Brave Beginnings (37 page)

“Chogan?” she whispered.

She had to do something! She struggled to
clear her mind long enough to form a coherent thought, but the fog
in her mind clouded any adequate judgment. She couldn’t believe it.
One minute, she and Chogan had been in the teepee together,
enjoying a rest from the morning’s hunt, and now… And now…

Blinking the tears from her eyes, she
released her tight hold on him so she could examine his wounds. Two
bullet holes. One just below his shoulder blade and the other just
below his left lung. She gulped and steadied herself so she could
concentrate. Closing her eyes, she pressed her hand over his heart
and waited. It seemed to take an eternity but the heart beat came
through and then she noticed the slight rise and fall of his
chest.

He was still alive! She gathered him to her
breast and let her tears fall with relief. The wounds weren’t
fatal. He would be alright as soon as she could get him to a
doctor.

“Really, Julia. Have a sense of decency. A
hunter doesn’t mourn the death of his prey.”

She froze, suddenly remembering that someone
fired the gun. Of course, someone else was there! In her panic,
she’d forgotten they weren’t alone. She needed to think! She needed
to get Chogan out of here and to a doctor! Trembling, she pressed
her hand again to Chogan’s chest. The heart beat was still there.
And he was breathing. He was alive.

“Oh, for goodness’ sakes!” Ernest grabbed her
around the waist and pried her away from Chogan despite her efforts
to hold onto him. As soon as Ernest let go of her, he grunted and
stared at his hands. “Savage blood.” He pulled out his handkerchief
and wiped his bloody hands. Looking at her bloody clothes, he
grimaced. “Put something else on.”

She tried to focus on what he was saying, but
her mind kept going back to Chogan. He needed help! She couldn’t
leave him behind! Her body trembled as she debated the best course
of action to take. She searched for the bow and arrow and saw them
within six feet of where she stood. Then her gaze fell to the rifle
Ernest had under his arm as he finished cleaning his hands.

Could she make it to the bow and arrow in
time? She bit her lower lip. She had to try. Without giving Ernest
a warning, she lunged for them. Her fingers brushed the bow when
she heard the dreaded sound of a trigger echo in the air. She
stilled and looked back at Ernest whose gun was pointed at
Chogan.

“No!” She scrambled until she was in front of
Chogan’s body. “You already killed him! You don’t need to shoot
again!”

“You’re coming with me, Julia,” Ernest said
in a smooth voice. “I know he’s not dead, but I can make it so that
he is. So, will you go with me and let him live, or will you make
me kill him?”

She shook her head. “You’ll kill him no
matter what I choose.”

He sighed and clucked his tongue. “Now, what
do you take me for? You’ve been spending too much time with
savages. I’m a gentleman, Julia. I honor my word. You come with me
right now, and I’ll leave him here with two bullets instead of
three.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone
run up to them. It took a moment before she recognized Sarita.

“You can’t kill him,” Sarita snapped as she
approached Ernest. “You promised him to me if I led you to
Julia!”

“You conniving, no good…” Julia struggled to
think of the right words to describe the woman, but years of
repressing that type of language inhibited her from using them.
“That’s why you kept following me?” she finally demanded.

“Enough,” Ernest barked. “Julia, make your
choice. Whether Chogan lives or dies means little to me.” He walked
around her and Chogan so that he could get a clear shot of him.

“Don’t!” Julia crawled on top of Chogan.
“Don’t shoot him!”

“So, do you stand up and come with me?”
Ernest asked. “Or do I kick you off of him?”

“I’ll go!” Even as she said it, her throat
tightened on a sob. “I’ll go,” she said in a lower voice as she
turned her eyes to Chogan who was still unconscious.

Her tears wet his face so she quickly wiped
them away with her bloodied sleeve, realizing too late she only
made things worse.
Oh, Chogan. I love you.
Would he wake up
and think she left him willingly?

No, he won’t. He knows I love him and would
never leave unless I had no choice.

And if he lived, he’d find her. She had no
doubt he’d come for her. She just needed a plan. If she could make
a way for him to find her…

Ernest cleared his throat. “Do you have other
clothes, or did that savage you’re crying over only leave you with
the clothes on your back?”

She turned to face Ernest and glared at him.
“You will not call him that!”

He cocked his gun. “I’ll call him dead in a
minute if you don’t back away from him.”

Ignoring the triumphant look on Sarita’s
face, Julia rose to her feet and straightened her back. In doing
so, she gathered enough courage to settle her nerves and her mind
cleared.

“Now,” Ernest said, lowering his gun, “do you
have other clothes?”

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she
nodded.

“Go get them.”

She glanced at Sarita who knelt by Chogan and
brushed the hair from his face. Julia’s hands clenched as she
watched the other woman being more personal with him than she had a
right to be.

“Don’t concern yourself with that,” Ernest
said. “Come on.”

Julia wanted to tell Sarita that it was all
in vain. Chogan would never marry her. Sarita sold her soul to the
devil for nothing. But she held her tongue and stepped toward the
teepee, aware that Ernest followed, his finger still on the trigger
in case she made a wrong move. Despite her fear, she managed to
collect the extra skirt and shirtwaist she had packed. She wiped a
few tears from her eyes and left the teepee.

“You’ll change later,” Ernest said. “Go to
the buggy and wait for me.”

“What? Why?”

“I don’t need to trouble you with what I need
to do next. Be a good girl and go, hmmm?” He motioned to the buggy
a good distance from where they stood.

“What are you going to do?” she demanded, her
heart pounding wildly in her chest. “You promised to let Chogan
live if I went with you!”

“Yes, I did, and I will. Like I said, I’m a
gentleman, and I’ll keep my word to a lady.” He checked the bullets
in his gun and glanced at her. “The next bullet isn’t for Chogan.
Go on ahead and sit in the buggy. I’ll join you soon, and then we
can start our life together.”

She hesitated, afraid of what he planned, but
then she decided she couldn’t risk him killing Chogan so she obeyed
him. She nearly tripped on her way to the buggy but managed to
reach it and get in. She set the clothes on the seat and tried to
decide what she could do. She needed to do something to lead Chogan
to her. But what?

Wiping more tears from her eyes, she
remembered her layers of petticoats. With a quick glance around,
she saw Ernest up ahead, walking toward Sarita, his back to her.
Julia quickly pulled up her skirt and ripped the seam of her first
petticoat. It was a long shot that Chogan would notice it, but he
knew what her petticoats looked like and would recognize it if he
saw it.

She glanced at Ernest again and saw him
talking to Sarita. Jumping out of the buggy, she ran to the nearby
bush and wrapped the strip of petticoat to one of the branches. A
gunshot echoed through the air. Gasping, she turned around in time
to see Sarita slump to the ground.

She hurried back to the buggy before Ernest
noticed she was out of it.
Oh God, don’t let him shoot Chogan
again.
She grabbed the seat, using the pressure to relieve the
need to scream. He stood still, his gun poised over Sarita who
didn’t move. Julia watched in terrified dread, still unable to
fully process everything that was happening. A part of her kept
thinking she’d wake up and find it was all a bad dream. But no
matter how hard she bit her lower lip, she couldn’t wake up. No.
She wasn’t dreaming. This was horribly real, and she had to figure
out a way to escape. There was no way she could stay with
Ernest.

Ernest slowly lowered his gun and turned to
her. She released her breath and relaxed her hold on the seat. With
each step Ernest took toward her, she was assured that Chogan would
survive. He was strong. He was a fighter. She had no doubt he’d
press through this and come for her.

She quickly grabbed her clothes and placed
them on her lap. Taking deep breaths, she forced herself not to
bolt from the buggy as Ernest neared. She had to do this. If she
held on long enough, sooner or later, there would be a chance to
escape. Patience. She just needed to be patient.

Her gaze traveled to Chogan who seemed to be
a world apart from her. She saw his leg twitch and was encouraged.
He was still alive! He’d find her petticoat and search for her.
She’d leave a trail of petticoats. All she needed was to take
enough breaks to get out and leave a strip of clothing for him to
find.

She was thinking in circles again. Closing
her eyes, she took another deep breath. She’d get nowhere if she
couldn’t focus.

Ernest climbed into the buggy, and she looked
at him. He took the bullets out of the gun and placed them in his
pocket. Then he set the gun in the holster under his suit jacket.
“There. The ugly past is taken care of. Now we can start our life
together.”

“You killed her?” Julia blurted out. “She
helped you and you killed her?”

He gave her an amused look. “Come now, Julia.
Do you really concern yourself with the fate of animals? They are
not like us.” He undid the brake on the buggy and grabbed the
reins. “You’ll thank me someday.”

No, she wouldn’t. But she refrained from
saying it. Instead, she turned her attention back to Chogan, the
only man she’d love. Her heart leapt with hope when she noticed him
move his head.

Ernest snapped the reins on the horse that
moved forward, heading north of Chogan and the teepee. Maybe Chogan
would hear the buggy and open his eyes to see which direction
Ernest was taking her. She prayed he’d open his eyes before the
buggy was out of his viewing range. Taking another deep breath, she
shifted so that she could put as much distance between her and
Ernest as possible and resigned herself to going along with what
Ernest wanted until she could find a way to escape.

~~********~~

Later that day, Conrad pried another brick
loose from the cellar wall and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He
glanced at Larry who was working on the other end of the wall.

“It has to be somewhere back here,” Conrad
said, panting.

He set down the chisel blade and hammer so he
could take off his leather gloves. He wiped his hands on his pants
and glanced at the pile of bricks beside him. Who knew taking a
wall apart could be such laborious work?

Larry stopped, his chisel on the mortar that
held the bricks together. “Are you sure it’s this wall?”

“It has to be. This is a new wall. It wasn’t
built with the rest of the house. When Ernest moved here, he must
have put the evidence back here. Maybe Patricia Wells’ body is
behind here.”

Larry shook his head. “I doubt Ernest brought
the body all the way to Bismarck. If he killed her in Fargo, it’d
make sense that he buried her back there and then came here. How
else could he claim she ran off with someone else?”

Conrad sighed and put his gloves back on. “My
partner and I searched everywhere we could think of in Fargo. I’m
afraid the options there have been exhausted. Her body has to be
somewhere else.”

Larry pounded the chisel into the mortar.
“Knowing Ernest as I do, it’s logical to assume a woman would run
away from him. He’s not exactly an ideal man.”

“No. Patricia didn’t run away. Her father is
sure of it, and there’s no evidence that points to it.”

“Well, you don’t have evidence that Ernest
killed his wife either.”

Conrad knelt down and picked up his hammer
and chisel as Larry continued pounding his chisel into the mortar
so he could loosen the bricks from their spot. Conrad scanned what
was left of the wall and blinked when he realized several bricks
seemed out of place. He scooted over to them and touched them. They
were already loose.

Putting the hammer and chisel down, he
wiggled the bricks until they slid out. His eyes grew wide when he
saw the axe. He reached into the hole and pulled it out, surprised
that it hadn’t been cleaned.

Turning to Larry, he said, “I think we just
found the murder weapon.” He held up the axe with dried blood
coating it. It was absolutely disgusting. “I have a feeling that he
liked to take this out and look at it from time to time.” How else
could he explain the loose bricks?

“Wow,” Larry replied, stunned. “Well, if
there’s a body back here, we better dig it out.” Then he pounded
the chisel into the wall with renewed vigor.

Conrad carefully set the axe down and caught
sight of something else in the hole. He dug it out and blinked in
surprise as he inspected the picture.
Oh dear God, why didn’t I
notice the resemblance before?

Larry paused and looked at him. “What is
it?”

“A photograph.” He showed it to Larry. “It’s
his wife, or it was his wife.”

“Huh. She looks a lot like Julia—one of my
old employee’s wives.”

“It’s hard to tell them apart,” Conrad
whispered, recalling his talk with Julia and Chogan when he and
Millicent went to Erin’s house for supper. His mind scrambled to
put the extra pieces of the puzzle together. Ernest knew Julia
before he met Patricia, and Patricia looked so much like Julia that
he had to marry her. Except Patricia wasn’t Julia and, at some
point, that disappointed Ernest who had to get rid of her. But
Conrad doubted Ernest would give up on Julia, and now Ernest had
left town with a large sum of money. Dropping the hammer and
chisel, he jerked to his feet. “I think I know where Ernest
went!”