Rain Shadow watched him fold the flap aside and carry her bags out. He'd told her he loved her, yet ignored the same words from her. Without understanding, she followed.
* * *
As the cowboy band played a lively march, Annie Oakley walked proudly onto the field amid whoops and hollers from the crowd. They loved her, as always. Today's performance was not her usual routine. Her title had been challenged, and she meant to defend it.
She wore one of her leather skirts and a snug-fitting short jacket that emphasized her tiny waist and hourglass figure. Shiny black boots and a flat-crowned hat completed the ensemble. Rain Shadow noticed Annie wore her wedding ring, an unusual occurrence when photographs were to be taken.
A row of cameras formed a bizarre windbreak in the arena, cameramen's legs and feet showing beneath the black drapes. Rain Shadow tried to ignore them and gauged the direction of the subtle breeze. Will announced Princess Blue Cloud. From her perch atop Jack, she balanced herself on her moccasined feet and rode into the arena, arms outspread.
The crowd cheered.
Nimbly, she leapt from Jack's back and took her place, the pony obediently trotting to the sidelines.
Annie Oakley strolled to face Rain Shadow. "The big day's finally here," she said, and turned to study the crowd from beneath the brim of her hat where one of her many medals winked in the sunlight.
Rain Shadow met her gaze when she turned back. "Good luck, Annie."
Annie's brows rose in surprise.
The band fell silent.
Finally, Annie offered Rain Shadow her gloved hand. "Good luck, Princess."
Rain Shadow shook Annie's hand, searching her eyes for a glimmer of uncertainty, but Little Sure Shot was calm and confident.
Will played to the audience with his exaggerated gestures and smiles. He listed Annie's accomplishments, and she warmed up, firing at blue glass balls her husband, Frank Butler, threw into the air.
Will crowed Rain Shadow's abilities, and Hank Tall Bear tossed balls into the air for her practice shots.
"And now the moment we've all been waiting for!" Will shouted into his megaphone.
A hush fell over the crowd.
"Each sharpshooter will be allowed the same number of shots for a total of fifty! In the unlikely event of a tie, the contest will be rescheduled."
Rain Shadow met Annie's eyes. Highly unlikely. But a boon for ticket sales. They smiled at one another, friends, though each had an enormous stake in the outcome of the next several minutes.
"The first event is the target shoot!" Will announced. He signaled to the lad who would hold up a red paper square after each shot was fired. Taking his job seriously, the carrot-haired young man stuck the first square in place on the center of the bull's-eye.
Annie went first. A skilled sharpshooter, she squeezed off ten perfect shots, reloading her single shot rifle after each hit.
Rain Shadow took several deep breaths. Her uncanny ability to zero in on a target and block out all distractions served her well. She'd taught herself that even at practice each shot counted. Concentrate. Breathe evenly. Squeeze the trigger.
Ten perfect shots.
The spectators exhaled in relief and cheered. The contestants changed guns.
Frank threw clay disks into the air for Annie. Ten times she swung the barrel and fired her revolver. Her accuracy enthralled everyone.
Rain Shadow took a deep breath. Tall Bear awaited her signal, knowing after weeks of practice that Rain Shadow preferred hers in more rapid succession. She nodded.
Tall Bear, a jaunty feather standing up from his headband, passed the disks from his left hand to his right, firing one after the other into the sky. Rain Shadow shattered them all.
Ten glass balls came next, none other than Will tossing them into the air.
Annie missed the first one.
A groan rippled through the crowd.
Rain Shadow's heart leapt in her breast. She stared hard at the ground and focused her thoughts. Glass shattered, shards falling to the hard-packed ground. Twice. Three times. Rain Shadow raised her gaze and watched. Nine. Annie had twenty-nine points. Now was her chance to get ahead.
The crowd quieted and waited for the challenger to match Little Sure Shot's skill. Heart thundering, Rain Shadow stepped forward. Will gave her an encouraging nod, and she returned it, signaling her readiness. The first blue orb sailed into the sky.
Quicker than a scared rabbit, Rain Shadow aimed and fired. One shattered. Two. Perspiration dampened her brow. Three. Four. Shots volleyed across the arena as she exercised her skill. Five. Six. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind, she knew she was over halfway there. Seven. Eight. The contest was so close, it could go either way at any time. Nine.
One more and she'd be ahead of Annie Oakley. One more and she'd hold the title. One more-a queasy feeling tumbled in her belly-and she'd find her family. Rain Shadow held her breath. Her finger trembled ever so slightly on the trigger. The bullet resounded. The blue ball hung suspended for a fraction of a second, then fell to earth, landing with a puff of dust.
The crowd murmured before Rain Shadow registered that she'd missed and tied the score. Angry with herself, she lowered her hand, the revolver hanging against her thigh. How could she have missed? She never let nerves get the best of her!
Rain Shadow stifled a curse and calmed herself. All right. They were tied again. Sooner or later Annie would miss.
Twenty shots left.
A row of small red flags on long slender sticks became the next challenge. Five each. "The rule is that the ladies have to snap the stick so that the flag touches the ground," Will instructed.
Annie took aim and snapped the first stick better than two thirds of the way down. The red flag fluttered before it hit the dirt. One after the other, the sticks tumbled like trees felled by lightning. Five shots. Five red flags in haphazard array on the dirt field. Annie met Rain Shadow's gaze, raised her gun and blew delicately on the barrel.
Picking up her Winchester repeater, Rain Shadow smiled, blanked out the crowd's exuberance and concentrated on her first target. The trick was to snap the stick low enough for the flag to hit the ground when it fell. She took a deep breath, released it, aimed and squeezed the trigger. The shot echoed. The bullet caught the stick barely under halfway, the top falling to the right, and the flag hit the ground.
The crowd cheered.
Rain Shadow took aim, squeezed the trigger. The second bullet hit in the same exact spot as the last, the flag careening to the right. The red fabric hit the ground.
She fired three more shots, each bullet felling the flag on the right side of the stick. The downed flags lay in perfect alignment. The crowd went wild.
Rain Shadow met her opponent's pensive gaze and recognized Annie's first glimmer of apprehension.
Annie had a past to defend.
Rain Shadow had a future to build.
Annie would get over it. She'd still have a position with Will for as long as the show lasted. With the addition of the gauchos last season, Will had hoped to boost profits. But even with tens of thousands attending and a new manager, the show operated in the red. The future was uncertain for all of them.
Fifteen shots left.
Both women reloaded their guns.
Will announced their next challenge. "Ladies and gentlemen, the next feat these skilled sharpshooters perform will astound you! Their targets are not plates or balls or stationary squares of paper! No! Their next targets are these!" He tossed a handful into the air. "Walnuts!"
Rain Shadow almost smiled. She'd shot enough walnuts out of the sky to feed all the squirrels in Pennsylvania. One of Nikolaus' favorite pastimes had been tossing walnuts for her. She'd learned speed and accuracy in spite of a six-year- old's aim.
"First I'll toss one. Then two. Then three. Then, ladies and gentlemen-four!"
The spectators roared.
Annie took her position. Will tossed the first nut, and she picked it off easily. He tossed the two, and she hit them. Three. Annie reloaded. Four rapid shots and she'd hit all ten.
Rain Shadow traded the rifle for her revolver and took her place. One. Piece of cake. Two. Both burst in the air. Three. Rain Shadow reloaded. Thanks, Nikky. Four-all close together. The tie was unbroken.
Five shots left.
The next four were paper targets affixed to a platform on a horse's back. The target had to be hit as the horse ran past a scenic backdrop. Annie's shots were exact, as anticipated.
Rain Shadow matched her perfect score.
One remaining shot.
Will stood garnering the audience's attention. All eyes focused on him. He lit a cigar and puffed smoke into the cloudless blue sky. From inside his jacket, he withdrew another cigar and lit it.