A Colleen and Andrew StoryMichaela lifted her head as Andrew stepped over the threshold of her clinic and removed his hat.
“Hi, Michaela. I was wondering if Colleen was around?”
“She’s at Robert E’s, she should be here in a minute.”
“Oh. Um, well, I think I’ll go meet her.” With a polite nod, Andrew turned and left.
With a smile and a shake of her head, Michaela turned back to the patient’s files she was working on.
As he walked to Robert E’s, Andrew wondered if Colleen had come to a decision yet.
He had actually started out trying to ask her to marry him, but he had lost his courage as he looked at his beloved’s face across the cloth he had laid across the grass. Instead, he had asked her to be his business partner.
He hated himself for being unable to tell her his true feelings, but he just became tongue-tied everytime he tried.
When he reached Robert E’s, he was told Colleen had left a few minutes ago. Walking back the way he came, he was unable to spot his quarry. Standing in front of the clinic, glancing up and down the street, he started to become worried.
After asking at the General Store and Jake’s barbershop, he was beginning to become frantic when no one reported having seen her since she left the smithy. He ran down to Grace’s Café, but no one there had seen her either.
What had happened?
Colleen awoke slowly to a dirty rag in her mouth and a sharp pain in her head. Trying to shift from her uncomfortable position, she realized that her hands were tied behind her and she was lying on her stomach.
Through the ringing in her ears, she heard voices somewhere to her right. Turning her head toward the voices, her vision became blurry again. Dimly she knew that she had attracted attention even as the world went black again.
Andrew’s frantic search had only turned up Colleen’s shawl, lying in the dust at the end of a path between two houses.
By now, Michaela had joined the search, as well as several concerned residents, Brian, Dorothy and Robert E among them.
By now near tears with worry, Michaela ran to Sully as he and Mathew walked up to them standing in front of the clinic discussing where else to check for the missing Colleen.
“Michaela, what is it?” Sully asked his distressed wife.
“Ma?” Mathew asked simultaneously.
“Oh, my god, Sully! It’s Colleen, she’s missing!” her frantic attempts to control herself ended as she threw herself, shuddering, into Sully’s arms.
“It’s okay, we’ll find her, I promise.” Turning to Andrew hovering nearby, he asked, “What happened?”
“I went to find her at Robert E’s and she wasn’t there, just her shawl lying on the ground! Nobody’s seen her in almost an hour and I have no idea what could have happened,” was Andrew’s response.
“We’ll find her. I’ll get the horses.” Mathew said as he rushed away.
Fifteen minutes later, Michaela and the men in the town had mounted their horses and were ready to move out.
Splitting up, Michaela, Sully and Mathew formed one party while Jake, Lauren and Horace another, Robert E and Horace making up another party, leaving the sober-faced Brian behind to take care of Katie.
Upon her second awakening, Colleen felt only slightly better than she had the first time.
The rag still filled her mouth and she still lay on her stomach with her arms behind her. She did notice this time, however, that her feet were not bound.
Raising her head to look around her, she could see only trees in the dimming sunlight.
A booted foot shoved her roughly onto her back. Blinking rapidly, she stared up at the grizzled features of the man standing over her.
“Woke up at last, did ya, girl?” said the leering face. His greasy black hair hung low over his forehead, almost but not quite covering a jagged scar from his hairline almost to his right eyebrow. Colleen shivered at the look in his cold brown eyes.
“Eh, John, she awake?” Another man appeared behind her, his dirty blond hair much more closely sheared, but his eyes just as cold.
“Yep,” he replied, punctuating it with another shove with his boot.
Wincing from the pain this caused up her side, Colleen shifted so her hands were not directly under her weight.
“Too bad you’re too late to cook us some vittles, ain’t had real cookin’ in a long time.”
The man, John, roughly pulled her to her feet and pulled her several feet closer to the fire and pushed her down on the ground, causing a muffled squawk from the captive
“Shut up and stay there. Try anything and you’ll regret it.”
Shaking, Colleen watched as the two men banked the fire and lay down on rolls across from her.
“Oh, god, was she missed now? Was anyone looking for her? Would she be found?” a voice screamed in her head.
Reining in at the head of a stream several miles from town, Michaela looked over at Sully.
“Where could she be, Sully? There’s no way that she could have gotten this far on her own.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt faint.
It was no longer possible to think she was lost or merely gone for a walk, it had been hours and there was no way she would have been so inconsiderate as to wander off and let everyone worry about her. Oh, god, someone must have taken her. But why?
“Don’t think about it, Ma. We’ll find her. I’m going further upstream, you go west and we’ll meet here in an hour.” Mathew turned his horse and rode off.
“Come on, Michaela, we’ve still got some light left.”
It had been at least an hour since the two men had finally stopped drinking and had started loudly snoring. If she were going to have any chance of escape, it would have to be now. She had no idea what the morning would bring, and still had no idea why they had taken her.
Trying to be as quiet as possible, she shifted to get her feet under her. Thank heavens they hadn’t thought to tie her feet, too.
With one eye on her captors, the other watching where she was walking, she edged away from the camp. She wished she could take one of the guns that the men carried in their belts, but without her hands all she could do was wish. It wasn’t until she had reached the trees around the clearing that she broke into a run.
Straining to see in the dark, Colleen ran as fast as she could away from the camp. An unseen root staggered her and she fell heavily to the ground, jarring her shoulder and scraping her cheek.
It took several precious moments to regain her feet with her hands still trapped helplessly behind her.
Her next fall sent a sharp pain up her side and a twig ripping through her dress on her arm to pierce the skin. Several more stumbles in her mad dash left her bruised and bleeding from several scrapes and cuts.
She was just starting to feel somewhat safe when she heard a crashing in the bushes behind her. Breathing heavily, she ran harder until a vicious hand reached out and tangled in her hair stopping her headlong flight and dropping her to her back with a scream.
“BITCH!” John screamed. “I told you not to run! You’ll wish you’d never tried when I get through with you!”
With these words, he hauled her up by the front of her dress and backhanded her across the face. When Colleen let out a startled shriek, he slapped her other cheek, evoking a full scream. Hearing a tearing of material and tasting blood as he shook her, Colleen began to beg sobbingly.
“Please, don’t hurt me! I’m sorry! Just let me go! I won’t tell anyone, I’ll just say I got lost! Please!”
Her assailant responded by twisting her hair around his fist and drawing her face closer to his. “Don’t think after all the trouble we took to get you we’re gonna let you go and not get no money. If you know anything you’ll shut-up and not cause no more trouble. Come on, Sam, I got her!”
Grabbing her arm and dragging her behind him, he walked quickly back to the camp, with his friend following behind. When they reached the camp, he turned towards her and punched her in the face. As Colleen crumpled in pain and darkness, she heard him mutter that’d teach her to run from him.
It was a dejected group that met later that night in front of the clinic.
“Where could she have gone? We’ve been everywhere and found nothing!” Matthew ground out.
The others looked at each other, fearing the worst.
“Why would someone take her? Who would harm an innocent young girl?” was Michaela’s only response.
“Is there anyone mad enough at you, Sully, to hut your daughter? Michaela?” Loren piped up.
With a shake of her head, Michaela said she couldn’t think of any.
“Well, we’ve got the torches, let’s set out again.”
As the group turned out of town again, Andrew could only think the worst. That it was an innocent young girl they were looking for and that even if they found her, she might not be the same.
The morning light brought only pain and fear to Colleen.
The two men were already up and moving. The man called John came over to her and, pushing her onto her stomach cut the rope around her hands. He shoved a tin coffeepot into her hands and gestured to a small stream visible through the trees on the other side of the clearing.
Grabbing her arm, he leaned down to her, “Go get some water and make us some breakfast. And be quick about it. No funny business neither.”
He looked down at the rip that John had made in her dress when he had grabbed her the previous night. A rip that now nearly exposed her to his gaze. Spittle dropped from his mouth to her face as his drooling gaze returned to hers. With a quick grope of her chest, he shoved her toward the stream.
Stumbling away, Colleen wiped the side of her face with her sleeve. If someone didn’t soon find her, she was pretty sure she knew what would eventually happen.
An entire night of searching turned up no sign of Colleen or her captors. Many of the townspeople were starting to think she wouldn’t be found.
Andrew, haggard and wild-eyed, only returned to town long enough for supplies before returning to the search. A subdued, determined Mathew behind him. Sully and Michaela only stayed a little longer to check on Katie and make sure that Grace could continue to watch her.
Colleen moved slowly around camp. Her still numb fingers clumsy as they worked to cook the men breakfast. She was keenly aware of John’s lascivious stare as she did so. Fortunately, he kept his distance.
“What are you going to do with me?” she asked as she handed the men their scraped tin plates piled with beans and stale bread. She didn’t dare make up a plate for herself, fearing their anger if she tried.
Standing up, Sam began to work the tie free at the waist of her trousers. With a disgusted look, he told his friend, “Watch her, I’ll be back.”
“You’re going to get our brother out of jail,” John responded after Sam had walked into the trees.
At her blank look, John continued, “Jack Everly. Your scum brother locked him up two months ago. We tried to break him free, but we couldn’t. Even tried bribin’ the guards but they wouldn’t take it.”
He paused to spit and take a swallow of the bitter coffee. “So we figure if we got you, your brother’ll let him out. After we deliver our demands this afternoon, it’ll be no time and our kin’ll be free. But, maybe we can have some fun while we wait,” he continued, advancing toward her.
A little bit more than an hour after they left camp, Sully spotted what looked like an old campfire.
“It’s cold. Looks like it’s been a couple of days since anyone was here,” Sully said with a glance around the fire. “Could be the same ones that got Colleen.”
Walking around the camp, they found many sets of tracks leading to and from the camp.
“Looks like they were here at least a couple of days. No telling which way they went this time. Too many tracks,” Sully told the hopeful Michaela. “We’ll have to split up now. Mathew, you and Andrew head North. Michaela and me’ll go South. One of us should find them.”
Wearily, the four made their way out of the camp again. But this time there was hope in their hearts-at least they had a lead.
Colleen backed up as the man advanced on her. He was now close enough that she could feel his foul breath on her face. Grabbing her face in one hand, he forced her face to his and roughly kissed her. Gagging in revulsion, Colleen tried to turn her face away from the wet, insistent lips but he was too strong. Squeezing her face hard and forcing her mouth open and shoved his tongue inside. She bit down hard.
“Bitch!” he screamed as he jerked back.
A backhand across her face sent her reeling to the ground.
He climbed on top of her, holding her hands in one of his and straddling her.
A jerk with his fist ripped the rest of the dress and she was free almost to the waist. Then he leaned down to kiss her, while bunching up the skirt of her dress with his free hand.
Colleen knew despair as she realized that she was going to be raped. And there was nothing she could do about it. Then suddenly, she was free as the man on top of her flew backwards. She scrambled upwards, clutching her dress, as she saw him rolling across the ground fighting with Matthew. They’d found her! Looking past the two fighting on the ground, she saw Andrew rushing toward her.
Then her arms were grabbed and she was crushed to Andrew’s chest.
Sobbing frantically, she clutched him tightly as he cried and rocked her, whispering “You’re safe now.” Matthew had knocked his opponent out and was now tying him with a length of rope he carried on his belt.
As Andrew helped Colleen to her feet, she noticed a movement in the trees behind him. Sam! As if in a dream, Colleen saw him point his gun at Andrew’s back and tighten his finger on the trigger. The hours of capture, the abuse and the terror gave her strength as she pushed Andrew to the side as the shot was fired.
“Colleen!” She heard the scream as she crumpled to the ground. Just before she passed out, she heard a second shot and knew that Matthew had drawn his weapon and had fired, too.
“I hope Matthew killed him,” was her last thought, then darkness.
They found the camp just in time to hear the man tell Colleen about their brother. Matthew stopped Andrew as he tried to rush forward to save her. Matthew knew the dangers of just rushing into a situation without being sure what they were walking into.
“Not yet, we have to make sure he can’t hurt Colleen until we can get to her,” he whispered to the other man. “Looks like he’s alone.”
They watched saw as the man moved toward Colleen and saw him grab her. When he hit her, Matthew saw red, forgot all his good sense and rushed the man on top of Colleen. Andrew ran across the clearing to Colleen. Weak with relief, he pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly to him.
Andrew drew a deep breath. He’d seen the bruises on her face as he rushed to her and seeing the man on her fueled his worst fear. But he knew that physically she was okay-the man hadn’t had time to finish what he’d started. If only he could be sure she would be okay emotionally. Then he helped her to her feet, keeping his hands on her arms to ensure she could stand, all the while telling her how happy he was they’d found her that she was safe now.
He never saw the man behind him, just felt the shove Colleen dealt to his chest. In horror he heard the shot, saw her stagger back and fall to the ground.
“Colleen!”
