The Enchanted Land

  “Had they hurt her?”

  John remembered Morgan standing nude, but he also remembered that Cat Man had not touched her, and that he had forbidden the others to bother her.

  “No, they hadn’t hurt her, but that Cat Man is evil.”

  “Did they do that to your leg?” Seth motioned to a wound that still seeped blood onto John’s pants.

  “This is the least of what they did to us.” Seth’s eyes followed John’s to the cabin, and understanding passed between the two men. “If you catch them, mister, I hope you kill them.”

  “I plan to.”

  Seth returned to his horse and mounted to leave.

  “They dressed her in boy’s clothes,” John said. “But she’ll still be easy to find when it’s known that she’s riding with that Cat Man.” Quickly, he described the men and their horses.

  As Seth prepared to leave, they shook hands and exchanged names. “I hope you get ’em,” John called after Seth.

  “I sure as hell do too,” he whispered into the darkness.

  Days later, as they came over a ridge and looked down at the little town, Morgan knew it was a mistake to even call the place a town. There were only five or six buildings, each looking as if it might fall down at any minute. A little apart from the other buildings stood a large white house. They started down the hill before she could see any more.

  “Cat Man! Good to see you again.”

  “Joe, honey, where you been so long?”

  Morgan looked around. The woman who had called to Joe was lounging in the doorway of a derelict, faded building. Her reddish hair was matted and filthy. Her dress revealed most of her sagging breasts. Morgan guessed that at one time the dress had been red and gold, but now stains and several unmended rips obscured the material. The woman returned Morgan’s stare boldly.

  “What you got here, Cat Man? Pretty little thing. Can I have her when you’re done?”

  Morgan felt a rubbery palm on her leg, and looked down to see a short, fat man, with a large nose and thick, protruding lips, staring at her. His greasy hand was caressing her thigh. Quickly she jerked her leg up and out to kick him hard in the chest, just at the base of the neck.

  Unprepared for the blow, he landed sitting in the dust and refuse of the street. In front of her she heard Cat Man’s low chuckling.

  “That serves you right, Luke. Keep your hands off from now on. She’s the Boss’s woman.”

  Morgan heard laughter from the other people as they watched the fat man pick himself up from the dirt. She shuddered at the hate-filled look he sent her.

  Several people had come out to see the little procession, and they all seemed to know the three men. There was much interest in Morgan.

  “You say she’s for Boss? I bet Boss’s Nancy ain’t gonna like that.”

  The four riders rode out of the tiny town to the white house that Morgan had glimpsed briefly from the hill. The townspeople did not follow them to this house.

  It was two stories high and very well kept. A porch ran around two sides of the house, and the second story had a large, round turret on one corner, with a conical roof. Everything was trimmed in brilliant green, making a sharp contrast with the stark surroundings.

  At a motion from Cat Man, Morgan threw one leg over the saddle and slid to the ground. She was so tired that it seemed as if none of this were really happening to her. She moved automatically, and felt very little.

  The front door was unlocked, and Cat Man led Morgan into a spacious entryway and up a wide, carpeted stairway. She had a brief sight of carved furniture and lush red curtains.

  To the right at the top of the stairs was a door, and Cat Man opened it to reveal a large, bright room. Against one wall was a spacious fourposter bed, draped in a silky, white fabric. There were sprigs of sea-green flowers all over it. The carpet, walls, and the rest of the room echoed the colors of the pale green and white. The room was refreshing and inviting.

  At Cat Man’s hand on her arm, she stiffened. His cat-laugh sounded low in her ear, and he jerked her to a mirror over a chintz-covered dresser. She was startled by the sight of herself. She was as dirty and unkempt as the woman she had seen in the town. Her face was smudged, and her eyelids drooped. But what caused her to gasp was the sight of her own body in the tight pants and shirt. Her breasts strained against the fabric, and her nipples stood out taut and rigid. There was a gap between two buttons exposing the curve and roundness of her breasts. The pants fitted sleekly over her thighs, and the belt showed off the roundness of her hips.

  “Like yourself, don’t you?” Could Cat Man read her mind? His hand caressed her thigh. “Too bad I said I’d give you to Boss,” he murmured. “But he’s not too happy with me now, and I know what he likes.” His hand lightly cupped her breast, and the thumb moved over the already taut peak. “I think he’ll be real grateful to me.”

  He moved his face close to hers as if to kiss her, and she turned her face away. She heard his warning growl in her ear.

  “That’s all right, little princess. You think you’re so good now, but a few months with Boss Martin will change your mind.”

  He moved away from her. “We’ll stay here two days. Then we leave. I want you to get some sleep. Tomorrow you’ll have a bath. If I took you to Boss now, he’d think you were a polecat.”

  She looked for something to throw at him.

  “Don’t.” His voice was deadly, and after the last spurt of energy, Morgan realized how tired she was. She had been insulted too much to let another taunt hurt her.

  “Now get some sleep, and don’t try anything.” His eyes went to the open window. “If you should get out, you’d be facing Luke, and I don’t think he’d treat you with respect.”

  Morgan felt chills on her back as she remembered the fat, dirty man pawing her leg. Cat Man had made his point.

  When Cat Man left the room, all ideas of flight left Morgan. The room was cool, and the green-and-white bed beckoned. She removed her boots, her pants, and then the tight shirt. As she crawled into bed, she marveled at the difference between men’s and women’s clothing. Women had to wear so much more than men.

  The sheets were cool and clean, and felt good to her bruised and chapped body. She was so tired that she didn’t even mind the dirt on her body. Cat Man was right—she did smell terrible. Just before she drifted into an exhausted sleep, she saw Seth’s smiling face, saw him standing with his arms extended to her.

  When she first awoke to the sounds of Ben and Joe’s voices just outside her door, she thought she had been asleep only a few minutes. The sun was low in the sky and slanting across the thick, green carpet.

  “Watch where you’re goin’! You hit me in the leg with this thing.”

  “I don’t see why we have to carry this up here anyway. Who the hell wants to take a bath?”

  Morgan still wasn’t awake when the door opened to admit Joe and Ben carrying a large copper bathtub. Morgan turned over on her side, pulling the sprigged sheet to her neck.

  They put the tub down in the center of the room and turned toward her. At the sight of Morgan’s lush curves, covered only by a sheet, the frowns left their faces.

  “I sure would like to climb in there with that little girl.” Joe took a step toward the bed, but Ben grabbed his arm.

  “Let’s go get the water.”

  In a few minutes they came back with four large buckets of hot water, and poured it into the tub. When the two men left, Morgan nearly ran to step into the steaming water. She lay perfectly still for several minutes, allowing her body to luxuriate in the hot water. Gradually, she became aware of her surroundings again, and began to scour her body and hair. As she scrubbed, she noticed that clean, fluffy towels had been placed in the room, and that her shirt and pants were clean, and had been draped across the end of the bed.

  Now she realized that she must have slept for twenty-four hours, an entire night and day! Her mind was less cloudy. She began to think.

  Somehow, she must escape. What wou
ld Seth want her to do? He would probably tell her to stay where she was until he could come for her. But she wasn’t really sure that he could find her.

  The door opened, and Morgan turned quickly toward the sound. An old woman came in and stood with bowed head at the foot of the tub.

  “What do you want?”

  The little woman kept her head lowered. Her dark hair was greasy, her dress torn and unwashed.

  “What do you want?” Morgan asked again. When the woman didn’t answer, Morgan shrugged, stepped out of the tub, and wrapped herself in a large, white towel. Silently, the old woman began filling buckets with the bath water. After several trips downstairs, she had emptied the tub.

  Morgan sat in front of the mirror over the dressing table and combed the tangles out of her clean hair. “Seth, please come,” she whispered to her reflection.

  Quickly she dressed in the clean shirt and pants. The soft cotton fabric felt good against her skin. As she looked at herself in the full-length mirror, she wondered what Seth would think of her in the shape-hugging clothes. She ran her hands down her body, watching the points of her breasts come alive.

  The sound of the door opening startled her. “Ben’d be real good to you, honey.”

  Morgan jerked the door open wider and stepped past Ben into the corridor. One dirty hand caressed her hip as she hurried past him.

  “You look so much better now, little Morgan.” Cat Man smiled at her. “Now my gift will be appreciated.” His slanted eyes devoured her body, and Morgan felt her face growing hot. He ran a thin finger down her cheek. She turned her face away.

  “Why don’t you let me go? I’ve never harmed you. Let me go.” Her voice was pleading.

  Cat Man was dressed in black, and the color emphasized his yellow eyes. He took her hand and led her into the dining room, where a table was set with a large meal. He pulled out a chair for Morgan, and when she was seated, he took a chair beside her.

  “You will find, Morgan, that often beautiful women’s lives are ruled by their faces and their figures more than by their own minds. You are a woman to be owned—a woman to love, a woman to fight for, possibly to die for.”

  “You talk nonsense. I’m not beautiful, and I never will be. All my life people have told me how plain I am. Why do you talk this way?”

  Cat Man’s eyes widened for just a second. “It’s difficult to imagine that anyone could be so blind.” He reached for a buttered roll. “But then, I have seen you with a look of great sadness. Possibly your expression, the dress you wore at first, and the way you did your hair have all concealed your beauty. But it is difficult to believe, even so.”

  Cat Man continued eating. “The food is excellent. Would you like some wine?” he asked, as he filled her glass. She realized she was ravenous. Without another word she began eating the largest meal she had ever consumed.

  Seth watched the town from the ridge above it. He had been tracking Morgan’s captors for seven days, and now that he knew he was so close, he decided to rest awhile before he attempted her rescue. He needed strength. He knew from the looks of it that he’d get no help from anyone there.

  There were no riders coming into the town, and Seth knew that his appearance would cause some speculation. He had followed the outlaws to the town early that morning, and knew they could not have arrived much before the previous evening. As he pulled his hat over his eyes and went to sleep, Morgan also slept. It would be hours before she woke to a hot bath and dinner with Cat Man.

  He awoke when the sun was low, and he quickly made his way down the hill into the town. As he had conjectured, his appearance caused a stir. Casually, he tied his horse to the post in front of the saloon. He ordered a beer, and made his way to the back of the dirty room to an even dirtier table.

  After a few moments of staring, the group began to lose interest in the stranger and returned to their own talk. Seth leaned his chair against the wall, sipped his beer, and watched.

  He listened carefully to a group in a corner near him. He heard the name “Boss” mentioned several times, and then “Boss’s woman” and loud laughter.

  “You mind if I sit down, or you savin’ this seat?”

  Seth looked up to see a woman with red hair staring at him. Her eyes and lips were heavily painted, and she smelled strongly of perfume over her unwashed body. She could have been thirty or fifty. She eyed Seth with wariness. Seth wondered what could have caused her such fear.

  “I’d be pleased to have you.” At the gentle tone of his voice, the woman’s look of caution increased. “Could I buy you a beer?” Mutely, the woman nodded.

  “Barkeep! A beer for the lady.”

  The others in the bar turned toward Seth. They laughed. “You sure are a stranger, mister. Janie’s a lot of things, but she sure ain’t no lady.”

  “You don’t know nothin’ about a lady, Luke. That one yesterday sure set you on your ass,” the woman beside Seth answered.

  “Why, you!” The fat man came out of his chair toward the woman. She rose also, hands and fingers made into claws.

  “I’d hate to have to defend the lady’s honor.” Seth’s eyes narrowed, and his voice was steel. The fat man stopped and appraised the stranger.

  “Come on back, Luke. She ain’t worth a fight.”

  Luke relaxed his shoulders and smiled. “You’re right, boys. Sorry to have bothered you, mister.” He didn’t want to fight with the enormous stranger. He turned his back on Seth, and returned to his table. “You’re right, that whore ain’t worth anything,” he tossed over his shoulder like a child who had lost an argument.

  “Thanks a lot, mister.” Her eyes were adoring now.

  “I just don’t like to see a lady’s name maligned.” He emphasized the “lady.”

  The bartender brought Janie’s beer, and she drank half of it down in one noisy swallow. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and looked at Seth. “You stayin’ here long?”

  “That depends.”

  “On what?” Her eyes and voice were eager.

  “I’ve been hearin’ that there’s a big outfit working out of here, and I might be interested.”

  “You a lawman?”

  Seth laughed derisively, held out his hand, and ran a finger across the curves of her breasts. “Do I look like a lawman?”

  Janie had had her first man when she was twelve years old, and had long ago lost any feeling about the things men had done to her body. Yet, once, when she was sixteen, there had been a boy, a big, strong, clean, farm boy who had been good to her. He had wanted to marry Janie. He would have, too, if his mother hadn’t found out how Janie had been supporting herself for four years.

  Janie remembered the boy with affection, and Seth’s kindness to her made her feel a sensation she had thought long dead.

  She gazed up at him, hunger apparent in her eyes. “I reckon you don’t look like a lawman.” She paused. “I sure do like big men.”

  Seth leaned closer to her, seeing more clearly the cracks in the heavy makeup she wore. “Well, I got me a partiality to women—all of ’em.” She opened her mouth to speak, and Seth smelled the stale odor of her breath.

  “Anything you want, mister, and it’s yours. It’d be my pleasure.” She fluttered skimpy eyelashes at him.

  Seth smiled knowingly at her. “What about this Boss I keep hearin’ about?” He motioned his head slightly at Luke and the other men nearby.

  Janie looked around to make sure no one could hear. She leaned toward Seth. “Boss Martin’s the leader. He don’t come to town much, but when he does, he stays in that big white house at the end of the road.”

  “Well, Janie.” He put his hand on her arm. “How could I get in touch with this Boss Martin?”

  Janie put her hand over Seth’s big one. “Cat Man rode in yesterday, and is stayin’ at the Boss’s house.”

  “Cat Man?”

  Janie shivered. “Yeah, he looks like a cat—real slanty eyes. Walks like one, too. None of the girls like to go upstairs with hi
m. I thought he was goin’ to kill me one time.” Janie smiled. “But this time he brought his own woman. Dressed her up like a boy and took her down to Boss’s house. She’s a real snooty bitch, but nobody deserves what Cat Man does to a woman.”

  Seth worked the muscles in his jaw. “This woman he brought—what’d she look like?”

  Janie frowned and looked at Seth, but he was staring across the bar, away from her, his eyes seeing nothing. “Yella hair … little, like a kid. What you want to know for? You interested in her?” Janie’s voice was hostile.

  Seth turned to her and smiled, showing his even, white teeth, and the long dimples in his cheeks. “I was just wondering what somebody’d bring into town, when they already had so much here.”

  Janie smiled back at him, showing a broken tooth on the left side of her mouth.

  Seth drained his beer. “I got to be goin’ now.”

  “Don’t go yet, mister. I don’t even know your name.” She followed him to the door, hanging onto his arm. “I told you I’d give you whatever you want.” She smiled up at him, coquettishly. “Tell me, is all of you as big as your arm?”

  “It sure is, honey.” He pinched her earlobe and left her.

  Seth rode out of town past the big, white house. There were two men on the porch, both drinking and arguing loudly. Neither fit the description of Cat Man.

  Seth tied his horse not far from the back of the house, hidden halfway down the side of a deep arroyo. When it was completely dark, he made his way down to the house.

  “I don’t know why Cat Man has to take so goddamn long, and why one of us ain’t enough to stay with the little girl. What are you laughin’ at?”

  “I’s just rememberin’ that woman in the cabin—on the way here.”

  “Yeah, she warn’t bad. Not bad at all.”

  Seth listened carefully. It seemed that there were only the two of them in the house. He listened a while longer to their bragging, and knew they were very drunk. Silently, he stepped through an open window. Through the open doorway across the hall, he could see both of the men in the lantern light. Remembering his promise to the raped woman’s husband, he regretted not being able to kill the men now, but marked them well for a later fate.