“Are… are they dead?” asked Beth softly.
“Yeah.” He turned to Beth. “How is Ethan?”
She dropped down to look the man over until her mother arrived a moment later. “I… I think it’s his shoulder. I’m not sure.”
“Get him by the fire!” Mrs. Bennet barked. The three of them dragged the groaning man to the hearth where Mary was waiting. “We’ll take care of this! Get back to the window!”
They returned to their guns, and Darcy turned on Beth. “Just what the hell did you think you were doing?”
“What do you think?” she spat back. “Ethan was shot, and those men were coming. I had to do something!”
Darcy breathed hard, but try as he might, he couldn’t overcome her logic. “Where’d you learn to shoot like that?”
To his surprise, it was Bennet that answered. “I taught all my girls to shoot, Will. You never know what you’ll find in the woods. Beth here is almost as good as her brother was.”
“Better!” she claimed with a smile.
“Boss,” said José from the back, “we’re a man short. You’d better let señorita keep that rifle, I think.”
Darcy didn’t like it, but he had no choice. “All right! But will you do as I say?”
Beth nodded, and Darcy positioned her at the far left window. José took over Ethan’s place, another man took the rear of the house, and Darcy exchanged places with Bennet. If Beth was going to fight, he reasoned, at least she would be surrounded by people who were very good with a gun. Now at the door, Darcy peeked out into the night. The moon was behind the house, and the shadows grew long. Dawn would not be far away.
Darcy grew grim. He knew Whitehead was still out there somewhere. This gambit of his had failed, but there would be others. Whitehead would have to move in soon; with the sunrise, he would lose all cover.
Maybe not, Darcy realized. The house faced due east. With the dawn, the defenders would be staring directly into the sun. For a few minutes they would be blind.
If I know that, Whitehead can figure it out. Denny certainly will.”
Everyone get an extra rifle. The next attack will be better coordinated than the last one. Peter!”
“Yo, boss,” came a voice from Bennet’s study.
“Keep a sharp eye on the barn. They haven’t tried taking it yet. Make sure you cover our people.” Darcy then turned his attention to his casualties. “Miz Bennet, how’s Ethan?”
Fanny’s determined voice had disappeared. “I’ve stopped the bleeding, but he’s lost a lot of blood. We need a doctor!”
“I think we know that, dear,” Bennet wearily stated. He turned to Darcy. “When will they come, son?”
Darcy swallowed. He couldn’t quite make it out, but he thought he saw Beth smile in reaction to her father’s choice of words. “Soon. Probably with the sunrise.” He paused. “You’re a good man with a rifle, sir.”
“Call me Tom, Will. Yeah, I do all right.” He paused and continued in a whisper. “It’s not good, is it?”
Will had to tell the truth. “No, it isn’t.”
“You’ll take care of my family?”
“Tom…”
“Son, don’t pee on my boot and tell me it’s raining. Anything happens to me, you’ll watch over them?”
“Like they were my own.”
“All right, then.” Bennet didn’t say another word but stared out into the darkness.
Pyke was reporting to Whitehead. “We lost three men, including Thorpe.” Collins groaned and held his head in his hands.
“Well, let me tell ya what we oughta do, GW!” Denny then lowered his voice. “We oughta figure out a way of gittin’ this here job done without losin’ any more of my boys. The rest are gittin’ antsy, an’ that ain’t a good thing.”
Collins picked up his head. “I thought you could keep your gang in line!”
“Looky here, ya jackass! Why don’t you carry the next torch up to the house, huh?” Denny pulled his gun. “In fact, why don’t you do it right now, Collins?”
Collins recoiled in terror, and Whitehead held out his hand. “Put that away, Denny, and take it easy.”
Instead of doing as he was told, Denny turned on his employer. “And you can keep your orders to yourself, GW! You better remember who those boys listen to, and it ain’t you!” Eyes wide and breathing hard, Denny waved his pistol between his three companions. “Big words, big promises. You spun me a fancy tale, Whitehead; I was gonna be rich, but so far I ain’t seen nothin’! My boys are lookin’ for gold, and all they’re gittin’ tonight is lead. They’re ’bout ready to break, an’ I’m ’bout ready to join ’em. Ya better come up with a good idea quick, or you’ll find yourself by yourself!”
Whitehead could feel the eyes of Pyke and Collins on him, waiting for him to take control of the situation. The problem was Whitehead was out of ideas. His talent was in strategic planning; the tactics he left to people like Collins and Denny. All he had left was his powers of persuasion. Whitehead had to be careful now with Denny. One wrong word and he could end up dead.
“Denny, I know how you feel. I want what’s coming to me, too. But it’s those people that stand between us and our riches! Railroad money, Denny! Cash on the barrelhead! You heard my friend in Fort Worth. This is for real. But without this farm, the railroad won’t be coming here. I’ll lose everything!
“You’re lucky. This thing falls apart, you’re no worse off than before. Hell, you’ve had it pretty good, haven’t you? Two meals a day, a dry bed at night, liquor, women. Sure, you had to ride some cattle, but it’s better than how it was in Missouri, right?
“But me—I’ve got my whole life riding on this. This blows up, I’m done, and so is Collins here. But we can still win! We can still get everything we’ve ever wanted! But we got to finish the job tonight!”
Whitehead held his breath, wondering if Denny believed him. The gunfighter stared a hole through him and then holstered his gun. “All right—how?”
Whitehead exhaled, knowing he had placated Denny for now. “Look, I got you the railroad. You tell me what to do now. This is your province, bushwhacker.”
Denny rocked back on his heels and thought. “Only way to git them people out is to burn ’em out.”
Pyke groaned. “We tried that!”
“No!” Denny snapped. “Not the right way! What we need here is a wagon, filled with hay. Set that sucker on fire, an’ push it against the side o’ the house. That’ll git ’em! The wagon’ll shield us from their guns, so they can’t stop us. Once that place is burnin’ we just wait ’til they start runnin’ like rabbits. Shoot ’em as they come out the door.”
“But,” Pyke complained, “we ain’t got a wagon.”
Denny pointed towards the barn. “I’ll betcha there’s one in there! We just gotta go git it!”
Whitehead frowned. “There’s got to be people in there. No way they would’ve left it undefended.”
“Right. That’s th’ problem.”
Whitehead sat back for a moment, considering. He glanced around the wheelbarrow at the house again. “What time is it, Collins?”
The banker pulled out his pocket watch. “It’s hard to read… about four.”
“Fuck!” cried Denny. “We’ll be sittin’ ducks after th’ sun comes up.”
“Sunrise in little over an hour…” Whitehead said half to himself. “Denny, would you say that house faced due east?”
Denny looked around. “Sure looks that way. So?”
Whitehead turned to him. “So, the sun will be in their eyes, right?”
Denny thought about it and grinned. “Yeah. They won’t see nothin’.”
“That’s when we make our move—right at sunrise. Half of us will take the barn while the rest will lay down covering fire. Once you secure the wagon, we’ll finish ’em off.”
“That might work,” Denny allowed.