Tess shook her head. She couldn't start crying again. She started
talking instead.
"He raised me. My parents died when I was very young, both caught
pneumonia one winter and they just didn't pull through. Joe was Father's
brother.
He sold Father's land and put the money into trust for me, and he took
me to live with him, and he made me love the land and reading and Texas
and the newspaper business, and most of all, he made me love the truth.
And he never gave up on the truth or on fighting. And that's why I have
to keep it up.
He always gave me everything."
Her voice trailed away. So much, always. She remembered learning how to
ride, and how to ink the printing press, and then how to think out a
story, and what good journalism was, and. And what it was like to live
through pain, and stand up tall despite it, and to learn to carry on.
Joe had been there when she had fallen in love with Captain David Tyler
back in '64, when his Confederate infantry corp had been assigned to
Wiltshire. She had been just seventeen, and she'd never known what it
was like to love a man in that mercurial way until she'd met David.
They'd danced, they'd taken long walks and long rides and they'd had
picnics out by the river, and he had kissed her, and she had learned
what it was like to feel her soul catch fire.
They'd known the war Dolly sniffed, apparently uninterested in a woman
running a paper or a ranch.
"There's things a young lady should be doin', and things she shouldn't!
Now you, you need to be married. You need yourself a man."
Tess sank back into the water wearily.
"I need a hired gun, that's what I need."
Dolly was quiet for a moment, then she said enthusiastically, "Well,
then, you really do need Lieutenant Slater."
"What?"
Dolly came around the side of the tub and perched on a stool.
"Why, he was claimed to be an outlaw, him and his brothers! There was a
big showdown, and the three of them shot themselves out of an awful
situation.
Then they surrendered, and all went to trial, and the jury claimed them
innocent as babes!
But those Slater boys--why, it was legendary!
He's as quick as a rattler with his Colt." He was, Tess thought. She
couldn't forget the way he had killed the snake. She might have died,
except that he was so fast with that gun.
She shivered suddenly. Maybe he wasn't what she needed. He was what she
wanted. A man good with a gun. A man with hard eyes and a hard-muscled
chest and hands that were strong and eyes that invaded the body and the
soul.
"Someone's got to escort you to Wiltshire," Dolly said flatly.
"And Jamie, he's got time coming. And he really ain't no fool. I know
there's this big thing going on about whether it was Indians or white
men attacked you, but Jamie, he'll find out the truth." "He didn't
believe a word I said."
"Oh, but he could discover the truth! He knows the Shoshone, the
Comanche, the Cheyenne, the Kiowas and even the Apache better than most
white men--most white men alive, that is! Why, he speaks all their
languages! He can tell you in a split second which tribes are related to
which, and he knows their practices, and how they live.
Sometimes he even knows the Indians better than Jon Red Feather, 'cause
you see, Red Feather is a Blackfoot Sioux, and he thinks that the world
begins and ends with the Sioux!
If you're telling the truth--oh, my dear! I didn't mean that! I know
you're not telling fibs! But if you're right about it being white men,
why, Jamie will find that out. He won't let the Comanche be blamed for
some atrocity they didn't commit!"
Tess was silent. Dolly spoke again, softly.
"If it isn't Lieutenant Slater who takes you, it might be the colonel
himself. His wife was killed by Pawnees before the war, and he ain't
ever forgiven any Indian since. Or else there's Sergeant Givens, and
he's an Indian hater, too. Or Corporal Lorsby, and he's a lad barely
shaving, he won't be too much good to you. Oh, wait just a minute, I've
got some shampoo here, all the way from Boston."
"I don't want to use your good" -- "Come, come, what good does it do to
this old head of mine? Use it!
Your hair will smell just like spring rosebuds, and every bit as sweet
as sunshine."
Tess accepted the shampoo. She disappeared beneath the water to soak her
hair, then she scrubbed and rinsed it. As she rose from the water again,
Dolly was still talking to her.
"Lieutenant Lorsby, he's a good boy. He's just untried.
He's never been in a battle. He came from the east, and I'm sure he's a
bright and wonderful boy, but he don't know a Kiowa from a Chinaman, and
that's a fact. You really need to think about this, you know."
Tess nodded, feeling a chill as the steamy water cooled. Maybe she did
need Lieutenant Slater after all. She smiled at Dolly.
"Could I have the towel, please?"
Dolly held it, and Tess stepped from the bath, wrapped the towel around
her and took a seat before the fire as she started to dry her hair.
"All right, Dolly, so tell me, please, just what is it about this Miss.
Eliza that's so horrible."
"why, I'm not quite sure.
"Ceptin' she seems to think that she's God's gift to the men of the
cavalry.
Jamie's the only one who's never fawned over her, and I think that's
exactly why she's set her cap for him! He ~ms to be amused most of the
time, but the woman does have a wicked fine shape, and a wicked heart
and mind to go along.
You'll see. Now sit back, and I'll bring you your tea, and then some of
the finest Irish stew you'll ever taste. Then I'll see to getting the
rest of your things brought in. I have a nightgown for you, right over
there on the bed. Once you're all ~uched in, I'll see to the rest. You
need to get some sleep." Dolly brought her tea, then the stew, and it
was delicious.
Tess hadn't felt so warmed and cared for since. Since Joe had died.
The thought brought her close to tears again, but she didn't shed them.
She finished eating and put on the nightgown Dolly had provided for her.
She crawled into the bed, more exhausted than she had imagined. As Dolly
started to leave the darkened room, Tess called her back.
"Thank you, Dolly. Thank you, so very much."
"It's nothing, child."
Tess sat up.
"Dolly?"
"yes?"
"I didn't take you from your family, did I?" She smiled.
"Me? No, child. I sit around most of the day and remember Will. My
husband. He was with the cavalry, killed just a few years ago. He made
it home, though. Jamie Slater brought him home to me. He rode through an
ambush to bring Will home. So now I mind the store a few hours a day,
and I try to look after the soldiers that need a little mothering. And
now you.
It's been my pleasure, dear, so you go on and get some sleep."
Dolly was gone then. Tess yawned in the luxurious warm comfort of the
clean bed. She stretched out, thinking that she would sleep. If she
wasn't plagued with memories of Joe.
But it wasn't memories of Joe that kept her from sleeping. Even in the
darkness and the warmth, she felt strange 61 chills snake along her
body. It was Jamie Slateifs face she saw before her in the darkness, the
dry amusement in his gray eyes: Then she remembered the feeling of
wicked, surging heat as his gaze fell over the length of her. He had
stayed away. And he had been drawn back. Almost as if he was feeling the
same thing.
She didn't need a lover, she told herself. She needed a hired gun.
Maybe she would have to barter to gain what she wanted. Barter! she