Horse With No Name (24 page)

She slipped around the counter to the spot
where she had found Hunter last time, grateful he was not there
again. Immediately upon going through the door to the back of the
shop, she knew she was probably too late.

Once again the workroom was in disarray.
Clock gears and tools were scattered on the floor. Hunter's work
stool was toppled over, lying on its side. She picked the stool up,
unconsciously returning things to order.

Hunter would not voluntarily leave things in
this state. She knew that.

The back door was closed, but on second
glance Julia saw that it was standing just outside the frame. It
was not latched.

She took three long strides and pulled the
door open, stepping out into the yard. Silence. No movement.

Julia trotted all the way to the back of the
yard, and glanced right down the narrow dirt track that ran behind
the buildings on this stretch of Main Street. Nothing.

She glanced left.

Just turning the corner was a small wagon.
She saw the back of Hunter's head in the passenger seat, his
posture stiff with fear. Beside him, Gerard Anker held the reins
and drove the horse on.

***

"Walt!?" Julia's breath was coming in ragged
gasps now, her rib cage aching to be allowed some room. She had run
from the watchmaker's shop down the dirt track to the back of the
livery.

Walt had left the week's Horse Gazette on the
workbench in the tack room. She tore a page off the paper and
grabbed a pair of scissors lying on the bench. There was a stubby
carpenter's pencil there too. She grabbed that and wrote 'Gerard
Anker' on the paper, running over the lines multiple times to make
her words visible over the newsprint.

She had no time to saddle Stanley. The horse,
as intuitive as any of his brethren, picked up on her energy and
tossed his head as she fitted his bridle over his ears.

She knew Walt wasn't in the forge because
there was no noise coming from that workshop. And Merrick wasn't
around. She had noticed his office door was closed when she'd run
down Main Street minutes earlier.

Taking Stanley's reins in hand, she walked
him down the center aisle of the livery. Using the scissors, she
stabbed the paper and affixed it to the livery door, much as the
rabbit had been attached to her front door. Julia didn't have the
advantage of a stirrup so she pulled Stanley over close to the
fence that bordered the livery yard and awkwardly climbed up on the
bottom rail. She threw Stanley's reins over his head and gathered
them at his withers. The animal stood still, suppressing his
excitement. She hoisted herself up onto his back. It wasn't pretty,
but she got it done. She spent a few precious seconds adjusting her
skirt; she wasn't wearing her jodhpurs. Just a pair of wool tights
under her skirt. Her inner thighs would pay for that in the
morning, she knew, but she had no choice. She squeezed Stanley's
sides. He didn't need the encouragement. The horse leapt forward,
nearly toppling Julia, but she held on, grabbing a fistful of his
mane. A light touch on his right reign sent him in the right
direction. They galloped down Main Street, heading out of town.

I'm definitely going to be away from the
classroom for longer than five minutes, she thought. Hopefully
Katherine has everything in hand and remembers to check in on
Elsie.

Anker was most likely heading toward his
ranch. Julia took the road out of town that he'd use. After ten
minutes of nearly flat out running, though, she couldn't see
Anker's wagon up ahead. She slowed Stanley to a trot, thinking.

In her mind, Julia pictured the Double A
ranch. Where would Anker be headed if not to his home? What else
would he be doing?

Spurring Stanley into a canter, she aimed him
for the top of a shallow hill that was up ahead. When they reached
the crest, she slowed Stanley to a walk, and then halted him,
scanning the horizon in every direction. She saw several head of
cattle in a field half a mile away and possibly a white-tailed deer
grazing near a small stand of trees. When she turned all the way
around, placing her right hand on Stanley's rump, she could see
Horse laid out below her, like a drawing on a map. If she had been
higher up and perhaps fifty yards to the west, she might have been
able to see the Double A itself. Julia turned back and faced
Stanley's ears. She had no choice but to carry on to the ranch and
see if Anker was there. As she clucked Stanley into motion again,
movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. She
turned the horse so that he was facing the town and leaned forward,
squinting. It looked like Anker's wagon - at least, it was a small
wagon with two figures in it. It was on the opposite side of town
from where Julia was, heading toward the lake.

Julia was unsure. It could be Anker and
Hunter, but from this distance there was no real way to tell. She
groaned aloud. Stanley flicked his ears at the sound but stayed
still. The wagon kept moving, driving past the few buildings near
the shoreline, until it disappeared behind the lumber yard
building.

Julia waited, willing the wagon to reappear,
but after what seemed like months, it did not. She groaned again,
louder this time, and swore under her breath.

"Well, Stanley," she finally said, "bloody
hell. I'm going to take a guess that that's Anker. Let's hope I'm
right."

She tapped Stanley's sides.

Thirty-one

By the time Julia
reached the back of the waterfront building, her rear end was
aching from the strain of riding without a saddle. She slowed
Stanley to a walk and cautiously approached the corner of the
building. Taking a chance, she slid off the horse and, walking to
the edge of the building, she peered around the corner. She almost
yelped when she saw Anker's wagon parked not six feet away. Backing
up, she led Stanley to the front of the building and tied his reins
loosely to a hitching rail there.

Anker was wheezing with the rattling breath
of an asthmatic. His face was red with exertion and damp with
sweat. He looked as though he could have a heart attack at any
moment. He was busy pushing the row boat down the beach and didn't
seem to have heard Julia approach.

Julia snuck up to the wagon where Hunter sat
on the driver's bench. His complexion was blanched. He looked at
Julia with eyes that were sunken into his face, his skin the pale
green-yellow of someone with the flu.

Julia briefly wondered why Hunter hadn't just
run while his captor was distracted, but as she approached the
wagon she saw that his hands and feet were tied in front of him
with thick rope. Glancing to where Anker still worked to get the
rowboat down to the water, she stayed low on the far side of the
wagon. Hunter's eyes grew wide when he saw her, but he kept quiet
and held his hands out without prompting. Julia began to try to
untie the knots. They were stuck fast and Julia could see Hunter's
small wrists were being squeezed. Anker continued to grunt and
strain with the small boat. Julia could hear the scrape of the bow
on the sand and small pebbles of the beach. She gave a silent
prayer, asking that Anker continue to be preoccupied.

The knots in the rope wouldn't budge. Julia
tried putting her fingertips in the creases where the rope
overlapped itself, to pry the knots apart, but made no progress.
She reached down and tried working on the knots around Hunter's
ankles. These were tied with less force and began to slip away.
Julia pulled frantically at the rope, untangling it. Hunter
squiggled his feet a bit as well, kicking them loose. The rope fell
onto the beach and Julia decided that the best plan for them was
just to run. Hunter would have to do this while his hands were
still tied. She grabbed his elbow and made a motion with her eyes
and head, letting him know they were going to make a break for
it.

"Hey!" Anker's voice rang out, startling
Julia, causing her to jump. "Get away from him."

Julia turned, straightening her spine, and
faced Gerard Anker. She tried to steady herself. "Mr. Anker. This
is ridiculous. Let Mr. Hunter go."

"Step away, Miss Thom. This is none of your
business."

"It certainly is my business. I don't know
what you have planned, but you need to let Mr. Hunter go right
now."

Anker took a deep breath and wiped his face
on his coat sleeve. The breeze off the water was cool, and Julia
felt herself shiver, though she wasn't sure it was from the
cold.

Very casually, as though he was reaching for
a handkerchief, Anker reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a
small revolver.

"Step back, Miss Thom, or I will shoot you. I
promise."

Though he was sweating and red-faced from
exertion, Anker did look absolutely serious. His face was filled
with a fury Julia had not seen before. Still, she tried to talk him
out of whatever he had planned.

"Mr. Anker, be reasonable. What on earth has
Mr. Hunter done to you to make you so angry?"

"He knows what he's done." Anker stepped
forward and pushed Julia aside, roughly. He grabbed Hunter's right
arm and pulled him to the edge of the wagon's seat. Julia recovered
her balance and stepped back toward Anker, reaching out for his
left arm.

Anker whirled around and jabbed the revolver
into Julia's stomach.

"I said stay back."

Julia's corset protected her from the full
force of the jab, but it still hurt. She took a step back, holding
her stomach and meeting Hunter's eyes.

Anker pulled Hunter out of the wagon roughly
and jerked him forward. Hunter fell to his knees, and Anker yanked
him up again.

Anker turned once more to Julia. "If you take
one step, I will shoot you."

She believed him.

Anker led Hunter down to the shore where the
rowboat sat, half-in and half-out of the water, its pointed bow
rocking slightly with the motion of the lake. The two men reached
the boat, and Anker roughly pushed Hunter into the vessel.

"Go to the back," he said.

Hunter climbed over one bench seat and turned
around, sitting down facing the bow, and the shore. Anker glanced
at Julia and pointed his gun at her. "Remember, I've still got
this," he said.

He put the revolver back in his pocket and
then bent over to push the bow out into the water. The boat,
heavier now with Hunter in it, resisted Anker's effort. But after
two or three heaves, Anker was able to get some momentum going.
Once in motion, the boat slid into the water.

Anker hopped in as the boat began to slide.
He positioned himself on the bench seat opposite Hunter, his back
to the bow of the boat, and reached for the oars. The little boat
was bobbing in the shallow water. Julia saw that Anker would need
to swing it around so that he could row away. Moving as little as
possible, she unbuttoned her coat and waited until Anker's
attention seemed to be mostly focused on the task of lifting the
oars out of the boat and into the water. He looked awkward and
uncertain in his movements. He was a rancher, not a sailor. She
shrugged her coat off her shoulders and waited.

One oar clicked into its lock, and then the
other. Anker pulled mightily with his right arm, on the port side,
and the bow of the boat began to swing to Julia's left. She seized
the moment and ran, arching wide to her left, trying to stay out of
Anker's sight while the boat spun. In five running strides,
inefficient because of the sand, Julia hit the water, diving to the
starboard side of the small rowboat. Her dive was basically a belly
flop because the water was so shallow near the store, her intention
being to stay so close to the boat that Anker couldn't shoot
her.

The cold of the water sucked the breath out
of her lungs. She had misjudged how fast the boat was swinging
around, and it hit her as she lifted her head out of the water. She
struggled to swim in the path of the bow of the boat as it swung
around. She could see very little of what was happening above her
and her ears were full of the sound of water. The boat knocked her
sideways, pushing her into the lake bottom and rolling her over
slightly. Her dress tangled around her legs, the heavy cotton
fabric instantly waterlogged. A wave caught Julia in the face, and
she swallowed a good measure of lake water. She sputtered and
coughed, trying to roll back over onto her stomach. Her right hand
struck wood and she grabbed hold of the gunwale. The water was
deeper now, the bottom of the lake dropping away quickly.

From above her there was shouting, and she
tried to make herself as small a target as possible. The boat
drifted farther out into the lake, so when Julia tried to touch
down she could just barely feel the lake bottom. She grabbed the
gunwale with her other hand and risked pulling herself up above its
rim. Anker and Hunter, she realized, were both standing up in the
boat. Hunter's hands were still tied, and he was struggling to keep
hold of Anker's arms. Julia saw the metallic flash of the revolver
in Anker's hand. Hunter was trying to prevent Anker from shooting
one or both of them.

Julia took a deep breath and called out to
Hunter as loudly as she could, "Can you swim?"

Hunter and Anker continued to wrestle, and it
looked like Anker was gaining the upper hand. He was able to pull
one hand free and began striking Hunter on the face with it.
Because Hunter's hands were tied, he had to use them both for the
task of warding off Anker's blows.

"Can you swim?" Julia called again.

But Hunter was too busy wrestling with Anker
to either hear or answer.

Julia had no choice. She dropped down from
above the gunwale and, positioning both hands low on the boat's
side, she pushed.

The boat rocked slightly but remained
upright. The men inside, however, were jostling it and rolling it
with their physical momentum. Julia took a deep breath and waited,
her hands in position. When the boat rocked away from her she
pushed again, pressing her toes just barely into the lake bottom
and using the boat's momentum to her advantage. This time the
rowboat tipped, the small keel nearly catching Julia on the
chin.