Erleen had found her voice first, and now spoke again. “Put down those knitting needles. That man is a friend of ours. He helped us find you.”
“Erleen? Peter?”
“It is indeed us, my dear.”
“Am I seeing things again?” Philberta had forgotten about Nate. She ran a sleeve across her face, and swayed. “It must be the strain. I’ve finally snapped.”
Erleen was clambering from her horse. “Listen Tome, sister-in-law. We’re not figments. We’re real. We were worried when we didn’t hear from Sully and you, so we came west.”
“Oh God.” Philberta looked at Nate, her eyes widening. “What have I done?”
Erleen hastened up, her arms spread wide. “Calm down and give me a hug. I’ve missed you and the others so much.”
Nate tensed. He half feared Philberta would bury the knitting needles in Erleen, but to his relief Philberta let the other woman embrace her. Suddenly Philberta gasped, and stiffened. Her eyes rolled up in their sockets until only the whites showed. Then, with a loud groan, she collapsed and would have fallen if Erleen hadn’t been holding her.
“Peter! I need help!”
Nate was closer. He quickly slipped an arm under one of Philberta’s. “It’s good you came along when you did.”
“What did you do to her?”
“Me?” Nate said. “I was friendly and polite. But she went into a frenzy and tried to kill me.”
The others were rushing to help, all except Ryker, whose smirk had broadened. Peter took over for Nate. Fitch and Harper also helped. Nate opened the door and they carried Philberta inside. Anora and Tyne came after them.
“Where is everyone else?” Erleen asked, glancing about. “Sully and the boys aren’t here.”
“We must set her down,” Peter grunted. “She’s as heavy as an ox.”
“Peter!”
“Well, she is.”
The comment made Nate wonder how she was eating so well when the pantry was so bare. Here he’d been worried the family had starved to death. But if Philberta was any example, they didn’t miss a meal.
“Where are the beds?” Erleen asked.
Only then did Nate realize the cabin had no bedroom. Nor were there any blankets spread on the floor for bedding. Where did the woman sleep? he asked himself.
“Fitch, fetch blankets off our horses,” Erleen directed. “Anora, find a pot, fill it with water from the stream, and put it on to boil. We’ll make some tea. Harper and Tyne, I want you to sit here with your aunt while your father and I have a look around.”
Nate went out, nearly colliding with Aunt Aggie, who was about to enter. “They can use your help in there.”
“Oh, I am sure Erleen has matters well in hand. My sister would make a fine general.” Agatha stepped away from the door as Anora bustled past carrying a pot. “I best stay out of their hair.”
Nate placed the Hawken’s stock on the ground and leaned on the barrel. “So tell me. What is Philberta like when she isn’t trying to stick knitting needles into someone?”
Aunt Aggie didn’t grin as he thought she might. “Perhaps you should ask Erleen. I’ve never been all that fond of Philberta and it might taint your opinion.”
“You and she don’t get along?”
“Oh, she’s always been civil enough. But I have long believed Sully could have done better.”
“Better how?”
Agatha checked that no one was near. “Less bossy, for one thing. I’ve always thought marriage should be a fifty-fifty proposition. But Philberta is a lot like Erleen. They snap their fingers and their husbands jump.”
“Yet it was Sully who dragged her and their boys west,” Nate noted. “He must do some snapping himself.”
“I’ve wondered about that. If Philberta had no yen to come, Sully wouldn’t.” Agatha shrugged. “But that’s neither here nor there. The real reason I have never gotten along with her is that she treated me coldly. From the very first day I met her, nearly twenty years ago, she gave me the impression she wouldn’t mind one bit if I were to be run over by a carriage.”
“Didn’t you say Sully and you were close?”
“So?”
“So maybe Philberta was jealous. Some women refuse to share their husband’s affections with anyone, even a doting sister-in-law.” Nate smiled to lessen the sting.
“There’s always that, I suppose, although I suspect her dislike of me ran deeper. Anyway, what’s done is done. What is important now is to find out where Sully and their sons got to. It’s very strange they’re not here if she is.”
“You want strange? She kept reciting nursery rhymes, as if I were five years old.”
Aunt Aggie chuckled. “That’s Philberta, all right. She has always been fond of them. When her boys were toddlers, she read them rhymes by the hour. I thought she overdid it, but Sully didn’t object, so I never said anything.”
Edwin Ryker picked that moment to walk up and hold out a hand to Agatha. “I’ll take the rest of my money now.”
“I beg your pardon.”
“What?” Nate said.
“Didn’t you know?” Ryker asked him. “Aggie here is paying for my services. She paid for the horses and supplies, too. Peter and Erleen couldn’t afford to do it on their own.”
“I am glad to help them,” Agatha said.
“You hired me to bring you to Sullivan. Half in advance and the other half when I got you here. That was our deal.” Ryker bobbed his chin at the cabin. “Well, here we are. I’ll take the rest of what is owed me.”
“Are you a simpleton, Mr. Ryker?”
“Ma’am?”
“Because I know I’m not. I paid for you to bring us here and take us back. Safely, I might add.”
“There was no talk of back too. Hell, you told me you might stay with Sully’s family a month or so. You can’t expect me to wait around that long.”
“You will if you want to be paid.”
Ryker jabbed a finger at her. “Now you listen here, lady—”
Whatever else he was going to say was cut off by a shriek of terror from the direction of the stream.
“Anora!” Aunt Aggie cried.
Nate was already running. He half expected the Blackfeet were to blame. But when he came to the bank, Anora was on her knees at the water’s edge, staring aghast at the woods on the other side. “Why did you scream?”
“Something!” Anora gasped. “I didn’t get a good look at it. But it was watching me, and its face was terrible.”
Nate plunged across the stream and up the other bank. He charged into the vegetation, the brush crackling to his passage. He went a dozen strides and spotted a bulky form off through the boles. It was four-legged, whatever it was. An elk, he thought, or maybe a mountain buffalo. But it turned out to be neither.
There was the snap of underbrush, and the horse Black Elk had been riding came barreling out of the shadowy greenery to stand in front of Nate and whinny. He grabbed the rope bridle to keep it from running off. As he did, it occurred to him that this might be a ruse, that the Blackfeet were using the horse as bait to lure one of them within arrow range.
The way Nate had the events worked out in his head, the Blackfeet had stumbled on the cabin and killed Sullivan Woodrow and his three sons. That explained the blood in the grass and Philberta’s hysterics. And now the Blackfeet intended to kill the rest of them.
“Mr. King?” Aunt Aggie called. “Are you all right?”
“Get your niece back to the cabin!” Nate pulled the horse toward the stream. To his surprise it didn’t resist. In fact, the horse acted eager to be in his company.
Ryker was waiting on the bank, and at sight of the horse, he swore. “That there belongs to a redskin. What the hell is it doing here?”
“You wanted to tangle with those Blackfeet I met,” Nate reminded him. “Could be you will get the chance.”