Chapter 12

Though none of the other rescued whores had had any personal dealings with Tom Tully, their experiences had been similar, so they stayed around the Diamond H Ranch to watch Tully git his punishment. Undoubtedly, they would have been happier ifen the object of the punishment had been their own kidnapper, but Tully was an acceptable stand-in.

I won't go inta details, but it took Tully three days ta die. When his time was over, Susan Hobart pronounced herself cured of the hate that she carried against men, an' the other women felt pretty much the same way. In fact, more than one of the women had been so turned on by the exhibition that they had sought out partners for a little sexual relief from the available cowboys.

The women divided the money taken from the safe in the whore house, an' most left ta return to their original homes. Two had been taken from such miserable surroundings that they asked to stay with Susan Hobart at the Diamond H until they could come up with somethin' better ta do with themselves.

Meanwhile, Sam an' I had returned ta Austin an' was enjoyin' the pleasures of livin' at home. Alice an' Annie was glad ta see us, an' we settled in as comfortable as could be. Then it happened!

I had knowed fer a long time that Annie was sweet on me, but I'd figured that would pass as she got older an' met some boys more her own age. Therefore, it was quite a shock ta me when she announced ta me one day, "Jack, I have now started my monthly bleedin', soz I'm a woman, at last. I wants ya ta know that I'm ready ta call on ya ta make me yer wife. I been puttin' it off 'til I was ready ta be a complete woman fer ya, an' now the time has come."

"Annie, ya done caught me flat flooted! I knew that ya was kinda sweet on me 'cause I rescued ya from them rapists, but I never expected it ta go no farther. Ya're a very desirable woman, an' any man would be lucky ta git ya fer hisself, but I'm a one-woman man! I done already promised myself ta Alice, an' I just can't see doin' her wrong by abandonin' her. It just wouldn't be right!"

Annie started ta cry. "Ya just don't care nothin' fer me, an' here I thought that ya was just waitin' fer me ta grow up. Oh, what will I do?"

"Annie, now stop cryin' an' think about thin's fer a minute. Ya know I tries ta be an honorable man, don't ya?" She nodded a yes. "Ya know that I've been in love with Alice fer a long time, don't ya?" Another affirmative nod. "Ya know it would hurt Alice ifen I suddenly just up an' left her, don't ya?" Another nod. "Ya don't want Alice ta be hurt, does ya?"

That brought another gush of tears. "I don't want ta do nothin' ta hurt Alice. I loves her better than I ever did my own mother!"

"Exactly! Now, ya see why I can't leave Alice, even fer somebody as desirable as ya, Annie. Why don't ya look ta somebody more near yer own age? Why not somebody like Sam? I know he cares fer ya, an' he could easily fall in love with ya ifen ya just gave him the chance."

"Oh, Jack, I just don't know what ta do. Does ya really think that Sam could care fer me?" I nodded a yes. "How 'bout his equipment? Is he as big as Alice says ya are?"

"Well, I ain't sure that I should say nothin' on that subject. However, I'm dead sure that Sam would be happy ta show ya what he has ifen ya'd just ask him." I figured that I was bein' smart with that remark, since I didn't figure that Annie would ever say nothin' along those lines ta Sam. But, I figured that it would buy me some time ta work on my defenses an', maybe, git some help from Alice.

However, the next day, I saw Annie an' Sam walkin' around hand in hand, an' Sam was broadcastin' his delight ta be with Annie. I guess I underestimated just how ready Annie was ta experience the pleasures of bein' an adult. Oh, well, Alice an' I was happy fer both of them, an' it sure took the pressure off of me!

Life rocked along nice an' easy after that fer about two weeks, but then we got a telegram from a banker in Sweetwater Junction about investigatin' a bank robbery. That was only about 45 miles away, soz it wasn't no problem fer Sam an' me ta ride over ta see what we could do ta help. The banker had offered ta pay us $1,000 ifen we could solve the crime, an' that was too great an incentive ta ignore. It was a two-day ride ta Sweetwater Junction what we could make with no problem ifen we pushed only a little bit.

By now, Annie an' Sam was so smitten with each other that they never wanted ta be separated. I had visions of them goin ta the privy together! Sam an' Annie was now occupyin' the same bedroom, soz they had the same kind of common-law marriage that Alice an' I was enjoyin'. Anyway, they hated ta be separated fer any reason, but Sam didn't want Annie exposed ta danger, so he convinced her ta wait at home fer his return. As a compromise, an' as a kind of lover's game, they tried ta see how far their mental bond could be stretched afore they lost contact.

We spent the night in a hotel in Comanche Springs, an' let me tell ya, it ain't no fun spendin' the night with lovesick kid! The whole night, Sam an' Annie maintained contact, an' Sam spent a lot of time bouncin' around in that bed. I deliberately stayed out of his mind, but I do admit ta bein' curious what them two was thinkin' about ta cause such activity.

The next mornin', Sam was so sleepy that I had ta kick him out of bed so that we could continue on ta Sweetwater Junction. We was about five miles out of town when the link between Sam an' Annie was broken. Sam was strainin' like mad ta reestablish contact when he suddenly reacted to a new sensation.

"Jack, scan with your mind ta see ifen ya read what I do."

I had been keepin' my own scannin' sort of locked down fer a couple of reasons. One of them reasons was that some of the thin's that Annie or Sam would say was kinda private, an' downright embarrassin' ta me. As a result, I was spendin' all of my time keepin' a mental watch on what was nearby so we wouldn't be ambushed by road agents.

At Sam's request, I opened my scan to cover a wider area, an' I was startled ta "hear" a voice callin', "Is that somebody out there what's like me? Please answer me ifen ya can."

"What the hell!" was all I could say for a moment. Then I pushed my contactin' sense out as far as possible, an' I made contact! There was another mind out there like mine an' Sam's. The thoughts were too weak fer me ta make much sense of what I was hearin', but I was certain that it was a woman. I knew, 'cause, for one thin', the mental contact was blurred by what I could of sworn ta as beein' tears.

After a few minutes, the person at the other end of our link said, "I kin tell that there is two of ya. Oh, dear Lord, I have been alone for so long! Please tell me what y'all are like an' where y'all are."

We could tell that it made a difference ta the woman at the other end of the link, so Sam an' I both talked ta her, mind-ta-mind. We found out that she was 27 years old an' confined ta a wheel chair. She wasn't married, both because of her injury, an' because all of the folks around her neighborhood feared her as a witch.

She had been thrown from a buckboard when it turned over nearly 21 years ago, an' the accident had nearly killed her. Her head an' back had been injured an' she had nearly died, but she had survived somehow. I suspected that she had cured herself enough ta stay alive, but the process had stopped at that point. Inez Cuthbert had been miserable ever since then. She was now living with her sister an' brother-in-law, but he hated an' feared her. Her brother-in-law was too afeared of her ta throw her out of the house, but she could read in his thoughts that he wanted ta.