chapter 2

Ian’s jaw dropped and he

gave her a good shove backward the wind and rain started to come in heavy on

the pair. The thunder rumbled all around them; Ian could do nothing but stare

at her. The rain came down hard and soaked Audrey’s dress to her so tightly it

looked like her own skin and not a lovely dress it once looked like sitting in

a dress shop window. It was ripped and tattered now due to all the storms that

had come through, the thunder cracked around them as the wind started to pick

up it blew Ian’s Stetson off his head and tumbled quickly away from the pair.

Ian watched her with all the hate in the world building up in himself. “What

did you just say?”

Audrey was confused at

the way he was acting, she didn’t understand why he was so upset, his eyes cut

through her very soul and she began to become fearful of him was he going to

hurt her? Who was Harrison to him? Ian with his head lowered to block the rain

from his eyes pulled out his six-shooter and aimed it at her chest. She tried

to take a step back but the gusts of wind stopped her she was pushed closer to

his strained arm and stopped moving when she was chest to barrel with him. He

cocked the gun not looking at her, the thunder rumbled low through the little

valley shaking the ground around them. He glared at her through his bangs and

the rain, the lightning behind her lit up her face only seeing small features

he hadn’t noticed before she was scared of him; her eyes were a radiant blue

from the tears that made their color more intense, she had a light scattering

of freckles across her nose and cheeks that made her look more innocent.

The rain didn’t ruin her

beauty it enhanced it and he wanted so deeply to ignore the fact that her eyes

were cutting through him like a knife. Her deep inhales moved his gun and his

arm up and down in slow hypnotic movements that he couldn’t ignore, why was he

hesitating? Why wasn’t he putting a bullet in her beautiful chest and watching

her drop dead to the ground and leaving it all here to die in the valley and

move on with his life? This woman was nothing to him, the man that killed his

father was dead. Hung for his crimes she even admitted it. He started to pull

back on the trigger, the hammer moved slightly from its position this was

Audrey’s last chance to save her life.

She put one hand on his

wrist and smiled as softly as she could at him hoping he would take pity on

her, the wind picked up and blew their clothes all about and startled them and

Ian pulled the trigger. Audrey fell to the ground with her dress all about her

and kept her eyes closed, she was going to die in a ditch in the middle of

nowhere and no one knew where she was. Ian fell backward on his rump and looked

at the smoke from the gun then back at the woman motionless on the ground… did

he kill her? NO! he saw her legs move and jumped up and made his way to her

side and moved her skirts away from her face. Giving her a good tap on the

cheek she slowly opened her eyes and looked at him.

“YOU SHOT ME!” she

screamed hitting him in the nose he fell back on his rump again holding his face,

she shot up and jumped on him and hit him again, “What is wrong with you? Are

you a lunatic? You could have killed me!” “That was the point.” He said muffled

by his hand. Wiping the blood from his nose he shoved her off to the side of

him and put his hands on his knees and looked around them. After a pause, he

got up and helped her to her feet. “We gotta find my horse.” “We?” Audrey said

folding her arms in disgust.

“Yes, we! You’re the one

that started all this trouble and scared my horse off. We.” Ian grumbled as he

looked around for his hat hoping it got stuck in some sticker bushes not seeing

it anywhere near them, he made his way back to Audrey and grabbed her arm, and

pulled her along with him. What seemed like forever being dragged through the

valley Audrey noticed something off in the distance, “There he is!” she pointed

past Ian to the giant gray Morgan, Ian let out a long sigh that horse had been

through hell with him during the war and now he loved that horse and was happy

to see him again. Getting closer to him he saw him chewing on his Stetson,

“Good job ‘ole pal.” Ian said patting the Morgan’s face and pulling his hat out

of Caesar’s mouth, he put the crumpled hat back in its place on his head and

climbed up into the saddle, and looked down at Audrey.

She looked pitiful

standing there with her arms folded looking up at him, her dress ruined and

hair destroyed from the last few hours in the wilderness with him. He turned

the Morgan to leave her and stopped when he heard the slightest gasp escape

from her. He rubbed his face twice over and let out a loud sigh, held out his

hand to her and she gratefully took it pulling herself up behind him on the

horse. The Morgan gracefully made his way out of the valley up the sandy

sloping hill and back onto the main road and headed away from the town they

came from.

As the hours went on and

they got comfortable riding together Ian felt Audrey’s head against his back

and remembered his gun, he pulled it out of its holster and pointed the gun in

front of them, and pulled the trigger. Nothing. The rain had infiltrated the

mechanisms and clogged it up, he chuckled realizing that was the only thing

that saved her. Rusted up as quickly as the rain came down. Putting the gun

back in its home, Ian adjusted in his saddle and stretched forgetting about his

rider nearly knocking her off the back of the horse. Throwing his arm back

behind himself he caught her, ‘now I’m gonna have to be stuck like this until

she wakes…’ he thought annoyed with the whole situation.

What would his goody-two-shoes

brother do in this situation? He’d probably try to marry her, bed her and leave

her with a bunch of children to go galivanting back to D.C. where he lives for

the action there. Settling down and living a quiet life was not in Nicks’

vocabulary either. Maybe getting married wouldn’t be so bad… maybe the war

wouldn’t have gone the way it had. Maybe if Johnston didn’t die so early on in

the war they would have had a fighting chance, what if Lee took Gettysburg and

Pennsylvania would that have made a difference? What if Harrison didn’t get

shot? He had always talked about being a grandfather, joking around with him

and Nick wondering which one of them would be wed first.

There were a lot of what-ifs

and getting married was not on his list of things to do. Looking out at the

road ahead of them the town was going to be another three days away, the winds

shifted and turned warm but the dark clouds over the mountains still heavy with

rain were moving in towards them. He needed to find shelter for the night and

get them all out of the weather. Traveling slowly for a while longer Audrey

woke to see a small house off aways barely seen from the road; “Maybe we can

stay there for the night.” She choked out, her throat was dry and it was hard

to speak.

Reaching past her leg

into his saddlebag he pulled out a canteen and handed it to her. She downed to

cool liquid as quickly as possible, water and it was cold it was a great

feeling as it went flooding into her mouth and down her the front of her. Ian

pulled it away from her, “Easy some of us would like a drink too ya know.” He

took a large gulp as well getting the last bit of what was left in it. Stopping

at the steps of the little house Ian saw the remains of what looked like a

pretty devastating fire that tore through the house, the windows were blackened

and a large portion of the roof was missing and the chimney was gone.

“Let’s go a little

further on and see what else we can find if there is one house out here there

is sure to be another. Besides you don’t even know if there is a floor in there

with that kind of damage.” Audrey sighed as to being stuck on the horse for

another hour or so, her bum and hip were getting pretty sore and she needed to

take a break from riding soon. “Can we walk for a bit?” She asked after the

little house they found was long out of sight. Ian looked up at the clouds they

were dark but still off away, he helped her down and jumped down beside her as

well. “I guess we have time to stretch our legs for a bit.” He and Caesar took

off at a good pace leaving Audrey in their dust.

Waiting to see how long

it would take for him to realize she wasn’t next to him he was out of sight.

Audrey folded her arms and scowled as she stomped along behind the big horse

and his man. It gave her time to look around at her surroundings it’s not like

she had anywhere else to go and was over-setting out on this trip, it was nice

that she did have a horse and Ian to keep her company she probably wouldn’t

have fared so well alone. It seemed like endless dunes with red and brown sand

all around the area it was beautiful but she hated being dirty.

Ian stopped and took his

Stetson off his head and scratched his unruly mop of hair and looked around for

anyone that still lived there. It was quiet and off the path, away hidden

between some large overgrown trees, the roof was destroyed like the last house

they were at about an hour away and the barn looked like it was in bad shape as

well. Ian sighed it was better than sleeping in the bushes he thought as a gust

of wind picked up. Audrey stopped by his side and glared at the burnt-out

windows and slowly walked to the door and entered; taking a few steps in she

noticed it was one large open area not like what she had seen in the east. The

living room, dining room kitchen, and preparation area were all in the same big

room, the beds were off to the side one was burnt up and the other still had a

blanket on it. Lighting the cigarette lighter, she took it from Ian’s pack she

walked over to the bed and saw that the blanket was blue, a cornflower blue

with little white flowers. Looking around she found a lantern and lit it and

looked around for more to light up.

Amazingly the damage was

more superficial than anything and the little house was still livable for at

least the night. Ian was wandering the surrounding land and shot two rabbits

and found a small garden off to the side, digging around in the dirt he found

some potatoes and beets, he threw the beets to the side, he hated them. Wiping

the sweat off his brow he saw the little house lit up and walked to one of the

windows and looked in. Audrey was walking around with a lantern and cleaning up

the little house with what she was finding, she cleaned off the little table

and some seats and swept the floor, and fluffed the pillows on the bed like it

was part of her daily chores. Ian chuckled to himself seeing her move about the

house like a housewife knowing that she had a husband and children to take care

of, what was she going to do next pull out a sewing needle and mend his shirts?

He frowned after the thought realizing that he liked the idea.

After several more

lanterns were lit Ian made his way through the door with two stripped rabbits

and a handful of potatoes; “Can you cook?” Audrey looked around her broomstick

at the hairless rabbits on the table and looked back up at Ian. That was all he

needed for an answer, he tore off his coat and threw his hat on the chair

nearest the table, and started to roll up his sleeves. “Can you find a

cauldron? I think I saw a well on the side of the house near the woodpile, you

get the water and I’ll get the wood and start a fire.” She nodded at him and

went in search of what he was asking for.

She returned shortly back

into the light with a huge pot, “I guess once they saw the fire they just left

and didn’t think to try to save the place. There isn’t much damage in many

parts of the house.” She said setting the large pot on the table near Ian he

looked up at the roof over the loft where he thinks the dry goods would have

been stored and thought someone must have started the fire since the fireplace

had no damage and the stove in the kitchen was clean looking. He couldn’t

understand why the windows were blacked out and the roof missing, it had to be

a blast or something… or a cannonball come through the roof to make such

damage. But the war didn’t make it out this far west he thought but he was in

Virginia for almost all of the fighting so he really didn’t know much of what was

going on in the rest of the country at the time. He didn’t say anything to her

and stood up and grabbed the pot and carried it to the well for her. Pushing a

large slab of limestone off the mouth of the well Ian was careful not to drop

it. “I think these people are not originally from here. This is limestone.”

He looked over at Audrey

for a moment wondering if she was curious. “They are from the east. Most

limestone deposits are in the central United States or on the east coast.” She

smiled back at him she wasn’t interested in the limestone but gave him a smile

knowing that he loved telling her the fact. “I’ve got matches in my saddlebags

go grab them for me.” She nodded and went on her way to fetch what he asked

for; waiting for her to return it became darker out only the light from the

little windows was seen. Making her way slowly back to Ian she bumped into him

and he caught her before they both went into the well. Taking the matches from

her he stuck it and dropped it down the well, it didn’t go far and was out

instantly with a hiss.

The water was close to

the top of the well which was good with all the rain that has been in the area.

“Why did you do that?” Audrey asked with pure fascination. “In case there was

gases in there, would have set a fire or blown up in our faces.” She studied

his face for a moment or what little of it she could see. “The Yanks poisoned

the water and killed crops and burned down everything in their wakes, I’m not

taking any chances.” Ian frowned. She could hear it in the tone of his voice.

He was in the war and he was on the losing side. “Are you ready to get the

water and firewood?” She asked sheepishly trying to get his mind out of the

past.

He gave his head a shake

and looked back at her and pushed the bucket into the well. Grabbing the wood,

they needed and began their way back to the house the rain was starting again,

starting the fire as quickly as he could he stood up and wiped his hands off,

and walked to the door. “I gotta get Caesar into the barn. I think it will be

dry enough in there for him for the night.” Audrey watched him grab his hat and

walk out the door. She looked around the little house it was quiet in there and

well lit up for what she found in lanterns; if it was fixed up it would be a

beautiful little house… maybe even a home with children in it.

She pictured Ian walking

through the door with several tiny children running up and attacking him as he

made his way into the tiny home. She smiled then put her hands on her cheeks,

he wouldn’t want that he wasn’t that kind of man not a man she needed she

didn’t know his past or what kind of man he really was and she had to clear her

father’s name before any fantasies of finding a husband and making a home. She

cut up the few potatoes that Ian brought in trying to get her mind off the

little fantasy when Ian came back through the door and began stripping his hat

and shirt off. The rain had started to come downlight and cold, he wasn’t ready

to deal with being sick just yet not in the hands of some girl that didn’t even

know how to cook, she wouldn’t be able to help a sick man. He looked up at her

as he placed his shirt on the chair by the fireplace then looked up at the hole

in the roof over the kitchen where the loft was.

He sighed and made his

way up the steep staircase and looked around for anything to patch the hole.

Audrey sat silently at the table while he worked on covering the hole and then made

his way back down to her, “It’s not much but it will keep us warm for the night

it’s a cold rain. I’m surprised it is for this time of year.” He said putting

his hand on his chin thinking about the weather in the area. Audrey’s eyes grew

large when she saw huge scars on his side and back, she let out a little gasp

that caught his attention. “It’s from the war.” He replied back to her, that

was as much as she figured.

“I was in Fort McHenry

for a while, I got injured before going there some Union boys got a hold of me

and two other men and beat us after a bunch of us got captured at Antietam. I

got a couple of lashes from them and tried to escape and fell off a bridge

during transport to Fort McHenry and they patched me up there and I bribed my

way out.” Ian got quiet for a moment, “They had a lot of Southern sympathizers

there so they weren’t too bad, not like the stories I’ve heard out of Donaldson

or Andersonville.” Audrey grew still and kept watching him his breathing was

slow and deep she could see all the scars and muscles from his back to his

stomach up to his ribs to a large chest and broad shoulders. His body was

covered in scars one that bothered her the most came from his belly button to

his right hip. He gave her a tiny smile.

“I thought it would be

good fun to get gutted like a fish and jumped into a trench with a bunch of

them blue bellies and start attacking them, I landed on a young farm boy no

more than thirteen or fourteen and scared the hell out of him and he just

slashed the hell out of my gut and left me to die.” Ian was quiet for a moment.

“He didn’t even look back to see if I was still alive, he just ran. I got

trampled by a few of my guys then my friend Tommy Fulton found me and managed

to keep my stomach inside me and got me back to our lines and got me to the

surgeon.” Audrey watched him grow quiet he had cut up the rabbits that were

sitting on the table without a second thought and threw them and the potatoes

into the boiling water and went looking for extra stuff in the root cellar they

had found earlier. Audrey sat there silently thinking about everything.

Daddy and Eric fought in

the war on the side of the Union, they were brave and fought for the country

and everything America stood for. Daddy had lost his arm from the elbow down

and Eric was killed with a cannon blowing off his leg, he died with the surgeon

on the battlefield there was no way to save him. Pulling her out of her

daydream Ian made his way up out of the root cellar and added some more

ingredients to the pot. She watched him for a while, was he as evil as everyone

said he was a Confederate soldier were they all monsters? Grabbing the blanket

off the bed and walking back to the table he sat down and looked at her still

trying to understand what he had told her.

“I’m not a bad guy Aud. I

didn’t own slaves my daddy didn’t own slaves and neither did his daddy; we

lived in the middle of nowhere I didn’t know anybody that owned any until I was

in my teens looking for a job when we moved east. I worked with them and I

picked tobacco and cotton, I shoed horses and painted and mended fences I

worked like a dog just like everyone else did.” Audrey looked over at him at

the other side of the table she didn’t hear anything he had said after he

called her ‘Aud’. All she could think of was maybe he did like her even just a

little bit. He gave her a quick little smile realizing she didn’t hear him and

got up to find another blanket for her to keep warm. After eating dinner, they

fell asleep at some point in the night and Ian woke to the pain of being bent

over the table all night. He stood and stretched and looked around for Audrey

she wasn’t at the table, he found her curled up in the bed and draped his

blanket over her got his shirt back on, and went out to check his horse.

The wind was blowing in

warm and the smell of the burnt wood from the house was still sweet and smokey.

The sky cleared up and he watched the moon as full as ever and the stars move

around the night sky. It was quiet in their little oasis and it was nice; he

liked nights like this when everything was still. It reminded him of the end of

the war when he was part of the Wilderness campaign and making his way through

Cold Harbor Virginia; the black flies were worse than being shot at, I think

I’d rather be shot than ate up by those little blood-sucking bastards he

thought to himself.

The fields and wetlands

were the worse the noise of the cannons and gun powder didn’t bother him; at

one point he began to enjoy the smell it covered up much of the dead and

rotting soldiers and animals that weren’t picked up yet by their collective

people. At one point he had helped a Yank who was trampled and got him back to

his line his name was Tyler and he was from Vermont he hated the heat and

wanted to be in a cooler climate Ian felt the same the sweat stuck to his

clothes and wool coat like an extra layer and dreamed of a shave and a bath.

They departed when Ian left him at one of the last bridges that hadn’t been

destroyed and left his new friend there. Ian thought if that was his one good

deed during the war or in this life that would be good enough, even if he

didn’t find the man that killed his father.

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