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Chapter 8
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2021-09-02 23:07:38Pauline was nervous. She was so devastated by Aiden’s rejection that she didn’t take the time to really plan her escape. Upon Mary Anne’s suggestion, they were headed for St. Martin Parish. What neither woman considered was the fact that the train didn’t go to St. Martin Parish. They were forced to de-board at Lafayette and take a stage coach the rest of the way.
The fact that, although they were relatives of Mary Anne, she’d never set eyes on them -nor did she have their exact address- was also a factor she hadn’t considered until she’d suffered the uncomfortable seats in the crowded smoke-filled railcar for a few hours.
She found being ogled by the two unkempt and smelly men that were ogling her from the opposite seat in the stage coach unsettling. She did her best to look relaxed and unaware of their stares, but it was difficult. When one of them pulled out a whiskey flask and offered her a drin
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Aiden opened the note the desk clerk handed him as he and Angus entered the lobby. It was from Dennis O’Malley.My dear Mr. Kennedy,It is with deep regret that I write this.When Pauline did not return home from her hat shopping excursion, we assumed she went to visit a friend as she has been known to do on more than one occasion. Since her maid was accompanying her, we did not worry. It was not until her phaeton was returned to us by a hired man in the dark of night that we realized something was amiss. After making inquiries as discreetly as possible at the homes of all of her friends and our acquaintances, we can only conclude that our Pauline has met with misfortune. We can think of no one better to turn to for assistance in finding our Pauline and pray you will see your way clear to coming to our aid.Respectfully,
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Pauline couldn’t remember ever being as hot as she was at that moment. If she thought her senses were being assaulted during the stagecoach ride, it was nothing compared to what she had to endure while being trussed up in the back of a covered wagon with twenty other women. A few roamed freely, while making snide and taunting remarks to the ones that were tied up. They were the professional prostitutes who willingly signed on with Jessie. The majority of the young women were there against their will and from a background that didn’t include prostitution.Pauline’s leg and hip pained her. She’d been so outraged by Jessie’s very bold and very public forced inspection of her womanhood that she kicked out just as soon as Harold and Tom loosened their grip enough for her strong legs to break free. The heel of her traveling boot caught Jesse in the left breast, knocking the wind from her. Her toe assailed Tom’s manho
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Aiden was exhausted. He could only imagine how tired Angus must be. He’d caught a few hours of sleep on the train to Lafayette, but that was almost twenty hours ago. He was too wound up to follow Angus’ example and get a little sleep on the train, although he tried. His mind wouldn’t stop going over scenarios of what could have happened to Pauline. He’d hoped she was safely tucked away in Mary Anne’s family’s home, but something in his gut told him that she wasn’t.When they finally found Mary Anne’s family and asked to speak to Mary Anne alone, she confessed that she and Pauline were separated at the way station between Lafayette and St. Martin Parish. She claimed the station master was in on the ruse that separated vulnerable, pretty girls from their companions so that they could be taken and sold to brothels out west.Mary Anne claimed she wanted to return to New Orleans and warn the O’Mal
Last Updated : 2021-09-02Love at Wolf Creek Chapter 12
Eliza couldn’t believe her good fortune. It was years since she’d seen her boarding house filled to capacity. Her only hope was that it remained so for as long as possible. She was almost done paying off her late husband’s gambling debt to that scum of humanity, Ed Stark. Just a few hundred dollars more and her boarding house would no longer be at risk of becoming Ed Stark’s bordello. Of course, he’d offered to let her stay on as proprietress to give the place a better ambiance, but she wouldn’t hear of it. It was bad enough that his gunslinger brought one of his girls here for the doctor to tend to. At least he had the decency to keep her hidden in his room instead of parading her in front of her other guests. The prostitute broke her hip when her horse threw her and required bed rest. This meant that the room would be occupied for at least another month. She could overlook the unsavory
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Ed Stark leaned back in the chair and put his feet on the top of Sheriff Thompkins desk. The white-haired sheriff scowled, but said nothing. Ed owned most of Brightonville and was working on obtaining the little he didn’t own. Ed was also responsible for his salary. He was far too old to go looking for a new job. If it meant overlooking disrespectful habits such as the arrogant ass putting his filthy boots on his desk to keep his job then, so be it.“We haven’t seen you over at Julie’s lately,” Ed said as he picked at his fingernails with a pocket knife.“You need to send doc over there to check out Savannah,” the sheriff grumbled. “I think she gave me the clap.”“My girls are clean,” Ed snarled.“I got puss coming out of me and it hurts when I piss,” the sheriff complained.“Did you see the doc?” Ed asked.“He’s treating m
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Pauline shifted her body so that the bed-tray could rest across her lap. The doctor just left. She remembered when a horse fell on her stable master. It broke his hip. She mimicked his symptoms to the best of her memory and managed to trick the doc into believing Tom’s weight was more than her hip could stand. It was lucky for her that he’d met Tom and knew that his body was double her slender, petite form. It was equally lucky that his medical expertise was in venereal diseases and not orthopedics.She watched Mrs. Peterson’s slender form fuss around the room without looking her way. Not even once. This was a daily occurrence that she’d gotten used to over the past week, but it didn’t mean she liked it. Sadly, she could do nothing about it. Adam warned her vehemently that he knew where she came from and if she mentioned one word about being kidnapped to Mrs. Peterson, he’d go to N
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Angus sat in his favorite rocker on the porch and sipped the freshly made lemonade Mrs. Peterson provided. He’d returned, empty handed, the night before from his search for Pauline. He expected Aiden to be back from his own quest to find his fiancé any time now. He hoped he’d had better luck.Sheriff Thompkins lazily climbed the steps of the boarding house porch and greeted Angus with a friendly smile. The jail was next to the telegraph office so when he learned that Angus received a telegraph he offered to deliver it.Angus thanked the sheriff for his kindness as he accepted the message. It was from Maggie. He was eager to read it, but didn’t want to be rude while the sheriff was still there sharing pleasantries.“Tell you what,” Sheriff Thompkins said with a knowing tone. “I’ll go see if I can convince Mrs. Peterson to spare another glass of lemonade while you read your wired message.”
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“I don’t know why we can’t just leave right now,” Pauline whined as she lay cuddled into Aiden’s chest on the bed. “I want to go home.”“About that,” Aiden said. “Angus…”“Did he come to fetch me for marriage?” she gasped as she sat up and faced him. “I can’t marry him, Aiden. I love you. I don’t want to marry anyone else. My parents can’t force me or…”’“Don’t you dare say you’d run away,” Aiden said firmly.“I’d never do that again,” she said earnestly. It’s just that… I love you. Even if you don’t love me back. I’d rather die a spinster than marry anyone else.”“That’s good to know,” Aiden smiled.“I’m glad you find it amusing,” she said indignantly. “I know that, when y
Last Updated : 2021-09-02
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After hugging and greeting Eliza upon her return, Pauline twirled with delight upon seeing the pack horse and her luggage tied to the back of the wagon.Aiden pulled her bags from the pack horse himself and proudly set them down on the porch in front of her. “I’m still sending for the seamstress. You need a wedding dress,” he said softly.“I was sick all morning,” she admitted in a voice that was just above a whisper. “I’m beginning to think you’re right about what might be going on with me.”“I’m also sending for the doctor. We’ve got a good day’s work for him between us all,” Aiden chuckled.Aiden’s back was to the long drive leading to the ranch and everyone else was pre-occupied with settling the captive ladies in until the sheriff arrived. Only Pauline saw the slumped figure on the horse that was slowly wandering along as if it hadn
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It was well into the evening when Jake and Steven greeted Pauline and Aiden as they wandered onto the ranch.“I thought I asked you to turn in early,” Aiden growled as Jake took his horse’s reins from him and handed them to Randy, who oversaw the stable maintenance.“I wanted to make sure you got home okay,” Jake said. “Any longer and we were going to head out looking for you.”“We took some time to rest so Aiden’s leg could recover from the strain he put on it during the ambush,” Pauline offered as she accepted Steven’s help getting off her horse. “I’m bone tired.”Aiden firmly suggested that Pauline go directly to his room and take a hot bath while he discussed plans for rescuing Eliza from the renegades with Jake. He worried about his good friend. He was disappointed to find that Angus hadn’t returned from his search. From what he’d
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It was dusk before Steven returned to fetch them. He had two of the ranch hands from the search party with him. They were eager to apologize to Aiden for not finding him sooner, as well as express their happiness in the fact that he was alive and returning to the ranch.Steven did a thorough job of describing the bullet wound in Aiden’s thigh, so Amy was able to pack first aid supplies accordingly. They took the time to wash off the wound and apply a healing salve that had numbing properties before bandaging it. Aiden sighed with relief as the pain and throbbing that he’d lived with for almost two weeks subsided.They’d brought him a well-trained, sure-footed mare to ride back to the ranch, while Pauline was given one of Aiden’s spirited back-up horses.“I think you have the horses mixed up,” Aiden said as he saw them hand the reins of his spirited gelding to Pauline.She chuckled before mounting with the ea
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Parting was more amiable than he would have expected. The chief was pleased with the quality of horses and saddles that were traded for Aiden. Aiden did his best to hide his emotions as he said goodbye to his prize gelding. He knew they had no other option than to trade for him, but he would miss his old friend. A cowboy and his horse were a partnership. He knew he’d be lost without him for some time. As for the saddle, of course the chief was happy with it. It was crafted with the finest leather and custom made to fit his horse’s back; like a man would have a shoe made especially for his foot. The saddles on the other two horses were nothing to scoff at. Although they weren’t custom made for the horse, they were of quality.Pauline’s courageous entry into their village also impressed the chief. Not only did he praise her courage, but he expressed his pleasure that she felt she could walk into his village to trade; be it with horses or some
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The sun felt excruciatingly intense to Pauline and her stomach was upset. Noticing her discomfort, Steven suggested they stop and rest in a small grove of trees for a break and a bite to eat. Amy packed roast beef sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, apples, and some hard cheese for them since she expected them to be gone most of the day.Pauline settled herself beneath the shade of an ancient looking Burr Oak. She pressed her back against its rough bark as she used the trunk for support. She longed to shed some of the layers she wore, but couldn’t for propriety’s sake. Thoughts of the cool water they’d recently crossed taunted her.“Is this an area you already checked?” she asked as she accepted half of a sandwich that was wrapped in a napkin.“I was assigned to the north side of the ranch. I think Bart and Curtis checked here for a few days,” he replied.“One has to question how thoroughly they
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Pauline sat in the overstuffed wing-back chair next to the unlit fireplace in the main room of the large ranch house as the ranch hands who were going out each day searching for Aiden stood before her with hats in hand. They reminded her of nervous school children as they shifted from one foot to the other while fidgeting with their hats. She wondered if she really looked that foreboding or if it was simply a matter of them not being used to standing in the presence of an eastern lady. She hoped it was the latter.After much grilling, she learned that Aiden’s horse returned without him the same day of the ambush. When Angus was able to speak and told them that he saw Aiden heading for Indian Ridge, they went out each day and searched for him, but with no luck. When she told them she intended to go and search herself, they worriedly warned her of the perils of the Indians who lived in that area. They claimed they were lucky not to have run i
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Pauline awoke the following morning with a sense of urgency gnawing at her. Her mood didn’t improve when she climbed out of bed and was hit with a sudden case of nausea. She barely made it into the water closet before she was assaulted by projectile vomiting. She’d enjoyed the soup from the night before and thought her queasiness after she’d eaten it was due to how fast she’d eaten and the unfamiliar spices Amy used to season it. Perhaps it was best to find out what those spices were, since they clearly didn’t agree with her.She sighed at the concept of wearing her travel soiled riding habit after performing her morning constitution and freshening up for the day. Sadly, there was too great a difference in her body size and Aiden’s for her to improvise with his clothing and she doubted Amy had anything she could fit into either. She looked for a clothing kit in hopes of brushing away most of the dust and perhaps fresh unde
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Pauline was grateful that the stallion knew his way back to the ranch house. It was dark before they reached the drive leading up to the house and its surrounding buildings and there was no moon or stars out to illuminate their way.“Who goes there?” shouted someone from a long outbuilding that Pauline guessed was where the ranch hands slept.“I am Pauline O’Malley,” she called out. “I have Maggie with me. She’s hurt.”Lanterns filled the night and footsteps could be heard running from all directions as Pauline continued to allow the stallion to make his way up the drive.She heard Angus bellowing orders to his men long before she saw him approach the stallion. “Dear lord, gal. You ride the wildest beast on the property!”“He does have some spunk,” she said as she relinquished Maggie’s limp body to the ranch hands who rushed up to carry her off and then
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The trip from Brownsville to the Bar J&K was about a ninety-minute ride. When Micky informed Pauline that they’d reached the start of the ranch, Pauline relaxed and breathed easy. They were almost there. She was so wrapped up in reveling over the fact that they’d made it to the ranch safely that she didn’t notice how alert Micky and Maggie suddenly became. What Micky failed to mention was that they’d reached the area where, if the gang was going to ambush them, this was probably the place they’d do it.“How long before we reach the house?” Pauline asked wistfully as she pulled her horse abreast with Maggie’s. “This horse has an unusually rough gait. My hip and leg are beginning to ache.”“I noticed that rough gate, but the livery didn’t have anything else tame enough for you,” Micky offered from behind them.“You are mistaken about my riding ability,&r
