Birds of a Feather II

Sadie

"You seen anything down there?"

Sadie moved her gaze from the ranch across Little Creek River and looked at Karen sitting across their campfire. "There's a bunch of them, and mostly drunk."

Karen eyed the farm through the trees. "It's a big ranch."

"Yeah, but they're spread pretty thin. It won't take much to bring them down."

Sadie had killed countless O'Driscolls by now and it still hadn't sated her rage. They'd ruined her life and she couldn't overcome it. Even with Colm dead, it wasn't enough. This raid on Hanging Dog Ranch was her last chance to recover some of her humanity.

"One of them, he's a fat fella with a beard, he's mine." Sadie looked to the sun, its placement moving ever higher. "We should get moving soon."

Karen said, "I thought you wanted to wait for Arthur."

Sadie thought she could count on Arthur, but he hadn't seemed to want to involve himself in her revenge. When she'd mentioned Hanging Dog Ranch, he'd grimaced and hadn't made making any promises. He'd gone with her and Dutch to Saint Denis to watch Colm swing, but he'd even said at the time he didn't give a damn one way or another if Colm lived or died, even though the man had done him enough wrong too.

Still, she hoped he'd change his mind and meet them here. Sadie at least had Karen to back her up, because no matter Arthur's reservations, she didn't have the luxury to let bygones be bygones.

If the only thing she'd lost in that home robbery were possessions, if Jake had survived, things could have been different. They could have rebuilt the farm. They could have worked together to get past everything. She wouldn't have needed to hunt down all these men and make them pay. If Jake could see her now...

"I've seen you twiddling that thing near every night lately," Karen interrupted her thoughts, pointing at the harmonica in her hand. "Do you play?"

She stopped flipping the harmonica, which had grown into a soothing habit, and squeezed it in a tight grip. "Only for my husband."

"Can I ask you something?"

Sadie tensed, expecting Karen to prompt her for more details about her husband, which she wasn't ready for.

Karen shifted and broke eye contact. "Maybe it's nothing but my imagination."

"What?"

Karen chewed her bottom lip a moment, as if trying to decide on whether or not to continue. She met her gaze again. "On the night our boys came back to Lakay, something happened that I haven't been able to work out. I talked to Abigail and Tilly about it, but they didn't see nothing. Maybe you did."

Intrigued now that the focus was off her, Sadie prompted, "Go on."

"It don't really make sense and I feel more foolish every time I bring it up. But, it's like an itch I can't scratch, you know?"

Sadie wracked her mind, going back to that night, trying to remember if anything had been off. The day had started normal, quiet. Everyone had been working on their chores and all was as usual until Micah dropped in that afternoon. Arthur had followed in the evening, and then Dutch and Bill after dark. It was a day of reunions, but she didn't remember anything specifically involving Karen.

"For some strange reason, I got this image of Micah's face burned in my memory from that night. I don't know what he was doing, but I remember these two bright lamps behind him." Karen's brow furrowed deeply as she concentrated. "I thought I saw him setting them lanterns up and then going back inside."

Sadie frowned, thinking. Really, it could be chalked up to a drunken delirium, considering Karen had frequented the back of the main shack whenever she started on her bottles, which had been most days. "So, you saw Micah come back there, put a couple of lanterns out, but not stay out there for a smoke or nothing?"