7.
She caught his eyes and smiled back. Despite the wind blowing, pelting her face with sleet and snow, she felt the warmth of his feelings for her. It was a strange acknowledgement to her soul. She was loved, and it had nothing to do with the sway of her hips or the plunge of her neckline or the artful things she could do in bed. It was an emotion stronger than need, bigger than desire and lasting eternally, not for a day or week or years on end, but forever.
Bill cracked the whip and the spell was broken. She trudged forward, one with the big bay, each step breaking through the top crust, into snow up to her knees, to pull foot out and step forward again. Her face burned with the cold. Her fingers were numb. Her skirts wet with snow adding weight to her burden. Her heart pounded with the effort and she was sweating beneath her layers of clothing.
The team breathed heavy, their hides wore coats of frozen lather. "Come on." Kitty encouraged. "Keep going. Not much further. Come on you horse. Move, move damn you, keep moving."
They traveled a ridge, which could have been the road. The incline was steep now, the footing becoming treacherous for both team and humans but the summit of the hill was only yards away. Surely, from this great vantage they would spot a refuge from the storm. Just the thought spurred them on. They would have reached the top without event had the horse on Matt's side not completely lost his footing, causing a chain reaction. The brace attached to the coach already strained by force of nature and weight gave way and the coach started sliding back in the icy snow. Bill tried frantically to maintain control but there was nothing left to control and in the beat of a heart the stagecoach was careening down the side of the hill. Hitting a rock it teetered a moment before toppling end over end to the bottom of the long embankment.
GS GS GS
She had tried with all her might to hang on to the bay, as if her strength could keep him from falling. He, limbs flailing, fighting frantically against the force of the coach he'd pulled so faithfully. She'd held her grasp as long as she could until the reins had been ripped from her hands and she'd been thrown hard to the icy snow. She slid, hitting rock and then tree. The final sounds she heard before unconsciousness took her was the shattering of coach and the cries of man and horses.
GS GS GS
She fought her way back ignoring the urge to give in to the place of peace and darkness. She commanded her eyes to open, she ordered her body to move. She did so with pain, for her arm had been badly twisted and there was a sharp ache in her side. She splayed her fingers and then made a fist and though painful they worked. With her good hand she wiped what she thought was snow from her forehead and her sock covered hand came away red with blood. She looked at it, confused by the change of color.
It took her another moment before she could slowly shift her position enough, so that she was leaning against the tree, which had stopped her fall. She was downhill some from the trail, but could see the form of the big bay at the crest, standing motionless in the swirling snow. She blinked her eyes, certain she was looking at a ghost horse. Behind her and some distance below the tree she leaned against, she could hear the pitiful cries of the injured animals. It was that sound which brought realty in focus.
She tried her voice, "Matt." It was weak and sounded hollow, but she tried again, giving more force to the name. "Matt." She thought she saw him standing beside the bay, she raised up a little but pain slammed her eyes shut and darkness won a momentary victory.
When she opened her eyes again it was into the face of Matt Dillon. He looked battered and bruised. "You're bleeding." She managed to say.
"So are you." He replied with a tender smile, "but thank God you're alive." His gentle fingers probed the bloody wound on her head, he kept his voice calm and rhythmic as he did his examination. "You must have somehow managed to release the bay from his harness, he's a little dazed but appears sound." He ran his hands over her body and stopped when she winced as he touched her side. "Ribs sore?" He asked.
"I'm okay, what about you?"
"Like you, I've been better, but we'll survive. You just sit quiet for a bit, I'm going down the hill to put those horses out of their misery and see about Bill, Sarah and Jesse."
She listened to him as he began the descent down the hill and then gritted her teeth and using a scrub tree for support, pulled her self to her feet. She swayed and nearly fell over sideways. Her ears were ringing and shadows of grey played with her vision. She leaned forward resting her head against the trunk of the sturdier tree, finally she felt steady enough to turn and look downhill. Matt was already halfway to the bottom. She could see the path the coach took, leaving destruction in it's wake. Young trees were snapped in half. The mail bags which had tormented their journey were now ruptured, littering the trail with letters and packages. She saw her carpetbag with her clothes scattered about.
She started forward, skidding and sliding, sashaying from tree to tree, stopping when the waves of dizziness hit. Halfway down the hill she came across Bill. He too had been thrown at the trunk of a large tree, but hadn't been as lucky as she. He was dead. There was no question to that. She spent no time for tears or mourning for despite the sound of the injured horses she thought she heard the cry of a baby. Now she offered a prayer. "Please let Sarah and Jesse be okay."
She came to the bottom of the ravine just as Matt took aim, shooting each horse in quick succession. There was a relief to the sudden silence of death, knowing that at least the animals were free from suffering. Then Jesse's wail broke the stillness.
"Sarah" She called.
Matt turned to see her behind him. "Kitty."
"I hear the baby" she said. Together they walked the final steps to the stage coach, supporting one another.
Save for a slight list, the stage had landed right side up. The door had been torn off and the wheels broken away. He ordered her stay and went forward to check the inside of the coach. He climbed awkwardly into the broken conveyance, it tilted under his weight. She could see him bent over and immobile for a brief second before he pulled out more mail bags and the buffalo robes that had somehow managed to stay in the coach on it's down hill descent and then he had the baby in his arms. Somehow, as if by a miracle the child had been unharmed. With great care he lifted little Jesse from the rubble and carefully handed him out to Kitty's waiting arms.
She held him close in a shaking embrace. "Where's your mama little one?" She asked.
"Sarah!" Dillon called and louder, "SARAH?" To Kitty he said, "She must have been thrown from the coach." The sun was beginning to set and the sleet had changed again to thick snow making it more difficult to see.
"Sarah, Sarah..." Kitty called, panic clouding her voice.
The reply was faint, but they both heard it because the baby had stopped crying and it was as if he too was listening for the sound of his mother's voice.
"Over there" Matt said pointing to a grove of trees maybe twenty-five feet from where the stagecoach had settled. He reached Sarah first with Kitty close behind. He knelt down beside her. Even in the glooming there was an ethereal glow to the young woman. "Kitty." She whispered, and the older woman fell to her knees beside the injured girl.
"Hush Sarah, rest now. We'll get a fire going and make a shelter for the night. We'll be fine. In the morning Matt will get us out of here. Look, your baby made out better than any of us. He's just fine, he's just perfect." She held the baby close to his mother and then placed Sarah's hand on her child.
Sarah shook her head, "Second chance." She said. "I found our second chance."
Kitty's tremulous voice betrayed her emotion, "Sure Sarah, we'll get you to Dodge and you and Jesse will have your second chance. I'll make sure of it."
Sarah's voice was weak but steady, "My baby will have a second chance at life."
"Yes Sarah in Dodge ... You rest now ... "
"Funny ..."
"What Sarah?"
"It doesn't hurt as much this time."
A chill ran down Kitty's spine that had nothing to do with the cold, "What doesn't hurt as much?
"Dying ... It doesn't hurt as much this time ... Guess it's 'cause I know my baby will be taken care of now. It's a second chance for him ... a second chance ... for ... you Kitty." Sarah closed her eyes, but the corners of her mouth lifted in a smile, when she opened them again she said, "I came all this way ... looking for you."
"You did?"
"Uh huh ... I told Him ... I told Him it wasn't fair that my little one didn't have a chance at life."
Kitty swayed and a strong arm reached around her to keep her steady. Matt beside her had one hand on the dying, the other on the living.
Sarah's eyes were open now, but unseeing, still the words held strength, "He said find the childless mother ... she will take your place and Jesse ... will take the place ... of the child she lost."
Night is never so quiet as when the snow is falling. It brings with it a peace and a purity as though the sins of the world, cloaked by a mantle of white, have all been forgiven.
The moon broke free of a cloud and cast light to the beautiful countenance of Sarah. Her body convulsed in a slow spasm and then she summoned her final words as the celestial glow warmed her fading features, "Y'see Kitty, God does answer our prayers in this world and the next."
