The Man and The Outlaw

Chapter Eighteen

They rode for half an hour and, by the time they began to slow, the sun was up completely, and Clara was asleep with her head against Walker's back.
"Clara? Are you alright?" Walker asked softly, patting her arm to rouse her.
Clara lifted her head, feeling her cheeks grow hot as she smoothed out the back of his shirt where she'd been leaning against him. They'd slowed in a thick growth of trees, far enough off the Montgomery Trail that it was unlikely they would meet any other travelers. As they approached a clearing, Clara understood why.
Her horse, her saddle, and all her gear sat neatly to one side of the clearing. Her heart leapt at the sight of it all, everything her father had helped her to collect still there for her to cherish.
"It was you," she breathed. Walker smirked.
"Of course, it was me. Think I'd let them take off with you and just leave your stuff behind for someone else to steal?"
He dismounted and then held his hand up to help her down too. For a moment after her feet were firmly on the ground, they just stood there, hands still clasped together. Then, as if they both realized it at the same time, they dropped their grips hastily and avoided one another's eyes. An awkward quiet filled the air and Clara reached for the first thing she could think of to break it.
"How'd you find me?" she asked him. He shrugged.
"I woke up that night and got...well, I needed some fresh air. I didn't want to wake you, so I left the barn and walked a little ways off. When I'd turned to come back, there was a truck there and they were dragging you out of the barn at gunpoint. I took off running but by the time I got back, you were long gone. I knew I could follow the tire tracks, ain't much of those around these days, and so I loaded your stuff up on your horse and brought it here. I didn't want anybody to come by and steal it before I could get you back and we could get on with our outlaw chasing."
"You're still coming with me?" Clara didn't believe it. She'd been hateful to him; she'd threatened him with her gun. She didn't deserve his commitment.
Walker smiled at her. "Sure I am. We've got to see this thing through, don't we?"
Clara stared at him. This man, who had given so much to her, had shown such loyalty, had saved her life and those of her friends. She didn't understand why he was doing all of it. He had no skin in the game to speak of. He was like no man she'd known before, except perhaps for her father. He had been a good man too, loyal, dedicated. Of course, Walker was different to her in many ways than a father. There was something young between them, something light and beautiful, something deeper even than the bond between a father and a daughter. Clara would not allow herself to name it for she feared, in doing so, that it would cease to exist or that it would prove to never have existed in the first place. No, rather than risk it, she'd treat it like a skittish animal that she didn't want to scare off. She'd try to care for it, tend to it, and see what happened.
"I can't believe you came back for me. I thought...well, I thought you'd left," she admitted.
"What? For good?" Walker's eyebrows rose in surprise, and he shook his head at her.
Clara walked over to the clearing and began situating her things, saddling up her horse. They'd need to be off soon. When Todd arrived at the trailer home, Pa would undoubtedly tell him everything he knew, and it wouldn't be hard for him to guess what direction they were moving in if Todd considered where he'd first spotted them and where they'd been intercepted. There wasn't much else to go towards but Riverport at this point on The Trail.
"I'm sorry for what I said in the barn, about not needing you...I...It turns out I've needed you a lot on this trip," she said, offering him a sheepish smile before turning her back on him again.
"Feels good to be needed," he confessed from over her shoulder. He came up beside her and helped her get her stuff together, threw her saddle on her horse for her. "You take care of yourself pretty well though from what I can see."
"Yeah, right. Well enough that I can get kidnapped and held hostage by the Joneses," she scoffed. Walker chuckled.
"What are you going to do with those?" he asked, gesturing to the Silvertongue trophies that Pa had kept, and Clara had reclaimed. She had set them down beside her stuff. Now, she picked them up and brought them over to the middle of the clearing.
She set them gently in a pile, treating them with as much respect as you would flowers on a gravesite. She pulled a lighter from her pocket.
"I don't know what happened to the people that these belonged to. They might be dead, they might be horribly maimed, maybe they got away. Whatever happened, I'll remember them and, maybe, if some part of them is still connected to these, well, maybe I'll free them at last."
Walker watched from a distance as she dropped the lighter into the pile of cloth. Immediately, it caught fire and burned brightly. Clara stood before it, her eyes watching as each piece caught and burned, a feeling of relief and sorrow washing over her. She uttered a quiet prayer for the souls of each individual that the cloths represented and then she turned her back on the weakening flames.
"Todd's on our tail, I suggest we get on out of here in a hurry," she told Walker.
"To Riverport?" he asked, walking back over to his horse and mounting up as she did the same on her own.
"To Riverport and to Valdez," she replied with a nod.
***
As they rode, Clara thought about what Walker had told her of what he'd done the night she was abducted. He'd said he'd needed fresh air, but she knew he'd been about to say that he'd gotten sick again. She imagined him coughing and hacking like he'd done back in Kessinger, eventually working himself up so much that he was vomiting. He was looking a little paler each time she glanced at him, though she couldn't be sure that it wasn't her imagination playing tricks on her. His voice had also taken on a raspy, almost hoarse quality and there were bags under his eyes. Clara wasn't too surprised at this last thing. Staying up all night to cough and puke would give anybody baggy eyes. Again, she wondered how sick he really was and if he needed to be checked out by a doctor. She'd heard of a good one in Riverport and, if he hadn't improved much by the time they arrived, she'd make him go, even if she had to drag him there or force him into the place by gunpoint.
They rode hard throughout the rest of the day. Clara could feel Todd behind them like an itch at the base of her neck and it drove her to push herself, Walker, and their horses. Three times, as the sky darkened and stars began to appear, Walker tried to suggest they break for the night, but each time Clara glanced over her shoulder and promised they'd stop after a few more miles.
When it got almost too dark to see by, Walker cut in front of Clara, stopped his horse and turned to face her. He was sweating beneath his hat and his blue eyes sagged at the corners.
"If we don't stop now, these horses are going to give out beneath us," he said. "They need a break, Clara, and frankly, so do I. So do you. It's getting too dark to ride safely anyway."
Again, Clara looked over her shoulder though there was nothing but darkness closing in on them. She could feel the panic inside of her that had been sitting like a knot in her stomach since she'd learned of Todd's enclosing presence. The thought of him wouldn't leave her alone. She tried to hide her sense of urgency with a casual smile. Walker saw right through it.
He got off his horse and looked up at her still atop hers. Then, he held out his hand again and she allowed him to help her down once more. Just like before, their hands remained together, fingers intertwined as they stood there facing one another. His hand was warm and just holding it brought a little bit of peace to her mind.
"I know that you're scared," he told her. "All thing's being honest, I'm scared for you. But we're going to make it to Riverport. Todd won't catch us. We'll camp deep in the forest tonight, tie the horses up so they won't wander. We won't even light a fire and if Todd does happen by, though I'm telling you, he won't, he'll never know he missed us. We'll be safe, Clara."
The crazy thing was, she believed him. A shine in his gaze showed every ounce of confidence he had that what he spoke about was God's honest truth. The blue within them looked almost green tonight, probably from the darkness around them, but she found the same comfort in them anyway.
"Okay," she finally agreed, "but only for a few hours."
"You just say when," he replied easily, and they left Montgomery behind to find a decent camping spot.