Bittner, Rosanne (24 page)

"Oh, my God!" Lettie cried, quickly getting her feet out of the stirrups. She ducked down against the rocky wall of the pathway they had been following. "Luke!" she screamed. She couldn't see where he had fallen, and there was no reply. "Luke!"

CHAPTER 13

Lettie realized that somehow she had to get to the other side of the pathway and down the embankment. Luke was down there somewhere—maybe dead. She would be a target for whoever had shot at them, but she had no choice. She took a deep breath, telling herself she must stay calm for Luke's sake. She charged across the pathway then, clambering over the edge of the bank down which Luke had fallen. More shots rang out, but quickly she was out of sight as she slid and tumbled down the rocky ledge, thorny, dry plants tearing at her buckskin riding pants and her cotton blouse, cutting into her hands as she tried to grab something, anything, to slow her fall. Finally she landed on firm ground, breathless, filthy, and bleeding. She took a moment to get her bearings, looked up, and saw no one. Desperately she looked for Luke, jumped when a small rock spit past her to her left. She looked in the direction from which it must have been thrown and saw Luke, sitting behind a large boulder. He waved her over but did not call out to her.

Lettie looked up again, still saw no one. She ran to Luke's side then, felt sick at the sight of his leg, the pants and his thigh ripped open, blood everywhere. His eyes showed the incredible pain he was suffering, and he already looked pale. "Tie it off." He groaned. "Hurry! And don't talk." He dropped his voice to a near whisper. "I want them to think I'm dead. Stay behind the boulder so they can't see us."

Lettie struggled against a need to scream. Luke grimaced as he helped her get his shirt off to use as a tourniquet to slow the bleeding. "You hurt?" he asked.

"No," she whispered. "They killed my horse."

Luke closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, she saw the Luke she did not know. Now he was like Tex, like the outlaws who had first attacked the ranch. "Two of my best goddamn horses!" he seethed through clenched teeth. "I wonder if Ben is dead."

"We never heard a gunshot."

He put his fingers to her lips and drew her closer. "They could have done it some other way," he whispered. "Right now they're after you, and if my guess is right, they won't kill you right away."

Lettie cringed against him, her rape becoming vivid again in her mind. "What will we do?" she whispered. "Who is it, Luke?"

He looked down at his leg. "From the size of this wound... I'd say it was done by a buffalo gun. They shoot long distances and make big holes." He trembled, clenched his teeth, his whole body already covered with sweat. "My guess is it's those buffalo hunters... we ran into on the way back from the cattle drive... out for revenge." He swallowed against an urge to vomit from the pain. "I can't go charging up after them, Lettie. My leg's broken. Our only chance is to get them close enough for me to shoot. That means you're going to have to be very brave —step out and let them see you—start crying. Tell them I'm dead. Beg them not to kill you, too."

"Luke, if I lure them down here, they'll kill you for sure!"

"Not if I can surprise them. There's no other way, Let-tie." He closed his eyes and took a deep, shivering breath. "We've got to do something quick, before I pass out." He grasped her arm. "If I think I can't take them, I'll shoot you instead."

Her eyes widened in surprise.

"There's no other way, Lettie. I know what they'll do to you if they catch you... and they'd kill you afterward anyway. I'll... never let that happen to you again." He took his six-gun from its holster on his hip and put it in her hand. "Hide the gun behind you until they get close. However they come in, take the one to your farthest right," he whispered. "That way I'll know which ones to aim for myself. If they're... close enough... you should be able to hit one of them."

Lettie nodded, not sure she could do any of the things he asked. Knowing what they probably had in mind for her brought on black memories she thought she had buried. And Luke! Was he dying? Why hadn't she agreed just to go to Billings for their little trip together as Luke had suggested? And where was poor Ben?

"Hey, down there! Your stupid old partner up the road is dead, your horses are dead, and you ain't got no way out!" someone called then from above. "Might as well come on out of there."

"Hey, little lady, we done killed your main cock," came another voice. "Come on out and we'll show you what it's like to be with
real
men!"

There came the sound of laughter, and Lettie carefully peeked around the boulder and looked up to see three men making their way down the embankment. The biggest one smiled, and even from this distance she could see his front teeth were missing.

"That your husband we shot, lady?" the third man asked. He was a big, burly, bearded man who looked filthy. All three men held back when they saw Lettie look around from behind the rock. "Sorry, lady, but I told Luke Fontaine that I'd have his ass one of these days," the biggest one told her. "He killed my brother a couple of weeks back, and I've been waitin' for this chance ever since."

Luke seethed at the voice. Cully! The man had threatened revenge, and now he was getting it!

"We been watchin' you for quite a while, waitin' for your husband to get himself in a situation where he wasn't surrounded by his little army of men," Cully was telling Lettie. Luke could hear that the man was getting closer. "He ain't so big and important without his pack of wolves along, is he?"

"How many are there?" Luke whispered gruffly.

Lettie reached out her hand behind the rock where the men couldn't see and held up three fingers. "Please don't kill me," she called out, breaking into tears. It was an easy thing to do, for she was afraid her husband was dying. "Please! You've gotten your revenge. My husband is dead. Please let me go home to my children."

She moved away from the rock, trembling with fear, praying she could get them close enough not to miss with her own gun. The condition Luke was in, he'd be lucky to shoot even one or two of them, let alone all three. If she missed, the third man might put another one of those huge buffalo slugs into her husband, this time in his chest. What a cruel, ugly weapon the guns were. They looked huge and menacing in the hands of the buffalo hunters, in spite of the size of the men themselves.

"You want to go home, do you?" the toothless man spoke up. He stood to the right of the other two men. My
left,
Lettie thought. That one was for Luke. The one to her right was tall and skinny, his face bearded and his clothes stained from sweat and buffalo blood.

"We'll see you get there, little lady, after we're through with you," the skinny one spoke up.

"Please don't hurt me," she begged, tears streaming down her face. "You've already killed my husband."

The one in the middle chewed on a weed. "And the old man who was supposed to be lookin' out for your fancy little ass," he spoke up. "Ain't it amazin' how quiet a knife can be?" He rubbed at himself, and Lettie remembered all the horror of her rape. "We ain't gonna hurt you, lady," he added. "We're just gonna make you feel real good.
Then
we'll take you home... or maybe not. Maybe we'll just keep you with us for a while and slit your tits off later. Jugs like yours make good tobaccy pouches."

The others laughed, and Lettie stepped farther away from the rock. "Why are you doing this?" She wept, shivering, all the while watching them step a little closer. "I've never done anything to you!"

The toothless one stepped even closer. "Let's just say it's part of your husband's payment for takin' my brother from me and knockin' out my teeth."

Lettie backed away even more, gripping the six-gun behind her. She moved to her right, closer to the tall, skinny one, who had moved around in that direction. She waited, not daring to glance at Luke for fear the men would realize he was alive. She could only pray he had not already passed out. All three men came even closer, and she quickly whipped out the gun, aiming and firing at the skinny one to her right. His body jerked backward. He stared at her in surprise before collapsing with a bloody wound in his gut. Lettie did not even have a chance to look toward Luke before she heard the two shots that thundered from his own repeater, catching both the other men. The toothless one had run for cover, but screamed out, falling to his knees when Luke's bullet slammed into his back. He crouched there a moment before sprawling onto his face.

Lettie stared dumbfounded. The man she had shot was writhing on the ground, his knees drawn up, horrible gurgling sounds coming from his throat. Before she even realized Luke had crawled near her, he was grasping her hand. She sucked in her breath in surprise and fear until realizing it was Luke.

"Give me the gun!" he demanded.

"Luke! You shouldn't be—"

"Give me the goddamn gun!"

He was horribly pale. She knew his pain must be excruciating. She handed him the gun, and he dragged himself over to the one man who was still alive. "Turn around!" he growled at her.

Lettie blinked, then realized what he was going to do. She turned away. In the next second she heard the gunshot.

The skinny man no longer moved or made any sound when she looked back. Luke was laid flat out beside him, and she ran to him, forcing herself to ignore the hole in the skinny man's head when she went to her knees beside her husband. "Luke!"

"You've got... to get help." He said. "I can't last much longer."

Lettie looked around, realized she was a good four or five miles from the homestead, with no one to help her. She was not even sure how to get back. Luke grasped her hand.

"Follow the path... the way we came... maybe find Ben's horse. Horses... have a nose for finding home. The horse... can take you." He squeezed her arm. "Take... my rifle... the six-gun."

"No! Not both! You'll need something," she answered. "Keep the rifle." She unbuckled his gun belt. "I'll take this with me. I'll get your ammunition pouch off your horse and bring it to you. You might need the rifle to keep wolves away tonight; and I'll bring you water and some blankets."

She hurried off before he could answer, her mind reeling with the horror of what life would be like without Luke. She had no idea if she could find Ben's horse or find her way back. The longer Luke lay out here with no help, the worse it would be for him. She scrambled and crawled up the embankment, got the ammunition pouch, a canteen of water, and a blanket from Luke's horse. She unstrapped his saddlebags, which contained some food, and threw them over her shoulder. The black gelding whinnied and groaned as she started to rise, and she realized the poor animal was still alive. She knew what Luke would do in such a situation. She cocked the six-gun and held it close to the top of the animal's head, then pulled the trigger. There was no time to weep over what she'd had to do, or over the loss of such a beautiful animal.

She grasped the supplies then and slid back down the embankment on her rump. She laid the supplies next to Luke. "I'll get my own canteen and a blanket when I go back up," she told him, not even sure he was comprehending what she was saying. She covered him with two blankets. "Luke?"

His only reply was to moan, and his eyes drifted shut.

"Luke, don't you die on me! Don't you leave me alone with five babies and no father!" She leaned down and kissed his cheek. "I love you, Luke," she said gently near his ear. "Hang on for me. Please don't die, Luke."

She wiped at her tears, and breathed deeply to stay in control. This was no time to fall to pieces. Somehow she had to find her way back to the house and get help, and if she couldn't find Ben's horse, she'd have to walk the whole way. That part wasn't so bad, if only she was certain just which way to go... and if only there was more daylight left. With the night would come more difficulty finding her way, and it would be harder to see rocks and holes in her way. Worse than that, with the night came the wolves. Would the men return to find Luke torn apart by them? Maybe she would die the same way and they'd both be found with buzzards floating above them, picking over what the wolves left for them.

Lettie crouched under a huge pine, taking a moment to get her breath and her bearings. She vowed to herself that if she and Luke lived through this, she was going to learn more about this vast piece of land her husband owned, become more familiar with its boundaries and landmarks, ride out with Luke at least twice a year when he checked the line shacks, so that she would never get lost like this again on her own land. She struggled not to think about poor Luke lying out there somewhere in terrible pain, maybe dead.

Every bone and muscle in her body ached from walking, climbing, running, falling. Her clothes were ripped and her hands and arms covered with cuts and scratches. The darkness had distorted things and confused her as to which way to go, and the constant howling of wolves made her feel crazy. She thought after all these years she had grown used to the sound, but to be out here in the darkness alone, vulnerable to the animals, made their howling seem more threatening again.

Wolves were not her only concern. Why was it that most wild animals did their prowling at night? She reminded herself of what Luke had told her many times, that most wild animals were much more afraid of humans than the other way around. Right now she wasn't so sure. It made little difference. She had no choice but to keep going, or Luke was going to die. No one would be looking for them. The men would think they were at the line shack by now, and that Ben was keeping guard.

Poor Ben! She had found him on the return pathway, stabbed to death. His horse was nowhere in sight. Apparently it had been run off by the buffalo hunters, and probably all the gunfire had spooked the buffalo hunters' horses. Maybe they had just tied them farther away so they could sneak up on Luke and her on foot. Whatever the answer, she had found no horses. She had walked for what seemed miles, unsure which way to go once the pathway along the ridge had ended. She followed what she thought were their own tracks, but by dusk nothing looked the same, and now in the darkness it was impossible to see any tracks at all.