Wild Abandon

by Cassie Edwards

  Nancy left the house and stood on the front porch. She welcomed Abner’s strong, comforting arms as he came to her and drew her into his embrace.

  “Abner, Abner,” Nancy murmured. She eased away from him and gazed into his eyes. “You know you could have stopped this thing. Did you allow it to happen, hoping that might prevent Dancing Cloud from marrying Lauralee? Could you truly stand by and see that man hang only because you don’t want to give up Lauralee?”

  Abner took Nancy’s hands. “You know me better than anyone else and yet you can think that of me?” he asked, his voice breaking. “Nancy, trust me. I’ll make all wrongs right.”

  “Will you, truly?” Nancy asked, tears spilling from her eyes. Her shoulders slouched, her head hung, she went back inside the house and closed the door between herself and her husband.

  Abner sighed heavily. He kneaded his chin.

  Then he went to his horse and buggy and headed back in the direction of the city again. He was truly torn with what he should, or could do. Quite possibly if he did not make things right for Lauralee, his wife as well as Lauralee would hate him for eternity.

  Frowning, he drove down Broadway.

  He had much to think about.

  He had decisions to make.

  * * *

  Lauralee paced the floor inside the jail, the keys rattling in the sheriff’s hand as he came from the back room where the cells were lined against opposite walls.

  “And so do you feel like a much bigger man today since you have incarcerated a savage, Confederate Cherokee?” she asked, glaring at him. She lifted a chin haughtily. “I wish to see my future husband. If you don’t give me permission, I shall do it, anyhow.”

  “You’re a goddamned spitfire, ain’t you?” Sheriff Decker said, slamming the keys onto his desk. “And you’re plannin’ on marrying’ that son of a bitch Indian?” He laughed raucously. “I wouldn’t count on it.”

  Lauralee stamped away from him and went to the back room. The small barred windows in each cell allowed only a fraction of light to shine through them. But Lauralee had no trouble finding Dancing Cloud. He was the only prisoner.

  An empty, gnawing ache at the pit of her stomach came with seeing her beloved behind bars. She stepped up to the cell and circled her fingers around the cold bars, glad that at least the handcuffs had been released from Dancing Cloud’s wrists.

  “Dancing Cloud, oh, Dancing Cloud, what can I say to make up for what is being done to you?” Lauralee sobbed, melting inside when his fingers covered hers. “Darling, I swear to you, I will find a way to get you out of here. You won’t have to spend an entire night behind bars. I will come for you. After it is dark, expect me to find a way to get you out of here. Then we shall leave immediately for your home in the mountains.”

  “Do not do anything that will endanger yourself,” Dancing Cloud said thickly. “I will be released soon. I am innocent. An innocent man does not stay behind bars for long.”

  She looked over at him. Tears burned her eyes. Doesn’t he know that he is not just any man who will go before a judge and jury? she thought. He is an Indian! And he fought for the South during the war, not the North. Those two things alone would cause enough prejudice among the jurors to make sure that he would hang for a crime that he did not commit.

  “It’s all Kevin Bank’s fault,” Lauralee hissed out. “He hated you the minute he saw you.”

  “Men like him do not live with peace in their hearts,” Dancing Cloud said, his voice drawn. “He is a tormented man, filled with much hate. He only used me, a Cherokee, to focus the hate on this time. Tomorrow? It will be someone else, perhaps white.”

  “Darling, I must go now,” Lauralee murmured. “I owe it to Nancy to go to her. I saw how distraught she was. I worry about her having another heart attack. But I will leave when she is asleep tonight. I will come for you. You shall not be here for lang.”

  They kissed. She gave him a lingering, soft look, then turned on a heel and left. She walked past the sheriff without a word. When she got outside and found her Uncle Abner leaving his buggy, she looked at him for a moment, then started to move past him.

  She stopped when he reached out and grabbed her by the arm and turned her toward him.

  “Don’t blame me for any of this,” he said thickly. “You must remember my standing in the community. I am a judge. I can’t take sides. But I will see that Dancing Cloud is treated well while he is incarcerated, and that he gets a fair trial.”

  “Why not spend your precious time finding the one who truly stole the stallion?” Lauralee said, her voice breaking. “Uncle Abner, please do right by Dancing Cloud. He is the world to me.”

  She yanked herself free and ran to the horse. Sobbing, she wheeled her horse around and headed back for the Peterson House. She had to make things right with Nancy now, for tonight would be too late. Lauralee would not even be there for a final, melancholy farewell.

  Chapter 22

  With long eyes I wait,

  Expectant of her.

  My lady comes at last.

  —WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY

  Her valises packed and placed snuggly at the back of her buggy along with Dancing Cloud’s belongings and his saddle and saddlebags, Lauralee paced the floor, waiting to see that Abner and Nancy were asleep.

  When the clock below her in the parlor began chiming off each separate hour, she mentally counted them to herself, then said the time aloud in a soft whisper as it came closer to the midnight hour.

  “Nine . . . ten . . . eleven . . . twelve,” the said, clasping her hands before her.

  Her eyes widened with a mixture of excitement and fear for what she had planned. It would be the most daring thing she had ever done in her life.

  But she had to do it.

  She must!

  She would not leave Dancing Cloud at the mercy of any man.

  Not even her beloved Uncle Abner.

  Although Judge Peterson would have the final word that would decide Dancing Cloud’s fate, Lauralee couldn’t chance that he might even, himself, go against her beloved Cherokee. Her uncle might use this opportunity to separate her and Dancing Cloud forever by sending Dancing Cloud to a prison for a lengthy sentence.

  She could not chance that.

  Come hell or high water she was going to break Dancing Cloud out of jail tonight.

  Tying a shawl around her shoulders, Lauralee stepped out into the quiet hallway. Her heart thudded inside her chest as she peered toward her aunt and uncle’s door. She breathed a sigh of relief when she did not see lamplight at the crack beneath the door.

  She tiptoed to their door and leaned an ear to it. She heard absolutely nothing. That had to mean they were asleep.

  Unsure of how soundly her aunt and uncle slept, she feared what she had to do next. While leading her horse and buggy from the stable, would she be heard? She knew that she had grown used to sleeping through all sorts of noises at the orphanage.

  But here on the outskirts of Mattoon everything was so quiet. The sound of wagon wheels and horse’s hooves could sound like thunder to someone who was trying to get a peaceful night of sleep.

  Knowing that she would have to take that chance, Lauralee clutched the shawl more tightly around her shoulders and tiptoed to the staircase, and then down the steps. There was no lamplight or candles to light her way. Just one slip of the foot and she would be caught.

  Nervous perspiration beading her brow, she finally reached the first-floor landing. She felt her way down the long corridor, through the kitchen, and then to the door that led to the back porch.

  She held her breath as she slowly inched the door open. She eyed the outdoors and the shadows of the night. The moon was only a slight sliver in the sky now and gave off scarcely any light.

  Seeing Dancing Cloud’s freedom only a short time away should she succeed with her ploy to draw attention from the jail, Lauralee ran down the steps. She lifted her travel skirt from the dew of the night and ran toward the stable. She cast
a look over her shoulder toward the Petersons’ bedroom window. Thus far they had not been awakened. But the true test was soon to come.

  Breathless, Lauralee patted her horse and smoothed her gloved hand down its withers. She then stared into the buggy at one bag in particular at the back. Inside this bag were rolled-up pieces of paper that she had taken from her uncle’s wastebasket, and small pieces of kindling she had taken from a bucket beside the front parlor stove.

  She reached inside the pocket of her skirt and circled her fingers around several matches. She prayed that she had stolen enough to get a good fire going across the street from the jail.

  Smiling and trembling, Lauralee quickly stepped up into the carriage and plopped down. Picking up the reins, she lightly snapped them.

  As the horse and buggy left the stable, Lauralee kept her eyes on the Petersons’ bedroom window. If she saw a stirring of the sheer, lacy curtains, then she would know that her plan had failed and that Dancing Cloud would have to stand trial after all.

  Careful just to inch the horse and buggy along, Lauralee watched as she came directly below her aunt and uncle’s bedroom window.

  Her pulse raced.

  Her throat went dry.

  Her eyes misted. This was not the way she would have liked having said her final goodbye to two very special people. By leaving them, she knew that she was leaving behind many opportunities.

  But there were boundless opportunities offered her by going with Dancing Cloud. While with him, every day would be filled with many blessings.

  Only if his people accepted her, she again fretted to herself.

  She sighed heavily when the circular drive was left behind her as well as the Peterson House. Her eyes were intent now on all sides of her, watching for any sudden movements, any signs of life. She rode in an elusive manner, watching over her shoulder to see if she was being followed.

  Clint McCloud.

  He was always on her mind, especially when she was alone. Although she had her small derringer slipped into the pocket of her skirt, it did not give her much peace of mind.

  Her aim was no better than a toad’s!

  Feeling more confident by the minute, and satisfied that no one trailed her, Lauralee slapped her reins and sent her horse into a harder gallop. She wanted to get this over with. Not only to get Dancing Cloud released to freedom, but to get her insides settled down into something akin to being normal again.

  She was queasy.

  She was tense.

  She was strangely cold all over, yet still perspired. The gaslights up ahead along the street alerted Lauralee that she was almost to her destination. She swung the horse and buggy into a small side street, then up again toward Broadway. She had missed the jail by one block. She would go by foot back a half block and get the fire started across the street from the jail.

  Then she would swing around again in her horse and buggy and go to the rear of the jail. She would find Dancing Cloud’s horse tethered there. She would saddle it.

  After Deputy Dobbs ran from the jail to see about the fire, it would be easy for Lauralee to sneak into the front door. She would release Dancing Cloud. They would flee into the night while the fire wagon bells clanged noisily as they arrived at the scene of the fire.

  She frowned at the thought of having to set fire to the small wooden building that sat squeezed between two brick establishments.

  But there was one thing in her favor.

  It was unoccupied.

  And it was going to be torn down soon so that a brick building could be built in its place.

  The irony of her having chosen to set fire to this building was that it had just recently been purchased by her Uncle Abner. He planned to lease the new brick building out to bring in more business to Mattoon.

  “I shall just hurry the process along,” Lauralee whispered to herself, smiling. “Uncle Abner, if the fire wagons don’t arrive quickly enough you will not have to pay for the demolition of the squat, ugly wooden building.”

  She shivered at the thought of being caught and labeled an “arsonist.” Her aunt and uncle would be disgraced for life for having brought her into their lives.

  Knowing that she had to chance even that, Lauralee climbed from her buggy and secured her reins on a low tree limb. She then grabbed the heavy bag of kindling and paper. Keeping in the shadows as much as possible, she inched her way along in front of the buildings.

  Her heart hammering hard, Lauralee stopped and leaned her back against the wall of the wooden building long enough to get her breath. Her eyes studied the jail. There was only a faint lamplight shining from the windows at the front.

  Then she smiled when she saw the shadow of Deputy Dobbs walk past one of the windows. He would surely see the fire as it progressed into something raging and brilliant in the darkness of the night. After he left the jail unguarded to run and check on the fire . . .

  As planned, Lauralee methodically placed the bits of kindling and paper around the foot of the wooden structure. Her fingers trembled as she struck one match and then another, setting small fires along the bottom of the building. There was one thing that she had forgot about. The sidewalks. They were made of wood and corncobs. If they began burning, a path of fire would make its way down Broadway Avenue.

  “Lord, please just let burn what I want to burn,” she whispered, peering into the dark heavens. “You know that what I am doing is right. Dancing Cloud’s life depends on it.”

  She dropped the last burned-out match. Not turning to see whether or not the building was going up in flames yet, she ran hurriedly to her wagon, climbed aboard, slapped the reins, and soon found herself behind the jail.

  Sliding from the seat, her eyes wide, Lauralee went and looked around the corner of the building. The fire quickly caught her eye. The flames were lapping up the front of the building. She jumped with a start when the glass in the window exploded and sprayed in all directions.

  Then she placed a hand to her throat when Deputy Dobbs ran from the jail, stopping only momentarily to stare at the blazing inferno halfway down the street from the jail.

  As she had hoped, he did not look back with concern at the jail, his worries for his one prisoner gone the instant he had seen the fire.

  Running down the middle of the dirt road, he waved his hands in the air, shouting “Fire.”

  Having not expected the deputy to make such a racket, Lauralee frowned and died a slow death inside. Before long the whole town would be awake! Now she had to work twice as fast or she would be caught.

  Breathless, her heart beating anxiously, Lauralee saddled Dancing Cloud’s horse. She then swept the hem of her travel skirt up into her arms. Her knees weak, yet filled with determination and spirit, she ran into the jail.

  She recalled the sheriff having slung the keys idly on top of the desk earlier in the day. That was where she expected to find them.

  Her heart seemed to drop to her feet when she stared at the clutter on top of the desk, the keys nowhere among it.

  Then recalling novels that she had read about the West, and where the sheriff in the books usually kept their keys, she ran to the door that led to the back room. She swung it open and just as she had hoped, to the right, on a nail in the wall, hung the huge circle of keys.

  “O-ge-ye?” Dancing Cloud said, rising up from his bunk, the lamplight in the outer room illumining Lauralee’s face as she turned to him.

  Seeing Dancing Cloud behind the bars, his hands clutched to them, made Lauralee know that she would go to the ends of the world, if needed, to set him free. Never had she loved him more than at this moment.

  The love that soared through her gave her the strength to move on to the jail cell. She smiled weakly up at Dancing Cloud, then with trembling fingers, slipped the key into the lock. She wanted to shout “hooray” when the lock sprang free.

  Dancing Cloud shoved the door open. For a moment he engulfed Lauralee within his powerful arms. “I told you not to take chances,” he said, his voice drawn.


  “I had to,” Lauralee said, clinging.

  Then she wrenched herself away from him and grabbed his hand. “Come on,” she said, her eyes looking guardedly around her as she and Dancing Cloud moved out into the outer room. “If we move quickly we won’t get caught.”

  The sound of the fire bells and the thundering of hooves as the fire wagon rode down Broadway Avenue toward the raging fire caused Dancing Cloud’s eyes to move quickly to one side. “There is a fire,” he said, momentarily pausing as he stepped outside the front door.

  He shifted his gaze down at Lauralee. “Did you . . . ?” he questioned, raising an eyebrow.

  She smiled sheepishly up at him and nodded her head, then jerked on his hand. “We must leave,” she said. “Now. Thus far, no one is suspicious over the nature or origin of the fire. How could they think it was set to create a diversion so that someone could escape from their jail?”

  Together they ran around the corner of the building, then stopped with a start when they came face to face with Paul Brown.

  Lauralee stiffened.

  Her eyes wavered into Paul’s.

  Paul gazed slowly from Lauralee to Dancing Cloud, then at Lauralee again.

  Lauralee’s first thoughts were to draw her derringer on Paul. But she knew that he would be much quicker. The heavy pistol hanging at his right hip caused her not to chance that.

  “Lauralee, how did Dancing Cloud get free?” Paul asked, idly scratching his brow.

  “Why are you here this time of night?” Lauralee questioned guardedly, her chin lifted stubbornly. “Did the fire bring you from the farm? I do not see how you could have seen it from that distance.”

  “No, I didn’t see the fire. I’m not here for that reason,” Paul said. He rested a hand on his holstered pistol as he cast Dancing Cloud a frown. “I’m here to relieve Deputy Dobbs of his duties for the night.” He turned slow eyes to Lauralee again. “You see, I was deputized, myself, yesterday. It’s always been my ambition to become sheriff someday.”