The Outlaw's Kiss (an Old West Romance) (Wild West Brides) (22 page)

He fished a large, metal key-ring from his
trousers pocket and stuffed it in my hand. “There’s no time,” he said. “Don’t
worry about me; I can take care of myself. Take this, get to the jail, get Eli,
and get the hell out of here!”

The cold metal felt good in my hand, like an
anchor that kept me from drifting back into panic. I closed my fingers around
the ring, and shook it, making the keys bounce of my wrist. “Are you sure?”

He nodded. “Go! Just go!”

Another bottle whizzed past my head. A rock
thumped against my shoulder.

The jeering grew louder and louder until the sound
took an almost physical form, crashing against me as I went. When I turned and
started to run toward the courthouse, Mr. Star pushed open the door of the
makeshift sheriff’s office, strode out into the street with a shotgun in his
hand, and fired it in the air.

With that huge, explosive boom that seemed to
rattle the very street under my feet, everyone fell silent for a few seconds,
just long enough for me to get my senses straight. My feet seemed drawn toward
Mr. Star, but even as I walked in his direction, I turned my head, for some
reason possessed to see if the Gem’s balcony was still unoccupied. At the
precise moment I did, the glass door swung open and Al Swearengen stepped out,
fully dressed.

His black, piercing eyes caught my gaze and he
held me enthralled for a moment. Still, my feet stumbled, one in front of the
other, drawn by some unconscious force toward the jail, toward Eli, and
hopefully, toward safety.

Mr. Swearengen swept his hand in a dramatic wave –
a gesture that no one in the street seemed to notice, for all the excitement
began to rumble again – and then he turned on his heel and looked directly into
the sun.

Into the east, into the hills.

“What is it?” I said to no one in particular.

He touched his ear and leaned over the balcony,
like he was straining to hear something off in the distance.

A rhythmic, even, pounding sensation rumbled my
legs, surging up through me from the ground. With Seth screaming at me to get
to the jail, I took one last look in the direction Mr. Swearengen was turned.

Dust was all I could see.

A cloud of dust, growing larger by the second.

“No,” I said out loud. “No, it’s not possible. How
could they know?”

The other thought that occurred to me, which
remained unsaid, though right on the tip of my tongue was ‘how did
he
know’. I looked back at Mr. Swearengen’s balcony to see that he had already
retreated back to his apartments, though was standing behind his glass door,
watching. Always watching.

“Clara!” A different voice, Mr. Star’s, called,
jolting me back to reality. “Hurry up, they’re getting excited. Come on!”

Something not entirely conscious pushed me toward
him, but my feet quickly caught up with my mind and before long, one step
turned to two, and stumbling half-trots were full strides. It was only when I
was about halfway to Mr. Star’s outstretched hand that I realized I’d lost both
of my boots somewhere along the way.

October 8, 1878

Deadwood, Dakota Territory

––––––––

I
t felt so good to grab Mr. Star’s hand that a wave
of relief pulsed through me. He fired his shotgun again, straight into the air
to warn off whoever was out there, and then half-helped, half-tossed me through
the entryway, slammed the heavy wooden door closed, and then dropped a large
beam across it for security.

“I can’t believe this,” I said, my chest heaving
with breath. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“What
did
happen?” Mr. Star said with his
hand on his forehead and his eyes wide open. “Why on earth is there a mob out
there and why is Seth shooting his damn gun in the air? And what on earth is
that noise?”

I didn’t want to say. I almost didn’t want to
believe it myself, but what was the use of pretending I didn’t know?

“It’s the Sioux,” I said in a hollow voice.
“Somehow they knew what was happening, I think Mr. Swearengen has something to
do with it.”

“Can’t just be one thing at a time, huh?” He
grunted a laugh. “Well, I don’t suppose there’s time for you to tell me about –”

I took a deep breath. “Seth is out there because
he went to arrest Rawls and the Captain, and now he’s out there wrestling with
them and trying to keep an angry mob at bay, though he seems to think the mob
is only there because it’s something exciting to do of a morning, rather than
them having any particular fondness for the two men.” I filled my lungs again,
ready to give another long exposition, but paused when I saw his confused
expression.

“Arrest Rawls? But why?”

“There was,” I paused to heave another breath. “A
letter, Mr. Swearengen had a letter.”

“Clara?” Eli called from somewhere further back in
the building than I could see. “Clara! What’s going on?”

Immediately forgetting my manners, and my
conversation with Sol Star, I followed the voice to my beautiful Eli’s cell.
“Oh,” I said, almost falling to my knees in front of him. “It’s so good to see
you again.”

“Are those keys? What’s all this noise?”

Mr. Star trotted into the holding area. “Listen,
Clara, something’s out there and it ain’t just the people in the street making
a drunken ruckus. You said the
Sioux
were coming? I think they’re closer
than you believe them to be.”

I turned back to Eli. “Why is Itan coming?”

“I told him,” Eli gulped. “Here, unlock this and
I’ll explain.”

I fumbled the keys and Mr. Star helped get the
door open. As soon as it swung open, Eli burst forth, wrapped me in his arms
and kissed me unashamedly. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I told him I was going
back to town to find you, and that if he didn’t see a signal to come and get me
again.” He threw his gaze to the floor.

“What is it, Eli?” Sol demanded. “What happened?”

“I was to give him a signal that I was safe. We
never quite clarified what would happen if I didn’t.”

Mr. Star gulped. “I think we just found out.”

“I never meant for this – oh God, what have I
done?” Eli threw back his head and ran his fingers through his hair. “What did
I do?”

Mr. Star licked his lips. “Well, I think, maybe,
this isn’t the time for regrets and hand-wringing. Given the commotion outside,
this might all be for the best. Can you signal him now, somehow? Let him know
you’re all right? If I’m being honest, we could really use his help. That mob
out front of the place is getting closer, and I think this town could do
without a riot.”

“I think I can,” Eli said, perking up. “Where are
they, how far away?” He put his hand to the wall, then crouched down on the
floor and listened. “Four miles,” he said. “Plenty of time. Sol, do you have a
mirror? Oh, and the sun. It’s up, right?”

“Half an hour past dawn, as far as a mirror... here!”
Sol turned to the mirror in the corner of the room which was used to watch
prisoners from the desk at the front of the office. He pulled his gun from his
holster, fired a single bullet at the frame, and collected a shard. “This one
good enough? What is it you need the sun for?”

“Much harder to reflect the moon,” Eli said with a
grin. Is there a way up to the roof from here? I’ll flash him; he’ll know the
sign. We’ve done this before.”

A look of concern crossed Mr. Star’s face, but by
the time he said “I’m not sure how to get on the roof,” I was already outside,
shouting back for Eli. I remembered that the front of the building was
crisscrossed with support beams and cracked plaster. I also remembered I wasn’t
wearing any shoes, and used to climb every single thing I could find as a little
girl.

“This way!” I shouted. “Come on!”

He scrambled up the side of the building with a
good deal more effort than it took me, but I managed to grasp his hand and yank
him up. He stood, squinted into the sun, and pointed the mirror just where it
needed to go. Suddenly, the cloud of dust, which had grown much larger than
last I saw it, paused, and then doubled back.

“What’s happening?” I asked, holding onto Eli’s
arm, not wanting to let him go, unable to imagine him being taken away from me
again. “Did he see?”

“Oh, he saw,” Eli replied. “But now we have to
wait until he reacts. I don’t know what he’ll do. After his brave was killed in
that last raid, he was fairly upset.”

His words stopped when he turned to me. For a
moment he just stared, looking rather dazzled, or at least a little
dumbfounded.

“I can’t help myself, but you’re beautiful, Clara
James. Even with all that dirt on your arm and the sweat all over your face.”
He pulled me close and pressed his lips to my forehead. “I sat in that cell,
knowing somehow I’d see you again.”

“Did you think it would come on the heels of a
riot?” I asked. “Of all the romantic reunions, this isn’t the one I’d imagined
sharing with you.” The noise down the street, the increasingly tense chaos, all
seemed to melt away for just a few moments. A few moments where the whole world
became Eli, and me, and the flutter he put in my heart. “How do these things
keep happening to us, Eli?” I kissed him back, held him tight.

“That’s a good question. But I think we should
maybe save our blissful exchange until we’ve managed to secure our escape. And
I’m not leaving either Seth, or your father and Mr. Clark to the mercy of those
wild thugs.”

I studied his face, drinking in the details of his
cheeks, his jaw, and his chin. “No, of course not, Mr. Bullock is too good of a
friend.” I trailed off as something clicked in my brain. “Beg your pardon, but
did you say something about my father and Mr. Clark?”

He cocked an eyebrow and tilted his head. I
turned, following the direction of his stare. There they were. Davis Clark and
my father, both of them dressed in their prospecting gear, and both right next
to Sheriff Bullock in the center of a ring of men. Somehow, Rawls and the
captain had gotten free of their shackles.

“Are you seeing this?” Mr. Star called from below.
“Clara, your father, he and Mr. Clark, are in the mix.”

“We see, Sol,” Eli shouted. “I ain’t gonna let
this happen.”

“Did you signal the Sioux? Eli, what are you
doing?”

“Help me down,” Eli said, reaching for Mr. Star’s
hand and hopping deftly to the ground. As soon as his feet hit dirt, he was
sprinting. “Yes I signaled him, they doubled back and then turned!” he shouted.
“They’re coming. Hopefully to help, but we’ll have to see.”

Down the road he went, diving straight into the
center of the pile and shoving my father out of the way right as a wobbly,
half-wild punch glanced off his jaw. From up on top of the building, I was able
to see the whole scene play out below. More prospectors filtered into town from
the tent city, presumably to find some breakfast before heading to their claim,
but the growing melee out front of the Gem proved too exciting to pass up.

In a large ring around Seth, Eli, my father and
Mr. Clark, some of the prospectors were fighting among themselves, a handful
were lying in the street.

Itan’s band, and the huge dust cloud billowing
behind them, veered south.

“How far away are the Sioux?” Mr. Star called up.
“If you can see them, I mean.”

“I see them,” I said, wincing as Eli caught a
punch on the cheek. The crowd in the center had thinned to Rawls, and the
Captain facing off against Seth and Eli. Men in the crowd held father and Mr.
Clark.

“And?”

I squinted into the sun. “They’re close. Just a
few minutes, maybe, until they’re upon the town,” I answered. “I’m absolutely
horrified. What if they just charge through the middle?”

“Don’t worry about that,” Mr. Star said. “You
can’t. Right now we have to figure out some way to get our friends to safety. Here,
come on down.”

A great deal of noise erupted in the street as I
descended the cracked plaster and beams, but as soon as I was back on the
ground, another brief lull set in. From where I stood, I saw Eli sock someone
but good in the stomach, and then Seth thumped another man in the back of the
head with the butt of his gun.

“Get ‘em!” Father cheered, though he wasn’t doing
much to help.

Jingling metal caught my attention. “Here,” Mr.
Star said, handing me two pairs of shackles. “I hate the idea of putting you to
work, but I watched you climb the side of a building in a full dress. I’ve come
around to thinking maybe you can take care of yourself. Take these.”

“Oh, no, I haven’t the first idea how to fight.
Surely you can’t mean for me to get in there?”

“You think I’d toss a lady into that bull-pit?”

“Well no,” I said, “I suppose that wouldn’t be
very good of you.”

He chortled. “Good of me, she says. Come on.”

With that, he grabbed my hand and pulled me to the
edge of the chaos. Eli ducked then hammered a man on the side of the face who
went sprawling into the muck. Seth took a punch in the stomach, and went to his
knees.

As I watched the carnage, my body trembled, but
not, I realized, with fear.  

A great tension pulled at my stomach, my heart was
pounding in my chest, but I wasn’t afraid. I wanted to help my friends, to help
Eli. My safety wasn’t even a consideration.

“Where is Rawls?” I asked over the noise, as Mr.
Star tried to thin the crowd.

He shook his head. “Don’t know, probably cowering
somewhere.”

Thunder shook the ground beneath our feet. They
were close. Very, very, close, but still outside of eyeshot, at least from
street-level. My heart skipped a beat when Eli took another punch in the
stomach, roared then laid a man flat on his back. There was a surge of activity
and much to my surprise I was somehow pulled from the back of the crowd all the
way to the middle.