Page 26 of Love and Order

CHAPTER 9

Something jostled his left shoulder, and Rion jerked awake and cocked his Peacemaker.

“Whoa!” Seth clamped a firm hand around his, where it and the Colt rested on his chest. “Give me the peashooter. The posse’s gone.”

Rion shifted his hand from the weapon. “I heard you talkin’ in the cellar. Wasn’t sure if I got the bag back in place.”

“You did all right.” Seth took the gun and eased the hammer back in place. “Sheriff Downing told his deputy to check down here. Stephen Nesbitt—and he had a woman named Kezia Jarrett with him?”

He wobbled a grin at Seth. “That’s my sister. Calliope. Nesbitt’s her partner.”

Seth nodded. “Lu said somethin’ about that. Been itchin’ to ask you. I want to hear about this, but let’s get you both out of that tunnel first.”

That sounded good. After all the wrestling and movement, the pain hadn’t relented. At least not until he’d fallen asleep. Or had he passed out?

Seth helped him wiggle free of the opening before assisting him back to the bed. As he sank to the mattress, a shiver grabbed him.

“Is Lu all right?”

“Goin’ to get her now. Be right back.”

Seth retreated, and Rion tried to watch for her to emerge, but his eyes were heavy. A wave of pain racked him. He stretched out across the mattress, and when he next opened his eyes, Seth had returned, Lu beside him, both with arms full of their belongings. When his eyes fluttered open, she deposited her things on the nearest shelf and squatted beside him.

“Are you all right?” She settled a gentle hand across his forehead.

“I’m spent—but I ain’t hurt. No more than before, anyway. How ’bout you?”

She looked like she might speak but glanced up at Seth first. At his nod, she returned her focus to him.

“I heard something while we were hiding.”

Lena came partway down the steps, balancing a tray between one arm and her rounded belly. When she cleared her throat loudly, Seth hurried to take the tray and assist her the remainder of the way down.

“What’d you hear?”

“Two people were talking outside the far end of the tunnel. They were whispering, and I was far enough from them that I couldn’t see anything, so I’m not certain whether it was men or women.”

“There was only your sister and the one other woman in the posse,” Seth called.

He rubbed at the pain. “What’d they say?”

“It was a short conversation—about Hattie. One was angry that the other had lost her. He wanted to know how he’d lost an injured crippled woman, he said.”

“Injured. Not dead.”

“Yes.” Lu nodded.

Slow as his thoughts were moving, they shot down the path she’d pointed him to. “If they’re talkin’ around here, maybe she’s nearby.”

Lu nodded. “I suspect so. The one said to the other to find her and finish her. ”

Lena leaned into Seth’s side. “That poor woman.”

“We gotta find her.” Rion tried to sit up, though Seth was quick to restrain him, even while balancing the tray.

“You’re not goin’ anywhere. You need to rest, at least for a few days. Get some strength back.”

“But—”

“Rion, he’s right,” Lu whispered, settling a hand on his forehead once more.

Yes, Seth was right. This conversation was sapping his strength—fast. He was in no shape to sit a horse or search for Miss Hattie. But after the kindness the Ingrams had shown him, allowing a stranger to sit with them at the medicine show, he owed it to them to find her.

Besides, she might be able to identify the real culprit.

He peered up at Lu as she hovered nearby. “You’re sure you don’t know who was talkin’?”

She shook her head. “Before I could crawl to the end of the tunnel, the conversation was over, and they’d left.”

Lena’s jaw hinged open, and she looked at each of them. “Wouldn’t that mean whoever was talking is part of the posse?”

Lu shook her head. “One told the other to leave before he was seen. I think one may have been—the one calling the shots. But I’m not sure the other is.”

A shiver gripped him. “Can somebody get me a blanket?”

Lena snapped to work, freeing the two blankets from all the gear they’d taken into the tunnel with them and spread them over him. “I made you some broth, and I expect you to eat at least half of it.” She jabbed a finger at the tray Seth held. “It’ll help get your strength up. And I brought you some whiskey for your pain.”

He wasn’t one for strong drink, but hurting as he was? “I’ll take the whiskey first.”

It wasn’t long before Rion was asleep, having eaten only a little of the broth. As much as Lu wanted to sit with him, she followed Seth and Lena upstairs.

“I feel terrible that I didn’t see more.”

Lena turned a startled glance on her. “You shouldn’t. That was a difficult situation.”

“You’ve got a whole lot more information now than you had an hour ago. And there’s hope that Miss Ingram’s still alive.”

Lu shook her head. “Are there other people around—other homes?” With the fear-inducing circumstances and pace they’d had to keep getting to Seth and Lena’s, she’d not taken time to look for other houses.

“There’s a few who live not far below Gartner Lake.” Seth’s expression was grim. “There’s not many of us above it.”

“There is—” Lena cocked an eyebrow in her husband’s direction.

He nodded.

Lu stared at the pair. “Who?”

“Ollie Sapey.” He rubbed a hand over his hair. “A cantankerous old woman. Not long after Lena and me got married, we started buildin’ this place. I was out huntin’, came up on her place, and she gave me a strong warnin’ to stay away. Said it’d be the only warnin’ I was gonna get. I left. Didn’t want trouble. But a few weeks later, I was out again, somewhere else, and the old biddy came out of nowhere and about blew my head off with her shotgun. She’s an ancient woman, a recluse who, I reckon, don’t like having neighbors.”

“Do you suppose she might’ve seen something?”

“It’s possible. She seems to have a way of knowin’ what’s happenin’ on this part of the mountain. She moves like a ghost. I originally stumbled on her house unawares. The place is built right into the side of the hill, so it’s easy to miss until you’re on it. When she took the shot at me, I was in another area entirely.”

Lena stepped nearer and ducked her head. “I didn’t tell you, but she gave me the same warning not long after your run-in with her. And a few months back, I was out foraging things for a meal—three months ago, maybe?—and the old witch took a shot at me too.”

“She what?” Seth roared the question. “You shoulda told me!”

“I didn’t want trouble. This mountain’s big enough, we can all live on it—”

“Not if we don’t know what she considers hers!” He shook his head. “Takin’ a shot at my wife—carryin’ my child! I oughta go on over there and—”

“Get your fool head blown off? Then where would this baby and I be? You’ll do nothin’ of the kind, Seth Kealey.”

Lu focused on the floor, thoughts spinning. “But maybe I can …”

Seth stilled in his fuming. “You can what?”

“Go over to this Ollie’s place.”

He looked at her as if she’d suddenly gone cross-eyed. “To what end? So she can shoot at you? I don’t think so! For one, you don’t need to be out roamin’ the countryside with a posse huntin’ you and Ri. For another, I saw the way my brother looks at you … and I don’t want to face him if somethin’ happens to you when I coulda prevented it.”

“Hear me out. This woman gave you each a verbal warning, and only on the second encounter did she actually fire at you. If she follows suit, then I could go under cover of night when she’ll be less likely to see me coming, and I could get to her door.”

“No!” Seth belted the word.

“If I can get there, I can ask if she knows anything about Hattie. If she knows everything that happens on this part of the mountain, maybe she saw something. Maybe she’ll help us if we tell her a man’s life hangs in the balance!”

“And maybe she’ll decide to shoot on sight and not give a verbal warnin’ like she’s done before—and I’ll be left explainin’ to Ri how I let you get yourself killed. Or, you stumble on the posse, and they figure out you and Ri are about these parts—and you’re both caught. No! It’s a bad idea.”

Lena laid a hand on his arm. “She might be on to somethin’.”

“It’s a fool-headed notion.”

“No. Listen. Once night falls, you take her in the direction of Ollie’s place. She won’t see either of you, and you can keep an eye open for the posse while Lu does what she needs to. Now, when Ollie took that shot at me, she proved she is either one heck of a terrible shot or was purposely tryin’ to miss me. I’m a little woman, and she aimed a good ten feet above me. You said the same when she took the shot at you—she shot high, rainin’ tree bark and such over you.”

Despite his silence, it was obvious Lena’s words had Seth thinking.

“I doubt she really intended to hit either of us. It was another warnin’. Maybe there’s a softer side to her than we think …”

“That’s an awful big maybe .”

“And what if Hattie is alive and Ollie knows something?” Lu whispered. “We could potentially clear Rion’s name …”

Seth folded his arms as a muscle in his jaw popped. “What if she doesn’t know anything at all?”

Lena smiled the smile of a woman who knew she was about to win her point. “Then what have we lost?”

He shifted his feet, glanced at each of them for an instant, and then shook his head. “I’ll think on it, let you know by dusk.”

A thrill wound through Lu’s chest even as Lena stood on tiptoes and reached to peck her husband on the cheek. It was more than she thought Seth might agree to …

“Thank you,” Lena whispered.

He grunted then brushed past her and marched into the yard. Once he was gone, Lena patted Lu’s arm.

“Don’t you worry, hon. He’ll say yes. Just you watch and see.”