Once Upon a Mail Order Bride - Linda Broday Page 0,55
night on the bare ground?”
“Sure do. I think Clay would still do that if he had his way.” Ridge chuckled. “I’ve never seen any man like to dance the way he does.”
“Shoot, me neither.”
A moment’s silence filled the room, broken only by the noisy traffic of horses and wagons in the busy town beyond the door. Something else that had changed. “I might ride out to some of these nearby caves this afternoon. I’ve got to do something to flush Hiram out.”
“I’d go with you, but I promised Sawyer I’d go hunting with him. I don’t spend enough time with the boy as it is.” Jack paused, then added quietly, “Hiram may have left to get reinforcements. There’s always that possibility.”
“Yeah. Hell, I hate that I brought him here.” If only he’d taken Addie riding somewhere else that day. But if he had, they wouldn’t have been there to free Bodie, so he guessed things turned out the way they were meant to.
“Not your fault, Ridge.” Jack opened the door and left.
Ridge sat in thought a spell longer. Maybe Hiram had gone for reinforcements. The man would have his pick of help among the rough men hanging out in Tascosa. The outlaw Billy the Kid had called it home once, until Pat Garrett killed him last year. But there were plenty waiting to take a man’s money and do the job. Until the threat was gone, they had to keep Hope’s Crossing locked tight.
Silver Valley, the lying woman, Tom Calder, and the hangman’s rope crossed his mind. Ridge shuddered and turned his thoughts to Addie. If he wanted their marriage to work, it was time to trust and bare the past—both his and hers.
Fourteen
Addie sat in Eleanor’s home, sipping tea and nibbling on a moist slice of applesauce cake. Slowly, the recluse was changing. She’d begun combing her hair and twisting it into a knot on the back of her neck, sprucing herself up more. Today Eleanor wore a black cameo on a ribbon. The change surprised Addie so much, she had to blink and look again.
“What a beautiful cameo,” Addie wrote on a piece of paper.
Eleanor’s smile held sadness. “My Charley gave it to me one Christmas. I dug it out of the ashes.” She fingered the keepsake at her throat. “Addie, don’t ever outlive those that love you.”
“Yes, ma’am. Would you tell me about him?”
Silence hung like thick moss from tall cypress. Addie sat waiting while Eleanor finished her tea and cake. Finally, Eleanor pushed the small plate away. “I recollect telling you I would, and today seems as good as any.”
The woman rose and collected the plates, dropping them in a dishpan of soapy water. “People wonder why I live on the fringe of town. The answer is because I have all this ugliness inside.”
Addie picked up a flour sack drying towel and helped her friend.
“I was married to the outlaw Charley Caddell for twelve years.”
Even though Addie had been sheltered from the world, she’d heard of the man. Caddell was hunted worse than anyone she’d known. He’d come to New Zion once, shot and in a bad way. Her mother had tended to his wound, after which her father had ridden him out of town.
“We lived outside of Springer, New Mexico Territory, on a farm. A few hours after he left to hunt one day, I was hanging wash on the line. My two little girls and their brother were in the house. Riders descended on us like a flock of buzzards with guns blazin.’ They pinned me down with gunfire and set fire to the house. I screamed that the children were inside and tried to get to them, but the men held me back.” Eleanor put a trembling hand over her eyes and took a deep breath. “Charley came riding in full-bore, shooting in a panic. He raced right past the posse like they weren’t there.” Eleanor’s voice broke. “They gunned him down in the yard, shooting him full of holes. Charley fell two steps from the flaming doorway. He fought with everything he had to get to our babies.”
Addie drew a shocked breath, her heart breaking. She helped Eleanor back to the table. Part of her didn’t want to hear the rest, but Eleanor wasn’t finished.
“Folks claimed I came unhinged that day, and they weren’t wrong. I screamed so loud and so long, I lost my voice, just like you have. I stayed locked in silence like that for a good long while.”