by Tony Masero
‘Then why you cling on to it like it was life itself?’
‘They are my responsibility, sir, that is why,’ Bellamy protested proudly. ‘I was given personal care of these precious documents by the hand of our director himself. Mister Bender entrusted me with their safety and I intend they should reach their destination intact.’
Gantry leered, ‘You want to give us a little looksee, if’n it’s all so innocent?’
‘No, I do not,’ Bellamy snapped. ‘These are all most private and not for any eyes outside bank employees.’
Gentry shrugged dismissively and turned to Diehard, ‘So what these badhats do to you?’
‘As I say they stole my animals. We had a shootout a ways back and they shot my partner down, a good man who did not deserve such an end.’
Gentry looked thoughtful a moment, ‘Did one of them take a bullet in return?’
‘Not that I know of, a near miss but no more.’
‘I reckon maybe you were luckier than you think. Couple of boys were in here, one with a scratch on his leg. Said he earned it in a brush with the Indians, come to think of it they rode a pair of fine animals and dragged a bay horse behind. The monk fixed up the leg and they headed out right away, they was making for some pony circuit. Going to try out their luck at the races, so they said.’
Diehard stiffened at the news, ‘They say where that was?’
Gentry pursed his lip thoughtfully, ‘Can’t say I recall.’
‘It must be Allen’s Cross,’ Lily supplied. ‘Has to be that’s the only full blown running track I know of west of Albuquerque. They run those ponies fast up there, in fact it’s a pretty wild scene, dandy kind of carnival. Was up there once and saw it all.’
‘That figures,’ chuckled Gentry slyly. ‘Lot of riding business done up there, I daresay.’
Diehard was tiring of the soldier’s sly asides, ‘Why don’t you give it a rest? The lady obviously ain’t up for all your joshing.’
Gentry looked him up and down for a minute, his face expressionless, ‘You wouldn’t be criticizing me now, would you, boy?’
‘Just saying leave her be. Whatever the lady’s calling it don’t need no adverse comment.’
Gentry stretched his neck, waggled his head from side to side and narrowed his eyes. He eased himself up from the bench, ‘Got a mouth on you for one so young, ain’t you? Maybe you want to make something of it, you little punk.’
‘Mister, I’m too tired and beat up to make anything of anything. You feel the need to rile a woman that’s your prerogative but it ain’t to my taste, is all.’
‘Maybe you should just shut your mouth then, kid,’ snarled Gentry, leaning threateningly over Diehard.
‘Hey!’ called Lilly sharply. ‘See this, bluebelly?’
She was leaning across the table end with a small double barrel derringer in her hand and pointing it straight at the corporal’s head.
‘With that peashooter!’ Gentry said cockily. ‘That’s all that is.’
‘I put a twenty-two caliber pea in your ear, you’ll know about it. Now sit down and shut your gab, soldier. You got more mouth than the Mississippi River and you dribble twice as long.’
‘No need for that,’ rumbled the subdued Gentry, sliding back a touch nervously into his seat and not taking his eye from the barrel of the small pistol.
‘See I know all about you, Corporal,’ Lilly went on. ‘You’re right, I served time at Lindsay Gay’s and that’s where I heard about this fellow out of Fort Apache. Got drummed out they say, been sliding some cash from the troop’s credit rolls at the sutler’s store so I was told. He was an administration corporal in the paymaster’s office. Am I ringing any bells, Mister Gentry?’
Gentry colored up, his cheeks turning a bright pink over his mustache. ‘That weren’t me,’ he blustered.
‘I think it was,’ Lilly pressed.
‘Is that so?’ the banker added, his features taking on a more vengeful look. ‘So you hold no rank above embezzler, Mister Gentry. You’re not even a soldier any more.’
‘Ain’t me,’ protested Gentry. ‘That weren’t me, you got the wrong man, I tell you.’
‘I think you’d best close up and set still, don’t you?’ said Lilly, lowering the hammer on the derringer and slipping it from sight under the table as Brother Aloysius appeared bearing a tray of steaming soup bowls.
‘Here we are,’ said the monk cheerily, setting the tray down. ‘A goodly soup with enough for all.’
Lilly looked at Diehard across her bowl and nodded her thanks, ‘Obliged to you for taking my part, Mister Diehard.’
The cowboy smiled back at her, ‘Let’s eat.’
Diehard slept well that night, fully and deeply.
Brother Aloysius had given him one of the empty cells and the minute he was alone he had swung back the door curtain, thrown off his clothes and hit the bunk bed. Almost immediately the cowboy had fallen into an exhausted sleep empty of any dreams.
His awakening was to the scent of lavender water and the feeling of a soft warm body slipping into the narrow bed beside him.
‘What the devil?’ asked Diehard, coming awake with a start.
He blinked his sticky eyes open and saw by the dim pre-dawn light that it was Lilly who was squeezing in next to him.
‘Miss Lilly, what’re you….’
‘Nudge over, will you?’ muttered the woman.
Diehard sat up abruptly as he felt the soft pressure of Lilly’s unfettered breasts spill against his bare chest. She was dressed in a thin shift that did little to disguise her fulsome figure and was smiling at him with a teasing glint in her eye.
‘One good turn deserves another,’ she said, brazenly leaning across and cupping his vitals in her hand.
‘Now, hold on,’ mumbled the startled Diehard, surprised and still half asleep.
‘Steady there, cowboy,’ she whispered. ‘Leave it all to Lilly.’
‘I don’t know about this, ma’am,’ protested Diehard.
But he was a young man in the brightness of life and despite all his reservations Lilly’s ministrations were arousing a substantial reaction that he could not ignore.
‘Best leave off, ma’am,’ he pleaded. ‘I don’t know if I can….’
‘Don’t call me ma’am,’ she whispered. ‘I’m just your Lilly-girl right now and it looks like this old boy of yours is about ready to go.’
The shock of finding such a forthright woman in his bed was wearing off as Diehard adjusted to the notion and a wave of sinful guilt was quickly taking its place. Conflicting emotions ran through his mind. Stunned by her ministrations and along with the more basic desire that was building steadily as Lilly worked on him, a wave of disarrayed thoughts raced around Diehard’s head. Thoughts of lustful mortal sin clashing with remembrance of sweet Aileen waiting for him. Of his mother, what her response might be if she knew and also the holy monk not far away outside the cell.
‘You shouldn’t be in here,’ he rasped, his voice dry and throaty.
‘Least I can do, you were my knight in shining armor at the supper table and I have a hot yen for you, honey bun.’
‘But I never….’ Diehard faltered. ‘I’ve never done any of this before.’
‘That’s alright, bucko, it’ll come to you real easy, you’ll see. Now kiss my lips and say no more, just take it as it comes.’
Diehard looked down at the beaten-up face that appeared even sadder in the dim light and a wave of pity weakened his resolve.
‘I don’t know….’ He managed before she ignored his moment of indecision and quickly pulled his head down and kissed him succulently on the mouth. Diehard liked the touch of her soft lips on his but he could feel his head spinning, confusion whirling through it in a kaleidoscope of moral turpitude. The promised act of immorality and its attendant sinfulness struggled against the stiffening pleasure of Lilly’s touch and his virginal reserve began to weaken as inhibition took a back seat.
Lilly slipped from the narrow bed
, she stood at her full height before him and tugged the shift over her head. By the light coming through the doorway, Diehard made out the fall of her curling hair and the curves of her slender form silhouetted against the light as she threw the garment aside. With her face hidden by the darkness all Diehard could see was the shape of her long legs, the nip of her waist and the long slide of light on the sheen of her bare skin. Lilly pushed him back down again to lie on the bed and the dawn light grazed the swing of her ample breasts as she did so. He was speechless, his pounding heart locking out any response as with gracious ease she climbed up onto the bed and straddled him.
‘There you go,’ she whispered and she took him in hand and guided him home.
Encompassed by her moist warmth, Diehard could do little but surrender to her steady attentions and he found all his reservations slipping away as nature took control and before the cowboy knew it he was eagerly responding with volatile energy.
‘That’s it, my fine boy,’ she uttered with a soft groan of pleasure.
Lilly was well practiced in all that she did and so she led the young innocent young Diehard along the path with a slow and steady ease. Her efforts restrained his inexperienced and over-zealous rush and gave them both a longer, drawn out journey filled with gratification.
When they were done and Lilly lay, her head on his shoulder and wrapped in his arms, both of them content in relaxed post-coital warmth, Diehard breathed deeply and turned to her.
‘We’ll be married, of course,’ he promised.
‘The hell we will,’ chuckled Lilly. ‘A roll in the hay ain’t any engagement ring, bucko.’
‘But I’ll need to make an honest woman of you,’ Diehard protested.
‘No, it don’t work that way. We’re just taking a moment’s enjoyment in each other here, Diehard. Most old boys have to pay me for the pleasure but you, well, you is a nice young fellow in need of a moment’s education and I was glad to oblige.’
‘You don’t want to get married then?’ Diehard faltered, a little bemused by Lilly’s ready dismissal.
She grinned, ‘Don’t say I’m not tempted, you’ve a fine young frame on you, cowboy. But no, thanks for the offer but Lilly’s road lies in another direction.’
‘Well, if you’re sure.’
‘Sure, I’m sure.’
They lay in companionable silence for a while before curiosity got the better of Diehard.
‘What happened to you, Lilly?’ he asked.
‘You mean this?’ she asked, running fingers lightly down her puffy cheek. She sighed a deep breath, ‘This was when I got off the immigrant boat and arrived on these shores for the first time. I weren’t no more than a child really, didn’t have nobody or nowhere to go, my folks having succumbed to the tuberculosis on the boat over. I took up with a travelling show, a boxing booth. It was a fool joke of a thing really; they set women up one against the other in a bareknuckle bout of fisticuffs. Dressed us in fancy tights and stupid hats like a circus act and we biffed on each other for the delights of paying customers.’
‘Sounds kind of a rough thing for ladies to do.’
‘Ah, there’s all sorts out there, Diehard. Men will pay for any kind of perversion and divertissement. I found out the hard way that there was an easier route to making a dollar than getting my brains beat out but not before I’d got my looks beat and battered some.’
‘That is a real shame, Lilly.’
Her answer was philosophical, ‘It’s life, cowboy. We don’t choose the damn things that happen to us we just make the best of them.’
There was a long pause before they spoke again and in its silence Diehard considered her advice.
‘Do you think….’ Diehard asked tentatively, feeling a restless stirring beginning to rise in him again. ‘I mean…. I wonder if we might….’
She smiled, her eyes sparking, ‘You want to go it again, you young rogue?’
‘Well….’
Lilly pulled him to her, ‘Do your worst, you little devil.’
At breakfast, Diehard still pondered on his moment of straying from the straight and narrow and he was silent as he dug into the beans and bacon the motherly monk supplied. Lilly studiously ignored him and only Gentry took a suspicious interest.
‘You sleep well?’ he asked Diehard, casting a sidelong glance at Lilly.
‘Sure,’ mumbled Diehard, feigning interest in his plate.
‘Looks like you didn’t get too much rest,’ sneered Gentry. ‘How about you, Lilly? Get your head down, did you?’
Lilly only glanced at him coldly.
‘I must have been dreaming,’ Gentry went on. ‘Could have sworn I heard people moving about last night. Seemed like there was all kinds of activity going on.’
‘Really?’ said the banker, innocently looking up from his dish. ‘Can’t say I heard a thing.’
‘That’s ‘cos you ain’t been in the army,’ Gentry added, with a braggart’s air. ‘We’re trained to pay attention, keep alert and ready for all eventualities.’
Lilly could not help herself and she snorted a soft laugh.
Gentry took it badly and glowered at her, ‘You laughing at me, woman?’ he asked brusquely.
‘I guess you are a little amusing,’ Lilly answered icily.
Rapidly the corporal scraped back his bench and got to his feet, shoving Diehard aside as he did so.
‘I had enough of you, whore,’ spat the soldier. ‘Think it’s time you had a lesson in manners.’
As he moved around the table making for Lilly, Diehard pushed himself free of the bench and was heading to intercept the soldier when a confidently smiling Lilly climbed to her feet and urged Gentry on with a crooked finger.
‘Come on then, soldier boy. Let’s see what you got.’
Without further ado, she took up a bareknuckle fighter’s pose, both fists bunched and raised with her chin sunk to her chest.
‘What?’ Gentry puffed confidently. ‘You want to fistfight me? You are one crazy bitch, that’s for sure.’
Lilly shot out a straight left that cracked convincingly against Gentry’s mouth and brought blood to his lips. The soldier’s head snapped back and he wiped fingers across his bloodstained mouth.
‘Why you….’
Another blow bounced off his skull and crossed his eyes and before the corporal could recover, Lilly followed up with a rapid one-two. She then hit him solidly with a blow mid-chest that left the soldier gasping for air and as Gentry backed away, Lilly remorselessly followed after him landing jabs and snappy punches that rocked his head.
Diehard smiled and sat down again as Lilly proved all her training in the ring had left her with more than battered features, they had also given her the skill to combat convincingly with anyone. It was a sight to watch as Lilly moved lightly on her feet, ducking and weaving in her long skirts and avoiding all Gentry’s attempts to grab hold of her as she snaked in and delivered another sock to his dented pride.
The frustration showed on the soldier’s reddening features and he became wilder in his attempts to ward Lilly off.
‘Goddamn!’ he cursed. ‘Stand still.’
Lilly’s response was a whipping right hand that curled around and snapped off the soldier’s jaw. She did not have the power of a man and could not bring Gentry down but she was fast and accurate and each blow was a stinging reminder to the soldier that he was receiving a beating from a competent female fighter.
Bellamy chuckled approvingly across the table at Diehard, ‘My word!’ he said in hushed tones. ‘She certainly is a wonder, is she not?’
‘That she is,’ agreed Diehard, grinning back.
‘No, no!’ cried Brother Aloysius, coming into the dining hall and waving both hands in distress. ‘I pray you, no, no. Do desist, this is most unseemly.’
The little monk was frowning in distress and Lilly backed away from the groggy corporal but stood, still watching him with fists raised.
‘Please, we have more guests arriving,’ admonished the monk
. ‘Lothar tells me that he has seen riders coming.’
Chapter Nine
Ellio Angelino with Alcasay and one other warrior of the Apache band had spent the dark night hours worming their way across the open plain towards the mission. Each man was covered from head to toe by a pale cotton bed sheet stolen earlier from a raided ranch, the cloth successfully blending them with the white dust of the plain. They had noted the three white men riding towards the mission house the previous day and Angelino was determined to discover the secret of the mysterious mission. He had already raided the building once and been lost in the tunnels that ran through the walls. Having found no sign of life and yet knowing that there was one of the white religious in constant residence, he wondered if the monk’s disappearance was more of the white man’s magic at play.
His band had destroyed the stagecoach and killed the driver and his guard and Angelino had even dug up their graves one night to see if they were truly dead and had not been magically raised to life again. But the graveyard had proved they were indeed no longer alive and that there were in fact the bones of other bodies also buried there.
It all troubled the Indian no end.
How could these people vanish into thin air inside the building? He wondered if that once entered they left the place by some occult means and went to another spirit world, that perhaps the strangely gowned monk was a witch and could perform such supernatural acts. The cross that topped the mission was the same as the silver one taken from the Jesuits that still hung around his neck and he was beginning to believe that the object held an even greater power than he was aware of.
The three approaching riders he hoped would give him an answer and so had determined to allow them free passage and watch whilst they entered the mission to see if some resolution could be found.
The three Apaches lay in the rising heat of the day not more than five hundred yards from the front of the building. They were spread out and lying flat on the rising slope of the domed hillock, unmoved by any discomfort and the encroaching heat. All of them were practiced in the use of camouflage and trained since childhood to endure such extremities with patience.
