Save the Next Dance

Ellie smiled at Louise as she spiraled past her well disguised friend. There had been a few curious looks when the two had entered but folks were always passing through these parts so they were soon forgotten and able to disappear in the crowd. Louise was radiant, Kid had finally asked her after overhearing Rachel lamenting to Lou that it was such a pretty dress and what a shame she had no partner to take her. How could she possibly have known that Kid had just walked up the steps and overhead her comments, Rachel shrugged with innocence when Louise accused her of setting up the situation. Not that she really minded Rachel's help, but it did sound somewhat contrived to her. If the Kid had noticed he made no sign of it.

Jimmy was an attentive if awkward dancer. He kept in time, missed her feet most of the time but he lacked fluency in his movements, nevertheless Eleanor enjoyed his company. She had almost forgotten about Billy until a girl came up to Jimmy and asked where he was. Jimmy told her that Cody was on a run and was sorry to miss the dance. When the girl had returned to her friends to convey her findings Eleanor raised her eyebrows at Jimmy.

"That's Mary Ellen Curtis" he explained "Cody usually dances with her".

Eleanor nodded "I gathered that. Is he ok?"

"About me taking you to the dance?" Eleanor nodded "Yeah, I think so. He's been kinda strange lately. He keeps having a dream and wakes up yelling."

"What about?"

"Don't know. He can't remember when he wakes up" Jimmy shrugged his shoulders.

"Or doesn't want to" thought Eleanor remembering the dreams she had after her mother died.

"Jimmy, I believe its my turn to dance with this fine young lady" Teaspoon bowed to Eleanor.

"Aw Teaspoon, why don't you go and dance with Lou..L..Lilian" complained Jimmy.

"Because Kid won't let me." Teaspoon winked at Eleanor.

"Great so I'm an easy beat?" Jimmy rolled his eyes.

Teaspoon grabbed Eleanor's hand "Like taking candy from a baby!"

"And about as honorable" Jimmy grumbled as he went to find something to eat.

"That was so much fun" exclaimed Eleanor as she collapsed into a chair back at Rachel's.

"I'm glad you had a good time" Rachel watched the young woman noticing her eyes sparkling with a new light. "How about you Louise?"

"Oh Rachel, tomorrow is going to be so hard after tonight."

"I wish we had a dance every night" Eleanor threw her arms out dramatically.

Louise eyed her narrowly "My feet don't think much of that idea. If I have to dance again this side of Christmas I swear they will curl up and fall off!"

"Well girls, I'm going to bed. Louise you can stay a while and talk with Eleanor if you want" Rachel eased herself up slowly and stifled a yawn as she left the room.

"It's almost 11:30" Lou whispered looking at the clock on the mantle.

"Yikes, we gotta get changed quick."

They lead the horses away from the station away before mounting them for fear of being heard. Eleanor checked her pocket for the money, $15 was all she had but that should last Teddy awhile she hoped.

They rode in silence, grateful for the bright moon and few clouds. Eleanor jumped at every sound but Louise was used to the trails at night and was far more comfortable so she took the lead.

Eleanor felt her horse slipping and let out a cry causing Louise to stop. "You ok?" she half whispered.

"Yeah... I think so, he just lost his footing. I hate this!" Eleanor whispered back.

"You sure you're going to be alright on your own?"

"No but I need you in case something goes wrong to ride in and rescue me," Eleanor attempted to joke.

After what felt like years they reached the bend. "Carry on around the path but keep close to the bank so you don't slip down the gully" Louise explained.

"And I won't be spotted so easily," Eleanor thought to herself not wanting to worry her friend.

"You'll see the cave just before the trail starts to rise."

"Ok, I should be back in half hour or so" Eleanor took a deep breath to steady her nerves, it had been so long since she had seen her brother she wasn't quite sure how she would react to seeing him.

The path was darker around here and she could hear night creatures calling nearby and things moving in the undergrowth. She doubted her legs would hold her when the time came to dismount her horse.

She froze listening to the beating of her heart, if it wasn't for the fact that she could feel it pounding in her chest she'd have sworn that the noise came from Indian drums. Slowly she resumed her midnight trek. Ahead she could see a darker spot on the side of the bank. It was still too far to tell if it was the cave, she pulled herself closer to the bank aware that she had drifted out while listening to her heart beating.

The dark entrance of the cave loomed ahead. As she drew closer she could make out a faint glow from a fire somewhere within. "Teddy" she thought. She slid cautiously from her horse testing the strength of her knees. Upon finding herself still in an upright position she listened to the noises around her while removing the pistol from her belt, nothing unusual. She released her breath in relief then began to enter the cave.

She saw him slouched against the wall near the fire. "Teddy are you..."

"Ellie get out" his voice was weak and the left side of his face bruised and swollen.

"What?" suddenly her she heard a crack and her head began to pound. She slumped to the ground in pain and confusion "Teddy..."she cried weakly as she lost consciousness.

Teddy grabbed the gun she had dropped on impact and fired into the dark in the direction of his foe and his sister's attackers. A groan from one told him that he had winged one of them then the butt end of a rifle crashed against his brow knocked him out too.

"Come on Lightening. Move it!" Louise hissed at her horse. She had headed back for town after hearing the gunshots, about six she thought. Were they all from the same gun or not. Who had fired them? She knew Ellie had a gun with her and if it was her then something was terribly wrong and if it wasn't her then....Louise didn't want to contemplate what that might mean. She slowed at the end of town wondering who to get. Eleanor wasn't quite sure how to explain to Jack Cicely why they hadn't informed him of the letter and Teaspoon was a lawman and if Teddy was running from the law then.... but Ellie was in trouble. She rode towards Teaspoon's shaking with fear. As she got closer a figure rose from the steps of the Bunkhouse, she'd been seen she realised but who'd be sitting out there at this time of night? Of course! Who was most likely to have trouble sleeping tonight?

"Cody!" she gasped "You gotta help I heard gun shots but I don't know who shot them but its not right she's in trouble I rode back..."

Cody grabbed the reins and pulled her from the horse "What? You've gotta slow down Lou, I don't know what you're on about. Oh my god it's Ellie! She's in trouble isn't she!"

Lou nodded breathlessly, Cody squeezed her arms "Where is she?" he released her when she winced in pain.

"Stony Pass. Teddy's there too I think."

"What the hell were you...no never mind," he grabbed a horse and mounted bareback then realized that he was still in his underwear and unarmed "Damn" he swore "Saddle her for me will you" he raced into the bunkhouse to dress.

The two sped into the night, Cody at a speed that Lou struggled to keep up with. At the bend they slowed.

"How many were there?" he demanded.

"I don't know, I heard about six shots but it may have come from Ellie".

"I can't believe you let her do this!" he accused "Do you know what her brother is?"

Lou nodded, afraid of the lump in her throat giving way to tears "She wanted to go alone and I wouldn't let her," she attempted as justification.

"You should have stopped her," he continued.

"Could you have stopped her?" Lou asked softly.

Cody looked at her and realized how hard he was being on her "Probably not" he put his arm around her and pulled her towards him "Head strong cuss that she is!"

"I'm sorry Cody," she apologized weakly.

"It's not your fault. Come on lets go have a look in that cave."

"Ellie? Teddy?" Cody's voice echoed in the darkness. Horse hooves in the distance caused them both to stop then Cody raced into the cave expecting to be met with emptiness. A groan from the back drew him over towards the smothered embers of what had been a fire.

"Ellie... they took my sister," the bloodied figure whispered.

"Where Teddy? Damn it where did they go?" demanded Cody.

"Billy?" he squinted through his rapidly swelling eyes. "They tried to kill me, they took her."

"Yeah it's me and if you don't hurry up and tell me who they are and where they're headed I'll finish you off for them!" he threatened.

"Gaston's Army," he wheezed, "camp by Lone Tree .."

"Valley?" Cody finished for him "Gaston's Army? Aren't they the ones you ride with?" Teddy nodded. "Great loyalty!" he hissed "Come on Lou, lets find Ellie." he moved towards the entrance.

"But what about him? He's badly injured, we can't just leave him here" Lou began to protest.

"You want a bet!" Cody strode out into the night.

Louise turned to the injured man "I'll send help as soon as I can" she apologized.

Teddy shook his head "Find Ellie... get her safe ...tell Billy I'm sorry."

Lou nodded and followed Cody out to their horses.

"Jimmy, do you know where Eleanor is?" asked Rachel, wondering where her house guest could have disappeared to so early in the morning, and after a late night out too.

"Nope" he shrugged "Lou never came in last night, she must have stayed at your place too."

"Hmm, I don't know where. Goodness knows what those two have got up to, they're like a couple of giggling little girls when they are together!" Rachel wiped her hands on her apron.

"Cody's not around either," observed Buck.

"I can't imagine he'd be with them," Jimmy grinned.

Kid staggered over to join them. "I had this weird dream last night..."

"Oh don't you start!" warned Jimmy, "Cody's antics are quite enough for one Bunkhouse don't you think!"

"Seriously Jimmy, I dreamed that I heard a horse gallop up then Cody came back in his underwear and got dressed and then rode off again. It seemed so real."

"Maybe it was" Buck stood from the crouch he was in "there was a lot of activity around here last night...looks as though one horse rode in and two rode out."

"There's some more fresh tracks over here, with footprints," observed Jimmy.

"Mmm, look about the right size for two young ladies...anyone care to guess who that might be?" Buck asked.

"But why were they leading the horses?" queried Rachel.

There was silence for a moment. "So they wouldn't be heard?" suggested Noah who had been quietly observing by the barn.

"One of them came back and meet up with what looks like Cody," Buck informed them "they were moving pretty fast".

"So what does all that mean?" puzzled Rachel.

"Hard to say" shrugged Buck "but my guess is that Lou and Ellie rode off somewhere, one of them, probably Ellie got into some sort of trouble so Lou came back to get Cody."

"Oh God," Rachel closed her eyes "someone better get Teaspoon."

"I'd like to know what in God's name possessed the two of them to go riding around out there in the middle of the night, alone!" exclaimed Teaspoon examining the tracks for himself. "Do any of you know about that letter Lou took to Ellie yesterday?"

"What letter Teaspoon?" asked Jimmy.

"I don't exactly know, just that someone brought it over yesterday afternoon and gave it to Lou for Ellie and Lou was hell-bent on getting it to her right there and then."

Teaspoon walked over to the other set of tracks "Never mind, that's not important right now. What's more important is that one or all of them could be in some sort of trouble and we need to find them. Buck, Jimmy, Kid, you boys don't have a run for a while, I want you to follow the tracks and see if you can find out anything."

"Cody! Down there!" Lou pointed to a group of people by a large rock. It was quite late in the morning when they found the camp as they had not got far trying to follow the track in the middle of the night. Neither had slept but neither had spoken much either.

"Can you see Ellie?" Cody asked anxiously.

"Nope...unless that is her over there by the mound."

"I think it is. Looks like they are taking something to her. At least we know she's alive still," he solemnly stated.

"There's no way we can get to her. There's no cover between us and them. We'll have to wait till night to try."

"Why wait? Two, three... there's only four that I can see. That's a reasonable chance the way I see it," noted Cody.

"And a reasonable chance that one of them will shoot her before we get a chance to get all of them. We've only got one rifle Cody!"

Cody sighed in defeat. "Maybe one of us should ride back and get help." suggested Lou.

"You can go if you want. I'm staying here."

Lou nodded and crept back to her horse.

"He's hurt pretty bad," observed Kid as Buck and Jimmy tried to move the man towards the cave entrance.

"What's your name?" demanded Jimmy.

"Ed..Edward Cicely" he stammered.

"You're Ellie's brother?" asked Jimmy in astonishment "You sent that letter to her!"

Teddy nodded "Ellie, they took Ellie, Billy's looking for her."

The three riders glanced at each other. "Was there someone with Cody..er..Billy?" asked Kid.

Teddy nodded again weakly.

"We better get him back, he needs a doctor," suggested Buck.

"I'll take him" offered Jimmy "and we'd better let Teaspoon and Jack know what's happened." Teddy flinched at his Father's name but was too weak to say anything else.

They helped Teddy onto Jimmy's horse then Buck and Kid went about tracking those who had gone before them.

"I think they went this way" Buck pointed towards the South then bent to re-examine the prints "It's a little messed up". They had been riding for close to an hour and the sun was becoming fierce.

"Someone's coming" Kid pointed in the same direction that Buck had been pointing moments before and began to put his hand on his gun then stopped. "Looks like Lou!"

"It is! Lou where are the others? Are they alright?" Buck quizzed her.

"Cody's fine. Teddy's old gang has Ellie, we think she's ok. Cody's watching her."

"Lets go" Buck mounted his horse and the others followed. On the way Lou filled them in on the bits they hadn't already worked out.

"But what do they want with Ellie?" Kid asked.

"Don't know exactly. Cody thinks they may be using her for some sort of exchange," explained Lou.

"You mean Teddy has something that they want" Kid said.

"Or knows something," Buck added.

"I guess" sighed Lou.

Cody was so intent in his observations that he didn't realize Lou and the others were there until Buck asked him what was happening. Consensus was that Ellie wasn't in any immediate danger so it was probably best to leave it until night to try to get her.

"You sure you're alright Lou?" worried Kid when Lou stood up and walked over to where Cody was sitting for the fourth time in 30 minutes.

Lou shook her head "I should never have let her go into that cave by herself. I should have tried to stop her when she first got the letter. I didn't even try Kid, I just let her plan it. It seemed kind of fun to have an adventure of our own, without you boys for once."

"It's not your fault Lou" comforted Kid "We've all known Ellie long enough to know how she feels about her brother regardless of what others think of him. She looks to me like she can be mighty stubborn too when she gets it to mind to do something." Lou nodded despairingly "That's probably why you two became friends so quick, two of a kind?" teased Kid.

Buck wandered over to Cody "Why don't you go and rest a bit. There's nothing you can do for now and she's going to need you to be awake tonight if we are going to rescue her."

"I can't Buck. I know its useless but at least I can see that she's ok. I couldn't face telling Jack if anything happened to her, she's all he's got left," Cody sighed.

"You doing this for Jack or you?"

Cody glanced at Buck blankly then resumed his observation of Ellie and her captors. Buck returned to the others.

"Is he ok?" asked Kid.

"Bout the same as you'd be if it were Lou down there"

Kid glanced over at Lou who had fallen asleep in the shade and felt slightly guilty for being pleased that she was here by him and not down there in the camp instead of Ellie.

Lou stirred and sat up "Someone's coming," she yawned "I can feel the horses through the ground."

Buck moved to higher ground "Its Teaspoon and Jimmy and..." he squinted into the sun, "Jack."

"Cody, Lou, are you alright?" Teaspoon dismounted his horse "What about Eleanor?" he asked after they replied with a nod to his first question.

"She's down there Teaspoon," Cody pointed to the boulder.

"Yeah I see her" nodded Teaspoon "Lord knows how we can get her from there!"

"Is she hurt?" asked Jack.

"I don't think so" replied Cody "they've been feeding her."

"We thought we could get her at night," explained Lou. They others filled Teaspoon in on their plan for after dark.

"That might just work," agreed Teaspoon "one thing's for sure, it's too risky to try firing on them from here. There's no way of knowing how they'd react."

"Is that all of them?" asked Jack.

"No there's one more asleep by the wagon" explained Cody.

"That still only makes four" counted Teaspoon. "What do you know about them? Edward couldn't tell us much."

"Is he alright?" queried Lou.

"Doctor said he'd pull through" Jack said with a hint of anger in his voice.

"Figures" muttered Cody. "They're part of Gaston's Army, the group Teddy was riding with."

"How do you know that son?" asked Teaspoon.

"I ran into some of them in Blue Creek just after I started riding for the Express and heard that Teddy was riding with them."

"Sound's like Teddy's got himself into a whole lot of trouble then if his gang has turned against him" Teaspoon exchanged looks with Jack.

"Teaspoon, there's no way that is all of Gaston's Army down there" pointed out Jimmy "even if we do rescue Ellie tonight there's nothing to say that the rest are going to leave the Cicely's alone. Especially if Teddy has something they want".

"Yep, I know that but we gotta take one thing at a time and right now that thing is getting Ellie out of there safely. The rest we can worry about later." Teaspoon looked at the camp and shook his head then sat back down under the shade.

"I vote we give them Teddy" Cody muttered to himself then realized Jack was beside him "Sorry Sir, I know he's your son and all but that's just the way I feel right now. Teddy made a choice to get involved with these people, you and Ellie didn't."

Jack patted Cody on the back "I understand how you feel William. Truth is, part of me feels the same way, but the other part reminds me that Teddy is still my son".

"Shh!" Cody warned Lou as she trod on a twig then he almost tumbled over after standing in a shallow hole. Had it not been such a grave situation Lou would have laughed at his stumble. Jimmy followed behind keeping a close eye on the sleeping figures with one eye and looking out for inconsistencies in the ground underfoot with the other eye.

Cody prodded Lou to complete the approach towards Eleanor alone. Once closer Lou could see Ellie's teeth beaming white in the minimal light. "She's tied up in a camp with outlaws and she's still got the composure to smile!" wondered Lou to herself.

Ellie steadily turned her back to Lou without making a sound so Louise could cut her bonds from her hands. Once her feet were freed the two quickly made their way back to Jimmy and Cody who had their guns trained on the sleeping figures. They retreated silently back to the covering, each listening to their own heart beating while watching that none of the men awoke. Back in safety Eleanor ran to embrace her father. Jack cradled his daughter's chin examining her bruised face in the moonlight.

The others followed Teaspoon back to the camp, where with the advantage of number and sleep, they easily secured Eleanor's kidnappers and were almost back to Rock Creek by sunrise without a shot being fired. "A good night's work" reflected Teaspoon to himself.

Once the Doctor had administered the required assistance to Eleanor and announced that she was in remarkably good shape considering her ordeal, he prescribed a large amount of sleep to her. Eleanor wrinkled her nose at this verdict, she was tired, no utterly exhausted, but she had so many things she wanted to say to people. Her captors had given her food and water but after they realized that she knew nothing they hadn't allowed her to talk and she was almost bursting with words but her father would have none of it. She was ushered off to bed like a child, with warm milk and told to stay there and rest.

Teaspoon looked at the four angry faces behind the bars and wandered outside knowing that the battle had not yet been won.

To be continued...Chapter VII

Copyright 1998-This work is not to be reproduced without the permission of the author

The Way Station
Campfire Tales

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