The Misadventures of Maude March (32 page)

Saddle up!

The West is about to get a little wilder in Sallie and Maude's next rootin' tootin' adventure…

Maude March on the Run

Galloping into stores January 2007 Turn the page for a sneak peek!

Excerpt copyright © 2007 by Audrey Couloumbis. Published by Random House Children's Books.

One

They say my sixteen-year-old sister passes for a man and shoots like an outlaw, and I cannot argue it, since she has done both in her day.

Maude has been called a hardened criminal, and of this I can honestly say, do not believe it. People say a great many things and only some of them are true.

This afternoon I watched from across the street as my sister was arrested. She made a small figure in her plain dark dress, her arms pulled behind her to cuff her wrists. “Maude!” I shouted, but she did not seem to hear my voice over all those so filled with excitement.

I felt my blood rush toward my feet, leaving me so light-headed I nearly sat down. For in that moment, I saw her as the crowd did, a fugitive from the law, accused of being a horse thief, a bank robber, and a cold-blooded killer.

But it was five months since we found our lost Uncle Arlen and settled into a new life with him in Independence. My sister had begun to believe she would never be discovered to be the infamous Mad Maude.

I hoped for the same thing. But I did not often fall asleep without asking myself, What will I do if Maude is found out?

Maude had recently tried to talk me out of my determination to be ready for just such an occasion as this. We were getting dressed for the day ahead of us, which was also my twelfth birthday.

“When do you plan to go back to looking like a girl?” she said to me. Unlike my sister Maude, I had not yet taken to wearing skirts again. She said that of course I must, as soon as my hair grew in nicely, but so long as I could wield the scissors this fate would not befall me.

I said, “One of these days.” I did not say it to Maude, but I did not care if I never wore another skirt.

“It doesn't matter how you dress, Sallie,” Maude said. “They might still find out. Then again, they might not. But I'm meanwhile missing the sight of my little sister.”

“I will whisper it in her ear,” I said. “See if she don't surprise you one day.”

“Doesn't,”
she said. “Is that a few bristles I see under your nose? Why, it looks like the beginning of a mustache.”

“It is a shame I did not ask your admirer, Mr. Wilburn, for a shaving lesson,” I said. “That fellow had mustache material growing out of his ears.”

Maude wopped me with her feather pillow and we were occupied with battle for a time. But as soon as she was not looking I touched my upper lip to be sure she was teasing.

I had begun to think she might be right about one thing— that we would never need to make a sudden run for it. But past events had impressed upon me how fast things could go wrong, and how different life might be after they did.

I kept some of our things in a sack in the loft. The heroes in the dime novels I read were always planning ahead this way. Maude did not read much and so did not appreciate this fact.

That sack prompted her to remind me of a Bible story about the three kings who were in the desert and could not find water for themselves or their horses.

They put their troubles before the prophet Elisha, who said to them what the Lord told him, which was “Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain, yet make this valley full of ditches.”

Even though it didn't make good sense to those kings to dig ditches, they did it, and sure enough, a big rain came and filled the ditches with water. Which meant, you have to get ready for what you want.

“Or in this case,” Maude had said, “don't get ready for what you don't want.”

Maybe she was right; for a scant hour after Maude was arrested, I was taking stock and judged myself to be as ready as anyone can be for an event that will spin their lives in an unexpected direction. This meant fewer necessaries than you might guess. A horse and a canteen can get you through most anything.

My plan, in case of Maude's arrest, had always been to go in like a confused younger brother looking for his sister, arguing a case of mistaken identity. I had half a chance with this, for no one appeared to have noticed that Maude had a younger sister, let alone an unexpected brother.

Only as I was riding to the sheriff's office, I knew why people resorted to packing a gun—it was in case that first plan didn't work out the way they hoped it would.

The way I saw it, I might could breach the doorway when
there was only one lawman on hand. Then, in case he did not believe my story, and release my sister to me, I could try to get the drop on that single fellow.

There was a second chance in this, but I could see flaws all over.

One, Mad Maude and the Black Hankie Bandit, both notorious outlaws, were stuck in the same jailhouse. It might never come a time when only one lawman stood on duty. I could be waiting outside for a very long while.

Two, once me and Maude were on the run, they would know to watch for her traveling with a boy. This was bad because we had already been two boys, so they'd watch for that as well. And two girls could not travel on their own without someone wondering why.

And three, the likelihood of getting myself shot.

It might could happen I'd get killed some time or other, but if it was because I'd packed a gun, Maude would never let me rest. From every side, this was flaw enough to quit right there, if only my sister was not in the jail.

I did wish myself taller and wider and more truly a man. For in front of the jail, I could not step forward smartly, but stood shivering like winter had come back all of a sudden.

Uncle Arlen had once said to me that I was not truly the criminal type. My heart was pounding so hard I stopped hearing the sounds in the street, which seemed to be the proof of that statement.

I told myself I had to go right then, or don't bother to try.

I saw a man-on-his-horse-shaped shadow glide into the alleyway nearby. It gave me a start, but it also got me on the move.

I let Maude see me heading into the sheriff's office, directly beneath the window where she stood. Like something in me knew the exact way, tears started to flow.

Making a loud obnoxious crying noise, I walked inside.

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Published by Yearling, an imprint of Random House Children's Books
a division of Random House, Inc., New York

Copyright © 2005 by Audrey Couloumbis

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eISBN: 978-0-307-48829-9

January 2007

v3.0