Ride the High Lonesome

by Rosanne Bittner

  Kate nodded. “I will.” She rose and retrieved a towel for Luke, then set a pan of water on the hot coals in the fireplace. She quickly dressed, her stomach still upset at Mark’s filthy words and the thought of what would have happened to her if Luke hadn’t been able to grab his rifle and move fast. How he did it with a wound in his side, she couldn’t imagine. Pushing aside the horror of five men gawking at her nakedness, she did everything Luke told her to do. Just as she’d suspected, it was warmer outside than when they got here last night.

  She led Red to the front of the cabin and, one-by-one, she tied a rope to each dead body and dragged it outside until all three men were out of the cabin, leaving behind a floor covered with blood stains mixed into dirt and dust. She put Red back into the shed and looked around to make sure the other two men weren’t coming back. She saw no one. She quickly grabbed some gauze, a towel, and some whiskey from their supplies before hurrying back inside the cabin to dress Luke’s wound. He was lying flat, still holding the towel to his side. She offered him some laudanum but Luke refused, wanting to be alert in case the others returned.

  “While you were taking care of the bodies, I managed to sweep what was left of that fat bastard’s brains into the fireplace,” Luke said.

  Kate shivered and grasped her stomach at the comment.

  “I’m damn sorry, Kate,” Luke lamented. He grimaced with pain, and Kate drew a deep breath and reminded herself this was no time to give in to the horror. She grabbed the whiskey and poured some on Luke’s wound, wincing when he cried out with pain. She picked up the gauze and began wrapping it around his middle. “That never should have happened,” Luke told her, managing to sit up so Kate could more easily dress the wound. “Normally, I would have been more aware. You damn well wore me out last night.”

  Kate felt her cheeks flushing. “I didn’t mean—”

  Luke put his fingers to her lips. “I didn’t exactly object,” he told her with a sly grin.

  Their gazes held, both realizing the same thing. They had to get themselves to Lander.

  “Let’s rest from this for a couple of hours and then get to town,” Luke said. “We can still make it there by dark.”

  Kate finished wrapping the wound and rose to get Luke some clean long johns. “What about the dead bodies out there?”

  Luke ran a hand through his hair again. “I can’t lift them. That might make this wound start bleeding worse.” He took the underwear from her and managed to get to his feet.

  Kate helped him step out of the bloody long johns and step into the clean ones. She found it incredible that she could look at all that was man about him without embarrassment. He’d invaded her in just about every way possible, and she didn’t blame him or hate him. Again, their relationship felt more like husband and wife than just friends. Everything she did for him was in a wifely way, trusting his judgment and orders, caring about his physical welfare, wanting to feed him and keep his clothes clean and mended.

  “We’ll leave the bodies outside where they are for now,” Luke told her as he finished dressing by himself, wincing with pain with every movement. “Once I get you to Lander, I’ll find some men who are willing to”—he buttoned his pants, then grimaced as he stretched out an arm to put it in the sleeve of a clean shirt—“come back out here with me and help me bury the bodies. We’ll have to look out for the other two. They might have ridden to Lander.”

  Kate began packing some of their things, all but the blankets and a couple of biscuits she’d heat for breakfast. “I think they were already on an early-morning journey to Lander when they noticed our horses in the shed,” she told Luke. “They probably stopped to see if they could steal them, and maybe one of them looked in the window and saw us lying together.”

  “Could be, but the two who rode away headed back south, not north,” Luke commented. He set the overturned chair back on its legs and sat down gingerly, taking up a cigarette from two he’d left on the table the night before. “Light a stick for me, will you?”

  Kate held a small stick into the fire and brought it over to him, the end burning. He used it to light the cigarette and handed it back. “Let’s eat and rest a bit, then get going.”

  It all happened as it should. They ate, drank coffee, and tried to rest but couldn’t. Too much had happened, and three dead bodies lay outside. Kate brushed her hair and finished packing everything. Luke helped as much as he could.

  They walked outside and to the horses. Luke winced as he finished tying Kate’s bedroll onto Jenny. They led the horses out of the corral, and Luke glanced at the dead bodies lying a few yards from the cabin. He let go of Red’s harness and turned to Kate, grasping her arms. “I’m sorry about all of this, and not just what happened this morning. I’m sorry about everything. I hope you believe me when I say none of this…I mean…in a way I took advantage of you. I—”

  Kate put a hand to his lips. “I know you would not have touched me if I didn’t want you to, but I didn’t want to resist. You’ve done nothing but save my life and protect me and care for me, Luke Bowden, from the first day I found you until now. And yes, I saved your life, too, but out here everything we do is called survival. I wanted your horse and your food and water. What I did wasn’t without its own selfishness.”

  Luke grinned. “Being able to breathe instead of choke to death would have been worth you cutting me down, even if you had taken Red and ridden off. I wouldn’t have hated you for it.”

  Kate smiled through tears as she ran her hands over his broad shoulders and down his solid arms. “Neither of us could help the situations we were in, Luke. And if we part ways after this, I won’t blame you, but there won’t be a day that goes by that I won’t think about you and pray for you…and miss you.” Her eyes teared as Luke pushed a piece of her hair behind her ear, then leaned forward and kissed her forehead. He stepped back.

  “Let me help you up,” he told her.

  “No. You shouldn’t strain yourself.” Kate reached up and grabbed Jenny’s pommel. She put her foot into the stirrup, then grimaced from the pain in her leg as she started to pull herself up. Against her advice, Luke put a hand on her rump and gave her a push. “Luke Bowden, I told you not to help.” She adjusted her dress and looked down at him. “Promise me that when we get to Lander, you will see a doctor and get that wound properly cleaned up and taken care of.”

  He patted Jenny. “I promise, but it really isn’t all that bad. At least we got the bleeding stopped.” He rubbed at the wounded area. “Right now, I have to mount up on Red, which won’t be easy.” He walked up to the big roan gelding and put a foot into the stirrup, then groaned as he pulled himself up and managed to throw his leg over the horse. He sat there a minute to let the pain subside, then picked up the reins to the lead pack horse and started off.

  Kate looked back at the sagging little cabin with its broken door and broken windows…and three dead bodies lying near the hitching post out front. What happened there last night, and what happened before that in the golden grass of this wide, lonesome country, all seemed like a distant dream now…a wonderful, magical, beautiful dream.

  Again, as when she looked back at the cave they’d shared, she felt a stab at her heart. This could be the end of the best and the worst events of her life. This could be a trip back to reality…and the awful loneliness she’d known before finding a stranger hanging from a tree.

  Twenty-six

  They rode quietly through landscape that seemed too violent for its dead silence, heading down embankments that led to dry gulches, back up the other side into more yellow grass. Kate began to appreciate how hard it must have been for Luke to get to Lander and back to her as fast as he did. She couldn’t imagine making the ride from the cave all the way to Lander in just one day, and then making it all the way back the next day. Realizing how difficult that had been was just more proof of what a good man Luke Bowden was.

  They rounded gra
nd mesas that made her feel like a tiny, unimportant speck of dust against the magnificent endlessness. They’d stopped only once to eat and relieve themselves and water the horses, then kept riding. It was nearly dark when Kate saw the dim street lanterns in the distance.

  “That’s Lander,” Luke told her. He’d ridden most of the way half bent over and holding his side. Kate was worried about him. “You be sure to see a doctor right away, Luke.” She looked backward once more as they headed into Lander. The cave where so much had happened to them seemed so far away now. And the cabin where they’d spent such a passionate night together was now a distant dream that had been spoiled by the intrusion of the man named Mark and his men.

  Now she would lose Luke. Of that she was sure. He’d be around other men and women and saloons and drinking and gambling. To her, everyone here would be a stranger not to be trusted, and Luke would not be at her side constantly. In places like this it was easier for men to mix and mingle with others than for a woman alone. And once a man got drunk, everybody was his friend, and she was pretty sure Luke could put down whiskey as good as the rest of them.

  Luke ordered her to ride up beside him. “We’ll put the horses and my bull in the stables this side of town,” he said. “I’ll see if we can rent or borrow a wagon to put all our supplies in. We’ll take that to the rooming house I told you about. I told Nora to save you a room. Come morning, you can visit the bathhouse run by Betsy Heater. It has one area that’s closed off just for women, so you’ll have some privacy. You can clean up there in a real bathtub.” He gave Kate a smile. “I’m told Betsy will even wash your hair for you, and she knows how to do hair up with combs and such. I’m guessing I won’t recognize you when she’s through with you.”

  Kate wondered if Betsy Heater did more for men than let them bathe. She told herself it didn’t matter. She had no right being jealous of other women. She couldn’t lay any claim to Luke Bowden. “A real bath and washing my hair sounds wonderful,” she told him aloud. “Just don’t you forget to see a doctor about that wound.”

  “Yes, ma’am. That’s about the tenth time you’ve told me.”

  “Are you taking a room at the same rooming house as I am?”

  Luke shook his head. “I’d better not. It wouldn’t look good, us riding in together and then taking rooms at the same house.”

  “But this is outlaw country,” she reminded him. “Who will care?”

  “It’s more to keep dirty thoughts out of the minds of most of the unruly, disrespectful men around here. If they think you’re easy, they’ll take too much for granted, and you won’t be safe. I want you to be careful and trust no one but me. Keep that extra handgun with you wherever you go and keep it beside your bed at night. And don’t be afraid to use it. There’s no law out here to say it’s right or wrong.”

  Kate’s heart fell a little. He was telling her he wouldn’t be in her bed and wouldn’t always be around to protect her. For how long? The whole winter? Was he telling her this was it? That he’d stay away until spring, or even find someone to help her in the spring so that he could go on farther west in a day or two instead of waiting around for her? She fought an unexpected panic at the thought that this man would ride on and she’d never see him again. It wasn’t supposed to matter…but it did matter! Yet she couldn’t tell him. She’d promised what they’d shared was just a necessary but passing thing…that he was free to go his merry way if he chose.

  Don’t leave me, Luke! She wanted to shout it, but she held her tongue. Still, how was she going to sleep tonight, with strange people and strange noises all around her…and in bed alone?

  They rode down a dirt street churned up from yesterday’s sleet storm, horse dung mixed in with the mud. A couple of men rode past them, nodding to Luke and looking Kate over with curiosity. Was she a whore? She was sure that’s what they were wondering, and it gave her the chills.

  Luke rode into the town stable and spoke with a man there who called himself Big Jim. Big certainly did not properly express the man’s size. Kate figured him to be at least six feet seven inches, and he had big arms and a barrel chest. But it wasn’t his size that drew attention. He smelled so bad that Kate didn’t even need to get down from Jenny and stand close to notice. He had a thick beard and bushy eyebrows, and he wore patched cotton pants and a dark shirt that needed washing.

  Big Jim spoke with Luke a moment, then went inside a barn while Luke helped Kate down from her horse.

  “Go on over there on that boardwalk beyond the stables,” he told her. “It’s too dirty here, and there is too much horse dung. How’s that leg?”

  “My leg is no longer the problem,” she answered. “What about you and that wound?”

  “I’ll be okay, but I have to say that I’ll be glad to find a bed and sleep for about three days. Trouble is, I have to ride back for those bodies tomorrow, so I’ll be gone for a couple of days once I get you settled.”

  “Luke, that’s too much riding too soon.”

  “I’ll manage. The bodies need to be buried, and right now I’m not strong enough to dig three graves. Besides, I want to report what happened so if those other two show up, men around here will know what happened and who’s telling the truth. There might be men in town who knew those men I shot, and they might not be happy about it.” He put a hand on her shoulder and urged her out of the corral. “Go on now, before your skirt picks up some of this mud and mess.”

  Kate turned and walked several yards away to the boardwalk. Minutes later, Big Jim came out of the barn leading a draft horse hitched to a flatbed wagon. He proceeded to help Luke unload the pack horses and reload all the supplies into the wagon.

  “The lady that runs the boarding house—her name is Nora Keil,” Big Jim told Luke. “She has a big shed out back where she stores folks’ supplies for ’em. Most of them that comes through Lander is on their way someplace else, so they need to store their things unless they have their own wagon. Even though, in a town like this, you gotta guard your wagon all the time, so lockin’ your things up in Nora’s shed is a little safer.”

  “I know,” Luke told him. “I’ve already met Nora and had her save a room for Kate.”

  Big Jim rattled on about the town and those who lived there. He and Luke decided that saddles and tack would be left at the stables along with the horses. Big Jim and Luke talked about cost, and Luke asked a lot of questions about who would guard his stock.

  “Hey!” Big Jim suddenly declared. “You’re that fella that was here a few days back huntin’ them men who hanged him, ain’t ya?”

  Luke nodded. “That’s me.”

  “Yeah. I remember now.” Big Jim glanced over at Kate. “So, the pretty lady over there is the one you was talkin’ to that there Jake Harkner about—the lady that saved you. Jake said somethin’ to me about it that next mornin’ when he lit out of here for Colorado—him and that friend of his, Jeff somethin’.”

  Big Jim nodded and waved to Kate.

  Kate smiled and nodded back, thinking how anyone could smell the man from a mile away. She waited, looking up the street as Luke dickered more over the reassurance that Big Jim would guard the animals well. It was growing darker, and already Kate could hear the clinking of distant piano music, most likely coming from saloons. Laughter from both men and women filled the air, and she even heard a gunshot.

  “That was some shoot-out you had,” Big Jim was telling Luke. “Some men are still talkin’ about it. One man told me about how that Harkner fella shot a man who was fixin’ to put a hole in your back. He’s kind of famous, you know—five thousand dollars on his head someplace back east, I think. You’re lucky he took your side. I wasn’t here to see it all, but I sure wish I would have been.”

  “Well, I’m sure there are plenty of men out here who are wanted for something back east,” Luke answered as he rearranged a few things in the wagon. “Harkner isn’t the only one.”

 
; “Maybe not, but he’s the most famous one on account of how good he is with them guns. Any lawman or bounty hunter who’d dare come here lookin’ would wish he’d stayed home,” Big Jim answered, letting out a hardy guffaw. “Ain’t that right, Luke?”

  Kate turned away. Was she really going to spend the whole winter in this wild town? What on earth would she do? Would Luke stay, or go? With all the drinking that went on, he could end up killed in a fight before winter was over. For the past several days they had lived in total quiet…just her and Luke and seldom any other noise than the whinny of a horse. This was different, and there were plenty of things here for a man—women and gambling and whiskey and probably even jobs. But Lander was definitely not a place for a woman like her. Luke had said there were a few wives here who had followed their husbands west because of being wanted somewhere for committing a crime. She supposed it was possible some had actually come out here to settle because everything was more or less free. There was certainly plenty of grassland for grazing, and there was no law, no set borders. Men made their own rules and claimed their own piece of land. And those who disobeyed the rules died. Even Luke had lived by those rules when he came here and hunted down the men who’d tried to hang him.

  Luke came up behind her and grasped her arm. “Wagon’s ready,” he told her. He helped her walk to the loaded wagon. “Big Jim said that Nora over at the boarding house has a shed out back where she stores belongings for people who are just traveling through—so that’s where we will put most of this stuff. Once I get you set up with a room, I’ll go see the doctor. No sense in me cleaning up yet because I’m heading right back out in the morning.” He helped her climb up into the wagon seat, then did the same. He picked up the reins and got the horse into motion, heading out of the corral.

  “Luke, let someone else go after those bodies. You’re hurt.”

  “I’ll be all right. They might not understand exactly where the bodies are. Once you’re settled, I’ll find a couple of men in one of the saloons willing to make the trip for a little money.”