Montgomery - The Awakening Part 25

"The union men gave Father an ultimatum," Amanda said.

Grace groaned. "I can imagine how well your father took that."

"He slapped the presenter, but, Mother, Hank wasn't with them."

Grace frowned, seeing her daughter's fear. "I don't understand. Do you think Dr. Montgomery could have done a better job of the presentation?"

"Hank said he was going to present the paper. But he didn't do it. Mother, there is something awfully wrong. I know it. I'm going to look for Hank."

Grace Caulden set down the suitcase she was holding. "Then let's go. We'll find him."

"The fields are awful," Amanda said, her eyes searching her mother's. "The people are-"

Grace took her daughter's hand. "It's time we did something, don't you think? It's time we both stopped hiding in our rooms."

"Yes," Amanda said and they started walking.

They searched for two hours. They walked around every tent, every squalid little hovel, stepped over unspeakable piles of stinking garbage, endured much abuse and lewd remarks. They asked everyone, used every language Amanda knew. They communicated with hand gestures. They asked any way they could, but no one had seen Dr. Montgomery for hours.

Whitey Graham blocked their path when they'd started on their third hour of searching. "You two are Cauldens?" His eyes gleamed in the growing darkness. "Feelings are running pretty high against the Cauldens right now. You two better get out of here."

"I want to know where Dr. Montgomery is," Amanda said, swallowing her fear of this man.

Whitey grinned. "Went off hours ago with a pretty lady. Haven't seen him since. Maybe he's..." He trailed off, letting his face make his bawdy suggestions.

Amanda hid her clenched fists in the folds of her skirt. "I'm going to get him. I'll drag him... out of bed if I have to, and then he's going to talk to my father. You'll get your wage increase. Hank will find a way to persuade my father."

Whitey smiled in a mean way. "You sure seem to think the professor's powerful. Personally, I don't think there's anything anyone can do to make Caulden listen, except maybe a few shots fired into somebody."

Amanda swallowed and hoped her face didn't betray her terror. "I'll get him. Hank knows how to talk. If anyone can talk to my father, he can."

"It may be too late for talk." He was looking her up and down in an insolent way.

Amanda turned away from him and started walking toward the road to Kingman.

Grace hurried to keep up with her daughter. "What an awful man. He makes my skin crawl. Dear, where are you hurrying off to?"

"Reva Eiler's house," she said bitterly.

"You think your Dr. Montgomery is with her?"

"Yes I do. He seems to need lots of women around him."

Grace was tripping over clumps of gra.s.s, her heels were snagging, her skirt kept getting caught, and her little hat was down over one eye as she rushed to keep up with her daughter. "I've only seen you with him once, dear, but it was my impression that he was quite mad for you."

Amanda hesitated, then resumed her pace. "He looks at all women like that."

"No man has enough energy to be that intense about two women."

"Hank has lots of energy," Amanda said over her shoulder. "Ma.s.sive amounts of energy. Long-lasting, enduring, incredible energy."

Grace stopped, eyes wide, and looked at the back of her daughter. "How very fortunate for the woman he loves," she murmured and hurried forward.

Amanda climbed over the fence at the edge of the field then helped her mother over.

"Are we planning to walk all the way into town?" Grace asked, flexing her aching ankles. She thought she had the beginnings of a blister on her left little toe.

"We are going to hitch a ride."

Grace turned away so Amanda wouldn't see her horror. For years she had prayed that her daughter would someday break out of Taylor's rule, but to go from being a meek little lamb to thumbing rides was more than she wanted.

The first car that came down the road stopped for them, but it was heading out of town. Handsome young Sam Ryan leaned out the window and smiled at Amanda.

"So, we meet again," he said softly.

Amanda narrowed her eyes at him. "Sam, I want you to turn this car around and take my mother and me to Reva Eiler's house."

Sam drew back into the car. "Sorry, but I can't." He looked as if he'd just noticed Grace. "I have to run an errand for my father."

"If you don't take me to Reva's house this instant, I'll go to your parents and tell them what you did to me the night of the dance. I still have that torn dress."

Sam grimaced. "All right, get in, but I'm not waitin' for you at Reva's house."

"No one asked you to," Amanda snapped.

Amanda didn't say a word on the way to Reva's house. She didn't even answer her mother when Grace whispered, "What did Sam do to you at the dance?" Amanda was too busy raging inside at Hank Montgomery. Here she'd been thinking she loved him and thinking what a n.o.ble person he was to try to help the poor, defenseless workers, when he was out lollygagging with Reva Eiler. And Amanda had told Taylor to go after Reva! What a fool she was about men-and women, for that matter. Reva had flirted with Hank at the Union Hall and conned Taylor into taking her home from the carnival.

Amanda began to imagine the terrible things she'd do to both Reva and Hank when she found them together.

"Here we are," Sam said sullenly, "and this makes us even. Dad'll have my head when I'm late."

"You deserve it," Amanda said, shutting the car door. "You shouldn't take advantage of defenseless women."

"You weren't exactly defenseless with that professor around. He knocked one of my back teeth loose."

Amanda smiled at him. "Maybe you'll remember next time."

Sam grimaced and drove away.

"Amanda dear," Grace said, "you and I are going to have to have a long talk after this is settled."

Amanda didn't answer but went to Reva's door and knocked. It was a filthy little house, with a broken swing outside, rusted tin cans in a pile by a fence with missing boards. Hollyhocks that looked as if they were fighting for life grew from something that looked like a truck fender. A pane of gla.s.s from the front window was. missing and newspaper had been taped over it.

At her second knock, Amanda heard shuffling footsteps inside.

"What'd'ya want?" a man's voice yelled.

"It's Amanda Caulden, Mr. Eiler. I want to see Reva," Amanda yelled back. "If she's here," she said under her breath.

"She's asleep," Mr. Eiler yelled.

"With whom?" Amanda muttered. "I really do need to see her," she yelled through the door.

A hand angrily tore the newspaper from the broken pane of gla.s.s. The rest of the window was so dirty it may as well not have been gla.s.s. Reva's face appeared at the window. "I am here, Miss Know-It-All Caulden," Reva said, "and I'm alone in my bed, not that it's any of your business. What brings you to this part of town? Need somebody to clean your toilet?"

"Where is Hank?" Amanda asked.

"Not with me."

Amanda glared at her. "Then when did he leave? I a.s.sume it was his visit that has exhausted you into an early retirement."

"It happens to be nearly ten o'clock. Some of us have to get up and go to work in the morning. Not all of us can be princesses like-"

"Just a minute!" Grace said, stepping forward. "Before you two young ladies"-she emphasized the word-"start pulling hair, I think we should find out what we came here to find out. Reva, Dr. Montgomery seems to have disappeared, and we were told he might be with another woman and we a.s.sumed it was you."

"He hasn't been here. He's been out at the fields all day. I saw him for a few minutes yesterday and he was pretty upset. He said it was awful out there and for me to stay away."

"Do you have any idea where he could be?" Grace asked.

"Maybe he went back to his hotel and went to bed. Or maybe he went to the Union Hall, Or maybe he went to the diner for something to eat. Or maybe-"

"You have to help us look," Amanda said. "I think something has happened to him." Now that she knew he wasn't with Reva, she was beginning to calm down. Whitey had lied to her, but why? Was he, perhaps, lying merely because she was a Caulden? Or was there another reason?

"He's all right," Reva said. "Hank can take care of himself. Besides, it's late and I need my sleep."

"You either come voluntarily or I'll drag you out," Amanda said.

"Really, Amanda," Grace said. "I'm sure Reva's right and Dr. Montgomery is fine. Perhaps we should-"

"I get Taylor," Reva said, as if he were a piece of merchandise.

"Done," Amanda answered in the voice of an auctioneer saying, "Sold to the woman in the dirty nightgown."

"Give me five minutes to get dressed."

"Forget the lipstick and you'll save three minutes," Amanda said with a sweet smile.

Grace looked away to hide her smile.

In four minutes Reva was dressed and outside. Amanda wasted no more time on catty remarks but issued orders like a general-or like her father. Neither Reva nor Grace considered contradicting her. Amanda a.s.signed them places to check and gave them less than an hour. They were going to have to search nearly all of Kingman at a run.

An hour later they met in front of the Kingman Arms.

"No sign of him," Reva said. She too was concerned now. "No one has seen him all day. He hasn't been back to the hotel. Joe's at the Union Hall and he hasn't seen Hank."

Grace had had no luck either.

"If we could only find his car," Amanda said. Her heart seemed to have jumped into her throat. Terror was what she felt, sheer debilitating terror. He would never leave the fields and the unionists unless something had... happened. She didn't like to imagine what could have happened. There was too much talk of bloodshed and violence. "He would never leave that car of his," she whispered. "If we could just-"

"But his car is back at the fields," Grace said.

Amanda and Reva turned to look at her.

"I tripped once and saw something yellow in the hop fields. It was almost hidden under the vines, but I knew what it was. There's nothing else quite the color of Dr. Montgomery's little automobile."

"They've done something with him," Amanda said softly, and she knew it was true. "They want their violence, and Hank meant to stop them. They have removed him."

"Removed him?" Grace asked. "What in the world do you mean?"

Reva took a step backward. "You know, it's awfully late and I'm real tired. I think I better go home and get to bed. I have to go to work in a few hours. Amanda, after the hops are in, let's have lunch."

Amanda grabbed Reva's arm. "You're going to the ranch with us. We're going to find that Whitey Graham-I know he's behind this-and make him tell us where Hank is." She swallowed. "If we're not too late. Reva, does your father have a gun we can borrow? I don't think a man like Whitey will listen to three women saying please."

"A g-gun?" Reva asked.

"A pistol, maybe. Better yet, a shotgun. Two big round barrels should get his attention."

Reva moved away. "Then again, Amanda, you can have Taylor. You can have both men. I think I better get home now, so goodnight, Mrs. Caulden. Goodnight, Amanda."

Amanda caught Reva before she'd gone ten steps and put her arm firmly through Reva's. "Don't turn coward on me now. We have to find Hank. Maybe he can prevent the war that's about to erupt at our ranch, but, more important, Hank might be hurt."

"Not to mention us being hurt," Reva muttered.

"Sometimes, Reva, a person has to do things one doesn't want to do. Isn't that right, Mother? Mother?"

The two young women turned back to see Grace Caulden still standing in front of the Kingman Arms. Her oval face was as pale as the moon.

"Reva, does your father have any w-whiskey?" she whispered hoa.r.s.ely.

"I can guarantee he has whiskey," Reva said, and fear sounded in her voice.

"Come on, we're wasting time," Amanda said. "We have to find Hank." She walked off into the night, the two women following her hesitantly.

Chapter Eighteen.

"Are you sure you know how to drive this?" Reva asked. "Or even start it?" Her voice was very quiet and there was a quality in it that could only be cla.s.sified as respect. Yesterday she would have said that proper, always-use-the-correct-fork Miss Amanda Caulden wasn't capable of any of the things she had done in the last two hours.

The three women had "borrowed" a double-barreled twelve-gauge shotgun from Mr. Eiler (he had drunkenly snored through the entire event and only turned over when Grace took his half-empty whiskey bottle from the crook of his arm). Then Amanda had got them a ride in the back of a smelly old pickup to the Caulden Ranch.

In the back of the pickup, over the rattling and jostling, a pale-faced Grace had taken her daughter's hand. "If I don't get out of this alive, dear, I have a confession to make. I am the Countess de la Glace."