Soul Catcher (63 page)

^{When he got back, Rosetta and the woman were gone. He followed their trail along the path up into the holler. A quarter mile in, he came upon a crudely fashioned, rough-hewn log cabin whose chinking was mostly gone and whose roof sagged pathetically. Off to the right were half a dozen freshly dug graves, with wooden crosses made of white birch limbs tied at right angles and sticking up from each grave. Cain wondered if the woman had dug them all herself. He went inside and found Maggie in bed, Rosetta sitting beside her, reading from a worn Bible. The place, too, smelled foul, of corruption and mortality. The woman's eyes were closed, and her sunken, open mouth emitted a raggedy breathing. Rosetta read from Psalms:
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me
." She glanced over at him and shook her head to let him know that the woman wasn't far away from her journey's end.}

^{In an hour, it was over. This time, instead of a grave, Cain found some coal oil and poured it about the house. Then he lit a locofoco and set it all ablaze. As they rode away, they saw the flames shooting through the holes in the wood, taking over the roof, consuming the cabin.}

^{"That wasn't very smart," Cain said as they rode west. "We could both get sick."}

^{"They's worse things than dying" was all Rosetta said.}

^{And he knew she was right.}

^{* * *}

^{S
ix days later, they reached New Martinsville. From a small rise to the east, Cain could see the town spread out below, the river to the west, and beyond, the free state of Ohio. Down at the river, he saw a ferry. Nearby, there were several men with rifles standing at the loading gate. He got out his spyglass and took a closer look. They appeared to be stopping people who had slaves and checking their papers before they'd let them board.}

^{"What's the matter?" Rosetta asked.}

^{"I don't know, but I don't like the looks of it."}

^{Had word of their flight somehow gotten all the way to the Ohio River? It seemed unlikely, but then again, Eberly wasn't the sort to take defeat easily. If he'd gotten wind that they were headed west, he might have wired on ahead and alerted the towns along the river. He certainly had enough money and influence to bring to bear on their capture.}

^{"What we gonna do?"}

^{"We'll head south. Find somewhere else to cross."}

^{Several years before, he'd tracked a runaway to Parkersburg, two days' ride to the south, so he was familiar with that town a little. There at least a railroad bridge crossed the river. And on the far side, in Belpre, Ohio, he knew there would be people who would help runaways on their way to freedom. They would probably know where the Gist Settlement was.}

^{For the next two days, they rode south, keeping the river over their right shoulder. The Ohio was wide and deep this time of year, though in a couple of spots it looked as if a crossing could be attempted. However, he didn't like the notion of trying it now, in Rosetta's condition. He thought of her struggling that time in the river up north, and almost losing her. Besides, even if they could make it over, he wouldn't have the faintest idea where the settlement was.}

^{On the afternoon of the second day, the sky suddenly grew overcast and a rain began to fall. At first a light spring drizzle, it soon turned into a downpour, cold and mountain raw, flogging all beneath its wrath like a cat-o'-nine-tails. Off across a field that had once been under plow, Cain spotted an abandoned cabin.}

^{"Come on," he said to Rosetta.}

^{The structure had obviously been uninhabited for years. All of its windows had been broken, and its roof sunken in like an old man's mouth. A tangle of blackberry and dewberry vines had crept up along the sides of the cabin and seemed almost to be pulling the house down into the earth like bony fingers. The front door, attached now by only a single rusted hinge, squawked loudly when Cain opened it. Inside, the place smelled of bog and earth and the lives of small varmints who had taken up residence. Water dripped from various holes in the ceiling, and one section had been fire scarred. Still, a section of floor over near the well-made stone chimney was relatively dry. While Rosetta set about making a fire in the fireplace, Cain brought the horses inside a lean-to attached to the house, so they'd be out of the rain. He hobbled and unsaddled them, then fed them.}

^{"Good boy," he said to Hermes, feeding him a piece of sugar.}

^{Tired, his leg aching from the cold, Cain warmed his hands over the growing fire. Rosetta had scrounged around the cabin for wood, breaking up some old pieces of furniture that had been left behind. When the fire was blazing, Cain felt the muscles in his neck begin to uncoil.}

^{"What you think happened to the folks lived here?" Rosetta asked as she began to make supper.}

^{"Probably headed west like everybody else."}

^{"I keep thinkin' 'bout that poor woman back there. Her family dead and gone. Dyin' all by herself."}

^{"She didn't die alone. She had you," Cain said.}

^{"I mean dyin' without people that love you. Family and such."}

^{"I saw plenty of men in the war die all alone."}

^{"I think that's the saddest thing there is. To die without your loved ones nearby. When I think of my momma, the thing that makes me saddest is thinkin' a her dying without me there."}

^{"Maybe you'll see her again. Who knows?"}

^{"I doubt it."}

^{With a stick, Cain jabbed at the fire. "Is that why you came back to me? Didn't want me to die alone."}

^{"I s'pose."}

^{After they'd eaten, they spread out their bedrolls and lay down beside the fire. Outside, the rain blew fiercely against the roof, sounding like handfuls of sand peppering the shingles, while in the corners of the house the intermittent scurrying of small creatures could be heard.}

^{"Would you read me some of that book, Cain?" she said. "About God and Satan."}

^{Cain got up and went over to his saddlebags and took out his copy of
Paradise Lost.}

^{"Anything in particular you'd prefer hearing?"}

^{"Don't matter. I like the sound of his words. What's his name?"}

^"Milton."

^{"Sounds like this Milton fellow was on speakin' terms with God."}

^{Cain read the part where Adam forgives Eve for eating the apple.}

^.

^{"I with thee have fixt my Lot,}

^{Certain to undergo like doom, if Death}

^{Consort with thee, Death is to me as Life;}

^{So forcible within my heart I feel}

^{The Bond of Nature draw me to my own,}

^{My own in thee, for what thou art is mine;}

^{Our State cannot be sever'd, we are one,}

^{One Flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself."}

^.

^{Cain glanced up and saw her rubbing her stomach absentmindedly as she stared off into the darkness of the cabin. Her eyes were distant, wistful, and he could imagine her thinking of the other one, the child she'd lost. Every time she'd look upon the one she was carrying now, it would bring back the other, her joy and loss linked together as if by shackles. He wanted to say something, yet what could he, a man who knew nothing of what it was like to carry life and then have to give it over, a slave catcher who had for years dealt in the misery of others, offer to her?}

^{Instead he said only, "We'll be in Ohio by and by."}

^{She looked over at him and said, "I guess I oughta thank you, Cain."}

^{"You don't have to thank me."}

^{"But I do. I'm sorry for some a the things I said."}

^{"It doesn't matter now."}

^{Later, he was dreaming of oceans and long stretches of white sands. That's when he felt something moving against him, something warm and supple yet as unstoppable as a wave. He started to reach for his gun, but in the darkness still, he knew it was Rosetta. He felt her warmth, her body pressing into his, her scent strong and sweet in his nostrils as new-mown hay. He lay on his back and remained still, pretending to be asleep. He felt her cold hand on his chest, inching across his skin until it hovered right above his heart. He thought she wanted only the heat from his body, as she had several nights earlier. But her hand slowly moved up to his face. It slid over his features, delicately outlining his countenance, the gesture reminding him of the way the blind man had touched his face. Then he recalled again what the blind man had said to him, about having a choice to make. Had he made the right one? he wondered.}

^{Rosetta leaned into him and feathered her lips across his cheek. Her breath was spicy, like warmed cider. When he still didn't rouse himself, she rose up, pressed herself against him, and kissed him full on the mouth. A stirring commenced in him.}

^{"Cain," she said, reminding him of how the Indian girl had said his name, with a kind of innocent urgency. "Cain."}

^{"I thought--"}

^{"Hush," she told him. "You think too much, Cain. You want me or not?"}

^{"Want you! I've wanted you since I first laid eyes on you."}

^{She leaned down and kissed him again, harder this time. She pulled away a little so she might look down at him, to search his eyes. This time he responded, pulling her down into his embrace and kissing her back. In a moment they were at each other, tugging at buttons, pulling off clothes, struggling for the freedom of their nakedness. Frantically, hungrily, they threw themselves at each other. Cain felt in her a terrifying sort of desperation. He was reminded of the first time he'd met her, how she'd tried to kill him there at the bridge, that deadly force which had been unleashed within her. What he felt in her now came from the same source. It was a thing made up of equal parts anger and fear, desperation and yearning, and he realized now that it met its match in something in himself. For each of them, there was an elemental power deep inside, one that neither could have admitted to before this very moment but which now was struggling to get out. All that had been held back, denied, imprisoned in them, not just for the past two months they'd been together but for the entirety of their lives--all of that was suddenly let loose. He knew that he was crossing a line that he could never cross back over again. Just before their lovemaking came to an end, Rosetta cried out, her nails clawing at the flesh of his shoulders. Only then did she collapse into him, exhausted and spent.}

^{He held her until he heard her breathing flatten out and he knew she was sleeping. He lay there for a time in the dark cabin, listening to the rain, pondering the meaning of it all.
Stop,
he told himself. Just as she'd said, he needed to stop thinking, to hold on to this moment tightly because he didn't know if anything like it would ever come his way again. He buried his face in the smooth, taut flesh of her neck. After a while, he gave himself over to the weariness of the long days they'd spent traveling. He felt the muscles in his neck and shoulders loosen, and then, like a man drunk on a fine claret, he allowed himself to slide into the deep comforting arms of sleep.}

^{Chapter 22.}