McAllister 2 by Matt Chisholm

Author:Matt Chisholm
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: piccadilly publishing, matt chisholm, western pulp fiction ebook, the comanche crossing, rem macallister adventure, the wild west ebook, western cattle drive
Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing

Twelve

He looked at her carefully, trying to penetrate the mask of her face, but the moonlight was not bright enough for him to see her expression clearly. Her face was in profile to him, showing him the strong thrust of her nose, the firm chin and the large tender mouth which denied them both.

“Yes,” he said, “I’d like to know that.”

“I wanted to find out if you knew somebody was leaving a trail.”

He asked: “Do you know who it is?”

“No, I’ve watched, but I have caught nobody. Doesn’t it strike you, McAllister, that we are in a position of great danger?”

“Certainly. But maybe you're not.”

“Why not me?”

“You know the answer to that better than I do.”

That statement could have been taken by some women in her situation as a slap in the face, but not this girl. She smiled and said: “You have been truthful with me, I think, so I will be the same with you.”

“Are you going to tell me exactly who you are and why you’re here?” he asked.

“Yes. You know my name. You may also know that my family is related to the Espadas and Blades who are to be found on both sides of the Border. I heard of the gold through one of Ignacio’s many female cousins who is an Espada. I was near Crewsville at the time on one of my father’s estancias. Now I must tell you what kind of a woman I am—one who is more often found among the Anglos than among Mexican women, and then even shock the Anglos somewhat. I am a woman who refuses to be married off to some wealthy nonentity chosen by my father—who, incidentally, does not have the same taste in men that I do. Which is one reason why I was at the estancia. I had been sent there in disgrace. What has this to do with the gold, you ask. At the estancia, I was under the watchful eye of a man who has watched over me since I was a little girl, a man very loyal both to myself and to my father. Jesus was his name. And if I ever weep for any man and his death, it should be for him.”

“Yet you haven’t wept.”

“I haven’t wept. I told this man that I was determined to break out of my old life and make a new one for myself. For a Mexican woman of my class, that is like saying she wishes to commit suicide. The only way a woman can make her own life is to become a whore. And I am not a whore by nature. So I had to find money that would give me my independence. I snatched at the gossip I heard about the gold. I talked to the woman and learned all that she knew. I saddled a horse and was determined to intercept Arbiter and Ignacio and the others. Jesus tried to make me change my mind. What he could not do was use force to prevent me going and I knew it.

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