Having finished most of the pint jar of whiskey by himself, Jeb was in a carefree sense of being, and he was in the mood to dance. As his partner he picked the seven-year-old daughter of Fred Lister to shuffle through the steps of an improvised buck dance, much to the delight of the giggling youngster. It didn’t take long before other couples took to the grassy dance floor. The dancing went on for a while before someone organized a reel, and most of the spectators joined in. Floyd and the soldier with the squeeze-box knew only three tunes they could play together, but they kept repeating them over and over.
Off to one side of the circle, Tanner Bland sat with his back against a wagon wheel, a silent spectator of the dance. He smiled as he watched Jeb Hawkins’ ungainly, high-stepping attempts to follow the music, as he changed partners—to Ida Freeman, to another of the children, then back to Lister’s daughter again. He envied his partner’s free spirit. It wasn’t all due to the whiskey he had just downed. Jeb was just naturally fun-loving, and it didn’t take much to bring that nature to the surface. Tanner’s smile faded for a moment when he remembered the last dance he had attended. It was a week before he left to join the army. It had been a bittersweet occasion, for he was there with his intended, but their wedding plans were postponed. The recollection was the first time he had thought about Ellie for a few days. He had tried to discipline his mind to avoid thoughts of her, but he could not help but wonder if she and Trenton were happy, and if she had put him out of her mind. Maybe it was a good marriage. Maybe they already had a baby on the way. That last thought brought an image to his mind that he did not want to think about, and he cursed silently, admonishing himself to put it out of his head. A movement out of the corner of his eye snagged his attention, pulling his thoughts away from Eleanor Marshall.
In the darkening shadows of the evening, she was almost unnoticeable as she stood between two of the wagons on the far side of the circle. Like a starving waif watching a noble feast, Cora Leach gazed longingly at the joyful dancers. Tanner could not help but pity her. He wondered how she had had the misfortune to be bound to a weasel like Joe Leach. I wonder how she got away from her husband to watch the dancing, he thought. He had no sooner generated the thought than the first signs of trouble appeared.
One of the soldiers in the crowd of spectators noticed the shy young woman standing in the shadows, her foot tapping in time with the music. Before Cora had time to retreat, the soldier grabbed her by the hand and pulled her out into the firelight. Protesting desperately, she tried to free herself, but he wasn’t taking no for an answer. Looking anxiously from side to side, afraid of being seen, she had no choice but to be swept into the circle of dancers. Seeing no sign of her husband or his brothers, she permitted herself to enjoy a couple of rounds of the reel before darting back to her place in the shadows. But fortune apparently seldom smiled upon the unfortunate young woman, and she found Joe Leach waiting for her between the wagons.
Cora froze abruptly when she saw her husband standing in her way. He said nothing, but the anger in his eyes lashed out at her. Without a word of warning, he struck her with his fist, driving the hapless girl out of the shadows to crumple, dazed, to the ground at the feet of one of the couples. The music stopped instantly, and a hush enveloped the celebration. All were stunned—with the exception of one.
Having seen all of the marital abuse to the helpless girl that he was going to stand for, Jeb strode over to help Cora up. “God damn you,” Joe snarled. “Get your hands off my wife!” It was all he had time to say, for Jeb whirled around and planted his fist squarely on Joe’s nose. He put everything he had behind the punch, hoping to drive his fist right through the scoundrel’s skull. Tanner would almost swear later that he heard Joe’s nose crack from across the circle of wagons.
Joe staggered backward before tripping over the wagon tongue and landing hard on his back. “You’re pretty damn good at beatin’ on women,” Jeb snarled. “Let’s see how you like it with somebody who’ll fight back.”
Joe didn’t move at once. His nose flattened, with blood streaming down into his mustache, he was too stunned to mount a defense. Finding that he could not breathe through his nose, he could only gasp for air with his mouth hanging open. With the crowd closing in around the altercation, he tried to get to his feet, but was still dazed from Jeb’s haymaker.
Terrified to a state of panic, Cora stood helpless, not knowing what to do. Afraid of what Joe might do to her if she didn’t help him, she started to go to his side. Jeb caught her elbow. “Don’t go back with that son of a bitch. He ain’t fit to have a wife,” he said.
She looked at him with frightened eyes, afraid she had no choice. “He’ll kill me if I don’t,” she replied, knowing she had no place to go.
“He’s right, honey.” Ida Freeman spoke up. “You can’t go back with that man. You can stay with Jacob and me.”
Her statement caused a look of surprise on Jacob’s face, but he rose to the Christian moment. “That’s right, Cora. You can stay with us.”
“Here, honey,” Ida said. “Let me take a look at that cut beside your eye.” She shook her head in disgust. “There’s gonna be a right nasty bruise there. You’re gonna ride with us. No woman oughta put up with trash like Joe Leach.”
As Joe Leach crawled to the wagon wheel, struggling to help himself up, he looked furtively at the faces in the crowd, all staring at him accusingly. From the other side of the circle, Tanner Bland walked almost casually over to stand a few yards behind the spectators. He knew Jeb needed no help with Joe. He was concerned about Joe’s three brothers, however, wondering why they had not responded. They were nowhere in sight. Turning his gaze back to Joe again, he watched with interest as the stunned bully steadied himself on the wagon wheel, obviously trying to decide if he should meet Jeb’s challenge or retreat to lick his wounds. In a rare moment of sanity, he decided upon the latter and turned on his heel, the sound of a growing swell of muttering in the crowd of spectators ringing in his ears.
“Bad business, this,” Jacob Freeman mumbled to Floyd Reece, who had come to stand beside him.
“I expect so,” Floyd agreed, shaking his head solemnly. “There’s liable to be hell to pay.” The two leaders of the wagon train had tiptoed around the four violent brothers ever since they joined them in Council Grove. What they had hoped to avoid might now have been triggered by Jeb Hawkins’ actions. “I don’t reckon we can blame the young feller for what he did. We all knew how that no-good son of a bitch was treatin’ his wife. But we figured it wouldn’t be our problem once we left Fort Larned. We’d be shed of ’em.”
Jacob glanced at the two women still standing near the campfire, Ida obviously trying to talk the frightened young girl out of going back to her abusive husband. While he knew that what Ida did was the right thing, he would have been a lot more comfortable had she not. “Well,” he decided, “I don’t think they’re liable to do much while we’re camped here by the fort, but when we leave here, I don’t know….” He paused when Tanner Bland joined them.
“I guess my partner might have stirred up some trouble,” Tanner said. “That Leach crowd doesn’t look like the kind to turn the other cheek. I expect Jeb and I will ride along with you a bit farther tomorrow, in case you need some extra help.”
“I appreciate it,” Jacob replied. He was about to say more, but his wife interrupted at that point.
“Cora’s gonna ride in our wagon, Jacob. Right now, I need to have somebody go with us to get her things.”
Overhearing, Jeb at once volunteered. “I’ll go with you,” he said.
Ida paused a moment, looking at Tanner standing silently by. She sensed that of the two partners, Tanner might prove to be the more formidable, but Jeb had already demonstrated his ability to stand up to challenge. Turning back to Jeb, she said, “Thank you, sir.” Taking Cora by the arm, she started toward Joe’s wagon. Jeb stepped in on the other side of Cora.
Joe was not in the wagon when Jeb and the two women approached. Cora, not
wishing to spend an instant longer than necessary, quickly went to a trunk near the front of the wagon. It didn’t take but a moment or two to collect her simple belongings, and she soon climbed down with everything she owned in her two arms. Jeb was quick to help her, taking her elbow to steady her, unaware of the shadowy figure suddenly moving up to the front of the wagon.
Burning with shame and indignation, his nose and cheek already swelling and bruised, Joe carefully pulled the wagon sheet aside to peer through at his antagonist standing at the rear of the wagon. His hand dropped slowly to rest on the handle of his pistol. As his fingers closed around the handle, he heard the warning behind him.
“I wouldn’t if I was you,” Tanner Bland cautioned softly. Joe froze with his hand still on the weapon. “All you got so far is a bloody nose. You’d best settle for that. A rifle slug is gonna hurt a helluva lot more.”
At the front of the wagon, Jeb quickly reached for his revolver when he heard the warning. He stepped in front of Ida and Cora, prepared to defend them. At the other end of the wagon he heard Tanner tell Joe to back away. A moment later, Tanner called out, “You’d best escort the ladies on back now, Jeb.”
Realizing then just how close they had come to a violent reprisal from Cora’s husband, Ida grabbed Cora by the arm and hurried the trembling girl away. Looking quickly at Jeb as she passed him, she remarked, “I didn’t even know your friend was back there.”
Jeb grinned as he replied, “Tanner’s always back there.”
“What the hell—” Ike Leach stopped in midsentence. He pulled the wagon sheet back all the way to get a closer look, then turned his head to call back over his shoulder. “Garth, come take a look at this!” Turning back to his younger brother who was sitting in the front corner of the wagon, he blurted, “What the hell happened to you?”
Joe, who had until that moment been sitting with his head tilted back, trying to find a position that eased the throbbing in his face, gazed at his brother through swollen eyes. He did not answer the question at once, dreading the berating he was bound to receive from Garth. Garth did not disappoint.
Pushing Ike aside, the huge man stared at Joe for a long moment before speaking. “I figure the man that done the job on your face is dead. If he ain’t, then I expect you’d best be explainin’ why he ain’t, little brother.”
“Where’s Cora?” Jesse asked.
Realizing then that the girl was missing, Garth stepped back from the wagon and looked left and right before sticking his head back inside. “Where is Cora?” he insisted.
“They took her,” Joe replied.
Failing to understand, Garth demanded, “Who took her?”
“They did,” was all Joe answered, nodding toward the center of the circle of wagons.
“Freeman and that bunch?” Ike asked, obviously surprised.
“Well, it weren’t Jacob, but his wife was the one that talked Cora into it,” Joe meekly explained.
Garth could not believe what he was hearing. “You let that old biddy take your wife away from you? You still ain’t told me who made a buffalo wallow outta your face. Did Ida Freeman do that?” Impatient with his brother’s lack of backbone, he said, “Crawl on outta that wagon and tell me what the hell happened here while we was over at the fort.”
Dutifully, Joe crawled out of the wagon. His three brothers crowded up close to him to inspect the damage to his face. “It was them two new fellers,” Joe offered in explanation. “That one, the one that’s been shining up to Cora, hit me when I wasn’t lookin’. I think he broke my nose. Then that Freeman bitch run off with Cora. I was fixin’ to go back and take care of that bastard, but I’m waitin’ till I can see straight.”
“What did he hit you with?” Jesse wanted to know. “A rifle butt?”
“I don’t know,” Joe lied. “I told you, he hit me when I wasn’t lookin’.”
“Well, he’s a dead man,” Garth fumed, his anger rising now. “He’ll never see the sun come up tomorrow.”
Equally eager to retaliate, but a bit cooler in the head, Ike offered his advice. “It don’t seem like a very healthy thing to go shootin’ up a bunch of people right here at the fort. We might oughta wait till we pull outta here tomorrow, and then do the job.”
“Ike’s right,” Garth said, cooling down a little. “We’ll wait till we’re on the trail again. Then, by God, we’ll have us a funeral. In the meantime, we’ll bide our time.”
“Uh-oh,” Jacob Freeman muttered under his breath.
Ida looked up to see the imposing bulk of Garth Leach approaching from across the way. She quickly glanced back at her wagon, where Cora was feeding the campfire with more wood. She immediately got to her feet and headed to the wagon. Seeing her ominous brother-in-law, Cora went to stand beside Ida at the wagon. Not waiting for Jacob to speak, Ida demanded, “What do you want here, Garth Leach?”
Garth didn’t answer until he came to a halt almost at her feet. Glowering down at her, he said, “You got some gall to talk snotty to me, ain’t you?” He glanced at Jacob before continuing, confident that he wasn’t going to cause any trouble. “Kidnapping a man’s wife, and you call yourself a Christian.” Then looking past her, he snarled at Cora, who was clutching the wagon wheel as if afraid she would be torn from it. “Cora, I’m givin’ you a chance to come on back to your husband, and you won’t be punished, so come along, girl. Get your things.”
“She ain’t coming with you,” Ida replied.
Garth glanced at her with a cold eye. “I ain’t talkin’ to you, am I?” Looking at Cora again, he said, “Come on, Cora. You’ve got chores to do.”
Speaking barely above a whisper, Cora replied, “I’m not coming back, Garth. I don’t want no more beatings. I’m gone for good.”
Garth glared at the frightened girl for a long moment before giving his warning. “You’re gonna be mighty sorry you said that.” He turned to leave, barely glancing at Jacob, who had stood without protesting the whole time.
“Maybe I’d better go on back with him,” Cora said. “I’m afraid he’s gonna cause you some trouble.”
“Nonsense!” Ida replied. “We ain’t a’feared of that big ol’ bear. Him and his brothers need to know a woman ain’t something to beat on anytime they feel like it.” Even as she said it, she cast an uncertain glance in her husband’s direction.
Jacob said nothing, but shook his head slowly before turning away. Garth Leach was hardly the kind of bully who would take a tongue-lashing from a woman and then turn tail and run. There was going to be trouble ahead for the folks in the wagon train. He wished at that point that Jeb Hawkins had not taken it upon himself to avenge the girl’s abuse. He also wished that Ida had simply kept her nose out of the affair. It’s too late to do anything about it now, he thought.
Chapter 7
Jacob Freeman was still in the midst of establishing the order of travel when someone in the group of drivers assembled around him remarked, “Now, where in the world are they goin’? Ain’t nobody told them they was leadin’ today.”
All eyes turned as one to see the two Leach wagons pulling out of camp, heading toward the trail, two of the brothers driving, and two on horseback. “Maybe they’re settin’ off on their own,” Floyd said. “They said they might fork off before we reached Fort Dodge.”
“Looks that way,” Jacob agreed, at once relieved, although somewhat surprised that the belligerent brothers would simply leave without retaliation for Cora’s desertion. Before he could comment further, someone in the small gathering issued an “Amen,” which was followed by a chorus of similar sentiments. The general mood of the travelers seemed to rise in spirit with the thought that they might have seen the last of the Leach brothers. Jacob, thinking of the twenty-wagon, thirty-man restriction, quickly called out the order of travel. “We’d best get under way before the army decides we can’t,” he said. Then turning to Fred Lister, whose wagon was to lead that day, he said, “Once we get clear of the fort, haul back a little. I ain’t anxious to c
atch up with them polecats.”
As Jacob had anticipated, Lieutenant Puckett rode out to see the travelers off. Noticing the absence of a couple of wagons, he inquired about it. Jacob told him that two of their wagons had taken an early lead to make sure they identified the right trail to Fort Dodge, and would wait for the rest of the train a few miles out. It seemed to satisfy Puckett, although he questioned the party’s decision to follow the Dry Route to Fort Dodge. “It’s been a pretty dry season,” he said, “and most folks passing on the trail have taken the Wet Route along the Arkansas.”
“I reckon that’s so,” Jacob replied, “but we’re lookin’ to save a little time, and we’re takin’ plenty of water with us.”
“Well, good luck to you folks,” Puckett said. He wheeled his horse and loped to the top of a low ridge to watch the wagons move out, following the trail along the banks of the Pawnee.
Walking beside the Freemans’ wagon, Cora Leach was more mystified than Jacob had been to find that her husband had ridden away without causing trouble. Still frightened, however, she knew it would be some time before she could rid herself of the shadow of Joe Leach, or the threatening look in Garth’s eyes when he had warned her of the mistake in her decision to leave her husband.
Glancing toward the other side of the wagon, she tried to return Ida Freeman’s smile with one of her own, but it had been a long sleepless night for Cora. She had been afraid to close her eyes for fear Garth would be standing over her when she opened them again. There had been some reassurance in knowing that Jeb and Tanner were bedded down right outside the wagon. But they were only two men, and probably the only two who might stand up to Garth Leach and his brothers. These innocent people, with whom she now traveled, had no idea how violent the evil clan could be. As she walked now, easily keeping pace with the slow-moving wagon, she could not help but continue to glance from side to side, half expecting to see Joe and his brothers suddenly appear.
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