Gah, Lisa thought, how many times am I going to go through this in my head?
That was another thing; where Lisa agonized over things she really felt like Frank just let it all slide by him somehow, like his life wasn't something he even cared to comment on. Lisa wasn't like that though, she like to chew something up, to really think it over. Motives mattered to Lisa, as did intent. Sometimes things were more complex than they seemed, but not to Frank. Frank saw the world in black and white, right and wrong. There was never any room for anything else but the opposites.
At some point Lisa realized she needed to be more afraid of being ambushed than worried about everything so she decided to focus on the road around here. The way back to home from the city always seemed liked the longer trip than the one coming into the city. For one it was mostly uphill.
For another there wasn't a city waiting for her at the end of the trip, just the homestead. However, when she'd stayed in the city for more than just a few days she'd become extremely homesick for the homestead. Even now it was hard to remember that when she'd just left Ted in the city and was headed back to Frank.
The sky changed to dusk, then to night, and the moon shown bright against the leaves of the trees. Lisa road her horse at a pace that usually would have been impossible without the moon there to give her confidence that she wasn't going to run over a log or run into something or someone.
It was hard, though, to keep from going to fast. If her confidence mounted too rapidly, with a gradient too great, she would find herself needing to rein the horse in. Lisa knew that she would be terrified beyond belief if the horse got its leg stuck in a hole and broke it.
Not only would she be terrified of the walk home, of maybe being set upon by an unseen foe waiting along the way, but of having to face Frank when she got back home. At that point not only would she have cheated on him but she would also have crippled one of their horses by not being careful enough in the dark. Frank would be furious, especially when Lisa told him that he would need to go back and finish off the horse. He would be absolutely livid that she had been too weak to do it herself.
Thinking about shooting something made Lisa reach forward and lean down to feel the rifle scabbard and make sure that it hadn't been swindled away from here when the horse had been out of her sight. She realized now how foolish that had been. She really should have carried the rifle with her to make sure that no one had taken it. The rifle was probably worth more than the horse. It certainly had just as much utility and more fight left in it.
Lisa knew she'd made a huge mistake and come up lucky that only honest people had seen it that day, or maybe that no one had seen it at all. It made her wonder if she would be so lucky in the rest of the aspects of her journey. She wondered if she would be able to keep everything straight in her head and how it came from her mouth when Frank asked her about the day. Or maybe he wouldn't. There were times he was distant as well, especially when he'd been working in the fields a lot - and that was something he'd been doing a lot of recently.
A branch cracked about twenty yards off the path, making Lisa turn sharply and peer into the darkness. She had to use all her will not to snap the reins and bring the horse to a gallop. Lisa told herself to keep it together, over and over, as her eyes tried to search through the foliage to see if anyone was out there, or if it had just been an animal stepping on something or a branch falling.
Before she had finished searching she knew that she wasn't going to find an answer out there in the darkness. Only one in one hundred times did she ever see what had made the noise, and she didn't think that this was going to be one of those times considering everything else that had happened so far that day.
“Who’s out there,” Lisa shouted. “Is anyone out there?”
There was no answer. Lisa turned in her saddle and continued riding. The night got darker as she went and her thoughts swept back and forth. She wondered what the future would hold.
Chapter 5
Lisa stumbled into the cabin, her eyes squinting as she tried to see in the dark. Almost immediately Frank sat up in bed and a lantern came on.
“How was town?” Frank said groggily as he got out of bed and sat down at the table.
“It was all right,” Lisa said. “It has changed a lot since the last time I was there. So many people now! And there are stores full of furniture and clothes!”
Frank's face hardened for a second.
“Lisa!” Frank exclaimed. “You didn't do anything you shouldn't have, did you?”
“What do you mean?” Lisa asked.
She couldn't believe that he knew. How did he know? It shouldn't have been possible. But there it was. He could tell by the look on her face, couldn’t she? She’d betrayed herself with just the look on her face. There was no need to coach herself to not bring it up on accident in conversation, or to act to distant when they spoke, or anything like that. There wasn't any need for anything like that at all because somehow Frank knew. God must have told Frank. That was the only thing that made sense. She had sinned and God had made sure to rat her out. How else—
“You didn't open a line of credit and start picking things out to be delivered or anything like that?” He interrupted her thoughts with a chuckle. “I know how you women get.”
Lisa sat in her seat stunned. So she hadn't been found out. Her heart returned to normal as she tried not to throw up.
“Um, no, no Frank. Why would I do something like that?” She asked, her voice sounding nervous even to her.
Frank just smiled and laughed, explaining his sense of humor like it wasn't obvious enough already what he had meant.
KNOCK KNOCK
“There's someone at the door,” Lisa said frantically as her eyes snapped towards Frank. “Get the gun, quick.”
Frank stumbled for his rifle. Lisa had left hers on her horse. The knock echoed on the door again, this time shaking the wall. Whoever was out there was strong, and was insistent on them letting him in.
“Oh, Jesus,” Lisa said. “Help us! Help me! Save us from the Indian!”
“How do you know it's an Indian?” Frank asked.
Lisa realized she'd never got the time to mention the way she'd been chased into town. Or did she really believe that she'd been chased into town, or had she imagined that? No, that had been real. As surreal as it had seemed it had been as real as she and Frank were real now. Before she could say anything to Frank the door burst open and in an Indian strode, rifle leveled at his hip.
“She comes with me!”
Frank fired and worked the lever of his rifle quickly, firing again and again. The Indian fired as well. Lisa hit the ground and crawled under the table as bullets whizzed through the air around her. She saw the Indian's body jerk for a second before he slowly slid to the ground and let out his last breath.
“Make sure he's dead!” Frank yelled as he kept the rifle trained on the body.
Lisa crawled forward and checked the Indians chest for a heartbeat with her ear. She heard nothing. The Indian drew no breath and lay very still. Lisa felt the face with her hands since there was hardly any light from Frank's almost gone out lamp. She didn't feel any wrinkles or crows feet—before her lay the body of a young man.
“Oh, shit,” Frank said. Lisa looked back toward him and saw him slumped on the bed, trying with all his might to keep the rifle trained on the fallen body of the Indian.
“Are you hurt?” Lisa cried, leaving the Indian’s body to rush over to Frank.
“Yeah,” Frank said. “He got me in the chest, right through the middle. He must have missed my heart and back bone though since I'm still alive. I'm weak though, I can barely hold the rifle. Here, quick, take it from me in case he gets up.”
“It's all right, Frank,” Lisa said. “He's dead.”
Frank's head slumped down to meet his chest and the rifle clattered to the floor. Lisa sat on the bed with Frank's head cradled in her lap, wondering if there was anything she could do. She felt for the wound but all she
found was a gaping, ragged hole in his back. Once she found that Lisa gave up hope. There was nothing she could do. She wasn't a nurse, and she didn't have any materials here to plug the hole in Frank's body. She’d learnt in school that puncture wounds to a human thorax made it so the diaphragm lost suction and then couldn't expand the lungs to draw breath.
“Oh, Frank,” Lisa said as she cried, rocking back and forth with his head in her lap. “Oh Frank, oh Frank, oh Frank. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.”
She cried until her eyes were dry. She cried until her stomach hurt from the retching and heart wrenching sobs. Now, more than anything else, she wanted Frank back like he had been before she'd left. All she wanted to do was sit down at the table and have Frank be whole again. She wanted to listen to him tell her about how hard it was to plow, and how much they needed rain, and how little the crops were growing. All of their hard times seemed like nothing now that Frank was gone. She couldn't imagine life without Frank.
Slowly Lisa got up off the bed and sat down at the table. For a long time she just sat there and thought about what had happened that day - the good and the bad. All the adventure and heartache that had come with a trip to the city for a horse shoe and a few nails to put it on. Who would have thought any of that was even possible?
It just seemed like a dream that she needed to wake up from, some kind of fantasy that went horribly wrong and she needed to escape. She put her head down in her arms in hope that when she raised her head back up there wouldn't be anything like there was now. When she lifted her head again she wanted it to all be back to normal.
Chapter 6
The day was beautiful. Lisa sat on top of Ted's shop, on the roof, sipping a cocktail and waiting for him to bring up their lunch. She had been living with him for a few weeks now. It had been that long since she had ridden back into town covered in blood with her tale of woe. She had been in a state of shock that made it hard for her to communicate with anyone. After awhile a doctor had gotten the story out of her. Then Ted had shown up and taken her back in.
For all this time Lisa had been sleeping in a different bed than Ted. He hadn't just assumed that they would be sleeping together because her husband had died and there was nowhere else for her to go. Lisa appreciated this more than she knew how to express to Ted. But now she was afraid of losing even Ted.
Just before Ted had closed the shop so they could eat lunch together the sheriff had come in to tell Lisa that the town was forming up a kind of militia that was going to go out and get justice for Frank. Lisa had said she didn't know why that was necessary, considering that the Indian that had killed Frank had already died by Frank's hand. The sheriff hadn't wanted to hear anything like that though. He'd looked at her strangely and walked out.
“Ted,” Lisa said. “Have you heard the talk around town about the men going out to hunt Indians down to avenge Frank?”
Ted paused before he set their food down on the table.
“I have,” Ted said. “But I don't agree with it. I think it's foolish to risk more lives. Nothing will bring Frank back. Like you, I was quick to tell that sheriff, that the Indian that killed Frank is already dead.”
Lisa nodded in agreement.
“You know how I feel about it,” she said. “I just don't understand why everyone is acting like they cared about Frank so much now that he's dead. No one cared when he slaved away all night and day on fields that weren't growing the crops we needed. No one cared when we went hungry. Until an Indian killed him, not a single person in this city cared about my husband.”
Ted nodded sympathetically.
“The sheriff talked to me on his way out,” Ted said. “I'll be taking part in the search for any Indians who are stationed around the woods surrounding the city. I know that will be hard on you, but try not to worry about me. I don't think there are any Indians to find out there, to be honest. I think this was a singular event that happened to Frank.”
“What do you mean you are helping?” Lisa said in horror.
“I have to,” Ted said. “I don't have a choice. When posies form up, all the able bodied men of the town are expected to come together and do what needs to be done. This time we need to look for Indians. Besides, I think I'd rather be there if some are found so I can be a voice of reason and hopefully spare their lives.”
Lisa didn't know what to say. First she had lost her husband now she might lose the other man in her life. She started weeping at the table. Ted got up and ran over to her.
“Please don't be upset,” He said. “I promise that I'll be all right.”
Lisa held Ted close and listened to his heart beat. She hoped she never had to hear it stop beating.
“I don't understand all of this business about getting up in arms over Indians who might not even be there. It was only one Indian that was giving me and Frank a hard time. Just one!” Lisa said sobbing. “I don't want anyone else to get hurt. I know Frank wouldn't want anyone else to get hurt. This just doesn't make any sense.”
“I know, dear,” Ted said, looking sad. “But sometimes people need justice and that's just the way it is for some things. Right now, you're right that most people are choosing to be very worked up over certain things when they don't have to be worked up at all. But here they are, getting worked into a right rabid froth about something that happened that didn't even really involve them at all.”
Lisa calmed down gradually. They both sat and tried to eat their lunch, but all either could manage to do was pick a little at their food like there was something wrong with it. Lisa kept looking over the town with tears streaming out of her eyes. She couldn't believe that people were being so vengeful. It hurt her to think that Frank's memory was somehow being used as a catalyst for a manhunt.
Secretly, in places she would never reveal to Ted, she also blamed herself for Frank's death. No matter how many times she replayed the events in her mind she would never be able to go back and unsleep with Ted or be given a chance to stay at the house instead of leaving to get a shoe for the horse. She realized that it didn't do any good to get down on herself about it. She knew that nothing would bring Frank back, but she still felt guilty.
“Don't look so sad, sweetheart,” Ted said. “Tomorrow is a new day. We don't really know if all of this fervor to go looking for the boogeyman is really going to hold or just all blow over by the morning. You know how people are sometimes. They are so quick to speak of big, bold plans to do this and that and most of the time it doesn't amount to anything anyway. We both know this. So let's not get upset about it, all right. It doesn't do anyone any good to be upset about it.”
However, despite Ted’s reassurances, Lisa couldn’t shake off the sadness or the worry. That night when she went to bed, it was with Ted. When they made love she thought about Frank and what she had lost. Afterward, as she thought back over the physical act, she realized she was lucky to have Ted around now. Maybe it was time to let go of the past. She knew it would be hard, at least until all of this were threw.
Lisa couldn't help but feel like she had another part yet to play in the unfolding of what would be remembered as the Great Scalp Hunt. However, at the time she didn't know it would turn into such an ordeal. The only real idea Lisa had in her head while she was by Ted in bed was to be make sure to appreciate the moment for what it was.
Part 3: Ted’s Decision
Copyright © 2014 by Ashley Olsen
All Rights Reserved
Chapter 1
Lisa's new life in the city was one she could have never imagined while she had been living with Frank at the homestead. Ted let her live with him with no charge, and didn't expect her to have sex with him if she didn't want to. It wasn't that Ted didn't want to make love to her. It was just that he didn't want her to if she didn't want to. He'd tried to explain all that to her in the first month of their living together but she had blushed so deeply and looked away embarrassed that he decided to drop it.
At first Ted had been gone much of time, leadi
ng the townspeople on small patrols through the surrounding hills, and that had left Lisa time to get to know the people in town. Lisa had been shy, though. People in town treated women very differently than Frank had treated her when they had lived together on the homestead. In people seemed to think that women couldn't do anything on their own, and if they were on their own, it could only be for a short period of time.
None of them would have thought it wise if she'd suggested a ride out to the homestead by herself. So she didn't suggest it, and instead just rode out there if Ted was gone for the week. Lisa would ride out to the homestead and go through her old things, thinking that the rags she used to wear seemed so quaint compared to the expensive clothes Ted had made for her upon her arrival back at his shop. Lisa sat on the bed and ran her hand across the comforter, thinking about all the nights that it had been the only thing that had kept her warm while Frank was out hunting.
Lisa was afraid to lose her life with Frank in her memory. The more time she spent away from the homestead in town the farther away there time together started to feel, like somehow it was shrinking away from her and becoming smaller and less real. She would take Frank's old clothes out of the closet and press her face into them, drawing deep, slow breaths while imagining him standing their watching her. Sometimes she was sure she felt another presence in the room beside her own. But if there was one it never announced itself in any tangible way Lisa noticed.
When she'd turn around expecting to see Frank standing there looking at her and found no one she'd sit for a long time at their table, now covered in dust, and cry for hours.
Although Ted had sent men to get her things, there were still a lot of it left behind; from the cups in the cabinets to the bowls and plates. They'd never had enough money to have pictures taken so there were none on the walls or night stand.
A Settler's Wife's Dreams (Erotic Romance, Romantic Erotica, Erotic Historical Romance) Page 6
