Stagecoach to Serenity

by Steven Gray

  Norton had shot Arthur Hamlin in a fit of temper, giving the young man no chance to defend himself and he’d regretted it ever since, although he wouldn’t admit that to Sal, who would probably see it as a sign of weakness. That had been the start of his troubles and he didn’t want to commit another murder.

  And deep down he felt horrified that Sal would suggest such a thing seemingly without any qualms. Even worse, she’d killed the farmer just in case he recognized her, when she must have realized he was simply a braggart, who couldn’t possibly know her. No two ways about it, Sal the Gal was an unrepentant murderess.

  ‘No.’ He caught her arm.

  ‘No? Why not? You ain’t turning soft on me, are you, Darren?’

  ‘Like you said, some of the cowboys might be back at any moment and I’d rather get away than dilly-dally around getting my revenge and perhaps be caught.’ That was as good an excuse as any.

  Sal eyed him doubtfully. ‘It wouldn’t take but a minute to shoot him.’

  Hell! Norton thought desperately and said, ‘But if any of the men are nearby and they hear a shot they’ll come running and come after us. We’re just wasting time, arguing. Let’s go. Anyway it’ll hurt Greeley’s pride to know I’ve gotten away from him and that he’s lost his bounty on me. And, even worse, that he’s been bested by a girl. That’ll be punishment enough.’

  ‘Oh all right,’ Sal said with a sulky sigh.

  Thank God she agreed with him because Norton hadn’t known what he would do otherwise; whether he’d be able to stop her. Or whether she’d turn on him if he tried.

  As they rode away, Sal regained her high spirits.

  So did Norton who said, ‘I couldn’t believe my eyes when you walked into the stage office in Talbot. I nearly fell off my chair in surprise.’

  ‘Good job you didn’t. You’d’ve given the game away. You played your part same as me. No one had the least idea we knew one another.’

  ‘You even managed to fool Greeley.’

  Sal smiled. ‘That was oh so easy. You just have to have a pretty face and a helpless air. And Greeley was too busy looking at my ankles to notice anything else. The only one who was suspicious of me was that fool of a farmer and I made sure no one listened to him.’ She leant across to stroke Darren’s arm. For some reason, although he was trying to hide it from her, he looked unhappy that Lewis was dead. ‘I’m real sorry I had to kill him.’

  Although she wasn’t, not really. He’d just been another man, in a long line of men, who thought himself so much better than women and who had treated his long-suffering wife as if she was of no account with no thoughts or wants of her own; putting himself first in everything. Maybe he didn’t deserve to die over the remote possibility he guessed who she was, but at the same time she wasn’t about to harbour any regrets over what she’d done.

  Darren seemed satisfied by what she said.

  ‘How did you get to Talbot in the first place?’

  Quickly Sal told him about robbing Queenie, which made him roar with laughter. Serve the old bitch right!

  ‘When I left Serenity, I took the long way round to Talbot.’ Even Sal hadn’t dared ride the horse up through the hills by herself, even though that would have been quicker. ‘I thought I’d’ve more time than I did, but the wind slowed me down and it was a tough journey. I was scared I wouldn’t make it in time but I did, didn’t I?’

  ‘You’re a wonder,’ Norton repeated. ‘I certainly wouldn’t’ve liked to make that journey by myself, at night, with the storm brewing. You’re real brave.’

  Sal grinned. It was nice to bask in a man’s adoration. ‘I set out to do something, I do it.’

  ‘Where are we going, Sal?’

  ‘California, of course! San Francisco. I’ve got Queenie’s money in here.’ She patted the bag slung over the saddle-horn. ‘I stole more than enough to start up my own brothel. Just think of it!’

  Even so, despite her boasting, Sal was annoyed with herself. Her first idea had been to get up in the night when everyone else was in bed. She could then knife Greeley while he was asleep and rescue Darren and they could ride away with no one being any the wiser and they would be miles away before anyone could come after them.

  But she’d had a couple of brandies along with Ruth, because even she’d been scared by the storm and found the going dangerous and frightening. While waiting for the other woman to fall into a drunken stupor, she’d pretended to go to bed. There, in a rare moment of weakness, she’d fallen asleep herself. And hadn’t woken till dawn crept in the window, by which time it was too late to put her plan into action.

  No wonder Greeley thought she looked cross; she was!

  Then Greeley had come up with the plan of taking Norton back to Serenity and agreed that Daniels could go with him. On the trail she would have found the chance to get Darren away from the two men, but the bastard had had the gall to refuse to allow her to go along.

  Instead she’d had to think fast about what to do and then wait to act until all the hands had left the ranch and just the family and the stagecoach passengers were present.

  She knew there wouldn’t be long before some of the men came back. She also knew she was taking a risk to go up against them all; she might have been overpowered, but she’d had no choice. In the event they’d been taken by surprise and no one had stopped her.

  She’d soon be in California: San Francisco. Where there was so much gold and men willing to spend it! Never again would she have to be that silly, simpering Sarah, the farm girl she once was and who she’d left behind years ago. As she had left behind that hated life and her hated father.

  She could once more and always forever be Sal the Gal.

  Whooeee!

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Slowly Greeley opened his eyes. And groaned. His head felt like it was about to burst. He felt sick. Raising a hand towards his head, he realized he was wearing handcuffs. Then he realized why. So, however much he wanted to, he couldn’t lay where he was forever. After a moment or two he forced himself to sit up, groaning again as he did so.

  There was, of course, no sign of Norton or Sal or the two horses. They could be anywhere by now, especially as he had no idea of how long he’d been knocked out cold. Neither did he have any idea of why he was still alive. Why he hadn’t been killed.

  Another groan, this time at his own stupidity. He couldn’t believe Sarah Fuller had made such a dupe of him. He’d been completely taken in by her blue eyes and trim waist. Believed in her innocent act and believed all her lies. Never once suspected she was other than what she said. It hardly helped that everyone else had been fooled by her too. Norton had played his part; he’d been fooled by him as well.

  Yet it made sense that she and Norton were involved. It was likely that a young man such as he was would want to enjoy the favours of a pretty young lady and likely that a young lady, who earned her living in a brothel, would be attracted to his wild ways and handsome face.

  Greeley closed his eyes, gritted his teeth and managed to stand upright on wobbly legs. He almost fell but grabbed at a post and held on until the barn stopped its awful whirling round.

  He made it out into the yard just as Joseph Peel and Toby Williams galloped into view. Williams had a body slung over the saddle in front of him. Clarence Lewis, the farmer, it had to be. Greeley raised a hand and they rode up to him.

  ‘What’s happened?’ Joseph cried, flinging himself off his horse. ‘Are my family all right? What’s going on? We found that farmer you were talking about. Is anyone hurt?’

  ‘Sarah Fuller was Norton’s girlfriend. She’s shot your pa and Daniels. And she hit me hard. That’s the last thing I remember.’

  Joseph swore and immediately raced for the house.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Greeley called after him. ‘They’re safe in the root cellar.’ Holding his head he turned to Williams and quickly added, ‘Peel isn’t badly hurt. I’m not sure about Daniels.’

  ‘What a mess,’ Williams growled.


  It was obvious that the foreman didn’t appreciate the fact that Peel and Betsy had taken the stagecoach passengers in, dried them off and fed them, only to be repaid by having danger and murder brought to their door. Who could blame him? Greeley didn’t like it either.

  ‘Your head’s bleeding,’ Williams said, catching hold of Greeley as he stumbled. ‘And you’re in handcuffs,’ he added with a grin.

  Greeley groaned again, this time at the humiliation.

  ‘They can’t have gone long. We came back as soon as we found this poor guy.’ So saying, Williams lifted Lewis’s body off the horse and carried it into the barn. ‘Let’s get you up to the house.’ He put an arm round Greeley’s waist in support.

  By the time they got there, Joseph had let the prisoners out of the root cellar. They looked angry and fearful, not really understanding what had happened.

  Greeley was relieved to see that he was right about Peel: the rancher wasn’t badly hurt. The bandage Amelia had made from her petticoat and wrapped round his leg was barely stained with blood and he sat in a chair, cursing and muttering.

  Not so Daniels. He lay on the floor and Betsy and Amelia were both by his side. They had cut away his shirt and now Betsy said, ‘Amelia, dear, boil up some water. We’ll have to bathe this wound and bandage him up good and tight. I don’t think I can get the bullet out. It’s too deep for me to risk it.’

  ‘She has operated on others in the past,’ Williams said in an aside to Greeley. ‘But that was mostly for flesh wounds or broken limbs. Let’s get you out of the handcuffs. Where’s the key?’

  ‘Sarah threw it into the corner. Over there.’

  ‘Here we are.’ Williams freed him.

  ‘Jo,’ Betsy said, ‘help me carry Mr Daniels into the bedroom. Let’s get him settled.’

  ‘Mrs Lewis,’ Greeley said, turning to the woman, who had collapsed into a nearby chair and was twisting a handkerchief round and round in her hands. She raised scared, tearful eyes to him. ‘I’m so sorry, but they’ve found the body of your husband.’

  ‘Oh no, no. Oh, I hoped . . . oh, poor Clarence. I must go to him.’

  ‘He’s in the barn.’ Greeley turned to Anderson. ‘Go with her.’

  ‘Come along, Mrs Lewis,’ Harry said and, holding her arm, took her out of the door.

  Peel ran a hand through his hair. ‘I was real worried about you, Gus. We all were. Thought you’d be dead for sure.’

  ‘Me too,’ Greeley said with a little laugh. ‘Got knocked out is all.’

  ‘I can see that.’

  Greeley put a hand to his head, feeling a large bump at the back of his neck. As he touched it, he winced and a wave of nausea surged through him. He swallowed hard. He sat down before he fell down. That was a bit better.

  ‘Gus, I’m real angry about all this. . . .’

  ‘You have every right to be.’

  ‘. . . but none of it is your fault.’

  Greeley shook his head and wished he hadn’t. ‘Yeah it is. I should have been suspicious of everyone on that stage. Not allowed myself to be hoodwinked.’

  ‘You couldn’t’ve known. That girl was a complete law unto herself.’ Peel sighed. ‘She sure put on a show.’

  ‘I should get after them.’

  ‘No.’ Peel held out a hand. ‘Not till you’re feeling better. You try riding off now, you won’t get far. I want that pair caught same as you after all they’ve done, but you won’t catch ’em if you fall off your horse and can’t get on again. You need to rest a bit. Have something to eat. Soup won’t take long to heat up. An hour or two won’t make much difference either way.’

  Reluctantly Greeley accepted what the man said. He really didn’t feel up to a long ride just yet. ‘I’ll go as soon as I can.’

  ‘Doubt you’ll catch up with ’em,’ Williams said.

  ‘But at the least I need to alert Marshal Rayner. And a doctor is needed out here to look at Daniels and you too, Mr Peel.’

  ‘In which case iffen it’s OK with you, sir, I’ll ride down into Serenity with Gus,’ Williams said. ‘He doesn’t know the way whereas I do. That way he can stay in Serenity while I bring the doc back with me.’ The way he spoke he wouldn’t take no for an answer from either Greeley or the doctor.

  ‘Good idea,’ Peel agreed.

  A little later Betsy came back into the room. ‘Daniels is sleeping easily,’ she said. ‘He’s still losing blood though.’ She went up to her husband and put her arms round him, holding him close. ‘I don’t think anything vital has been hit. He’d be dead by now if it had. And the fact that he’s still alive is a good sign. Oh, Orson.’

  Betsy began to cry.

  ‘It’s all right,’ he said, patting her arm. ‘I’m OK. I’ve been hurt worse, you know that. It’s over now. You’ve had more to cope with than this.’

  She gulped. ‘It was just such a shock. That girl! All she did. What she was. To think we trusted her. Liked her even. I can’t get over it.’ After a moment or two she sat up straight and wiped her eyes. On a ranch there was never much time for weeping; you had to get on and act. ‘Orson, what shall we do about Mr Lewis? We can’t just leave his body in the barn.’

  ‘I guess we’d better bury him here.’ Peel looked at Greeley. ‘We have a small area set aside as a graveyard. It already holds the graves of two cowboys who came to grief last year. Pretty little spot.’

  ‘Ruth might not like that. She might want to take him home so he can be buried close by her and she can visit his grave every day.’

  ‘I know, Betsy, but heaven knows how long it’ll be before she’s able to travel to her farm because heaven knows how long it’ll be before Wells Fargo can run a stage through here again. And we have nowhere to keep him in the meantime.’

  ‘Can’t one of the men take Ruth and the body home in the buckboard?’

  ‘I don’t think so, sweetheart. Not yet anyway. The conditions are still bad out there and to drive the buckboard down the hills might be to risk a spill. You don’t want any of the men to risk their lives, do you?’

  ‘Certainly not!’

  ‘I don’t see any alternative. So we might as well hold the service this afternoon after we’ve given her the chance to say goodbye to him.’

  ‘At least we can give her our support. She keeps telling me what a good man and a good husband Clarence was and how she doesn’t know what she’ll do without him.’

  ‘She didn’t even want to be on that stage,’ Greeley said. ‘She wanted to stay in Talbot till the storm blew over. Even worse he was killed for nothing.’

  ‘And, Betsy, tell her we’ll find a way to get her home as soon as we can so she can be with her son. She mustn’t think we’re just going to let her get on with it by herself.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  The other hands returned with Bill Brown and the horses before Greeley and Williams left for Serenity. The coach driver was no worse for his ordeal of being out by himself, all night in the cold. He said he had spent the time cuddling up to the horses and they’d kept him warm. He went to sit by Daniels’ bed where both men were fussed over by Betsy Peel.

  The men had brought back the luggage from the stage. Greeley was pleased to be reunited with his saddlebags and rifle.

  Shortly afterwards he said goodbye to the Peels. He didn’t feel up to the long ride he had in front of him, but at the same time he knew he couldn’t delay any longer. ‘Thank you for all your help. I’m sorry I brought trouble to your door.’

  ‘It wasn’t your fault,’ Betsy said kissing his cheek. ‘I surely hope that you catch up with that wicked girl. Sal the Gal what a ridiculous name! She deserves to be punished for the misery she’s caused. Mr Greeley, promise me you’ll do your best to make things right.’

  ‘I will.’

  Greeley and Williams didn’t speak much as they rode down through the hills. While the safest route was to keep to the stagecoach road, Peel had suggested, and his foreman agreed, that the quickest and shortest way by far was to cut a
cross country. The trail might be dangerous after all the rain, but then the stagecoach road could be just as bad, especially as lower down it criss-crossed the river several times. And once they came out of the hills it would then be a straight and reasonably short ride across the valley to the river with Serenity on its other side.

  For the most part the two men had to ride single-file along a narrow, winding trail where trees pressed close, making it cold and gloomy. Deep canyons far below were marked by weird rock formations. They were forced to back-track a couple of times when the trail became impassable, with fallen trees and rocks. Once a lengthy detour was necessary. But luckily for the most part the way remained clear of any obstructions and while the ground was soaked through, they met with no real flooding.

  It was early evening, the shadows lengthening all round them, when they reached the valley floor. They were almost there.

  Greeley came to a halt, took a drink from his canteen and handed it to Williams, who said, ‘How you feeling?’

  ‘My head aches. Badly. I’m not sure I can go on much longer.’

  ‘It ain’t too far now.’

  ‘Thank God for that. We haven’t seen any sign of Norton and Sal.’

  ‘Which could mean they’re a good way ahead of us or they stuck to the road. Or they don’t know the area and they’re riding round in circles. Make it easier to catch ’em if so.’

  Somehow Greeley doubted Sal was the type to ride round in circles. She would know where she wanted to go and how to get there.

  After visiting several of the farms closest to Serenity, Marshal Rayner reached the river just as evening was settling in. Although warned by Evans as to what to expect, seeing it for himself was a shock. He could hardly believe the devastation. The bridge had almost completely disappeared. And the water was full of branches and bushes tumbling over and over in the current. Even so, to his experienced eyes, it appeared the water was beginning to go down slightly and thankfully the banks had held.