Early Dawn (40 page)

“I can return for visits.” Excitement welled within Eden. “And for my mother’s sake, my not living in or around No Name might be a very good thing.” She’d already told Matthew the truth about her father, Connor O’Shannessy. “People look down their noses at bastards, and my resemblance to Caitlin is too striking to be overlooked.”

“That is so small of people. As if it’s your fault your mother was raped.”

“She wasn’t exactly raped. She offered her body to O’Shannessy in exchange for her husband’s life.”

“It’s still rape. She didn’t
want
to be with the man. He coerced her and then went back on his word. He should have been horsewhipped.”

“I agree. He took heartless advantage of Mama’s love for her husband. But that’s beside the point. Anyone who sees me will immediately know Caitlin and I are closely related. Over time, someone is bound to put two and two together and realize I’m Connor’s bastard daughter. People may snub me and my mother as well. If I only go there for visits, I may be able to prevent that by staying at one of the ranches and not going into town.”

“You’re sure you won’t feel . . . I don’t know . . . cut off from your family?”

“I’m
positive
. Oregon, here we come!”

Matthew chuckled. “I do have one request.”

“What?”

“When we visit No Name on the train, remember to carry your Colts.”

Eden burst out laughing. When her mirth subsided, she began spinning dreams about their future together.
Oregon
. She plied Matthew for information—details about the cabin that she would soon call home, what kinds of flowers grew wild on the ranch, if they could keep chickens, and if he would object to her having a dog. She’d always wanted another dog after Sam died, but they’d been so poor that her mother had said no. Later, while living in the city, she had never acted on the desire because she felt that dogs needed lots of open space to run and play.

“I’m not up on the names of all the flowers,” Matthew confessed, “but we have a lot of them growing wild in the spring, summer, and autumn. And of course we can keep chickens. You can also have as many dogs as you like,” he assured her. “There’s lots of space, after all. As for the cabin, we’ll make our home there at first, but eventually I’d like to build a larger house.”

“I don’t need a big house, Matthew. Really, I don’t.”

He winked at her. “You will when we start having babies.”

“We’d better start thinking about the design layout then, because I have a feeling I may get with child rather quickly.”

He grinned. “If you don’t, it won’t be for lack of trying.”

 

A few minutes later, Matthew got a bad feeling. He couldn’t say precisely why. It was a beautiful, sunny morning. Birdsong filled the air. He was with the woman he loved and had never been happier. Why, then, did he suddenly have the whim-whams? He began scanning the terrain. He saw nothing, but his sense of foreboding remained strong. Better to be safe than sorry. He drew a Colt from its holster.

“Eden,” he said softly, “unfasten your holster flaps.”

She sent him a startled look. As she freed her revolvers, she, too, began scanning the forest. “Did you see something?” she whispered.

“No,” he replied. “I just feel itchy all of a sudden, like someone’s watching us. It’s probably nothing, but I—”

The explosive report of a gun rent the air. Matthew felt the bullet hit him on the left side of his chest, the impact so powerful that it knocked him off his horse. Dimly he heard Eden scream. Then a cacophony of gunfire erupted. For a moment, Matthew was so stunned he just lay in the dirt, unable to move. Memories swirled through his mind of another sunny day when he’d been rendered helpless and had heard the woman he loved calling his name.
Not again
. He pushed up on his elbows and then to his knees. When he glanced down, he expected to see blood all over his shirt, but the pocket was only torn.
The watch
. A hysterical urge to laugh came over him. Had the slug struck the timepiece?

“Matthew?”

He glanced up to see Eden standing behind her horse and returning the Sebastians’ fire over the seat of her saddle. She didn’t spare him a glance.

“How bad is it?” she cried.

He retrieved his revolver, which he’d dropped when he fell, and sprang to his feet. “I’m okay.”

“But you were hit!”

Matthew couldn’t take time to explain. “Trust me. I’m fine.”

Scanning the area, he saw a fallen log about twenty feet away. He grabbed Eden’s arm, spun her around, and yelled, “Run for it! I’ll keep them busy!”

Crouched low to the ground, she sprinted toward the fallen pine. Matthew whirled back and snapped his other gun from its holster. Scanning the forested hillside, he saw nothing. Homing in on the direction from which the shots seemed to be coming, he returned fire, hoping to keep the bastards’ attention.

“I made it!” Eden shouted from behind him. “Hurry, Matthew. I’ll cover you!”

Matthew hated leaving the geldings as open targets. He could only hope the Sebastians would want the horseflesh for themselves. After snatching his rifle from the boot, he slashed at the lead rope with his knife so Smoky could flee with the bay. Then he grabbed Herman’s halter and started to run. The packs on the mule’s back held all his extra ammunition. Before this was over, he and Eden would need every bullet.

It felt to Matthew as if he were trying to slog through waist-deep water. He could feel his feet moving and hear his lungs rasping for breath, but the log didn’t appear to be getting any closer. Twenty feet seemed more like a mile. Running, running. With each footfall, his teeth snapped together and he felt the jolt all through his body.
Eden.
He had to reach her. If he went down, she’d be left alone.

He glimpsed her red hair as she popped her head above the log to fire her Colts. Stupidly, he wondered what had happened to her hat.
Please, God, please, God, don’t let her take a bullet.
When he finally reached her, he dived over the log without thought for how he might land. Herman, terrified by all the bullets that kicked up dirt around his legs, sailed over the barrier after him. Rolling swiftly onto his knees, Matthew slashed at the bindings that held the packs on the mule’s back. When the load fell to the ground, he slapped the animal hard on the rump to get him out of there, then dropped to his belly beside Eden. Herman let loose with a frightened bray and trotted off into the woods, heehawing with every step.

“Are you sure you’re not hit?” Eden cried.

“Pretty sure. I think the bullet struck my watch.” He hadn’t had time to look at the timepiece. Gold was soft metal and normally wouldn’t stop a slug. “I guess it glanced off or something. I felt the impact, and it stunned me, but near as I can tell, I’m not hurt.”

“Thank God!” Eden laughed a little hysterically. “And thank you, Livvy!”

“Thank
you
for insisting I keep the watch on me.” Matthew turned to look over the log. “Have you spotted them yet?”

“Up there on the slope behind those rocks.” She sank behind the downed tree to reload. “I have no more rounds in my belt!”

“There’s more in the pack.” Matthew brought the butt of the Winchester to his shoulder, settled the barrel on the rough bark, and watched for movement behind the rocks. When he glimpsed the crown of a hat, he tightened his finger over the trigger, took careful aim, and fired. He heard a deep-throated wail, which was quickly drowned out by a volley of retaliatory shots. “Keep your head down, Eden.”

“You son of a bitch!” one of the brothers yelled. “You got James! You’re a dead man, Coulter!”

Matthew hoped to take as many of them with him to hell as he possibly could.

Eden slithered on her stomach to reach the packs. When she crawled back moments later, she had the large leather pouch that held his spare ammunition. Matthew dropped behind the log to reload. While he shoved bullets into the cylinders, Eden returned fire. Stealing a quick glance at her, Matthew’s admiration for her grew. She watched for movement, took careful aim, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Glorious
was the only word to describe her. She was absolutely
glorious
.

He heard another Sebastian cry out in pain. “Good job, partner!”

She grinned but kept her gaze fixed on the hillside. “Two down, only three to go.” She sighted in and fired again. “Damn, I missed by a mile.”

Matthew turned to hunker beside her. “They’re a little too far away for a Colt.”

“Bite your tongue. If I got one of them, I can get another one.”

Matthew drew in on the rocks with his rifle again, but the Sebastians had two men down now and were being more cautious. Taut with tension, Matthew never took his eyes off the boulders. In order to shoot, the Sebastians would have to show themselves, however briefly, and he meant to be ready.

Wrong
. Steel flashed in the morning sunlight, and bark exploded on the log just under Matthew’s chin. He ducked his head. “Holy hell.” His heart hammered like a fist against his ribs. “Keep down!”

A spray of bullets hit the other side of the fallen pine, the vibrations jolting through Matthew’s shoulder. He waited for a break in the volley, pushed up, and returned fire, not because he saw anything, but because he hoped to discourage the Sebastians from leaving the protection of the rocks. If one of them made a run for it and managed to circle around behind him and Eden, they’d have lead flying at them from two directions. When he shared that concern with Eden, she slanted him a worried look.

“We can’t keep firing indefinitely, Matthew! We’ll run out of bullets!”

He had already thought of that. He carried a goodly amount of spare ammunition, but it wouldn’t last forever. “When you see we’re running low, save one round. Promise me.”

She locked gazes with him. “I won’t let them take me alive, Matthew. No need to worry.”

He nodded. “Same for me. If it comes to that, we’ll both be better off dead.”

Her eyes sparkled with tears. “I love you, Matthew Coulter. No matter what happens, remember that.”

A tight, choking sensation filled Matthew’s throat. “I love you, too.”

They returned their attention to the rocks. After a while, Matthew lost track of time. He knew only that he’d fired the Winchester so often his trigger finger ached and the barrel was fire hot. Eden was probably tiring, too, but they had no choice except to continue shooting. Their lives depended on it.

The sun was sinking toward the western horizon when Eden said the words Matthew had been dreading to hear. “I just put the last of the forty-five bullets into my Colts, and you have only six rounds left for the Winchester.”

“Save one round,” he reminded her.

Face pale, her lips pulled thin against her teeth, she nodded. “This is it, isn’t it?”

Matthew bit down hard on his back teeth. “I’m sorry, Eden.”

“Sorry for what? This isn’t your doing, Matthew,
none
of it.”

She shot toward the rocks again, and he heard her say, “One,” under her breath. He felt sick.
Eden
. She was going to die out here. He’d done everything in his power to keep her safe, but sometimes a man’s best just wasn’t good enough. God, she was so young. She should have a long life ahead of her. He wanted her to live to have babies, even if they couldn’t be his. He wanted her to know the joy of waking up every morning beside the man she loved, even if that man couldn’t be him. He had to do something. He just wasn’t sure what. Then suddenly it came to him.

“Eden, I’m gonna circle around and get on the slope above them. That big ponderosa will give me some cover.”

“
What?
You’re nearly out of ammo. You can’t go up there.”

Matthew sank down behind the log and met her tear-filled gaze. “I have to. When I get there and draw their fire, I want you to run. Try to find the horses. Smoky knows you now. I think he’ll let you ride him. Head south. When you start seeing oaks, turn east for Denver.”

“
No!
You can’t do this. Please. You said we’d stick together, Matthew. You promised.”

Sometimes promises had to be broken. She was too precious and dear for him to lie here behind a log and let her die. If he did this, at least she would have a fighting chance.

Matthew jerked his gaze from hers and belly-crawled toward some brush about thirty feet behind the log. He ignored Eden’s pleas for him to come back. Whether she understood it or not, this was something he had to do.

 

Heartsick, Eden held off on returning the Sebastians’ fire, saving her ammunition so she could help Matthew once he circled around.
Run?
If he thought she would do that, he had another think coming. He would never leave her behind, and she wasn’t about to leave him. They’d do this together. If that meant she had to die with him, so be it.

She kept her eyes peeled for any movement higher on the slope above the rocks. How long would it take Matthew to circle around? All she could do was pray that God would keep him safe.

Finally she glimpsed a flash of blue. Matthew, zigzagging through the ponderosas. Like a baseball player running for home plate, he turned his feet sideways to brake and slid on his hip to the base of a thick tree. She saw the barrel of his Winchester flash in the fading sunlight.

“Drop your guns!” he yelled. “I’ve got you dead in my sights! Drop them
now
.”

Instead of dropping their weapons, the Sebastians turned on him and opened fire. Eden let loose with two rounds, hoping to get the attention of at least one of them.
Three
. She had only three bullets left, and one of them had her name on it. Tears nearly blinded her as she popped off another shot.
Matthew.
He’d gone up there to die for her. She wished he’d stayed beside her. If she had to use the gun on herself, she wanted his face to be the last thing she saw.