Ella awoke slowly and found she was lying in the middle of the same bed where she had been earlier. She tried moving her arms a little, just to get the blood moving. The covers underneath her felt gritty.

Oh! Was that something crawling? A spider?

A cold chill went through her and her body jerked. She was deathly afraid of spiders. She wanted to look, needed to look, but how? Her arms were going numb from their bindings. They had not been tied so securely earlier, but they felt much tighter now. At least they were in front of her. Small consolation, but she’d take it.

The sun had long since gone down, leaving the room chilled. She heard no sound in the room so she chanced to open her eyes and look around. It was dark, but after a minute, her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She could see the door and an old fireplace on the far wall. The fire had burned out long ago.

The bed smelled bad. No, it stunk. There was no telling what prizes it was bestowing on her hostage body. The thought of bedbugs—or any bug, sent a shudder through her. Something moved across her forehead--it had to be a spider. She rubbed her bound hands over her forehead as panic gripped her. Sweat soaked the back of her dress, and she fought to stay in control, aware her life might depend on being alert. Ella closed her eyes and took slow, even breaths.

Stay calm. Inhale. Exhale.

Turning her head, Ella noticed a window with a broken pane. Glass, or even the pane, might cut the ropes off. I have to get to the window.

How much time did she have? They mentioned finding someone to tend her wounds. How long could that take? And who would that be?

Ella listened to the footsteps and sounds outside the room. She recognized Jason. He sounded angry and loud. Another man sounded nervous. The door opened, slamming against the wall.

“Gunner, I will kill you if she doesn’t wake up.” Still raging, Jason stood over her. Ella willed her breathing as shallow as possible, feigning sleep. Angry she had not awakened, he huffed and stormed out the door, banging it shut behind him.

The door opened again, and another man entered. She dare not open her eyes, even a hair. She tried not to react to noises, but that last slam frightened her and she almost gave herself away. 

Ella heard his heavy breathing. Was this Gunner? He stood over her. She smelled him--his foul breath on her face and his dirty body assaulted her senses. He touched her face, smoothing her hair back, behind her ears.

 “I didn’t mean to hurt you bad.” He harrumphed. “I know you isn’t dead, but dat crazy man might make you wish it.” He said nothing else and left the room. She recognized him as the nervous one. 

She took a deep breath when the door crashed opened again. Jason. “You are a beauty.” His Creole voice sickened her. Ella struggled to breathe out slowly. She wanted to kick, yell, fight…anything but lie still. But she knew better.

Her captor touched her lips. His clumsy and heavy hand moved down the front of her dress. Shame threatened to burn her up. She tried to forget what he was doing to her.

He thinks I’m still passed out. Stay calm. She could feel her heart pulse in her throat. My gun is strapped to the other leg. Please God, don’t let me have one of my attacks right now.

Ella paid close attention to her breathing, keeping it slow and even. Trying not to cry or let him know she was awake was so hard. He stood over her prone form, lifting her dress enough to touch her inner thigh. 

“Damn dark room. I want to see your body. All those days wanting to touch you. You can’t move away now.” 

His sweaty smell was pungent. She knew that odor from riding into town close to him. It was hard to remain still when her nose needed immediate attention. She normally turned her head and covered her nose to avoid the stench, but he had her at a disadvantage this time.

God, please give me the strength to stay still and help me get away. Don’t let him see my gun…

His hands were all over her. He was touching her breasts. What was he going to do?

Oh, God. What do I do?

She lay perfectly still. Think of Jackson…his smile, his smell…so clean and wonderful. Would he know she was missing? Rage replaced fear. She wanted to slap Jason. How dare he abduct her! How dare he touch her!

If my brother finds out…if…I can just reach…

Ella strained but still couldn’t reach her gun. It was impossible without a free hand.

The bottom of her dress moved up again; he was looking at her. His hand inched up her inner leg. Her skin reacted to her fright, breaking out in goosebumps to what he planned.

If he doesn’t stop he will discover—

The front door to the cabin opened and slammed shut.

“What are you two stupid men doing?”  Jason shouted profanity in his native Creole at his partners and jerked her dress went down. She opened her eyes to see him leave, slamming the door closed behind him.

Bound or not, she had to escape. Jason would not leave her alone. She got up and went to the windowpane she had seen earlier. Jason’s shouts rose above the ruckus in the front room. She hurried back to the bed and tried to lie down, closing her eyes just enough to still see beneath her lashes.

“You bring her out of the sleep. You hear me, old woman? Make her well. Your life depends on it.” Jason pushed the door open and shoved Ol’ Indie inside and followed her.

Ol’ Indie watched Ella for a moment. Them reaching into her bag, she pulled out a small white jar of salve. “You men, you get outta here while I min’ster to de lady. Or you find someone else.”

“Don’t threaten me, sorcière. Wake her up. Now!” Jason pulled out a knife and jabbed the tip to the woman’s ribs. A trickle of blood stained the front of Ol’ Indie’s dress.

“You can threaten Ol’ Indie, but I need to be afeard you to be skeered. And, I ain’t skeered of you. I ain’t doing nothing ‘til you leave the room. Kill me now or get out.” Ol’ Indie held her ground, her eyes never leaving him.

“You think you need privacy? She’s out cold. She ain’t going anywhere.” Jason jeered at her.

“I am not afraid of you, Mista Overseer.” Ol’ Indie starred at Jason, saying her words slowly. “I know you been sniffing after des here girl. I seen you. But she be out and be injured bad. If ‘n you want me to care for her, you will leave da room.” Ol’ Indie’s fingers were behind her, fumbling in her skirts for something.

“Fine. Five minutes. Do what you need to do. We will be right here. Try anything funny, and I will kill you both.” Jason looked at his pocket watch. Satisfied that he knew the time, he nodded to the short black man, and the two of them left Ella and Ol’ Indie alone.

The door closed.

“I know you be awake, Miss Ella.” She lowered her voice to a soft whisper. “I see your eyes move. Girl, they gonna hurt both us if I can’t get dat cut on your head fixed right. That man, he a Devil man.” Ol’ Indie shook her head sympathetically as she looked at Ella.

“Where are we?” She tried to sit up and rub her head. “I hurt so bad, and my hands…” Ella wanted to cry, but choked out the words to Ol’ Indie’s sympathetic ears.

Ol’ Indie soothed as she talked, rubbing circles on her arms. “Mista Jason done stirred up a hornet with da colonel. Why your colonel is on his way with lots of men. They gonna find us. We just need to stay alive, you hear?” She rubbed Ella’s cold hands.

“Does Nolan know I’m gone?”

“You been missing a whole day, Miss Ella. De men—dey all looking for you.”

“Not…not Nolan. He can’t show himself. He will be arrested.”

Ol’ Indie gently pushed Ella’s head forward and examined the back. “He is okay. Don’t you worry about Massa Nole.” She harrumphed and moved her hands gently around Ella’s scalp. “Miss Ella, you got a powerful knot back here. Chile, you gonna have a bad headache. We need to keep you awake. Been practicing my cures long enough to know if you hit yo head like this, you betta not lie down to sleep. I know you just woke up.” She took a deep breath. “My heart ‘bout broke in two when I see my baby lying here.” She soothed Ella on the arm. “But then, I sees your eyes flutter a little…just a little…and I knows you was awake.”

Reaching into her pocket, Ol’ Indie withdrew a jar of something. She opened it up and dabbed her hand inside, withdrawing some of the foulest smelling stuff. “I’m gonna put this on the big cut on the back of your head, Miss Ella. Be still. It could sting a little, but it will help. Your head been bleeding, and I want to make sure this cut don’t get any worse. Heads bleed bad with a little cut. You are lucky it ain’t no bigger. I know it hurts.”

“Ol’ Indie, did you see where they have us? I recognize none of this. Pew! Why is it that everything I come into contact here stinks? My nose wants to cry.” Ella noticed Ol’ Indie’s blood-stained dress. “You are hurt!”

Ol’ Indie sniggered. “It’s gonna take more than a little cut to hurt Indie. And I got them thinking I do Black magic. Maybe that could help us.”

“But you never do magic anymore. And besides, it was always good magic. I will admit though; a little disappearing spell would be good about now.” Ella smiled at her old nurse.

“The tall black’un they call Hokum, he tried to blindfold me. Grabbed me when I was heading back to de house to see your brother. He wasn’t good at putting on an old blindfold. Reckon I’m too scary for him.” Indie tittered. “I ‘tol him I’d set a spell on him if he touched me. He grabbed me and then hurried and tied me up and let me go.” She cackled. “Den, he told me it wasn’t his idea to snatch me. I thought your disappearance and him getting me might be connected, so I came to be here with you.”

The old woman paused and motioned towards the door. “Des here cabin is on the property just outside your Papa’s land. It’s near de marsh at the back of de properties.”

Ella could not recall a cabin at the back of the adjoining property. Her head pounded in pain, making it hard to think. She knew the land. She and Nolan used to ride horses and had been everywhere, but she struggled to remember a cabin.

Ella was eager for more information. “Who lived in this old cabin, Ol’ Indie?” Ella shivered. “I declare, this bed is full of bugs. I hope you got something to get those bugs off us. It’s just awful. I had something crawling on me. And Jason, he put his hands under my clothes—all over me.” She flushed.

“Oh, Colonel Ross, he not gonna take kindly to anyone touching you.” She shushed her charge and tried to soothe her. “Dis here property, I think it’s the overseer’s hut off the next-door property. The Brices, your neighbors, dey didn’t do right by people. Dey had slaves, but Mista Brice, he was mean and nasty to them. He even kilt some, but tortured them, first.  These two -- I recognize them. They are from de Brice plantation.”

She paused a moment. “Massa Brice must have been real bad to dem for they to be working for de likes of Mista Jason.” She drawled the last words out slowly as if lost in thought.

“Anyways, I dropped some stuff on the way here—until we meet up with an old wagon. Hokum didn’t see me. I’m hoping dat Mista Jackson sees what I dropped. He surely will find us.”

* * *

The two women sat alone in the room for what seemed like a long time when Ella remembered the broken window. The panes were gone. It was their chance. " Ol’ Indie, help me to the window.”

“Miss Ella, he said five minutes. He’ll be back.”

“We must be quick then.”

Ella placed her binding over a jagged edge of glass and sawed. She felt the rope give way. One loop and then the other fell off.

Suddenly free, she reached under her dress and grabbed her gun, placing it in her pocket. Taking a log from the fireplace, she cleared the rest of the broken glass, while there was noise out front. “Come on. Let’s go before they come back.”

Ol’ Indie stepped behind Ella, but her focus was on the door. She mumbled a prayer as the two worked to escape.

The window was a little high, but Ella grabbed a chair. She stepped up and hoisted herself onto the broken pane’s ledge and looked down. A large prickly bush stood between them and freedom. Looking around, she spotted a man standing off to the side.

Damn!

It was Nolan.

Oh my God! My brother came to help me.

As joyful as she was to see Nolan, she wished it was Jackson. She immediately felt guilty. Nolan made a huge sacrifice coming for her.

“Come on, Ol’ Indie.” 

“Lordy, I don’t know if I can…”

“I’ll help you. She helped Indie put her legs over the outside ledge and then pulled herself up next to her. They were almost out the window when the door opened, and Jason thundered back into the room.

“Five minutes is up! You are awake, I see.”

Desperate, Ella tried to nudge Ol’ Indie into a jump from the window.

Jason jerked the old woman from the window and slammed her on the floor, out of the way. He grabbed Ella before she could jump, pulling her back towards him. She saw Nolan move towards her, but Jason’s arms were too strong. He tore her dress dragging her across broken glass. Pain shot through her as jagged glass raked her back.

Ella saw Ol’ Indie’s still form and blood coming from her head. She wasn’t moving.

“You killed her!” Rage won. She reached into her pocket and grabbed her gun. She had one chance. With her pocket still covering it, she pulled the trigger and a shot went off, hitting Jason’s foot. “Damn it. Why didn’t I aim higher?”

Startled, Jason stared at her and down at his foot, the blood oozing all over.

Jason’s look of fury registered too late. “You bitch!” He slammed his fist into her face, and she fell backward to the floor.

Two shots rang out in the front of the cabin. Ella struggled to hold on. She heard something heavy fall.

Footsteps thundered towards them.

Jason grabbed her up and placed a knife at her throat. Slowly, he backed towards the window, keeping her nearly limp form in front of him. “Stupid woman. You better not move. I’ll kill you.” His voice was low in her ear and his breath was hot.

The door burst open. “Jackson,” she whispered, her eyes wide with fright.

“Drop it, Jason, and lower her…slowly.”

He had come for her! But where was her brother?

Jason pressed his knife into her throat. A small stream of blood oozed down her neck. He cut me! 

The overseer yelled back and forth in English and in his native Creole. “Mister Colonel…you can just back out or this knife will slice her throat and there will be no soft, lovely Miss Ella.” He kept screaming orders, but quickly his words lapsed into rapid Creole.

Ella fought to stay awake, but the room had turned into a swirling picture of which she no longer felt part. Her body felt heavy and her vision narrowed.

Jackson pushed forward. “Let her loose and move away or I will shoot you where you stand.” Jackson aimed his gun at Jason’s head. His forefinger covered the trigger.

“No!  I assure you that your bullet will go into her first, should you be foolish enough to shoot. And I will finish the job with my knife.” He sneered. “I have the upper hand, as you see.”

“Let her go. Your two accomplices can no longer help you. One is dead. The other is tied up. My men have surrounded this cabin. You will not make it out alive. Should you hurt her, I will delight in ripping you apart, limb from limb, and cutting out your organs for the buzzards—all before I free you to go to your maker.”

Jackson never stopped advancing. He moved slowly and seemed to be looking behind her.

Her heart pounded in her throat. She could not think with a knife to her neck. My gun…

Moving her free hand into her pocket, she grasped the handle of her weapon. He forgot to take it. There might be one shot left.

“She will never be yours, Colonel Yankee. She is mine. I intend to keep her.” Jason reverted to Creole again, his voice raising and lowering, as if in a conversation with himself.

Ella couldn’t understand a word, but she recognized he was losing control. That, and her arms were going numb. How could this work? She wasn’t sure she could fire her gun again and live. He would kill her, even knowing he would die as a result.

Trembling, she worked her gun into her hand. Ella thought hard. She had to do something. Squeezing her eyes, she found the trigger and—

BANG!

A shot rang out from behind her. Jason crumpled, pulling her to the ground with him. She never fired her gun.

Nolan.

“What the hell?” Jackson raced towards her, kicking Jason’s knife away. “My men were waiting for my order, so they didn’t…” He rolled Jason over with his boot. Blood poured from his head. “He’s dead.”

Ella succumbed to her panic and fainted.

She heard Jackson talking to her in the tunnel. “I know you are in there, Ella. Can you hear me, my darling? Open your eyes. Yell at me…anything. Just please look at me.”

She tried to get to him. Slowly, her eyes fluttered open. Blood ran down her neck and over her shoulder. Ella tried to feel pain from where the bullet must have struck her. Her body was playing tricks. She could feel only the pain from the glass in her back. Were those cuts responsible for all of this blood? Was she…no, she couldn’t be dead. She could smell the fresh air that must have come in with Jackson and his men.

Jason’s face stared up at her, sneering. Even in death, he frightened her. 

She recalled the soft voice that pleaded her name only moments ago. “Did…did you call me darling?” Ella whispered. She reached up and her trembling hand touched Jackson’s face. 

A smile edged his mouth in answer. Lifting her chin, he drew her close and kissed her sending a tiny tremor running through her. She laid her head on his shoulder and took full advantage of his warm breath whispering soft words of endearment on her neck. She felt safe, finally.

Heavy footsteps announced Marshall’s arrival. He pushed Nolan into the room, one hand gripping his collar, the other pointing a gun into his back.

“Found this one lurking outside, Jackson. He fired the gun. We were waiting for your order.”

Jackson glanced up. “Private White,” he uttered in a whisper.

Ella pushed away with remarkable force. “Nolan! Oh my God, it’s Nolan. Let go of my brother! Can’t you see he isn’t a threat to you?”

She strode to Nolan, slapping Marshall’s gun away. “Get that gun out of my brother’s back. He is my brother.” Anguished, she turned to Jackson, her face streaming tears.

“Marshall, we don’t need that. He’s not going anywhere. Put your gun down.”

“Colonel…” Marshall nodded at Jackson and holstered his gun.

Undeterred by Marshall’s grip on her brother, Ella clung to Nolan and buried her face in his chest, crying. “Nolan, it was awful. Jason killed Ol’ Indie. We tried to escape but he caught us and slammed her into the wall.” Her chest heaved with sobs.

“Shhhh. My brave little sister, look! He didn’t kill her, Ella.”

Ella lifted her head. “But I saw her hit the wall, her head had blood…”

The old woman stirred. She rustled around and pushed herself up into a sitting position. “Now there. You both know it takes more than a wisp of a man to kill Ol’ Indie.” Using her hand, she winced at the pain as she wiped the blood from her face.

“Marshall, it’s true. This one—” Jackson nodded at Jason’s lifeless body “—held a knife ready to slit Ella’s throat.”

He pushed Jason’s body with his booted foot. “Just checking. Habit. He’s gone.” He moved over to Ol’ Indie and helped her up.