Blood Lands

by Ralph Cotton

“Quite a tidy sum,” said the attorney, licking his large thumb and leafing through a stack of papers inside a folder he’d spread open on his desk. “Yes, here we are.” He picked up a sheet of paper and adjusted his spectacles. “In the Umberton bank, the Colonel—that is, you—have forty-two thousand, seven hundred thirty-one dollars and four cents.” He looked back at her across the top of the sheet of paper with a smile. “Will you please reconsider and make some time to get this estate properly transferred today?”

  “My goodness,” Julie whispered. “Yes, I will.”

  Chapter 13

  At the livery barn, Kid Kiley watched, grinning, while Nez Peerly backhanded Merlin Potts across his face for the third time. “You better tell him something quick, old man,” Kiley warned. “He gets tired of smacking you around, he’ll turn you over to me . . . Hell, I’ll just gut you with a pigsticker and hang you over a stall rail.”

  “One more time,” Peerly said to Potts. “What did she want here?”

  “Nothing!” said Potts, smelling the strong odor of whiskey on both men’s breath.

  Holding the helpless old man out at arm’s length, Peerly shook him, then drew back his rawhide-gloved hand. “All right, here we go.”

  “Wait!” said Potts. “Don’t hit me again! I’ve held out as long as I could. I’ll tell you what you want to hear.”

  Kiley chuckled. “See, it’s the ole pigsticker story that gets them every time.”

  “Start talking, old man,” said Peerly. “I’m ready to beat your face in with a shovel.”

  “All right, she wanted to buy a horse,” said Potts.

  “Yeah? What kind of horse?” Peerly asked.

  “A buggy horse,” the old man lied, just to be defiant. “She wanted to buy a buggy and a horse, but I told her there’s no buggy around here, for sale, rent or anything else.”

  “A damn buggy horse?” Peerly gave Kiley a puzzled look. “What would she want with a horse and buggy?”

  “Beats me.” Kiley shrugged. “But all this jawing is cutting into my drinking time. We’re not through celebrating, are we?” He looked longingly out the open front door in the direction of the saloon a hundred yards away. A drinking crowd had formed all the way out onto the boardwalk.

  “We are until this old buzzard tells us what we want to hear,” said Peerly, shaking the old man roughly.

  “Maybe she don’t ride so good,” the old man offered, trying his best to throw Peerly off.

  “Or maybe you’re lying, you old son of a bitch,” said Peerly. He drew back his hand, feigning another slap in Potts’ face.

  But the old man stood firm. “Why the hell would I lie now?” he insisted. “You think I enjoy getting the shit slapped out’n me? I said I’d tell you what she wanted, and I did. But I can’t explain why a woman wants what a woman wants! If I could, I’d have died years ago, worn to a frazzle with a smile on my face!”

  “Why you . . .” Peerly started to hit him, but Kiley cut in.

  “Hold it, Nez. The old man’s right, gawddamn it. He’s got no reason to lie to us. Let’s go get a couple drinks, talk about what the buggy is all about . . . see if we can figure what this woman’s up to.”

  Peerly shoved the old man away from him, saying, “I better not find out you’re lying to me, you old buzzard.”

  “I’m not, I swear I’m not,” said Potts.

  “Whoa now! Look at this; here she comes!” said Kiley, seeing Julie step down off the boardwalk in front of the mercantile store and walk toward the livery barn with a bundle wrapped in brown paper under her arm. He gave a sly grin. “She must’ve known we was thinking about her.”

  Potts stepped away, ran his hand across his bleeding lower lip and watched Peerly join Kiley near the open door. “Damn, Kid, she looks good all over again,” Peerly said in a lowered voice, seeing the soft sway of the yellow gingham dress as Julie walked closer.

  “Yeah,” said Kiley, “to tell the truth, I never got all I wanted of her in the first place.”

  “Well, you poor mistreated man,” Peerly teased.

  “Go to hell, Nez,” said Kiley. He grinned and chuckled. “But you’ve got to say, there’s something appealing about a woman you’ve had your way with, and she don’t even know who the hell you are.”

  “Meaning it’s worth doing all over again?” Peerly asked, watching Julie intently.

  “Meaning, hell yes it is,” said Kiley. “Captain Plantz told us stay close and keep her worried. I can’t think of anything that would worry her worse than you and me taking want we what, any damn time we want it.”

  Peerly looked over his shoulder at Potts, who stood just out of hearing range. The old man had dipped a bandanna into a bucket of cool water and pressed it to his stinging face. “When she gets here, old man, you best keep your mouth shut,” Peerly warned.

  Outside, Julie walked on toward the livery barn, thinking over what the attorney had told her. She realized that suddenly, after her years of drifting, she finally had a home of her own. Though the house had burned to the ground, she at least had land on which to build a home, after things settled for her. Someday maybe, she told herself. Right now, her thoughts had to be on Plantz and his men, and on her getting out of Umberton alive, in one piece.

  Thinking of Plantz and his militiamen, Julie gave a guarded look back and forth along the street before she stepped into the livery barn through the open doorway. In the dark interior of the big barn she saw Merlin Potts standing at a stall door, holding the wet bandanna to his lips. “Mr. Potts?” she asked, growing suddenly cautious, seeing the strange look on his face.

  When the old man only stared at her, wearing a troubled look on his weathered face, she walked forward to the stall door where he stood and said, “What’s the matter with you? You look as though you’ve—”

  Her words stopped cold as she saw Kiley step forward out of the shadows of the stall, his pistol in hand. “He looks like a man who’s been told it’s time to die, don’t he?” Kiley said, giving her a dark grin.

  Julie stopped suddenly and half turned toward the open door. But as she stood on the verge of bolting away, she realized that even if she made it safely out of the barn, she was afraid of what would become of Merlin Potts. As the thought ran through her mind, she heard the door swing slowly shut and saw Peerly walk out of the darkness toward her. “You hesitated too long, sweet Julie,” Peerly said. “Now you have to pay a price for not acting quickly enough.”

  Julie looked back and forth wildly, seeing herself trapped between the two men, seeing the look on Potts’ face as he said, “I’m sorry, ma’am!”

  Julie jerked the small pistol from her pocket and aimed it point-blank into Peerly’s face as he closed in on her. “Stop right there! Don’t take another step! I’ll shoot, I’m warning you!”

  “Aw, come on now,” said Peerly, spreading his hands in a show of peace, but making no effort to stop. “There’s no need in violence. All me and my friend want is what any red-blooded man wants from a pretty young woman.”

  “One more step and I’ll shoot!” Julie cried out. But before she could cock the pistol, Peerly was upon her, knocking her gun hand sideways and enclosing the pistol in his gloved fist before she could swing it back and shoot.

  “Too late, harlot!” Peerly shouted at her. Her wrapped bundle of clothes flew from under her arm as Peerly’s free hand balled into a fist, snapped forward and punched her hard in her already-injured face. The impact of the blow caused the gun to come out of her hand and into his grip. “When it’s time to shoot, you have to shoot, not make stupid threats!” he said, seeing her fall backward onto the straw-piled floor.

  In her fall, her gingham dress flew up to her waist, revealing her inner thighs, her pale white legs, her clean white cotton undergarments. “Oh my my!” said Kiley, stepping forward, seeing Julie flounder for a moment, unable to collect herself. “I’ll just have myself some of that while it’s warm!” He dropped his gun belt to the floor and stepped forward, loosening his trousers.r />
  “Not until I do, you randy dog!” said Peerly, laughing, grabbing him by his loosened belt and yanking him backward.

  In an instant while the two struggled back and forth like schoolboys, Julie managed to clear her head, spring up from the floor and leap over a rail into a stall. From there she scrambled around an excited roan and over a rail into another stall, closer to the rear door.

  “Damn it, Nez, now look what you’ve done!” Kiley shouted, quickly closing his trousers and snatching his gun belt from the floor.

  “Come on, Kid! Don’t let her get away!” Peerly shouted in reply. He hurried along the center of the stalls, seeing Julie race frantically over one rail after another, until she managed to scramble over the last one and out the rear door of the barn. “Gawddamn it! There she goes!” he shouted in defeat, seeing Julie race away along an alley behind a row of buildings. “You’ve got a lot to learn about cornering women, Kid!”

  Kiley ran up beside him. The two stared off after Julie until she disappeared in the long alleyway. “Let’s go get her, Nez,” Kiley said, panting, wiping his hand across his lips.

  “Hell, you could sooner catch a jackrabbit, than you could her,” said Peerly. “She ain’t in near the bad shape she appeared to be. He grinned, looking Kiley up and down, seeing his gun belt hanging from his free hand, his other hand holding his loose trousers bunched up at the waist. “Hell, you couldn’t run with something like that swinging in the wind anyway.”

  “What’re we going to tell Plantz?” Kiley asked, catching his breath.

  “We’ll tell him the damn truth,” said Peerly. “He wanted us to keep her spooked. By God, we spooked her, proper like.” He slapped Kiley on his back and chuckled as he turned and looked all around for Potts, who had slipped out the front door and made a run for it himself.

  “That old sonsabitch got away too,” said Kiley.

  “He didn’t get away,” said Peerly. “We was finished up here anyway, far as Plantz has to know.”

  Julie reached the rear door of the boardinghouse, out of breath and clutching her aching ribs. Constance Whirly met her on the back porch and helped her into the house and into a kitchen chair. “My goodness, child! What has happened to you?” she exclaimed. Brushing Julie’s hair from her eyes, she saw bits of straw still clinging to her.

  “The two . . . militiamen cornered me in the livery barn,” she gasped, out of breath, still clutching her sore rib cage. “I don’t know how I . . . got away from them.”

  “Oh, dear Lord!” said Constance. “Those bastard sons of a bitch!” She turned and hurriedly stuck a dipper into a water bucket and handed it to Julie to drink. “You mean two of the militiamen who were here yesterday?”

  “Yes,” Julie said, breathless, sipping water, still panting hard, “the privates, Peerly and Kiley. They tried the same thing all over again. Luckily . . . I got away.”

  “It’ll be a wonder if you haven’t harmed yourself, running that way.” She reached down, removed Julie’s arm from across her ribs and prodded her gently. “Are you feeling all right, I mean except from being winded?”

  “I think so,” Julie replied. She took another sip, then said, her breath coming back to her, “They took your gun from me.”

  “Before you got a chance to draw it and use it?” Constance asked, wiping her sweaty hair from her eyes.

  Julie looked ashamed. “I drew it . . . One of them knocked it from my hand.”

  “Umm-um,” Constance murmured, shaking her head. “Those bastards wouldn’t be doing this out in the open this way, unless they were told to by their captain. They wouldn’t dare. The army would have them in irons before they could say their names backward.”

  “I know,” said Julie, “Plantz and his whole militia band are against me. I don’t know why. All I want is to leave, get away from them and try to forget this ever happened.”

  “I expect that’s what they find hard to believe,” said Constance. “Fact is, I have a little trouble understanding it myself.” She paused, studying Julie’s dark eyes. “After all, they killed your pa. It seems only natural that you’d want vengeance.”

  “What I wanted was justice, within the law,” Julie said. “But the more I look for justice, the less I see of it ever coming about. At first I had no idea who the men were who killed my pa and did this to me.” She thought of the flying silver horses on Plantz’s spurs and decided to keep it as her personal secret for now. “But I’m beginning to see who did it. They seem to think that because they forced themselves on me against my will, that I somehow belong to them.”

  “As long as you allow them to keep knocking you around and frightening you, they’ll have power over you. They own a part of you. The only way you’ll ever get yourself back, is to stand up and fight back, take a piece off their lousy hides.”

  “I can’t, Constance,” said Julie. “I pulled your pistol on them today, but when it came to pulling the trigger, I couldn’t make myself do it.” As she spoke, she recalled Jed Shawler telling her almost the same thing the night he died. The thought of it sent a slight chill up her spine.

  “You’ll have to,” Constance insisted.

  “All I want is to get out of here alive,” said Julie. “I’m hoping with the war over, I can come back soon and take over my pa’s place. I found out from Attorney Freedman today that Pa left it to me.”

  “Well, that’s some good news, Julie,” said Constance.

  “Yes, I now have some land to build on,” Julie informed her. “Pa also left me some money, enough to build a home, with plenty left over.” She paused in contemplation. “But I can’t live here in peace as long as these men are running free and think they can do whatever they want to with me.”

  Constance started to say more on the matter, but a knock at her front door caught her attention, “Sit right here and rest yourself while I get the door.”

  Julie listened to Constance walk quickly to the front door, open it and say some words that Julie could not clearly make out. In a moment, the door closed; Constance walked back into the kitchen carrying Julie’s bundle of new clothes. “That was Merlin Potts,” she said. “He brought the clothes you purchased today.” She plopped the bundle down onto the table and said, “He told me that Kiley and Peerly are drinking at the saloon. Said he’s bringing your horse around back for you.”

  Julie stood up and opened the brown paper wrapping, as if expecting some sort of trick. Taking a pair of boots from between a wool trail shirt and a pair of soft canvas trousers, she sorted out a flop hat, a bandanna, riding gloves and a folded up rain slicker. She sighed and said to Constance, “It looks like everything is here.”

  “Which way will you be headed?” Constance asked.

  “I’m not sure, just away from here,” Julie replied. After consideration she said, “West, maybe.”

  “Baines’ address is on the envelope flap,” Constance said, matter-of-factly.

  “I saw it there . . . and I have thought about it,” Julie said.

  “He is a gunman,” said Constance. “If you go to him and tell him you need his help, he’ll help you.” She gave Julie a knowing look. “Tell him you have money . . . and that you want these men dead. If I know Baines, they will be before you finish asking him.”

  Julie did not answer; she only nodded, took the envelope from her dress pocket and looked at it. Then she folded the envelope, stuck it into the pocket of her new wool shirt and buttoned the pocket.

  Constance walked away shaking her head, saying, “I’ll gather you up some food and a nice clean blanket for the trail.”

  Julie carried the bundle of clothes to her small room and changed quietly. When she returned to the kitchen, Constance handed her a small canvas bag and a rolled-up wool blanket. “There’s two pounds of dried beans, some fresh cornbread, dried pork and some coffee beans in here, not enough to last you as far as Colorado. But there’s places where you can resupply yourself along the way.” She stopped, seeing the look on Julie’s face. “Listen to me go
ing on,” she said. “You’ve made this ride before, haven’t you?”

  “Yes,” Julie replied, “and it’s a long lonesome ride. I’ll need these staples to get me from place to place.” She took the bag and blanket. “I’m much obliged,” she said. The two walked out onto the back porch. Julie gazed all around before stepping down from the porch and walking over to the horse. Constance stayed close beside her. After looking the animal over thoroughly, Julie tied the blanket and bag of food behind her saddle, turned, gave Constance hug and said, “I can never repay you for all your kindness.”

  After a short embrace, Constance dabbed at her eye with a small handkerchief. “I can’t help but feel like you’re leaving here in shame, even though I know damn well you shouldn’t be. I think you’ve had enough hard knocks in this life. It’s time something good came your way.” She touched the handkerchief to her eye again.

  Julie stepped up stiffly and adjusted herself in the saddle. She offered a brave smile. “Don’t go feeling sorry for me. I’ve had my share of ups and downs, but I’m not complaining. I’ve got a good horse under me and an open road. I’ve even got a real home to come back to as soon as I get things settled.”

  “Promise me you will come back,” said Constance, seeing a tear glisten in Julie’s eye as well.

  Julie nodded, lifted the hat from her lap and pulled it down onto her head. “I’ll be back, Constance; I promise you,” she said. She turned the black barb with a touch of her boot heels and left Umberton unnoticed, taking a long alleyway out of town.

  Chapter 14

  When Kay, the youngest of the Wright girls, didn’t reply when her mother called out several times for her, Herbert Wright stood up from the kitchen table and took off his reading spectacles. “Do you see her?” he asked his wife, Margolin, who stood staring out across the yard toward the tree line, her hand visoring her eyes against the bright rising sun.

  “No,” said Margolin. “What could be keeping her? I need the bucket of water for scrubbing.” She looked concerned, but not yet worried.