The Guerilla Hunter

Three days after he'd shot the deer, Howard went hunting again. It was freezing at night now, so any meat they had would keep until spring. He intended to leave Abigail with at least three deer hanging from the barn rafters to tide her over until then.

He'd shot a doe this time, but she was almost as big as a buck and the meat would probably taste better. He gutted the doe and dragged her back to the barn.

Howard had hung the deer and was going to the house to tell Abigail when he saw a lone rider coming up the lane to the house. He unconsciously checked the Spencer to make sure there was a fresh cartridge in the chamber and then walked toward the lane. He was still walking when Abigail came running out of the house and screaming, "Isaac, Issac, you came back."

Howard stopped walking and watched the man get off his horse. Seconds later, Abigail was hugging him and crying and the man was hugging her back. There was no doubt this was Isaac, the man who'd gotten away from him, and the man he intended to take back to Kansas City to stand trial.

Howard was far enough away that he couldn't hear what they were saying, but he saw the look on Isaac's face change from a wide grin to a harsh frown. Evidently Abigail had said something that upset Isaac a lot.

Howard was thinking about how he was going to handle this situation when Isaac drew his pistol and pushed Abigail aside. He kept the pistol leveled at Howard as he slowly walked up to face him. After looking Howard over from head to toe, Isaac turned to Abigail.

"Abby, I don't know this man and he sure isn't Jacob Meyers. I saw Jacob Meyers get shot and he's probably dead."

Isaac looked at Howard then.

"Put that rifle on the ground. Don't try anything fancy or I'll shoot you where you stand."

When Howard had done that, Isaac said, "Who are you and why are you here with my sister?"

Howard looked at Isaac and saw how young he was. Abigail said he was fifteen when he joined up with Quantrill. That would make Isaac only nineteen now, just a year older than when Howard had enlisted. Isaac looked scared even though he was trying to act like a man looking after his sister. Scared men were the most dangerous. They wouldn't think before they acted. He'd have to do what Isaac said until he could convince him he wasn't out to hurt anyone.

Howard looked at Abigail and saw a look of dismay on her face. She knew something wasn't right. He was going to have to tell the truth even though it was going to hurt her.

"Isaac, you have me fair and square, but you don't need that gun. If what Abigail told me is true, you won't use it anyway and I don't intend to do either of you any harm. Let's go inside where it's warmer and I'll explain everything. Would you bring my Spencer inside too? It needs to be cleaned or it'll rust up."

Once inside, Howard took a deep breath and then looked at Abigail.

"Abigail, I lied to you because I thought that was the only way I could find Isaac, but you have to understand why I was looking for him and what I found instead.

"I was telling you the truth when I said my name was Howard Barlow and that I was from Posey Hollow, Arkansas. I left my parents there when I went to join the First Arkansas Cavalry. I spent three years finding and arresting the guerilla fighters roaming through Missouri and Kansas. We got all the major leaders and most of their men, but when I got out there were still a few smaller bands left.

"When I got home, I found out one of those small bands, a band led by Red O'Malley, had come to Posey Hollow. They killed ten people there including my ma and pa, and they burnt the church where we used to go every Sunday. Since the Union had stopped trying to find the guerillas, I decided the only way to bring them to answer for their crimes was to track them down myself.

"I knew the places Red O'Malley would probably hide out from all the patrols I'd led trying to find the guerillas. All I had to do was follow his trail of robbing and killing and he'd end up in one of the places I knew about. I found that place a month later and waited for him to get there."

Howard looked at Isaac then.

"Isaac, I didn't intend to kill all your friends. What I was meaning to do was arrest all of you and take you to Kansas City to stand trial. If the first man hadn't shot at me and woke up the rest of you, that's what I'd have done. I'd killed enough men for a lifetime and I didn't need to kill any more.

"As it was, I had to kill them or they'd have killed me. I saw you get away, and I did take a shot at you, but I missed. I'm glad I missed now. Abigail told me you never killed anybody in any of their raids. I don't know if that's true or not, but you didn't stick around and try to kill me. That makes me believe what she said.

"I found the letters she wrote to you and figured you'd come back to Shelby as soon as you could, so I told Abigail I'd ridden with Red O'Malley and wanted to see you again. The reason was I was still planning on taking you back to Kansas City for trial as soon as you came home."

Howard looked at Abigail again.

"Abigail, when I started staying here and helping you, that's still what I was planning. I hadn't planned on liking it and I hadn't planned on liking you as much as I do. I know you won't believe me after I've lied to you so many times, but this is the God's truth. You're a woman who didn't deserve what happened to you, just like my mother and the people back in Posey Hollow. Taking Isaac away from you again would hurt you and it wouldn't bring my ma and pa back, so I won't. If you'll let me, I'll just ride off and you'll never see me again. I won't tell anybody about what Isaac did."

He looked at Isaac then.

"Isaac, if you're a good man like Abigail says you are, you'll give up what you were doing and stay here and take care of her. She's a fine woman and you're lucky to have her as your sister. Don't go away again and leave her here by herself. She's kept this farm running, but she needs a man to help her."

Abigail had listened to Howard without saying anything. At first she was shocked because he'd lied in order to take Isaac away from her again and she'd believed his lies. When he said he'd changed his mind because he liked her, she was thankful. When he told Isaac that she was a fine woman, her heart softened and she felt hopeful. If he was telling the truth, did he really feel something for her?

If someone had killed her mother and father, Abigail would have done anything to do the same to them. Maybe killing all the others had satisfied his need for revenge. If it had and he was telling the truth...no, she couldn't ask him to stay for all the same reasons she'd already thought of except now it was worse. Howard had admitted to trying to shoot Isaac, and Isaac would never agree to let him stay.

Isaac was also thinking. The mind of the guerilla fighter in him said he should just walk Howard outside and shoot him in the head. That was the only way he could be sure Howard wouldn't come after him someday. If that happened, it was likely Howard would kill him. The term he'd heard used for other guerilla fighters who'd been killed was "shot while attempting to escape". That had happened a lot.

The mind of the country farm boy that had been hardened by war and sickened by what he'd seen done in the name of that war told him he couldn't kill a man just because of what he might do someday. Doing so would make him no different than Red O'Malley.

He'd been part of the raid at Posey Hollow, but as he'd often done in the past, Isaac had found a way not to be there when the killing was done. At those farms, he'd been going through the house or barn looking for food. He'd been a thief, but he wasn't a killer. That had been all Red O'Malley's doing. It had seemed justified when Red and the others killed Union soldiers, but when they killed people just trying to get through the war, it had sickened him.

The problem was he'd been stuck in the group once he joined them. Any man who left would have been considered a traitor to the cause and he would have been shot before he took even two steps. That was the way the guerilla bands worked. You were either with them or against them. You couldn't be neutral. If you were against them, they'd just kill you and ride on.

After watching Red shoot down the young boy in Posey Hollow, Isaac had decided he had to leave the band even if it meant he'd get killed. He couldn't justify what they were doing once the war had ended. They'd become just a band of outlaws. He'd been watching for an opportunity to just slip away, and when the shooting started that night in the camp in Missouri, he'd decided it was then or never.

He'd left everything except his Kerr revolver and what was in his saddlebags behind, and had ridden all night and most of the next day. After that, he had slowly worked his way back to Shelby by stealing vegetables from gardens at night and hunting rabbits when he was sure no one else was around.

It had taken a long time because he rode around every town and hid from anybody else he saw, but he had finally reached home only to find a man there helping his sister with the farm. Abigail obviously trusted him, and there was something else there besides trust. It was the way her face had lit up when she told him about all the things the man had done. Only when the man had admitted he'd lied to her did Abigail's face change, and even then it wasn't the rage he'd expected to see. It was just disappointment.

If he hadn't left Abigail alone and joined up with Quantrill, none of this would have happened. He and Abigail would have lived as they always had. He'd messed up both their lives and what did he have to show for it? He couldn't bring back those years, but maybe he could make them up at least a little. He turned to face Howard.

"They weren't my friends. Any one of them would have shot me in the back over a bottle of whiskey.

"I remember Posey Hollow. I don't know which of the people Red killed were your ma and pa, but I didn't fire a shot. Neither did any of the other men. We did rob the people and we did burn down the church, but I didn't shoot anybody. I know you probably don't believe me, that that's how it was.

"As I see it, I have three choices. I can shoot you dead, but that will make me a murderer and I'm not that kind of man. I can let you go and risk you coming back for me even though you say you wouldn't do that. I'm not sure how I feel about the third choice."

Isaac looked at Abigail.

"Abigail, you seemed to trust him before. Do you trust him now?"

Abigail felt her heart racing and put her hand on the swell of her breasts. Did she trust this man after he'd lied to her? Her head told her she shouldn't, but when she though about him riding down the lane and away from her, her heart was screaming that she wanted him to stay. She chose her words carefully.

"Isaac, he's done so much for me since he got here, things I couldn't do myself. I think he's telling the truth now. I believe him when he says he isn't going to do you any harm. If he wanted to do that, he could have shot you when you rode up the lane."

Isaac frowned.

"You didn't tell me if you trust him now. Do you?"

Abigail put her face in her hands and sobbed.

"Isaac, I don't know, but I know I don't want him to leave."

Isaac turned to Howard.

"Do you want to leave my sister, or do you want to stay?"

That question caused Howard to rethink his opinion of Isaac. Isaac was only nineteen, but he thought like a man much older. Then Howard realized he was only about four years older than Isaac, and he'd been changed a lot by the war. Before the war, he'd been pretty naïve about the world because his world was the farm and the church in Posey Hollow. By the end of the war, he was a sergeant in the Union cavalry and merciless in his search for guerilla fighters. He preferred to arrest the guerillas he found, but didn't think twice about killing them if they fought back. He hadn't thought twice about killing the men in Red O'Malley's bunch and then leaving them for the coyotes and buzzards. Before the war, he'd have said any man who would do something like that was a murderer.

He guessed that fighting a war, no matter which side you were on, changed you a lot in ways you didn't realize until it was over. War made you grow up fast and gave you knowledge beyond your years. He'd been able to know which men would fight and which men would cower. He'd been able to know which men killed for the fun of killing and which men killed only because they had to. That knowledge told him Isaac wasn't the one who killed his parents or the other people in Posey Hollow.

Isaac seemed to understand things beyond his years too. Most young men would have probably just shot him if Howard had confessed to shooting at them. Isaac seemed to take that knowledge in stride. Most young men would have been furious that a strange man had lived with their sister for over a month. Isaac didn't seem to mind all that much. He was more worried about what his sister thought about Howard leaving than what Howard might have been doing with her over the weeks.

Howard didn't want to leave, but how could that possibly work out? He didn't have a sister, but if he had, he'd have defended her honor with his life. That's all Isaac was trying to do.

"Isaac, I don't want to leave, but I don't see how that changes anything. You'd be constantly watching me to see if I was going to do something to you or Abigail."

For the first time since they'd met, Howard saw Isaac smile. He put his revolver back in the holster.

"You're right. I would. I won't let you stay unless you'll make an honest woman out of my sister."

Howard looked at Abigail. She was sitting there with her mouth hanging open. Then he looked back at Isaac.

"You mean get married to her? You fought for the Confederates and I fought for the Union. You'd want me to marry your sister?"

Isaac frowned then.

"I figured out after about a month that I wasn't fighting for the Confederates and what they wanted to do. I was fighting for Captain Quantrill and what he wanted to do. I'd have quit if I'd thought they wouldn't shoot me in the back as I was leaving. I'm not going back to that no matter what happens. I guess you can think I was a Confederate if you want to, but I think I was just a boy who didn't know what was important and what wasn't. After everything I did and saw, I do now.

"What's important to me now is that Abigail has a man to take care of her, a man she wants to be with. I think she's decided that man is you. I don't think Abigail would say no if you asked her, and if that's what she wants, that's what I want. I also don't think you'd take your own brother in law to prison either. Why don't you try and see what she says."

They were married a week later at the little Baptist Church in Shelby. The preacher's wife stood up with Abigail and Isaac walked her down the aisle. When the preacher asked, "Who gives this bride away?", Isaac said "Her mother and father and I do". Howard stood by himself because he didn't know anybody else in town.

When they rode back to the farm, Abigail rode behind Howard with her arms around his waist instead of behind Isaac. After supper, Isaac stretched and said he'd sleep in the barn the next couple of nights. He walked out the door then.

When he left, Abigail held Howard's hand.

"Husband, I'll be the best wife I can be. I'll raise my garden and I'll cook and I'll wash your clothes and I'll have your babies."

Howard squeezed her hand gently and smiled.

"I know you'll do all those things. I saw that way before Isaac came home. I just didn't think I could tell you then. I can tell you now, though. I can tell you I'll be the best husband I can be. I'll work hard with Isaac to take care of you and to make this farm like it used to be."

Abigail smiled nervously then.

"I need to go in the bedroom now. Mama left me her wedding nightgown and I need to put it on before we...well, before we do what husbands and wives do. I'll tell you when I'm ready."

When Abigail called softly that she was ready, Howard walked into the bedroom and then stopped. Abigail was standing there in the light of a single tallow candle, and she looked entirely different. Her golden blonde hair was splayed out over her shoulders instead of pulled back like usual. Her soft, rounded shoulders were bare except for the straps that held up the white gown that covered her from her breasts to the floor.

That gown covered her, but it didn't hide the ripe figure under it. Abigail's breasts swelled a little over the top into firm mounds the gown hugged. From there, the gown hugged her slender waist and then flared over her hips.

Abigail saw him standing there and laughed nervously.

"Howard, you don't have to just look. You can touch me now that I'm your wife."

Howard didn't say anything because he couldn't think of anything to say. He walked to where Abigail stood, reached out, and took her in his arms. He felt her soft breasts pressing into his chest, and her soft belly against the stiffening in his trousers. He finally found his voice and said, "I didn't know you'd look like this. You're beautiful."

Abigail pulled herself up on her tiptoes and kissed Howard, then eased back down.

"Mama said you'd undress me. Are you going to do that?"

Howard's hands were shaking a little when he knelt and lifted the bottom of Abigail's gown. Slowly, he lifted it as he stood up, and as he revealed Abigail's body, he felt his manhood straining against his trousers. When he saw the pale thatch of blonde hair on Abigail's mound, and then her soft, naked breasts, he pulled the gown over her head and carefully laid it on the bed.

As he took off his own clothes, Howard continued to stare at Abigail. Unlike some of the men he'd served with, Howard had never been to a brothel, so he'd never seen a woman without clothes on, and what Abigail was doing to him was more than he'd ever imagined.

When he took off his shirt, he realized the bedroom was pretty cold, so he quickly took off his boots and then his trousers, and then held Abigail again. She was shivering a little and her nipples were so stiff he felt them pressing into his chest. He stroked her back and then said, "You must be freezing. Let's get into bed."

Once they were lying side by side under the blankets, Howard tried to remember what his father had told him he should do. Tentatively, he reached for Abigail and touched her breasts. She stiffened a little, but then relaxed.

"Be gentle at first, Howard. I'm really sensitive there."

Howard was so gentle he barely felt Abigail's soft skin under his fingertips. That lasted until Abigail rolled on her side and pulled his face to hers. She moaned at that kiss and Howard felt a tingle run down his spine and make his manhood jump.

Abigail felt that little jump and slipped her hand down over Howard's belly until she felt his shaft. When she closed her small, soft hand around his length, Howard unconsciously lurched slightly. Abigail whispered softly.

"Do the same thing to me, Howard."

Howard couldn't believe how the blonde hair on Abigail's mound felt under his fingertips, and the lips he felt under that hair were soft and a little puffy. He was lightly stroking those lips when Abigail sighed and put her thigh over his body. When she did that, her lips opened a little and Howard's middle finger slipped between them.

Abigail moaned and began stroking his shaft. Howard gently stroked over Abigail's rippled inner lips and then down until his finger slipped inside her. It didn't go in very far, but when he pulled it back out, it was wet and slippery. When he pushed it back inside Abigail, she jerked, and then whispered, "Mama said it would hurt the first time but I want you to do it. I think I'm ready. Do it now."