The year is 1864. Sister Thomas Josephine is on her way from St Louis, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. During the course of her journey, however, she'll find that her faith requires her to take off her wimple and pick up a gun... NUNSLINGER Book III finds Sister Thomas Josephine, now a fugitive from the law, racing through the harsh Sierra Nevada winter for the Mexican border. Hard on her heels is an old enemy... with a grudge the size of Texas. And she knows that if the cold doesn't kill her, he will.
Release date:
December 26, 2013
Publisher:
Hodder & Stoughton
Print pages:
80
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The morning came, sun rolling red over the mountains. In its wake trailed a colorless sky, the moon ghostly upon its surface. The riders brought the mist, rising up from the night-damp earth to tangle about feet and stirrups.
They dismounted a distance from the cabin, leading their horses silently over the frost-covered ground. A wail pierced the still morning.
‘They found her,’ I murmured. ‘Come, we must hurry.’
I kicked Pokeberry into a trot. We had climbed a hill that rose above the cabins, the jut of the land hiding us from sight. On the other side I was pleased to see a small creek: the water would serve to hide our trail.
‘What did you do?’ called Muir over the sound of water on rocks.
‘Nothing the Lord will not forgive.’ I replied. ‘She will not have been harmed.’
‘That was not how it sounded,’ grunted Abe.
‘The only thing they’ll hurt, no doubt, is her pride. I do not believe she took kindly to having her hair shorn.’
After a few moments the silence was punctuated by great laugh, clear and sudden, and I looked back to see that cigar-end grin I knew so well but too seldom saw. I could not help but laugh in return, my heart lifting for the first time in many days. We splashed across the creek, Rattle balking at the icy water, and I related how Jessie had planned to betray us.
‘As soon as we were asleep she must have run to the teamsters in the barn and asked them to ride to town for the bounty hunter. I caught her red-handed. I am afraid your hat was a casualty of battle,’ I explained, for my head was now bare. ‘It was necessary that she look enough like me in the darkness to fool them for a few moments.’
‘So you lopped off those pretty brown curls of hers?’ Muir laughed.
‘I hope it will teach her some humility. ’ I justified calmly. ‘The Lord knows, her father deserves some peace.’
‘Little cat,’ he cursed, ‘going against her pa’s word an’ all…’
‘You should not blame her for what she did,’ I pulled Pokeberry up alongside, in order to see his face. ‘Their need was great.’
‘I’ve seen worse suffering, Sister, and by those who’d pull their own teeth afore they’d break a vow.’
There seemed little use in pressing the matter, and I will admit, I did not want to dwell upon it. The new day’s air was fresh, a welcome relief after the poverty of town and cabin. The mountain pines rose steep and green into the foothills, and the sky wheeled out, a high, unbroken blue. A kind of elation took me, the like I had rarely felt, a simmering in my chest. With a deep breath, I dug my heels into Pokeberry’s flanks and he took off, pounding the pine needles into the earth, their resinous scent trailing behind us through the deep forest.
‘Was it the man that Jameson warned of?’ questioned Abe, when we had once more slowed to a walk. ‘The “devil” in furs?’
‘I am not certain. Jessie said that the teamsters had mentioned a name. It was strange, I recall, a flower perhaps—’
I had to haul on Pokeberry’s reins to prevent him colliding with Rattle. Abe had stopped dead on the path.
‘Lillie?’ he asked quietly, ‘Was the name Lillie?’
I told him I believed it was. A change came across his face, darkening with a memory.
‘That man is a devil,’ Muir told me. ‘He tracked the Wylers for six months, clear ‘cross the Rockies, before they finally gave up an’ stopped running. I shall not tell you what he did to them.’
He fumbled for his flask and took a gulp of water.
‘Jameson was right, work such as his don’t come cheap. Broke place like Carson City couldn’t afford him. Someone else is after us.’
A creeping certainty came upon me, sending trails of nausea into my stomach, making my whole skin flush as in a fever.
‘Abe,’ I began slowly, ‘who was it paid your bail back in Carson City?’
His look was sharp.
‘Never knew,’ he revealed, rubbing unconsciously a. . .
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