LITMIR.BIZ

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to Meagan.

      “Get yourself down from there,” he ordered. “Seems safe enough.”

      “Safe from what?” Meagan asked as she clambered from the wagon and grabbed her belongings.

      “Indians! What else?”

      “Oh,” she scoffed. “Indians. I’ve never had any trouble with them.”

      “Then you’ve never met Old Howling Dog.” Josh pushed the door open and went inside.

      Meagan hesitated on the porch before following.

      Josh didn’t bother to look at her as he threw open the shutters on the windows, allowing the fresh breeze to stir the dust in the room. “Indians aren’t going to ask who you are or whether you like them. They aren’t real happy that we’re living on their land. Old Howling Dog wants us gone, and I’m expecting him to make a move to try to see it happens real soon now.”

      Meagan swallowed, her false bravado lost in the reality of his words. “I’ll keep my eyes open,” she managed, realizing for the first time the vast difference between what her life had been and what it would be now.

      Without another word she took off her bonnet and surveyed her surroundings. A musty, cloying odor permeated the air and Meagan decided that perhaps sleeping in the barn wouldn’t be so bad after all.

      There was a thin film of dust on the floor mingled with a sprinkling of mouse droppings. The room boasted a fireplace, bookshelves, wooden chest, two armchairs, a table and a desk. Near the window stood a little organ, and it was all Meagan could do to keep from crying out in joy over the discovery.

      Before she could speak, Josh opened a small door on the far wall opposite the fireplace. Meagan followed more slowly. It seemed odd that a home could show so little sign of being lived in, for her trial had taken very little time, considering everything, and Josh couldn’t have been away long enough to account for this stuffiness.

      She followed him, wondering how to ask about the room when she found herself on a little dogtrot. A second door opened onto the rear cabin, which Meagan had thought to be a shed since Josh had piled logs for the fire down the side.

      She crowed with delight when she popped her head into the smaller room. This one was steeped with warmth from the sun and the spicy smell of life.

      There was a fireplace with a cook oven built into the brick. Pots and pans, along with metal utensils and wooden basins, hung from the wall and were stacked neatly on the shelves.

      A heavy wooden sink beckoned invitingly as Josh picked up a bucket and headed toward the stream some distance away.

      The table was polished to a warm hue. The chairs were solid. A heavy blanket hung along one wall and when Meagan peeked behind it she saw two beds. In the far corner on the other side of the room there was a straw mattress covered with a knit shawl.

      A chill ran through her body. It was almost as though Josh Daniels had been expecting to bring her back. But of course, that was ridiculous. He could not have known the judge would give such an order.

      “Start a fire and get some water boiling. There’s cornmeal in the keg over by the dry sink.” He looked at her and took a deep breath. “You know how to make mush, don’t you?”

      Meagan felt the color rise in her cheeks. “Yes, sir, I do.” She set her jaw and took the kettle from the hook.

      “Fine, then make it.”

      Josh went outside, unhitched the horses and set them loose in the pasture nearest the house as Meagan washed the pot. The fire was burning brightly when he stopped at the narrow back door.

      “Good,” he said as he saw her progress. “I’m going to go down to the river and bring back the livestock.”

      He caught her questioning look. “I drive them down there when I’m going to be gone a spell. There are good strong pens and the Indians aren’t likely to bother them there.”

      “Do you want me to go with you?” Meagan was aware that he hadn’t let her out of his sight for more than a few minutes.

      “You goin’ to run?”

      “No. What good would it do me?”

      Josh nodded his head. “Wouldn’t be no help to either one of us,” he told her. “You got any questions before I leave?”

      Megan’s eyes scanned the horizon. Her eyes lit on a thin spiral of smoke rising above the treetops some distance away. Was this evidence of Indians? Perhaps a neighbor. Perhaps it was someone who had not heard the accusations and would judge Meagan for herself, not condemn her because of a vindictive woman’s lies. Meagan tried to smother the hope that sprang up within her.

      “What is that smoke in the distance?” she asked.

      “That’s from the chimney of my nearest neighbors, Rafe and Ruth Somers.” Without looking back Josh went out the door and through the yard toward the river.

      The hope fluttered and died in Meagan’s heart. It was bad enough being the slave of a man who hated her for something she hadn’t done, but having as her nearest neighbor the woman whose testimony had brought her to such dire straits was the last straw.

      Meagan measured the cornmeal and water into the pot, put it on the crane and swung it over the fire. There had to be a way to prove her innocence, and somehow she was going to find it, or die trying.

      

      Much to Meagan’s dismay, it wasn’t long before Ruth Somers made her way to the Daniels cabin.

      Ruth was a short woman, with a body that reminded Meagan of the masthead on a ship, full-figured and solid. Her dark hair was pulled into a tight bun on the back of her head. Her eyes gleamed with malevolence as she swept from her wagon and advanced on the house.

      Meagan didn’t want to face the woman and took as much time as possible before going to the door. It was obvious that Ruth Somers was familiar with the living arrangements of the Daniels house because she bypassed the parlor and went directly to the door at the far end of the dogtrot, where she hammered her fist against the heavy boards, demanding admission.

      Reluctantly Meagan opened the door and faced her nemesis. She didn’t speak, but Ruth Somers did.

      “So, you haven’t run away after all. I was about to go to the fort and set up the hue and cry.” She swept past Meagan into the room.

      “I’m sure that would have given you a great deal of satisfaction,” Meagan commented.

      “It would also have made you look like a fool.” Josh’s voice suddenly rang through the room.

      Ruth swung around at the sound of his voice. Her haughty attitude diminished somewhat in his presence. As a woman with a dominant and volatile husband, Ruth knew her place where men were concerned.

      “Josh, I thought you’d be out working the land,” she managed.

      “And so you came to intimidate my servant, is that it?”

      “I simply dropped by to make sure the girl was doing her job and hadn’t poisoned you with her cooking, or stabbed you in your sleep,” Ruth protested, but the words were said with a brittle smile.

      Josh went to stand near the hearth where a pot of stew simmered on the hob. He wondered why he was standing up for Meagan against his wife’s friend.

      Without being asked, Ruth sat down beside the table. “I’ll have a cup of tea.” She tossed the words at Meagan, who cast a quick glance toward Josh before taking the water kettle from the back of the fire. “Now, what did you mean when you said I would look like a fool?” She folded her hands over her belly and leaned back in the chair, looking like a well-dressed beetle.

      Josh softened his attitude toward the portly little woman. After all, Ruth had been Lily’s best friend. It was to be expected that the woman would wreak vengeance on the person she deemed responsible for Lily’s death.

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