“Makes everything pure again, doesn’t it?” Grandma said following Phoebe’s gaze. “Just like God’s mercy.”
Phoebe was finally ready to accept the words her grandmother said. She hated the bitterness in her heart. Maybe she’d even go as far as to ask Jacob to let her accompany him when he went back to check on the Coffmans. The children weren’t responsible for their father’s deeds.
How was Viola faring? She thought often of her sister after their hugging session. Phoebe prayed she was adjusting to married life in a crowded cabin. “Pa?”
“Yep.”
“When you marry the Widow Williams, and she moves in here, why don’t you give Viola and her husband the widow’s cabin? It can’t be good all those people shoved into one place.”
Pa stared at her as if she’d sprouted horns. “I reckon that sounds like a good idea, but who gave you the notion I plan on getting hitched?”
Phoebe cocked her head. “We aren’t stupid.”
“Well, there are still things to take care of before I can consider getting married.” He finished his soup and went to sit by the fire.
Pa was right. There was still the matter of Eli and the sheriff. That meant Phoebe shouldn’t plan on revealing her feelings to Jacob just yet. None of them needed the distraction. She stood and helped Callie clear the table while Grandma sat with her feet up in front of the fire. Phoebe could see her swollen ankles from where she stood and vowed to do more around the house until Pa brought another woman home.
While she washed the dishes, she watched the snow fall and wondered how Jacob was faring in the cold? Had his cabin warmed up yet? What would it be like to care for just him? To someday see their children sitting around the table in a cozy cabin?
She shook her head. Silly dreaming. With nothing settled, that’s all it was. Dreams. Plus, it was a daily battle to squelch her desire for revenge against Eli for all the trouble he’s done. Not only the rape, but his association with a crooked sheriff who thought nothing of shooting a boy.
She lowered her head and prayed for the strength to continuously turn the matter over to God. Finished, she turned to look at her pa. “Did you contact anyone about the sheriff shooting JJ?”
“Yes, I did. Haven’t got a response yet, but it takes a while all the way from Little Rock. Don’t fret. It’s taken care of.” Pa toed off his boots and wiggled his toes in front of the fire. “But, I’m still hoping for a shot at the man myself, God forgive me.”
He’d have to forgive them both, because Phoebe had the same revengeful thought.
20
Phoebe gathered the last of the few eggs and glanced at the two in her basket. With four eggs, they weren’t enough for a meal. Maybe Grandma could make pancakes for breakfast instead, or everyone’s favorite, chocolate gravy. They had a bit of flour and sugar left.
As she latched the gate to the chicken coop, Jacob burst from the trees. She dropped the basket and shrieked. “You scared me.” The eggs lay in pieces, their ooze soaking into the ground.
Jacob grabbed her hand. “That’s nothing. Get in the house. Where are the children?” He dragged her full speed toward the back door.
“What’s happening?” She glanced over her shoulder to see a group of men, Eli and Sheriff Johnson included, emerge from the trees, rifles propped on their shoulders. Her heart stopped. So it had come to this. They planned to shoot the Lillies from their home.
Jacob thrust her inside and bolted the door. “Ben, get the children into the loft, and move JJ from the back room. Trouble is coming.”
Without another word, the children scampered up the ladder, and JJ emerged from the bedroom. “I’m here, and I can shoot.”
“No.” Phoebe put a hand to her mouth and shook her head. “You’re still in pain.”
“I owe them one.” He shuffled to the mantel and pulled down Pa’s shotgun. Tossing it to his father, he grabbed the other two leaning against the wall and handed one to Phoebe. “Jacob, you going to shoot that gun on your hip.”
Jacob paled. “I don’t have a choice, but it won’t be much good against rifles.”
“Here.” Pa handed him his rifle and pulled his hog leg from a chest in the corner. “Us hill folk have guns a plenty.”
The rifle was heavy in Phoebe’s arms. She grabbed two boxes of shells and handed a handful to each of them. “What now?”
“We wait.” Pa stuffed his shells into the pocket on the bib of his overalls. “We won’t be the first to shoot.”
“Maybe I can talk to them. Eli might still want to marry me. He might listen.” They couldn’t hole up in the cabin while bullets flew. What if one of the children was hit? What about Grandma?
Grandma had already pulled another rifle from under the sink. “I’m ready. Been a long time since I’ve shot a varmint.”
“No, ma. The recoil will knock you on your backside.” Pa took the gun from her. “As much as I appreciate the thought, the children need you.”
“Please, Grandma.” Tears ran down Phoebe’s cheeks.
“Okay, but just so y’all know, I ain’t too old to pull that trigger.” She dragged her feet, then labored up the ladder. “I could shoot from up here just fine.”
And draw fire to the upper floor. They couldn’t let that happen. Maggie’s wails filled the cabin and a shot had yet to be fired.
“Ben Lillie!” Eli’s shout reached through the closed door. “Y’all leave peaceful like and we can avoid any more bloodshed.”
“This is my home, and you’re trespassing.” Pa leaned his shoulder against the door frame.
“You betrayed us, Ben.”
“You’re doing wrong. All of you.”
Phoebe clutched her Pa’s arm. “Tell them you’ve contacted the authorities in Little Rock. Shouldn’t they be here by now?”
“It snowed a foot last night.” Pa shook her loose. “We can’t count on them.”
Her blood ran cold. These thin walls wouldn’t stop a bullet. “We need to pile the furniture in front of us.”
“I’m already on it.” Jacob flipped the kitchen table on its side. The sound as he pushed it across the floor grated on Phoebe’s ears.
She glanced at the back door, thankful to see he’d piled what little could be moved. A few chests and a bed. She prayed it would be enough. “What if they try burning us out?”
“Then, God help us, we’ll try shooting our way free.”
The children. Nausea boiled in her stomach. She took deep breaths to calm herself and prayed for God’s intervention.
“My young’uns are in here, Eli. Have you no shame?” Pa pointed to where he wanted Phoebe and Jacob to station themselves. The house had only two windows. Pa took one and they took the other.
Phoebe met Jacob’s determined gaze. “Can you do this?”
“Can you?” He shrugged. “After accidentally killing a woman, I swore to never point my gun at another person again. Now, here I am.”
“Technically, it’s Pa’s gun.” She gave him a sad grin. What if they died today? She’d never told him she still loved him. “Jacob, I—” A bullet whizzed past her head.
JJ ducked and grabbed his side. “It hurts to move. I need to find a place to shoot from that I don’t have to duck.”
“Guard the back. Make sure no one is sneaking up us. Make every shot count,” Pa said, aiming his rifle through the window. “Shoot and duck.”
JJ nodded and duck-walked to the back of the cabin, his face etched in pain.
Phoebe’s ears rang with the volley of shots. So far, it looked as if both sides were doing nothing but showing their hand. Either that or every one of them was a bad shot. She aimed more carefully, lining up her sight, and shot one of the men she didn’t know in the foot. He dropped his gun and hollered, rolling on the ground.
“Good one.” Pa grinned. “Took him down without killing him. I doubt we’ll get that lucky with Eli or the sheriff. Mr. Wright, you need to take better aim and stop wasting my ammunition. I know how you feel about shooting,
but these men will shoot you as soon look at you.”
“I reckon I can do that. Hit them in the leg, I mean.”
Phoebe turned to tell Jacob to stifle down his fear when a bullet whizzed through the window and tore through her skirt. She screamed and fell to the floor, fire burning through her leg. “Pa, I’m hit.”
She didn’t want to die this way, shot by the same fiend who had raped her. She closed her eyes and prayed as the circle of blood under her spread.
“Dear, Lord, help my girl,” Pa prayed, too. “Jacob, can you do anything?
If anyone on earth could help her, it would be Jacob. She trusted him with everything in her.
*
“I’ll tend to her. Keep shooting.” Jacob dragged Phoebe away from the window and ripped a larger hole in her skirt.
“Stop it.” Her eyes snapped open, and she slapped his hands and tried to hold the torn pieces of bloody fabric together. “It’s not right for you to see my bare leg, and this is, was, my favorite dress.”
“Don’t be foolish. I measured for your shoe, remember? And I bought you a new dress.”
“That was the lower part and was covered by my stockings.” She hissed as he wiped at the blood.
“It’s just a graze, but the bleeding needs to be stopped, and you probably need stitches when we’re out of here.” He thought his heart had stopped when she’d screamed and fell. At that moment, he’d forgotten about his resolve not to shoot another person. Blood lust filled him to see her in pain.
“Tie something around it, so I can get back to my window.” Phoebe scowled.
“You should sit out of the way.”
“I’m needed. So are you.”
Jacob tied a dishtowel around her leg and helped her to her feet. “Stay out of sight at least.”
“I have to poke my head up once in a while or I can’t see. They got me when I got distracted. That won’t happen again.” She shook her head as if he were an imbecile. A second later, her look softened. “Did you say you bought me a dress? Jacob, if I don’t make it out of—”
He gripped her shoulders, leaving bloody handprints on the flowered fabric. “Don’t say it.” If she said the words ‘out alive’, then they might come true. “We’ll talk when this over.”
“If Phoebe is all right, I could use some help here,” Ben said. “I’m outnumbered.”
“Want me to come over there, Pa?” JJ asked. “There’s nothing happening back here.”
“No.” The three adults shouted at the same time.
Jacob peered out the window, Phoebe on the other side. She stood with her injured leg bent and bit her bottom lip. The Lillies were made of steel. Ben had taken down another one, this man holding his shoulder. “There’re two men missing.”
“Yep.” Ben nodded. “That’s who my boy needs to be looking for. Eli is a snake and will do anything to achieve his goal.”
The children screamed overhead. Jacob rushed for the ladder just as a man fell out of the loft.
Grandma leaned down. “He climbed up the oak tree, so I pushed him out of the loft. Nobody scares my babies. Doesn’t look like he’s getting up anytime soon. Doubt he’s dead, though.” She withdrew out of sight.
Jacob’s eyes widened. “Uh, JJ, tie him up.”
These people were the stuff legends were made of. The type of people who settled this great country. He couldn’t hold a candle to even an old woman born and raised in the mountains. Resolved to do his share, he resumed his place at the window, and aimed. His shot took a man in the thigh. Lord, forgive me.
“This is taking too long.” They needed to do something. Think, man. You were a police officer. This isn’t your first standoff. The tree. If a man could come up, then one could go down. “I’m going out the loft window. JJ, cover me.”
“No, Jacob.” Phoebe’s faced paled. “They’ll kill you.”
“I have to stop this before someone is killed.” He picked up his pistol from the table and shoved it into his waistband. He marched to her side, took her face in his hands, and kissed her. Not the sweetness of a first kiss, but the hard demanding one of a man who might not see the woman he loved again. “I love you.” He put his forehead against hers.
“Oh, Jacob, I love you, too. I always have. Come back to me.”
“I will.” He didn’t promise. Only God knew whether his plan would work.
He climbed the ladder, meeting Phoebe’s glance one last time before facing Grandma and the children. They watched silently, even baby Maggie kept quiet, as he reached out the window and grabbed the nearest tree trunk. He tuned and studied each of their dear faces, thankful, that for a few months at least, he’d had a family. God willing, he still would have one at the end of the day.
He sat on the windowsill, and then kicked away from the house. He dangled twenty feet above the ground before swinging his legs up and wrapping them around the trunk. Please, God, don’t let anyone come around the corner of the house. He’d be a sitting turkey.
21
Jacob raced for the cover of the trees, what little there was with winter set in. His boots left prints in the snow. Nothing he could do about it except pray no one saw.
He made a wide berth, keeping his eyes peeled for a way to sneak up behind Eli and the sheriff without getting shot by one of the Lillies. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if one of their shots missed its original target.
A twig snapped under his boot, and he froze. Would they think it only a limb breaking under the weight of the snow? He held his breath. When no shot of alarm came, he continued his slow journey around the clearing.
“You can’t win this fight, Eli.” Ben’s shout rang across the yard. “You’re down to two.”
“We can stay out here all week if we have to. Eventually, you’ll run out of food or firewood.”
“It’s pretty cold out here,” Sheriff Johnson hissed. “I don’t relish continuing this standoff for much longer. What if the feds come? We need to skip the state. Set up a still somewhere else.”
Jacob peered around a pine tree. As long as the two were arguing, they weren’t shooting. He pulled his pistol.
“What the …” Eli took a step back.
Coming from around the Lillie place was the Widow Williams, Viola and her husband, and several of the other hill families, all armed. They took up residence in front of the house and faced in Eli’s direction.
Ben whipped open the front door and stepped outside. “What now, Eli? You going to shoot everyone here?”
Eli and the sheriff whirled to run, only to stare down the barrel of Jacob’s pistol.
“Game’s over, boys. Drop your weapons.”
They cursed and dropped the rifles.
“Now, mosey on out there and say howdy to your neighbors.” Jacob motioned with the pistol. “We’ll all be real friendly.”
*
Phoebe limped onto the front porch, tears running down her face at the sight of Jacob herding Eli and the sheriff. The other men might have gotten away, but they’d be found, and the hollow would be a safe place to live again.
“You’re hurt?” Viola helped her to a chair on the porch. “I’ll send John for the doctor.”
“In a minute. I want to see the end of all this.”
“What do you want me to do with them?” Jacob poked his pistol in Eli’s back, causing the man to stumble.
“I’d like to shoot them,” Ben said. “But I’ve chosen mercy instead. They can’t help the fact they’re fools. Phoebe, you want to say anything?”
She struggled to her feet and forced herself forward. Holding onto Viola, she made her way down the stairs, and then refused any more help. The few feet it took to stand in front of Eli seemed like a mile, and her body trembled from the effort.
“I’ve nothing to say, Pa. But this.” She reared back her fist and landed a solid punch to Eli’s jaw. Shaking the pain from her hand, she met Jacob’s amused gaze, and winked. “I feel better now.”
Viola rushed forward to he
lp her back to her seat. “You bloodied his lip.”
“Good.” Phoebe laughed, feeling more freedom than she had in weeks. “Oh, that felt good.”
“Did you break your hand?”
“I don’t think so. Get me a bucket of snow, and I’ll be fine.”
The sound of an engine reached her ears and turned her head to see a car barreling in their direction. Two officers in federal uniform climbed out as soon as the vehicle stopped.
“These the men you wired about?” One asked, glancing around the group. “Looks like a war zone.”
“It was,” Pa said. “A couple crawled away, wounded, but they won’t die. We’ll give you their names, and you can round them up. We sure are glad to see you boys.” He shook each of their hands.
JJ came outside and leaned against Phoebe’s chair. “Nobody died. That’s good. The man inside is awake now.”
“Officers, there’s a man tied up in the house. He’s yours,” she said, leaning her head back. “I think I could use the doctor now.”
Viola raced to her husband’s side and within seconds he had dashed down the road. “He’s a good man, Phoebe. I hope y’all come to accept him.”
“As long as he treats you right, we’ll be fine.” She laid her head back and closed her eyes.
“Sweetheart?” She opened her eyes to see Jacob kneeling in front of her. “Let me get you into the house.” He scooped her into his arms. The safest place in the world for her.
She laid her cheek against his broad chest and listened to his heartbeat. Thankful for each thump. He’d made it back alive and risked his life for her and her family. She was a blessed woman indeed.
Jacob carried her into the bedroom and laid her on the bed that had seen so much pain and recovery lately. “At least they shot my bad leg.” She gave a shaky laugh.
He shook his head, his eyes shimmering. “I thought I’d lost you for a moment. Once the doctor arrives, you’ll be as good as new.”
“Tell that to the pain.”
He knelt beside the bed and gripped her hands. “Marry me, Phoebe. Marry me the minute you’re back on your feet.”
“I’ll stand up now if you want. Where’s that dress you bought me?”
Woman of Courage (Four Full length Historical Christian Romances in One Volume): Woman of Courage Series Page 83