Sweet Prairie Passion (Savage Destiny) (8 page)

“What’s going on!” Zeke growled.

“Looks like we have a little love triangle, Zeke,” Hanes replied. “We all know there’s a problem here.”

Jason Trent came storming up to camp with a bucket of water, quickly added up the situation, and scowled at LeeAnn with shame in his eyes. Zeke let go of David and gave him a little warning shove.

“I want no fighting on this train!” he commanded.

“Then tell that to the
kid!
” Robards replied angrily, wiping at a bloody lip. “He took the first swing!”

“
I
took
all
the swings, you fancy coward!” David hissed proudly. Abbie smiled. “I don’t need to stand here and take your insults,” the boy continued. “You have no right coming around here every night with your fancy duds and your fancy words and sparkin’ with a girl who doesn’t realize you’re no good!”

LeeAnn stormed up to David, facing him with folded arms. “
I’ll
choose my man friends, if you don’t mind, mister David Craig!” she spat at him. “I never asked you to come around here, and I’d like you to apologize to Mr. Robards for that remark! You have no way of knowing whether he’s good or bad!”

“A man can smell a skunk right easy!” David sneered.

LeeAnn slapped him, and David turned red, his eyes actually tearing.

“I feel sorry for you.” he finally stammered. Abbie’s heart ached for the boy, and she hated LeeAnn at that moment; for she had changed considerably since spending so much time with Robards. Jason Trent
walked up to his daughter and gave her a light shaking.

“That was a damned shameful thing to do!” he told her. LeeAnn, seemingly untouched by the remark, glared haughtily at her father. Trent sighed and, running a hand through his hair, walked to the back of the wagon.

“You two fight again and I’ll hogtie both of you to a wagon and drag you a ways to get the orneriness out of you!” Zeke warned David and Robards. His eyes were on Robards, whom he judged to be worthless, just as most others had, except for LeeAnn.

“You just try it!” Robards hissed, brushing off his fancy clothes. Zeke suddenly grabbed the man’s tie and jerked him forward, half strangling Robards with the hold. He whipped out a big knife, and LeeAnn’s eyes widened with fright as Zeke waved it under the man’s nose, while Robards glared back at him, trying to look brave.

“It would be good for your health, Robards, if no harm comes to Miss LeeAnn Trent—neither physical, nor emotional,” Zeke hissed. “You understand me?” He made a quick flick with the knife and cut Robards’ tie. LeeAnn screamed, and Robards stepped back, beads of sweat on his forehead.

“Your job is to lead this train, not to interfere with peoples’ personal matters!” the man growled in reply. He reached inside his fancy jacket, but Zeke was ready. For the rest of her life Abbie would try to remember actually seeing Zeke pull his sidearm, but it had happened too fast. She simply could not remember it happening. All she knew was that the gun was out and cocked and aimed at Robards before Robards’
own hidden handgun was pulled all the way out of its hidden holster. Zeke stepped closer and held a big Colt .45 against Robards’ forehead.

“I won’t fire this gun, Robards, because Miss Trent is standing right here. But you pull a pistol on me again, and you’re a
dead
man!
I
know what my job is!
Leading
this train means keeping the
peace
on this train, and I’ll do what I have to do to accomplish that! I’ll speak with David, too. And I’ll advise him to leave you and Miss Trent alone. But like I said, you’d better not bring any harm to that young lady, or you’ll answer to
me
—not David Craig!”

Robards swallowed nervously and stepped back. Zeke looked over at Abbie, and seeing the gratefulness in her eyes, he realized how worried she must be about the man’s involvement with her scatterbrained sister. He turned to LeeAnn, who looked at him with hatred.

“Your ma must have taught you some common sense,” he told the girl. “
Use
it!” He turned and mounted his horse as Yellow Grass watched him admiringly.

LeeAnn immediately began fussing over Robards, telling him to come to the creek with her and she’d wash his bleeding lip and his bruises. “I’m so sorry, Quentin!” she whimpered, as the others dispersed, whispering among themselves. David Craig watched her for a moment, then stalked off.

“You stay here, LeeAnn!” Jason Trent ordered his daughter.

LeeAnn shot a defiant look at her father. “I’m old enough to do what I please!” she clipped. “You can’t order me around anymore, pa! You brought me out to this horrible place, and the least you can do is let me
pick my friends! I hate it out here! I hate it! It’s hot and dirty—and I’m tired! You must not love me very much if you won’t even let me be friends with Mr. Robards!” She burst into tears, and Trent turned away, shame and hurt in his eyes, while LeeAnn walked off with Robards. She turned once to face Abbie. “You tell that Cheyenne Zeke to leave my Quentin alone!” she hissed. “He might be good with a knife and a gun, but he’s got no education, not one ounce of refinement or manners! He’s got no right threatening an intelligent prosperous man like Quentin!”

She turned and walked into the darkness with Robards, and Abbie’s heart burned with anger in defense of Zeke. “Cheyenne Zeke’s got more brains than Quentin Robards has in his little finger!” she shouted back. “He’s ten times the man that fancy gambler will ever be! Go on, LeeAnn! I don’t like you anymore since you started hanging around with that no-good! I don’t know you anymore!”

The tears came then, and she knew others must have heard her, maybe even Zeke, but she didn’t care. She wouldn’t have believed her sister could change so much, and she knew it was because of Robards. She sniffed and walked over to hug her father, and for the next few minutes nothing was said between them.

“She’s right, Abbie girl,” the man finally spoke up. “She’s grown up now, and she’s not about to listen to her pa anymore. Thank God for you, Abbie. You’re a good girl.”

“I love you, pa. I’ll stick by you,” she sobbed.

“I know you will.” He sighed and gave her a squeeze. “Abbie, I I know how you’re starting to feel about Cheyenne Zeke.”

She stiffened in his arms. “Pa I—”

“Now, now, it’s okay. I think he’s a good man, Abbie, a good man. But you’ll get hurt feeling like that. For one thing, he’s a man … and not likely to have those thoughts for a girl child like you. But I think if he did, he’d be honorable enough not to act on them. I want you to know that no matter what happens, I approve of Zeke. It’s just … it’s the others I worry about. Folks look down on a white girl who has eyes for an Indian, especially a half-breed. I don’t want any trouble for you, baby, no pain and heartache. That’s a dead-end road, and you could get hurt bad. You be careful, Abbie girl. You’re giving your feelings away, and maybe it’s best you keep them to yourself.”

“I know it’s silly and hopeless,” she whimpered. “Cheyenne Zeke has no eyes for me.”

“Well, maybe not … and maybe so. I just think he’s wise enough to know what harm that could bring you. You tread real careful, Abbie. That’s a risky business, falling for a man like that. And you’re just a child. It’s probably something you’ll get over.” He gave her a squeeze. “You dry those tears now and get Jeremy to bed.”

Down at the stream LeeAnn gently washed Robards’ face with cool water. He dabbed it dry with a white handkerchief, then grasped her arms. “You’re beautiful, LeeAnn,” he said softly. “And I want you. … I ache for you.”

Her heart pounded and she blushed. He had held her and kissed her before, but she knew he meant something much more intimate now. More than ever, she wanted to be sure to keep him. Perhaps he would get angry about the fight and decide she was not worth
the trouble if she didn’t please him in this moment of need. And, after all, he’d been in a fight over her, calling her his woman and jealously guarding that claim.

“I—We aren’t married, Quentin.”

He touched her breast lightly with the back of his hand. “What does it matter? We’re already married in thought, aren’t we? When we get to civilization, we can have a ceremony. But in the meantime, we’re out here in the middle of nowhere, wanting each other.”

She met his eyes. “You truly want to marry me?”

“Of course I do, LeeAnn! Maybe we can even find a way to go back East. I thought going to Oregon sounded like a good idea, because I’m a lonely man and I’m searching for something new. I have money, LeeAnn, a lot of money. I was going to Oregon to find a lovely place in the mountains, where I’d use my money to build a beautiful home with all the modern fineries. But if you don’t want to go West, we’ll find a way to go back. Either way, we’ll marry and have a fine home, and you’ll wear beautiful clothes and be a grand lady—Mrs. Quentin Robards!”

Her eyes teared. “Oh, Quentin I’d love that!”

He grinned and kissed her lightly. “You’ve lived the plain life too long, my dear. You’re much too beautiful for that. And I didn’t think this trip would be so hot and filthy and distasteful. Neither one of us is cut out for this. I don’t know yet if we can get back, but whether we go back or go on, let’s not deny ourselves the pleasures we both crave any longer.”

He kissed her again, this time hungrily, forcing her lips apart and ignoring the pain in his own lip as he grasped her breast and groaned. It had been a long time since he’d left Tina’s whorehouse in Illinois. This
lovely young virgin would be worth a considerable sum to Tina. Once he broke her in and taught her to like it, then started her on the drugs, she’d make a profitable whore. He envisioned her lying naked and drugged on a bed, clean and covered with sweet oil. How delicious she must taste!

“Oh, Quentin I do so want to be your woman!” she was whispering. “You won’t hurt me, will you?”

“How could I hurt such a beautiful woman? Would I hurt someone I intend to marry?” As he opened her dress and tasted her virgin nipples, LeeAnn’s breathing quickened. He wished he’d run across her sooner, before they’d gotten this far West. If he’d known this would happen, he wouldn’t have left Tina’s place. As it was, he owed her a great sum of money, and he’d run off to avoid being murdered by Tina’s “collection agents.” Now he’d be able to repay her with this voluptuous young girl who would bring in a lot of money. Until he decided for certain whether to continue to Oregon or go back to Illinois, he would taste of LeeAnn’s sweet fruit himself. He laughed inwardly at her vulnerability. Yes, he would dress her in fine clothes, but she would most certainly not be his wife. He moved his hand under her dress and groped for her untouched places while she lay whimpering and in ecstasy.

“Oh, Quentin, I love you!” she whispered.

He did not reply as he moved on top of her.

They were two weeks from Fort Laramie, and Bradley Hanes’s foot had healed well, thanks to Zeke’s moss. Things had smoothed out somewhat among the travelers, except for a couple of remarks exchanged
between Zeke and the preacher. David Craig stayed away from LeeAnn, hating her and loving her at the same time. Every morning a few stray cattle and horses had to be rounded up, and there was a little bit of diarrhea among the travelers, along with a lot of mosquito bites and sore feet. Abbie was sure part of the reason things had quieted down was that they all were too hot and tired to care about anything but getting through the day so they could sleep and enjoy the cool of the night.

There had been a couple of violent storms that had made Abbie cover her head with a quilt and shiver with fear, but they’d survived the rains and the accompanying flash floods. And they plodded ever westward, with barely a word exchanged between Abbie and LeeAnn. A wall had been built that would never again be torn down, for LeeAnn was totally convinced that Quentin Robards was the most wonderful man in the world, while Abbie hated him more than ever. And where Cheyenne Zeke was concerned, their feelings were the same, only in reverse. Abbie loved him, but now LeeAnn hated him.

Nonetheless, they settled into a daily routine in which Yellow Grass helped Abbie with the chores, while LeeAnn and Robards walked and talked and often disappeared after camp was set up at night. No one spoke about that, but Abbie knew what the others were thinking, and her heart ached for her father, who felt helpless and ashamed. Abbie saw little of Cheyenne Zeke, who did his job well and was often gone the whole day scouting the trail ahead, while Olin led the way down the trail Zeke had already scouted the day before. Abbie’s hope of anything ever coming of her
love for Cheyenne Zeke dwindled more every day. That only made the days seem longer and more dreary, and she was beginning to hate this desolate land to which her father had brought them. But never would she tell him.

One typically dreary morning, as they headed into the unchanging horizon, they suddenly heard a child scream farther ahead. Abbie could see Zeke riding toward the sound from another direction, and shortly after he dismounted, she heard a gunshot. Everybody began to run toward the spot, and Abbie arrived about the same time as the others, to see little Mary Hanes lying on the ground, her dress pulled up and her pantaloons ripped open, exposing her right thigh. Zeke was bent over her. The preacher lit into Zeke and pushed him away, shouting something about Zeke putting heathen hands on a small white girl and violating her. Zeke stood up and landed a fist hard into the preacher’s middle. The man cried out and vomited. Then Zeke kicked him in the shoulder and sent him sprawling backward.

“The girl’s been snake-bit!” he growled at the rest of them. “I was fixing to cut the bite and suck out the venom!” He shouted something to Yellow Grass, and she ran toward the wagons, while the others spotted the dead rattler lying near Mary Hanes. As the girl’s parents came running, Abbie saw the ugly fang marks on the little girl’s thigh. The child lay crying and shaking, and Mrs. Hanes knelt beside her as soon as she’d learned what had happened.

“She’ll die!” Mr. Hanes moaned.

“I can help her, if you don’t mind me touching her,” Zeke explained to the man. “I have to work fast,
Mr. Hanes, or she
will
die! But I have to have your permission! Time is important!”