Carlson cast a slow, meaningful look around the yard.
“He’s up in the mine,” Sarah explained. “If there was trouble, he’d come down quickly enough.”
“The mine.” Carlson cast his eyes up at the rock. “At least promise me that you won’t go inside. It’s a dangerous place.”
“Gold doesn’t lure me.” She smiled again, relieved that they would remain friends.
He swung gracefully into the saddle. “Gold lures everyone.”
She watched him ride off. Perhaps he was right, she mused. Gold had a lure. Even though in her heart she didn’t believe she’d ever see the mine pay, it was exciting knowing there was always a chance. It kept Lucius in the dark and the dust for hours on end. Her father had died for it.
Even Jake, she thought, wasn’t immune. It was he who had asked Lucius to pick up where her father had left off. She had yet to discover why. With death on his mind, Donley’s last words had been… A glimmer of suspicion broke into her mind.
I’m going to have the woman, and the gold.
Why should a man like Donley speak of gold before he drew his gun? Why would a worthless mine be on his mind at such a time? Or was it worthless?
Her promise to Samuel forgotten, she started toward the rise.
A movement caught her eye and, turning around again, she scanned the road. Someone was coming, on foot. Even as she watched, the figure stumbled and fell. Sarah had her skirts in her hand and was running before the figure struggled to stand again.
“Alice!” Sarah quickened her pace. The girl was obviously hurt, but until Sarah reached her, catching her before she fell again, she couldn’t see how badly. “Oh, dear Lord.” Gripping the sobbing girl around the waist, she helped her toward the house. “What happened? Who did this to you?”
“Miss Conway…” Alice could hardly speak through her bruised and bloodied lips. Her left eye was blackened and swollen nearly shut. There were ugly scratches, like the rake of fingernails, down her cheek, and every breath she took came out with a hitch of pain.
“All right, don’t worry, just lean on me. We’re nearly there.”
“Didn’t know where else to go,” Alice managed.
“Shouldn’t be here.”
“Don’t try to talk yet. Let me get you inside. Oh, Lucius.” Half stumbling herself, Sarah looked up with relief as he came hurrying down the rocks. “Help me get her inside, up to bed. She’s badly hurt.”
“What in the holy hell-?” Wheezing a bit from the exertion, he picked Alice up in his scrawny arms. “You know who this girl is, Miss Sarah?”
“Yes. Take her up to my bed, Lucius. I’ll get some water.”
Alice swooned as he struggled to carry her up the ladder to the loft. “She’s done passed out.”
“That may be a blessing for the moment.” Moving quickly, Sarah gathered fresh water and clean cloths. “She must be in dreadful pain. I can’t see how she managed to get all the way out here on foot.”
“She’s taken a mighty beating.”
He stepped out of the way as best he could when Sarah climbed the stairs to sit on the edge of the bed. Gently she began to bathe Alice’s face. When she loosened the girl’s bodice, he cleared his throat and turned his back.
“Oh, my God.” With trembling hands, Sarah unfastened the rest of the buttons. “Help me get this dress off of her, Lucius. It looks as though she’s been whipped.”
His sense of propriety was overcome by the sight of the welts on Alice’s back and shoulders. “Yeah, she’s been whipped.” The cotton of her dress stuck to the raw, open sores. “Whipped worse’n a dog. I’d like to get my hands on the bastard who done this.”
Sarah found her own hands were clenched with fury. “There’s some salve on the shelf over the stove, Lucius. Fetch it for me.” She did her best to bathe and cool the wounds. As Alice’s eyes fluttered open and she moaned, Sarah soothed her in a low, calming voice. “Try not to move, Alice. We’re going to take care of you. You’re safe now. I promise you you’re safe.”
“Hurts.”
“I know. Oh, I know.” There were tears stinging her eyes as she took the salve from Lucius and began to stroke it over the puffy welts.
It was a slow, painful process. Though Sarah’s fingers were light and gentle, Alice whimpered each time she touched her. Her back was striped to the waist with angry red lines, some of which had broken open and were bleeding. With sweat trickling down her face, Sarah tended and bandaged, talking, always talking. “Would you like another sip of water?”
“Please.” With Sarah’s hand cradling her head, Alice drank from the cup. “I’m sorry, Miss Conway.”
She lay back weakly as Sarah held a cool cloth to her swollen eye. “I know I shouldn’t have come here. It ain’t right, but I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“You did quite right by coming.”
“You was-were-so nice to me before. And I was afraid if I didn’t get away…”
“You aren’t to worry.” Sarah applied salve to her facial scratches. “In a few days you’ll be feeling much better. Then we can think about what’s to be done. For now, you’ll stay right here.”
“I can’t-”
“You can and you will.” Setting the salve aside, Sarah took her hand. “Do you feel strong enough to tell us what happened? Did a man-one of your customers do this to you?”
“No, ma’am.” Alice moistened her swollen lips.
“It was Carlotta.”
“Carlotta?” Sarah’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Are you saying that Carlotta beat you like this?”
“I ain’t never seen her so mad. Sometimes she gets mean if something don’t go her way, or if she’s been drinking too much you get a slap or two. She went crazy. I think she might’ve killed me if the other girls hadn’t broke in the door and started screaming.” “Why? Why would she hurt you like this?”
“I can’t say for sure. I done something wrong.” Her voice slurred, and her eyes dropped shut. “She was mad, powerful mad, after Jake came by. They had words. Nancy, she’s one of the other girls, listened outside of Carlotta’s office. He said something to set her off, I expect. Nancy said she was yelling. Said something about you, Miss Conway, I don’t rightly know what. When he left she went crazy. Started smashing things. I went on up to my room. She came after me, beat me worse’n Pa ever did. Eli, he brought me out.”
“Eli’s the big black Carlotta has working for her,” Lucius explained.
“He drove me out as far as he could. She finds out, she’ll make him sorry. Took a belt to me,” she murmured as sleep took her under. “Kept hitting me and hitting me, saying it was my fault Jake don’t come around no more.”
“Bitch,” Lucius said viciously. Then he wiped his mouth. ‘”Scuse me, Miss Sarah.”
“No excuse necessary. I couldn’t agree more.”
There was a rage running through her, hotter and huger than anything she’d ever experienced. She stared at the girl asleep in her bed, her small, pretty face bruised and swollen. She remembered each welt she’d tended. “Hitch up the wagon, Lucius.”
“Yes’m. You want me to go somewheres?”
“No, I’m going. I want you to stay with Alice.” “I’ll hitch it up, Miss Sarah, but if you’re thinking about talking to the sheriff, it won’t do much good. Alice here ain’t going to talk to him like she done with you. She’d be too scared.”
“I’m not going to the sheriff, Lucius. Just hitch up the wagon.”
She pushed the horses hard, pleased that the fury didn’t subside as she approached town. She wanted the fury. Since she’d come west she’d learned to accept many things-the grief, the violence, the labor. Perhaps the land was lawless, but there were times and reasons, even here, for justice.
Johnny raced out of the dry goods as Sarah rode by, then raced back in again to complain to Liza that Sarah hadn’t waved at him. She hadn’t even seen him. There was only one face in her mind now. She drew up in front of the Silver Star.