by Lydia Olson
“It’s like he said,” the red-haired bandit chimed in, “the desert and the coyotes will probably kill ‘em before sundown.”
Tucker clicked his teeth twice. “Yeah. Maybe you’re right.” He holstered his weapon and gestured to the horses pulling the stagecoach. “Untether them from the carriage. Make ‘em scatter. We’ll let these two lovebirds take a long walk.”
The two bandits followed their boss’s orders. They untethered the horses pulling the stagecoach, slapped them on their rumps, and forced them to flee.
Tucker pointed to David. “It’s your lucky day, boy. You best hope we don’t ever cross paths again.”
David said nothing in reply as he held Sarah by the hand, holding his breath and feeling as if Willis might change his mind at any moment. He waited next to Sarah as the three outlaws mounted their horses, Tucker taking the lead and kicking his horse in its sides with his spurs before taking off into the desert. David watched them turn into faint figures in the distance, and once they were finally out of sight, he released his breath, turned, and looked at her.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
Sarah trembled. She closed her eyes, wiped away the remnants of tears under them, and nodded. “I’m not sure,” she said weakly. “I feel a little sick to my stomach.”
David looked around at the refuse left behind from the highwaymen’s attack: the dead bodies, the scattered bits of paper, the scent of blood and gunpowder lingering thick in the air. “My God,” he whispered under his breath, “I pray that you are ushering them into your kingdom…”
“What are we going to do?” Sarah inquired. “Where are we going to go?”
David looked up at the sky, clocking where the sun was positioned and trying to deduce the time. “It’ll be dark in about four hours,” he said before pointing to the east. “We need to keep moving in that direction toward Clarendon.”
“But we’re so far from it. How will we find food? Shelter? How will we escape the wildlife that’s certainly lingering nearby?”
David could hear the strain in Sarah’s voice as she spoke. He was nervous as well, but he knew the only way they’d be able to keep their wits about them was if he took the lead and acted as though he had a plan.
“It’ll be alright, ma’am,” David said. “Trust me. I’ll see us out of this situation. You have my word.”
David then stuck out his hand, nodding for Sarah to follow after him and waiting for her to reply. After looking at his hand for a moment, Sarah reached out, took it, and followed him into the heart of the desert.
***
Reilly and Kelso rode alongside Tucker. It had been twenty minutes since they left Sarah and David to their own devices, and after riding at a hard pace the entire time, fatigue started to catch up to their horses and the trio slowed the pace to accommodate them.
“Reilly,” Tucker said, “what did we make out with?”
Reilly fetched the belongings he had taken from the businessman and rifled through them. “Let’s see,” he said, “we’ve got about three hundred dollars, a gold watch that’ll fetch us about twenty or thirty dollars, that woman’s locket, and what looks like a letter from a lawyer from that man who was running his mouth. I’d say we’re looking at four-hundred in total.”
Tucker ground his teeth. “All in all, that’s not much,” he said. “We have a payment coming up to our friend in Clarendon.”
“How much?” Kelso asked.
“Two hundred.”
“That’s not bad, boss,” Reilly said, “we’ll still be able to split the two-hundred leftover, plus whatever we get from selling this jewelry.”
Tucker slowed his horse to a stop, turning and waiting for Reilly and Kelso to follow suit.
“What is it, boss?” Kelso asked.
“I’m just thinkin’,” Tucker said, “about how we split things evenly, every time.”
Reilly shrugged. “That’s always how it works.”
“Yes, it has been. But as I said not that long ago, we need to start making more money,” he pulled out his gun and aimed it at his two cohorts, “—and that’s not going to happen if I have to keep splitting things between the three of us.”
Reilly and Kelso’s eyes went wide, their hands up in submission as terrified expressions coated their faces.
“Hey, now,” Kelso said, “there’s no reason for that.”
“Yeah, boss,” Reilly chimed in. “We’re always up for a discussion about how we split things.”
Tucker shook his head. “No, that’s good enough. After that little stick-up of ours, I’m startin’ to think that I only need one associate riding by my side.”
The two men trembled, both of them exchanging nervous and quizzical looks with one another.
Tucker laughed. “I’ll tell you what,” he said, waving his pistol around like a lasso, “I’ll let you boys decide who gets to bite the dust. You two can have a little standoff—”
BANG! A gunshot exploded in the air, and Tucker cocked his head to the side as smoke filled the immediate area. Once it dissipated, he saw Reilly drooping to one side of his saddle, and Kelso clutching his still-smoking weapon in his hand as it shook in his grip. Reilly, hand to his chest where he was shot, fell to the ground into a dead heap and spooked his horse as a result and caused it to flee into the desert.
Tucker laughed again. “Look at you, Kelso!” he said with delight. “I think the best man truly won.” He holstered his weapon. “Let’s get going. We’re losing sunlight.”
Tucker took the lead as Kelso took one last look at Reilly’s body, bid him a silent goodbye, and wondered when the moment would come that Tucker would change his mind (yet again) about the terms of their partnership.
Chapter Seven
The adrenaline from the incident had worn off, and David was now shaking ever so slightly and feeling a queasiness settling over his stomach as a result. He had been walking alongside Sarah now for close to three miles, the hot sun overhead burning the back of his neck and causing him to perspire even more than he had been before.
“David,” Sarah said, “I’m feeling a bit of a thirst settling in.”
David stopped in his tracks and handed her the canteen he had fetched off the dead driver of the stagecoach, the canteen only half-full. He had taken what he could off of the bodies of the individuals back at the stagecoach, and after he had, he told Sarah to walk a way’s off as he set about settling the bodies alongside one another. Wildlife will probably get them, he thought at the time. I hope you all find peace in the afterlife.
“Try and save a little in the canteen, if you can,” David said. “We don’t have much to work with.”
Sarah brought the canteen to her lips and sipped it gingerly, closing her eyes and breathing out deeply after she swigged. “How far are we?”
“From Clarendon?”
“Yes.”
David squinted as he flattened his hand and cupped it over his eyes to cut the glare. All around them was an expansive desert surrounded by mountains on all sides, with only a small peppering of trees and a long stretch of dirt road that seem to snake on for miles. The colors of the desert seemed to be a shifting blend of brown, sand, green, and red. “Well,” he said, “if memory serves me correctly, we’re about twenty miles out from the nearest town.”
“Will we make it by sundown?” Sarah asked.
David shook his head. “Definitely not,” he said. “But if you look straight ahead, about two miles out there, you can see a stand of boulders near a pass. If we go there, we can hole up until daybreak.”
“What about fire? Food?”
David, held up the repeater rifle he took from the body of the stagecoach driver’s counterpart. “This might help,” he said. “And if we can gather some brush and some loose pieces of wood, I can build us a fire.”
“What about the natives?” Sarah asked. “Do we need to worry about them?”
David shook his head. “Not in these parts, no. The biggest misconception that tends to go around is that al
l the natives are savage beasts. This could not be further from the truth. The tribe that occupies these lands are a kind and noble people. Heck, if we’re lucky, we might come across them.”
“Are there any dangerous natives we should worry about?”
“Yes, but we are miles from them,” David said, his only true concern at the moment pertaining to the wildlife he was certain they would eventually come across. “Just stay close to me. I’m sure you are a competent and clever woman, but I’ve been through these lands before with my uncle. It was a while back, but I still remember them as well as the back of my hand.”
“Okay,” Sarah said as she breathed deep. She then opened her mouth to say something more—but then she began to weep as she brought a hand to her mouth and tried to stop it.
“Oh, Miss Sarah,” David said as he walked up to her. “It’s all going to be alright; I promise you.”
“I know,” Sarah said as she wiped away her tears. “I’m just so sad for those people. That man was so … ruthless. They didn’t deserve what happened to them.”
“No, they did not, and rest assured, once we get to Clarendon—he and his friends will pay for what they’ve done. Make no mistake about it.”
Sarah exhaled deeply and composed herself, shaking her head as she brought a hand up and tried to block out the sun from beating down upon her. “This is just so terrible,” she said. “I could have never imagined I’d find myself in this predicament.”
“It’s understandable,” David said. “I feel the same way.”
Sarah looked down at her hands and saw them tremble more than she ever had in her life. “I don’t know if I can keep doing this,” she said with a panicked voice. “I just—”
“You can, Sarah,” David assured her. “You’re stronger than you give yourself credit for.”
Sarah heard the sincerity in David’s voice. She trusted what she said—she believed it. Breathing deeply, she said, “Well, to be honest, I’ve seen so much death and dismay lately that it almost, well, it’s almost becoming … familiar, though I do not relish saying that.”
“I’m sorry to hear that …”
Sarah looked David in the eyes, biting her lower lip before she said, “I must ask you something.”
David nodded once. “Of course.”
Sarah waited a beat. “Why … why did you kiss me?”
A flutter came into David’s chest. “I … wasn’t sure what else to do. That vile man put me on the spot. I was just thinking as fast as I could. I hope I didn’t offend you.”
Sarah shook her head. “No. It might have saved our lives. I’m just … well, I’m set to be married to a deputy in Clarendon, and I just don’t want to give off the wrong impression with you—”
David held up his hands and smiled. “Say no more, Miss Sarah. I won’t get any wrong ideas. Once we get to Clarendon, we can go our separate ways. Heck, your fiancé might even be able to help us in figuring out who that bandit and his friends were.”
Sarah smiled. “Thank you, David. For everything.”
David could sense that the sun was overbearing for Sarah, so he removed his Stetson, placed it on top of her head, and said, “Think nothing of it,” before he switched the repeater rifle to his other hand and resumed walking. As he did, Sarah followed alongside him, and for the briefest of moments he could have sworn that he saw her blushing.
***
The Stetson on top of Sarah’s head was a size too small—but she was nonetheless grateful that David had offered it up and given her a bit of a reprieve from the harshness of the heat. They walked in silence, and a wave of thoughts started to cascade through her mind.
Who is this man? she thought. Something about him feels so … familiar.
Even though she was still working her way through all the terrified feelings she was experiencing as a result of the stick-up and the subsequent murders, she felt comforted by David’s presence. He was a strong man, competent. He had barely shown any signs of fear during the whole ordeal. And yes, the kiss had taken her aback—but she would have been lying to herself if she were to say that she did not enjoy it.
Don’t get ahead of yourself, her mind gibbered. You are already attached to the deputy. What would it look like if you showed up at Clarendon holding this man’s hand? I mean, you already might have to tell the deputy that you two kissed, and—
Sarah shook her head. She did not want to add more thoughts to the litany already going through her mind. She still wasn’t certain that she was even going to make it through the desert alive, though she trusted David implicitly with the task of seeing them through.
“The sun is starting to set,” David said, pointing overhead as the sun began to descend into the west.
“Are we close to those groupings of rocks that you spotted?”
“Hold on for a moment,” he said. “Let me see …”
They stopped, Sarah looking for shade as David scanned the terrain and finding it by a wilted tree that still offered up enough shade for her to take a break.
“Ah,” David said, “there.”
Sarah waited for David to explain. “What is it?”
“There’s a river,” David said, “it looks to be just a mile ahead of us. From what I can see, there is significant shade from trees over there. We’ll probably be able to make a fire from what’s available.”
Sarah moved away from the tree and joined alongside him. “Where?” she asked.
David pointed. “Follow my finger.”
Scanning with her eyes, Sarah looked ahead and saw the river that David was talking about, a narrow body of water that looked to only be about three-quarters of a mile long. “I cannot lie,” she said. “That sure is a sight for sore eyes.”
“Have you ever fished before?”
Sarah shook her head.
“Well,” David said, “I learned how to fish from my uncle.”
“But you have no rod to fish with.”
David smiled. “I think I’ll be able to manage. Come on. We should get moving if we’re going to make it there before dark.”
The two continued walking, with Sarah feeling the strain from the toll the journey was taking on her legs. She couldn’t help but note that David did not seem to be fatigued from their walk, and then her mind thought back to the way he composed himself when that vile man who held up the stagecoach nearly killed them.
“How do you do it?” Sarah asked.
David glanced at her. “What do you mean?”
“When that man was robbing us. Everyone was so scared. They were trembling, pleading for their lives. But you didn’t. You seemed so … almost at ease.”
David shook his head. “Make no mistake, I was frightened. But I learned a long time ago that it doesn’t serve to act on your fear. You simply, well, live with it, if that makes any sense.”
“Where you in the war?”
David nodded, hanging his head as his face took on a forlorn expression. “I’m sad to say that I was, yes. I fought for the Union army, but I took a bayonet to the back after two months of fighting and was sent back home. My injury ended up becoming infected. I nearly died, as a result.”
“My Lord …” Sarah gasped.
“I am fine, now, as you can see.” He laughed. “It actually took a lot for the doctors who tended to me to get me to get me to sit still in the bed I occupied. I’ve always had a hard time sitting down.”
Sarah smiled. “You look like an active man.”
“I always have been. I’ve worked nearly every day of my life.”
“That’s noble.”
David glanced at her. “What about you?”
“What do you mean?”
He gestured to her clothing. “If I had to guess, I would say you were a schoolteacher.”
Sarah’s eyes went wide. “Very good, David. How did you guess that?”
“The way you’re dressed,” David said. “A few of the teachers I knew in Arkansas dressed a very similar way. But it’s not just that, in and o
f itself. You’re very reserved, and you speak very well. Only educated people carry themselves in the manner that you do.”
Sarah smiled, abashed. “I was a teacher,” she said. “I miss it dearly. My father was a big part of that. He was a professor for a very long time. He also wrote a book, though he was never able to finish it before he passed.”
“Again, I’m sorry to hear that. He sounds like a great man.”
“He was. It’s still taken me quite a spell to get over his loss.”
David shook his head. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost my parents. I mean, I know the day will come, I just don’t like thinking about it.” He winced. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t say things like that, since you recently lost your father.”