Chapter 16
Sitting at his kitchen table, Thomas and Clary ate a quick meal of bread, cheese, ham, and some apple slices while they cleaned and reloaded their guns. Having her close like this made Thomas feel both scared for what they were planning to do and hopeful that they would make it out in one piece.
“Are you sure you want to come?” Thomas asked her.
She gave him a look.
“Okay, I’ll stop asking,” he said.
“That would be good,” Clary said. “They’re your family, and that makes them kind of like my family. It only makes sense for us to save them. Anyway, who’s going to keep you out of trouble if I’m not there?”
Thomas smiled. “Good point.”
Mildred entered the room. She had Evelyn with her, dressed in a pair of trousers.
Both sisters were dressed for ease of movement.
Though Thomas wasn’t about to fault them on fashion choices, he was a little nervous about Evelyn being on the team.
Clary had assured him that her sister was fine now and there was no one other than him that she’d rather have watching her back.
He wasn’t so sure about that, but hopefully Evelyn understood what was at stake.
“I’ve given Luke medication to help him rest,” Mildred said. “Anders is up there now talking to him. He has some wonderful stories that will help Luke go to sleep in minutes.”
“Thank you,” Thomas said. “I couldn’t do this if I knew that there was any chance my pigheaded brother might try to come after me.”
“No chance of that,” Anders said, entering the kitchen. “He’s so fast asleep you could set off a stick of dynamite beside him and he’d never know a thing about it.”
Thomas nodded. “All right. We’d better get going.”
Clary slid her second pistol into her holster and stood. She looked all business but also so lovely. “You ready, Eve?” she asked.
“Does a monkey poop in the jungle?” Evelyn asked, her thumbs hooked in her gun belt.
Clary raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, fine,” Evelyn said. “Yes, Clary. I’m ready to go and save Luke’s wife and children. Better?”
“Yes, this is serious work.”
“I know. That’s why I made a joke,” Evelyn said. “I promise, I’m sober and focused.”
Clary took hold of her sister’s arms and looked her square in the eye. For a moment neither of them said a thing, and then Clary nodded. “Okay. I’m glad to hear it. Let’s go.”
Their team was small by necessity. Apart from the three of them, their companions were Jeff and Mark.
It was better to have a small team to infiltrate the town of Torrent.
George had fractured his right wrist escaping and so had been benched.
He had drawn Jeff a map of where the family was being held.
It should hopefully be easy enough to get in, save them, and get out.
It was late afternoon when the five of them rode out of the gate along with the farm folks who worked in Unity. They left in a group, some on horseback, some in buggies, some in the stagecoach that Ben was driving.
They all set off in the same direction, but after a mile or so, the five of them peeled off as though heading to some of the other farms in the area.
There was no talking. Thomas rode alongside Clary. She looked lovely in the day’s dying light.
Jeff led the way on his horse, looking confident and secure. Mark rode beside him and Evelyn was bringing up the rear. She hummed to herself from time to time but still said nothing, seeming far more at peace with herself than when the sisters first arrived in Texas.
If things were working out in Unity for her, then all the better. It couldn’t have been easy to be forced to leave everything behind and start fresh. Thomas recalled doing the same thing himself, and it was difficult but not impossible.
“Okay,” Jeff said eventually as the day’s light began to fade away entirely. “Just on the other side of this grove of trees is the entrance to the town. We’re going to hide in the trees until it’s fully dark.”
“Don’t you want someone to go in and make sure that they are where the map says?” Evelyn asked.
“No, that’s not necessary,” Jeff said. “They won’t have moved them. Where would they go?”
She shrugged. “To another holding facility. It doesn’t make sense to keep them in the same place all the time. It’s too easy to find them then. We should take a look at what we’re dealing with while there’s still some light.”
Jeff shook his head. “That would be nice, but it’s suicide. There are too many of El Aguila’s men. Anyway, when it gets a little darker, we can take a look from?—”
“And we’ll see nothing,” Evelyn persisted. “Me and Clary, we can go in, head to the saloon and get a drink. We look like travelers, and no one knows us here.”
“It’s too dangerous,” Jeff insisted. He put a hand on her shoulder. “Look, I understand. We all want this done, but we have to do it properly. We only have one chance, and we have to wait for the messengers to come and call for help. We need a good portion of the bandits to leave.”
Evelyn groaned and rolled her eyes, but she didn’t push the point any further.
Thomas considered that a marked improvement.
Not long ago she would have fought tooth and nail to get her way, or she would have slunk off and done something foolish on her own.
The fact that she went and sat beside her sister to wait gave him faith in Mildred’s methods of reform.
The sun sank oh-so-slowly. Thomas sat on a log beside Clary and Evelyn and passed the time in quiet conversation with them. Around them the grove became quieter as the birds settled down to sleep.
Mark suddenly sat up like a terrier who had heard a rat squeak. “Horses galloping.” He smiled. “I think this is the messenger.”
They moved stealthily through the trees.
Thomas was terrible at it, being tall and lanky with a slight limp still.
Clary and Evelyn were excellent. They had a way of stepping that didn’t break a twig or rustle a leaf.
Thomas guessed they could sneak up on someone from behind and the poor soul would never know until the last second.
The trees and underbrush were easy to hide in, and in the darkness under the trees, Thomas was certain that even he was invisible.
Mark was right. The messenger came thundering along the road. As he approached the town, he began to yell. “Attack on Still Fountain! Attack!”
Chaos erupted from the quiet houses. Men with weathered faces and unkempt beards came streaming out into the street. Guns glinted in lantern and lamplight, and soon horses were saddled and came galloping past the hiding rescuers.
“I wonder how many of them left,” Thomas mused.
“A good number,” Clary said as another straggler came racing by them.
They waited another five minutes in case someone else came out. When no one did, they figured it was time.
The map that George had given them showed them a way into the town through one of the side streets past an old granary. It was probably the least obtrusive way into the town, which now seemed almost deserted.
A lone dog nosed in a heap of kitchen scraps behind one of the houses that had some lamplight spilling from its windows. Most of the other buildings seemed silent, cold, and dark.
The place felt creepy, like it was sick and rotten. Thomas steeled his nerves, his hand on his pistol’s butt. Beside him, Clary looked around interestedly.
“Where are we headed?” she asked.
“It’s one side street up and then the third house on the left,” Jeff said.
They set off, moving from shadow to shadow. The yards and streets had crates, boxes, carts, and troughs alongside them, and there was plenty of debris to hide behind. Broken furniture littered open spaces.
As Thomas moved from one hiding spot to the next, his foot brushed something on the ground, and it fell over with a tinkle in the silent night air. He watched in horror as the empty beer bottle rolled down the street until it came to a halt.
Everyone froze where they were. Thomas could imagine them all cursing him in their minds. Someone was bound to look out a window or open a door to see what had caused the noise.
Clumsy fool! I should have been paying more attention. I’ve probably ruined this whole mission.
Nothing happened. No one from inside any of the houses paid the rolling bottle the least little bit of attention.
Jeff gave him a stern look and they hurried on.
Thomas moved with extra care, not wanting to cause more trouble, and soon they came close to the house where Luke’s family was being held.
They stopped in the shadow cast by a cart with three wheels.
It sagged lopsided on the ground, and the rescue party melted into its shape so that no one looking out of a window would be able to see them.
“There it is,” Jeff said.
Light was spilling from that house’s windows, but all seemed very quiet.
They watched the windows for a few minutes, but they didn’t see any movement at all inside.
Were the inhabitants asleep? It seemed a little early for it.
Or had they all gone to help Still Fountain? There would have to be a guard.
“So now what?” Clary asked. “Should we go and take a closer look?”
Jeff nodded.
Moving in single file, they ran up to the house, crouching low so as not to be seen through the windows. When they reached the house, Thomas looked in through the lighted window. He stood up, pressing his back along the wall, and peered in.
His heart was doing an excited but terrified jig in his chest. He was certain that his whole body was shaking from nerves and excitement.
Being able to take Luke’s family was important for more than one reason.
Of course, he wanted his family to be safe.
But it would also absolutely get him back into Tilda’s good books, and he would be able to see his brother more regularly.
Thomas would be glad of that. He had missed Luke terribly.
There was no one visible in the house. In fact, there was no sign of people apart from a plate of half-eaten beans on the kitchen table.