Wilderness Double Edition 22, page 11
“Evelyn has been gone a long time. I thought you would want to know.”
“Define ‘long time’,” Shakespeare said. He closed his eyes, but the lake and the gentle breeze had faded into the inner limbo that spawned them.
“Almost an hour by your pocket watch,” Blue Water Woman said. “Do you want me to go look for her?”
“You are too absolute,” Shakespeare quoted, “though therein you can never be too noble.” Sitting up, he rubbed his beard and ran a hand through his hair. “We don’t want you lifting the scalps of any locals.”
“You’re the one with the temper,” Blue Water Woman said.
“Few love to hear the sins they love to act.” Shakespeare slid his legs over the edge of the bed. “I’ll bet Evelyn is doing what I would do at her age, and exploring the hotel.”
“What if she has left the hotel to explore the town?”
“We told her not to.” Shakespeare stretched and stifled a yawn.
“But if she is as much like you as you believe,” Blue Water Woman said, “she will listen to us about as well as you listen to me.”
“This to the man who hangs on your every word?” Shakespeare stood. “She is her father’s daughter, though. So maybe we better go see.” Padding to the wash basin, he splashed water on his face and gave his head a vigorous shake. “There. I think I’m awake enough for the hunt.”
They stepped from the bedroom and were almost to the front door when the wall shook to a resounding thump.
“What was that?” Blue Water Woman wondered.
“An irate storm giant,” Shakespeare joked.
From the next suite came loud scuffling noises and a tinny kling-kling-kling.
Blue Water Woman commented, “That sounds like silverware on a tin plate.”
“Thou art so leaky that we must leave thee to thy sinking,” Shakespeare recited the Bard, and placed an ear to the wall. “That’s a knife fight or I’m a urinal.” He thought he heard a grunt and then indistinct voices.
“Maybe you should let the hotel people know.”
Shakespeare agreed. Knife fights sometimes ended in the use of firearms, and the walls weren’t thick enough to stop a stray slug. “Good idea. I’ll run right down.”
“We will go together. We are husband and wife, in case you have forgotten.”
“How can I when we’ve been joined at the hip since the day I gave in?” Shakespeare said. He already had his pistols, knife and tomahawk. All he needed was his rifle, which he had propped by the door.
Another couple was in the hallway, young lovers or newlyweds, from the way they clung to one another.
“Do you hear that?” the young man asked. “What in the world is going on in there?”
“A dance of death would be my guess,” Shakespeare replied. “Juliet and you should make yourselves scarce, Romeo.”
“My name is Cynthia,” the young woman said.
“Of course it is,” Shakespeare said.
Timms, the desk clerk, was watering a plant. “Mr. McNair? Mrs. McNair? Why the hurry and the furrowed brows? Don’t tell me there is a problem with your suite?”
“There’s a fight in the one next to us,” Shakespeare said. “Three-oh-four, I think it is.”
“A fight? At The Armistead?” Timms chuckled. “Unthinkable. In the year I’ve been here there has never been an altercation. People who stay here do so for a taste of the rich life, not to indulge in petty fisticuffs.”
“If our wits run the wild goose chase I am done, for thou hast more of the wild goose in one of thy wits than I am sure I have in my whole five.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Shakespeare was not one to suffer simpletons, and he turned, saying, “It must be nice to be part ostrich.”
“You’re serious about the fight?” Timms said.
Suddenly a tremendous crash drew everyone in the lobby to the wide double doors. Across the street someone screamed.
A man at the front window pointed in amazement. “Look! Someone just fell from an upper window. My God! Every bone in his body must be broken!”
Shakespeare pulled Blue Water Woman over to see who it was. He felt her stiffen, and he stiffened, too, his mind reeling at the impossibility of the evidence of his eyes. “It can’t be!”
But it was.
Lying in the dust of the street, his limbs spread-eagled, was the firebrand they had traveled a thousand miles to help, the grandson Shakespeare never had but always wanted, one of the five people he loved most in the world: Zachary King.
Evelyn finished her ice cream and placed her spoon in the bowl. “That was delicious, ma’am,” she thanked her gracious benefactor.
“Would you care for more?”
“Oh, no, I couldn’t,” Evelyn said to be polite. She wouldn’t mind another two or three bowls. It was that good.
Athena glanced at the waiter and he hurried to their table. “Put them on my bill,” she directed.
“Of course, madam.”
Evelyn had never met anyone like her. She never imagined a woman could be so forceful, so commanding. Her mother was a strong woman but not in the way Athena was strong. One day she would like to be just like her. “I sure do envy you.”
“And I you, little one.”
“I have nothing to envy,” Evelyn said.
“On the contrary, my dear. You have the most precious gift life offers. Your youth. We squander it when we are children, miss it when we are old.”
“But you’re still young yet.”
Athena smiled and reached across the table and touched Evelyn’s chin. “I thank you for the kindness. But you cannot always tell someone’s age by how they look. Appearances, you might have heard, can be deceiving.” She nodded at the waiter and he held her chair out for her. “Often how old we are has more to do with how we feel inside, not how we appear in a mirror.”
“You’re saying you feel older than you are?”
“I may only look thirty, but at times I feel one hundred,” Athena said. “Hardship and loss have turned me ancient beyond my years.” She moved toward the lobby but stopped after only a few steps. “This is where we part company. I have things to attend to, and I would imagine your uncle and aunt are wondering what became of you.” She held out her hand. “Thank you for your company.”
“My pleasure.”
Athena began to leave, then turned back. “I almost forgot. You never mentioned your last name. What if I want to look you up later?”
“King,” Evelyn said. “My full name is Evelyn King.”
Athena recoiled as if she had been pricked by a pin. “Can it be?” she breathed. “Are you any relation to Zach King?”
Evelyn remembered all those who hated her brother because he was half and half, and she timidly replied, “I’m his sister. Why?”
“But you don’t look anything like him! Your hair, your eyes, your complexion. No one would guess you are part Indian.”
“You’ve met him?”
“Not personally yet, no,” Athena said, “but I followed his trial with great interest. How is it I never saw you there?”
“We just got into town today,” Evelyn disclosed. “I wanted to be here for him, but we were delayed out on the prairie.”
“Then you haven’t seen your brother yet?”
“No.” Evelyn couldn’t understand why Athena glanced all around. “We don’t even know where he is.”
“I do. I happened to overhear someone mention it during the course of the trial.” Athena leaned down and cupped Evelyn’s cheek. “I can take you to him right this second if you want.”
“Take all three of us, you mean,” Evelyn said. “Uncle Shakespeare and Aunt Blue Water Woman will want to come too.”
“Of course, of course.” Athena took Evelyn’s hand. “Come with me.” Hardly had she taken a step than there was a loud crash and a scream from in front of the hotel, and a commotion erupted.
“What’s going on?” Evelyn asked. Athena was blocking her view. “What is all the ruckus about?”
A man shouted, “Look! Someone just fell from an upper window. My God! Every bone in his body must be broken!”
“Evidently there has been a terrible accident.” Athena moved toward the stairs, her arm around Evelyn’s shoulder, walking on the right so Evelyn couldn’t see.
“I’m not squeamish,” Evelyn remarked, trying to catch a glimpse. A crowd was gathering in the street and there had to be ten to twelve people jammed together near the front doors. She thought she glimpsed a man with white hair but she couldn’t be sure it was Shakespeare and in a few more seconds they reached the first landing. “What’s our hurry?”
“You want to see your brother, don’t you? I must get a few things and we’ll be on our way.”
“Don’t forget my uncle and my aunt,” Evelyn reminded her.
“Don’t fret on that score.”
Athena produced a key and went to insert it into a door, but the door wasn’t locked and swung open at her touch. Just inside, on the floor, was a bright red smear. “What—?” she blurted.
“Blood,” Evelyn said. “I’ve seen enough of it to know.” The most recent incident was the mauling of her father by the black bear. He had bled so much, her mother and Shakespeare feared he would die from blood loss.
Athena pulled her into the suite and shut and bolted the door. “I need to change. Then we’ll go.”
More red smears sprinkled the carpet. On the sofa sat one of the biggest men Evelyn ever saw. He was even bigger than Touch the Clouds, and that took some doing. He was dressed all in black except for his shirt. His leg was bleeding. He had a belt around it to stop the flow.
“Mistress! All did not go as—” The man saw Evelyn and stopped. “Who is the girl?”
“She is living proof that God answers our prayers. Permit me to introduce Miss Evelyn King, Zach King’s younger sister. Evelyn, meet Largo, my manservant.”
“Can it be?” Largo marveled. “After all we—” Again he stopped. “There has been an unforeseen development.”
“Come into your bedroom and I will bandage you,” Athena said. To Evelyn she said, “Will you be so kind as to wait here? We won’t be long, and then I will take you to your brother.”
“I can hardly wait.”
Evelyn settled into a chair. She was curious how the big man had hurt himself, but she could wait to find out. The important thing was to get to Zach. She would never admit it to his face, but she missed him. When he’d been arrested by the army, she couldn’t sleep for days. Oh, sure, they had fought a lot when she was little, but she still cared for him. She still loved him.
Athena and Largo closed the bedroom door and commenced whispering excitedly. Evelyn thought she heard her name and Zach’s and something about New Orleans. They were in there a long time and when they came out Athena wore a hat with a veil and Largo had changed into a clean pair of pants with a slight bulge where the bandage had been applied.
“Will you take me to my brother now?” Evelyn requested.
“Soon. Very soon,” Athena said. “But first we need to know which room your uncle and aunt are staying in.”
Evelyn told them, and Athena nodded at Largo, who quickly departed. “Where is he going?”
“To ask them to accompany us.” Athena came over to the chair, her left hand low against her side. “You have no idea how much our chance meeting means to me.”
“It does?” Evelyn saw a crumpled cloth in Athena’s left hand and assumed it was one Athena had used to doctor her servant.
“Were I religious, I would say the Almighty dropped you in my lap to do with as I please.”
“Ma’am?” Evelyn said.
“Breathe deep, my dear.”
Evelyn was stupefied when Athena abruptly grabbed her and pressed the cloth to her mouth and nose. For a few seconds she was too stunned to move. When she did, when she sought to rise and run, her body wouldn’t obey. A sickening dizziness came over her. She heard laughter, cold, hard laughter, right before the world faded to black.
Fifteen
A cool sensation on Zach King’s forehead was his first inkling he was still alive. He opened his eyes and winced when his head exploded with excruciating pain. He was lying on his back. He raised a hand to his brow and discovered a damp, folded cloth.
“Doctor! He’s come around!”
A face Zach had never seen before appeared above him. “Who—?” he croaked, trying to collect his jumbled thoughts.
“Lie still, young man. You’ve sustained a blow to the head. I’m Dr. Peters. Your wife sent for me.”
“Where—?” Zach said, then saw the glittering chandelier. He was in the lobby of The Armistead.
“You fell from the third floor,” Dr. Peters said. “The only thing that saved you from a broken neck or worse was a carriage that had pulled up.”
Zach remembered. It was one of those carriages with a soft leather top. He had struck it, bounced off, and crashed headfirst to the street.
“You must lie still for a while,” Dr. Peters advised. “Concussions are common in falls of this nature.” He pried at one of Zach’s eyelids and carefully examined the eye. “Your pupils aren’t dilated.” Holding up three fingers, he asked, “How many fingers do you see?”
Zach told him.
Dr. Peters took the folded cloth. “I’ll get another cold compress. They’ll help with the discomfort.”
Lou’s face replaced the doctor’s. She had tears in her eyes. Throwing her arms wide, she embraced him and pressed her cheek to his. “Oh, Zach, Zach, Zach. I thought I had lost you.”
“It was close,” Zach admitted. “Was that you who screamed?” He vaguely remembered it being the last sound he heard before he passed out.
Lou nodded. “I was never so scared in my life,” she said, kissing him. A sheepish look came over her and she drew back. “We carried you into the lobby.”
Where a lot of people had congregated, Zach now saw. He was on a couch, surrounded by gawkers, two of whom he recognized. “Shakespeare! Blue Water Woman!” Impulsively, he went to sit up. Waves of pulsating pain drove him back down.
“Lie still, Laertes,” Shakespeare said, gripping Zach’s hand. “Didn’t you hear the sawbones? That iron noggin of yours took quite a blow.”
“We are happy to see you again,” Blue Water Woman said in that reserved way of hers.
Zach glanced at the ring of faces. “Where are my father and mother?” Those long weeks he spent languishing in the stockade at Fort Leavenworth, he had looked for their arrival daily. He never understood why they weren’t at the trial. They had plenty of time to make the long trek across the plains.
Shakespeare’s features clouded. “Your pa is in a bad way, son. He was mauled by a black bear.”
“Again?” When it came to bears, Zach’s father had the worst luck of any man alive. As far back as Zach could remember, his father was always tangling with them. It got so that the mountaineers liked to joke that Nate had a hoodoo on him.
“We were two weeks out,” Shakespeare detailed. “There was a storm, and your father and the bear were caught in a mud slide. The bear ripped him open clear to the bone, but he should live.”
“Should?” Zach said bleakly.
“He sent us on ahead. We’re sorry we didn’t get here in time for your trial, but we tried out best.”
Blue Water Woman touched Zach’s shoulder. “Your mother asked me to express her regrets. She had to stay with your father. She hopes you will understand.”
Zach was too choked up to answer so he nodded.
“Now that we’ve found you,” Shakespeare said, “we’re not letting you out of our sight until you’re reunited with your folks.” He gave a grin and added, “Someone has to keep you out of trouble.”
The mention of trouble flooded Zach with images of his fight, and of being thrown through the window. “I was attacked by someone three times as big as me.”
“That would be Largo Gandovar,” said someone else, and out of the onlookers stepped the man in the brown hat.
“You!” Again Zach tried to rise. Again he regretted it.
“Be still,” Lou said. “He’s on our side. Colonel Templeton sent him to help us.”
“Major Bannister, at your service,” the officer said with a courteous bow. “Your wife can fill you in on all we have learned so far. In the meantime I’ll go find your assailant.”
“You won’t go alone,” Shakespeare McNair said.
“No, he won’t.” This time Zach made it to his feet. He swayed but only for a few moments. Pushing away Lou’s restraining hand, he declared, “This is mine to deal with.” Strong words when his stomach was trying to crawl up out his throat.
Shakespeare shook his head. “We’ll handle it, Laertes. There’s no need for you to come.”
“Would you do nothing if someone tried to kill you?” Zach countered. A question for which the oldest of the mountaineers had no answer. Helping himself to one of McNair’s pistols, he said, “I need to borrow this.”
The onlookers parted and through them came Dr. Peters holding the wet cloth. “What are you doing on your feet? Didn’t you hear a word I said? You must rest.”
“There’s something that needs doing first, Doc.” Zach shuffled a step, then several more. With each one the throbbing in his head lessened and more of his strength returned.
From behind the front desk came a thin-faced man in a starched shirt and jacket who barred his way “A moment of your time, Mr. King, if I may. I’m Harold Timms, the desk clerk.”
“Stand aside,” Zach said. He had to get upstairs before Largo escaped, if he hadn’t already.
“I’ve sent a bellboy to the manager’s house,” Timms said. “Here at The Armistead we frown on escapades of this nature. What were you doing here, anyhow? And who is going to pay for any damages?”
“I’ll answer everything later.” Zach pressed the pistol’s muzzle against Timms’s chest. “Right now the man who tried to kill me might still be upstairs. So move.”
Timms had more grit than Zach credited him with. “You won’t shoot me in front of all these witnesses.”
