Only 05 - Autumn Lover

running to his post.
    “Go downstairs,” Hunter said to Elyssa.
    “I’m more use up here.”
    Hunter hesitated. He wanted Elyssa down in the cellar, where it was safer. But he needed more riflemen, especially now.
    If the house caught fire, everyone in it would die.
    “Morgan,” Hunter said.
    “Yo.”
    “Take Case’s post upstairs. Elyssa will take yours.”
    Morgan grabbed his rifle and extra ammunition, tipped his hat to Elyssa, and went past her to the stairway.
    Without a word to Hunter, Elyssa went to Morgan’s post and looked out.
    The mountains loomed over everything, blacker than night itself. Elyssa was surprised to see that it was still dark. Time had lost all meaning down in the cellar, where night and day were the same.
    Overhead came the sound of rifle fire as Case spotted a torch. Elyssa saw it too. The raider must have been coming at a gallop toward the ranch house. The torch bobbed and jerked at each lunging stride.
    Abruptly the torch flipped end over end, fell to the ground, and lay there burning sullenly.
    Rifle fire came from all sides now as other men rushed toward the house with torches. Elyssa fired at the raider who was nearest. So did the men on either side of her. She didn’t know who hit the raider. She only knew that the torch came no closer.
    It was the first of many attacks. Sometimes the raiderswere merely feinting to draw fire or to cover a more earnest attempt from another quarter. Some of the raiders came at a gallop. Some came at a trot.
    The smartest crawled forward on their bellies with unlighted torches. Only after they were next to the house did they set the torches ablaze. That was when the cry for buckets would go out inside the house.
    Methodically Elyssa fired, reloaded, fired, and thought of nothing else. When she ran out of ammunition, she called for more like the other men.
    It was Penny who brought the ammunition. Every other able-bodied person was either hauling water or firing at the raiders.
    By the time dawn came, Elyssa was so tired she was leaning against the shutter just to stay upright. Her arm muscles were locked and trembling from the strain of keeping the carbine leveled and ready to shoot at any instant.
    Tongues of fire licked downwind from the ranch. The house itself was scorched in places, but intact. The same couldn’t be said of the grasslands and some of the piñon uplands. They were burned blacker than night. The rising wind stirred ashes and lifted smoke to the sky.
    In the end, it was the wind that had saved the Ladder S from the raiders. At dawn the wind had shifted, driving the fire from fallen torches back at the raiders.
    Numbly Elyssa wondered who the wind would favor tomorrow night.
    “ Elyssa .”
    She turned her head toward the voice. As she did, she realized that it wasn’t the first time her name had been called. It was merely the first time she had noticed.
    Hunter’s breath came in hard when Elyssa turned toward him. Her eyes had the blank stare of exhaustion that he had seen before, when men were pushed toohard, too long. He wondered when she had last eaten. Or slept.
    Belatedly Hunter realized that he had kept track of the men under his command, but hadn’t thought to do the same with Elyssa. He hadn’t thought it would be necessary, because she wasn’t standing watches.
    So, like Hunter, Elyssa had ended up sleeping and eating less than the men around her.
    Gently he lifted the carbine from her hands.
    “It’s over for now,” Hunter said gently. “Go get something to eat.”
    “The men…cellar.”
    “Gimp is seeing to them.”
    “Penny?” Elyssa whispered.
    “She’s asleep. You should be, too.”
    Elyssa looked at Hunter, but her eyes didn’t focus. She closed them, leaned her forehead against the shutter, and wondered how she would have the strength to walk down the stairs.
    Same way the men do , Elyssa told herself wearily, One step at a time.
    She pushed away from the shutter and started taking one step at a time. But it was toward the cellar she walked, not toward her bedroom.
    Hunter reached out to stop Elyssa. At the last minute he withdrew his hand. The wounded men needed tending after the long night. Someone had to do it. Elyssa had the skill.
    Cursing silently, Hunter headed for the upstairs.
    Case looked up as his brother walked quietly into the nursery. The men no longer noticed the stark contrast made by mounds of spent rifle shells stacked in a cradle and butterflies dancing over the