She had mixed feelings. She expected that her chances for escape were far better with Whelan than with the colonel. She decided, out of fear of the Ruckers, to be more help than hindrance to the sheriff. She wished he would trust her with a gun, but could hardly blame him for not giving her one. She didn’t exactly inspire trust.
Scarlett felt that every step toward Corpus Christi reduced her chances for escape. Whelan was a curse and a blessing. On the one hand she was his prisoner and, on the other, he was protecting her from Colonel Rucker and his sons. Now, the possibility that she was pregnant added a new dimension to her plight. That she had no idea whose child she might be carrying increased her mental burden. Soon enough, her burden would become more physically evident.
***
Colonel Rucker and his sons were now the hunted. By the time they reached the San Antonio River, they knew they’d lost the track. The colonel sent the boys west while he went east to try to find it.
He was seething at the possibility of having been tricked by a no-account, hick-city sheriff. These searches were costly. At last, he found where Whelan had turned northward. It confirmed his fear that the sheriff was now behind them. Sonofabitch wasn’t a no-account after all.
***
Colonel Rucker was beside himself. Whelan had doubled back a second time. Rex and Stephen were losing patience with their father, as his incompetence as a tracker was becoming increasingly unbearable. They couldn’t understand how he’d fallen for the sheriff’s tactic a second time.
“Father, shouldn’t we move faster?”
“We’ll move at the pace I feel is best.” He was noticeably irritated. He took no truck with his boys disrespecting or challenging him.
“Father, I expect we outnumber and outgun the man.”
The colonel was exasperated. “If we fall into a trap, he can seriously reduce our numerical advantage.” He was trying to explain as he might have at West Point or in Vera Cruz in the Mexican-American War. The colonel felt, and probably rightly so that, if Whelan was smart enough to double back, he might be smart enough to ambush them. “Keep your eyes and ears open. I sense they’re not that far away.”
***
In reality, Whelan had gained distance and was at least a half-day ahead of the Ruckers. After they crossed the San Antonio River, the countryside became more familiar to him. He began to give thought to the ambush that the colonel feared, yet remained committed to reaching the relative sanctuary of Corpus Christi. Taking time for an ambush with uncertain outcome was simply too risky. With three against one, he couldn’t afford to miss, even once. If he shot Rucker, the sons became unknown quantities. Likely as not, they’d turn and run, but Whelan couldn’t count on that.
He also began to sense a change in Scarlett. When they stopped to rest and she relieved herself, he noticed she seemed to have gained just a bit of a belly. They hadn’t been eating all that much, so he was at a loss for how she might be gaining weight.
His perspective had begun to change as well. He was beginning to make the effort to understand her plight. He was seeing her more as victim and less as the Laredo whore. But Whelan was Whelan, and he kept shaking these images from his mind lest he go soft on her. After all, she was a robber and murderer.
***
Elisa had closed the purchase of the McGill place. She looked forward to Luke’s return so he could help her begin to populate the land with longhorns. In addition to tilling a small section of her farm, she had to take on the typical chores that went along with day-to-day life such as cooking, sewing, washing clothes, churning butter, drying and smoking meats, and general repairs that Mike wasn’t old enough to handle. She’d also begun to think about what other adjoining properties might become available. Her determination had begun to be noticed in Nuecestown, as she made more frequent trips for supplies. Each time, she asked for any word about Luke.
She shared Luke’s apparent commitment to her with Bernice and Agatha. They were excited, but tempered with the reality of a lawman’s life. Still, thoughts of a wedding were swirling around in their fertile minds.
Doc and the general store manager assured Elisa that they’d alert her if and when they heard any news about Luke.
Normally, her brother Mike joined her on her trips into Nuecestown. On one particular day, Mike begged off. He was working on a project in the stable and wanted to complete it before sunset. He’d noticed that the hinges on the gate to the mule stall were breaking down, and he had an idea on how to repair them. He was growing up fast owing to the responsibilities thrust upon him to help Elisa.
Mike was focused on supporting the heavy wooden gate so he could better get at the hinges. He heard Elisa driving the mules toward the stable, as she’d just returned from town.
He lowered the gate so he could run out to help unload the wagon. As he did, he heard the buzz of a rattlesnake’s tail. The fool snake struck him before he could react. He’d been squatting, and it bit him in the thigh. He clubbed it to death with a nearby shovel before staggering from the stable. “Elisa! Elisa! Help!”
His desperate shout brought her running. “What, what is it?”
“Rattler got me. Sis, it hurts!”
“Where?” She saw the twin punctures through his trousers. “Oh, my, Mike. Let’s get to Doc fast!”
She lifted him into the back of the wagon, jumped into the seat, and headed the wagon to town as fast as the mules could pull them. She pulled the rig up in front of Doc’s house. Mike was already having a tough time breathing.
“Doc!” Elisa hammered on his door. “Doc!”
Bernice heard Elisa’s shouts. “What’s happening, sweetie?”
“It’s Mike. He’s been snakebit.”
Bernice and Agatha ran over to Doc’s house and forced the door open. Doc was inside half-passed out from his boozing. “Doc, wake up. We’ve got an emergency!”
Elisa had already half-dragged Mike into Doc’s examination room. She cut and tore his pant leg apart, revealing the nasty wound and major swelling and discoloration. It had been more than an hour, and the venom was already working on Mike’s circulatory system. He was sweating profusely. He’d taken a full load, and his prognosis wasn’t great under even the very best of circumstances.
The ladies got Doc awake enough to be reasonably coherent. “What’s wrong?” he rasped. He gazed at Mike lying on the table.
Tears began to well up in Elisa’s eyes. “He’s been bit by a rattler, Doc.” Tears traced rivulets of mud down her dust-covered cheeks.
Doc whipped out a knife and cut at the puncture wounds. He wrapped a belt around Mike’s keg above the wound to stem the blood flow from the leg. “Get me that damned whiskey bottle.” Bernice handed it to him, and he took a hard swig and spit it out. He began to suck the wound, trying to draw the venom from it.
Elisa and the ladies stood by helplessly as Doc continued to suck from the wounds. It became obvious that Doc wasn’t winning the battle against the venom. If the wound hadn’t been so high on the thigh near the boy’s butt, Doc might even have considered cutting off the leg to save the child. Mike was having an increasingly difficult time breathing. As his breathing became more labored, the color left his face and arms. He began to have a seizure. Doc knew that signaled the beginning of the end.
Elisa pushed Doc aside and began trying to suck out the venom. She was in tears and the ladies were sobbing. Doc had never felt so helpless and utterly defeated. If Mike had been a grown man, they might save him, but the boy was fading ever faster.
Finally, Mike appeared to breathe his last. Doc closed the child’s eyes and wrapped an arm around Elisa to comfort her. “There’s just nothing we could do, Elisa. I’m so very sorry.”
Suddenly, Mike coughed. He wasn’t finished fighting. He looked terrible, but his little body was fighting the onslaught of the rattler’s venom.
Elisa collapsed on the chair next to the table. She was inconsolable for a few moments then suddenly stopped. She wiped away her tears.
/> “Can we stay here, Doc?” She said it almost desperately. She would be strong. There was a determination in her. It was as though she’d decided at that moment she was going to take on whatever the frontier threw at her and defeat it. She’d see Mike through this, whatever that entailed.
Doc nodded. “Of course, you can. You can stay as long as you need to.” He gave her a hug of reassurance. “We can’t be sure of what he may be like after the bite heals, but we’re here for you.”
“Can we get you anything, Elisa?” Bernice and Agatha were ready to help.
***
Colonel Rucker sensed that his sons were losing faith in him. Why were they chasing this whore, anyway? He dared not tell them.
Rex and Stephen lagged a few yards back so they could carry on their own conversation as teens often do.
The colonel stopped and turned to face them. “You boys have some sort of problem? You have something to say? I know it’s been a long journey, but we aim to get back what is ours.” He made it sound as though they owned Scarlett. In a manner of speaking, they did.
Rex and Stephen were seeing a side of their father they were unfamiliar with. They couldn’t know that it was this sort of obsessive behavior that had kept him from making general officer rank. “Yes, father. We understand.”
As the colonel turned his mount back to the trail, he saw a flash and heard a shot. A bullet tore through his left arm. He sagged. He’d led them into an ambush. A second shot rang out, and a bullet whizzed past Rex’s head. The boys turned and rode hell-bent for leather in the opposite direction of the gunshots. The colonel didn’t waste any time joining their escape. It appeared that Whelan had decided to set an ambush after all.
After about a mile, they pulled up. The colonel dismounted and pulled off his jacket. The bullet had gone clean through, no broken bone. “Come on, boys, help out here. Wrap my arm to stop the bleeding.” The boys did as he directed.
The colonel felt clumsy for having ridden into an ambush. The sheriff had darn near ended the hunt. It was mid-afternoon. “Let’s rest here for the night. We can find their trail in the morning.” He gritted through the pain in his arm and unsaddled his horse. “Rex, build a fire. Stephen, see to the horses.”
He’d have to give this situation some further thought. In an unmilitary fashion, he had extended his front well beyond his supply lines. He had become vulnerable to an enemy he couldn’t even see.
Stephen boiled up a pot of coffee that didn’t taste half bad, while Rex began to cook up some beef. They didn’t have much food left, as the colonel had misjudged the time it would take to catch Whelan and the whore. If they were going to do anything, they needed to do it soon. He knew they were close enough to San Antonio that they could resupply before heading home with Scarlett as captive.
***
Luke turned a tad south before reaching Nuecestown, as he was anxious to see Elisa. He rode the big grey slowly into the clearing in front of her cabin. As he dismounted and hitched the reins, he visually took in all that was around him. She had been doing a great job of keeping the place up. He walked over and knocked on the door. Silence. He knocked again.
The door cracked open. Elisa literally fell into Luke’s arms. She released great sobs of relief. He was home safe. Her world was set right. Her man was home. Not a word was yet spoken.
“What is it? What’s happened?” he asked.
She held him close a few moments more. “Rattlesnake nearly killed Mike.” She pulled partially free. “Happened just a couple of days ago. He’s at Doc’s place. He’s real sick.”
Luke embraced her. He instinctively felt her need for him. After a few moments, he bent down, lifted her chin, and kissed her. “I’m here, Lisa, I’m home.”
“Oh, Lucas, why is the world this way?”
Luke looked thoughtfully at her. “As I understand it, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. It’s the way it is.”
It registered in her thinking that Luke had just said something about being home. “Did I hear you say you were home?”
“If you’ll have me?”
They kissed a long deep kiss.
Reality set in. It was midday. “Come in. I’ll rustle up something. You must be starving for a home-cooked meal, my love.”
Luke paused. “I suppose that was a yes?”
She kissed him lightly, nodded, and went into the cabin. “You go wash off that trail dust, Lucas Dunn.”
They enjoyed her cooking and spent time catching up on her experiences and Luke’s adventures. “We’d best head back into Nuecestown, Lucas. I need to check on Mike.”
They hitched the wagon. Luke tied the big grey to the back, and they headed to town.
“So, that Perez outlaw is dead?” she asked.
“He wasn’t when I left, but I don’t expect he held on to life much longer,” Luke told her. “If he does live, he’ll be hung right quick. Either way, he’s finished.”
“I love you, Lucas. And I’m so proud of you.”
“Well, Lisa, do we have a town official that can wed us?”
The question caught Elisa off guard. Everything for the past couple of days had focused on Mike. She had been thinking about getting hitched, but Luke’s forthrightness surprised her. “I think the Doc has some sort of license. I’ll bet he could do a ceremony. And Bernice and Agatha would be excited to help.”
Elisa appreciated Luke’s respect for her honor, though her entire body ached to be with him. The anticipation was almost unbearable.
After tending to Mike, they spent the afternoon discussing going to Luke’s cousin to purchase a few longhorns and other concerns in getting the ranch up and running. She shared her plan to try to buy up other adjacent properties. If need be, they’d move away from Nuecestown.
***
The colonel’s arm throbbed all night. At least, they didn’t have to pull a bullet out of it. That might have tested the limits of one or both of his sons. At the break of dawn, they prepared to press their numbers advantage on the sheriff and the whore. They mounted up and checked their weapons. Rex and Stephen were especially excited to see their first combat.
Colonel Rucker led them out at a brisk pace. They hoped to catch up with Whelan rather quickly, and catch him by surprise. Unfortunately, they sounded as though an entire army was moving forward.
***
Whelan figured they were a half-mile away when he first heard their commotion. He and Scarlett were about a half-day ride north of the Nueces River. There were plenty of vantage points to make a stand; it was simply a matter of choosing.
Finally, he found a live oak motte that afforded excellent cover for them and their horses. He hitched the horses and tied Scarlett to a tree trunk. He had his Walker Colt and a Sharps breech-loader rifle at the ready. He figured his first shot would be with the Sharps, as the pistol was best at closer range. Ideally, he’d stop the colonel, and the sons would turn and run. He didn’t feature killing misguided young boys.
It took less than half an hour riding through the rough landscape for Colonel Rucker and his boys to come within visual contact. Whelan aimed the Sharps. As he prepared to squeeze the trigger, the colonel spotted him and Scarlett.
Rucker turned his horse just enough that it took the bullet intended for him, and he was tossed over the head of the dying animal. Rex and Stephen pulled up alongside their father. He’d not just fallen in dirt, grass, and leaves, but in several cowpies left by grazing longhorns.
Rex lifted his father up behind him on his horse. They hadn’t gone but a couple of steps when the colonel pushed his son out of the saddle and turned back toward Whelan.
Whelan was incredulous that the colonel was so determined. He really didn’t want to kill the man, but was being left no choice. The colonel charged with a saber in hand. The sheriff fired his pistol twice, ripping the soldier from his saddle for the second time. His right arm and shoulder had been hit, and he writhed in pain.
Rex ran forward and Stephen dismounted to come to
their father’s aid. “We surrender! Please don’t shoot!”
“Drop your weapons and back away,” Whelan shouted as he moved toward them from his cover, keeping the Colt aimed at the colonel. The boys did as they were directed.
“Get your father on a horse, and get the hell out of here,” Whelan ordered. “Go home. Don’t ever think of coming anywhere near Corpus Christi.”
The sheriff couldn’t have cared less about the colonel’s wounds. They weren’t that bad. He could have been killed had Whelan’s aim been better. As it was, Rucker was lucky the slug from the Sharps had missed him. The .44 caliber bullets from the Colt were sufficient to make for a nasty wound. What was left of the man’s pride had been seriously damaged, but he would live.
The boys did as Whelan had told them. The colonel sputtered and cursed, but didn’t resist.
Whelan watched the Ruckers ride off and then gathered their weapons before returning to make sure Scarlett was safe.
The damned whore was gone. He sighed audibly. She’d cut through the tether but was still manacled. Moreover, she was on foot. How far did she expect to get? This was highly inconvenient. He mounted up and quickly picked up her track.
He caught up within a few minutes. “Where do you think you’re going?”
She said not a word. She was crying.
Crying women usually presented a challenge for men, but this was an especially great challenge for Sheriff Whelan. Women were objects of gratification for him. He simply did not emote with women. It wasn’t that he didn’t care; it was just that most of the women he’d ever interacted with flirted with the wrong side of the law. His caring stopped at a prisoner’s cell door or a whore’s room door.
Whelan dismounted and approached her. “What’s the problem?”
“I…I wanted to see if you’d chase after me.”
“Of course I would,” he said, “you’re my prisoner.”
***
Whatever else was swimming in her head, Scarlett wanted to be wanted. It didn’t matter that she was Whelan’s prisoner. She knew he could never understand. It was the way it was with men, especially rough men on the Texas frontier. Men had always used her and then run from her.
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