Only 05 - Autumn Lover

the upstairs.
    “Some are coming to the front!” Case called. “Get ready! The Culpeppers are right on their tails!”
    Lefty moved to a rifle slit by a window, broke out the glass pane, levered a round into the chamber, and waited. Even though the old hand had refused to sign on for gunfighting wages, he was calm and efficient in his movements.
    “Open the kitchen door!” Case yelled.
    Abruptly the sound of horses and gunfire became louder, telling Elyssa that the kitchen door was open. She didn’t turn away from the front door even when she heard shouts and curses and Ladder S men calling out their own names as they fought their way into the kitchen.
    “Front door!” Case yelled.
    Elyssa threw it open and then ran to the nearest rifle slit, carbine in hand. She peered out and saw nothing but a turmoil of shadows lunging out of the darkness that preceded dawn.
    Bullets thudded into the thick wood of the house as Elyssa lifted her carbine to break out the glass. Beforethe steel barrel met windowpane, glass exploded. She flinched and gave a startled cry. Then she realized that the raiders had done her a favor—now she wouldn’t have to break the glass herself.
    On the other side of the door, Lefty fired several times at a muzzle flash in the cottonwoods along the stream.
    Men hurtled through the open doorway. Lefty yanked his rifle out of the gun slit and turned toward the men, listening and watching. They were calling out their own names as they lunged into the room.
    “Fox!”
    “Reed and Blackie!”
    Dimly Elyssa realized that Reed was supporting the other man. Blood gleamed like wet paint on Blackie’s pant leg above the low top of his boot.
    “Hunter set up a dispensary in the root cellar,” Elyssa said tightly. “No light will show from there. Penny! We have an injured man!”
    “I’ll take the kitchen door, ma’am,” said Fox.
    There was a pause, then two more men raced through the front doorway.
    “Sonny here,” said the first man. “Morgan is right on my ass.”
    A dark shadow leaped through the door after Sonny and dove to one side.
    “Morgan,” said the shadow. Then he raised his voice and shouted, “Close and bar the kitchen door!”
    “Yo!” Gimp answered from the back of the house.
    Elyssa held her breath, waiting, waiting.
    No other men hurtled through the open front doorway.
    “Hunter,” Elyssa cried. “ Hunter .”
    She didn’t know she had gone to the opening to call out his name until Morgan yanked her out of the doorway. Bullets whined and screamed through the dark room.
    Morgan slammed and barred the door. Bullets thudded into the triple-thick planks.
    “Ammunition!” Case yelled from upstairs.
    “Ma’am?” Sonny asked.
    “In the root cellar,” Elyssa said numbly. “There’s plenty. Hunter saw to it.”
    “Two boxes for everyone,” Morgan said.
    “Follow me,” she said.
    As Sonny followed Elyssa down an indoor stairway and into the basement, the young man’s eyes widened in appreciation of Hunter’s preparations.
    Lantern light glowed up from a corner of the large, dirt-walled room at the bottom of the stairway, illuminating the cellar. In addition to the usual sacks of onions and carrots, potatoes and apples, there were ranks of barrels, stacks of ammunition boxes, and seven cots with blankets. Other boxes and full gunnysacks of supplies were stacked neatly about, waiting to be used.
    Blackie was on one of the cots. One of his boots was off. Penny was working over his leg.
    “By God,” Sonny said, taking it all in. “Morgan wasn’t fooling, was he? Our ramrod must have been some kind of Johnny Reb soldier boy.”
    “Yes,” Elyssa said. “He was.”
    She turned away. The thought of Hunter outside in the danger an darkness was too painful for her to bear.
    “The ammunition is over there,” Elyssa said tautly. “As soon as you get some to Case, distribute boxes to the other men.”
    “Yes, ma’am,” Sonny said.
    While he grabbed cartridge boxes, Elyssa asked the question that had been gnawing at her.
    “Hunter? Did you see him?”
    “No, ma’am. He was back up on the ridge, covering our retreat. That man can shoot like hell on fire . Withouthim, we wouldn’t have made it through Wind Gap without being cut to doll rags.”
    Sonny straightened and trotted past Elyssa on his way to the stairs.
    “Excuse me, ma’am. They’ll be needing these cartridges.”
    Sonny ran up the stairway.
    “How is he?” Elyssa asked, turning to