by Eric Red
Noose nodded in agreement and Bonny Kate, on a roll of rhetoric, whistled in admiration. “The guts she must have. All the crap she must have had to take from men, especially lawmen, because of her sex, her wearing that badge. Earning the respect of men like those. Hell, earning the respect of a man like you. That’s something. I take my hat off to Marshal Bess Sugarland. She’s a great lady and you can tell her I said so.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t think the feeling’s mutual, Bonny Kate.”
The lady outlaw sighed, shrugged. “Sad, but I know. Stands to reason she don’t like my kind and truth be told she got good reason not to. I don’t hold that against her. But Bess and I, we got more in common than she wants to admit to herself.”
Noose chuckled. “You got rocks in your head if you believe that, lady. The marshal ain’t nothing like you. She enforces the law and you break it. That’s why she’s wearing a badge and you’re wearing a rope necktie.”
“I’m serious, Joe. Bess and me, we got us plenty in common. We’re independent women who live on our terms, play by our own rules. Strong women who both distinguished themselves and made a name for ourselves in a man’s world by not letting men tell us what to do. It’s a lonely road when most of our sex get married and push out babies and end up forgotten by husbands who cheat on them with the other kind of woman that sells sex for money. Those are the two choices that a woman is born into in this life with, Joe Noose. Bonny Kate Valance and Marshal Bess Sugarland—us, we’re two of a kind. Broke the mold, you might say. Mavericks each in our own way. Free women who think for ourselves, living by our own wits God didn’t give us because there ain’t no damn God, but our mothers did. It’s a man’s world, Noose, not built for females, so take it from a woman, any way she can skin this world is her business.”
“You both have guts, it’s true. But you want to know the difference between you and Bess, Bonny Kate?”
“Yes, I do.”
“The truth?”
“No, tell me lies like every other man always has. Of course I want you to tell me the truth.”
“You make excuses for your misdeeds and try to justify your wrongs when all you care about is yourself, Bonny Kate. You don’t feel sorry for anything you’ve done, all you ever cared about was not getting caught. Bess always tries to do the right thing and makes the tough choices and decisions when it ain’t in her interest, just the opposite. She makes sacrifices and takes responsibility because that’s her duty. What Bess has, it’s called character. That ain’t a word you know the meaning of, Bonny Kate, and responsibility for other people ain’t in your vocabulary because the only thing you feel responsible for is yourself. That’s why she’s a lawman and you’re an outlaw.”
After this exchange they rode in silence for many minutes as Bonny Kate Valance fell into deep thought and introspection, reflecting on what Noose could not hazard a guess. Noose was never sure what women were thinking. But he wondered just the same. As the two companions climbed the lonely trail on saddles undulating with the steady rhythm of their horses’ steps, the sound of the hooves and exhalations of the stallions added to the sense of silence and solitude of the high elevations. It seemed like they were the only two people in the whole wide world. Noose waited for the woman to speak but had no idea what she would say when or if she said it; half the time he was amazed at what came out of the lady outlaw’s mouth—she was unpredictable, he’d give her that.
When finally Bonny Kate spoke after clearing her throat, it was in a calm and reasonable manner. “The difference between an outlaw and a lawman ain’t so large. I think you know that. Look how many outlaws became lawmen. Doc Holliday. Wyatt Earp. Look at yourself. You ain’t no stranger to the wrong side of a gun.”
Noose was surprised but also wasn’t to hear Bonny Kate still justifying herself; his words had not gotten through to her and he should not have expected anything he said to change her. Some people knew the difference between right and wrong and some didn’t, and the only reason Noose did was the ugly brand on his chest that had forged a conscience into him at a young age.
“That’s true.” Noose nodded, his expression saying he wasn’t proud of it. “But I ain’t half the person Marshal Bess is and you ain’t less than half of what she is. Bess Sugarland’s better than me. And she’s better than you, too.”
As Bonny Kate perched cocked in the saddle, her blue eyes sparkled as with a saucy little smile she studied Noose. “You like her.”
“We’re friends.” When he looked over at her, Bonny Kate held his gaze in her own like a warm fist. Noose did not expect what she said next:
“She’s in love with you, you know.”
Noose was at a loss as warmth spread through his insides and flushed his face, which got suddenly hot.
“Ain’t,” was all he could say when he found the word to speak.
The lady outlaw beamed at him with a teasing affection and amusement. “I seen the way she looks at you.”
“It ain’t like that.”
“I seen the way you look at her.”
“Ain’t nothing between us.”
“Nothing but air, huh?”
“We’re just friends.” He nodded to himself. “Good friends, is all.”
She laughed as if that was absurd. “Are you really so thick skulled you can’t see how that lady feels about you?”
Hearing this from another woman, even a bad one like Bonny Kate, made Joe Noose’s heart lift in a way he didn’t understand but he showed no expression or tried not to. “She’s way too good for the likes of me.”
“You both are meant to be together, Joe. You do know that. If any two people in this world were made for each other, it’s you and Bess.”
He shifted awkwardly in the saddle, lips unable to form words.
“Why ain’t you made a move on her?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Joe, that part of what goes on between men and women ain’t complicated at all.”
“I took something from Bess she can’t get back.”
“Her heart?”
“Her father.”
“You killed her father?”
“Not me personally. But I might just as well have.” Noose looked ahead into the distance while he spoke but Bonny Kate could tell he was looking into the past as she watched him from her saddle. “Few months back, I disputed an illegal bounty claim made by that man Frank Butler and his boys. I had taken the fugitive in alive but the Butler Gang sneaked up and shot him then stole the body from me and took it to the Hoback U.S. Marshal’s office to claim the reward. Just should have let it go. That’s what I should have done. But the bounty was mine because I’d caught the guy. So I didn’t let it go. Mostly, it was because Butler murdered this man in cold blood for no damn reason since I had captured the fugitive alive and unharmed. Butler probably figured it didn’t make no difference because it was a dead-or-alive bounty but what he did was illegal and it was murder, pure and simple.
“Like I said, Bonny Kate, I didn’t let it go because it didn’t seem right. I followed them bounty killers to Hoback, where Bess’s father was the marshal and she was his deputy and I brought the dispute to them, told the marshal the truth of what Butler done, just not figuring . . .” Noose trailed off. “Doesn’t matter what I did or didn’t figure, because on the spot Butler shot that marshal and framed me for his death, getting a fat reward put on my head and he and his gang rode after me to collect. I killed ’em all, but Bess lost her dad and she got shot and it’s all my fault.”
“You were trying to do the right thing, sounds to me.” Bonny Kate was a good listener when she wanted to be.
“I’m responsible for Marshal Nate Sugarland getting murdered and even though I brought the men responsible to account, that won’t bring Bess’s dad back. That’s on me.”
“I don’t think she blames you, Joe.”
“She should.”
“That’s the past. It’s history. You and her now, that’s
the present.”
“I have to do right by Bess, got me an obligation to do what her father would have done now he ain’t here.”
“You ain’t her dad, you’re a man, a man who can love Bess and that’s what she wants, you damn fool.”
“I need to make it up to her, even if I never can.”
“You think too much!” Rolling her eyes, Bonny Kate shook her head in exasperation. “Screw all that thinkin’ an’ hesitatin’ nonsense. You gotta take what you want in this life. You love that woman. You know you do. She loves you. Take her. It’s what she wants you to do, even if she ain’t got the guts to say it.”
In the saddle across from her, he just sighed and looked straight ahead, staring into space.
“You hear old Bonny Kate, Joe. You drop me off at the gallows then ride straight back to Jackson and marry that woman.”
“I ain’t the marrying kind.”
“When you find a woman like Bess, you hold on and don’t let go, Joe, don’t ever let her go.” Bonny Kate’s eyes were tearing up, filled with emotion. It seemed important to her that Joe and Bess found love.
Noose looked at her, unsure of how to react to the raw, exposed look he saw in her eyes. He didn’t know why Bonny Kate was saying all this or what she was getting at. So she spelled it out for him: “If there is any reason for you and me to be sharing this last ride, Joe, any reason fate brought us together, any higher purpose to our paths crossing, if there be anything for someone like me to impart to someone like you, it is this: to tell you to love that woman hard as she loves you until you draw your very last breath. Don’t let her get away. Don’t let that one go, Joe.”
Noose watched her a long moment and didn’t blink. “What do you know about love?”
Bonny Kate dropped her eyes, embarrassed of exposing her true feelings. “I know what it’s like not to have love. There, I done said my piece, Joe, and if you’re too dumb to take the gift of a condemned woman’s advice then you’re stupid. All men are stupid. I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I done if men wasn’t so stupid.”
They rode on into woods in silence but something had changed between them as the roof of the sky began to dim.
CHAPTER 18
The sun was going down.
Joe Noose looked up at the sparkling red flares exploding through the tree branches, the crimson ball of fire moving behind the western pines flashing in and out of his eyes with each step of his horse. He gauged they had an hour of daylight left. Full dark in this part of Wyoming came fast this close to the Idaho border, he knew. The tree canopy would bring on darkness that much quicker. They were a mile from the top of the pass but wouldn’t reach it today. Riding off the trail through the treacherously uneven pine woodlands was difficult enough during day hours and would be suicidal once night fell. The horses wouldn’t make it ten yards before one put a hoof wrong and snapped a leg. The sanguine radiance of decreasing sunset deepened and shadowed in luminosity to paint the riders and horses and the trees towering around in one sinister color: a gruesome shade of blood, a hellish gory hue that even now was fading to black.
Scanning the surrounding woods in the failing light from his saddle, Noose spotted a small clearing nearby that looked like it might make a suitable campsite.
Swinging a glance over his shoulder, he saw Bonny Kate Valance’s ruddy face bathed in red twilight, the glow infusing her red hair with witchy incandescence.
“We have to make camp,” he said.
“Stop, you mean?” she replied.
“Can’t ride in the dark. You know better than that.”
“But they’re coming. They’re all still after us.”
“They can’t ride in the dark, neither.”
The sun sank.
Looking nervously around herself with a shiver, the woman pulled her coat tighter around her shoulders. “Good, I guess. Camping here, I mean. Lordy, my ass hurts from all this riding and I’m getting cold. Ain’t you?”
“It ain’t cold. Not yet.”
“It will be good to get warm by a fire.”
Noose shook his head slowly, firmly. “Ain’t gonna be no fire. That will point us out to those that’s after us like a signal flare. We’re camping in the dark, because dark is what it gets up here.”
“You’re making me look forward to getting hanged so I can get this all over with.”
“You’ll get your wish soon enough. Tomorrow, if we survive tonight.”
She had no response to that.
He clicked his teeth and flipped the reins, steering Copper for the small clearing under the lofty overhang of the pine trees and his horse trod toward it. Bonny Kate followed cooperatively on her Appaloosa. All around, the dense woods were growing quiet and very still in the onset of nightfall. The shadows deepened. The closer they rode, the more Noose saw he had picked a good spot. The area was flat and uncluttered by roots. The brown pine-needle carpeted ground looked soft enough to make a reasonable approximation of a bed. Best of all, there was a natural obstruction of a log on one side and tight growth of conifer trunks on the other that afforded a natural defense and cover. It would do.
In the branches high above, the chirp of birds and buzz of insects sensing the approaching nightfall created a noise that somehow added to the sense of silence. It was serene, restful even. For the first time since Joe Noose rose that morning and rode out of Jackson with his fateful cargo, Noose began to feel himself unwind and relax—he sat loose in his saddle, eager to get off his horse for a few hours.
The dark descended fast. The two horses and riders approached the clearing. Swinging out of the saddle, Noose swiftly tethered Copper’s reins to the nearest suitable tree and patted his four-legged friend’s nose. Copper showed its teeth and bucked its head in friendly response. Rounding on Bonny Kate, Noose saw she was still up on her horse, sitting in the saddle and looking around to get her bearings. From the calm expression on her face, the camp seemed to suit her.
The last of the sunset winked out on the horizon, like a glint of red light on the sharp blade of a knife; a sudden gloom descended over the campsite as the red afterglow extinguished in the deep shadows’ descent—it was very quick; the only remaining light was the faint crimson glimmer of the twilit sky barely glimpsed through the interlaced black skeletal silhouettes of the branches high above. Already, Noose could barely make out the bronze shadow of Copper standing by the tree.
“We’re safer now than we’ve been the whole day. The dark just took care of that. I don’t expect no trouble till dawn.” Noose helped Bonny Kate off her horse, easing her to the ground, where she stretched her aching limbs.
“We at the top yet?” she asked.
“Hard to tell. Just about, I’d say. The trail is a few miles to our left and not being on that I can’t say for sure, but my guess is an hour’s ride at dawn and we’ll arrive at the declination.”
“Declination?”
“Means we’ll be riding downward. On the Idaho side.”
They made camp. Both sat across from each other as night fell and the world went dark.
“My last good night’s sleep where I wake up to a new day.” She stared off into space.
Noose looked at her grimly. “Waking up to a new day ain’t guaranteed for nobody, Bonny Kate.”
She gave him an ironic, melancholic smile. “Well, for me, no days after tomorrow is definitely guaranteed.” She sat on the ground, knees pulled up to her chest, hugging her arms around them.
For a while, Noose didn’t respond. “I’m sorry about that.”
She just shrugged.
The quiet moment and relaxed surroundings as well as saddle fatigue had Noose in a reflective mood. “I don’t know what to say, I suppose.”
“You don’t got to say nothing. You don’t owe me nothing.”
“Reckon all I can say is I hope you had a hell of a time in this life. Don’t know you too well, Bonny Kate, just a day, but you seem like you ain’t that bad a sort. Definitely met worse. If what you say is true
, or some of it is, then you’ve been wronged by them hanging you like they mean to. It ain’t right. But it’s the law, and it ain’t for me to say.”
Her smile was genuine. “Thank you.”
It was his turn to shrug.
“You’re okay, Joe Noose. Don’t exactly understand you, but as males of the species go, you’re okay in my book.”
He grinned, then tipped his hat.
“I’m gonna cut you loose, Bonny Kate.”
“Say what?” Her widened eyes gleamed in the moonlight.
“Gonna take the cuffs off, so you can sleep comfortable. You got a big day tomorrow, need your beauty rest to keep your wits about you.”
“You trust me that much?”
Noose didn’t answer, just edged forward on his big knees through the pine needles, drawing his key ring from his belt as he reached for her hands. “You ain’t afraid I’m gonna run off ?” she asked.
“Where to?” He gestured to the woods. All around them was pitch-darkness so stygian black the nearest trees ten feet away were visible only as lighter shadows against the darker impenetrability beyond. The moonlight did nothing to light the area.
“Grab your gun or something while you’re asleep?” Bonny Kate asked as Noose inserted the key in her manacles and undid the lock. The shackles opened and the chains dropped with a muffled clank on the soft bed of pine needles. She rubbed her wrists.
The moonlight glinted on his cracked grin. “I ain’t gonna sleep. I’ll be sitting right by that tree yonder with my eyes and ears open, standing watch.”
