Toby yawned. He’d heard this a thousand times. He’d been with ’Ring since ’Ring was a boy, and he might seem stoic to others but Toby knew the truth. “You oughta be thankin’ the man. He got us out of that godforsaken fort and put us out here where the gold’s ours to be had.”
“We have an assignment, and I mean to fulfill it.”
“You is right. I ain’t part of the army.”
’Ring started to remind Toby of the uniform he wore, but he knew it was a waste of breath. Toby had joined the army because ’Ring had and for no other reason. The purpose of the army, the work that needed to be done, meant nothing to Toby.
But it meant everything to ’Ring. He’d joined the army before his first beard had fully grown, and he’d always tried to do his best, to always be fair, to see what needed to be done and do it. He’d been quite successful and quite happy until last year, when Colonel Harrison had become his commanding officer. Harrison was an incompetent fool, a man who’d never seen any action, a desk officer who had been sent west and had no idea what to do. He’d dumped his anger at his own incompetency on his captain’s shoulders, making ’Ring take the blame for what the colonel couldn’t do.
“She’s eatin’ somethin’ else too,” Toby said, looking through the spyglass. “You think it’s lettuce? Maybe carrots. You think it’s somethin’ besides hardtack?”
“What the hell do I care what she’s eating?” He walked away from the ridge. “We have to make a plan. First of all, she’s either a good woman or a bad one. If she’s good, she has no business being out here alone, and if she’s bad, she doesn’t need an escort. Either way, she has no need for me.”
“What’s that say on her door?”
’Ring paused in pacing and grimaced. “LaReina, the Singing Duchess.” He looked back down at the red coach. “Toby, we have to do something about this. We cannot allow this young woman to go into the gold-mining area. I’m sure she knows nothing about what she’s getting into. If she knew the many dangers she faced, I’m sure she would return to her point of origin.”
“Her point of—?” Toby said.
“Origin. Where she came from.”
“You know, I was just wonderin’ how she got this far by herself. You think she drove that coach herself?”
“Heavens, no! A Concord isn’t easy to drive.”
“Then where are her drivers?”
“I don’t know,” ’Ring said, waving his hand in dismissal. “Perhaps they’ve deserted her to work in the gold fields. Perhaps the woman will be grateful if I explain to her the hazards involved in a journey such as she’s planning.”
“Humph!” Toby snorted. “I ain’t never yet seen or heard tell of a woman that was grateful for anything.”
’Ring took the spyglass from Toby and looked through it again. “Look at her, sitting there calmly eating, and unless I miss my guess, that is very fine china she’s eating from. She doesn’t look like a woman who is used to the hardship of a gold camp.”
“She looks pretty fine to me. Big top on her. I like the top half to be big. And the bottom half, too, if the truth be told. I can’t see her face from here.”
“She’s an opera singer!” ’Ring snapped. “She’s not a dance-hall girl.”
“I see. Dance-hall girls sleep with miners and opera singers sleep with generals.”
’Ring glared at him and Toby glared back until ’Ring walked away. “All right, here’s the plan: We show her a little of what the West is really like, what she can expect in the camps.”
“You ain’t plannin’ to use her for target practice, are you?”
“Of course not. I’ll just, maybe, well, scare her a little bit. Put some sense into her.”
“Great,” Toby said with a sigh. “Then we can go back to Fort Breck and Colonel Harrison. That man’s gonna be as glad to see you as he would be to see a pack of Apaches. He don’t like you none at all.”
“The feeling is mutual. Yes, we’ll return to Fort Breck, but I’ll put in for a transfer.”
“Good. In four, five years we should be able to get out of the place. By then you ain’t gonna have no skin left on your back from tryin’ to play the hero and impress the men.”
“It was something that had to be done, and I did it,” ’Ring said as though from rote, for he’d said this a thousand times to Toby.
“Like you gotta go scare this lady now, is that it? How come you don’t just go tell her you don’t wanta ride around the gold fields with her?”
“It must be the woman’s decision to return to civilization. Otherwise, I am not free from my duties and obligations to her.”
“So maybe you’re plannin’ to scare her for yourself and not to save any of her skin.”