Luke's Mail Order Bride by Lily Wilspur

Author:Lily Wilspur [Wilspur, Lily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mail order brides mystery suspense, Cowboy Historical Western Romance, mail order western romance, Inspirational Western Frontier Romance, mail order bride historical romance
Publisher: Wilspur Publishing
Published: 2017-11-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

They didn’t have long to wait. The stagecoach came careening around the corner with the horses straining at their bits and the lathered sweat flying from their harness collars. The driver sat on the edge of his seat, his feet wedged into the floor and his knuckles white on the reins.

Behind the coach, five mounted riders with guns drawn chased the coach into view. The driver hauled on the reins with all his might to turn the horses around the corner. Just as the chase exploded around the last building and up the street past Mary’s house, the armed townspeople jumped from their hiding places with their guns blazing. Max and Luke propped their gun barrels on the wagon box and fired.

The bandits started back in surprise, and their horses reared in fright at this unexpected development. The noise of the guns frightened the horses pulling the stagecoach, and the carriage, already riding precariously on two outer wheels, crashed down onto its side in the middle of the street.

The crash threw the driver clear of the wreck, but the horses screamed and thrashed in their harnesses to get free. Behind the coach, the bandits recovered and gained control of their own horses. A couple of them took shelter from the hail of gunfire behind the fallen coach. Others found places to fire on the townspeople behind water troughs and hedges.

The townsfolk exchanged fire with the bandits, and in the fight, two of the bandits fell, never to rise again. From Mary’s window, Kathy saw Luke wheel and collapse behind the wagon, clutching his shoulder. “Luke!” Annabel shrieked next to her, but Kathy couldn’t move from her spot.

The bandits saw the tide turning. In one last desperate effort to save themselves, they emerged from their hiding places and dashed back in the direction they came.

Seeing their intention, Max raised his head from behind the wagon where he shot at the bandits with a Winchester rifle. He waved his hand to his friends to signal them to press their advantage against the bandits. The other men of the town understood him and came out of their hiding places.

The town men consolidated and moved forward in pursuit. Some of the women came out onto Mary’s porch to observe the spectacle. The bandits darted from one defense point to another, covering themselves with gunfire to their rear as they went.

Max shouted to his friends, and the town men surged forward. The bandits saw them coming and, as one man, they whirled and rained a shower of bullets at the town men.

Annabel saw the disaster even before it happened. “Max!” she screamed, and she flew off the porch into the street.

The bullets smashed into the townspeople and exploded in all directions. One of the young man who carried Kathy’s trunk fell and dragged himself behind a tree for protection. Max turned to look at him, and a bullet caught him in the back of the neck.

Annabel screamed again and ran to him, only to be hit in the side of the head by another stray bullet.

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