“I highly doubt that your untrained singing is worth even the smallest dragon. Sing, or I’ll ask more about Toby.”
He sang “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” and she waited until the end before speaking. “Amazing, Captain. Really amazing.”
“Not bad, huh?”
“It is amazing that someone could have as pleasant a speaking voice as you, an ear so refined as to be able to hear slight sound variations in notes, and yet…”
“And yet what?”
“Be such a bad singer.”
“Watch out,” he said, and pushed her nearly off the horse, but caught her before she fell. She threw her arms around him to keep from falling, then looked up at him, laughing. He, too, was laughing, and quite suddenly she wanted him to kiss her. Maybe it was all their talk of girls and his “doing what was required.”
She moved her face closer to his and she saw him move toward her. She closed her eyes—but the kiss never came. When she opened her eyes he was looking down at her with an expression she didn’t understand. Embarrassed, she removed her arms from around his neck, straightened, and turned around.
“How long before we get to camp?”
“I figure you know as well as I do.”
She did. She could think of nothing else to say to him. Their good mood was broken and she had no idea why, but she didn’t ponder the question. She snuggled back against him and enjoyed the ride down the mountain.
Chapter 7
At the camp the others were waiting for them, only Toby showing concern at their absence. Maddie allowed Sam to help her off Captain Montgomery’s horse, and the captain rode away to the place where he stayed, on the ridge overlooking the camp.
She went inside the tent and Edith followed her.
“He came while you were gone.”
“Who did?”
“You have such a good time with your captain that you forgot about your little sister?”
Maddie was immediately alert. “But why? I wasn’t supposed to see him until after tomorrow’s performance. And not even that night. He gave me a map.”
“Yeah, he said all that. He just wanted to make sure you’d be there. And he said for you to wear somethin’ pretty. Somethin’ that sparkled. I think maybe he’s gettin’ worried about your captain friend.”
Maddie sat down on the cot. “What did he say about Captain Montgomery?”
“Said it’d take a buffalo gun to kill a so-and-so as big as he is.”
Maddie put her face in her hands. “What am I going to do? Tomorrow I’m supposed to go into the mountains to meet him. I’m to see Laurel. I cannot, under any circumstances, annoy the man. Annoy him!” she said bitterly. “He’s already said that Laurel has…has been…I can’t think about it. I have to do what he says.”
“Then maybe you’d better not go up that mountain with your army friend taggin’ along behind you. And the little one is askin’ questions too.”
“Little one?”
“Toby. He’s sniffin’ around Frank and Sam as well as me, wantin’ to know all about you.”
Maddie stood up and walked to the side of the tent. What was she going to do? What could she do? I have to get rid of Captain Montgomery, she thought. I can’t tell him what’s going on for fear he might interfere. And tomorrow he’ll be even more alert than usual after the fiasco of the last few days. As for that, no one had seen the drunken miners take her, yet somehow, he’d found her. If he could find her once, he could find her again, but this time it wouldn’t be men merely wanting to hear her sing. This time it would be the men holding Laurel.
“What are you gonna do?” Edith asked.
“I don’t know. Somehow, I have to make him stay behind when I leave day after tomorrow.”
“I’ve got some more opium.”
“He won’t take any food or drink from me.”