Hidden Secrets

"Don't worry, they will find them."

Lou jumped, and turned to see that Rosa was on the veranda. "I'm sorry, Rosa, I didn't hear you."

"I know. You're thinkin' about your brother and sister. But I know that Mr. Andrews and Mr. Cross will find them. You'll see."

"Yes, but will it be in time?" Lou muttered under her breath.

Rosa was saved from answering that fatalistic remark by the distant thundering of horses. Both women looked up, hoping that it heralded good news. But Lou's heart sank again when she realised that there were more than three horses in that group. She turned away, and was about to resume her pacing again, but something made her stop and peer into the distance. Why would a bunch of horses be ridin' over here for?

That question was answered when McCaffrey, Meridian, Jacobson, Dukore and Corbett rode up to the house. "We want the half-breed. Where is he?"

It was Buck who saw them first. Jeremiah sitting on a rock, his head nodding, and Teresa slumped over Bessie's back. "Kid!" he called.

The Kid wasted no time. They rode over to where the children were and dismounted. Kid tried unsuccessfully to wake Teresa, and finally picked her up and carried her to Katie.

Buck, meanwhile, was dealing with Jeremiah. "I ain't goin' back!" the stubborn thirteen-year-old said.

"Jeremiah, you're gonna freeze to death out here."

"I don't care. Louise lied to us and I ain't goin' back. Neither is Teresa."

"Jeremiah, you have to go back, if just to warm up."

"No!"

"Do you want Teresa to die!" Buck said harshly. "Because that's what's gonna happen if we don't leave right now."

Jeremiah looked over to where Teresa was bundled in Kid's arms. He looked unconvinced. Teresa didn't not look well, he could tell, but he did not want to face Louise again.

"Look, Jeremiah," Buck pleaded. "Let's just go back to the ranch. You and Teresa can get warmed up, and you can have it out with Lou if you really want. And she can explain what really happened, because I'll wager you haven't read the whole diary."

"She can't explain it away," Jeremiah finally stood, stiffly, half frozen. "I read enough."

"You'd be surprised," was Buck's cryptic reply as he led Jeremiah over to his chestnut.

As Buck was helping Jeremiah into the saddle, Kid let out an excited shout. "Buck, look!"

Buck turned to see McCloskey slumped in the snow face down and swore under his breath. "Do you think he's still alive?"

"I doubt it," but Kid settled Teresa on Katie and checked anyway. "Well I'll be, he is still alive."

"What are you gonna do?" Jeremiah mumbled.

Kid looked up at his younger brother-in-law. "How long has he been here, Jeremiah?"

"He was here when we got here."

"Do you want me to help you with that?" Buck asked as Kid started to lift McCloskey up.

"No, I don't want you to put your shoulder out. You shouldn't even be ridin'. I can manage. I'll put him on Bessie, and lead him in."

"Do you think you can manage holdin' Teresa and leadin' Bessie?"

"Piece of cake."

Lou rolled her eyes. "For the last time he rode off with my husband about an hour ago. He was here all night before that."

"Why don't I believe you?" McCaffrey sneered.

Lou fought the urge to roll her eyes. They had been arguing like this for ten minutes with no noticeable result. Apparently McCloskey had not returned home the previous evening, but both the horse he was riding and Fire Eater did. Naturally, McCaffrey and his cohorts believed Buck was behind the disappearance, and did not believe Lou when she said that no one at her place had seen McCloskey since he rode off the night before.

"This ain't gettin' anywhere," Meridian muttered.

McCaffrey turned to glare at his friend, then back at Lou. "You're right, this ain't gettin' us anywhere, so this is what we'll do. We are just gonna stay here until your husband and the half-breed get back. They'll keep 'til then."

It was another half-an-hour before Buck and Kid returned with Jeremiah, Teresa and McCloskey. Seeing the unconscious man on Bessie's back, Lou's heart sank. There was no way McCaffrey would believe that Buck and nothing to do with McCloskey's state.

"You see? Just as I suspected. The damn fool was even so bold as to bring the body back here. S'pose he thought that Mrs. Andrews would protect him." McCaffrey sneered in Lou's direction again before turning back to the men. "Well, she can't protect him from us. We're takin' the half-breed in."

"Will you idiots hold on for a minute before jumpin' to conclusions?" Kid snapped. "McCloskey's still alive, but just barely. He's half-frozen, and so are the children," he told Lou.

Lou took a deep breath. "Right, get him into Buck's room; there's a fire in there. Rosa can take Teresa up to our room. Do you think you can handle Jeremiah, Buck?"

"Sure thing."

"Wait a minute," McCaffrey objected. "We're gonna take McCloskey into town and take care of him proper and deal with Cross at the same time."

"Buck had nothin' to do with what happened to Mr. McCloskey," Jeremiah mumbled. "Teresa and me found him lyin' in the snow this mornin'. Buck ain't been out the whole night."

"And how can you be so sure?"

"Because, I've been up all night readin'. If Buck left, I would have heard him. His room's next to mine."

"Look," Lou snapped, cutting into the argument. "The longer we stand here talkin', the more likely McCloskey will die. We need to get into a warm room now! And if you insist on talkin' him into town he will surely die." Lou paused to let her statement sink in. "Kid, take McCloskey up to Buck's room," she continued in a calmer tone. "I'll be up in a minute. Rosa, take Teresa into our room. Buck, deal with Jeremiah."

"But..."

Lou cut him off with a glare. "If you're so damn sure that Buck needs to be taken in, send one of your buddies into town to fetch Marshal Pierce. And get Doc. Seyton while you're at it." With that, she followed her family inside, leaving McCaffrey and company on the porch.

The men were agape. They had just let a woman walk all over them! "What are you gonna do, Boss?" Dukore asked.

McCaffrey swore under his breath. "Dukore, Jacobson, go into town and fetch the Marshal and the doctor. The rest of us will stay here to make sure that they don't try to sneak the half-breed out.

"You're taking orders from a woman?" Meridian asked scornfully.

McCaffrey gave him a withering glare. "Of course not. But Mrs. Andrews has a point. If McCloskey is still alive, he would surely die before we get him to town. If we want him to be able to testify that the half-breed did him in, we need him alive. As much as I hate to admit it, he has a better chance if he stays here."

Meridian looked unconvinced, but he did not contest the point. McCaffrey turned to Dukore and Jacobson. "Make sure that Pierce knows the story. We don't want any chance of the half-breed gettin' off again." As Dukore and Jacobson rode into town, McCaffrey directed the rest of the men to stand point at various points around the house to make sure that Buck Cross was not snuck out, then he went inside to keep an eye on McCloskey.

What he found inside the house was near to chaos. One of the hands, identified as Wilson, was taking firewood up stairs. McCaffrey followed the man up to see that Louise Andrews was dashing between three rooms. She came out of the master bedroom with a pair of long johns, which she carried into the next bedroom down. Following her in, he found that it was the room that McCloskey had been placed in. She handed the long johns to the Kid, and pushed past him back into the hall.

"What are you doin'?" McCaffrey asked her. "You're supposed to be lookin' after McCloskey."

Lou fixed him with a hard stare. "In case you haven't noticed, I also have my brother and sister to look after as well. There is not much I can do at this point except keep them warm and dry. Kid is gettin' McCloskey out of his wet clothes, and Rosa is about to go downstairs and heat up some broth. I've given Jeremiah a shot of brandy, and Kid'll give McCloskey some as soon as he wakes up. If you're so worried about McCloskey, why don't you go in there and sit with your friend? You can even feed him the broth, if you think that I'm gonna poison him." Lou was thoroughly fed up with McCaffrey and his prejudicial ways. She disappeared into her bedroom to check on Teresa.

The eleven-year-old girl was not well. She was unconscious, and chilled to the bone. Unwilling to take the time to find one of the girl's own nightgowns, Rosa slipped her into one of Lou's. She looked dwarfed in the big bed.

"Is she gonna be all right?" Lou turned at the sound of her younger brother's voice. Jeremiah was standing behind her in the doorway of the bedroom, wrapped in a blanket. He was supposed to be warm in bed, but Buck could not keep him there; the boy was guilt-ridden about taking Teresa out into the cold. He still felt like he hated Lou for lying to him and Teresa, and he did not really want to be at the ranch, but he realised that he had no right to put Teresa in danger because of that.

Lou looked at Jeremiah. The expression in his blue eyes seemed to be a mixture of hatred for her, worry for Teresa, and guilt for having put her in that situation. She wanted to be angry with him, but, knowing the reason he left in the first place and not really blaming him, she couldn't bring herself to really scold him. "Jeremiah, get dressed and get into bed before you catch a chill. Your cold will come back, and you don't want it to turn into pneumonia."

"What about Teresa?"

Lou sighed. "She'll be lucky if she doesn't get pneumonia, but" she smiled wanly, "she's always been tougher than we give her credit for. Now, you go and get into bed."

Jeremiah scowled and turned to comply, stopping only when Lou tugged on his sleeve. "What?"

"I know you read Ma's diary, and I know what you're probably thinkin', but can you do me a favour? Go back and read the whole book from wherever you left of. Don't form an opinion on only part of the story." Lou watched her brother with sad eyes as he went back to his room without a word.

"Do you think he's old enough to understand?" Buck asked her quietly.

"I don't know, but I will have a better chance of explainin' things to him if he reads the rest of it." Lou went and picked the book up off the bureau where she had left it that morning after finding it in Jeremiah's room. "Can you give this to him, please?"

Buck took the diary from her. "Will she really be all right?" he asked, tipping his head toward the bed.

Lou's big brown eyes filled with tears. "I don't know. She mightn't even wake up, and if she does, she's bound to get pneumonia." She paused and wiped her eyes. "Don't let Jeremiah fall asleep until he's had some of Rosa's broth."

"Don't worry, I'll look after him."

Lou sat down by her sister's bed, and wiped her brow. Already Teresa was becoming feverish, and she showed no signs of regaining consciousness any time soon. Lou sighed. She wanted to be furious with Jeremiah for risking Teresa's life like this, but although she was a little angry, she found that she could hardly blame him. Lou knew what the consequences of finding the diary could have been, especially for the children to have read it and discovered the falsehood that they have had to live with. Jeremiah's actions that morning were to be expected. Now Lou could only hope that once Jeremiah read the rest of the diary he might understand the reason for the lie.

It did not take Rosa long to heat up the broth, as she and Lou had made almost as soon as Buck and the Kid set out that morning. She brought three bowls of the broth upstairs, took one into Lou for Teresa, one into Buck's room for McCloskey, and was about to take the third down to Jeremiah's room when McCaffrey made another fuss.

"Woman! You come back in here and take this away. I won't let you people poison my friend and finish the job that the half-breed started!"

Lou rolled her eyes and went next door. "What is it now, McCaffrey?"

"He thinks that we are going to poison McCloskey," Kid explained.

Lou sighed again, this time in exasperation. "Do you really think that we'd be so stupid as to poison him here, where Doc Seyton could take samples and send them to be analysed?" she asked through clenched teeth. Walking over to the husband, who had the bowl of broth, a spoon, and a cloth, she dipped the spoon into the broth and sipped it. "There," she said, putting the spoon back into the bowl. "That should show you that I have not poisoned it. You can try it, if you still have doubts. But for McCloskey to have any chance at survival, he needs the broth in him." With that, Lou went back to tending Teresa.

Bonsal, one of McCaffrey's men, was freezing, standing guard at the back of the house, waiting for something to happen. Personally, he thought that it was a waste of time, but that was not his decision to make, McCaffrey was his boss. So he beat his chest a few times to keep his blood circulating, and waited.

Buck was just coming out of Jeremiah's room when he ran into Rosa. "Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going."

"That's all right, Mr. Cross." Rosa Veloz frowned and hesitated. "I need to take some mendin' out to the men, and I..."

Buck smiled easily. "And you want me to accompany you?"

Rosa flushed and nodded. "Normally, I wouldn't worry about the trip, as it's just down to the bunkhouse, but with McCaffrey's men, and the fact that they tend not to take kindly to Mexicans..."

"I don't blame you. But are you sure you want me to accompany you? They don't take too kindly to me, either."

"No, but I know that you are a good man, and they wouldn't be able to get away with shootin' us at the moment, and..." she flushed again. "I want to see Juan. Just to see if he's all right. I know that he can take care of himself, but it doesn't stop me from worryin'."

"I know how you feel." Buck indicated the hallway. "Lead on, my lady."

Giggling at Buck's theatrics, which was not his normal style according to stories that Mr. and Mrs. Andrews told, Rosa 'led on'.

Bonsal heard a sound that made his head come up. There it was again. *Crunch* Footsteps in the snow. Bonsal drew his pistol just as Buck and Rosa came into view.

A gunshot echoed through the house and over the prairie. Several people scrambled out of the house, bunkhouse, and off horseback. "What happened here?" asked the marshal of Lone Tree Valley, Gavin Pierce.

"Rosa!" Juan Veloz came tearing up from the bunkhouse like a man possessed.

"I stopped the half-breed from escapin', sir." Bonsal spoke up as Buck spoke.

"Rosa was just takin' some mendin' down to the bunkhouse when he shot her."

"A likely story, Marshal," Bonsal said scornfully. "Are you gonna believe a damned half-breed over me?"

"You shot my wife?" Fury engulfed Veloz and he went for Bonsal's throat.

Buck pulled the man back. "Don't, Veloz, it'll only make things worse."

"He's right, Juan," Rosa's voice was nothing but a harsh whisper.

"Look," Doctor Seyton, who had ridden up with Pierce, Dukore, and Jacobson, said. "Why don't we all go inside, where it's warmer, and you can discuss it there. Besides, this woman needs attendin' to."

It had taken a while for the eclectic bunch to settle down in the sitting room of Lou and the Kid's farmhouse. McCaffrey had objected to the fact that Buck remained free and unbound, in the saloon owner's mind Buck was as guilty as sin. He also objected to Doctor Seyton tending to Rosa's gunshot wound before checking on McCloskey, and he lost out on this count as well, as Seyton had (rightly) pointed out that Rosa was in more danger of dying, and that Lou had done all that could be done for McCloskey.

So Dr. Seyton was operating on Rosa in a spare room while Marshal Pierce held court in the sitting room.

"I want the half-breed arrested!" McCaffrey was saying.

"So it would seem," Pierce responded dryly. "It remains to be seen whether there are grounds for arrest."

"What about the theft and murder from the other day?"

"Oh yes. Well firstly, just because Cross here had some money does not mean that he is guilty of theft or murder, no matter what you may think. Secondly, I received a wire from Geoff Langdon, the Marshal of Seneca, and it turns out that Cross' story is the truth—the money was a bounty."

"What about McCloskey?" McCaffrey wanted to know. "You can't tell me that what happened to him was innocent."

"No, but again, it remains to be seen if a crime was actually committed." Pierce turned to Kid. "What happened here with McCloskey?"

Kid told the marshal what had occurred the night before with McCloskey and the supposedly stolen horse Fire Eater. "McCloskey realised that he couldn't accuse Buck of horse stealin', not with me, Lou, and Jeremiah there. He took the horse and left." Kid finished.

"And that was the last you saw of him?"

"Until we found him this mornin'."

"Right. Did you have any trouble fallin' asleep last night?"

Kid blinked at the Marshal's non sequitur. "No, I fell asleep right off. Why?"

"So if Buck sneaked out to attack McCloskey last night, you would not have noticed."

Kid frowned, and was about to concede the point when Jeremiah, who was supposed to be in bed but was being his usual curious self, jumped in. "But he didn't!" the thirteen-year-old protested.

"How would you know?" McCaffrey asked derisively.

"That's a good question, young fella," Pierce turned to the boy. "How are you so certain that Cross did not sneak out last night?"

Jeremiah flushed. "I was awake all night readin'."

"What were you readin' that had you so engrossed?"

"Me Ma's diary. I found it hard to read, and I wasn't s'posed to be readin' it at all, so I was listenin' in case Louise'd come in and find me. If Buck had snuck out last night, I would have heard him. His room is right across the hall from mine."

"Okay," Pierce turned back to the Kid. "Why were you so far out from the property this mornin' when you found McCloskey?"

Kid sighed. "Jeremiah didn't like some of what he read in the diary, and thought Louise had been lyin' to him. He decided to take Teresa and run away. Me and Buck were tryin' to track them."

"I was the one who found Mr. McCloskey," Jeremiah mumbled.

Faces turned to the boy. "Pardon?" Pierce asked.

"Me an' Teresa were tired and we had stopped. Teresa fell asleep on Bessie's back, and I almost tripped on Mr. McCloskey. It looked like he had fallen and hit his head on a rock, like he had been thrown from his horse."

"Is that the truth?" the marshal asked the boy. Jeremiah nodded. Piece turned to Buck and the Kid. "And the first either of you knew about this was when you found him this mornin'?" Both men nodded.

McCaffrey did not like the way this was going. "Now what? You ain't just gonna believe them, are you Marshal?"

"Well, on the face of it, it looks as though Buck Cross is innocent. However, I am refrainin' from makin' a judgement until McCloskey awakes and can tell his side of the story."

It was not long before Pierce had his answers. After Dr. Seyton had done all he could for Rosa, he checked on Teresa and McCloskey, agreeing with Lou's diagnoses. While he was looking at the wound that McCloskey had got when he hit his head on the rock, the man awoke. Disoriented at first, McCloskey admitted that he had left the old Sutherland ranch with his two horses the previous night, but had lost his way in the snow storm and had fallen off his horse, and that was the last thing he could remember. But he did say that Buck Cross had nothing to do with his mishap.

Rosa did not fare so well. Doctor Seyton and Lou had done all they could for her, but Bonsal's bullet had left a fatal wound. She died five hours later in her husbands arms. Because Bonsal had not been aiming at Rosa Veloz, and that he thought he was preventing a fugitive from escaping, no charges were brought against McCaffrey's henchman—although he was warned to get out of town.

Although subdued, life went on at the old Sutherland ranch. Teresa was recovering from her sojourn in that early morning cold, luckily without having caught pneumonia. Jeremiah, at Lou's insistence of discovering the whole story read the rest of the diary. He never quite forgave his big sister for lying about their father, but he understood a little more now, and he was even willing to accept that Buck was his brother.

Lou went to work as a nurse for Doctor Seyton, although without Rosa, she was fairly flat out coping with both work and housework. Kid wanted her to stop, but he knew that they needed the money to keep the ranch going, even with Buck’s ‘donation’.

January moved into February, and two men had decisions to make: whether or not to stay on the old Sutherland ranch; and what to do about the money that Buck had donated to repair the barn. Buck was glad to give it to them as it solved a lot of problems on his part, but Lou and Kid were not all that comfortable about taking the money without some form of remuneration. Lou had come up with a suggestion that Kid liked, but whether Buck would swallow his pride and accept it was another thing.

Buck and the Kid were taking a long, leisurely ride around the property when the latter raised the subject. “Do you have any idea what you’re goin’ to do?”

Buck cocked an eyebrow at his friend and brother-in-law. “What do you mean?”

“Do you have any plans? Are you gonna seek your brother out or…”

“Is this your subtle way of askin’ me to leave?”

“Lord, no,” Kid shook his head. “Was just wonderin’, is all. Lou was afraid you might take off without a word or somethin’.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” Buck interjected.

“Well, you’ll always have a place here, you should know that,” Kid continued. “Besides, we still have to pay you back that money.”

“I told you and Lou before that I was glad to give it to you,” the Kiowa protested. “Carryin’ that kind of money around only caused me trouble from people like McCaffrey.”

“I know that, but we don’t like takin’ it without some form of payment. But…” the Kid held up a hand to stall the protest he knew would come from Buck. “Lou came up with an idea that I think solves all our problems. Well, on this matter anyway.”

“Oh yeah? Always knew she was the smart one,” Buck joked. “What’s her idea?”

“As we don’t like the idea of takin’ your money without givin’ you something in return, how would you like a half share in this place?”

For a moment, Buck was speechless. Then the expected protests began. “But the money I gave you nowhere near covers what half this place is worth…” he began.

“We know that,” Kid cut in. “Nor do we expect you to pay any more.”

“I ain’t lookin’ for charity…” the other man warned.

“It ain’t charity. We want to give you somethin’ for the money. Besides, as I said before, you’ll always have a place here. This way just makes it all formal and legal-like.”

“You sound like Teaspoon.”

Kid shrugged. “He was bound to rub off on us some; and don’t change the subject. Look, Lou would really like it if you stuck around; now that she’s discovered you’re really her brother.”

“That don’t mean you have to give me half the ranch,” Buck pointed out.

“No, but it gives you somethin’ to fall back on. You’re too proud to take money from us if we offered it to you; this way, if you were to leave sometime in the future, you’d definitely have somethin’ to work with. And if we go into town and see Collins at the bank, and sign all the documents formally in front of witnesses, McCaffrey won’t be able to do anythin’ about it, if that’s what’s worryin’ you.”

“You thought of everything, didn’t you?” Buck fell silent for a long moment, thinking the offer over. It was tempting, and Lou and Kid really gave a lot of thought into what would convince him, judging from the arguments Kid gave. He was reluctant to take anything from them, especially so soon into the marriage; but he could not deny that it would be a relief to be able to settle down somewhere and not face constant suspicion—not counting McCaffrey and his friends, but that he could handle. Maybe it would be a good idea to stay in one place for a while.

“It would be nice to have someplace to stay without havin’ to move on,” he said finally. “Are you sure about this? I mean, you don’t have to do this to get me to stay.”

“Yes, we’re sure,” Kid spoke firmly. “And you’ll always have a place here regardless of whether you take us up on the offer. But if you do, you’ll have somethin’ to fall back on.” Kid was aware he was repeating himself, but it seemed the only way to get through to Buck. “What do you say?”