Someone’s Home
Chapter 12 of The Ballad of Abigail Lambert
Abigail lay in Esperanza’s bed, with her dime novel in hand. She’d been making the attempt, albeit unsuccessfully, of teaching herself how to read in Esperanza’s absence. She wasn’t going to be made the fool by some kid, even if it meant staring at that book until she could sing the words off the page. Her strained attempts at understanding the markings on the page mostly amounted to stretching out syllables that barely resembled the words written on the page, but the good news was she was beginning to comprehend.
One word though, gave her tremendous trouble: artifact. Something about the combination of letters in three short syllables put her through an ordeal. Granted, she didn’t even know how to spell syllable, let alone know that was the word for how words were divided. Still, she laid in that bed there for a solid twenty minutes and wrestled with the book over how to say it. She slammed her fist on the wall beside her, saying to hell with it and electing to come back to the word later.
She would’ve continued to struggle through the page had her attention not been captured by the yells of a troubled man as he boomed outside. There was a scratch at the door, and she went to open it. There at her feet was Jules. The dog whimpered at the sight of her. It had been a long while since Abigail had seen Esperanza, not since this morning. She felt compelled to correct that, and exited the house to look for her. She crossed Suzanne on her way out, who lay back on the couch in the living room.
“Have you seen Esperanza?” Abigail asked her.
Suzanne shook her head.
Abigail continued out of the house and spotted Benjamin as he spoke with to Jebidiah, sporting a duster. He’d just saddled one of the horses, about ready to ride out.
“I ain’t waitin’ a damn second longer,” Jebidiah told him.
“I’m not asking you to,” Benjamin said. “I’m just saying you might wanna ride out with a posse’s all.”
“They’re just gonna slow me down,” Jebidiah said.
“I thought the same thing before I hired you for the cattle drive, lest you forget,” Benjamin clarified.
It was a hard hit to Benjamin’s pride to accept being led by anyone other than himself when he drove his family, cattle and everything else they had to their name further West across Texas. He’d been adamant to Suzanne that his time in the Texas Rangers meant he was more than equipped to protect them, but she insisted on hiring some extra help on the off chance something untoward should occur, at least for the journey. He ended up finding Jebidiah, then a Buffalo Soldier of the 10th Cavalry regiment. Having him along saved their skin from skirmishes with the Natives on more than one occasion, and changed Benjamin’s tune. Enough to offer Jebidiah work on the ranch once it was settled, if he ever wanted.
“What’s going on?” Abigail asked them.
“Sable’s been gone far too long,” Benjamin told her.
“When’s the last you saw her?” she asked.
“This morning—loading up the cart with Esperanza,” he said.
And suddenly Abigail was overcome with the notion of knowing both exactly where Esperanza would be found, but no idea where that would be.
“You riding out now?” She asked Jebidiah.
He nodded.
She walked over to another horse and started saddling up.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Benjamin asked her.
“The girl’s missing, too,” she said.
“You’re still recovering.”
The swiftness with which she mounted her horse certainly betrayed that fact.
“You coming or are you just gonna keep bitchin’?” She asked him.
Jebidiah laughed as he mounted his own horse.
“I’ll get my rifle,” Benjamin grumbled.
Once ready, the three of them quickly rode out in search of the girls. It was some time before they’d come upon the wreck of the abandoned cart, supplies scattered across the ground and little critters scurrying away with scraps of food as they approached on horseback.
“What in God’s name happened here?” Benjamin asked aloud.
Jebidiah got down from his horse and looked to the ground.
“I’m seeing four sets of tracks,” he said. “Looks like there was a struggle.” He continued to follow the story the dirt was telling him. He followed the track marks up to what appeared to be the prints of horseshoes in the dirt, leading deeper into the woods. “Two horses, headed in this direction.”
Abigail didn’t waste a second in riding out with that heading. Jebidiah quickly mounted up and followed, Benjamin close behind. They trekked forward for a good while before they came upon a secluded cabin. Two horses were hitched out front as smoke poured out of the chimney.
“Someone’s home,” Abigail said as she dismounted.
She landed with both feet on the ground, but such a sudden dump of weight upon her feet sent waves of pain up from her toes to her still busted ribs. She bit her lip, her determination was just that she stood and pushed forward regardless. She drew her pistol as Benjamin and Jebidiah got off their horses and readied their weapons. Jebidiah approached the door of the cabin.
“Wait a second!” Benjamin warned. “We don’t know who’s in there.”
Sable could be, and that was the only thing that mattered to Jebidiah. He kicked the door down with as much force as he could muster, and it flew backward off its hinges. He scanned the area, but the cabin was empty. There was no fire drawn either, so where could the smoke be coming from?
“Boys!” Abigail shouted.
She’d found a hatch door on the side of the cabin with a faint orange glow flickering down below it. Benjamin and Jebidiah approached her with their guns in hand. They all looked at each other, nodded, and swung open the doors. Jebidiah walked down the stairs first. Abigail tried to follow next, but Benjamin stepped in before her, leaving her to trail in last. It wasn’t a terribly deep drop to the basement floor, but every step that brought them a clearer look at the horror before them felt slower than the last.
One of the men had Sable keeled over a crate, her hands and legs tied to nearby posts. His pants were around his ankles and he thrust into her from behind as she cried. The other man stood just a few feet behind his buddy and watched. His focus was so intently upon the violation in front of him, he didn’t hear the three of them enter. Jebidiah smacked the voyeur in the back of the head with his rifle. He dropped instantly, the thud catching the attention of his friend. The rapist turned around, and raised his hands at the sight of a gun in his face.
“Step away from her,” Jebidiah commanded.
The man did just that, pants still around his ankles as he waddled away. Jebidiah crossed over to cut Sable loose from her restraints. The rapist eyed a shotgun leaned up against the wall nearby, but Benjamin cocked his rifle.
“Don’t even think about it,” he said.
Sable limped off the crate and over to the wall. She limped past Benjamin, toward the shotgun. Abigail looked in the corner of the basement behind them, and tied to a post she found Esperazna seated on the ground. She rushed over to her and cut her loose.
“We’re getting out of here,” Abigail told her.
“And Sable?” Esperanza asked.
Sable cocked the shotgun.
“Let’s give her a minute,” Abigail said as she ushered Esperanza out of the basement. They climbed up the stairs and back outside. Abigail spied the bruise on her cheek and the cut on her lip. “What did they do to you?” she asked.
“One of them hit me with their gun, but that’s all,” she said.
The boom of a shotgun blast echoed out from within the basement, followed by another. It wasn’t but a moment later when Sable emerged from the basement, her husband’s duster now wrapped around the tattered shreds of the clothes she’d left the ranch in. No words were spoken as they all mounted the horses and rode back to the ranch.
They found their way back onto the main road which took them through Stillwater once again. They continued forward steadfast, but failed to notice one of Colin’s goons smoking a cigarette on the porch of the local inn. They’d managed to track Abigail and Esperanza this far, but had reached a dead end in Stillwater, staying for the night to go over what more could be done. He tossed the cigarette and ran inside.
Suzanne awaited their return on a chair on the porch. Jules sat beside her. The dog barked and when Suzanne saw them all ride up on horseback, she drew a sigh of relief.
“Can you get the boys together?” Sable asked her husband.
“Right now?”
“I wanna dance,” she said.
“Anything for you, darling.” He gave her a kiss. After, he turned. “Larry! Roscoe! Get the goods!” He shouted as he approached the barn.
“Dance?” Esperanza asked. Had she heard her correctly? “Are you sure you’re alright for that?”
“We can’t let ‘em take our joy for life from us. What else we got left if we do?” She told her.
Abigail too found it hard to understand how Sable managed to keep herself so collected in this moment. Had it been Abigail, she might very well be punching holes in walls if she wasn’t busy trying to punch one in her own head for letting such a thing happen. Perhaps it had been the years of hardship that molded Sable’s resolve into what it resembled before them. Abigail had a newfound respect for her, to say the least.
Everyone from around the ranch gathered inside the barn that night to celebrate the girls’ return. Jeb and the boys played their instruments, Benjamin eventually joining in with his guitar as well. They laughed and danced and, after much goading on—they even managed to get Abigail up on the stage to sing along with them. She smiled both on the stage and off, for so long in fact, the pain in her cheeks distracted her from the rest of it in her body. If only for a moment, it seemed like everything was in its right place.
Abigail glided out of the barn and into the night air, a brief respite from all the excitement that brewed within. She approached a tree, and spotted a chrysalis that dangled from one of the branches.
“You’re losing momentum,” she heard a familiar voice say behind her.
She turned to see the Stranger she’d met at the train station. His presence here was familiar, but not the least bit surprising.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She asked.
“You made a promise to that girl.”
“Tennessee ain’t going nowhere.”
“And neither are you.”
“What’s your hurry?”
“You wanted to die, didn’t you?”
“We’ll go when we’re good and ready.”
“You’re a runner, Abigail. Always have been. Always will be.”
“What do you know about me?”
“Enough.”
“Abigail!” Esperanza called out to her.
She turned to face the barn and saw Esperanza approach her.
“There you are,” Esperanza said. “Ben was asking where you’d gone.”
“I just needed a minute.”
“Good?” she asked.
Abigail looked over her shoulder, but the Stranger had disappeared with the breeze. They retreated back into the barn and enjoyed themselves as the night continued on. After everyone had retired from the barn for the night, Abigail carted Esperanza over to her room. Jules hopped up onto the bed and curled up at the foot of it, Esperanza under the sheets. Abigail crossed over to the door.
“Sleep tight,” she told her.
“Abigail?”
She turned back to her.
“I’m sorry for running off,” she said.
“You understand I’m just trying to keep you safe, right?”
Esperanza nodded.
Abigail took a seat at the foot of the bed.
“If we get separated again,” she said, “I’ll do everything in my power to find you. But you can’t stay put and pray for someone to save you. If you’ve gotta be the one that gets you the rest of the way home, you’ve gotta be strong enough to do that.”
“I know,” Esperanza said.
“Good night,” Abigail told her.
“Good night.”
Abigail exited the room and closed the door behind her. She walked over to her room and found herself quickly carried off to sleep. All was quiet on the ranch, at least—until Jules started to growl. As her growls grew meaner, she belted out a bark and Esperanza found herself rudely awakened.
“What is it, girl?” She asked, and the dog barked again.
She had her paws up on the window, stari ng out it as she continued to bark. Esperanza got up to see what had the dog so worked up only to find the barn they’d spent the night celebrating in was currently going up in flames.
Click here to continue to Chapter 13.
You can buy a print copy of this novel by clicking here. The audiobook is also available wherever you get your audiobooks.