River Lady Read online

  “No,” he said. “There’s a stream across the trail. I want to show you something.”

  “But if someone sees you…I mean…”

  “I know what you mean, Leah,” he said heavily. “Could I show you something now?”

  “Of course.” They were sitting on their horses in the middle of the well-worn trail and just a little way away was the smoke from a camp fire.

  Out of his pocket Revis pulled a black silk handkerchief, and while Leah watched he tied it about his face.

  She didn’t like what she saw. She’d almost forgotten that he was a thief. “I think we’d better return.”

  “Not yet, my lofty princess,” he said as he grabbed the reins of her horse.

  The next minute they were thundering down the trail toward the camp fire smoke, Leah barely able to hang onto the saddle. Once she screamed “No,” but Revis paid no attention.

  They burst like storm clouds into the clearing where two wagons sat. The settlers, each involved in some task about the campsite, looked up and froze.

  Revis shot one man through the forehead.

  Aghast, for a moment Leah couldn’t move. Then, in one motion, she was off her horse and onto the ground, running toward the dead man. A woman near her screamed.

  Revis rode his horse near to where Leah hovered over the man. “Get their goods, Leah,” he said coolly.

  “You animal!” she screamed and began to beat Revis with her fists.

  Revis leveled his pistol and shot the woman beside Leah in the shoulder.

  By now there were five settlers and two children standing by the wagons, looking in horror at the masked man and the people near him.

  “If you don’t obey me you’ll have to choose who’ll die next,” Revis said as he pulled another pistol from his saddle.

  The bleeding woman at Leah’s feet began to cry.

  “You have about ten seconds to obey me, Leah,” Revis said.

  “What…what do I do?” She knew that now only action counted and words were useless.

  “Get that man’s hat and fill it with whatever they have.” He pointed with the pistol. “Any of you give my partner any trouble and I’ll put a bullet through your head.”

  “I’m not—,” Leah began but stopped. When she stood before the settler, he looked at her with hate.

  “The Lord will see you burn for this,” the man hissed at her as he handed her his hat.

  “No, please, I—.”

  “Listen to him, Leah,” Revis said. “All of you, I want to introduce Mrs. Leah Simmons Stanford of Virginia and soon to be of Sweetbriar, Kentucky.”

  With shaking hands, Leah walked in front of the settlers as they put their watches and rings into the hat. One woman spit a great glob into Leah’s face. Leah only halfheartedly wiped it away.

  “Come on, Leah, honey,” Revis said coaxingly. “We need to get back and these good people need to bury their dead.”

  At her horse she hesitated.

  “If you stayed here they’d tear you to bits and if you don’t go with me I’ll kill two more. I think I’d like doing that,” he said so that only she heard.

  As if she were in a daze, Leah mounted her horse. Revis again took the reins and pulled her with him into the forest.

  Just after crossing the Wilderness Trail, he stopped and pulled off his mask. “I told you I’d make you pay for using my brothers against me,” he said. “In a few days everyone for miles will know about the lovely Mrs. Stanford who is a thief as well as a murderess.”

  “No,” Leah whispered.

  “And now, my pretty Leah, you have a real reason to stay with me. You leave my protection and the secrecy of our cabin and you’ll be arrested and hanged by the neck until dead.” With that he began to laugh. “You’ll get used to it,” he laughed. “On the next raid you’ll know just what to do. And since you’ll already be well-known, we won’t have to cover that pretty face of yours

  “Let’s go,” he said, laughing. “Blood always makes me hungry.”

  He led her horse up the intricate, secret path to the cabin while Leah sat on the horse and knew her life was over.

  Chapter 20

  By the time Revis and Leah reached the cabin, Revis was cursing her because she looked as if she were living death. He didn’t want any more women like Verity, who’d never recovered from seeing Revis shoot her husband. He wanted a woman who wasn’t afraid.

  At the cabin he dismounted, leaving her still on top of her horse. He stalked inside, threw some food into a sack, and returned to his horse. Still cursing his luck with women, he angrily pulled Leah from her horse and stood her on the ground. Immediately she collapsed in a heap, drawing her knees into her chest. She didn’t cry or make a sound; she just lay there.

  With a sneer at her, Revis rode away.

  Hours later, Abe found her there.

  “Damn you, Leah, you’re supposed to feed us! It’s time to eat and ain’t nothin’ cooked. And what’re you doin’ layin’ in the sun? You’ll get burnt and then Revis won’t like you anymore.”

  Leah didn’t move. Her eyes were open but she didn’t seem to see anything.

  “Leah?” He knelt beside her. “You been hurt?” There was concern in his voice. “You gonna talk to me or you rather just lay around?”

  Tentatively he touched her forehead. Her skin was hot, but she didn’t move at his touch. Frowning, he stood upright and gave a high-pitched whistle.

  Quickly both Bud and Cal appeared from the forest.

  “Look here at my sister,” Abe said indignantly. “Either of you know what’s wrong with her?”

  Cal knelt by Leah, his big body shading her. Slowly he reached out a hand and touched her cheek. He looked up at his brother, seemed to get an answer to his silent question, and the next moment he lifted Leah into his arms.

  “Hey!” Abe protested. “You can’t do that. You leave her here. I’ll take care of her.”

  Cal started toward the forest with Leah.

  “You hear me, you overgrown piece of dog crap?”

  Bud planted himself in front of Abe.

  “Here! Get out of the way,” Abe commanded. “You can’t take my sister off to who-knows-where. And that rich husband of hers ain’t gonna want her if she’s sick. She ain’t got nobody but me.”

  For all Abe’s protesting, he stayed where he was when both brothers disappeared into the woods.

  Wesley was outside the cabin, shirtless, walking around, flexing and unflexing his arms, trying to get strength back into his side. He halted when he heard the footsteps coming up the path. Usually Bud and Cal didn’t use the briar-covered path but came their own way through the underbrush.

  Wesley slipped out of sight until he was sure his visitors were indeed the boys. When he saw Cal carrying Leah, he ran forward.

  “Is she hurt?” he asked as he took her from the young men. “What happened to her? Did that Revis—? I thought you two were watching her.”

  Leah lay limp in his arms, her eyes closed as if she were unconscious. He took her into the cabin and put her on the bed. He kept a bucket of water in the cabin and now he dipped a cloth in it, a cloth that had once been part of his bandages, and put the cool fabric on her forehead.

  Leah groaned, turned to her side, drew her knees into her chest, and lay still.

  “You two better start talking,” Wes said, his eyes narrowed. “And fast.”

  Cal spoke first. “She told me she wanted privacy this morning and we gave it but after an hour we began to look for her.”

  “We followed horse tracks down the mountain and at the bottom we heard shots,” Bud said.

  “By the time we got there Revis had killed a man and shot a woman. He and Leah were riding fast back up the mountain. When we got to the cabin she was like that and Revis was gone.”

  Wesley walked away from the cot. “I thought all this Revis did was rob people.”

  “He kills people when he feels like it,” Bud said with a stiff jaw.

  Wesley b