The laughter died.

  And then all Joseph’s rules went out the window. Brave Bird waited. I held her down.

  “One,” said Joseph.

  Fox stood up in alarm.

  “Two.”

  She nodded to me. I held her there until Joseph finished the count. Then, very primly, she shook me off and got to her feet. She turned to her husband and dusted off her skirts. Her chin high, she nodded to me, bowed to Iron Eye, and stalked off through the crowd of Kiowa.

  I grinned.

  “The cowboy wins,” choked Iron Eye.

  The silence of the Kiowa turned to nervous chatter. I think if Fox had not appeared so angry, they might not have found it half so funny. He raged and raged. More than once he got up to go after his impudent wife. Iron Eye restrained him.

  “That will teach you, boy,” said the chief. “Never try to part a man from his horse.”

  “It was a fair fight,” added Joseph through his laughter. Fox shot him a murderous look.

  Cal came up to me. He bent right over and slapped the dust from my skirt. I tried to catch his eye. His face was flushed- I think, I believe, with pleasure.

  “That was as fine a fight as I’ve ever seen,” he said.

  “Then let’s go get your horses and get the hell out of here.”

  “I’ll wash that mouth of yours out,” he said. “You swear too much.”

  But there was no real heat in his voice.

  Iron Eye personally led us through his son’s herd. I’d never seen such healthy horses. He turned to Cal.

  “Pick any four you like,” he said. “But do not take the black stallion there. That is Fox’s war-horse.”

  “I wonder why he wanted mine.”

  “My son is greedy,” said Iron Eye. “He sees a thing and decides he wants it. He is worse than the whites.”

  Joseph laughed. Iron Eye turned his glassy eye to the Kickapoo. “You are smarter than you look, Joseph Worn-Shoes. It was you who suggested Brave Bird fight the cowboy’s woman. I believe you did it on purpose.”

  Cal smiled. He chose three horses, then let me choose the last.

  I picked a beautiful strawberry roan, which I christened Blossom, because she reminded me of a Magnolia flower.

  Cal then made ready to go. I think we all wanted to get out of the camp before Fox decided to come after his horses.

  We went to the edge of the camp so Cal could have a final, private word with Iron Eye. In the distance the fires of the other camp burned. Inside it sat Cal’s brother, Sam, and a host of Comanche and Kiowa warriors. Joseph said they had come for a council with Iron Eye. They liked to hold councils at the half moon, for when the moon went full they made war parties and raided across the plains. By that time I hoped we would be long gone.

  As promised, Iron Eye delivered a splendid buffalo robe to go along with the horses. After putting the robe in Cal’s arms, he turned to me and gave me a smile full of straight yellow teeth.

  “If Brave Bird had kept fighting, I could not say who would have won. But it took bravery to face her. I’ve seen her take down men twice her size.”

  Joseph translated. For once I was speechless. I only nodded and blushed.

  “You would make a good wife for my son,” he continued. “He is not so bad-tempered all the time. And I like strong women for daughters.”

  “Tell the Chief I respectfully decline,” I squeaked to Joseph. He translated. Iron Eye laughed and turned away. The last I saw of him, he was strolling off through the horse herd, humming to himself.

  “Let’s go,” said Cal.

  We moved past the horse herd with our treasures. I rode with Cal, since the horses did not come with saddles, and Joseph rode bareback on a wriggly piebald. Blossom and the other horses followed us. We stopped a quarter mile from Iron Eye’s camp. Riders were coming to meet us from the other camp. Their horses kicked up little spirals of dust. Joseph squinted. “That’s your brother, Cal.”

  Cal waited. Two riders were Comanche, Joseph murmured. The other, a Kiowa, was Iron Eye’s cousin.

  In the light of day, Cal Sampson looked less like his brother than I remembered.

  “Hello brother,” said Sam Twist.

  “Hello Sam,” said Cal. “We was just leavin’.”

  “With these pretty horses?” said Sam. “I wonder what you said to get the old man to give ‘em up.”

  “I don’t really got time to talk,” said Cal. “Maybe you should ask him.”

  Sam brought his horse in Cal’s path, cutting him off. He nodded to me with a grin. “Who’s that?”

  “One of my riders,” said Cal. A vein jumped in his jaw.

  “You remember me, girl?” asked Sam. “You gave me a pretty sweet kiss, as I recall.”

  Cal reached for his gun. In a moment the Comanche had their rifles pointed at his chest.

  “Easy now,” said Sam Twist. His blue eyes flashed. “You just take care.”

  “What do you want, Sam?”

  “Just to talk. I can’t talk with my only brother?”

  “I ain’t brother to no horse-thief.”

  “Speakin’ of. I heard you had some trouble with that. A French feller by the name of Pierre?”

  “And how do you know about that?”

  “Word travels.”

  “I believe you had something to do with it. But I don’t have the time to settle anything with you.”

  “Now, wait just a minute. I got another thing to ask you.”

  He nudged his horse right alongside Cal’s. Instinctively I leaned back into Cal’s chest. His arm circled my waist protectively. Sam Twist didn’t miss that motion. He smirked.

  Leaning forward so the other cowboys couldn’t hear, Sam Twist said, “Truth is, I’m back in these parts on a special kind of mission.”

  “You don’t say.”

  Sam licked his lips. “I had a delivery comin’ through here from a man in Massachusetts. Thirty thousand dollars in gold bars, hidden in the bottom of an old stagecoach. Was supposed to pick it up in San Jose, where me and my boys could set ourselves up good. I meant to take you in on it, Cal. We could have ranched together like brothers again, like we were supposed to.”

  Cal stiffened. “What?”

  “A bank robbery,” explained Sam easily. “Harmin’s part of a ring of thieves in Virginia stole some bullion from Jules Woodward Bank. Each piece has an engravin’ on the side, with the initials.”

  “And what the hell do you have to do with bank robbers in Virginia?” snapped Cal.

  “Transportation services,” said Sam, with an oily grin. “But it turns out the stagecoach ran afoul of some bandits. Renegades from Texas. So the word is. I recovered some of the gold, but some is still unaccounted for.”

  “Really.”

  “I think it was David Harmin bein’ slick; tryin’ to cheat me out my share.”

  I could practically hear Cal putting the pieces together in his head. I thought I might pass out in fear. The gold bar in my pocket burned.

  “I don’t know what I have to do with your stolen gold, Sam,” murmured Cal.

  “Oh?” Sam’s blue eyes sparked. “You know I got some spies out in that country. They claim there was a cattle team passin’ through that very same night. I heard it was them that provoked the comancheros in the first place. Which, I’m assumin’, led to the upset of my coach, and the disappearance of my money.”

  “You callin’ me a thief?” Cal said, his voice charged. He sat bolt upright in the saddle.

  “No,” said Sam, after a moment. “I know you ain’t the type.”

  “You should have given that wagon an escort. Then this wouldn’t have happened.”

  “Well, my mistake. Look, Cal. You got places to be; I got business to tend to. All I’m askin’ is you keep an eye out for a man named David Harmin. I think that son of a bitch has got the rest of my money.”

  “Is that all?”

  Sam shifted. He jutted his chin at me. “Where did she come from? Didn’t know you were so cozy with the darkies.”

  “My name is-”

  “Miss Ada Bell,” Cal broke in. “She’s comin’ with me to Kansas.”

  “Where you from, Miss Ada Bell?” said Sam silkily.

  “Austin,” Cal lied.

  “She can’t speak for herself?” laughed Sam, leading his horse away from us. They spoke at normal volume now.

  “Sam,” said Cal.

  “Yes?” said Sam.

  “Don’t let me see you again. Or it’ll be the rope.”

  “Thought you only hung horse-thieves.”

  “I do that, too. If I catch any of your men makin’ off with my boys’ horses again, I’ll ride them down myself. And then I’ll come for you.”

  “Big words, brother.”

  “I don’t make idle threats.”

  Sam Twist only laughed. It sounded horribly like Cal’s laugh, but full of old bitterness. He took his riders on.

  ᢇ

  “You should have left her,” said Tucker, the moment Cal arrived back in camp.

  “Left her where? For the Kiowa?” said Cal.

  “She’s dead weight!” said Tucker.

  “I’m dead weight to nobody,” I snapped. “And you’re one to talk, with that bust-up leg.”

  That shut them up real good. I didn’t care. For a moment the silence was painful.

  “You’re gonna talk to me like that, nigger?” barked Tucker, reaching for his gun.

  But Cal was faster. He delivered a strong cuff to the back of Tucker’s head. It nearly sent the man sprawling.

  I opened my mouth to jeer at him, but Cal gave me a freezing glare that stopped it all up at once.

  “If you want to talk like that, Tucker, you’d best go back to the gutter I dragged you from,” said Cal.

  And that was the end of that.

  The ride to Fort Mueller took another week. In that time Cal and I barely spoke. I remembered everything we had done that night in the Kiowa camp- but did he?

  For the first few days our biggest problem was we had not found proper saddles for the horses. Which meant Cal had to ride out with Saint to find some. Joseph waited with me at the camp while they did- to keep the other cowboys away from me, I guess. Per Cal’s request.

  “I think the Yellow-Hair likes you.”

  Forgetting to ignore him, I replied, “He’s got a funny way of showing it.”

  “Besides making love to you?” said Joseph innocently.

  I started up and glared at him. He grinned very wide. “It must be years since he’s been with a woman. Perhaps you are even his first.”

  “I doubt that.” He had been my first. But I knew I hadn’t been his.

  “What about you?” I countered. “You never see your wife, from what I hear. Always running off.”

  “My wife is very happy,” he said seriously. “We make love once a year. More than that, and she says I bother her.”

  I sniffed. “We shouldn’t be talking about this.”

  Ahead of us the cattle roamed freely. With less men to corral them, some had been wandering too far. It drove the cowboys mad.

  I went up to Cal that night when he’d returned from getting the saddles. He was currying his horse, Big Girl. I could tell he’d been doing everything to avoid a conversation. But our little beef had been stewing long enough.

  “I want to talk to you.”

  “I’m right here,” he said.

  “I want to know why you lied to your brother about me.”

  “About the coach? David Harmin? Ada, you might be smarter than most of these boys will admit, but you ain’t a criminal mastermind.”

  “Maybe you’re underestimatin’ me.”

  “I don’t think the girl I picked up from a prairie gulch has anythin’ to do with Sam Twist or his gold. You can’t tell me I’m wrong.”

  “I was workin’ for Mary Harmin, his wife. She married David a couple months ago, and he made her come out here. She begged me to come.”

  “So you knew nothin’ about the thirty thousand dollars sittin’ under your ass in that wagon.”

  It occurred to me for a moment that I should tell him the truth. Yeah, I had known about the money. But when I found out it had been too late. What did it matter, that I’d known ? And I didn’t want Cal Sampson sniffing around any more than he was inclined to. I didn’t want him knowing I still had a bar of that gold in my pocket.

  “Not until now,” I said.

  “And you didn’t see any gold when it got wrecked?” said Cal.

  I looked him in the eye. “Not a piece.”

  The lie was heavy on my tongue.

  “I want to go to to Baxter Springs with you,” I said, changing the subject. “I don’t need you to leave me off in some random town in Kansas. I’ll go the whole way.”

  “Well-”

  “But I know that ain’t the only place you want to stop. You’re plannin’ to go to California, yes?”

  Alarm registered on his face so I cut him off before he could reply. “There’s more opportunities in California for a colored woman. I ain’t tryin’ to ride your coattails all the way out West. It’s got nothing to do with the fact that you and I-”

  He gave me a dangerous look. I swallowed.

  But no. I wouldn’t let him bully me.

  “I know you want to pretend like it didn’t happen,” I snapped. “But I won’t do it. We made love, Cal.”

  “I remember, Ada.”

  “So what’s the problem?”

  “I just- I did you wrong, that’s what. And I been too ashamed to come out and tell it to your face. I owe you an apology.”

  “Did me wrong?”

  “Yeah,” he said.

  “How?”

  He worked his jaw. “You know how. I made it with you- and you bein’ a virgin.”

  “So?” I blurted, before I could stop myself. “I mean, er, it’s alright.”

  “I figured you’d be angry with me.”

  I blushed all the way down to my toes.

  “It’s alright,” I repeated. “I don’t think I was gonna get married anyhow. Don’t know if my imaginary future husband would much care.”

  I might have just spoken Greek. He blinked. “You don’t care?”

  “No, no,” I hurried. “I only wanted to know why you was ignoring me. If- if the only thing you saw in me was my body.”

  “You know it ain’t that.”

  “Well, you been actin’ like the kind of man that takes after a woman and drops her like somethin’ hot when the deed is done.”

  “I’ve been damned busy, Ada.”

  “I don’t mean to take after you,” I said. “I ain’t tryin’ to put no claims on you. I just- I just want you to be honest with me.”

  That was a lie. I wanted Cal Sampson, and only Cal Sampson. I would have ridden all the way to California with him, if it meant I could stay in his bed. Somehow he’d ignited a passion in me. It could only be extinguished in one way. He glanced over his shoulder. It was night- we were standing behind his horse, out of view (mostly) from the cowhands.

  “Honest about what?” he murmured. He set down the curry brush. His green eyes glowed, looking not at me, but some point in the distance. I saw his other hand twitching, where he’d hooked it in his gunbelt.

  I took a deep breath. “Honest about if you want to do it again.”

  His eyebrows went right up to the fall of dark blonde hair. He looked out at the dozing cowhands again- at the same time his other hand went out and pulled me by the waist.

  I stepped up to him. He had me, caught me by the chin. Hidden by the enormous head of Big Girl, our kiss went on and on. Oh, he liked me. I knew he did.

  When he broke away his voice seemed more like a rasp. “Of course I want to do it again,” he said. “But it ain’t right. I’d be takin’ advantage of you.”

  “No,” I said. “I’m not a virgin. You can’t take any advantage now.”

  “Is that why you came here?”

  “Yes,” I breathed.

  “You want to fuck again?”