Xenia’s Renegade Read Free Page B

you, not have to deal with something like this.”
    “It’s tragic, but I don’t see how we can avoid it now that we’re here.”
    “When you get to Deer Meadow, I’m sure you’ll find the men will appreciate you more. Then you won’t have to be subjected to an Indian raid or a man like Ty Eldridge.”
    “Mr. Eldridge doesn’t seem so bad,” Mea Ann said. “He was careful to make sure there was no danger in here before he let us come in.”
    He shook his head. “Now I know how innocent you and your sister are. Don’t you know what Eldridge is?”
    Xenia interrupted. “I don’t think we should be discussing Mr. Eldridge or anyone else. It looks to me like we should be trying to find out what’s going on here.”
    “Xenia’s right,” Mea Ann said.
    “You don’t have to worry. I’m sure the stage driver will know what to do if Eldridge doesn’t kill him first.”
    “What do you mean?” Mea Ann looked scared.
    “Don’t you know what he is?”
    Xenia wasn’t sure what Lou was going to say, so she said, “It doesn’t matter what he is.” She stood. “I’m going to look out the window and see if I can tell why Mr. Eldridge told us to stay in here.”
    “The breed probably put us here to wait for his friends to come back.”
    She whirled around and glared at him. “What are you saying?”
    “Can’t you tell he’s part Indian? They’re all alike. I got in a little trouble with one in Deer Meadow last time I was there. Just hope it’s all been cleared up by the time we get in.”
    “What difference does it make if he has some Indian blood in him?”
    “Oh, Miss Xenia. It’s an important factor in this area.”
    Again, Mea Ann changed the subject. “What kind of trouble did you get into with an Indian, Mr. Bullins?”
    He chuckled. “Miss Poindexter, that’s not something I want to discuss with a lady.”
    Xenia shook her head and tuned out their conversation. Looking out on the dusty yard of the way station, she let her mind drift back to the events that led to her and Mea Ann to Arizona without an escort. It all started when their mother’s brother, Seymour Longstreet sent a letter to the sisters saying that he’d been falsely arrested in a town called Deer Meadow in Arizona Territory and needed them to come help him out before they decided to hang him. He said he wasn’t well, and needed someone to help care for him while he fought for his freedom. He’d also said they needed to come without telling their parents because his sister and her husband had never liked him and would stop them if they told him they were going to leave.
    Of course, being the good daughter she was, Mea Ann insisted they show the missive to their father.
    Afterward, Xenia couldn’t understand why nobody in the family seemed at all concerned about Uncle Seymour. She remembered him as a funny man who smoked stinky cigars and told little girls scary, but funny, stories about  going west and taking part in all kinds of exciting things, including rounding up cows and fighting Indians. 
    Yes, she knew everyone thought of him as the family rebel. Yes, he hadn’t been in touch with anyone for the past ten or twelve years. And, yes, he’d told his sister and brother-in-law he never wanted to see anyone in the damn Poindexter family again. But that didn’t give the whole family the right to sit at home in their fancy Richmond houses and let some unscrupulous sheriff in a small town nobody ever heard of, in the middle of a nowhere territory, hang a sick man.
    She remembered clearly her father saying, “Calm down, Xenia, they won’t hang Seymour. Anyway, he’s probably lying about the situation. Even if he’s telling the truth, he’s always been able to get out of scrapes like this. He’ll get out of it this time, too.”
    “But, Father, what if he doesn’t get out of it and they hang him this time?”
    “Listen to your father, Xenia. He knows what he’s talking about.”
    “But, Mother, how can you sit by