Sarah moaned and hugged herself tightly.
“Just one horse,” Janet pleaded. “Don’t worry about them.” She pointed with the gun to the other wagon. “They have no love for the Southern cause, but I not only have a brother following Quantrill, but another brother in uniform.”
Diamond gasped.
“Is that so?” The leader twisted his hand in his captive’s hair, drawing her head back. She whimpered. “I should slit your pretty neck.”
“I say we kill them all,” one man yelled.
The leader turned his gun on the man, still keeping a tight hold on the woman. “We might not be regular army, but we’re not murderers, Sam, and don’t you forget it.”
The man raised his hands, one of them holding a pistol, and took a step back. “Sorry, got carried away.”
“String up the man and we’ll get out of here,” the leader commanded.
“No!” Diamond cried, ignoring the glare Janet sent her. “Leave us alone. You said it yourself, you’re not murderers.”
The leader shoved the woman down to her knees and turned his attention towards Diamond. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw two of his men grab the farmer.
“You lied to me.” He moved towards her, stopping when Janet raised her gun. “Shoot me and my men will have their way with you,” he said, without sparing her a glance. “Why do you care about some Northern traitors?”
“I only want this war to be over. My husband risks his life fighting for the Southern cause, but soldiers shouldn’t take up arms against civilians. Steal from us if you must, but allow us to leave here safely. My sister-in-law and I only want to get home and these people only want to escape further violence.”
“You talk pretty,” the leader sneered. “Like someone who never saw their home burned to the ground.”
Diamond swallowed. Perhaps she shouldn’t have opened her mouth. But why had Janet thrown their companions to the wolves? It was bad enough the Rebels were going to strand them in the wilderness. Why give the men a reason to hurt them? “We don’t know what we will find when we make it home. If we make it home. Our house could be gone. These people mean you no harm. Let us go.”
“A spying traitor? I don’t think so.”
“We’re not spies,” the farmer said, straining against the men who held him. His wife still slumped on the ground sobbing, but she’d gathered her children close, hiding their faces in her embrace. “We just wanted to grow our crops.”
The leader gestured towards his men who dragged the poor farmer towards the nearest tree. He pointed his pistol at Janet. “Drop the gun, lady.”
“I won’t.”
He fired at her head and Janet dropped the gun, screaming and clutching at the side of her face. Diamond’s head spun as blood blossomed between Janet’s fingers. How was she still standing? Would the bushwhackers kill them all?
“Janet!” She ran to her sister-in-law, catching her as the injured woman swayed and toppled into her arms. She struggled against her weight, lowering her to the ground. Blood splattered on her bodice and she lifted her skirt to tear a strip from her petticoat. “It’s okay, you will be okay.” She spoke the words mindlessly, not really believing them. But head wounds bled a lot. She had to see how bad it was.
She pulled Janet’s hands from the injury, gasping as she saw Janet’s mangled ear. The bullet had carved a crease along her sister-in-law’s temple before plowing a bloody path through her ear. She pressed her makeshift bandage against Janet’s ear. As gruesome and painful as the wound no doubt was, she didn’t think it would be fatal unless it became infected.
The gunshot still rung in her ears, but eventually other sounds came through—thundering hoofbeats, wailing children and the desperate screams of the woman.
“Help me! Please help me.”
Diamond looked up from her patient. The farmer swung from the tree, his face purpling in the growing light of day. His wife jumped for the rope which was tied around the trunk of the tree, but couldn’t quite reach it. “Hold this tight to her head,” Diamond told Sarah before running to her bedroll where she’d left her drawstring purse.
The men had not taken it in their search of the wagons. She kept all of her small twenty-first century items within its beaded interior, not wanting her in-laws to stumble upon them. She grabbed her Leatherman knife and ran towards the hanged man.
It had been years since she’d climbed a tree, but there were no other options. “Give me a boost,” she yelled at the woman as she stepped on the lowest branch and reached for a higher one. She pulled, the woman pushed, and she swung up into the tree. Balancing on the branch, she leaned over and sawed at the rope. To her relief, the frayed material parted easily, and the man fell to the ground, gasping and choking. He was still alive, although he could have brain damage from lack of oxygen.
The woman tore the noose from his neck and leaned over him.
“Give him some room,” Diamond advised, easing her way down the tree.
“I can’t thank you enough,” the woman said. “I don’t know how you did that, climbing the tree like a squirrel.”
Diamond wasn’t sure how she’d managed either. “I hope I got there in time. I have to get back to my sister-in-law.”
“Is she badly hurt?”
“I think she’ll make it, but her ear’s all torn up.”
The children crept closer to their parents, but still hung back in fear. The woman wiped the tears from her face, motioned for them to come forward and left them with their father.
“Why’d she do it?” she asked Diamond, her tone too low for the others to hear. “She didn’t have to say nothing.”
“She was scared.” Diamond thought it a feeble excuse, but the woman nodded, seeming to accept it. Diamond drifted back to where her
