Heyes and Evie Sketch

A big thank you to Glenda for sending me this sketch that could be Heyes and Evie.

This came from a fanfiction magazine that Glenda owns from 1985.  I love it.  Thanks, Glenda.  I don't know who the artist is or I would give them credit. 

Just a Little Something to Keep You Entertained

I'm taking my time with the last chapter.  It feels strange to say that. The last chapter.  Makes me sad and happy at the same time.  I don't want it to end, but all things do.  So in the mean time here's a video for you to enjoy.

Love you and miss you, Pete.  You are the reason this whole thing exists.  Thanks. 

Bonus Soundtrack Selection ~ Chapter 33 ~ The Aftermath

Thank you, Charlotte.  Perfect for both Evie and Heyes.

One of the best songs ever written in my opinion and so perfect for Heyes in the aftermath of his leaving.

Chapter 33

WARNING  This chapter contains explicit material.  If you are under thirteen years of age, you probably shouldn't read this chapter.  But for those of you who are old enough,  I hope I don't make you blush.  Enjoy.


"I thought she said 'private tents.'  You and me in one tent and her and Evie in the other don't sound too private to me."   Kid was reclining on the soft cushions of his cot.  "This cot is nicer than the bunks we had back at the ranch.  Geez, a man could get used to having a woman with all that money, couldn't he, Heyes?"   There was no response from his partner.  "Heyes, couldn't he, huh?"
Kid turned his smiling face to look behind him.   His smile faded when he saw Heyes still standing in the folded back tent opening and staring off towards the east where Evie and Livvy's tent stood.
He'd been standing there for a while.

"Heyes would you stop staring.  You know Livvy's not going to let you near Evie for a  while.  At least not until she's had a chance to 'talk some sense into that head of hers,'  Kid said in a girlish voice, imitating a stern Olivia Vanderbilt.

"I knew that once she saw that we were all going to survive she'd turn a little frosty towards us,  but I didn't think there would be six tents, four wagons and a remuda of horses between our tent and theirs either."   Heyes said with a sigh.

"Real subtle  ain't she?"

"Yeah,"  Heyes smirked.  "But who can blame her?  Would you want your only niece within arms length of a wanted outlaw?"

"Heyes,  Livvy's  just a little miffed at us right now, that's all.  Don't worry.  You'll get to see Evie again real soon."

Heyes didn't answer.  Truth be told he was glad Olivia had sequestered Evie after the doc had gotten a look at all of them.   He needed time to think before he saw her again.   There was still so much to think about and so many decisions to be made.   After the caravan of loaded wagons had made its way to the north side of the canyon where the flat grasslands spread out in all directions,  a small village of tents had been set up.  Livvy had whisked Evie away  for a bath after the doctor had declared her in perfect health and Heyes hadn't laid eyes on her since.  That had been hours ago.  He was sure Livvy would do everything in her power to keep him from getting near her for as long as she could.  That way she could make sure she had plenty of time to "talk some sense into that head of yours."  He could just hear Olivia saying that to Evie now, just as the Kid had said.   He hated to be the one to break it to Olivia Vanderbilt but Evangeline Webb wasn't going to give Hannibal Heyes up that easily.  And there wasn't anyone who could do anything about that.  Except him.

After the  doc had declared Evie in perfect health,  he had diagnosed  Heyes  with mild dehydration and Kid would be fit as a fiddle with a couple of days rest and plenty of red meat.  He'd ordered Kid to take a bath, get fresh dressings on his wounds,  and go straight to bed and stay there for twenty four hours.  Servants had been in and out all morning asking if he needed anything.  And of course he had needed everything.  Food, drink, cigars, blankets, pillows.  He was in Kid Curry heaven.  All that was missing was a pretty woman.

"You think you'll be alright without me for a while?"

"Sure, Heyes."   Kid picked up the bell from beside his cot and rang it loudly.  An eager young woman of about twenty came running immediately into the tent ready to grant any wish Mr. Jones may have.   Kid Curry heaven was complete.  "I think I'll be just fine.  You going to try and see Evie?"

"No.  I got a lot to figure out.  I'm going to go take my turn in the bath tent."     Heyes just rolled his eyes as  he left his partner feigning discomfort and pleading the need for a pillow fluff.


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


It was warmer today than it had been in over a week.  The afternoon sun and the steam of the hot bath water were making it very warm and humid here inside the bath tent.  Heyes scooted down in the tin tub until only his head was visible above the layer of bubbles and foam that floated atop the steaming  water.   It felt good to relax.  His tired muscles seemed to say "ahhh" as they were massaged by the soothing heat and moisture of the water.  He had needed this time of solitude.  He had needed it to relief the stress of the last five days and he needed it to think.  He was pretty sure he had his mind made up already, but he wanted to go over all the pros and cons one last time before making his final decision.  He lifted his left hand out of the water.  The small silver band with its tiny sparkling diamond barely fit on the first joint of his pinky finger. He would have to talk to Preacher before he headed out, he knew that much for sure.  The rest he hoped would work itself out like it should.  And he had to talk to Evie.  He would have to find some way to get her away from Olivia long enough to talk to her.  His nimble mind began to churn.   He knew just how to keep Livvy occupied.   Satisfied that he had a plan that would work he arose from the bubbly water and stepped from the tub.  "And you can thank me later, Kid,"  Heyes said out loud to himself as he toweled the moisture from his freshly washed body and hair.   He had to hurry.  It would be getting dark before long and Livvy would be expecting everyone in their tents for supper.  


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


"You just need me to keep her busy for a few hours?"   Kid's blue eyes sparkled and a wide grin split his handsome face.  "Don't worry, Heyes.  You get her in here and believe me,  she'll be good and occupied for at least a couple of hours."

Heyes grinned back at his partner and slapped him on his good shoulder.  "I knew I could count on you.  Just don't go reopening any wounds now, ya hear."

"I'll try, but I'm not making any promises."

Heyes left the tent confident in his partner's  ability to keep Mrs. Vanderbilt otherwise engaged.  Now he just had to get Mrs. Vanderbilt into his and the Kid's tent.  He crept behind the four tents that sat in a perfect row from east to west between their tent and the ladies' tent. He didn't know how he was going to get Livvy out of her tent.  But divine providence shown down upon him.  He heard Livvy's voice before he actually saw her.  She was giving orders to the army of servants and drivers and cooks she had hired for the journey.  "What do you mean, you've lost it?   That trunk contains all of my niece's undergarments.  Hurry and find it.  It can't have gone too far.  It's a very large conspicuous trunk for Pete's sake.  Make sure there is plenty of fire wood.  It will probably be cold tonight.  And I want supper ready by seven."   Heyes peeked around the corner of the tent that was being used as the servants' quarters.  There she stood.  Five feet and two inches of pure spunk and spit disguised as a blonde haired blue eyed angel.  Luckily he knew just where her tender spot was.   Heyes put on his best actor's face and painted on a look of worry, before emerging from behind the tent to march determinedly towards the young female servant that Olivia had been scolding.  "Pardon me, miss.  I could really use your help.  The doctor has ordered my friend, Mr. Jones, to stay in bed.  He has to be waited on hand and foot.  But I'm afraid he's not following those orders very well and now he's suffered a slight setback.  I've got to go round up my horse.  It may take hours.  Do you think you could go in and sit with him while I'm gone so he won't be tempted to get up and do anything he shouldn't."

"Oh, I would be glad to, Mr. Smith."

Heyes could see Livvy's spine stiffen and her lips pucker out of the corner of his eye.  "You, my dear, have a trunk to find,"  Livvy interjected, pointing her finger in the young woman's direction.  "I will see to Mr. Jones' needs.  Now, go."   With that she shooed the young woman off to find the missing trunk.    Livvy eyed Heyes suspiciously through narrowed eyes.   "Are you telling the truth?  Has he really suffered a set back?"

"Olivia, would I lie about something like that?"

"Why didn't you go find the doctor,then?"

"You know Thaddeus, always insisting that he's fine, even when he's not.  He wouldn't let me go for the doc.'

"Are you really going out to look for your horse?   Or are you just hoping for an opportunity to get my gullible young niece alone?"

"Of course I am."   He saw her eyes flash and her nostrils flare.  "To look for my horse, I mean,"  he interjected.   "I'm going to saddle Rusty up, right now."   Heyes brushed back his hair with his hand and fixed his black hat atop his head as he walked towards the remuda of horses.  "Take good care of Thaddeus for me,"  he turned to say over his shoulder.

"Don't you mean 'Kid!'"  she retorted to his back.  She stood there and watched with her hands on her small hips as he saddled the horse.  "And don't even think about going in that tent.  Evangeline isn't decent.  She can't have visitors, especially male visitors."  Only after he had mounted and headed out of the camp did she head towards the tent at the farthest end of the camp where Kid Curry lay expecting her visit.  Heyes pulled up and turned in the saddle to watch as she entered the tent and pulled the flap closed.  He dismounted and strode quickly to the tent that Evie and Olivia shared and ducked inside.

Evie whirled around when she heard someone come into the tent.  Butterflies fluttered in her chest and her heart skipped a beat when she saw her beloved standing in the tent opening.  Even after all they had been through together he still made her feel like a schoolgirl having her first crush.  She crossed the room and closed the distance between them and threw her arms around his neck.  She kissed the dimple on his clean shaven left cheek then hugged him tightly.    "I was wondering when you were going to be able to get past Livvy.  She's being a little difficult right now about you two.  But she'll come around.   And it seems the staff have misplaced the trunk she brought along that had my underclothes in it.  So she thinks it's indecent to have only a shift and petticoats on underneath.  She has forbidden me to see anyone, especially a man,"  she said with melodramatic flare to mimic her aunt's overly serious and ridiculous instructions.   "I thought about telling her I'd see you anytime I wanted no matter what she said, but I decided it would be best to humor for a while.  At least until she's come to terms with who you and Thaddeus really are.   Or until they find my underwear,"  she laughed as she hugged him tighter and snuggled her nose into his throat.  "Um, you smell so good."

Oh, no.  Heyes swallowed hard.  He should just leave and forget about taking her out on a horseback ride.  It was only asking for trouble.  And he had sworn to himself he wouldn't touch her again.   "You mean you're not wearing anything under your skirt and petticoats?   No bloomers, no corset, no stockings?"

She stepped away from him and spun around.  She looked so lovely.  Freshly bathed skin,  newly brushed hair that was pulled back into a long loose braid that hung down her back and was secured with the lavender binding cord that was made from her mother's dress.  She wore  a simple white blouse and a belted navy skirt.  She was more breathtaking in her simplicity than most women were in their finest silks, gloves and hats.  "You can't tell can you?  Except for the corset.  I'm glad they lost the trunk.  I hate corsets.  I love to meet the sadistical bastard that came up with that idea."   Her eyes grew large and she threw her hand over her mouth, hearing the blackguarded words come from her own lips.   He cocked his head to the side and stared at her for a moment before giving a small chuckle.  "You know you've really developed quite a mouth on you lately."   He couldn't keep from drawing her close and holding her for a long silent moment.   He loved her so much, sassy mouth and all.  The knowledge that she had no bothersome corset or anything else on under her skirts was going to present quite a challenge for him to keep his mind on what he had to do.  It was nearly four o'clock.  Livvy had said she wanted supper ready at seven.  That meant they had about three hours.  He hoped Kid could keep Livvy busy that long.   "Hopefully Livvy's going to be busy for the next few hours and I was hoping you and I could go somewhere to be alone.  I need to talk to you."

"Any chance to be alone with you I'm taking.  Let's go."  She grabbed her straw bonnet and riding gloves before entwining her hand with his and leading him out of the tent.  

"I've already got Rusty saddled over there.  I thought we could ride together out to that little valley where you said you saw Odin yesterday .  Maybe he's still out there somewhere."

Evie's stomach did a little flip flop.  Everytime she even thought of riding double with him all the  nerve endings in her body seemed to tingle.   "Lead the way."  she said and  let him lead her by the hand to where Rusty stood waiting.


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

Livvy floated like a fairy into the tent that Kid Curry shared with Hannibal Heyes.  She stood and stared at him for a brief moment before marching to the wash stand and pouring water into the basin.  She busily gathered clean linens and towels.   Kid started to speak but she held up her hand before he could get a word out.  "Don't bother trying to butter me up Mr. Curry.  I am still quite angry with you at the moment and I don't trust myself to have a civilized conversation with you.  I might say something we would both regret.  I'm here merely to see to your needs.  Your medical needs."   Kid didn't speak, just watched as she went to work pouring water from the pitcher into the bowl at the other end of the tent.  

"Mr. Heyes tells me you've had a set back.  What may I ask did you do?  Did you strain yourself ringing that bell so that Abigail would come bounding in to wait on you?"

Kid smiled.  He stood silently and crossed the room to stand behind her.   He would have to handle this just right or she would be storming out of here as mad as an old wet hen and he and Heyes would have a lot of explaining to do.  But not only that, he wanted to make things right with her.  He didn't want her to be angry with him.  He knew she had questions and he owed her the answers.  He cared for this woman and he knew that this was probably going to be the last time he would ever be able to hold her in his arms.  He made no sound but she knew he was there.  She drew a ragged breath and continued to make a display of folding the clean linens.   "Do you need medication for your pain?  Hasn't Abigail been seeing to you properly?"

"If I didn't know better, Livvy, I'd swear you were jealous,"  he said softly against her ear.
She spun quickly around on her heels and slapped him across the face.  Kid's mouth hung open for a minute, shocked by the slap.  "What was that for?"  he asked angrily.

"For lying to me.  We've been...I've been letting you....you've......oh, you know what we've been doing!  For weeks now we've been doing it.  How could you not let me know who you really are?"    The anger in her voice and the fire in her eyes were laced with hurt and betrayal.
 
He reached up to tuck a stray strand of her soft hair behind her ear and let his hand linger on her ivory cheek.  "Livvy,  you now know what my real name is.  You've known all along who I really am."
Her face softened a bit.  She looked away, not able to hold his penetrating blue gaze.  Then before either of them knew what was happening she slapped his other cheek.

Kid was mad now.  "What was that one for?"   he barked.

"For daring to drag my innocent niece into all of this mess.  And....and for making me care about you."  She turned her back to him and grabbed the small wash stand for support.

Kid took a step closer and put his hands to her tiny waist, made even tinier by her snug corset.  He brought his mouth to her ear.  "So you do care.  Even if I'm Jed Curry?"  he said  before gently kissing her earlobe, then trailing soft gentle kisses down the side of her slender neck.

She wanted to be mad.  She was mad.  She wanted to be furious.   But she just couldn't get furious with him.   Yes, she cared.  Probably more than she should.  They had made a pact that very first night in the bunkhouse.  They shared a passion for each other and they would let that passion burn as hotly as it could until it burned itself out.  And then they would part without regret or hard feelings.   But her need and her desire for him had not cooled.  It had grown hotter with every secret rendevous.  And it burned like a hot poker in the center of her belly now.    And her feelings for him had grown deeper with every moment they shared.  "Of course I care.  You don't think I would let a man I didn't care about do the things I've let you do to me, do you?"   He took a step closer, closing the miniscule space between them.  "You mean things like this,"  he said as he lowered his lips to the soft ivory skin of her neck, knowing well and finding with ease all the most sentiive spots.   Oh, she really should step away from him.    She really should insist that he stop.   But she had missed him so much in the past week.  Had worried herself sick about him.  And oh how she had missed his touch.  The burning grew hotter and threatened to  consume her.  She gave up.  She exhaled a long slow breath then sagged back against his chest with a heavy sigh as she forgot eveything except what he was doing to her with his mouth at this moment.

He turned her in his embrace and searched her eyes for any sign that she didn't want to take this where he so hoped it was going, where it always went when they were alone together.  All he found was a hunger that matched his own.  This tiny woman was unlike any he'd ever known.   She was a headstrong, opininated ball of fire in front of everyone else.  But when he was alone with her,   she was like a different person.   When they were alone together she transformed into a vulnerable, needy woman who just wanted to be taken care of and made to feel special.   He wasn't only doing this as a favor to Heyes.  He had missed her.  He craved the feel of her in his arms again.   He reached up to pull the pins from her bound hair, letting loose the honey blonde locks, before lowering his mouth to hers in a slow burning kiss.

Livvy threw her arms around his neck and brought herself up on her tiptoes to better taste his  mouth.  He leaned her back against the wash stand bringing his pelvis in contact with hers.   The kiss became more urgent, greedy in the want and need it displayed.  She became like a woman possessed, tearing his shirt from his body, clawing at his back as she returned his fevered kiss with ardor while his hands found their way beneath her voluminous skirts.    She brought her knee up against his hip.   He grasped her thigh holding her in place there as he pressed forward into the center of her.  She was practically climbing up his body.   He pulled her other knee up on his other side, creating a cradle with her legs for him to fit perfectly into.  He pressed harder into the juncture of her thighs with his already aroused body.  She wrapped her legs around his waist as he lifted her to carry her to the empty cot.

"Stop. Wait,"  she said, pulling her mouth away from his and lowering herself to the ground.

Kid reached for her, "But I don't want to stop."

She stepped out of his reach.  "I don't intend to stop, Mr. Curry.  You are not supposed to over exert yourself.  You can't be lifting me like that."  He rolled his eyes, exasperated, knowing that lifting her slight frame would not hurt him.   She took his hand and lead him to the cot and gave him a gentle push sitting him on the edge of the cot.  "I told Mr. Heyes that I would see to your needs.  You sit back and relax.  I'll do all the work.  We wouldn't want you aggravating those wounds now would we,"   she said in a silky voice that made Kid's mouth go dry.  He could only watch, captivated as she slowly unbuttoned the pink blouse she wore and let it drop to the floor.  This was followed by the tan skirt and petticoats which pooled around her feet.  She stood there, a vision of loveliness in her white lacy undergarments and corset.

She placed one foot on the cot's edge next to his thigh.  He unlatched the buckle, taking time to caress her stocking clad calf before removing her shoe and tossing it aside.  The entire ritual was repeated with her other leg and shoe.   Livvy bit her bottom lip, never taking her eyes off his, as she began a slow, sensual striptease for the wounded outlaw who had ignited a fire in her weeks ago.  She had to admit that the fire had started when she had watched him walk towards her after she had disembarked from the train in Cold Springs.  It was a fire that had not been extinguished.  What was it about this man that brought out every wanton, base and feminine instinct she had?  In her everyday life she was in control.  She was the boss, the head mistress of the household.  But when she was with this man,  this very masculine man,  she felt soft and fragile and out of control.  Every time they had made love in the past he had dominated her,  taking fierce possession of her body, and she had revelled in it.  When she was in his arms she didn't have to be strong and in charge.  She could be vulnerable and feminine.  He had brought to life a femininity she never knew she possessed.   And she wielded that femininity now like a weapon as she taunted him to the point of delirium with her slow deliberate movements, as she removed each article of clothing she wore and let them fall to the ground at her feet.

Kid was blown away by her boldness.  Usually she was more than willing to let him take the lead.   He enjoyed knowing that his male dominance over her body had forced her to step out her comfort zone.  He had loved watching her reactions when he had first begun to reawaken the hot blooded woman that had been asleep inside of her for years.  In fact he wasn't so sure that her husband or any man had ever awakened it in the first place.   But one thing was for sure.  It was certainly awake now.  She was being more bold than he'd seen her.  Hearing her insist that she do all the work had set his loins on fire.  He could hardly wait to see what she had in store for him.   His eager hands reached out to touch her.  She swatted his hand away and stepped out of his reach.  "Uh,uh.  Not yet,"  she said playfully.

When at last she stood naked, except for her stockings, which she knew he liked for her to keep on,  she  stepped within his reach to stand between his knees.  At last he was able to touch her.  He let his hands roam over every hill and valley of her tiny frame.  He was familiar with her body and knew every sensitive and erotic spot.  Then his lips traced the same path his hands had just taken,  leaving no part of her quivering body untouched or untasted.  When he had finished with her she stood trembling like a leaf in the breeze.  She looked down at the hungered expression on his face with her own hungry eyes.   "You are woefully overdressed, Mr. Curry,"  Olivia observed.

"And here I am injured and all,"  he pouted with sorrowful blue eyes.  " I think I may need some help."   She flashed him a wicked smile and began the splendidly arduous task of making Kid Curry as naked as she was.

She knew they needed to have a serious talk.  There were so many questions she had, so many answers she demanded.  But that would have to  wait.  All she could think about in this moment was getting to his flawless smooth skin and muscles underneath his clothes.  His skillful hands and mouth had left her burning with a need that only he could fill.   A need that would not be denied.  Talking would definitely have to wait.  She knelt at his feet and removed his boots and socks.    They joined his earlier discarded shirt.  She pulled  him to his feet.   The sound of leather rasping against the cloth of his denim pants was the only sound heard in the otherwise silent room as she slid his belt from his pants, then moments later the soft flop of cloth hitting the ground as she lowered his jeans around his ankles.   He stood before her splendidly naked and aroused.  True to her word, she did all the work,  pushing him down onto his back so she could reacquaint herself with every inch of his muscular lean frame.   Being careful of his wounds, she did so with her hands, her mouth, her tongue.  She writhed upon him like a feral creature, greedy and wanton.   She couldn't get enough of the feel and taste of him.   This time she wanted to dominate his body.   She felt almost like she was staking a claim and marking her territory as she let her hands and her mouth explore his magnificent body.   Once she had covered every inch of him from head to toe with kisses, nibbles, licks and caresses,  just as he had done to her so many times,  she sat on her knees between his outstretched legs and gazed into his smoldering blue eyes.    She could see in his eyes,  and had heard in the animal like groans he had made, that she had succeeded in her quest to dominate him.  He was on fire for her as much as she was for him.  He reached for her.  Hooking her under her arms he pulled her up the length of his body until her legs fell to either side of him, straddling him.   When at last the union of their bodies came they both gasped aloud at the thrilling sensation.   Their overheated and anxious bodies demanded release.  It was a frenzied mating, full of pure carnal need, but there was also a tenderness and a caring that softened the edges of the frenzy.   Kid marveled at the blonde beauty who was riding him like a bucking bronco, her sleek body glistening with perspiration.    He had never seen her so brazen.   He only needed one thing to make the moment complete.  His eyes captured hers. "Say my name, Livvy.   My real name."      She looked down into his face with understanding and said quietly,  "Jedediah."   Their pace quickened.   "Jedediah,"  she said more loudly.  Their mating reached a fever pitch, and Livvy cried his name out loud one last time as the shock waves of their shared release threatened to rob her of her senses.  She collapsed, spent atop an exhausted Kid Curry.   They lay there for long quiet moments,  waiting for their breathing and their pounding hearts to return to normal.   In the foggy haze of her sated and love drugged mind Livvy could have sworn she heard him say quietly,  "Thanks,  Heyes."


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

A couple of miles away,  Hannibal Heyes wasn't as happy.   He held the woman he loved loosely in his arms as they rode through the early evening sunshine.  He had shed his coat and Evie her cloak,  as the beating sun had made it quite warm.  And having his Evie snuggled up in his lap did little to cool him.   This ride was bittersweet for him.  He was reminded with sadness of the poem he had read to her just last night.

'I said---Then, dearest, since 'tis so, 
Since now at length my fate I know,  
Since nothing all my love avails,  
Since all, my life seemed meant for, fails,  
Since this was written and needs must be---
My whole heart rises up to bless    
Your name in pride and thankfulness!  
Take back the hope you gave,---I claim 
---Only a memory of the same,  
---And this beside, if you will not blame,  
Your leave for one more last ride with me.'"


Little had he known when he had read those words to her last night, that today he would be experiencing one last ride with her.   He had been trying all day to come up with the right words to tell her that he wouldn't be coming back to Red Rock with her.  And everything that he would come up with in his mind, even though logical and practical, still sounded hollow and cold to his ears.  And he knew Evie well enough to know that no matter how logical or practical it sounded she wouldn't go along with it.    Eternally hopeful and faithful that their love could survive anything, she would fight him tooth and nail and he knew it.   The dread began to well up inside of him again as he mentally prepared himself to explain to her all the reasons it was best if they parted now before she got herself into water too deep for her to swim in.

"It really is beautiful here isn't it?  Isn't it strange that you can come from the mountains into a canyon and then be in a grassy meadow on the edge of a forest, all in a couple of hours ride,"   Evie observed from under the brim of her straw bonnet that was secured under her chin by a white ribbon.

"Yes, it's beautiful country.  Kid and me have ridden through this part of the country a lot on our way from Colorado to Texas."

"I wish I had known you back then.  When you were a practicing outlaw."

"Well, I'm glad you've only known me as a non practicing outlaw.   It's not a very glamorous life like some people think it is.   It's a hard life sometimes.  Even when there's plenty of money and the men are all happy and the laws not looking for you, you still have all this doubt and guilt to contend with.  Especially if you're the leader.  Then all the responsibility for everything falls on you."

"I'm sorry.  I've made you think about bad times again haven't I.  I'm just glad I know you now and we have a whole lifetime ahead of us to make all kinds of new memories that will overtake all the bad ones."   She turned and planted a kiss on his dimpled cheek.  "I love you, you know.  More than anything."

He could see the look in her eyes and knew that she was waiting for him to kiss her lips and tell her he loved her too.  She was waiting for him to say, "Let's continue with our plans and get married."  But he couldn't.  He changed the subject instead as he kept Rusty at a steady walk.  "So, has Olivia told you what a fool you are yet?"

"Oh, of course.  'Let me talk some sense into that head of yours,'"  she mimicked.    "I'm surprised you didn't hear us yelling at each other across the camp.  But I told her in no uncertain terms that I would never change my mind about you and she had better get used to the idea or get used to never speaking to me again.  When she saw she wasn't getting any where, she had to mumble something about my knowing you had turned me into a smart mouthed delinquent.  But I just ignored her."

"You do have quite a sassy mouth on you these days, you know.  And all the lies that just seem to roll right out of there without missing a beat.....tsk, tsk tsk."

"What are you referring to exactly?"  she turned her head and batted innocent looking eyes up at him.
"That bluff you pulled with McMaster.  I never told you to only bluff if you had nothing to lose.    And Kid never told you to carry a pocket pistol in your boot either."

"Well what good does it do to keep company with con men if you can't learn to pull a con or two for yourself?"

"Your conning days are over, I can promise you that."

"Don't be so sure.  A lot can happen in two years.  I might have to save your necks again before we can find the perfect spot to build our fortress.  And you can't tell me that you weren't glad to see me ride into that canyon this morning."

"I was glad and terrified at the same time.  It's a terrible feeling when the person you want to protect the most is putting them self in danger to protect you."   And I'm going to make sure that it never happens again.  


"I know that feeling.  I felt the same way when you saved me from Harlan.  I felt safe and yet terrified that something would happen to you at the same time.  But I don't want to think about things like that.   I only want to think about good things, happy things from now on.   I don't think I've ever been this happy in my whole life."    Her hand found his free one and laced her fingers in his.   Guilt stabbed his heart like a knife.   He was about to shatter that happiness.  He hoped Kid was making good progress with Livvy, because this might take longer than he had figured.   He was losing his nerve.  "And speaking of being happy,  what did you do to get Livvy away long enough for you to shanghai me?   Get your partner in crime to suddenly need a long session of fresh air?"

He gave her a look of pure shock and innocence.  "What?  Me?  Do something like that?  I thought you had a higher opinion of me than that."

"My opinions aside, I just know you and I know Jed Curry well enough by now to know that there are two things that will never change.  One,  Kid will go along with just about any plan you come up with, and two Kid Curry will never pass on the opportunity to eat, sleep or spend time with pretty woman.   So I know that's what you did.   You lured her into your tent somehow and you know that he will be able to seduce her  and thereby keep her occupied for a while.   And I think I know Livvy well enough now too, to know that for all the front she's putting up about you two, she's still got a soft spot for Thaddeus Jones.   And Lord knows she's been wound so tight since she arrived this morning,  she could use a good roll in the hay, if you know what I mean."

Heyes just gaped at her.  "There you go again.  The things that come out of there.  What am I gonna do with that mouth of yours?"   he said teasingly.

She turned her head and smiled a beguiling smile at him.  "Do you really want me to tell you, Mr. Heyes?   Or shall I show you instead?"     Her hand snaked up around the back of his neck and her fingers threaded through the fringes of his hair that hung below his hat.  

Oh, why did she have to say that?  Why did she have to lean back against him and then touch him like this while staring at him with her needy blue eyes?   He could feel his traitorous body responding to her closeness.  He couldn't touch her.  He wouldn't touch her.  But he wasn't touching her, she was touching him.   Her delicate fingers gently pulled his head towards her.  He watched her mouth parted in anticipation as she lifted her head to meet him.  He closed his eyes as his mouth captured hers.    She opened her mouth beneath his granting him free access to as much of her sweetness as he was willing to take.  He should stop.    She darted her tongue tentatively into his mouth inviting him to taste her lushness.  He had to stop this before it went too far.   He grasped her head in both hands and lifted his mouth regretfully from hers.  He looked into a pair of eyes that were hazy with the clouds of desire.  He inhaled deeply hoping the intake of fresh air would clear his head, but instead it only filled his nostrils with the intoxicating scent of her.  She had bathed not long ago and her hair and her skin smelled clean and fresh and....like Evie.  He closed his eyes.  He wanted her so much right now it took every ounce of will power he had not to pull her off this horse and show her just how much he loved and wanted her.   He shouldn't.  He couldn't.  He wouldn't.  Her fingers left his hair to feather across his neck and along his jawline.   Her breathing had quickened and her unfettered breasts rose and fell rapidly beneath her white blouse.  Her back arched slightly causing her breasts to thrust forward, inviting his touch.   He knew what she wanted.  Could read the signs.   It was what he wanted too, but.... this is not what he had come out here to do.  This was not the plan.  He couldn't.  He shouldn't.  He wouldn't.  He swallowed hard, trying to regain his composure,  when she lowered her lips to his throat where his pulse hammered.  He closed his eyes and groaned.

He couldn't.  He shouldn't.  Her mouth opened on his throat and her novice tongue came out to bathe the brown skin of his neck.   He felt his body tighten.  He couldn't,  he couldn't.   Couldn't ...stand it any longer.    Lost now in his need for her he jerked her head away from him and held it firmly between his gloved hands.  His eyes connected briefly with hers before he slammed his mouth down upon hers.   He caught her sigh in his mouth as he worked her mouth further apart with his own, seeking her tongue and finding it.  It was not a gentle kiss.  It was needy and lusty and full of greed.  Their mouths mated as their tongues imitated the coupling that their body anticipated and she began to shiver.  Evie turned her upper body closer into his,  wanting desperately to be holding him closer.   Frustration led her to throw her left leg  up and over Rusty's neck.  She was  across the saddle now with both legs hanging from the right side.  This was better.   She turned so that her hip rested against the saddle between his thighs and she was able to wrap her arms around his back as he pulled her flush against him.  She lifted her mouth from his and stared into the fathomless depths of his brown eyes.   She saw the passion and desire that she had for him mirrored there and knew he wanted her as much as she wanted him.     Their eyes remained locked as she found her right leg somehow squeezed up between them and then dangling from the left side of the saddle.  She was astride again.  Only now she was facing her beloved, her  thighs resting across his.   The provocative position they found themselves in sparked and uncontrollable fire.

Suddenly in a fit of desperate need,  they began to tear at each others clothing.  Belt buckles were loosened, shirt tails yanked from waistbands,  buttons yanked from button holes.  Hats, bonnets and gloves flew haphazardly through the air to land unheeded on the ground.  Each was frantic to reach the bare skin of the other.   Heyes made quick work of her blouse and tossed it negligently to the ground with the rest of their clothes which left a trail behind the still moving horse.  Evie worked madly to undo the buttons of his shirt, while he  lifted the hem of her skirt and ran his hands up the length of her smooth legs to find them  bare already.  His hands ventured further upwards.  Still only bare skin.  He was finding it hard to breathe.  When he reached her hip and still found no barrier of clothing his eyes met hers.  "They lost my underclothes remember,"  she managed to say in a quivering voice as she undid the last button of his shirt and dropped her head to his chest and flicked her tongue across his small brown nipple.  That was his undoing.  Any vestige of self control he may have had evaporated.   He gathered her skirt and bunched the material up around her waist and grasped her  hips and pulled her forward.  She cried out when her pelvis came into full contact with his.  She pulled at his shirt, wanting to feel his skin against her.  He helped  her remove it and threw it to the ground.  She wrapped her arms around his naked shoulders and her legs around his hips, her feet coming to rest on Rusty's slick rump.    When the soft skin of her under arm came in contact with the small bandage on his left shoulder she gasped and pulled back to stare into his beautiful chocolaty eyes.  "Your wound,"  she managed to breathe out.   "To hell with it,"  he growled before devouring her mouth once more.

She had to pull her lips from his to let the moan that was stuck in her throat escape when the evidence of this arousal pressed hard against her naked flesh.  Her mouth hovered above his,  their breath mingling as he pulled her hard against his groin. The rough material of his heavy cotton pants came into contact with the mound of sensitive exposed flesh between her thighs. She followed an instinct she didn't know she had and she began to grind her hips down against his.   Rusty continued to walk, oblivious to the display of raw need and emotion that was taking place on his powerful back.  As the horse moved, it caused Heyes to move and that part of him that was nestled in the cradle of her thighs to move.  She couldn't keep another  moan from escaping her lips as the undulating muscles of the horse caused an undulating of his hips and that in turn caused his jean covered manhood to perform an erotic massage of the warm moist delta it rested against.   He had never seen a more powerfully erotic sight than his beautiful Evie with her head thrown back, a look of pleasure that resembled pain on her face and moans of ecstasy falling from  her parted lips.  And they still had most of their clothes on.  She buried her fingers into his golden brown hair,  as his mouth found the rounded tops of her breasts  and his hands kept their firm grip on her bare hips beneath her skirt.

How had he let this happen?   It wasn't too late to stop.   He had to stop before it was too late.  He couldn't make love to her again.   He had promised himself he wouldn't.  A million thoughts raced through his mind in a split second.   But two thoughts kept repeating themselves over and over in his head.  One, he still had to tell her that he was leaving tomorrow and she wasn't coming with him.  And two that someday after she'd gotten over her heartache and she had moved on with her life,  some other man would be touching her like this.  Holding her, kissing her,  hearing her soft whimpers of desire.  That thought created an animalistic urge deep inside of him that threatened to send him into a primitive state.  She was his.  Would always be his.  No matter who came after him, she would still always belong to him.  And he wanted to make sure that she never forgot who had loved her most and who had made love to her best.  But being the nimble minded creature he was he also thought about how selfish he was when it came to her.  And that it was time for once that he did something selfless for her instead of something selfish for himself.  As badly as he wanted her right now,  he knew he had to stop before he became powerless to do so.   He was just about to tell her they must stop when she pulled her head back and looked him deeply in his eyes and whispered in a voice full of desperate longing,  "Hannibal, please."

Heat scorched through his veins.  He plunged his hands into her hair, wrecking the braid and pulling it free from the lavender cord that bound it.  He pulled her mouth to his in a devouring kiss.  He gave up the last remnants of his self control.   Her hands, now not completely inexperienced, found their way between their bodies.  Her knuckles grazed the hard ridge behind the row of buttons that fastened his pants.   She began to claw at the fastenings,  determined to release that part of him she knew would fill the empty ache he always seemed to cause inside of her.   When at last all the buttons were freed and the full length of him sprang forth from the opening of his tan jeans,  her soft hands timidly touched the velvet steel of his manhood.   A look that resembled agony crossed  his face  "Good God,"  he hissed out between clenched teeth.

"Oh, I'm sorry.  Did I hurt you?"  she asked breathlessly,  jerking her hand away from him.

He smiled slightly and shook his head.  "No, you didn't hurt me."   This was madness.   They were on the back of a horse for God's sake.    If this was to be the last time he ever held her and made love to her he wanted it to be unforgettable.  He was consumed now with only one thing.  He hadn't changed his mind about leaving tomorrow.  But he did want to leave her knowing that he had branded her forever as his.   As much as he wanted to be selfless and self sacrificing,  he simply could not let her go without leaving an indelible mark on her heart.   He knew it would be easier for her is she were able to easily forget him.  But his primitive male need to mark his territory would not be denied.   He wanted this moment to be forever emblazoned in her memory so that years from now when she was lying in the arms of another man, she would still not be able to forget how he had made her feel.

He dismounted the horse and reached up to catch her as she slid into his embrace.  He pulled her cloak and carried it with them.   She again wrapped her legs around him as he carried her to a soft mossy spot under a nearby tree.   He spread her cloak on the mossy ground and laid her gently down and began the masterful possession of her body that would leave his name and his face forever seared into her mind and her heart.
  
She lay on the soft mossy ground,  her black cloak spread beneath her, trembling in anticipation of his body joining with hers.  Any moment now he would shed the remainder of his clothes, position himself between her legs and put an end to this ache.   She waited.  Instead he just stood over her.   He stared down at her, his bare chest heaving.    What was he waiting for.  All he had to do was lift her skirts and this agony would end.    At last, she thought, as he dropped to his knees at her feet.  But he didn't move to push her skirt up. Instead he began to remove her shoes.  He kissed the souls of her feet and her ankles as he removed her black leather mary janes.  As  he lifted her feet high to remove her shoes her skirt slipped down around her hips exposing her shapely legs.  He bathed each calf, each knee,  each thigh with kisses and caresses.   She propped herself up on her elbows to watch as he made a feast of her feet and her legs.  She never knew she had so many erotic and sensitive spots on her body.  But his mouth seemed to know exactly where to go to cause her body to tighten and swell further with longing.    He moved between her thighs but the barrier of her skirt still remained.   She whimpered in frustration and reached between them, trying to remove the barrier so he could at last enter her aching body.  But he had other ideas.  He tugged at the hem of her camisole, the only undergarment she wore besides her petticoats, and pulled it off over her head.  She delved her hands into the silk of his hair as his mouth laid claim to her lips, her chin, her throat, her arms her hands, her collar bone and at last her breasts.   He worshipped the creamy, soft globes with his tongue and his lips.   Evie gripped his shoulders and fought the urge to beg him to end this torture.   His mouth descended to her midriff kissing his way down to the waistband of her skirt.   He hooked his fingers in the waistband and began to tug.  She helped him by pushing at the cumbersome clothes with her feet, until at last he pulled the layers of navy and white away from  her body and tossed them aside.

He looked at her now with a different look in his eyes.  The smoldering longing was still there, but there was a fleeting moment of a  distant sadness there that she didn't understand.   It quickly passed to be replaced only with a look of raw, male need.  That look made her insides go quivery and she felt the flow of desire at that most intimate part of her body.   At last, she thought, the waiting is over.  But instead of covering her body with his, he laid his cheek against her belly and closed his eyes.  He caressed her there with his cheek, loving the feel of her soft skin.  He lifted his head to place a tender kiss to her navel.  He looked up into her beautiful face, clouded with passion and so full of love for him before letting his lips travel further down.

She felt his hands come beneath her to cup her firm rounded bottom.   What was he doing?   Suddenly her hips were lifted from the ground.  Her head shot up, her eyes grew wide with horror.   "Hannibal Heyes, don't you dare,"   she gasped out,  paralyzed with fear of what he was about to do.   "Don't!"   Her protests died on her lips when he lifted her like a chalice to his lips and began to sample the wine of her body.   Her eyes rolled back in her head.  Then her head fell back.  Her arms couldn't support her anymore and she fell back onto the ground.  Her head began to thrash about, so lost was she in the deliciously torturous things he was doing to her.  She had never experienced anything like this in her life, and didn't think she ever would again and her body began to weep with the indescribable joy of arousal.   She had never dreamed that a man could do this to a woman, bring her to the point of near hysteria with only his mouth.    Her hands groped for anything to grab onto as she felt the tight coiling in her belly about to break loose.  She could hear the sounds of sexual ecstasy drifting in the air and bit her lip when she realized they were coming from her own mouth.  She grabbed onto the only thing she could find.

He felt her hands in his hair locking onto his head as he drove her mad with his mouth and his tongue.  He knew she would protest at first, but he also knew that once she had experienced the most intimate of kisses, she would be helpless to protest.   He continued his slow and delicate assault until she was calling out his name like a litany in the throes of an earth shattering  release.   And still he didn't relent.  The physical and emotional experience she was having was almost overwhelming.  She didn't know if she wanted to scream, or laugh or burst into tears.   Soon she was begging him for mercy.  When at last he took pity on her and shimmied his way back up her body to settle himself between her shaking thighs,  she was a quivering mass of mindless need.

He hovered above her like a bronze god, his dark eyes filled with so many emotions she was hard pressed to define them all.   She reached out a tremulous hand and brushed a wayward lock of his hair from his brow then caressed his cheek.    She opened her mouth to speak,  to tell him just how amazed she was at what he had just done to her, how moved she was at the intimacy of it, but found she couldn't find the words to describe the way she felt at this moment.

He could see her struggle for words and knew that she was overwrought with emotion.  He smiled down at her with that dimpled smile that she loved so much.   He buried his face in her fragrant hair that spilled over her shoulder as he sank his  hardened body into her softness.   Their simultaneous sighs mingled as he let his lips hover just above hers.  And then he was moving, and she was matching his every move, rising off the ground to meet him thrust for thrust.    He never wanted it to end.   But he could feel the tension mounting in his body, growing tighter and tighter.    She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him deeper inside.  She began to mutter those incoherent little whimpers he had learned were the start of her fulfillment.   When she cluthced his back and cried out his name  he felt the spasms of her release tugging him into the depths with her and he gave himself over to pure sensation and found his own fulfillment.   As he left his seed deep within her, he felt he had left a part of his soul there as well.

How long they lay there silently holding each other they couldn't have told. Neither was willing to spoil the perfection of the love they had just made with words or movement.  As the evening sun began to lay its head down in the western sky, a proud black stallion stood on the horizon watching the two young lovers, one with a blissful smile of contentment,  the other with a far away look that could only be described as bittersweet.

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

Morning came much too soon.  Heyes woke from a troubled sleep to face what he knew was going to be the most difficult thing he had ever had to do.  He had messed up yesterday.   He had promised himself that he wouldn't touch her again.  But being alone with her, riding double with her, knowing he would never have another chance to make love to her again, he had given in and broken his own promise.  But he knew he had to keep the other promise he had made to himself.   He washed and dressed and went to find the Preacher.  He had to have a talk with him before he rode out and he knew Preacher was planning to ride out soon after breakfast.

Kid was still sleeping.  He was probably tired from distracting Livvy yesterday.  He hadn't ask Kid how it had went, because when he and Evie had rode back into camp around six thirty, Livvy had never left his and Kid's tent.  She had never even known that Evie had been gone.  So he knew that his partner had had no trouble keeping the feisty Mrs. Vanderbilt occupied.  But Kid would be up soon enough.  Abigail would be in any minute with a huge tray, laden with more food than most people saw in a week.   Kid could have it all.  He had no appetite.  His stomach was in knots.

"Mornin', Heyes."

"Mornin', Preacher.  I've been thinking about what we talked about yesterday.  If you've got a minute I'd like to discuss it a little more."    The two men ducked into the servants' tent where Preacher had slept last night.

Evie exited the tent to see Hannibal enter the servant's tent with Preacher.  She smiled secretly to herself, remembering his masterful lovemaking from yesterday.    Her mind still reeled with the thought of it and a hot blush crept up her cheeks.  Livvy had never even missed her yesterday, so she knew that Livvy too had been treated to a proper roll in the hay herself.   Evie, no longer the innocent virgin, could see the rapturous look in her eyes when she thought no one was watching, and knew she was recalling her time in the arms of Kid Curry.    And her frosty disposition had warmed up considerably.  She was no longer referring to the boys as "those two" or  "the resident outlaws."     Though she had not shared anything of the intimate details of her time with the Kid, Livvy had told her some of the conversation she had shared with him.  Kid had explained their amnesty deal with the governor of Wyoming and she was glad that at least they would have a chance to live normal lives in the future.   She had even lifted her former decree of isolation for Evie.  She could visit Hannibal if she chose, but only in the company of others.  Evie had only nodded in agreement and played the part of the subservient niece with great aplomb.  Evie knew that in time she would give them her blessing and she and Hannibal could continue with their plans to marry and then disappear.  Who knew, maybe she would even go with them.  She could leave the businesses in the hands of her responsible staff and take a permanent vacation.    But right now she couldn't wait to leave this place and get back to the ranch so they could continue their life as before.

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

"You're sure about this?"  Kid asked.

Heyes looked at his life long friend with a mixed look of pain and determination and simply nodded.

"Alright.  I'll tell Livvy what's going on.  And I'll meet you where we planned."   Kid put his hand to his parnter's shoulder and squeezed, showing as best he could that he would support whatever decision he made,  and that he'd be there to help him through the aftermath of that decision.

Heyes ran a brisk hand through his hair before picking up his hat and plopping it down on top of his head.  He could do this.  He was a train robber.  He was a bank thief.  He had cracked safes just by using his hands and his ears.  He had been the leader of the most successful outlaw gang in the west.   He could do this.  He had to.  For all their sakes.  Firm again in his resolve he went in search of the person he loved most in the world.  So he could break her heart.

He found her in her tent searching through a trunk full of hats and bonnets.  "Hi,"  he announced his presence from behind  her.

She jumped slightly at the sound of his voice then spun around with a beaming smile on her face to practically run to where he stood.  She hadn't seen him since they had arrived back in camp last night except when she'd seen him following Preacher into his tent earlier.  As she closed the distance between them she wanted to hug him, but he stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, clearly not inviting her display of affection.  Evie just mentally shrugged and said, "Good morning.   I was wondering when you were going to come and see me.  I thought I was going to have to come and find you."

"What are you doing?"

"I was looking for my straw bonnet.  Livvy expects me to wear it today and tomorrow and I can't find it.  I think I left it out in the meadow yesterday.  Will you take me back out to where we were so I can look for it?"

"Sure.  But I think you should let her know where you're going.  Besides, I never did get to talk to you yesterday."

"Oh, yeah.  I guess we got a little side tracked didn't we?"  she said suggestively, expecting him to pull her flirtatiously in his arms and show her the love she knew he had for her.  Instead he just gave her a half smile and nodded, as he looked at the ground.  Strange, she thought.  He must have something on his mind and he would tell me about it when they rode out.  But still her feelings were a little hurt.  They found Livvy instructing the staff on how best to pack the belongings for their trip back to White Oak in the morning.   They told her they were going for a brief ride and would be back shortly.   Livvy protested only slightly, but waved them off with a smile nevertheless.  They mounted their horses and rode in the direction of the tree they had lain under the day before.

Evie saw the white sash of her bonnet flying in the breeze a few yards away.  "There it is!"  she called to him as she sprinted Rusty ahead to find her bonnet in the tall grass.  She was shaking the dew from it when he reined Odin in beside Rusty and dismounted.    "Thank goodness I found it.  I would have had a hard time explaining its absence when Livvy saw it lying on my cot just yesterday.  She expects me to wear it when we leave tomorrow.  She doesn't want me to freckle any more that I already have."

He remained silent.  There was a troubled look on his face and he kept nervously licking his lips and stroking the leather rein he still held in his hands.    "Is something wrong?  You've been acting strange all morning.  And yesterday there were times when I swore I could pick up on something that wasn't quite right.  What is it?"  she asked as she lifted the skirt of her cranberry colored day dress to wade through the tall wet grass towards him.

He knew he had been a little cold to her this morning.  But he had to be.  If he showed her any kind of affection he would lose his nerve and he wouldn't be able to go through with his plan.

"Preacher's already gone," he said flatly.

"Already?  I didn't get to say goodbye."

"He was kind of in a hurry.   He has to get to Devil's Hole and take care of some business."

"Oh.  Well, I saw you speaking with him this morning, so I guess you got to say goodbye to him."

"I'll be seeing him again soon.  He's going to Devil's Hole to take care of some business for me and the Kid."

Her brows came together in a questioning frown.

This was it.  It was now or never.  And he knew it had to be now.  He swallowed hard and licked his dry lips.  "Me and Kid are going to be leaving today too."

He was nervous.  She could tell by the way he was fidgeting.  Him being nervous was making her   a little nervous.  "So...you two are going to ride ahead of the caravan and make sure the way is safe?"  she asked hopefully.

"No.  We're going north.  We can't really afford to go back south this soon after we've been spotted.  There will be too many people looking for us that way."

"So where are you going?  And for how long?   You've told me before you don't like to spend the winters up north without having steady work and a place to stay."

"That's why Preacher is going into Devil's Hole.  He's going as sort of an advocate.  He's going to talk to Wheat and see if under the circumstances we can't stay there until spring."

Her mind was racing with thoughts and questions.  Why was she just now hearing about this?  "Spring?   You mean you're not coming back to Red Rock until spring?"

"We're not coming back to Red Rock at all."

"What?  I don't....if.....if your not coming back to Red Rock then I'm coming with you, right?"  He was shaking his head as she spoke.  "Then I'll stay at the ranch until spring and then I'll meet you wherever you want me to meet you.  I won't like it but I can survive without you for one winter, I think."

He remained silent, staring at the ground, unable to meet her gaze.   She was getting scared.  She came and stood directly in front of him and lifted his face in her hands until he was forced to meet her eyes.  He pulled her hands away and let them fall back to her sides.  "It'll be more than one winter, Evangeline."

She stood there blinking, not knowing what to say.  She simply didn't understand and she obviously needed it to be spelled out for her.  "What are you trying to tell me?"

"I'm telling you that what I think is best for you...and for me and the Kid and for everybody is for you to go back to Nashville and live with your family.   You can go to school in Boston,  get an education.   Become a fine lady in Nashville society.  Do all the things a young lady your age should be doing."

"And where do you fit into that picture?"

"I don't.  I never have and I never will.  You don't belong in my world.  And I doubt if I could ever fit into the one you're fixing to be a part of."

"Are you saying you don't want to marry me?  You don't want the life we planned anymore?"  she asked in a voice that was starting to tremble.

"Of course I want it.  But like most things in my life, what I want I can't have."   He could see the panic start to churn in her eyes.  "You belong in a fine house with servants and books and pianos.  You deserve to be pampered and cared for and dressed in pretty dresses and hats.  You shouldn't be racing across deserts and mountains  chasing after maniac lawmen to safe the necks of your outlaw boyfriend and his partner.  I refuse to sentence you to a life with a wanted man.  It would be the ruin of you and I am not going to let that happen."

Her mouth was agape with a million questions and arguments hanging from it, but she couldn't voice any of them.  She could only stand there and stammer.   She walked away from him for a moment and took several deep breathes.    She had to talk sense to him.  They loved each other.  Their love could survive anything and it would survive this.   She whirled back towards him.   "Where is this coming from?  I thought we had gotten past all of this.  When are you going to stop sacrificing yourself on the alter of your past?  It doesn't matter to me if I can't live in a fine mansion or have servants and money.  I don't care if I have to live of the run for a couple of years.  Or if I have to do without a few comforts.   None of it matters as long as I'm with you."

"You think that now, but a few years of it and you'll start to resent me and maybe even hate me.  This is what's best for you."

Anger sparked in her eyes.  "I am so sick of everybody telling me what's best for me.  When do I get to decide what's best for me?   I am a grown woman and I can make my own decisions.  And I know what I want right here and right now.  And what I want is you and the life we planned."

"Do you realize you could have been killed yesterday?   At the very least you could have been arrested for aiding and abetting.  That can carry a sentence of three years in prison.  You shot a man for God's sake.  You could have killed him.  It's just a miracle that things worked out the way the did.  But eventually miracles stop happening.  You have been put through more in the past three months than most people have to go through in a life time and most of it's because of me.  I won't endanger your life or jeopardize your future anymore.   I just hope you can forgive me for taking what I've already taken from you."  He turned from her, not wanting to see the devastated look in her eyes.  He pretended to be checking the gear and saddle bags on Odin's back.  It was only then that she noticed he was already packed to leave.  He wasn't leaving sometime today,  he was leaving right now.

"I....I....I don't....I can't....I don't understand."   She let out a half laugh half sob that sounded comical to her own ears.  Was this a bad dream or a joke?    She couldn't believe this was really happening.  She could not wrap her brain around what he was telling her.  He was leaving her.  He was abandoning their future together.

She held her head in her own hands and struggled to take air into her lungs.  "How can you do this?   After all that we've been through together?    You saved my life when my family was murdered.  You saved me from Harlan.  We managed to turn Livvy around and then we survived Laura's craziness and now Sherman McMaster's.   We've  survived everything that has been thrown at us so far and we'll survive whatever gets thrown at us in the future."

"That's just it.  If I'm not in your life, things like that won't get thrown at you.  And some day when your older and you've forgotten about me, you'll meet somebody else.  Somebody that can give you the kind of life you deserve."

"Why?  Why are you saying these things to me?  Why are you doing this to me...to us?   Did Olivia have anything to do with this?"

"Olivia had nothing to do with it.  In fact Kid is telling her right now that we're leaving."

She had to do something.  She had to bring an end to this insanity he had unleashed upon her.  "When I was a little girl and Mama would read "Evangeline" to me she would look at me and say 'One day you will find your Gabriel.  The one man you can't live without.  The one man you would die for.'   Well she was right.  I have found that man and that man is you.  I am only half of what I am supposed to be when you're not with me.  And don't deny that you feel the same way about me because I can feel it and I see it all over your face every time we're together.  Every time you make love to me."

He wanted so desperately to tell her how right she was.  To tell her that she was the other half of the whole that made him who and what he was supposed to be.   But he couldn't.  Letting her stay with him was dooming her to a life of segregation, want, and danger.  He had to stick to his guns no matter how much it was killing him to do so.  "Like I said, there will come a day when you'll find somebody else that you care about and he will be able to give you a home and security.  Things I can't give you."

"Never.  I will never feel for anybody what I feel for you."

"You can't say that for sure.  You're still so young and you've got so many things left to see and do.  But me.  I'm almost thirty years old, Evie and I'm already getting tired.  A man my age shouldn't be getting tired.  But I am.   I'm tired of running.  But that's what I have to do if I want to stay free.  You've got an opportunity that most people only dream about.  And I want you to take advantage of it.  I want you to live your life without worrying or having to look over your shoulder and doing without.  Olivia can provide you with that and anything else you could ever need or want."

"Except you.   All the money and privilege and opportunity mean nothing without you."

"I'm not changing my mind."

She turned her back to him, feeling that she was going to be sick.  Her eyes landed on the patch of mossy ground beneath the tree where he had made love to her so completely less that twenty four hours ago.  "Oh, my God,"  she whispered.  She spun around to face him once more.  "Oh, my God.  Last night.  You were...you were saying goodbye to me, weren't you."

What could he say?  Yes he had been saying goodbye.  He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, stroking the leather reins he held in his hands, while he looked at the ground.  He owed her at least some part of the truth.  "That was my way of taking a part of you with me.  I'm not doing this because I don't love you.  I'm doing this because I do love you.  I don't think you will ever know how much."

He turned when he heard the sound of a horse and rider approaching.  Livvy came into view at the top of the hill.  Kid had told her the plan and she had come to take Evie back with her.  Heyes went to Evie and touched the side of her face.  Then he placed a soft kiss to her forehead.   They exchanged one last lingering look before he turned and quickly swung himself up onto Odin's back.  And with a snap of the reins he turned the steed and trotted off towards the west.

Evie watched frozen, unable to move  as horse and rider became smaller and smaller.  "No!"  she screamed as she lifted her skirts and started running.  "Nooo!"  she continued to scream.  Livvy called out to her as she passed her and her horse.  But she kept running.  As fast as her legs would carry her she ran.  She could still see him.  It wasn't too late.  "No, don't leave me!"  she yelled, still running.  Smaller and smaller he became as her legs grew weaker and slower.  Then he was gone.  Her legs came out from under her and she dropped to the ground like a rock.  Her skirts captured the air and poofed out around her like a balloon as she sat there on the ground trying to take air into her lungs.  He was gone.  Gone.

Livvy rode to where her niece had crumbled to the ground.   Jed had informed her of their plans to leave.    While she agreed with them that planning a life with a wanted man was not a wise thing to do,  she had been determined to stand by her niece's decision and give them her blessing.  But this had not been Evangeline's decision.  It had been Hannibal Heyes's decision.  She admired him for the sacrifice he had made to protect the woman he loved,  but was furious with him at the same time for leaving Evangeline so hurt.  She dropped to her knees beside her niece and laid a gentle, loving hand to her shoulder.  Evie turned and looked up into her aunt's sympathetic and understanding face.  "He's gone,"  she whispered.

"I know,"  Livvy said.

"He's gone," she repeated on a sob as Livvy cradled  her against her breast.  Evie let herself wilt into her aunt's arms as her sobs turned into despairing wails of inconsolable grief.   In a few short moments her world had shattered into a million little pieces and the only person who could ever put them back together was riding away and out of her life.


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


A couple of miles away, Kid Curry waited at the edge of the large forest that spread northward.  Heyes should have been here by now.   Maybe he had changed his mind about leaving.  Or maybe he just hadn't worked up the nerve to tell Evie yet.  Kid nudged his horse forward.  He would ride out to where they were supposed to be and see if he could find out what was keeping Heyes.  He didn't have to go far.  He spotted  Odin tethered to a tree less than a mile away.   He dismounted and searched the area.  His trail was easy to find.  He hadn't gone far when Kid saw his friend squatting behind a tree with his back against the trunk.  His head was bent low and his hands covered his face.  Kid approached slowly and quietly.  And for the second time in his life,  Jed Curry found Hannibal Heyes in the woods, bawling like a baby.

Soundtrack Selections for Chapter 33

I've got two songs for this chapter.  This chapter is going to be pretty hot, y'all.  I blushed a few times while writing it.  

For you

I saw a hawk soaring in the sky today and thought of you.
I saw the fresh new buds of spring blossoming in pink, white, green and blue today and smiled for you.
I smelled the fresh cut grass and the lilac blossoms and missed you.
I watched a full moon rise and longed for you.
I gazed at a star as it fell from the heavens and cried for you.
I will see the first rays of tomorrow's sun, and they will shine on something that will make me think of you.  And so it begins again...for you.

Keepership Suggestions

I wanted to make a few suggestions for keeperships that some of you may have forgotten about.  If you would like to declare yourself keeper of any of these let me know.  Or if you think of any others you would like to claim let me know that as well.

Evangeline cries herself to sleep in Heyes' arms the first night they are together

Heyes describes Evie's eyes as an approaching thunderstorm

Evie's glorious hair

Evie's memory bag

Heyes and Evie riding double

Evie describing Heyes' body as he sleeps

Heyes' pep talk to himself

Heyes and Evie in the creek together

Evie cheats at poker

Jenny the mule

A cigar and a good stiff whiskey

Sally Buckner

Evie punches Sally

Evie gets her monthly curse

Evie sits at Heyes' feet on the porch

Heyes sneaks into Evie's bedroom

Heyes hanging out of Evie's window

Kid saves Heyes with the ladder

Kid pins Olivia to the bunkhouse door

Olivia wins at rock skipping

Hannah Belle  pokes Heyes' dimple

Evie holds Heyes while he cries

Evie waits in the cold by the gate

Evie clutches Heyes' gloves

  

Sally calling Heyes "Dimples"

Heyes and Evie's first "I love you"  on the balcony

Kid and Livvy's "fresh air"

There are many more I'm sure I've forgotten.  And I didn't include any quotes.  But you can claim quotes as well.  You may have to go back and read through some older chapters to refresh your memory.  I hope you are all having fun with the keeperships.  Feel free to email me or leave a comment with your keepership declarations. 

1st Anniversary

One year ago today I posted chapter one.  So much has changed in my life since that day that it seems much longer.  I hope you have enjoyed being here as much as I have.  I've made some great new friends who have inspired me and lifted me when I needed it most. Thank you all.

Only two chapters left and we will come to the end of our tale.  I hate to see it end.  As one reader told me "I can't imagine one day without reading something regarding these character's lives."   It's hard for me to believe that so many people have become so invested in this story and these characters.   That make me feel so good.  I never dreamed it would be possible that I could do this and that so many people would love it.  Of course the real credit has to go to Pete and Ben and their characters, because that's were it all started.  Bravo, boys.  And I hope I've made you proud.  Especially, you, Peter.  I did this because of you.

And so to mark the one year anniversary I thought I would start a Keepership Page.  In case you don't know, a keepership just means that you claim yourself as the keeper or guardian of something.  It can be anything from the story - a character, an event, a quote, anything.    It's just a way of letting everyone know what means the most to you.  If it goes well, I might start a keepership for all things AS&J as well.  As an example I will declare a couple of keeperships for myself.

Karen is the keeper of  Miss Savannah from Savannah.
Karen is the keeper of  Kid's rock only skips three times.
Karen is the keeper of  "You know that Gabriel fella sounds a lot like  you , Joshua.  Unhappy, restless.  and your hair is a might neglected too."


Once a keepership is declared on one else can claim it.  So if there is something special to you that you want to claim, claim it before someone else does.    
To declare a keepership just leave me a comment or send me an email to klsbh@live.com.  Give me your name as you want it to appear on the blog and what you are claiming keepership of.  I hope you have fun with it.

Heyes: "I sure hope nobody lays claim on my whiskey voice and scandalous good looks."

Kid:  "I hope nobody lays claim on my pillow or my next meal."

Heaps of love and miles of dimpled smiles to you all,

Karen :')

Good-Hearted Bad Man

Did anyone notice the homage to Peter's role as Jim Dewey in  "The Good Hearted Bad Man"  in chapter 32?   If not here's a clip from that episode of "The Virginian."      You'll hear Jim Dewey, played by Peter, reciting from The Lucy Poems by William Wordsworth.  This one is titled "She dwelt among the untrodden ways."   It's the same poem Heyes reads to Evie.  If you would like to see the rest of this episode you can find it on youtube.  Or if you would like I can post the rest of it here on the blog.  If anyone would like me to do that, just leave a comment or send me an email   klsbh@live.com.

     

Chapter 32

Heyes lay awake watching her sleep.  He couldn't stop looking at her, knowing this was the last time he'd ever see her sleep.  Pangs of quilt coarsed through him. Not only for what he was going to do to her tomorrow, but for what he'd already done to her.  Making love to her had been the most perfect moments of his life.  Those moments couldn't compare to any he'd ever had.  He would cherish those memories .   But those moments would forever be tainted by his regret at  having been so foolish and careless with her virtue and her reputation.  Remembering it now had desire and yearning springing to life inside of him, but he pushed it down. He couldn't touch her again.  Could never make love to her again.  He'd almost given in to the temptation earlier when she had given him a bath.  Kid had saved his neck again.  As if hearing his thoughts, Kid stirred in the cot beside him.
Heyes turned to see his partner sitting up on the edge of his cot, staring at him.

"How ya feelin'?  Heyes whispered.

"Pretty good, all things considered. "   Kid whispered back.  Kid watched Heyes as he lay there propped up on one elbow looking down at the angelic face of the young woman who slept next to him.  He was lovingly stroking her hair and touching the side of her face.  He reminded Kid of a child with a new toy that he didn't want to stop looking at before he went to bed.  He felt for his friend.  He knew Heyes was going to send her away tomorrow and he was dreading it.  Kid dreaded it for him.   Because he also knew that Heyes planned on that being the last time he would ever see her.  Kid hated for her to get hurt.  He loved that girl too.  She was like his baby sister.  But it had to be done.  For her own good.

"She saved us, Heyes."

"She sure did.  I can't believe she came all this way."   He leaned over and dropped a gentle kiss to her smooth cheek.  She amazed him.  Most women twice her age wouldn't have had the guts or courage to do what she had done.  He admired her for that and he loved her for it.

"Heyes, you know she can't stay here.  It's too dangerous."

"I know.  I already told her she has to leave in the morning."

Kid could see in his partner's face and hear it in his voice how much he dreaded that moment.  He had been prepared to never see her again, after being forced to leave her.   And now suddenly she was here.  And now he had to endure the parting he thought he had been able to avoid.
"I know it's going to be hard, but it's for the best.  And just because you're sending her back doesn't mean you don't love her.  And she knows that.  You're sending her back because you love her.  I think she knows that too."

"I know she knows, but that doesn't make it any easier.  And I know it's for the best, but that doesn't mean I have to like it."

"You know she's going to put up one heck of a fight when you try to get her on a horse and make her ride out of here tomorrow."

He kept his eyes locked on her sleeping profile.  Wanting to remember how she looked.   He had really thought that he was going to spend the rest of his life with her.  What a fool he was.  He just hoped she didn't hate him afterwards.  He couldn't bear the thought of her hating him.  But he knew she wouldn't.  She loved him so completely and without condition that his mind was boggled sometimes.  He simply didn't deserve her.    And she didn't deserve the kind of life that being with him would give her.   He had caused this whole mess and now he would fix it.

"Yeah, I know."

"Heyes, what did you do with the ring?  She didn't find it while we were out did she?"

"It's in my saddlebags....."  A strange look came over his face.   "Oh, no.  My saddle and gear are still in the well."

A light crept up the side of the tunnel wall just outside the doorway.  Kid saw it first and drew his Colt which had never left his hip the whole time he'd been unconscious.   Even wounded, Kid Curry's hand was steady and prepared to fire as he aimed the shiny, cocked pistol at the doorway.   Heyes watched calmly,  confident that Kid would take care of whoever came through that door.   Kid let out a long slow sigh of relief and uncocked the pistol and pushed it back into the holster.
Preacher stood in the doorway, hands raised, lantern swinging from his right hand.  "It's just me, Kid.   How you boys feeling?"  he asked as he lowered his hands and entered the room to sit in the chair next to Kid's cot.

"Better.  Still kind of weak though.  We sure don't know how to thank you, Preacher.  If you and Evie hadn't shown up, me and Heyes might of been done for."

"You two boys know I'd do anything  for you.  In fact I believe I still owe you a couple.  Remember that time in Emeryville....."

"Yeah, yeah,  we remember Emeryville.  You don't have to remind us of that every time we see you.  That was one train job we'd like to forget,"   Kid said.

"Oh, yeah, you took a bullet in the leg on that job too, didn't you?"  Preacher recalled.

"Yeah, and after Heyes doubled back to get you,  we got separated.  It was dawn before we found the two of you."

As Heyes listened to Kid and Preacher talk about past times and long forgotten robberies, he thought about what he and the Kid were going to do if they got out of this one.  Where would they go?  They couldn't go back to Red Rock.   They'd have to head north.  But it was coming on to winter.  They never went north during the winter.  It was too cold and you never knew when you'd end up sleeping outdoors.  And work was scarce in the winter.  They would have to go back south.  And that was very risky when they had just been spotted.  Every time there was a Heyes and Curry sighting,   people would flock to that area just hoping to be the one to cash in.   He just didn't know what to do.
Evie stirred next to him, awakened by Kid and Preacher's voices.  She turned sleepy eyes up towards his face and he smiled down at her, loving the sleepy look in her pretty eyes.   She was so beautiful.  Seeing her now while hearing his two outlaw friends talk about the outlaw life he realized just how out of place she was.  She should be dressed in the finest silk, attending fine parties and cotillions.  She should be in a finishing school learning the details of becoming a lady.  And she should definitely be studying music somewhere.  She should be living in a fine home with servants to wait on her.  And she should be sleeping in a tall canopied bed of silk sheets and downy pillows and comforters.  Not here, dressed in dirty men's clothes, crowded up on a tiny cot in an underground hideout, hoping the man she loved didn't get killed or hauled off to prison soon.

Evie smiled warmly back at the gorgeous dimpled face of the man she loved.  She turned and positioned herself so that she was face to face with him, and wrapped her arms around his bare middle.  She loved the feel of his smooth skin against her hands.  She hoped she could change his mind about sending her away.  She would have to try.  He needed her as much as she needed him.  As she studied his face she saw a sadness in his eyes and knew that he didn't want to send her away, but that he felt he must to keep her safe.  Again she pondered a question she had pondered so many times before....how was it possible to love somebody this much?   "Why do I love you so much, I wonder?"   she pondered aloud.

Because your too young, too naive, and you haven't lived long enough to have the wisdom to know that loving me is going to be the death of you.  Maybe not a physical death, but eventually a death of your beautiful soul and spirit.  And I can't let that happen.


"That's a very good question.  I've been asking myself why you love me at all after all I've put you through,"  he said.

"Will you stop blaming yourself for everything.  You haven't put me through anything.  It's all the mean greedy people that won't leave us alone who are to blame.  And once we get out of this,  we'll go somewhere were nobody can reach us.  Then all we have to do is stay put for two years and then we will have enough money to go to Europe if we want to."   She laid her head against his chest and tucked her head up under his chin.  "I'm sorry that you and Jed are having to go through this."

He didn't answer.  He just held onto her a little tighter and kissed the top of her head.  Reality had not set in with her yet.  He would let her live in her fantasy world for tonight.  But when the morning came.....he didn't want to think about it.  Just for tonight he wouldn't think about it.  He had her here for tonight and he wouldn't spoil it with thoughts of tomorrow's sorrow.

"What's a man gotta do to get a decent meal around here anyway?"   Kid quipped from behind her.
Evie turned at the sound of Kid's voice and gave him an affectionate smile.  "Well, I see being shot and sick with a fever hasn't changed your appetite any."

"Being dead wouldn't change that,"   Heyes teased.

Evie reluctantly released her hold of Heyes and rose from the cot, missing his warmth and closeness already.  "Georgia sent a lot of good stuff.  I'll whip us up something right now,"  she said as she moved to the stove to begin preparing the meal.

"So, did you get the horses all taken care of, Preacher?"  Heyes asked.

"Sure did.  They're in a little valley about a half mile east."

"Did you happen to see anything going on out there?"  Kid asked.

"Well, now that you mention it,  I thought I saw someone in the trees just before I headed back this way, but I checked it out and didn't see anybody.  I guess the sinking sun was playing tricks on my eyes."

Kid and Heyes swapped worried glances.  "You reckon I oughta go back and get my saddle and gear?"

Kid thought for a moment.  "Nah.  The chances of them finding that cavern under that fake well pump are almost zero.  And that's a long crawl back through that tunnel."

"Yeah.  I guess you're right.    Let's just try to relax, have a good supper and enjoy the company while we can."

"Best idea you've had in months, Heyes."


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


It was getting late.  About time to be turning in.    Some of the men had already headed for their tents.    Joe and Hershel sat by the fire,  thinking that a good night's sleep sounded pretty good about now.  The sound of horse's hooves on the canyon floor echoed loudly off the canyon walls.   Everyone turned to see McMaster riding towards camp.  He jumped off his horse and came to stand in the center of the campsite.   He signaled for everyone to gather around.  "I've been out scouting the area.  I made a discovery.  There's an entrance to an underground mine shaft or something about five miles north of the canyon.  I have a feeling that's where they are.  So there has to be a way in there from here in this canyon.  It must all be connected underground.  We're going to search all night if we have to.   They went underground and I'm going to find the other way in if it kills me,"  he ground out between clinched teeth.

"Why don't we just go back to the entrance you already found and go in that way?"  one of the men asked, puzzled.

"Because that's the way they would have went if it was that easy.  It must be dangerous to go in from that way."    He didn't bother to tell them that he had seen a man going into the other tunnel.  He wanted to find both ways in and cut them off from both sides.  He wanted to see the look on their faces when they realized he had outsmarted them.  That they were trapped like the rats that they were. "There's another way in and it's here in this canyon.  Everybody grab a torch and start looking."

The men grumbled under their breath.   It was late.  They were tired.    But McMaster was insistent.  They searched for hours and found nothing.  Then it started to rain.  It was a light rain at first but it soon began to fall in buckets.  They were forced to seek the shelter of their tents.  McMaster pursed his lips, stiffling his anger.   He was so close.  He didn't want to stop searching.   But the darkness and rain were making it impossible.  He'd have to wait a little longer.   He had waited two long years.  What was another few hours?

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

The sound of light snoring was all that was heard in the cozy little underground sanctuary.  Kid slept on his cot and Preacher slept on his bedroll near the stove.   Heyes and Evie couldn't sleep at all.
After sharing the hot meal that Evie had prepared they had all played a few hands of poker.   When Preacher announced he'd like to play a few hands of spades, Kid, knowing the skills that both Heyes and Evie possessed, had insisted that they not be partners.  It became a contest of egos and cheating skills as Kid and Evie paired off against Heyes and Preacher.  They all laughed and enjoyed just being normal for a while, not having to think about being cold or hungry or sick.  And not having to think about the threat that was probably lurking above their heads.

Kid and Preacher had retired soon after but Heyes and Evie sat on his cot and just talked.  They talked about everything.  Heyes wanted to know everything about her. Things he hadn't yet learned.  Her favorite color.  Her favorite season.  Her favorite flower.  How many children she hoped to have.  And what their names would be.  The list went on and on.    It was as if he wanted to learn all the things he would have learned about her over the next years, here in this one night.  So he could take all that he could of her with him when he left here to live a life without her.   The last time Heyes had checked the time it was two a.m.  He had been asking her about all of her hopes and dreams for over three hours now.

"You know I'm getting really tired of listening to my own voice,"  she told him after talking almost non stop for three hours.  "I want to hear your voice for a while."  She arose from her spot on the cot beside him and went to the shelves on the other side of the room.  There were several books on one shelf.  She knew they were his, and that they had been the one luxury he had afforded himself when they had been stockpiling their secret hiding place.  She knew he was intelligent, practically a genius in fact, but she hadn't expected to see the collection she saw here.  There was a leather bound collection of Shakespeare,  a collection of Greek tragedies,  several  novels including ones by Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne and James Fenimore Cooper. The one that most caught her eye was a book of poetry.  She picked up the lantern from the table then brought him the book she had chosen.   She placed the lantern nearby so there would be light and lay down on the cot with her head in his lap.

"All those nights I read to you.  Now I want you to read to me."

He tried not to smile, but he couldn't keep from it.  He had dreamed of reading many of the words in this book  of poetry to her.  But he had dreamed of doing it on a warm summer day under the big oak tree, their tree, while the birds sang, the water babbled nearby and the scent of blue bonnets filled the air.  Not here in this dark, dank dungeon with only the smell of damp earth to fill their noses.  But the time for dreams had ended.  This was the only opportunity he would ever have to share these beautiful words with her.  He opened the book, and began to read.

   "'Her fresh and innocent eyes had such a star of morning in their blue, that all  neglected places of the field broke into nature's music when they saw her......'"


"'I hold it true whate're befall;   I feel it when I sorrow most;  'tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.'......"


"'She dwelt among the untrodden ways, Beside the springs of Dove, A Maid whom there were none to praise And very few to love.  A Violet by a mossy stone Half-hidden from the Eye! ---Fair, as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky!    She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be;  But she is in her Grave, and, Oh! The difference to me.'"


The sound of his deep melodic voice hypnotised her.  To hear those beautiful words coming from his mouth in his soothing baritone made her love for him bloom into something that she had never dreamed it could be.  She didn't think it was possible to love him any more, but as she listened to him read to her it was like part of his soul penetrated hers and wrapped around it.  Her spirit seemed to soar.  She was so moved with emotion that she wanted to cry.  But she held back the tears.  She knew if she started to cry he would stop reading and she didn't want him to stop.  So she lay and listened with her eyes closed.  Absorbing that part of his soul that he poured out to her in words.  He read poem after poem.  Tennyson, Shelley, Keats.  She didn't think she would ever tire of laying here so close to him listening to the sound of his voice.    Then he read from a chapter of poems by Robert Browning.

"'I said---Then, dearest, since 'tis so, 
Since now at length my fate I know,  
Since nothing all my love avails,  
Since all, my life seemed meant for, fails,  
Since this was written and needs must be---
My whole heart rises up to bless    
Your name in pride and thankfulness!  
Take back the hope you gave,---I claim 
---Only a memory of the same,  
---And this beside, if you will not blame,  
Your leave for one more last ride with me.'"


His voice trailed off at the end, then he fell into silence.   She opened her eyes to find him staring off into space, somber and pensive.  That same sadness still there in his beautiful brown eyes.  She sat up and took him her arms and held him close.  She knew that he, like her, was reminded of the time riding together when they had first met.  When they had fallen in love.  And it was bittersweet, knowing they would soon have to part.    "It won't be forever.  Please don't be so sad.  I'm sad too, but I can't bear to see you so sad.  Everything's going to be alright.  We'll be together again before we know it."   Somehow she had thought he would be the one to be telling her all these things.  He'd be the one reassuring her.  But he couldn't hide his doubt and worry from her.  She knew him almost as instinctively well as Kid did.  And she knew she had to be the one to reassure him.

He held on tight, not knowing what to say.   What could he say?   'Yes it will be forever' or 'no we wont' be together again?'   He didn't want to check the time.  Time was stealing the last few moments he had with her.  Maybe if he didn't look, time would stand still and he could stay like this with her forever.  But he knew that was a foolish notion.  Their time was drawing to an end.  And just like the words in that poem, all he could claim now were memories.


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


The morning came much too soon.  When Kid awoke he found Heyes sitting on the cot with his back against the earthen wall and Evie halfway across his lap, her head on his shoulder,  his cheek against the top her head, their arms wrapped around each other.  Both were sleeping.   He hated to wake them.  He knew they had been up almost all night.  He recalled the faint sound of their voices in the night.  He thought he remembered hearing Heyes reading aloud.  Then he saw the book on the cot beside Heyes.  Kid rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands and ran his fingers through his wavy blond hair.   He wished there was something he could do.  Some way to keep her here with them.  But he knew there wasn't.  He'd let them sleep a while longer.  Then he would have to be the one to wake them to face what they both dreaded most.


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


"Anything that looks like it leads underground.  That's what we're looking for.  Old wells, caverns, caves, tunnels.  Anything.  You find something you let me know immediately."

The men all hunkered closer into their coats and jackets.    Rain had started falling around three a.m.  and had kept falling until dawn.  A light mist of rain hung in the air now as McMaster rousted them all out to search for that blasted underground entrance anyway.   They all took their torches and scattered in different directions, looking under every rotten board in every floor of every collapsing building.  The looked under old abandoned wagons and feed troughs.  They looked  everywhere.

"Hey, has any body seen old Burt this morning?"   Joe asked.

"Now that you mention it, I ain't seen him since sometime yesterday,"   Hershel said.

A quick check of his tent, found his belongings still there, but his horse was missing.

"McMaster, Burt's gone.  So is his horse,"   Hershel informed their leader.

McMaster turned his cold flat eyes to him.  "He rode out last night.  Said he was tired and wanted to go home."

"But he left all his stuff.  It's strange he didn't say anything to anybody else."

"He was going to ride straight on through to White Oak, then take the stage from there.  He won't be needing that stuff."

"I think I found it!"  a voice cried out from the furthest end of the ghost town.

They all ran to where young Jesse Horton stood beside a four foot wide round opening in the ground.  There was a ladder  leading down inside.   "There was an old pump over it, but it was just a decoy."

McMaster shoved aside the men who had gathered around the large hole.  He stuck his torch  down and peered inside, before he started the climb down inside.  "Well, what have we here?"   he said as he crouched beside the saddle and gear that had been left there.  He scanned the cylindrical cavern, holding his torch aloft.  A devious smile cracked his stony face when he saw the arched opening at the base of the cavern wall.   He crawled inside and took a quick look.  He could feel the breeze of air coming through it and knew that it was connected to another opening somewhere else.  And he knew just where.  He'd done it.  He had outsmarted them and he had found their little hidey hole.  He had them trapped.  The men up top waited.  Then looked around bewildered as the sound of sinister laughter floated up from the hole in the ground.


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


"Well, I guess that's everything.  I'm leaving most of the food for you two.  Preacher and I just need enough to get us through to White Oak.   And here,"   she reached into the pocket of her cloak  and pulled out a small coin pouch and handed it to Kid.  "That's money that Livvy gave me a while back.  I kept some of it.  Just enough to get me back to Red Rock.  I want you to have the rest."

Preacher had already headed into the tunnel.   Heyes stood at the doorway waiting to walk with her to the entrance, while Kid helped her put on her black hooded cloak.

"I guess I won't be seeing you for a while, so give me a hug,"  she said to Kid who had washed and changed into a clean shirt.  He gathered the young woman he had come to love in his strong arms and hugged her tight.  She was surprised at the force of his hug.  He lifted her off the ground and almost hugged the breath out of her.  He set her back on the ground and kissed her cheek.  She lovingly touched the side of his handsome face.  "I'm going to miss you.  As soon as we see each other again,  I expect us to pick up those lessons again where we left off."

His blue eyes sparkled and he grinned.  "Don't forget what I've already taught you,"  he said teasingly.

"I won't," she said with a wink as she took his hand and squeezed it. "And don't overdo it with those wounds.  There's still a chance they could open back up and start bleeding again if you over exert yourself. You've just gotten over a fever and your blood is just starting to build back up, so take it easy for a while."

"I'll be fine.  Takes more that a couple of slugs from a .38 to keep me down,"  he said teasingly.  Then his smile disappeared and was replaced with a look of sadness.  "Take care of yourself.  And listen to Preacher.  He knows what he's doing.  And...tell Livvy that I'm sorry."

"You can tell her yourself the next time you see her."

His eyes locked briefly with his partner's across the room before he smiled at her and said,  "Just in case it's a while before I see her,  tell her for me anyway."

"Alright."  She backed away from Kid still holding his hand.  She didn't want to let go.  Letting go of him meant that letting go of her beloved was coming soon.

 Kid gave her hand one last squeeze then let go of it.   He could tell she was clinging to him to avoid what awaited at the end of the tunnel.   Her eyes were pleading with him to find a way to change his partner's mind so she didn't have to go.  He leaned forward and kissed her forehead and said simply, "Goodbye, Evie."

There was that same sadness in his blue eyes that she had seen in Hannibal's.  "Goodbye,"  she said somberly knowing that her only possible ally had sided with his partner.  Of course he had.  It was only right.  With a heavy heart she took the hand of her beloved and disappeared into the darkness of the tunnels with only a lantern to light the way.

The four mile walk she and Preacher had made into the tunnels had seemed much longer than the walk back.  It went much too quickly.  Both Evie and Heyes walked a little slower than ususal.  Both hoped to prolong the brief time they had left together, and they hoped to delay the inevitable.  But the inevitable was looming ever nearer and they knew they were almost there when they caught up to Preacher who had stopped to wait for them.

"I'll go on ahead, Heyes and make sure the coast is clear.  You two wait here."  They watched him disappear into the blackness at the other end of the tunnel.

"I want you to stay close to Preacher.  Don't leave his side for a second.  He's going with you all the way back to Red Rock.  I can't think of anybody else I'd want taking care of you if it can't be me or Kid.

"Then why don't I just stay with you and Kid?"  she asked smiling hopefully.

He set the lantern on the ground at his feet and reached for her.  She went willingly into his strong  embrace.   “You know you can’t.  And you know why.  There’s still a very real chance that we’ll get caught.  I don’t want you anywhere around if that happens.”

“I’m not a child you know.  I can make my own decisions.  I don't have to go anywhere if I don't want to."


“I know you’re not a child. Believe me I know.  And I know you can make your own decisions, but you’ve never been in a situation like this and you have to trust that I’m doing what’s best for you.”

She didn't want to cry.  She wasn't going to cry.  She started to cry.  She just couldn't help it.  She was fine one moment and the next tears were streaming down her cheeks and she was sobbing like a child.  Leaving him here in this dark, damp dungeon was so hard for her to do.  How could she go back to Red Rock and sleep in a warm soft bed, knowing he was stuck down here sleeping on a tiny hard cot.  She wrapped her arms tight around his waist bunching fistsful of the material of his coat in her hands, as if hanging onto a life preserver to keep from drowning in an endless dark ocean.
Heyes just rocked her and stroked her back and smoothed her hair.  That glorious hair that he loved so much.  He had no idea it was going to be so hard.  Holding her now and hearing her cry, he was tempted to change his mind.  To tell her she could stay.  That they would figure a way out of this.   But Kid's words rang like a bell in his head,  "You're sending her back because you love her."   If he really loved her he would do what was best for her.  And sending her back to Red Rock was best.  "I love you, you know that right?"

She lifted her tear stained face to look at him,  "Of course I know it."

He wiped the wet streaks from her face with his thumbs then laced his fingers in hers and led her towards the end of the tunnel.   The light of day filled the tunnel ahead.  The tunnel floor began an upward slope and it widened at the mouth of the entrance.   Sharp daggers of light pierced their eyes as they stepped into the brightness of daylight.  But it wasn’t as bright as it could have been.  They could see it was a sunless day.  Preacher stood just inside the mouth of the entrance near the saddles he had placed there yesterday.  "Looks like it's been raining for a good while.  There's a mist of rain in the air now.  But not enough to keep us from heading out.  I'll go get the horses."

This was it.  The last few moments he would ever see her, talk to her, hold her.  In these last few moments he wanted to tell her to not wait for him, to go on with her life.  To go to Nashville and get to know her family, meet new people, make new friends.  He wanted to tell her to fall in love again someday.  To get married and have the four children she wanted.  Two boys and two girls.  But he couldn’t bring himself to say any of it. It all sounded so final.  And it was.  But he didn’t want her to know it.  It was better this way.  If she thought there was a chance that they would be together again she would go willingly.  If she knew that in reality he never intended to see her again, she wouldn’t leave and he knew it.   Not even a silver tongue could come up with the right words. And so he said nothing. Instead he pulled her hood up over her head and tied the string loosely under her chin.  When he sought her eyes he saw fear in them.

"I'm scared,"  she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Hey, there's nothing to be scared of.  You just stick to Preacher and ...."

"No.  I'm not scared for me.   I'm scared for you.  I'm afraid that when I leave something bad is going to happen."

"You haven't been having any more of those dreams have you?"

"No.  It's just a feeling I have.  I'm just so afraid for you and Jed."

"Now, don't start worrying.  We're going to be fine.  We've pulled through worse than this before.  And just like Kid said, the chances of them finding this place are almost zero.  Why, they'd have to...."

Preacher appeared in the entrance way, briefly blocking the light.  Heyes knew he hadn't had time to walk a half mile and make it back.  The look on his face when he stepped into the circle of the lantern's light told Heyes all he needed to know.

"What?"
"Riders coming.  Five or six. Headed straight for us."

"How far off?"

"Not far."
"Oh, God.  Oh, God!   What are we going to do?"   Evie shrieked hysterically.

"First thing you're gonna do is stop yelling.  And calm down.”

Evie slapped her hand across her mouth and stared at him with wide eyes.

Preacher peeked out and looked into the distance.  The six horsemen were almost here.  “Better make a run for it, Heyes.   Don’t worry, I’ll make up something to try and throw 'em off.”

He didn't know what to do.  He had to run.  He knew that.  But he didn't want to leave her here.  He had no idea who these men were or what they wanted, although he was pretty sure.  But he couldn't take her with him either.  If she was found any where near where he and Kid were hiding she'd be in trouble for aiding and abetting two wanted men.  He had to make a decision quick.  Time was something he did not have.  He fastened his eyes on hers, and he saw there the fear and the desperation.  But he also saw her fierce determination and he knew that she would do what ever she had to do including put herself in harm's way to protect him.  Heyes grabbed her by the shoulders and searched her eyes with his deep penetrating gaze.  "You do whatever you have to to make sure that they don't know you're connected with me and Kid in any way.  Do you understand?   Aiding and abetting fugitives is serious business and you could go to jail.  You lie, you hear me?   You were just traveling on your way north and you came in here to get out of the rain, got it?"

She nodded  her head.  "I understand."   Her bottom lip started to quiver and she squeezed her eyes shut against the tears that threatened to erupt.

"Preacher...."  Heyes looked to his old friend.

"Don't worry, Heyes.  I'll take care of her."

Heyes held Evie's head in his hands and laid his forehead against hers.  She grasped his forearms and held on tightly.  "I'll be alright.  No matter what happens,  I love you.  Never forget that."   And with a quick kiss to her trembling lips he released her.  When she opened her eyes he was gone.  Only blackness stood where he once had been.  She stood there rooted.  Unable to move.  Please, God, don't let this be the end.   


The sound of horses' hooves squishing on the sodden ground outside the entrance brought her around to face the light.  "You lie, you hear me?"   His words kept echoing in her head.  She had only pulled off one con in her life.  And now she prepared herself to pull off another.  Only this time it wasn't to cheat a bunch of cow pokes out of their week's wages.  It was to save the lives of the two men she loved most in the world.  She hoped her fear didn't show through the facade she was about to put on.  "We're just travelers passing through,"  she repeated over and over to herself.

Six men holding flaming torches descended single file into the large mouth of the tunnel.   Preacher came to stand in front of Evie who still stood in the darkness of the tunnel away from the clouded light that filtered in from above.  Preacher had his shotgun loaded and ready when the six men appeared in front of them, guns drawn and torches blazing.   "Hold it right there,"  Preacher said sternly as the first man came into view.   "Who are you and what do you want?"

The men gathered in front of Preacher.  One man came from behind the other five to stand at the front of the small group.  Evie, pulled her hood lower over her face.  It was McMaster himself.  She didn't want him to recognize her from Tularosa.   McMaster tapped the tin star that rested on his left breast with the end of his index finger.   "I'm the law, mister.  I'll be asking you who you are and what you're doing here."

"Me and my daughter was heading north to Denver.  Took shelter in here from the rain."

"Is that so?  When did you get here?"

"This morning.  Early this morning."

McMaster looked around, taking note of the saddles and gear just to the side of the other men.  "Where are your horses?"

"I set 'em loose to graze.  Now if you gentlemen don't have any other business here, you can just be moving on."

"But I do have business here.  I'm looking for two wanted men.  Outlaws.  And I have reason to believe that they came in here."   McMaster casually took a few steps closer to Preacher.  "You seen anybody down in this.....what is this anyway?   And old mine shaft?"

"Whatever it is, there ain't nobody down here except me and my daughter.  And we would like to keep it that way."

McMaster took another step closer.   The man wearing the parson's hat and collar looked familiar.   "There's no need for all these guns now is there?  Put the guns away boys.”   The men lowered their guns, but Preacher kept his pointed at McMaster who was only a scant inch from the end of the barrel.  “We’re just lawmen out doing our job.  So just relax.”

Preacher hesitantly lowered his shotgun.  Evie just stood and remained silent.

“So, you two got caught in the rain did you?”

“That’s right.”

McMaster noted the slight dampness of the man’s coat.  It could be true.  Where had he seen this man before?   He reached behind him to take a torch from one of the other men.  He held it high over this head.  He could see the girl standing cloaked behind the man clearly.  She was as dry as a bone.  If she had been caught in the rain then she had certainly dried out in a hurry, especially since there was no fire burning anywhere.  He could also see that behind her stretched a long narrow passageway.  Just what he'd hoped to find.

"Where does that lead?"

"How should we know?  We didn't go back there,"  Preacher lied.

"Is that so?"   McMaster said through squinted icy eyes.   "Then what are all those foot prints that I see.  They look fresh too.  Going in both directions.  You wouldn't be lying to me now would you, Reverend?"

Preacher remained silent.  He didn't know what to say. Evie sensed his hesitation and knew his mind wasn't quick enough to counter McMaster's interrogation.  Who did this man think he was anyway?  What kind of person accused a man of the cloth of being a liar?  The fact that he was lying was not the point.  McMaster had no clue who they really were and for that matter no reason to doubt anything they said.  Especially when it came from a man of God.  Her dislike for the man muliplied as she thought about how he had doggedly persued the man she loved just to save face.  She could feel her fear dying and in its place sprang to life  a sudden seething anger.

"Have we broken any laws, sir?  I don't think it's illegal to take refuge from the rain.  And if there have been other people down here recently to make those tracks it has nothing to do with us.  We haven't seen anyone for days.  So unless we are under arrest then we would like to be left alone."

Well, he thought,  a woman who likes to stick her nose in men's business.  The voice that came from under the dark hood sounded familiar.  Where had he heard that voice before?    She had gumption, he gave her that.  Reminded him of.....Before Preacher had time to react,  McMaster reached around him and grabbed Evie by the arm and pulled her roughly from behind him.   She slammed hard against his chest.  The other five quickly aimed their guns at Preacher.  There was nothing Preacher could do. McMaster yanked the hood from her head.  When she refused to look up, he grabbed her face in a not so gentle hand and forced her eyes to meet his.   He thought so.  The sweet young thing from Tularosa.  What were the odds that she would be in the same town he and his men had just come from and then wind up here?  Not only in this area but here in this place where he knew he was going to find Heyes and Curry hiding.  It was too big of a coincidence to just be a coincidence.  He saw the defiance in her eyes.  A woman didn't have fury in her eyes like that for no reason.  Her stormy blue eyes fairly burned with loathing.  A woman only looked like that when something or someone she loved was threatened.  So which one was it he wondered,  Curry or Heyes?

"Take your hands off me,"  she ground out between clenched teeth, barely able to contain her anger.  How dare he put his hands on her.  And how dare he treat them as though they were criminals.  He had no idea who they were.  And he certainly had no knowledge of their connection to Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry.  For all  he knew they were just a minister and his daughter  who had sought refuge from the rain.  "You may be the law, sir, but you have on right to man handle me."

"No, not if you were telling me the truth.  But you're not.  Your bone dry.  If you had been caught in the rain you'd be at least a little damp."  He glanced sideways towards the saddles.  "And your saddles don't appear to have the first drop of rain on them.  Which tells me you've been down here since last night at least, because it started raining about three o'clock this morning.  And I can tell those tracks were made by three different people.  Two men and one woman.  And they were made very recently."

He kept his grip on her upper arms and stared down into her face.   "Get his guns,"  he ordered his men.   Then he addressed Evie in a low voice so that only she could hear.  "You were in Tularosa weren't you?  Of all the places you could have ended up, why here?  What are the odds against that, do you think?   You wouldn't have had anything to do with that whore keeping  me good and occupied would you?"    Evie refused to look away.  She wouldn't let him bully her.  She might be the only thing standing between this authority abusing roughneck and Heyes and the Kid.  "If not I guess it won't bother you any that a gave her a little lesson on interfering with a lawman doing his duty."   He chuckled.  "Yeah, she won't be making any money for a while, not with two black eyes and a busted rib."

Evie couldn't keep the  horrified expression from her face when she thought of Sally suffering at the hands of this brute.  And it was all her fault.  Too late she tried to maintain her visage of composure.    He had baited her and she had fallen for it.   She certainly wasn't doing the gambler's blood in her veins any justice.  She had given away her hand with one look.

"That's what I thought.  They're here, aren't they?"

"Who?  I don't know what you're talking about."

“Do you know what the punishment is for aiding and abetting fugitives from the law?”

“I don’t really care as I’m not guilty of it.”   Because you’re the real criminal here, she thought.

He released her and she stumbled backwards against Preacher.  “Joe, Hershel,  you come with me.  The rest of you wait here and keep an eye on him."  McMaster grabbed Evie by the arm and headed into the tunnel.

"Now hold on a minute, you ain't taking her anywhere.  You've got no call to be treating us this way.  We ain't done anything wrong,"  Preacher protested in a last ditch effort to keep McMaster from heading towards Heyes and the Kid.    It didn't work.  "Alright.  If you want to take somebody along with you why don't you take me.  Leave the girl here."

But it did no good.  Preacher was forced to stand and watch as McMaster and his deputies disappeared into the darkness ahead.  And they had Heyes' gal with them.


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


Heyes felt like his lungs were on fire.  He hadn’t run this fast or this far since he was a boy.  He could see the light up ahead.  He burst through the doorway to be greeted by a cocked and loaded Colt .45.

“Heyes?  Aw, no.  What's the matter?”  Kid asked as he reholstered his gun.

Heyes stood there for a moment trying to catch his breath.  Breathing heavily he explained,  “Riders coming from the canyon.  Probably the posse.  I think they spotted Preacher when he was out yesterday.  They were headed straight for us.”

"Do you think they found the empty well?"

"I don't know, but we don't have much choice.  We've got to go that way.  If it's McMaster he won't stop until he finds this place so we've got to move and that's the only place to go."

"I'll grab the canteens and some food.  You pour some water on the fire."

"You sure you're up to it, Kid?  It's a long crawl and I know you're not a hundred percent yet."

"Heyes, do I have a choice?"

"No."

They grabbed what they needed, put out the fire and on hands and knees disappeared into the crawl space that led to the abandoned well in the canyon.


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

McMaster stopped, bringing the other three to a halt.  Evie was sandwiched between McMaster's back and Hershel's front.  Joe brought up the rear.  McMaster sniffed the air.   "There's a fire burning somewhere.  We're close.  Just how much further is it would you say?"  he turned and looked Evie dead in the eye.

Using her best poker face she gave away nothing as she defiantly met his gaze, but remained silent.  They walked on.  They had been walking for nearly an hour so Evie knew they were almost there.   She knew it wouldn't be long before he found what he was looking for.  She prayed that the other entrance hadn't been found and the boys were safely on their way towards it.

"I'm going up ahead to check it out.  You two stay here with her.  If you hear shooting, be ready to back me up,"  McMaster told Joe and Hershel, before he eased his way further into the blackness ahead of him.

When the glow from McMaster's torch could no longer be seen,  Evie sagged against the earthen wall of the passageway.  She had to think.  She knew the boys were on their way to the canyon, but what could she do to keep him from finding the hole in the wall that she knew they had escaped through?   If he found it she knew he would follow them into it.  Dear, Lord, they needed a miracle.  Her mind was awhirl with thoughts.  Thoughts of the boys, of Livvy, of Sally.  Poor Sally.  She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that at first she hardly noticed that the two men beside her were speaking in whispered voices.

"If he don't come back with Curry and Heyes, or at least one of 'em,  I say we all pack up and get out of here,"  Joe whispered to his fellow deputy.

"That's what I say.  And the rest of the men feel the same way.  He's carried this thing too far.  Makes me a might uneasy being down here."   Hershel moved the flaming torch he carried to illuminate one of the many chambers that made up this underground maze.   "See here how most of it's starting to cave in.  With it raining and all, there's no telling when the whole thing could come down on top of us."   He loosened the collar of his shirt.  "Makes a man feel a bit like he's suffocating."

"Yeah, I know what you mean.  If them outlaws want to risk being down here in this oversized grave then more power to 'em.  But I'm ready to get outta here.  And now he's done dragged these poor people into it.  Whoever heard of a minister of the gospel telling a lie?"   Joe turned apologetic eyes to her.  "We're awful sorry about this, miss.  We're just following orders.  Even if we don't agree with them.  Sometimes we ain't sure if that man's right in the head."

So there was a little dissension in the ranks, huh?   "Oh, that's alright.  I understand.  So where exactly are you fellas from?"

"Cold Springs, Texas, ma'am."

"You're a long way from home, then.  How long have you been chasing these outlaws?  Did you say it was Curry and Heyes?"

"That's right, ma'am,"  Joe explained.  "They was spotted in Cold Springs five days ago.  We've been hot on their heels ever since."

"Well, I won't exactly say hot,"  Hershel countered.  "We could have caught them day before yesterday, but McMaster told us not to fire on them.  Burt and a few of the others did fire and hit one of them I'm pretty sure.  McMaster wasn't too happy about that.  Maybe that's why old Burt set out for home early.  He was nervous being on McMaster's bad side."

"He wants to take them down himself,"  Evie thought aloud.

“Yeah, that’s the way it seems.  I reckon them two gave him the slip in this very same place a few years back.  He’s been looking to settle the score ever since.  And seems determined to make sure that it happens here in this place."

“A man with a grudge and a score to settle.  Must make for real pleasant company.”

“You have no idea, ma’am.  He’s hell bent on taking Heyes and Curry in dead.”

“But Heyes and Curry aren’t killers.  Everyone knows that they never killed anybody in their robberies.  And I read in a newpaper a few days ago that there haven’t been any crimes committed by Heyes and Curry in almost a year."

“We know.  We just don’t know what we can do about it.”

"So you'll just watch while he guns down two men who have never murdered any one?" Both men looked sheepishly at the ground.  "Sounds to me like he's the one that needs to be arrested."   She could see the shame on their faces as they avoided eye contact with her.   "But I guess getting a share of the reward will be worth it in the end,  huh?    Maybe it's just me, but I sure wouldn't have any fun spending that money knowing how I got it."

The men remained silent and Evie could tell they were thinking about what she had said.   They stood there is silence for what seemed like an eternity.  Where was McMaster?  Why hadn't he returned?  Evie was starting to worry.  She knew he had had plenty of time to reach the boy's hiding place.  He must have found the other tunnel and had followed them in.

"He's been gone an awful long while, don't you think?  Maybe we oughta go check,"   Joe said.

"Yeah, I guess we should."   Hershel moved forward motioning Evie to move ahead of him.  They didn't get very far before they saw the glow of a torch around the bend up ahead.   She expected to see his cold blue eyes any second, but stopped in her tracks when she was met with a pair of warm brown eyes instead.

She gasped.  Hannibal Heyes stood in front of her, his hands raised in the air.  Behind him Kid Curry stood, hands in the air, looking pale and groggy.  Evie could see the crimson stains on his fresh shirt beneath the opening of his sheepskin coat.  Crawling  through the tunnel had reopened his wounds and had sapped what little strength he had regained.  Her eyes darted from Heyes to Kid and back to Heyes.  She saw weariness and defeat in both of their gazes.  She opened her mouth as if to speak, but a slight shake of his head unnoticed by everyone else, told her to keep her mouth shut.

"What did I tell you,  men?   I knew they were down here somewhere.   They thought they had out smarted me again.  But little did they know that I had both entrances covered.     Me and Jesse trapped them in the middle of the tunnel that leads to the well in the canyon.   You should have seen the look on their faces when they knew they were caught.  Now, let's get going boys.  You've got a long walk back to the canyon."

There was nothing Evie could do.   Her mind was numb.  She couldn't think.  She could barely breathe.  By the time they reached the tunnel entrance where Preacher and the other members of the posse waited,  Kid was nearly exhausted.     When they ascended the slope to step out into the blinding light of day,  Kid stumbled and fell forward into Heyes' back.  Heyes and Evie both moved to help him.

"Get your hands on top of your head, Heyes,"  McMaster ordered.   "And keep looking forward."  Heyes glared at his captor, but complied, not wanted to take chances with Evie here so close.    "You,"  he looked at Kid who had fallen no his knees,  "get on your feet."   He gave Kid a not so easy nudge with his booted foot.

Evie dropped to her knees beside Kid.  "Stop it!  This man is wounded and he needs medical assistance.   Can't you see he's bleeding."   She pressed her hand to the wound in his shoulder as she helped Kid stand.   He leaned heavily on her for support.

"Joe,  you and Hershel take the girl and the padre to get their horses.  Then you make sure they ride on northward like they said they were supposed to be doing.   I'll be taking my prisoners back to the canyon."

Evie ignored Joe and Hershel  who stood waiting for her to submit to the lawman's authority.  She watched as the two unnamed deputies mounted their horses and took the reins of McMaster's horse.  He was going to make them walk back to the canyon at gunpoint. "Surely you don't expect a man in this condition to walk another five miles to the canyon?"  she asked with a scowl on her face as she held Kid around his waist with both arms.

"That's none of your concern, now, is it?   Now get going and be thankful I'm letting you get on your horses and ride out of here.    If you stick around any longer I might be forced to put you under arrest for helping two outlaws escape justice."

Heyes turned slightly, just enough so she could see his eyes.  Do what he says, was written all over his face.  But he's going to kill you her eyes flashed back.

Evie felt hands grasp her arms and urge her backward.   Heyes still looked over his shoulder to meet her gaze.  It's alright.  I'm ready for what ever happens, and don't you dare give away that you know me, his eyes seemed to say.  She couldn't believe this was happening.  She had to do something.  But what?  The boys were surrounded by four armed men.  She and Preacher by two.  She felt helpless.   Even more helpless than she had felt when she was sitting at Harlan Mathis' feet while her family were being murdered.    She kept glancing backward until they disappeared over the hill toward the canyon, prodded like cattle the whole way.   She fell in step with Preacher as they  marched eastward towards their horses, lead at gunpoint by deputy Hershel.   Preacher carried his saddle while Joe carried hers.   Why, God, why?  After all that we've been through to be together, why would you let it end this way?   Please send us a miracle.

The mist of rain began to fall heavier and steadier.  Perfect weather for the way she felt.  Cold, wet and miserable.  They topped a small hill and looked down upon the valley where Preacher had left Rusty and his horse loosely tethered to graze.  But the two horses were not alone.  Standing magnificently proud beside Preacher's horse stood Odin.  Seeing the beautiful black that Hannibal had worked so hard to train and teach made her heart squeeze painfully in her chest.  But Odin wasn't alone.  He was flanked by a saddled grey gelding.

"Hey, Hershel, ain't that Burt's horse?"

"Yep, he's the only one who was riding a grey."  The two men exchanged puzzled looks then started he descent into the small valley.  They stopped in their tracks when they stumbled upon a fresh, shallow grave dug into the soft ground of the hillside.   Sticking out of the crumbling earth were a pair of men's booted feet.   The two men began to remove dirt with their bare hands.  Evie and Preacher looked questioningly at each other, not sure what to think.

"Sweet merciful God!  It's Burt.  He's been shot in the head."

Evie put the whole thing together in a second.  "Didn't you say Burt had fired at Curry and Heyes and he wasn't happy about it?"  she asked the stunned men.

"Yeah.  And he told us that Burt had come to him and said he was tired and headed home.   But he would have went south, not north."

"He did this.  Don't you see?   He murdered the man simply because he was pissed off for shooting at two men he wanted to kill.  You've got to stop him.  We have to get back there so we can help them.  He wants to kill them and they don't deserve that."

They remainded silent thinking about what she had said.

"You said yourself the man's not right in the head.  If this doesn't prove that then what will," she said as she pointed to the dead body of the unfortunate Burt.  When they still didn't respond, she resorted to begging.  "Please, you've got to go back and stop him.   You were right.  We do know them.  And yes they've committed some crimes in their past, but they are good men.  They haven't committed any crimes for nearly a year.  They are trying to start over and live a straight life.  But they won't get the chance if you don't go and help them.   McMaster needs to be the one under arrest.  If you won't stop him then let us go so we can."

The two men stood staring at each other.  Then finally Hershel said,  "You're right ma'am.  He's done this as sure as the world.  But you need to let us take care of McMaster.   A young lady like you has no business dealing with the likes of him.  Joe, let's cover Burt's body up good and proper so no animal's will get to him."

"There's no time for that.  I'm sorry about your friend, but there's nothing you can do for him .  But you can save two lives if you'll get on one of those horses and ride.  Please.  they'll be dead if you wait any longer,"    she pleaded.

"I'm sorry about that ma'am.  Really I am, but we knew this man.  He was our friend and we ain't gonna leave him here for coyote food."

Preacher cleared his throat,  "Uh, gentleman, as a minister of the gospel, I feel it's only appropriate that I should say a few words of prayer and read a little from the Good Book."  Evie caught on quickly.  Preacher pulled his hat low over his eyes to shield his face from the rain as he pulled his little Bible from his pocket.  He opened it and began to read.  As he read, Hershel and Joe listened with lowered heads.  Evie eased herself further down the hill towards the horses.  Inch by inch she went unnoticed.  Her eyes met Preacher's and he knew what to do.  "Let us bow our head for a word of prayer."   As soon as the men had their heads down and their eyes closed, Evie sprinted as fast as she could down the slippery hillside and grabbing Rusty's mane, pulled herself onto his back and dug her heels into his flanks.  He took off like a shot.  She looked briefly over her shoulder to see Joe and Hershel running for the other horses.  But she knew that Odin would never allow them on his back and  the other two were no match for Rusty's speed.

Rain pelted her face as she sped southwest towards the canyon.  The wind caught her hood and whipped it from her head.  She bent low over Rusty's neck and held tight to his mane as the chestnut accelerated into a full gallop.   She didn't even notice the chill of the air or the dampness of the rain as Rusty carried her to her beloved.  She had to get there before it was too late.  She didn't know exactly what she was going to do when she did get there, but she knew she had to get there.  She'd work out the details when she did.   The adrenaline pumping through her veins and the love and desperation in her heart  drove out any fear she may have had.  She just prayed she wasn't too late.

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

Heyes nimble mind couldn't come up with the answer.  Try as he might he couldn't think of one single thing that was going to keep him and the Kid from dying today.  He knew Sherman McMaster wanted them dead.  And he knew he wanted to make a grand spectacle of the whole thing.  He was walking to his own execution.  He didn't even think his silver tongue could talk them out of this one.  He was just thankful that Evie wasn't going to be here to witness it.  If only she and Preacher had ridden out ten minutes sooner, they never would have known they had been captured.  And she wouldn't have had to see him and Kid being herded off like cattle being taken to slaughter.  They had walked for three or four miles now with steady rain falling the whole time.   Heyes coat was completely soaked and he was beginning to feel the dampness reach through to his shirt.  Water had collected on the brim of his hat and ran in a staggered stream off the front edge.  What a miserable day to die.   He wished he and the Kid could just run for it.  Better to go down in a blaze of glory making a run for it than this.  But Heyes knew without looking back that Kid wasn't in any condition to run.  At that very moment, Kid stumbled behind him and fell forward, grabbing hold of Heyes' narrow hips to keep from falling face first into the muddy ground.  Heyes' turned swiftly and knelt to help his friend.  He knew he had only a few seconds before McMaster and his minions would be there shoving a shotgun barrel into his back, forcing him to keep walking.  He used those few seconds to say what he most needed to say,  "I'm sorry, Jed.  I don't know how to get us out of this one."   Kid turned blue eyes full of resignation to his partner.  He too had come to the realization that there wasn't going to be any rescue this time.  They had used up al of their favors and miracles.  "It's alright, Heyes.  I'm sorry I couldn't protect you better." Brown eyes penetrated the gaze of his blue eyed partner for what they figured would be the last time, before they were both hauled to their feet and shoved forward ever closer to the canyon that would serve as their headstones.

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

The canyon was up ahead.  She could see it.  As fast as Rusty had carried her here, she was surprised she hadn't overtaken them before they could make it to the canyon.  She reined Rusty in and started the slow walk down the into the canyon.  She heard the voices before she ever saw the men who were speaking.

"So is this how it's going to go down, McMaster?   You're going to be our judge, jury and executioner?   We never killed any one and you know it.   Do your men know that this is more about a personal vendetta than about justice?"

She recognized Hannibal's voice.   She could hear the desperation in his voice and she knew that in spite of his outward stoic appearance, he was scared.  The thought of him being frightened made her protective instincts kick in and the adrenaline pump even harder.   She urged Rusty on a little quicker down the rocky slope that led to the canyon floor as she continued to listen to their voices.

"All my men need to know is that you two are wanted...dead or alive.  You see, I sent the two men I had with me to fetch the rest of the posse.  But wouldn't you know it...before they get back,  you,"  he pointed to Kid who was struggling to stay upright, "are going to pull this gun that you had hidden in your boot."    McMaster pulled the Derringer from his pocket.  "And when you try to shoot me,  I'll be forced to kill you in self defense.   And you,"   he pointed his pistol at Heyes.  "Well, you just couldn't let me get away with killing your partner, so you go for his gun to finish what he started, but I'm going to be a little bit too fast for you and get the drop on you.  My men will hear the shots and come running.  But they won't get here before I've had time to place this gun in your dying hand, Heyes.   You see I've got it all planned out.  I outsmarted you, and you get to die knowing that I outsmarted you.  But the whole world will think I'm a hero for bringing the notorious Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry to justice.  And nobody can say I murdered you in cold blood.  It will be self defense."

"What about Burt?  Was that self defense?"

All three men turned their heads to the south wall of the canyon.

McMaster eyed the pretty young woman  sitting atop the bare backed stallion.  So she really had been with the outlaws.  He had had his doubts for a moment, but not any more.  "You know you're really becoming a thorn in my  side, lady.  Now get on out of here before I'm forced to do something I don't want to do."

"Like what?  Murder me because I messed up your plans?"

"She's got nothing to do with this, McMaster.  This is between you and us.  Leave her out of it,"  Heyes warned.

A smarmy smirk covered McMaster's face.  "Well, I guess that answers the one question that's been bugging me.  Which one is it?  Heyes or Curry.  You know I didn't think you were the type to fall for the ladies Heyes.  I thought that was the Kid."

"It's over McMaster.  Joe and Hershel found Burt's body.  They're headed this way now to place you under arrest."

"You can't prove a thing.  Burt headed out last night and I guess he met up with trouble.  I'm the law.  Who do you think a judge will believe?  Me or  the whore of a thieving outlaw?"

McMaster turned his gun back to Heyes who started towards him with blood in his eyes.  "Hold it right there or I'll splatter you all over that canyon wall right now while she watches."  Heyes swallowed the anger that was boiling up in his throat.  He turned fury filled eyes to Kid who was also starting to seethe in spite of his weakness.   "Well,  seems I struck a nerve.  There must be something to this little gal for you to get all worked up over her, Heyes.  Maybe after I'm through with you two, I'll find out for myself."

"It's over McMaster.  You've lost.  So your insults don't bother me.  Joe and Hershel know the truth.  So will the rest of your men.  Just give up.  You're not  going to get to exact your revenge."

"Sure I will.  I just have to make a few adjustments that's all.  Besides, you're not armed.  How are you going to stop me from killing these two?"

Evie threw back her cloak to reveal the .54 derringer she had been carrying in her boot since she'd left Red Rock.  "Because Kid Curry taught me a few things.  And one thing he taught me was to always have a weapon hidden somewhere.  A woman can't be too careful these days.  You shoot them... I shoot you."

Heyes couldn't believe she was doing this.  Was she crazy?   Heyes made eye contact with her.  What do you think you're doing he managed to say silently.

"You're bluffing.   You ever shoot a man before?  It's not an easy thing to do.  You don't have the guts, honey."

"Hannibal Heyes taught me a few things too.  And one thing he taught me was to only bluff if you had nothing to lose.  Well those two men are everything to me.  That means I have  everything to lose.  So I'm not bluffing.  Or you can make a move and find out for yourself."

"You better listen to her McMaster.   I know her pretty well and she's not afraid to shoot,"  Heyes reasoned.

"The only way you can stay alive is to let Heyes and Curry go with me.  You can make up any excuse you want about how they escaped.   Yeah, you'll be humiliated again, but at least you'll be alive."

"Or maybe I'll just shoot you first.  End of problem."


"You shoot me, and the buzzards won't even be able to find all the pieces of you.  Remember my preacher friend?   He's got a sawed off double barrel .44 caliber shotgun aimed at you right now."
McMaster's cold, evil eyes darted nervously about the ridge of the canyon where Evie had descended.

"You know I'm telling the truth.  You saw his weapons.  It wasn't hard, getting away from those two deputies.  They were so distraught over their friend, Burt, they didn't pay much attention when Preacher and I jumped on our horses and took off.  So you've got two choices.  Either let them go, now, or die."

McMaster mulled it over for a moment.  Then lowered his gun.  “Get out of here,”  he ground out between his clenched teeth.  Evie could see the heat of anger eminating from his rigid body.   He was furious.  Not only had he been thwarted again, but this time by a woman.

Heyes and Kid walked towards Evie and Rusty who stood on a small ledge of the canyon wall on the north rim.  Kid’s head hung low with fatigue.   Heyes kept his eyes on McMaster.  He didn’t trust him.  Heyes couldn’t believe it.  They were actually going to get out of this alive.   They headed up the slope towards Evie.   Once again his angel of mercy had saved their necks.   As he reached her  he took his eyes off McMaster and turned to see her beautiful face staring down at him with relief.  She smiled slightly, her eyes bright with love for him.  Then her smile faded.  Her brows came together in a frown.  Heyes whirled around just as a shot was fired.  He closed his eyes and prepared himself for the impact of the bullet.  But it never came.   He opened his eyes to see Sherman McMaster crumple to the ground in pain as a slug from Evie’s derringer hit him in the knee.

Evie sat there frozen, not knowing what to do.  Her hand began to shake.   Heyes came to her and reached his arms up to  her waiting for her to climb down.  She couldn't move.  She had just shot  man.  "Come down,  sweetheart.  Give me the gun."  The tiny weapon suddenly felt like it weighed a hundred pounds.  She let it dangle from her hand and fall into Heyes' palm.  He put it into he coat pocket then caught her as she slid from Rusty's back and into his arms.  She held on tight not fully believing what had just happened.

"That was some bluff.  Preacher's not really up there is he?"  She shook her head.  "That was some shot, too,"  he said into her ear still holding onto her close.

She pulled away to look into his face.  "I was aiming for his arm."  He laughed and pulled her close once more,  awed by her bravery and her love for him.   "You two had better hide somewhere,"  she said.  "Hershel and Joe will be here any minute."   Before Heyes could respond to her they both saw Kid collapse out of the corner of their eyes.

Heyes rushed to his partner's side and knelt beside him and lifted his head into lap.  "Don't worry, Kid,  everything's going to be fine, now.  You just need a little water and some rest and you'll be back on your feet in no time."


Kid looked at Heyes with weary eyes,  "Heyes, you need to make a run for it.  You can still hide before they get here.  Don't sacrifice yourself for me."

"I'm not going anywhere.  I can't let you go off to prison alone.  Who would keep you out of trouble?"

The sound of riders coming fast echoed loudly in the canyon.  The posse was coming.   "Here they are, Hershel."   Joe's voice also echoed.  He and Hershel were descending into the canyon.  It was over.  They would be going to the Wyoming State Penetinuary.  But at least they would be alive.
Heyes looked down at his partner, his best friend and offered him a smile.  "It's been one heck of a ride, ain't it, Heyes?"

"It sure has, Kid."

"Kid Curry and Hannibal Heyes,  you're both under arrest,"  the young deputy Jesse Horton announced as the posse arrived on the scene.

"Hold on just a minute, boys,"   Joe yelled from behind the row of mounted posse members.  "Burt's been murdered.   And McMaster's the one who murdered him."  All eyes turned to the wounded lawman who lay writhing in pain on the canyon floor.  "We found his body buried about five miles north of here.    Sherman McMaster, you are under arrest."

"What about Curry and Heyes?"  Jesse asked.

Joe and Hershel looked at each other.   "It appears we may have been mistaken.  We're not so sure these fellas are Curry and Heyes."

"They aren't!"   a familiar female voice sounded from the south ridge of the canyon.  All eyes turned to see a petite blonde woman with a posse of her own,  navigating the tricky slope leading into the canyon.  When she and her team of Bannerman detectives pulled rein in front of the posse, the pretty woman made herself known.

"I am Mrs. Olivia Vanderbilt of the Nashville Vanderbilts.  This young lady,"  Livvy turned her gaze to her niece and was horrified at her appearance, but regained her composure and continued,  "this young lady is my niece.  And that gentleman is her fiance.  And the other gentleman is his cousin.  They are both in my employee and I can vouche for their credentials.  I can even produce documents to prove who they are if necessary.    I have recently purchased this canyon and the land surrounding it in all directions for five square miles.  These men were here at my request to survey the land.  So you are all trespassing. And furthermore, it is apparent that they have been harassed and falsely accused.  So I suggest that you take your rubbish,"   she looked back over her shoulder at McMaster, "and get off of my property before I instruct these detectives who are also in my employ to find out exactly who is responsible for this harassment.  And you had better hope that Mr. Jones' injuries aren't serious, or there will be hell to pay!"
The entire group of twenty men  looked like little boys who had been caught by the school mistress looking up the little girls' dresses.    They hung their heads and mumbled under their breath, clearly humbled and shamed.   A couple of the men came and gathered McMaster and aided him onto a horse and the entire posse rode towards the other end of the canyon.  It would be the last they would see of them.

Livvy dismounted her horse with the elegant grace of the lady that she was, and came to her niece and hugged her.  Evie hugged her back, genuinely glad to see her and so thankful that she had arrived just in time.  "Oh, thank the good Lord you are alright.  I've been out of my mind with worry."    Livvy turned concerned eyes to the two men nearby.  "Is he badly hurt?"  she asked Heyes.

"Why don't you ask him yourself?"

Livvy  hesitated, but only for a moment.  Heyes stood and made room for her as she closed the distance between them in two strides.  She knelt and took Heyes' place as a pillow for Kid's head.

"It appears you've found what you were looking for, Mrs. Vanderbilt.  If you won't be needing anything else, we'll be on our way back to White Oak,"   spoke the  distinguished older gentleman, dressed in a suit and tie, who was the obvious man in authority of the four detectives.

"Yes, Mr.  Bennett,  I have found what I was looking for.  I couldn't have done it without your assistance.  Thank you.  And would you be so kind as to send a telegraph to Mr. McCreedy and tell him that all is well."

"With pleasure, madam,"  he said as he tipped his felt derby.   With a courteous nod to the other lady and the two gentleman,  Mr. Bennet and his three fellow detectives ascended up the canyon wall and out of sight.

At Livvy's request, the bedroll  and canteen from her saddle was brought to her.  She placed the bedroll under his head and held the canteen to his lips as he drank thirstily.   No one except Kid saw the look of relief on her face when she looked him over and realized he was not badly hurt, but more exhausted than anything.  

Satisfied that everyone was going to live,  Livvy rose to her full five feet two inches.  She stood there, looking elegant in her clean riding habit,  her feathered hat neatly atop her honey blonde curls, with her hands on her hips, lips pursed and her booted foot tapping a brisk staccato.  "Well, is anyone going to thank me for perjuring myself to save your ungrateful hides?"

She was rewarded with a barrage of  various forms of  "thank you's."  

"You can all thank me as well for the caravan that I have coming this way."

"Caravan?"  all three asked in unison.

"I have several wagons loaded with supplies headed this way.   I had no idea how long I might have to stay out here searching for you.  So I hired a staff of servants and purchased everything I thought I might need.  I hired a doctor who will be arriving with them as well.   I  want you all to get examined.  There will be large heated tents, a dining tent and private quarters for each of us.  There will also be a bathing tent set up.  And I want all three of you to visit it as soon as possible."   She held a dainty gloved hand to her nose.  "You all look and smell horrible."  She spun around taking in the view of the multicolored canyon walls.  "Now what in the world am I going to do with this place?"

"You mean you really did buy this place?"   Heyes asked, unbelieving.

"Of course I did.  As soon as Georgia told me where you were headed,  I sent a few telegraphs back home and had my best people get to work on it immediately.  I  met a gentleman in White Oak last night who gave me the deed of ownership."

Heyes and Evie stared after her in disbelief as she went back to nursing the ailing Kid Curry.  The caravan of wagons made their noisy appearance on the canyon's ledge.  They shielded their squinting eyes to get a better look at the wagon train.  It wasn't until that moment that  they realized the rain had stopped, the clouds had moved off to the east, and a bright, warm early December sun was beaming down upon them.