Dorothy Garlock - [Wabash River] (43 page)

“I need to relieve myself,” Amy said bluntly.

“Ah, forgive me. I should have known. There is a pot for that purpose.” The Frenchman pulled a metal pot from beneath the bed and set it up on the straw mattress.

Amy looked at him as if he had lost his mind. “I’m not using that!”

“Why not? I went to great pains to find a receptacle for you to use.”

“I want to go outside.”

“Cherie,
do not be difficult. If I take you outside I will go with you with a rope about your slender neck so you will not run away from me.”

“I’m not using . . .
that
with you in here!”

“Such modesty! Soon we will know everything about each other and you will not mind.”

“If that time comes I’ll kill myself.”

“Do not say such things,” he scolded gently. “I will leave you to do your bodily chores. Ah . . . I do not know why some women think it so shameful when it is done by all of God’s creatures.”

“Get out!” Amy hissed. “You make me sick!”

*   *   *

Amy lay with her head on her arm. Tears ran from the corners of her eyes and into the hair at her temples. She had not allowed herself to cry, but now, feeling frightened, lonely and hungry, she made no effort to hold back the tears.

She had refused to eat a bite of the meal Antoine prepared. When he brought it to her she had knocked it from his hand. The more he coaxed, the more determined she was to refuse. Finally he had pleaded for her to eat and told her they had a long journey ahead of them. She lay down on the bed and turned her back to him.

Now Amy was wondering if, by defying him, she had done more harm to herself. Hunger pangs were gnawing at her insides. She would eat tomorrow, she promised her empty stomach. She needed her strength should the opportunity to escape present itself.

Antoine had spread a blanket on the floor in front of the open door. He made no attempt to lie beside her on the platform bed. She vowed silently to fight him until she died if he did. The Frenchman had asked her if she wished to put on her nightdress—it was in the bundle of clothes she had taken to the creek to wash. Now she wished she had said yes. He would have had to unlock the iron band that encircled her ankle in order for her to remove the buckskin britches. But at that time she feared he meant to sleep with her, and the britches were a protection against his advances.

Amy thought of Eleanor. Would Gavin and Rain know that Hammond Perry was behind their abduction? Would they think that she and Eleanor were together and headed for Kaskaskia? The questions floated around in Amy’s mind until they were a mass of confusion, making her head hurt again. Wearily she closed her eyes. Tomorrow, she thought. Rain would come tomorrow.

*   *   *

It was past noon. Amy had begrudgingly eaten the meal Antoine had brought her. The Frenchman was edgy. He had not tried to make conversation with her since early morning. He was gone from the cabin for long stretches of time. With the door open Amy could see the trees and a small patch of sky. She sat on the bed, and each time Antoine left the cabin she yanked on the chain. The chain attached to the iron band around her ankle had been run through a small hole in the wall and somehow attached outside.

That morning Antoine had left a knife on the table. As soon as he went out the door Amy had begun to slide to the edge of the bed. She stood on one foot trying to reach the table. Her fingers had just gripped the edge so she could pull the table toward her when Antoine walked in.

“Ho,
ma cherie.
I just remembered the knife. You would cut Antoine if you could?”

“I’d cut your rotten heart out!” Almost crying with disappointment, Amy had sunk back down on the bed.

The afternoon dragged slowly by. As evening approached Amy became more and more aware that things were not as they had been the previous evening. Antoine became surly and silent. Making no attempt to start a supper fire, he brought her cold meat and a piece of the rum-soaked bread. Amy ate slowly and watched him where he sat looking out the open doorway.

Antoine was in a murderous rage. Pete Hopcus should have arrived the previous night or early that morning. Antoine wanted Tallman’s ear in his pocket before he headed west. If Tallman lived, at one time or another they would cross paths. The good part was that Tallman didn’t know he had the woman. Antoine had taken great care to ensure that they not be trailed to this place.

He and Hull had gone up the stream for more than five miles with the women until they came on to a rocky ledge. There Antoine had taken the precaution of leading one horse at a time out of the water to be sure no strike marks were left on the stones. The only man who knew of this place was Pete Hopcus.

Antoine thought of the woman in the cabin. He ached to lose himself in her soft, warm flesh. He wanted her to love him, but being with her would be good whether she loved him or not. Why should he not know the pleasure of holding his golden goddess? he asked himself as he got to his feet.

When Antoine came and sat down on the bed, Amy drew back to the far corner. Catching her hand in his, he raised it to his lips. He pressed burning kisses into her palm, and his tongue left a moist trail up to her wrist.

“My heart is yours, little Amy. I cannot wait for you to love me. I will show you how it is.”

“You won’t show me anything, damn you!” Amy tugged on her hand. “Get away from me, you . . . you woman stealer!”

He shook his head. “Ahh . . . just one kiss from your sweet mouth—”

“I’d sooner kiss a rattlesnake! You make me want to puke!”

“Ma cherie!
I can make you come alive. I want to spend my life with you. You will learn to love me and you will love what I do to you, even if you say you do not.” He began to pull her toward him.

“You’re a stinking hog. I’ll kill you the first chance I get.” Panic began to flood her mind. She made a fist with her free hand and struck a resounding blow to his face. He merely laughed.

“Ho . . . my love, you do not disappoint me. We will fight. We will love. We will grow old together—”

“I think not.”
The quiet words were dropped like a keg of powder in the room.

Antoine sprang to his feet and whirled like a cat.

Rain stood hatless in the doorway. His name was a silent scream in Amy’s throat.

“The fox lives!” Antoine hissed. He crouched to spring, his knife in his hand.

With a flip of his wrist Rain sent his knife flying through the air with the speed of an arrow. The Frenchman halted when the knife went into his chest. His face seemed frozen, except for his eyes. They turned slowly to Amy and looked at her unblinkingly. Then on stiff, unsteady legs he took the two steps needed to reach his rifle. He grasped it in one hand and lifted it.

Rain fired. The noise was deafening. Gun smoke filled the room. Antoine’s body was propelled against the wall and then hurled to the floor. A part of his face was no longer there, and what used to be the back of his head was a gaping hole.

Amy screamed for Rain as the Frenchman’s blood spilled across the floor.

Rain leaped across the room. Amy found herself crushed against his hard chest while he covered her face with fierce kisses.

“Are you all right, love? Oh, God! I’ve been in hell waiting for him to leave that doorway. Sweetheart . . . love . . . are you all right?”

“Yes, yes!” She sobbed from relief, from weakness, from happiness. “I knew you’d come. Oh, Rain, darling, hold me tight.”

“I came in time, didn’t I? I got here before—” He held her from him so he could look into her tear-streaked face.

“Yes, yes. You came in time.”

“Thank God!” He clasped her to him. “You are my life. You are laughter and song and sunshine. Amy, sweet Amy, you are the mate of my heart, my soul,” he whispered hoarsely.

“I was waiting for you.”

So many questions crowded in her mind that she did not know where to begin. How had he found her?

“Rain! Oh, darling . . . A man named Hull Dexter took Eleanor away. He’s taking her to Hammond Perry.”

“Yes, darling. We found the place where two horses went east and one horse went west. I came for you. Gavin and Will Bradford have gone after Eleanor. Let’s leave this place. I’ll tell you all about it on the way back to Davidsonville.”

“Will Bradford and Gavin?”

“Yes, love. Will Bradford and Gavin. We must leave here.”

“My leg is chained to the wall,” she said when he attempted to help her to her feet.

“That son of a bitch! I could kill him all over again. I’ll get a light. He’s got to have a key here someplace.”

Amy was so weak she could scarcely walk, but she managed by hanging on to Rain’s arm. Before they left the cabin Rain pulled a burning ember from the fire he had lit so he could find the key and tossed it on the straw bed. He picked up Amy’s rifle and her bundle of clothes and led her away.

At the river he swooped her up in his arms and, holding his precious burden to his chest, waded across to where the big dun horse waited.

Twenty-three

Rain and Amy rode into town at dawn. They had spent the hours after midnight beneath the shelter of a large aspen tree when a light rain had begun to fall. During the night Rain told Amy about meeting Will Bradford and returning to Davidsonville with him and his men. He told her, while she sat curled in his arms, about his utter despair when she and Eleanor couldn’t be found anywhere in town.

“Gavin was like a man possessed. He and Will Bradford were sure you had been carried off by Indians when they couldn’t find a scrap of anything to indicate in which direction you had been taken. An Indian would not have been so careful,” Rain said. “I knew someone had made plans carefully. I could think of only one man who would be so clever: Antoine Efant, the Frenchman who had been asking about me in Saint Genevieve.”

Amy turned her head and buried her lips in the smooth skin of his throat, remembering the dark, smoldering eyes of the Frenchman.

“He said he was too clever to leave a trail, but I knew you would come for me.”

“I had help, sweetheart. In the late afternoon Tennessee, Jean Pierre’s daughter, came running up from the creek. She was worn out and her feet were bleeding. She could hardly walk or talk. She had followed you and Eleanor to the creek, and had been watching when Efant threw a blanket over your head, then hit you to knock you out.

“She told me they had taken you and Eleanor up the creek on horseback and she followed along the bank. She knew I would have to find where they came out of the creek in order to trail you and bring you back. The child may have run ten miles or more. She showed me the place where the horses came out of the creek and headed north. I had been past the place in my search. Efant was clever; he left not the faintest sign that he had passed that way.

“After that it was easy. We found where one of you had vomited, and saw strands of black hair on bushes. Tennessee had told us Eleanor was riding belly down on the horse and you were riding in front of a black-bearded man with a knit cap. Gavin was beside himself with worry.”

“How did you know I had gone with Efant and Eleanor with Hull Dexter?”

“When it was too dark to see we stopped until daylight. We found the place where one of you had struggled with one of the men. I figured it was you and Efant, because Eleanor wouldn’t have been strong enough. Two horses went east from there and one west. We followed the two horses until I found more black hair on a tree limb. Gavin, Will and one of his men followed that trail and I turned back to follow the other. I came to the cabin about noon, saw Efant, and had to wait. Sweetheart, I sweated blood while I waited!”

“He was kind to me in a way. He actually believed I would love him. I think he was crazy.”

“No, he was enamored. You fascinated him that night at Kaskaskia. I saw it in his eyes when he looked at you.”

“I don’t want to enamor anyone but you.” She touched his face tenderly, seeing the tired lines written there.

*   *   *

It was mid-morning when Will Bradford and Gavin arrived at the settlement with Eleanor riding in front of Will. They were met by Amy, Rain and Tennessee. Anxious townspeople waited in front of the store for news. Gavin was suffering from the wound in his side and had reluctantly allowed his beloved to ride the last few miles with Will.

Eleanor was exhausted and was put to bed, but not before she heard the part Tennessee played in their rescue. She hugged the small girl and kissed her. When she released her, Tennessee backed shyly away and watched her with glowing eyes.

Later Will told Rain that when Hull Dexter realized three men were closing in on him self-preservation had prevailed. He dropped the reins of the horse he was leading and took off down a gulley. The sergeant chased him for several miles, then lost him in the woods.

“We know who he is,” Will said. “Someday he’ll be brought to justice. I only wish there was some way I could legally tie this to Hammond Perry.”

“He’ll outwit himself again, the same as he did when he tried to get Farr hung for treason. I’m thankful to have Amy and Eleanor safe.”

“I don’t think Eleanor knew or cared who I was when we first reached her,” Will said with a chuckle. “She had eyes only for Gavin and he for her. After a while Gavin introduced us and her first words were, ‘I love Gavin. You don’t have to bother with me.’ Bother, indeed! She’s family, even if only distantly,” he scoffed. “Now Rain, when and where are these two weddings to take place?”

*   *   *

The entire population of Davidsonville wanted to attend the wedding of the famed woodsman and Amy Deverell. They were equally interested in the beautiful woman from Louisville and the Scottish riverman. In order to accommodate everyone, it was decided to have the ceremony performed on the porch of the trading post where all could see. Tennessee would stand up with the couples. Her papa smiled proudly when both Eleanor and Amy insisted, and her mother began at once to make her a dress suitable for the occasion.