All Sam did was nod at her, so she looked right past Captain Montgomery as though he weren’t even there and smiled at Toby. “How’s your breakfast?”
“Beats army food.”
She took a small bite of egg. “Toby, tell me something about yourself.”
“Ain’t much to tell. I got born and I ain’t died yet. Ain’t been much in between.”
With great concentration she avoided Captain Montgomery’s eyes on her and looked back at her plate. She was not going to try to make conversation with him. From now on she
was going to let him know that she had no interest in him whatsoever. None. Not any.
After breakfast, as Edith was clearing up the dishes, packing Maddie’s china in its special case, and the men were taking down the tent, Edith said, “I thought you were gonna be real nice to him so that he’d let you go the next time you have to meet that man about your little sister.”
“I do not have to ask anyone’s permission to go wherever I want to go. Neither Captain Montgomery nor the entire army has any right to tell me what I can and cannot do.”
“But he thinks he has the right. It’s been my experience that men take what they want and do what they want. If a woman stands in their way, they consider that about as much hindrance as a mosquito flyin’ around ’em”
“Captain Montgomery isn’t like that. He’s an educated man. He’s a sensible man. I shall explain to him that I have to go somewhere and I need to go alone.”
Edith’s reply was a great howl of laughter as she turned away. “If he won’t listen to reason, then there’s always more opium,” she said under her breath.
As the crow flies, it wasn’t more than fifteen miles to the next town where Maddie was to sing, but it was difficult going. Riding inside the coach was dreadful, as she was flung from one side to the other, her head hitting the frame, her back bouncing on the hard, horsehide seats, her knees banging into the side panels. Once Captain Montgomery asked her if she’d like to ride his horse with him, but she’d haughtily refused. Edith had spent an hour in the coach and decided that walking was the easier way to travel, so she’d left Maddie alone. Maddie wouldn’t walk because she was sure that Captain Montgomery would ride beside her and laugh at her, and she was mortified at the thought that he might remark on her behavior of the day before. She repeatedly practiced what she was going to say to him when he did mention the event. Every phrase she rehearsed was guaranteed to give him the setting down that he so richly deserved. Several times she wished she’d left the thorns in him. But twice she remembered the feel of his legs under her hands.
Not long after noon they had to stop the coach to ford a branch of the Colorado River. Frank came to tell her that she’d better get out in case there was some trouble and the coach turned over. With Frank’s help, she gracefully stepped down from the high step and climbed the rutted trail that served as a road.
At the top of the ridge she turned and looked back to watch the men trying to get the coach across the rocks and through the water. When the coach got stuck in the rocks, she watched as Captain Montgomery dismounted, took off his shirt, tossed it inside the coach, and went to help Sam turn the big wheel.
“He’s one mighty fine-lookin’ male, ain’t he?” Edith said from behind her.
Maddie stared at the man’s broad, tan back.
“Fair makes a body’s teeth hurt, don’t he?”
“Can’t you find something else to do?” Maddie snapped, making Edith glare at her and walk away.
Maddie thought she should use the time out of the coach to get some exercise, but she stood right where she was and watched Captain Montgomery’s every movement. She watched the play of muscles under his skin as he strained against the wheel, saw his leg muscles bulge as he pushed. Once, he paused and looked directly at her, as though he knew she was watching him. She looked away quickly, but not before he’d seen her.
When the coach was across the water, Captain Montgomery turned and motioned for her to come down the hill. She looked the other way, as though she hadn’t seen him, and started walking off into the woods.
Within minutes he was beside her, on his horse, his shirt still off. “I’ve come to give you a ride across the river.”
She had been so absorbed in watching him that she hadn’t thought about how she was going to get across the water. “No, thank you. I’ll walk.”
“You can’t across that river. It’s too deep and too slippery, as well as being too cold.”
“The cold doesn’t seem to bother you,” she said, giving him a sideways glance.
He followed along beside her. “What is wrong with you this morning? Yesterday you couldn’t stay away from me and today you won’t get near me.”
She turned and gave him a look of such anger that Buttercup took a sidestep away from her.
He tried to make a joke of it. “You’re scaring my horse.” When she didn’t react, he sighed. “Whatever I’ve done this time, Maddie, I apologize for it. I never meant—”
“I prefer Miss Worth. I have never given you permission to call me Maddie.”
“Oh, hell,” he muttered, then leaned over and grabbed her just under the arms and lifted her off the ground. “Everyone’s waiting for you.”
“Put me down! You’re hurting me. I’ll walk back to the coach.”