Dawn came silently and a new day arrived with the usual burning sun and blinding light.
Somehow the tall, thin man with the two Navy Colts tucked into his pants belt had managed to sleep for several hours.
Iron Eyes had stayed near the wagon into which she had climbed the previous evening, but never once moved closer.
Jane had worried him.
She had confused him.
She had shot a chunk of his left ear off and lived to tell the tale.
Now he stood watching the raging waters rolling past their campsite, wondering what he should do next. All thoughts of just saddling up his pony and riding away had left his mind. He kept casting a silent glance at the wagon, wondering when she would step out into the morning sunshine.
The money he was owed in El Paso no longer seemed important to the hard man. Yet he could not understand why. His thin fingers touched the edge of his ear, and he winced at the stinging pain that met him as he found the scabbed wound.
A woman had blown a piece of his ear off and she still lived and breathed. He accepted the fact.
Iron Eyes had once shot the head off a man for bumping into him in a saloon and causing him to spill his beer. He knelt down and cupped the fresh water in his hands, and tossed it over his face and head. This was not an action that was based upon wishing to become clean but a desire to try and wake up.
He stood once more as the water ran down his hair and face on to his shirt. He rubbed his smooth chin and wondered why he had never had a growth of whiskers like other men folk. He felt that he must have been part Indian never to have developed hair on his narrow face. Having only a scant recall of his mother and absolutely no knowledge of who his father might have been, it was a distinct possibility.
He dragged his long legs through the sand to the pony who had remained tied to a wheel of the wagon all night. He looked at the pinto and then the large nearby oxen.
How did a girl manage to handle such a team?
Horses were tough enough, but the oxen were monsters in comparison to even the largest horses he had ever encountered.
Where was she heading or where was she running from?
He checked his two Navy Colts and then put them back into his belt, before wondering why he was hanging around this place with this strange woman.
If the river’s level had dropped during the night, he might have saddled the pony and ridden away. He might have, but even he doubted it.
This female named Jane had made him curious enough to alter his plans, if only briefly
He kept thinking of the reward money, waiting for him across the wide Rio Grande, and how he would normally not let anything slow his progress at collecting it. Yet, for the first time in many years, he felt as if there was no hurry.
The money would still be there even if he took another couple of days to reach El Paso. He had killed his way across many territories and was tired of all the blood.
It was time to let the blood on his hands dry before killing any more.
Iron Eyes turned and watched as the canvas flap was opened and a long, blue-denim-clad leg poked out. The rest of Jane’s slim body followed, and she came to ground next to the dripping bounty-hunter, in her hands a towel and some feminine objects like a brush and soap.
‘Morning,’ she said in her usual one-tone voice.
He acknowledged her with a slight movement of his head, and then continued to tend to his pinto.
‘You fall in the river?’ she asked, with something that might have been regarded as a smile upon any other female’s face but hers.
‘What’s your meaning?’ he asked.
Her hand touched his dripping hair.
Iron Eyes shrugged, and leaned over to his saddle-bags. He emptied some oats on to the sand, and watched as the pony started to consume them quickly, before aiming his gaze at her.
‘Where you heading?’ There was an innocence in his question that ill suited him.
‘A gal gotta do what a gal gotta do,’ she snapped as she headed down to the water’s edge.
Iron Eyes watched her as she did what she had to do. She never once tried to hide herself away from his burning eyes. She seemed either unaware of his watching or cared little for his attention.
Iron Eyes wanted her.
Like a dog wants a bitch.
There was nothing romantic in his feelings. He was not sweet on her. He was no female-starved cowboy hitting town with only one thought on his mind. He wanted her for reasons that were totally alien to him.
Without any feelings of guilt, he kept watching her as she did what she had to do. His face strained at the sight of something that he had never before witnessed.
The tall bounty-hunter found it a magnetic draw for his hard eyes.
Rubbing his neck, he finally turned away, long after he should have done so. Strangely, she seemed to have no concern about his watching her every action.
It was as if she were trying to tempt him into acting like a man with blood flowing through his veins rather than staining his clothes and boots.
It was a chance that was even slimmer than his starved body.
She pulled up her britches, and then returned back to the long, dark figure in the long, dark coat. Although he held his chin on his chest and his long wet hair covered his face, she could see his every expression written in his every sinew.
As she brushed past him, the aroma of soap filled his nostrils and made him look up as she tossed the towel and things into the back of the wagon once more.
Iron Eyes grabbed at her slim arm and breathed heavily as he looked at her eyes which were staring back at him. The mutual mind-reading lasted several seconds before he felt his grip loosen.
‘What?’ she asked.
Iron Eyes released his grip and her arm fell from his fingers to her side. He gritted his teeth and grunted in a confused state, before rubbing his nose with his sleeve.
‘Nothing,’ he muttered.
‘You still figuring on heading for El Paso?’ she asked firmly.
‘Yep,’ he replied, feeling as if he had just lost a fight that he did not know he had been involved in. ‘Guess so.’
She pointed at the still-rolling waves that were lashing even more furiously than the previous day
‘You got a long ride south then, Mr Iron Eyes.’
‘How far south?’ He placed his attention on the raging river and focused his keen eyes.
A long ways south.’ The female seemed to know a lot more about the Rio Grande than her bounty-hunting companion. ‘Maybe a hundred miles before this swell widens out to a point where we can get across.’
A hundred miles?’ Iron Eyes felt like shooting the damn river again just for being there. A hundred miles? You’re sure of that?’
‘Nope.’ She spat at the ground. ‘But it’s a fair guess.’
Iron Eyes rubbed the back of his filthy neck and just growled at the thought of his money sitting in El Paso and him stuck on the wrong side of the widest, wildest river in hell. The sun burned down on them as they faced each other.
‘You wanted to join me last night, didn’t you?’ she said in a blunt tone.
He seemed to agree without opening his mouth.
‘Then why didn’t you?’ Her question hit him hard between his cold, steel-coloured eyes.
‘You already shot off one of my ears for doing nothing,’ He answered quietly. ‘I wasn’t gonna risk you shooting off anything valuable.’
She heaved her chest up and kept him firmly fixed in her sights.
‘That was before I knew who you was.’
‘What difference does that make?’ Iron Eyes’ face had a sudden look of curiosity etched across it.
There was no answer to his question, just the glimmer of a hint that he might not have been rejected as quickly as he had assumed.
‘Where you heading with this rig?’ Iron Eyes tried to change the subject that he was clearly finding hard to resolve.
Jane was silent for the longest time before answering the bounty-hunter.
‘South?’ For the first time she witnessed what could only be described as a faint smile cross his lips as he sucked her words into his soul.
‘You figure on joining me on my trip, Jane?’ He somehow managed to spit his words out.
She grabbed a pan off its hook on the side of the wagon, and headed for the ashes of her campfire.
He watched her every step with an interest that was unusual for him. Kneeling down, she placed the pan on to the sand before gazing up at his face.
‘If you get some kindling I’ll fix us some grub.’
Iron Eyes gazed down at her, and found himself obeying her orders willingly.