NOTE to reader: I began this story with the first two short paragraphs as a round robin on As the Crowe
Flies, but it very shortly became a story written just by Marilyn and me. I'd like to thank Layne, Lumi, and
Atonia for the parts they added toward the beginning. Most of the ride back to Bisbee was written by them and Marilyn. This is not a role-playing story where one writes the woman and the other the man, but simply
a story wherein turns were taken in the writing of it. Sometimes you can tell when the switch-off is made, sometimes you can't.
Her chip hat had slipped entirely down over her face when the
stagecoach finally came to a wild, jerking halt. The last thing she'd seen
before that blocked the world from view was the limply dangling arm of the
driver, hanging down past the window.
She sat there, trying to breathe, trying not to scream, as the door opened and a
deep voice said, "Mornin', miss. Would you mind steppin' out of the coach?"
"As a matter of fact, I would mind!" How dare this man ask her to step out of the coach so calmly after he and his men had just chased them down like stray cattle, had killed everyone who had been aboard except her.
Besides, she wasn't sure she was capable of standing. The wild, unrestrained flight of the horses had left her shaken, and the looks on the faces of the men
near her as they died were burned into her mind. Then, there was the voice she had just heard. It left her shaken for an entirely different reason. She ripped off her hat and tossed it aside, reached for the doorframe and prepared to step out.
She stopped short, her breath gone again, as her hand encountered his hand instead of the doorframe--as she saw his face and his eyes for the first time.
The tingling began in her fingers, traveled up her arm and rested in her breasts. She moistened her lips and tried to look indignant but somehow it didn't come
off that way. He watched her lips move and a slow grin began as he tipped his
hat. She stepped down out of the coach, realizing he still held her hand.
That tingle was disconcerting her. "Would you mind letting me go?" She jerked the hand he held as hard as she could. He let go of it suddenly, and she fell awkwardly back against the side of the coach.
"All you had to do was ask, miss." That slow and insolent drawl, along with the amusement in his eyes fired her anger.
"Just who do you think you are, anyway?!" Her own eyes flashed fire, as she tried to avoid his gaze and her own embarrassment by brushing ineffectually at the dust on her dress.
"That's Ben Wade you're talkin' to, lady!" A younger man sauntered up, his look at the older man admiring and reverent. "So you'd best watch what you say."
"The name doesn't mean a thing to me. Ben Wade." She tilted her chin, stepping away from the coach, and then saw the driver drooping lifelessly over the seat. Her trunk came crashing down beside her and she stepped back, startled, her hand flying to her mouth. The lid burst open and a beautifully hand worked silken wedding dress slipped into the dust. Horrified, angry, she turned to Ben. "How could you!" and began stuffing the dress back into the broken trunk. There were tears in her eyes when she turned back to Ben.
"Sorry miss," he drawled. "On your way to a weddin'?"
"Yes, I have to get to Bisbee." She turned, taking in the scene before her.
Charlie Prince edged his horse up closer to the trunk. "What a shame. I hate
weddings!" Drawing his gun, he shot the dress.
She let out a little scream. "What kind of people are you?" Her eyes were now
large and frightened.
Charlie smiled a full, wide smile, looking at Ben. "What kinda people are we,
Boss?"
Ben had cocked his head and was studying the young woman. "That your dress?"
"The one with the bullet hole through the bodice? That dress?" she snapped,
her green eyes flashing now more with anger than fear.
"That'd be the one." One corner of his mouth twitched slightly in amusement.
"Do you think that's any of your business!" she growled.
"Dress belongs to me now," he drawled slowly, his eyes not leaving hers.
"Makes it my business."
"Belongs to YOU!" Her eyes narrowed. "What makes you think it belongs to
you?"
His hand rested just above the holster on his right hip. "'Cause I'm the one
with the gun," he smiled.
"Fine!" she said as she threw her hands up in the air, exasperated. "I'm sure the two of you will make a lovely couple," she grumbled while attempting to push past Ben. She was shaking both from the experience and from her anger and tears were beginning to well up in her eyes. Ben and Charlie watched her as she spun around in a circle, trying to get her bearings. "Where am I? Which way is Bisbee?"
A small smile curled across Ben's lips as he watched her. He
liked her. She was feisty. He took a deep breath of air. Yet he could smell her
fear. She knew what they could do to her.
She was pretty and shapely. There was a bit of breeding and class about her. And
she had green eyes.
He smiled at her, this time showing a glint of his teeth, and holstered his gun.
Charlie still had his in hand in case it turned out anybody else had survived
their attack.
"I might be persuaded to show you the way to Bisbee, Miss...?"
Still trembling with both anger, and fear, she looked at the hand he offered her, then looked him in the eye. Could she trust this man? But she already knew the answer. She would never make it to Bisbee alone and on foot, so she reached up and swung herself into the saddle behind him. Immediately a strong, manly scent
filled her nostrils so close to his back and, unbidden, her heart fluttered in her chest. She was shocked by her own thought that this whole thing might not be
so bad. Then Ben Wade spurred his horse towards Bisbee.
As they rode, she dismissed her thoughts as being a result of the day's events. After all, it really was her wedding dress back there in the desert dust and she knew her betrothed was waiting for her in Bisbee. Edward Thornton owned the mercantile there. She hadn't seen him in almost a year, but all the time they were apart she'd diligently prepared her bridal trousseau. She frowned as she thought of her dress shot and blowing in the desert wind, then wrapped her arms around Ben more tightly.
Charlie Prince rode beside them and she felt his eyes almost constantly on her. She turned and looked at him. "Forget your dress back there?" she asked with a voice full of disgust.
Ben Wade looked back at her with a smile on his face and let loose a laugh as he noted the look on Charlie's face.
It was her feisty attitude and willingness to speak her mind that had gotten her banned from the charm school her parents had sent her to in St. Louis, where she had been born and raised. She had also spent more time reading wild west dime novels than she probably should, and now, to her dismay, she found herself
smack dab in the middle of a situation that could have been taken right out of one of them. As she rode behind Ben, she couldn't help but notice how his hair curled against the back of his neck, and she could hardly resist the urge to touch it, wrap it around her fingers. But, she did resist, blaming the sense of adventure, and excitement that was rising in her breast to the heat and thirst of the trail.
She suddenly noticed a huge, rocky outcropping just off to the right and that Ben was headed directly for it. He expertly guided his horse between the huge boulders to a large, bare area at the top. Bare, that is, except for a large fresh water spring that bubbled its way from under a rock overhang. She was so thirsty that she didn't even think, just jumped from Ben's horse, and lifting her skirts, ran headlong for the cool water. As she reached the edge of the spring, her foot caught on an exposed root, and she almost fell headfirst into the water. As she reveled in the coolness of the water on her face, she felt Ben's hands grab her by the waist and pull her back, spluttering.
He sat her back, gave her that deep, intense, stare of his, and said, "I don't think we've been properly introduced, miss. What did you say your name was? His eyes were twinkling now, and there was that little half smile on his lips.
She bit her lip as she looked at the outlaw before her. Dressed all in black, Ben Wade was a very attractive man. He shook his head at her. "What's wrong? Suddenly lose that sassy tongue of yours?"
With that she realized what she was doing. She was actually thinking of this
outlaw as a man, and not just a man but also one of interest. She knew the
sooner she got to Bisbee and Edward Thornton the better.
Finally she sat down on a rock and said ceremoniously, "My name is Miss Virginia
Jericho. My father is Judge Robert Jericho of St. Louis and my fiancé is Edward
Thornton, who owns the mercantile in Bisbee."
Ben looked at Charlie. They both knew of Edward Thornton. He wasn't sure what
Ginny knew about him but Edward Thornton had to be the most corrupt person ever
to set up shop in Bisbee. It wasn't through being a purveyor of fine goods
Edward Thornton made his money, it was through charging his customers who bought
on credit incredible rates of interest. When they couldn’t pay, he took
livestock, wagons, even the glass from their windows as payment.
Ben retained his smile throughout her introduction. "Well, Ginny, I am Ben
Wade. Family histories aside, why are you planning on marrying Thornton?"
Ginny just stared back at him so Ben removed his hat, and propping himself on
his left elbow, allowed himself a long drink of water. He then turned back to Ginny, awaiting her response. Still leaning on his elbow, he stretched his legs
out, picked up a pebble, and began tossing it from one hand to the other. She finally found her voice, and with the same steely glare she'd received from him replied, "Why, because I love him, that's why! And because he wants to take
care of me and provide a place for us to live."
Ben's eyebrows lifted in amusement at her fiery response. "That so?"
She snorted in disgust and turned to watch the rest of Ben's men tend to their horses as if that were the most exciting thing she'd ever witnessed. Ben just
rolled over onto his back, placed his hat over his face, and immediately fell
asleep. Ginny was enraged! How dare he!? Just who did he think he was, anyway?
Well, at least there was plenty of water to drink, and she doused her fiery temper in its coolness. A few minutes later Charlie came over and told her that it was best if she didn't disturb Ben while he was sleeping. She was welcome to join the rest of them around the now-blazing camp fire to share what food they had. Several
of the other boys had gone off hunting to add whatever they could find to the stew that was bubbling over the flames. Taking one last disdainful look at this
Ben Wade fellow, she joined the rest of them for supper.
As she sat there watching them eat, she pushed her portion around on the plate. She'd never seen anything so foreign in her life. At least she knew when she got
to Bisbee Edward would feed her better than this. She tried to picture Edward in her mind and found she couldn't. A year was a long time to be apart. His letters were few and far between and now even those were lost back in the stagecoach wreck along with her wedding dress. At that thought she turned to the man who'd just sat next to her to offer him her meal since she wasn't hungry after all. She found herself looking into the most amazing pair of eyes she'd ever seen. Ben Wade had decided to join them.
"Oh, you didn't have to wait for me, darlin'," he said in the whiskey smooth drawl of his. She remained speechless, looking into his eyes, all the while holding her plate towards him. He looked down and accepted the plate from her hand. Ginny blushed. What was it about this man that had this effect on her? She watched
him as he ate, thinking about the impertinence of his earlier question.
"You know, I do love Edward Thornton," she said quietly as if she were trying to convince both Ben and herself.
Ben looked at her and swallowed. "If you say so...Ginny. "
He continued eating his meal, leaving her feeling perplexed. Ben seemed to know something she didn't. Did she want to know what it was? Could it be about Edward and her future? That would have to wait until morning. Right now the men were deciding who would take first watch. Charlie handed her a blanket.
"Nights get mighty cold out here, Ginny," Ben said as he placed his hat over his eyes. "Mighty cold." Again he again drifted off to sleep.
She found a spot to sleep close to Wade as she somehow felt more comfortable with him and she didn't trust the others. Could she trust him, though? She pondered this as she looked at the seemingly endless spread of stars above her. Was Edward looking at the stars in Bisbee? She somehow doubted it. Edward Thornton was never much for noticing starry nights. She tried to remember the color of his eyes, but couldn't. Perhaps they were brown? One thing was sure, they were not amazing like the eyes of Ben Wade. It was Ben's eyes she was thinking of as she drifted off to sleep.
When she awoke in the early morning, she was startled to find that she and Ben had somehow wound up snuggled together, back to back and that Ben had
thrown a part of his blanket over hers. Ginny's first instinct was to get away
from the man, but she felt so warm and strangely secure. She knew how absolutely crazy such a thought was, but she stayed like she was, once again trying to picture Edward's face and eyes. All she could see were Ben's no matter how hard she tried to bring up Edward's. She argued briefly with herself for in
her mind, she had already built a happy life with Edward, and, after all, what did she know about this Ben Wade except that he robbed stage coaches, killed innocent people, had the most infuriating attitude, and the most astonishing
eyes she'd ever seen? He was also very exciting, much more exciting than Edward, who now seemed rather boorish and dull in comparison. She was
plagued with indecision and doubt, and knowing she'd not get any more sleep, arose very quietly so as to not disturb Ben, who was snoring rather loudly, and started the fire for a pot of strong coffee.
When the coffee was finished, she carried two cups of it quietly over near Ben, who was still sleeping. His face had a more relaxed, almost vulnerable, look in sleep. That look vanished instantly when he opened his eyes to meet hers.
He had drawn his gun by the time his eyes were fully open. When he saw her sitting there with cups of coffee, his lips widened into a grin, and he holstered
the weapon smoothly. "You wanna be careful there, miss. That's a good way
to get yourself killed, wakin' snakes so early in the mornin'."
He accepted the cup from her, his fingers touching hers and lingering there for long seconds, his eyes locked with her own green ones. "Hope this coffee's strong. We might need it for the rest of the ride into Bisbee."
He sat back slowly, releasing her fingers, but still holding her eyes captive.
"That is, if you're still interested in goin' to Bisbee? Might be you could think of somewhere else you'd rather go? Someone else you'd rather be with than
Edward Thornton?"
Ben's suggestions about Edward sent her mind reeling again, and to hide her confusion, she got up and went back to the fire, feigning that she needed to
refill her cup with coffee. She kept her back turned to him as she bustled around the campfire, and so didn't see Ben leave to take care of business. Ginny noticed that two of the other bedrolls were empty, and she hoped that they had been more successful at hunting this morning than they had last night. They'd only brought back two scrawny prairie chickens, which was not nearly enough to satisfy everyone.
Charlie approached her carrying eight fat jackrabbits. Ravenously hungry now,
her mouth watered at the sight of them. Charlie noticed immediately that Ben wasn't in camp, and his lips curled in a cruel grin as he dropped the whole bloody mess into Ginny's lap. She was shocked, struck dumb, and Charlie hissed at her, "It's your turn to cook!"
She looked down at her lap, realizing in some horror that her only dress was totally ruined. Glancing back up at Charlie, she was ready to lash out at him,
but he stopped her with, "There's worse ways to make you pay for your keep, lady!"
He'd no sooner gotten the word 'lady' out of his mouth when he heard a gun being cocked, and felt its barrel press hard into his back. Ben! He'd come back
just at the wrong time.
In a soft, rumbling voice, Ben asked, "Is there a problem here, Charlie?"
Charlie had to swallow a few times before he could muster an answer. "Uh, no Boss, there's no problem."
Ben stared at the mess in Ginny's lap, his temper going up a notch, but still his voice was level, almost quiet. "I do believe that it's your turn to cook breakfast, isn't it, Charlie?"
Uh, uh, yeah, Boss." As he hurried from the campfire, almost dropping the rabbits as he hadn't got a good grip on them again, he tripped, kicking over the pot of scalding coffee. The clatter of the coffee pot on the stones, and the hissing of the liquid in the fire, brought the rest of the gang awake with guns cocked. After Ben gave them the signal to stand down, they reholstered their guns and crawled out of their bedrolls, cursing, and scratching.
Ben sat down next to Ginny, who'd begun to cry softly as she examined the ruins of her only clothing. He took her hand gently, and caressed it, trying to soothe her, telling her they'd reach a river before the afternoon came, and that Charlie would spend what was left of the day cleaning her dress there. She tried to act grateful to him for his help, and smiled thinly at him, but she knew that by the time they reached the river, the stains would have set and would never come
out.
The gang began breaking up camp. Ginny watched Ben as he finished, put his coffee cup in his saddlebag and mounted his horse. She again felt his eyes upon her and looked up at him as he reached down towards her. "You still want that ride to Bisbee, Ginny?"
She accepted his hand and mounted the horse behind him. "What do you mean
by what you said earlier? Why wouldn't I want to be with Edward Thornton?"
Ben listened in silence, sensing her internal struggle. He did lay one of his hands upon hers where they met around his middle, and gently caressed it.
"It's true I haven't seen Edward for a while, nearly a year. He never wrote much and when he did it was mostly to let us know how the mercantile was progressing. But he also built a house for us in Bisbee. My father was always interested in his letters. He invested in Edward's mercantile, you know. How could I not marry him?" Her voice implored Ben to give her answers. Ben's fingers continued to caress her hand as she rested her head against his back, tears stinging her eyes.
She was aware instinctively that Ben knew something. Again the nagging doubt rose up in her mind. Did she want to or need to know what Ben knew?
She'd come all the way from St. Louis by herself, a very long, involved, and obviously dangerous journey, and had only been anticipating being with Edward again the whole way. Now, so close to her destination, she found herself filled with sudden doubts. How could a man who robbed stagecoaches for a living be the one who'd do that?
She tightened her arms around his waist, and without really thinking what she was doing, leaned her right cheek against the broad back, feeling his muscles there tighten in response to her touch. Closing her eyes, she was all too aware that the bones of her pelvis had turned to melting wax.
Ben looked down at the slender hands clasped just above his belt buckle. He'd taken countless things off stages before, but nothing quite like this. Truth was,
he liked her hands there, liked her cheek against his back. Made him feel all surrounded by something entirely feminine. He adjusted himself somewhat in
the saddle. Pants were suddenly a bit too tight.
Charlie Prince had already taken note of his boss' attention to this woman, and had immediately decided that he didn't like it one bit. As he rode, he watched
her clasp her hands around the Boss' waist and lay her head against Wade's back.
The Boss had a weakness where women were concerned, and Charlie was afraid that, one day, that weakness could prove fatal to Wade. Charlie had made it his business to look after the Boss when women were around. And the way Wade was acting around this particular woman had Charlie worried. He needed to think of a way to turn the Boss against this woman--or her against him. And he needed to do it quick.
Ben kept looking down at her hands, studying how well manicured they were,
well cared for. He took good care of his own hands. Was just something important to him. He frowned, though, at the engagement ring on her left hand. Edward Thornton's ring. His right hand had been resting on his thigh and he moved it then, cupping it over her hands, pressing just lightly so he could feel the outline
of them against his diaphragm. He closed his eyes briefly, resting in the feel of them there as he breathed in and slowly out.
There'd been many other women who'd caught Ben's interest, but he always became bored, moving on to the next town, the next hold up. There was something very different about this one, though. He was more than interested
in her. Something about her totally fascinated him. To start with, she had spunk, was strong, level-headed, able to take things as they came, and make the best
of them. After all, she'd been the victim of a stage coach hold up, had looked
upon several dead bodies, and been surrounded by a gang of armed robbers,
but still had the nerve to stand up to them, if only verbally. But what had really captured his notice was her unerring loyalty, even after a year apart, to Edward Thornton, who Ben knew to be a lying skunk of a man.
Of all of them, Ginny was the only one who wanted to go to Bisbee, and Ben planned to take the slowest route possible to give himself more time to get her
to open up more. He really wanted to learn how Edward had won such deep loyalty from a woman like her. He knew it wouldn't be hard to go the long way around because the rocky outcropping where they'd camped last night was way off the stagecoach route, and Ginny wasn't even aware of it. But he'd have to keep a sharp eye on Charlie. What he'd done to Ginny that morning was not acceptable.
When they came upon the river he'd told her about, and found a good place to make camp, Ben used their bedrolls, hanging them on bushes to create a place where Ginny could remove her bloody dress in privacy. She handed it out to Ben from behind the blind. He took it to Charlie, ordering him to wash as much of
the blood and filth out of it as he could. At first, Charlie bridled, but then thought better of it. He'd already made Ben angry several times in just this week alone, and knew that he was now skating on very thin ice. It was as though he could look down through that ice and see the raging river of Ben's temper rampaging just a few inches beneath his feet. Charlie knew that if he were to fall through
that ice, he’d surely die.
Ben had carefully chosen the spot for her. There was a small stream running through it that fed into the river farther down, and he thought she could use it
to bathe in. Whrn she handed him her dress, she once again made eye contact with him, and was surprised at what she found there. His eyes were filled with compassion and concern...and it was for her! As she slowly walked over to the stream, her mind was awhirl with confusion and doubt again, moreso than
she'd known in her entire life. She sat in the stream bathing herself, and tried
to remember if she'd ever seen Edward looking at her with that same concern
and compassion, but that memory wasn't there. It simply didn't exist. The last two years of Ginny's life, the first with Edward in St. Louis, and the second, waiting to join him in Bisbee, were crumbling around her. No longer able trust what she'd believed to be the truth, she felt lost, and didn't know how to deal with it.
The news of the stagecoach robbery had reached Bisbee. Edward Thornton was aware that while her luggage had been found ,Virginia Jericho had not. A wedding dress had been discovered with a shot through it. The driver and other passengers were dead. The odds of survival among the perils of the Arizona desert were low for a girl from St. Louis. Edward sent a telegram to Virginia’s father, Judge Robert Jericho in St. Louis.
Stagecoach robbed.
Driver and Passengers dead.
Virginia missing.
Presumed dead.
After sending the telegram Edward considered his position. Judge Robert Jericho had invested in his mercantile because Edward was marrying his daughter Virginia. Edward found Virginia attractive, though he held no particular love for her in his heart. He needed the investment money and in Arizona he could do
what he wanted far away from the Judge’s watchful eye. The thought of
Virginia’s happiness had never crossed Edward’s mind. He had courted her only because it was expected to solidify the deal with her father. He'd been relieved
to leave St. Louis a year ago to establish his mercantile in Bisbee. Virginia wrote him letters often but he never read them. He wrote her a few letters over the course of the year primarily to let her father know he intended to hold up his part of the bargain and to give reports on how the Judge's money was doing. Now that she was missing and presumed dead, he was as good as free from his obligation. He lit a cigar and strolled to the saloon. Perhaps he could find some female companionship there to make him forget the Judge’s daughter.
Ah, Carlotta was there! Edward had hoped she'd be. Big, very buxom,with wide hips and painted red lips. And she expected nothing from him, wanted nothing from him but a good time and a few coins. Virginia would doubtless have expected a husband at the dinner table.
As he sidled up to the bar beside Carlotta, he wondered if there might be some way he could play on the old Judge's sympathy so that he wouldn't pull out
from financing the mercantile. Edward had always been good at such things.
It was how, in the first place, he'd talked Ginny into coming so far west, so far from home.
So the wedding dress had a bullet hole in its bodice, did it? Interesting. She wouldn't have been wearing the thing, not on the stage. He was more curious
as to how the dress had gotten shot than he was about whether Ginny were
lying dead somewhere. He'd heard plenty about Ben Wade's gang. A woman
alone in the midst of them wouldn't stand much of a chance. He frowned as he downed a shot of whiskey. What if the woman somehow came back alive?
She'd be damaged goods. He'd have to marry her anyway, he expected,
because of the Judge's money, but, dammit, he'd at least wanted her to come
to his bed, well, inexperienced. He cupped a hand around Carlotta's rounded buttock, smiling to himself. She was what he preferred in a woman. Knew how
to please a man just fine and then let him go off about his own business. But a wife? If he had to be stuck with a wife, he wanted someone he could dominate completely.
The water in the stream was cold, shocking her initially. But then Ginny relaxed
as the current caressed her skin. She was amazed at the amount of dust that had accumulated in her hair and on her person. It took some scrubbing to get it loose. Ben had left her a shirt to cover herself while her dress dried and she paired it with a blanket to cover her legs. As Ginny emerged from the bushes she found that Ben had been keeping watch, making sure none of the gang managed to get an eyeful.
Ben smiled, his eyes dancing as he looked at her. “Well, Ginny, how about we get some coffee?” he asked while offering her his arm. Ginny gladly accepted Wade's arm as he led her to the fire and poured them coffee. Even though she was dressed only in Ben’s shirt and a blanket in the middle of nowhere among outlaws, she forgot it all when Ben’s hand touched hers as he handed her the mug of coffee. Ben’s eyes smiled and his mouth formed a slight grin as he took a sip from his cup.
Ben had been carefully watching her, thinking how fetching she
looked in her strange getup, thinking he saw a light in her eyes that hadn't
been there earlier. "You happy 'bout somethin', Ginny?"
She blinked, then looked down at the dark contents of her cup a moment. Good
Lord, was she that transparent? She wasn't at all sure she wanted it known that,
yes, she was feeling happy. And now that she thought about it, she was quite
amazed at herself. None of this made sense. Did it?
"I...I'm doing all right," she stammered, afraid to lift her face and meet his
eyes.
All the rebellion hidden in the furthest reaches of her soul seemed to be bubbling to the surface. She knew she didn't love Edward. She felt put upon by her family and most of all by Edward. What was life in Bisbee going to be? More of what
she left behind with her parents? The knots of facts tangled in her mind were beginning to come undone, and bindings don't make one stay, do they? Ginny
felt that even though she didn't know the man who sat drinking coffee next to
her she had more of a connection to him than she ever had with Edward.
Ben had pulled out his sketch book and was drawing Ginny's dress as it hung on the bushes drying in the early evening sun. Ginny looked at him, shaking her head. How could he be two different people at once? She couldn't forget that he was an outlaw and had led the man who'd robbed the coach bringing her to Bisbee. At the same time he'd become her protector from Charlie and the gang. A shudder suddenly went down her spine at the thought of Charlie Prince and she looked around only to find him glaring at her from across the campsite. Instinctively she moved closer to Ben, never taking her eyes from Charlie.
Ben, noticing her movement, looked up from his sketch ,saw the look on Charlie's face, and had a good idea what was going through Charlie's mind. Frowning, he looked at Ginny and back at her dress. "I think it's about dried by now."
Startled by the sound of his voice, she gave a sudden start. Ben smiled at her.
"You sure you're ok, Ginny? I think your dress is most likely ready for you to
wear again."
Ginny looked from Ben to her dress."Yes ,I think you’re probably right. It should be dry by now,” she muttered, glancing back towards Charlie.
Ben stood up and then helped Ginny to her feet. He stood by while she changed behind the bushes the dress had been drying on. Can't risk keeping her out here with the gang any longer, Ben thought to himself. He knew that Charlie was
fixing to get Ginny out of the way. He couldn't let anything happen to her, not now after.... He let the thought go when Ginny stepped out from behind the bushes.
"Saddle up, boys, we're going to Bisbee!"
The gang looked at him quizzically as they began gathering their bedrolls. There would be no rest tonight for any of them.
Before long she was back on the horse behind Ben, finding herself hoping it was
a long ride to Bisbee. She wasn't eager to see Edward, not like a
bride should be. Perhaps the ruined wedding dress was some sort of portent?
Charlie rode up beside Ben, asking him about his plans when they arrived in the
town. He glared at Ginny before spurring away again. She tightened her grip
around Ben's waist, feeling oddly both safer and in greater danger than she'd
ever been in her life.
Ben felt the shiver that had run through her body. Looking part-way back over
his shoulder, he said, "Don't you go an' worry none about
Charlie, Ginny. I ain't lettin' anything happen to you. He knows that."
Her eyes followed Charlie a moment. Maybe he did know that, but perhaps he
didn't care?
The desert in the moonlight had a beauty she had never before experienced. Everything was washed in pale light, the shadows deep, and a calming peace seemed to be in the air. She wondered if Ben saw the beauty like she did. She
also wondered how long she could stay awake. The rhythmic motion of the
horse and the warmth from Ben's body was overwhelming. She found herself stifling yawns while attempting to maintain her hold on Ben. Two hours later when she nearly fell off, he caught her by the arm and stopped just long enough to move her in front of him. He liked the feel of her next to him, liked the smell
of her hair and how the moonlight made her skin glow. All he had to do was get her safely to Bisbee. He knew there were stirrings in the gang and he'd have to deal with them before he could ensure Ginny's safety, before he could give her
an option not involving Edward Thornton.
Ben winced thinking of how Ginny's life would be married to Thornton. He might not know much about Ginny but he knew she would never be happy with Thornton. But could she be happy with Ben Wade? Part of him was beginning to sincerely hope she could. There was something about Ginny that was different from any woman he'd ever considered taking with him. Somehow he didn't think this one would laugh. He turned to his right to confirm Charlie's eyes were upon him and Ginny. Charlie quickly picked up the pace of his horse and caught up
with a few of the others. Ben could hear muttering among them.
He knew Ginny wasn't the only one who was going to need to make some decisions. Ben Wade had a few of his own to make. He just had to work out the details.
Ginny blinked at her first sight of Bisbee. She'd seen some small towns during
her journey out west, but this place bordered on ridiculous.
There was literally
nothing to it and what there was of that nothing was all roughly-nailed together
boards under a thick layer of dust. Edward's mercantile shouldered its way onto
the street, two stories tall and with a wide front porch. But to her eyes it
still looked utterly primitive. Her eyes scanned the street. There were almost
no real, actual...homes. Where did Edward intend that she live?
"Oh...no." Her words came more as a low moan.
Ben heard them, though, and figured correctly what she was thinking. "Ain't
much to look at, is it?"
"No," she sighed. "Not much at all."
"You expectin' a bit more, were you?"
"I'd...hoped. But...this. This is simply...."
"Bit bare?" He looked carefully at the town, too.
It dawned on her then that they were riding right into town. "Aren't you
worried, Ben? What if...?"
"Ain't no marshal here right now," he smiled over his shoulder. "Ain't much of
anythin' these days. Besides, I got me some thirsty men with me and there ain't
nothin' keepin' them from that there saloon."
The idea of going to a saloon so early in the day was completely alien to her. Briefly she thought of what her father would think of her keeping company with
a man who would do such a thing. But in a place like this what else was there for them to do? All she wanted was a bath, a clean dress and a bed.
“I’ll see you to your door, Ginny.” Ben’s statement shook her from her dazed
state of shocked contemplation over the state of Bisbee. Realizing he had already dismounted, she reached for his hand to steady herself. Once at the door of the Mercantile she realized it was locked and there didn’t seem to be anyone inside. Exhausted and in a strange place, tears stung her eyes.
Ben, watching from the street, noticed as the first tears began to fall. “Ginny,
why don’t you get some rest first? I could get you a room where you could clean up.”
His voice was full of a concern she had detected before but it was never so apparent. She nodded assent as she again took his hand and let him lead her toward the saloon.
“A bath and some rest will put you right again, Ginny, you’ll see.” To himself Ben thought he had to get her off the street quickly. He hadn’t realized how exhausted she was. Perhaps the long way around to Bisbee had been a bit too much. He hadn’t been ready to part company with her earlier and even now he knew she had few options available to her. Maybe sending her back to St. Louis was the best alternative? Best to think on it and let her rest.
Upon nearing the saloon, however, a man obviously still under the influence of
the previous night's activities was coming out. He stopped and turned, shouting
in a slurred voice for Carlotta to bring him his hat. A buxom woman with smeared makeup and gaudy, hastily thrown on attire appeared, hat in hand.
Ginny stopped in the middle of the street, eyes never wavering from the man and woman at the saloon entrance. The man was pinching the woman’s bottom and then receiving a sloppy kiss in return. Confusion and anger were overwhelming Ginny. It took Ben a moment to realize the man was none other than Edward Thornton with one of the whores who worked the saloon at night. No shielding Ginny from that truth now. Ginny began to shake. Ben was concerned she might faint.
“Edward Thornton, what are you doing?!” Ginny shouted from the street.
Edward swung around, nearly losing his footing. “Virginia?” he croaked in a panicked voice.
“What do you think you're doing?" she repeated, her voice quavering with shock. Her eyes shifted from Edward to Carlotta and back again. Edward just stood, rooted silently where he was.
In the face of Edward's silence, Ginny said stiffly, “ Ben, would you secure me a room, please?”
Now it was Ben’s turn to be shaken loose from the moment. He was amazed at
the reaction she had to seeing Thornton and Carlotta. With a smile he tipped his hat and walked towards the saloon, passing Thornton and enjoying his stunned expression.
Ben returned from the darkened interior of the Saloon to let her know her room was ready. Smiling, Ginny walked past Edward Thornton and accepted Ben’s
hand.
As he walked with Ginny, Ben cast a look over his shoulder toward Thornton.
The man was standing, one hand on the swinging door, staring
after them, his
expression changing from astonishment to dark anger. Ben's lips curved in a
small smile.
Virginia was awash with conflicting emotions. Her hand in Ben's was tingling
with pleasure at the warm contact of his flesh, but around her
her world was
crumbling at her feet. She'd come all this way, left everything behind, to marry
the disgusting man by the door. Well, she no longer intended to do that. The
ruined dress had truly been the portent she thought it might be. But what was
she to do now? Wire her father for stage fare home? She wasn't
ready to do
that horrendous trip again, not so soon. And, then, there was Ben. What about
Ben? She had no idea. It was all making her feel somewhat hollow inside right
now, and the stress of seeing Edward like that combined with how tired she
was, was making her almost dizzy.
"Virginia!" Edward called, his voice in that same rather commanding tone he'd
always used with her. "You stop right there, Virginia!"
She was on the second step up the stairs, but paused, turning to look back at
him. "Why, Edward?"
"You can't go up there! Not with that man!"
"Isn't that where you just were, Edward...with that woman?"
"Who I was with doesn't matter!" he snapped, deciding obviously that offense was
better than defense.
"To you, perhaps," she replied softly. "I'm not sure my father will feel the
same way."
Why hadn't the goddammed woman just been killed in the hold up? Edward frowned
deeply. Virginia was proving to be a problem. "You father doesn't need
to know about this, Virginia. He'll just be glad you're alive. None of the rest of
this matters."
"That we'll have to see, now won't we?"
"You don't want to do that, Virginia. Believe me, you do not want to tell your
father about this." He looked at her, a deadly darkness in his eyes.
"You threatenin' the little lady, Mr. Thornton?" Ben asked, keeping his voice
low, even.
"She's my bride," Thornton snapped back. "I can talk to her however I damn
well please!"
Ben turned more to face Edward. "Now there just might be some bit of
disagreement over them words, Mr. Thornton."
"No goddamn stage robber is going to tell me what I can say to my own woman!"
Ben smiled again. The man was stupider than he'd originally thought.
"I'm NOT your woman, Edward!" Ginny burst out. "Not any more!"
"You hear the lady, Mr. Thornton," Ben said pleasantly. "I'd suggest you
leave...now."
"You suggest...?" Edward stormed across the room, still half-drunk, and grabbed
Ginny's arm, sending a startled jolt of pain through her and making her lose her
footing on the step.
In one smooth motion, Ben slugged Thornton, sending him crashing to the floor,
and whirled to catch Ginny. She lay in his arms, her head spinning. "I...I...,"
she murmured, then fainted.
Ginny awoke with a start. Where was she? Where was Ben? What happened with Edward? Her head began spinning again and as the darkness began closing in,
she clenched her fists tight, trying to fight it off.
“What do you have yourself all balled up for, Ginny?" came the soft drawl. She slowly opened her eyes to find Ben standing over the bed with his peculiar half smile on his face.
Ginny relaxed her hands so she could prop herself up on the bed and better survey her surroundings. The room was plain, sparsely furnished. A small washstand sat in one corner beneath a cracked mirror and she appeared to be on a full-sized bed. There was a table of sorts next to the door with what appeared to be clean women’s clothing neatly folded on it.
“After I got you settled up here and the boys dealt with Thornton, I liberated a few things from the mercantile for you," he stated rather matter-of-factly while pointing to the clothing on the table. “I’ll have them bring up a bath so you can clean yourself up now you're awake. Oh, and don’t worry about Thornton. He's taken care of for the time being.”
Ginny smiled at Ben as she got up to survey what he had 'liberated' for her. It didn’t bother her that liberated meant he had just taken if from the mercantile.
It was her father’s money, after all. Ben had done well. Not only had he gotten
a dress and shoes, he had liberated under clothes as well. She blushed when
she considered just how he knew what a woman’s under things would be.
Ben tipped his hat and gave her another of his half smiles as he left the room to have the bath water sent up. He had no idea how this was going to turn out but
he was sure interested in finding out.
The
bathwater arrived and she took her time, dipping the rag in the water and wiping
slowly down her limbs. When she was dried, she stood naked a long moment in
front of the cracked mirror, studying herself. "Virginia," she whispered to her
reflection, "now what are you going to do? Who are you going to be?"
No real answers came to her. She felt both marvelously freed as though from
invisible chains and almost tremblingly nervous about the abyss that had opened
at her feet. Reaching for her clothes, she discovered a small bottle of
rosewater behind them. So, he'd thought of even that. Smiling to herself, she
applied it to her pulse points, ending with a larger application at the base of
her throat. She closed her eyes, letting herself feel its coolness as it dripped
down between her breasts.
He had brought her no new corset to wear under the pale green gown he'd
chosen and when she had it on, she felt quite naked beneath the smooth, soft material. She...was...naked. Well, there was the thin chemise, but that was nothing compared to the feel of her body unbound by the usual stricture of a corset. Again she stood in front of the mirror, cupping her breasts in her own hands. A soft knock sounded at the door and she turned as Ben entered, her
hands
still at her breasts.
Ben paused three steps into the room, closing the door behind him, his eyes
intent upon her. Hot redness flushed up her neck but she stood quite still, not moving her hands. His lips curved as he began to cross the room, stopping in
front of her, looking down. With the fingers of his right hand, he brushed lightly over both her hands, feeling the series of trembles that ran through her. "Beauty like that," he said, his voice very low and deep, "don't need to be kept all tight
and put
away." His fingers moved again with just enough pressure to get her to lower her
hands. "Not even by their owner."
Standing was suddenly very hard. She wasn't sure how she was managing. Was
he
going to scoop her up, lay her on the bed? She saw the want of it in his eyes.
He wasn't even trying to hide his wanting. But he took one step back, lifted her
right hand to his lips, and all the while keeping his eyes turned up to hers,
kissed it. The look in his eyes had become a promise, no, more than that, a
guarantee.
Clearing his throat softly, he let her hand go. "I've arranged for food," he
said simply. "You ready to go downstairs, Ginny?"
She silently nodded her yes to him and followed him to the top of
the stairs.
There she paused to see who was in the room below. Charlie and several of the other gang members were present as were some of the locals. Taking a deep breath she took Ben’s arm and began her descent. When they reached the main room Charlie stood up at his chair and nodded his acknowledgement to Ben and Ginny. Much to Ginny’s surprise Ben continued to lead her through the doors of the Saloon into the open street. A pat of her arm from Ben let her know he knew what he was doing.
They walked down the street past the mercantile and into a small but surprisingly pleasant home. “It seems that this was where Thornton intended to have you set up house.”
Ginny looked over the place room by room. It was all very neat and orderly but looked more like a showpiece than some place where someone was living. When they entered the kitchen she saw that a beef stew was simmering on the stove. “Liberated from Thornton’s pantry as well. He doesn’t seem to have been living here himself. Been staying above the mercantile,” Ben said.
Ginny smiled to herself, noting Ben’s explanation covered where the ingredients came from but not how they reached their present state. “Who made the stew?” she asked in her best I-already-know-the-answer voice.
“I did," Ben stated in a matter of fact tone with just a tinge of hurt reflected in
his voice. “But if I don’t get you sat down the cornbread won’t be edible.” He pulled a chair out from the kitchen table for Ginny before going to the stove and removing the cornbread from the oven.
Ben looked almost astonishingly domestic, yet...somehow...still not. He seemed
to know what he was doing and that truly surprised her. She'd always thought
of his being just fed, not cooking anything himself. But the smells coming from the stove were good ones, making her tummy rumble in anticipation. Her lips curved a bit. Some part of her always seemed to be in a state of anticipation in
his presence.
He'd set his hat on one side of the table before going to tend the stew and she
picked it up, studying the elaborate band around its brim. It suited
him. Everything he wore suited him and he wore his clothes as though aware of
that.
He tipped his head, eyes to the side, watching her run her fingers over the
hatband. "You like my hat?"
"It's fine, Ben, really fine."
"Got tired of them broad-brimmed sorts. Decided this one was more my style." He
lifted the cornbread in a towel, bringing it to the table. "Just like Mama used
to make," he smiled, setting it down.
"Did your mother make you cornbread often, Ben?"
An odd look flitted across his face briefly. "Don't recall," was all he said,
leaving her feeling rather puzzled.
He turned and went back to the stove, scooping out two large dishes of the stew,
so hot it still bubbled even after being removed from the heat. "Watch that," he
warned as he sat down.
She stirred it with her spoon, letting steam escape, but watched him, not the
stew. "I didn't notice this house when we rode into town."
"Probably you was lookin' at the Mercantile, Ginny. This don't show up all that
well when you've got your eyes on the big store." He looked around. "You know
who owns it? Your Daddy or Edward?"
"I'm not sure, not yet, but it's probably Daddy's money that bought it. Am I
supposed to stay here?"
"You stay here, Ginny, 'til you decide what you want to do. Edward ain't goin'
to be botherin' you none."
"You...you're sure of that, Ben? I don't want...."
“Don’t worry darlin’. I told you the boys took care of Thornton for now. After
you eat you can check with the land office and see who owns the house. In the meantime you haven’t eaten a thing.”
Ginny looked down at her stew realizing it was no longer bubbling like it was before. Opting to begin with the cornbread, she took a bite and discovered it
was delicious. The texture wasn’t overly course and it had a slight sweetness to
it. She had never tasted cornbread like this before and devoured the piece she
had quickly.
“Maple syrup.”
“Excuse me?" Ginny said, looking up at Ben.
“Maple syrup makes it a little sweet,” Ben stated rather matter-of-factly.
Ginny smiled, acknowledging his statement as she began on the stew. She wondered how he could cook like this and suffer to eat what he did while with
the gang. She decided that the likes of Charlie Prince wouldn’t appreciate a
good stew like this…and there was the matter of supplies when you're on the
run.
There were onions, carrots and potatoes in the stew and the meat was flavorful and tender. She thought of her first meal with the gang and the chewy mess she couldn’t choke down. Just then Ben hopped out of his chair and rushed to the stove. He opened the oven once again and removed a small pan. His face was
the picture of concentration as he carefully placed the pan on the sideboard.
“Almost burned it. But I think it's edible yet,” he stated as he again took his seat across from Ginny.
”Ben this is all so wonderful, I had no idea…. About any of it. Thank you.”
“I know it's nothing fancy but it's better than the food at the saloon and I figured you’d want to eat in peace. After the scene earlier I doubt that would happen over there. Besides, it will give the boys the opportunity to blow off some steam.”
Her brow creased as she wondered just what kind of steam Charlie and the
others might blow off. It made her glad she was here and not at the saloon.
And Ben was here. And he'd just set yet something else in front
of her, something that smelled wonderful.
As she lifted her fork to take a bite from the bowl he'd dished her, he smiled.
"Apple Brown Betty," he explained. "Well, almost. It's easy findin' old bread
around here, and there was a sack of fairly decent apples in the cupboard."
"You are an amazing man, Benjamin Wade," she said. "Cinnamon? You found
cinnamon?"
"I'm pretty good, Ginny, at findin' what I need."
She sat back a bit in her chair, looking at him. "I just bet you are," she
grinned. "And what is it you need now?"
"I need to know what you're plannin' on doin', Ginny."
Her grin faded. "I wish I knew, Ben. Nothing has worked out like I thought it
would. Absolutely not one thing. All I know is that I'm not getting married and
if I'm not doing that, then why am I in Arizona? What's here for
me now, Ben?"
He set his fork down slowly, carefully. "That might take a bit of findin' out,
Ginny. You in any hurry to get back to St. Louis?"
Ginny considered his question as she helped him gather the plates and wash
them. Was there really anything in St. Louis for her? She definitely wasn’t in a hurry for another long ride by stagecoach.
“Ben, do you think anyone would be in the land office now? Do you think we
could find out if my father owns this?”
“Sure thing, Ginny. We'll go now and find out.” Putting down the dishtowel Ben Wade had had enough domesticity for this evening. The smile was in his eyes
even if it wasn’t on his face as he took Ginny by the hand and they walked to the land office. The clerk was locking up just as they arrived but was easily persuaded to check his records of ownership. Judge Jericho of St. Louis was the owner of the small house where Ginny and Ben had shared dinner, as well as the mercantile.
Ginny thanked the clerk and followed Ben out of the office. The night was clear and cool. She wrapped her shawl closely around herself and stared at the stars above Bisbee, looking for a constellation she could recognize. “Well, Ben, it looks as if I have options here in Arizona, so perhaps those should be looked into further.” Looking at Ben she reached for his hand and grasped it. “Perhaps tonight we should discuss and explore some of those options. Let's go back to the house, all right?”
Ben took her hand, guiding it to his right forearm, then put his left hand atop it
as they walked. Damn, if he didn't feel practically like the gentry, walking like
that with his lady on his arm. Light poured out of the saloon across the street
and he could hear the voices of his men. He smiled. Everybody
seemed content tonight. He carefully handed her down the couple of board steps
to cross in front of the alleyway that was just a bit down from her house. Yes,
her house. "I think," he began, looking down at her upturned face...then the
world exploded around him.
Ginny was horrified as Ben collapsed in a heap at her feet. Edward and two men
had stepped out of the alleyway shadows, one of them with his rifle butt still
held in clubbing position. Edward grabbed Ginny's elbow. "Think you can just
come
all la-de-dah waltzing into my town and take away my house, my
store?"
"Edward! Let me go!"
"I'll let you go all right," he snarled, "but not here." She tried to scream
but he clamped a large hand over the lower half of her face, cutting off her air
supply
to such a degree that she quickly felt faint. He dragged her down the alley and
by the time he got her to his horse, she was barely conscious and offered no resistance as she was slung over the horse in front of his saddle. All three men rode toward a pass leading up into the mountains.
Ginny was awakened when Edward pushed her off his horse onto the ground.
The breath was knocked out of her and it was a few moments before she could
do anything besides lie in the dust. Edward and his hired thugs were tying up
the horses, their backs turned. No one was watching. She could get away! Quietly
she attempted to sit up and then get to her knees. It was when she attempted to rise to her feet that her plan failed. She cried out when she put pressure on her right foot, searing pain shooting from her ankle up her leg, forcing her back to
her knees. Before she could reseat herself Edward had her by the hair causing new cries of pain and tears to well up and spill out of her.
“So you think you're going somewhere? Think your outlaw friend is going to
help you now? Virginia, you were beneath me in St. Louis and you managed to sink even further in Arizona. Did you imagine I would let you take my store away?
Did you think I was going to let you play house with some other man in that house, Virginia? Did you think that?" Edward leaned in close to her tear-stained face, never letting go of her hair. He grabbed her face with his free hand and held it still. “Look at me, Virginia!” he shouted. She slowly opened her eyes to look at his leering face only a few inches from hers. “I am sure you figured I was out of the way with Ben Wade on your arm. But he’s dead, Virginia! Dead in the street where I left him! And now I'm going to take what you gave so easily to the outlaw!" As he finished his proclamation he let go of her hair, flung her backwards onto the ground and stood over her.
Virginia’s mind was reeling. Could Ben really be dead? Everything was happening so fast. Then she noticed what Edward was doing as he stood over her. Edward Thornton was very deliberately removing his pants, all the while keeping his eyes glued on her. An evil grin spread across his face when he saw her realize what he intended.
“Boys, you can each have a turn when I’m done here!” he called. The men around the small campfire began to stir in anticipation.
Frantically, she tried to get to her feet as he approached her. There was no way her ankle was going to support her. She hadn’t even time to check and see if it was bleeding or broken.
“Edward, don’t! PLEASE! It wasn’t like that with….” her last words were cut off
as he dropped himself on top of her. The world for Virginia Jericho again faded to black.
Charlie wasn't interested in hanging out in the saloon all evening with the rest
of the gang. He downed the last swallow of his drink and headed for the swinging doors, pausing once outside to look down the street at the house he knew Ginny was staying in. Damn the woman! The Boss didn't need to be distracted by the likes of her. She'd never stay with him. Charlie knew that. She was merely amusing herself with the famous outlaw, getting her thrills, then she'd go back East. He didn't understand why the Boss even found her attractive. Rolling a cigarette, he leaned against a porch post, keeping his eyes on Ginny's house, a frown line between his eyes. Didn't seem to be any lights on. Where were they?
He began to amble in that direction, crossing the street, stepping up onto the board sidewalk on that side, then about 15 feet further on, down the couple of steps to cross the alley. A low moan to his left caught his attention, his hand
going to his holster. He peered into the darkness, trying to make
out where the sound had come from. The moan came again and, pistol drawn, he
went toward the source. Something small and black lay right in front of him and
he stooped, picking it up, his eyes widening. The Boss' hat!
"Boss?" he called out. "That you, Boss?"
Again the low moan came from the darkness. Charlie took three rapid strides,
kneeling beside the man lying on his back. "Boss!"
Weakly, Ben lifted his right arm, laying the back of his hand across his
forehead. "Charlie?"
"Yeah, it's me, Boss. What happened to you?"
"Where's Ginny?" His head was splitting and he kept his eyes screwed shut.
"She ain't here. Wasn't she with you?"
"He took her." His jaw clamped tightly. Edward had taken Ginny.
"That heap of coyote dung? He do this to you, Boss?"
"Help me up," Ben grated.
When Charlie had got him to his feet, he leaned against a side wall, gingerly
touching the back of his head. There was a big knot there and his fingers
came away bloodied. "Let me get you back to the hotel, Boss." Charlie was
genuinely concerned. It looked to him like Ben could barely stand. He took
Ben's arm, but Ben shook him off.
"My horse," Ben said, his voice raspy with pain.
"Aw, Boss, you ain't fit to ride."
"Dammit, my horse, Charlie!"
Reluctantly Charlie left Ben leaning against the wall and sprinted off, coming
back with both Ben's horse and his own. "You ain't goin' nowhere without me," he
announced.
For a long moment Ben stood beside the black, his arms folded against the
saddle, his forehead leaning on them. His head didn't seem to want to clear
completely. Finally he sucked in a deep breath and put his boot in the stirrup.
The motion of mounting sent him into a spiral of pain and he swayed in the
saddle. Charlie put
a hand on Ben's hip, steadying him. "This ain't right, Boss."
Ben ignored him and sank his spurs into the black's flanks.
Ginny woke, shivering with cold. She ached all over and for a long while she
simply lay there in the dirt, trying to figure out what had happened to her.
Edward. Tears filled her eyes, running down her cheeks, into her ears. She sat
up, trying to pull the tattered remains of her dress over her
breasts. The
only light was from the spread of stars across the sky. Thousands upon
thousands of them, sparkling, glowing in a panoply of beauty. She stared up
at them, wishing there were some way, any way, she could melt
into them, become part of them. But they were too beautiful for her and she knew
that.
Pulling her knees up, she lay over on her side, shivering uncontrollably.
Somewhere, not all that far away, a mountain lion cried out. With great effort
she lay perfectly still, listening.
Edward had taken her several more miles into the hills and just left her lying
there halfway up a scrubby slope. She didn't know that, though. All she knew
was that every bit of her was shredded, not just her clothing, and that her soul
lay in pieces on the ground around where she huddled.
Ben’s head throbbed. He was not his usual composed self and he couldn’t think straight. He rode towards the outskirts of town not knowing where he was going, just that he had to go because Edward Thornton had Ginny. Charlie caught up with him as he reached the edge of town.
“Boss, did you see 'em come this way?”
The logic of what Charlie was asking fought its way to the front of Ben’s brain.
He had no idea which way Edward Thornton had taken Ginny. He had no idea where Ginny was and though the stars were overhead in force there wasn’t enough light to track anything. Not in the dark. Damn it, why hadn't he been
more vigilant when they left the land office? He pulled his horse to a stop. The throbbing in his head was causing his vision to blur and he began swaying in the saddle. Charlie dismounted and watched, making sure he was close at hand while Ben got off his horse.
“Boss, I can get the gang. We can look for her at first light. We'll find her.”
The conviction in Charlie’s voice soothed the pain in Ben’s head. Yes, they could track in the daylight. Ben nodded in assent to Charlie and immediately regretted choosing that form of communication, as fresh pain shot through his head. His body was beginning to feel as though it were made of lead. Knowing he couldn’t rest there, he mounted his horse again and he and Charlie returned to the saloon. Ben went directly to his room, knowing that Charlie would round up the gang and begin making plans for setting out in the morning.
As Ben lay down on the bed. The bed where Ginny slept before her bath he caught her scent. Looking out the window at the stars Ben Wade made a vow. He would find Ginny, no matter how long it took and he would be there when Edward Thornton got what was coming to him. It was with this thought Ben drifted off
to sleep.
Ginny didn't sleep. She was afraid if she did sleep, the mountain lion would come up on her in the dark and she'd never even see it till it was on top of her. On top
of her like...like...Edward. And hadn't he said something about the other men?
She didn't remember. Some desert animal had hollowed out a sort of small retreat under an ocotillo and she managed to back herself into it. The sandy
edges crumbled around it, sending showers of dirt into her hair,
her face, over large portions of her body. She didn't mind. Perhaps it would
help hide her. How well did mountain lions scent things anyway? She had no
experience of such things. All she could do was huddle there as silently as
possible and wait.
Since she was fairly high up in the hills, she could see out over the lower ones
where the enormity of the black sky lay itself across the land. Since she'd left
St. Louis she'd often felt alone on the long journey, but always there had been
other passengers, sometimes several, as well as the driver. She'd thought she
was somehow alone even in their midst, but it had been nothing like this.
Aloneness, true aloneness, now settled over her so thick and heavy she could
barely breathe under it. The big cat called out again, its cry piercingly sharp,
and her heart pounded violently.
She lay like that for the rest of the night, never sleeping. How many hours are
there in a night that never ends? The dawn did come, though very gradually,
even beautifully, a pale pink that shaded itself up through ranges of lavender
into lightest blue. She watched it carefully, studying every
nuance of color as though it were the most important thing in the world, as
though somehow by concentrating on it, it would pull her out of the night.
When the light had brightened enough, she left her tiny retreat, struggling to
her feet beside the ocotillo. Not only her ankle hurt, but her thighs felt almost pulverized, even her hips didn't seem to want to work quite right. Which way to go? It had been pitch black when they'd taken her from town. Taken her? Oh, God...Ben. Was he dead like Edward had said? She'd heard the blow, had seen
him fall, fall and lie there unmoving in the alley.
Where was she now? The sun was about a palm's-width above the
horizon. She decided to go toward that. Yes, going into the dawn. How could that
be a bad thing?
Two hours later she changed her mind. She'd made hardly any headway due to
her ankle and the rest of her damaged muscles. She'd fallen more
times than she
could begin to count, and the stick she was using as sort of a cane had proven
not serviceable at all in reality. Her lips were cracked and her
mouth so dry she
couldn't really swallow any longer. Tripping on a snaky root, she fell forward
full length and began rolling down a long slope covered with small rocks and
prickly
desert plants. She blacked out halfway down, tumbled about 25 more feet and
came to rest on her back, arms curved above her head, the mid-morning sun baking
down on her white face. She'd disturbed a large lizard which stared at her for
several moments, its tongue flicking in and out, before it decided to seek the
shade of a rocky ledge.
While Ben slept, Charlie was proving there was a reason he was Ben Wade ’s second in command. He had the gang canvas the town for anyone who might
have seen Thornton leave. By morning Charlie had the information he knew the Boss would want. Thornton had two men riding with him and they had headed
out towards the mountains. A few of the boys scouted that out as it got closer
to first light, finding a definite trail to follow. The gang was ready to move out
at the Boss’s signal.
Waking just at first light, Ben reached out for Ginny, finding only empty bed beside him. Turning onto his back, the pain in his head reminded him of the
events from the previous evening. He had wanted to find Ginny then, wanted to ride after Thornton and gun him down. But Charlie was right. He wasn’t going to find Ginny in the dark with his head swimming.
Sitting up, he felt a little woozy. He would have to take things slow, but he was going to find Ginny. Thornton had taken her but what had he done with her? To her? That thought crossed his mind as he picked up his gun. He smiled knowingly. The Hand of God would be the end of Edward Thornton. It was only a matter of time.
Charlie rode close to his Boss, worried about the effects of the blow to his head. He had kept that bit of information from the boys. He had no idea why the boss was carrying on after the woman like this but when he'd attacked the Boss, Edward Thornton earned the kind of justice Charlie was itching to give him. The Boss might be riding to find Ginny but Charlie Prince was riding to find Thornton.
The sunlight bothered Ben's eyes as he rode, an aftereffect of
the blow from the rifle butt, and he pulled his black hat down lower on his
forehead. The morning
sun was at his back, but the bright light reflected off the pale sandy slopes
they were riding over, and even with his hat low, he found he maintained a
constant squint which only succeeded in making his headache worse. His mood was
foul and he rode in a silence that brooked no talk from his men. He was aware
that Charlie kept glancing over at him every couple of minutes and that just
served
to increase his irritation. From time to time a dizziness washed
over him and he felt like he was going to puke, but he just clamped his lips
tightly and kept on riding.
Ginny hadn't moved since she'd fallen down the slope. A little desert breeze had
kicked up, ruffling the long tears down the length of the green gown Ben had
brought her. Her bodice had been ripped from neckline to waist and most of her
left breast lay open to the baking sun, its pale skin and that of her face
beginning
to take on a bright pink tinge.
"You think she's dead by now?" Morton laughed, downing the dregs of a whiskey
bottle.
Edward, half-reclining on a blanket in the shade of a scrubby tree, smiled.
"Some day maybe I'll go see if I can find her bones. The bitch got what she
deserved.
Try and take my business away from me, would she?"
"What about her Pappy?" Tanner asked. "He ain't goin' to be none too happy
with his daughter missin."
"I've got my sob story all planned," Edward grinned. "Poor suffering me with my
bride-to-be kidnapped and murdered by a gang of stage-robbin' outlaws."
He rolled more on his side, looking at Tanner. "I just can't begin to tell you
the emotional toll it's taken on me!"
Both Tanner and Morton laughed. "She was a damn fine piece o' meat, though,"
Morton added, scratching his crotch. "Damn fine."
"I'm sure she was glad to be of service," Edward replied. "At least she was good
for something."
"Been better if the bitch'd been awake, though," Tanner grumped. He liked his
women clawing and scratching when he took them. But after Edward, she'd
just lain there completely limp. He'd even slapped her hard a couple of times,
trying in vain to rouse her. But a man in need could pleasure himself even when
the woman wasn't conscious. He smiled slightly at the memory of her white flesh
under his hands. He'd mostly had Mexicans, squaws, and a white woman,
especially a fresh Eastern treat, had been kind of special. He turned his head,
looking back toward the mountains where they'd left her, wondering if she was
still alive enough that he could find her and have another go.
Ben stopped the black at the top of a ridge, gripping the saddlehorn with
white-knuckled hands as a particularly strong dizzy spell took him. His men had
already started down the far slope, following the tracks of three horses,
leaving only Charlie beside Ben. "Here, Boss," Charlie said, holding out his own
canteen. "This'll probably do you some good."
Ben hadn't even taken the time for breakfast before leaving town and,
gratefully, he took the canteen and tipped it high, letting the water gurgle
into his mouth, down his chin and neck. Then he poured some into his hand and
rubbed it over
his face.
"Better?" Charlie asked, taking the canteen back.
"Yeah, Charlie. Better." He spurred the black lightly and began to pick his way
down the ridge.
Edward Thornton was in a celebratory mood. Virginia Jericho was finally a closed chapter of his life. There was still her father to deal with, but the Honorable Judge Jericho would never make his way to Arizona. He had decided to approach Bisbee from a different direction than he had left it. The thought of the added time the mercantile would be closed bothered him. The very idea of lost profits made his skin crawl, but he was doing it to protect the mercantile, HIS mercantile. It might be in the Judge’s name but it was dowry for marrying Virginia.
Virginia… Edward’s mind went back to her and her tearful pleading with him, begging him, telling him… what was it she was trying to say just before she passed out? Sleep deprivation was making Edward weary. “Stupid Bitch” he mused to himself. “Hey, Morton, what was the cow babbling about anyway?"
Morton, half asleep in the saddle , suddenly sat up. “What's that?” he slurred.
“What was it that she was saying when she was conscious?”
“Oh, that...she was just teasing. Begging like she didn’t want it when every man knows women want it. All of 'em is whores. That’s all.” Morton began searching through his saddle bag...he had to have a bottle somewhere.
Edward smiled. He thought so. Just his imagination running away with him.
“Oh…and she was saying something like it wasn’t like how you think it was with Wade,” Morton stated rather plainly as he discovered a small bottle of stomach tonic in his bag. Deciding it was mostly alcohol anyway, he downed the contents and threw the bottle to the ground.
Edward’s smile faded. “Tanner, did you hear her say anything about Wade?”
“Nope, never heard her say Wade even once.”
“She served her purpose well enough. When we get back to Bisbee I’m going to get Carlotta. She knows how to please a man.” The smile returned to Edward’s face as he thought of Carlotta and his mercantile.
To Ben it seemed like he'd been in the saddle for days, but it
had only been the hours between sunrise and noon. He kept doggedly on, mile
after mile, letting
Charlie pick out the trail. The sun hurt his eyes too bad and when he'd stare at
the light-colored ground, his head ached much worse. They paused
long enough
to eat a quick meal of hardtack, cornbread, and water. Ben could barely choke it
down.
As he put his foot in the stirrup to remount, distant activity in the sky caught
his attention. Buzzards. Several of the large, dark birds were circling above a
valley
off to his right. He frowned. The trail of the horses led straight ahead but his
gut told him to go toward the valley.
"Charlie."
Charlie, just finishing fastening his saddle bag, walked up beside Ben.
"There." Ben nodded toward the buzzards.
"You think they're there for her, Boss?"
Something in Ben's chest had gone all leaden. "Might be," was all he said,
swinging with some effort into his saddle. Clucking to the black, he turned its
head right.
Charlie sent three of the men on to follow the tracks while he and the rest rode
after Ben. In about twenty minutes they came out on the rise above the valley.
Ben's teeth clamped together as he caught sight of what lay far below. Quietly
he pulled out his rifle and, blinking several times to make sure
his sight was
clear, aimed it at the buzzard that was sitting about ten feet out from Ginny,
watching.
"She ain't quite dead yet, Boss," Charlie commented. "Buzzards're still waitin'
around."
Ben studied the slope. It was too steep to ride straight down so he quickly went
a bit further down the rise to where the angle was doable, a
combination of
roiling anger and sharp concern making his head pound, his fingers literally
aching with the need to choke the life out of Edward Thornton. At the bottom
of the slope, he held his hand up. "Wait here," he said tersely, then went on
alone to where Ginny lay.
Dismounted, he squatted beside her, touching her cheek with the back of his
hand. Her skin was dry, blazing hot, and for a brief second he lifted his eyes
to
the noonday sun. "Oh, Ginny," he whispered, then he stood and unbuttoned his
vest. Shrugging off his coat and vest, he removed his shirt, laying it over her
where her bodice was torn open. She was too hot for him to use his coat. He
signaled for Charlie to ride up, then as he got back in his saddle, had Charlie
hand Ginny up into his arms.
During the long ride back to Bisbee, she never stirred. Ben mostly rode in
silence, but there were times he'd whisper to her as though she could hear him.
He'd also stare for long moments down into her face, remembering the surprise
and delight in her eyes last evening when he'd cooked for her, the way she
tipped her chin up to talk with him as they walked. Walking beside her had made
him feel things no woman had ever made him feel before. He'd had no idea where
he was going with all that, but the moments in which it happened felt damn good
and he liked that. There was so much with Ginny that he'd wanted to explore,
wanted to wait and see how things might go. He knew, better than anybody he
knew, how much he needed a change. Now this. How could a man do this to the
woman he was going to make his wife? Her face was streaked with dirt, red with
sunburn, her lips cracked and blistered. He leaned, kissing her brow.
Late in the afternoon, they reached Ginny's house. Charlie dismounted and held
out his arms to take Ginny so Ben could get down. When Ben had Ginny again,
Charlie followed up onto the porch. "Door, Charlie," Ben said, and Charlie held
it open for him to pass through. "Bring the doc," was all he added as he headed
for the bedroom.
"Doc's a vet!" Charlie called after him.
"Bring him!"
Gently he lay Ginny on her bed, keeping his shirt over her torso. He leaned,
putting his cheek barely an inch above her mouth. There was only the barest
whisper of breath. Pulling back, he sighed, and brushed some of her hair off her
face.
The vet came in the bedroom doorway, followed by Charlie. "Charlie," Ben said,
"you go on now. Watch for Thornton."
"But, Boss," Charlie protested, " what if he takes off for Texas or somethin'?
You ain't got time to mess around with her."
Ben turned his head, locking his gaze on Charlie. "There ain't no place,
Charlie, none, where Edward Thornton can get hisself to that I ain't goin' to
find the bastard. Now go."
"What's going on here?" the vet asked, coming up beside the bed.
"Can you help her?" Ben's voice was very low.
After he'd checked Ginny over, the vet straightened, looking at Ben. "There's
nothing I can really do for her, I'm afraid. Now if she had a broken leg or
gunshot
wound, that'd be another story. Looks to me like she's dying, Mister Wade.
Exposure, sun stroke, on top of a lot else, I'd say. You could try cooling her
off.
That might help some but Butterfield's prize mare is foaling breech and I need
to be on my way. Nothing I can do for this poor lady anyway." With that, he was
on his way out the door.
"Prize mare?" Ben muttered under his breath. Cool her off, eh? How should he go
about that? He went to Ginny's kitchen, filling a large basin with water, got a
couple of towels and came back to the bedroom. Setting the basin on a stool, he
began to wipe her face. If she was going to die, he'd not have her die all
covered with dirt. No, she deserved better than that, better than to die in the
filthy, torn remnants of a dress, too.
When he was done with her face, when the dirt was cleaned off, he could see the
full extent of her sunburn. "Oh, Ginny, Ginny," he murmured, shaking his head.
She'd been raised a lady, always in bonnets or with a parasol. Her skin had been
almost porcelain white, clear and beautiful. He removed his shirt, looking down
the length of her, remembering how she'd looked when she first put on this green
gown he'd brought for her. Now...after Edward. No...he couldn't bear the sight
of it. Reaching into the top of his boot, he pulled out a knife and with his
lips pursed tightly, cut the waistband. The dress was so torn that it simply
slipped down along either side of her body. He'd not brought her a corset and
the white shift she had on under the gown was also torn and matted with dirt and
small bits of desert debris. Carefully he pulled them from under her, dropping
them in a heap on the floor.
He'd thought about her body many times, had, indeed, definite plans to see it,
touch it, but not like this...not like this. In addition to cuts and scrapes, to
large
patches where the exposed skin had burned, there were bruises, almost countless
bruises. Many were small and round, lying in rows on her body. He placed the
four fingers of his right hand atop one row. Fingers. They had been made by a
man's fingers gripping her hard.
With grim determination he washed her, wiping away what he could of the signs of
what she'd endured. He knew that when it was possible, people tended to
wash their dead before burial. He would have her clean before she died. She
needed to be clean. She'd want that. He got fresh water, wrung the towel out,
and curved his hand over the line of her hip, washing softly, his teeth clamped. He'd imagined the feel of her hip under his hand, imagined what it would do to him physically. But what he was doing now had nothing sexual about it. He was finding himself filled with more compassion, more tenderness toward another human being than he'd thought himself capable of feeling. He knew he'd never
felt anything quite like this before.
When she was clean, he changed the water in the basin, wiping her down again,
leaving her wet, hoping against hope that the coolness of that would be of some
benefit. Still she hadn't stirred and her breathing was terribly light and
shallow.
He knew she was going to die and as he stood, looking down at
her, an enormous
shuddering sigh rippled through him. "I'm so sorry, Ginny," he whispered,
letting the wet towel drop from his fingers onto the floor.
His head aching profoundly, he slipped off his boots and jacket, putting one
knee on the bed beside her, sliding her over enough to make room for himself.
Stretching out beside her, he wrapped his arms around her. "I ain't goin'
nowhere, Ginny. Not while you're still here, I ain't." He put his nose into her
hair, nuzzling it lightly. "You ain't alone, darlin'. I'm here, Ginny, I'm
here."
The sun had set and he was bone tired, so he let his eyes close. In a minute he
was asleep. The room was pitch black when something awakened him.
Startled, his hand went for his holster, but his gun belt hung over the back of
a chair across the room. He tensed, waiting, unsure as to what had awakened
him.
"Ben?"
Every portion of her body seemed to scream in pain. She must be dreaming this. Nothing could actually hurt this badly. But if she was dreaming the pain was she also dreaming that Ben was here? She fought to clear her head and find a place beyond the pain.
What was there before the pain? Ben. Ben was before the pain. Ben had made supper. Ben took her to the land office. Ben was taking her back to the house.
Yes. Ben. “Ben?” Had she said it aloud? She couldn't tell. It was almost as if she could sense him through the pain. She couldn't see anything. She thought her eyes were open but everything was black. Was this death?
She heard something move and the ground shift below her. Where was she?
What was happening? She tried to find her way through the blackness. Back.
Back to something before this...walking with Ben and then... Suddenly a stream
of images flooded her mind. Seeing Ben fall to the street. Edward. Yes, Edward was there and two other men. Edward grabbing her, taking her away from Ben. Then Edward taking her somewhere, somewhere away from town. Edward was angry, angry about Ben. He told her Ben was dead. Ben dead. She tried to process it. Yes, Ben was dead and now maybe so was she because she could sense him.
“Ben?!”
She felt something touch her. Touch her in the darkness. Part of her wanted to scream and get away. Her body and mind sought only release, release from the darkness.
Then through the darkness and the pain she heard a simple word.
“Ginny.”
The screaming in her head silenced and her very being held onto that one simple
word. “Ginny.” The nothingness began to crystallize and she emerged. Conscious.
Conscious not only that the ground below her was not ground at all but a bed,
but conscious that she was not alone and that the presence there was not a
threat at all. Ben. Yes. Ben. She felt as though somewhere beyond the pain that
was her body he had wrapped himself around her very soul and held her there.
Held her there with him and for now, for this moment, she was safe. Safe from
the pain
and the torment that was her physical self. Her very essence of self melded with his as what was left of her body conformed to his. Gentle, soft, wet pressure on her forehead. A kiss? “Oh, Ben,” she whispered as she drifted back to sleep.
Ben thought he had heard Ginny speak... of all things, his name. Was that what woke him? The darkness was thick like a blanket. He felt her body close to him, and her breath. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. So close. He felt as if her very soul were touching his and wanted to remember this moment forever. So he breathed in her scent and felt her body next to his and simply was. He existed only in the moment...what he believed to be the last ones of Ginny's life with him.
Edward Thornton was road-weary. Tanner and Morton made poor companions for a man of his caliber and station. He was glad when Bisbee loomed on the horizon and the two of them made their way to wherever it is they went. He didn't care. He wanted a drink, a bath and a clean set of clothes. Sunrise was approaching. He would leave his horse tied at the mercantile. He was tired and he wanted rest. Yes, then he would clean up and open his mercantile. Edward hitched his horse to the rail in front of the mercantile and went inside. He trudged up the stairs and fell into bed, blissfully unaware of the movement in the street outside.
Charlie Prince had sent three members of the gang to follow the trail made by Edward Thornton and his men. Those men had reported back. The reports of the scattering of Thornton's group along with the observations of the men remaining in the town watching and waiting, let Charlie know that Thornton was alone in
the mercantile. He would let the Boss rest tonight. The girl was more than likely gonna die before morning, then her spell over the Boss would be broken. They could deal with Thornton and get back to what they did best. Robbery.
Charlie felt as though he had been cooped up way too long. The itch for action
was getting bad. He circled round the mercantile, making careful calculations.
If it was up to him Edward Thornton would never wake up for what he had done to Ben Wade. For now he would have to bide his time and wait 'til the Boss gave the go ahead. Right now Charlie wouldn't disturb Ben Wade for anything. The Boss would be ready in his own time. It was Charlie's job to know when that
was and act accordingly.
As light began to turn the black to soft gray, Ben awoke. He saw how Ginny's body had changed positions at some point and wondered if he had somehow done that. Her body seemed to have cooled some but the coldness of death was not upon her as he had expected. As he reached over to touch her hair and move some strands from her face, her eyes opened, opened and looked directly at him. Her lips parted and she spoke his name. ”Ben.” Never had his name been said with such feeling. Never had the sound of his name caused him such pause. Tears stung his eyes as he came to understand that Ginny was here with him. Still here. All of her.
“Ginny darlin',” he whispered as he held her to him.
“Ben...? Water?”
“Water, darlin', you want water?”
Slowly she nodded yes.
“Then water you shall have.” He slipped from the bed and padded out to the kitchen, returning quickly. She drank it down in big gulps causing pain in her throat as she attempted to swallow. It was nothing compared to the pain in her legs and abdomen. It was then she realized she was naked and she reached for the sheet to cover herself. Did she look as bruised as she felt? Tears filled her eyes.
“There now, Ginny. Don't cry. I'll never let anyone hurt you again.”
Ginny looked at Ben. More than that she looked into his eyes and read there his
intention to destroy what would hurt her. Sitting up, new aches became
noticeable but the pain wasn't all encompassing as it had been before.
“Ben, I need to get dressed. Can you find me something?”
Slipping his boots back on, he went to the front door of the house and found Charlie waiting there. He gave him instructions about what he was to get from
the mercantile then he returned to Ginny. He wasn't going to let her out of his sight any more than he had to.
Charlie Prince frowned as he walked towards the mercantile. Damn woman survived the night. Seems the doc don't know shit. It was when he reached the front door that he realized that Edward Thornton was up and stirring in the building. Mission aborted; he had to let the boss know now. Thornton was prime for the picking. Walking back towards Ginny's house, he looked for an alternative to going empty handed. Remembering the wash line behind the saloon had clothes, he thought maybe he'd find something there. Doubling back only slightly to get to the saloon, Charlie grabbed a rough brown skirt, a chemise and a man's shirt. Not pretty like the boss wanted but it would have to do. There was a man in need of having his soul liberated.
Ben was not happy with the clothes Charlie brought, but the news that Thornton was at the mercantile shifted the focus of his anger. He had Charlie round up the boys and have them surround the mercantile. “Don't let Thornton leave before I get there,” was all he said before he took the clothing to Ginny.
Ginny was happy to have some clothes. Didn't matter in what state they were ....the clothes were clean even if they were a bit baggy. She dressed as hurriedly as her aching muscles allowed. Ben had strapped on his gun belt and was checking over his gun.
“Where are you going, Ben?”
“Something needs doin', Ginny, that's all. Don't worry, darlin'."
Ben reached out towards Ginny and she allowed him to fold her into his arms. Despite the pain of her skin it felt good to be there. It felt safe. Ben leaned down and smelled her hair. She lifted her face to his and he kissed her, making her feel she could very well melt there in his arms.
Ben broke away and sat her down on the edge of the bed. “Stay here, darlin'. I have to go take care of something.”
Ben holstered the Hand of God and walked out of the bedroom. Ginny followed him with her eyes until he was out of sight.
It was only a matter of seconds before panic set in her heart. If Ben was going to go face Edward, and she was certain she had overheard Charlie mention him earlier, then she was going to as well. A hard knot formed in the pit of her stomach as she stood up and walked with great effort out of the house. She was barefoot, too, but she was going anyway.
Ben's gang had the mercantile surrounded. Edward Thornton was oblivious. He went about his morning routine as he always did. Then he spotted his horse still tied to the rail in the front.
He had forgotten all about his horse and figured he'd need to have it tended before opening for the day. He had only made it two feet outside the door when he heard the first gun cock behind him, stopping him in his tracks. Charlie Prince had been on the porch waiting for him. Edward Thornton looked up to see Ben Wade walking towards him and a quick survey side to side served to drive home the fact there was no escape for him. He was going to have to think on his feet if he was going to survive this morning.
Ben walked towards the mercantile slowly. The morning sun hurt his eyes and made his head ache again. Damn Thornton. He might have to let Charlie make
him suffer before he decided to finish him off himself.
As he reached the boardwalk outside the mercantile he heard something behind him and swiveled on his heel to see Ginny coming towards him barefoot. With determination in her limping stride she walked up to Ben. “I want to see”, she
said, her voice edged in coldness. Defiantly she stood next to Ben in the street
and turned toward Edward.
To say Edward Thornton was disappointed to see Virginia Jericho again would not cover the half of it. He thought he was seeing a ghost at first. When she spoke to Wade a surge of acid hatred welled up in him and he sneered at her. “Bitch!” he spat.
The sound of a shot rang through the air.
The members of Wade's gang all stood their ground as silent and still as if they had been made of wood.
Edward Thornton's face registered a look of shock and disbelief as he suddenly went pale then crumpled to the ground.
Ben looked at Charlie and then at the rest of the gang. What had happened? Who had taken the shot?
It was then he saw the smoke rising from beside him.
Ginny stood next to him with her arms extended towards where Edward Thornton had been standing. In her hands she grasped his gun, smoke wisping up from the barrel of The Hand of God.
"Ginny!" Ben hollered as her arms dropped, his gun falling into
the dusty street.
She didn't seem to hear him. Her eyes were fixed on Edward's sprawled form, on
the puddle of red spreading over the front of his shirt. Ben stepped around
in front of her, gripping her shoulders with his hands. "Ginny?" he repeated,
his brow creasing in concern.
It took a long time for her eyes to focus on his face. "I...I...," she
stammered.
"I know, darlin', I know," he soothed, his own fury at Thornton abated by the
look on her face.
"He...he...," she couldn't seem to form words very well.
"No more, Ginny. Never again. You hear me? Never again."
"He's...dead?"
To Ben it looked like the bullet had gone straight into Edward's heart, a
fitting location for it. He nodded, still holding her, still keeping her eyes
locked on his. "Yes, Ginny. He's dead."
"I...I...killed him. Ben, I killed him." She began to shake and he slid his arms
completely around her.
"It's all right, Ginny." He began kissing her hair. "It's all right, darlin'."
Charlie picked up Ben's gun and stood nearby, frowning at how the Boss was
cooing over the woman. "Got your gun, Boss," he interrupted, his patience
at an end.
Ben reached out with one hand and took his gun, holstering it. "Take Thornton
out in the desert a bit and bury him," he ordered. "I don't want
Ginny to ever
have to see him again."
Charlie stood there silently, still frowning. "Now!" Ben snapped.
Ben didn't like the way Ginny was shaking. "Come, darlin', let's get you home."
She took one step then her knees gave way and he swept her up in his arms.
She'd been through too much, and now...this. "I've got you,
Ginny," he
whispered, striding toward her house. Laying her on the bed, he brushed strands
of hair off her face. She looked like she was holding onto the mere threads of
life. He had no idea how she'd had strength enough to make her way out into the
street alone just now. Her skin was still so hot and dry. He got some more water
in the basin and wiped her face and neck again.
"Mmmmm," she murmured. "Ben?"
"I'm here, Ginny. Right here."
"I...I'm glad you...."
"Glad I what, Ginny?"
"Glad you robbed my stage." Her lips curved slightly then her head tipped to the
side.
He didn't know if she'd fallen asleep or had passed out. Whichever, he sat there
on the edge of her bed, continuing his gentle wiping of her face,
wondering
what life would bring him next.
Ben knew that even without the recent demise of Edward Thornton he had stayed too long in Bisbee. Though he didn’t regret his life choices, after all even Ginny had said she was glad he robbed her stagecoach, the price on his head was
vexing at times. When Charlie arrived at the door of Ginny’s house several hours later Ben wasn’t surprised to hear that the law was near. He also expected what Charlie said next.
“Boss, we have to leave the woman behind.”
As much as it pained him he knew Ginny's presence would only serve to slow
them down and she was in far too fragile a condition to survive a getaway in any case. Giving Charlie the go ahead to saddle his horse, Ben cast a glance towards Ginny’s bedroom. How was he going to break this to her?
Charlie was all smiles when Ben gave the word to get the black ready to ride.
Ben never needed to know he was the one who'd sent word to the
marshal that
Ben Wade was in Bisbee. But this lapse of the Boss' judgment with the woman
had to stop. Charlie needed Ben to be the Boss again, needed him
to lead the
gang out as usual. He knew it would take something big to get Ben to leave
town. A large posse should be just the thing! Ben's hand would be forced and
he'd have to go into Mexico for a while. Charlie smiled again.
Ben walked into Ginny's room and sat on the edge of her bed, waking her with
a little kiss on the cheek. She stirred and slowly opened her
eyes. "Ben," she
murmured with a small smile. His face was what she wanted to see. His alone.
He gazed at her silently for a long time, drinking in all the details of her
face, imprinting it firmly in his mind. He'd never forget her, though. He knew
that. She'd gotten to him, gotten under his skin in a way no other woman, not
even Velvet, ever had. "Ginny," he said, keeping his voice low, "you know, don't
you, how special you are to me?"
"How special?"
He smiled rather sadly. "More'n I ever expected. I wish...."
"What?"
He closed his eyes a moment, breathing deeply, thoughts of an 8-year-old in a
train station flooding his mind. Was he going to do what his mother had done?
He did not want Ginny to take it that way. He did not...mean...it that way. How
could he say what he must say and yet not have her feel abandoned? "I wish
we had more...time," he whispered.
"Don't we, Ben? Don't we have all the time we want?"
"No, Ginny, we don't."
Her little smile faded. "Why?"
"Marshal's comin', Ginny. Charlie says a big posse's headin' toward Bisbee. I
can't stay, not right now."
"Take me with you! Please, Ben! I want to go with you!"
"Aw, Ginny, look at you. You can't even stand, much less ride fast 'n hard like
I've got to do."
"I'd just slow you down? Is that what you mean?"
"No. That's not it, Ginny. I don't think you'd make it. I think it'd kill you."
"What am I supposed to do then, Ben? Edward's gone. Daddy's far away. I've got
nobody." A tear dripped down her cheek. "Nobody."
He clamped his teeth together. This was too damn much like the train station.
"I've asked Catherine, the apothecary's wife to look after you. She'll make sure
you're fed, taken care of. I've left her money. She's a good woman. She'll do
right by you."
"I thought you...," her voice faded away. She'd thought he would do right by
her. She'd gone and let herself care deeply about him, let herself...love...him.
Now he was leaving her. Her chin began to tremble. It hurt too bad. His leaving
her was more than she could bear. She closed her eyes, turning her head away
from him.
"Ginny?"
"Just go," she whispered hoarsely, her throat thick. "Get it over with, dammit!
Just get the whole thing over with!" Maybe she could lie there and simply will
herself to die? She'd heard things like that could be done.
He saw something of that in her face. "Ginny, no." He ran his thumb pad down
her cheek.
"Why not?" She looked at him again. "Why shouldn't I?"
"'Cause I'll come back for you."
"Will you?" Her voice was full of disbelief. She knew he'd get out there with
his gang, find some new stage to rob, some train carrying payroll. Everything
would change and she'd never see him again.
"I promise."
She snorted. That meant nothing. Not right now.
So he told her about the train station, about waiting for someone who never came
back even though they'd promised. "I won't do that to you, Ginny. I can't."
"You want me to wait? You mean it?"
"I mean it, Ginny. I don't know when. But I'll come when I can."
She wanted to believe him. Her heart cried and ached with the desire, the need
to believe him. But she simply wasn't...sure. She believed he
might think about
coming, might even want to come. But that he'd actually come was another matter.
"All right, Ben." It was all she could manage to say.
He leaned over her, kissing her brow, her eyes, her mouth, letting his lips
linger
a long time, warm and soft on hers. "Good-bye, Ginny," he
breathed, some
deep part of him hurting with an old, familiar hurt. Then he stood quickly and
without looking back, strode out of the room.
When she heard the front door bang closed, she rolled on her side, burying her
face in the pillow. "Ben...."
He mounted swiftly, the grim set of his face a complete contrast to Charlie's
smile-wreathed one. "Where to, Boss?" Charlie asked, happiness rising in
his chest.
"Naco, Charlie." He'd go into Mexico, yes, but he wouldn't go far across the
border. He turned in the saddle, looking back at Ginny's house, then let his
hand slide into a pouch on his saddlebag. His fingers found the worn old Bible
and curled around its spine. Was there ever a good enough reason
to leave
someone who loved you, who needed you? His mother seemed to have found
such a reason, at least one good enough for her. "Oh, Ginny...."
he whispered
almost inaudibly.
THE END
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