A Place Called Home Read online

  Livi snatched the pistol from the mantel and checked its prime before she slipped the bolt. The man who stood outside was swathed in clothes that were one with the night. All she could make out beneath the brim of his hat was the gleam of huge, uneven teeth.

  "It's Lige Higgins, ma'am," he told her. "Ben Logan sent me over this way to warn the folks who's settlin' out. We got word from Boonesborough that a party of Shawnee and Wyandot is sweepin' down from the north. Ben says pack up what you can carry and come on into the fort."

  Livi's heartbeat staggered. "Now? In the middle of the night?"

  "'At's what Ben said."

  "And that's what you would do?"

  Higgins flashed a grin that took up most of his face. "I'd be halfway to the fort by now—in my nightshirt!"

  Livi nodded, trying to think how she must prepare to leave.

  Reid appeared at the far side of the breezeway still tucking the shirttail into his pants. "How long ago did Logan get word, Lige?"

  "Hour and a half, maybe two."

  "Then they'll be here by morning," Reid said, sounding solid and calm.

  "Lessen they do some raidin' on the way," Lige agreed. "If there's nothing more you need, I'd best be gone. I got two more cabins to find."

  "Then go ahead."

  No sooner had Higgins leaped into the saddle of his lathered horse than Reid began issuing orders. "Livi, pack up a few clothes and what food you can carry. Tad, go wake Eustace and Violet. Tell them what's happened and—"

  Livi spoke up. "I'll not have my son chasing around in the dark, especially if there are Indians—"

  "Jesus, Livi!" Reid exclaimed. "Didn't David ever teach you sometimes it's just better to do what you're told?"

  Tad took the argument out of their hands, pushing past where the two of them and disappearing into the dark.

  Livi bristled, stung by Reid's tone and Tad's defiance. But she knew there was enough to do without wasting time trying to put Reid Campbell in his place.

  Cissy had herself half dressed when Livi turned back into the cabin. "How come we're going to the fort?" Cissy wanted to know.

  "Because we'll be safer there if the Indians come."

  "When are the Indians coming?"

  "Tomorrow, Reid thinks." She answered as best she could while tucking clothes for each of them into a sack.

  "Tomorrow?" Cissy mulled that over. "Have we ever been to the fort?"

  "Tad and Reid and I went to the fort. That's where we got Patches." Livi dumped the never-ending pile of mending from one of the baskets Violet had made and began filling it with foodstuffs. "It's kind of like a town with a wall around it. Lots of families live there all the time. Others, like us, will be moving in until the Indians leave."

  Livi spared a thought for what staying in the fort would be like. Overcrowded, overwrought, and unbearably hot. She took one of Tad's shirts out of the sack and exchanged it for a thinner one.

  "There should be lots of children to play with, Cissy," Livi told her, putting the best face she could on what lay ahead. "And there might even be a school where you can show everyone how well you write your letters. You're going to like it."

  "What about our cabin?" Cissy asked.

  Livi paused, her hands full of summer squash. Undefended, the cabin would be easy prey for any Indians that came this way. She couldn't bear the thought of the home David had built for her going up in flames. Of the bed he'd made for them to share turned to ashes.

  And the fields. Oh, God! What if the Indians trampled her crops? They'd spent these past three days stripping back the corn husks in preparation for harvest. She couldn't imagine seeing all that work, all that struggle, come to naught. Those crops were the only future she and her children had.

  "My God, Livi, you're not even dressed!" Reid strode into the cabin, impatient, almost angry. "Tad and Eustace are saddling the horses. What have you got that's ready to go?"

  "Reid, I've been thinking—"

  "There isn't time to think."

  "—about the cabin, about leaving the farm. If we're not here to protect it, will the Indians destroy the crops?"

  "If you're not out of here come morning, they may burn the cabin over your head. Is that what you want?"

  "But, Reid!"

  He stopped and spoke calmly, though she had the sense he'd like to take her by the arms and shake her. "Do you want us to try to fend off an Indian attack all by ourselves? That's what it could come to if we stay. If the Indians come in force, the only way anyone on this frontier is going to survive is by being in one of the stations."

  "But David built this cabin. Everything he was or hoped for is in these walls."

  Though Reid's face softened, she could see the flint in his eyes. "Everything David was or hoped for is in Tad and Cissy, in that baby you're carrying. Do you want to stay here and risk something a lot more precious than a few bits of wood?"

  Livi caught her breath. Reid was right. What had she been thinking?

  Before Livi could agree, Violet breezed into the room, her dark eyes snapping. "You leave off bullyin' her, Marse Reid. We be ready to leave 'fore you know it."

  "I'll hold you to that, Violet," Reid said and left.

  "Now go on," Violet admonished Livi, nudging her toward the peg where she'd hung her clothes the night before. "An' don't you go bein' mad at him. He's just doin' what he knows is best."

  By the time Livi had struggled into her bodice, skirts, knit stockings, and a sturdy pair of boots, Tad and Eustace had the horses saddled and waiting out front. Reid's three pack animals were tied to the back of Eustace's saddle. Patches trotted impatiently between their legs.

  "Where's Reid's horse?" Livi asked as she mounted her buttermilk mare. Eustace handed Cissy up to her.

  "I'm staying until morning," Reid answered, coming out of his door with a small keg of powder and a sack of lead balls under one arm and that shiny new rifle tucked beneath the other.

  "But you said—" Livi protested.

  "I know what I said." He stowed the powder and balls in one of the creels. "That was before the damn cow wandered off somewhere. As soon as I find her, I'll come in, too. Probably before you've had a chance to dish up breakfast."

  With a glance at Livi, he handed the rifle to Tad as if daring her to protest the return of the gift. She acknowledged the exchange with a scowl, but held her peace. She knew there might be Indians lurking in the woods between here and Logan's Station, and another rifle would help to fend them off.

  "I'll see you at the station tomorrow," Reid told her. "Tell Ben I'll ride scout if he needs me."

  Reid stood at the edge of the breezeway, his feet planted and his thumbs notched into the waistband of his trousers. He looked fearless and resolute, doing exactly what he'd warned Livi against. By the jut of his chin and the energy radiating around him, she could see he wasn't about to be dissuaded.

  Damn him for taking this kind of chance. Damn him for doing exactly what he'd warned her against. Livi felt her face get hot. Damn him for acting as if he were invincible.

  Was he so addicted to the wild, sharp taste of danger that he'd risk his life for the sake of a cow? Then, in a flash of insight, Livi saw exactly who Reid was.

  For as long as she could remember, he had always stood back from the rest of them, remained aloof. Now she recognized the alienation and ambivalence at the core of him. The solitary path was not just the one he had chosen for himself, it was the only one he dared to follow. What he was doing now—staying behind, sending them off without him, risking God knew what—was part of that.

  His self-imposed isolation fired Livi's anger, firmed a new resolve. Jockeying her mare closer to where he stood, Livi leaned toward him. Reid did his best to step back but wasn't quick enough.

  There, in front of everyone, she did something she never dreamed she would ever do. She kissed Reid Campbell—her rival, her devil, her nemesis—full on the mouth. It wasn't all that deep a kiss, but Livi made enough contact to be aware of the taste of h
im on her when she retreated.

  She wasn't ready to acknowledge to anyone why she'd kissed him, or to examine her motives too closely. Nor was there time. It was enough that she saw a flare of incredulity in Reid's eyes as she turned her horse away. It was enough that, as the night and the forest closed around them, she could still feel his gaze burning into her back.

  * * *

  Reid didn't make it to the fort for breakfast. All over Logan's Station, people ate their mush and johnnycake while Livi Talbot paced the narrow walkway on the wall above the front gate. She'd been up there since just before dawn, watching, waiting, and calling Reid Campbell every name she knew.

  The ride through the forest the night before had been harrowing. Without Reid to guide them, it had been impossible to stick to the trail in the dark. They'd straggled cross-country, stumbling up and down ravines, pushing through brush, riding aimlessly until they came upon the main road as much by accident as by design.

  Livi had been sure that every copse along the roadside was bristling with savages. She'd been sure that at any moment she would hear the whoosh of arrows and a piercing yell of attack. In spite of that, they'd made it to the fort and been immediately welcomed. They were assigned a place on the ground floor of the northeast blockhouse where they could put their belongings and blankets. It was there they bedded down amidst a clamor and wail of nearly a score of other displaced families. That's where she'd left Eustace, Violet, and the children asleep more than two hours past.

  She was standing braced against the pickets when she heard two of the sentries call to one another.

  "'Ay, Will, what d'you make of that?"

  "'S an Injun brave leading a cow, ain't it?"

  Livi turned to where the men were pointing and saw, far across the open fields, Reid leading the cow.

  She knew right off why the sentries might imagine that he was an Indian. Reid was dressed in his buckskin trousers and trade-cloth shirt and wore a clutch of eagle feathers tucked into his hat.

  "Prob'ly up to no good," one of the sentries speculated.

  "Wait 'til he gets a little closer and I'll pick him off."

  "You'll do nothing of the sort!" Livi snapped. "Call down and have them open the gates. That's Reid Campbell, my—ah—my partner, bringing in my cow."

  Both men turned and looked at her. "Ma'am?"

  "You heard me!"

  The men looked at each other then did as she said.

  Livi was waiting when Reid rode in with Brownie in tow. All four of the pigs were trotting along behind, and once he had dismounted, Reid set a pot of gruel on the ground. That was apparently what had enticed the pigs into making the journey from the cabin to the fort.

  "Hello, Livi," he greeted her, an odd uneasiness around his mouth.

  "You damn fool," she answered.

  A grin gathered and broke across his features.

  "Don't you know you nearly got yourself shot coming here dressed the way you are?" she admonished him. "If I hadn't been up there on the wall—"

  "Watching for me, were you?"

  He waited for her to color up then carried the iron pot to the crowded pigpen wedged into one corner of the fort. Once he'd ushered Livi's pigs inside and closed the gate, he set the pot down and waited for the porkers to eat it clean.

  "We're over in the northeast blockhouse," she said with a lift of her chin.

  "So you made it all right."

  "It would have been a damn sight easier if you'd been with us," she grumbled.

  Having handed off the horse and the cow to the boys tending the corral, Reid turned to her. "Do you know where I can find Ben Logan?"

  "There's supposed to be a meeting in the front blockhouse first thing this morning. I'll warrant he's there now."

  Reid strode in that direction, and Livi tagged along. She'd meant to attend the meeting anyway.

  The large first-floor room was crowded and noisy and swiftly filling with pipe smoke. Reid elbowed his way to a place by the wall. Nearly as many women as men were in attendance, some with children on their knees, others with bits of sewing to work on while they were listening. Their presence indicated to Livi that women were considered an important part of the frontier community.

  When Ben Logan began to speak, the room went still. "George Essex came in from scouting half an hour ago. He said he didn't see any Indian sign this far south, but that there's something stirring up north. He thinks we need to be ready either to come to the aid of another station or to defend our own. While he's not the tracker Essex is, Phillip Wyant rode out this morning, too. If there's anyone else who's willing to scout—"

  "I'll be glad to help, Ben," Reid spoke up.

  Livi saw heads swivel in his direction. A boil of speculation ran through the room.

  "Let a goddamned red bastard scout for us?" someone up front asked.

  "How do we know we can trust the likes of him?"

  In response to their comments, Reid remained impassive.

  He's used to this, Livi realized suddenly. He's used to being suspect. Perhaps that makes him who he is, why David's open-handed friendship meant so much to Reid.

  She drew breath to defend him, but Ben Logan spoke up first. "For those of you who don't know, this here's Reid Campbell. His pappy and grandpappy were two of the traders who explored the land beyond the Blue Ridge and helped open it for settlement. None of us would be here if it weren't for men like them.

  "Reid fought with General Clark and a few of the rest of us during the war. He and the Talbots have gone into partnership down along Wilcox Creek. And since he won't admit it himself, he's one of the best damned scouts I've ever seen."

  As Logan spoke, Reid stood silent as a stone.

  "Now then," Ben went on, "I intend to take Reid up on his offer to scout—unless there are objections."

  A mumble ran through the room, but no else commented. If Logan had been a less forceful or respected man, Livi sensed things might have been different.

  Campbell didn't acknowledge anyone but Ben Logan. "All I need is a fresh horse."

  "Then take one of mine," Ben offered. "And we're sure glad to have you here at Logan's Station."

  Reid nodded once and headed toward the door, his boot soles ringing in the silence.

  Livi followed him out and went to gather up parched corn and jerky for Reid to take with him. She caught up to him and Tad at the picket line a few minutes later.

  "...get any ideas in her head about going back to that cabin while I'm gone. You hear me, boy?"

  "I won't," Tad promised.

  "And look after everyone else."

  "I will."

  Livi stepped up and handed Reid the leather packet and canteen. "I brought food and water for you to take."

  "Thanks." Reid took the things from her and tied them to his saddle. That single brush of hands warmed Livi to the elbows. The energy in him was blazing now, focused and controlled, but leaping higher and hotter than she'd ever sensed it.

  Danger thrills and enervates him, she realized. And perhaps Reid dares to burn so brightly because he's not afraid of burning out.

  She wasn't sure if that thought made her feel better or worse, but Reid didn't give her so much as a moment to contemplate. He swung into the saddle and, with a wave of farewell, kicked his mount in the direction of the gate.

  By the time the thick wooden doors had closed behind him, he was hunkered low over his horse's neck, galloping full out toward the edge of the woods.

  * * *

  Livi hated Logan's Station. She hated the sun that beat down from a ruthless sky. She hated the smell of cows and pigs and horses, of unwashed people and overused privies. She hated the constant buzz of conversation and the restriction of staying within the station's walls. She hated not knowing if her cabin was still standing or had been burned to the ground, if her crops were drooping in the heat or had been trampled into the earth.

  She missed the cool, thick green that greeted her when she stepped out of her cabin door, the tast
e of water dipped fresh from the spring, the soft, hollow call of doves at sunset. Sometimes she even found herself missing Reid.

  He'd been back to the station only twice in a fortnight, arriving in the purple and gold of lingering dusk. Both times he'd come in dirty, silent, and glassy-eyed. Both times he'd required only a hot meal and the use of Livi's blankets. Both times he'd slept like the dead and been gone at first light.

  Livi almost wished she could ride out with Reid. Beyond the walls there were Indians, uncertainty, and danger, but out there she'd have something to do besides wait. She knew that staying at the fort was the safest course, the one she must follow for her children's sake, but the days were interminable. Never could Livi remember feeling so restless, so confined.

  "As close as you are to birthing that babe and as hot as it is," Anne Logan observed as she watched Livi fold the laundry she was taking off the line, "you shouldn't want to do anything but sit."

  "I feel better if I'm moving," Livi answered, spanking the wrinkles out of Tad's extra shirt. "I keep thinking of all there is to do at the cabin while I'm stuck here."

  "Well, there's no sense going back before they're sure it's safe. You may as well stay on with us for as long as it takes to chase those Indians back across the Ohio River."

  "And how long will that be?" Livi whispered under her breath.

  That the children objected to the confinement more than anyone didn't make things easier. In the hope of giving them something to do, several mothers strung canvas between two of the cabins to provide a shady place, and three or four others agreed to give lessons. There were only five slates and less than a dozen precious books, but somehow they managed. Livi took her stint as teacher by using stones and acorns and buttons to show the younger children how addition and subtraction worked.

  Eustace kept busy helping the station's blacksmith, while Violet took up cooking for the unmarried men. The couple's industriousness made Livi wonder if they couldn't do better living and working at the station than they ever could with her. That harvest was fast approaching meant she and her family would either have to pack up their belongings and take to the Wilderness Road or convince Reid to let them stay. In either case, she had Eustace and Violet to consider. She had promises to keep where they were concerned, though she wasn't sure how.