After and Again (10 page)

  Holly rushed over to her and pulled her to her feet. “There child, it’s not your fault, never think it. She is with her mom now,” she said stroking Emily’s hair.

  Zack walked up to his mother and put his good arm around her and held her for a few moments, whispering in her ear. “It’s going to be okay mom, I swear. Things are going to be just like they used to be, you’ll see.” He kissed Liz McQueen on the cheek and walked over to the body of his lifelong friend. He stared down at the body and thought about all of the good times that the three of them had shared over the years. Then he thought of what Santiago had done to Sandra Whitehall, and could not reconcile what was before him with the memories that he carried. He looked over at the young woman lying in the dirt and had trouble fathoming what she had gone through the last week of her life. He thought of going through all of that, and then right when freedom seemed possible, to be murdered. “Murdered by a bullet meant for me,” he mumbled to himself.

  He looked at the body of the riders, and then at Trask. He felt very tired and confused, his emotions all mixed up, and he had to bite down on the remorse that his heart wanted to feel for the three men.

The Goodman women had come back trailing four horses. “No whiskey,” Kendra said, I guess that disinfecting is going to have to wait. There’s a real nice bow on this one though,” she said, pointing to the horse that had belonged to John Stryker.

  “I guess that other one ran off,” Zack said, indicating the horse that belonged to the rider that he had shot.

“Where is Loren and Lacy?” Emily asked, looking at the others in turn.

  “I saw them run off that way when Mrs. Goodman started screaming,” Rebbecca Mccarron answered, pointing down the mountain.

  “Loren, Lacy!” Emily shouted, the others soon joining.

  “After about ten minutes had passed, Zack spoke. “We have to go, now.”

  “We can’t just leave them!” Emily said looking incredulously at Zack.

  “Look Emily, I don’t like it either but I think that we are on borrowed time here. What do you think is going to happen when this group doesn’t come back? What if there are more combing the woods for us right now? Or what if that horse that ran off makes its way back to their camp riderless?

  “Emily looked like she was going to argue when Holly Sanderson spoke up.

  “He’s right honey, I have been friends with Loren my entire life, I even helped midwife when Lacy was born and it makes me heartsick to think of leaving them but we have to go.”

   “Can you all ride?” Kendra Goodman asked? Everyone said yes except for Liz McQueen.

  “You will all have to double,” Zack said. I am going to put Sandra’s body on one of the horses and take her back.

  “Take her back to what?” Kendra Goodman asked.

  “I don’t know, maybe her dad made it. Either way it doesn’t seem right leaving her here.” Zack answered.

  “What about him?” Emily asked nodding her head toward Santiago’s body.

  “He made his choice,” he said, and turned away and walked over to the horse that he’d killed.

  “We can use this saddle blanket to wrap her in,” he said,  “but I don’t think that I can do it by myself.” Emily and Holly walked over to help Zack.

  Kendra Goodman said,“Alrighty, well, Emily, why don’t you ride behind Liz, Cassie you take one of the girls here, and I’ll take the other. Sound okay Zack? And do you think you can ride?”

  “Yes, and I can ride,” he said. 

  Zack considered giving Trask’s six-shooter to Emily but was unsure if the bullets from his own pistol would fire from it. He decided he didn’t want to linger any longer to find out and stowed the weapon in his saddlebags instead. He awkwardly mounted Grace, who patiently stood as still as she could. Once on, he looked behind him and said, “Let’s go.”

They had only traveled a hundred yards when Zack spied an offshoot trail that looked like it may head downward. He turned onto the new trail and it did indeed descend toward the foothills. Emily had tied the horse carrying Sandra Whitehall’s body to the back of Grace’s saddle, and the horse was trailing comfortably. They stopped about thirty minutes later where a small spring was running down the mountain. Everyone drank including the horses and Zack filled the canteen. None of the women wanted to use the canteens that were slung over the saddle horns of their captor’s horses.

  It was mid-afternoon when they reached the open space of the foothills and suddenly Emily shouted. “Zack, look!” He turned and saw that she was pointing just ahead of them to a lone horse bearing two riders. The riders paused at Emily’s shout and Zack put the mare’s reigns in his teeth and pulled out his pistol.

  “It’s them, can’t you see?” Emily said, riding up along side of Zack.

  “He looked closely and could see that the riders were in dirty white dresses and not trousers.

“Well I’ll be….” he trailed off smiling. The two Sturgess women turned their horse around and trotted back to where the group had stopped.

  Loren and Lacy Sturgess were both weeping when they reached the others. “Sandra?” Loren said looking at the body hung over the horse that was trailing Zack, it wasn’t really a question.

  “She was shot with a gun.” Holly Sanderson said.

  “My god, poor sweet girl.” Loren said.

  “How did you come by the horse?” Zack asked.

  “We ran when the men came and hid in a wash down the mountain a ways. We heard shouting, and screaming, and the guns. Then it went silent, and after awhile we heard noises like someone coming through the brush. We were so scared, but it turned out to be this mare. I whistled softly a couple of times and she came right to us. We thought about going back for you all but….” Loren lowered her eyes at the last.

  “You did exactly the right thing, Loren Sturgess!” Holly exclaimed. “What were you and that darling daughter of yours going to do about it if we were all captured or killed?”

  Emily looked at Lacy, “I’m glad you two made it. We were really worried but had no choice but to get out of there.”

  “Which is what we should be doing now,” Zack interjected.

  “Ben Grayson had the men spread out on the plain a mile or so apart. Trask told him to stick to the road but he knew that there was nobody waiting out here for the escaped women and their rescuer. The thought really made no sense. If there were more, they would have helped with the rescue, maybe leaving one or two behind if they had horses. No, nobody was waiting on them. He
did
think that there was a possibility that they’d only gone up on the mountain as a diversion and then planned to skirt the foothills, or walk at their base through the plain. The women were barefoot for Christ sake. There weren’t too many people who would dare to use their own judgement when Desmond Trask gave a direct order but Ben Grayson was an exception. He’d been with The Man in Charge longer than Trask and it was well known that he had The Man’s favor. Of course Trask was known to come unglued from time to time…. He was jarred from his thoughts by a rider coming up fast; the new meat, Olsen, full of beans and aiming to please that one was.

  “Riders to the west at the foothills!” Frank Olsen panted, reigning in his horse.

  “Ours?” Grayson asked.

  “I couldn’t tell, I didn’t want to get too close and have them see me.”

  “Well, you done right, everyone is supposed to meet back up here soon, then we’ll all go have a look,” Grayson said eyeing the foothills.

  Zack spotted the riders coming their way about two hours later. They had reached the flat of the plain thirty minutes after re-joining with the Sturgess women and were heading southwest toward the road and what was left of Payne’s Station, specifically the Martin place. Zack shouted to the line of women behind him “Riders! Let’s go!” Reigning in Grace, he let the women get in front of him before urging the mare on. All of the women were double and Zack had no illusions about their chances of out-running the riders. Zack fell in behind the women, the horse being towed keeping pace with Grace.

  Ben Grayson watched the group of riders break into a run; answering his question as to who they were. The new question that came to mind as he waved his men forward with a sweep of his arm, was where did they get the horses? And where was Desmond Trask and the other men? Not one to over-think things that would come to light on their own, he pulled the crossbow from its sling on his horse and joined the pursuit.

  Frank Olsen felt absolutely wonderful; the wind in his hair and the excitement of the chase had widened the almost constant grin that he wore. He was never liked very much in Payne’s Station, not even by his father, who blamed Frank for his mother dying giving birth to him. But he no longer had to worry about that old taskmaster, he had watched Theo Olsen get dragged beaten and bloody from his ‘smith shop before Desmond Trask torched the place. It was the finest day of his life. He might get a chance to do that thing again like he did to that snooty bitch Sandra Whitehall if he did well today. He had a hardwood club longer than his arm and was ready to bash some heads with it.

  Zack guessed that the riders would overtake them within the next ten minutes and was planning to turn and make a fight with his pistol. If he could kill enough of them maybe the others would lose interest in the chase. If nothing else the women may have enough time to reach the road where they could move a little faster. Maybe at least some of them could get away. He caught up with Kendra Goodman who he had found to be both tough and competent, and after a brief struggle between his bad arm and a knot, he was able to hand her the reigns to the horse carrying Sandra Whitehall’s body.

  Zack rode up to the horse carrying his mother and Emily. Liz McQueen sat in front and Emily behind with her arms around the older woman while holding onto the reigns. Zack, preparing to turn and fight and most likely die shouted, “Mom, I love you!” at the top of his lungs. Pausing a moment and gathering his courage he looked at Emily and shouted. “I love you, Emily Hodgkins!”

  With tears shimmering on her face Emily shouted back, “And I love you, Zack McQueen!” With a full heart, Zack reigned in Grace and prepared to make his stand.

  Ben Grayson watched the rider turn his horse about and had to hand it to the man for trying to buy the women some time. It wouldn’t do much good because unless he was some mystical warrior they would simply cut him down on their way past without hardly slowing. So the ladies got another minute or two, it was nothing to him. In the end they would deliver the prizes to The Man in Charge either way. He only cared about the beautiful black-haired one and the two young ones anyway, they were the kind The Man wanted. The rest the men were allowed to play with to keep them happy. “What the hell is that?” he asked himself aloud, as he looked passed the lone rider.

  Emily saw the new riders coming toward them and wanted to panic. She slowed her horse down and the other women followed suit. The riders, at a full-on run, were on top of them in no time and she screamed with joy, raising one of her arms and waving it, almost losing Liz Mcqueen in the process. The riders rode past the women, toward Zack and the men closing in on him.

  The binoculars had been passed down father to son as long as Toby Martin could trace his lineage, and looking through them now he could scarcely believe what he was seeing. It was the women from town all right and Zack McQueen, that wellspring of courage was turning Grace to face the men pursuing them. “Ride now!” he shouted, pulling the Winchester rifle (also passed down through his family) out of his bedroll and spurring his horse. Tal Miller, Jonus Hemphill, Brent Sturgess, and Alejendro Reyes, who was Santiago’s father, all followed suit and raced across the plain to join Zack and engage the riders.

  Zack pulled his pistol and sat and waited for the riders to reach him. He wasn’t sure how far the pistol would shoot and wanted to wait until they were close. Suddenly he heard riders coming from
behind
him, he turned thinking that it must be the women and was both shocked and elated to see Toby Martin and the rest of the men riding up.

  The men had just stopped beside a speechless Zack when an arrow took Brent Sturgess in the thigh. Crying out in pain he grabbed his leg, just as Zack and Toby opened fire on the approaching riders.

  Outside of the new meat, Ben Grayson’s men were seasoned fighters and continued forward when they saw the other riders. Nice of them to make stationary targets he thought, putting the reigns in the crook of his elbow and leveling the crossbow. Red Dawson could shoot and ride as well, and was preparing his long bow to Grayson’s left. The rest of the men carried clubs and machetes and would earn their keep at close combat. Ben Grayson took careful aim and fired, then all hell broke loose.

  Red Dawson flew off of his horse before it even registered to Grayson that they were being shot at with guns as well as arrows. He had heard the shots but it didn’t immediately click. Now almost on top of them he yanked the reigns hard and turned his horse, an arrow just missing his face. He would fight just about anyone but he wasn’t suicidal, those men have guns, and he hadn’t bought into that. He saw two more go down; he couldn’t tell who but it wasn’t the new meat Olsen because he was turning back right next to Grayson.

  Zack emptied his pistol at the approaching riders and wasn’t sure if he had even hit anyone. It had all happened so fast and Toby Martin was also shooting. Tal Miller and the other men all had their hunting bows and had sent arrows at the approaching men as well. The whole fight only lasted a minute or so and four riders lay dead or dying in the grass, and three had turned and ran. “You think we should chase ‘em, Toby?” Tal Miller asked.