Trail of Kisses by Merry Farmer Page A

She’d regained her color and more than a
little of her vigor. “Ben, go back to sleep. And please don’t
associate with the miners anymore. You’re too young.”
    “ I’m fifteen,” Ben declared with
pride, then sank to sit on the driver’s seat. A moment later he lay
down and passed out.
    “ If he can’t keep his eyes open
and watch out for you like he should, then I have half a mind to
find another driver,” Cade grumbled.
    He marched back down the length of the wagon,
searching the growing darkness for anyone else who could have seen
or had a hand in any mischief with the wagon. Everyone was getting
settled for the night. A somber mood still hung over the entire
wagon train after the deaths that morning.
    “ My Papa hired Ben to drive the
wagon.” Lynne chased him. “You can’t—”
    “ Your father hired a boy, not a
man,” Cade argued.
    “ Ben has performed his duties
exceptionally so far.”
    “ Ben let someone get into the
wagon to vandalize your property.”
    “ It was a mis—”
    “ It was not a mistake, Lynne.” He
stopped and rounded on her. She nearly smacked into him when he
did. “The Briscoe Boys sent an agent along with this wagon train to
make good on the threats they made to your father.”
    “ They did not.” She sighed as if
he had told her the Briscoe Boys had sent a giant sea serpent
wrapped up in ribbons along with the wagons.
    Cade ignored her protests. “I intend to find
this bastard and deal with them.” He walked on. At the very least,
he would have to tell Pete Evans, the trail boss. “We should reach
Ft. Kearny in a couple of days. I’m going to talk to the regimental
commander there and ask for more escort.”
    “ Really, Cade,” Lynne scoffed.
There was a spark of real fear in her eyes as she went on. “This is
nothing. I can take care of myself. I don’t need a regimental
anything looking out for me. I don’t need you looking out for
me.”
    He stopped and faced her. This time she pulled
herself up in time to glare at him, clutching the ruined photograph
in front of her. She looked like determination itself. She looked
like trouble with long dark hair.
    “ I think you do need someone
looking out for you,” he said, feeling his heartbeat all the way
down to his groin. “I think you need it far more than you
know.”
     
    For the next few days, as they traveled the
flat, sunbaked miles to Ft. Kearny, Lynne kept her fear locked up
tight in her chest. She couldn’t be in danger, she just couldn’t.
She was miles away from home, from her Papa or anything she knew.
The idea that she was exposed and vulnerable to anyone who wanted
to threaten her was simply too much for her to bear. She was brave,
and brave people faced their fears with their heads held high. So,
rather than dwell on the terrifying message of her Papa’s
photograph, she tucked it away in her hope chest and spent all her
time helping Callie wherever she could.
    “ Callie’s made the decision to
marry John Rye,” she told Cade. They walked from the field where
their wagon train had parked into the cluster of buildings and
corrals that made up Ft. Kearny. “I think it’s as good a decision
as any, all things considered.”
    “ Uh-huh,” Cade answered without
glancing back at her. He marched on toward the fort’s command
building, brow furrowed, strides long.
    “ I’ve offered to loan her a lace
shawl that used to belong to one of my aunts.” Lynne jogged to
catch up to his side. “It’s the nicest thing I can do under the
circumstances.”
    “ Yep.”
    He wasn’t listening to her. A pair of miners
leaning against a hitching post with Reverend Joseph talking to
them were forced to jump out of the way as Cade stormed past. They
hopped up onto the porch in front of the supply depot to avoid
being plowed into.
    Ft. Kearny not much of a military
installation. It was more like a much needed store of goods along
the trail. It had built up over the past decade and a half as more
and more