~~~~
Lou was about at the end of her rope. She was also almost at the end of the time she’d given herself to find Buck. She’d promised Emma that she’d be back at the farm, one way or the other, after three weeks and she was down to less than six days from that deadline. As far as she’d come, it was going to take her most of the remaining time just to get back.
She started off by going to the territorial prison at Rawlings. The warden, a man by the name of Conicker, had been very friendly—in part thanks to the letter she carried from Sam Cain the former territorial marshal—but he’d given her nothing. Buck had served his time for the assault and battery charge and had been released just one week before Conicker had gotten the telegram from Sam telling him they were looking for their friend. According to the warden, Buck had left the prison vowing never to return.
Lou had been able to follow him from the prison to a nearby ranch. The owner said Buck had only worked for him for a few days. He’d been one of the best the rancher had ever seen at breaking the green horses the man had just brought in. The man said he’d paid Buck five dollars a head to saddle break the mustangs and, once he’d finished that task, he’d used most of the money he’d earned to buy one of the horses and a saddle. He’d ridden off early the next morning—just four days before Lou arrived.
Someone had seen him riding south, so she’d gone south. He’d been in the next town for only a few hours, buying supplies. The list the storekeeper grudgingly gave her indicated the man didn’t intend to be near civilization for a while. She’d bought most of the same items for her own journey.
Her knowledge of her own son’s curiosity made her question the children she saw playing in the main street. Sure they’d seen an Indian riding a mustang that day. Indians weren’t too common a sight in the town—not since the last battle with the Sioux. He’d ridden due west along the old mining trail, the children informed her.
Riding west had led her to the mountains. Lou hadn’t seen another human for several days but had found a couple of recent campfires. She could only hope they were Buck’s.
Whoever was leaving the signs was moving steadily but without any real speed—as if they had no real destination in mind. Following the trail hadn’t been that hard although tracks weren’t easy to find. She knew she was lucky to find the campsites but usually found them when she had no choice but to stop herself.
She hadn’t been in the saddle this much in a lot of years but her determination overrode her aches and pains. After a few days she found the going a lot easier but she just couldn’t seem to gain on the other rider.
A week into her search she actually found some pretty fresh tracks. Struggling to remember her unused skills, she followed the trail only to find other tracks joining those she followed. That had been three days ago. Three frustrating days of seeing so many tracks but seeing nothing of the men who’d made them.
No matter how long she rode each day it seemed she was getting no closer to the end of her search. And now the time she had left was running out. If she didn’t catch up with these men in the next couple of days, she’d have to turn back. Even if she did catch up with them, there was no guarantee that Buck would be in the group.
Luck was with her when she found the next campsite. The trail rode a crest of a few small hills so she was able to see the clearing before she actually rode into it. What she saw made her pause. Dismounting, she led her horse through the trees until she could get a better view without being seen.
The campsite looked like a battle site. The stones that had formed a fire ring were scattered across the ground. The ground itself was full of scuffmarks that indicated some kind of fight had taken place.
From a vantage point behind some trees, Lou checked out the clearing and then, tying her horse loosely to a branch, moved carefully through the woods to make sure she was alone. She found the blood less than halfway around the clearing—lots of blood.
Biting her lip, Lou continued her search. A few yards from the blood she found the body it had come from. Her heart caught in her throat as she noted the long black hair. Steeling herself for what she might find, she turned the body so she could see the face.
The boy whose dead eyes stared back at her was no one she knew. Sighing silently with relief she moved on. Another body lay a few feet from the first. This one was blond so she didn’t even bother to check him.
Her next move took her to the trail on the other side of the clearing. The area was too open to sneak across so her only hope was to make a dash for it and hope whoever was in the mood to kill people wouldn’t see her in time. She inhaled, then started to hunker down to make the run when an arm slid over her shoulder and a hand clamped hard over her mouth.
Lou started to fight, pulling desperately to get away from whoever had grabbed her. Kicking back resulted in a satisfying grunt of pain from her attacker but the arm around her didn’t loosen. She felt herself lifted off the ground and pulled back into the stand of trees.
As quickly as her attacker had grabbed her, he let her go. The minute she had enough freedom, she whirled to her left, her hand swinging to hopefully knock whatever gun the man might have away before he had a chance to shoot her. Her hand connected with her opponent’s right arm but no weapon went flying.
It was then that she saw his face—a face she recognized almost instantly. “Buck?” she whispered.
Buck held his fingers to his lips, motioning for her to remain silent. Using sign language he rapidly told her that there was another man in the woods looking for him. Lou nodded her understanding then asked him where. The questions of who these men were and why they were trying to kill him could wait. Right at that moment survival was more important than answers.
Motioning for her to follow him, Buck took them silently though the trees until she was able to see the man in question for herself. Using sign, he told her to wait in that spot until he could make his way around to catch the other man between them.
A few minutes passed and then she heard Buck’s voice call out, “Drop your gun!”
The other man swung around trying to draw a bead on the spot where the voice had come from. Reaching down, Lou picked up a rock and threw it into the woods to the left of where Buck stood. The man whirled again only to have Buck call from behind him, “You’re surrounded, now drop the gun!”
Shots rang out as the man spun around firing in all directions. As soon as the sixth bullet was fired and they heard the sound of the hammer falling on an empty cylinder, Buck and Lou moved forward keeping the man between them but staying out of the line of each other’s weapon.
“Drop it!” Buck ordered for the third time. “Drop it or I’ll shoot you where you stand!”
The man looked at him, obviously trying to decide if he could successfully rush the distance between them before Buck could shoot him. It was then that Lou intentionally stepped on a branch. The loud crack brought the man around to face her.
He might have tried it if there had been only one of them, but he knew he didn’t stand a chance against two. Dropping his gun to the ground he put his hands up and waited silently as Lou and Buck walked to him.
They were only a few feet away when he made his last desperate move. His hand went for the knife he had hidden in his jacket and before the others realized what he was doing he launched the knife in Buck’s direction. The report from Lou’s pistol drowned out Buck’s grunt of pain.
Lou barely waited until the man was on the ground before she ran across to where Buck was standing looking at the knife that was imbedded in his upper arm. “Sit down!” Lou commanded as she pulled the kerchief from around her neck, using it to form a tourniquet above the knife.
“What are you doing here?” he asked grimacing in pain.
“Looking for you,” she replied tightening the tourniquet as tightly as possible. “This is going to hurt,” she informed him, reaching for the handle of the knife.
“Can’t hurt anymore than it already does,” he told her. He inhaled sharply as she pulled the blade free.
“It didn’t go in too far, thank heavens,” Lou said after checking the wound. “I’ve got some cloth for bandages in my saddlebags.” At his questioning look, she smiled. “Always good to be prepared when you’re out looking for someone. Do you think you can walk?”
At his nod, she helped him to his feet. They ignored the body that lay on the ground beside them and made their way carefully to the clearing. Lou ran to her horse and had Buck’s arm cleaned and bandaged in no time.
“Doesn’t look like there’ll be any lasting damage,” she confirmed as she worked. “But you’re going to be sore for awhile.”
“Why were you looking for me?” Buck asked as he settled back against the saddle Lou had put behind him.
She told him the story of her son and his need to know about Kid and how it had occurred to her that she’d not heard from him in almost ten years. “The least you could have done was write once in a while,” she reprimanded.
“I was kind of tied up,” he apologized sheepishly.
“I hope you don’t mean that literally,” Lou said. “Sam says Rawlings isn’t as bad as some.”
“It’s not good either,” Buck countered. “No prison could be.”
“Want to talk about it?” she asked.
“Not right now,” he answered tiredly.
“So, why were those men after you?” she asked changing the subject.
“I don’t know,” he confessed. “Guess maybe they saw me at the store back in Hastings and figured I had money.”
“One man traveling alone would be an easy mark,” Lou agreed. “Where were you headed?”
“I don’t know,” Buck said again. “I didn’t have a specific place in mind.”
“You could have gone to Sam and Emma’s,” she told him.
“No!” he responded sharply. At her look of surprise, he continued softly, “Not after what I did—not after Rawlings.”
“Why not?” Lou demanded. “They’re your friends and they would have understood!”
“You don’t know what it’s like,” he told her. “You don’t know what I’ve become.”
“If you’re going to tell me you’re now a drunken fool who goes around beating people up and getting thrown into jail, I do not believe it.”
“Pretty damned close,” he replied.
“Well then, we’ll just have to do what ever we need to do to make you better,” she vowed.
“What if you can’t?” he asked. “What if I’m too far gone?”
“Not likely,” Lou said with a smile. She paused for a minute to stoke the fire. “You remember the night before my wedding?”
He shook his head then grimaced again as the pain shot through his arm and shoulder.
“We were out at the corral in Rock Creek and I was wondering if Kid loved me enough to keep him from going to war,” she reminded him. “I realized later that there was a place in between. He loved me and he felt he had to go fight. I loved him enough to let him go—unfortunately.”
Buck was silent for a bit, then had to ask. “What’s that got to do with your helping me now?”
“You told me then that you weren’t going anywhere and that I could always count on you,” she said quietly. “You proved that more than once. Now it’s my chance to prove the same to you.”
Rising, she pulled the blanket up to cover him a bit better.
“No matter what it takes, Buck,” she continued, “I’m not going anywhere. I’m here to help you through whatever you’re going to go through.”
As he fell asleep he heard her whisper, “You can count on me.”