Jake nodded, as one of the Rangers moved his horse up behind him. “That’s long enough, Sax. We’ve got to get these people moving.”
Caleb clung to Jake’s arm. “They’re my friends, you son of a bitch! They helped me settle this place. If I want to—” He was not allowed to finish. The Ranger swung a club, landing it hard in the middle of Caleb’s back with a crushing blow that sent Caleb reeling sideways, landing facedown.
“Father!” Tom started to go to the man, but three Rangers moved in front of him, all holding rifles on him.
“Stay put,” one of them told him.
Tom stood there with clenched fists, and inside Sarah pulled away from James, looking down from the loft. What had happened! Why had Tom called out “Father”?
Caleb groaned, trying to get to his knees, but nothing would move. “Get these wagons rolling,” the Ranger who had hit Caleb told the others. He turned the horse, looking at Tom and Jess. “Remember. Five days, whether Caleb Sax can get up on two feet or not. We’ll be back, and if you’re still here, there will be hell to pay.”
The wagons rolled away, old Jake staring at Caleb, tears running down his cheeks. Tom was so furious he wondered if his head would burst from the pain that charged through it now. As soon as men and torches were out of sight he ran to Caleb.
“Father! How bad are you hurt?”
Sarah hurried down from the loft and ran outside. “Caleb!”
Tom rolled him onto his back. “Can’t … move my legs,” Caleb groaned. “Old injury. God, it’s … back. It’s back.”
Sarah felt faint. He’d not been troubled for years from the gunshot wound Byron Clawson had given him in the back, the wound that had paralyzed him. He’d had occasional numbness in the legs, but that was all. She looked at Tom.
“What happened?”
“One of the Rangers hit him in the back with a club.”
“Dear God!” Her eyes teared. “You and Jess carry him inside.”
Caleb cried out with pain when they picked him up.
“Go get Lynda out of the hiding place,” Jess called to Sarah. She ran over to their cabin, taking down the tapestry.
Lynda, come out. They’re gone.”
Lynda pushed out the hidden door, wincing with pain from being so cramped as she got out.
“Come to the house,” Sarah ordered. “You father’s been hurt.”
Lynda quickly followed, leading Cale by the hand and holding John in the other arm. She followed her mother inside, where Caleb lay facedown on the bed. A huge bruise was already swelling on his back. Tom looked at Sarah. “What can we do!”
Her eyes teared. “Nothing. We can’t do anything but wait and hope it passes. He said this happened once before, years ago, when he first met Marie and her family and helped lift a wagon that was stuck in the mud. After a few hours the feeling came back.” She leaned over Caleb, smoothing the hair back from his face. “I love you, Caleb. I love you so,” she said, bending close to his ear.
His only reply was a groan. Sarah looked up at Tom and Jess. “Get two wagons ready and start packing—everything practical and necessary first, then anything else that fits. We’ll get everything ready and hope Caleb recovers quickly enough to help us know what to do next. We have to be ready to leave.”
Jess nodded, turning and going out. Tom just stood there staring at his father. “How can all those years of work and sacrifice be for nothing?” he choked out. “It isn’t right!”
Sarah leaned over again, stroking Caleb’s hair. “It wasn’t for nothing. Your father helped settle this country in a lot of ways, Tom. Some day men like him will be recognized for the heroes they were.” She straightened, looking at Tom. “When a man does what is right, it’s never for nothing, Tom. Your father can be proud of everything he’s done, and so can you. If we have to start over, then that’s what we will do. The last thing I want is for Caleb to lose one more loved one. Now go and help Jess.”
Tom gripped the bed rail and kept watching his father. He moved his eyes to meet Sarah’s green ones then. “And what about all my years in that stinking prison? I was at the Alamo! I tried to get out with a message while Santa Anna’s men poured against the walls! Now they tell me I have to leave the only home I’ve ever known! What good has it done me or my father to do what’s right?”
Sarah frowned. “What are you saying, Tom?”
“I’m saying a man who will never be accepted anyplace he goes might as well take what he can get where he can get it and not worry about what’s right. A lot of good it did my father to do what’s right. It comes down to the law of survival—and who has the most guns. And what few laws there are are made by white men! I fought Mexicans, yet a Mexican man was kinder to me when I got out of prison than any white man has ever been. And if there is any way to fight men like those who came here tonight, I’m going to do it, even if it means joining the Comanche or the Apache or Mexican outlaws. They tried to take my Bess from me, and now they’re taking my home from me and almost killed my father. I have no room left in my heart for patience, Sarah; no desire left to do what’s right. I don’t care any more!”
Tom stormed out, brushing past Lynda, who stood in the doorway. She grasped his arm as he went by. He whirled to face her. “I heard you in there,” Lynda said, her blue eyes burning into him. “Don’t you do something stupid, Tom Sax. Father needs you. He needs all of us.”
He jerked his arm away. “You think I don’t know that? I’m not going to do anything stupid, not now anyway. I’m just going to get my revenge some day, that’s all.”
“And how would you do that?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Don’t you break our father’s heart.”
His eyes softened slightly. “It has been slowly broken to pieces already over the years. And when he was my age he was riding against the Crow, taking his own form of revenge. I am our father’s son, and I have my revenge to find. I sat rotting in prison for almost four years, dreaming of coming home to my father and this ranch. Now I find it was all for nothing.”
“You lived! That was worth everything else Father might lose. That’s all that matters to him—family. And right now we’re going to do everything we can to save what’s left of this one!”
He walked toward the door and hesitated. “Don’t worry, little sister. I will be a part of this family for a long time to come. But now that I know what to expect from life, it helps me know what to do with mine. I’m sorry, Lynda, but all feelings of goodness and doing right have left me for now.” He turned to face her. “The only feelings I have left are for this family. They go no farther.”
She closed her eyes and looked down. “What you need, Tom Sax, is a good woman to settle you down.”
He let out a disgusted sigh. “I had a good woman. White men kept us apart during precious months when we could have been together. Because of that I had only six months with her, and then white man’s disease took her away from me. I will never love again the way I loved Bess.”
She met his eyes. “Yes, you will. I thought the same thing when Lee died. But then I found Jess. You’ll marry again, Tom.”
He shook his head, smiling bitterly. He turned and walked out. Lynda looked toward the bedroom, where she could hear her father groaning. She couldn’t blame Tom for the way he felt.
Caleb deliberately defied the pain. By morning he insisted on trying to get up. There were things to be done. He had no doubt the Rangers would come back. With the help of Jess and Tom, who each took an arm, he managed to sit up. Jess moved his legs off the bed for him, alarmed at the way Caleb’s feet fell to the floor. Jess glanced at Tom, who scowled with anger, both for the man who had first wounded Caleb so many years ago, and the Rangers who had come the night before.
“Help me up,” Caleb groaned, perspiration coating his face.
“Caleb, you might do yourself more harm,” Sarah tried to argue.
“It’s the only way,” Caleb answered. “The longer I lay there the weaker I�
��ll get. The first time … Emily made me move around … had men help carry me to the river so I could exercise. The water helps … your body is lighter. But there’s not enough water in the Brazos … right now.” He reached up and Jess and Tom each grasped him under a shoulder and helped him to his feet. Caleb cried out, his legs almost useless.
“Father, maybe you shouldn’t—”
“Walk with me,” Caleb interrupted Tom. “Come on! Walk with me!”
Sarah turned away, forcing back tears.
“I’ve got to keep moving … not let it set in,” Caleb was saying. “Got to get the family … out of here … go kill Clawson.”
Sarah’s heart tightened. Kill Clawson! What was he saying? She turned to see Jess and Tom half dragging Caleb out into the main room. Just the night before, Caleb Sax had made love to her with great passion, his virile body moving over her as only Caleb could do, before the Rangers came. Now he could barely make one foot move in front of the other in his awkward attempt to walk. Without Jess and Tom holding him, it would be impossible.
“Take me to Marie’s grave,” he was telling Tom and Jess.
“You sure, Father?”
“Yes, damn it! Quit … arguing with me.” There came another groan. “I want to see the graves once more—Marie, Lee, David and John, Bess. We’ll visit them once more … before we go. Later I want to have a family meeting. Are you … packing the wagons?”
“We’ve got a lot done already, Caleb,” Jess answered.
“Good. I’ll be walking … in a couple of days. I’ve got to figure out how to get Clawson. I can’t … fight them all. I’ll leave Texas … but not without taking care of the man responsible … for all of this. He might think he’s won. But he’s lost.”
The words rang in Sarah’s ears as she watched Caleb struggle out the door. Byron Clawson. Everything that had happened to them when they were young was because of Byron. Now the man had come back to haunt them again. Even without his physical presence he was there. The old gunshot wound to Caleb’s back had reared its ugly head, crippling her virile, strong husband a second time. All due to Byron Clawson.
She walked to the window. Caleb was taking small, weak steps now. Her heart tightened with dread at his words of killing Byron. She wanted the man dead as much as anyone, and Caleb Sax deserved to do the killing, but how could he in this condition? And how could he hope to get away with it?
She hung her head, feeling guilty for wanting a man dead. But she did. She wanted Byron Clawson dead more than the squatters or Comanche or any other enemy who had ever threatened them. Dead, for what he had done to Caleb, what he had done to her and to Lynda. But even Byron Clawson’s death was not worth losing her Caleb. It all seemed so hopeless. Caleb was determined now, more than ever. She feared there would be no talking him out of it this time.
It was late the next afternoon when Emily Stoner arrived in her fancy carriage. Sarah hurried out to greet the woman, who stiffened when Sarah hugged her, always feeling awkward when Sarah treated her kindly.
“Emily! It’s so good to see you.”
Emily drew away, studying the tired lines about Sarah’s eyes. She glanced at the wagons that sat in front of the house, heavily packed. “They’ve already been here, haven’t they?”
Sarah’s eyes teared. “Yes. They dragged off the Cherokee and told us we had five days to get out. That was the night before last.” Her words began to break. “They hurt Caleb—hit him hard in the back with a club. The paralysis came back. He’s forcing himself to walk. He’s so damned determined, Emily, but he’s in so much pain, and all he talks about is killing Byron Clawson before he leaves.”
Emily sighed, closing her eyes. “You are leaving then.”
“Yes. We have no choice, Emily. We can’t survive here any more. Caleb can’t even go to town to sell his horses.”
“I know. I saw what happened last week in town. You didn’t see me, but I was watching. I decided then and there to get on the good side of your Mister Byron Clawson and find out what I could. The man has no idea I know you and Caleb. I made it a point to get some business from him. It took me about five minutes to figure out the man has a weakness for prostitutes and a sickening sexual appetite that only whores could—”
Sarah reddened deeply and turned away.
“I’m sorry, Sarah. My God, how did a woman like you stand being married to that bastard?”
Sarah wiped at her eyes. “It was a matter of submitting willingly or risk losing my baby from his beatings. Even so, Lynda came early because of a beating. After that he kept me so drugged I didn’t know what was happening most of the time.”
Emily put a hand on her shoulder. “Byron told me he was stirring up resentment against Caleb still owning land here. He’s responsible for sending the Rangers out here.”
“We already guessed that.”
“Sarah, I have to talk to Caleb. Last night Byron Clawson told one of my girls he’s not giving Caleb the full five days. He’s going to send the Rangers back in just a couple of days, only they won’t be real Texas Rangers. He’s paying local trash—Indian haters—to pose as Rangers and come out here to kill Caleb and the other men.”
Sarah covered her eyes. “My God,” she whispered.
Caleb suddenly appeared at the doorway, supporting himself with two canes. “Emily,” he called out. “You picked a poor time to visit.”
Emily left Sarah, walking closer to Caleb and looking him over with tear-filled eyes. “How bad is it?”
Caleb smiled bitterly. “About as bad as when you got me on my feet after I was first paralyzed. Only then there wasn’t much feeling. This time there’s a lot of pain. But I’ll survive, long enough to kill the bastard who’s responsible for this!”
She stepped closer. “In your condition? Forget it, Caleb. I came here to warn you to get out by tomorrow if possible. Byron Clawson is sending men here in a couple of days, only they won’t be Texas Rangers. He has plans for all of you, including the women. You’ve got to leave as soon as possible.”
He studied her closely. “How do you know?”
A sly grin moved across her mouth. “Byron Clawson has no idea I know the two of you, and he has a keen appetite for prostitutes.” She made a face. “It’s no wonder. No decent woman would do the things that man thinks up. But the girls and I put up with it because once we can get a little booze into him, he loosens up and brags about his money and power—and laughs about taking over your land.”
Caleb’s eyes were lighting up as she spoke. “He comes to your place?”
She frowned, folding her arms. “What are you thinking, Caleb Sax?”
Caleb looked over at Sarah. “Sarah, go inside.”
She came closer, putting a hand on his arm. “Caleb, we need you. You can hardly walk. Please let’s just leave.”
His eyes were stern. “I told you once to trust me in this. Neither of us will be happy and free until that man is dead. Now go inside like I asked.”
She turned away and Caleb moved to the steps, putting canes down first, then his feet. “Come away from the house, Emily.”
She watched him, shaking her head. He was going to be more stubborn than ever this time. She walked slowly with him away from the carriage and the house. He turned to her then, his blue eyes pleading. “Help me, Emily. Help me kill him.”
Her eyes widened. “Don’t be a fool, Caleb.”
“Goddamn it, Emily, I have to kill him,” he almost growled through gritted teeth. “I have to!”
She closed her eyes and reached out to grasp a fence rail. “My God, Caleb, do you know what you’re saying? What about Sarah—your family? Just get the hell out, Caleb.”
“Not that way! Not with my tail between my legs! I’ll leave Texas, but by God, I’ll not leave without watching that man die a slow death!”
Emily turned away. “I shouldn’t have come at all. I just wanted to warn you—”
“When, Emily? When does he come to see you?”
“No, Caleb.
”
“Damn it, woman, when does he come! All these years you’ve said you think you owe me, even after all those months of helping me walk again. Well, you could never help me any more than now. The man almost destroyed Sarah and Lynda, and he tried to kill me and left me a cripple. All from his goddamned jealousy and greed and arrogance! I’m losing everything I’ve worked for, Emily. I can’t let it all be for nothing. I can bear it as long as I know Byron Clawson can never threaten Sarah again! He has never won yet, and he won’t win this one. Now are you going to help me, or do I have to just march into his office and kill him outright and hang for it?”
She sighed deeply, looking up at him then. “He comes almost every night, usually after ten o’clock.”
“And where is your room?”
She shook her head. “Caleb—”
“Where is it?” he shouted.
She folded her arms and sighed in resignation. “Second story, first window on the right as you face the boarding house.”
He nodded. “All right.” He looked out over the landscape he had learned to love, thinking quietly. “Today is Tuesday.” He bit his lip. “Tuesday.” He thought a moment longer, then looked down at her. “Saturday. Saturday night. You have him in that room Saturday night, about eleven o’clock. Can I get in through that window or a side window?”
She swallowed. “Just around the corner is a side window. There is a stairway leading to the second floor and a balcony off all the windows.”
“Good. Leave the side window unlocked. Just make sure that around eleven the man is so involved in sexual pleasure he won’t notice me come inside.”
She frowned. “Even I would be embarrassed to have someone walk in on me, and you of all people.”
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