Only 05 - Autumn Lover

that clung to every dip, hollow, and crease.
    Something cold nudged Elyssa’s fingers. She muffled a startled shriek and looked down.
    Vixen looked up at her, wagging her tail hopefully.
    “No,” Elyssa whispered. “Go back to guarding the barn.”
    Vixen cocked her head, hesitated, and then trotted off to the barn.
    Elyssa looked toward the bunkhouse. Streamers of ground fog danced like silver flames in a faint wind. Not a bit of light shone from the bunkhouse. She was up even before Gimp.
    Quickly Elyssa went to the barn, saddled Leopard, and headed for Wind Gap. With her black riding habit, a dark stockman’s coat, and a black scarf tied around her hair, she was very hard to see even in the gaps between the fog.
    In the fog itself, she was invisible.
    The ride to Bill’s ranch had never taken Elyssa longer. In addition to the fog, she used every bit of available cover to conceal her passage through the night.
    There was no way of knowing if the Culpeppers had anyone watching Wind Gap.
    As Elyssa had hoped, once she was through Wind Gap, the fog became thicker. But experience told her that the fog wouldn’t last much beyond daybreak. By then, she had to be back at the ranch.
    And Bill Moreland had to be with her.
    Elyssa feared what would happen if Hunter met Bill over a rifle.
    What is it about that cow-rustling, horse-thieving, Culpepper-loving son of a bitch that worries you ?
    Elyssa shivered at the memory of what she had seenin Hunter’s eyes when he had drawn a bead on Ab Culpepper a few days ago.
    Hatred.
    He needs a bullet .
    Elyssa was afraid that Hunter would shoot Bill on sight, the same as he would four-legged vermin stalking a calf.
    I can’t let that happen , Elyssa thought starkly. Just because Bill hasn’t lifted a finger to help me, that doesn’t mean he deserves to die .
    He was so good to me all those years before I went to England .
    With determination in every line of her body, Elyssa guided Leopard through the fading darkness. If any Culpeppers were guarding the approach to Bill’s cabin, they didn’t raise a cry when Leopard ghosted past.
    Tautly Elyssa watched ahead for any sign of light. There was none. She dismounted and tied Leopard to a bush. With great care she crept as close to the cabin’s privy as she dared.
    There was a thicket of brush only ten feet from the back of the privy. Crouching, Elyssa merged her outline with the shrubs as Bill had taught her to do when they hunted together.
    Elyssa licked her lips, pursed them, and whistled softly. A clear, lilting nightingale call lifted into the fading night. Bill had taught her the whistling notes years ago, when she was a girl and her mother’s silver laughter rang through the house.
    No light came on in the cabin in response to Elyssa’s whistle.
    No one called through the night to her.
    Nervously Elyssa looked at the sky. The stars were already gone. A faint peach color glowed in the east.
    She sent the lilting call through the silence again.
    Nothing happened.
    Maybe Bill drank too much and is sleeping too hard to hear me , she thought anxiously.
    Licking lips that felt as dry as flannel, she pursed again and whistled. A false nightingale sang to the black cabin for a third time.
    No lantern flickered to life.
    Dawn condensed across the eastern sky in a pale wash of pink.
    Elyssa waited.
    And waited.
    Just as she was going to give up, the front door of the cabin creaked. A man came out and headed for the privy.
    Bill .
    Relief coursed through Elyssa.
    Bill walked to the privy with the hesitating steps of a man who was hung over or half-blind in the predawn gloom. Somehow his ragged stride led him past the privy to the thicket.
    “Over here,” Elyssa whispered. “It’s me.”
    “Christ, Sassy,” Bill hissed. “I told you when you got back never to come here! Go home!”
    Elyssa tried to make out Bill’s expression. What she saw of his eyes in the rising light didn’t comfort her.
    Bloodshot.
    Angry.
    And most of all, afraid.
    “Just like your mother,” Bill whispered, furious. “Reckless to the bone! Get out of here!”
    “Come back with me,” Elyssa whispered coaxingly. “I need you.”
    “ Go home .”
    Though Bill’s voice was soft, the expression on his face wasn’t.
    “Bill—”
    “ Go !”
    “No,” Elyssa said in a low, hard voice. She stood upin a rush. “Too many Ladder S cows have been stolen. Too many horses are missing. The tracks all lead to—”
    “Well, well,” said a