Читать книгу The Remnants - W. P. Osborn - Страница 13

The rain had quit just as quickly as it had come. Maggie poked her head through a sheaf of lower branches to announce it was time to leave, “Pardon the interruption, Rose, but we gotta get back to meet Mr. Alton”

“Yes, Maggie. What time do you think it might be?”

“I’d guess it would be about quarter of four.’”

“Well, you’re right then we’d better get moving, and fast.”

The two couples burst out from either side of the massive trunk and began to sprint back down the trail toward the bridge. Phil and Danny ran ahead to position themselves up the pathway on the knoll that led back up to the road. As the girls arrived they hoisted them up by passing them forward hand over hand until both stood at the crest. The boys then scrambled up behind them. Before they reached the top the two girls had already begun to move ahead.

“C’mon we’ll have to hurry!” Maggie called back as she and Rose darted down the road to town.

Watching Maggie race ahead Danny paused for a moment and turned to Phil, “Damn that girl can run!” he exclaimed.

Phil chuckled for a moment, “She can do a lot more than that, Danny boy,” he snickered.

Breathless and sweating they arrived at the foot of High Street just in time to hear the sound the girls dreaded most. The shining green lorry pulled slowly around the corner by Milton’s Green Grocery and turned left heading north away from them. Screaming and waving all four charged forward in a vain attempt to intercept it but it was clear that Alton could neither see nor hear them. Phil continued on for another few yards then slowly turned back to join the others who had stopped cold in the middle of the road. Maggie began to weep.

“We’re really done for this time, Rosie. We won’t get another day off for months.”

“We’ll be lucky to keep our jobs,” Rose muttered still gasping.

The boys looked at each other recognizing the gravity of the moment. “There’s gotta be a way to get ‘em back in time,” Danny whispered, “There gotta be somthin’ we can do.”

Phil turned and looked him square in the eye, “The doctor’s livery,” he whispered. “He’s in that big card game an’ he won’t be back for it for hours.”

“That’s it, we could just borrow it while he’s throwin’ good money after bad,” Danny calculated. “We’d have it back before he knew it was gone.”

“Right, let’s go now then so we can get the horses back in time to cool them out.”

“Grab your stuff and wait for us by the post office,” Danny instructed as he chased Phil who was racing up the street headed toward the livery barn.

The girls began to gather themselves, wiping off the mud that trailed on their skirts and shaking the dust from their bonnets. They stepped quickly up the boardwalk heading to the post office to retrieve the packages they’d left for pick-up. When they stepped through the front door they realized their situation was truly dire. The large pendulum clock above the main counter read three minutes to four. They had exactly forty-eight minutes to reach the kitchen door. They gathered their bundles and paid the clerk just in time to hear the ruckus outside. “C’mon Rosie, let’s go!” Danny called.

They charged through the side door and jumped quickly onto the rear seat of a weathered but steadfast old coach. The pair of gray mares stood shaking and snorting as if they already sensed the ordeal before them.

“We’re off!” Phil called as he shook the traces hard and the horses bolted forward down the lane. Bracing against the far wall a drunken Lester Smith followed them down the road through thoroughly polluted eyes.

The ride back to the great house compared nothing at all to the ride in. A sudden whirlwind of shrieking terror tore across four miles of narrow road and pierced the virtuous calm of a quiet Saturday afternoon. The raw explosion of dust and fury was ignited by a pair of hard charging mares that raced on, hell bent for leather, determined to run until they dropped. In the front seat Phil lashed the traces hard on their backs while Danny railed at them relentlessly, urging them on ever faster.

The unyielding pace soon overwhelmed the weary old coach. The multitude of pounding thumps shook every board and bolt and every loud jolt and crash caused a horrific shudder that threatened to fracture its backbone. From the rear seat the two girls struggled desperately to hang on. At every bone-crunching thud and wallop they screamed in fear for their lives. Maggie had split her lower lip when a sudden jerk had smashed her face into the handrail. “Stop, please stop,” Rose shouted but the boys would not relent the pace. “You must stop. Maggie’s been hurt!”

Danny leaned back to stare into Maggie’s bloody face and turned to Phil, “Ease back Phil. We’d better get a look at her.”

Phil promptly relaxed the reins and called for the grays to slow to a trot then a canter while Danny climbed into the rear.

“Whoa, my darlins’ easy now.” The horses huffed and snorted then began to slow to a walk. Finally Phil eased them to a stop.

Rose was already tilting Maggie’s head back dabbing her mouth with a handkerchief. Blood had run down her cheek and neck and had pooled at the base staining her lace collar.

“This’ll be difficult to explain,” Rose whispered as she dabbed at the wound, “we’ll need to come up with something.”

Phil leapt down beside to stand beside the rear seat and leaned in to catch a glance from Maggie.

“You’ll be fine, Sweet. It’s barely a scratch.”

“Don’t you “dare ‘Sweet’ me. I heard you tease those “darlin’” horses just a minute ago.”

Phil chuckled and muttered, “Ah, you got me there, Maggie, they are indeed a pair of lovelies,” he leaned forward and softly kissed her bloody lip and whispered, “But they’ll never kiss me the way you do.”

Danny turned back to Rose and spoke quietly, “I think we should push on. We’ve still got a ways to go, Rosie and there’s still a chance we can make it on time.”

“OK Danny, but let’s not race. I’d rather we arrived still breathing.”

“Sure,” he answered, “but let’s shuffle the deck for the rest of the ride.”

“Good idea,” Maggie nodded in agreement, “anything to get that maniac out of the driver’s seat.”

Phil smiled and stepped up to join Maggie in the back, snuggling in beside her and resting her head on his shoulder as Danny led Rose forward to the front. “You take it easy now mister,” she warned, “just get us home alive.”

“Easy as pie” Danny promised as he softly tapped the reins and the carriage eased forward again.

Twenty minutes later they cantered through the rear gate and slowed toward the kitchen door. As they eased to a stop Lily charged out the door in a fury of flailing arms and flying apron tailed closely by mister Alton.

“Oh, here we go, Rosie,” Maggie whispered, “hang on to your bonnet!”

“You two had us in a real panic, Mr. Alton and me. You missed your ride back and you’re twelve minutes late,” she called, “and who the blazes are these two characters?”

Rose jumped down to stand beside her mother, “Sorry, Mother but we had to stop when Maggie banged her head. If we hadn’t hit a rut in the road we’d have been back early.”

“Wouldn’t have hit the rut if you hadn’t been tryin’ to fly’!” Alton muttered. Danny stepped down and stepped straight toward Lily, “Our apologies m’am. We tried to call to Mr. Alton as he pulled away but he didn’t hear us, so we had to find another way back.”

Alton stepped forward and began to check the exhausted team who stood sweating and snorting.

“If the girls are late it was our responsibility,’ Phil offered, “We got caught in the rain and just didn’t get back in time.”

“Back from where?” Lily queried.

“Never mind mother, I’ll tell you about it later.”

Keeping his eyes fixed on the horses Alton paused beside the closest mare and slowly wiped the sweat from its brow with his sleeve then turned to stare directly at Phil. “I know you from the livery in town and I know this pair as well. They belong to our vet, Dr. Porter,” he challenged, “and this is his rig as well. These two grays are the doctor’s pride and joy, mother and daughter - old Doris and her daughter Dora.”

There was a short pause before Alton turned and strode right up to Phil, “Did he give his permission for you to thrash his horses like this?”

Phil paused, and lowered his head, “Well, no, not exactly.”

“You’re bloody right he didn’t,” Alton barked, “no one in the world would! These poor beauties have been cruelly handled by you two villains, you should be shot, the pair of ya!” Not tolerating any response he wheeled and grasped the mare’s halter and led them off toward the barns. “Come with me my lovelies, I’ll clean you up and set you straight.”

“I’ll give you a hand,” Phil called and began to step toward Alton. “Don’t you bloody bother,” Alton sneered, “you, above anyone should have known better. You should be shamed of yourself, you heartless thug.”

Phil exhaled in a long despondent sigh then hung his head and started a slow retreat behind the carriage as it shuffled toward the barn. His pain was tangible. After a few steps, he raised his head briefly and for the first time noticed the severe bend in the rear axle, he glanced back at Danny and winced.

Rose turned to Danny, “You’d better go with him. I’ll come find you in when I can getaway.” Danny nodded and chased to catch up to join Phil while the girls stepped nervously through the door into the kitchen. Lily shook her head and followed closely behind, cursing under her breath and swatting Rose with edge of her apron.

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