Jon Reskind - The abducted wife

"Let's sack out," a voice drew her back to the cabin.

"Peggy and I got's to leave for town. I gotta be at work tomorrow morning."

Jane peeped in the window carefully, aware that she was more visible now in the growing light. To her surprise, the group had completely recovered itself and though everyone looked tired and sleepy, there were no traces of guilt or embarrassment in their expressions. They sat around the table, a bottle in the center, each sipping slowly from a glass. Peggy's elbow was propped up on the table, her other arm around Sammie's shoulder. Jane watched with confusion and disgust as the woman trailed her fingers lazily through his hair. The gall of the woman was incredible! she thought, until she once again recalled her own passionate enjoyment in watching what Peggy had done.

"Naw, we can't stay, fellas, as much as we'd like to," Sam went on in a firm voice. "That'd mean I'd have to drive back at night, and I don't appreciate drivin' in the dark over them cow paths you call roads."

The evening's workout seemed to have restored him to a nervous sobriety and he waited with an impatient look on his face while Peggy fumbled with her purse for a brief moment. Then Jane panicked as the group followed the couple to the door. God, what should she do? her mind raced in sudden desperation. Should she run now back across the yard to the woods? No, they looked like they'd step out onto the porch any second then they'd certainly see her before she reached the forest. Should she hide behind the back wall of the shack…? No, the couple might turn back for one last look and see her form cringing desperately against the wall. The sudden sound of the group moving onto the porch resolved her dilemma – she was stuck now and didn't dare risk the sounds that might accompany her moving anywhere. She plastered her back against the shingling of the house, hoping against hope that no one would walk around the house and see her. She listened to their good-byes on the porch and the heavy crunch of footsteps as the men walked the couple to their car. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the rear end of the car, a new model buried in the bushes not too far from where she had hidden last night in the darkness.

"See ya in town."

"Yeah, bring some of that moonshine."

Then the silver fins that had glinted in the morning sun slowly eased out of her range of vision and she heard the car roar off, traveling to some city, probably not too far away and possibly the same resort town where her husband and the lodge were. If only she were going with them, if only she were back at the lodge. The word "civilization" kept running crazily through her mind.

"We better get to work."

"Boy, that bitch really worked us out."

"If she was my woman, I'd kill her."

"How's he goin' to kill her? That's her business. Brings 'em in good money, too."

"You go on to the house. I think I'll get me another bottle… Well, look at what we got here!"

Jane's eyes widened as she found herself face to face with the stocky blonde man, gazing across the flat expanse of grassless lawn at the young man she had watched at one end of the table and remembered as Buck. He was taller than she would have expected, but not as tall as the gangly man with the idiotic expression who now appeared from around the corner of the house and crept up behind him. A door slammed and Jane guessed that Josh had not heard Buck's words and had returned back into the house.

"I'm lost," she sputtered out. "I got separated from my husband two days ago in the woods."

Suddenly Jane stopped talking as she saw her words were having no effect on the men who gazed at her with a suspicious confusion. It was as though she were speaking a language foreign to them.

Finally, Buck responded. "Why ya standin' at the window?"

"I – I thought – hoped – there might be people here."

"Geez, she must of been watching everything," the lanky man said and Jane felt his cretin-looking gaze focus on her young body.

"That's right, Silas," Buck's face broke into a slow leer. "You enjoy it, honey?"

Knowing even as she did it that it was all so useless, that she was making her position with the mountain men worse, Jane thrust herself away from the wall and bolted across the lawn. Run, escape, raced through her terror-stricken mind, and her legs carried her off crazily not to the woods but down the sandy road she hadn't noticed last night, as though she believed she might actually be able to run all the way back to the town where her husband was. It was a foolhardy attempt, but in her overwhelming panic she no longer realized it. Instead, her mind reacted with an indignant surprise when the long-legged Silas took four easy strides after her, grabbed her by the hair, and she felt her body turn and spill onto the muddy dirt yard. She kicked at a denim clad leg and the sound of a harsh slap resounded through the quiet of the morning like a rifle shot. The tall man had hit her, she was going to pass out… they were pulling her body across the yard to the cabin.

Jane fell, then was half-dragged by Buck and Silas into the front room, where they threw her roughly down onto the cot.

"Well, lookee what we got here," Josh scowled at the others. "A little girl come right outta the woods. What ya doin' way out here in no where, honey?"

Jane gazed up fearfully at the tall mustached man in front of her, remembering the rough treatment Buck and Silas had given her outside. She said nothing, but clenched her teeth and pursed her lips tightly, vaguely hoping that all of this would dissolve like a bad dream and that she would awake in the arms of her husband back in the lodge.

"I asked you a direct question, M'am, and I 'spect you to answer it," Josh demanded again.

The others laughed behind Josh, and like twins they thrust their thumbs into their denim pockets. Jane remained quiet on the bed, knowing that whatever she said would make no difference to the men; she had witnessed their animal-like performance earlier and knew how they treated women and what they desired of them. But now Josh drew closer, the large palm of his hand drawn out lengthwise and moving in a slow-motion gesture towards her face.

"I-I – don't know what to say. I was lost," she gasped, turning out her hands in supplication toward him. "I wandered away from the lake and saw your cabin."

"Goddam," Buck spat out. "How do ya figure her gettin' up here from Clear Lake?"

Josh turned to Silas and Buck and shook his head. Then he moved to the table and picked up the almost empty bottle of liquor and gulped it to the dregs. He was clearly angered by her presence and, as Jane had heard from stories of "furreners" wandering into these hills, he was intimidated by the idea that she had the nerve to approach them.

"Now, lady, there ain't no reason for ya to be out walkin' around at five o'clock in the mornin'," Josh said, running a long thick finger across the edge of his mustache. "This here is what ya might call 'trespassin', and us mountain folk got real strict ideas about that kinda thing."

Jane sat up with more certainty on the bed. She felt a bit more at ease now that she knew she wouldn't be manhandled by the three men at least for the moment – and she wanted to prove to Josh that she had no intentions of bothering them. The sun had risen over the hills behind the shack and she sensed a feeling of hope in the new day even though she knew she was in ominous danger at this moment. She had watched these men for nearly four hours before and she knew what they were capable of – in fact, she had an awareness of them that was deeper in many ways than her understanding of her own husband.

"If you would be so kind," she said with a sense of surety in her voice. "I would appreciate you showing me the way back to Lakeview Lodge. My husband is waiting for me there, and I hate to cause you any more trouble."