Untethered (30 page)

Pike’s Creek was no more than two miles. In two miles, they would be home, safe—and she could send someone back for Heath.

She wondered whether he were alive or dead, and the pain of thinking it made her breath catch in her throat. She had to make it back to Pike’s Creek—to send help for Heath.

“Come on, girls,” she encouraged. “We could walk from here if we weren’t so worn to the bone.”

“Can we walk the horses at least?” Ann begged through tear-filled eyes as she reined in next to Cricket.

Cricket glanced back beyond Ann and Harley—back beyond Marie, Vilma,
Pearl
, and poor Jinny. There was no sign of the outlaws—none. She was sure Heath had stopped them—or at least held them off long enough for her and the others to be miles and miles ahead of them.

“All right,” she agreed. “Let’s walk them home. But let’s keep sharp eyes at our backs, just in case…”

“In case Heath wasn’t able to—”
Pearl
began.

“He was able to!” Vilma passionately interrupted, however. “He’s still holdin’ them off for us…or he’s killed them all.”

Wiping tears from her cheeks, Vilma began to walk her horse toward town.

“He’s all right, Cricket,” Marie said as she walked her horse forward as well. “I know he is.”

Ann and
Pearl
walked then, Ann stroking Harley’s mane all the while.

It was Jinny that was last. Her horse looked as severely ill as she did, and Cricket wasn’t sure the animal could make it the two miles to Pike’s Creek even at a walking pace. But Cricket forced a smile of encouragement and led Archie to fall in next to Jinny’s horse.

Harley reared up ahead and made a sound like a cough. “He’s too spent, Cricket!” Ann called over her shoulder. “I’ll kill him if I keep goin’!”

With wild frustration and fear, Cricket watched as Ann dismounted and quickly loosened Harley’s saddle cinch.

“Ann! We’re so close! You can’t stop now!” Cricket cried in near panic.

“I’m not,” Ann assured her. “I just won’t torture Harley anymore. I won’t!”

Cricket watched as Ann used every ounce of strength left in her to push the saddle and blanket from Harley’s back. She removed the bit from his mouth and began leading the horse as she slowly walked toward town.

Marie’s horse, having seen that Harley was free, simply stopped. No amount of encouragement from Marie would get him moving again. Then without warning, Vilma’s horse stumbled. Vilma tumbled to the ground only moments before her horse collapsed, panting for breath as it lay in the cool summer grass.

They were in trouble! The horses were wasting—for
Pearl
’s and Jinny’s horses stopped as well. The only horse that didn’t stop was Archie. In fact, it was as if Archie knew the circumstances were dire—for in the next moment, Cricket felt her body jerk hard as Archie broke into a violent, reckless sort of gallop toward town.

“I’ll send help!” Cricket shouted as she leaned forward in the saddle to make the gallop easier for Archie.

❦

“Zeke!”
Ada
gasped as she burst through the front door.

Zeke Cranford wiped the tears from his handsome but mournful eyes as he looked up to his wife. The expression of indescribable joy on her face, mingled with her tears, caused hope to leap in his che
st.

“What is it?” he asked.

“It’s…Z-Zeke! It’s Cricket!”
Ada
sobbed. “She just this moment rode into Pike’s Creek…on Heathro Thibodaux’s horse!”

Zeke was out of his chair, taking his wife’s hand and pulling her along behind him as he stormed out the front door faster than a hummingbird could blink.

“Cricket!” he breathed as he saw his daughter rather tumble from the back of a frothy horse.

“Daddy!” Cricket cried as she ran to him. “Daddy! Y-you have to go for him! Y-you have to go back and help him!” she sobbed, collapsing into his arms.

“Oh, my baby!” Zeke wept into her hair. “Oh, my sweet baby!”

Cricket knew she could not faint or find herself otherwise unconscious, no matter how much her body hurt or how tired she was or even how close to dying from lack of food, water, and shelter.

Quickly she babbled on, afraid that she would drop dead and then no one would know where to find Heath or the other girls.

“Daddy, the other girls…they’re just outside of town…about two miles east,” she breathed through her sobs. “The horses are failin’…even Harley. Someone has to go for them!” Then, clutching the front of her father’s shirt in her weak, trembling fists, she cried, “But, Daddy…someone has to go for Heath! Please! If he’s not dead…they shot him twice that I saw! Please…please! Someone has to go for him. He’s near the fork…the place where he took the trail to
New Orleans
and the posse crossed to head for
Mexico
. Please, Daddy! Please! You have to go get him and bring him home!”

“Shhh, baby,” Zeke soothed, stroking Cricket’s hair.

“What’s goin’ on?” Cooper Keel asked, hurrying toward Cricket, her father, and
Ada
.

“The girls are two miles east of here, Coop!” Zeke exclaimed. “Get some men out there. And then you and me…we’re gonna saddle up and ride like hell to get Heathro Thibodaux! He’s holed up at the river.”

“I w-wanna come with you, Daddy,” Cricket stammered. “I-I wanna come with you to find Heath, Daddy! I can’t stay here and wait…not knowin’ if he’s alive or dead! He saved us, Daddy. All alone he saved us!”

“What’s happenin’?” Reverend Stanley asked as he and others from the town hurried over.

“You coward!” Cricket screamed. Pulling herself from her father’s arms, she flew at Vilma’s father, slapping him hard across one cheek and then the other. “You coward! You let him come for us all by himself? You didn’t believe him? Even after what happened to those other girls? You’re a coward! You and all the men who followed you to
Mexico
instead of listening to Heath!”

Cricket moved to slap Reverend Stanley once more, but her father bound her in his arms to keep her from doing so.

Still, binding her arms didn’t bind her tired, frightened, angry tongue. “Your own daughter was out there—Vilma! Bein’ dragged with the rest of us to be sold! And you didn’t follow Heath? How long did it take you to realize you’d taken the wrong trail, Reverend Stanley? We waited for the posse to come…waited and waited. And then when we knew Heck would kill Jinny…w-we escaped!”

“She’s mad with fatigue and trauma, Zeke,” Edgar Stanley said. “I forgive her for the rage…and the abuse.”

“Forgive me?” Cricket screeched. Cricket struggled in her father’s arms, and when she couldn’t break free to slap Vilma’s father again, she simply spit at him, feeling triumphant as she saw him wipe her saliva from his lips.

“Cricket,” Zeke whispered in a low, comforting voice. “Settle down, baby. Settle down. We’ll send some folks out to get the girls, all right? And me and Cooper Keel will go for Ranger Thibodaux ourselves. Shhh. Settle down now. Daddy will take care of it from here.”

Turning Cricket away from the vile Reverend Stanley, Zeke pulled Cricket to
Ada
. “
Ada
,” he began, “you keep Cricket at home with you here. Just help her bathe. Feed her some broth…only broth…and see if she’ll drop off to sleep.”

“But I wanna go with you, Daddy, please! I have to know if he’s alive or dead! I have to see him! I-I can’t live if—” Cricket cried.

“Shhh,” Zeke soothed as he wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I’m sure he’s fine, baby. That man’s tougher than most. Shot up or not, I’m sure he’s fine. You just stay here and keep
Ada
company while Coop and me ride out and bring him home, all right?”

“He saved our lives, Daddy,” Cricket wept. “All by himself he came, and he risked bein’ killed. He stayed with us…made sure none of the rest of us died…only Nina…and th-then he saved us. You have to bring him home, Daddy. Please!”

“I will, baby. I will,” her father promised. “Now you go with
Ada
, honey,” he said, taking her shoulders and directing her to
Ada
. “I’ll go for the Heath…and you just keep
Ada
company for me, all right?”

Cricket’s tears began anew as
Ada
embraced her, shushing softly into her ear and stroking her tangled hair.

Zeke was infuriated—purely infuriated! Turning to Edgar Stanley, he said, “You said you lost the tracks at the river…and had the posse head to
Mexico
even though Heathro Thibodaux said different.”

“It was obvious they’d gone toward
Mexico
, Zeke,” Edgar defended himself proudly. “By the time we lost the trail to
Mexico
, it was too late anyway. If even we had gone back to the other trail—the one Mr. Thibodaux took—we couldn’t have tracked them long. The rain had washed any tracks left by the girls, their captors, or that arrogant Texas Ranger. I thought—”

But Edgar Stanley didn’t have the chance to explain what insipid thoughts he’d had after that—for Zeke Cranford laid him out in the street of Pike’s Creek before he could.

“Come on, Coop,” he mumbled to Cooper Keel. “Let’s get this town headed in the right direction for once.”

❦

Once Zeke had led a group of men, women, and wagons out to find the girls east of Pike’s Creek—once he’d talked to the girls a bit and learned a few more details of what had happened to find Heathro Thibodaux holed up somewhere trying to keep a band of w
hite slaving outlaws at bay—he and Cooper Keel had ridden off in search of what was left of the young and heroic Texas Ranger.

Cooper had embraced his niece awhile, assuring her that all would be well. And though Zeke had told Coop he’d be glad to head out on his own, Cooper’s niece, Pearl, had begged her uncle to go too—to try and find the man who had saved their lives.

“I’m sorry I had you up in Thistle and thereabouts for so long, Zeke,” Cooper hollered as they rode. “If we woulda been there when
Ada
and Maymee had arrived lookin’ for us…we could’ve already been on the trail after the girls.”

But Zeke shook his head. “No. It ain’t your fault…or mine. How could we possibly have known that while we were out huntin’ for your niece, my girl had been taken and that idiot preacher of ours was leadin’ everybody astray? No. We were gonna ride out tomorrow mornin’, Coop. It was all we could’ve done considerin’ how long it took us to get back to Pike’s Creek today.” Zeke choked on the overwhelming emotion settled in his throat. He coughed, adding, “I’m just glad to see my baby girl is still alive. I thought sure she wasn’t. I owe Heathro Thibodaux a far greater debt than I can ever repay…even if we do find him still alive.”

“Amen!” Cooper agreed.

Spurring their horses, Zeke and Cooper rode far into the night, following the river the way several of the girls had indicated.

Along about midnight, they came upon a sight that even their wildest imaginations couldn’t have conjured. As the moon and stars shone brightly in t
he midnight heavens, Zeke Cranford and Cooper Keel found Heathro Thibodaux—or at least what was left of him.

❦

“Please come inside, Cricket,”
Ada
begged. “You need some rest. Just for an hour or two and then I’ll let you come back out here and wait.”
Ada
w
iped a tear from her cheek. “I’ll even come out and wait with you, all right?”

But Cricket shook her head. “No. I’m not leavin’. I’m not leavin’ until Daddy rides in with Heathro Thibodaux either sittin’ a horse…or draped over one.” She buried her face in her hands—in the soft, white handkerchief
Ada
had provided for her once the other one had become so drenched with Cricket’s tears that it was no longer useful.

Ada
nodded with acceptance. Settling herself in the rocking chair next to Cricket’s on the front porch, she followed Cricket’s gaze, staring out into the dark, dark night.

Ada
sensed there was far more to Heathro Thibodaux’s rescuing the girls of Pike’s Creek, and the two girls from elsewhere, than Cricket had spoken of. The girl was obsessed—entirely consumed with knowing what had happened to him—with hoping he was alive.

Naturally
Ada
and Zeke both knew Cricket was somewhat sweet on Heathro—that she had been sweet on him since the day he moved to Pike’s Creek. But this was different. This wasn’t just gratitude for the man who had rescued her, and it wasn’t infatuation. It was something far more, and
Ada
wasn’t about to press Cricket—either for more information on her feelings concerning Heathro or to abandon her post on the front porch watching for his safe return. Until Cricket actually passed out from crushing physical and emotional fatigue,
Ada
would let her wait for her father to return—let her wait for her father and Heathro Thibodaux. Quietly
Ada
prayed, however, “Let Zeke come ridin’ in with H
eathro sittin’ a horse and not draped over one. Please, Lord. Please.”