by Emilia Loft
Alistair had the daughter by the hair, gun up under her chin as he pressed them both up against the back of the house. The mother knelt in the dirt beside the bloodied, lifeless body of her husband, tear stained face but silent as the grave for the man holding them captive. Alisatair had his back to Evan, looking through the back window, likely expecting the sheriff to come through the house if he stopped here at all.
The mother saw Evan, straightened, let loose a little sob to pull Alistair’s focus for one brief moment on herself and Evan took it. Padded up on silent feet and drew his blade across the man’s neck. There was no sound, only the hot gush of blood down his hand, the body dropping almost gently to the ground. Alistair wore a smile that matched the neat line of curling red encircling his throat, his eyes fixed wildly on Evan in a way that he looked still alive. But he wasn’t, Evan made sure of that with a few swift stabs to the man’s heart. Those ghastly eyes still looked at him, crazed with delight, dead and unseeing and terrible. And Evan took it in for a long, long while, convinced somehow that the man could not possibly be dead so quick and would rise up again somehow.
He helped the woman bury her man, but for Alistair he built a pyre and stood beside it all night while the body burned to ash. At dawn he trampled on the bones, crushing them to blackened splinters beneath his feet.
He should return home, the job was done. But the thought of seeing Casper once more a husband slowed his progress. It was well into June by the time he arrived.
* * *
His homecoming this time was a much more celebrated affair. There were rounds of drinks which he welcomed and hands to shake and cheering all around that Alistair was dead and the elder Parker returned to them whole.
Sam pulled him aside. He hadn’t known until Bobby made it back that they’d all thought Anna was dead, and with a winter holed up together he’d made a good enough answer to what had gone on between the two men.
“It doesn’t matter now anyway, Sammy.”
“Well, if you’d stuck around for a day, Evan and weren’t so hell bent on running from the situation by chasing after Alistair you would’a known that they ain’t married no more.”
“What?!”
“Looks like Anna an’ the Mills’ farmhand got mighty close while yall were gone and he didn’t want to stand in the way. Told her folks that their marriage was never recognized in the eyes of God, which I can only guess what that means. And to top it all off, he up and married the two himself. Didn’t tell nobody till it was done, neither and it’s had the whole town buzzing nonstop.”
“I don’t understand, Cas is free?”
“Yeah Evan, free an’ gone. Rounded up Alphie and Meg as a witness and married them in the church probably before you’d even made it out of town. Then showed up to the house and you were gone.”
Evan felt sick. Fuck. Fuck! All this time, all this miserable time and Cas weren’t even married no more.
“Where is he?”
“Couldn’t say. You damn near broke his heart Evan, I thought the man was going to fall down dead on my porch when I told him. He rode off and I ain’t heard from him since.”
He felt like a moth caught in a lantern, batting about with no idea what to do, where to go. He went to Casper’s house, empty and cold. He went to the Mills’, who pointed him in the direction of the newlyweds’ new home. They had nothing to go on either, Casper hadn’t told them anything but good luck after the wedding.
Evan tore at his hair, pacing their yard until it hit him.
Meg was sitting, rocking on her porch when he arrived.
“’Bout time Parker.”
“Do you know where he is?” He couldn’t be bothered hiding how desperate he was.
From a pocket in her skirts she pulled a sealed envelope, holding it back when he reached for it.
“PleasParkerke this if you’re only out to cause him more pain. He deserves to be happy.”
“I know.”
It must have been enough.
It was a map, part of the Kansas territories with a circle drawn round one piece and a single word written there that set his heart on fire.
* * *
It took him two days make the trip that should have been three when he came upon the soft rolling land framed by a lazy stream and smudged across the hillsides with a decent sized herd of cattle. The ranch wasn’t too large, but it was well fashioned.
The sound of wood chopping echoed through the air, and Evan followed it, rode around to the far side of the ranch where Casper stood swinging his axe, splitting logs and tossing them on a pile. He was half naked, rolling muscles glistening sweat, breathtakingly beautiful. In that moment he saw Evan and the look on his face….
Evan had never been one to believe in miracles, in acts of divine will, but he ran to Casper who ran as well across the field, and when they collided, wrapped too tightly to kiss, he felt something, some ethereal spark buried in the passion he felt for this man. The world had burned away and here they stood together, free. And the improbability of it all left Evan giddy with the sense that prayers he’d only voiced in his heart had been answered.
“You’re here.”
“Never gonna leave you again, Cas.”
The sun alone, slipping from its peak, watched over them, burnished their figures gold while the wind took their words and held them safe in the wide open sky.
Also by Emilia Loft
Cabin Fever
‘Ian’s eyes were swirling storms of blue as he became angrier. “Didn’t I say that I’ve not been able to keep you from my thoughts? Hell, John, if she hadn’t interrupted us, I would have ripped that shirt off you!”
John felt the heat of arousal return and he and Ian stared each other down.’
***
Discharged from the United States Army after being shot in the shoulder, Captain John Jameson finds himself on a train Westward to Big Sky Montana country in the late 1800s. He settles in Lockwood, a small Western community in need of a Sheriff. There he meets schoolteacher Ian Lofte, who makes him question the very essence of who he is. Along the way, he also faces the conflicts of life in the old West.
