“Yes, all my family lived here together. The wall of the Jordan Line separated that part of town from this end, and Lily and I did our best to keep the children separated from that part of town. We had our own church and school, and that tiny building there we liked to call the library. Cole and I spent hours dreaming of what we’d do with Legend someday. We were going to make it a center of learning, a place people would come to from miles around to read and rest and enjoy the hot springs. He was a child who had great plans for the future.”
“And he wanted a big house with a deep porch and furniture from San Francisco,” Kady said.
Ruth took a deep breath. “And did he get that house?”
Kady looked down the road to her left, the end of which she could not see. “He built a beautiful house right down there.”
Ruth didn’t say anything for a moment, then took Kady’s arm. “Shall we go see the site?”
Minutes later, when she and Ruth stepped around a curve in the grassy road, Kady was not surprised to see that the site of Cole’s house was a cemetery. The Legend she had known with Cole did not have a cemetery. When Ruth started to pull Kady forward into the midst of the gravestones, she dug her heels in and wouldn’t move.
“I don’t want to see where he is buried,” Kady said. “I don’t want to think that he never lived to be thirty-three years old and that he never . . . he never . . .”
Ruth didn’t press her. “Let’s go back to the house and talk. Kady, there is a reason for what has happened to you, and to me, and we must put our heads together and figure out what that reason is.”
Kady could only nod as they walked back to the house that Ruth Jordan had once shared with her family. As they mounted the steps, Kady said, “Why did you laugh when I mentioned Juan Barela?”
Ruth smiled. “He was no more an outlaw than you or I. He was a pretty little dark-haired boy whose father worked for us in the stables, but I think he and Cole had a disagreement, so Cole swore Juan was an outlaw-in-the-making. Truthfully, I think some girl chose Juan over Cole.”
For the first time since hearing what Ruth had to tell her, Kady smiled. “And the five Ms?”
“All of them worked in the, ah, saloons, very pretty girls, so young and innocent, and they all teased Cole and Tarik mercilessly. Poor Cole used to blush furiously whenever he saw one of them.”
On the porch of the old house, Joseph had set up lanterns and chairs, with lap robes ready to protect the women from the cold mountain air. As they settled themselves, it was Ruth’s turn to speak and tell Kady all that she had pieced together from hearing Kady’s story.
Within minutes, Ruth was telling Kady of Cole’s childhood friends that when Kad
y met them were adult yet were still seen through the eyes of a child. The owner of the laundry who Cole said had six daughters actually was an alcoholic who spent every penny he pulled from the mines on prostitutes and slept in the door of the laundry because it was warmer there. Hog’s Breath was a wagon driver named John Howard who loved raw onions. Ned’s father ran one of the saloons, and Cole envied him because he was allowed to drink beer.
Ruth talked on and on, her voice light and entertaining, her stories sometimes making Kady smile, but as the sun set Kady became aware that there was an undercurrent to Ruth’s voice. Either she was leaving something out or she was building up to something dreadful.
Just after sundown, silent, almost-invisible Joseph served them cold chicken and salad, and Kady said softly, “What is it you’re hiding from me?”
“I have no idea . . .” Ruth began, then stopped herself when she saw Kady’s face. “I guess I don’t have time to pretend that everything is all right, do I?”
“No, I would say not. I think it’s too late to try to hide anything from me. For whatever reason I was chosen, I now seem to be involved up to my neck.”
When Ruth spoke again, her voice had changed. No more was she trying to be entertaining. She told of her anger and hurt when she first received Kady’s letter, for she thought it was yet another attempt to extort money from her. “But your letter was different. You spoke of Cole as though you might like to wring his neck.”
Kady smiled. “Yes, often. He has a way about him that causes that reaction. He tells one what to do rather than asks.” Her breath caught in her throat. “Or he did tell people.”
Ruth continued. “There have been reports for years that Legend is haunted. The spirits of the people who once lived here seem to still be alive. Or at least alive in some way.”
“What happened to the people of Legend after Cole and his family died?”
When Ruth did not answer right away, Kady turned to stare at her and saw that she was so distressed that she appeared to have aged about ten years in just a few minutes. Unless Kady missed her guess, Ruth Jordan was hiding some big secrets, and when Ruth didn’t answer the question directly, Kady was sure she was right.
“I didn’t know that Cole knew his family had died,” Ruth said softly. “On that horrible day we tried to keep the truth from him. His sister and his friend Tarik were killed outright, but Cole lingered for three days. We told him that they were fine but couldn’t visit him because they had to go to school. It was a lame excuse, but in the midst of everything it seemed perfectly feasible, and Lily and I thought Cole accepted it. During those three days I stayed with Cole every minute. His mother tended to her daughter’s body, then later to . . .”
Hesitating, she looked at Kady. “Lily took care of her daughter, and later she laid out the bodies of her husband and mine when they were brought in, killed by the men who had robbed the bank.” Ruth’s handsome face suddenly turned bitter, her mouth twisting. “It wasn’t the outlaws who killed the children but the ‘good’”—she sneered the word—“people of Legend who murdered them.”
For a while Ruth kept her face from Kady’s as she stared into the dark night. When she looked back, she had recovered herself enough to smile at Kady. “I lost everyone that night. Three days after the shooting the only person left alive was Lily, Cole’s mother, and I could see in her eyes that she was retreating. She couldn’t face what had happened to all the people she loved.”
Again Ruth was silent, but Kady could tell there was more to the story, maybe a lot more, but it was obviously difficult for her to get the words out. Kady sat in silence and waited, the only sound around them the wind in the trees and a coyote in the distance.
“I can’t describe those days of horror,” Ruth began slowly and so softly Kady could barely hear her. “Now I hardly seem able to remember them. My husband, my only child, both grandchildren, all of them were dead. After Cole’s death, Lily became catatonic. She just sat there in a rocking chair, refusing to eat or even to cry. She stared out the window in a way that made me know she might as well have died, too.”
Ruth took a breath. “The only person left alive was young Tarik’s father, who worked for us,” she said, then her face softened. “Oh! but he was a good-looking man. As dark as my family was blond. It was rumored he’d seduced half the women of Legend, but if he had, he was very discreet about it. He was a silent man, devoted to my husband, and always polite, always courteous.