A Shelter of Hope by Tracie Peterson Page A

wore a low-cut gown of yellow satin that had obviously seen better days, and more makeup adorned her face than was decent for a woman to wear.
    “Well, from the description Pike gave, I’d say it would have to be Garvey Davis. He and Dumas did some bartering right before Louis took off. He bought Louis out.”
    “Bought him out?” Zack questioned, finally believing he was getting the necessary answers to his questions.
    “Louis owned a fair-sized trapline. He also owned that cabin you saw today. He was in here one day and he and Davis played cards. Davis told him about gold in Colorado, and since he was tossing quite a bit of money around, Dumas listened with real interest.”
    “You seem to know quite a bit about this whole affair. Would you mind sitting down and telling me the rest?” Zack questioned.
    Ada looked around her for a moment. “Seems like everyone is lookin’ out for themselves. Guess I could talk for a spell.” She pulled out the chair and motioned to Zack’s bowl. “You’d best eat up, however. That stuff ain’t hardly fit for man after it gets cold.”
    Zack nodded and picked up his spoon. “So Louis Dumas sold his cabin and traplines to Garvey Davis. What about his daughter? Pike says he had a daughter who would have been seventeen or so. Did she go with Dumas?”
    Ada laughed. “No. Louis couldn’t see saddlin’ himself with the girl. He sold her to Davis, too.”
    Zack had just taken a mouthful of the stew, and at this news spit most of it back out. “What?” he sputtered and coughed. For a moment, he had a hard time getting his breath, and it wasn’t until he managed to swallow down some coffee that he managed to stop coughing. “He sold his daughter?”
    “Things ain’t quite as refined up here as they are in the city,” Ada said as though the matter was unimportant. “Simone was the only other white woman in the Uniontown area. Men fancied the way she looked, and I figure Garvey Davis was no exception.”
    “But to sell your own child?” Horrified at the idea, Zack could only contemplate what manner of man would strike a deal that included his own flesh and blood.
    Ada’s expression told him that she didn’t find the matter at all offensive. “Louis did what he thought best. Both for him and the girl. Weren’t hardly practical that he should drag her over the mountains to Colorado. Simone needed to be gettin’ a husband anyway. She was fullgrowed.”
    “But Davis wasn’t a husband, he was a purchaser,” Zack countered.
    “Louis figured Simone to be given to Davis in marriage. I don’t much think it mattered to him that the man paid out money for her. Men have been either payin’ or gettin’ paid to take women off other folks’ hands for forever and a day. These parts ain’t likely to see a preacher very often, so most folks just count themselves married.”
    Zack shook his head. For all his years growing up on the western frontier, this idea had never been one promoted in his home life. “So Davis and Dumas struck a bargain that included Simone. Then what?”
    “Then they rode out of town and headed over to Louis’s cabin. Heard him suggest Davis look everything over—includin’ Simone—before makin’ up his mind. Later Louis returned to Uniontown, said the deed was done, and took a good deal of grief from the menfolk for havin’ sold Simone so cheap.”
    Zack’s eyes narrowed. “Dumas and Davis both have their own horses?”
    “Sure,” Ada said with a nod.
    Zack realized that there had been no sign of a horse at the cabin. Whoever had robbed the dead man had obviously taken his horse and gear, as well. Zack ate in silence for several minutes. Ada had given him the answers to a great many questions in his mind, but that still didn’t answer his concerns about Simone Dumas. Had someone also done her the same harm they’d done Garvey Davis?
    “Is anybody else missing from these parts?” Zack finally asked the woman.
    “It’s hard to say. Men come