Chapter Twenty-One

Though their bedroom was devoid of furniture, the sitting room, which would be a nursery when the baby came, contained one piece; a rocking chair Adam had purchased for Shiloh while they were in the house at the Flying W. The sitting room was surrounded by windows looking out over the corrals and stables in a small valley at the side of the house with views of Lake Tahoe through the back windows. Even though it was still too early in the day to be dark, no bright light shone into the room. Outside it was dim and gray and…depressing. The gloom seemed to portend the events of the day. Even the lake with its small whitecaps looked like the cold coal remnants of a fire. The constant snow made it difficult to see any detail at all. The trees looked like a water color painting that had gotten wet and turned into a smear of dull green.

Sitting quietly in the rocker, Shiloh watched the stables, an ominous foreboding consuming her.

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Dismounting their horses at the stable doors, Micah stopped cold when he saw darkened snow off to the side of the stable. "That doesn't look good."

All three men dropped their reins and walked over to look. "That's a lot of blood," said Joe. "And look at the way it's spread out…like pieces of something were taken."

"There's a dead wolf over here," called Micah, who had walked at little further toward the side of the stable.

A chill ran down Adam's spine as he spoke to Joe. "Like something was eaten." Bringing his hand up to cover his mouth, he closed his eyes and turned away, quickly stepping back to the stables doors and opening them.

There in front of him, Johnny and Tom were kneeling over a body, both men in tears as they attempted to pull the shredded remains of a shirt back over its missing gut.

Slowly removing his hat, Adam new that body had been Billy before he even looked. He turned away to find a blanket as Micah and Joe entered the stable, removing their hats as well.

Returning with canvas, Adam spoke to Joe, nodding toward Johnny and Tom, and then to the bunk rooms. "Take them back to their bunks, and see if you can find them some whiskey. Micah?" he said, holding out a corner of the canvas.

"What're you thinking, Adam?" asked Micah as he helped wrap the body in the canvas.

"We can't leave him in here, and we can't bury him out there. The ground is too hard to dig anything more than a shallow grave. We'll take him up to the barn and leave him there until we can get to Roy. It should stay cold enough to…" Without finishing his thought, he secured the canvas with rope, and then went deeper into the stables to retrieve Billy's horse.

Once Billy's body was secured to his horse, Micah and Adam went back to the bunk room. "Johnny?"

Looking up with red-rimmed eyes, Johnny nodded. "We'll be all right, Mr. Adam. But what are you going to do with Billy?"

"He'll be in the barn up at the house until Roy can come out. You two should be all right here. The wolves won't be able to get in. Even so, I'm bringing another hand back from the main bunkhouse to help with the horses, so expect a knock on the doors."

Both men nodded and watched Joe, Adam and Micah leave with Billy's horse in tow. When the three men got to the barn, they placed Billy's body on top of a storage box off the dirt floor. Once they had turned back toward their horses, Adam stopped them. "Both of you. Not a word to Shiloh. I'll tell her when she's calmer."

"I think I need to be there when you do," said Micah. "Ever since Dad took him in, Shiloh's been the one that made sure Billy was taken care of. She's not going to take this well at all."

"What do you know about Billy?"

"Do you remember Bill Reed? He was foreman at the Flying W before Hank."

Adam nodded. "Wasn't he killed by a wolf?"

"Yep," answered Micah, bowing his head and scuffing the dirt floor. "He was Billy's pa."

"I didn't know Bill had children," said Adam in surprise.

"He kept it quiet because he didn't want any trouble. He married a Washoe woman. And then when Billy came along…well, after a year or two, they knew he wasn't quite right. He learned everything later than normal. Anyway, after Bill died, his wife…I don't remember her name, but Shy will…she said she couldn't take Billy back to her people. They wouldn't accept him in the tribe because he was only half Washoe and because he was cursed."

"Do you know if Billy's mother is still alive?"

"Even if I did, I wouldn't know how to find her. The Washoe are fairly spread out, and they tend to hide from white men. Shiloh might know."

"Well, I'm not going to tell her tonight. She's going to have a hard enough time sleeping. I'll tell her tomorrow. If she knows if Billy's mother is alive and where she is, we'll take Billy's body to her."

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Shiloh stood when she saw four distinct shapes leaving the stables. As they got closer to the house, she could see that one of the riders wasn't upright and hung her head, her mind racing around which of her three men was now wrapped in canvas.

She jumped at a knock on the open bedroom door. "Mrs. Cartwright. I have brought you tea." She closed her eyes and didn't move, prompting Ming Lin to walk to the window. He looked at her first, then looked out the window, and seeing the four horses that had almost reached the house, he gently took her hand. "You come downstairs with me to drink your tea."

Jerking her head up, she whispered, "No," as if being heard might bring more bad things down upon her.

Ming Lin smiled. "It is safe in the house. The shutters are closed and bolted and the kitchen door has been blocked. Nothing can get in. Not even Mr. Cartwright without knocking." Taking her hand, he urged her again. "Please, come."

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Adam, Micah and Joe left for the main house, arriving as the already muted light began to fade. They entered the house in such a rush that Ben, who was sitting in the leather chair next to the fireplace, smoking his pipe and reading his paper, jumped to his feet. "What's wrong?"

"Where's Hop Sing?" asked Joe, heading for the kitchen.

"He's...," Ben started, but Joe had already disappeared around the corner. "In the kitchen." Glaring at Adam, Ben asked, "Would you mind telling me what's going on?"

"We have a wolf problem. A big wolf problem." Adam filled his father in on what had transpired throughout the day.

When he relayed what had happened to Shiloh and Billy, Ben fell hard back into his chair. "Is Shiloh all right?"

"She's pretty shaken up."

"I imagine so. Does she know about Billy?"

Bowing his head, Adam replied, "No, not yet. I wanted to make sure everyone was where they needed to be for the night before I told her." Looking up at the ceiling, he added. "I'm not looking forward to telling her. It's going to be a long night."

Ben straightened in his chair. "What in thunder is a pack of wolves doing down this far when there's plenty of beef on the range?"

"I don't know, Pa. But we don't have time to figure it out. We have to set out bait and kill the rest of this pack. Now you and Micah haven't seen any signs of them around your places, so I say we bait closer to my house and wait them out. We've already killed five that we know of so there can't be that many left."

"All right. Joe and I will gather some men early tomorrow morning and meet at your place."

Adam nodded. "Don't worry about the men, except bring one with you. We should travel in threes. I thought I'd take some men back with us so Joe can stay here, and Micah can get back to the Flying W. The men can stay in the bunkhouse there and ride back to my house with him in the morning. And I'll be putting one of them in the stable with Johnny and Tom until this is over."

"That's a good idea, Son," said Ben as he walked Micah and Adam to the door.

"Hop Sing said he hasn't seen any signs. There's no chickens, goats or pigs missing," said Joe as he joined them at the front door.

"Good. Maybe we can keep it that way." Adam turned and walked out the door, tipping his hat to his father.