Compromised Hearts

by Hannah Howell

  “Since they know where we are, why’re we waiting?”

  “So we can be sure every shot counts,” Cloud replied in a cold, flat voice.

  James nodded solemnly. “How do you think they’ll come at us?”

  “I’m hoping straight on.”

  “Do you recognize this lot?”

  “Nope. Most of the ones I knew much about are dead now.”

  “Unfortunately, there always seem to be more to take their place. They’re starting up—straight at us but careful.”

  “There’s not enough cover for them to be careful enough.”

  Emily had to bite her lip to keep from crying out when the first shot was fired. She held Thornton close, giving him the added protection of her body. She kept her gaze fixed upon Cloud and James and prayed as lard as she could.

  The violence she was discovering in the West appalled her. It was far more visible and seemed to be more a part of everyday life than in Boston, a continually growing city that was not without its violent places and people. She could only hope that, if they got out of this confrontation alive, her brother’s home and the town he lived in would not prove to be as wild and dangerous.

  The shooting seemed to go on for hours, but Emily felt sure her mind exaggerated the length of the battle. Her eyes hurt from staring so fixedly at Cloud. She felt a pang of guilt over her neglect of James, who was in equal danger, but knew that, if the battle started up again, she would do the same. Although she would grieve if anything happened to James, the thought of any harm coming to Cloud made fear grip her by the throat. When it came down to the line, he was far more important to her.

  “Is it Injuns, Mama?”

  She forced a smile to her lips and kissed Thornton’s forehead. “No, my sweet boy, not really. It is just a lot of bad men.”

  “Uncle Cloud and Uncle James’ll make ‘em go away.” He patted her hand. “Don’t you be afraid.”

  “How could I be afraid with three brave men to protect me?” Her smile came more naturally when the little boy’s thin chest puffed out with pride. “We will just sit here and be quiet and soon it will be over.” She hugged him when he nodded, then turned her attention back to Cloud wishing she was near enough to hear what he and James so intently discussed.

  “One round finished. Think that’ll be the end of it?” James began to recount his supply of ammunition.

  After studying the group of renegades for a moment, Cloud shook his head and cursed softly. “Nope. They’re either real stupid or real stubborn. ‘Course, when you don’t care squat for anybody, it’s easy to throw lives away through sheer pigheadedness.”

  “Even though they don’t know if we’ve got anything worth dying for or not?”

  Forcing himself not to glance at Emily, Cloud sighed. “We don’t know that. One of them could’ve spotted us. Could’ve seen that we had some fine horseflesh, a cart full of goods—and one woman.” He nodded when James cursed. “Emily’d bring a fine purse from any number of sources.”

  “And if they saw her when she didn’t have her bonnet on… .” James shook his head.

  “Some don in Mexico’d pay a king’s ransom for a woman with hair like that.”

  “And there’s plenty of unscrupulous bastards between here and the border that’d buy her quick too. Here, look, one of ‘em is approaching slow with a flag of truce.” He watched the man edging towards them, a dirty white handkerchief tied to a stick.

  “We know who’s in there,” the man called.

  “That’s odd. I don’t recollect you,” Cloud replied, “but then, I try to avoid scum.”

  Emily gasped softly over that inflammatory remark. The man clearly wished to negotiate. It seemed unwise to slap him in the face before he had even uttered his terms. She said nothing, however. Her ignorance of the area and the people in it had been well displayed more times than she cared to recall. She would be silent and assume that Cloud knew what he was doing. He had so far, bringing them safely through an area littered with dangers.

  “That ain’t real smart, mister. We know there’s only two men, one brat, and a woman in there.”

  After cursing viciously under his breath, Cloud muttered, “They did see us. How the hell did I miss them?”

  “You ain’t got a chance.”

  “We haven’t been doing so bad. Looks to me like you’ve got four, five men dead or wounded and we’re still here.”

  “You won’t be much longer. We can keep you pinned down in there for days if we have to. Look, send out the woman and we’ll let you two and the brat leave safely.”

  “He really thinks I’m that stupid?”

  “Cloud?” Emily called softly.

  “Nope.”

  “I have not said anything yet.” “You don’t have to, Em. I know what you’re going to say. The answer’s no.” “But, Cloud …”

  “Em, do you have any idea what they’ll do to you?”

  “I’m sure it will be most unpleasant.” She grimaced over her choice of words but could think of none stronger.

  “Oh, yeh, most unpleasant.”

  Cloud cursed when ne saw her flush. There was no need to sneer at her. She could have no way of knowing what sort of men they were dealing with. He was feeling frustrated, backed into a corner, but it was not fair to lash out at her. He doubted that telling her all they would do to her would stop her from wishing to save them, but he would try to make her see more clearly exactly what sort of men they were dealing with and just how little their word meant.

  “Em, if you go with them, you might get lucky and the man they mean to sell you to will have a few rules about not abusing the merchandise before it gets to him. ‘Course, that don’t mean that scum’ll follow the rules. Most likely they’ll use you, repeatedly, until they kill you or find someone who’ll pay a little for you. Each one of ‘em, any time they want and any way they want, will have you.

  “And it won’t save us, Em,” he continued quietly. “They’ll still kill us. They won’t want us on their trail and they won’t want us telling anyone about them. Not only are they probably wanted in every town between here and the border, but folk out here don’t take kindly to the stealing, abusing, and selling of women. If for no other reason, there’s too damn few of you.”

  “Well, for most of us anyway,” James murmured, smiling faintly when Emily gave a soft, nervous laugh. “He’s right, Em. There’s no dealing with this lot. They’re just hoping we’re fool enough to think there is.”

  She knew they told her the truth. It had been but a small hope, a faint chance to keep Cloud, Thornton, and James alive. Any price she had to pay would have been worth it. However, she had no inclination to toss herself to the wolves if it gained nothing. She would rather die with the people she cared for then see them cut down as she was dragged off.

  “Well, it was just a thought.” She hugged Thornton a little closer. “No mercy at all?”

  “I’m afraid so.” Glancing at the wide-eyed little boy, Cloud sorely wished he could tell her otherwise. “So, we’ll show none to them.”

  The coldness in his voice made her shiver. This was the Cloud who had faced death and learned how to treat those who would deal it out, first in the war and then as a scout. He would do all he could to keep them alive. It would be ungrateful to quibble over the methods he employed to do that or what dark side of his character had to be called forth. Looking down at the little boy huddled so close to her, she decided she did not really care how Cloud did it, so long as he succeeded.

  “You decided yet?”

  “Yeh.” Cloud forced back the urge to simply shoot the outlaw in answer to his loathsome offer. “Well? What’s your answer then?” “Nope.”

  “She must be damned good if you’re willing to die for her.”

  “Who says we’ll be the ones doing the dying?”

  “You ain’t got a chance in hell.”

  Cloud knew James was watching the outlaw as he scrambled back to the others, so he covertly watched Emily. The
way she held Thornton, talking softly and calmly to the frightened boy, touched him in a way he did not fully understand. He doubted that any mother could share a stronger bond with a child than Emily did with Thornton. It was not only sympathy and a liking for the orphaned child that would make Cloud take Thornton on. Cloud knew he would never get Emily unless he did.

  “Cloud?”

  “Yeh, Em?”

  “If this goes—well, wrong will anyone ever know what happened to us?”

  “I can’t say for certain.” He scowled as he suddenly realized why she would concern herself about such a thing. “Worried about Harper?”

  Although puzzled by the sharp tone of his voice, she replied calmly, “Yes, he is expecting me. I would hate to think that my brother might be left with no knowledge about what has happened, or think that I have simply disappeared between Boston and his home. I have seen how that can be on a person. Sailors leave port never to return. Their loved ones know, yet do not know what has happened to them. It is assumed that the ship sank with all hands lost, yet no one saw it, no one can tell them the fate of their loved one, and there is no body. There is no real sense of finality.”

  Cloud opened his mouth to say something comforting, then snapped it shut as he stared at her for a moment. He carefully rethought what she had just said but did not fully trust his hearing. He had not been listening that closely.

  “Your what?”

  “Pardon?”

  “You said that who will never know?” “Harper.”

  “What did you just call him?”

  “My brother.” She wondered what he was getting so angry about.

  “You never told me he was your brother.”

  She looked at Cloud in slight surprise and wondered, a little crossly, if he was quite right in the head. They were trapped in a cave with a score of ruthless desperados eager to slaughter them. It was a very strange time to get into a huff over her neglecting to mention that Harper was her brother, especially when he had made it rather clear that he was not interested in Harper in the least.

  “I certainly would not be traipsing across thousands of miles to go to a stranger.”

  “Thought he might be your fiancé or something.”

  “My fiancé?” she squeaked. “Whatever gave you that idea?”

  Before he could reply, James suddenly stopped grinning over the impending argument and murmured, “Here they come.”

  Even as he hastily turned all his attention back to the renegades, Cloud grumbled, “We’ll discuss this later.”

  The first shot erased all thought of Harper and Cloud’s strange behavior from Emily’s mind. One of the desperados got in some lucky shots straight through the mouth of the cave. He was clearly not aiming for the men, but for what he felt was the reason the men were righting so doggedly. Emily covered Thornton with her body as bullets struck the wall of the cave and they were showered with rock chips. She cast a wary glance up at the roof of the cave and prayed that it was sturdy.

  Despite her need to protect Thornton, she kept a close watch on Cloud and James. They were the ones the outlaws really wished dead, the ones who were directly facing all the danger. They were also all that stood between her and what truly would be a fate worse than death for her, and for Thornton, if he were lucky, a quick death.

  Thornton began to tremble and she knew all of the fears that woke him in the middle of the night were being drawn out by the battle. There were shots and the occasional scream of a man wounded or dying. All that was lacking was the continuous noise of victorious Indians, although the renegades did not fight quietly. She tried to soothe the child by word and touch but felt sure she was not doing too well. All of her own fears and memories were being roused. It was only by gritting her teeth that she kept herself from trembling right along with Thornton.

  Along with never having to ride a horse again, Emily decided she never wanted to hear another gun fired. It was a foolish wish and she knew it, wincing as another bullet hit the cave wall near her, some of the stone chips hitting her, but she wished it anyway.

  “They’re rushing us, the bastards.”

  Hearing James’s harsh cry, Emily quickly pushed Thornton down flat upon the floor. “Stay there, love, no matter what happens around you. Lie still and be very quiet.”

  “No angels, no angels.”

  His soft cry struck at her heart. It was evident that, in some way, Thornton did understand the things that had happened to him and were still happening. He had learned the hard lessons or death and danger. She bent to kiss the top of his head and prayed that, if he had to learn anything else this time, it was that the wrongdoers did not always win.

  “Quiet now, Thornton. We can all fight better if we know you’re doing as you should.” She saw him nod and turned her attention back to James and Cloud just in time to see the renegades appear in the mouth of the cave as they rushed forward.

  The last clear thought Emily had was that the renegades plainly cared as little for each other’s lives as they did for their victims'. It was nearly suicidal to rush such rapidly firing men in a strong defensive position. Then the first renegade broke through the mouth of the cave, and she took up the pistol she had readied. Although her stomach clenched and heaved, the violence played out before her making her ill, she was ready to do her part to help Cloud if help was needed.

  Cloud used every trick and skill he had ever acquired to fight back the rush of men. Only the relative lack of space in the cave’s opening kept them from being overwhelmed. It also helped that, although seeming to charge recklessly, the renegades tried to maintain some caution. That brief reluctance to hurl themselves into the line of fire kept the numbers coming at him and James manageable. Cloud doggedly continued to fight while praying, for the first time in a long time, that no sudden surge of men would come to bury them.

  He also fought to bury a fear that knotted his insides, a fear for the safety of Emily and Thornton. It was far from the first time he had been responsible for other lives, women and children as well as men, but never had he found it so difficult to put all thought of them aside and concentrate on beating the enemy. He could not shake the image of the two helpless innocents huddled in the rear of the cave or of what would happen to them if he failed them.

  Then, when the renegades began to hesitate, to hold back, he began to lose that fear of failure. The knot in his stomach began to loosen as he began to feel that Emily was safe.

  Emily sensed a change before she actually saw it. Slowly, she began to relax as the intensity of the fighting eased. She forced herself not to think of the deaths they had caused and sternly reminded herself that those men had intended to kill them.

  Just as she was about to check on Thornton, slipping the pistol into the pocket of her skirt, a hand covered her mouth. She tried to cry out despite the dirty gag, but an arm about her throat cut off her air. Her struggles were fruitless as she tried to stop herself from being dragged backwards. Panic stung her throat as she realized that there was a back entrance to the cave and the renegades had found it. She prayed to God that James or Cloud would turn around but they never did and were still facing away from her as she lost sight of them. She wondered frantically if she would ever see them again as her loss of air finally caused her to black out.

  “Hey, look! The bastards are hightailing it. We did it, Cloud! We did it.” James slapped Cloud on the back.

  Smiling with relief, Cloud turned to tell Emily it was over, but his smile quickly vanished. Bolting to the back of the cave, he found only a shaking Thornton still pressed to the floor. It was another moment of frantic searching before he found the crevice that led to another entrance. Frozen in place, he stared into the darkness and realized that he had won the battle but lost the war.

  Chapter Eight

  “Didn’t you know there was two ways into this place?”

  “No,” Cloud ground out as he threw their gear together. “I never bothered to look.”

  “Angels took her. Angels t
ook my mama.”

  “There weren’t any damned angels,” Cloud snarled at the weeping little child, then immediately regretted it. Crouching down by the child, Cloud said gently, “No angels, Thornton. Renegades. Bad men. Your mama’s alive. We just have to find her.” He handed the boy a handkerchief and Thornton began to calm a little.

  “Bad men?” Thornton dutifully blew when Cloud held the handkerchief to his nose. “We can find Mama?”

  “We’ll find her. Now listen to me, Thornton. Listen very carefully.” The boy nodded. “This won’t be easy. It’ll also be dangerous. You’ll have to do everything I tell you to, do it exactly and without a whimper. If I set you down and tell you to stay, you stay.”

  “Even if it’s dark?” he asked softly.

  “Even if it’s dark. The mule and the mare, Carolynn, will be with you most likely.”

  “Okay, Uncle Cloud. I’ll do everything and you’ll get Mama back.”

  Cloud nodded and tried to feel as confident as he made himself sound. If he had some safe place to leave everything so that James and he could travel light, he would have an excellent chance. Instead, he had to try and trail men who would be moving stealthily yet quickly, while he had to drag along a little boy, a stubborn mule, and a cartload of supplies. It would slow him down dangerously and he had to reach the men before they crossed the border. Once the men got Emily into Mexico, it would be a long and arduous chore to get her back. He knew neither the land nor the language.

  By the time they were ready to leave, Cloud felt tied up in knots. Already half an hour had been lost. He was painfully aware of how much of a lead that could give the renegades. The fear of all that could happen to Emily during that time gnawed at him.

  “Cloud?”

  Struggling to shake free of his dismal thoughts without taking his gaze from the trail they followed, Cloud muttered, “What is it, James?”