Cowboy Caveat (11 page)

Ed was straining against his trousers
uncomfortably. He continued to frig his wife slowly, watching her
as she writhed across his lap, moaning and pushing back against his
fingers wantonly.

“
Onto the bed, Lucy
darlin’, bottom up in the air,” Ed commanded her. He turned and
stripped off his clothes as quickly as he could. It was a relief to
free his turgid erection from his constricting trousers.

Lucy panted with desire as she crawled up
onto all fours, her nightdress screwed up around her hips and her
punished bottom pushed up into the air on full display. Ed turned
his hot gaze on the delectable tableaux; he gave an appreciative
growl of lust from the back of his throat.

She was the most arousing sight Ed had ever
seen; he could see that her desire was clearly apparent below the
glowing rouge of her spanked derriere. Ed grasped his aching member
and gently palmed it as he soaked in the sight of his compliant
wife awaiting his pleasure. His throbbing manhood pulsed with the
need for release and Ed had no intention of denying his rampant
staff any longer.

Ed padded to the bed and, grasping Lucy’s
hips, he rocked her back and sunk himself deep inside her. He
shuddered with pleasure and Lucy uttered a small guttural, sexy
cry. Ed pulled her scalding bottom back toward his pelvis as he
plunged into her, rapidly stoking them both to climax.

Lucy came first, gasping her pleasure,
followed by Ed who found the force of his ejaculation almost
painful in its release. Ed slumped sideways, pulling Lucy with him,
so that her back was curled into his chest. He nestled inside her
body, his penis still shuddering with the force of his orgasm.

Ed wrapped his arms tightly around Lucy,
kissed the back of her neck and whispered, “I love you, little
darlin’, an’ I liked what just happened here...I think I’ve missed
a trick or two not spanking you more often!”

Lucy squealed her embarrassment into her
pillow but she didn’t say a word. Lucy was exhausted and extremely
confused by her body’s reaction to her spanking. She closed her
eyes and allowed the oblivion of sleep to escape from the questions
that were whirling in her head. Ed, on the other hand, thought
about his wife’s reaction to her spanking punishment and decided
that he needed to go and have a private talk with a friend of his
who might be able to shed some light on a few confusing questions
he had.

The stage had been travelling for quite some
time now, and Amy hoped they would arrive at the stage outpost
soon, because her bladder was bursting and Millie had confided her
own concerns for a nature stop, whispering her need from behind her
small hand.

The stage lurched suddenly and began to move
faster and faster, swinging violently from side to side. Amy caught
hold of Ethan to keep her seat and put her other arm out to grab
Luca as he was flung forward.

Ethan twisted around and looked out of the
window. Pulling back inside, he turned to Amy, his voice lowered.
“Have you still got your Derringer in your reticule?” he asked.

“
Yup, is there
trouble......is it the Sheriff?” she whispered back.

“
No, I think it’s bandits
chasing the stage.”

Before Amy could respond, the Reverend woke
up and peered out of the window. He pulled back his jacket and
yanked a Colt out from a holster on his back waistband. Scooting
along the seat and pressing himself into the corner, the Reverend
cocked his gun and pulled down the window, aiming at their
pursuers. Ethan shouted, “GET DOWN!” He grabbed Amy and flung
himself over her while stretching out an arm, barely covering the
two terrified children, his palm placed protectively on top of
Luca’s head.

The stage suddenly lurched and leapt into
the air. It seemed to hold its position before crashing down and
pitching sideways amid the terrified screams of the horses and all
within the body of the coach. Ethan, Amy, Millie and Luca ended up
squashed on top of one another, a tangle of arms and legs. Poor
Millie was at the bottom of the heap. Her shoulder and arm were
twisted back and she moaned and cried out in pain as Ethan pulled
the others off of her.

The door above them opened and an arm
holding a gun pointed down at Ethan’s head. Before he could react
to this, a loud retort deafened everyone and the gunman fell away
from the coach.

Smoke filled the carriage and more confusion
rained down as the Reverend, holding his Colt 45, jumped over the
backs of Amy and the others and sprung out of the coach. Ethan
followed him, firing as he went, and after a few more gunshots, the
world outside fell eerily quiet.

Amy was the first to risk sticking her head
out, through the door of the coach that was stranded on its side,
to see what was going on. Immediately she shrieked as a face shape
loomed close to her own. Her instant reaction was to smack the face
hard.

“
Ow! Hell darlin’, what’d
you do that for!” Ethan hollered, rubbing his sore face
vigorously.

“
Ethan! I’m so
sorry...I...I thought it was the gun man. Are you okay,
Eth?”

“
I guess I’ll live! How
about you? Millie and Luca, are they alright?”

“
Millie has hurt her
shoulder but otherwise we’re fine. Who were those men and what’s
going on?”

Ethan heaved Amy out of the coach. He then
did the same with the youngsters, being careful of Millie’s
shoulder. They all stood in a huddle around Ethan and watched as
the Reverend walked to the body of the stage driver. He looked up
and shook his head at Ethan before moving on between the bodies of
two men who had pursued them. He turned them over, patted their
pockets, presumably for clues as to their identification. He seemed
to find what he wanted on the second man, pulling out a piece of
paper unfolding it and reading it before tucking it away in his own
back pocket. He stood up and walked over to where they waited for
him.

“
Sorry ‘bout that, folks,
goes with the territory. I been tailing those two for some weeks
now and they obviously decided to bushwhack me on the trail. Hope
you folks are alright, no one hurt?” And then, just on cue, Millie
fainted dead away.

Amy dropped to Millie’s side and lifted her
head onto her lap. Ethan pulled off his neck cloth and poured water
from his canteen onto it, wiping the child’s face with the cool
water. Millie groaned and her soft brown eyes fluttered open. “My
shoulder hurts real bad,” she whimpered.

“
Here, let me take a
look,” the Reverend said, dropping to one knee and taking Millie’s
arm gently between his hands.

“
Dislocated I’m afraid,”
he told Ethan. “I can fix it if’n you want. It’s happened to me and
a few others I’ve travelled with before.”

“
Will it hurt her much?”
Amy asked before Ethan could speak.

“
Some…not too much. Best
done straight away, though, before there’s any swelling...it’s real
difficult to get back in place once that happens.”

Amy nodded. “Do it,” she told him.

Millie groaned and sat up. The Reverend
looked at Ethan and gestured to him to come and hold Millie. “Just
keep the girl still and hold on tight.”

Millie looked alarmed, but before she could
open her mouth, the Reverend had pulled her arm out straight, and
with his other hand pressed to her shoulder, he gave a small twist
and a push. There was a click, a pop, and a sharp screech from
Millie, and her shoulder was back in place.

Ethan stared at the Reverend as he patted
Millie’s head, then stuck his face into the holy man’s, asking,
“Just who the hell are you? ‘Cause you sure as hell ain’t no
reverend, mister!”

“
You got me there, son!
I’m a Texas Ranger and I been on the trail of those two dead men
over there some eighteen months now. They robbed a train a while
back and killed two men who tried to stop ‘em. They been playing
cat an’ mouse with me for the last few weeks and killed the Ranger
I was working with not three days ago. I decided to change identity
and make for Dallas to talk tactics with a friend of mine who lives
there. Jim has an uncanny knack of understanding the criminal mind.
I owe you a debt sir, you saved my life with your covering shot
back there. I thank you, Mr....”

“
Ethan, the name is Ethan
Walker, I’m travelling with my wife Amelia over to Dallas to visit
with my wife’s grandmother, along with the family here. This here’s
Luca and the walking wounded lass is Millie.” Ethan half stood and
held out his hand to the Ranger, who reached across to take it in a
firm grip.

“
I’m obliged to you, Mr.
Walker. The name’s Rick, Rick Cook,” the Ranger said.

Ethan thought quickly -- this man was a
Ranger so he’d be obligated to take Amy in if he knew about her
shooting Henderson. If he felt he owed Ethan a favor he just might
help them, but could they trust him? He decided to keep silent for
now and concentrate on getting Amy and the children to safety for
the night. “Actually sir, I’m obliged to you for helping Millie
here. I wouldn’t have had any idea how to put her shoulder right.”
Ethan waved at Millie, who was sobbing into Amy’s shoulder.

“
You are most welcome, Mr.
Walker. Now if we are to get to shelter tonight, we had all best
start walking. I don’t think the staging post is too much farther
on from here. I reckon it’s just away over that rise, a mile at
best, d’you think that your youngsters can make it that
far?”

“’
Course they can and so
can I!” retorted Amy, while helping Millie up and giving her a
quick hug before releasing her and turning to the men.

“
Okay then, gather up what
you need and can carry. We’ll store the rest inside the coach and
collect it another day.”

* * * * *

Tyler was lying on his tummy hidden in the
long grass, watching with amazement as the wild white stallion
mounted a mare. The horse was standing up on his hind legs, his
forelegs were placed along the mare’s back, and he was nipping at
her neck. Tyler crouched downwind, only a few feet away, trembling
with excitement. He had been trailing the stallion for a few days
now on and off, and this was the first time he had caught up as
close as this to the wild herd. He wanted to capture this stallion
so much for the white breeding stock that Amy had collected. He was
such a magnificent beast! Tyler knew that Ed would take him
seriously -- Amy, too -- if he could pull this off.

Tyler shifted in the grass, his gaze drawn
to a slow movement of the tall brush to his left. Oh, no....snake!
Tyler quickly assessed his options -- the stallion and his herd
were in front of him and the snake to his left, a small coppice to
his right. Could he make it before the stallion ran him down? Hell,
he had no choice, the snake was nearly on him and he had no gun.
Tyler jumped up and sprinted to the coppice, throwing himself into
the overgrown thicket. Sharp saplings switched his face and arms as
he tumbled through the undergrowth, and then he was sliding down
toward what appeared to be a big black hole.

Tyler scrabbled with his heels to try to
stop himself sliding any farther into the foul-smelling sticky,
black goo, but it was a difficult task because the stuff was so
slippery. He twisted onto his stomach and put his arms straight
over his head, clawing at the dry grass. His first clutch wasn’t
enough to pull himself clear, and so he rested for a moment before
stretching out as far as he could, this time grabbing firm handfuls
of the tough prairie grass and pulling. Inch by slow inch, he
managed to claw his way out of the black glue. Finally he rolled
clear, away from the danger.

Tyler lay on his back panting for a few
moments until his breathing slowed to a normal pace. Then he stood
and looked down at his black and stinking clothes. He pulled up
handfuls of grass and wiped himself down, but it was slow work and
the stuff just seemed to stick to everything like molasses. Tyler
grimaced when he realised his only option was to go back home in
the state he was in. He dreaded explaining to Ed how he came to be
in such a mess when he was supposed to be in school.

As it was, Tyler need not have worried about
Ed’s reaction because when Tyler approached the ranch house, Ed met
him crossing from the house to the barn, and he gasped at the state
of his youngest sibling. “Sonofabitch! Tyler, what in tarnation
have you been rolling in there, boy?”

Tyler hung his head and spat out a great
glob of spittle and black goo. “I don’ rightly know, but it stinks
and it won’t come off n’ me!” he bleated.

Ed ran his finger down the side of Tyler’s
arm and sniffed the sticky smear. “Holy cow!” he exclaimed,
recognizing the stuff straight away as crude oil. “Let’s get you
over to the cook house and wash this off with lye soap. So where
did you roll in this, huh?” Ed put out a hand to ruffle his
brother’s hair and then thought better of it after seeing the black
matted mop.

Tyler glanced up with his light brown eyes,
so uncannily like his sister Amy’s. “I was following a stallion and
the wind shifted. He scented me and I had a snake real close so I
broke cover and ran into a thicket, which was kinda dipped, and I
rolled into a black smelly hole of the stuff pooled at the
bottom.”

“
Where ’bouts, kid? Not on
Henderson’s land, is it?” Ed asked, looking at Tyler
sharply.

“
No siree, on our land --
on the homestead at the edge of Henderson’s but still on Pa’s
land!”

Ed nodded thoughtfully. When they arrived at
the pump, Ed grabbed a bar of lye soap from Cookie’s stock and set
about scrubbing his small brother. After Tyler was reasonably
cleaned up, Ed left him to finish off and went in search of the
ranch foreman Max.