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"If I have to, yes."
"You are a fool. This is a graveyard and people do not live in graveyards." His words were harsh but she needed to see what he was saying.
"Perhaps." Her voice lilted.
Chase shoved her aside like a pesky fly and stood on his feet once more, reeling with the knowledge he was not as strong as he thought. But he must be strong. He had to get them out of danger. He reached for Joshua and grabbed his arms, holding him in his grasp.
"You will not stay here. You will go with me." Chase met his glance head on.
"No sir, we will not." Katherine stood her ground as she watched his actions closely.
"Then you will die," Chase said flatly, hoping to frighten her.
"It doesn't matter," she said quietly no longer looking at him.
"I will not have your death upon my hands. You will come with me." He insisted his head spinning as he jerked about on shaky legs. These people…they did not know. They were innocent. He would have to take care of them. See to them. And she would come with him. Where was Burning Tree's magic now? He knew his tongue was heavy with sarcasm, but he had to make them see.
"Let's talk about it later when you are better," she insisted helping him back to the bed once more. He wanted to jerk free of her, to tell her he didn't need her assistance. To tell her she was a fool. But the moment his eyes met hers, something inside him collapsed. He felt as though he could read her very soul. It puzzled him.
Had Burning Tree united them in some way? Of course he had, he as much as said he would. But Chase hadn't planned on being attracted to her too. A dream was one thing, but he felt a pull from her like no other.
"Katherine Hightower, you will listen when the time comes," he sighed heavily and felt himself drifting back into the unknown where his dreams and visions captured him, where he ran through the sweet clover with White Dove once more. He did not want to leave this place.
Chapter Nine
"Maybe he's right, maybe we ought to leave here," Joshua was saying as Katherine dried the last dish,
She shook her head before he even finished.
"Joshua, we can't leave. This is our home. The only real home we've ever known. That's our folks out there. We buried them here. This is our home. Our life now," Katherine was saying not taking her brother too seriously. "We've buried our dead here; we can't just leave them…."
"They're dead and we ain't," Joshua said. "He's right, this is just a graveyard."
Katherine looked at him, her smile fading from her lips. "You want to just up and go. To leave what's ours?"
"At least we'd be alive. And this place isn't ours Katherine, it belongs to Mr. Butterfield. We don't own the land, we don't own nothing. You don't even know if Mr. Butterfield is going to keep the line open. It's crazy to stay here. If they shut this place down it will be nothing but a graveyard."
"Maybe and maybe not." Katherine felt the salt of her tears slide down her cheek. She couldn't and wouldn't cry. She had to be brave. Isn't that what she'd been telling herself ever since her folks took sick? Brave? She hated the word. Hated holding back the tears.
But leave? She couldn't. Wouldn't.
"If you've a mind, I'll get you a ticket and you can go back east to our brothers, " She murmured quietly feeling a loss just from the words she spoke.
"I ain't gonna leave you out here, to—die! But why can't we both go. There's nothin' to hold us now," Joshua pleaded. "We could move back east and raise the boys together."
"Then you go Joshua. But I'm staying," Katherine affirmed dully.
Her heart was shattering, breaking into a million pieces at the thought of Joshua leaving her.
"But why, for God's sake. This was their choice, not ours. Their life, not ours.
We're still young, at least I am. And just look at you. Why you should've been married years ago. You stay here and you'll never have a life of your own," Joshua insisted.
"I have to stay, Joshua," she wailed aloud, as though her folks could still hear her.
"Look here." Joshua went to the wooden chest in the corner and pulled out a mirror. The one thing her mother had salvaged in her long journey to Texas. "Look in there and tell me you ain't wastin' away. Most girls are married and got kids. You're all of nineteen now. A woman fully growed and no husband or kids. And no prospects for one either. Not out here. And where you gonna find any out here? We gotta go back. This is crazy to stay here. There's droughts, Indians, and all manner of craziness out here. If the Indians don't kill us, the soldiers will hang us, for what we did today."
"They won't hang us, it was self defense," she cried. "We didn't do anything wrong."
