Man of Honor

Chapter Eleven

Victoria stood in front of the living room window her mind on her sons and on her daughter, along with Rebecca. It had been close to twenty four hours since the young women had disappeared. Nick, Heath and the men with them were still searching for her daughter and friend. Jarrod had been in and out of the house, but he too still very much occupied in town. She wished the nightmare would just get over with. After a few minutes, Victoria turned around and headed for the stairs that led up to the rooms above. She had to keep busy or she'd go crazy with worry.

When it came to Nick and Heath, the two men hadn't even made it to the barn when Audra and Rebecca's horses trotted into view. Both men, along with McCall and a few others, had run over to the horses. "I should have gone with them!" the normally quiet Heath barked, as he led the horses into the barn and then started saddling Charger.

"We could all say that!" Nick bellowed as he threw his saddle on Coco. "We can't worry about what could or should have been though; we need to find Audra and Rebecca!" He tightened his cinch and scowled as he mounted his horse. "So help me, if Weaver or any of those men the sheriff is looking for harmed the girls in anyway, I'll do more than feed them my fists!"

Heath might not have said anything, only he agreed. When the two brothers rode away from the main house, McCall and a few other men followed them. Now, a day later, the blond haired rancher was kneeling on the ground near the pond. He, Nick, McCall and the men with them had ridden until they'd found what they were looking for; evidence that the girls had been in the area. "They were here, and they weren't alone." Heath said as he studied the footprints left in the area, along with the hoof prints he'd seen.

"Can you tell how much company they had? Which way did they go?" Nick asked as he leaned forward in the saddle, the anxiety he felt could be seen in eyes and heard in his loud voice.

Not knowing Weaver had been around and chosen to follow the outlaws who had taken the girls, Heath was left to think that the evidence he was looking at all came from whoever had taken the girls. "From the looks of things here I'd say there's three of them, though one seems to be following behind the other two. I'd guess probably to keep an eye on things." Heath answered as he stood up and pointed in the direction the tracks went, "That is, unless the riders had men waiting for them somewhere." Heath then mounted his horse and started following the tracks left by the outlaws' horses. Nick and the men with him wasted no time in following him.

~oOo~

Rebecca and Audra, who had been moved to another part of the cabin, said nothing as the two men who had been left behind them sat at the table talking, laughing and playing cards. Every once in awhile the younger of the two men, a man by the name of Roy, would look towards the girls. The look in his eye said it all, and the girls inwardly cringed. They might be more worried than they were when it came to the young man's intentions if it weren't for the older gentleman. Every time Roy looked at them the older gentleman, a salt and pepper haired gentleman, a man by the name of Mitchell, who looked to be in his forties, slapped the young man upside the head.

"They're not going anywhere!" Mitchell slapped the young man upside the head again. "This is not the time or place for what you have in mind! And," the gentleman growled as he held up his hand when Roy looked like he was going to object, "Don't give me any bull and claim you weren't thinking along 'those' lines." Mitch shook his head and continued. "I've been around the block so many times my name is on every corner! I know what you're thinkin' by the look on your face!"

When Weaver, who had been tortured before he was secured to the wheel of a wagon which had been laid on its side with smoldering coals on the ground below, started yelling at outlaws long since dead and barking demands out to people nowhere near him, Audra looked at Rebecca and mouthed silently, "I'm sorry." She was sorry, because Rebecca, who had tired of riding, had wanted to go back to the main house. Racing to the pond and the bet…it had all been Audra's idea. If she had just listened to Mrs. Wilson, they wouldn't be in the position they were listening to the rantings of a man that were so loud they could be heard through the slight crack in a nearby window. Thank goodness it was covered with a curtain. At least the girls did not have to look upon the doomed lawman.

Rebecca felt her heart go out to the young woman who had befriended her. "Don't be," she mouthed back, "it's not your fault. These men would have found a way to get what they wanted no matter what we did."

That was a fact that Audra did not doubt; still, she couldn't help but feel a bit responsible. However, since there was nothing she could do to change the past, Audra's begun looking around and thinking. More than anything she was hoping to find something lying around that could cut through the ropes which held Rebecca and she bound. If the men who held them bound had not already stepped outside the cabin a time or two, she might not have had the thought. Only they had, and the cabin had a back door which meant there just might be a chance for her and her friend to escape.

~oOo~

Heath and Nick, along with McCall and the other men, stopped their horses. They'd successfully followed the tracks until they found themselves looking down at the cabin below. Since they were looking down at the back of the cabin, they could hear and see a few buzzards flying around in a circle high above the upturned wagon. As much as they'd seen in their lives, Nick, Heath and the men who rode with them still felt their stomachs churn. They didn't have to be up close to see who the man secured to the wheel was and to know that the man was in trouble.

Recalling everything Fred had told them before they'd left the house, and having heard tales of the many ways the Apaches and other Indian tribes had to make a man suffer before he died, Nick looked at Heath. "Didn't the sheriff say one of the men in Billing's gang was a half breed?" His brother merely nodded knowing why his brother was asking and who he was assuming was responsible for what they were seeing. "Well, we got to go down there. The girls are most likely in the cabin only…" Nick paused as he again looked down the hill.

Heath didn't have to give Nick time to finish what he was thinking, as he was thinking along the same lines. "If we go down there, Weaver's bound to alert whoever is in the cabin to us. That is, if he's still alive and conscious enough to say anything." The man would do it to if he could. If he did, Weaver would probably blame the Barkley's in some of twisted way for what had happened to him.

"Maybe," Nick made a fist with his right hand as he spoke not even trying to hide his frustrations. "It depends on how serious they'll take anything he yells out if he's alert enough to do so." He left out his fear that something might have happened to the young women as well. It was a fear he figured all the men shared without voicing it.

"I'll go down myself." Heath dismounted his horse, sliding his rifle out of its sheath as he did so. "With any luck, if he's able to yell anything about us, whoever is in there will simply think he's delusional. You all watch from here. If I run into trouble, then come on down."

McCall and the other men didn't like Heath taking such a risk, but none of them had any other ideas either. However, none of them were surprised when Nick grabbed his rifle and joined Heath. "Don't argue little brother. McCall and the others can cover us if we need it." Nick looked at their foreman as he said the words. McCall nodded without hesitation.