesus." Hanratty stared at the damage. "It happened so fast. One minute we were just sitting here talking, and the next instant two hundred animals were all around us."

Jubal Brown pulled his hat out of the ground, examined the broken crown and brim, then threw it down in disgust. Stalking over to a carcass on the ground, he gave the dead animal a kick. "I wish I'd shot more of the bastards."

"Where's Peaches?"

"Right here, Missy." Peaches walked out of the darkness. "Our animals are all accounted for but agitated." He took a long look at the carcass. "Elk steaks tomorrow night."

Tanner found the bank bags near where his tent had stood. All but one of the bags had busted under the pounding of hooves. Everywhere he turned he saw flashes of gold. The enormity of the task ahead thinned his lips.

"Well," Fox said when everyone had looked his fill at the devastation. "Peaches, are you up to butchering that elk?"

"I guess so." He didn't sound happy about it.

"All right. Let's find the lanterns. Brown, you start cleaning up the camp. Hanratty, you help Tanner and me pick up coins."

"Now? In the dark?"

"It's going to take several hours to collect them and then do a count." She looked toward Tanner for confirmation, and he nodded. "We can't afford to lose another day, so we'll have to do it tonight." Everyone watched while she picked a torn sleeve off the ground, ripped off a strip and used it to tie back her hair. "Let's move."

Tanner found a Dutch oven and kneeled beside the broken bags. Many of the coins had clumped here and he started scooping them into the pot. As near as he could figure, 1,875 coins were somewhere on the ground. Grimly, he consulted his pocket watch.

"It's ten thirty-five," he said when Fox asked.

Their eyes met and held for an instant, then she nodded and walked away, a lantern in one hand, the dishpan in her other.

Tanner watched the swing of her hips and the wild rumble of red curls falling to her waist. For a moment his mouth went dry and he saw her in his mind, a lush hourglass figure of perfection. If ever there was a woman with no need to hide beneath oversized shapeless clothing, it was Fox.

He thought about her as he stuffed the Dutch oven with gold and began filling another large pot, digging out coins embedded in the ground.

Even if she hadn't told him so, he would have known she had limited experience with a man. And the man she'd mentioned had used her poorly. His mouth set in a line. The man had been a fool.

Fox was the most responsive woman Tanner had ever encountered. More responsive than professional women, less inhibited than the respectable kind. She was every man's dream. Beautiful, open, eager to please, wildly exciting in her enthusiasm. He felt an instant stirring remembering the firm touch of her skin and the musky fragrance of her arousal. Their time together had passed all too quickly.

At one in the morning, he and Hanratty and Fox walked through the camp one last time, holding their lanterns high, eyes on the ground. Hanratty found two coins they had missed, then they called it quits.

"The count will go faster if you and Jubal count some of the pots and Hanratty and I count the rest," Fox suggested, swiveling to work out the kinks in her back. The hours of bending to search for and pick up coins made one's back ache like blazes.

"You trust me to help with the count?" Jubal asked, covering a yawn.

Tanner's smile didn't reach his eyes. "I'll be watching."

They finished the coin count at a little after three in the morning. Tanner added the two sums and nodded wearily.

"We're missing thirteen coins." Fox reached for a lantern, but he shook his head. "We'll look again in the morning."

She sank back on the scorched grass and rubbed her eyes. "We found one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two. I wouldn't have believed it was possible."

"We're only missing two hundred and sixty dollars." Standing, Hanratty rubbed the small of his back and gazed across the camp, which Jubal had restored to loose order.

"Only?" Jubal asked. "Since when was two hundred and sixty dollars a piddly amount? You got a fortune you ain't mentioned?"

"Shut up. I'm going to find some blankets and go to sleep." Without a backward glance, Hanratty moved into the darkness. Smiling, Jubal Brown followed.

Fox scanned the pots of coins. "I'm too tired to think about what we'll do with these now that the bags are broken."

"Before Mr. Hernandez went to sleep, he sewed some new bags out of the tent canvas."

Fox's gaze softened and she nodded. "That's Peaches. Doing what needs to be done with no fuss about it." Lowering her head, she plucked at her shirttail. "Tonight was you know, the part before the shots and the elk"

Tanner put an arm around her, feeling the weariness in her shoulders. "You were wonderful."

"Was I?" Large blue eyes turned up to him. "Seems like you did everything and I just"

He kissed her, slowly, deliberately, and smiled when she sighed. He rested his chin on top of her head. "Did I mention that the fanny project is a success?"

She laughed softly, snuggling into him.

"Do you have a name?"

"Fox."

"Other than Fox? Or is that the name your mother gave you?"

"I have a name," she admitted reluctantly. "But I'm not going to tell you. It's one of those lady names that was never meant for someone like me."

Someone like me. It pained him to hear her say that. She was smart, capable, self-sufficient. Beautiful, fearless, and honorable.

Long after Fox and the others were asleep, Tanner sat in the darkness, smoking beneath a canopy of stars. He thought about his father, awaiting rescue in the mountains above Denver. Thought about the unfinished mine design he'd left in Carson City. Mostly he thought about Fox.

It was going to be damned difficult to leave her when they reached Denver.

In the morning, they found eleven of the missing coins before Tanner decided it was more important to move on than to waste another hour searching for forty dollars. First, they had to wait for Peaches to mount his mule. Rebecca didn't take well to a saddle and threw him off twice.

Frowning, Fox watched Peaches push to his feet and straighten slowly. "Are you all right, old man?"

He grimaced and rubbed his hip. "I'm feeling my age."

Considering all he'd been through in the last couple of days, Fox didn't doubt it. Once he was finally mounted and it appeared Rebecca wouldn't buck him off again, Peaches looked around for the rest of the mules.

"Jubal is leading your string today," Fox informed him. "I want you to take it easy." Peaches closed his eyes and nodded, and Fox's level of concern shot up a few notches. Today would be long, but thankfully, if she remembered correctly, the terrain was relatively level.

A wall of rock rose directly in front of them. Fox knew from hard experience that the Schell Creek Range was not passable. They would have to head south around it, climbing again in altitude. After a long hard examination of Peaches's color, not good, and his posture, slumped, she urged her mustang to the front and headed out, leading one of the mule strings.

The stopover had been costly. Peaches had taken a beating in the water, they had lost a horse and all the tents, a goodly amount of their food staples, some utensils, and clothing. And two gold coins.

Fox's back still ached and she wondered how many more times she could stand hours of bending and searching for the damned coins. As many times as she had to, she finally decided, her expression grim.

By noon the steady climb in altitude had carried them above the sagebrush and into an area of tall limestone formations that interested Tanner but no one else. Everyone bolted their midday food without conversation, tired and feeling the need to make up time.

That night they camped in a high meadow circled by rough granite peaks. "Go sit down," Fox ordered when she saw the lines in Peaches's face and his tight lips. "I'll unpack the mules and find what we need to make supper." Peaches nodded gratefully and sat, resting his bones against a tree trunk.

"It's cold again," Hanratty commented after a simple meal of biscuits and elk steaks. "Feels like it could snow."

"Are we close to a place where we can replace the tents?" Jubal Brown asked Fox.

"There's a settlement on the far edge of the desert that might have what we need." She couldn't say for certain. In this part of the country settlements might thrive, or they could vanish in less than six months. "If we put in some long days, we should get there in about a week."

"I think I'll call it a day," Peaches said, rising from the ground with difficulty. "I'm stiff as a poker," he added, aware they all watched. "And coughing like a coyote. Nothing to worry over, just an aggravation."

Fox started to point out that the sun was still above the horizon, but bit her tongue. "Like you always told me, sleep is the best healer." Peaches rolled into his blankets and turned his face away from the fire. "I'm worried," Fox said in a low voice. The rattle in his chest wasn't going away nor were the coughing spells.

Abruptly, Tanner stood and gave her a long glance before he walked toward a grouping of pines. After a minute, feeling a rush of color in her cheeks, Fox followed. They stopped by the trees, in full view of the campfire. She noticed that Hanratty and Brown pretended not to watch.

Tanner handed her a cigar. "Mr. Hernandez needs bed rest."

"There's no place to get it." The thought drove her half mad.

"The second best choice would be to find a meadow with water and stay for a week." When she started to speak, he held up a hand. "But we can't do that."