Wilderness Double Edition 27 Page 4
‘I had no idea,’ Simon said. The fine clothes, the crystal and china, the carriage, had all given the impression the Kilravens were fabulously wealthy.
‘Oh, yes,’ Lord Kilraven said. ‘To give you some idea, at my estate I have eleven servants. Lord Cushing has twenty-seven. Lord Thackery has thirty-nine. Granted, their estates are larger, but you see my point.’
‘You hope to have more.’
‘With money I can. With enough money I can do anything,’ Kilraven declared. ‘Which is why I have been casting about for some time, seeking the ideal means to amass the wealth that is my due. The opportunities over here were brought to my attention by friends and associates who have invested in American enterprises and reaped huge rewards.’
‘Your wife mentioned that you hope to acquire a lot of land,’ Felicity commented.
‘Did she indeed?’
‘I meant no harm,’ Saxona quickly said.
‘Be that as it may, you really must learn when to speak and when not to.’ Kilraven drummed his fingers on the table, then shrugged. ‘Oh, well. Yes, Mrs. Ward, land is important to my plans. But only to the extent that from the land shall come the spoils.’
‘How is that again?’
Kilraven made a teepee of his slender fingers. ‘What do my countrymen and yours have in common? Don’t answer. I will tell you. They are sportsmen. They love to hunt. We have fox hunts and stag hunts. You have every type of game animal conceivable. Fowl for the bird hunter, deer and bison and antelope for those who like bigger game, and for those who savor the spice of danger, wolves and panthers and bears. Something for everyone.’
‘I would avoid the bears were I you,’ Simon advised.
Kilraven did not seem to hear him. ‘Most of the hunting in my country is done on hunting preserves, and because the preserves are stocked with game, the success rate is quite high. Here, a man can hunt just about anywhere, but it is a hit-or-miss affair. Some days a hunter is lucky, other days he is not.’
‘True,’ Simon said. ‘I can’t tell you how many times I have come home empty-handed.’
‘I propose to remedy that. I intend to establish and operate a hunting preserve here in America. The largest preserve in the world. Game will be herded or driven or caught and brought to the preserve by my attendants, so that everyone who hunts will be assured of success. For that privilege, and the privilege of staying at the hunting lodge I plan to build, they will pay, and pay handsomely.’
‘That is a brilliant idea,’ Felicity said.
‘I thought so, too,’ Kilraven said. ‘My first step, then, is to acquire the land for the preserve. Where better than on the frontier, where game animals are so abundant? I calculate that a hundred of your square miles should be sufficient.’
Simon whistled.
‘That is a considerable amount of land,’ Felicity observed. ‘Do you have an area picked out?’
‘As a matter of fact, I do.’ Lord Kilraven smiled. ‘You are sitting in the center of it.’
‘Pardon?’
‘Your valley, Mrs. Ward. I hereby claim it for my own.’
Five
Felicity Ward had never heard anything so preposterous in her life. ‘But we live here. This valley is ours. We would never give it up.’
‘Your wishes are irrelevant,’ Lord Kilraven said. ‘I have made up my mind. I will, of course, reimburse you for the money you have invested in your homestead. A fair price, at my discretion.’
Felicity looked at Saxona and Cadena, neither of whom would meet her gaze. ‘You knew about this?’
‘My husband does not keep secrets from me,’ Lady Kilraven said.
‘And you?’ Felicity said to his niece.
‘I am sorry. There is nothing I can do. I am underage, and at any rate, his lordship does as he sees fit.’ Cadena squirmed in her seat. ‘Now that I have met you, I find I like you. I would talk him out of it if I could, but I can’t, so why bother?’
Lord Kilraven was staring fixedly at Simon. ‘You have been strangely silent during this exchange, Mr. Ward. Have you no sentiment to express?’
Simon had been silent, all right, because he was boiling with anger. That his earlier unease had been justified and was not a paranoid phantom of his mind was no consolation. ‘There are a few things I would like to know before I give you my reply.’
‘Certainly,’ Lord Kilraven said.
‘Why our valley? The Rockies run from Canada to Mexico. There are as many valleys as stars in the sky. Why pick ours, damn you?’
Kilraven leaned his elbows on the table. ‘Now, now. Let’s not have any of that, shall we? We can keep a civil tongue, if nothing else.’ He sniffed. ‘As for the why of it, your valley offers advantages I cannot ignore. Your stream flows all year long, I understand, unlike a lot of streams in this region which dry up during the summer. Water is crucial. My hunting lodge will be the largest of its kind. Its staff and the people who come to hunt will need a continual supply.’
‘There is a river fifty miles to the north. It has all the water you could need.’
‘But for most of its length it passes through a narrow channel,’ Lord Kilraven said. ‘And the hunting there is poor, I am told. No, I considered it, but it will not do.’
‘What other advantages does our valley offer?’ Simon asked. He had a fair idea but he wanted to hear it from Kilraven.
‘Second after the water is its proximity to Bent’s Fort, the only trading post in a thousand miles. I require a relay point for the items I will send for, and a source of provisions. Bent’s Fort serves both needs adequately.’
‘Anything else?’
‘The Indians here are not as inimical to whites as elsewhere. To the north are the Blackfeet. They come down this way but only occasionally. To the northeast are the Sioux, who seldom come this far. The nearby Utes are not always friendly, but neither are they openly hostile unless provoked.’ His lordship smiled. ‘You see, I have done my homework, as they say.’
‘Is that all?’ Simon coldly asked.
Kilraven thought a moment. ‘One last factor is worthy of mention, and in one respect it is the most essential.’ He nodded toward the towering peaks to the west. ‘These mountains teem with game. Countless deer and hundreds of elk are within a few days ride. To say nothing of the mountain buffalo and mountain sheep I hear inhabit the forests and the rocky heights, respectively. Then there are the grouse and quail. On a lake to the northwest ducks and geese abound. Enough game for hundreds of hunts, and at the prices I will charge, enough for me to reap a fortune.’
Simon became aware he was still holding his spoon. He set it down next to his plate and lowered his hand under the table to a pistol. ‘Surely you can’t think I will let you take the valley away from us?’
‘You are one man. I have many and can send for many more. I don’t see how you can possibly stop me.
Felicity had listened to enough. ‘We settled here first,’ she angrily declared. ‘You can’t just waltz in and take it.’
‘My dear women, that is exactly what I can do,’ Lord Kilraven responded. ‘You forget. You have no bona fide legal claim. Oh, you settled here, but you have never filed on the land. You have never registered it in your name.’
‘But we can’t!’ Felicity exclaimed in rising horror as the full significance hit her.
Kilraven smirked at the irony. ‘No, you cannot. Simply because you are so far removed from civilization, there is no government. No towns. No cities. No counties, I believe you call them. No local, state, or federal authorities. No oversight. No legal guarantees. You are entirely on your own. The valley is yours only so long as you can hold on to it.’
Felicity did not know what to think. It was all so sudden. ‘This can’t be happening,’ she said, more to herself than anyone else.
Simon wanted to take her in his arms and assure her everything would be all right, but he had never lied to her and would not start now. ‘I will fight you, Lord Kilraven. I will resist you any way I can.’
Something hard touched the nape of Simon’s neck. Instinctively, he started to unlimber his pistol but froze when he heard the rasp of a gun hammer being pulled back.
‘I wouldn’t, Yank, were I you,’ the man called Severn warned. ‘One twitch of my finger and this rifle is liable to go off. You wouldn’t want the misses and your brat to see your head blown off, would you?’
‘Disarm him,’ Lord Kilraven commanded.
Bromley and two others appeared on each side of Simon’s chair. The former stood scowling while the other two separated Simon from his weapons, even his knife, and stepped back.
‘Disarm the woman, too.’
Felicity was nearly beside herself. She wanted to resist, but what could she do with her child in her lap? She sat still as they relieved her of her means of defending herself. ‘What now?’ she bitterly asked. ‘Will you have us murdered?’
‘Nothing so extreme, I assure you,’ Kilraven said smugly. ‘I will give you three days to pack whatever personal effects you care to take. Four days from now, at eight in the morning, some of my men will be at your cabin to escort you to Bent’s Fort. From there you are on your own.’
‘I will tell everyone what you have done to us,’ Simon vowed. ‘There will be hell to pay.’
‘From whom? The Bent brothers? St. Vrain? They are businessmen. They care about their trading post, nothing else.’
‘If you make me leave, I will come back,’ Simon said. ‘I will find a way to stop you.’
‘Spare me your braggadocio,’ Kilraven said. ‘Accept the inevitable and get on with your life.’
‘Like hell,’ Simon indulged in a rare curse. ‘I have years of labor and sweat invested in our homestead. I will not let you or anyone else steal it out from under us.’
‘I offered to compensate you,’ Kilraven said. ‘Name your price, and so long as it is fair, it is yours.’
‘You are a dead man,’ Simon Ward said.
Fear welled in Felicity. It occurred to her that if her husband made Kilraven mad, it could get ugly, and he was hopelessly outnumbered. ‘Simon,’ she said tentatively. ‘Maybe we should just do as he wants for now.’
Heedless of the men who hemmed him, Simon rose, leaned on the table, and glared at Laurence Kilraven. ‘Do what you will, but I will resist you with my dying breath.’
‘Be reasonable,’ Saxona Kilraven interjected.
‘Reasonable?’ Simon exploded, and pounded the table with his fist. ‘You come in here, you threaten to throw us out of our home and seize our land, and you want me to be reasonable? Are you insane?’
Lord Kilraven let out a long, loud sigh. ‘I had hoped you would be sensible about this. After all, is it really that terrible an inconvenience? You can take the money I give you and start over. It is not as if I am casting you out penniless.’
‘You are insane,’ Simon said.
‘No, I am a man accustomed to getting what he wants, and unfortunately for you, I want this valley.’ Lord Kilraven rose. ‘I can see that further discussion is pointless. You are burning with wrath and not thinking properly. Tomorrow, if you have a clearer head, we can talk again.’
‘I will feel the same tomorrow as I do right now,’ Simon snapped.
‘That is a pity. It has been my experience that business arrangements are best conducted when cool heads prevail.’
‘Is that what this is to you? You trample people under your heel and call it business?’
‘Call it whatever you like,’ Lord Kilraven said. ‘Just so you realize that resisting is futile. My men will have you under constant watch from this moment on. Try anything, anything at all, and it will be to your great regret.’
Felicity was fighting back tears. ‘And here I looked forward to meeting you! A baron, no less! A real, honest-to-God lord! I imagined you as noble, as a living example of all that is good and decent, but you are a common thief who just happens to have a title.’
‘Enough.’ Kilraven wheeled and waved a hand. ‘Mr. Severn, you know what to do. Take Bromley and four or five others, and leave someone to keep watch near their cabin.’
‘As you will, sir.’
Kilraven paused at the large tent, the flap partway open, and glanced over his shoulder. ‘We can do this easy or we can do this hard, Mr. and Mrs. Ward. We can do it with no suffering on your part, or with a lot of suffering on your part. The choice is yours. Choose wisely.’
Simon was not a violent man. He rarely became mad, truly mad, and could count on one hand and have fingers to spare the number of times he had yearned to hurt someone. But he keenly yearned to hurt Kilraven, to punch him and go on punching him until Kilraven was in a bloody heap at his feet.
Severn had stepped back, his rifle level. ‘Come along, now. Be a good Yank and you will make it home in one piece.’
‘You can go to hell, too.’
Bromley started to reach out as if to place a hand on Simon’s shoulder. But he stopped and said, ‘Please don’t make this any more difficult than it has to be, Mr. Ward. I happen to like you and your wife, and would rather we can go on being sociable.’
‘You work for a monster,’ Simon said.
Severn indicated the buckboard. ‘That will be quite enough. No more insults. Climb in your wagon and we will escort you home.’
Felicity gripped her husband’s wrist. Peter was asleep on her shoulder, his face angelic in repose. ‘Please, Simon,’ she said. ‘Please.’
‘I am fit to explode,’ Simon said, but he relented. Hooking her arm in his, he headed for the buckboard.
They had only taken a couple of steps when Cadena was beside them. ‘Please don’t hate us. Not everyone agrees with my uncle’s methods.’
‘Does that include you?’ Felicity asked.
‘I would pay you more than he is willing to,’ Cadena said.
Simon looked at her. He just looked.
‘What? It is not the same as stealing, is it, if you are paid for your property, and paid well? Maybe I can persuade him to add four or five hundred dollars to whatever amount you want. Extra compensation for all your effort.’
‘You don’t seem to get it,’ Simon said. ‘The money is not important.’
Cadena laughed. ‘Money is always important. Those who think otherwise are those who do not have any.’
‘You are as fond of it as he is,’ Felicity remarked.
‘I like the finer things in life, yes,’ Cadena confessed. ‘And the finer things are not free. My uncle’s venture here will considerably increase the family coffers. If you must be inconvenienced a bit, so be it.’
Simon did not hide his disgust. ‘Go away.’
‘Mr. Ward, really.’
‘Leave us,’ Simon insisted.
‘Very well. But I trust you will come to your senses. Perhaps you would like to have tea with us tomorrow?’
‘I would rather dine with pigs than sit at your table again.’
Cadena slowed and fell behind, saying, ‘You are one for theatrics, aren’t you? But I will not take your abuse personally. We say a lot of things we do not mean in the heat of anger.’
From that moment until the moment the dark silhouette of their cabin came into sight, Simon did not say another word. Molten lava boiled within him, and he was afraid if he did say something, he would bring the wrath of their escorts down on their heads.
The buckboard was fifty yards from the cabin when Severn drew rein and announced, ‘This is as far as we go. We bid you good night, Mr. and Mrs. Ward.’
‘Go to hell,’ Simon responded.
‘Remember, we will have someone keeping an eye on you at all times,’ Bromley said. ‘Please behave yourselves and there will not be any trouble.’
‘You can
go to hell, too.’
Simon did not stop the buckboard until he was at their cabin. Jumping down, he reached up to assist his wife and son.
‘Didn’t we leave the lamp on?’ Felicity asked.
Simon drew up short. Now that she mentioned it, they had. It had been her idea, so they would have light to see by when they got home. Puzzled, he turned and went to open the front door, but it swung inward of its own accord, and before he could so much as blink, a rifle muzzle was thrust in his face.
Six
Simon Ward’s first thought was that Lord Kilraven had sent someone on ahead with the intent of killing them outright and taking their land. Then a chuckle broke the stillness.
‘If I was a Piegan or a Blood, you would be pushing up daises come morning.’
Recognition stunned Simon.
‘Cat got your tongue?’ Out stepped a handsome young man in buckskins. ‘Where in blazes have you folks been? I cut the trail of a war party on my way here and I was half afraid they had gotten hold of you and I would have to avenge you.’ He chuckled. ‘Not that I mind avenging.’
Felicity found her tongue first. ‘Zach!’ she blurted, and launched herself at him with Peter clasped tight at her side. ‘Oh, Zach!’ She leaned against his chest, and for the second time that night struggled to fight down tears. ‘You are a godsend.’
Zachary King looked from her to Simon and back again. He was not as tall nor as broad as his father, but he was a strapping figure in his own right. His mother’s Shoshone inheritance showed in his swarthy complexion and his long black hair, worn Shoshone fashion. Like his renowned sire, he was armed with a Hawken, a brace of pistols, a knife and a tomahawk. Moccasins, a possibles bag, and ammunition pouch and powder horn completed the rough-hewn portrait. ‘Is something the matter?’
Simon quickly took the younger man by the arm and pulled him into the cabin, whispering, ‘We must keep our voices down. You are not safe.’
‘We are in trouble,’ Felicity said. ‘Dire trouble.’
‘Do I get to shoot someone?’ Zach asked, and his teeth shone white in the darkness.