Savage

by Richard Laymon

  Sarah’s face was turned away, so I couldn’t see how she was taking all this.

  Elmont’s eyes shifted over to me. He curled his lips. It was suppose to be a smile, I reckon, but it looked a mite sour. “And would this fine young man be your brother?”

  “My servant, Trevor.”

  “You’re traveling alone, then?”

  “With Trevor.”

  “I should very much like to join you. Perhaps we might sit together.”

  “Perhaps you should shove off,” I told him.

  Well, his pretty blue eyes bugged out and his face got scarlet. Sarah’s head swung around. She looked as out of sorts as Elmont.

  “Trevor!” she whispered.

  “He’s after my seat,” I snapped. He’s after you, is what went through my mind.

  “Is your boy always this impertinent?” Elmont asked.

  “Bugger off,” I told him.

  And Sarah slapped me across the face.

  “What’s the matter with you!” she snapped.

  I just sat there, my cheek hot where she’d smacked it. The cheek didn’t hurt much, but I felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach.

  I felt a whole lot worse when Sarah stood up without saying another word and followed Elmont up the aisle.

  She’d never struck me before. She’d never even spoken harshly to me. I doubt there were ever two people who got along any better together than me and Sarah.

  Now, she’d not only struck me but gone off with Elmont.

  She stayed with him, too. For a long, long time. Leaving me there alone and miserable. Couldn’t she see that Elmont was a cad? What was wrong with her? How could she fall for his flattery like that? How could she abandon me? What if she doesn’t come back at all, and takes up with him?

  I almost got up to go looking for her. But I didn’t relish the notion of seeing them together. They might be laughing. They might be holding hands. Or worse.

  It sickened me to think about such things.

  I couldn’t stop it, though. I pictured his lips on her mouth, his hands exploring her body and sneaking under her clothes. In my mind, she didn’t simply allow him such liberties, but led him along. And touched him in return.

  I told myself they wouldn’t dare. People would see. But the car wasn’t particularly crowded. If the seats across the aisle from them were empty…

  Well, she finally came back. She gave me a sharp look, then sat down.

  “How could you speak to him that way, Trevor?”

  “How could you go off with him?”

  “He’s a very nice man. You had no call to abuse him. You were awful.”

  “I doubt there ever was a Libby Gordon. The cur took a fancy to you, that’s all. He’s a bloody liar.”

  “You’re acting like a child.”

  Well, her slap hadn’t stung me any more than those words did. I couldn’t speak at all for a spell. Then I said, “I’m a child and he’s a man, is that it?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “He looks like a woman.”

  “Stop it! For heaven’s sake, Trevor.”

  “Why did you go off with him?”

  “I had little choice after your atrocious behavior. I can’t believe you spoke to him that way. I’ve never been so embarrassed. What in the world possessed you?”

  “I don’t like him. Not one whit. He’s a smooth-talking philanderer, that’s what he is.”

  “Ridiculous. You should be ashamed of yourself. Not only did you mistreat him, but you’ve misjudged him as well. The poor man lost his wife and child to smallpox last year.”

  “I doubt it.”

  “You’re being impossible.”

  “I shouldn’t trust a word he breathes. He would quite obviously tell you anything in order to win your sympathies. Can’t you see his intentions?”

  When I said that, Sarah quit scowling. She gazed into my eyes, and pretty soon she smiled. Leaning against me, she whispered, “Why, Trevor, you’re jealous.”

  “Not in the least.”

  “You are!” She patted my leg. “Oh, dear. What am I to do with you? Elmont’s nothing to me. I’ve no feelings at all for him except as a friend.”

  “He’s after more than your friendship.”

  “How can you say such a thing?” she asked, still talking soft. “You don’t know the man.”

  “I know he intends to have you.”

  “I hardly think so. If that is his intention, however, he’ll be disappointed.”

  Well, I wasn’t feeling quite so down any more. Though it disturbed me that Sarah considered Elmont a “friend,” it seemed clear I hadn’t lost her affections to him.

  After a while, she said, “I’m so sorry that I struck you, darling.”

  “It didn’t hurt.”

  “Will you forgive me?”

  “Of course.”

  Then she whispered, “You won’t stay away from my bed tonight?”

  “Why, I hardly think so.”

  With my mind eased considerable on the score of Elmont Briggs, I took to watching out the window. In the early evening, however, came the chime of the dinner bell. “Now don’t get yourself into a tizzy again,” Sarah said. “I asked Elmont to join us at our table.”

  “Splendid,” I muttered.

  “Please be nice to him.”

  “I’ll have a go at it.”

  “Remember, you’re supposed to be my servant. We can’t have him suspecting the truth.”

  We waited until most of the other passengers had cleared out of the aisle, then left our seats. Elmont was a few rows behind us, alone. When he saw us approaching, he stood up and gave Sarah a warm smile. The smile cooled some as he turned it on me, but I bobbed my head and said, “I do hope you’ll forgive my earlier rudeness, Mr. Briggs. You bore such a remarkable resemblance to a scoundrel I once knew…”

  Sarah gave me a sharp glance, so I shut my mouth.

  “I accept your apology,” Elmont said.

  He took the lead. The dining car was some distance back. At the end of each car along the way, Elmont would pull open the door for Sarah. Once she was outside in the noisy vestibule, he’d leave me holding the door, hurry around her, and get the next one. Which he always managed to shut while I was still between cars. He was mighty irritating.

  The way Sarah let him get away with it, I got to feeling like she didn’t care, one way or the other, if I was left behind. So I let it happen. When we finally came to the dining car and Elmont slammed the door in my face, I just stayed put. I stepped to the edge of the steel grille that covered the coupling, held on to the safety chain there to keep my balance, and stared off at the wooded hills. They were mighty pretty, what with the sun sinking low, but I was in no mood to enjoy the view.

  I aimed to wait for Sarah to come along and fetch me.

  But she didn’t.

  Having too fine a time with Elmont, no doubt.

  It was windy and cold out there between the cars, so by and by I went on in.

  Sarah and Elmont were seated across from each other at one of the dinner tables, Sarah talking away to him and looking happy. When she saw me, she waved me over to join them. “What kept you?” she asked.

  “I stopped for some fresh air,” I explained, feeling mighty let down.

  “Where I come from,” Elmont said to Sarah, “we don’t eat with the help.”

  “You’re certainly an endearing chap,” I told him.

  “Nor do we allow back talk.”

  “Behave yourself, Trevor, or I shall send you off.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  After that, I kept mum. The waiter brought our meals along. I ate and watched Elmont, and listened to the conversation. He was just ever so charming. I reckon he and Sarah’d already found out plenty about each other, as they’d spent so much time together earlier. They didn’t fill me in on what I’d missed, but I managed to figure out that Elmont was on his way to California, where he’d gone in with his brother to buy a fancy hotel on t
he beach at Santa Monica. To hear him talk, he was loaded down with money.

  He invited Sarah to come and visit him there when she finished the visit with her father at Fort Huachuca. I had to smile at that, but Elmont didn’t notice.

  Sarah’s father at Fort Huachuca?

  I reckon she didn’t consider Elmont much of a friend, not if she’d been telling him stretchers like that.

  Though it amazed me that she’d fibbed to him, I was glad.

  She allowed that she might consider a trip to Elmont’s hotel, but maybe she didn’t mean it.

  I doubted he owned such a hotel.

  The way it looked, lies were flying as thick as the gravy on my beef.

  I knew what they were covering up, on Sarah’s part.

  As for Elmont’s lies, I could only guess. The way I figured things, he didn’t want Sarah to know he was using the last of his inherited wealth to ride the rails in search of a rich, available woman. And she was it.

  Of course, I might’ve been wrong.

  Maybe it was just my jealousy doing the thinking for me.

  That’s how I saw him, though.

  I don’t know that Sarah was smitten by him, but she sure did hang on his every word like she’d never encountered a fellow more fascinating and amusing. You could see he was aware of it, too. He had victory in his pretty blue eyes.

  Matters turned worse after the meal. He invited Sarah to play cards with him in the parlor car. I started to follow them there, but Elmont said to me, “I don’t believe the lady will be requiring your services.”

  “Go ahead and run along,” Sarah said.

  Run along?

  I heated up considerable. But I allowed that causing a row wouldn’t help my cause any. It’d only serve to peeve Sarah. Besides, the way I felt betrayed by her—again—I wasn’t particularly eager to keep her company. If she preferred a swine like Elmont over me, maybe she deserved him.

  I cast a poison glare at Elmont, then went on my way.

  Back in my usual seat, I sat alone and boiled. I tried to tell myself that Sarah was only just being kind to the man. But it wouldn’t wash. In spite of what she’d said about considering Elmont no more than a friend, I’d seen enough to figure she was uncommon fond of him.

  I had some awfully mean thoughts about her.

  It got to seem like she’d only taken up with me in the first place was because I was handy. I was living in her house where she could get at me whenever she pleased. My age hadn’t mattered much to her, then. And maybe the various men around town simply hadn’t appealed to her, one way or another. I wasn’t quite what she wanted, but I’d do.

  Maybe she’d lied all along about loving me.

  Maybe she’d lied about a whole heap of things.

  She sure had told some stretchers to Elmont. And to every other passenger we’d spent any time with during our travels. Well, those fibs were understandable. We couldn’t very well give out the truth about the two of us. The same goes for deceiving her attorney, Mr. Cunningham, and any number of other folks.

  Taken all around, though, she’d lied to just about everyone I’d ever heard her talking to.

  Even the General.

  Sitting there by my dark window, I recalled the time that Saber got hooked by Whittle. Instead of trying out the truth on her grandfather, Sarah’d come up with a fancy story about the horse running off on its own. We’d even left the stable doors and the front gate open to make it look good.

  The more I thought about Sarah, the more it seemed like she never spoke the truth if she could come up with a lie that’d serve her better.

  No telling how many lies she’d foisted off on me.

  Why, I never could understand how a beautiful woman like Sarah was as unlucky with men as she’d always claimed. There she’d been, carrying on about how old she was and likely to end up a spinster—husbandless, childless, alone and pitiful.

  Maybe she’d only said those things to win my sympathy.

  She’d probably been with half the men in Coney Island, and thrown over each of them when a new fellow struck her fancy. The same way she was throwing me over for Elmont.

  I felt like I’d been swindled.

  For a while there, I plain hated Sarah and wished I’d never gotten tangled up with her. But then I got to thinking about all the fine times we’d had. The memories just carved me out hollow. Not the memories themselves, I reckon, but the notion that all the good things with Sarah were behind me.

  Just for the sake of torturing myself even more, I hauled out the gold watch she’d given me at Christmas. I opened it up and saw she’d been gone for nearly two hours. Then I snapped it shut and stared at the crossed revolvers engraved on its cover. You’ll never know how much joy you’ve brought into my life, she’d said.

  She’d brought plenty into my life, too.

  Suddenly, I felt just rotten for all the mean thoughts I’d been having about her. She’d had good reasons for most of the lies I’d heard her tell. For all I knew, she’d never lied to me. Maybe she truly did love me, and loved me still. So what if she was spending time with Elmont? Why, I’d spent hours and hours with the General. The old man had fascinated me, but I sure hadn’t fallen for him.

  That eased my mind some, but not for long.

  Elmont wasn’t the General. He had designs on Sarah. He aimed to have her.

  Even if all they did was play at cards and enjoy each other’s company tonight, he was busy working on her. And he’d be having more chances tomorrow. And the day after that. On his way to California (if that’s where he was really planning to go), he’d be traveling along our route and making sure he rode in the same trains as Sarah for the rest of the trip until we reached our destination at Tucson. Days from now.

  I tried to tell myself that Sarah was bound to see through his smooth ways, sooner or later.

  Maybe he’d make a try for her, and she’d spurn him and that would be the end of it.

  But maybe he’d make his try, and she’d welcome it. After all, he was a man—not a child. Maybe Elmont was just the sort of fellow she’d always hoped to meet.

  My thoughts were in a terrible whirl, so I was glad when Freemont the porter came along to make up the beds. After he was done, I went to the lavatory at the end of the car. I used the toilet, washed up and brushed my teeth, then walked down the curtained aisle.

  I’d hoped Sarah might’ve come back while I was gone. Her berth was empty, though. I climbed into mine, got into my nightshirt and packed my clothes away.

  Then I lay there in the darkness. The night outside didn’t interest me. The gentle rocking of the train didn’t soothe me. Nor did the regular clickity-clack of the wheels. When the horn hooted now and again, it sounded as mournful and lonely as my heart felt.

  By and by, I got to wondering if Elmont had already managed to win Sarah’s heart. I wondered if he’d already won her body, as well.

  They might be together in his berth.

  That notion hadn’t more than entered my head when the curtains parted and Sarah looked in at me. I reckon I was glad to see her, but I felt tight and sick inside.

  “I do hope you enjoyed yourself,” I said.

  “Are you still in a mood?” She sounded weary.

  “Oh, not at all. I’m quite delighted you prefer Elmont’s companionship to my own.”

  She reached in and stroked my cheek. “I suppose I shouldn’t have stayed away so long…”

  “But you simply couldn’t bring yourself to part company with Princess Charming.”

  “For heaven’s sake, Trevor.” She let out a long sigh, then backed away. The curtains fell shut.

  I stewed for a spell, wishing I hadn’t spoken to her that way. When you feel like you might be losing someone you love, though, you get rather crazy. You don’t act sensible. You turn mean and wild, and make things even worse.

  Well, I heard Sarah come back and settle into her berth.

  I figured this was my chance to make matters right.

 
I waited a bit, then stuck my head out the curtains and checked the aisle. It looked like a long narrow canyon walled in by swaying shrouds, dimly lit by the gas lamps at each end. Nobody was in sight.

  I climbed down to Sarah’s bed. She pulled back the covers to let me in, but I just knelt on the mattress beside her.

  My heart was pounding so hard I almost couldn’t breathe.

  “What is the matter with you?” she asked.

  “Elmont Briggs.”

  “You’ve no cause to be jealous. You’re in my bed. Elmont is not in my bed.”

  “Has he kissed you?”

  “My God, Trevor!”

  “Has he kissed you?” I asked again.

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “With his pretty red lips?”

  “Do you honestly think I would allow him such liberties?”

  “Would you?”

  “You’re talking nonsense. Now hush.” Reaching out, she slipped her hand beneath my nightshirt. It glided all warm up my leg and gently took hold of me. “I don’t want to hear another word about Elmont.”

  “I need to use the toilet,” I said.

  Before she could say anything, I started to back my way through the curtains. She gave me a soft squeeze, then let go.

  “Hurry back,” she said.

  I started toward the rear of the car, wondering why I’d left her. It wasn’t that I had any urge to use the toilet. That was just the first excuse that popped into my head. What I needed was to get shut of Sarah for a few minutes and settle down. Maybe take some fresh air. Clear my head and try to get Elmont out of it before going back to her and maybe saying things I’d have cause to regret.

  When I walked past the curtains shutting off Elmont’s area, an awful frenzy came over me. I had a notion to reach in and grab him. I wasn’t quite sure which berth might be his, though. Would’ve been awful to intrude on a stranger. So I went on along to the back of the car, tugged the door open and stepped outside.

  I wasn’t the only one there.

  Another fellow stood between the cars, his back to me, the wind tossing his long curly hair.

  Elmont Briggs himself.

  He hadn’t looked around yet to see who’d come through the door. I should’ve gone back inside, returned to Sarah and savored knowing it was me, not Elmont, in her bed.