Mary Connealy - [Kincaid Brides 03] Read online

“Buy the horses, gather up what the parson’s ordering for us, then come back and pick us up. We should be ready to head home by the time you’ve gotten everything done that needs doing.”

  Seth turned toward the stable. Connor grinned and waved bye-bye to her.

  “Stop!”

  Seth turned back and Connor giggled. “Leave my son. If you disappear again and this time take Connor with you, so help me, Seth, I will hunt you down and shoot you dead.”

  Callie needed to sit down and there was no sense denying it. Not that she was going to admit it out loud, but neither could she deny it to herself.

  “I’m not going anywhere, Callie. You and Connor are stuck with me.” Seth handed over the baby.

  If only she could trust that.

  Of course, he’d been acting crazy when she’d married him, but she’d seen so much potential for sanity. It was a hard lesson she’d learned about looking on the bright side of things. She wouldn’t make the mistake of being optimistic again.

  Seth headed for the stable.

  Now all she needed to do was feed an angry, starving boy, hope she’d bought supplies enough for winter, and ride miles across rugged mountains to get home. And she had to do it without collapsing.

  When she made it to the dining room without falling in a heap, she thought things were looking up.

  Seth’s brother . . . Callie shook her head. Whoever he was, he was already eating.

  “I’m Callie Kincaid.” She sank heavily into a chair across the table from her pint-sized brother-in-law and settled Connor on her knee. “I’ve never heard the name Gavin Kincaid before, but it looks like he’s my father-in-law. I’m married to Seth. Tell me your name.”

  He kept chewing. His plate was about half emptied already, but there were plenty of mashed potatoes and tender-looking roast beef left. The dining room had been generous in their servings.

  “Your name.” She jabbed her finger at the boy. He gave her a dark look and filled his mouth with potatoes. She had a startling impulse to give the boy’s ear a good yank to twist some words loose. She decided to chalk it up to her generally poor condition and forgive herself, since she hadn’t gone ahead and attacked him, now, had she?

  A young boy came in from the kitchen carefully balancing a heavy white pottery cup brimming with steaming coffee. The boy smiled and flashed the deepest dimples Callie had ever seen and distracted her from her violent daydream. “My pa says the coffee is free and not to argue with him.”

  She knew for sure the man had sent this little one out because he was so irresistibly cute. How was she supposed to refuse coffee from him? “Thank you and tell your pa thank you, too. I appreciate it.”

  The boy giggled and set down the savory brew without spilling a drop. “Can I hold the baby? I’ve got two little brothers, so I know my way around young’uns. I can play with him down on the floor while you visit.”

  “Thanks, I appreciate it.” She really did. Connor was gaining a pound a minute in her shaky arms.

  The boy took Connor and retreated to the far corner of the room, which was good. She could ask her questions a little harder than if there’d been a witness at hand. She didn’t think she knew Seth’s little brother well enough to do any ear twisting, though she didn’t completely abandon the idea.

  “I just joined the Kincaid family yesterday—in fact, I haven’t all the way joined it yet.” That got his attention. “Seth, the brother you met outside, is my husband. We married back East after the war, and he . . .” She hesitated, not sure just how honest to be. Well, she could always fill in details later. “He came back to Colorado and got a house built while I stayed with my pa in Texas to birth our baby.”

  Not a single lie in that little speech. Unless there wasn’t really a house. Seth might’ve imagined that.

  “So I don’t know the Kincaids much at all. Seth is the youngest of three brothers. He talked about his family some, of course.” She hadn’t known what was true and what was a product of his feverish nightmares. Seth had a talent for ranting. “There is an older brother, Rafe, and a middle brother, Ethan. Now, what’s your name?”

  She’d wrestled her share of longhorns, backed a hungry cougar off a newborn calf, and she’d shot a rattlesnake or two. She wasn’t one bit scared of this young’un.

  The child didn’t answer, but he was eating like a half-starved wolf, so she didn’t think his silence was all about angry pride. She added, “I have no particular loyalty to the Kincaids, except for my husband and son.” Her son more than her husband, but she didn’t admit that. “Since we look to be joining the family at the same time, maybe we could be friends. It’d be two against three.”

  “I’m not joining the family.” The boy finally spoke, and it was more a snarl than words. “I’m here for my share of the ranch. I aim to sell it and move on. When my ma died, I found a letter that said Pa had a ranch near Rawhide and I was to go there if I was in need. Papa liked the gold fields, and he did some trapping. He took off about three years ago and never came back. Ma told me he died. He’d’ve never left us otherwise.”

  Callie had heard from Seth that his ma was dead, and she knew how old he was at the time. She could add and subtract good enough to know that Gavin Kincaid had a distinct lack of honor in his dealing with both of his families.

  “Things were mighty tight without Pa,” the boy went on. “But we ran his traplines, and Ma taught me to hunt as well as her. She had a good garden and we got by. After Ma died, I found a letter. It was about Pa’s other sons.”

  Callie thought she knew how this pinched the boy’s pride, and she couldn’t fault him for his hard feelings.

  “What your pa owned needs to be divided between his children. It sounds fair to me.” Callie’s pa had owned a ranch, and she knew how bitterly upset she was that she hadn’t been strong enough to hold it after he died. Seth and his brothers might well feel the same about this youngster coming in to demand they sell one-fourth.

  “I’m Heath Kincaid.” The boy nodded his head. “I won’t be around long enough to bother anyone.”

  Callie didn’t have to know much about the Kincaids to have a real good idea that this was going to bother everyone.

  Anyhow, the boy was all bluster. He looked like he knew how to live off the land as well as any frontier child, but he wasn’t up to doing it all the time.

  He didn’t need money; he needed a home. She had a cabin, or so Seth said. And she had a ranch, or so Seth said.

  If there was a cabin, there was enough room for one more. If there wasn’t, this youngster could sit around a campfire and tend Connor while she helped Seth build one.

  “We’ll be setting out for the Kincaid spread as soon as Seth gets back. Do you have anything we need to pick up? Clothes?”

  The boy jerked his chin. “There are a few things. I stowed ’em under the back steps of the hotel. I’d asked after Gavin Kincaid, and there was a man who knew Seth was kin and he was staying here.”

  “We’ll pick your things up, then. It’s a long ride to the Kincaid place, so we may be sleeping on the trail tonight.”

  Heath had obviously been a long time traveling on precious little food and with few warm clothes. Considering what she’d heard about a Colorado winter, Callie couldn’t help but think the boy had found his family at about the last possible minute.

  As she tried to figure out what to say next, Seth strode into the dining room, spurs clinking, boots clomping.

  “Done?” she asked him.

  “We’re ready.”

  Callie swallowed the last gulp of her coffee, gathered her strength and stood, doing her best not to wobble. “Seth, I’d like you to meet your brother Heath. He’s done eating. Get Connor.” She wasn’t all that sure she could pick him up. Oh, she could. She’d grown up in Texas. She could do whatever had to be done. But right now she was glad not to push herself to the limit. “Let’s go home.”

  While Bea settled in beside him, Jasper stared at the ceiling. He could feel the call to comfo
rt. Silk. A fine house. Power.

  On the other side, the love of a good woman, respect from honorable men, God.

  But it was his money.

  When he heard Bea’s breathing even out, he slipped out of bed to walk into the next room, one of only four in this not-so-fine little shack.

  He stared out the window.

  It was his money.

  Kincaid was staying in the hotel on the north side of town. Jasper could walk there in a few minutes. He could get his hands on Seth Kincaid and find out everything he needed to know and be back before Bea woke up.

  The money was bound to be at the Kincaid property if both Gilliland women were married into it, but Seth would give up the money to protect his wife and that little boy he was carrying around.

  Jasper had no doubts about his ability to convince a man to divulge all his secrets. He lifted a box off the mantel and opened it.

  His derringer.

  It was his money.

  He looked at the door to his bedroom and slowly, silently, lifted the derringer out of the box.

  Chapter

  8

  “We’ve got a couple of hours before dark, Rafe.” Julia Kincaid reached for her husband’s hand, ignoring his groan of impatience.

  A chill wind buffeted them where they stood by the barn door. It blew a strand of her red hair across her eyes, and she swept it aside and tucked it behind her ear. She wouldn’t need her woolen bonnet in the cavern, so she had left it behind when she’d spotted Rafe riding in from checking the herd. She’d dashed out to catch him while he was still wearing his coat.

  “The chores are done and the dinner is simmering and will be for another two hours. There are no killers in the cavern.”

  “That we know of.” Rafe arched a brow at her, and she weaved her fingers between his and tugged.

  “I’ve been really patient, Rafe. You know I have.” And she’d loved helping to build her home. Rafe was the carpenter, but he’d talked with her about all the decisions, and she’d even helped with some of the finer woodwork. Mainly handing him things. “But we’re already getting steady snowfall. When winter comes we’ll have our hands full surviving in here without adding exploring.”

  She hoped to explore all winter, but she had to get him started first. And she’d found bad weather could be the goad behind getting almost anything done.

  “I should ride out next time.” Rafe closed both hands gently over her chilly fingers. “Seth needs time at his place to get settled.”

  “It’s been wonderful building here and helping at Seth’s.” She had gotten so she appreciated Seth, too. He was full of stories about her cavern and she’d taken extensive notes. She’d written some more articles and sent them off and she’d started her book. She knew a lot, but she hadn’t begun to learn everything. They were close enough to town that she got Rafe to take her in to check the mail quite often for a reply about her articles.

  Seth went back and forth between the three cabins. Hers and Rafe’s. Ethan and Audra’s. His own—which was still a bit raw, but he could live in it.

  “I wonder where his wife’s gotten to.” Rafe tightened his hold on her hand and lifted until he kissed her fingers.

  “I hate thinking about her out in the wilderness somewhere.” It distracted Julia from the gnawing need to explore that cavern. “Maybe hurt or lost. She should have been here by now.”

  Rafe was silent, and it drew Julia out of her worry and her impatience. “What are you thinking?”

  “I shouldn’t have let Seth go.”

  He wanted to take care of his little brother. She should have known. “He’s gone before.”

  “Yes, but never for this long. Every time I worry that he might not . . .”

  Into the silence, Julia said, “He might not come back.”

  Their eyes met and Rafe nodded. “He still doesn’t think straight all the time.”

  “He’s been pretty good. Mostly.” They’d ridden over to his cabin early one morning and found him sleeping in his barn, cuddled up next to his horse. It was bitterly cold, and he’d said his horse was warmer than his cabin with his fireplace roaring. It might’ve been true, though it was just plain strange behavior.

  “What about the nightmares?”

  Julia hated to think of Seth alone fighting those dreams. He had one nearly every night when he stayed with them, and it stood to reason he had them at his place, too. “He might always have them, Rafe.”

  “It seems like he shouldn’t be staying alone in his cabin until he can shake those ugly dreams about burning up.”

  “But you said he had to stay, to prove up on his homestead.” Julia decided that since her husband was worrying about his brother, she’d just drag him toward the cave and hope he was distracted enough to not think up one of his endless excuses.

  “He’s been gone too long this time.” Rafe’s feet were moving.

  Julia remained silent, not sure if this was cooperation . . . and not wanting to remind him if it wasn’t.

  “You were away more than a week once when Seth was still laid up with his broken leg. Ethan was gone almost that long. And two other times you left for three days.”

  “There’s a trail from Rawhide to Denver, but it’s a sidewinder, and not well marked. There’s another one that angles west that some mule skinners use, and if she was determined to ride to Rawhide, she’d be coming on a freight wagon unless she’s riding horseback. And probably she’d be on the most likely one to Colorado City. She could take a train to Denver, then a stagecoach to Colorado City, then find a wagon coming from there to Rawhide. But if she got to Colorado City and asked after the Kincaids, there are plenty of folks there who know us. They’d send her straight to Ethan’s house.”

  “Seth’s only been gone a week. It’s too early to start worrying.”

  “It’s never too early to start worrying about my little brother.” Rafe quit walking and spun Julia around to face him. “And I’ve noticed you’re walking toward the cavern.”

  She smiled.

  He kissed her. When he was done, she was almost as distracted as Rafe.

  “Let’s go.” He surprised her by walking on toward the cave entrance. “I’ve put it off long enough, and you’ve been a mighty nice wife not to nag at me.”

  Which Julia was pretty sure wasn’t true. She’d been nagging real steadily. So it might mean Rafe wasn’t listening to her at all when she talked about the cavern, which was annoying.

  Rafe paused to look up at the sun. “The day’s gettin’ on. I don’t think we can get to that room Seth was leading us to, but we can go to the one you’re always talking about, with the fish on the wall.”

  “Really, Rafe?” She was so surprised she threw her arms around him.

  “Yes, I’ve been dragging my heels because I just plain flat out don’t like that cavern.”

  “You’ve been busy, too.”

  “I have for a fact. But I could have taken a few hours to go in there. I promised you. Today I start keeping that promise.”

  Julia had lanterns just inside the cave. She had rope and a stack of torches and paper and pencils to take notes. When the day finally came that Rafe would go down with her, she didn’t want to give him time to change his mind.

  Rafe had matches on hand as always. Julia did, too. They’d learned the hard way to plan ahead so they never got stuck in the dark. They set out and turned to go down the steeply sloped tunnel toward the hole Seth had fallen through so many years before.

  “Can you believe this?” Rafe asked.

  “Believe what?” Julia got a little shiver up her spine when her voice echoed.

  “We’ve been in here, what? Five whole minutes? And no one has shot at us. No one has kidnapped you. No one has even jumped out of the dark tunnel to surprise us. It just don’t seem natural.”

  Julia couldn’t deny that the tunnel had given them a lot of trouble.

  The tunnel was a tight one, and Rafe walked with his head bowed and his shoulders hunched
to pass through.

  They emerged into a big room. “Where’s this fish?”

  She pointed at the first one, high on the stone wall.

  He walked to the fossil. “And the layers in these rocks. What do you think caused that?”

  “Something else to study and write about.” Which she found thrilling. “I think the fossil is some kind of shark.”

  The fossil was at eye level. She ran her hand over the clearly outlined jawbones. “I’ve studied fish fossils. The bone structure and the shape of the teeth are similar to a shark’s. Look at the curved jaw and the triangular teeth. I can’t be sure without more study, but if it’s a shark, then what’s he doing so far from the ocean? How did it get in here? How did any fish get in this deep? If it’s a shark, that’s interesting in itself. But any fish is very interesting.”

  “In one piece, too. No one was eating this fish for dinner.” Rafe turned from the fossil and smiled at her. Gracious in admitting he’d been wrong. If she hadn’t already been deeply in love with her husband, she’d have fallen right then.

  “It had to swim up there.” Her voice rose with the excitement and echoed back at her. “This cavern had to be full of water, up this high. How could that have happened?”

  “Noah’s flood. This is what’s got you so excited. To write about floodwaters so high that they must have covered the whole earth.”

  “I believe God led me here, to this place, to the cavern, to write about that fossil.”

  “I can’t look at that fish up there and not take you seriously.”

  Which was somewhat insulting—that he hadn’t taken her seriously without proof, but Julia didn’t let it bother her.

  “And named after the discoverers?”

  A light laugh echoed in the chamber. “I’m not going to insist they name it a Julia-fish-osaurus.”

  “I am.” Rafe leaned down and kissed her soundly on the lips. “This is your discovery. I’ll help you however you need me to, to get your papers written, to explore more, to get more things mailed off. I wonder if Seth or Ethan can draw worth a lick.”

  “I could try and chisel the fossil out of the wall, but where it is here is as important as what it is. Let me show you something.” Julia pulled out a sheet of paper and went to the fish fossil and laid it over the fish’s head. With her pencil she began drawing back and forth covering the paper, rubbing the skeleton’s shape into it.