With each step, Sean's appetite for revenge increased. This man had pointed a gun in the vicinity of his wife. He could have shot her. He could have harmed her. He could have killed her. But instead, this man had shot his brother's wife. He had injured his brother's wife. He may have killed his brother's wife.
"Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord" SH
Sean ignored his conscience as he ran toward the gunman. He did not want to hear from anyone, not even the Lord. He wanted his craving for retribution satisfied. Anger overflowed as Sean reached the gunman and drew back his fist.
The gunman saw him coming but did not dare run because a shotgun was pointed at his back. He would simply brace himself and prepare to do battle with the man charging toward him. He put up his hands to try and block the blow and was successful but the next blow landed on his jaw and he staggered backwards.
Sean did not hit the man hard enough because he did not hear his jaw crack. Sean jumped forward and punched him again, causing him to fall to the ground. Sean then dove on top of him and began pounding the man in the face. Sean lost all sense of control as his anger pour out of him onto this man. This man who had dared try and harm Marita. This man who had dared try and hurt his precious Marita.
"SEAN!" Ned had reached him and tried pulling him off the man.
Sean threw off Ned's effort to subdue him and continued pounding the man. Isaac came running up to the scurry next and both he and Ned tried to restrain Sean.
"SEAN!" Ned yelled again.
Sean was oblivious to everything except his insatiable desire to kill this man. Ned and Isaac seemed incapable of stopping him. Ned yelled for James to give them and hand.
"SON!" Ned yelled as he, Isaac and James where beginning to make progress in pulling Sean off the man. "Control yourself!"
The three men struggled but were finally able to pull Sean off the man and pull him to his feet. All four men were breathing heavily as the three held Sean who was fighting to break free.
"SEAN!" Ned yelled. "CALM DOWN!"
Reason was beginning to come back to Sean and he realized he would not get to the gunman with his father, Isaac and James standing in his pathway. Sean seethed as he looked at the man with murder in his eyes.
"Son..." Ned said in a calming voice when he saw the look in Sean's eyes. "You've got the let the sheriff handle this. You CAN NOT take the law in your own hands. Thomas" Ned said as he kept his eyes on Sean. "Take him up to the house..."
"I don't want him anywhere near the house!" Sean yelled as he prowled back and forth as Ned, Isaac and James guarded the gunman against him.
"Alright then" Ned said to Sean. "I have some rope on my saddle. Tie up his hands and feet then go into town and get the sheriff."
"Yes sir" Thomas said.
As Thomas went to tie up the gunman, Sean turned and headed toward Ahab.
"Son, where are you going?" Ned called out to him.
Sean did not answer as he mounted Ahab and galloped off. Ned had a sinking feeling about where he was going.
*****************
Clay held Vivian's hand as he looked at her ashen face. He loved her so much and did not know what he would do if he lost her. He thought about when he lost his mother Libby and how unbearable that pain seemed to be. Tears escaped his eyes as Clay begged Vivian not to leave him.
"You can't leave me Vivian" he said in a broken voice. "You just can't" he pleaded as tears streamed down his face.
Then Clay laid his hand on Vivian's stomach. He felt the firmness and thought about the baby inside.
"We're having a baby Vivian" he said in awe as the news was finally sinking in. "How can I raise a baby without you? I can't do it" he proclaimed. "Especially if he's a girl" Clay laughed slightly. "I'd have her riding horses before she could walk and I know you wouldn't approve of that. She'd probably be climbing trees and running around in britches and I KNOW you'd hate that."
Clay sat talking to Vivian, willing her to open her eyes. When he ran out of words to say, he just sat holding her hand, believing that as long as he held on to her, she would not go anywhere.
*******************
"Sean's coming" Lexy informed Marita who was sitting on the couch watching Sean-Michael play.
Marita stood up and rushed to the door and opened it as Sean came up the steps.
"Sean..." she said with fear in her voice.
Sean knew she wanted to know what he had done, if anything but instead he asked if Clay was still with Vivian.
"Yes" Marita answered as he walked past her into the house. "What happened?" she asked his back as he headed up the stairs.
"Marita, it's nothing you need to be worrying about" he said over his shoulder.
His answer did not soothe Marita's anxieties because she saw the anger on Sean's face and knew he had not done all that he wanted to do.
"Did you get the man?" Lexy asked.
Sean did not answer as he disappeared around the corner. Marita rushed up the stairs after Sean. Lexy went back into the great room, picked Sean-Michael up and hurried up the stairs.
"We got him" Marita heard Sean say when she reached the bedroom door.
Clay looked up from Vivian to Sean. Fury emitted from the two brothers as they made a silent pact that they would handle 'him'.
"Where is he?" Clay asked in a deadly voice.
"Sean..." Marita pleaded. "Clay... you can't do this!"
They ignored her.
"In the woods tied up. But Pa and Isaac are standing guard" Sean said.
Sean and Clay looked at each other and knew deep down that their father and Isaac were protecting them, not the gunman. But their fury clouded any thoughts of reason.
"Why are they doing that?! He hurt Vivian!" Lexy, who had come inside the room, wanted to know.
"Sean..." Marita pleaded again.
"Marita" Clay called to her. "I need you to stay with Vivian and hold her hand."
"Clay..." Marita feared what both of them would do to the gunman.
"Promise me!" he said.
"Clay" Marita tried again. "Think about Vivian. You don't need to do anything foolish. You need to be right here with her" Marita said. She had hoped that if she could keep Clay there, Ned and Isaac would remain successful in keeping Sean away from the gunman.
"Marita! Are you going to stay with her or not!" Clay said.
Marita knew it was futile to try and talk to Sean or Clay. They were both stubborn and angry and no amount of reasoning would be sufficient to deter them.
When Marita sighed, Clay took that as a 'yes' and stood up. He looked back down at Vivian, bent and kissed her white lips. He watched as Marita walked over and took his place. When Marita had Vivian's hand firmly in hers, he walked out the room with Sean. Marita watched with regret as they left and prayed that Ned and Isaac would be able to stop them from doing something irrational.
"They're pretty mad" Lexy she informed Marita.
"I know Lexy" Marita said wearily.
"I don't think Pa and Isaac are gonna be able to stop them" she said. "And I don't understand why they want to!" she said as her own anger surfaced again. "He shot Vivian!"
"Lexy" Marita said. She was so like her brothers - wanting revenge and not considering the consequences. "They can't take the law in their own hands."
"I don't see why not" Lexy said stubbornly.
"Then THEY'D be in trouble" Marita responded, knowing that Lexy understood that perfectly.
Lexy did not have an answer for that and she knew Marita was right.
"Well..." Lexy said grudgingly. "I hope he goes to jail forever!"
"After Sean and Clay smack him around" she thought.
"Me too Lexy" Marita said as she looked back at Vivian.
*****************
Sean and Clay rode in silence to the place where the gunman was. Ned saw them coming and swore. He knew he, Isaac and James would be able to hold off both Sean and Clay.
"We may have to pull a gun on them" Isaac said in a calm voice, also knowing that he, Ned and James could not hold off both of them.
"Maybe they'll listen" Ned heard himself saying as he watched his sons tear toward them.
Both Ned and Isaac knew that what Ned was hoping for would never happen.
Clay slid off his horse before it came to a complete stop and walked determinedly toward the man whose hands and feet were bound. Ned stepped in his path and tried to reason with him.
"Son..." he said as he put his hand on Clay's chest in an effort to stop him. "We have this under control. Go back home."
"Pa" Clay said in a determined voice. "Get outta my way."
"I'm not gonna do that son. You're not thinking rationally."
"Pa" Clay said again. "Get outta my way."
"Son, the sheriff will be here..."
"Pa! Get outta my way."
"Clay..." Ned said and in the next second he was on the ground.
Clay had shoved him to the side and started walking toward the man. The gunman instinctively tried to run but the robe around his ankles caused him to fall. Clay reached the man and pulled him to his feet. He then drew back his fist and punched the man in the mouth. When he drew back a second time, his arm was caught. Clay turned to see his father holding his arm.
"Clay!" Ned shouted at him.
Clay pushed Ned away in a fury and turned back to the man and started punching him. Ned tried twice more to stop Clay put he was unsuccessful.
"James give me that rifle!" Ned shouted.
Clay had just landed a punch that cracked the man's jaw when he felt a blow and in the next instance he saw nothing but darkness. Ned turned to Sean and his expression said he would do the same to Sean if he tried to attack the man.
"Are you going to take your brother back home now?" Ned asked Sean.
"I'll wait for the sheriff" he answered.
"James, would you hand me some more rope" Ned said. He wanted to tie Clay up too because he might come too before the sheriff got there to take the gunman in to jail.
The gunman sat on the ground in pain from the beatings he had received. What had he done? Now that the liquor had worn off, he wondered how he had been talked into doing something so stupid. Then his mind wandered back to two week ago.
***********************
She had come into the saloon and his lips began to water. She was the most beautiful woman to have ever graced the saloon with her presence. When she looked at him and smiled Charlie thought he had died and gone to heaven. She was new in town and obviously had not heard about him being the town drunk.
Bonnie spotted her patsy right away. He looked hungry. Hungry for a woman's attention. She walked up to him and spoke.
"Is this the place a woman might find some gentlemanly company?" she asked as she used her eyes to flirt with him.
"Why ma'am" he said nervously, not believing she was actually speaking to him. "I'm sure a lovely lady like yourself can do a lot better than this ole saloon."
"I'm sure if I look hard enough, I could fine just what I need right here" she said in a seductive voice.
The erotic tone of her voice sent thrills coursing throw Charlie. He had immediate feeling down there as the woman's eyes shamelessly perused his physique.
Bonnie could tell that the man was reacting to her. Why wouldn't Sean react like that? Bonnie also saw the man's red eyes and guessed he was well past drunk.
"You new in town?" he asked as he shifted on the barstool. His excitement was growing as her perfume drifted past his nostrils.
"Fairly new" she said coyly as she flirted with her eyes. "And I'm very lonely since I don't know many people here."
"Can I buy you a drink?" Charlie asked.
"I wouldn't mind at all if you bought me a drink" Bonnie said, thinking she wanted to be a little drunk herself if she was going to take this man to bed.
"Hoss" Charlie called to the bartender. "Give the lady whatever she wants" he said as he fell under her spell.
Bonnie smiled as she reeled him into her plan. Taking him to her bed would be worth getting Marita out of the way. Charlie was more desperate for the attentions of a woman than Bonnie had thought. It did not take her long to lure him to her hotel room. He was more than eager to please her and she moaned and groaned as if he were the best lover ever created. When his sweaty, alcohol smelling body fell on hers, she wanted to throw him off her. But then she thought about Marita lying dead and it was worth being pounded by this drunk.
"What's the matter?" Charlie asked her when he heard Bonnie crying. "Did I hurt you?" he asked arrogantly, thinking he was oversized for her.
"No" she murmured. "I've never been with a man as good as you" she said as she rubbed his buttocks and moved her hips beneath his.
Charlie grinned as he soaked in the compliment.
"It's just..." Bonnie said when she noticed he had forgotten about her crying.
"What" he said when she did not continue.
"Oh nothing. There's nothing you could do about it."
"About what?"
"Well..." Bonnie pretended to hesitate.
"Tell me."
"Do you know the Logans?"
"Who doesn't in this town."
"Do you know Sean Logan's... wife?" Bonnie asked. The word 'wife' rolled bitterly off her tongue.
"The colored woman? Yeah I heard of her."
"I am surprised they are able to live so openly" Bonnie said with disgust.
"Yeah, well, most of the town has dealings with them Logans. They pretty decent people and most folk round here mind they own business. They say the colored woman real nice. And smart too."
Bonnie gritted her teeth at hearing Marita's praises being sung, even by this drunk.
"Nice? She wasn't so nice to me" she said as she shed crocodile tears.
"What did she do to you?" Charlie said.
"She thinks I want Sean Logan and she's trying to run me out of town."
"Why does she think that?" Charlie asked.
Bonnie was a beautiful woman and Sean Logan was what you would call handsome. In his mind, Charlie could see the two of them together even if Sean Logan was married. Married men carried on all the time. Why would Sean Logan be any different? And besides, he thought, if Bonnie had found him appealing enough to take to her bed, he knew she would find Sean Logan even more appealing. And if Sean Logan was a normal man, he would not be able to help himself if a woman like Bonnie offered herself to him.
"Did you see him in the saloon and ask him to buy you a drink?" Charlie asked, feelings jealously rising in him at the idea that she had approached Sean Logan as she had approached him.
"Of course not!" Bonnie said, trying to sound indignant. "I have absolutely no idea why she thinks I want him! Maybe she feels threatened and is afraid he might leave her in order to have me. After all I am white and she is colored. He'd be better off with his own kind."
"Why would he leave her just cause you're white?" Charlie asked. "It's plenty white women in town and he could've been left her for one of them."
Bonnie's ire elevated at the logical remark this drunk had made.
"I don't know" she said irritably. "Maybe he finds me attractive!"
Charlie could believe that. He surely found her attractive. Very attractive. Charlie grinned at Bonnie and began rubbing himself against her in order to get aroused. When Bonnie remained still and seemed disinterested Charlie stopped.
"What's the matter?" he asked. He wanted the wild woman who was quivering beneath him just moments earlier.
"Sean Logan..." she said.
"Do you want him here instead of me?" Charlie interrupted her, sensing that Bonnie really did want Sean Logan.
"No" she lied.
"Well, what you worrying about him for?"
"I'm not worrying about him" she answered. She then realized she had to turn the conversation back to Marita. "I'm just surprised that his... wife is so impertinent and is able to get away with it."
"What exactly did she do?" he asked. Maybe if she got it out of her system, they could get back to more pleasurable things.
"She humiliated me at Alice Logan's wedding and practically threw me out of the house. I don't think I'll ever be able to show my face in this town once people hear about what she did to me."
"Oh I wouldn't worry about that" Charlie said, thinking Bonnie was being overly hysterical.
"Don't you understand?!" Bonnie cried. "I'm a white woman who was scandalized by a colored woman and NOTHING was done to her to avenge my honor! I will probably have to leave town because the humiliation will be too much for me. And if I leave town, that means I'm leaving you" Bonnie said.
"I really don't think it'll come to that" he said.
"IT COULD!" she insisted. "It could and it probably will. You just don't understand" she cried. "Do you WANT me to leave town?"
"Course not" he said.
Charlie thought he was in love already and he was pretty sure she was too. He did not want her to leave town. She was the first woman in years, besides the local trollops, to pay him any attention. All the descent ladies in town knew he was not suitable husband material. He worked and then spent all his money in the saloon getting drunk. He knew his opportunities for having a beautiful woman were nil and if this beautiful woman welcomed him to her bed, he wanted her to stay.
"Well..." she said as she rubbed her hand across his chest. "Something has to be done about that... woman. My honor has to be restored."
"Something like what?"
"If it were thirty years ago, she would be whipped within an inch of her life!"
"Can't be doing that" he said. "You don't wanna get on them Logans bad side."
"Why not?! That colored woman humiliated me! I can't believe they would defend her over me!"
"Well now..." Charlie said as he scratched his head. "They strange like that."
"Strange?" Bonnie said with a bewildered look on her face.
"Them Logans a strange breed when it comes to certain things. Far as I know, they actually considered them family even before Logan married the girl."
"Them?"
"The colored woman and her Pa. Apparently her Pa and Ned Logan fought in the war together. They got to be friends and the colored woman was practically raised by Ned's wife fore she died. They say she was a little tike when her and her Pa came to live on the Logan farm.
"I can't believe this! Will ANYONE defend my honor?!" Bonnie said, then began again with the crocodile tears.
"Now don't be crying" Charlie said, trying to soothe her. "You just need to forget about it. Folks round here probably won't give a second thought to what happened at Miss Logan's weddin'."
"You don't understand the total humiliation I felt."
"Just put it out ya mind and don't worry about what folks round here say."
Bonnie realized it would take more sex and maybe even more liquor to make him more pliable to carrying out her plans for Marita. She moved her hand over him and caressed him to hardness and they copulated twice more before going to sleep. The next morning, Charlie woke with sensation as Bonnie pleasured him with her mouth.
"aaahhhh" Charlie moaned.
And for the next two weeks, Bonnie brought Charlie to her bed. She plowed him with expensive liquor that was much better tasting that what he got from the saloon. She gave him her body and allowed him to play out his lewdest sexual fantasies. When his head was swimming with the costly alcohol or he was in the throws of intense sexual pleasure, she would whisper her desire to see Marita dead.
"Will you..." she crooned. "Do it..." she lifted off him. "For me?" she settled on him. "P l e a s e..." she groaned as she squeezed him.
"I'll do... whatever... you... want" he moaned said as he neared orgasm. The endless liquor and uninhibited sex had finally made him pliable.
The morning of the shooting, Bonnie had stimulated his body several times with her sexual favors and then she filled him with her pricey booze.
"I don't know how to thank you for avenging my honor" Bonnie said told an inebriated Charlie.
Charlie, in his sloshed mind, knew several ways she could thank him but he would tell her afterwards. When Bonnie finally sent him to carry out her mercenary plan she smiled devilishly as she imagined Marita out of the way and Sean Logan in her arms again
To Be Continued...
"Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord" SH
Sean ignored his conscience as he ran toward the gunman. He did not want to hear from anyone, not even the Lord. He wanted his craving for retribution satisfied. Anger overflowed as Sean reached the gunman and drew back his fist.
The gunman saw him coming but did not dare run because a shotgun was pointed at his back. He would simply brace himself and prepare to do battle with the man charging toward him. He put up his hands to try and block the blow and was successful but the next blow landed on his jaw and he staggered backwards.
Sean did not hit the man hard enough because he did not hear his jaw crack. Sean jumped forward and punched him again, causing him to fall to the ground. Sean then dove on top of him and began pounding the man in the face. Sean lost all sense of control as his anger pour out of him onto this man. This man who had dared try and harm Marita. This man who had dared try and hurt his precious Marita.
"SEAN!" Ned had reached him and tried pulling him off the man.
Sean threw off Ned's effort to subdue him and continued pounding the man. Isaac came running up to the scurry next and both he and Ned tried to restrain Sean.
"SEAN!" Ned yelled again.
Sean was oblivious to everything except his insatiable desire to kill this man. Ned and Isaac seemed incapable of stopping him. Ned yelled for James to give them and hand.
"SON!" Ned yelled as he, Isaac and James where beginning to make progress in pulling Sean off the man. "Control yourself!"
The three men struggled but were finally able to pull Sean off the man and pull him to his feet. All four men were breathing heavily as the three held Sean who was fighting to break free.
"SEAN!" Ned yelled. "CALM DOWN!"
Reason was beginning to come back to Sean and he realized he would not get to the gunman with his father, Isaac and James standing in his pathway. Sean seethed as he looked at the man with murder in his eyes.
"Son..." Ned said in a calming voice when he saw the look in Sean's eyes. "You've got the let the sheriff handle this. You CAN NOT take the law in your own hands. Thomas" Ned said as he kept his eyes on Sean. "Take him up to the house..."
"I don't want him anywhere near the house!" Sean yelled as he prowled back and forth as Ned, Isaac and James guarded the gunman against him.
"Alright then" Ned said to Sean. "I have some rope on my saddle. Tie up his hands and feet then go into town and get the sheriff."
"Yes sir" Thomas said.
As Thomas went to tie up the gunman, Sean turned and headed toward Ahab.
"Son, where are you going?" Ned called out to him.
Sean did not answer as he mounted Ahab and galloped off. Ned had a sinking feeling about where he was going.
*****************
Clay held Vivian's hand as he looked at her ashen face. He loved her so much and did not know what he would do if he lost her. He thought about when he lost his mother Libby and how unbearable that pain seemed to be. Tears escaped his eyes as Clay begged Vivian not to leave him.
"You can't leave me Vivian" he said in a broken voice. "You just can't" he pleaded as tears streamed down his face.
Then Clay laid his hand on Vivian's stomach. He felt the firmness and thought about the baby inside.
"We're having a baby Vivian" he said in awe as the news was finally sinking in. "How can I raise a baby without you? I can't do it" he proclaimed. "Especially if he's a girl" Clay laughed slightly. "I'd have her riding horses before she could walk and I know you wouldn't approve of that. She'd probably be climbing trees and running around in britches and I KNOW you'd hate that."
Clay sat talking to Vivian, willing her to open her eyes. When he ran out of words to say, he just sat holding her hand, believing that as long as he held on to her, she would not go anywhere.
*******************
"Sean's coming" Lexy informed Marita who was sitting on the couch watching Sean-Michael play.
Marita stood up and rushed to the door and opened it as Sean came up the steps.
"Sean..." she said with fear in her voice.
Sean knew she wanted to know what he had done, if anything but instead he asked if Clay was still with Vivian.
"Yes" Marita answered as he walked past her into the house. "What happened?" she asked his back as he headed up the stairs.
"Marita, it's nothing you need to be worrying about" he said over his shoulder.
His answer did not soothe Marita's anxieties because she saw the anger on Sean's face and knew he had not done all that he wanted to do.
"Did you get the man?" Lexy asked.
Sean did not answer as he disappeared around the corner. Marita rushed up the stairs after Sean. Lexy went back into the great room, picked Sean-Michael up and hurried up the stairs.
"We got him" Marita heard Sean say when she reached the bedroom door.
Clay looked up from Vivian to Sean. Fury emitted from the two brothers as they made a silent pact that they would handle 'him'.
"Where is he?" Clay asked in a deadly voice.
"Sean..." Marita pleaded. "Clay... you can't do this!"
They ignored her.
"In the woods tied up. But Pa and Isaac are standing guard" Sean said.
Sean and Clay looked at each other and knew deep down that their father and Isaac were protecting them, not the gunman. But their fury clouded any thoughts of reason.
"Why are they doing that?! He hurt Vivian!" Lexy, who had come inside the room, wanted to know.
"Sean..." Marita pleaded again.
"Marita" Clay called to her. "I need you to stay with Vivian and hold her hand."
"Clay..." Marita feared what both of them would do to the gunman.
"Promise me!" he said.
"Clay" Marita tried again. "Think about Vivian. You don't need to do anything foolish. You need to be right here with her" Marita said. She had hoped that if she could keep Clay there, Ned and Isaac would remain successful in keeping Sean away from the gunman.
"Marita! Are you going to stay with her or not!" Clay said.
Marita knew it was futile to try and talk to Sean or Clay. They were both stubborn and angry and no amount of reasoning would be sufficient to deter them.
When Marita sighed, Clay took that as a 'yes' and stood up. He looked back down at Vivian, bent and kissed her white lips. He watched as Marita walked over and took his place. When Marita had Vivian's hand firmly in hers, he walked out the room with Sean. Marita watched with regret as they left and prayed that Ned and Isaac would be able to stop them from doing something irrational.
"They're pretty mad" Lexy she informed Marita.
"I know Lexy" Marita said wearily.
"I don't think Pa and Isaac are gonna be able to stop them" she said. "And I don't understand why they want to!" she said as her own anger surfaced again. "He shot Vivian!"
"Lexy" Marita said. She was so like her brothers - wanting revenge and not considering the consequences. "They can't take the law in their own hands."
"I don't see why not" Lexy said stubbornly.
"Then THEY'D be in trouble" Marita responded, knowing that Lexy understood that perfectly.
Lexy did not have an answer for that and she knew Marita was right.
"Well..." Lexy said grudgingly. "I hope he goes to jail forever!"
"After Sean and Clay smack him around" she thought.
"Me too Lexy" Marita said as she looked back at Vivian.
*****************
Sean and Clay rode in silence to the place where the gunman was. Ned saw them coming and swore. He knew he, Isaac and James would be able to hold off both Sean and Clay.
"We may have to pull a gun on them" Isaac said in a calm voice, also knowing that he, Ned and James could not hold off both of them.
"Maybe they'll listen" Ned heard himself saying as he watched his sons tear toward them.
Both Ned and Isaac knew that what Ned was hoping for would never happen.
Clay slid off his horse before it came to a complete stop and walked determinedly toward the man whose hands and feet were bound. Ned stepped in his path and tried to reason with him.
"Son..." he said as he put his hand on Clay's chest in an effort to stop him. "We have this under control. Go back home."
"Pa" Clay said in a determined voice. "Get outta my way."
"I'm not gonna do that son. You're not thinking rationally."
"Pa" Clay said again. "Get outta my way."
"Son, the sheriff will be here..."
"Pa! Get outta my way."
"Clay..." Ned said and in the next second he was on the ground.
Clay had shoved him to the side and started walking toward the man. The gunman instinctively tried to run but the robe around his ankles caused him to fall. Clay reached the man and pulled him to his feet. He then drew back his fist and punched the man in the mouth. When he drew back a second time, his arm was caught. Clay turned to see his father holding his arm.
"Clay!" Ned shouted at him.
Clay pushed Ned away in a fury and turned back to the man and started punching him. Ned tried twice more to stop Clay put he was unsuccessful.
"James give me that rifle!" Ned shouted.
Clay had just landed a punch that cracked the man's jaw when he felt a blow and in the next instance he saw nothing but darkness. Ned turned to Sean and his expression said he would do the same to Sean if he tried to attack the man.
"Are you going to take your brother back home now?" Ned asked Sean.
"I'll wait for the sheriff" he answered.
"James, would you hand me some more rope" Ned said. He wanted to tie Clay up too because he might come too before the sheriff got there to take the gunman in to jail.
The gunman sat on the ground in pain from the beatings he had received. What had he done? Now that the liquor had worn off, he wondered how he had been talked into doing something so stupid. Then his mind wandered back to two week ago.
***********************
She had come into the saloon and his lips began to water. She was the most beautiful woman to have ever graced the saloon with her presence. When she looked at him and smiled Charlie thought he had died and gone to heaven. She was new in town and obviously had not heard about him being the town drunk.
Bonnie spotted her patsy right away. He looked hungry. Hungry for a woman's attention. She walked up to him and spoke.
"Is this the place a woman might find some gentlemanly company?" she asked as she used her eyes to flirt with him.
"Why ma'am" he said nervously, not believing she was actually speaking to him. "I'm sure a lovely lady like yourself can do a lot better than this ole saloon."
"I'm sure if I look hard enough, I could fine just what I need right here" she said in a seductive voice.
The erotic tone of her voice sent thrills coursing throw Charlie. He had immediate feeling down there as the woman's eyes shamelessly perused his physique.
Bonnie could tell that the man was reacting to her. Why wouldn't Sean react like that? Bonnie also saw the man's red eyes and guessed he was well past drunk.
"You new in town?" he asked as he shifted on the barstool. His excitement was growing as her perfume drifted past his nostrils.
"Fairly new" she said coyly as she flirted with her eyes. "And I'm very lonely since I don't know many people here."
"Can I buy you a drink?" Charlie asked.
"I wouldn't mind at all if you bought me a drink" Bonnie said, thinking she wanted to be a little drunk herself if she was going to take this man to bed.
"Hoss" Charlie called to the bartender. "Give the lady whatever she wants" he said as he fell under her spell.
Bonnie smiled as she reeled him into her plan. Taking him to her bed would be worth getting Marita out of the way. Charlie was more desperate for the attentions of a woman than Bonnie had thought. It did not take her long to lure him to her hotel room. He was more than eager to please her and she moaned and groaned as if he were the best lover ever created. When his sweaty, alcohol smelling body fell on hers, she wanted to throw him off her. But then she thought about Marita lying dead and it was worth being pounded by this drunk.
"What's the matter?" Charlie asked her when he heard Bonnie crying. "Did I hurt you?" he asked arrogantly, thinking he was oversized for her.
"No" she murmured. "I've never been with a man as good as you" she said as she rubbed his buttocks and moved her hips beneath his.
Charlie grinned as he soaked in the compliment.
"It's just..." Bonnie said when she noticed he had forgotten about her crying.
"What" he said when she did not continue.
"Oh nothing. There's nothing you could do about it."
"About what?"
"Well..." Bonnie pretended to hesitate.
"Tell me."
"Do you know the Logans?"
"Who doesn't in this town."
"Do you know Sean Logan's... wife?" Bonnie asked. The word 'wife' rolled bitterly off her tongue.
"The colored woman? Yeah I heard of her."
"I am surprised they are able to live so openly" Bonnie said with disgust.
"Yeah, well, most of the town has dealings with them Logans. They pretty decent people and most folk round here mind they own business. They say the colored woman real nice. And smart too."
Bonnie gritted her teeth at hearing Marita's praises being sung, even by this drunk.
"Nice? She wasn't so nice to me" she said as she shed crocodile tears.
"What did she do to you?" Charlie said.
"She thinks I want Sean Logan and she's trying to run me out of town."
"Why does she think that?" Charlie asked.
Bonnie was a beautiful woman and Sean Logan was what you would call handsome. In his mind, Charlie could see the two of them together even if Sean Logan was married. Married men carried on all the time. Why would Sean Logan be any different? And besides, he thought, if Bonnie had found him appealing enough to take to her bed, he knew she would find Sean Logan even more appealing. And if Sean Logan was a normal man, he would not be able to help himself if a woman like Bonnie offered herself to him.
"Did you see him in the saloon and ask him to buy you a drink?" Charlie asked, feelings jealously rising in him at the idea that she had approached Sean Logan as she had approached him.
"Of course not!" Bonnie said, trying to sound indignant. "I have absolutely no idea why she thinks I want him! Maybe she feels threatened and is afraid he might leave her in order to have me. After all I am white and she is colored. He'd be better off with his own kind."
"Why would he leave her just cause you're white?" Charlie asked. "It's plenty white women in town and he could've been left her for one of them."
Bonnie's ire elevated at the logical remark this drunk had made.
"I don't know" she said irritably. "Maybe he finds me attractive!"
Charlie could believe that. He surely found her attractive. Very attractive. Charlie grinned at Bonnie and began rubbing himself against her in order to get aroused. When Bonnie remained still and seemed disinterested Charlie stopped.
"What's the matter?" he asked. He wanted the wild woman who was quivering beneath him just moments earlier.
"Sean Logan..." she said.
"Do you want him here instead of me?" Charlie interrupted her, sensing that Bonnie really did want Sean Logan.
"No" she lied.
"Well, what you worrying about him for?"
"I'm not worrying about him" she answered. She then realized she had to turn the conversation back to Marita. "I'm just surprised that his... wife is so impertinent and is able to get away with it."
"What exactly did she do?" he asked. Maybe if she got it out of her system, they could get back to more pleasurable things.
"She humiliated me at Alice Logan's wedding and practically threw me out of the house. I don't think I'll ever be able to show my face in this town once people hear about what she did to me."
"Oh I wouldn't worry about that" Charlie said, thinking Bonnie was being overly hysterical.
"Don't you understand?!" Bonnie cried. "I'm a white woman who was scandalized by a colored woman and NOTHING was done to her to avenge my honor! I will probably have to leave town because the humiliation will be too much for me. And if I leave town, that means I'm leaving you" Bonnie said.
"I really don't think it'll come to that" he said.
"IT COULD!" she insisted. "It could and it probably will. You just don't understand" she cried. "Do you WANT me to leave town?"
"Course not" he said.
Charlie thought he was in love already and he was pretty sure she was too. He did not want her to leave town. She was the first woman in years, besides the local trollops, to pay him any attention. All the descent ladies in town knew he was not suitable husband material. He worked and then spent all his money in the saloon getting drunk. He knew his opportunities for having a beautiful woman were nil and if this beautiful woman welcomed him to her bed, he wanted her to stay.
"Well..." she said as she rubbed her hand across his chest. "Something has to be done about that... woman. My honor has to be restored."
"Something like what?"
"If it were thirty years ago, she would be whipped within an inch of her life!"
"Can't be doing that" he said. "You don't wanna get on them Logans bad side."
"Why not?! That colored woman humiliated me! I can't believe they would defend her over me!"
"Well now..." Charlie said as he scratched his head. "They strange like that."
"Strange?" Bonnie said with a bewildered look on her face.
"Them Logans a strange breed when it comes to certain things. Far as I know, they actually considered them family even before Logan married the girl."
"Them?"
"The colored woman and her Pa. Apparently her Pa and Ned Logan fought in the war together. They got to be friends and the colored woman was practically raised by Ned's wife fore she died. They say she was a little tike when her and her Pa came to live on the Logan farm.
"I can't believe this! Will ANYONE defend my honor?!" Bonnie said, then began again with the crocodile tears.
"Now don't be crying" Charlie said, trying to soothe her. "You just need to forget about it. Folks round here probably won't give a second thought to what happened at Miss Logan's weddin'."
"You don't understand the total humiliation I felt."
"Just put it out ya mind and don't worry about what folks round here say."
Bonnie realized it would take more sex and maybe even more liquor to make him more pliable to carrying out her plans for Marita. She moved her hand over him and caressed him to hardness and they copulated twice more before going to sleep. The next morning, Charlie woke with sensation as Bonnie pleasured him with her mouth.
"aaahhhh" Charlie moaned.
And for the next two weeks, Bonnie brought Charlie to her bed. She plowed him with expensive liquor that was much better tasting that what he got from the saloon. She gave him her body and allowed him to play out his lewdest sexual fantasies. When his head was swimming with the costly alcohol or he was in the throws of intense sexual pleasure, she would whisper her desire to see Marita dead.
"Will you..." she crooned. "Do it..." she lifted off him. "For me?" she settled on him. "P l e a s e..." she groaned as she squeezed him.
"I'll do... whatever... you... want" he moaned said as he neared orgasm. The endless liquor and uninhibited sex had finally made him pliable.
The morning of the shooting, Bonnie had stimulated his body several times with her sexual favors and then she filled him with her pricey booze.
"I don't know how to thank you for avenging my honor" Bonnie said told an inebriated Charlie.
Charlie, in his sloshed mind, knew several ways she could thank him but he would tell her afterwards. When Bonnie finally sent him to carry out her mercenary plan she smiled devilishly as she imagined Marita out of the way and Sean Logan in her arms again
To Be Continued...
