Family on the Range

“Get in the car.”

Her features changed, becoming impassive. “Thank you for coming to get me.”

He jerked his head to the door and watched as she glided past, head high, shoulders straight. She hadn’t learned that posture from her mother, or from Julia, Trevor’s mom. No, that walk was all Mary. Proud, graceful, aloof... Another growl erupted.

“Let’s go,” he said.

She made it to the car before they did. They found her in the back, staring blankly out the side window and not meeting their eyes. Once they’d cranked his tin lizzie and hit the road, Lou still found it hard to speak. He knew from past experience that yelling at Mary solved nothing.

Not that he liked to yell, but when she stared up at him with those deep brown eyes, passive and quiet, it stirred him up, made him itch to get her to respond to him, not to ignore him the way she did others.

* * *

“What happened, Mary?” James interrupted the horrible silence that had filled the car since they’d picked her up. She could feel tension radiating off Lou and it scared her stiff.

She swallowed hard, afraid to speak, afraid Lou might explode.

He’d never, ever lifted a hand toward her, not even during their most volatile argument years ago when she’d asked to let her mother come live with them. Intellectually, she knew he wouldn’t hurt her.

But emotionally... Sometimes she dreamed of the men who’d visited her mother. Sometimes she woke from nightmares, drenched in sweat, trying to rid her mind of the paralyzing fear that overtook her.

“Speak yer mind. I’ll boot this shot-up agent out of the car if he yells, okay?” James cast a crooked smile back at her. She attempted to lift her lips, though the pit of her stomach ached.

She glanced at the back of Lou’s head, marveling at the blondness of his hair, how it had grown too long and remained straight and fine. Not like her own thick locks. She’d inherited the Paiute ebony color but Irish curl. At least that was what her mother had always said.

She frowned. No one had seen Rose. It was as though she’d just disappeared. Kind of how the man with the violet eyes did when the police chief interrupted them on their walk toward town. Her eyes fluttered closed for a moment as another wave of relief swept through her.

“Mary girl, are you okay?”

She opened them and looked at James. “There was an assault in Burns.”

The car jerked. “What did you say?”

Confident she could keep her voice steady despite the unrest raging inside, she nodded. “I was leading my mare out of town when I heard scuffling. A tethered stallion nearby was restless, so I brought the mare to the other side of the street. Two men in an alley were arguing—”

“You should have rode out of there,” Lou interrupted. His voice was gravelly and raw, completely unlike the talkative man she’d come to know through the years. Somehow this gunshot wound had changed him, and she wasn’t sure why.

“I didn’t want to alert them to my presence,” she responded defensively.

“You did the right thing,” said James.

His backup emboldened her. “As I tried to hurry past, there was a sharp sound, not a gunshot, but something striking a hard object. The horse startled and ran off on me. You should train them better,” she couldn’t help saying pointedly to Lou.

“So, that’s it?” James asked. “Why didn’t you borrow a horse and get on yer way? We’ve worried over you, Mary girl.”

She felt a flash of remorse, followed by unexpected warmth. Though she’d been housekeeper for these two men for twelve years, they’d all kept to themselves, minding their own business while maintaining an unspoken loyalty to each other. Since Josie had come, things had changed. The girl, or perhaps the familial situation, had tempered loyalty into a new bond, something stronger.

“You shouldn’t have worried,” she answered. “Once the sheriff stepped out to speak with me, all was well.”

“What happened with the scuffle you heard?”

The grate of Lou’s tone surprised her, but he was an agent, trained to pick up on minute details. She had been foolish to think she might hide anything from him.

Still, she hesitated to tell him for fear of what he might do.

“Girl, you’d best spit it out.” James waggled his eyebrows at her, perhaps trying to induce a smile.

But violence did not inspire smiles. Heart heavy, she looked at her clasped hands, debating whether to snag the lumpy-looking blanket on the floor to cover their coldness. “There was a man in the alley,” she finally said. The memory of that thud shuddered through her and she pressed her fingers more tightly together. “Beaten.”

“Is he dead?” asked Lou.

“The physician is not sure he’ll make it.”

“Who found the man?”

“Not me. But I pointed the way.”

“You just walked into the sheriff’s office and told him a man was in an alley beaten to a pulp.”

Irritated by Lou’s casual, almost sardonic tone, Mary frowned. This was the part she did not wish to share. She glanced out the window, at the rising mountains in the distance and the land she called home. “After the mare bolted, I walked toward the interior of Burns, hoping to catch Miss Alma to ask for a ride to Horn’s spread.” Their neighbor lived only miles away. “But as I walked, footsteps sounded behind me. Then caught up to me. A man desired to make conversation, and I obliged until we reached the heart of town.”

“What man?” Suspicion dripped off Lou’s words, thick and heavy.

“He does not matter. The sheriff will find him and I pray charge him. A man like that should not be allowed to roam.”

Lou shifted in his seat but did not turn to look at her.

“Are you in pain?” she asked gently. “I picked up a few things in town.”

“No,” he said, voice tight. “I want to know more about this man following you. Do you think he knows what you told the sheriff? If this man thinks you’re a threat—”

“I’m safe at my new house.” At least she hoped that to be true. Lately, Lou seemed anxious, and she did not know if his rattled emotions came from being confined to bed or if there was another reason, something secret.... She swallowed at the thought. “The man... I’ve met him before. He knows where we are and can come at any time to your ranch, but he does not know of my new home.”

“What do you mean you know him?” Lou swiveled and pinned her with a piercing blue glare.

“Remember the stranger who visited last week? He is one and the same.”

“What’s his name?”

“He never said, but he has violet eyes, like Josie.”

“He might be her guardian.” A thicket of hair fell over Lou’s brow as James bounced across the uneven terrain.

“He didn’t ask for a little girl,” Mary retorted. She did not care for the accusing look on Lou’s face, as though she had done something wrong or immoral. “This man is dangerous, and I don’t believe he has any right to Josie.”

Lou sighed and ran his palms down his face. “James, you heading to Horn’s to pick up Josie?”

“Fixin’ to veer off now.”