Read Online Apache Caress by Georgina Gentry - Panorama of the Old West 08 - Apache Caress - Free Book Online Page B

always looked after him, slipped candy out of the store for Gill. But Harold was dead of typhoid, and Robert Forester had taken his place as Gill’s friend. Now Robert was dead too, and under suspicious circumstances....
    Trixie leaned closer. “You know Robert really was from a fancy Austin family, but he was wild as a colt grazed on loco weed. His mama disowned him, cut his inheritance off, so he joined the service.”
    “How’d he end up here?”
    “The Army sent in a few troops last March when that big railroad strike, tied up all the freight trains and got some people killed.”
    “I wondered what he was doing up north. When I met him at Fort Bowie late last spring, Robert said he was running away from a wife he didn’t want.”
    Trixie threw back her head and giggled. “Did he tell you I found that wife for him?”
    “No.” Gill touched his bandaged head with his free hand, then let it drop carelessly onto her knee.
    “She’s one of them foreigners, even though she was born in America,” Trixie said with a disdainful wave of her cigarette. “At least her grandpa could hardly speak English; funny old man with a long beard. I only knew of the two, but I hear the girl’s mother died when she was little. Sierra’s a woods’ colt; gossip says.”
    Gill looked at her blankly. “A what?”
    “You know, a bastard.” Trixie took another sip of tonic. She was beginning to look a little drunk. “I suppose that’s why the old man brought them to America, trying to escape the disgrace.”
    “Sierra. Yeah, I remember Robert mentioning the name.” He wasn’t really interested in meeting some virtuous little wife. Gill moved his fingers ever so slightly on Trixie’s knee, waiting for her to protest. She didn’t.
    Trixie shrugged. “I ain’t been here long enough to know all the gossip. She and her grandpa didn’t mix much with anyone; locals are mighty suspicious of foreigners. They used to come into town once a week and sell vegetables out of the back of their wagon right out here on the street near my window.” She motioned with her cigarette.
    Gill moved his fingers on her knee until they were under the soiled green satin and on bare flesh. “Why would Robert want some little mouse like that if he could have a beauty like you?”
    Trixie giggled again. “Actually he had us both! Gossip was the old man had money hidden on that farm, that they lived so poorly because he was eccentric and buried all the gold they must have brought from Europe.” She spread her knees ever so slightly and Gill took it as an invitation. “When I told Robert that, he arranged to bump into the girl, see if he could charm her into telling where it was buried.”
    “I presume he didn’t find out?” Gill stroked her bare thigh and moved his fingers upward.
    “Naw.” She shook her head. “Even after he married her, he didn’t learn nothin’. He finally decided there wasn’t no treasure. Then Grandpa got killed in an accident. I could tell you something about that. . . .” Trixie seemed to reconsider, and her voice trailed off for a moment. “Anyways, Robert talked his wife into signing papers so he could borrow against the farm; I don’t think she even knew what she signed.”
    “And when the money was gone, Robert was too?”
    Trixie laughed. “We had us a good time while it lasted!” She blew smoke toward the ceiling. “His mousy little wife once came to me and begged me to give him up, said she was tryin’ to save the marriage. I just sneered at her and told her he didn’t care nothin’ about her.”
    “But by then Robert had gone off to Arizona looking for gold?” Gill guessed.
    She took another swig of medicine. “He was gonna send for me if he ever found any of that gold them Apaches are supposed to know about; we was going to ’Frisco where I could be a star.”
    “And blast it all, now he’s dead and he never found the gold.” Gill sighed.
    She looked at him with sudden interest. “Did Robert