She made it within a few feet of the door when the gunmen made their move. They stepped over the bodies at their feet to finish Jed and Betsy off. Jed spotted them first. He didn’t bother yelling at her to get out. He gave her one more almighty shove and sent her tumbling head over heels onto the sidewalk outside.
Gunfire pounded against the Post Office walls inside. Fire flashed against the windows. Betsy rolled over on her back on the weathered, splintered boards of the sidewalk just as Jed came flying through the door. He landed on top of her, and they went rolling together, off the sidewalk, into the dusty street.
Jed tightened both fists on her dress sleeves and hauled her to her feet. “Run!” he bellowed. “Get out of here.”
“What about you?” she screamed back.
He didn’t answer. He planted his meaty hand on her shoulder and sent her stumbling down the street, away from him. At the same moment, he spun around to face those murderous assailants storming out of the Post Office.
He rose to his feet and pulled both his pistols at once. The four men walked right into his fire. He stood tall and strong in the street and blew them away one after the other as they emerged from the Post Office door.
They toppled on the sidewalk. Some writhed in their death throes. The others stayed where they were. Betsy paused in her flight to watch. Was it all over? Were they finally safe?
Jed lowered his guns, but he didn’t holster them. He stared at the carnage. His shoulders slumped. He started to turn when the clink of spurs drifted down the street. Betsy heard them. Jed heard them. Everyone left alive heard them.
Every eye turned to look, and Betsy’s blood ran cold. Coming down the street in a long line strode ten men, all armed and heading straight for Jed.
Jed turned to face them. He bent his head and spoke a single word over his shoulder. He didn’t yell. He didn’t bellow. He said it in a soft tone. He might have been murmuring to them in their own bed at home, but she couldn’t fail to hear him. “Run.”
She didn’t wait around to see anymore. She turned tail and fled up Main Street. She had no idea where she was going, but she had to obey him. She had to get out of there before all hell broke loose.
She got as far as the first saloon when the thunder of gunfire echoed down the street. It ripped Betsy’s soul apart. She dared not turn around to see the outcome. In desperate panic, she made a dive for the only shelter available. She raced into the alley next to the boarding house and burst into the laundry downstairs.
She exploded into a cloud of steam. She stopped to look around, but she didn’t see anybody. She rushed to Abigail’s wash tub, but that lady was nowhere in sight. Catherine’s chair sat empty. Where could they be?
Everybody in this town must know by now that Merrill Fox trotted out the big guns to finish off Jed Wilcox once and for all. He hired those men to shoot Jed down. No matter how good Jed was against Wendell, he couldn’t possibly stand up to all those men. He must be dead by now.
Betsy hurried around the laundry in wild confusion. She had to find a way out of here. She had to stay one step ahead of those men. Once they got rid of Jed, they would come after her next. She couldn’t go home to the forge. They would look for her there first. Where could she go?
She retreated to the far back corner of the laundry. Maybe the steam would hide her if they came searching. That was idiotic. Steam wouldn’t hide her. The men would simply air out the room, and there she would be for all the world to see.
She couldn’t stay here. She had to find another way out that wouldn’t take her to Main Street. She could never go out onto Main Street again with those men around. In her last hopeless act, she turned to face the door through which she entered. The men would come from there. At least she would see them face to face before they gunned her down the same way they gunned down Jed.
She backed up against the far wall, as far as she could get from the entrance. Her back touched the wall. She would wait here. To her surprise, though, she didn’t hit a wall. She ran into another door. She spun around to inspect it. Yes, it really was another door.
The door opened on another set of steps. She ran into the fresh air behind the boarding house. Her spirits soared. She was both free and hidden—for the moment, anyway.
She dashed behind the buildings along Main Street. She had no idea where to go, and gunshots still resounded along Main Street. What was going on over there?
She ran in blank terror for several minutes when she spotted a charming little white house set apart from the rest of the town. She had no idea whose house it was, but when she hurried past it, she noticed a female figure in the window.
She raced up the porch steps and banged on the front door. She panted for every ragged breath until Catherine opened the door. “Oh, Catherine! You have to help me. Merrill Fox hired a bunch of gunmen to ambush me and Jed at the Post Office, and they’re over there fighting right now, and I ran away, and I don’t know where to hide, and I can’t go back to the forge, and I have nowhere else to go. Please help me. You’re my last hope.”
Catherine’s eyes flew open. “What’s this? You better come in. Stop fluttering so. I can’t make sense of half you say.”
She drew Betsy into her sitting room. Betsy flapped her hands in anxiety, but she couldn’t speak to explain herself. When she tried to get the words out, Catherine held up her hands. “I don’t need to hear it. You can stay here until all this blows over.”
“They’ll be searching for me,” Betsy cried. “I don’t want to get you in trouble with the Foxes.”
“You don’t have to worry about me,” Catherine returned. “The Foxes can’t do anything to me they haven’t already done. Besides, there are no Foxes. There’s only one, and Merrill’s a coward. If he hired in a bunch of gunmen to kill you off, then he’s a lower scoundrel than I took him for.”
Betsy froze. “That’s what Jed says.”
“Well, I always said Jed Wilcox was a smart man. Where is he now? Over on Main Street fighting those men, you say? We’ll see about that.”
What Catherine was about to do, Betsy never found out. Someone else knocked on the door. Catherine called out, “Who’s there?”
“It’s the Sheriff’s Deputies, Ma’am,” came a male voice. “We’re searching for a fugitive from justice. We’re searching house to house, if you don’t mind, Ma’am.”
Catherine gave Betsy a significant nod. “Just a minute,” she called back. “I just have to take the poultice off my head.”
Catherine hustled Betsy into a bedroom across the hall. Betsy could barely contain her terror, but Catherine stayed magically calm. She opened a wooden chest sitting at the foot of the bed. She lifted out a pile of wool blankets and pushed Betsy into the chest. “Quick! Get down here and don’t make a sound.”
Betsy got one leg over the side of the chest before she realized it had no floor. It opened into a wooden staircase leading down into the Earth. Betsy jumped in surprise, but at that moment, another commanding knock shook the whole house. “Excuse me, Ma’am, but we’re in search of a dangerous fugitive from the law. Please open this door.”
Catherine jammed Betsy’s head down and stuffed the blankets on top of her before she dropped the lid and rushed away.
Betsy crouched on the stairs. They led down into a tiny chamber under the house. A thin shaft of sunlight eked through the floorboards overhead. Other than that, the place got no light.
Betsy huddled under the blankets. Footsteps pounded all over the floor above her head. Loud voices rang back and forth, and she heard Catherine cry out. “What’s this all about?”
Betsy couldn’t distinguish one voice from another. Hiding there under Catherine’s floor robbed her of all hope. This was worse than lying tied up in Merrill Fox’s basement. Jed must surely be dead by now. The men wouldn’t come hunting for her if he wasn’t.
She bit her lip to stop herself crying. She couldn’t fall apart right now. She refused to. If she lived to see the sunset, she could fall apart a
ll she liked. At least she had one friend left in this town. She blessed Catherine for saving her life against these thugs.
Chapter 14
Silence descended over Catherine’s house, but that lady didn’t come to fetch Betsy for a long time. The stifling air suffocated Betsy. She broke out in sweat all over her body. She yearned for fresh air, but she had to stay still and quiet at all costs.
At last, Catherine opened the chest and lifted out the blankets. “I think it’s safe to come out now.”
“What’s going on?” Betsy asked. “What did those men do?”
“Oh, they only wrecked the place looking for you,” Catherine replied. “Look.”
She waved her hand at the bedroom. What used to be an orderly, neat room now lay destroyed all around her. A big rip disfigured the coverlet, and feathers scattered on the carpet. The straw mattress lay emptied all over the floor.
Betsy’s hands flew to her heart. “Oh, Catherine! I am so sorry. I shouldn’t have…”
“You didn’t do this. You didn’t do anything to deserve this. I’m only glad they didn’t find you here, or it would have been much worse.”
Betsy took the hint. “I better go. I don’t want to get you in any trouble.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Catherine shot back. “You’re not going anywhere until we know it’s safe.”
“Where did they go? That man said they were going house to house.”
“I don’t know if that’s true,” Catherine replied. “They’re looking for Jed as much as they’re looking for you. That’s what he said, anyway.”
“Jed!” Betsy cried. “Is he alive?”
Catherine nodded. “That man said he got away. They’re hunting for him and you together.”
Betsy whirled toward the door. “I have to find him. He could be injured, or he could be in danger. I have to…”
Catherine yanked her around to face her. “You can’t go out there. If they saw you, they would shoot you on sight. Stay here. I can protect you.”
“I have to find Jed,” Betsy exclaimed. “I have to help him if I can.”
“You going out there could put him in danger,” Catherine replied. “He’s got a lot of friends in this town. He could be hiding somewhere, and if those men catch you, they could threaten you to get him to expose himself. You’re best bet is to stay hidden.”
Betsy knew Catherine was right. Catherine was smart, but one thought dominated Betsy’s mind. She had to find Jed. She had to see him again, even if it meant her own life.
She nodded. “I’ll see if I can find him. If I can’t and it’s still dangerous out there, I’ll come back. I promise I’ll be extra careful.”
Catherine shook her head, but Betsy didn’t try to argue anymore. She bolted for the door and rushed outside. Once she got there, the stupidity of her own actions hit her. Where could she go to find Jed? If those men couldn’t find him searching house to house, what hope did she have?
She slowed her pace and measured her every move. The men wouldn’t be looking near the Post Office. They would keep away and concentrate on the residential houses. Those were Jed’s most likely hiding places, so that’s where they would look.
Betsy dashed behind the buildings running parallel to Main Street. She ran all the way down the street to the Post Office and peeked around the building from the far end of town. She gasped out loud when she spotted Jed standing right in the middle of the street.
He stood in almost the exact spot where Wendell Fox stood when Jed confronted him…was it really only a week ago now since all this mayhem started? Did she really get off the mail coach on that spot and meet her future husband?
How long ago that day seemed now! Betsy saw herself as a different person from what she was back then. So much happened since, and she changed so much.
For one thing, she was a married woman, and that tall, powerful man out there was her lawfully wedded husband. Her soul ached with pride for him and anything he might do.
He aimed both his guns down the street. Betsy inched to the corner of the Post Office to get a better look. Six of the ten men who originally chased Betsy away stood not far away. They advanced on Jed. His guns didn’t threaten them at all.
They got halfway down the street before he fired. He squeezed off too many rounds for Betsy to count. The gunmen scattered at once. One dove behind a wagon. Another twirled around and fell full length in the dirt. The others raised their weapons and fired on Jed.
Betsy screamed. She no longer cared who knew she was there. She wanted Jed. She would have rushed to his side if bullets hadn’t kept flying down the street going both ways.
In front of her shocked eyes, Jed spun around and crumpled onto one knee. He doubled over and fell onto his hands and knees in the dust. At the same time, the gunmen popped up from the hiding places to fire on him. He shot back and struck two more. The remaining three were too sheltered for him to hit.
He knelt there, utterly exposed. He couldn’t get away to hide like they did. He raised one gun, took aim, and his hand tightened around the trigger grip. Nothing happened. The gun didn’t go off. He squeezed again, and still nothing happened.
A deadly hush fell over the town. Everyone knew what was going on. Jed’s guns were empty. He had nothing left with which to defend himself. He stayed there on his hands and knees in the dust. His back and shoulders heaved with his tortured breath, but the fight was over.
One by one, the gunmen emerged from their hiding places. They no longer tried to take cover from his fire. They didn’t need to. They came back together in the middle of the street and set off toward the spot where Jed knelt.
A painful sob broke out of Betsy’s throat. Her lips mouthed his name, Jed, but no sound came out. She wanted to run to him and throw her arms around him. She wanted to die with him right here and now rather than watch him shot down like a dog, but her limbs wouldn’t obey her. She couldn’t even turn her eyes away to hide from the ultimate tragedy.
The three men stopped in front of Jed. He glared at them under his hat, and he bared his teeth. His breath grated between his clenched jaws, but he didn’t rise. He was shot already. His wound might cost him his life even if they spared him.
They wouldn’t spare him. Merrill Fox hired these men to get rid of Jed, and now they would do it. The center man raised his gun and aimed it at Jed’s face. A primal scream gathered somewhere deep in Betsy’s core. It swelled bigger and bigger and threatened to split her in half. She opened her mouth to let it rip out of her when a gun report cracked down the street.
The center man folded in half and bit the dust. A plume of dust billowed around him. His two comrades spun around. Betsy’s head whipped sideways, and she saw a young man standing in the wagon not far away. He wore chaps and a handkerchief round his neck. It was Kelvin Kirk. He jammed a rifle into his shoulder and trained the barrel on the two remaining gunmen.
They both jerked up their pistols. Kelvin swung his rifle around and fired. One man staggered back, but the other got his weapon into position before Kelvin could recover. A deafening concussion boomed down the street, and the last gunman pitched forward. He collapsed on his face in the dirt and lay still.
Kelvin stared down at him in stunned shock. He hadn’t fired. He looked around, and his jaw dropped. Betsy charged forward. She didn’t see where the other shot came from until she got all the way out into Main Street. That’s when she noticed a square-cut man standing on the sidewalk in front of the Post Office.
He wore a black suit and no hat, and he aimed a gun at the fallen attackers. He wore his grey hair short and neatly combed to one side of his face. Deep lines of age and care creased his face, but his eyes sparkled with inner light. Betsy didn’t recognize him, but he must have been the one who saved Kelvin’s life. He shot that man in the back at point blank range.
Jed, Betsy, and Kelvin all stared at the man in mute surprise. The man crammed his weapon into a holster on his hip and spat tobacco juice into the dust.
Betsy couldn’t watch anymore. She rushed to Jed’s side and helped him to his feet. “Are you all right? Where are you hit? Come sit down. Oh, I can’t stand you getting hurt all the time.”
“I’m all right, darlin’,” he murmured. “I’m hit in the same blamed shoulder as before. I can still hold a hammer, and I’ve still got one good arm to hold you with.”
Now that the fight was over, Betsy lost all control over her emotions. She broke down sobbing on his shoulder while she helped him to the sidewalk. She sat him down, but when she tried to look at his shoulder, he stopped her.
She looked up at his face and found him staring at something behind her. She turned around, and there stood the same old man. He smiled at her and Jed. “Excuse me, Ma’am. I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of introducing myself. I’m Marshall Faulk. I believe you came to visit me this morning.”
Betsy wiped her tears. “Oh, Marshall. What a pleasant surprise.”
“I don’t think you’ll have anything to worry about from those men anymore,” he told her. “Why don’t you come inside? You and I can have a nice chat the way we planned.”
Kelvin jumped down from the wagon. “You go along with him, Ma’am. I’ll look after your husband here.”
Betsy took hold of his hands. “Thank you so much, Kelvin. I can never thank you enough for what you did just now.”
He kicked at the dust. “Aw, shucks, Ma’am. It wasn’t anything. I couldn’t exactly stand there and let them shoot him, now could I?”
Jed squeezed Betsy’s hand. “You go along with the Marshall, darlin’. I’ll be all right. You go do what we came here to do. Get it done, and don’t let anything stop you.”
She searched every face around her, but they all told her the same thing. Marshall Faulk offered her his hand and conducted her up the steps to the sidewalk. He showed her into the Post Office and across the blood-stained floor to the little office in the back.
Betsy emerged from the office for five hours later. When she did, she spotted Jed across the Post Office in heated conversation with Sheriff Rupert. His arm rested in a sling, and the two men stood nose to nose in a corner of the Post Office. Customers swirled all around them, and the two men hissed in whispers into each other’s faces.
The Blacksmith's Bride (Brides 0f Brimstone Book 1) Page 9
