Autumn Lover

by Elizabeth Lowell

  “Don’t show any light,” Hunter said.

  Elyssa nodded.

  “Someone will come to you after dawn,” Hunter continued. “Sonny, probably. Morgan has done wonders with that boy.”

  “Why can’t I wait for you on the ridge at Wind Gap and—”

  “No,” Hunter interrupted curtly. “You’ve plenty of food and water. Even if a few of the raiders get away from us, you’ll be safe here while we drive the cattle to Camp Halleck.”

  Elyssa closed her eyes and turned away, struggling not to show her fear to Hunter. The terror wasn’t for her own safety.

  It was for his.

  “Elyssa?” Hunter said urgently.

  “I’ll stay. Will you…” Her voice frayed.

  “What?”

  “After you sell the cattle, will you…”

  Come back to me?

  But Elyssa couldn’t say the words aloud. Those were the words of a sweetheart or a wife, a woman who had some claim to a man’s respect, his trust, his esteem.

  Her only claim was to Hunter’s body.

  “Never mind,” Elyssa whispered. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Tell me, honey.”

  Closing her eyes, Elyssa shook her head wearily. Tears slipped from beneath her lashes.

  Hunter wanted very much to take her in his arms and kiss away her anxiety, but he knew it would be futile. Elyssa was too intelligent not to understand the danger of this raid to everyone involved.

  What haunted Hunter was that the danger might be even greater to those who stayed behind. His greatest fear was that Ab Culpepper had been waiting to be raided all along.

  It was what Hunter would have done in Ab’s place.

  Pick your killing ground and wait for the enemy to come to you, Hunter thought in bleak silence. Spring the trap. Pin them down in a cross fire and cut them to ribbons.

  That was just one kind of trap Hunter easily could imagine. Another would be to have a few men engage the enemy…while the rest of your men stole away to wreak havoc elsewhere.

  The Ladder S, for instance.

  The thought was like a lump of ice in Hunter’s gut. It was why he had put off raiding the Culpeppers until time had run out and there was no other choice.

  He was cutting it very fine as it was. There would barely be enough time to drive the cattle to Camp Halleck before the first day of winter.

  Maybe Ab is just lazy rather than wise.

  Maybe.

  Grimly Hunter wished that he had more men to leave behind at the ranch. The Herrera brothers had insisted on going with Hunter, which meant only Lefty and Gimp remained to guard the Ladder S. The old hands were game, but were still only two against however many raiders Ab might throw at them.

  Elyssa and Penny were both good shots, but the idea of them going up against the Culpepper raiders left the brassy taste of fear in Hunter’s mouth.

  The thought of what would happen if Ab got his hands on Elyssa was unbearable.

  “Elyssa.”

  Hunter’s hoarse whisper reached Elyssa the instant before his mouth closed over hers. The kiss was as hard as his thoughts, but Elyssa made no complaint. She simply wrapped her arms around Hunter and gave back the kiss with all of the leashed wildness inside her.

  “Promise me,” Hunter said urgently.

  “Yes,” Elyssa whispered.

  An instant later the kitchen door closed behind Hunter. He paused long enough to hear the bar thumping into place. Then he set off for the barn.

  Hunter and Morgan rode out of the ranch yard first. They sat warily, repeating rifles drawn and laid across the saddle, their eyes quartering the darkness for any sign of movement.

  They saw only wind blowing through trees stripped of all but a few pale leaves. Clouds raced overhead, veiling and unveiling the stars. The moon gave enough illumination to reveal movement.

  A hunter’s moon.

  Reed and Fox left the Ladder S a few minutes afterward. Their destination was the same as that of the first two men, but their route was slightly different. They had another part of the Ladder S to ride over, hoping to find raiders.

  Or be found by them.

  Live bait for a trap that could swing shut on them without warning.

  By twos, the remaining men slipped into the darkness. Each took a different trail to the same place.

  Hunter and Morgan rode to the rendezvous point and waited, listening intently to the small noises of the night.

  No sound of shots came. No alarm was raised.

  Two by two, men began materializing out of darkness at the rendezvous. Soon all but the final pair of men had arrived.

  Hunter sat off to the side on Bugle Boy, glancing at his watch.

  Case, damn it, where are you? Hunter thought impatiently. The longer we wait here, the more likely we are to be discovered.

  Two more minutes. Then the last vaqueros will be here.

  I can’t wait any longer than that.

  Seconds ticked into the moonlight like fleeing ghosts. Silently Hunter prayed that Case wasn’t lying wounded or dead in some nameless ravine. And as Hunter prayed, he couldn’t help remembering the time he had queried Case on how secure his position was with the raiders.

  Do they trust you?

  As much as they trust anyone who isn’t a Culpepper.

  Two men rode up quietly. Their wide-brimmed hats were silhouetted against the moonlight.

  Morgan rode to Hunter’s side, saw the watch in his hand, and waited.

  The last second fled.

  The watch clicked shut with a final sound.

  “No sign of Case, suh,” Morgan said softly.

  “We’ll have to go in without him.”

  “Yes, suh.” Then, unhappily, “It’s not like him.”

  “No,” Hunter whispered. “It isn’t.”

  “I’ll pray for him.”

  “Pray for all of us.”

  Hunter urged Bugle Boy forward. Morgan came up alongside. The other men fell in behind, two by two.

  They had gone less than a quarter mile when they heard the sound of a horse running hard, destroying the silence of the night.

  The horse was coming toward them.

  Hunter signaled everyone into cover. Then he spurred Bugle Boy down a steep ridge, racing toward whatever was coming at him out of the night. The big stallion plunged forward in wild leaps, then sat on his hocks and slid the rest of the way down.

  “Damn,” Sonny said under his breath. “That man sure can ride.”

  “He shoots better,” Morgan said.

  The men watched from cover as Bugle Boy hit the flats and raced recklessly over the moonlit land.

  After several hundred yards a horse burst from a ravine and ran toward Hunter. The horse’s rider was crouched low over the animal’s neck, barely a shadow against the flying mane. A rifle barrel gleamed dully in the moonlight. There was no bulk of a saddle on the horse’s hard-running body.

  “Bareback,” muttered Fox.

  “Injun,” Mickey said, lifting his rifle.

  Morgan knocked it aside.

  “What the hell!” Mickey said. “I had him dead to rights!”

  “Be glad you didn’t pull the trigger,” Morgan said curtly. “That’s Hunter’s brother out there.”

  “His brother?” Mickey said. “I didn’t know he had one.”

  “You do now. Keep it in mind. Case is as hard a man as you’ll find on the right side of the law.”

  Morgan watched the two riders below. Within seconds, his worst fears were confirmed.

  Case didn’t bother stopping to talk to Hunter. He simply shouted something and swept past at a dead run.

  He was heading for the Ladder S.

  Fully dressed, Elyssa paced her bedroom like a caged animal. Back and forth. Back and forth. She looked through first one gun slit, then the other. Then she paced.

  Back and forth. Back and forth.

  Peer through gun slits toward the B Bar.

  Back and forth. Back and for
th.

  Stare out the other window, two more gun slits.

  Listen for the sound of shots.

  “Where are you, Hunter?” Elyssa whispered. “You and Morgan and all of the men. Are you all right? Have you found the cattle? Have the Culpeppers found you?”

  Only silence answered Elyssa’s questions. The ranch yard was empty. The dogs were quiet. Penny was in her room, trying to sleep. Lefty and Gimp were downstairs drinking coffee in the kitchen, trying not to sleep.

  Elyssa looked at her watch. More than an hour had gone by since the men had ridden out by twos into the darkness.

  Like a restless ghost she went from window to window. Back and forth. Back and forth.

  Stare out the gun slits.

  Dawn was coming on in a shimmer of pale orange and red and yellow. The peaks were already glowing. Soon daylight would slide down the rugged mountains and fill the Ruby Valley with light.

  Elyssa barely noticed the beauty of the gathering dawn. She simply paced back and forth.

  Three equally spaced shots shattered the night’s silence.

  Danger.

  Carbine in hand, Elyssa turned and ran downstairs, calling to the others every step of the way. When she reached the first floor, Penny was standing in her bedroom doorway. She was carrying Elyssa’s shotgun.

  “What is it?” Penny asked quickly.

  “I don’t know. Just three shots.”

  Suddenly the dogs erupted into a frenzy of barking.

  Elyssa ran to the shutter and peered through a slit. She saw a racing shadow in the darkness that preceded dawn. Moments later she made out the shape of a horse galloping flat out toward the ranch house from the direction of Wind Gap.

  Elyssa’s heart soared in the instant before she realized that big, broad-shouldered rider who was crouched low on the horse’s neck wasn’t Hunter.

  “Don’t shoot!” she yelled to Lefty and Gimp.

  “Sassy, you know we don’t never shoot at what we can’t personally i-den-ti-fy!”

  Ignoring the indignant reply, Elyssa stared into the darkness where hoofbeats made a rolling thunder.

  The horse galloped past the garden and right up to the front porch of the house.

  “Open up!” Case yelled.

  Elyssa was already yanking the bar out of its supports before she heard Case’s command. He dove through the doorway just as gunfire broke out beyond the barn.

  “Don’t shoot!” Case commanded. “Hunter and the rest are coming in behind me!”

  “Front or back?” Elyssa asked.

  “Any damned way they can. The Culpeppers will be all over them like a rash in about two minutes. Close that door, but don’t bar it yet.”

  Elyssa slammed the door shut behind Case. He went from rifle slit to rifle slit, peering into the fading darkness.

  The sound of galloping horses came from the distance like a mutter of drums.

  “Lefty!” Elyssa called out.

  “Yo!”

  “Come in here and cover me when I open the door. Penny, Gimp will cover you at the kitchen door. If you men see any strangers coming in, shoot.”

  “Hunter won’t like having you anywhere near the doors,” Case said bluntly. “A lot of bullets could be coming through with the men.”

  Elyssa said only, “How good are you with that rifle?”

  “Tolerable,” Case said dryly.

  “The approach to the back door can be covered from the nursery upstairs. The front approach can be covered from the first bedroom on the left.”

  Case was running for the stairs before Elyssa finished speaking. He went up them with the speed and coordination of a cougar. She could barely stand to watch. Case was so like Hunter in his size, his build, his way of moving.

  Gunfire erupted through the night in a deadly staccato hail, drowning out the growing rumble of horses’ hooves.

  Hunter, Elyssa thought. Oh, God. Hunter!

  Lefty came to stand beside Elyssa at the front door. The sound of glass shattering upstairs told her that Case was breaking out a windowpane to make room for his rifle barrel.

  The pounding of horses’ hooves became a rolling thunder sweeping toward the house.

  “Our men are coming in the back way!” Case called from upstairs. “Get ready!”

  Elyssa forced herself not to run toward the darkened kitchen. Her job was at the front of the house, not the back.

  Rifle fire erupted from the upstairs.

  “Some are coming to the front!” Case called. “Get ready! The Culpeppers are right on their tails!”

  Lefty moved to a rifle slit by a window, broke out the glass pane, levered a round into the chamber, and waited. Even though the old hand had refused to sign on for gunfighting wages, he was calm and efficient in his movements.

  “Open the kitchen door!” Case yelled.

  Abruptly the sound of horses and gunfire became louder, telling Elyssa that the kitchen door was open. She didn’t turn away from the front door even when she heard shouts and curses and Ladder S men calling out their own names as they fought their way into the kitchen.

  “Front door!” Case yelled.

  Elyssa threw it open and then ran to the nearest rifle slit, carbine in hand. She peered out and saw nothing but a turmoil of shadows lunging out of the darkness that preceded dawn.

  Bullets thudded into the thick wood of the house as Elyssa lifted her carbine to break out the glass. Before the steel barrel met windowpane, glass exploded. She flinched and gave a startled cry. Then she realized that the raiders had done her a favor—now she wouldn’t have to break the glass herself.

  On the other side of the door, Lefty fired several times at a muzzle flash in the cottonwoods along the stream.

  Men hurtled through the open doorway. Lefty yanked his rifle out of the gun slit and turned toward the men, listening and watching. They were calling out their own names as they lunged into the room.

  “Fox!”

  “Reed and Blackie!”

  Dimly Elyssa realized that Reed was supporting the other man. Blood gleamed like wet paint on Blackie’s pant leg above the low top of his boot.

  “Hunter set up a dispensary in the root cellar,” Elyssa said tightly. “No light will show from there. Penny! We have an injured man!”

  “I’ll take the kitchen door, ma’am,” said Fox.

  There was a pause, then two more men raced through the front doorway.

  “Sonny here,” said the first man. “Morgan is right on my ass.”

  A dark shadow leaped through the door after Sonny and dove to one side.

  “Morgan,” said the shadow. Then he raised his voice and shouted, “Close and bar the kitchen door!”

  “Yo!” Gimp answered from the back of the house.

  Elyssa held her breath, waiting, waiting.

  No other men hurtled through the open front doorway.

  “Hunter,” Elyssa cried. “Hunter.”

  She didn’t know she had gone to the opening to call out his name until Morgan yanked her out of the doorway. Bullets whined and screamed through the dark room.

  Morgan slammed and barred the door. Bullets thudded into the triple-thick planks.

  “Ammunition!” Case yelled from upstairs.

  “Ma’am?” Sonny asked.

  “In the root cellar,” Elyssa said numbly. “There’s plenty. Hunter saw to it.”

  “Two boxes for everyone,” Morgan said.

  “Follow me,” she said.

  As Sonny followed Elyssa down an indoor stairway and into the basement, the young man’s eyes widened in appreciation of Hunter’s preparations.

  Lantern light glowed up from a corner of the large, dirt-walled room at the bottom of the stairway, illuminating the cellar. In addition to the usual sacks of onions and carrots, potatoes and apples, there were ranks of barrels, stacks of ammunition boxes, and seven cots with blankets. Other boxes and full gunnysacks of supplies were stacked neatly about, waiting to be used.

  Blackie was on one of th
e cots. One of his boots was off. Penny was working over his leg.

  “By God,” Sonny said, taking it all in. “Morgan wasn’t fooling, was he? Our ramrod must have been some kind of Johnny Reb soldier boy.”

  “Yes,” Elyssa said. “He was.”

  She turned away. The thought of Hunter outside in the danger an darkness was too painful for her to bear.

  “The ammunition is over there,” Elyssa said tautly. “As soon as you get some to Case, distribute boxes to the other men.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Sonny said.

  While he grabbed cartridge boxes, Elyssa asked the question that had been gnawing at her.

  “Hunter? Did you see him?”

  “No, ma’am. He was back up on the ridge, covering our retreat. That man can shoot like hell on fire. Without him, we wouldn’t have made it through Wind Gap without being cut to doll rags.”

  Sonny straightened and trotted past Elyssa on his way to the stairs.

  “Excuse me, ma’am. They’ll be needing these cartridges.”

  Sonny ran up the stairway.

  “How is he?” Elyssa asked, turning to Penny.

  Blackie answered before Penny could.

  “It’s just my calf,” he said, disgusted. “Soon as Miss Penny wraps it up, I’ll be ready to fight.”

  “That’s not necessary,” Elyssa said.

  “The hell it ain’t,” he retorted. Then, “Excuse me, ma’am, but there’s more than forty raiders out there. We need every hand.”

  “Hold still,” Penny said. “I’m going to wash the wound.”

  “Hell, ma’am, just pour some whiskey through it and get me out of here.”

  “As you wish.”

  Liquid gurgled out of a bottle. Blackie hissed a string of words that both women pretended not to hear. Penny began wrapping the wound. She had barely knotted the bandage before Blackie swung his legs off the cot, crammed his foot back in his boot, and picked up his rifle.

  When Blackie’s injured leg took his weight, he grimaced, paled, swore…and walked unevenly to the stairway, using the butt of the rifle as a crutch.

  Elyssa turned to follow him.

  “Wait,” Penny said to her. “You’re bleeding.”

  “What?”

  “Your face,” Penny said simply.

  Elyssa held her hand up to her face. Her fingers came away red and sticky. She stared at them, shocked. Only then did she realize that her forehead and right cheek stung as though on fire.