Wayward Wind (46 page)

Rage, fear and desperation made Copper move faster and more recklessly than he had ever moved in his life. But Griffin, lighter
and more agile, reached the edge of the clearing seconds before Cooper did, and Kain a second or two later.

Lorna, her naked body covered with strap marks, her head sagging until her chin reached her chest, her hair straggling down
over her face, hung from her bound wrists. From the description Moose had given him, Cooper knew instantly it was Brice Fulton
who stood with the strap flung back ready to deliver another blow. Dunbar sat on a rock carelessly tossing a knife into the
ground.

In the swift instant of reaction and action when he’d seen what was happening, Griffin was the first to move. With the speed
of a cat he sprang into the clearing and fired at Brice. The bullet took away part of the hand that held the whip. Brice yelled
and staggered back. Dunbar jumped up. Before he could draw his weapon, he was looking into the barrel of Kain’s silver-handled
gun.

“I ain’t killin’ ya yet, ya shit-eatin’ belly-crawlin’ bastard. I want ya to know why I’m adorn’ it.” Griffin’s words were
thrown at Brice in a voice that was cold and hard and strangely void of anger.

Cooper ran to Lorna, picked her up in his arms and held her tortured body against his chest, taking her weight off her arms,
shielding her with his broad back. Her white, naked body was covered with fiery red strap marks from her neck to her knees,
some of which were beaded with blood.

“Oh, darling! Oh, my sweet girl…” Cooper crooned to her and cradled her against his chest. He kissed her cheeks, her forehead,
her closed eyes. “Sweetheart… I’ll kill that bastard for this!” He held her tenderly, trying not to cause her more pain,
and murmured love words against lips that were still trying to sing.

Griffin’s gun spat and a bullet slammed into Brice’s kneecap. The big, burly man screamed like a panther and fell ack against
the trunk of a big oak, desperately trying to stay on his feet.

“I’m killin’ ya for Volney Burbank. I’m killin’ ya for what yo’re doin’ to Miss Lorna ’n I’m killin’ ya for what ya done to
Bonnie!” Brice threw his arm up over his eyes. Another bullet slammed into his hip bone. He screamed again and fell to the
ground. Griffin’s face was like a stone carving, his head thrust forward, his knees bent. “Ya treated Bonnie like dirt, ya
sonofabitch! Before I kill ya, I want ya to know she’s agoin’ to have ever’thin’ she wants from now on, ’n there ain’t agoin’
to be
nobody
alookin’ down on her ever again.”

The screams from Brice’s throat were cut off when the bullet from Griffin’s gun tore a hole in the top of his head.

Dunbar, knowing he was about to die, looked wildly about. In a matter of seconds everything had changed. The tall, dark man
who had been holding a gun on him calmly put it back into the holster and stood looking at him with his thumbs hooked in his
belt, waiting, daring him to make a move. God, how he wished he’d never met that shithead from Light’s Mountain. This cold-eyed
stranger or that crazy, wet-eared kid was going to kill him. He didn’t have a chance.

“He’s mine, Kain. Back off!”

Dunbar’s eyes shifted to Griffin and he knew, without a doubt, that he’d be the one. Goddamn that old Clayhill for sending
him after that nester.

“Gimme a chance, fer God’s sake! I was jist adoin’ what the ole man tole me to do. He said to get rid a you. This mornin’
he said Parnell, too. But I wasn’t agoin’ to do nothin’ after I thought ’bout it. Hell—ya can’t jist shoot a man down—”

“I just did. Fulton didn’t deserve a chance. You don’t deserve one either, but not fer what ya did to me, but fer lettin’
him do
that
to Miss Lorna.”

“I didn’t have nothin’ to do with
that.
He hated her worse ’n poison—he was crazy with it. Ole Clayhill hired us to get ya ’n Parnell. He said we’d get a big bonus.
We wasn’t agoin’ to do nothin’. We was agoin’ to just tell him we did ’n get the money. He’s the one ya ort to get—”

“Ya lyin’ sonofabitch! Ya burned Miss Lorna’s house. Ya was there when they killed her pa.”

“They made me go. I didn’t do nothin’,” Dunbar pleaded. “Johnson did.”

“Draw, goddamn you! I’m agivin’ ya a chance ’cause I tol’ Cooper I would. Either way I’m agoin’ to kill ya.”

“I—I ain’t no… gunfighter!”

Lorna, held in Cooper’s arms, aroused. She opened eyes that were unseeing, looked up at Cooper’s face, and began to sing.

“Oh, don’t you remember sweet Betsy—”

With a frantic eagerness to live, Dunbar grabbed for his gun. He had it halfway out of the holster when Griffin’s bullet smashed
into his forehead and flung his lifeless body back into the brush.

Without a second glance at the dead man, Kain swooped to pick up Lorna’s coat and draped it over her nakedness. He reached
up and cut the rope that held her arms to the branch above Cooper’s head, then worked on the ropes at her wrist. When they
fell away he could see that the circulation had been cut off from her hands. Her fingers were swollen and stiff. He massaged
them gently. Lorna whimpered at the pain when the blood began to flow back into them. After a moment, she began to sing again.

“She’s out of her mind!” Cooper said frantically.

“I think it’s shock.” Kain gently lifted her eyelid. “It could be that she’s put herself in kind of a trance so she could
bear the pain. Let’s get her to Bessie’s. She’ll know what to do.”

It was almost midnight when Lorna woke.

Bessie had given her several drops of laudanum a few minutes after Cooper had carried her to the upstairs bedroom where he
had insisted on taking care of her himself. He bathed her with cool soda water before he smeared salve on the places where
the strap had broken her tender, white skin. Bessie stood quietly by. She realized that here was a man desperately in love
with this woman with the beautiful black hair, clear white skin and slight figure. She couldn’t help but feel a stab of envy
when she saw how gently the big, rough hands touched her. She brought bandages and fresh water and made up a bed. Cooper allowed
her to help him slip a nightdress over Lorna’s head before he placed her on the clean sheets, covered her, and began his vigil
beside the bed.

When Cooper was finally alone with Lorna, he found a brush on Bessie’s dressing table, gently brushed her hair, and spread
it, black as a crow’s wing, over the pillow. With this done he sat down beside the bed, his eyes on her still face, and caressed
the back of her hand with his fingertips.

The next few hours were the longest of his life. He relived seeing her hanging proud but helpless from her bound wrists. He
heard again the sound of her singing. She had sung snatches of the song as he carried her past the dead horse that she loved,
back across the creek to where Roscoe waited, and on the way to The House. Kain and Griffin had stripped her horse of saddle
and bridle, brought them to The House, and returned with a wagon borrowed from Bessie to get the bodies of the three men.

Cooper watched her lovely face and remembered her dancing in the woods above the cabin on the Blue. He remembered her bravery;
the way she’d held off Dunbar with her knife—waiting for him. He remembered the few lovely hours they’d spent alone in the
dark on Light’s Mountain. His body trembled as he thought of the precious way she had given herself to him. It was as if their
being close, sharing the greatest pleasure God gave to human beings, was God’s infinite plan. Making love with her must have
been what God had in mind when he first created man and woman and devised a plan to populate the earth.

Loving her, he wanted to rage with savage destruction at the men who had done this dastardly thing to her. They had tortured
her body, humiliated her, burned her home, killed her father and the horse she loved. But the ones responsible were dead.
They’d already paid the supreme price. There was nothing else he could do to them.

“I’m… sorry… ” Lorna whispered in anguish. Her head rolled back and forth on the pillow.

“What is it, sweet? Do you want a drink of water?” Startled out of his reverie, Cooper leaned down to stare at the deep frown
on her face.

“Cooper.” She said his name in a breathless whisper and stared at him with eyes out of focus.

“I’m here, sweetheart. I’m with you and nothing will hurt you again. I swear it,” Cooper whispered, not knowing that tears
filled his eyes and rolled down the stubble of beard on his cheeks.

Lorna’s eyes cleared. She gripped his hand with surprising strength. “Cooper? Where— Cooper! It’s really you!” Her eyes went
past him and then back to his worried face.

“It’s really me. You’re here at Bessie’s. You’ve nothing to be afraid of. I’ll not leave you… ever.”

“Brice?”

“He’s dead. So is Dunbar.”

“I killed Hollis.” She began to cry. Her mouth trembled and tears flooded her eyes. “I never, ever wanted to kill anybody.
I just did it before I thought about it.”

“He’d have killed you, sweetheart.” Cooper wiped the tears from her eyes with a corner of the cover. “Don’t think about it.
You did what you had to do. It’s over,” he whispered huskily. “We’ll go back to Light’s Mountain and rebuild your house just
the way Light and Maggie left it, and I’ll live there with you forever if you want me to. Please, sweetheart, don’t cry—”

“I can’t help it.”

“I love you, sweetheart. You’ve wiggled your way into every part of my heart.” His voice shook with emotion. “I don’t think
I can live without you. I’ve always wanted you, right from the very first. But when I thought I’d lost you, I knew how terrible
life would be without you. It doesn’t matter where we are as long as I’m with you.”

“I’ve been so wrong. It’s you I want… only you—”

“Shh… don’t cry, sweetheart—it tears me up.” He kissed her, touching her lips gently.

“I don’t… want to live on Light’s Mountain.” She astonished him now, as if she had caught his heart in her slender hands
and drew it upward into his throat. “I want to be with you… as your wife. I want to live in the house my husband provides
for me. It was wrong of me to want you to give up what you’ve worked so hard for and come to Light’s Mountain. I deserved
to be whipped—”

“No! Sweetheart—”

“I sneaked away… and let your horses out… I called you a pissant…”

His face was so close, their eyelashes were touching. He placed soft kisses on her eyes and sipped at the tears on her cheeks.
He wanted so badly to hold her in his arms, but he was afraid he would hurt her.

“Don’t think about it. We’ll probably have more fights before our life is over. Think about tomorrow. I’m going to take you
to the preacher in town and make you mine. That is, if you’re able.”

“Then we’ll go home?”

“Then we’ll go home.”

“I don’t ever want to be by myself again, Cooper. I was so scared coming to town. Cooper—” Her tears began to flow again.
“They killed Gray Wolf.”

“I know, darling. Don’t cry. You’ll not be alone… ever again. You’ll have me and you’ll have our babes when they come. You’ll
have a mother, too, if you want her. Ma will love you. She’s always wanted a daughter to fuss over.”

“I’ll not know how to act.” She lifted her hands and touched his face, his hair.

“Yes, you will. I’ll be with you.” He placed his head beside hers on the pillow. “There’s a lot to tell you, but it can wait.
I just want to kiss you and tell you that I’ll spend the rest of my life taking care of you.”

“Where are we? I’ve not ever been in such a pretty room, or in such a soft bed.”

“You’ll have as many pretty rooms as you want and the softest bed money can buy.”

“But where are we?”

“We’re at… Bessie’s place.”

“I was coming here. Mable said she’d sell me some clothes so I could dress up like a woman. Did her young ladies see me in
those old britches?”

“Young ladies?”

“The ones in her school. Did they… laugh when they saw me?”

“Oh, sweet!” He placed tender kisses on her lips and spoke against them. “I’d have killed anyone if they’d laughed at you.
I’ll tell you about this place in the morning.”

“Can you get in here with me?” Her eyelids drooped. “I’m so tired.”

“I’ll sit her beside. I might hurt you.”

“Please.” She yawned helplessly and spoke against the hard line of his jaw. “You won’t hurt me.”

“All right. Lie still.”

Cooper blew out the lamp, shed his clothes quickly and slipped into bed beside her. She turned on her side and tugged at his
arm until he lifted it so she could get closer. She snuggled her head on his shoulder, placed her arm around his neck, and
sighed contentedly.

“This is grand, Cooper, my love. We can sleep like this every night after we’re wed,” she whispered sleepily.

“Every night for the rest of our lives.”

“Oh, Cooper, that’s such a short time… ”

Kain drove the wagon that took the bodies of the three dead men back to town and Griffin rode alongside leading Kain’s horse.
Griffin’s mind was still crowded with thoughts from the happenings of the day before and from the things Kain had told him
during the long talk they’d had while waiting to see if Lorna would be all right.

Last night, they had both declined the invitations of the girls who made their living at Bessie’s.

“Thank ya kindly, ma’am,” Griffin had stammered when Minnie had came up behind him and whispered the invitation in his ear.
“But I got me a woman who’s awaitin’ fer me.”

“Lucky woman,” Minnie said and turned her attention to Kain. “How about you, good lookin’?”

“I already asked him.” A buxom blonde smiled at Kain and ran her fingertips along the edge of his jaw. “I got me a raincheck.”

Kain and Griffin had talked briefly with Cooper before they left Bessie’s that morning. He and Lorna were staying at Bessie’s
for a few days and were going to visit the preacher in town before going home. Both men congratulated him and shook his hand.

“Tell Ma I’m bringing home a bride,” Cooper said with a wide grin.