Cheyenne Wife. Judith Stacy
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fever took its toll.”
“It was just too much for him,” Sykes added. He paused, then added, “Your pa probably won’t make it through the night.”
Tears sprang to Lily’s eyes. “No…”
“He roused up a bit a while ago,” Sykes said. “He’s asking for you.”
Lily shook her head, her throat tight and thick. “But…”
“Go on inside,” Fredericks said kindly. He guided Lily into the room, then closed the door behind her.
Lily clung to the door, afraid to cross the room, afraid to approach the cot. Her father couldn’t be dying. Fredericks and Sykes meant well, but they had to be wrong—they simply had to be.
“No, Papa, you can’t—you simply can’t,” she whispered. “Not now. We haven’t even…”
But her father lay so still, awash in a gray, ghostly pallor, that she knew the men were right. Tears sprang to her eyes. Lily covered her face with her palms.
“Lily…?”
Her head jerked up at the sound of Augustus’s voice. She rushed to his bedside and dropped to her knees, joy filling her heart.
“Yes, Papa?” she said anxiously. “Oh, I knew you wouldn’t—”
“It’s…gone,” he whispered.
Lily frowned. “What—whatever do you mean?”
With effort, Augustus lifted his head from the sweat-stained pillow, but collapsed again, his lips moving as if trying to speak.
Lily leaned closer, her ear to his mouth. “What, Papa? What is it?”
“Money…” he whispered. “All…gone.”
She looked at him, unable to follow his reasoning. Why was he talking about money—of all things—at a time like this?
“Bad deals…lost it all…nothing left.” Augustus drew in a ragged breath, then wheezed. “That’s…that’s why I came West…to…to start over.”
“No, Papa,” Lily insisted. “That’s not true. You told me yourself that you’d always wanted to come West, to explore, to seek new adventures.”
His head moved back and forth with effort. “A lie. I told you that so…” He coughed. “Thought I could make my fortune over again…in Santa Fe. Thought I could…”
“But, Papa—”
Augustus’s eyelids sank.
“Papa? Papa!”
Chapter Three
Lily stood beside the mound of fresh-turned earth and the wooden casket that would be her father’s resting place for eternity, cold despite the heat of the midafternoon sun that bore down on them.
Augustus had passed away peacefully in his sleep during the night, just as Oliver Sykes had predicted, with Lily at his side.
Hiram Fredericks had made the funeral arrangements; he seemed to be in charge of such things, much like everything else at the fort.
Oliver Sykes, who had worked diligently to heal her father, had arranged for his casket to be built, then had laid him in it. Lily didn’t know who’d dug the grave, here among the other wooden markers outside the fort.
Fredericks read from the Bible, the thin pages rattling in the breeze, his white hair undulating on the unseen current. About a dozen men—most of whom Lily didn’t know—gathered there also. She wondered if they wanted to pay their respects, or simply craved a diversion from their daily routine.
Jacob Tanner, the young man who worked in the kitchen and had brought meal trays to her and her father, stood near the back of the gathering, his hands clasped in front of him, his eyes lowered respectfully. Lily appreciated his presence and felt his intentions were honorable.
Not in attendance was the Nelson family, the people her papa had paid to drive their wagon and assist them in their journey. Nor were the men from the wagon train, who’d come with them to the fort, present for the service.
Lily sniffed, choking back tears—bitter tears. Augustus deserved so much more at his passing. The presence of his friends and business associates in Saint Louis who really knew him and would have truly mourned his death. A carved, marble marker befitting a man of his stature, rather than a simple wooden cross. Men—knowledgeable men—who would have stepped in.
Someone who would tell Lily what was to become of her now.
She touched her finger to the corner of her eye, catching another tear. In the plain wooden casket lay her father. More of a stranger to her now than she’d ever imagined. She’d thought she knew what sort of man he was, but after his deathbed confession last night, she obviously did not.
Could it be true? she wondered as Fredericks’s reading of Bible verses droned on. Had Augustus really lost their entire family fortune?
Sitting at his bedside last night, hearing his confession, Lily had thought it was simply more of his nonsensical fevered ramblings. He’d been incoherent for days. He’d talked to people who weren’t there, flailed his arms against unseen foes. Surely something in his dying mind had prompted this delusion, fabricated the loss of his business empire.
But didn’t the mere fact that they were here in this forsaken wilderness give credence to his confession? Her father had lived his entire life in a large comfortable home, waited on by a number of servants, his every need catered to by others. When he’d told Lily of his dream to go West and explore new lands, she’d thought it odd. So unlike him.
Yet it made perfect sense if he’d indeed lost all his money and wanted to start over in Santa Fe.
It also explained why he’d been so reluctant to have Lily accompany him on this trip.
Other thoughts floated through Lily’s mind as the men, gathered around her father’s gravesite, sang a hymn.
Last Christmas she’d wanted to travel to Memphis to spend the holiday with her friend’s family. Augustus had told her no. When she’d asked for funds to commission several new gowns, he’d never sent the money; she thought he’d simply forgotten. Just before her graduation, he’d appeared unexpectedly at her boarding school and met privately with Madame DuBois. Now Lily wondered if there had been a problem with her tuition; that would explain why some of the other girls had whispered behind their hands as Lily passed them in the halls.
Fredericks gently touched Lily’s arm and she realized the service had ended. The men nodded toward her, putting on their hats, respectfully touching the brims, then drifted away. Jacob lingered a moment as if he wanted to say something to her, but finally he wandered away after only a respectful nod.
“Thank you,” she managed to say, her voice tight, barely more than a ragged whisper. She fought off another swell of emotion. “Thank you very much, both of you, for arranging everything.”
Oliver Sykes, standing on the other side of her, nodded. “It was a nice turnout.”
“I thought the Nelsons would be here,” Lily said, gazing around as if she might see them. “They helped us all along the journey. We’d gotten to know them quite well, I’d thought.”
“Oh, they left already,” Sykes said.
“Left?” Lily looked back and forth between the two men, an odd feeling tightening her belly. “What do you mean they left?”
“Gone on to Santa Fe,” Sykes explained. “Them and those other fellas from the wagon train who drove in with you. They all left at dawn.”
“But…” Stunned, Lily just gazed at the men. They’d gone? Left her behind? Abandoned her in this place? Without so much as a farewell wave?
“But my father paid the