Only 05 - Autumn Lover

man.
    “Bill!” Elyssa cried.
    The Indian released his burden, letting Bill slide onto the ground. As though that was a signal, the rest of the Utes whirled their ponies and galloped off.
    The front door opened. Penny ran out and threw herself to her knees next to Bill.
    Elyssa started to go to Bill as well. Then she froze as she saw that the man tied to the Ladder S mare had only one arm.
    “ Mac ,” she said, shocked.
    If Hunter was shocked, he didn’t show it. He simply pulled his belt knife, cut Mac free, and caught him.
    “Is he—” Elyssa began.
    “Alive, barely,” Hunter interrupted.
    He carried Mac to the house. No sooner was Hunter through the door than he called out to Case.
    “Take two men and see which raiders are left alive. If any.”
     
    Just after noon on the following day, Elyssa went silently down the stairs to the cellar. The house felt strangely empty to her. Most of the men were out rounding up cattle that had been held just beyond Ladder S land. At last count, more than six hundred head had been found.
    The raiders were buried where they were found. Only one Culpepper had been found among the dead.
    It wasn’t Ab.
    Case found mule tracks and followed them until they vanished on a slope of broken rock. Then he had returned to tell Hunter and pack his gear.
    Elyssa knew that Case wouldn’t be on the Ladder S come sundown.
    Nor would Hunter.
    I can’t let my brother go against Ab Culpepper alone .
    Only Bill and Mac remained in the dispensary. Bill wasn’t badly injured. He was simply exhausted from being tied up, beaten, and left for dead by the Culpeppers on their way to raid the Ladder S.
    Mac’s condition was much worse.
    At the bottom of the cellar stairway, Elyssa stopped and let her eyes adjust to the dim light. The flickering lantern revealed little. Mac’s cot was on one side. Bill’s cot was on the other, in a corner where the lantern light barely reached.
    Penny was nowhere in sight.
    Just before Elyssa turned to go back upstairs, there was movement from Bill’s side of the room. As her eyes adjusted, Elyssa saw that there were two people on the cot. They were locked in each other’s arms.
    Words of passion and tenderness filtered through the darkness, telling Elyssa that Bill finally returned the love Penny had for him. Though Elyssa was happy for both of them, the sight of their love was almost painful to her.
    Tomorrow at dawn Morgan, Sonny, and the vaqueros would drive cattle and horses to Camp Halleck, fulfilling the contract.
    Hunter and Case would be going in the opposite direction, following Ab Culpepper’s tracks.
    I can’t let my brother go against Ab Culpepper alone .
    As Elyssa began to retreat, Bill called out to her in a low voice.
    “Come on over here, Sassy. You can be the first to know that Penny has agreed to marry me.”
    There was a startled sound from Penny. She scrambled off the cot and stood beside it.
    “Congratulations,” Elyssa said.
    “On finally getting smart?” Bill retorted.
    “It’s so rare in men,” Elyssa said. Then she gave him a bittersweet smile, taking the sting out of her words.
    Penny laughed out loud. Even Bill’s eyes twinkled against his windburned face.
    “How is Mac doing?” Elyssa asked.
    Slowly Penny shook her head.
    “I just checked on him,” Penny said. “He drifts in and out, but each time he goes under…”
    Penny shrugged and said no more.
    In the time since Mac had returned so unexpectedly to the Ladder S, he had done nothing but fall deeper into the thrall of his wound.
    “It’s just as well,” Bill said tersely. “Saves me the trouble of killing him.”
    “What?” Elyssa said, shocked.
    “Mac was stealing you blind,” Hunter said from the stairway behind Elyssa.
    She spun around.
    “What are you talking about?” she demanded.
    Hunter looked at Bill.
    “You tell her,” Bill said, taking Penny’s hand. “I’d rather kiss this little lady.”
    Penny’s blush and smile of delight was like a sunrise in the dim room. She bent to receive Bill’s kiss.
    Elyssa looked away.
    “Mac started stealing from you as soon as John Sutton died,” Hunter said to Elyssa.
    She simply shook her head, not understanding.
    “Bill told me that Mac didn’t figure a ‘no-account daughter of an adulteress deserved the sweat of John’s brow,’” Hunter explained. “So Mac started setting up his own ranch.”
    “With Ladder S stock and a Slash River brand?” Elyssa guessed.
    “That’s about the size