The Secret of Stavewood (Stavewood Saga Book 4) (5 page)

Eight

     
L
ouisa fell in behind her brother as they rode along the back trails into the hills and towards Hawk Bend. An eagle soared in lazy circles high overhead and a formation of geese flew north towards Canada. She’d ridden with her brother hundreds of times along the trails surrounding their estate sharing their thoughts and each other’s company. While her father and Roland were the most rugged of men, Mark possessed a gentler spirit and shared many of her interests. He had always been her closest friend. Louisa sat back in the saddle enjoying the late morning ride, feeling contented and at peace for the first time in a very long time.

      “You want to tell me now what’s going on with the dog?” she asked as she pulled up beside her brother. “I noticed there was a new pup at your place.”

      “Yeah,” Mark replied. “I didn’t want to talk about it at the house. Colleen was sick over it and Katie was so distraught that James and I have both decided not to bring it up too much.”

      “I like James. He seems a good fit for Katie,” Louisa interjected.

      “That young man calmed her right down. She’s crazy over him. It seemed an odd match to us at first. She had the pick of any fellow in the territory but I certainly could do far worse in the son-in-law department. James can be pretty shy and you know how the family can be overwhelming, but he stuck it out. He’ll be a good father to their baby.” Mark cleared his throat.

      Louisa looked down at her watch thoughtfully and imagined Talbot meeting the family.

      Mark noticed her checking the timepiece. “Are we in a hurry?” Mark asked.

      “No, no, not at all,” she replied. “Tell me about the dog.”

     “We got Bumble Bee just after you left.”

      “You named your dog
Bumble Bee
?” Louisa suppressed a chuckle.

      Mark scowled. “Colleen named him that. I wanted to call him Rex, but no. And she was right. He was just like a damn bee, always into her flowers, snorting and sniffing all the time. He had yellow fur, too, that just kept getting longer. It was a silly name but damn, he was the best dog.”

      Mark adjusted his hat, setting his forefinger into the crease as he tilted it forward. “One night, just around sunset, he saw Colleen coming back from milking and he pushed the screen door open. He was running out to her but he must have heard or seen something in the woods and he took right off. A few seconds later I heard a shot.”

      Mark narrowed his eyes. Louisa slowed her horse alongside him and looked down at the rifle tucked into its sling on his saddle.

      “That was last fall. I never saw anyone but it reminded me of all the trouble when Jude Thomas was around.”

      “It’s been a long time since anything like that has happened, hasn’t it?” Louisa asked.

      “Yeah. Boy, but I remember what it was like.”

      “I heard all the stories about how he killed Love, Corissa’s horse, and tried to steal Cannonball.”

      “What a problem that guy was,” Mark said. “He was the one who took all of the horses from the old Weintraub ranch and left them to die in that ravine. I still have nightmares about that place.”

      Louisa pulled her leather notebook from her hip pocket and scribbled into it briefly.      

     Mark saw that the book was thick and leather bound with a narrow strap that slid into a loop on the cover. It was a fine grade buckskin and obviously expensive.

      “I feel better riding out here with you today. I just needed to take a look around.”

      “Sure,” Louisa nodded as she wrote.

      “Well,” Mark pointed ahead. “There’s Hawk Bend Station. We’ll stop there first and then head up to the cabin afterwards.”

Nine

     
T
he rugged log station had changed little over the years since Rebecca Elgerson had first arrived there. She had gotten off the train one stop before her scheduled destination in Billington which was just a short distance away. She’d been very close to reaching the town safely and avoiding her terrible ordeal.

      Louisa slid from Romeo’s back. “I took a walk back to coach class on the train coming in and it was horrible. She must have been at the end of her endurance.” In her mind’s eye Louisa could see the forlorn faces of the riders on the train.

      “After she had been kidnapped and I found her all beaten up, she told me that she hadn’t eaten almost anything in days,” Mark said, as he stepped up beside her. The two stood looking at the log building, imagining the pain Rebecca had endured. “She got off here,” he went on. “It was raining that night. Really hard. Jude’s cousin, Finn, was here and told her to come inside. He was a simple guy and he was always kind like that.”

      Louisa walked to the station platform and stepped up.

      Mark tied up the horses and stood alongside her, pausing for a moment to gaze at the tracks disappearing into the distance.

      “He had her go inside and he gave her something to drink. She didn’t know what it was, but I’d bet it was brandy. She’s never been any bigger than a sapling anyway, but she was so weak and frail by that time that it went right to her head.” Mark pulled off his wide brimmed hat.

      “Right, and she fell asleep,” Louisa said. “When she woke up she was in the back room.” She turned and walked into the station with Mark close behind her.

      “Mornin’, folks.” An elderly man greeted them from the ticket counter.

      “Morning, Jeff.” Mark tipped his hat. “You remember my sister Louisa. She’s visiting from New York City and writing a book about our mother. Would you mind very much if we looked around?”

      “Gosh, no!” Jeff replied. “Just watch your step over those broken boards in the floor there.” He pointed to a roped-off area where the floor was damaged. “We’ve been waiting more than six months for the railroad company to come and repair them.”

      Louisa nodded and stepped boldly into the back room. There was a narrow cot and several cabinets for storing paperwork. She pulled out her notebook and sketched the room layout onto one of the pages, then pressed down on the cot with her fingertips and thought back to her mother’s stories.

      When Rebecca had awoken there, likely hung over and terrified, Diana Weintraub was there. Diana was dead and gone before Louisa was born, but she could picture the woman, rough and as big as any man. Louisa took a deep breath and walked back to the main room. She made several notes in her book describing the station and then closed the strap.

      “Thank you,” she said seriously to Jeff, who nodded, and she walked outside. Louisa looked off into the pines imagining her mother there, young and afraid. On the platform Mark continued the story.

      “They took her from the station here,” he said. “Diana had convinced her she was taking her to meet Pa, but instead she took her up to that shack and beat her.”

      Mark turned and looked at Louisa. She had a faraway expression that told him she was lost in the details of the story they were reliving. It was a look she started getting as a kid when she first became interested in writing. Louisa nodded and climbed onto her horse. “Show me where the shack was.”

      They rode for nearly a mile towards a clearing in the middle of a densely wooded area. Louisa knew they were not far from the hunting cabin her father kept nestled deep in the forest.

      Mark pointed off into the woods. “I had laid some snares, off over there and there.” He pointed into the woods.

      “You did?” Louisa’s horse stepped up beside him, keeping pace. “I never knew you did any trapping.”

      “I did, but never after that day. I was up here alone at the cabin, after my mom had died. Pa was crazy with grief, and I guess I was too. Anyway, we weren’t getting along. I wanted my mom back and he couldn’t fix it. You know how he is when he can’t make things right.”

      Louisa knew. Her father was strong, in body, mind and heart, but, when he could not use that combination of his gifts to help the people he loved, he could become overwhelmed. She also knew that the death of his first wife, Corissa, Mark’s natural mother, had devastated him.

      Mark continued. “Stavewood was just about empty and he brought me up here to live so he could close the place. He had some business and he had to leave me up here alone until he could get back. Kids from school had been trapping and bragging about it. I wanted to fit in so I figured while I was there I’d make good on some trapping myself.”

      Louisa listened closely.

      “I was out checking the traps when I heard screaming. Terrible screaming. I thought it was an animal caught in one of my snares. It was awful. It turned out it was Mom in the shack here, but I was so shaken up by it that I never laid another trap again.

      “She had been beaten and was all tied up. I took her back to the cabin and took care of her for days by myself. Eventually she felt better and better and she stayed with me until Pa came back. I liked her right away.” Mark smiled thoughtfully.

      “She always says you saved her life,” Louisa said.

      “I’m glad I could.”

      “Tell me about the shack,” Louisa said, as the trail ended and they reached the clearing.

      Mark cursed under his breath and Louisa could see that a wide area had clearly been excavated. Thick roots in the hard packed earth were exposed.

      “Someone’s been digging here too,” he said, sliding from his horse’s back. He circled the edge of the clearing, examining the ground and then inspecting the overturned soil. She dismounted and walked up to him.

      They stood for several minutes, each lost in thought and he began again to tell her what he could remember.     

      Mark described the ramshackle building, his mind flashing back to another time when he had stood here confused and afraid. Louisa listened quietly taking several notes.

      “Let’s get over to the cabin,” Mark said.

      “You go ahead,” Louisa said. “I’ll catch up with you. I want to sketch a little map of the clearing.”

      “I won’t be long,” he said. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

      “I’m fine. I’ve got the Old Maid in my boot.”

      She heard Mark chuckling as he rode into the woodland.

Ten

     
L
ouis
a
paced the clearing silently with thoughts of her parent’s story filling her mind. Her mother had been kidnapped by a woman who wanted her daughter to be married to Timothy Elgerson and was not about to let a mail-order-bride ruin her plans. In her youth Louisa had always listened to the stories as fairy tales but now the reality overwhelmed her. For a moment she envisioned herself captive, terrified and alone in the now long destroyed shack and she shivered. She began to understand how much her parents had survived to be together now. She finished her sketch of the clearing and put her notepad back into her knapsack.

      The brush in the woodland rustled softly and then again louder and Louisa watched, thinking it might be Mark returning. Instead Luc Almquist emerged from the bushes and she blew out her breath.

      “You’re going to get yourself shot sneaking up on people like that out here,” she scolded.

      “Well,” he smiled a crooked grin. “If I could make my maps from up there it would be a lot easier.” He pointed up.

      Louisa looked up through an opening in the treetop canopy and saw a golden hawk circling under the noonday sun, his piercing cry echoing over the forest. “You’re a long way from where I ran into you this morning,” she said. He stepped up closer to her and flashed a friendly smile.

      “Are you up here alone?”   

      “No, my brother Mark is just up there.” Louisa waved her hand towards the trail. “Did you hike all this way?”

      “No,” he pointed a thumb over his shoulder. “I’ve got a horse up the trail there. What are you doing up here?”

      “I’m researching my book. My mother’s story has its start around this area and I thought I had a pretty clear idea of what happened. But now a few things aren’t making sense.”

      “Well, Sherlock, you’ll figure it out. You’re a mystery writer, right?”

      Louisa scowled. “Not this time. This story is more of a biography. More serious than a mystery.”

      “Well, you know a mystery can get pretty serious,” he said.

      “This is different.”

      He looked rugged and healthy in the sunlight of the clearing and he kept smiling at her as if he knew her far better than he did.

      “How long are you going to be mapping this area?” she asked.

      “As long as it takes, I suppose.” He smiled again.

      “So, should I expect to run into you again while I’m up here working?” His obvious interest made her fidget.

      “I suppose so,” he said. “Tomorrow you can find me fishing out at Fawn Lake if you’re up early enough.”

      Louisa wasn’t sure if she was running into him or if it was the other way around.

      “You fish?” she asked.

      “Every chance I get,” he said, looking up at the sky. “It looks like clouds might start rolling in later. Tomorrow morning could be misty. It might even rain. And if I can’t see any distance it won’t be a good day for mapping. Be a perfect day for fishing though.” He turned and looked at her again. “Do you fish?”

      Louisa laughed. “No, no. Fishing is for the men.”

      “I’ve known women who fished. Some of them were rather good at it actually. You should try it sometime.”

      Louisa thought back to all the times that her father and Mark had gone out to enjoy the sport and how she had been required to stay home. It was not an activity for young ladies, her mother would say. It had frustrated her then, but now there was nothing to stop her. She was an adult and could do as she pleased.

      “Tomorrow?” she asked. Louisa squared her shoulders. “Alright I’ll come with you then.”

      Luc cleared his throat. “You’re serious?”

      “Why not?” Louisa replied resolutely. “Should I ride out to the lake? What time should I be there? What should I bring? You’ll teach me, right?”

      “Oh, uh, sure. No. I’ll pick you up. At Stavewood, right? Just before sunrise. I’ll bring the poles. I’ll bring everything.”

      “Perfect!” Louisa exclaimed. “I’ll see you then.” She mounted her horse and rode several paces away, then turned to face Luc who stood in the clearing, a bit confused. Louisa smiled at him, turned Romeo, kicked him to a run and rode off towards the cabin.

      Luc Almquist stood in silence for several minutes. He wondered why one minute she had been a bit uncomfortable with him and the next she had invited herself fishing.