Epilogue
Cody had never been shot before. On account of this, he reckoned that he couldn’t rightly call himself an expert on the subject. Still, he expected there to be some kind of pain, as other folks had done plenty of hollering when they’d been shot.
While the time between Dean raising his gun and the loud bang had been only a matter of seconds, it replayed in Cody’s mind like one of those magic lantern shows, but slower, like when a music box is coming unwound.
Dean raised his gun; his finger tightened on the trigger.
And yet, before he could actually fire off a shot, there was another movement, one from behind Dean.
It was Logan, running up from the darkness where he’d retreated to, whipping his arm around.
His face was determined, and he threw whatever it was in his hand with all of his might.
Whatever it was that he threw landed at Dean’s feet, and that was when the bang had happened.
Dean flinched in surprise, grabbing his foot and hopping on the other.
Cody shook himself, and the world around him began to play at regular speed again. Without thinking, he barreled directly into Dean, knocking him off balance. Dean dropped his gun, and it skittered off into the dirt somewhere.
Cody wasn’t sure how he’d felt about shooting a man, but he knew exactly how he felt about punching a man—he’d been a great one for schoolyard scraps as a boy, and this was familiar territory.
With practiced ease, he tumbled onto the ground with Dean and had him by the collar before Dean could even catch his breath.
Dean wheezed once, and Cody reared back and plunged his fist right into Dean’s eye.
Dean howled in response and thrashed about, catching Cody in the ribs.
Cody had seen Dean’s slight build and assumed that he would be easy to subdue; he hadn’t counted on his desperation fueling him, nor that there was a wiry strength in his limbs.
Cody cocked his arm, ready to land another blow, when there was a flash of silver, bright and sharp in the early morning light.
Dean had pulled a knife in his flailing and, without warning, slashed at Cody.
He jerked back instinctually, but the blade still bit into his skin.
The pain was immediate, burning and cold all at once, as a line of blood opened up across the front of Cody’s shirt.
“Cody!” Amelia cried.
Cody rolled away from Dean, springing to his feet and clutching at his chest as blood seeped between his fingers.
“Cowardly snake,” Cody growled.
Dean, hunched over, shifted the knife to his other hand and swung it in front of him again.
Cody stepped backward, but he was off-balance on the loose dirt, and he went down awkwardly onto one knee.
Dean, sensing opportunity, grinned a vicious grin and darted forward again, the knife arcing straight down toward Cody’s face.
Cody automatically raised an arm to deflect his stab and was rewarded with another gash across his left forearm. I was a fool to expect him to ever fight fair, Cody thought mildly.
Dean, meanwhile, changed his grip on the knife, one eye squinted closed where Cody had struck him. They circled one another like angry dogs, both wounded but still dangerous.
“I’m going to slice you up into little pieces and serve you at my wedding breakfast,” Dean hissed.
Cody didn’t say anything, just turned his head and spat at the notion. Dean let out a primal sound and charged at Cody again. Before he could take two steps, however, Amelia was behind him, holding a stick that was still smoldering on one end, evidently taken from the fire.
She was glorious, her hair falling loose, her eyes burning, her teeth bared as she raised the stick with both hands. Cody was so transfixed that he nearly missed what happened next. She brought the stick crashing down on Dean’s back, striking him so hard that the stick splintered and broke.
Dean stumbled and fell to the dirt on his knees, crying out in pain, trying in vain to reach his back. Cody, seeing his opportunity, darted forward and drew back his arm.
“Hey,” he said softly to Dean, who was still distracted. The moment Dean’s eyes focused on Cody, Cody punched him neatly in the jaw. Dean’s head snapped back most satisfyingly, and he toppled to the side, groaning woozily.
Cody kicked the knife away from his hand, and Amelia bent to retrieve it. She held it in front of her, her eyes locked on Dean. He twitched on the ground, groaning and trying feebly to rise. She lunged at him with the knife, and Cody caught her by the arm.
“It’s alright,” he said gently. “He’s not—he can’t hurt you.”
Amelia continued to struggle for a moment, her drive to protect and survive making her strong. Slowly, she relaxed, but Cody kept a firm grip on her.
“It’s… over,” she said quietly. The realization took a moment, but Cody swore that he could feel the moment that she understood. All fight left her body, and she let the knife drop again. Without warning, she turned and embraced Cody, who winced as she pressed into the gash on his chest.
Amelia pulled back, her face contrite. “Oh! Let me find something for your wounds,” she said. She motioned to Logan, who was standing back, staring wide-eyed. “Go and stand with your pa,” she instructed.
As she walked past Dean on her way back to the hollow again, she paused long enough to kick him with the curved heel of her boot, silencing him. She did it thoughtlessly, as one would squash a bug. She put her nose in the air and continued on, undaunted.
Logan came to stand next to Cody, and they both watched Amelia. Logan opened his mouth as if to say something but then closed it. He fidgeted, wrapping his arms around himself one moment and dropping them the next.
Cody, using his good arm, put a hand on Logan’s shoulder. “I’ll be alright,” he said. His reassurance was somewhat underscored by a wince on his part.
Logan nodded and kicked at the scant loose gravel underfoot. Cody frowned. Logan had just gone through something terrible, but he didn’t know how to approach the boy without sounding too much like mollycoddling.
“That sure was some quick thinking on your part, son,” Cody said, squeezing Logan’s shoulder. Logan looked up at him, surprised. “First, you left us a trail all the way up here, and then with that firecracker. You saved all of us.”
“You think so?” Logan asked, his brown eyes shining.
“I know so,” Cody said confidently. “I have to ask, though—where did you even get that thing?”
“Oh,” Logan said and grinned sheepishly. “Uncle Arthur gave it to me.”
Cody stared down at Logan, then shook his head. “Of course he did. Well, regardless, you were magnificent.”
There was a clatter of something falling from the hollow where Amelia was rummaging around. Logan nodded in her direction.
“Amelia, too,” he said quietly. “I didn’t know girls could fight like that.”
“Girls, maybe not,” Cody said, more to himself than to Logan. “Mothers, on the other hand…”
Amelia reappeared with a bundle of fabric in her arms, which she dumped on the ground.
“You would not believe the number of shirts that man packed. I tell you, he’s a vain one.
” She lifted a shirt and made a face at it.
“Such good quality, too.” Without further ceremony, she promptly tore the sleeve from the shirt.
She proceeded methodically, ripping the shirts into strips.
“Logan, you go and see if you can’t find some water back there,” Amelia instructed.
“Alright, let’s have a look,” she said to Cody.
He hesitated for a moment, but she wasn’t having it.
“Oh, come on,” she huffed, all business.
She was busy untucking his shirt and unbuttoning his vest, helping him pull it over his head.
She turned away to the bandages, and when she turned back around, her eyes widened. “I—oh,” she said softly. She was staring at him, her eyes round. Cody looked down at himself and realized in that moment that she’d never seen him shirtless before. He grinned at her despite himself.
Logan reappeared with the water, and Amelia was all business again. She quickly swiped his cuts with water, then wrapped him in enough cotton that he felt a little like an Egyptian mummy.
“There,” she pronounced, tying off a strip of cotton around his arm. “That ought to hold you until we can get you to a proper sawbones.”
“Speaking of holding,” Cody said, turning to nudge Dean with his boot. He was still out cold. “I suppose we ought to do something with him.”
Amelia sighed. “I suppose so,” she agreed. She knelt down and quickly wrapped a few strips of cotton around his wrists, tying them behind his back. “That should keep him from causing too much mischief, don’t you think?”
“Pa!” Logan cried. He’d gone to look out over the ridge, his boyish curiosity getting the better of him. “There are men on horses coming!” He peered down, squinting in the rosy light that heralded the rising sun. “It’s Arthur! He’s got an awful lot of men with badges with him.”
Cody came to stand next to Logan. They were gathering at the base of the ridge, pointing this way and that, trying to decide the best way of climbing up.
Amelia sidled up to him, wrapping her arm around his waist so that her hand rested on his back.
He put his arm around her shoulders, natural as anything.
Behind them, Dean groaned and sat up. Amelia spared him a glance over her shoulder, a grin breaking out on her face. “Good morning, sunshine,” she said, all plummy tones in a mimicry of his earlier confident air. “You have some guests come a-calling.”
“I’m not afraid of any dirt-farming sheriff,” Dean said, slurring his words oddly through his jaw. Idly, Cody wondered if it was broken.
“Well, that’s good. Me, personally, I’d be far more worried about all those Pinkertons down there,” Cody informed him.
“Pinkertons?” Dean repeated. All bravado was instantly gone. “What Pinkertons?”
“Oh, didn’t we tell you?” Amelia said. She smiled up at Cody. “We thought the railroad company would be mighty interested in how you’ve been spending your time and company funds. I’m sure that they were surprised to hear you’ve been drawing expenses to chase some woman across the country.”
For once, Dean had nothing to say to that.
Amelia turned her back on him again and this time lay her head gently against Cody.
The sun was coming up over the horizon, washing everything in golden light.
Dew had gathered on the plants overnight, glistening like a tapestry of jewels laid out before them.
Logan, unable to contain his excitement, raced down to meet Arthur, who had begun the climb. “Be careful!” Amelia called after him, smiling fondly as he went. It was an expression that Cody recognized—pure love.
“Well, then, I… I suppose you’re free now,” Cody said. “You don’t have to worry about him coming after you anymore.”
Amelia took a deep breath. “Yes,” she said softly. “What a strange and wonderful feeling. I can make my own choices now, for myself. I wonder what life holds now, without that anchor.”
Cody nodded, already accepting her decision. It would hurt, but he’d rather her be out there, living her life freely, than to hold her to a promise she made in desperation.
Suddenly, he found her hands on either side of his face. She pulled him in and kissed him lightly on the lips and immediately broke into a smile as she pulled back. “There,” she said. “And now I’ve done that. My first act as a free woman—because I wanted to.”
Cody smiled. He would have liked to say something, to be a man with a clever tongue that always knew exactly what to say.
Instead, he pulled Amelia flush against his side, pinning her to him.
She came willingly, tilting her head back to regard him fondly.
She pushed his hat off his head playfully, holding it in her hand.
That was all the encouragement Cody needed. As the sun crested over the horizon, he planted his lips firmly on Amelia’s, humming in delight. It felt like warmth and love, and most of all, like home.
THE END?
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