The Fire Within a Ninjago Cowboy

Chapter 27 - Wednesday Night

Chapter 27 - Wednesday Night

Sam's eyes widened as she recalled the instances on Monday, in the jail cell and in the tiny saloon room, in which Bansha's daughter Emma had been mentioned.

"We're going to eat some breakfast for supper. Come into the dining room before the food get cold." Morro said.

As Morro and Sam ate a supper of bacon and eggs, Morro told her about the girl in the photograph.

"I was nineteen years old when I came to Ninjago Town, eager to make my fortune. But a young man also thinks of other things besides money."

"One Sunday afternoon there was a town picnic. At first it seemed unlikely that my attending the picnic would result in meeting a special young lady. But then Bansha and Isaiah and their children arrived."

Morro ate a forkful of eggs. "Emma was fifteen years old, older than her two brothers. She was the prettiest thing I'd ever laid eyes on, with her golden hair and deep blue eyes. I immediately asked her to dance to a song the band was playing. Bansha and Isaiah were reluctant to approve at first, since they thought that their daughter was still a little too young to be courted, but they soon relented when she begged."

"That dance was the first of many we would dance that afternoon. She liked me, too, for she turned down other young men who asked her."

"There was a photographer at the picnic. I paid him to take a photograph of her. That is what you saw on the fireplace mantel."

After eating a piece of bacon, Morro continued. "When the picnic was over, I wanted to kiss Emma goodbye. Isaiah and Bansha thought it was a little too soon for that, but they were amenable to me seeing her again. I was so happy about that, and I couldn't get her out of my mind for the whole next week after that."

"Then on the next Saturday, Isaiah and Bansha stopped into my saloon when they came into town for supplies. They invited me to come out to their farm for supper that evening. Though Saturday nights were usually my busiest nights at the saloon, I thought the barkeeper could handle things while I went over there."

"But as fate would have it, that was the day the snakes invaded."

"Emma, the love of my life, had disappeared."

Morro took the last bite of eggs. "In my shock at her disappearance at the hands of the snakes, I had this log house built in the mountains. I thought that somehow Emma, her brothers, and her father would turn up again, and then I would move the whole family up here and we would never need to worry about snakes bothering us in the cool mountain climate."

"Obviously I never saw Emma again."

"After the invasion, Bansha was the only link I had left to Emma. Since Bansha's livelihood was destroyed, I decided to take care of her by offering her a job of being my assistant."

Morro swallowed the last of his bacon. "Imagine my shock when you showed up last week, practically looking like a duplicate of Emma. I had insane thoughts, like maybe the snakes had kept Emma frozen in a time machine and wiped her old memories before releasing her. Insane thoughts."

Could he be insane? Sam wondered.

"Anyway, I was curious about where you came from," Morro continued, "so that's why I had a background check done on you, and then I learned you were rich."

Morro looked down at his plate. "At first I just wanted your money. Acquiring your assets doubled my wealth."

Then he leaned close to Sam's face and looked at her with a steely gaze. She tried not to flinch.

"But now, in addition to your money, I want you," he said in a low voice. "I want you to be my Emma."

He is insane! Sam concluded.

Sam's hand had been resting on the table. Morro placed his large hand over her small one, covering it completely.

Sam glanced out the window at the dark sky. What she had feared was going to happen after sunset tonight was now starting to come true.

She swallowed before speaking to him for the first time since they had arrived at the log house. "What if I don't want to be your Emma?" She intended for her tone to sound defiant, but instead it came out quavering.

"Nonsense. Of course you do," he grinned fiendishly. "You're no doubt exhausted from the journey. Why don't we go into the parlor and relax a while, shall we?"

With a tight grip on her upper arm, Morro firmly lifted Sam out of her dining chair and guided her back to the parlor.

"Have a seat," he said, indicating one end of the parlor sofa. She sat down slowly as he proceeded to light the candles on each end of the parlor sofa and on the buffet table.

While standing at the buffet table, he asked, "Would you like a refill of your wine glass?"

"I'll have some whiskey now," she answered, surprising even herself. She despised the taste of spirits, realizing the irony of working in a saloon where she was around them all the time. But right now she needed an extra strong drink.

Smirking, Morro poured her a glass and poured another one for himself. After handing her glass to her, he set about lighting a fire in the fireplace.

Sam grimaced as she took a gulp of the drink in her hand. Her eyes watered as she endured the burning sensation of the whiskey heading down to her stomach.

The log in the fireplace soon cast a robust glow upon the parlor as it began to burn. Now that the task was completed, Morro turned his focus to Sam. In the firelight, his eyes looked especially diabolical to her. He picked up his whiskey glass and sat down on the parlor sofa right next to her, putting his arm around her shoulder.

"Now isn't this nice?" he asked.

She didn't answer. She gulped down some more whiskey.

Morro drained his glass within a minute and set it down on the end table just beyond Sam. He took Sam's glass from her, also draining the rest of it quickly, and set it down on the end table with a loud clink. Then he moved in on her.

Sam gasped as he attacked her neck with rough kisses. She was unable to push him away, for he had one of her arms pinned between his body and the back of the sofa, and the other arm was pinned by his tight grip on it.

Her eyes darted around the room, frantically searching for any object, any idea - anything - she could use to stop him. Before he went further.

Inspiration struck her.

"I think that cut I put on your forehead with the stall stool might be bleeding," she whispered to him. "Can I take a look at it for a second?"

He unburied his face from her neck and allowed her a look.

She squinted. "It's a little too dark. Let me put some more light on it."

He sat up so that she could reach for the candle on the end table. She held it up to his face...

...and smashed the candle in his left eye.

Morro made a horrible sound of pain as Sam hopped off the sofa and bolted for the front door.