by Holly Bush
“Except the Thurmans, that is,” another said. “They run the town.”
“The Thurmans? And it’s not called Thurmantown?” Adam asked, eliciting laughter.
Matt watched his brother and knew for a fact what he’d always suspected. Adam was a leader and maybe born for politics. God knew the country could use some honest, cool heads while the country rebuilt itself.
“They’re a dangerous family, make no mistake,” an older man said, maybe someone of some prominence in Harrisonburg. Everyone within listening distance went quiet when he spoke. “I grew up there and know Abraham Thurman. There’s not a crueler human being on God’s earth and no one happier to inflict pain than him.”
“Is that right, sir?” Adam asked. “We’re heading there tomorrow.”
“My advice is stay out of their way, do your business, and move on, or be prepared to do battle. Thurman is casual about taking a life and wouldn’t blink to kill a pair of strangers.”
“What does the law say about that?” Matt asked.
The man barked a laugh. “There hasn’t been a lawman in Bridgewater that wasn’t owned by the Thurmans in some way, either through a payment of money or fear. My sister still lives there and sends me letters now and again. Nothing has changed in forty years, and maybe it’s gotten worse.”
Adam and Matt walked to the hotel after shaking hands with the men they spoke to and leaving the barman a generous tip.
“We’re going to be up against it, Matt,” Adam said finally.
“Stay here if you want,” Matt said. “This isn’t your fight, and I don’t think I could take one more bit of guilt piled on my head if you were to get hurt.”
“I’m coming with you. I don’t like bullies. And I’ve hankering to meet the woman that has my brother so twisted in knots he doesn’t know his head from his ass.” Adam chuckled.
“You wait. One of these days some woman’s going to make you feel like I do now—the thought of her in danger is making me want to kill something or somebody right now.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
“I don’t plan on fighting fair tomorrow. I’ll do as little killing as possible but I won’t shy from it, either.”
“That’s the Gentry way, Matt. I’ll be right beside or behind you, depending on how foolish you’re being.”
Matt laughed, and it felt good. Tomorrow would be time enough for serious thoughts. For now, he was going to close his eyes and dream about his Annie.
Annie woke up, her cheek in cold dirt, in the dark. Her chest hurt, she had a large, tender lip, and the side of her head pounded where Miles had hit her, but for all her crying and all the possibilities of injury and humiliation, she was still in one piece. She slowly lifted her head from the dirt floor.
“Annie? Are you awake finally?”
“Gilly? Gilly? Where are you?”
“Let your eyes adjust. There’s a slant of light coming in through two of the stones. Are you all right?”
Slowly Annie made out the figure of her friend, a few feet away. She crawled to her and held her hands. Her eyes were adjusting, and she could see now that Gilly had a black eye and her bottom lip was fat.
“Oh, Gilly! What have they done to you?”
“I’m fine. They hit me a few times, I can see a bruise on the side of your face. They’ve hit you, too. They want to know about Jeremiah. I told them nothing, and they brought me here. I think they thought if they had us together we might talk.”
“Where have you been? It’s been weeks since anyone saw you.”
“I’ve been hiding out here in the woods waiting to hear about some traveling plans.”
“Where are we? Do you know? I admit I cried like a baby all the way here with a burlap sack on my head.”
“I think we’re in the old springhouse near the edge of Tom Cartwright’s fields. I can’t explore much as they’ve got my hands chained and I twisted my foot when I ran from them. Even if we did have a chance to escape, I couldn’t run, or even walk, I’m afraid.”
“How long have you been here? Have they been back since?”
“One time other than when they tossed you in here. They brought a pan with some garbage they said I was to eat and a bucket with some water. I didn’t eat any of it. My man, Isaiah, is looking for me. I’m not going to die here, and neither will you.”
“Your man?”
“We jumped the broom a month ago and were headed north to Philadelphia where he has people and there would be work for him and a place to stay until we were able to be on our own. We heard they were coming round for me, and so Isaiah and me stayed in the woods. We were walking on the north side of town, going to Harrisonburg. Isaiah heard there may have been other travelers there that we could go with, but he wasn’t certain there would be room for us in their wagons. But if nothing else we’d be away from Bridgewater and the Thurmans. That’s where they found us.”
“Did he get away?”
“I told him to run and he did at the last possible minute. There were three or four of them—they would have killed him right away. I told him to hide and then find me. He did and he will. He’ll find us both, Annie. He will find us or die trying.”
Annie sat down on the cold ground beside Gilly and held her hand between them, the chains rattling every time Gilly moved. How she envied her friend! Even knowing that they both might die, Gilly knew for sure there was someone out there for her. Someone who would give his life for her. She envisioned Matt and recognized finally that she loved him. That all her foolishness denying that he meant anything to her and that she would have forgotten him by spring planting was simply that. Foolish. He was the love of her life,, if there was such a thing and whether she lived or died in this springhouse, nothing would change that, she was certain. Annie suddenly and desperately wanted to live.
Adam and Matt were at the stables saddling their horses early the next morning. They rode the ten miles to the outskirts of Bridgewater in silence and in time for the sun to begin peeking through the trees on the hillsides. They skirted town and went directly to Annie’s cabin, riding along the banks of the North River.
Matt pulled up Chester and pointed to the ridge across the river, which was now meandering and no more than a few feet deep at its center.
“There. That’s where the trail was we came down that day. You can see how high the river was still. Look where the mud ends on that tree.”
Adam stopped, turned his mount, and stared. “I imagined what it looked like in my head, where it happened, but now seeing the reality, it makes it worse. You were incredibly lucky.”
Matt nodded. “We were. Right there is where Annie found us. Where Chester dragged us just out of the water, huh boy,” he said and stroked the horse’s neck. “You remember that day, don’t you?”
“Where’s her cabin?”
“I think we should tie the horses here and go in on foot. Maybe she’s in there making a pie or something, but we don’t know for certain.”
Adam looked at him after taking a look through the trees. “It doesn’t look that way, Matt. It looks deserted.”
“Let’s leave the horses anyway.”
Matt dismounted and tied Chester to a tree while Adam did the same with his horse. He checked his revolvers and pulled his rifle from its holster. Adam pushed his hat down tight on his head and followed him through the trees. They scooted around the back of the barn, and Matt noticed the pigs were not in their pen. It didn’t look like they’d been there for a few days. He heard an oinking behind him and turned. The sow was making her way toward him.
“Annie would never have left her pigs to forage in the woods. They were getting ready to be sold,” he said in a hoarse whisper.
Adam followed him to the house, and he stopped at the cabin door, debating whether to kick the door in or call out her name so she wouldn’t shoot them. Just then a breeze blew and the door drifted open. He pushed it the whole way with his rifle. She wasn’t there and hadn’t been there for at least a day.
The hearth fire was out completely. Matt searched the little room and looked out the back gun slit to her garden. Adam came in the door.
“This shovel’s got blood on it.”
“Maybe she swung it at an attacker,” Matt said.
“There’s a bit of blood on the cabin wall near the door and some long strands of dark hair stuck in the wood.”
Matt went outside and looked where his brother pointed. “That’s Annie’s hair. Somebody slammed her head up against this board right here. I take back what I said yesterday. I’m going to kill somebody today.”
“Take a breath. We need to find out where she is first.”
Matt looked at Adam and knew he was right. This was not the time to let his emotions cloud good decisions. He wouldn’t get her back or find her if he was rash. He would be calculating, too—he’d have to be to save her.
“I want to talk to her neighbors, the Cartwrights. Come on. Let’s get the horses. Annie said they lived right beyond that hill.”
They rode the short distance and stopped just before coming into a fenced yard when a man pointed a rifle at them. “What do you want?”
“Tom Cartwright?”
“Who’s asking?”
“Matt Gentry. I’m looking for Annie.”
The man dropped his gun to his side and waved them close. A woman came on the porch and stood beside him. “I was over there night before last and waited ’til she barred the door. She ain’t there now?” he asked.
“I was getting ready to check on her this morning,” the woman said.
They all turned as a wagon came rumbling down the lane toward the yard. It was the butcher, Ezra Dinson, Matt saw. He pulled the horse up and jumped down from the wagon.
“I’m glad you’re back,” he said to Matt. “We’re going to need all the help we can muster. They took her yesterday. She’d gone to the sheriff, fool girl, and Frederick Miles came limping after her. She must have walloped him with something. He had a knot on the side of his head that was bleeding. Then Abraham showed up, and Miles hauled her off down the alley. I didn’t see it, but my wife’s mother was shopping and saw the whole thing. They have her!”
“Yesterday?” Cartwright asked. “It must have happened right after I left. Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” He turned to his wife. “Get inside and get the children inside. Don’t answer the door if anyone knocks. Get the gun from above the fireplace and get it loaded and don’t be more than two steps away from it until I return.”
“Hadlon’s watching my shop. I couldn’t get away until I knew that he wasn’t. Royal dragged him out a bit ago on some thin pretense and will get a beating for it, I’m sure. They have Gilly, too. Abraham said to Annie that she’d be going with her friend. He must have been talking about Gilly.”
“At least they’re together. Come on,” Cartwright said. “Let’s go.”
Matt held up a hand. “Before we go off half-cocked in all directions, I propose a plan. I want you two to start searching the woods and the areas around town. Maybe you know a deserted cabin or lean-to that they’d take her to. Somewhere they could leave them that Annie and Gilly couldn’t get out of. This is my brother, Adam. No one knows him, and we’ll be able to get one of them privately and convince them to tell us where the women are held. Who is the weakest link in Thurman’s group?”
“The postmaster, Bertram Miles. It was his son, Frederick, who took her. Bertram’s a mean bastard, but he’s a sniveling coward, too,” Dinson said and looked at Cartwright.
“Him or Hadlon, the barber. But Miles would be the easiest to get to. There’s a back door on his building with a broken lock.”
Adam and Matt mounted their horses and Dinson climbed back in his wagon. He and Cartwright had already discussed what areas they would be searching and what they would do if they found something. Mrs. Cartwright kissed her husband on the cheek and told him to be careful, and it struck Matt that they meant the world to each other when Cartwright put his arm around her waist, pulled her close, and kissed her on the mouth. It was what love looked like, but he was familiar with that. It reminded him of Daddy kissing Mother in the same fashion, with desperation and adoration all balled up in one gesture.
Matt skirted the main road to Bridgewater, taking more time than he wanted, as there was no use showing their cards before they were ready. Adam trotted into town on the main street and headed for the post office.
“Hello! You’re the postmaster here in Bridgewater?” Adam asked once inside.
“That’s what the sign says, don’t it?” Miles said without looking up.
“I’ve had some things mailed here so they would arrive before I did. Can you check on them for me?”
“Yeah. Let me finish what I’m—”
“Let’s look right now,” Matt whispered in the man’s ear, a knife to his throat, as he inched him into the back room. Adam pulled the shades, locked the front door, and vaulted over the counter and followed them.
“Where is she?” Matt said after he pushed Miles into a rolling chair. “Tell me where she is and I won’t slit your throat. Your corpse wouldn’t be so nice for your wife to find, now would it?”
Miles was white-faced, with one hand around his neck where Matt’s knife had been. He sputtered his reply. “I’ll never tell you! Thurman would kill me!”
“I’m going to kill you if you don’t tell me,” Matt said calmly, his thumb running across the blade of his knife.
“Why do you care about that slut anyway? She’s nothing but a tramp. Everybody in town’s had a go at her and—”
Miles stopped talking when Adam’s fist connected with his mouth and several teeth flew onto the floor. He looked at Matt.
“You’ll be beating men up and killing them all day, and this may be my only chance to let them know you have a brother,” Adam said.
Matt had an incredible urge to laugh. To howl at the moon. His brother was by his side. He would be the victor. He looked at Miles holding his mouth, blood flowing over his fist.
“You’re going to die today if you don’t tell me,” Matt said to him. “I’ll slit your throat and then visit the barber, who may be more cooperative. But if you tell me where she is, you might have time to pack your bags and your wife and beat a path out of town before Thurman knows who betrayed him. Although I should slit your throat for what you did to Annie and her younger brother, but I’ll let it be your choice and let that young boy’s death weigh on you for the rest of your life.”
Miles looked down at the floor at the puddle of blood and at his tooth lying there. He garbled a response, and Matt smacked him hard in the head.
“Tell me where she is. You’re running out of time.”
Miles held the side of his head and eyed him with a mixture of fear and hatred. “The springhouse,” he said and spat out a piece of tooth. “The abandoned one near the mine.”
Matt leaned in close and put the tip of his knife on Miles’s cheek. “If you’re lying, I will hunt you down. I’ll be having a conversation with your son in any case. It’s not going to go well for him.”
Miles shook his head resignedly. “I ain’t lying. Get out of here so I can get my wife out of town. Go on. Go.”
Adam and Matt slipped out the back door, and Matt waited until Adam brought his horse around from the front of the post office.
“Where’s this mine and this springhouse?” Adam asked.
“I don’t have any idea. I wasn’t sure Miles would have told us the fastest direction there anyway.”
“Her friends are off in the woods looking for her. Who can you ask? Is there anyone else to trust?”
Matt looked between the buildings to the street and back down the length of the alley. “We’re going to try the hotel clerk.”
They walked directly into the large and busy hotel kitchen through a door that was propped open with milk jug.
“I need to speak to the man at the desk. Is he the owner?”
An older woman walked over to him and wiped her hands on
an apron. “What do you want with him? Who are you?”
Matt studied the woman and hoped his instinct was true. “I’m the man that Annie Campbell rescued from the river this spring.”
“They took her,” the woman said, hands on her hips. “They took her right off the street. What’s it mean if a man can haul a woman off in the middle of town?”
“We’ve learned that Annie is being held at a springhouse near a mine. Do you know where that is?” Adam asked.
“I don’t, but my husband will. He’s the man at the desk.” She turned and spoke to a young woman, who hurried through swinging doors.
A few minutes later the desk clerk Matt had spoken to before came into the kitchen. He recognized Matt and walked right past him, through the door and into the alley.
“I don’t always know who might carry tales to Mr. Thurman. What do you want?”
Matt repeated his question and the clerk replied.
Chapter 12
Annie woke up from a nightmare and wondered if she would die on the cold dirt floor, leaning up against stones thick with moss and damp. She wondered where Matt was at that very minute; she imagined that anyone contemplating their own death would be thinking about their loved ones. He was hers. She smiled, thinking of him teasing Ben and eating more than she thought any man could possibly eat at one sitting. She hoped his reunion with his family had gone well and that he’d allowed himself to grieve for his father. She was certain that if she met her maker that very moment Teddy would greet her. But she was not ready to meet him again quite yet.
“Gilly? Are you awake?”
“I am. I’m thinking about how we’ll get out of here if they bring us another plate of food and jug of water.”
Annie reached down and pulled the thin blade out of her boot. “I’ve got a knife, Gilly. Let me see those chains on your hands.”
“You’ve got a knife?” Gilly inched over until her manacle was in the thin stream of light coming through the loose stones. “Can you get it off me?”