TIME MACHINE CHAPTER SIX
"She gave my son LINES just for making a witty comment" Algernon wailed to The Reverend Fletcher.
"What comment was that, Nick?"
"He called that little half-Mexican girl a half-breed, is all."
"I don't blame her! Nick, you need to tell that boy of yours that such language's unacceptable. And remember we're all equal in the eyes of The Almighty."
Nick stormed out.
He tried to put his poison in with Miss Roach next, and caught her up as she was carrying her basket home from the grocery store.
"Help carry your bag, ma'am?"
"No thank you Mr Jordan, I can manage."
"Ma'am, I don't want to stir up trouble-"
Miss Roach gave a ladylike snort of disbelief.
"_But that new lodger of yours, Benjamin Chiltern. He's singing in the Golden Nugget with all the lowlife."
Miss Roach hit him over the head with her basket.
"I was in there last night! That boy sings like an angel and he sung a right good song too, called 'You Raise Me Up'. He's a good boy and that new schoolteacher lady's just dandy too. My little niece Molly said she let her read the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella. Molly's usually such a shy little thing but she told me she stood up and she read right out loud!"
Nick decided that if verbal poison wasn't going to work, the real thing might.
He went to the other saloon in town, which was only frequented by actual lowlife, the Rampant Rooster, and saw that the man he wanted to speak to was in the corner trying to look unobtrusive.
"Her name's Mrs Beauchamp and she's a redskin lover and a half-breed supporter, too. Now if she was a man it'd be easy but I can't just start a fight with a lady and get out my gun, can I?" whined Jordan.
The sinister-looking man said quietly:
"You need a bit of my special powder. Get near her, maybe while that curly numbskull's singing in the Golden Nugget. Slip a little into her drink. She'll wake with a bad belly ache the next day. If that ain't enough to see her off, keep slipping a dose in each night. Soon your little schoolma'm will be up there playing a harp."
Nick came out of the Rampant Rooster, his wallet lighter by two dollars, and his lip set in determination. He felt a bit bad about killing a lady, but hell, the bitch didn't fancy him anyway. She had to go.
Next day he couldn't believe his luck. Connie Beauchamp was snoozing on the veranda of Miss Roach's establishment, and there was a half-empty glass on the window sill behind her. And that window was open. Nobody else seemed to be around.
Rita was helping Miss Roach by doing the ironing that evening.
Nick crept over to the glass on the sill. Rita saw something in the corner of her eye. She'd never trusted Jordan and now he was about to put something in Connie's glass of home-made lemonade.
An iron is a heavy weapon, and especially lethal when it's hot.
Nick was in the Next World before he knew it.
And Mrs Jordan was screaming and pointing hysterically at Rita.
"Murderess! She's killed my husband!"
Up to now Connie had never liked Rita Freeman much, but now Rita was in the county jail, awaiting her last morning on earth. She went to see Sheriff Harper herself to plead Rita's case.
"She was defending me! It wasn't murder."
Sheriff Harper looked sad.
"Ma'am, there's only one sentence for cold-blooded killing in this town but I'll tell you what we'll do. I'm a personal friend of the hangman. Now normally what happens is, the little lady would stand on the back of a horse, somebody would whop its ass and it'd gallop away, leaving your little friend to strangle."
Connie felt queasy.
"But the hangman, he don't like making the ladies suffer, so what he'll do if I ask him is, just before the horse gallops away, he'll snap your friend's neck. She'll be in the next world before she feels a thing. Okay?"
Connie nodded briefly, then hurried outside, where she ran to a patch of grass behind the Sheriff's office, and threw up on it.
Ben had been singing in the Golden Nugget when somebody had burst in and shouted the shocking news. Ben had immediately apologised and walked out, his face white. None of the regulars could blame him in the circumstances. Connie, Ben, Dylan and Jess spent the night huddled together in a miserable group hug. It looked as if things were hopeless for Rita.
Some miles away, Grey Owl, the Native American Indian who Connie had helped was sending out smoke signals to all his tribe, having witnessed the arrest from a safe distance.
The next morning, two men led Rita out, her hands tied behind her. Algernon Jordan's eyes were red. They were not red with grieving, it was because he'd received a thorough whipping from his mother when he'd asked her if he could have his late father's dirty postcard collection now.
Connie, Ben, Dylan and Jess stood in a group, still hugging. They were all weeping. Widow Jordan glared at Rita, hoping that she'd suffer for a long time.
The men were almost gentle with Rita when they stood her on the back of the horse.
Then suddenly came the shout:
"Indians!"
They came in a cloud of dust, about twenty of them. Women fled indoors with their children. Men, expecting a battle, ran to get more weapons. Connie and her group moved close to Rita, refusing to budge from her side.
Arrows pinned the four of them to the wall by their sleeves. They didn't realise it but that was to keep them safely in one place so they weren't trampled by the Indians' horses.
Grey Owl fired an arrow into the hangman's hand, then cut the noose around Rita's neck. She was stunned but unhurt as he flung her across his horse and galloped away with her, firing an arrow at Dylan as he did so. It hit the wall behind Dylan's head and had a note pinned to it:
"Stupid f****ing white men. I have taken your light-haired woman to safety. You must find our camp and claim her back within two days. After this we will have moved on and taken her with us. If you do not claim her she will be my squaw. The journey is long and tiring, but I have drawn you a map. This is a test of your stamina."
The townspeople emerged, realising the attack had only claimed two casualties, or so they thought.
"Poor little lady; she'd have been better off with the noose. They'll torture her to death for sure."
"That dirty injun will ravish her day and night and then some."
Dylan read the note pinned to the arrow.
"What's that note say, Mister?" asked one of the townspeople.
"It says they're going to kill her" replied Dylan, forcing his voice to sound hopeless.
Inside, he felt a new hope. But would he and Ben have the stamina to save Rita from becoming a squaw and being lost to them forever?
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