by P. Creeden
“Clamming up again?” he asked with a laugh. “That’s fine. Save your voice for when we get down into Mexico. They are going to love a golden song bird like you. I might even have to ask for double.”
A shiver ran through her, even though she didn’t want to show any fear. The men laughed at it. That was fine. She consoled herself by keeping hold of the pistol. If she pulled it out now and threatened the men, they’d disarm her or kill her before she could possibly shoot all three of them. She needed to get one of them alone or something. Her mind went a bit foggy there. But would she need to keep playing along until they’d put miles of distance between her and Fort Worth? And Johnny?
Her heart sank as she watched the short one and the third ruffian begin to hitch up two Percherons to a covered wagon. Was that how they were going to be getting them out of town unseen? Just then, the door opened and a woman walked in with a bonnet tied around her head. Ruby nearly shouted for the woman to run, but she was too late. The man chewing tobacco scooped the woman up into his arms.
And the woman giggled. The sound of it sent another shiver down Ruby’s spine.
Then the man gave her a kiss and set her back on her feet. She looked around at the other women crouching on the floor and lifted her chin as though she were higher in stature than all of them. “Bind them up good and gag them. Throw the blankets and goods over top. If we get stopped at all on the trail they can’t make a sound, got it.”
Ruby stifled a gasp. The woman was in charge? How could she treat other women in this way.
Somehow Ruby must have given away her feelings by her expression because when the woman in the bonnet met eyes with her, she frowned. “Don’t you go looking at me like that. You’ve got no right. You’re trash. All of you saloon girls are trash. We’re just taking you to a place where you’ll be far away from where decent folks are raising their children. No more wives will have to worry about you tempting their husbands into adultery.” Then she spit toward the women, and they all scrambled away from her as though her spittle would cause them pain.
Nothing the woman said was truth. Ruby couldn’t take the lies. Slowly she stood. “A real gentleman doesn’t need to have temptation kept from him. He avoids it on his own.”
The woman’s glare fixed on her, her eyes going crazy wide. “What did you just say?”
“These women are not trash. They may have been in a bad situation. They don’t have husbands or fathers or brothers to protect them, so they are trying to make it on their own. Who are you to look down on them just because your situation might be better? Doesn’t Jesus say, ‘Judge not lest you also be judged?’“
The woman laughed--no--cackled like a mad woman. Then she shook her head. “Is this saloon girl quoting the Bible to me? Ernest, show this woman her place.”
The bigger man blinked and frowned at Ruby. “But if I bruise her, she’ll be worth less. Look at her. She’s too delicate to take much of a beating.”
With a growl, the woman picked up a carriage whip that had been set against a pillar in the barn. “Do I have to do everything myself around here?” She slashed the whip through the air, making all of the other girls flinch and whimper. Then she slapped the end of the whip sharply against her own palm. “Fine I’ll do this myself.”
Chapter 12
“Hey,” a deep baritone said through the haze in John Mark’s head as a hand shook his shoulder. “Are you all right?”
John Mark blinked, his head clearing, though there was still pain flashing through the back of it at the base of where his head met his neck. His hand went there and touched it, searching for blood.
“You’re not bleeding,” another voice said. “Do you think you can make it to your feet?”
“Ruby,” was the first thing that John Mark said as his eyes landed on the rose that still lay on the boardwalk. Blood rushed to his face and he suddenly felt dizzy, but he needed to get to his feet. He needed to find Ruby.
Hands helped him up to stand, and the two faces became clearer. One of them had a sheriff’s star on his lapel. The sheriff shook his head. “Easy now there, you’ve been hit hard.”
“How long have I been out? Did anyone see who did this? Did anyone see the direction that he took Ruby?”
“There were two men,” the other man said. John Mark remembered seeing him in the saloon. His handlebar mustache was easy to remember. “Marshal Quinton followed them.”
“Which way did they go?” John Mark asked, his hand reaching for the pistol on his side.
“I said take it easy there, buddy. You need to take a minute to get your bearings. The marshals have got this. They’ve been following you from a distance and stayed out of it when they took the bait.”
Anger welled up in John Mark. “She’s not bait! She’s my wife!”
Both men took their hands off of him at his outburst. “Wife?” the handlebar mustache guy said. “I thought she was the Pinkerton agent sent for this mission. She was wearing the rose. Shoot... they called her Rose.”
John Mark rubbed the spot on the back of his head where he’d been hit. The soreness was subsiding and he was beginning to think a bit straighter. “She is. She is a Pinkerton Agent. She’s also my wife. And yes. She’s allowed herself to be bait for the outlaws who have been abducting saloon girls. All of that is true. Now. Are you going to show me the way we need to go to get her back or am I going to have to figure it all out for myself?”
The sheriff let out a slow, disappointed breath. “You’re going to have to remain calm or you’re not going to help matters. We need stealth. Marshal Quinton followed them in the hopes that they would lead us to the other girls. There’s not much point in this whole charade if we only rescue your girl, now is it?”
Even though his jaw flexed, John Mark nodded. They were right.
“Good,” said the man with the handlebar mustache. “I’m Marshal Wainwright. This is Sheriff Ketchum.”
“John Mark Lee. My wife is Ruby.”
“Now we’re all acquainted. Marshal Quinton went toward the west end of town. You’ve only been out about five minutes, so we’re about five minutes behind. Let’s go.”
Finally, they were getting somewhere. John Mark followed the two men toward the end of town. About a hundred yards from there, they found a red shoe. John Mark picked it up. “It’s Ruby’s.”
“Smart girl... um... agent. I guess she’s a Pinkerton after all,” the sheriff said with a smile.
They continued on in the darkness while thunder rolled in the distance. A storm was coming. John Mark frowned, and hoped that rain wouldn’t interfere with all that they had going on. The last thing he needed was to lose Ruby’s whereabouts because of a storm. He swallowed hard. As they were approaching a farmhouse with no lights in it, they found another red shoe.
“She did good,” Marshal Wainwright whispered just as the barn door next to the farmhouse opened, allowing the light from a lantern within to shine out toward them like a beacon. Wainwright cupped his hands to his lips turned around so that his back was to the barn and then he made the hoot of an owl that sounded farther away than where they stood.
A low hoot answered, just beside the barn.
“This is it. The barn is where the girls are. Let’s go up, but as quiet as you can,” the marshal added as they all spread apart and surrounded the building.
In the darkness, the glint of the other marshal’s weapon came into view before he even did. Then the voices from within the barn became audible. ”Do I have to do everything myself around here?” a female voice shrilled. Then there was the sound of a whip whistling through the air and slapping against flesh. ”Fine I’ll do this myself.”
Through a gap in the two back barn doors, John Mark spied a bright red dress and knew immediately who stood in it even though her back was turned toward him. But a woman in a bonnet approached her with a sneer on her face. And then the lady lifted an arm that held a whip over her head as she glared at Ruby. All the fire that had been surging through John Mark
before heated his face. And he found himself crashing through the barn doors.
A man spat a curse and then gunfire. Bullets flew in several directions, and John Mark could barely catch the direction they were coming from.
“Get down,” he yelled, hoping that Ruby would hear him and do as he said.
Even though his pistol was drawn, John Mark didn’t fire a single round. He couldn’t get a clear shot, and wasn’t entirely sure who the enemy was. Then he caught sight of the woman with the bonnet. She had hold of the lantern and tossed it to the ground. It shattered against the barn floor and immediately the hay surrounding it caught fire. Women screamed. Then he found Ruby herding the other women and taking them toward out the side door of the barn. The fire licked its way up the pillars of the barn and lit everything as though the sun was rising.
Two Percheron horses hooked up halfway to the harness reared and burst their way through the doors, destroying the wagon that they’d been pulling in their wake. The cover of the wagon caught fire, so the horses pulled the fire with them in a nightmarish way. Luckily as the cart continued to burst, the horses got free and continued running away from town. The wagon did nothing more than add a distraction for the ruffians within the barn. John Mark took this opportunity to get up and make his way in a crouch toward the small side door that he’d seen Ruby and the other women escape through.
Once outside, he blinked his eyes hard a few times to try to clear them up so that he could see in the sudden darkness. After a moment, he was able to make out several shapes as they climbed through the fence to get to the pasture and get distance between them and the barn. John Mark followed them, keeping an eye behind them to make sure that they weren’t followed by a villain. More gunshots were fired within, and he saw a man running out the front of the building with his shirt ablaze. He dropped to the ground and another man covered him with a blanket to smother out the flames.
John Mark turned back around and rushed toward the women. “Ruby! It’s me! Are you all right? Is everyone all right?”
“Johnny!” she cried out, and stood straighter, making herself taller than the other women. Her blonde hair which had been put up perfectly before flew loose and wild in the breeze. Her blue eyes shined. “We’re right here. And yes, everyone is fine.”
Sudden relief washed over him and warmth. He’d rejected the name Johnny when he joined the war and had everyone call him John Mark since—only his family persisted in using the nickname. But he loved that Ruby called him Johnny. It made them feel more intimately connected. And right there, he decided he wanted her to be part of his family. He holstered his gun so that he could climb under the fence with the women. The moment he got to the other side, one of the women in the pack leapt forward with a pistol in hand
“You!” the women screeched, eyes wild. “You’re the one who started all this.”
John Mark was staring down the barrel of a weapon at a woman with wild eyes and hair. He didn’t have time to draw his weapon. He swallowed hard. “What’s all this about? We can work this out. You’re safe now.”
“I was always safe. Don’t loop me in with this... saloon trash.”
And suddenly it dawned on John Mark. The woman in the bonnet. But her bonnet was gone now, and her reddish-brown hair was pulled back in a loose bun.
She cocked her pistol. “All I have to do is get rid of you and I can escape this nightmare.”
The bang of a gun. John Mark flinched, his final thoughts full of all the regrets he had. He was sorry that he wasn’t able to keep Ruby safe. Sorry that he wasn’t able to visit his parents again. Sorry that he wouldn’t be able to help Geoffrey get his life to a solid in Denver. Then he realized that he wasn’t in any pain. And became even more confused as he watched the woman scream, drop her weapon and collapse to the ground.
Behind the woman, Ruby stood there with a pistol. Smoke rose from the small derringer in her hand.
“Ruby?” John Mark blinked at her.
“She shot me!” the woman on the ground screeched, a hand on her right shoulder, trying to staunch the blood that oozed through her fingers. “She shot me! I’m dying!”
Ruby bent down and picked up the other pistol. “You’re not dying, witch. I only shot you in the shoulder so you couldn’t use the arm you held the gun with.”
The woman began to sob and cry, but John Mark could barely hear it. The other women rushed over and began kicking her while she was down.
Ruby held out her hands. “Whoa! Stop. Don’t debase yourself to the same level as her. She may have mistreated you, but remember to turn the other cheek. Help her now or she’ll bleed too much. Show her kindness. Usually this kind of anger stems from pain. She must have been hurt severely by someone to be like she is.”
They all nodded. But the woman spat toward her. “Don’t behave like you know who I am or all about me. I don’t need your patronizing.”
Ruby shook her head, replaced her own pistol in the pocket she’d had hidden in her dress and then held out the other gun toward John Mark. He didn’t even take it. Instead, he scooped Ruby up into his arms and held her tightly to him. “I was so scared they’d hurt you,” he whispered hoarsely into her hair.
She patted his back and then rubbed his shoulder as though consoling him. “I’m fine. No one hurt me. Thank you for coming to our rescue.”
He pushed back, swiping at the tears that had fallen from his eyes. “I didn’t do very much.”
She laughed, grabbed hold of his arm and squeezed it against her. “You did more than enough.”
Chapter 13
The sun’s rays began brightening the sky just before sunrise in the west, and Ruby longed for her bed. They’d spent the whole night putting out the fire with some of the soldiers from the fort while the marshals rounded up the two men who were still alive and got the doctor to tend to the woman who Ruby had shot. The owner of Steele’s Tavern offered to give the displaced women a room for the rest of the night and until noon, when the stagecoach would arrive to take them back to Dallas and Frisco.
Ruby yawned and leaned harder against Johnny as they made their way back to the hotel. His hand held hers and the with the rest of her body, she held his arm. She clung to him as though he were a safety line. And for her, he was. It wasn’t just that he kept her safe physically, either. Johnny didn’t know it yet, but he held her heart as well. For some reason, she knew it was safe with him. He would take care of her, she was sure, just as he had the entire mission. The started up the stairs, and she stumbled slightly in her exhaustion.
Johnny caught her, his eyes going wide. “Maybe I should carry you up.”
She huffed a laugh and squeezed his arm tighter. “No you shouldn’t. I’m fine. Just let me lean against you more.”
And he did. It was inappropriate for her to cling to a man like this. It wouldn’t be if he was her real husband, but he wasn’t he was just her pretend husband. One on paper. No more her husband than if he were playing a part in a play. This made her heart break as she headed up the stairs, and a sadness came over her she wasn’t expecting. When they reached the doors of their rooms, she was loathe to let go. Tears leaked from her eyes as she kept hold of his arm and didn’t look up.
Johnny squeezed her shoulders with his other arm and pulled her in a full embrace. Then she felt him kiss the top of her head, and that made her look up in surprise. He looked down at her with the kind of affection she’d only felt from her father when she was a small child. Then he took a thumb and wiped it across her cheeks, pushing away her tears. “You’re tired and should get some rest. After I rest a bit, I’ll send a telegram to Archie. I think we should stay here in Fort Worth a few days and make sure that we’re not needed as witnesses in a trial for those people.”
All business. Ruby nodded, a lump forming in her throat. She liked that they would stay married for a few more days at least. That was something. But would Johnny continue to take care of her like he’d been now that the danger was passed? Somehow, she didn’t think so
, and that caused more tears to slip over her cheeks.
His brow furrowed with confusion. “Are you more than just tired? Are you all right?”
She wanted to say more to him... to say something, but words wouldn’t make it past the lump in her throat. As she continued to keep her eyes fixed on his, she shook Her head. She wasn’t all right.
“What is it?” he asked.
But she couldn’t give him an answer. She just kept looking into his eyes as the tears slipped from her own. He’d read her better than anyone she’d ever met, and now she wished for him to understand what she felt without her saying the words. She wished for him to just know.
A small smile played on his lips. “I don’t want to let you go, either.”
And then he pulled her into a hug again and held her tightly. Her hands released his arms and then wrapped around his waist, squeezing him just as tightly as he held her. If she never had to let him go, it would be too soon. After several moments, though, he loosened his hold, and kissed her on the forehead this time. She looked up at him, but didn’t let go.
He shook his head at her. “How is it possible to feel so attached to a person after only a few days? I... I never knew I could feel this way. I’d call it love if I believed that it was possible...no. I call it love now. Ruby, I believe I’m in love with you.”
Her heart burst in her chest as a smile spread across her face, so wide it made her cheeks hurt. And finally, the lump in her throat receded. “I love you, too, Johnny. I do. I know I do.”
He laughed and squeezed her against him again. And this time, there were no tears for her to wipe against his lapel. She felt safe and welcome in his arms. Exactly how she always wanted to feel. When he released his hold on her this time, she looked up at him again, and he leaned toward her, his eyes half-lidded.
When his lips touched hers, she gasped. He hesitated and started to pull away. But she didn’t let him. She released his waist with her arms and wrapped them around his neck, pulling him back in. He chuckled as their lips met again. And he kissed her deeply, warmly, perfectly. And she felt the fire that started there like an ember that slipped across her skin and lit a fire in her core. It was her first kiss, and her first love, and the first time she’d ever just wanted to never let someone go.