Chapter 5
Jarrod and Silas went to the sheriff's office, and together they looked at the note, the map, and the clothing that belonged to the dead woman, but none of it looked familiar to Silas – to both his dismay and his relief. They sheriff could only come up with one other approach.
"She obviously went to your place intentionally," he said. "That means there was someone there she could trust, or was told she could trust."
"And that just leaves the other men who work for us," Jarrod said.
"Or servants who don't live there."
Jarrod shook his head. "None of the other house servants are negro. We do have four negro men in the field, but they're off with Nick and Heath on a drive."
"When did they leave?"
"Yesterday morning," Jarrod said. "We can move faster than they will. Why don't I get a horse from the livery and we'll head out right away, while, Silas, you head home and help Mother and Audra out with Raven. I should be back before dark, but don't worry if I'm not."
Silas nodded, and the sheriff said, "Let's go."
XXXXX
Jarrod knew the route Nick and Heath would be taking and knew he and the sheriff could catch up with them in only a few hours, if they kept up the pace. They grabbed sandwiches from the Empire Saloon and were on the road by noon. By three, they could hear the lowing of the cattle and only a few minutes later, they came upon the drive.
Nick and Heath were not together when Nick spotted Jarrod and the sheriff approaching. Nick looked around for Heath but didn't see him. He pulled away from the herd and met Jarrod and Sheriff Madden at the rear of the drive, well away from the cattle.
"What's going on?" Nick asked.
"We need to talk to the negro hands you have on the drive," Sheriff Madden said. "The body of a negro woman was found this morning. She had directions to your place and a map on her, and the doc says she had bled to death after giving birth."
"Raven's mother," Nick said right away.
Heath rode up just in time to hear what Nick said. "You found Raven's mother?"
Jarrod said, "Dead, unfortunately."
Nick said, "She had directions to our place on her. She meant to come to us to leave that baby. The sheriff wants to talk to Marley, Stokes, Jessup and Clyde."
Heath nodded. "I'll round them up, but – " He looked at Sheriff Madden. "If you're looking for Raven's father, he doesn't have to be a black man, you know."
"She's an awful black baby," Nick said.
Jarrod said, "Heath's right. Raven's mother is very dark-skinned. Raven might have inherited that even if her father was white."
"But we gotta start somewhere," Sheriff Madden said.
Heath said, "I'll go get them over here."
It didn't make any difference. Each of the black men who worked for the Barkleys denied having anything to do with a pregnant woman, and there was nothing else that struck the sheriff as odd. He let them go back to work.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Nick said, "I can't go dragging every man over here, Fred. We have to keep this drive going."
"I know," the sheriff said.
Jarrod said, "Nick, if you lose any men along the way, if any of them quit before coming back to the ranch, give me their names right away. Wire them home if you have to."
"You can't want Raven's father to come into the picture if he deserted her mother," Nick said. "What kind of father would that be?"
"I'm not talking about custody," Jarrod said. "I'm talking about getting to the bottom of why Raven was left with us and who left that woman to die on her own."
"Jarrod," Nick said, more gently, "you know negro women can be hired women just as easily as white women can. It might not even be possible to figure out who Raven's father is."
"I know that too, Nick," Jarrod said.
"We know we might never figure this out," the sheriff said, "but the dead woman was found in the bushes by the side of the road. Maybe she crawled there herself, but maybe she didn't. Whatever we can figure out, I want to figure out."
"Our men have all been with us since before Raven was left at the house," Nick said. "They were all out with the herds."
"If anyone did go off for some time, Nick, we need to know who it was, but don't get obvious about asking. Just nose around quietly."
Nick was starting to get irritated. "Quietly isn't exactly my style, Jarrod."
"For this, it has to be," Jarrod said, even though he knew that no matter how Nick approached it, the word of this situation was going to spread fast. "You wire home if you learn anything at all."
Nick nodded, turned his horse, and rode off. Heath remained for a moment, expecting Jarrod had more to say.
Which he did. "Be careful with all this, Heath," Jarrod said. "If anybody wanders off, wire the details to the sheriff as fast as you can."
"How is our little lady today?" Heath asked.
Jarrod smiled a little. "Getting used to Mother and Audra, I think. Whoever sent her to us knew what they were doing."
Heath grinned a little bit too. "The Barkleys do have a way with wayward orphans."
Jarrod chuckled as Heath turned and rode away.
The sheriff heaved a sigh. "I didn't really think we'd have much luck doing this."
"Hard to say, Fred," Jarrod said. "Something might come of it yet."
XXXXXX
Jarrod got home to hear Raven screaming lustfully even before he got into the house. He found Victoria, Audra and Silas in the library, where they still kept the cradle. Audra was holding Raven and Silas had just handed over a bottle, but Raven was having none of it. Audra suggested Silas take her and try. Jarrod came over to them just as Silas took her and sat down in the chair by the fireplace.
Just as Raven quieted down and started to take the bottle.
Victoria sighed. "Audra's had some luck today, but Raven still prefers you men."
"Maybe because it was a woman who deserted her," Audra said, unhappily.
"Or maybe it's just the perfume you wear, like the doctor said," Jarrod said and took a peek at the baby in Silas's arms. "Has the doctor been by today?"
"Yes, he said Raven was doing just fine," Victoria said. "Silas told us you went out to find the herd. Did you have any luck?"
"We found them, but we didn't learn anything new," Jarrod said.
"We are going to have to be looking for a home for Raven."
Jarrod nodded agreement. "Even if we found her father, I'm sure he wouldn't be the type to accept responsibility for her. The sheriff and I talked on the way home. Silas, he plans to talk to the reverend at your church tonight, to see if he can plant any seeds of interest in the families at your church."
Silas said, "We're not wealthy people, Mr. Jarrod. I'm not sure who could afford to take Miss Raven in."
"I don't know either," Jarrod said, "but we have to start looking around. This little lady deserves a real family to grow up with, not one that's already fully grown."
Everyone knew he was referring to the Barkley family. A house full of adults raising a child was not a good idea, and they left unsaid the other part of that equation. A house full of white adults raising a negro baby was not a good idea either.
"Well, for now she's with us," Victoria said, "which is obviously what her mother intended."
"Unless it wasn't us she intended to leave Raven with," Jarrod said. "We need to keep looking at the possibility that she was coming to find someone who worked here. She got those directions from someone who had an interest here, and it wasn't one of us in the household. I asked Nick and Heath to wire the sheriff right away if any of the men take off unexpectedly."
Silas looked up at Jarrod. "Mr. Jarrod, you know Raven's father might not be a negro man."
Jarrod nodded. "We know, Silas. The sheriff isn't making any firm assumptions, and neither are Nick and Heath."
XXXX
It was a quiet night with the herd, moonlit and warm, but when the sun came up and men prepared to move the herd again, Heath came up to Nick and quietly said, "Max Shane is gone."
Nick was surprised at that name. "Max Shane? He's been with us for a year. Are you sure he's gone?"
Heath nodded. "His horse is gone too. He's sneaked off. We better find a telegraph office and send word to Sheriff Madden."
Nick tried to think. Max Shane was a quiet young man, a hard worker, kept to himself a lot. Nick didn't know much about him, except that he seemed to have no kin anywhere he would talk about. A white boy in his twenties with a slight southern drawl. He seemed all wrong for running off in the night – which made him look even more like he was the one running from something.
And he'd be just the type of drifter to disappear into a western world full of men just like him.