by Janie DeVos
The next morning, I knew I had to say something to Max. We needed to keep our minds on finding Ivy, not on each other. As we prepared to leave once it was just light enough to see, I spoke the words I’d been rehearsing in my mind.
“Max, I need to talk to you about yesterday afternoon,” I said as I threw my saddle over Maggie. Max was in the midst of removing the blanket we’d used on the roof of the lean-to. After the slightest hesitation in his movements, he continued pulling it off the frame but said nothing. “I shouldn’t have let that happen between us,” I continued, “and I’m sorry. This is my fault. What you didn’t know, and what I should have told you, is that David and I are engaged to be married.” There was no indication that he heard me. He showed no emotion, and there was no hesitation as he continued to gather up our few things from the lean-to. “Anyway, I’m sorry. I should have been more forthcoming about the seriousness of my relationship with David.”
Max barely glanced at me as he walked by. I mounted Maggie and waited for him. He finished loading his items onto Sampson, mounted him and then rode up next to me. “I know about you and David,” he said, looking me square in the eyes. “Ivy talks to me, remember?” He made a clucking sound to get Samson moving and immediately started watching the ground for the eastbound tracks. I fell in behind him.
“Then why did you let it happen?”
He turned slightly in his saddle so that I was looking at his profile. The lines of his nose and chin were angular and strong. “Why did I? The question is, Why did you? I’m not the one engaged.” That silenced me. Then, he said, “Eve, I kissed you because I wanted to, and if you’re being honest—which you seem to have trouble with—then you’d agree you wanted to kiss me, too. But let’s not make more out of this than it really is. It was only a kiss—a nice one, I admit, but nothing more. You’re not the first woman I’ve ever kissed, and it’s unlikely you’ll be the last. And I’m sure the same can be said for you. I doubt David is the only one you’ve ever kissed, though it seems he’ll be the last. And if that’s what you want, then that’s great, it’s just wonderful. But stop kissing other men. It takes two, you know. Now, let’s put it behind us so that we can find Ivy and Moses and then put this trip behind us. I have things to do that I’ve put on hold. I need to move on, and you need to get married. Let’s just get this done.”
“Fine,” I replied testily. Neither of us said anything more as we rode toward the sunrise.
Chapter 28
Bad Company
The terrain changed as we rode farther inland. Subtropical land took on a more tropical feel. River-cooled breezes became a hot and dry wind, while scrawnier scrub pines and longleaf yellow pines filled the forests, replacing the luscious oak and magnolia trees. Grass poked up sporadically in the sandy soil, with sandspurs thriving far better in the desolate landscape. Gone were the crystal-clear blue-green springs; instead, there were countless deep sinkholes filled with water that was the color of dark molasses. Many of the sinkholes were deathtraps; the walls were nearly vertical and too slick from algae to climb out of. And water moccasins were still a threat wherever there was water, as were rattlesnakes.
The land mirrored my spirits. As we rode in virtual silence for a good part of the day, I started to have misgivings about continuing a journey that was beginning to feel more and more like a fool’s errand. Though we were following tracks, how could we be certain that they were Ivy’s and Moses’s? Perhaps we were mistakenly following another pair of travelers. Max was sure we were on the correct track since one of the horse’s hooves had a nick in it, but who was to say some stranger’s hoof didn’t have that damage to it, and we’d been following the wrong tracks all along?
Even if they were Ivy’s and Moses’ tracks, and we finally caught up to them, how would they react? That last thing I wanted was for any of us to get shot because Moses or Ivy thought we’d come to hogtie them and bring them home. I knew if I was feeling this low, they had to be feeling a hundredfold worse. I couldn’t image the terror of feeling like the prize in a hunt.
As I was right in the middle of my depressing musings, Max swung his horse around so that Maggie and Sampson were nearly nose to nose. He’d been alerted to something behind me. “We have company,” he grimly said as he reached for his rifle behind him then rested it in his lap. I quickly turned Maggie around to see what he’d spotted—or who.
Max moved Sampson slightly in front of me. “Son of a bitch! It’s Tom Bigelow and Rayne Longwood. Now, what the hell do they want?”
As the riders got closer, sure enough, I could make out it was Tom and Rayne. They were the hunters I’d talked to outside of the store in Silver Springs. Between Tom and Rayne, Tom was by far the more talkative and uncouth. I’d always tried to stay out of his way, and though he and I had never had much interaction with each other, the little I’d heard from him was usually offensive in some way. On the other hand, Rayne was quiet and never had much to say about anything, which had always unnerved me. I preferred knowing what someone was thinking, even though I might not like it, instead of having to guess whether someone should be considered a friend or foe.
Tom and Rayne were riding hard, obviously try to catch up with us, so we waited as they crossed the desolate landscape. Finally, they reined in their overheated horses. The poor animals looked on the verge of collapse as they panted and snorted, trying hard to catch their breath. There was so much lather around their mouths that both animals looked rabid.
“Rayne, Tom.” Max nodded at them. “How many horses do you all kill in a year’s time?” Clearly, Max didn’t like them.
Tom let the jab slide, or was simply too thick-witted to have caught it in the first place. Instead, he laughed. “Well, I get tired of the same ol’ ride. I like tradin’ ’em in pretty often.”
“Trading them in, Tom, or doing them in?” Max’s eyes were shooting shards of broken glass at him. If looks could kill, Tom would have been cut to smithereens.
Tom was starting to feel uncomfortable. He laughed, but it came out like a sharp bark. “You’re a funny man, Max. Real funny. I always heard injuns didn’t have no sense of humor. Always serious-like, you know? Well, I think you’re proving ’em wrong.”
Max ignored the insult. “What do ya want? What brings you all the way out here? I know it wasn’t to discuss the many ways you know how to mishandle a horse. It’s hot as hell, and I need to take a piss, so talk to me.”
“Miss Stewart’s pa sent us. He’s put a bounty on that Hailey boy. Said he wants him dead, and for us to just bring back a little souvenir to prove he’s crossed the Jordon River, so to speak.”
I closed my eyes, stunned that my father could be so cruel. “What about my sister?” My mouth was dry, making my words sound thick.
“Oh, he wants us to bring his little girl home in one piece,” Tom answered. “Said he’d take care of that issue. Hap had planned on findin’ them himself—with Kite along for the ride, too. And they’d actually started followin’ tracks, but that didn’t last a full day.” Tom turned his attention to me. “It goes without sayin’ that your daddy ain’t quite the man he used to be since that accident ’n all. Just ain’t quite got the same giddy-up and go, and not as many body parts to giddy-up and go with.”
He roared with laughter, and it took everything I had not to grab my own rifle and shoot him in the mouth. I looked over at Max and could see that his finger was resting on his trigger. He was trying to hang on to his self-control, but I knew it wouldn’t take much more to push him across the line. He knew that Tom and Rayne were a threat, and not just to Ivy and Moses but to us, as well, if we tried to get in their way.
“So, that’s the gist of it,” Tom said, looking smug and relaxed. “And that’s why we’re here and why you don’t need to be here anymore. We’re takin’ care of it.”
“So, let me get this straight, Tom,” Max said. “Hap started to track us, but when he couldn’t keep u
p, he put you and Rayne on the trail? What happened to Kite?”
“Kite didn’t relish goin’ in the first place. Tol’ Hap the last time he kilt a man was a Yankee during the war. Didn’t much like doin’ it then and really didn’t want to start doin’ it again. But he feels a real loyalty to Hap, I guess. When Hap couldn’t go on, that was fine ’n dandy with Kite. He wanted out, too.”
“So Hap got you and Rayne instead,” Max finished, “with the grand prize being Moses for the bounty money and a little somethin’ extra for you boys for the safe return of Ivy.”
“Well, a safe return for her if she’s willin’ to come on home. But he said that if she’s real headstrong about stayin’ with that boy, or tries to get in the way of us takin’ care of him, then it wouldn’t be our fault if things ended up not goin’ the way he’s hoping. The main thing is Hap don’t want no darkie grandbaby. If we can get her home, he said he’ll send her up to some family in Georgia, until she has the little bastard. She’ll be comin’ back home alone, though.”
“And what happens to the baby?” I was afraid to ask.
“Why, Miss Stewart, those Georgia folks don’t like darkies any more than we do. I imagine your pap is gonna pay ’em whatever it takes to make sure that Ivy’s well taken care of, and that her baby is, too, but in a different way.” He grinned at his own sick humor. “There’re lots of empty wells and sinkholes around them parts, not to mention woods as thick as the hair on a bear’s ass. Them folks been hidin’ things in those places since time began.”
“Dear God!” I said softly, though Tom heard me.
“Listen, Miss Stewart, that Hailey boy took advantage of a poor white girl! God A’mighty! She’s your sister! He deserves to be whipped, tarred and feathered, and then hung, if you ask me!”
“No one did,” Max said grimly. “But I do want to ask you one more thing: If you started tracking Moses and Ivy only after Hap got back and then hired you to bring in the bounty, how the hell did you find us so quickly? Tracking isn’t a fast-moving sport.”
“Sure ain’t!” Tom agreed. “But Emmitt was real helpful—talks good when he’s encouraged to.”
“What do you mean?” It was another question I was afraid to ask. Despite the heat of the day, I was ice cold.
“Well, first, we tried to be real nice to Emmitt and the missus about it. Said that all we wanted to do was find that son of theirs and warn him never to come back to these parts, and that we were gonna bring Ivy on home. But they didn’t seem too convinced. Emmitt’s wife starts cryin’ and says she knows we’re gonna hurt her boy. Then neither of them would say a word as to his whereabouts. So, we had to change tactics. And you know what I found out? Emmitt likes his wife pretty good—especially if someone is holdin’ a hammer over those bent fingers of hers. Damn, she’s got some bad arthritis in ’em, too. I asked her if they hurt a lot, and she said they did. And I told her that if she or Emmitt didn’t tell us where that son of hers was, I was gonna make ’em hurt a lot worse. She said she didn’t know, but Emmitt started talkin’ when I started poundin’ away. Lord, God, but that woman tried to hold it in! But smashing a thumb to pieces makes a difference.
“Emmitt tells us about them headin’ south to Green Swamp. But I had a feeling he wasn’t tellin’ us the whole story. And I also got the feelin’ that he might try leadin’ us on a wild-goose chase. So, I told him that if he didn’t tell us where they’d gone, I was gonna start on another of his wife’s fingers. And if he didn’t tell us the truth, and we ended up running from hither to yon without finding her boy and Ivy, we were gonna come back and find Emmitt and his wife. And they’d find out that smashin’ fingers with a hammer was an easy thing to tolerate compared to what we’d put ’em through if they lied.
“That was all it took. Emmitt started tellin’ us about an old fishin’ cabin he’s used on the river, and if someone crossed there and then headed straight east, they’d come to a huge old indigo plantation about twenty miles inland. Said they might be there if they were havin’ trouble movin’ south, or if they decided to just lay low until things simmered down around here. I asked Emmitt how he knew about that old plantation, if he’d been some overseer’s whippin’ post before the war, and he said that’s where he was born. Lord have mercy, but that wife of his was madder ’n hell that he’d gone and tol’ us the whole thing. Said he should have let her be smashed to bits before tellin’. Emmitt started sobbin’ like a baby. I kinda felt sorry for the poor ol’ fella, to tell ya the truth. But not so bad that I didn’t give him a little smack on my way out the door, warning him that if he was lyin’ about all this and then tried to hide somewheres with his wife, I’d make it my life’s mission to find ’em and put ’em through hell.”
“You son of a bitch!” I flew off Maggie and headed straight for Tom, but Max blocked my way by sticking his rifle out in front of me.
“Take it easy, Eve,” Max said in a low voice. Then he turned back to Tom. “We’ll bring Ivy and Moses back.”
“Hell, no!” Tom shouted, while Rayne moved a little off to the left of Max. “And then y’all get the bounty?” Tom was furious. “Hell, no! There ain’t a chance of that happenin’!”
“We’ll give you the money. We don’t want it,” Max said, remaining calm. “We just want to make sure Ivy gets back safely, and Moses is dealt with fairly, and that his name is cleared. Moses didn’t do anything that Ivy didn’t agree to. And if Hap told you different, then he’s not telling you the truth.”
As much as I hated hearing the disparaging remarks about my family, I knew that what Max said was true. Ivy and Papa were each responsible for their actions and what resulted because of them. And if that meant that their reputations were badly tarnished, if not utterly destroyed, then it would be their responsibility to find their way back into society’s good graces, too.
“You’re a lyin’ thief,” Tom said, moving his horse a little to Max’s right. “You really think we believe you’d give us that money?” His voice rose in pitch. He was clearly losing control.
Rayne and Tom were now positioned to each side of Max, making it hard for him to watch them both at the same time, and I mentally kicked myself again for not getting my own rifle out before Tom and Rayne rode up. Suddenly, a sharp blast broke the quiet of the morning. Crows, sitting on the edge of a sinkhole nearby, cawed frantically to each other as they took flight en mass, while other sounds from unseen animals created an eerie melody.
I snapped my head around to see where the shot had come from and immediately saw the small pistol, still smoking, in Rayne’s hand. He’d kept it well concealed somewhere but within easy reach. I immediately looked over at Max. He was white as a sheet, in sharp contrast to the bright red blotch that was expanding quickly across his denim shirt, on the left side of his chest, near his heart.
“Max!” I screamed, and as I did, he slumped forward in his saddle as if bowing farewell to an audience.
Chapter 29
The Virtue of Being Stubborn
Rayne leaned out from his horse and took hold of Sampson’s reins. The shot had startled the animal, and without Max keeping him in check, the horse started to nervously dance around. Then Rayne, the man of few words, looked over at me.
“Now, Miss Stewart, you have two choices: One, you can head back home by yourself. Or, two, you can come with us and try to talk Ivy into coming back with us real peaceful-like. Like Tom said, your daddy’s main concern is having Moses taken care of permanently. He really doesn’t want to see Ivy killed, but…things happen. If you’re with us, it might make things go easier for everyone. So, which way is it gonna be?”
“I’ll go home, and I’ll take Max back with me,” I said, remounting Maggie. I wasn’t sure if he was dead or alive. If he was still alive, it wouldn’t be for long unless I could stop the bleeding.
“We wouldn’t want Max to slow you down, would we, Tom?” Rayne smiled.
“Why,
no,” Tom shook his head, grinning.
“Throw him in that sinkhole, Tom.” Rayne’s smile was completely gone. “I never did like him much. And I don’t want to take the chance of him surviving and coming back to even things up with us.”
“Us?” Tom didn’t like being included in that scenario. “Hell, I’m not the one who shot him!”
“Yeah, but you’re gonna be the one throwin’ him in the sinkhole. Now, do it!”
It was clear who was in charge. Immediately, Tom dismounted and took Sampson’s reins from Rayne and led both horse and rider over to the sinkhole. Max still hadn’t moved a muscle, and Tom had to keep a hand on him to prevent him from falling out of the saddle, so I figured he was either dead or unconscious. But, even if he was still alive, he wouldn’t be for long once he was dumped into the dark water of the sinkhole. And he’d never be found.
Tom stopped a couple of feet from the edge of the sink then pushed Max out of the saddle. Max landed half in and half out of the hole. Cursing, Tom walked around Sampson and rolled Max in. I counted the seconds until I heard the heavy splash and figured it was about two. I was glad I couldn’t see him. To watch his face slip beneath the surface and quickly fade like a ghost in the murkiness of the black abyss would haunt me forever.
“We gotta get,” Tom said as he led Sampson back to us. “You sure you want to leave her behind? I say we either make her go with us, or we toss her in the sink, too.”
