The Wildest Heart

“El Paso is a considerable distance away. Have you thought of how you’ll get there?”

“I can catch the stage at Deming or Las Cruces, can’t I?”

I sighed. “We’ll make some arrangement then, since you are determined to leave. But you will send a telegram to your husband?”

“You don’t trust me, do you? Not that it’s really any concern of yours, but I’ll write out a message if you like, and you can have it sent to Derek. I’ve no doubt it’ll make him so happy he’ll go right out and make another couple of thousands on the stock market!”

She brushed past me then, as if to indicate that all communication between us had ended, and I went on my way downstairs, wondering what she was up to this time.

When I discussed the matter with him that evening, Mark seemed to think that Flo’s departure would be the best possible thing for all of us.

“You know that her presence here has us all on edge,” he reminded me gently. “Heavens, Rowena, it’s just as well she leaves before Uncle Todd gets back, or there’ll be the devil to pay. She has a knack of rubbing him the wrong way, and when he finds out how deeply she’s been involved in all the unpleasantness that has taken place, well…” He raised his shoulders expressively, and I was forced to agree that he was right. Neither of us could have turned Flo out of what was, after all, her home. But she had been the first to suggest going back to her wifely duties.

Mark and I went along with Flo as far as Fort Selden, where we paid a courtesy call on the colonel who was in command of the cavalry unit there. The tall gentlemanly officer assured us she would have an escort of soldiers all the way into El Paso.

“It’s not putting us out at all. There’s been trouble with the Apaches lately, so all the coaches get an escort. Just to prevent anything, you understand? Show of force. Victorio and his bunch understand that.”

I discovered that Colonel Poynter had known my father.

“Fine man. Best chess player it’s been my good fortune to encounter.”

He was also a frank man, as I was to find out

“Guy should have been alive today. But there was something eating at him inside. He’d keep things to himself. Even his best friends didn’t know what he was really thinking. Poured it all out in those journals he kept. You’ve read them?”

I had to confess that I had not read them all.

“Ought to, if you want to understand him. But I can see where it would be diff

icult for you to feel close. You didn’t have a chance to know him, and he didn’t know you, although he’d talk, sometimes, after the brandy, of how you’d turn out to be a true Dangerfield.”

“Did he tell you about the Dangerfield devil? Someone described it to me once as a taint in the blood. All stemming from an ancestor who was a real witch.”

Colonel Poynter gave me a rather austere smile. “Ah, yes. But in your case, Lady Rowena, I think we can safely say the traditional devil has skipped a generation!”

I thanked him demurely and we went on to speak of other things. Mark came in, and Mrs. Poynter rose from the corner where she had sat silently, engrossed in her sewing, to announce that she was sure supper must be ready.

The stage left on time for El Paso, but Mark and I stayed another day before we returned to the ranch. I liked Colonel Poynter and his quiet wife, and I was genuinely interested in hearing more about the Apache Indians I’d been told so much about.

“Let us hope you’ll never meet any.” Colonel Poynter said grimly. “Believe me, Lady Rowena, and I don’t mean to try and frighten you, none of the stories you have heard are exaggerations. They are warriors by profession, they claim all this land as their own, and they bitterly resent not only Americans but the Spaniards and Mexicans as well. They are savage, magnificent fighters. Enemies to be respected and feared, Lady Rowena. Make no mistake about it.”

“But you are trying to frighten me, colonel!”

He gave me a long, thoughtful look, as if measuring my courage. “Far from it. I’m merely encouraging caution at all times. The Apaches have not chosen to show themselves yet; perhaps it’s because they’re cautious too, in their way. But they are there. Don’t make the mistake of underestimating them.”

I returned to the ranch in a sober mood, although Mark tried to tease me out of it.

“The colonel’s been a frontier soldier a long time. I think he sees Apaches behind every clump of mesquite.”

“Mark, you know that’s not quite true! Colonel Poynter is a soldier. He knows the Indians, and I’m convinced he knows what he’s talking about. He didn’t want to frighten me, only warn me.”

“Oh what, for heaven’s sake?”

“I’m not sure, Mark,” I said slowly. “But as commander of one of the largest forts in the area, I’m sure Colonel Poynter is a well-informed man. And as you pointed out, he’s been in the territory a long time. He knew my father, and he knows Todd. I’m sure he knows everything else as well. There was some reason for his warning, Mark, and it wasn’t just because the Apaches have been giving him trouble recently.”

He gave me a troubled look. “If Colonel Poynter had heard anything specific, he’d have given us a specific warning. You were thinking of Lucas Cord, weren’t you? Rowena, he’s miles away by now, hiding out somewhere! And now that Cousin Flo has decided to leave us and go back to being a respectable housewife, he has no ally in the enemy camp, has he?”

All the same, I thought, I could sense an underlying uneasiness in Mark as well, and I found myself wishing that Todd would be able to return soon.