Chapter 4: East Texas Nights
Django rode behind the dental carriage. He kept a sharp eye out on their bounty as she rode with her hands tied in front of her. Mad Jack hadn't tried anything funny since the deal had been struck between King and her. Schultz had decided to protect the young outlaw in exchange for cash money for some ungodly reason.
He watched as Schultz chuckled at whatever conversation that the two were having. The woman had a sharp silver tongue that also snapped like an overseer's whip on a hot summer day. Though, one thing that he had caught on to fast was that she did not call him a nigger. It was like she deemed him higher up than the common nigger in the fields. It brought an air of confidence to him to have her think of him in that regard, but it only brought to light the reality of the times that he was doomed to live in, the reality that he would never be seen as equal in the eyes of the law to a white.
He couldn't shake the feeling that some strange, unseen force was going on between the dentist turned bounty hunter and the pretty outlaw as he watched the two interact. There was no denying it. She was one of the prettiest outlaws that he had ever seen. He had talked with Schultz before they had found Mad Jack. He had asked the dentist if he had ever had a woman. He was saddened when he had found out that there had been a girl once, but she had died before he could take her as his wife.
Django couldn't help but think of what could possibly frighten her the woman that lay in wait in the great slave state of Mississippi. He knew that Mississippi frightened her; he watched the fear cross her eyes. The same fear that he had felt when his wife was branded and whipped. She had done something that was worse than any mortal sin that was for damned sure, he knew.
What had Jacqueline "Mad Jack" Hatfield done that was horrible to cause her to fear a state?
A loud chuckle pulled him away from his thoughts and back to reality. A large clearing in the middle of the tall pine forest begged them to stop and rest for the evening. The sun was quickly fading behind the trees, causing bright light to beam through the pointy leaves of the tall pines.
"It will be dark soon," Schultz announced loudly so Django could hear him over the squeaking of the wagon wheels as they flattened the fallen pine cones, "We'll camp here tonight."
"Can you at least untie me," Jack asked as she brought her loyal horse to a stop. She looked over to Schultz with a tempting smile as she held her hands out to him and added, "I promise that I won't run away."
Schultz smiled as he looked down at her extended hands, hands that were as quick as an angered rattler that had just been rudely stepped on and as soft as a newborn's skin. She owned the devil's hand that was for sure. He smiled as he patted those dangerous silky hands and turned away from her.
"Not tonight Miss Hatfield," he replied in a soft whisper, his accent was shining through each time he said her name. He caught her smiling softly at the way that he said her name.
"Call me Jack," she insisted with a smile as she lowered her hands and turned with a spin of her long dress, "Last man that called me Miss Hatfield was murdered in cold blood."
"Oh a fair lady like you didn't kill a man for calling you-"
"He died of foolishness," she informed him as she looked down to the ground as regret and guilt filled her, "A young boy, 'bout the age of sixteen," she chuckled in nervousness as she recalled the event of long ago, "Thought he was going to run off with me and be a gambler in Mexico."
"What happened to him," Django asked. Schultz and Jack turned their heads quickly to look at the inquisitive man who was unhooking Fritz from the wagon.
She smiled at him and replied, "Man by the name of James de Loach came in to get me while I was playing cards. The boy jumped up to protect my honor and James de Loach shot him dead, right through the heart."
"You shot him back," Django asked.
Jack's eyes fell back to the ground and she licked her bottom lip as regret overtook her. She shook her head as she forced herself to look back up at the freed man.
"I was able to sneak out the window and ride out of town," she admitted, "before any other shots were fired. Last I heard the bartender shot James de Loach."
Schultz watched a hard sadness come over Jack's features. He smacked his hands together to relieve the tension that had filled the East Texas air around them.
"Who's hungry," he asked as he turned to face the both of his fellow, weary travelers.
"I'm starving," Jack said as a soft smile came across her face as she watched Black Jack graze alongside the other horses as if he belonged beside them, as if he had been accepted into their small herd at first glance.
"Mr. Schultz," she whispered as she walked toward him and placed her hand upon his wrist to stop him from walking away from her. She looked over to Django who quickly averted his eyes and pretended to do something beneficial to the group.
Schultz watched as she slowly looked back up at him with a look that he had never seen before in her eyes.
"What is it," he asked then added with a small smile, "Jacqueline."
She smirked at his use of her full name and replied, "Thank you," she stopped and looked around her, "For protecting me, I mean," she shrugged her shoulders, "Not for capturing me and taking me to my ultimate death in Mississippi though."
"You're very welcome," he said with a smile as he tipped his hat to her and turned away from her.
"I'd help you," she said with a cunning smile, "But my hands are a little indisposed at the moment, so I'll just sit here."
"Oh no," Schultz announced with a loud chuckle, "It's an honor to cook for the lady of the wagon."
...
Jack smiled as she held the small tin plate in her tied hands. She carefully maneuvered the three pronged fork as she picked at the slightly burned meat upon her plate. She only took a few bites before she looked over to Schultz and then to Django who was staring at her once again with confused eyes. She smiled as she read his features easily. He was trying to figure her out, trying to understand what her motives where, and if she was still a danger to them. She smiled darkly at him, as she silently warned him that she was a danger to everyone that crossed her path.
"What are you lookin' at boy," she asked, a stern look crossed her face as she looked over to Django.
"How many people you killed," Django asked finally.
She chuckled at his question and shrugged her shoulder as she stood quickly with her plate in hand.
"That's a fair question I suppose," she said with a dark intent behind her blue eyes as she grabbed the men's empty plates and forks from them. She quickly placed them out of the way of the fire that Schultz had made for them.
"I've killed thirteen people," she admitted with a smile, "But they all in some way tried to hurt me first. Some of them were for revenge," she chuckled as she played with the rope that bound her hands together, "Everyone has their reasons for revenge these days."
She laid upon the soft ground and smiled as an owl hooted in the distance and roosting birds fluttered their feathers in the tall trees. She propped her head upon her hand and smiled at Schultz.
"I'm not really the bad guy," she whispered, "It's just the only way I can ensure my survival."
"You could have just gotten married like any other woman in the South," Schultz asked as he watched the fire's shadows dance across her creamy face and dark eyes, giving her the look of a woman that Lucifer himself had sent to tempt mortal man into a life of sin.
Jack chuckled as she looked over to him and shook her head.
"Do I look like the settling wife," she asked with a smile.
Schultz shrugged his shoulders at her question.
"I was to be married once," she admitted as her smile quickly faded away, "To a rich man with a big house."
"What happened," Django heard himself ask as he found himself, along with Schultz, caught up in her story.
"I ran away," she said, "I couldn't bare to be stuck in servitude, to be used as a mattress, and to only be seen as a hole for children to pop out of," she looked at Schultz with harsh eyes, "I may seem like some cheap floozy but believe me, I am far from it. I do believe in that little myth of love."
A long silence filled the small camp as the cool East Texas wind blew across them, causing their clothes to billow slightly in the wind. Jack shivered as she lay upon the cool ground.
"Here," Schultz announced as he stood and pulled his long gray jacket off. Jack watched with sparkling eyes as the bounty hunter walked carefully toward her and laid the jacket gently over her as she lay still upon the ground.
"Wouldn't want our asset to freeze to death," he announced as he moved away from her as she placed herself in a comfortable position upon the ground.
"I'll try my best to stay alive as long as I can," she said with a smile as she watched him take his seat beside Django who was looking into the dancing fires.
"You ever have a girl Mr. Schultz," Jack asked with a twinkle in her eyes.
Django looked up from the flames and looked over to Schultz quickly as he awaited the answer that his friend had prepared.
"I did once," Schultz said as he looked into the woman's eyes from across the fire, "She died. And call me King."
"I'm sorry," Jack said, her tone was meaningful as her gaze connected with his, "She must have been one lucky lady."
"Well," Schultz said with a modest smile and a shrug of his shoulders, "It was more of an arranged marriage sort of deal back home."
"And where is that?"
"Germany," he answered with a proud smile as he thought of his home country and the beautiful scenery.
She smiled at him and replied, "I've heard it's beautiful...and cold," she chuckled, "I'm not much one for cold weather."
Schultz laughed a hearty laugh at the words that escaped the woman's red lips. Django couldn't help but look at King Schultz with a strange confused look in his eyes. He had never seen Schultz laugh at something that wasn't even that funny. He felt as if he were intruding on some strange unheard communication between the two that seemed to rival that of the Underground Railroad. It seemed as if a strange fire had been lit between the two at their first meeting. He had wished that he had been able to go in to that bath house just to know what had been said between the two that had caused such a connection between the two.
Django smiled as the realization had dawned on him. There was an intense attraction between the two. He now understood why Schultz made the deal to keep the outlaw alive, it wasn't because of the money, it was because Schultz did not want the woman to be harmed in any way, in the same way he had tried to protect Broomhilda from the overseers. He smiled at the symbolism. The Jack and The King together. It would make one hell of a story that he could tell his children's children.
"Well I'm mighty tired," Jack announced with a short yawn that she covered politely with her petite hands.
Django looked up from his thoughts to see that Schultz had agreed with her and made his way toward the back of the wagon. He watched as Schultz stopped quickly and turned back to look at the back of the woman on the ground.
"I feel very," Schultz paused, "guilty about letting a woman sleep on the ground. If you want, you can sleep in the wagon."
Jack smiled as she pushed herself from the ground to look back at the bounty hunter. She shook her head and politely declined his kind offer and laid back down to the ground.
"Besides the ground is softer than those boards within that wagon," she announced as she closed her eyes and allowed sleep to come over her as the fire cackled in front of her.
...
The fire had died down to only a smolder as the sound of Black Jack's tugging from the tree that he was tied to awoke Jack from her slumber. Jack pushed herself from the ground and looked around her quickly as the sounds of the crickets, locusts, and frogs sing in the trees surrounding the small camp. Django slept under the wagon and Schultz was lightly snoring inside of his wagon.
Jack smiled as she looked down at her hands to see a small shiny object reflecting in the moon light. They had severely overlooked her intelligence as she quickly shoved the silver object back under her long sleeves.
Schultz's jacket fell from her shoulders as she slowly and silently stood from the ground. Black Jack whinnied and pulled against the tree as if a threatening animal was hiding in wait inside the dark bushes that surrounded him.
Jack hurriedly moved passed the wagon where the two men slept. She stopped momentarily as she heard Django move under the wagon in his sleep. As he finally found a comfortable position in his sleep, she continued toward her horse and placed her hands against his long forehead. She looked into his dark eyes and smiled at him.
"Shhh," she whispered to the large animal, "You'll wake the dead Jack."
Black Jack pawed at the ground and snorted as she looked into the darkness that surrounded them.
"There's nothin' out there Jack," she reassured the skittish animal. He had never acted in such a way before and she felt like something was very, very wrong.
She lowered her gaze but perked her ears in an effort to hear passed the critter's various calls and to hear if a predator was lurking nearby. She hummed softly to calm her animal down.
"I know these hills," she sang softly to Black Jack as she patted his toned neck, "Stone in the earth, rain in the sky, blood on the blade, hear the angels cry. Remember my name, the look in my eyes, oh I, oh I," she stopped as the sound of a stick cracked from close by, "I know these hills."
She continued to hum as she looked passed the bushes and trees that surrounded them. Black Jack pawed at the ground aggressively as she turned to look back at the wagon. Her blood ran cold as she felt a hard touch against her back. She closed her eyes as she realized that she was at the firing end of a gun.
"Walk forward Mad Jack," a hushed voice of a man that she did not recognize demanded and pushed her forward, "And no funny business, don't think I won't shoot you dead."
She nodded as she did as the unknown, unseen man demanded. She walked quickly, but silently, away from the camp site, but not without leaving an untied Black Jack and a newly awoken Django behind her…
