"Vi, are you sure you should head back that way?" Carrie asked sincerely. The two girls had been at Carrie's house under the guise of doing their schoolwork but really they had spent the better part of the afternoon giggling over the boys at school. The girls were thirteen and they felt on the edge of adulthood. They had recently begun to take a liking to those books where men said and did romantic things, men who professed their love and would die for the women they loved. Violet and Carrie knew there were no such men anywhere near Rock Creek but there were romantic figures all the same. The girls both figured that Marshal Hunter had, in his youth been the sort of man who would have allowed himself to be directed more by his heart than anything else. He was too old for them to pay much mind to now but they knew he once was so like those romantic heroes of their stories.
The boys who rode for the Pony Express were all very appealing to the girls each for different reasons. The girls had never truly met any of them personally but at the last town dance they had spent the better part of the evening sighing over the young men. The night of the dance Carrie had slept over at Violet's house and the two had talked into the night about the handsome men. They thought Cody's easy smile and sense of humor were quite appealing. They decided that they each could spend hours and possibly years gazing into those light blue eyes of his. They knew they weren't supposed to like Buck or Noah but the men were so very handsome and always very polite. They were so different though. Noah was polite and knew better than to cause too many waves but he held his head high defying anyone to try to treat him less than human. Some still tried and it broke their hearts. When passing him on the streets in town, the girls always smiled at Noah and delighted in the tip of his hat he would offer. Buck on the other hand seemed to want to avoid attention to himself. He slipped through town as of trying to go completely unnoticed. Of course his dark eyes and hair and that loopy grin he allowed sometimes could hardly go unnoticed by either girl. The other three made the girls' hearts flutter each in different ways. They thought the one known only as Kid was as close to one of the heroes of their novels as any man in this part of the world could. They had decided almost immediately that he could be their Mr. Darcy any day. Jimmy Hickok already was a hero of books and had a passion in him that both enticed and frightened the girls while Ike in his silence had a gentleness that was appealing to the girls. They had no actual experience with men after all and certain things were just frightening. His broad smile and the tender way he dealt with the horses when the riders were getting supplies coupled with his friendship with Buck spoke volumes of the tenderness he could treat a woman with. There was also the one known as Lou but the rumor around town was that Lou was actually Louise. Whether he was really a she or not, the girls found Lou too feminine to really be all that attracted to.
That afternoon however the girls were discussing the varying merits of the boys at school. They often found themselves talking about Jesse. They weren't sure if it was his blue eyes or his connection to a wanted man in the form of his brother or his proximity to the Express riders but they liked him great deal. They had talked and giggled for hours and now it was time for Violet to return home. She was later in leaving Carrie's than she was supposed to be and so she was choosing to take the shortcut through the woods. Carrie was concerned for her friend to go through the steadily darkening woods.
"I walk this all the time, Car," Violet reassured her, "I'm not a baby. I haven't been scared of the dark for ages."
Carrie relented and hugged her friend goodbye promising they would see each other the next day at school.
Violet walked a ways into the woods and found herself unnerved by every tiny sound. She was never like this normally and immediately chalked it up to Carrie's concern. She went on thinking of those handsome young men at the Pony Express station. Often when she was walking alone like this, or really any time she was alone, she imagined one or more of them was with her. She imagined them smiling at her and commenting on her beauty. She envisioned one of them offering an arm while the rest told her stories of their adventures. She would tell them about her life which ought to be boring to them but in her daydreams they hung on her every word. She was in just such a daydream when she heard the snap behind her. It was loud and had to have been a sizable stick or even a small branch that was broken behind her. She was just thinking that a person of some size must have stepped down on it when the hands were on her. It was fully dark in the woods with only a half moon for light. Violet tried to see who had grabbed her. Whoever had her did not speak and she could make out no features. He was bigger than she was by quite a bit and his hands were rough as they worked into the neck of her dress before ripping it open and grabbing harshly at what was exposed. Violet was forced to the ground hard enough to knock the wind from her. She wanted to scream but even when her air returned to her, she found she could not muster more than a whisper.
"Please don't hurt me," she managed before her skirts were shoved upward and her undergarments ripped away.
"No, please no," she whispered through her sobs as she realized what was about to happen. She had only recently come to understand what men and women did together in privacy and once married. She knew that she felt stirrings from those private places when she thought of those rugged men working at the Pony Express station and had even, in the dark of her room at night, dreamed of one of them making her his own, following their joyful wedding of course. Violet was barely aware of her legs being pried apart. She managed half a scream when the pain shot through her but it was cut off by the hands tightening around her throat. She shook her head as much as she could and continued mouthing the word "no" over and over until the darkness claimed her.
When Violet was once again able to claw her way into consciousness, she found herself alone and nearly unclothed, lacking even the energy or care to lower her skirt. She pulled her knees to her chest and just lay there beneath the trees which had always seemed so beautiful to her before and now were menacing giants leering over her and her repulsive state. Violet began to cry.
"Any sign of her, Buck?" Jimmy asked his friend who was on the ground searching for any indication of where the Markham girl might be. Teaspoon had been notified of the girl's disappearance the night before when she failed to come home from visiting Carrie Dudley. Teaspoon had gone to talk to Carrie and her parents and learned that Violet had chosen to go through the woods. It was too dark to accomplish much in the way of searching for her at that time. Their belief, or at least their hope, was that she had merely become turned around in the dark although no one ruled out that she had met with some sort of calamity. There were animals in the woods that might prove dangerous to a girl on her own.
Jimmy thought of the few times he had noticed the girl. He knew she had recently stopped wearing the pair of braids associated with young girls and had opted for a style that was telling the world she was nearing a point where she'd consider courting. She was a year younger than Jesse and he thought he had heard Jesse mention both Violet and her friend Carrie as both girls were starting to not look so much like little girls. Apparently Jesse was reacting to something other than their hair styles. Both girls had started to develop new curves that drew the boy's gaze to them.
"It looks like we're on the right trail," Buck affirmed before swinging back onto his saddle. The two rode a while longer before Buck held up a hand both to stop the horses and to signal for Jimmy to remain quiet. They both heard it. The word "no" repeated over and over amid hitching breaths and the whimpers of crying. They didn't have to ride very much farther to find the source and ultimately to find exactly who they had been looking for.
Buck found it odd that while they had found what they set out to find that they could be so unprepared for what they saw. The girl was curled into a ball hugging her knees tight to her chest. What they could see of her face was unrecognizable through the bruises and swelling. In fact, they both only knew her as the Markham girl because they had been given a description of the clothing she had been wearing when last seen. Buck could see that if she weren't hugging her knees tight to her, he would have had a clear view of her naked torso and her skirts barely covered her private parts. He could see blood dried to her legs and her undergarments were nothing more than a pile of shredded rags at her side. It was not difficult to discern what had transpired here. Both men dismounted. Buck hung back with the horses while Jimmy approached. He knew that in a circumstance like this one that even a man of Jimmy's notoriety was preferable to one of Buck's heritage.
Jimmy walked slowly to the girl and crouched down next to her. He wanted to punch something or be sick or perhaps even cry but instead he quietly said the girl's name and reached for her. The tips of his gloved fingers barely brushed her exposed shoulder before she pulled back scooting away until her back lodged against a tree trunk.
"Nononononono," she said repeating the word so quickly that it merged into one long word. Jimmy rocked forward onto his knees.
"Violet," he said softly once more, "Violet, we've been looking for you. Your folks are plenty worried right now."
She stopped her constant string of the word "no" which had obviously had no effect on her attacker but she did not look at him or release her knees. Jimmy took off his jacket and placed it over the girl's shivering and half uncovered body.
"I know you don't know us," he said quietly, "But we ain't going to hurt you. We want to get you back to town and to your folks."
Her head turned slowly and she faced him. He could not help the sharp intake of air at seeing her face. Her eyes were nearly swollen shut and turning angry shades of purple. Her mouth was caked with blood and it was impossible to tell what of it had come from the split lip and which from her clearly broken nose.
"Hi-Hi-Hickok?" she managed.
There were some advantages to being infamous he thought.
"Yeah, that's me," he said gently, "You can call me Jimmy though and that there's Buck Cross. Can you sit up?"
She pushed herself up but hissed and fell over again once her bottom came in contact with the ground. Jimmy looked up and motioned for Buck to come over. They discussed how to best transport her. Finally Buck went and grabbed the rolled blanket from behind his saddle. The men wrapped her in it before Jimmy pulled himself into the saddle. Buck picked the girl off of the ground careful to not squeeze her too tightly as he was unsure of all of her injuries. He carried her over to Jimmy. They had talked and knew a white girl in this state should not be transported but someone not white. Out in the woods it might not matter but once they reached town it would have just been asking for trouble. As he carried her, she gripped his shirt and buried her head into his chest shedding more tears. Once next to Jimmy, Buck handed Violet over to his friend who took her in his arms. Buck mounted up again and took up not only his own horse's reins but Jimmy's as well. Jimmy cradled Violet close to him knowing that if her bottom had to rest on the saddle while they rode that it would cause her great pain. Both men had determined that she had suffered more than enough already and weren't about to do anything that would put her through more hurting.
Buck rode slowly leading Jimmy's horse as well. He could still hear the whimpering of the girl. He had seen her around town and could tell she had been taking pains to be seen as more woman than child in recent months. Now, however, she sounded every bit the child she still was.
Jimmy hated that he had to hold her like this. He had no problem with kids or dealing with them, it was the circumstances under which he was meeting her that he took issue with. He would much rather have been hunting down the monster that did this too her than have her clinging to him while she cried. She was shivering despite his jacket and the blanket wrapped tightly around her. He held her a little tighter to him hoping he wasn't hurting her. He could see what was done to her face and knew what had been done to select other parts of her but had no idea of the complete nature of her injuries.
"Where did the others go?" she asked him, her voice shaking.
"What others?" he asked in reply thinking perhaps there had been other victims as well.
"The other riders," she said simply in her tiny voice. "You all talked to me all night and most of today. I was so alone but then there you were."
Jimmy had no idea what she was talking about but he had noticed at the dance a couple weeks before that she and her little friend had been watching the riders pretty close so he gathered she might have thought to have a crush and perhaps had imagined something. Or maybe she was just out of her head from the shock of everything.
"It's going to be alright," he said daring to rub her back as once upon a time his own mother had rubbed his when he'd been frightened as a child.
"No," she said almost inaudibly, "Nothing is ever going to be alright again."
The resignation in her voice was something no child should ever feel. There was no more hope or life and joy within her. Just yesterday she was a regular girl navigating the path from girlhood to womanhood and now she was a tiny shell having been thrust into adulthood violently. He sighed.
"Can you tell me who did this?" he asked.
She shook her head, "A shadow," she said, "But a shadow can't really hurt you, can it?"
"No, honey," he said, "I'm pretty sure we'll find it was a man."
"Why?" The single word cut into him. He'd never understood how anyone could be that cruel to another. He'd seen cruelty for the purpose of greed and some who were like that for no other reason than they found the suffering of others amusing. But he did not understand the whys of it all. To attack her at all he didn't understand but especially the nature of the attack on someone so young she shouldn't even be thought of that way by anyone other than youngsters like Jesse who were still far too shy to act on it at all. Her age aside, Jimmy couldn't grasp how a man could take any pleasure in the act when it was born of such violence. His interest in such acts would surely disappear entirely at the sight or even sound of a woman in pain or fear.
Violet listened for an answer but there was none coming except the slight movement she knew was a shake of his head. As intimidating as his wild nature and passion sometimes seemed to her, she somehow knew he didn't have it in him to hurt a lady. She suspected often that he was possibly not nearly as hard and tough as he would have others think. Only yesterday if someone had told her she would be held tight in Jimmy Hickok's arms with him calling her "honey", she would have thought it sounded like heaven but there was no joy to be taken in this situation. His arms were warm and she could hear his heart beating loud and strong in her ear. She could only scarcely see him through her swollen eyelids. She was glad for that. To fully know the look on his face when he saw her so uncovered and with it so obvious what had happened, well, the shame would have been more than she could bear. His voice held such tenderness and no hint of looking down on the horribly deflowered girl she now was. But there was no way that any of them, or any of the boys at school for that matter would still have the slightest interest in her now that she was so soiled.
She became aware of one of his arms shifting from under her and soon she was aware of something covering her face. It was his hat.
"We're almost to town," Jimmy explained, "You don't need those busybodies there gawking at you."
Her tears renewed in response to his thoughtfulness. She tried to take comfort in the scent of him that now covered her face. Leather, gunpowder, sunshine and sweat mixed in her nostrils and there was a comfort to be found there. She thought maybe if she could live in that hat and that scent for the rest of her life she might be fine but before she could even think about how that might happen she felt the horse come to a stop and heard the approaching footsteps of another.
"Be careful with her, Kid," Jimmy said handing Violet down to his friend. "She's hurt bad enough, no reason to make her go through any more."
Violet felt new arms around her and heard Jimmy sliding off his horse while asking Buck to fetch the marshal. She could feel herself being carried into a building while the voices swirled around her. It was clear that she'd been taken to the doctor.
Kid set her on a bed and looked helplessly to Jimmy when the girl grasped desperately at his shirt. Jimmy crouched by the bed.
"It's alright Violet," Jimmy said gently, "We'll stay with you until your folks get here."
"Oh no, no, no, no," she repeated over and over. There was no way she could have her parents see her like this. They would be furious and disappointed in her. She was a disgrace to them now.
Violet felt Jimmy's gloved hands close around her own.
"I talked to your folks last night," he whispered, "They will be so glad to have you back and alive. You don't know how worried they were when they came to Teaspoon last night."
"I'm afraid," she told him.
"I know," he said, "I'll stay a bit with you if you'd like."
She nodded, "Please," she said, "And when you do go, could you thank Buck for finding me?"
"Yeah," he said glad that someone was finally going to acknowledge that it was Buck who was the hero in situations like this. "I sure will."
Alright those who know me or have checked my profile know I used to write crime procedural fictions in my previous fandom. It has been suggested before that I write a mystery/crime type story for TYR. So, since I still haven't had enough space to get back on track with the epic, here goes. I hope this generated a little interest. I don't know exactly how long it will be or who the bad guy is...that's kind of my process with these types of stories. I'll be investigating along with our intrepid riders and Teaspoon and figuring it out. So you can try to guess what will happen but I don't even know that so I doubt you do. Working my way into thinking of the next chapter and I am thinking that forensic countermeasures means something more substantial when Buck is conducting the investigation. Not saying he is going to catch everything they would on CSI with their luminol and such but he gives an advantage I don't think many lawmen had at that time period. Hmmmm...so interesting...-J