The Mavericks (8 page)

At least he was sure of one thing. She
wasn't
talking about checking horses' hooves. “The paint,” he said and followed Suzette as she walked to where the small, short-coupled mare was quickly decimating a patch of grama grass. They finished checking the rest of the horses without returning to the subject that was burning a hole in Hawk's mind. He had used the time to sort through his thoughts, catalog the possible meanings of her words, and decide on the most tactful way to find out what he wanted to know. But his plan had to be postponed when the wagon lumbered into sight.

“You'd better check on Laurie,” Josie called out before the wagon came to a stop. “I think her temperature is going up.”

Hawk had expected that. The rising temperature inside the wagon as the sun neared its zenith, in addition to the irritation of being tossed around, would inevitably make Laurie hotter. It was probably best that he hadn't gotten a chance to tell Suzette the things he'd been thinking of. She couldn't have meant what he'd thought. Spending time with Laurie would give him a chance to bring his own temperature down. Maybe then he could think clearly. If not, he was in for a rough night.

“Of course you'll stay the night with us,” Laurie's father said to Hawk and Zeke. “Put your horses in the corral. I'd offer you a place to sleep in the house, but Laurie's friends are taking our only spare room.”

“Thank you, but that's not necessary,” Zeke said.

“If I let you leave now, my wife would never let me hear the end of it, not after you brought our Laurie home and took such good care of her.”

“We didn't do anything,” Hawk said. “We just traveled along with the women.”

The last hours of the trip had been tense. The heat and the discomfort of traveling over rough ground in a wagon with nothing to absorb the shock had worn Laurie down until Hawk had begun to worry if she'd make it home. He'd considered stopping to give her a chance to rest, but she had begged him to get her home as quickly as possible. Now that she was home again, she already looked better.

“That's not what my daughter told me,” Mr. Pettinger said. “She said she would probably have died without your medicine.”

Zeke didn't want to spend the night on Mr. Pettinger's farm any more than Hawk did, but there seemed little sense in refusing his invitation, especially since it was too late to travel more than a few miles before they'd have to make camp. Besides, he looked forward to eating a meal that hadn't been cooked over a campfire.

“You sure you won't stay longer?” Mrs. Pettinger asked Suzette.

“Thank you, ma'am, but we need to be on our way.”

Suzette experienced a pang of regret at having to leave the Pettingers' place. It had been a comfort to spend an evening in a genuinely loving home, a real delight to eat good food and enjoy convivial company, a great comfort to go to bed and fall asleep without the
shouts of drunks or the smells of alcohol and tobacco. The visit reminded her so much of when her mother was alive that she felt her death more keenly than she had in a long time. And the absence of her sister, whom she hadn't seen since her own marriage six years ago.

“My husband and I feel we ought to do something to show our appreciation to you for bringing Laurie home to us,” Mrs. Pettinger said.

“Giving us a bed for the night and doubling our supplies is more than enough reward,” Josie said.

Neither Suzette's nor Josie's protests had been enough to stop Laurie's parents from loading them down with food, an extra quilt in case it got colder, and home remedies to ward off sickness. Even now, as they waited for Zeke to arrive with the mules, they suspected Mrs. Pettinger would try to put something else in their wagon if they turned their backs.

“I feel like I ought to do more,” Mrs. Pettinger said. “Our daughter could have died.”

“Then thank Hawk,” Suzette said. “He's the one who knew what to do to bring down her temperature and what herbs would make her feel better.”

She was disturbed by Mrs. Pettinger's attitude toward Hawk. Her discomfort when he was present the evening before had been impossible to miss. No white man could have been more polite or more cordial, but Mrs. Pettinger's relief when Hawk and Zeke left had been so obvious, Suzette had been hard-pressed not to ask if she was afraid Hawk might scalp them in their sleep.

“Please thank him for me,” Mrs. Pettinger said, her gaze swinging toward the path Zeke would use to
bring the mules. “I must tell you I don't feel easy knowing you will be alone on the trail with those men.”

“Your daughter wouldn't be with you now if it weren't for
those men
,” Suzette said, trying hard to keep her voice level, her expression neutral. “It they hadn't fixed our wagon, we'd still be at the creek.”

“But Anna's young man would have helped you when he arrived,” Mrs. Pettinger said.

“We'll be quite safe with Hawk and Zeke.” Tension had been gathering in Suzette all morning, first from having to stave off the Pettingers' excessive largesse, and now from trying to hold her tongue in the face of Mrs. Pettinger's groundless prejudice. “In fact, I wish they were going to travel with us the rest of the way to Tombstone.”

She hadn't meant to say that—had only said it, she was sure, because Mrs. Pettinger had angered her—but she knew it was true the moment the words were out of her mouth. Aside from her physical attraction to Hawk, she'd started to like him. He wasn't very talkative and had yet to tell her much about himself, but she'd never met a man as kind and thoughtful. It must have annoyed him to have to prolong his own journey to stay with the wagon and take care of Laurie, but never once had he made her feel she was imposing on him. And though it was obvious to Suzette that he desired
her
, he'd never done anything to make her uncomfortable or fearful.

“It's very brave of you to travel such a long distance on your own,” Mrs. Pettinger said. “I would have expected you to hire a guide.”

“I hadn't thought of that,” Suzette said to Josie. “Do you think Hawk and Zeke would be our guides?”

“I didn't mean
them
,” Mrs. Pettinger hastened to say.

Suzette realized Mrs. Pettinger's fears were based upon the very real fact that some Indians
had
committed atrocities. What was unfair was that white men who'd committed equally vile acts were treated as heroes. She was relieved to see Zeke coming with the mules. “Josie, why don't you help Zeke with the mules while I go inside to say good-bye to Laurie?” As much as she appreciated the Pettingers' hospitality, she couldn't wait to leave. The strength of her anger at Mrs. Pettinger's attitude toward Hawk surprised her. She hadn't realized she'd come to like him so much. It was probably a good thing they were going to go their separate ways for the rest of the journey. Hawk had no place in her plans for the future.

“Are you going to ask Hawk and Zeke to travel with you?” Laurie asked when Suzette entered her room. She was still sick, but she already looked better for being home and in her own bed.

“Why would we do that?” Suzette asked.

“Because it's dangerous for two women to travel alone. They'd take good care of you.”

“Your mother doesn't think so.”

“Mother will never stop being afraid of Indians and distrustful of black men, but that's no reason I have to feel the same way, especially after Hawk took such good care of me.”

“We can't ask them to slow down enough to stay with us,” Suzette said. “We've already held them up long enough.”

“I bet they'd do it if you asked.”

“Well, I'm not going to ask, and you can be sure Josie won't.” Suzette needlessly rearranged the quilt
over Laurie, plumped a pillow, and positioned the water pitcher a few inches closer to her. “I don't think he likes Josie any more than she likes him.”

Laurie was pale with dark circles under her eyes. “Of course he likes Josie. How can a man not like a woman that beautiful?”

“When that woman makes it plain she doesn't like him and wants nothing to do with him.”

“She's only doing that because he doesn't make a fool of himself over her like other men. Regardless of what Josie says, she wants men to make a fuss over her.”

“Of course she does. It's the way she judges her appeal to an audience. When they stop making a fuss over us, we'll have to find another way to make a living.”

“Josie may not like Zeke yet, but she's intrigued by him. Just like you're intrigued by Hawk.”

Averting her gaze, Suzette started to fuss with the quilt again. “I don't know if you're right about Josie, but you're right about me. However, it doesn't matter. We'll never see those men after today.”

Laurie grabbed Suzette's hand to keep her from fussing. “You could change that.”

Suzette pulled away. “You know why I can't.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Suzette didn't like the look Laurie gave her. It clearly said she thought Suzette was making a mistake, but Suzette didn't have time for a romantic interlude with Hawk. She already had a pressing job—to make sure her sister didn't suffer the way she had. Besides, even though she liked men, she didn't trust them. None of them appeared able or willing to live up to their commitments. And a man who'd reached Hawk's
age without getting married was clearly a man who didn't
want
commitments.

“Don't worry about me and Josie,” Suzette said. “Stay here with your parents, get well, and meet some nice farmer boy.”

“I think I'll do that,” Laurie said with a weak smile. “I used to think my life was unbearably boring, and I couldn't wait to get away. But almost from the time I got to Globe, all I wanted was to come home. I can't thank you enough for bringing me here.”

“We couldn't think of leaving you. Now give me one last hug. I've been expecting Josie to drag me out of here for the last five minutes.”

She hugged Laurie, only slightly jealous that she wasn't the one to sleep in a soft bed under a handmade quilt, to live in a snug house, to know that her future was safe and secure. Yet as she stepped through the door, she realized she would have felt confined by the life Laurie would lead.

Outside, Suzette saw that Zeke had brought up the mules, but nothing, had been done to harness them to the wagon. Instead, Josie and Zeke were squared off against one another like two young roosters. If Suzette didn't do something in a hurry, the fur would begin to fly.

Suzette didn't know whether to intervene or let them battle it out. Those two had been spoiling for a fight from the moment they'd met, each encounter ratcheting up the tension another notch. Now they were so wrapped up in their confrontation, they appeared to have forgotten they were supposed to be harnessing the mules. Hands clenched at his sides, Zeke was glaring at Josie dangerously.

“I have no doubt men whose jobs keep them from seeing many women gape at you like starving kids at a table loaded with food, but I'm not starved for a woman.”

“Is that why you can't keep your hands off me? Or your eyes?”

“I look at you because you get in my way,” Zeke snapped. “Only a woman who thinks every man finds her irresistible would interpret every accidental contact
while harnessing a couple of mules as an inability to keep his hands off her.”

“So you didn't touch me?”

“It certainly wasn't intentional.” Zeke walked around Josie, picked up a collar and lifted it over the head of one of the mules. Josie followed suit with the other.

“So it was an accident that your arms just happened to be around me.”

Zeke turned, his hold on his temper tenuous. “Since you don't know enough about harnessing mules to know when to move out of the way, I had to reach around you.”

The way they were arguing, they'd soon be saying things they couldn't forgive. Suzette forced her way between them. “Are the mules harnessed and ready to go?”

“Done,” Zeke barked.

“Thank you. Why don't you climb in the back, Josie? I'll drive for the first hour.”

“You'd better drive all the time,” Zeke said. “She seems to have difficulty staying in touch with reality.”

“And you have difficulty staying in touch with the truth,” Josie said.

Zeke leveled a look at Josie that should have pushed her back several feet, but she held her ground. “I don't know anything about the truth of your reality, but I want nothing to do with it,” he said.

“Good,” Josie said when Zeke turned and strode away. She continued to glare after him, but he didn't turn around or show that he'd heard her.

“What was that all about?” Suzette asked.

“That is the most infuriating man who ever lived,”
Josie said. She was so worked up, Suzette could almost see fire coming out of her nostrils. “He practically holds me in an embrace, then denies he even touched me.”

Suzette thought it was a good thing Zeke and Josie would be going their separate ways. If they were together much longer, there'd be a terrible explosion.

“Come on,” Suzette said, “get in. Let's go before Mrs. Pettinger tries to give us anything else.”

But Josie continued to stand staring at the spot where Zeke had stalked off, a look of mingled fury and chagrin on her face. It appeared to Suzette that Josie didn't know how to react, and that was unlike her. She always knew what she wanted to do, didn't hesitate to say what was on her mind, and could take command of any situation. Suzette had her own ideas about what might be throwing Josie off stride. Zeke was a man who might turn any woman's head, but Suzette had no intention of letting Josie guess what she was thinking. If she was wrong, Josie would be furious with her. If she was right, Josie would be more angry still.