He frowned a bit, obviously not liking any questions from her about himself. “I will return to Fort Breck and to my duties there.”
“Important duties?”
“Of course!” he snapped. “All duties a soldier performs are important.”
“Includin’ cleanin’ the latrine,” the little man said as he walked toward the table, his empty plate held out. “It’s all day long of important cuttin’ firewood and haulin’ water and buildin’ more army buildin’s and—”
“Toby!” Captain Montgomery snapped.
Toby quit talking as Maddie gave him another slice of pie.
“I apologize for my private,” Captain Montgomery said. “Sometimes he doesn’t quite grasp the true purpose of the army.”
“And you do?” Maddie asked sweetly. She cut him a slice of pie, put it on a fragile plate, and handed it to him with a heavy silver fork.
“Yes, ma’am, I do. The army is here to prot
ect this country. We protect the white settlers from Indians, and—”
“And the Indians from the white settlers?”
Toby gave a snort of laughter, but Captain Montgomery gave him a look to silence him, then the captain noticed his plate and the half-eaten pie in horror, as though he’d just sold out to the enemy. He put the plate down and straightened. “The point is, ma’am, you cannot go into the gold fields.”
“I see. I take it that if I don’t go, then you are free of your orders to accompany, a…what did you call me? A traveling singer, is that right?”
“Whether I am free or not means nothing. The point is that you are not safe in the gold fields. Even I might not be able to protect you.”
“Even you, Captain?”
He stopped speaking and looked at her. This was not going as he’d hoped. “Miss LaReina, you may find this an occasion for jesting, but I assure you it isn’t. You are an unprotected woman here alone, and you have no idea what lies ahead of you.” He lifted one eyebrow. “Perhaps I am wrong in assuming your desire is to sing. Perhaps you are hoping to partake of the gold rush. Perhaps you are planning to win some unsuspecting miner’s hard-won gold from him by using—”
“That’s it,” Maddie said, standing, her hands on the table and leaning toward him. “You are right in the first part, Captain: You are wrong in assuming. You know nothing about me, absolutely nothing, but I’m going to tell you something about me: I am going into the gold fields and neither you nor your entire army is going to stop me.”
He lifted an eyebrow at that and, as quick as a snake, he put his hand on Maddie’s arm. He meant to do whatever must be done to get the woman to listen to reason.
Out of the twilight stepped two men, one a short, stocky man who had a face that looked as if he’d spent years slamming it against brick walls. The other man was the largest, blackest man ’Ring had ever seen. ’Ring wasn’t used to seeing men taller than he was, but this man topped him by inches.
“Would you release me?” Maddie said softly. “Neither Frank nor Sam like for any harm to come to me.”
Reluctantly, ’Ring let go of her arm and stepped back.
Maddie walked around the table, and as she did so, the two men closed in beside her. The shorter man wasn’t much taller than she was, but even through his clothes one could see that he was all muscle, a couple of hundred pounds of it. As for the other man, not any human on earth—at least one who had any sense anyway—would have wanted to tangle with him.
“Captain,” Maddie said slowly, giving him a little smile, “you were so busy telling me what you assumed I didn’t know that you didn’t bother asking me what precautions I had taken. Allow me to introduce my protectors.” She turned to the shorter man. “This is Frank. As you can see, Frank has been in a few pugilistic contests. He can shoot anything that moves. Besides that, he can play the piano and the flute.”
She turned to the tall black man. “This is Sam. I guess I don’t have to tell you what Sam can do. He once won a wrestle with a bull. See the scar around his neck? Someone tried to hang him once, but the rope broke. No one’s tried again.”
She looked at Captain Montgomery, saw his dark eyes glittering. “Behind you is Edith. Edith has a special affection for knives.” Maddie smiled. “And she isn’t bad with a fluting iron either.”
She smiled even more broadly. It was a lovely feeling having beaten this pompous, know-it-all man. From the look of him she had an idea he wasn’t used to being bested at anything. “Now, you have my permission to return to your army fort and tell them I don’t need anyone to escort me. You can tell them that you’ve seen that I am in trustworthy hands. To save your conscience I will write a letter to General Yovington about Lieutenant Surrey’s untimely death and explain that while I appreciate his kind offer of an escort, I am not in need of one at this time.”
She tried to stop herself but she couldn’t help gloating. “I especially don’t need someone as obviously clumsy as you. Frank knew two days ago that you were searching for us. Your inquiries weren’t exactly subtle, and all the time you were on the hill watching us, Sam was watching you. And when you were riding into camp…Heavens, Captain, the chorus of La Traviata makes less noise than you did. For the life of me I cannot understand why the army would choose a man like you to protect anyone.”
She knew she should stop, but she didn’t seem able to. The way the dreadful man had called her a traveling singer was enough to make her pull out all the stops. “It seems that if the army was concerned for my safety from Indians, the least they could do is send me a man who could move about the world with a little more subtlety and a lot less noise. Tell me, Captain, have you ever been in the West before? Ever seen an Indian? Can you tell a Ute from a Crow from a Cheyenne? Or is trying to intimidate women what you do best? Is it, perhaps, the only thing you can do?”
She gave him a sweet smile. Throughout her speech he’d just stood there, his handsome face a stone mask, his body rigid. She wouldn’t have known he was alive except for eyes that blazed with black fire.
“You may return to your army now, Captain,” she said. “I’m done with you.”