Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. All original characters and plot are the property of the author. No copyright infringement is intended.
Missouri
She couldn't remember if she dreamed but she would hear her father's voice in her head often until she awoke. She lay in a small, shed-like hut with sacks, buckets and kegs laying around her. The rock of the floor under and sound of water her told her she was on a boat and the sunlight through the thin gaps of the shanty meant it was daylight of course. She didn't move, her hands still tied. It had been real, all of it. She felt broken, scared and hopeless. Why didn't her father just tell them where the deed was? Anger bubbled up inside of her. They would have let them go if he had, wouldn't they have? She wasn't sure.
Voices from outside broke through her hazy thought.
"You said to bring everything!"
"It'll sink the bloom'n boat I tell ya!"
She recognized one of the voices to be the man Carl from last night, then she heard a whinny.
Titan? They brought her horse?
"We may have a pass on shooting that good-for-nothing Irishman but it's still hang'n for horse thieving." Carl chuckled.
Just hearing his voice made her sit up. Angry tears burned her cheeks as she looked around for something to free her hands with. But there was nothing, kegs of gunpowder and sacks of flour. Her emboldenment was over as soon as it had begun. She flopped back down, letting the sorrow wash over her.
She drifted in and out of consciousness until rough hands lifted her then shook her.
"Wake up." Vahn ordered, the sun low behind him.
Elise blinked into the brightness.
"Walk girl." He sat her on her feet which had been untied. Legs unwilling, she tried to stay upright as he dragged her out the hut door and out onto the broad deck of the shoreboat. Men who were unloading cargo to the shore glanced over in curiosity.
Elise almost fell a few times but Vahn's vice grip would dig into her underarm keeping her up. She didn't see Titan as she came off a short dock into a tented camp of some kind. Smugglers most likely.
Then another familiar whinny brought her head around to the direction she thought it came from.
McBride pushed her over to a weathered canvas tent in the center of the camp and sat her inside the door. There was a cot and a table and a chair. Other boxes and sacks also sat around. Boxes of some kind of alcohol bottles were stacked behind her. Kneeling beside her, he tied her hands around back of the tent post that propped the sloping ceiling.
Vahn pulled out a canteen and hung it in front of her face.
"Where's the deed?" He started swinging the canteen by the strap.
Elise just looked up at him with white hot hate in her eyes.
"Well if you don't know where it is, maybe your Ma does…" He swung it up into a hand and took a drink.
"As far as I know, nobody does but me." Elise said honestly looking away.
"Ah, then you do know where it is?" He pulled the canteen away from his smiling lips.
"I'm the only one he told last night and I've decided to never acknowledge it again. You've already taken what matters most to me, there's nothing you could do that would hurt me more." She shifted her aching wrists as the coarse twine bit into them.
With a lightning fast sweep of his arm Vahn swung the canteen into the side of her face, "Well, we'll see about that. I'll send word to your Ma that I have you and see what she says. It won't take long to find her." With a sneer, Vahn tossed the canteen on his cot and went out the flap of the tent.
Elise's ears were still ringing and she hadn't moved her head which had turned to the side with the blow. Her face was throbbing but all she could think about was his threat towards her mother. If Elise could just convince him she had it, lead him away from her. Maybe she could find it and get rid of it, making them useless to him.
She looked around and a satchel caught her eye. Well the contents did. It was the O'Shea's belongings. Two brown bound books and a white bag with a diamond symbol with a MR inside of it. The bag contained a little over $1400 in gold nuggets from the sale of their personal property in Texas. But she didn't know why they had taken her father's books. Her father took the books everywhere, maybe, they wanted to keep them to prove their right to have killed him because of his religion. It was almost physically painful to think of him and she shuddered, dropping her head. She had no idea what was going to happen to her.
Her father's words came into her mind, "You've got some fight left in you…"
She didn't want to fight, she wanted to just cry and give up. But his words repeated themselves. 'I made a promise.' She thought to herself.
The light faded outside and Elise strained and wiggled. The ropes weren't loosening. Then she looked back at the books and realized her father kept an old slip of metal from his father's watch in his books as a marker. She brought her foot back behind her with some effort and started to loosen the laces then wiggled her foot out of the boot. Pulling at her stocking she finally uncovered her feet and she stuck her leg out towards the bag just a couple of inches away from her toes.
She grabbed at the more slender book, getting it between her big and second toe, dragging it back to her. Getting it to her hands she looked for the metal piece and indeed it was in between the pages. A piece of her great grandfather's pocket watch, the lid of the watch had snapped in half long ago and left a semi-sharp edge and she got it in her hands and started to saw. Her captor could walk in any time and she was on edge. The watch cover cut sufficiently until she felt her wrists part, blood rushing into her straining hands. She didn't stop to nurse them, she put her sock and boot back on and grabbed the book and stuffed it into the bag, looping it over her shoulder. Cautiously she stuck her head out the door, the camp was quiet but some laughing voices nearby and the smell of fire.
Slipping out of the tent, it was almost completely dark and she walked carefully in the direction she thought she had heard Titan earlier. The camp was a maze of sorts, rows of tents and goods leaving narrow paths. Pausing at a corner she looked around only to pull back in panic. A lantern and two men were coming towards her, she darted behind a large crate beside her, praying they weren't going to check on her. They passed the row to Vahn's tent and soon she was left in the dimness of dusk again. She had to hurry. Up ahead she saw a picket of horses. She could see them because there was firelight shining on their coats, making their eyes flash. Getting closer she saw three men sitting at a fire, a pot of beans on by the smell of it.
There would be no way of getting past them. Maybe she would need to find another path.
"I should go check on the girl." One man said straightening up.
"Sure. But Vahn's not here so you don't have to do it right away though." Said a man who was stirring the pot.
"I'll get it over with so I can get some sleep. It's your turn in an hour." He walked towards Elise. She had to do something! She inched back until she could start to run back towards the tent, then there it was. A lit lantern just sitting on a barrel in front of her. She realized there was an outhouse just next to it.
Quickly she snatched the lantern and a voice from though lavatory called out angrily. Elise found her way back to the tent and took a deep breath. She had seen the gunpowder kegs stacked as she had exited. Between that and the alcohol in the tent it should keep them busy for a while. All of them. The man would be there any second. She sat down the lamp and pulled as hard as she could on a cork in one of the kegs. Finally it gave way and back powder poured out. She shook it all over the ground, voices behind her approaching. Then, taking a deep breath she backed up and threw the lantern and took off running, diving under a wagon. Just as the deafening explosion boomed.
Elise was sure the ground shook but she crawled out, the brightness from the flames revealing her from the shadows. It didn't matter, yards away, men were running over shouting for water. There might be another explosion, if the bottles didn't go up in the first one and she didn't waste time waiting for it. She ran around another way, dodging behind boxes or tents when someone would run by. She was right, the fire by the horses was left unattended and she ran over looking for her horse. He was dark so it would be difficult.
"Ty? Ty!" She called loudly.
His whiny called back, a bit further out. She picked up a saddle slung with a bridle she was passing by and lugged it with her.
Titan was dancing with anticipation as she showed up, her hands shaking. With all her strength she threw it up onto his back and it caught. But as she tried to pull the cinch under his belly she saw it was far too short.
There was a shout behind her and she turned for the bridle and forced it into Titan's working mouth. It was tight as well but long enough to go over his ears. She pulled the saddle back off and led the large horse away from the light.
Finding a barrel she hopped up on it, the bag with the books and gold bag still hanging from her shoulder she got on Titan's bare back and kicked him just as a man ran towards her from the camp.
"Hey!" He shouted angrily. Then a shot, and another, and another.
Titan didn't need any urging, he ran off down a road, it's light trail just visible in the half moonlight.
Suddenly Titan slowed down, dancing anxiously. Elise could just see a sort of hedge in front of them, it looked strangely low to the ground and she kicked him to keep going. That's when she felt the scrape of the barbs on her legs. The big horse snorted and brayed in pain. It was barbed wire. If he could just finish stepping over it...
She spoke softly to him, compelling him to go. He shied and snorted but listened to her and kept going. In the dark she couldn't see the thin wires as they seemed to thicken and get higher. Where there multiple fences? Was it just unspooled out there as a barrier? It caught her skirts and she pulled them up above her knees. She'd have to find out how to get out of it before it did serious damage to Titan's legs. Sliding off his back she felt the spikes dig into her legs. She petted Titan, talking to him soothingly to settle him. Feeling out with her hands she went around his legs, making sure they weren't caught in the wire. Then she pushed them down in front and felt out to catch any wire blocking their path. There was some and she worked it around until she could catch it under her boot and hold it to the ground. It took some time to move her horse forward even an inch or two but she patiently worked him passed each wire. The men must not have wanted anyone coming in or out by this road to barricade it so viciously.
Finally, Elise felt out and found no cruel fencing just space and she almost shook with relief. Bringing the antsy horse out she led him into the woods until she found a fallen log she could use as a mounting block. Looking up she found the north star and turned Titan south and clicked with her mouth. They stayed in the woods, encountering the shores of the river. Most likely it was the Mississippi.
A torrent of thought whirled in her head. Had the men started to look for her? Would they catch up to her any minute? Where did Vahn go? Was he going to find her mother? Her father was dead, and over what? Did they just leave his body there on the shore? It was almost too much for her and she put her head down onto his withers, giving Titan his lead.
Every now and again he'd stumble, tripping on something in the darkness, but he kept to the river. Once he stopped to drink and she slid off on stiff legs to bend down to put some of the cold water to her face and try to feel which way it was flowing.
A numbness had come to her emotions and Elise just resided in it. The cold autumn air went right through her torn dress and her legs stung where they had been cut. It was something to concentrate on.
Eventually, she noticed the definition in the woods. Morning was coming. Later something caught her eye, a boat coming down the river beside them. Her pulse shot up and she jerked Titan to cover, her wide eyes watching the boat come into view. It came from the direction of the camp so she was frightened they might be looking for her from the river. It wasn't the same boat she was on yesterday and it had sparse cargo. She let it slide by before she moved then continued at a distance from the river. Wooden fences and dwellings started to appear and she knew she was getting close to a community of some kind. Tucking and adjusting, she tried to make her dress look less thrashed, Elise also washed her face in the a stream that flowed into the river and pulled her hair into a sort of bun, securing it with a small, short twig. She saw a large piece of old burlap lying in the dirt by the side of the street and picked it up and shook it. Then she wrapped it around her shoulders and tucked her sack up under her arm, hiding it from view.
It was a sad attempt to blend in, Titan attracted attention everywhere he went. After encountering no one for some time she came upon a riverside village sitting on the shore of the wide expanse of water. It's inhabitants were awake and out about their business.
Elise had adjusted Titan's bridle so that the mouthpiece just rested under his jaw, releasing the pressure of the ill fitting head harness. People did indeed stop and stare as they went by.
Quickly she made her way to the pier where the boat she had seen was moored. Gruff looking men stared at her and her horse as she walked timidly through the muddy street.
There could have only been a dozen buildings if you could call them that and none of them had a 'Sheriff' or 'Jail' sign affixed. Most of the activity was at the pier; men loading.
Suddenly she felt an enmity for them, for any river man who may resemble McBride. Even the smell of the river repelled her. Looking over to a gathering of three women who sat cleaning fish in a little side yard of a rough cabin, she swallowed and headed over to them. They looked at her suspiciously as she came up to them, Titan snorting behind her.
"Hello, I'm looking for the Sheriff. Could you please tell me where I could find him?" She said, the women all staring at her reproachfully.
She received only looks as bald and motionless as the fish that sat in the baskets at their feet.
Elise, accepting their aloof response, was about to thank them and turn when a voice behind her startled her.
"Ain't no Sheriff in Warsaw." The man's voice was gruff.
Backing away as she turned she saw a round man that had been by the pier, holding a clipboard of papers.
"Oh, alright, where is the closest…" She tried to keep her voice calm and he interrupted her.
"Got one going to ride back down south coming in in an hour though. From the looks of you, you should have a talk with him." He eyed her.
He then told one of the women in no tender terms to take Elise in the house and get her some food. The skinny woman did so obediently and soon Elise was sitting at a rickety table eating a tasteless porridge with molding bread. Still she smiled and thanked the woman who nodded and started to leave again.
"Oh, is there anyway I could find a saddle for my horse? And an extra girth strap?" Elise asked her, keeping her books and gold sack on her lap.
The woman only shrugged and left. Elise had left Titan tied to a hand cart outside where she could see him. Despite the state of the food she ate it all and drank the murky water in the tin cup. Her legs were sore and she pulled up her skirt to look at them. The slashes were red and worrisome. Looking around her eye fell on a round jug sitting high on a shelf over the stove. Elise stood and brought a chair to stand on, reaching up to it she uncorked it and sniffed.
Wincing from the strong smell she knew it was whiskey or 'mountain water'. Soon she was dripping it on the cuts and they burned. But she remembered a neighbor getting 'lockjaw' and dying from such cuts and so she continued until she had rinsed every wound.
She had just put the jug back on the shelf when the door opened and the pier master entered, followed by another old fellow wearing a tarnished star on his coat.
Elise had stepped down from the chair, her face flushing as they looked at her frowning.
"I'm sorry I was…"
The pier master spoke over her again, "Never mind, this is Sheriff Tibbs. You've got half hour 'til we push off."
He left Elise to tell the Sheriff her story. He listened quietly and agreed they should return to St. Louis to sort it out. With the help of the Sheriff, Elise found a decent saddle and she handed him a small speck of a gold piece at which his eyes widened but he said nothing more about it. They were at the boat when the steam whistle blew. The sun was low in the sky now and Elise saw no sign of anyone following her. She felt numb, inside and out.
The boat embarked and flowed lazily with the river, away from Minnesota.
There was a large hut built on it to keep the weather from the more delicate cargo. Elise sat in the front end by Titan as the evening came again. The crew was small: the pier master who was also the captain and two other men and the Sheriff. They left her alone for the most part, only the Sheriff would speak to her but now they were all back in the stern of the boat, from the sounds of it, having a drink and playing cards of some sort. By the light of a lantern, Elise had fixed the saddle to fit Titan a little better, frowning at the condition of the leather. She tightened the elongated cinch to test its fit around his girth. Even though she hadn't had sleep enough, it didn't come for Elise, she was on alert, listening for footsteps or voices. She was also afraid of dreaming and remembering what happened. Awake she could distract herself and even now looked around to see if there was any oil she could apply to the saddle to keep herself busy. There was only a bucket of rank tar that she could see. That meant she would have to go back to the stern to ask but she pushed her apprehensions away and went down the narrow walkway along the building. There was a lantern on the table where the two other shipmen were sitting back at a table laughing but she saw no sign of the Sheriff or Pier Master. Deciding to wait to talk to the Sheriff only, she started back but heard a voice coming through a small window by her in the building.
"I should have known she was something of McBride's when I saw her. Seen 'em before." The pier master could barely be heard.
Then Tibbs spoke, "Best thing for her is to get her on a train west as soon as possible. I don't want no trouble with McBride, he keeps to his own and keeps things nice and quiet on the river and I keep outta his way."
Elise shivered hearing the words. The Sheriff knew McBride?
"Funny that the law's on his side of it for once. If I know McBride, they'll never find that man." Said the Pier Master, he sounded closer now and Elise held her breath.
"Wouldn't even make it to court. Seen it before. I don't know about that deed she's on about but maybe if I can get the gold from her, it might settle McBride and he'd get shut of her." The Sheriff coughed at the end of his sentence.
"Well I sent word to him we'd have her down in St. Louis in a couple days. I had to, I don't want to be on the wrong side of him. But I don't think he'll run us down. We'll have too much of a start on him, unless he's already there."
Elise was breathing hard, and started back towards the bow of the boat. She didn't know what was more disturbing, that these men were in step with McBride or that they seemed to think nothing would be done about her father's murder. What if McBride was waiting for her on the next dock? What would the men do then? Would the sheriff protect her or would he be inclined to hand her over. Her terrified mind thought the worse and she looked at the water that surrounded her. She realized she was trapped, unable to escape. She would rather throw herself into the water than be taken by McBride again.
Closing her eyes tight she pushed the hysteria away and tried to just breath. Then she looked over at Titan who was standing at rest with his head lowered. The smell of the tar in the can near her gave her an idea and she looked around at the cargo. There was a oil-treated tarp over a crate of gourd and she hurried over and looked through them, selecting a good sized one then brought it back to where she had been customizing her saddle. They had lent her a knife to trim the leather and she quickly cut a hole in the gourd and dug out the insides. It was just big enough to fit her books in and she then cut a piece of the tarp, taking it down with leather tacks and then putting the tar over it. She hoped it would be water tight but she couldn't wait for the tar to dry. The saddle fit decently for now.
Rolling up the tarp and grabbing a coiled rope hanging from the wall of the building she tied the gourd and the satchel with the gold to the pommel of her saddle then climbed up herself with the help of a nearby barrel. Titan knew something was happening and had lifted his head, his ears pricked and his front hoof almost stomping on the deck.
"Shh, Ty. Shh." Elise urged him to the edge of the boat, listening and looking to see if any of the men were coming.
Sitting on his back she tangled her fingers in his mane and kicked him. Titan shifted in confusion, knowing all that lay before him was water.
"Come on Ty, we've got to. Go, ha!" She tried to speak quietly. He stepped forward and back at the edge, putting his nose down to inspect the lapping water. He would have to clear the low lip of the boat.
Sounds of the men singing up in the front of the boat assured Elise it was the time to do this.
"Jump Ty!" She ordered hushedly.
He did it. Water surrounded her and covered her head. Then she came back up with the powerful strokes of the horse. She drifted off his back, letting him emerge more. She didn't think there was much of a splash, he had almost slid in on his stomach. They had gone off on the Missouri shore side and Titan was paddling for it with all his might. Elise just held on to his mane with one hand and kicked to stay above water. The gourd floated as she had hoped and now all she had to do was not drown.
Many times she thought she would be gulped down by the rough current and she would try to take as big a breath as she could. Then she would float up on her back, having faith that Titan would work his way to the shore before his strength gave. Every now and again she would open her eyes to catch a glimpse of the stars above her. They looked lonely and dim. There was nothing she could do but get away. She didn't know what she could do about McBride now if anything. It had been said that the courts would do nothing, the only justice her father would get now would be if she could do what he had asked her to do.
'I'll try.' She thought, releasing the warm tears into the frigid river.
Note: If you made it through this chapter you're awesome! It was a bit longer than I'd hoped.