Read Online Ambush at Shadow Valley by Ralph Cotton - Free Book Online

shouted, turning loose on his wrists and giving him a shove. Soto stepped in and shoved him at the same time, causing the old German to fall backward to the ground.
    â€˜â€˜You heard her, old man,’’ Soto said. ‘‘Get inside before we nail your shirt to your chest.’’ He slid an arm around the woman’s naked, sweaty waist and drew her against his side. ‘‘Your daughter belongs to us now.’’ He looked up and down Clarimonde’s bruised and dirt-streaked body, her hair hanging matted, half covering her face. ‘‘Right, hurdy girl?’’
    â€˜â€˜Yes, that is right, Papa,’’ she said, feeling a surge of hope in spite of the pain, the shame and humiliation the two men had brought upon her. "Get back inside. I belong to these men. I am leaving here with them.’’ She drew herself even closer to Suelo Soto’s side as if they were lovers. ‘‘You stay here with the dogs.’’
    â€˜â€˜Yeah, old man,’’ Ransdale called out, grinning, tearing off another mouthful of meat now that the shotgun had been tossed aside, ‘‘you can go to the dogs as far as she cares.’’
    â€˜â€˜I will get rid of him,’’ Clarimonde said quietly to Soto. Slipping away from his side, holding her dress to herself, she stepped over and helped her father back to his feet. ‘‘Papa, listen to me,’’ she whispered quickly, picking up his cane and placing it in his brittle hand. ‘‘I am taking them to Shadow Valley. Tell the lawman who comes looking for them. Now, stay inside and keep quiet until we are gone. Please help me keep us alive. These men will think nothing of killing you, the shepherds, every one of us.’’
    The old man started to shout something, but uncertain of what he might say, Clarimonde clasped a hand over his mouth and raised her voice loud enough for both Soto and Ransdale to hear. ‘‘Shut up, you old fool, and stay away from me, or else I will take a stick to your back!’’
    â€˜â€˜Whoo-ieee,’’ Ransdale called out. ‘‘Old man, I’d say this gal has given you up for a better deal.’’ He looked at Soto and gave a knowing wink, neither of them fooled into thinking the woman had anything more in mind than staying alive and finding her way out of their hands. ‘‘I believe she’s fell in love with us.’’

Chapter 5
    The old German sat in silence at a small table for a long time, his head bowed and his eyes closed until the old bitch pawed at his leg and whined so insistently that he could no longer ignore her. Rising from the table, his cane in hand, he walked out onto the porch and squinted toward the silence and the aroma of wood ash and roasted goat meat. No sooner had he opened the door than both of the shepherds shot past him toward the spot where the men and the woman had stepped into their saddles and ridden away more than an hour earlier.
    Seeing no movement other than the blurred image of the dogs, the old man walked across the yard, picking up the shotgun from where Soto had thrown it to the dirt. ‘‘My daughter is gone,’’ he murmured brokenly to himself. ‘‘Once again I find myself alone in this godforsaken wilder platz .’’
    In the nearby corral the herd of goats crowded the rail, bleating and craning their thin necks in hungry anticipation. Ordinarily the shepherds would have run around the fire, barking and begging for scraps of meat at the old man’s feet. But today they only circled wide, sniffed the ground in the direction the horses had taken and raced away along a thin, up-reaching trail into the high, rocky hill country.
    â€˜â€˜Go on with you, then—you can leave me too. Who needs two unruly hunde always underfoot!’’ The old man cried out, waving an arm in despair as the dogs’ blurred images disappeared into