At midday, they were on the lower slopes of the mountain, approaching the foothills. Snively and Crowley complained about the hard pace, and Hinton responded with a sarcastic, profane tirade, calling them weaklings. The two men muttered resentfully and then fell silent, trudging down the mountain behind Alexandra. As they entered the foothills, she and the men mounted their horses again. Avoiding the farms and sheep stations, Hinton led the way west across the forested slopes.
Late that afternoon, the terrain had leveled off into rolling hills covered with open forest and brushy clearings, the farms and sheep stations well to the south and behind them. Hinton reined up beside a brook at the foot of a hill, announcing they would camp there. As he dismounted, he told Alexandra not to build a fire and to hand out cold food.
Alexandra looked through the foodstuffs, finding the cheese and ship biscuit. The long, hard trek during the day had been taxing for her, but the men were wearier, lying beside the saddles and baggage as they talked listlessly. Alexandra passed out the food, then sat down with her share.
Sunset faded into twilight as she ate, reflecting that her rescue by soldiers was now unlikely, and it would soon be impossible for her to escape. If she tried to flee on a horse after the men were asleep, the stirring of the animals as she mounted one was certain to awaken the bushrangers. But Bathurst would soon be too far away for her to reach on foot.
Either she had to escape within a day or two, or endure captivity until they were near another village, which could be weeks. Thinking about her chances of succeeding if she fled that night on foot, she knew she could travel in the dark through the hills, but the men would be mounted and able to travel much faster. If they spread out and began pursuing her at daybreak, knowing that she would be headed toward Bathurst, they would probably catch her.
Pondering her escape, she absently looked up the brook beside the campsite. During the heavy rains, the narrow stream evidently turned into a wide, raging torrent, because piles of brush and driftwood were caught between large trees on both sides of it. Her gaze fixed on a pile of debris, and Alexandra suddenly knew how to escape without getting caught.
As darkness fell, the men settled down for the night, and Alexandra lay down. Her thoughts again turned to the dread possibility that Hinton might rape her, but he merely brought a rope and tied her hands and feet. He was tired and careless, leaving the knot at her wrists loose enough for her to easily untie.
Listening to the men's breathing, Alexandra waited for them to fall sound asleep. Hinton began snoring, then a few minutes later, Crowley puffed and wheezed in deep sleep. Snively was silent, but the younger bushranger had slept quietly the night before.
As she started to untie the rope at her wrists, Snively got up from his blanket. Clamping a grubby hand over her mouth, he lay down beside her. ''Be quiet," he whispered hoarsely. "If you'll let me do what I want, I'll help you get away."
As he began fumbling at her breasts with his free hand, Alexandra twisted away from him. "Get away from me!" she shouted angrily. "Get away from me and leave me alone!"
Snively frantically tried to shush her and get his hand over her mouth again, but the other two men awoke. Hinton leaped to his feet with a roar of rage. He pulled the younger man to his feet and pummeled him. Snively yelped in pain.
"Leave him alone, Hinton!" Crowley shouted irately. "He was only claiming what's his by rights!"
"I'll give him his bloody rights!" Hinton snarled, throwing Snively to the ground, and kicking him. "There's your bloody rights, you little swine! And there! And there!"
He kicked Snively several more times, as the man howled in protest then scrambled toward his blanket. "Now let that teach you a lesson," Hinton growled. "The next time you go against what I say, I'll make you wish the soldiers had caught you. And you, you conniving slut," he continued, kicking viciously at her, "you stop displaying yourself and causing trouble, or I'll throttle you!"
His toe thudded solidly against Alexandra's side as she squirmed and turned away, trying to protect herself, then Hinton went back to his blanket.
"We should have killed her at the hideout," Crowley grumbled. "That woman is more trouble than ten women are worth. We're all sharing the trouble, but we're bloody well not sharing the benefit from having her here."
"You will when the time comes!" Hinton snapped, lying down. "I told you that you and Snively can do anything you like to her when I say you can. Until then, you'll both leave her alone."
Crowley muttered under his breath, then fell silent. Her side aching where Hinton had kicked her, Alexandra had another long wait, listening for the men to go back to sleep. After several minutes, Hinton resumed snoring, and Crowley was making his usual sleeping sounds. Finally, Snively breathed with a quiet, steady rhythm. Alexandra plucked at the knot on the rope around her wrists. After freeing her hands, she pulled up her feet and untied the rope at her ankles.
Gripped with tension, Alexandra silently got to her feet and crouched low as she crept toward the brook. After wading across it, with no outcry being raised behind her, she ran up the bank of the stream. A hundred yards from the campsite, a large mass of driftwood and brush that had collected between three trees was a darker shadow in the night.
Alexandra ran around to the other side of the debris, dropped to her hands and knees, and began pushing her way into it. As sharp tips of limbs scratched her and snagged her clothes, she ignored them, crawling into the tangle. Hearing rustling sounds, she realized that small animals and possibly snakes were in the brush, something she had failed to consider. She overcame her qualms and crawled into it.
At the center of the debris, she came to a section of the tree trunk with a narrow space under it. She pushed into the opening, then settled herself to wait. When the men discovered that she was gone, they would search in the direction of Bathurst. Eventually they would give up and leave, afraid of being captured, and she was where she could see what they did. Once they were gone, she would set out for the village.
Nothing was further from her mind than sleep, and Alexandra was wide awake just before dawn, when Hinton discovered that she was gone. He roared a stream of profanity, calling to Crowley and Snively. The two men replied, then there was a babble of voices as the bushrangers talked in consternation. They were too far away for Alexandra to understand what they said, but a few minutes later, she heard them saddling horses.
As dawn broke, the screen of dead brush was less dense than it had appeared from a distance, and Alexandra felt exposed. She could clearly see the bushrangers as they took the hobbles off the other horses and tethered the animals to trees to keep them from straying. Then the men mounted their horses and rode up beside the brook, toward her hiding place and in the direction of Bathurst.
Then icy apprehension seized her as she noticed that she had left a wide, glaringly obvious hole in the brush while forcing her way into it. Not daring to move, she waited breathlessly as the men rode toward her. They passed, not even glancing at the pile of limbs and brush.
Alexandra turned and peered through the dead foliage. The men fanned out, Crowley angling off to the left and Snively to the right as Hinton rode straight toward Bathurst. When they disappeared, Alexandra crawled back to the edge of the brush and pulled it together over the hole, then returned to the tree trunk and hid under it again.
Time passed very slowly and the sun gradually rose higher. Weary from the sleepless night, she was also hungry, but most of all she was thirsty. The sound of the brook a few yards away and its fresh, damp scent in the air tortured her, causing her to lick her parched mouth and lips.
The day grew warmer, and movement in the dead, matted grass and leaves a few feet from Alexandra drew her attention. Then she stiffened in fear, her eyes riveted to a snake. Knowing nothing about Australian snakes, she was unsure if it was poisonous, but it was large, well over four feet long. Its shiny body slithered under the tree trunk a few feet from where she lay, then disappeared. As she relaxed, she heard hoofbeats approac
hing in the distance.
The bushrangers were together again, the three horses moving at a fast canter. Alexandra flattened herself, watching through the brush. The hoofbeats grew louder, then the men came into view. Alexandra's anxiety became almost unbearable as they drew closer, then they passed her and rode on to the camp.
Dismounting, the men went to the other horses and led them to the baggage, then began loading the pack horses. Working rapidly and silently, they finished quickly. Hinton put Alexandra's sidesaddle on the horse she had ridden and led it as he rode away from the campsite, turning to the west. The other two men followed him, leading the pack horses.
Watching the bushrangers disappear over the hill, Alexandra felt weak with relief and joyously happy. After the torment she had endured, she could scarcely believe that she had managed to get away from the men. Her first impulse was to crawl out of the brush and run toward Bathurst, but she restrained herself and pondered what to do.
While she was uncertain of the distance to the village, she was sure it would take her several hours to get there. She wanted to reach it during daylight hours, but most of all, she had to be positive that the bushrangers were completely away from the area. After thinking it over, she decided to wait until midday. The men would be far away by then, and she should be able to reach Bathurst before nightfall.
As a breeze stirred, broken clouds moved across the sky, threatening rain. When an hour or more had passed since the bushrangers had left, Alexandra crawled out of her hiding place. Peering warily around, she saw no movement other than the trees swaying in the breeze and the birds flitting about. She started to go to the brook for a drink, but her thirst was gone, lost in her compelling urge to reach the safety of Bathurst.
Hurrying toward the village through the tall grass and stands of brush, Alexandra was aware of her unkempt appearanceher dirty face, her messy hair and her torn and smudged clothing. In the back of her mind, an anguished voice told her that how she looked meant less than nothing, now that her life had been shattered. She ignored it, determined to confront with courage the gossip, snubs, and whatever else awaited her.
The breeze turned into a gusty wind, and the clouds became thicker, covering the sky, as thunder rumbled in the distance. Rain appearing imminent, Alexandra glanced up at the sky and walked faster. Then, as she came to a thicket of brush, Hinton suddenly rode out from behind it, a triumphant grin on his coarse, disfigured face and his pale blue eyes gleaming. Alexandra froze, paralyzed with terror and dismay.
A long moment passed in silence as they faced each other, the wind stirring his dirty blond hair and beard. Then he laughed sardonically. "You stupid bitch," he sneered. "Did you think you could get away from me? Between here and Bathurst are several sheep stations, and I went to a number of stockmen who were tending flocks. I told them that my wife had run away, and asked them if they had seen a woman. None had, so I knew that you were hiding here somewhere, waiting until we left."
Listening numbly, Alexandra knew that the torment she had suffered had been nothing compared to what she would endure now. His cruel smile faded and his voice became savage. "Soldiers might question some of the stockmen I talked to," he growled, "and figure out who I am. So I'll have to take my men and get well away from here, but you're going to pay for the trouble you've caused." Taking a rope off his saddle, he motioned toward the campsite at the brook. "Get on back there."
As she turned, her torture began. Hinton rode behind her, slashing her with the rope and leaving a line of burning agony across her back. Involuntarily crying out in pain, Alexandra ran as the bushranger followed her and whipped her with the rope.
The day had become dark and stormy. The thunder moved closer, and thick, black clouds swirled in the wind that lashed the trees and brush. Alexandra gasped for breath and ran as hard as she could, trying to evade the stinging rope and the horse's hoofs pounding behind her. Hinton jeered at her to run faster as he snapped the rope across her shoulders and back.
Reaching the brook, Alexandra splashed through it and started up the hill on the other side, but Hinton reined his horse around in front of her and stopped. "Now take off your clothes!" he snarled, dismounting and tethering the horse. "And be bloody quick about it!"
His demand made her hesitate, her shrinking reluctance to undress in front of himthe ultimate humiliationmore compelling than her fear. The man's coarse face twisted in brutal delight as he saw her distress, and he leaped at her, beating her furiously with the rope. "Get your clothes off, you worthless bitch!" he bellowed. "Your kind is good at giving commands, and now you'll learn to obey them. Take off those clothes!"
Stumbling backward and trying to dodge the rope, Alexandra began hastily undressing. Hinton laughed in cruel glee as he stopped whipping her and watched, occasionally snapping the rope to make her flinch. The storm drew closer, and lightning crackled a few hundred yards away, followed by a shattering blast of thunder. The trees thrashed in the howling wind as the first few large, scattered raindrops fell.
Trembling in fear, Alexandra took off the last her clothes. She looked away, but she could still feel his burning gaze devouring her as she stood completely exposed to his lust, the wind whipping her hair and the large, heavy raindrops splattering her naked body. In her agony of mortification, she almost felt relieved when he finally unfastened his clothes, and pulled her to the ground with him.
Alexandra bit her lips to smother her cry of pain as he took her with a savage thrust, maliciously torturing her in every possible way. Then, as he brutally continued to ravage her with his animal grunts of satisfaction, the full fury of the storm struck. The scattered raindrops turned into a heavy downpour, and the wind increased to a gale that shredded leaves and limbs from the swaying trees. Blinding bolts of lightning cut through the gloomy twilight, and battering claps of thunder resounded on all sides.
The lightning and thunder passed, fading into the distance under the shrieking wind and the drumming roar of the rain. Hinton at last rolled away from her, then stood up and fastened his clothes. Alexandra weakly climbed to her feet and put on her sopping clothes with trembling hands as the rain beat on her. When she finished dressing, she went up the hill, hiding her pain and agony behind a stoic facade. She followed the hoofprints made when the bushrangers had ridden away earlier in the day, and Hinton led his horse as he followed her.
Having only gone as far as the other side of the hill, Crowley and Snively waited under a tree, the horses nearby. Crowley moved out from under the tree, laughing sardonically and nodding in approval as Alexandra and Hinton approached. "It looks like you've been teaching her a lesson for trying to get away, Hinton," he commented. "We'll finish the lesson, and she'll never do that again."
"No, both of you leave her alone for now," Hinton ordered, stepping in front of Alexandra. "I told you that you can have her when I say you can, and until then I want her left alone."
Crowley exploded in rage. "Damn you to hell, you scurvy swine!" he roared. "I've waited bloody long enough for her!"
Hinton replied with another stream of profanity, the two men on the point of coming to blows as they pushed at each other. Alexandra moved back to keep from being shoved about, too relieved by Hinton's keeping the others away from her to wonder about his reasons. Snively ignored the furious argument, his eyes riveted to Alexandra in raging lust.
"We're all in danger because of her!" Crowley shouted. "You talked to those stockmen, and they'll tell the soldiers about you. If I'm to have that danger, then by God I'm going to have her as well!"
"Aye, we are in danger!" Hinton roared. "And the longer we bloody stand here, the more danger we're in!" He shoved Alexandra, motioning her toward her horse, and told Snively to get the pack horses ready to go. Then he turned back to the other bushranger. "We're leaving, Crowley, and you can either come with us or go your own way."
Snively went toward the pack horses as Crowley and Hinton glared at each other in furious silence. Then Crowley turned away, grinding his teeth in ra
ge. Alexandra climbed onto her horse, and a few minutes later, they set out through the rain, Hinton leading her horse as Snively and Crowley followed with the pack horses.
An hour later, Hinton reined up at a narrow track that had been made by draft animals, heavy drays, and horses. Leading straight to the west, away from Bathurst, the track offered a much easier path than the open countryside, and Hinton turned onto it.
The rain tapered off then stopped, and the sun shone through the clouds as it set. At a stream beside the track, they stopped to camp for the night. Hinton and Crowley were still hostile toward each other, neither of them speaking as they unsaddled their horses and unloaded the pack horses. Snively was also silent, not wanting to give either of them a reason to vent their anger on him.
Her hair and clothes completely soaked, Alexandra shivered with cold. As she unsaddled her horse, Hinton growled at her, ordering her to get out the cold rations. She took out the cheese and ship biscuit from the baggage.
Hinton impatiently snatched his food as she took it to him, and Crowley glared at her in smoldering resentment when she gave him his share. Snively stared at her in heated lust as he took his, but the three men stayed silent. Alexandra ate, then took her blanket from behind her saddle. When she lay down, Hinton tied her hands and feet tightly.
The rope biting into her wrists and ankles, Alexandra shivered as she lay on the wet ground with the damp blanket around her. Although she was very weary after her lack of sleep the previous night, her turmoil from the events of the day and her discomfort kept her awake. She thought about Hinton's refusal to let Crowley and Snively have her, hoping that he would remain adamantly opposed to it.
Thinking about his reasons, she decided that Hinton was using her to demonstrate his authority over the other two men. And when he had made the point to his satisfaction, he would turn her over to them. With that threatening thought in mind, her body aching with fatigue, she fell into a restless, uncomfortable slumber.
Outback Station Page 17
