Ballard began to collect a few supplies. If his family did not return before he was ready, he would try to write a note for them.
A bellow startled Clover out of her doze. She fell forward and felt the sharp jerk of the rope around her neck. As she tried to rub her chafed neck between the thick coils of the rope, she quickly returned to an upright position against the wall.
“Damnation, Big Jim, your barn is on fire,” cried Poonley as he squinted out one of the cabin’s tiny begrimed windows.
Clover could not recall having seen anything worthy of being called a barn as she was dragged into the cabin. Poonley must be referring to the large lean-to she had briefly glimpsed. She watched the three men stagger outside, cursing each step of the way. It was evident that they had spent the evening drinking.
A familiar small figure appeared in the doorway a moment later. Clover blinked several times before she trusted what she was seeing. “Willie?”
He hurried over to the cot, hopped up onto the bed next to her, and pulled an impressively sharp knife from inside his ragged coat. Clover recognized it as the big hunting knife Ballard kept over the fireplace in their bedroom. An intent look came over his face as he sawed away at the rope leading from her neck.
“You be real still, ma’am,” he said. “I might cut you if you move too sudden-like.”
“How did you get here?”
“I followed you.”
“But, Willie, we must be miles from Ballard’s house.”
“Ten miles as I figure it. I woulda helped you sooner, but I needed to take a rest once I got here.”
“I am not surprised,” she murmured. “You are obviously a great deal stronger than you look.”
“They ain’t hurt you yet, have they? I fear I was just too weary to think on what they might be doing to you while I was having a rest. Then I had to think of a plan to get them outta this cabin.”
She stared at him in admiration. “You set the barn on fire.”
“That ain’t no barn. Just a rickety bunch of sticks and branches. I let the animals out first. They ain’t done nobody no harm.” He finished cutting through the rope and put his knife away. “We best hurry outta here, ma’am. That shed was burning up fast. Those drunken fools ain’t gonna waste much time trying to save it, especially when they figure that the animals ain’t in it.”
Clover stood up, swaying slightly. As Willie grabbed her hand, she took several deep breaths to steady herself. She refused to let her weakness ruin her one chance to escape.
“Do you know how to get back to Ballard’s?” she asked as they hurried to the door.
“Yup. I can take us straight there or, if these fools try hunting us down, I can get us there by a real crooked route.” He glanced at Clover’s skirts. “I reckon it ain’t something ladies oughta do, but couldyou hook them skirts up, ma’am? ‘Twill make it a sight easier for us to run through the woods.”
Although she found it a little odd to be taking orders from a child, Clover did as she was told. She brought the back of her skirts through her legs and hooked it under the waistband. Clover just prayed she was not putting too much faith in a boy’s bravado.
Willie peered out the door. “Them fools be standing there with their backs to us just gawking at the fire. Come on, ma’am. We gotta run as fast as we can into the forest. We can slow down a mite sometime later if we make it into them trees without them seeing us.”
He bolted out the door and Clover followed. His speed astounded her. If Morrisey would treat the boy with just a little kindness, he would have a strong worker.
As they ran she waited tensely for a bellow to indicate that they had been spotted and the pursuit had begun, but none came. Even once they reached the shelter of the trees, Willie kept running and she tried her best to keep up. By the time he slowed up a little, Clover was gasping for breath and feeling weak in the knees.
“I think I need a moment or two to catch my breath,” she called as she sagged against a tree trunk.
“I reckon you can, but only for a minute or two,” he said as he walked back to her and sat down. “Once we get to the house, ma’am, I gotta be getting home.”
“You should rest first.”
“I shoulda been back home to milk the cows. If luck be with me, it will be dark by the time I get home and I can sneak in. Morrisey has usually got his fathead stuck in a bottle of homebrew by sunset. If he don’t see me, he don’t hit me, and come the morning he might forget he was a-wanting to.”
“Perhaps if I went with you and explained—”
“That ain’t gonna do no good. I know how to take care of myself, ma’am, and now I know where to get something to eat.” He grinned at her, then stood up and brushed himself off. “Best we be going now, ma’am. We can run easy for a ways. Leastwise till we hear those fools coming after us.”
Clover straightened up and followed him as he led her deeper into the forest. “Are there many wild animals here?”
“Some, but most of them ain’t of a mind to get near us. If one does come sniffing ‘round, we just have to scramble up the nearest tree and wait him out. Can you climb trees, ma’am?”
