“Son of a-”
“Cutter!” Elizabeth gasped, stifling her mirth. And then, unable to restrain herself, she burst into shrieks of hysteria, doubling over in the saddle with the force of it.
Cutter only gave her a narrow-eyed look, warning her without words that she was gonna pay with the skin of her ass if she didn’t quit.
Damn her anyway—Katie hadn’t uttered a word until she was actually pissing in his lap! How was he supposed to know to keep asking after her personal needs? In that respect, the kid had everything in common with her blasted aunt; one would rather chew sand than ask for a toothbrush, while the other would just as soon pee where she sat than mention the fact that she had to take a leak. Cussin’ females!
Elizabeth, who had been trying so desperately to control her hilarity in light of Cutter’s brooding expression, suddenly burst out laughing again.
Hauling roughly on the reins, and making an immediate turnabout, Cutter gave Elizabeth his most lethal scowl, though it didn’t seem to faze her in the least. “We’re taking the train,” he barked.
At that declaration, Elizabeth shrieked all the louder.
* * *
“So how long youreckon they’ve been gone?”
Still stunned by all that had been disclosed to him, Elias, his complexion pasty, only shrugged and shook his head feebly. He stared blankly at the half crumpled dispatch in his hands and read the signature at the bottom of the page for the fourth time: Brigadier General Alfred Sully. And then he ground his teeth as his eyes returned to skim the message above one last time. It read simply:
C MCKENZIE TO REPORT TO BRIGADIER GENERAL A SULLY, ASAP RE: ABSENTEEISM WITHOUT LEAVE WILL CONSIDER LENIENCY IN RETURN FOR ASSISTANCE
“Desertion?” Miss Mimi repeated once again, her lips trembling and her hand going to her mouth in alarm. A watery sheen appeared in her eyes as she looked to Elias and then back to the lieutenant seated atop the U.S. Army-earmarked stallion. “I—I don’t know—but it couldn’t have been more than two hours ago. Are you certain he’s dangerous?”
Lieutenant Magnus Sulzberger shook his head in a gesture of frustration that was far from feigned. Colyer had caught up with him a couple of days earlier with the dispatch while he and O’Neill had been hot on the trail of the renegade Indians. Setting eyes on that sweet little document had made his day, and he’d gladly left off the chase for the greater gain. Only, by the time they’d returned to where that half-breed McKenzie had set up camp, he and the woman had already pulled up stakes. From there, he and his men had come straight to the Bass spread, as was Colyer’s initial directive, only to find that, once again, they’d been thwarted.
But he wasn’t going to let it go.
He might have: if General Sully weren’t looking for McKenzie; if Doolittle, the head of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, weren’t determined to roll some heads; if McKenzie hadn’t heaped accusations his way before walking out on his position; and finally, but most auspiciously, if Sully hadn’t sent a man who hated this particular breed as much as Magnus did to slap a golden opportunity into his waiting hands.
He might have let it go.
But Sully had sent Colyer with the dispatch. And it was just a matter of time before Sully caught up with McKenzie. As far as Magnus was concerned, it wasn’t gonna happen. If Sully intended to campaign into the Dakotas, he was gonna require Cutter McKenzie’s services. Without it, he wasn’t going to find the first hostile. And because of that, there wasn’t much of a chance Sully would give up. Sully needed McKenzie, and he’d find him, come hell or high water.
Thing was, as Magnus saw it, Sully’s bluff wasn’t going to work, anyhow. Furious as McKenzie was about Sand Creek, there was no chance he was gonna give his assist—damned redskin-lovin’ breed! The only thing McKenzie was likely to do was nose into ongoing investigations—three of them if the rumors Magnus had heard were correct; two by Congress and one by the military commission. And by damn, if they were looking for someone to court-martial, it sure as hell wasn’t going to be him! He’d done nothing more at Sand Creek than the others had... and McKenzie wasn’t going to live to testify otherwise.
Unknowingly, Sully had seen to that.
Though most folks felt that McKenzie was at least a moral deserter, he, in fact, wasn’t a deserter at all. His argument with Sully had been over the fact that, because of the massacre at Sand Creek, McKenzie wouldn’t renew his commission. Magnus was aware of that fact—but the document in Elias Bass’ hand implied otherwise, and that was good enough for Magnus. Wasn’t a man alive who wouldn’t applaud him for shooting a deserter... even if it did happen to be in the back—most especially if he was a breed.
“Ma’am...” Magnus sighed for emphasis, while he adjusted the wad of tobacco in his mouth. “Look, I can see why you’d be disinclined to believe me. Your granddaughter’s safety is at stake here... but I’m more’n sure—I’m damned sure!” Impulsively he looked over his shoulder at the two men waiting silently at his flank. He waved the fairest of the two forward. “Why don’t you ask Colyer here about his ear?” Scratching at his beard, he watched the expression on the old woman’s face intently as the man he called Colyer nudged his horse forward and raised the hair away from his bad ear, relishing her revulsion at seeing only half an ear where there should have been a whole.
The animosity in Colyer’s icy green eyes completely negated his boyish good looks, prompting Miss Mimi to take a step backward. “He slashed m’ ear, ma’am,” the young man said without emotion. “Without any provocation at all.” His eyes narrowed, spilling hate, though he tried to conceal it. “Scariest sight y’ ever saw. McKenzie was sane as you or I one minute, and the next—”
Magnus spat the wad of tobacco out of his mouth suddenly. “That’s enough, Colyer,” he said. “Can’t you see the old woman’s fainthearted already? Can’t take hearing the rest.” He made a dismissing motion with his head, and Colyer immediately fell back again to wait with O’Neill.
As was intended, Miss Mimi looked ready to swoon. With a pained expression, she turned, clutching at Elias’ arm. “Oh, Elias,” she moaned. “What have we done?”
His face turning white, Elias straightened to his full height and took Miss Mimi’s hand into his own, bringing it to his lips. His anger was apparent in every taut line of his face. “We did what we thought best, Mimi. There was no reason not to trust them,” he reminded.
Miss Mimi nodded, her expression pained.
With a nod, Elias released her hand and turned to face the lieutenant, nervous perspiration beading on his upper lip. “If McKenzie’s so dangerous,” he charged, “Then what the hell took you so long to get here? Dammit—I wired Sully about him as soon as I heard he and his wife were on their way.”
Magnus lifted a brow. “Don’t know who the woman is,” he interjected, “but she ain’t his wife.”
Miss Mimi choked at his disclosure, her fingers going to her throat, but Elias spared her only a glance in his concern for Katie. “She’s Elizabeth Me—hell, I dunno her blamed name—reckon it’s Bowcock if not McKenzie. She’s my daughter-in-law’s sister!”
Magnus lifted the other brow. “You sure about that, Mr. Bass?”
