Bittner, Rosanne (12 page)

She looked down the hill where he was working on the new cabin. He wanted it to be ready before the next winter. He was building it about two hundred yards below on a flat piece of land that was still higher than the valley. The spot would have a grand view of the foothills and mountains beyond the valley, and the area was big enough to build an even bigger home later. Luke had been careful to make sure it was an area unaffected by spring melt off, high enough that the floodwaters in the valley below could not reach it. It was a perfect site, and now Lettie was glad no one else had yet claimed this land.

As soon as he felt the road was passable, Luke intended to bring in some help to dig a well and build a windmill, finish the cabin, and build a barn. Lettie was worried he would work himself to death, as well as spend every last dime he had brought with him, but he was determined that by next winter life would be a little easier. As soon as he could get someone to stay there with her so he could leave for a few days, he intended to ride out and determine the boundaries of land he wanted to claim. Just how much he could claim legally, she wasn't sure, but he intended to get his hands on as much as possible, one way or another. She had decided she would not question the how of it. Owning it meant everything to him, and he was working so hard to make life better for her that she didn't have the heart to argue with him over how he would lay claim to all that he wanted when the Homestead Act allowed a man to settle on only 160 acres. "No man can ranch on a little piece of land like that," he had complained. "Hell, there's more than one hundred sixty acres in the valley alone."

She folded the blanket and put it in a basket, then smiled when Nathan came running to her with some little blue flowers in his fist. He held them up to her with a proud smile. "For Mommy," he told her.

"Oh, thank you, Nathan," she told him, leaning down to take the flowers and kiss his cheek. She thanked God every day for his sweet nature. If he had not been such an easy child, she wasn't sure she could have survived the winter being cooped up in the tiny cabin, but the boy had seemed totally unaffected by the confinement. He was almost three now, his hair turning just a little bit darker blond, his eyes a pretty blue. She stuck the flowers into the bodice of her dress, between two buttons, then turned to take down a little more wash.

It was then she saw them coming, several riders and a herd of horses. Her smile faded as alarm set in. Could they be the outlaws Will and others had warned them about? Luke was leading one of the mules toward a pile of logs he was cutting and gathering for the new cabin. She was sure he didn't see the riders' approach, and she called his name as loudly as she could. Luckily the wind was behind her, and it carried her voice. When he looked up, she pointed across the valley. As soon as he saw what she was pointing at, he grabbed his rifle and headed up the hill toward the cabin.

"Get Nathan inside!" he yelled. She could barely make out the words. She picked up Nathan and ran into the cabin. Minutes later Luke got there, panting. He closed and bolted the door. "Get the other rifle down and make sure it's loaded!" he ordered. "Get the ammunition out here where it's handy, and get my handgun, too."

Lettie obeyed without question, her heart pounding with fear. She ordered Nathan into a corner, telling him it was a game and it was very important that he stay there. "Do you think it's outlaws?" she asked Luke.

"Who else would be heading here with a herd of horses?" He cocked the rifle. "Let's just hope they'll deal with us. I'm glad now that those bales of hay are still stacked around the cabin. They're still wet from the spring melt. They'll keep bullets from crashing through these thin cabin walls if those men out there decide to start shooting."

Lettie almost laughed at the remark. She had been after Luke to get rid of the hay bales because they were starting to smell, but now she was glad they were still there. She cocked the second rifle and knelt at the small window, which was hinged. She pushed it open and pointed a rifle through it. The wood that had been stacked outside the window had been used up to the point that it was below the window now, so she had a good view of the front of the cabin. No one could approach from behind because the little building was set against the side of a hill, and there were no other windows.

Luke strapped on his handgun, then checked to be sure his repeating rifle was fully loaded.

"Hey, somebody's buildin' a cabin down there!" someone shouted in the distance. "Looks like somebody's been livin' here, Cade!"

"Two riders are coming," Lettie told Luke. Her stomach tightened into a knot when Luke unbolted the door.

"Be ready to bolt this again if something happens to me," he warned her. He stepped outside and closed the door as two men arrived at the front of the house. They drew up their horses, looking surprised. Neither of them was cleanshaven, nor were their clothes clean. They looked well armed. Lettie shivered at the realization of how outnumbered Luke was. She felt suddenly naked, exposed to the lawlessness of this land, where the only code was survival of the fittest... or maybe the meanest.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" one of the men spoke up, a thin cigar between his teeth as he spoke. "Trespassers."

"You're the ones trespassing," she heard Luke answer. "This is Fontaine property now, all legal under the Homestead Act."

Lettie felt cold perspiration under her dress in spite of the warm afternoon. She gripped her own rifle tightly, watching both men carefully. She had never shot anyone in her life, never even imagined such a thing; but if they tried to hurt Luke, or Nathan...

"Who the hell do you think you are, mister, takin' over another man's cabin?" the one with the cigar asked.

"This place was deserted when we got here last fall, and I checked in Billings. Nobody had laid legal claim to this land, but now
I
have, so you boys can just ride on and take your stolen horses with you."

The man with the cigar just grinned. "Who says they're stolen?"

"I might be new out here, mister, but I'm no fool. Now get going, and I won't say anything about you having been here."

Now the apparent spokesman for the rest of them laughed. "Who would you tell, anyway? Ain't no law out here, mister, which means we can blow you to hell and nobody would ever know the difference. If I was you, I'd be a bit more friendly to your hosts. Hell, you been usin' our cabin all this time, squattin' on our land."

"I told you, it's not your land anymore; never was."

Two more riders came up behind the first two men. Lettie hoped she wouldn't faint from terror. They were just as unkempt and dangerous looking as the others. She tried to remember how many she had seen coming. Six? Eight? How would they ever get out of this?

"I mean business," Luke told the outlaw. "I'm giving you ten seconds to get off my property!"

The man just shook his head, glancing over at the clothesline. He rubbed at his stubby chin, turned to look back at the other three men. "We got us an irate homesteader here, boys." They all laughed then, as though none believed Luke was brave enough to shoot at them.

"I'm real scared, Cade," one of the others answered.

The one called Cade looked back at Luke as he spoke. "I think he's got a woman in there, boys. Could be we could have us a real good time at the end of our journey here once we get rid of this bothersome varmint."

Lettie felt sick at the remark. It was the first time in months that the memory of her rape was suddenly vivid. Never! She would never let that happen again, if she had to kill some of these men herself! Yes, she could do it, if it meant saving Luke and Nathan, and keeping these sorry examples of men from touching her!

Luke in turn felt rage at the remark. Lettie was not going to suffer more horror at the hands of these men, even if he had to die to keep it from happening. "Your ten seconds are up," he told them, his voice cold. He knew instinctively there was no room here for compassion, nor for hesitation. It was just as Will and others had told him. Up here a man set his own laws, and his own punishment. He pulled the trigger of his repeater, and a hole opened up in Cade's chest. Before the other three could react, he fired again. A second man went down. At almost the same time he heard a gunshot from the window of the cabin. Lettie! A third man cried out and fell from his horse, wounded in the leg.

The fourth man stared at Luke with eyes wide in surprise. "What the hell—" He went for his handgun, and Luke fired again. A bloody hole appeared in the man's shoulder, and he screamed with pain and dropped his gun. As he turned his horse and rode off, the man Lettie had wounded fired at Luke then, but missed. Luke turned on him and shot him in the face. He charged inside the cabin then, closing and bolting the door. "You all right?" he asked Lettie, a frantic tone to his voice.

Their eyes held in mutual horror. "Yes," she said, the word coming out in a squeak.

"I think there are three or four more. They'll probably come up here. We've got to be ready." He looked at her pregnant condition, aching at having to put her through this. "Try to stay calm. Let's not lose that baby over this."

Lettie nodded, forcing herself not to collapse from fear, and from the knowledge that she had shot a man. She could hardly believe she had done it, but she'd had no choice. She heard the thundering hooves of several more horses then. "The rest are coming!" There was no time to wonder about the right and wrong of it now. There were loved ones to defend, and that was all there was to it.

"Mommy," Nathan whimpered from the corner, shaking from the loud gunfire. He clung to his little horse, tears running down his cheeks.

"It's okay, Nathan," Luke assured him. "You stay right there." He leveled his rifle at the window as five more men appeared at the front of the house, one of them the one with the wounded shoulder. All of them had guns drawn. "I think this is all of them," Luke said quietly to Lettie. "No more warnings. There's no time for it. It's got to be done before they get around the sides of the house."

Without a word he shot down two more of them before they could put forth any more arguments or threats. Horses reared and whinnied, and the other three hurriedly dismounted and clamored for cover, one behind a large boulder, the other two behind a wagon.

For a brief moment there was nothing but silence. "What the hell is wrong with you, mister?" one of them shouted then. "We wouldn't have brought you no harm.

Now come on out of there, or we'll just have to sit here till we
starve
you out!"

Luke took careful aim, glad he had done a lot of practicing over the winter with his repeater. He caught sight of the leg of one man through the spokes of the wagon. It wasn't an easy shot, but if he aimed real carefully... He squeezed off a shot, and the man grabbed his knee and cried out with pain.

"I'm gettin' the hell out of here!" another yelled. The one behind the rock held up his hands and slowly rose. It was the one with the wounded shoulder. "I'm leavin', mister. Let me go! I won't bring you no harm. Just let me go."

"Cleve, you goddamn coward!" one of those behind the wagon shouted. A shot rang out, and the one called Cleve stiffened, a bloody hole in the side of his head. He fell forward over the rock, then rolled off of it. The man who had shot him turned and fired several shots through the cabin window then, shattering the glass and spraying bullets everywhere. Lettie screamed, and Luke dove into her, pushing her against the wall away from the window and then to the floor, lying on top of her.

"Stay down," he said quietly. He crawled away from her, and Lettie could see blood on the back of his shirt.

"Luke!"

"I'm all right. It's just cuts from the glass. Crawl over to Nathan and keep him down."

"What are you going to do?"

"Just keep your rifle with you and stay low. If anybody comes through that door without me hollering out that it's me, you shoot first and ask questions later." He gripped his rifle and fired several shots through the window, then ducked away when the volley was answered with another spray of bullets that pinged around the cabin and put holes in the walls. Quickly Luke ran to a back corner of the cabin, setting his rifle aside and grasping at a loose board. "I just wanted them to know we're still alive and shooting in here so they stay behind that wagon for a few more minutes."

"What are you doing?" Lettie asked, holding a quietly crying Nathan in one arm while she gripped her rifle in the other.

"This damn board used to get me mad, but now I'm glad for it. From their position, they can't see me crawl out the side of the cabin."

"Luke, you can't go out there!" Lettie protested, keeping her voice to a near whisper.

"I've got no choice. I'll never get the last two, the position they're in now, and I'm not going to sit in here all day and worry about what they'll do once it's dark." He ripped the board completely away, then looked over at her. "Go fire a few more rounds through the window, but keep your head down. All they need is to hear the gunshots."

Lettie ordered Nathan to stay put and crawled back over to the window. She laid the rifle barrel on the sill, then ducked down and squeezed her eyes shut, firing the rifle aimlessly to draw the men's attention while Luke tore away some of the tar paper he'd nailed to the side of the cabin, then pushed at a bale of hay, knocking it away and crawling through the opening, taking his rifle with him.

"Daddy." Nathan started to follow his father through the opening, and Lettie put down her rifle and ran to grab him. "No, Nathan! You can't go with Daddy." She sat down against a wall with the boy, rubbing at her stomach and praying she would hang on to the baby through all this horror. "Luke," she whispered.

Outside Luke ducked behind the bale of hay, then cautiously raised his head to spot the wagon in front of the house. Neither man noticed him as he crept along the side of the house then. He could see them moving behind the wagon, one of them cursing about the wound in his leg.

"I can't hold out much longer, Cy," he grumbled. "I think the bullet went clean through, but my knee is killin' me."