Chapter 36: Dawn Again

I had one surprise on that miserable, wet trip north to fight again and that was the reappearance of Dawn, the white-skinned slave who I had bought and freed down near Ninety-Six. She showed up somewhere out in western Virginia one afternoon and reined in beside me while the men behind loudly cleared their throats in appreciation of her beauty. She was still wearing the dress I had bought her and had the shotgun strapped behind her saddle. A well-soaked blanket covered her shoulders, but her long black hair was rain damp and hung loose almost to the horse's back and her bare legs gripped the animal's side.

"What're you doin' here?" I asked after I recovered from my surprise.

"Lookin' f'you," she said. "I done killed a man. They's after me. I heard 'bout the army goin' this'a way."

We rode off the trail and got under some trees that gave reasonable shelter. She looked cold and frightened.

"Who'd you kill?" I asked.

"Soldier, officer, Redcoat," she said. "He jumped me in a stable out in the hills, an', well, I got away and shot him. I was workin' there. Made a terrible mess. Damn near blew his head off."

"That's one we won't have to kill then. Who's after you?"

"He had four men with him. I been riding hard, but they's back there, jus' over that rise. I ain't slept since yesterday, night afore last."

"You're safe now," I told her, looking at her frightened face and reminding myself how young she was.

"No I ain't. They'll get me."

By then we were alone, the rear guard has passed on by so I figured the captain would not mind some freelancing on my part.

"All right," I said, noticing that the rain had finally stopped or at least paused. "You ride on back toward the hill, and I'll shadow you. You don't mind being bait in a trap, do you?"

She smiled, shook off her blanket, leaned out of her saddle and kissed me hard and well while I caressed her back and butt before she lowered herself back to the saddle.

She trotted on up the trail on her little mare, while I carefully reloaded her shotgun, checked that my musket, rifle and pistol were all primed and followed along in the woods, out of sight. Fifteen or twenty minutes later, there they were, all four of them. They grabbed the girl's reins, called her all sort of names and dragged her into the woods, telling her clearly what they planned to do to her. They had a lot of brave ambitions, mostly carnal. She cried out pitifully, and I dismounted and slung my rifle and musket and went after them.

They had found a small clearing, started making a fire, forced the girl to doff her dress and one was getting ready to mount her, when I stepped out of the shadows with the shotgun. I watched the soldier's bravery fall quickly while Dawn smiled and came to claim her weapon and pick up her dress.

"Take off your coats and boots," I told the angry group.

I saw them grumbling and nudging each other as they unbuttoned, and when one turned quickly with a pistol in his hand, I shot him right between eyes and heard the shotgun explode beside me. When the smoke cleared, two men lay screaming and kicking on the ground beside the body of the one I had shot, and one boy, barefoot with his jacket half off, stood looking at them, obviously frightened.

"Don't," he said, looking at me. "Please."

"It jus' wen' off," Dawn said, staring at what she had done. One man's arm was a ragged mess and the other had taken much of the blast in his chest and throat. He stopped kicking while we watched and I decided.

"Go on," I said to the remaining Redcoat. "I don't want a prisoner. Start walking south."

"What about him?" he said, pointing at the man holding his bleeding arm and sobbing. Blood poured from his wounds.

"He's dead," I said, and I tore the wounded man's throat out with my bayonet and then poked the survivor with the dripping blade.

"Yes, all right," he said, and he walked out into the darkness.

I slid my rifle from my shoulder and took aim at his back when he was about a hundred yards down the trail. I had changed my mind about having one of them behind us, knowing our trail.

"Don't," said the girl, "Let him go."

I took my weapon off cock, quickly searched the dead men's pockets and took their slim purses, and then we trotted for a while in silence to catch up with the sodden army.

That night we rode on, not camping, and Dawn slept in her saddle with my hand on her thigh to steady her when she started to slip. About dawn, we reached a swollen stream too deep to ford and made camp. I gave the girl my driest blanket, and she fell asleep before she was even prone. I slept beside her until it started to rain again.

We rode upstream and found a ferry with an inn on the far shore. The ferryman took one of the purses I had liberated from the Redcoats, and Captain Foster's whole company took over his inn until the next morning. We ate and drank up two more purses and sang and dried out before the huge fireplace. Dawn flirted and enjoyed being the center of a dozen's men's attentions, but when the sun set, I dragged her away and hurried upstairs to the room I had requisitioned as the price of paying for the ferry and the beer. I was very generous with dead men's money when a woman was involved. Captain Foster had halfheartedly tried to pull rank and take the girl to his bed, but I persuaded him not to try it. We parted showing teeth at each other.