Trail of Kisses Page 16

  Ben must have seen her dreamy, confused look. He rose abruptly. For just a moment, he stood staring at her, his own mix of emotions playing across his face. Then he thrust his hands into his pockets and marched off. Lynne’s guilt twisted deeper. Whatever Ben’s feelings for her were, she was bound to disappoint him too.

  Was that what it was? Was she afraid of disappointing Cade’s affections? She glanced across to him as he set the remainder of the stew aside in its closed pot and moved a pot of coffee over their fire instead. She took a deep breath. It all came back to one thing in the end. If she gave her heart away, she would have nothing left with which to protect herself against the twists and turns life had thrown her way.

  “I can tell that something’s bothering you,” Cade said, catching her standing there staring.

  “It’s nothing, really.” She turned away and used a sparing bit of water from the barrel they’d filled from a spring at the last way station to rinse their plates and cups.

  “But it is something.” Cade wouldn’t let it drop.

  Lynne forced a smile on the off chance he was watching her. “I’m eager to get to Denver City, that’s all. It’s a blessing that we’re so close to the journey’s end.”

  “But,” he prompted.

  But I don’t know how I’ll feel when we part, she thought to herself. But I’m not sure I want to part. I’m not sure I could give up my heart and I’m not sure I can keep it to myself anymore.

  “But it will be such a change from life in St. Louis,” she finished. She thought she did rather well at making an excuse.

  Cade left the coffee and sauntered up to her side as she worked. “You’ll do just fine in Denver City. And I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised about how advanced such a new city is.”

  “Will I?” She could feel the heat of his body when he stood so close to her like that. It stirred feelings deep inside her, feelings that were more of a danger than any threat by a Briscoe Boy.

  “I’m sure of it.”

  Cade was about to go on when a shriek rose up from one of the nearby wagons. Lynne’s heart shot to her throat, but the cry was quickly followed by a rough laugh. Hard on the heels of that, one of the farmers shouted a string of insults and backed a grubby miner away from his campfire.

  “I’ll not have you insulting my wife like that, and if you so much as lay a finger on my daughter again, I’ll shoot your hand off!” the farmer bellowed.

  “What’s going on down here?” Mr. Evans came charging across the circle of wagons to break things up.

  Lynne sighed and glanced to Cade. “It was a bad idea to let the miners loose around decent people.”

  Cade shrugged, but his face was grim. “No more of a bad idea than to let them keep on bunching together and getting into fights.”

  He was right. Lynne dried off the last of the dishes with a towel that had seen better days and stowed them in the box they traveled in.

  “I’ll be glad when we reach our destination,” she said.

  She must have sounded too wary. Cade stepped closer, leaning against the side of the wagon with his arms crossed, and said, “Do they make you nervous?”

  Indignation flared alongside the truth of things. “They do not,” she lied with vigor. “Nothing makes me nervous.”

  Cade’s grin was enough to set her skin tingling. “Except me.”

  She arched a brow and pushed past him to the back of the wagon to sort out bedding. “You don’t make me nervous, Cade Lawson, you just make me wary.”

  He followed her, stopping far too close to her once more. “I never intended to make you nervous. I want to make you feel safe.”

  “I don’t need—”

  Another shriek went up from the wagon where Mr. Evans was scolding both the farmer and the miner. Lynne jumped and turned to look. This time the farmer’s wife was in a tizzy because Mr. Evans had taken the farmer’s gun away. The farmer and his wife were both arguing now, while the miner sat back and watched, laughing uproariously.

  “No one’s going to get much sleep tonight,” Lynne sighed.

  “Which brings me to another thing,” Cade said. “You’re sleeping under the wagon with me again tonight.”

  “I am not!” Lynne protested, even as her knees went soft with the idea of lying curled up in Cade’s arms, his rich scent and warmth all around her. Those weren’t the things she truly longed for, though, or the things she feared.

  Cade’s expression turned stern. “There’s too much upset in the camp tonight, what with the miners and everyone else being on edge. I don’t like the feel of it.”

  “Well, neither do I,” Lynne said, hoisting herself into the back of the wagon to inch away from him.

  “The best solution is to stay out of sight and out of the way.”

  “And out of trouble?” she said, implying that they would do anything but stay out of trouble under the wagon.

  “I don’t like the feel in the air tonight.”

  Lynne paused in the middle of fishing her bedding out of its corner and peeked back at Cade. He looked as serious as could be, which made her heart tremble.

  “What’s wrong with the air?” She made light of it.

  “Anything could happen tonight.”

  “Which is precisely why we shouldn’t put ourselves in any sort of position of temptation.”

  Her comment was almost enough to get him smiling again as she scooted to the edge of the wagon and hopped down with her bed things. “Under normal circumstances, I would like the sound of that,” he said.

  “I’m sure you would.” She gave him a passing sidelong glance as she walked around the side of the wagon and dropped her bedding beside the campfire.

  Cade caught on to what she was doing and followed her with a frown. “What’s all this?”

  She squatted and began smoothing the thin quilted pad that served as a mattress and her blanket on top of it. “I’m sleeping out under the stars tonight,” she told him with a smile.

  Cade let out a long breath. From the corner of her eye, she saw him wipe a hand across his face. “You’re not sleeping out in the open.”

  “Yes, I am,” she told him.

  “Why?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “It’s a beautiful night. I want to.”

  “It’s too dangerous.”

  “Is it? You just said that the entire camp is worked up tonight. Everyone is on the alert.”

  “That’s exactly the problem.”

  “Or exactly the solution.” She stood and marched back to the wagon to fetch her pillow. “If everyone is on the alert, they will see or hear anything untoward that goes on. But if we’re out in the open where anyone who wants to can see that nothing unseemly is happening, then our reputations will remain intact and anyone who wishes me or you ill will be seen and thwarted. And I can be on the lookout for anything those miners might try.”

  She punctuated her speech with a smile for Cade, who stood, dumbfounded, beside the campfire.

  “I’m not sure if that’s the stupidest line of logic I’ve heard all day or the smartest,” he said.

  “Well, it’s not the stupidest,” Lynne said, bringing her pillow back to the campfire. “I believe that honor goes to Mr. Evans.”

  Sure enough, the farmer and his wife were still grumbling up a storm several wagons down while the miner chuckled and snorted.

  Cade let out a breath and spread his hands wide. “Fine. You can sleep out under the stars if you want to. And I’m going to sleep ten feet away from you.”

  “Do what you have to do,” she said.

  Cade started. “Really? It’s that easy?”

  “Of course it is.” Lynne smiled feeling more sure of herself than she had in days. “Just so long as you understand that the ten feet in question will be occupied by the wagon.”

  “What?”

  “It wouldn’t be proper for us to sleep side by side,” she explained. “Not when I’m supposed to be behaving myself for Mr. Evans’s sake.”

&nb
sp; “I don’t think Pete meant—”

  “So I’ll just sleep on this side of the wagon and you can sleep on the other. All proprieties will be observed and you’ll still be just a few feet away from me.”

  She had to admit, her logic was exactly the sort of thing that would drive Cade to distraction, whether it was a good idea or not. He shook his head at her, jaw working as though trying to come up with some kind of argument. She ignored him and dropped her pillow at the head of her bedroll.

  Instead of lying down and getting comfortable, though, she took a look around. The campfire was on the inside of the circle of wagons. A dozen and more other campfires burned nearby and men and women both were still up and roaming even though the sun was going down.

  “On second thought,” she said, bending to scoop her things, “you can sleep on this side of the wagon next to the fire and I’m going to sleep on the other side where there’s a little more peace.”

  She hugged her pillow and bedroll tight and walked back to the wagon, giving Cade a victorious smile as she did. He followed her, eyes as tired as she’d seen them in weeks. Was he still not sleeping? The only way she could fight the stab of guilt at teasing him was by reminding herself that he would do the same to her if given half a chance.

  He didn’t say anything until she was on the far side of the wagon, spreading her bedroll and making herself comfortable. The sun had dipped below the horizon and a veil of stars glittered across the sky.

  “Nothing I say is going to make you change your mind, is it?” he said.

  “No. Nothing.” She snuggled into her bedroll, certain she would have sweet dreams after her victory.

  Cade continued to stand there, rubbing his neck and tugging at his hair. He was probably pulling it out for all the trouble she was giving him.

  “All right,” he said at last, weary and defeated. “But make no mistake about it, I’m spreading my bedroll out immediately on the other side of the wagon. And keep in mind, that wagon is high enough off the ground that I could skittle underneath it to reach you if the wind so much as blows too strong.”

  In spite of herself, in spite of all her attempts at pride and one-upmanship, the statement sent a warm glow through Lynne’s chest and a shiver that swirled around her core.

  “No doubt you could,” she replied with exaggerated seriousness.

  As she turned her back on him and settled her head against her pillow, she smiled. She listened to his footsteps as they stomped around the back of the wagon, returning to the campfire, then counted his every movement as he sat against one of the wagon wheels across from her. She listened to see if he would lay out his own bedroll. Did he ever sleep? Probably not as much as he should, not with the way he always looked so tired. But he would keep watch, just feet away. He loved her.

  Lynne couldn’t keep the smile off of her lips, no matter how quivering the shadows in her heart tried to be. He was the bane of her existence, but part of her was coming around to the idea that her Uncle George had chosen well when he sent Cade to bring her west. She settled on her side and pulled the thin blanket of her bedroll up to her chin. It was a warm night, though, and before long she pushed it back below her shoulders. The drone of people talking, animals chewing and pawing the grass, the breeze through the prairie grass… all of them were familiar sounds now that helped her drift to the edges of sleep. And Cade was only feet away.

  She was nearly asleep, drifting on thoughts of how sweet it would be to sleep in Cade’s arms again, when she felt someone standing at her back. Half-asleep, she smiled at the thought that Cade couldn’t keep his promise to stay on the other side of the wagon. But as the presence behind her knelt, she could hear his breathing. It wasn’t Cade.

  She was slow to react, until a long, cold length of sharp steel pressed against her neck. Then she screamed.

  Cade jolted from shallow sleep to full, bristling wakefulness when he heard Lynne scream. There was no mistaking the terror in her voice. He jumped to his feet and scrambled for his gun, cursing when it wasn’t in his belt. He didn’t remember moving it, but there was no time to search.

  “Lynne!” he called, sprinting around the back of the wagon.

  Lynne sat up in her bedroll, clutching her throat. “Cade!” she shouted when she saw him.

  He flew to her, dropping to his knees and laying a hand on the side of her face to comfort her and to see if she was all right. His rage bubbled higher when he caught sight of blood seeping through her fingers where she held her throat.

  “No,” he said, praying she wasn’t actually hurt. He couldn’t bear it if she was. “Let me see.”

  Shivering, weeping, Lynne moved her hand. The light was dim on this side of the wagon, but Cade could see a long line across her throat. Someone had tried to slit it.

  He threw his arms around her, hugging her with no intention of ever letting go, and stood, bringing her to her feet. “Tell me what happened.”

  “I… I don’t know.” She trembled against him. “I was almost asleep, dreaming of….” She swallowed and took a breath. “I thought it was you behind me, but he had a knife.”

  Her voice faltered at the end, and Cade was almost certain she would break into sobs. Instead, she took a few more deep breaths and pulled herself to stand taller in his arms.

  “I’m all right,” she insisted.

  “You’re not.” Cade searched up and down the outward curve of the circled wagons. He glanced off across the prairie, but every way he looked, there was only grass and darkness. “Who did this? Where is he?”

  “I didn’t see anyone,” Lynne confessed. “I… by the time I screamed, whoever it was ran.”

  “They can’t have gone far.”

  Cade walked her around the back of the wagon, his arm tight around her shoulders.

  “What happened?” Ben came stumbling down from the wagon’s front seat, shirt untucked and one suspender dangling from his pants as if he’d just woken up. “I heard a scream.”

  Cade’s boiling anger got the better of him. “What were you doing, boy? You should have been watching her! You should have seen something.”

  “I… I was sleeping,” Ben defended himself.

  “Cade,” Lynne scolded him weakly.

  “What’s the fuss over here?” Pete Evans came marching across the wagons toward them. He was in a glowering temper, looking as though he would pick a fight. “I told you people—” He stopped as soon as he saw the blood at Lynne’s throat. “What happened?”

  “Lynne was attacked,” Cade said. “Somebody tried to slit her throat. And we all know who it was.”

  “Who?” Ben asked, voice cracking. He went pale as he searched the shadows for ghosts.

  “Did you see which way he went?” Pete asked Lynne.

  She shook her head. A few of their neighbors from nearby wagons were up and curious now, inching closer to see what the excitement was.

  “I saw someone running out that way,” the miner who had been stuck with the family in the wagon next to them said. “Looked like an Injun.”

  “I didn’t see anything.” Their neighbor’s wife shook her head, baffled.

  “I could have sworn I saw that nasty miner, Kyle, lingering around here earlier,” another woman from the wagon on their other side said. “Those miners are all bloodthirsty savages.”

  “We are not!” the miner protested.

  The last thing Cade wanted was the nonsense and unrest caused by the miners to interfere with the much larger danger of Lynne’s attacker. “Did any of you see anyone around the back of our wagon just now?”

  Most of them shuffled their feet and scratched their heads. The miner insisted, “It was an Injun, I tell you! Black as night!”

  “There are no Indians near here,” Pete said.

  Cade already knew it wasn’t an Indian. “I want everyone’s things searched,” he said. “There’s a knife out there that cut Lynne’s throat. It might still have blood on it. I want every knife in the entire camp confiscated.”
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br />   The people who had come to see what was going on backed off slowly. One muttered, “I ain’t giving up my knife,” before turning and marching off as if protecting a piece of metal was more important than protecting Lynne’s life. Cade glared at the man’s back.

  “I’m not confiscating every knife on the wagon train,” Pete said. “It just wouldn’t be practical, for one.”

  “Someone is trying to kill Lynne and you think it’s not practical to find out who?” He would search every wagon himself if he had to.

  Pete held up his hands to calm Cade. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t mount a search. I’ll get the boys on that right now.”

  “You’d better.” He was beyond being polite. Lynne wasn’t trembling anymore, but she hadn’t pushed away from the arm he had around her yet. That in itself was a dark sign of how frightened she was.

  A few of Pete’s assistants had already found their way over to Lynne’s wagon and were peeking around. “Search everyone in the area,” Pete directed them. “Ask as many questions as you have to, polite or not.”

  “Yes, boss,” one of the men answered and jogged off to search.

  Pete turned back to Cade and Lynne. “You’d best get that cut seen to. It’s a shame Dr. Meyers stayed behind, but Ike can patch you up.”

  “I’ll do it,” Cade said. He knew enough about cuts and bruises to wash and dress a small wound. Besides that, he wasn’t about to let anyone else touch Lynne. Not now.

  “W-why don’t you go search for the m-murderer with the others and I’ll stay here with Miss Tremaine,” Ben suggested, wide-eyed and pale.

  Cade considered the plan. Ben was scared out of his wits. Knowing him, he thought the killer would come back and slit his throat. But Cade didn’t want even Ben anywhere near Lynne.

  “You go search with the others. I’m staying right here,” he said.

  “Come on, boy.” Pete gestured for Ben to go with him. “You can help me ask folks about their knives.”