Gus and Karl made it back to the campsite an hour later and brushed and fed their horses before releasing them into the corral. Gus blew out a deep breath, trying to come up with a good speech to placate his wife, while Karl added a log to the waning fire and poured himself a cup of coffee. He watched Gus as he purposefully strode toward the tent.
“Do you want me to get lost for a while?”
“No. I’m done fighting.”
“I hope Per is, too,” Karl replied softly. He absently petted Buddy, who was exhausted from the long walk and snoozing by the fire. Gus had carried him the last few miles.
With a little bit of anxiety and a lot of determination, Gus lifted the tent flap and walked in to find no wife in high dudgeon, no wife sulking, no wife greeting him with open arms. No wife at all. Where was Per? Once again, he looked around for any evidence of where she had gone or why. Nothing was out of order. All her belongings apparently were still there. He walked out of the tent.
“She’s not there.”
Karl looked over at the corral. “Her horse is still here. Maybe she went for a walk.”
“There’s a good chance she was angry.” He suddenly remembered the letter from Adelina then and that he hadn’t destroyed it.
“At you? No.”
Gus didn’t miss the sarcasm. He walked over to the corral and looked down at the crumpled-up letter. He couldn’t tell if it had been moved, but it most assuredly had been flattened, which meant Per had read it. He was starting to get that apprehensive feeling of trouble.
“I’ll look for tracks on the path. You check the creek.”
Gus was scanning the pathway, trying to keep Buddy from marring any tracks, when Karl shouted.
“You better come see this, Gus!”
Now he had that same full-blown feeling of dread he had felt when Per was missing the last time. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this life after all. He ran down to the creek, Buddy on his heels. He felt intense relief when he didn’t see Per floating in the stream or her lifeless body on the ground. He did see dishes and silverware, some of it in the creek and some on the edge. Karl held up a hand to stop him.
“Watch where you’re walking.”
He skirted around and came to where Karl was kneeling. “I’m not as good a tracker as you, but I can tell something happened here.”
Gus knelt down next to his brother and studied the tracks. He looked back at the creek, walked over and bent down near the dishes, then went back to Karl. “He came up behind her while she was washing the dishes. She fell to the ground here.” He pointed.
Karl sniffed. “Do you smell that?”
“Chloroform.”
Karl had never seen his brother so quietly furious.
Gus knelt down again and studied the ground. “His track gets heavier here and hers is gone. He carried her.”
Where? That was the question. That and why? Gus cursed himself. Maybe he would know if he had let Per finish telling him her tale. Your damn pride.
“You can track her.”
Gus felt warmed by his brother’s faith in him. Just at that moment, Buddy jumped on his boot and he remembered the dog finding him miles from home. He took it as a sign from God. “I can, but it would take time. Buddy will be faster.” He peered down at the dog. “C’mon, boy.”
They jogged back to the campsite. Karl resaddled the horses while Gus went to the tent to go through Per’s things to find something with her scent. He picked up the canvas bag where she placed their dirty clothes and dumped it out. A sock? No. Her chemise from when she last wore a dress? Too bulky. Her bloomers. Even though he wasn’t thrilled at having Karl see his wife’s underclothes, they were the ideal item to use as they had had direct contact with her skin and wouldn’t have taken on the odor of her shoes, like the sock. Now if he could just make Buddy understand what he wanted. Per’s life might depend on it.
Gus let the dog get a good whiff of Per’s bloomers and then mounted next to Karl. “Let’s go find Per, Buddy. The dog hesitated, and Gus motioned Karl to get started. They began walking the horses, and Buddy suddenly sprinted ahead. Gus said a thankful prayer, and the men followed.
* * *
Per and her captive had ridden perhaps two more miles, during which time she had tried to lean forward so as not to have contact with him. It was impossible, though, with the movement of the horse, and she felt herself constantly being forced back into him. They were following a path though a forested area when she felt the unmistakable hardening near her butt. The man had an erection! Though she was not some delicate maiden and it didn’t horrify her, it did infuriate her.
Without even thinking about it, Per sent a hard elbow into Napoleon’s chest at the same time she threw her head back into his face. Then she pounded his right hand with her tied hands, and he lost his grip on the reins. She hit him with an elbow again, and he fell off the horse, which was cantering at the time. Per scrabbled for the reins, barely managing to keep her seat. Unfortunately, Napoleon’s foot was caught in a stirrup, and the horse dragged him for a distance before Per managed to kick his foot loose and bring the horse under control.
She looked back and could see Napoleon was most likely unconscious. His left leg was at an unnatural angle. She seriously considered riding on and leaving him as he would certainly do if the situation were reserved. The horse hadn’t taken more than a few steps before she sighed, pulled on the reins and turned it around. The first thing she did after she dismounted was look through the saddlebag until she found a knife. It took some time, but she managed eventually to cut through the rope and release her hands.
Then she walked over to the battered form of Napoleon Bacon. His leg obviously was broken. One side of his face, where he’d been dragged along the ground, was raw. She suspected his side was also bruised and perhaps scraped or cut. Gently she patted him down and removed her gun from his waist and his gun from his holster. She put her gun in her pocket and his in the saddlebag. Next she felt all over his body to ascertain if he had any other broken bones. He moaned when she felt his chest. While she did not feel any breaks, he most likely had some cracked ribs.
She searched the area until she came up with a couple of sticks to use as splints and found a shirt in his gear that she tore into strips to secure them. She smiled, realizing the only reason she felt so certain of what to do was because of Gus’s ministrations on her own broken leg.
When Per yanked Napoleon’s leg into position, he screamed but didn’t seem to awaken. She quickly tied the splints on, then used some water from his canteen to wet a strip of cloth and clean his face as best she could. After that, she slowly dragged him a few feet into the shade and set the canteen and an apple and crackers from his saddlebag beside him. That was the best she could do. Once she was safe, she would figure out a way to send someone back for her kidnapper.
By now it was dusk. As she mounted the horse, she tried to come up with a plan. If they were traveling toward Baker City and it was indeed north of Vale, then she must need to ride south. The stars weren’t out yet to guide her, so she simply turned the horse and backtracked on the way they had come. An hour later night had fallen, and she stopped, gazing up at the stars. They seemed brighter and closer here in Oregon than in Pennsylvania. She located the North Star and adjusted her direction slightly accordingly. If not for the nearly full moon, she could not have traveled at night. As it was, she walked and trotted the horse, mindful of the dangers to both the horse and rider.
Per had ridden perhaps a mile when she heard a rustling in the woods off to the right. Normally she wouldn’t have stopped, yet she couldn’t help remembering finding a helpless Buddy in the brush. It was a small noise, reminiscent of the one the young dog made. One more dog wouldn’t be amiss in the family. The family. She smiled. Gus, Buddy and Karl were her family. She reined in and dismounted, cautiously approaching the bushes where she had heard the noise. By the time she spied the skunk, it was too late. The creature had already turned around and was in the process of spraying her.
She coughed and staggered back. Lord, could this day get any worse? There was no hope for it but to go on, although she was practically choking on her own odor. Even the horse tried to get away, but she got a firm hold on the reins. As soon as she got back to the pond, she would immerse herself for a day or two. She rode another uncomfortable mile or so before she heard a familiar “yip.” She stopped and waited. A moment later, Buddy burst out of a thicket and bounded toward her. She dismounted and went to scoop him but, but when he got close, he yelped and retreated.
“Buddy, you turncoat. I forgive you, though. You came to rescue me. Thank you.”
And then Gus and Karl rode up. Gus had such a look of relief on his face and Karl grinned. Per felt tingly all over. Her husband might not want to, but he did care. He dismounted and walked toward her and then did the human version of Buddy’s cringe.
“Whooee! You got skunked something fierce.”
She stiffened. “How very observant of you.”
“Oh, come on, honey. It’s always funny when it hasn’t happened to you.”
She begrudgingly accepted that. “I suppose.”
She put her head in her hands. If she couldn’t stand smelling herself, how could he?
“Are you all right?” He frowned as he saw he red marks on her wrists,
She smiled. “I am now. Except for the…” She indicated her body emanating the foul odor.
He stepped back a few more feet. It really was overpowering.
“What happened? Other than the obvious.”
Karl stood next to Gus, with a smell-induced look of repulsion on his face, and she told them the story of her mother’s obsession with her marrying a title and how she wouldn’t give up. They shook their heads when she explained about the $5,000 Pinkerton reward and were duly impressed when she described Napoleon Bacon and his “accident.”
After some deliberation, they decided Karl would take Napoleon’s horse and transport him to a doctor in Vale. He would spend the night there, and Per and Gus would return to the homestead and take care of her…uh…problem. They would travel to Vale the next morning for supplies, and the three of them would return to the homestead together. Right now, Per would ride back double with her husband. First he gave her a change of clothes from his saddlebag and a length of rope to keep the pants up. The different clothing wouldn’t solve the problem, but it cut down on the odor. He wrapped her foul clothing in his game bag and tied it up tightly, returning it to its spot behind his saddle. Then he reached out a hand to help her up behind him. She couldn’t blame him for not wanting her in front, where he would be breathing in her scent.
“You’ll be stinky like me.”
“I married you for better or worse.”
She thought that was about the nicest thing he could have said. She grabbed him around the waist and settled in for the ride, as Buddy trotted along beside them. Even as exhausted as she was, Per was surprised she had fallen asleep on his back. Gus knew it, as she became heavier against him. He’d held one hand on hers the rest of the way to make sure she didn’t fall. When they arrived at the campsite, he reached back and jostled her. She woke up.
“Eww! What’s that smell?” she said groggily.
“That’s you, my sweet.”
And then she remembered and sighed. He helped her down. “While I take care of the horse, you go pick all the tomatoes that are ripe.”
“Now?”
“Yes. And heat up some water in two kettles.”
Thirty minutes later, she was sitting naked in the copper tub by the fire as Gus rubbed her all over with sliced tomatoes, including throughout her hair. Then he poured warm water over her and did it again. When she was dressed and dried, she performed the same service for him. After that they reheated the water and soaked all the affected clothing and his game bag in the tub with sliced tomatoes, and Gus rubbed down his saddle with tomatoes and carefully dried it.
Finally, about 98% skunk free, Gus and Per relaxed by the fire, eating a simple meal of beans and carrots.
Still staring into the flames, Gus said, “I wish you had told me you might be in danger.”
“I tried to.”
“I wish you had told me sooner.”
She started to protest, but he kept talking. “And I wish I had listened to you when you did try to tell me.”
“Guess we’ve both had our secrets. Karl once said something about the family’s shipping business. Would that be the famous Burgen Shipping?”
She wasn’t looking at him, but he imagined her eyes must look sad or angry.
He finished off his plate of beans and set it down for Buddy to lick. “Yes. I was young and a blind fool when it came to Adelina. I couldn’t see past her outward beauty. And she was gorgeous.”
Per felt a pang of jealousy. She wanted to strangle little miss perfect Adelina.
“She also was vain and shallow and devious. I just couldn’t see it. She left me for the man she married. Now she wants to leave him for me.”
Per couldn’t breathe, waiting for him to go on. Was this it? It couldn’t be, not after he said those negative things about her. But men could be so stupid at times. Women too, she supposed.
“Per, you are ten times the woman Adelina is. I wouldn’t take her back under any circumstances. I know you’ve had a rough time here. Will you stay?” He leaned over and took her hands in his. “I want you to stay.”
That’s when she knew it. She loved him. He could be annoying and frustrating and even a little mean sometimes, and she loved him more than she could hardly stand. Should she tell him? Maybe not quite yet. She needed to tell him about her condition as well and recognized that pure fear kept her from fulfilling that task. What if he didn’t want a child so soon? Well, then he shouldn’t have been so free with his…he just shouldn’t have been so free. She decided now wasn’t the time to share her feelings and knowledge. She wouldn’t want to send him running off into the forest this late at night. She chuckled at that.
“What?”
She smiled. “I’ll stay. Let’s clean up the dishes and go to bed.”
“I like the way you think, Mrs. Burgen.”
“Thank you, Mr. Burgen. I have my moments.”
As they headed to the creek with the dishes, he added, “Tomorrow we’ll need to come up with a plan. With that $5,000 flyer out, others will come for you.”
“I know. I’ll send a telegram to my mother tomorrow. Maybe she’ll listen for once, but I wouldn’t count on it.”