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Elizabeth McCormick brought her chestnut colored mare to a stop on the ridge overlooking Durango. She shivered in the cool air of the early morning. The sun was peeking over he horizon and the town still slept. Elizabeth's gaze lingered on the hotel she had just left. In a few short hours her sister Rebecca would wake and discover she'd left. Elizabeth said a silent prayer that Rebecca would heed the advice in her note to not try and find her again.
"Come on old girl", Elizabeth nudged her horse along the ridge. She didn't have any particular destination in mind but west seemed like a good choice. Elizabeth was only interested in putting distance between herself and anyone who knew her, including Rebecca.
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"I tell ya, she was one of the prettiest women you ever did see. She had long black hair that flowed halfway down her back.." Vin's mind wandered as Buck droned on about another woman from his past. Vin secretly wondered how many of the women Buck talked about he had really even met.
"Buck, you've spent time in these parts before. Are we anywhere near water? The horses could use some water and I wouldn't mind filling the canteens."
Buck scanned the area. He agreed with Vin that they should
water the horses. They'd been riding hard since leaving Eagle Bend
that morning. Vin had insisted they be back in Four Corners by twilight.
"Uh, yeah, 'bout a half mile there's a creek."
"Lead the way."
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Buck strolled along the creek bed while Vin filled the canteens. Buck had grudgingly accepted this assignment to transport a prisoner to Eagle Bend. Buck had hoped to spend another night in Eagle Bend before heading back, there were some fine looking women in the saloon that had caught his eye. Buck considered demanding that they stay another night until he saw the look in Vin's eyes. Vin wasn't interested in arguing with him and he made it clear who was in charge this time.
Buck turned and saw Vin leading the horses toward him. "We'd better get started again. I promised Chris we'd be back by dark." Vin had no desire to spend the night out in the open. The last few nights had turned painfully cold as soon as the sun set.
"Buck? Are you listening to me?" Buck's attention seemed to be focused downstream.
Buck waved at Vin to be quiet and pointed downstream. The two men crept quietly around the bend. Buck pointed out a mare to Vin. She was tethered to a tree next to the creek.
"Where do you suppose her rider is?" Vin's voice was barely above a whisper.
"There..." Buck pointed to the figure that had appeared from behind another tree. Buck watched the way the stranger moved and realized it was a woman. Her back was to them and she was in the process of changing clothes.
"Buck, lets get out of here. I'm not going to spy on her while she changes." Vin tugged on Buck's sleeve to pull him away.
"Look.." Buck pointed toward the woman. Her back was still to them and she'd removed her shirt. Both men were shocked by the sight of her back. The pale white skin was criss-crossed with ugly looking scars. Buck had seen scars like that before, most recently on Nathan's back. This woman had been beaten with a whip and probably more than once.
The two men crept away silently not wanting to draw any attention from the young woman. "Maybe we should go back and see if we can help her?" Buck spoke up when they'd moved a few hundred yards away.
"With what? Changing her clothes?"
"That's not what I meant." Vin noticed the angry tone in Buck's voice that he had only heard a few other times.
"I'd say she can take care of herself. There was a gunbelt on the ground and a shotgun on her saddle. Plus..." Vin paused to mount his horse.
"Plus what?"
"A woman, out in the middle of nowhere, alone, dressed in men's clothes, armed to the hilt, looks to me like either she's after somebody or..." Buck already knew what Vin was going to say.
"Or running from somebody."
"All I'm saying is that the least we could have done would've been to see if she needed help." Buck's booming voice could be heard before he and Vin entered the saloon.
"And that's all ya been sayin' for the last couple of hours. Just drop it Buck." Vin was tired from the trip and didn't want to argue anymore. Vin ordered himself a beer and joined Ezra and JD at the poker table. "What are you two up to?" Vin wanted to talk about anything but the woman they'd seen. He didn't want to admit to Buck that he was beginning to regret leaving her out there without seeing if she knew where she was going.
"I am attempting to educate our young compatriot in the finer points of poker." Ezra's fingers danced as he swiftly and elegantly dealt the cards. "I take it by your and Mr. Wilmington's exchange that your sojourn to Eagle Bend was not a successful one?"
"Just a difference in opinion."
"Yea, Vin here, was in such a hurry to get back here, that he wouldn't even stop for a few extra minutes so that I could talk to a woman and make sure that she was okay."
"What happened?" Chris asked from behind Buck. He didn't like the sound of a woman wandering around the plains alone.
"We were watering the horses and we saw a woman camped out down the creek. She was changing her clothes.."
"You watched a woman while she changed her clothes?" Chris knew that Buck was a scoundrel when it came to women but not even he would stoop to spying on a woman while she changed.
"Not exactly.." Buck drummed his fingers on the table trying to figure out a way to word the story.
"She didn't see us and as soon as she started to change her clothes we left." Vin swallowed the last of his beer and motioned to the bartender to send over another.
"There's something you're not telling us." Chris hadn't known Vin long but he could read Buck's face like a book and he was holding something back.
"When she took off her shirt her back was covered in scars, like she'd been whipped." A chill ran down Buck's spine as he remembered those nasty criss-crossed marks on her back. The thought of what that woman must have gone through made his blood run hot. Buck knew that he would help her in any way he could if given the chance, no woman deserved to be hurt like that.
"What did this poor soul in distress look like?" Josiah pulled up a chair and joined the group. He poured himself a whiskey from the bottle on the table.
"From what we could see.." Buck shot a look of venom at Vin, "she had long red hair, maybe mid-twenties, wearing brown pants and tan shirt, riding a chestnut mare. Why?"
"Well, if you're skills of observation are as keen as they seem, then that woman just checked in over at the hotel." Josiah took a sip of his whiskey. "She looked like a woman who could take care of herself. I wouldn't want to come up against that sawed-off shotgun she was carrying."
"Red hair, huh?" Ezra's thoughts turned to Liza. So many things lately had made him think of her. Just yesterday Mary Travis had worn a skirt the same shade of green as Liza's eyes and he hadn't been able to get her face out of his mind all day.
"Knew a red head once did ya Ezra?" Buck winked at him from across the table. "I've known a couple, hellions every one of them. So, tell us about her Ezra?"
Fire flashed in Ezra's eyes. "She was a lady and I'll not be speaking of her in this manner as if she were a common working girl." Ezra stood so fast the chair fell out from behind him. He stormed out of the saloon ready to start a fight with the next person that spoke to him.
"Who was she?" Chris's husky voice came from behind him. Ezra spun around and saw Chris had emerged from the saloon. Chris' tone was of concern. He'd seen the look in Ezra's eyes, it was of pain and regret. Chris knew that look well, he saw it in his own reflection too often.
"A girl I knew in New Orleans." Ezra stared up at the stars.
"And you loved her." It was a statement not a question from Chris. Ezra pulled a thin gold band from his vest pocket and handed it to Chris.
"I even toyed with the prospect of entering into the bonds of matrimony."
"I never pictured you as the marrying kind." Chris gave Ezra a crooked smile.
"Neither did I, until I met Liza."
"You want to tell me about her?" Chris motioned for Ezra to walk with him.
"Why the sudden interest in my past misfortunes Mr. Larabee?"
"I know how it feels to lose someone you love." Chris's voice dropped to just above a whisper. Chris had thought Ezra to be shallow and selfish, but maybe he was too quick to judge the southerner.
"She was the kind of woman that, as Mr. Sanchez would say, made you believe in a higher power."
Ezra surveyed the men at the table. The portly man to his left was sweating profusely trying in vain to disguise his discomfort with the hand he was holding. To his left was a man that was not so easy to read. He was well-dressed in a crisp white shirt and blue brocade vest. Ezra thought he heard someone call him Jackson. Jackson played well and didn't give much away. His only weakness seemed to be for a beautiful young woman that was spending a great deal of time sitting on his lap. Joe Collins sat to Ezra's right. The two men had spent many an hour across from each other at a poker table. They knew each other's habits and strategies as well as they knew their own. Collins was no friend but was more than a mere acquaintance. There was a mutual respect for each other's talent at the table. The fifth member for their game was an Englishman by the name of Nicholas St. George. Ezra hadn't liked the look of him from the moment he had entered the saloon. He carried an expression of distaste, even when he won a hand, which hadn't been often.
Either Ezra or Collins had won almost every hand. Ezra folded early in the hand and watched the other men. He found his gaze kept returning to the young woman sitting on Jackson's lap. She was exquisite, wearing a deep forest green silk dress that made her emerald eyes shine in the room's dim lights. This was no ordinary saloon girl, Ezra was sure of that. He'd known that from the first time he'd seen her nearly a month before. They'd never spoken yet whenever their eyes met he felt as if she could see into his soul. Ezra wondered why she had never approached him in all the times that they'd been in the same establishment. Not that he would have allowed her to sit in his lap and fawn over him as she was doing with Jackson. Ezra never allowed anything to interfere with the business of playing cards, not even a beautiful woman like Liza. He found out her name from another of the saloon girls. He watched her now as she twirled a strand of fiery red hair that had fallen down.
As he watched her Ezra noticed that she made eye contact with Collins several times. Were they working together, he wondered. Ezra played back in his mind all the games at which he'd seen her present and yes, Collins had played at each one. The night passed quickly and soon Ezra and Collins were the only men still sitting at the table. "Mr. Standish my good friend, perhaps you care to join me for a drink upstairs? I have a particularly fine bottle of scotch just waiting to be appreciated."
There was a quiet knock on the door shortly after they entered Collins' room. "Come in darling." Ezra was not surprised to see Liza enter the room. "I want you to meet an old poker nemesis of mine dear. Miss Elizabeth McCormick may I present Mr. Ezra Standish." Ezra took her right hand and raised it to his lips to kiss it.
"It is a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance Miss McCormick."
"Likewise I'm sure and please call me Liza." Her cheeks were flushed in the soft light. She sat down in a chair by the bed and accepted a glass of scotch from Collins. Ezra found it hard not to stare at Liza. She was as graceful as a swan and seemed so out of place in the gaming house.
"So, Ezra, my good man, have you figured it out yet?"
"What? That you and the beautiful Miss McCormick are working together?" Ezra's eyes never strayed from Liza's face.
"When did you figure it out? I wasn't so sure you had noticed Liza's signals." Collins stood behind Liza and placed a hand on her bare shoulder. Ezra noticed the way Liza's body tensed at Collins' touch.
"I may not know them all, but I do believe that I figured a few of them out. Let's see.." Ezra paced the length of the room in front of them. "The twirling of her hair, a subtle tug on the left earring, stroking the gentleman's shoulder, shall I go on?"
"Not necessary, I have a proposition for you. You and I both know each other's style too well, but with Liza assisting us, we can clean this city out. Right now I'm only using her two to three nights a week. I don't want to draw any attention, but if we joined up and she worked with you on the other nights, we could make a killing."
"I work alone. Besides where is the challenge and sport of the game?"
"Who cares about the challenge and sport? I talking about making more money together than we could ever make on our own." Collins poured them each another drink. He whispered in Liza's ear and headed for the door. "I'm going to go and see about another bottle of scotch, why don't you two discuss this? But I warn you Ezra, Liza can be very persuasive."
They sat in silence for several minutes before Liza finally spoke.
"He's not coming back."
"He's not?" Ezra studied her from across the room.
"At least not until I give him the signal to come back up. He expects me to do whatever I have to do to convince you to join him." Ezra could hear the discomfort in her voice. She didn't want to be here.
"And what is it that he thinks you can do to make me change my mind?" Liza crossed the room to him and began to undo the back of her dress. Ezra quickly stopped her.
"You don't find me attractive?" Liza sounded almost relieved.
"On the contrary, you are perhaps the most beautiful woman I have ever had the distinct pleasure of meeting. But I would not allow you to debase yourself in such a manner." Liza looked at him questioningly. "He has no right to send you to me like some common whore."
"I think he'd disagree with you on that point. To him I'm just another possession to be tossed into the pot."
"Why do you stay with him if he treats you this way?"
"Why did she stay with him?" Chris had listened intently while Ezra had related the story. Their walk had ended in Chris' room where the two men sat finishing a bottle of whiskey.
"Her father had been sick and the family incurred a rather sizable amount of debt. She took the job as a means to assist her family."
"Did she convince you to partner up with Collins?"
"If you are trying to inquire as to whether I took advantage of the situation and indulged myself in the pleasures of her flesh? No, I did not. But I did agree to the partnership, if only for the reason of keeping an eye on Collins and his treatment of Liza." Chris was surprised. He hadn't suspected Ezra so capable of such an unselfish act.
"I can tell by your expression that I shocked you Mr. Larabee. My work here you and our five friends is not my first foray into the world of partnership." Ezra swirled his glass of whiskey searching the amber liquid for answers to long forgotten questions.
"I take it that your partnership with Collins didn't end well."
"When I agreed to be his partner he made me swear to one condition. Other than not cheating each other, of course. I was not to engage in any sort of an amorous relationship with the fair Liza. She refused to let him have her and he wasn't going to allow anyone else to have her either."
"I take it that you didn't succeed in keeping that part of your bargain."
"We kept the relationship professional for almost six months." Ezra's voice trailed off as he took the last drink from his glass.
"And then..." Chris didn't want to force the story from him but he could tell that it would do Ezra good to get this off his chest.
"I was allowed one night of heaven in her arms. I left her at dawn and when I returned for her that afternoon Collins told me that she refused to see me. He told me that she wanted nothing more to do with me. I'd planned to take her out of New Orleans with me that day. We'd head out west, get married. But for once the cards were not in my favor."
"You never saw her again?"
"I left town that day. I planned to return a few weeks later to see if I could change her mind. But my return was delayed by events outside my control."
"She wasn't there when you returned?"
"She was dead by that time."
"Dead?"
"Collins was playing on a riverboat in the mighty Mississippi. There was some sort of an accident. Liza fell overboard and drowned."
Chris considered saying I'm sorry but knew that there were no words he could say to comfort Ezra. This was a pain that Ezra would carry the rest of his life. Ezra rose from his chair. "Well, Mr. Larabee I do believe that I have rambled along for far too long. I will take my leave of you now. I trust that this remains between just the two of us?"
Chris merely nodded. He would never dare to reveal Ezra's story
to anyone else. Not even Vin, with whom he'd developed a strong bond.
Chris knew that a man's past was his own and not a topic for everyday conversation.
To be continued...
Four Corners Chronicle
'Wanted' page
