Chapter 24:

Logan got up for the tenth time, going to the door and opening it. She should be back by now. The moon was full, and there were so many things that could happen at night to a defenseless, unarmed girl. He paced restlessly back and forth listening for the sound of hoofbeats on the path up to his gate.

He wasn't the only one. Remy LeBeau had gotten up to check the back door twice in the last hour, plainly as worried as he. "Maybe we should go find her, homme?" he suggested, but Logan gestured out the door.

"It's dark. I can't track in the dark. Where would I look? Maybe she went to Stamping Buffalo's tribe to give that devil horse back, and they invited her to spend the night. Who knows?" Logan was about to close the cabin door when a sudden bark from outside caught his attention.

Snow glided under the front gate and came loping purposefully to the front door. He barked once, sharp and demanding, and waited.

"I don't know where she is, wolf," Logan growled. "You go find her!"

Snow bounded off the step, retreated two steps into the darkness, then ran back to the door and barked again. Remy shot upward from his chair as Logan cursed. "I t'ink he did find her!"

Logan was already grabbing the lantern and a bridle and a blanket. "Yeah, I think so too." He ran outside, whistling for Dark Star, and the horse came to a stop just inside the fence, waiting for Logan to open the gate. Logan slipped a rope halter around the horse's head, then jumped up on the horse bareback after draping the blanket on the glossy black back. Remy didn't bother with a blanket. He slipped the bridle on Rogue and jumped on the horse completely bareback.

Snow took off through the darkness, and Remy and Logan followed. Snow went up to the foothills, and started to climb higher. The two men followed.

It seemed like an eternity to the two men before Snow barked sharply and turned off onto a deer trail. Remy lifted his head and sniffed the air, and Logan did too. Logan smelled it first. Blood. Raising the lantern high, he went cautiously into the brush.

Two more feet, and the trees suddenly opened up into a little clearing. Logan gasped in horror, but his gasp was lost in Remy's cry of anguish. Remy didn't wait for his horse to stop, he just slid off the still moving animal and hit the ground running. By the time Logan stopped Dark Star and grabbed the blanket, Remy was on his knees, touching the white shoulder gently. "Non, non, ma cherie, non, mon Dieu," he sobbed, whimpered almost, gathering the too-limp body in his arms. "Non, s'il vous plait, non…"

Logan felt tears spring to his eyes as he repeated Remy's words. "No, please, God, no," he whispered brokenly as he went to his knees beside the sobbing man and his beloved daughter. She was so still, her skin pale under the dried blood that caked her skin and hair. He reached for the knot behind her head, untied it, and pulled what seemed like wads of blood-streaked cloth from her mouth. As he touched her cheek gently, she took a deep, sobbing breath. "P…papa?" her voice was hoarse, raspy from screaming into the gag.

"I'm right here, darlin'," he said, wrapping the blanket around her. "I'm right here."

"Hurt…" She whined in agony. "Papa, I hurt…"

"We're goin' home, darlin', we're goin' home. You'll be all right. Come on." Remy tried to get to his feet still carrying her, but his knee bumped up against her side. She screamed in agony, a terrible, harsh sound, and passed out again.

Remy gasped as a thin trickle of blood came from the corner of her mouth. "She hurt bad, mon ami, we got to get her home…" He got to his feet, carefully but quickly. She was unconscious; he couldn't cause her any further pain. He carried her over to Thunder, who sensed the urgency and miraculously held still as Remy put her in the saddle, Logan helping. Logan took a last look back at Walbrook's body, but Remy shook his head grimly. "T'roat tore out, Logan. Not'ing we can do for him, not dat I want to. Leave him here for de animals to eat." Remy mounted his horse, leading Walbrook's horse behind him, and Logan rode Dark Star, leading Thunder. Thunder seemed to know something was wrong with his mistress, and stepped carefully around obstacles in his path, trying not to jar his cargo. Snow glided along at Thunder's stirrup, silent and watchful.

They pulled up in front of the cabin, and Remy slid off. He lifted the unconscious girl from the saddle, Logan watching unprotestingly. Remy was taller, and could reach her without jarring her much. Logan would have had a more difficult time.

Remy carried her into the cabin, and Logan slipped the halters off the horses and hurried after him, too worried about Jubilee to take care of them. He threw another log on the fire, put a pot of water on to boil for a tea to help her pain, and then turned to the Cajun and his daughter.

Remy was busy with a cloth, wiping at the blood crusting her wounds. "Mon Dieu," he whispered. "How many lashes he give her?"

Logan knelt on the other side of the bed, taking another rag and doing what he could to clean the wounds on her left side. He flinched as he realized that the welts, while spread out over the front and back of her body, seemed worst around her intimate areas. "Too many," he whispered, his throat closing with anguish as he tried to fight the tears that threatened to spill from his eyes "Too damned many. If Snow hadn't torn the bastard's throat out, I would've."

Remy's fingers slid over her battered torso, feeling their way down gently. Logan was about to snap at him for taking liberties when he saw Jubilee's body jerk in agony, and Remy gasped softly. "He break her bone here," he said softly. "You got anyt'ing stiff? A t'in piece of wood, an' some long strips of cloth?" Logan wordlessly fetched the splint and cloth that Jubilee had used to splint his fractured leg last year when a horse had kicked him, and Remy placed it against Jubilee's side. Logan took her upper body in his arms, holding her torso upright as Remy bound her torso with strips of cloth to the wooden splint. "She not goin' to be able to get up till dat bone heal," Remy said grimly. "A week, at least." He rummaged around in his traveling pack until he came up with a familiar bag, and emptied a few packets from it onto the table. He handed a large one to Logan. "Dump all dat into a cup of hot water. It goin' to soak up de liquid. Den mash it into a t'ick paste. It smell bad, but I got to put dat on her ches' an' hips. Den take dat small packet, de one in red paper? Put all dat in a cup of water. She got to drink dat. Too dark to go out an' fin' de leaf I tol' her to eat to prevent getting pregnant." Numb, Logan did what he was told to do.

Remy plastered the stuff all over Jubilee's body, covering the wounds. Jubilee's face, tight with pain even through her unconsciousness, eased a little as the anesthetic properties of some of the herbs numbed her skin. Finally Remy sat back. "Not'ing more we can do. If she live t'rough de night she goin' to be okay. All we can do is wait, and pray."

Logan sat down heavily at the table, in one of the two chairs, and sighed heavily. "What do I gotta do ta keep her safe?" he sighed. "An' why didn't she take the damn pass?"

Remy looked at Logan from where he was sitting on the floor beside her bed. "De only way you goin' to keep dis from happening is to free her, Logan," he said. "And de only way you goin' to free her is to send her up nort' wit' me so I can free her."

"But she doesn't want to go," Logan said, despairingly. "How can I make her go if she doesn't want to leave?"

"You a Master, Logan! Send her away! She a slave, no matter what you want to believe! She a slave an' dat mean you got a right to decide what she do an' where she go!"

"I can't do that ta her!" Logan said. "I can't break her heart like that!"

Remy exploded in anger, rising from his seat on the floor and grabbing Logan's shirt front. "You got to, homme! You prefer seein' her dere wit' her ribs an' body broke? You want to see her spirit break finally because she been used too often, whipped too often? Mon Dieu, Logan, do you know how much it hurt leavin' de las' time, knowin' dat she was bein' used every damn day by dem damn soldiers who couldn' keep dey hands off her? And de only t'ing I could do was tell her what to do so she wouldn' get pregnant an' break your damn heart!"

"What?" Logan looked stricken. "She was…they were…usin' her? She never told me…" He trailed off, slumped down in his chair, and buried his face in his hands.

Remy bit his lip, turning pale. "Merde." He sat down heavily in the chair next to Logan, and finally reached out and awkwardly touched the other man's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I t'ought she tell you by now, or you fin' out."

Logan spoke without lifting his head. "What happened?"

Remy closed his eyes. "De soldiers, from de fort. Dey catch her outside your property, dey ask for her pass. She show it to dem, because she have to obey any free person who order her to do anyt'ing. Dey order her to get on her knees so dey can use her mout', she got to obey. Dey tell her to lie on her back, she got to obey too. Dey make her get on her hands an' knees so dey can do to her what Remy's Master done to him, she got to obey dat too. Even t'ough it hurt like hell. She can' fight dem, or dey hurt her worse. An' if dey hurt her like dat, den you goin' to fin' out an' you goin' to go get dem for hurtin' her. And den you get in trouble." Remy's voice was bitter, and harsh. "She rat'er be raped every day, in every way possible, den get her precious Papa in trouble. What you done to deserve such loyalty, Logan?"

"Yer Master…" Logan swallowed. "He…"

Remy stood and pulled the top of his trousers down a little until Logan could see the small of his back. "See dat burn? Dat used to be a brand. Remy a branded body slave too. People like little boys same's little girls, Logan. Better when de little boy a slave who can't fight."

Logan choked. He couldn't imagine…"Does Jubilee know?"

Remy nodded, sitting back down. "She know. She guessed dat firs' night, when we had dat conversation, an' she hugged me. She sorry it happened."

Logan looked back at the girl on the bed. "Why didn't she ever tell me?" he whispered plaintively.

"Because she don' wan' to hurt your feelings," Remy said. "Because like she said, it tear your heart out if she tell you, an' she don' want to hurt you like dat. But Logan, is it wort' her staying here an' lettin' her be 'bused like dis when de only t'ing you can do is pick her up and care for her cuts? How much of dis you t'ink she goin' be able to take? T'ink de next time dis happen she goin' to survive? How bout de time after?"

"But she don't want ta leave," Logan whispered.

"Den you got to make her leave, Logan. You got to send her away. Sometime we have to hurt de ones we love for dey own good, Logan, an' if you really love her de way she t'ink you love her, you gonna do dis for her own good. It gonna hurt her now, but she 'ventually goin' to understan'."

"I don't know if I can live without her." Logan's voice was a whisper. Remy saw the anguished look in the other man's eyes, and his own heart contracted painfully. The other man was hurting, as much as Jubilee was hurting now, and telling the man to send away his daughter was like telling the man to cut his own heart out. Remy closed his eyes again; it was easier to talk to Logan without having to see his anguished reaction.

"You done fine before she come, Logan. You goin' to do fine again. Dey's talk back East 'bout a war, because de Nort' want to get rid of slavery. When dat happen, she goin' be free. She can come back an' be a free woman, an' live wit' you de res' of her life. Which goin' be longer dan it will otherwise. Take it from me, each time a slave gets a whippin' it take what feel like ten years off a life. Remy feel about two hundred by de time he freed. Remy know what she goin' to feel like when she wake up, and Remy…" Remy blinked furiously, staring at the ceiling as a single tear streaked down his cheek. "Remy love her too much to watch her go t'rough dis again. If she don' come wit' me dis time, you never goin' to see me again. I can't come back de next time and see more scars on her body, more scars on her soul, because she love you too much to tell you she want her freedom so bad she cry for it some nights, an' you too hungry for her company to tell her to go."

Logan looked at Remy, the muscles in his jaw bunching. "She wants freedom that bad?" he said. "Ya love her? Ya goin' ta take care o' her an' make sure she gets there safe? Ya gonna make sure she gets her freedom? Yer not gonna whip her, or force her ta sleep with ya?"

Remy's eyes glittered in anger. "Listen to me, you bull-headed cowboy. Remy know what it feel like to be raped. I know what it feel like to be ordered to do somet'ing you hate. I know what it feel like to be tied down an' punished for not obeying an order. You t'ink, with all I know, I'm goin' to put de woman I love t'rough dat? You don' know me, monsieur."

Logan got up and went to the small box under his bed, pulling it out. Inside, carefully folded, was the paper with his signature on it that meant he owned Jubilee. He put it on the table, grabbed a pen, flipped it over, and signed his name, quickly, angrily, to the bottom of the sheet. "Sign there, an' she's yers when ya go," he said, a lump forming in his throat. Remy signed it, and Logan watched as he folded it back up carefully and put it in his waistcoat pocket. Getting up abruptly, Logan grabbed the empty bucket and left the cabin, unable to sit there any longer. She was no longer his, she was someone else's, and all he could hope was that someday, somewhere, she'd find freedom and happiness.

Even if it wasn't with him.