Chapter 13

“You feel sick?” 

“No.” 

“Then stop squirming.” 

“Why can’t I ride behind like before?” 

“Because you puked the entire time and … you’re belly gets in the way.” 

“People are going to talk.” 

“Stop worrying about it.” 

“Of course I’m going to worry about it.  I can only take care of me and Bean, I can’t take care of you too.” 

“Who said anything about me needing being taken care of?” 

“Well you’re obviously crazy.  That’s the only explanation for it.  So someone needs to make sure you don’t fall into trouble like hanging around the wrong kind of woman.” 

Fletcher rode back beside us and said, “Keep her quiet Roman.  Jeremy said there is sign on the trail ahead but it’s not from a horse he recognizes.” 

I was still trying to figure out how you could tell one horse from another from a trail when a shot rang out and things went a little crazy.  I held onto Roman to keep from being thrown off but it didn’t take the men long to realize they were surrounded by men in uniforms.  I recognized the insignia right away.  Revenuers. 

Being angry doesn’t change that the men had too many guns.  They forced Roman’s family to get off their horses and then took their guns and knives away from them but I pick pocketed one of the revenuers when he brushed against me and took a knife off of him.  He had so many in his hand at the time he never noticed.  I palmed it under my sleeve and since they had already frisked me they didn’t bother checking again. 

They were going through all of the men’s gear and doing it fast like they had a lot of practice.  They left the three deer on the horse but pulled the horse off the trail and tied it off to a tree.   Then they started going over the men more closely, looking for other stuff besides weapons and I knew that I wouldn’t have much more time.  Sure enough a man got a smirky, greedy grin on his face and came towards me and pulled me off into the bushes.  I didn’t give him any trouble so he was able to pull me off trail pretty far before running out of patience. 

I won’t record what he had to say.  For one thing I don’t want you growing up hearing that kind of talk and for another, it was pretty boring and typical; I’d heard it all before.  He pushed me down and all the noise he was making gave me the cover to palm the knife and then shove it in his throat.  The little bit of kicking and other noise he made the men took to be more or less him getting what he’d dragged me off to do.  He hadn’t even gotten his own zipper down much less mine. 

I grabbed the two guns he had carried into the bushes with him right as two other men showed up and said, “Damn you’re quick Charlie.  Get off so I can have a turn.” 

One of the things I did under the watchful eye of Mother Mary was to clean her guns.  I never had anything to do with them when they were loaded but I did know how they operated.  So while I’d never shot a gun before it was something that I knew how to do.  I rolled “Charlie” off of me and point blank shot both men. 

“What the hell are you all doing in there?!” came a shout and I could hear feet coming my way.  I didn’t kill them outright.  Shooting accurately takes practice that I’d never had.  But I did hit what I was aiming at … right in the gut.  Then there was all sorts of noise on the trail and I stood up, swayed and bit, then went to join the fight.  

By the time I got out there it was almost all done except for one guy that didn’t want to give up.  I walked up to him, stuck the barrel of the gun in his ear and pulled the trigger.  The guy I shot wasn’t the only man to jump.  Then I went around putting the rest of the dying out of their misery too. 

The last one looked at me holding his belly and crying saying, “No.  No … don’t kill me.  I don’t want to die.” 

I told him, “You should of thought of that before you became a revenuer.  The day you did is the day you signed your own death warrant.”  He was still crying when I pulled the trigger. 

I turned to find Saul looking at me but it wasn’t with anger or disgust or anything else but curiosity.  He held out his hand and I handed him both guns and then looked around for Roman who was helping Fletcher.  “Oh don’t do that.  You’re getting germs in it.” 

I walked over to clean up the cut on Fletcher’s arm and Roman looked at me without saying anything but wanting to.  I sighed.  “Which is it?  That I know first aid or that I shot all those men?” 

After a moment of trying to decide he said, “Both.” 

“We got beat up pretty regular at Mother Mary’s; even those of us that didn’t fight like I did.  We had to learn to take care of ourselves because Mother Mary would beat us if she had to send for the doc.  As for those men?  I told you I would fight anyone that tried to hurt Bean or make me go back to whoring.” 

“You knew what they were.” 

“Revenuers?  Yeah.  Scum of the earth.  People like them …” 

Saul walked over and asked, “People like them what?” 

“People like them is how I wound up … I don’t want to talk about it.  I won’t talk about it.  If you can’t deal with that then I’ll leave.” 

“Hmmm,” was all the sound that Saul made which surprised the heck out of Roman and Fletcher but I don’t care.  Maybe someone used to own us Bean but I’m done with that life and that means I’ve got some rights.  Maybe not a lot of them but I won’t talk about that part just so people will feel sorry for me.  Besides, it’s private. 

I would have helped to get rid of the bodies but the muscles across my belly started to get tight and I wasn’t feeling too good.  Mother Mary wouldn’t have cared and made me work anyway but Roman and the other men did care which only means they are as crazy as I am beginning to suspect they are.  They made some noise and for a while all I had to do was sit under a tree wrapped up in a couple of blankets.  I closed my eyes and then suddenly I was being picked up. 

“Hey!” 

Saul said, “Hush and be still so I can hand you up to Roman.  If you wiggle and fall on your head it will be your own fault.” 

And it seemed that I must have fallen asleep again because I don’t remember too much for what seems a long while.  Then I tried to wake up when we stopped.  I grabbed at Roman when I thought I was falling but it was Saul getting me off the horse.   

“Wha …?” 

“Roman take her … aw hell.  Where the hell are we going to put her?” 

Then an angry voice said, “Take her over to the meeting house.  Dad and the others are waiting.  What the hell took you so long?” 

“Cool your jets David,” I heard Saul say.  “We had a situation.  That report comes first before the other.” 

A little more calmly the one called David asked, “What kind of situation?” 

“Revenuers.” 

“Aw shit.  Do we need to go into lock down?” 

“No although I’m putting extra guards out on patrol.  And the girl needs to be looked at.  Send Missy … dammit …” 

“I’m taking her to my place,” Roman said refusing to put me down even though I pushed at him.  To me he said, “Stop wiggling or I’ll dump you in the trough and trust me you wouldn’t like it.” 

“You … are … crazy.” 

“Certifiable,” he agreed easily.  “Now be still.”