“That’s just the point,” Maddie said so that Edith at last understood.
Edith went off mumbling about it being Judgment Day if her royal highness were going to spend the night with a man, but she put the water on to boil. Maddie had her bath in an enclosure of blankets, and when she was at last clean she went back to the tent.
It was dark inside, and she had to light a lantern to be able to see. ’Ring was sprawled on her narrow cot. His shoulders were wider than it was, and he was longer than the cot, so his feet hung off. He had started to unbutton his dirty, torn shirt, but he hadn’t made it before he fell asleep, so his hand was still on the third button. It had been almost four days since he’d shaved now, so his face had a heavy growth of black whiskers on it.
She went to him and kissed his sleeping lips. He gave a little smile, but he didn’t waken. “ ’Ring,” she whispered, but he didn’t so much as move.
So much for his imagination, she thought. It didn’t look as though it were something that kept him awake at night. She gave a sigh and looked with displeasure at the folded blankets in the corner. Once again she’d have to sleep on the floor, but this time she’d not have ’Ring’s strong arms around her. She was sure that she wouldn’t be able to sleep, but she lay down on the blanket and was asleep instantly.
When Maddie awoke, it was late morning, and right away she knew that something was wrong. Her head was fuzzy from sleep but her senses knew that something was very wrong.
When her mind cleared, she saw that she was on the cot and not on the floor. Sometime during the night ’Ring had picked her up and moved her, but he wasn’t asleep on the floor. He wasn’t in the tent at all.
She pulled a blanket over her nightgown and went outside. Edith was bending over the campfire, stirring something in a pot, and Toby was sitting on the ground, drinking a mug of coffee. “Where is he?” Maddie asked in a voice that let them know that she wanted no lies.
“He left you a letter,” Toby said, and pulled it out of one of the many pockets on his army blouse.
Maddie didn’t want to look at the letter, but she knew she had to. With trembling hands, she opened it.
Do not sing tonight. Wait for me.
CHM
She looked up at Toby. Since the letter had been merely a folded sheet of paper, she had no doubt that both Toby and Edith had read it. “That’s all? That’s all he left for me? How long am I to wait for him? A day? A week? A year? Did he bother to tell any of you where he’s gone? Or when he plans to return?”
“No, ma’am,” Toby said, looking down at the ground. “But then, the boy don’t usually tell nobody nothin’. He keeps to himself, he does.”
“He just gives orders, you mean,” Maddie said, and turned and went back into the tent.
Once inside, she sat down on the cot and looked at the letter. CHM, she thought. His initials, as though she were a stranger to him, as though she were an army person. As though—
She couldn’t sustain her anger. She knew exactly where he’d gone: he’d gone after the men who had taken Laurel. It was what she knew was going to happen if she told him why she was singing in the West. She’d known from the first moment she met him that he was the type of man who would take on responsibility. He thought everything was his business and was something that he had to deal with.
She began to dress but her fingers were shaking too much to fasten the buttons, so she called Edith.
“What’re you gonna do?” Edith asked.
Maddie knew what she meant. “I’m going to sing, of course. I’m not going to allow Captain Montgomery to rule my life. I’m going to—” She stopped and took a breath. “I’m not going to sing tonight. I’m going to wait for him. I’m going to do just what he wants.”
“The miners are gonna be real mad. They brought that piano up here for you, and they been filin’ in from all over to hear you sing.”
“Well, I’m not going to sing!” Maddie half shouted. “If he can risk his life, I can—” She broke off. She was damned if she was going to break into tears in front of Edith. “Leave me alone. Tell the miners that I’m sick.”
Edith grunted her disapproval and left the tent.
For a long while Maddie sat on the cot, her head in her hands, not crying, for she was too afraid to cry. Why did he have to do this? Wasn’t it bad enough that she had to worry about Laurel? Why did he have to put his life in jeopardy as well?
When she heard someone in the tent, she thought it was Edith. She didn’t look up. “Go away.”
It was Toby. “I brung you somethin’ to eat,” he said softly.
“I don’t want anything to eat.”
“I sure do know that feelin’. He makes a body so mad that you don’t wanta eat or nothin’.”
Maddie covered her face with her hands. “He’s gone after my sister. He’s gone alone against I don’t know how many men. They’ll kill him and my sister.”
“Maybe, maybe not. You know, it’s almost funny you turnin’ out to like him so much. I ain’t never seen him so mad as when the colonel made him escort an opery singer. The boy said he was gonna scare you and make you turn back. He didn’t scare you none, did he?”