Tess's Trials Page 3

  He lay down on the narrow cot to rest his eyes for a few minutes before he had something to eat. For those few minutes, he dozed. And dreamed.

  ‘See how weak you are?’ his mother said in his dream. She stood in front of Snake Eyes, who felt like a nine-year-old. ‘Can’t even keep your property safe. Can’t choose men who will do what you say. I’m ashamed to call you my son!’

  In his dream, Snake Eyes pleaded, ‘But, Mother, I did the best I could! Look who I have to choose from. How can I do any better with what I have?’

  ‘Doesn’t matter. You can’t do anything right. Now you know why I’m never around. Why I hire people to take care of you. I can’t stand losers. And you’re the biggest one of all!’

  Snake Eyes jerked awake then. Blinking, feeling tears on his cheeks. Angry, he brushed them away with his shirt sleeve.

  I’ll show her. I’ll show both of them. Push me away, would they? Never stay around to be parents to me. All right, once I get the money that’s coming to me, I’ll go back East and laugh in their faces. I’ll show them who’s competent .

  Chapter Four

  The morning after Edward left, Tess awoke early, well before dawn. She never slept well when Edward was off with the men. Not that she was afraid, just more alert when she was by herself. But this morning, something felt wrong somehow. Not anything she could put her finger on, just a feeling.

  She got dressed after washing her face. Decided to wear the new, fancy boots she bought in Amarillo for the morning. I might as well get some wear out of them. It doesn’t look like I’ll get to go anywhere to show them off . A bath sounded nice. Tess loved that clean feeling after a hot bath. Maybe after breakfast. I’ll fix some extra and have the two boys who stayed behind come in and share it .

  In the kitchen, she lit a lantern and got coffee started. Opening the back door, she hoped for a cooling breeze, but it felt unusually warm and humid. A glance outside showed her it was still dark, with a slight hint of gray in the eastern sky. She walked out onto the porch, looked toward the barn. Shadows there had just a tinge of gray in them with the coming day. A light bloomed in the bunkhouse as she watched.

  For a moment, she pondered the heavy feel to the air. Storm coming , she told herself. Walking back inside, the shotgun standing beside the back door caught her eye. Forgot to put that away , she realized. First thing after breakfast .

  She turned back to the coffee when a tiny sound caught her ear. It sounded like a yelp from a dog. Then she realized a part of what may have made her uneasy. No dogs barking. Never had she gotten up and started stirring around without at least one of the dogs barking. No birds singing, either. Usually, there were birds in the trees around the main house.

  Tess stood very still, listening. For some reason, her heart began thumping harder, almost bruising her ribs. That had never happened before when she was alone on the ranch. Was her body trying to tell her something that her mind hadn’t yet realized?

  She reached over and turned the lantern off. The door was a slightly lighter darkness against the black of the inside of the house. Tess slipped over to the door, picked up the shotgun, and laid it on the kitchen table. It felt comforting there.

  Back to the door, she listened again. Heard nothing.

  For a long minute, she just stood there, listening. Something felt wrong. The night itself felt like it was waiting for something to happen. In spite of the early season heat and humidity, goose bumps raised on her arms.

  Was a storm coming? The air felt like it did before a bad spring storm. Threatening in a way. Heavy, charged with that prickly feeling like just before lightning struck.

  Tess listened again to see if there might be thunder way off and coming closer. Still nothing. Not only did the night seem to hold its breath, it also kept very still as if afraid to move.

  In the near distance, not far beyond the corrals behind the barn, a coyote began to yip but cut off the sound quickly. Tess jerked her head in that direction. Something scared that coyote away , she realized.

  At about that same moment, she heard what sounded like horses walking into the ranch yard. Edward wouldn’t be coming back, not at that time of the morning. And she hadn’t heard either Slim or Buck up and around with horses.

  Then she saw the light that had come on in the bunkhouse down close to the barn get brighter. Slim, a tall man who may have weighed 140 pounds if he carried a saddle, stepped to

  the door. Immediately, several gunshots rang out and Slim fell back into the bunkhouse.

  Tess gasped and jumped as the shots blasted away the quiet of the night. She caught a glimpse of a group of riders spurring their horses toward the house. At the same time, another rider jumped off his horse and ran into the bunkhouse. More shots thundered from there.

  Unsure of just what was going on, Tess dashed back into the kitchen, away from the door. She picked up the shotgun from the table and pulled back the twin hammers. Its solid weight felt comforting in her hands.

  She remembered what her Grandfather Brannon taught her about shooting the shotgun. Because it kicked so hard, he told her to hold the butt stock under her arm and use her body to aim it. That way, her whole body would take the recoil, not just her shoulder.

  He also told her he hoped she’d never have to use it against another person, but it looked like that was exactly what was about to happen.

  The sky was light enough now for her to see the mounted men milling around the ranch yard. Someone in the group yelled, “You two, go in the back door! See if anybody’s in the kitchen. I know there’s a woman here, an’ I want her!”

  Tess realized the man was talking about her. And she knew then who these men were.

  There had been women and girls missing from ranches like hers. Ranches that were isolated. Ranches where men were killed and women taken. She’d heard rumors about the raids. Didn’t know whether to believe them or not. Now she knew she could believe them.

  And now the men who did that were here!

  She heard the boots of two men as they pounded up on the porch. Tess found it

  annoying that they didn’t stomp off anything they may have stepped in before they burst through the door. If she’d had time, she would’ve laughed at herself for that annoyance.

  But there was no time.

  The two men rushed through the door, one behind the other. They stood out clearly against the light from outside. Clearly, they didn’t see her standing in the dark kitchen.

  That made it easier for her to squeeze the trigger for the right barrel of the shotgun and blow a hole in the first man’s belly. He took the entire load and folded over his own middle. The force of the ten-gauge shot shoved him backwards into the man behind him. That man staggered, cursing into the wall beside the door. As he tried to bring his pistol up to shoot Tess, she squeezed the trigger for the left barrel. That charge caught the second man in the upper chest, just at the base of his throat. The force of the shot nearly tore his head off.

  Tess dropped the shotgun. Some shells for it were in the bedroom, but she didn’t think she’d have enough time to get there and reload it. There were shouts from outside, alarms called out because of the shots.

  That may be why she didn’t hear the other man come in the kitchen behind her. But she smelled him just before he grabbed her.

  He grabbed her from behind, his arms going roughly around her chest just below her breasts. She felt the hardness of his arms and hands as she struggled against him. Tess clawed at his hands and kicked at him with her boots. She reached over her shoulder and raked the side of the man’s face with her fingernails.

  That got to him enough that he yelled what were probably cuss words in what sounded like Spanish to her and threw her against the stand where she washed dishes. The man swiped at his cheek with one hand. Then he stepped toward her and slapped her, hard, with his left hand. The blow knocked her around to her left.

  Dizzy from the force of the slap, Tess fell against the stand holding herself up with both hands
on the flat top of the stand. Her right hand fell on the handle of the knife she used to slice bacon.

  Gripping it, she turned to face the man who slapped her. That man took one step toward her and met the knife as it thrust into, and all the way through, his neck.

  In the gray and pink light of dawn, Tess saw the surprise on the man’s face as he staggered back from her. His hands went to his throat, his eyes wide with the knowledge he was dead. Then the rest of his body understood, also, and he collapsed to the floor.

  More men pounded up on the porch. Tess turned toward the back door, saw them, and knew she had to do something. Turning, she came face-to-face with another man. This one a little taller than her. And he was smiling!

  Before she could do anything more than gasp, his fist connected with her chin and blackness engulfed her.

  Chapter Five

  The first thing Tess became aware of some time later was being jostled and shaken back and forth. Her back and butt were also hot. And she couldn’t figure out why she could only see the ground passing by when she opened her eyes.

  A wave of dizziness struck her then and she closed her eyes again.

  She slept, or more likely, passed out. Tess opened her eyes again. Time had passed; how much, she didn’t know. But her back and butt were hotter than they were.

  The back and forth swaying motion continued. Gradually, she became more aware of some of what was going on. She lay face-down across a saddle. She smelled the leather and the horse. Grass flowed by in front of her face, the grass of the plains. Short, tough, full of nutrients for her cattle, at least in the spring.

  But why was she there? Why wasn’t she back in her kitchen at home?

  Then she remembered! Those men, the ones she killed. They came to take her. The man who was apparently their leader said he wanted her.

  Was he the one who hit her, knocked her out?

  What about Buck and Slim? She’d seen Slim go down in the gunfire. And two other men went into the bunkhouse and shot. Did they kill both of them?

  And what about her? What were they going to do with her? Where were they headed? She knew they were out on the plains somewhere, the grass was right. But she didn’t know which direction they traveled.

  There was so much she didn’t know. What she did know was she was getting sick to her stomach with the swaying of this horse. And going along with her head hanging down gave her a tremendous headache. Of course, some of that may have come from being knocked out.

  She tried moving her arms and legs. Both were securely tied with a rope that appeared to go under the horse’s belly. Her wrists stung from being chafed by the rope and from the sweat that ran down her arms.

  Turning her head in the direction they were going, she could see little. Several rough-looking men rode along with her, all dusty from travel. When she turned back behind the horse, she saw about the same thing. How many men there were altogether, she didn’t know.

  Besides the sounds of the horses walking through the prairie, she heard the creaking of wagon wheels. At least two, maybe more.

  Her movements caught the eye of one of the men riding behind her. He touched his heels to his horse and trotted up beside her. “Well, you’re finally awake. Snake Eyes will want to know.”

  He heeled his horse into a trot again and rode off in the direction they were headed. When the man was gone, Tess pondered what he’d said. Snake Eyes? What kind of man is named Snake Eyes? It can’t be a good one.

  In another couple of minutes, the horse she was tied to slowed, then stopped. Tess heard two horses come up to hers. Both stopped and two men dismounted. She could see their lower legs and boots. One wore run-down, scuffed and scarred brown boots. The other wore what looked like hand-tooled black ones, dusty but still in very good shape. She guessed those were the ones the leader wore. She tried to raise her head.

  “See, Jefe? She’s moving, trying to get a glimpse of you.” This was the voice of the man who rode off a couple of minutes before.

  The shined boots came into her line of sight then. The man who wore them squatted down and lifted her chin with one surprisingly soft hand. She recognized the face of the man who punched her.

  He let her chin drop, then said, “All right, get her down from there.”

  Rough hands tugged and jerked at the ropes holding her ankles and wrists. In moments, she was untied and hauled down from the back of the horse. She couldn’t stand, so she slumped down onto the ground, supporting herself with her left arm. Her right hand shaded her eyes.

  “Give her some water,” the one who must have been Snake Eyes said.

  A canteen was tossed in her lap. Slowly, she pulled out the stopper and put the canteen to her lips. Only a small trickle of water slipped into her mouth and down her parched raw throat.

  “You’re a tough one and smart, too. Most women I know would’ve tried to drink that whole canteen in one swallow.” The man she knew was Snake Eyes still squatted beside her. “Just a little more, then give the canteen back.”

  Tess knew to do just what the man said. She had no other choice. So she got another mouthful, handed the canteen back to one of the other men, and let the water slowly slip down her throat.

  As she did this, she took a good look at the man who kidnapped her. Snake Eyes looked to be about her own age, somewhere in his early thirties. With him squatting down, it was hard to tell, but he appeared to be above average in height and weight. His clothes were a cut or two above those of his men, even though they were dusty from riding.

  It was his eyes that were striking. They were totally black. No other color. And from what she could see, there looked like they had no bottom to them. She could see why the man would be called Snake Eyes.

  “You killed three of my men,” he said. There was little emotion in his words, no accusation, no indication he was sad they were gone. Just a statement of fact.

  “They came after me,” she said. Equally just a statement of fact.

  Snake Eyes stared at her for several seconds. Then, “Like I said, tough.” He stood, turned to his men. “Put her in the wagon with the others.”

  Two of the men took one arm each and stood her up. Tess was weak, but at least had the feeling back in her legs. She didn’t let the men know she could walk, however. She thought it best that they didn’t know everything about her.

  The men almost carried her to a wagon that had been modified to be like a prison wagon. Solid-looking bars held up a solid roof that provided some shade for the interior. One of the men, the one who rode forward and brought Snake Eyes back to her, produced a key from his pocket, unlocked the chain from the only door to the wagon, and swung the barred door open wide.

  The two men who held Tess lifted her up and shoved her into the wagon. The other man then re-locked the chain around the barred door.

  As the wagon started off, Tess looked at the other women who occupied the wagon.

  There were four other fully-grown women, two who appeared to be in their late teens, and two older children. She didn’t recognize any of them.

  They all stared back at her, except one of the teen-agers who sat curled into a ball, her gaze focused on the floor of the wagon.

  “My name’s Tess,” she ventured.

  The others just kept on staring for a moment. Then, one of the grown women replied, “I’m Sarah.”

  This seemed to break the ice a little. The other women, except for two, gave their names. The others were Elly, Barbara, Susan, Mary, and Julie. Sarah told her the teen-ager who was so withdrawn was named Bessie.

  Tess turned to the other mature woman who hadn’t given her name. This woman wore an expression of anger and hate. “What’s your name?” she asked the woman.

  “What difference does it make?” the woman shot back. “We’re all gonna be killed, anyway. Are you trying to get to know us and be friends or somethin’?”

  “I just thought it might make whatever’s going on here a little easier to bear if we know each other’s names,” Tes
s answered. “That’s all.”

  “Well, I see no sense in knowin’ anythin’ about any of you.” The woman swiped away a tear.

  “All right. You don’t have to tell us anything.” Tess tried to be as calm and reassuring as possible. If the situation they all were in was anywhere near as bad as she thought, they needed all the reassurance they could get.

  “Tess, who are these people and what are they gonna do with us?” Sarah asked. She

  had already put Tess in the position of leader of their little group.

  “I don’t know who they are, Sarah. I heard one of them, the leader I think, called Snake Eyes.”

  Barbara jumped in. “I’ve heard of him. They say he steals women and sells them down in Mexico!”

  The women all began crying and talking at once. Even Bessie raised her head so Tess could see her cheeks covered with tears.

  Once they calmed down a little, Tess said, “We have some time before we get to Mexico, if that’s where we’re headed. Lots of things can happen between now and then.”

  “How do you know something can happen?” This from the woman who wouldn’t give her name. “Who do you think you are, anyway?”

  “I’m nobody. Just another woman sitting in a cage. Just like you.” Tess stared at the woman. “But I’m not giving up hope.”

  The other women grew quiet then. Tess put her mind to escaping.

  Chapter Six

  The saloon where Rafe Brannon sat, The Double Eagle , had changed considerably from three years before when he’d last been there. Ft. Worth itself had changed a lot, also. It was no longer just a cow town, catering to the cowboys who came in from the ranches once a month or so. Now, it was a small, but growing, city.

  Changes in the saloon moved it up several notches from the status it enjoyed before. For one, it sported a real wood puncheon floor. Before, it had only dirt with some sawdust thrown on it every once in a while. And the bullet holes in the walls had been patched and covered over with some kind of fancy paper.