Sundancer (Cheyenne Series) by Henke Shirl

Author:Henke, Shirl [Henke, Shirl]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Shirl Henke
Published: 2011-06-22T07:00:00+00:00

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The staged buffalo hunt in North Platte went off smoothly, as did several stops in route to Cheyenne for sightseeing on horseback. Horace Scoville had subsided into sullen quiet and Burke Remington's attempts to provoke a fight between various members of the party had ceased. Although the women were superficially polite to her, Roxanna knew they considered her little better than a calico cat. The men, however, were fascinated by her beauty and charm in spite of—or perhaps because of—the curiosity of her having survived the infamous “fate worse than death” only to wed the equally infamous Scot's Injun.

After two days of political speeches, banquets and baby kissing in the new territorial capital of Cheyenne, the excursion continued in the mountainous grades to the west. As they approached the high bridge near the summit in the Medicine Bows, the train chugged laboriously on the long inclines.

“Why is the train going so slowly?” Ralph Benner complained, peering out at the mountains.

“We've been climbing steadily uphill for the past day. The boilers can only stand so much pressure pulling a long heavily laden string of cars like these,” Cain explained. “We'll hit the crest just a few miles before the bridge. After that we'll pick up speed into Laramie.”

By late afternoon the scenery grew increasingly more spectacular, with snowcapped peaks glistening on the far horizon and summer field flowers blazing in purple, russet and white splendor. When the silly chatter of the women and bombastic posturing of the railroad barons became too much for her, Roxanna slipped away to search for Cain, who in response to a message had gone to the car where the horses were kept at the rear of the train. It was tricky negotiating between the last of the parlor cars and the freight cars. She waited for him in a deserted smoking car, hoping for a few moments alone.

When he entered the car, she smiled mischievously and said, “I couldn't stand Dr. Durant's pontificating about the Union Pacific linking the Levant to London another minute. I don't think he really believes it.”

“Not according to Jubal. The good doctor is just in this to milk all the money he can from the government, then pull out and the Union Pacific be damned.”

“Why—” She stopped speaking when the train gave a sudden lurch forward. “What was that?”

He frowned. “I don't know.” He glanced out the side window, then opened the door through which he had just come and stepped out onto the platform.

Roxanna heard his oath before he returned, grim-faced. “What's happened?”

“The freight cars have come uncoupled.”

“But how?”

“I'm not certain. It's been a long hard pull up the divide. Maybe the strain caused a coupling pin to give way when we crested the hill and started downward, or the yardmen in Cheyenne didn't check the couplings carefully enough.”

“We'll be in Laramie in a few hours. Surely they can send an engine out to pull the freight cars in,” she said reasonably.

His eyes narrowed on the slow decline of topography outside the window.

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