Chapter Twenty-Two

 

 

The next morning, she cooked the last of the fatback and coffee and after washing up a bit at the stream she walked back to camp to find them all up and moving about.

"That was the last of the fatback and the beans are gone too." She announced.

"Not to worry, we'll be passing a town soon and we'll let Quinton go into town and get some more supplies." Frank eyed her as he walked around her.

She nodded.

"If your husband and the Sheriff are following, how come they haven't caught up yet?" Frank studied her expression hard.

Anna didn't feel like sparring with the man, she looked up at him with a grimace. "I don't know. This isn't the same road we left on, maybe they lost your trail. Or maybe they are closer than you think."

"Well now, that would be something, wouldn’t it?" Frank eyed her expression. He seemed to be always looking for something in her face.

She paled but recovered quickly. "He won't give up."

"Who?"

"My husband." She told him firmly.

"Why not?" Frank asked coming closer.

"He worked hard to get where he is today. He knows what it takes to make it in this world. And he knows anything worth having, is worth fighting for." She told him.

"You, for instance?" Frank raised a brow and looked at her for the first time. All of her. "Well, set your mind to rest. I've figured out what I'm going to do. And it will destroy him, and you."

"What's that?" she asked.

"I’m going to bury you!"

Her jaw dropped, her color drained and her heart skipped a beat as she heard his words. He was going to kill her now.

She swallowed hard. "Then go ahead, get it over with!" she shouted. "Go on, I'm tired of listening to your threats. Just do it and get it over with."

He stared.

"Oh, you don't understand. This is better than what you are thinking." He chuckled as though to himself. "I'm not gonna kill you. I'm gonna make a grave and make him think I did." Frank laughed.

Now she stared. Could it possibly be any worse?

Quinton laughed, "Yeah, and he'll probably go back and marry that little gal in town, what was her name Frank?"

"Susan!" Frank smiled at her. "Yeah, she sure doesn't like you. This would suit her fine and pay her back for all the information she gave us."

"You'll kill him!" she wailed miserably.

"What do you mean?" Frank stared at her again.

"It's a long story, and I won't bore you with the details, it would seem Susan has told you everything anyway."

"Boy, you got this one figured out Frank. He'll pine for her, and that little Susan will comfort him, and he'll fall for her and marry her since she's dead!"

"They may never find your trail." She told Frank.

"That's true, and if so, all the better. But if they do, your grave will be waiting for him. Maybe he'll turn around and go home then, when he knows your dead."

"Then I might as well be dead too!" she insisted.

"Quinton, dig the grave." Frank shot Quinton a glance.

Quinton laughed and started digging.

She heard the dirt fly, smelled the clean earth. Anna watched and felt her heart barely thump. What he meant to do to Joe was beyond cruel.

"What are you going to do with me?" she muttered miserably.

"Take you about a hundred more miles away and turn you lose on your own. If you find a way back, so be it. You are out of our hair. If not, someone else will have to make you a real grave." Frank chuckled. "And I won't have killed you at all, will I?"

Anna nodded, "Very clever. I hate to admit but you've out witted me."

"I've been thinking all along what to do. This is best, this way I'm not guilty of your murder. After we are sure they aren't on our trail, we'll circle back around and get the money and be on our way, once and for all. No problems."

"I gotta hand it to you Frank, that's damn clever." William finally spoke up.

"Problem with most outlaws is they don't think. I can tell by the look on your face, you weren't expecting all of this, were you?" Frank came closer to her.

"No, I wasn't." she admitted, her voice hollow now. "I thought you'd kill me."

"I'm not that mean!"

"Oh yes, yes you are!" she shouted.

Quinton made a nice neat little grave and looked quite proud of himself.

Frank looked it over, "Tear part of the sleeve of her dress off and drape it around the cross you made."

Quinton chuckled again and came up to her, tearing the sleeve of her dress away.

He wrapped it around the cross and smiled at his work.

"What do you think?" he asked Frank.

"Looks good, take that hair clip off her head and put it down there too." Frank told him. "He'll probably recognize that for sure."

Quinton jerked the hair clip from her hair and clipped it to the material.

"Good."

They rode on.

That night tears did come to Anna as she realized the hopelessness of it all. But the one thing that comforted was the fact that Joe had loved her, and right now, that made her hold on.

She silently cried herself to sleep.

 

***

 

"You saw her, father?" Joe asked, his voice hoarse with emotion as he spoke to the priest.

"Yes, I did. She looked straight at me, and she looked bereft."

"Thank you, father, which way were they headed?"

"I watched for a while and I saw them take the hill trail." The father told them.

"Thank you, you've been a great help." Joe shook hands with him.

"I hope you find her. She was just here this morning, praying for you and your men." He told him, then smiled, "And that she be with child!"

Joe's face turned white now, to hear those words, now, of all times made his heart both swell and cried out to her. God, he had to find her. She was part of him, had always been, and nothing could tear them apart.

"Thank you again, father."

"Good luck my son, I will pray for you also, and her."

Joe smiled and they all rode off.

With child! My God, he hadn't given that a thought, but she very well could be. If they hurt her, he'd kill them. That was a promise he made to himself. It both warmed his heart to know she cared enough to come here to pray for him and his men, but to pray for her to be with his child made him love her even more, if that were possible.

She was his wife, his love, his future.

They rode on in haste.

That evening over a campfire, Burt sat down on a rock and glanced at Joe. "We're getting closer, I can feel it."

"Feel it?" Joe asked.

"You been a lawman as long as me, you can sense a lot of things coming. The man we are dealing with is a shrewd one, that much I can tell you. All this time, we've been waiting for them to make a run for it. But they were plotting this out. Thinking about it. The one thing I don't understand, is how they knew they could get horses at your place. Someone had to be talking in town." Burt told him.

Joe studied on that, oh yeah, and he knew who that someone was. Susan! Right now, he'd like to ring her pretty little neck!

He cringed.

"Then instead of getting their own horses and riding out, like we kept expecting them to, they walked to your place. Whoever talked in town gave them a lot of information."

"Susan, Susan Dixon. She's the one that talked, I'd bet my life on it." Joe muttered as he threw the rest of his coffee on the ground.

"Why would she do such a thing?"

"She's the biggest gossip in Texas." Joe grit his teeth.

"She was pretty sweet on the boss," George told Burt as Joe walked off. "And she sure don't like Miss Anna."

"Jealousy, that will make a woman do a lot of stupid things." Burt shook his head.

"Poor old Trapper, he didn't see it coming. No one would have. Comin' on foot like that!"

"Well, we know they aren't your typical dumb cowboys." Burt sipped his coffee then threw the grounds away. "They are clever. Sneaking up on foot like that on a ranch, that's pretty smart."

"But why would this Susan tell them anything?" George asked.

Burt stood up thinking on it. "One of them was young, and probably got to talking to her."

"She's a pretty young thing, but pure stupid." George shook his head with distaste. "Now I understand why Anna didn't care for her much."

"She'll get a piece of my mind when we get back," Joe told them as he came toward them now.

"Susan Dixon, isn't that the gal that had her horse die on her the other day?" Burt scratched his head.

"Yeah, it is, why?" Joe asked.

"Well, the doc came by my office and talked to me. He said that horse had been beaten badly. Now it was her horse and I can't think of a law I could use to arrest her, but one thing I'm sure about. She killed her own horse. What do you do with a gal like that?"

"Are you serious?"

"So serious I went to talk to her father about it. He said she had a nasty temper at times and sometimes she took it out on the animals. But even he was surprised at that. He said he'd take care of it, himself."

"Do you think he meant it?" Joe asked.

"Yeah, I was there when she came in and he talked to her straight. She finally broke down in tears and admitted she whipped the horse. He told her to get a job or leave home. And that from then on, she take a wagon into town, not a horse."

"Your kidding?" George chuckled.

"No, he said another horse died about two years ago, and he had no idea why. And he suspected it was her and her temper tantrums. She has a bad temper and she gossips to get even with people."

"Well, she sure as hell got even with Anna." Joe said trying not to sound emotional, but his hands fisted as he spoke.

Everyone nodded silently.

"I won't be forgetting it." Joe told them.

"Me neither," George mumbled.