Her heart began to pound, and she became instantly alert, fully aware of her surroundings, every rustle of grass. She stifled the urge to cry out his name, sensing his presence. She could almost smell him in the slight breeze, but could see nothing.
With no moon, the darkness was impenetrable.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Elizabeth’s heart nearly flew out of her breast when warm fingers brushed her leg unexpectedly. Stifling a cry of panic, she lay as still as she was able, afraid to wake Katie.
Please, oh, please be Cutter, she implored silently. Dear God, what if it wasn’t? What if it was Colyer?
She couldn’t bear it. It had to be Cutter! Why didn’t he speak? Well, of course she knew why he didn’t speak! she scolded herself hysterically. Sweet heaven above!
Awkwardly the hand groped about her lower legs, feeling for something, and then finding it, halted at the thick rope that lashed her feet together. With bated breath she waited, listening to the sound the knife made as it sawed through the rope.
At last there was a final rent and her legs fell free, numb but liberated.
Her heart pounding without mercy, she watched, her eyes wide, as the shadow crept up to her face... so close that she could hear the breath between them... but the darkness was too thick.
She couldn’t make out the face.
“Ma’am?” the voiced called out softly.
Elizabeth recoiled from it instantly. It wasn’t Cutter! her mind shrieked. Oh God—it wasn’t! In that moment she felt as close to madness as she had ever been in her life. She must have made some terrified sound, because in the next moment, a hand slipped tightly over her mouth, trapping a scream in her throat.
“Ma’am? It’s me, Jacob O’Neill. Don’t scream. I won’t hurt ya—” O’Neill’s words were cut off abruptly as the barrel of a rifle slammed into his back.
“Damned right you won’t, Blue-boy!” came a seething whisper.
Hearing Cutter’s drawl at last, Elizabeth felt her heart slam against her breast. She swallowed, unable to speak momentarily for the emotions that welled within her. Relief. Joy. Anger! Why had it taken him so long?
“I’d sooner see you in hell,” Cutter continued. Despite the fact that his strength was exhausted, and his body was staggering on the brink of hell itself, his voice sounded hard. “Now, get those hands up where I can see ‘em,” he said through his teeth.
O’Neill’s hand went up slowly, moonlight glinting off the knife as it ascended. “I was gonna let her go, mister—I swear it! If ya’d but come a second later, ya’d have heard me say so. I was aboot to cut her hands free, is all... S-Still will... if y’ll let me?”
A chill silence met his declaration, and he went on without being prompted. “Mister,” he advised in a nervous whisper. “If I’m gonna set her free, we’re gonna hafta hurry, ‘cause my watch’ll be over in another twenty minutes.” Still, only silence met him. “If ya ain’t gonna let me,” O’Neill continued, swallowing with difficulty, “then ya might as well put a bullet in ma back now, ‘cause Sulzberger will, if you don’t. If not him, Colyer then—he don’t like you too much on account of you slicing his ear.”
“Some folks have no sense of humor at all,” Cutter remarked so softly that it sent a chill down Elizabeth’s spine. “Pity that. I’d’ve thought he was chock-full of it.”
He don’t like you too much on account of you slicing his ear,Elizabeth heard again. She shivered at the subdued violence in Cutter’s answer—that and the fact that their exchange triggered a memory—the day she’d asked him why his horse had only half a right ear.
“Someone’s idea of a practical joke,” his voice echoed in her ear. “... Don’t reckon the man’s laughing any longer... . Just went a little too far in trying to provoke me, is all.”
“What did you do to him?”
“You don’t want to know.”
Her shoulders trembled faintly at the conclusion she drew, while at her breast, Katie began to stir, whimpering softly in her sleep.
“All right,” Cutter agreed abruptly, jabbing O’Neill in the back once more. “Cut her loose, then.”
“Yes, sir!” Jacob reached for Elizabeth immediately, almost eagerly. “Think ya can sit up for me, ma’am?”
Elizabeth nodded briskly, and then realizing he couldn’t see her gesture, she said, “I think so…” And she tried, but her lack of arms to use for balance, along with Katie’s weight, brought her back down. She rolled slightly atop of Katie, waking her with a start. At once Katie began to whimper behind her gag.
“Shush, sweetheart,” Elizabeth whispered frantically. “Cutter’s here to take us home now. Don’t cry.” While she soothed Katie, Jacob helped her sit upright and immediately began to carve into the rope that bound her hands at her back.
“Be real still, now, ma’am... wouldn’t want ta cut ya... Just another—”
From somewhere within the darkness, gunfire erupted without warning. O’Neill’s remark ended with a gurgle and a choke as a bullet struck his windpipe. Elizabeth screamed as he slumped forward, into her, bringing her down under his weight. Katie screeched in terror, and Elizabeth reached for her instinctively, snapping the last frazzled thread of rope in her panic. Within seconds, another bullet whizzed by. And then another, striking the ground to her right. Recoiling from it, Elizabeth cried out in panic, trying to free herself and Katie from O’Neill’s dead weight. He was too heavy!
