Weathered Too Young (44 page)

Before Lark could answer, however, Tom said, “Bein’ good a
t
kissin’ ain’t a virtue, Slater.”
Eldon chuckled
,
and Lark blushed.

Slater nodded and said, “Maybe so…but
the way I keep from
draggin’ Lark
on upstairs with me every night…now that
is.”
He looked to Lark and added, “Ain’t
that right
?”

The
rifle report
startled
everyone
.
Instantly the men were on their feet, the rifles they’d each had setting on their laps at the ready.

“Grady!
Hey there
,
Grady,
” Slater called through the kitchen window
,
standing
slightly ajar.

“It ain’t me, boss!” Grady answered from his post on the front porch.

Another shot rang out
,
and Lark heard something fall agai
nst the back d
oor.

“It’s Ralston,
” Tom said.

“Eldon…watch the front of the house from the window,” Slater ordered Eldon.
He
looked to Lark then, pointed an
index finger at her
,
and said, “You stay here.”

Lark nodded, though
a wave of terror washed over her.

“Ralston
?
” Tom called as another gunshot echoed through the still morning air.
“You all right, Ralston?”

Slater and Tom hurried toward
the back of the house
.

“Get the children to the kitchen, Kate,” Lark heard Slater order.
“Sit
’
em down under the table so they don’t give a
s
good a target.”

“But
,
Uncle Slater,” Charlie began, “Johnny ain’t with me.
He left a while ago.
I saw him climb out the window…but he didn’t know I saw him.
”

“What?” Slater exclaimed.

“Johnny!” Katherine cried.

Lark startled as another sh
ot reported
,
accompanied by the sound of shattering glass.

Katherine and the children screamed and hurried into the kitchen.

“Get under the table!” Katherine told Lark as she and the children dropped to their knees.

Pushing chairs out of the way
,
Lark and Katherine huddled under the table with Lizzy and Charlie.

“Oh, Johnny!” Katherine cried, shaking her head.
“What
on earth
was he thinkin’?”

Lizzy and Charlie were sobbing.
Tears welled in Lark
’
s eyes as well—made even more profuse by the unpleasant memories that came flooding back to her in that moment.
Suddenly she saw herself as a child—felt herself wrapped in the protection of her mother’s arms—closed her eyes and envisioned a time when she and her mother had huddled under a table for safety as her father
exchanged gunfire with a lawman.
Her father had gunned down the lawman.
Lark could still see the life fading from his eye
s as her father stood over him—
as he
,
Eddie Dean Wakle
y
,
taunted
the old sheriff as
the
dying lawman
drew his last breath.

“Lark…Lark!”

Lark opened her eyes to see Slater hunkered down before her.

“Ralston’s been shot,” he said, drawing her thoughts back to the present.
“I
f
we drag him in here, will ya see what you can do for him?”

“O
-o
f course,” Lark said.
“Of course.”
She started to crawl out from beneath the table, but Slater shook his head.

“Don’t stand up…not any more than you have to,” he instructed.
“Do you hear me?
”

Lark nodded
,
and Slater winked at her.

“It’ll be all right,” he said.

“I know,” she whispered.

Slater looked to the children then—reached out to press an encouraging palm to Lizzy’s cheek, then to Charlie’s.

“Everything will be fine,” he said.
“Don’t you worry
.
I’ll fin
d Johnny.”

“Why would he leave the house?” Kathe
rine cried then.
“He knows the danger!
”

Slater shook his head.
“He come to me last night and asked me if he could ride out with the boys this mornin’,” he
explained.
“I told him no
,
and I know it hurt
h
is pride…but
I didn’t think he’d try to go off on his own though.”
Slater reached beneath the table again, slipping a hand to Katherine’s neck and moving to kiss her cheek.
“But don’t you worry
.
I’ll bring him back to ya
, Kate
.”

Lark placed a hand on Slater’s arm.
“Samson Kane…he’s using Johnny to draw you out.”

Slater nodded.
“
Yep
.”

Tom
drug
Ralston
into the kitchen
and
laid him out on the floor in front of Lark
.

Instantly, Charlie and Lizzy
began to
sob.
Lark’s heart ached for the children.
They’d endured so much loss and hard
ship
. S
he hated that they now
would
know a new kind of fear.

“He’s got the boy,” Ralston panted.
The cowboy’s
right thigh was bleeding, as well as h
is shoulder.
“But it ain’t yer
outlaw that took him
. I
t was Chet…Chet Leigh.”

Slater
and Tom exchanged glances, and
Slater exhaled a heavy sigh.

“The boy didn’t come out the back door
or I’da seen him
. H
e musta slipped out the window,” Ralston panted.
“I’m sorry, boss,” he said.
“I…I didn’t see him for the dark, I guess.
I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right, Ralston,” Slater said.
“It ain’t none of it yer fault.”

“Get to the back
door
, will ya, Eldon?” Tom asked.

“Yep,” Eldon said, leaving his post at the kitchen window and heading for the back door.

“It’s Chet, boss,” Ralston said.
“It’s that dang Chet Leigh.
I can’t hardly believe it.
We was saddle pals not so…not so long ago.”
Ralston’s
speech was slurred
,
and Lark was certain he would soon lose consciousness.

“I know, boy,” Slater said.
“You done good.
You kept him from gettin’ in at the women and children.”

“You shoulda
beat him a little worse
when ya had the cha
nce, boss,” Ralston whispered,
“
t
hat no
-
good snake in the grass.”

Ralston was unconscious then.
Slater and Tom quickly inspected his wounds.

“He’ll live,” Slater
said.
His brow was puckered with concern and anger.

“If he don’t bleed out,” Tom added.

“Do what ya can for him, baby,” Slater said.
“I gotta go for Johnny.”

“But it’s a trap
!” Lark exclaimed as a new terror gripped her then.
“They’re just trying to draw you out so
t
hey can
—”

“I know,” Slater interrupted, placing a hand to her cheek
,
caressing her lips with his thumb.
“
But I’m smarter than
both of
’
em
. You know that’s true
,
don’t ya?”

Lark nodded, trying to summon courage.

“I’m better lookin’ too,” he teased.

Lark couldn’t help but return his loving smile.

“And anyway, he ain’t goin’ by hisself, honey,” Tom said, smiling with encouragement.
Tom looked to Katherine.
“We’ll bring that boy home safe, Kate
. D
on’t you worry neither.”

Katherine nodded, wiping tears from her cheeks.

“Now give me some suga
r and let me go,” Slater said.

Placing a
strong, warm
hand to her cheek, Slater
raked hi
s fingers back through he
r hair.
Pulling her to him, he
captur
ed
her mouth
with his in
such a driven and impassioned kiss that Lizzy exclaimed, “
Shame on you,
Uncle Slater!” even for her
frightened
tears.

“I’ll be right back,”
Slater
whispered.
“I
promise.”
He released Lark
, stood
,
and
strode
toward the back door.

“Just sop up the blood as best ya can,” Tom said, nodding to
ward
Ralston.
“Put some pressure on them bullet holes
,
and we’ll take care of him when we get back with Johnny.”

Lark nodded
—though she wondered if her courage would fail her.
She was trembling so terribly she feared she might not be able to leave the small haven of the table
.

“Tom,” Kate began.
Lark wept as she saw
the panic in Katherine’s
eyes.

“Don’t you worry, Kate,” Tom said then.
“You got one of the greatest
United States
m
arshals to ever sit a horse
ridin’ out
after yer boy.
Johnny will be fine.”
Tom paused, chuckling and adding, “Well, he’ll be fine once Slater’s through chewin’ on him for gettin’ hisself caught.”
Tom looked to Lark then—smiled with reassurance.
“Don’t you worry neither,” he said.
“Slater will be fine.
He’ll be back before you’ve had time to miss him.”

Lark nodded, brushing tears from h
er cheeks.
“Be careful, Tom.”

“I always
am, honey.”
He stood, striding after his brother.

Katherine still held tight to her children
, endeavoring to offer them some fragment of reassurance.
Lark knew she’d have
to tend to
Ralston
alone.
The children needed to be tucked in their mother’s embrace
.

Trembling, she crawled from beneath the table to
Ralston.
The cowboy’s shirt was soaked with blood at his right shoulder.
She glanced down to see that the bright red
blood
stain on his right trouser leg was expanding—spreading as the sturdy fabric soaked up the blood
escaping
the
bullet wound
inflicted there
.

“Ralston?” she said, placing her hand on his chest.
She sighed with relief when she felt the sturdy beating of his heart and the rise and fall of his
chest
as he breathed.

Wiping at her tears, Lark tried to concentrate on what must be done to help the wounded cowboy.
Her thoughts were, of course, with Slater and Tom and Johnny—for the recklessness of youth had
further
endangered them.
Still
, she knew that no one on earth understood Johnny’s
hasty
actions better than Slater—understood
the boy’s
desire and determination to leap into manhood too soon.

“Slater,” she breathed as she tore open Ralston’s shirt to
inspect the severity of
the wound at his shoulder.
“Please, Slater…please,” she mumbled as she worked
—as she brushed tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand.
“When you find Johnny…when Samson Kane and Chet Leigh come for you…oh, please, please, please come back to me.
Slater…please come back to me.”