Mountain Laurel (Montgomery/Taggert 15)

Maddie didn’t answer, but waited, wondering if there was more to come. She remembered how Toby had said that Captain Montgomery wasn’t interested in women. All women, or just her?

“Was I actually good tonight or were you just being kind?”

“You were more than good.”

She paused a moment. “I’ve never done anything like that before. I mean, I’ve never acted like that before. My life has been rather sedate when it comes to men. I haven’t really…” She couldn’t finish the sentence.

“I know.”

His bland assurance that he knew everything there was to know about her made her angry. “Why do you assume you know so much about me when I know so little about you?”

“We learn where our interest lies.”

“What does that mean?”

He didn’t say a word, and she knew that he wasn’t going to answer her. She remembered the way he’d come for her tonight, and she thought of what she was going to have to do to him tomorrow. “ ’Ring,” she whispered.

He didn’t speak, but she knew he was listening. “Sometimes a person has to do things that aren’t right, or they may not seem right at the time, but in the long run they have to be done whether one wants to do them or not. Do you understand?”

“Not a word.”

She sighed. Maybe it was better that he didn’t understand. “Good night,” she said, and turned onto her side and tried to go to sleep.

In the morning, at five, a sleepy-looking Edith came into the tent, carrying a little wooden box. “Mornin’, Captain,” she said.

Maddie rolled over and looked to see Captain Montgomery, fully dressed in his dirty, bloody shirt and army trousers, sitting on the stool drinking a cup of coffee. “How long have you been awake?” Maddie asked.

“Awhile. What do you have there, Miss Honey?”

“Dried fruit. One of the men sent it to her,” Edith said, pointing at Maddie, “for the singin’ last night. I think they’re called figs. Ain’t never had none myself, and they don’t look too good to me, but one of the girls said that they cost a lot.”

’Ring took the box from her and looked inside. “They are indeed figs.” He held out the box to Maddie. “Have one?”

She sat up in the bed and made a great show of rubbing her eyes. “No, thank you, but you have some.”

She tried not to watch as he put his hand over the box, then hesitated. “No, I think I’ll wait.”

He got off the stool. “I’ll wait outside while you get dressed and then I’ll escort you to the necessary. Today you’re not getting out of my sight.”

“Now what you gonna do?” Edith asked as soon as he was out of the tent.

“I have no idea, just help me get dressed and then I’ll think of something.”

True to his word, Captain Montgomery was waiting for her outside when she was dressed. He offered his arm to her, but she refused to take it. “I can walk on my own.”

“Whatever.”

She didn’t want to talk to him, because she had to think. If he wasn’t going to eat the figs, what was she going to do to get rid of him?

She assured him that she could make her way to the necessary all by herself and so walked ahead of him. But she was just inside the place when she heard hissing outside.

“Ma’am, it’s us. ’Member us?”

Quickly, Maddie looked around for knotholes in the outhouse and saw about fifty of them. She sighed in resignation. “What do you want?” They were the four men who had kidnapped her and taken her to sing for them. What they had done was wrong, of course, but she couldn’t hate any men who wanted to hear her sing as much as these men had. They had kidnapped her so that their friends could also hear her sing.

She listened as the men asked her to grubstake them. In return, they’d give her a deed to half of their three claims. Why not, she thought, and at the same time knew that Captain Montgomery would hate the idea. But then, the fact that she even considered such a proposal was his fault. All his talk of old age and what was she going to do when she could no longer sing had made her think about needing money. What had John done with all the money she’d earned over the years? He’d always paid any bills she’d run up, and it had never occurred to her to ask him what had happened to the rest of the money.

“All right,” she said. “Go tell Frank I said to give you a hundred dollars each.”