Only 05 - Autumn Lover

walls.
    “Let me start going out at night,” Case said without preamble. “I can guarantee there will be less raiders before dawn.”
    “Not yet.”
    “When.”
    It wasn’t a question. It was a blunt demand.
    “When there’s no other chance left and not a moment before,” Hunter said just as bluntly.
    “Just what chance are you seeing that I’m missing? We damn near burned to the ground last night.”
    There was no anger in Case’s voice, no hope of a miracle, no real curiosity as to his own fate. He simply wanted to know what he had overlooked that Hunter hadn’t.
    “The army could get interested after three days of gunfire and columns of smoke coming from Ladder S lands,” Hunter said tersely. “Even a drunk has to have noticed.”
    Case made a sound of disgust.
    “The army is on the far side of the Rubies, chasing Indians and making maps,” Case pointed out. “The handful of men left at Camp Halleck doesn’t give a tinker’s damn about the Ladder S.”
    Hunter didn’t argue.
    Nor could he bring himself to send Case out to his death alone.
    “When you go,” Hunter said. “I’m going with you.”
    “No. You’re needed here.”
    “Morgan can—”
    “ No. ”
    Case’s interruption was soft and final.
    “The only way you can stop me,” Hunter pointed out calmly, “is to kill me.”
    “What about Elyssa?” Case asked. “Have you thought about her?”
    Hunter’s eyelids flinched. Between battles with the raiders, he had found some time to think about Elyssa.
    Not one of his thoughts had been comforting.
    During the long days and nights of the siege, Elyssahadn’t spoken to Hunter of love. She made no special effort to come and stand near him, to talk to him, to touch him, to take comfort from his presence or to give him comfort in turn.
    Elyssa hadn’t even rushed into his arms after he had outrun raiders by riding a mule right to the kitchen door. She simply had said she was “worried” about him.
    Nor had Elyssa turned to Hunter this morning, when she was so tired she could barely stand up. She had walked by him as though he was a stranger.
    No wonder she didn’t want to marry me after we made love in the cave, Hunter thought bleakly. She had already figured out that she didn’t really love me.
    But she wanted me. God, I’ve never been wanted like that by a woman.
    Brave, passionate, reckless…and too damned young to know her own mind. I knew that from the first time I laid eyes on her, but I couldn’t stop wanting her.
    It’s just as well she stopped thinking she loved me. Sure as hell I would have married her.
    Sure as hell we both would have regretted it.
    Too young. Elyssa and Belinda are alike in that, if in no other way.
    Sin in haste and repent forever.
    “Well?” Case pressed. “What about Elyssa?”
    “She’s young,” Hunter said neutrally. “Whether I live or die, she’ll be over me before Christmas.”
    Case’s left eyebrow rose in a black arc.
    “You haven’t slept worth mentioning for three days,” Case said. “You’re not thinking straight.”
    “I’ve gotten as much sleep as you.”
    “Is that what Elyssa said?” Case persisted. “That she doesn’t love you?”
    Hunter’s eyes darkened as he heard again Elyssa’s denial of her previous declaration of love.
    We’re just lovers.
    He didn’t know why Elyssa’s statement should cut him so deeply. He only knew that it did.
    “Yes,” Hunter said distinctly. “That’s what Elyssa said.”
    Case started to speak, then shook his head. He made no claim to understanding women, but Elyssa had seemed different, at least where Hunter was concerned.
    “She fooled me,” Case said finally.
    In silence he looked from rifle slit to rifle slit. The openings were a vivid contrast to the dark shutters. The light coming into the room was blue-white, intense, pure; burning fragments of the brilliant autumn morning.
    “When it’s full dark,” Case said, “I’m going out. I’ve an idea where I might find Ab.”
    Hunter closed his eyes for an instant, then nodded.
    “We’ll go at full dark,” he agreed bleakly, knowing it would be the last thing he ever did.
     
    When Hunter looked around the dispensary that afternoon, six of the seven cots were occupied. Some of the men were merely sleeping. Others were injured. Fox was one of them. He had taken a bullet in his side and was in the grip of pain and fever.
    Despite that, Hunter expected Fox to be on his feet in a day or two. The war had taught