Xenia’s Renegade Read Free

Somebody had to do the cooking for the stage passengers. A wife, a sister, or a mother. He hoped for the latter so there would be no children as there often were at way stations.
    Lou’s voice broke into his thoughts. “Is that man dead?”
    Ty nodded. He glanced at Bullins and the ladies. “I’ll get the body out of here and you folks have a seat.”
    Lou frowned. “You don’t expect us to sit on the bench where the dead man was, do you?”
    “You can sit on one of the chairs or on the bench on the other side of the table or there’s always the floor. You can have your choice. Don’t matter to me.”
    The driver came through the door. When he saw Ty lifting the body, he said, “Oh, hell. I was afraid of something like this.”
    “Yeah. How about giving me a hand, Ray? We’ll take him out through the kitchen.” He hoped Ray Andrews would catch on to the fact he suspected there would be another body there.
    Ray moved beside Ty and took hold of the dead man’s feet. They went through the door leading into the kitchen and Ty closed it behind them.
    “I was afraid of this.” Ty nodded to the pretty Indian woman’s almost nude body slumped against the wall. There was a bullet hole in the side of her head.
    “Damn,” Ray said. “John and his wife were good people. Always served decent food and the passengers seemed to enjoy stopping here.”
    “So she was his wife?”
    “Yep. Been married for a couple of years. You know how people are, a lot of them didn’t care for Miller after he married an Indian woman, but the couple didn’t seem to care if anybody liked them or not. They were crazy about each other.”
    “It’s a good thing there weren’t any children.”
    “She was big and swollen back in the winter when I had a stop here. I figured she’d had the baby by now.”
    Ty shook his head. “She sure don’t look pregnant now. Wonder if she lost the baby?”
    “I don’t know, but the least we can do is give them a decent burial. If we find a baby’s grave, we’ll put them beside it.”
    “I agree, but for the time being, let’s get the bodies out of here.”
    Ray gently turned the woman to her back. “Looks like they had their way with her before they killed her. Wonder why they shot her instead of using an arrow.”
    “Probably to make us think an Indian would never shoot another Indian with an arrow.”
    “You’ve got a point.”
    “Let’s hurry and get these bodies out back before one of the passengers decides to come in here.” Ty picked up the woman. “Can you get the man by yourself?”
    “Yep.” Ray hoisted the body to his shoulder. When they got outside, he added, “I hate the thoughts of them laying out here in the elements. You sure we don’t have time to bury them now?”
    Ty shook his head. “Not now. We’ll take care of that later, but first we’re going to have to prepare for another attack.”
    “So you think they’ll come again?”
    “I figure they’re not far away. Probably waiting on down the road for the stage to come by. They probably thought as soon as you saw this place had been destroyed, you wouldn’t stop, but would continue on.”
    “So you figure they plan to ambush us down the road instead of waiting here.”
    “That’s my thinking.” Ty glanced at Ray. “Carrying anything valuable this trip?”
    Ray nodded. “The strong box is full of gold. Going to the bank in Deer Meadow.”
    They placed the bodies of the man and his wife on the lean-to that served as a back porch. “Is the gold still on the stage?”
    “Yeah. Think I should go take it off and hide it somewhere in the barn?”
    “Not a bad idea, and while you’re there, grab a tarp or a couple of horse blankets to cover the bodies. I don’t want to leave the folks exposed to the elements—or worse.”
    “I understand that.” Ray stepped off the porch. “By the way, the horses are gone. I guess they didn’t want us to have fresh ones when we left here.”
    “This attack was well