“She was nothing but a damn Injun’s whore!” Hart flared.
“You better be glad the Swede ain’t here, Olmstead,” a farmer called out. “For he’d sure break your back for that.”
“Time’s a-wastin,’ Pa,” Hart’s oldest boy, Carl said. “If we’re going to pick up a trail, we’d best do it now.”
“Yeah, Pa,” Ernest Olmstead said. “These folks ain’t gonna tell us nothin’.”
“I got people out looking, boy,” Hart said. “We got to wait ’til this afternoon, ’til after John buries his own. It wouldn’t be proper to go off and leave a friend alone with his grief.” he turned to once more face Sam Montgomery. “I’ll find them, Sam. And when I kill that MacCallister bastard, I’ll scalp him and bring his yeller hair back to wave under your nose.”
“I hope you don’t find him, Hart,” Sam replied. “For if you do, you will find nothing but grief. The boy is highly intelligent and brave.”
Hart snorted and spat on the ground.
Sam said, “He didn’t force your daughter to accompany him, Hart. They’ve been in love since the first evening they laid eyes on one another, right over there in that yard. Let them be, Hart. Let them build a life together.”
“When it rains in Hell, Sam!” Hart screamed. “I’ll see them both dead. And that’s a promise.”
“Are you daft, man!” Farmer Mason shouted. “That’s your own flesh and blood you’re talkin’ about killin’.”
“It’s none of your affair!” Hart returned the shout. He whirled and mounted, galloping off, his sons and friends right behind him.
“Ride, Jamie and Kate. Ride like the wind, kids. And be happy.”
* * *
Jamie changed his mind about heading south and he and Kate rode straight west. After nights of hard riding, they stopped at a crossroads store named Pekin.
In a few more years, William Clark, brother to George Rogers Clark, of Lewis and Clark fame, would establish a town here and name it after a Chickasaw Indian chief, Paduke. It would later be called Paducah.
“Where are we, Jamie?” Kate asked.
“I don’t know, Kate. But I smell the river.”
“What river?”
“The Mississippi.”
“I’m told that’s a fearsome river, Jamie. People say there are monsters in its muddy waters. Great scaly beasts called alligators.”
Jamie laughed at her serious expression. “We’re not going to swim it, Kate. I think there is a ferry that crosses over to a town called New Madrid. That’s in Missouri.”
“Sometimes the ferry runs,” a man called from the porch of the store. “If the ferry ain’t runnin’, they’s usually a boat to be hired that’ll take you ’crost.”
“Thank you, sir,” Kate said sweetly, as Jamie helped her down from her horse. “My brother and I have far to travel.”
Since they both had blue eyes and hair pretty much the same color, they had agreed to pose as brother and sister until they could find a minister and be married.
“Oh? Travelin’ far, are you?”
“Central Missouri,” Jamie lied. “Our parents live there.”
“These are perilous times for anyone, especially for young folks travelin’ alone,” the man said. “But I see you be armed right well, young feller, so’s I allow to how you’ll be all right. Come on inside, young lady. My old woman will see to your needs. You’re gonna have to see to your own hoss, son. I ain’t gettin’ clost to that big black. He’s got a wicked eye to him.”
“Yes, sir. And he will live up to his looks.”
“Thought so. Biter and a kicker, is he?”
“Yes, sir.”
“See to your own damn horse, then.” The man walked into the store.
Jamie laughed and saw to the horse’s needs, then joined Kate inside the dim store. She was buying supplies. Several men lounged at a rough table, a jug of whiskey before them. They all looked longingly and lustfully at Kate, and hard at Jamie when he walked in.
As Jamie walked to the counter, one of the men laughed, and it was not a pleasant laugh.
“The Newby brothers,” the lady behind the counter whispered. “Percy, Howard, and Dick. They’s eight of them, all told. They’re all bad. Ride on, lad, and watch behind you for a time.”
“What’re you whisperin’ about over there, you old hag?” one of the men yelled.
The man who had greeted Jamie and Kate looked nervously around him. “They’re liquored up and snake-mean, young feller,” he whispered. “I cain’t be held good for what they’ll do.”
“Old man,” one of the Newby brothers hollered. “I done tole you ’bout that damn whisperin.’ We don’t like it.”
“Sorry, Percy,” the man called.
“You there,” another brother called. “Gal with the gold hair. I ain’t seen you afore. What’s your name?”
Kate and Jamie had decided on trail names to help throw off Olmstead and Jackson. Jamie turned to face the loudmouth. “Tess,” he said.
“I ain’t talkin’ to you, boy.”
“You are now,” Jamie replied, a cold calmness to his voice.
One of the brothers laughed at the expression on his brother’s face. “I do believe, Dick, that there young feller tole you square, didn’t he?”
“Run!” the woman behind the counter hissed.
Dick Newby stood up. He was dirty, unshaven, and smelled bad. “You need to be larned some manners, boy.”
“Choose your purchases, Tess,” Jamie said, placing money on the counter.
“Boy’s got gold, Percy,” Dick said.
“Has he now?” the brother replied. “Where’d you get that there gold, boy?” he tossed the question to Jamie.
“That is none of your affair,” Jamie said, feeling the old wildness well up strong within him.
Percy stood up, standing beside his brother. “Mayhaps I think it is. Mayhaps I think a young couple like y’all might need bodyguards on the trail, seein’ as how you’re totin’ all that money. Travel ain’t safe these days.”
“So we’ve been told,” Jamie fought the wildness down. “Thank you for your concern. We’ll do nicely as we are.”
“My, but don’t he talk proper?” Howard Newby said. “He’s a regular little prince, ain’t he?”
A calmness took Jamie. He was familiar with it. But with the calmness came cold, a freezing wind that blew across the highlands of his ancestry. Hooded Druids, their faces hidden, began chanting, their voices all combined with the ancient and strong warrior sounds of Celts, Anglos, and Normans. It was a volatile and dangerous mixture, and Jamie would fight with it and for it all his life.
“I’m no prince, sir,” Jamie said, a tightness to his voice. “But what I am is a person who minds his own business and goes his own way in peace, if others will let me. Will you be so kind as to allow that courtesy?”
The Newby brother smiled, exposing a mouth full of yellow, rotting teeth. “No,” he said softly.
“Then state your intentions, sir.”
The brigand looked at Kate and licked his lips. He cut his eyes back to Jamie and smiled. “Lay your poke on the counter and walk out that door. Leave the girl.”
Kate hissed in fright and Jamie said, “Do you not be afraid, Tess. No harm will come to you.”
The third Newby brother stood up. “Old man, take your hag and go to the back. Close the door.”
The man and woman scurried to their living quarters and closed the door. The sound of the door being barred chilled Kate. Her eyes were wide and frightened. Jamie seemed not to have noticed, his eyes never leaving the Newby brothers.
“Last chance, lad,” Percy said.
“The same might be said for you,” Jamie replied.
“He’s a game one, Percy,” Howard said with an ugly laugh. “Give him that.”
“Pick up your purchases, Tess,” Jamie said. “And step to the door.”