Thanks for hanging in there with me.
Cap's hands were gentle but insistent as they guided Daisy towards the window. The old pane groaned with age as the two worked to pry it open, flakes of paint fluttering to the floor like snowflakes. Outside the night was cold and quiet, the sounds of the saloon too distant to impact their position at the back of the building. Daisy could hear the pounding of many feet as they neared the room. The commotion stopped every few seconds, the huntsmen banging on shut doors with their angry fists.
"Daisy," Cap implored, placing his hands about her face and pulling her gaze towards his. Her eyes were frantic and frightened, darting from the window to the door. "Look at me, look at me. We're gonna have to jump." Daisy panicked at the words, her breath turning to short and anxious whimpers.
"I can't," she sobbed, her tears rushing forth like a strong current. She did not comprehend the magnitude of the threat – only that there was one, one that possessed the power to instill a touch of fear in Cap's usually confident demeanor. She craned her neck out the window, the drop seeming much further than two tiny stories. There was hay on the ground, but Daisy could not tell how much, nor what lay beneath it. For all they knew there could be a hidden sheet of rock waiting for their legs to land and snap like twigs.
"You can," Cap insisted, dragging Daisy's attention back to his face. There were crashes from next door, as if the room were being thoroughly ransacked. Men shouted and cursed but Daisy could not make out the words. "You've been so brave, Daisy, so brave. Can you be just a little braver now? Can you do that for me?"
BANG! BANG! BANG! The force of the knock on their door shook the room and sent Daisy jumping a foot off the ground in alarm. Cap held on to her tightly, his eyes continuously checking the lock. It would hold for a time, but certainly not forever. Daisy's sobs became louder as a voice, thick with drink, gently mocked from the other side of the door.
"Hatfield," it cooed, the laughs of the others ringing in the background. "I know you're in there, and I know you ain't alone. Word is you gotta fine little treat in there with ya."
A chill crawled up Daisy's spine, leaving thick icicles in its wake. She did not recognize the voice, but she recognized the promise of physical abuse brought on by liquid courage. She felt Cap begin to fume beside her, his body heat tempering her frost, and only then, amidst his weakness, could she find her strength. The dread melted away, replaced by a rational desire to survive. Daisy pulled herself up straight, furiously wiping at the escaped tears. She placed a hand upon Cap's heaving chest, beckoning him to return from his rage.
"OK," she stated simply, and Cap met her eyes. Daisy thought that she saw pride there, hidden deep beneath his fierce protectiveness. He dipped his head to hers quickly, planting one stolen kiss upon her lips before hoisting her halfway out the window.
"Wait!" Daisy cried, her leg dangling in the night air. The door was rattling now as someone threw their weight against it. Daisy pulled herself back inside the room and made for the other side of the bed, even as Cap ferociously swore at her.
"Goddammit, Daisy, you wanna get yourself killed?" he cried as he hoisted his saddlebag up over his shoulder. He was pointing a gun at the shaking door, ready to fell the first man who made it inside.
"I ain't leavin' without this." Daisy easily found the book that Cap had bought for her, the one that had been so hastily discarded in the wake of their passion. With it settled firmly in her grip, Daisy made for the window again, hesitating only slightly before thrusting half of her body outside. She sat suspended on the old sill, splinters pressing through her dress to puncture her delicate skin. Cap assumed the same position, so that the two faced each other.
"Just like ridin' a horse," Cap joked as he looked down on their destination. Daisy did not laugh but simply gripped Cap's hand until he winced in pain. "Ease up, ease up," he whispered as if gentling a frantic horse. Daisy nodded apologetically, only slightly relinquishing her grip. The door to their room began to splinter as more force was thrown upon it. The voices on the other side had turned animal in nature, like the snarls and howls of a wayward wolf pack.
"Count of three," Cap said as he swung both feet out the window and waited for Daisy to do the same. They perched like two anxious birds. "One, two, THREE!"
Daisy closed her eyes and jumped, feeling the weight of Cap falling beside her. She waited for the impact of landing, too terrified to relish the feel of the cold air rushing through her hair. The ground rose up suddenly like a specter, anxious to meet the two, and Daisy's knees buckled under the force. Her body went stiff as she rolled over the hay, her hand falling from Cap's. She opened her eyes with hurried trepidation, expecting to find herself in the afterlife. Cap lay a few feet away, a smile playing upon his lips. The hay was thick as a pillow, cushioning their fall.
"I'd say someone was watchin' out for us," Cap said before pulling himself to his feet and helping Daisy to hers. From upstairs came an enormous crash, as if the sky itself were tearing open, followed by stomps towards the open window. Several heads poked out.
"I knew I'd find you, Cap Hatfield," a bearded man called, his thick arms dangling over the sill. His voice was lighthearted, as if he and Cap were children playing hide and seek. "Don't you go too far now – I got plans for you and that pretty little piece…"
Before he could finish the thought, Cap grabbed Daisy by the wrist and pulled her away from the hotel's pooling light. They ran towards the darkened trees in the near distance, the laughs of the men fading away into the night. Daisy's heart roared in her chest in a sinister combination of elation and fear. She had done something brave, something daring, something that she had only read of in novels. It was unfortunate that her accomplishment was tainted by the asininity of drunken fools.
The two ran until their feet felt tiny and bruised, distancing themselves from any hint of civilization. The lights and sounds of the saloon and small town faded in the grand tapestry of the wilderness, the trees looming huge and dark, growing up around Cap and Daisy's flight. Daisy felt the twigs pulling at her skirts, heard the rustling of the leaves beneath her feet, sensed the presence of thousands of curious animal eyes looking down upon her in the dark. And still she did not stop, not until Cap came to a sudden halt in a clearing a good mile from the hotel. The full moon spilled down through the treetops, illuminating the concern on Cap's face. Breathlessly, wordlessly, he came towards Daisy, wrapping his arms around her shaking form. They stood like that in the gloom, both panting amidst the smell of sap and moss. A single owl hooted in the distance.
"You OK?" Cap asked quietly, pulling himself away from Daisy just enough to examine her face. She was exhausted but unharmed.
"I think so," she answered between breaths, dropping her head to rest on Cap's chest. She felt his head sink down to rest atop hers. "Who were those guys?" Cap sighed as he gently ran his hand up and down Daisy's back.
"I was hopin' we wouldn't have to deal with them," Cap began, and Daisy waited in the dark, her eyes slowly adjusting to the blackness around them. Every tree was doused in a wash of navy, punctuated here and there by inquisitive yellow eyes. Before Cap could better explain himself, there came the far-off rustling of leaves accompanied by the calls of many voices. The men had followed them.
"Cap! Hatfield!" The bellows echoed through the trees, nearing closer to the spot where Cap and Daisy stood. Cap shoved Daisy in the opposite direction of the noises before firing one shot up towards the sky in a warning of promised violence. The lone shot was answered by many from the other party, the bullets smacking the leaves like fat drops of rain. Daisy ran without being told, relieved to hear the heavy footfalls of Cap on her tail. The gunshots inched closer, the hoots of a hunting party rising up and over the tops of the trees.
"Faster! Faster!" Cap shouted from behind, and Daisy churned her weary legs as fast as they could go. She felt as if she were floating, her limbs numb from the shock of her fall and the persistence of her running. She had never run so much in her entire life.
Up ahead, the trees parted to a great black swell of churning water. It was a river, wide as a field, rushing and bubbling like a pack of wild horses. The moonlight danced over the water's rippling surface, and Daisy thought that she had never seen something so beautiful and so imposing. She stopped before the water and Cap came up short from behind, nearly knocking her in.
"Jesus," he swore as he held on to Daisy, waiting for her to regain her balance. The waves roared like thunder, trapping the two of them in a funnel of sounds and sensations. On one side sat the impassable river, and on the other was the ever-nearing cries of the impromptu hunters, their grizzly aspects almost in sight. Cap's head swiveled back and forth between the two dangers before he made up his mind, his face resolved to his fate. With alacrity he pulled a thick rope from one of the pockets of his saddlebag and began rapping it around himself and his belongings. In one quick motion he reached for a stunned Daisy and dragged her towards him, encircling her in the rope's embrace.
"What the Hell are you doin'?" she asked indignantly, even as she held her arms away from her body so that Cap could pull the rope taut about her middle. She knew the answer to the question before she asked it, reckoning she would need the aid of her limbs to see her through this next travail.
"We're goin' in," Cap calmly replied. He knotted the rope twice before taking hold of Daisy's quivering hand. Without decorum he threw his arms about her body and thrust the two of them into the angry water, where the cold rose up around them like winter's first kiss.