SEEK AND HIDE

Penny, Ory, Jody, and Mrs. Hutto left the doin's and raced desperately toward the Hutto house, to try to keep the Forresters from killing Oliver, who'd sneaked back for Christmas. But when they got there, the place was dark and deserted. No Oliver. No Forresters. The ground in front had been trampled by the bearded men's mounts, so they had been there. So where were they now? And where was Oliver?

"We got to find him," Penny declared. "Find him afore they do. And then hide him."

"Where?" demanded Ory.

Penny shrugged helplessly. "Depends on where he is now. Once we find him, we'll have to hide him in any handy spot, quick as possible, 'cause we'll not know how far behind they are."

Mrs. Hutto moaned, "My poor baby don't even know they're in town! And that they know he's back! And that they're huntin' him! And that they're drunk!" She shivered.

Penny decided, "Let's split up; hit's quicker. Four of us, four directions. Let's go." They separated.

Jody was the one who found Oliver, and for that matter, Twink. They were walking along the riverbank, completely unaware of the turmoil that they'd caused.

"Oliver! Quick! We got to hide you!"

"What? Hide me? Jody, that's a fine way to say 'Howdy.'"

"Oliver, listen to me! The Forresters are here in town, all six of 'em, not jest three! And they know you're back, and they're huntin' you! And they're drunk and riled! Lem's done vowed to kill you, both o' you!"

Twink had paled dramatically as Jody had spoken.

"Both?!" Oliver was shocked. "Her, too?! Why?!"

"Lem says she betrayed him. Oliver, for all we know, they could be right behind me! Hide!"

"Where?!"

Horses' hooves were approaching. Many of them.

Frantically, Jody pointed. "In the bushes! Move!"

The couple moved. Jody turned to face the Forresters, hoping to distract them. The six big men rode up to the boy at a full gallop. Jody trembled; they seemed bigger than ever, on horseback, riding fast, with angry, determined faces.

Mill-wheel demanded, "Boy, what the devil you doin' out here?" He frowned in suspicion.

Jody opened his mouth to reply, but no idea came. His mind blanked in panic.

Lem said venomously, "Has somethin' to do with Oliver, don't it? You know he's back, too, don't you?"

Jody decided that a partial confession would work better than a total lie. He deliberately sagged in surrender, doing his very best to appear guilty and scared. It wasn't difficult; he was scarcely faking. "Yes, sir. I reckon I'm doin' the same thing you-all are, huntin' him. Although, with diff'rent aims, I'm sure," he added ominously, worriedly.

Buck's eyes bored into him. "Why, Jody? Did Penny send you out here to hunt him?"

"Yes, sir," Jody admitted meekly.

"And warn him?!" Lem's eyes filled with hate.

Jody nodded mutely. Then, he said, his voice quavering, "And hide him. But I ain't had no luck. I sure hope one o' th'others has found him by now, and hid him good."

Lem spat at Jody's audacity. But Jody had felt that he had to take the risk of saying that, to keep them from guessing the awful truth: that their quarry was about five feet behind him. He prayed that the bushes would not rustle, and that neither potential victim would sneeze.

Arch asked, "One o' th'others? Who? Penny? And who else?"

"Ma. And Grandma."

Pack wondered, "Grandma? That's what you call Oliver's ma, ain't it?"

Jody nodded again, thoroughly intimidated.

"You leetle varmint!" Lem glared needles into him. He must've done something to alarm his horse, in his wrath, because the beast took a few steps closer to Jody.

Jody backed up, his heart in his throat. He was also all too fully aware that he could not back up too far at all; he could actually step on Oliver, or fall over him. And if the Forresters found Oliver here and now, and caught Jody in such a bare-faced lie, it would probably go almost as hard on Jody as on Oliver. Jody nearly choked on his fear. "Oh please don't hurt me!!"

They saw his reaction as natural, with Lem approaching him like that.

Gabby said, "Lem, don't waste time on the boy. 'Sides, ain't really his fault, you know; he had to obey his pa."

Lem nodded grudgingly. "Yeah. But we'll have a score to settle with Penny, later. Sidin' agin us, agin."

Buck said grimly, "Let's go." They wheeled and were gone.

Jody sank to his knees in terror, gasping and sobbing. Oliver came out and held him. "You done real good, my leetle friend."

Jody could feel that Oliver was shaking, too. Perhaps he would not be such a hothead this time.

Twink crawled out, trembling so hard that she almost fell on her face. She was sobbing spasmodically.

Jody declared emphatically, "We gotta hide you better'n this!"

Oliver nodded readily. "Where?"

"Away from town! Our place?"

Oliver cringed. "That's toward their place!"

"But they ain't there. Mebbe the Glen?"

"Same problem!"

"Oliver, wait a minute! Like I said, they ain't there! Let's go to their place! They'd never suspect that, and I think their ma and pa would he'p us."

Oliver shook his head vigorously. "No no no! That's crazy!"

"Well, we gotta think o' somethin'!"

"Don't bother," Buck said coldly from behind Jody.

The child whirled. Buck and Mill-wheel were on foot, and they'd sneaked up on the three blonds. Twink stifled a scream with her hand. Oliver gasped and moaned.

"No! Oh no!" Jody cried.

Mill-wheel said frigidly, "You gave us the idea yourself. You and your pa and ever'body split up to hunt. So, we done the same. Three pairs of us in three diff'rent directions. And we're a heap quieter without the horses."

Buck added, "Me and Mill-wheel figgered you might lead us to Oliver. We had no idea hit'd be this soon," he finished pointedly.

Jody regarded them in dread, knowing that his worst fear was realized: they'd caught him in an unforgivable lie. There was nothing that he could do to set it right. And to make matters even worse, these were the two who'd saved Penny's life. Jody owed them everything. The emotional agony was etched in his face. They saw it, understood it, ...and rejected it and him. He feared that they would never pardon him this time. He even wondered if they might kill him, too.

As if he read his thoughts, Buck said to Jody, "You know what Lem'll wanta do to you."

Tears ran down Jody's face as he looked back at him. The child was trembling uncontrollably.

Oliver took a deep breath, and said tremulously, "Let Twink and Jody go. Take me." He stood straight and squared his shoulders.

Twink tugged at him urgently. "No!" she sobbed.

"Hush!" he hissed at her. "Iffen they'll let you go, you go!!" Then, he turned back to the Forresters. "What about it, fellers? Women and children first, and all that?"

"Very noble," Buck admitted grudgingly. "And spoken like a true sailor. But this ain't no ship. And why should we settle for one, when we kin have two? Or three?" he added, glancing at Jody meaningfully.

Sobbing spasms wracked Twink, and Mill-wheel regarded her critically. "I don't know what Lem ever seed in you. I reckon you're purty 'nough, but you're really a pain," he told her in disgust.

She looked back at him in undisguised terror.

Meanwhile, Jody managed to get his legs under him and stand. Suddenly, before he could lose his nerve, he ran to Buck. Oliver, who'd been keeping his distance from the two Forresters, gasped and lunged to try to pull Jody back, but he missed, and then he thought better of it. He gritted his teeth fearfully at the way that the two men looked back at him for that, like predators watching their prey. Jody threw his arms around Buck in a desperate hug. Buck tolerated it; he didn't push him away, but neither did he put his arms around him. Oliver stared in amazement that Jody remained unharmed.

Buck looked back at him quizzically. "Jody knows I'll not harm him."

Something about his inflection, though, prompted Jody to implore, in a meek, childish voice, "Protect me from Lem? Please? Will you?" He turned his soft blue eyes up to the big man's face. Buck simply looked back unrelentingly. Jody began to sob, and pressed his wet face into Buck's beard, clinging tightly to him.

Suddenly, Oliver's eyes widened infinitesimally, and he gripped Twink's arm, and whispered urgently to her, "When I distract Mill-wheel, you run!" Twink stared at him, horrified. "Do it!" Oliver ordered.

"What's the whisperin'?" demanded Mill-wheel.

Instead of replying, Oliver instantly lowered his head and ran straight at Mill-wheel like a charging bull. He caught his bearded opponent off-guard, catching him in the midsection. Twink turned and fled. With Forrester strength, Mill-wheel managed not to lose his balance, and then he stooped quickly and brought a heavy fist up into Oliver's midsection in return. Buck growled at the abrupt chaos, and made to disentangle himself from Jody. But Jody, peripherally aware of the struggle, clung desperately around Buck's middle. Unwilling to hurt Jody, himself, despite his anger at him, Buck hesitated to use full force on him. So Buck remained entangled, while Mill-wheel struck Oliver a second time in the face, laying him out flat. Then, Mill-wheel planted a heavy booted foot on Oliver's chest. Oliver grunted in pain from three separate sources, and he was effectively pinned.

"That was stupid!" Mill-wheel told him icily. "Now you done it!"

"Oliver, no!" Jody cried. "Now you riled 'em worse!"

The fallen sailor gasped. "But don't you see? I had to let Twink git away!"

"She'll not git far," Mill-wheel growled ruefully. Then, he pitched his loudest voice into the distance, "Lem! Gabby! Arch! Pack! We got 'em!"

"No! Oh no!" Oliver was horrified. He writhed and squirmed beneath the boot.

In response, Mill-wheel stomped down viciously, letting Oliver know who was boss, and breaking a few ribs.

Oliver cried out in agony, and then begged, "Let her go! Let her go, please!"

Arch and Pack were within earshot, and they charged into the clearing. Their eyes lit at the sight of the captured, injured Oliver.

Mill-wheel pointed. "Twink runned into the bushes. That way. Git her."

"No!!" Oliver pleaded. "No!!!"

Arch and Pack took off after her in the indicated direction. It wasn't long before they dragged her back, screaming and feebly resisting.

"Honey, don't scream," Oliver admonished painfully from the ground. "Lem might hear. He ain't come here yit, so he might be outta earshot. But let's not he'p 'em git his attention."

She quieted somewhat, with great effort, and stood watching her two captors in undisguised stark terror.

"Please," Oliver begged from the ground, trying to acquire and hold the attention of each of the four present Forresters, by shifting eye contact to each of them, one by one. "Please listen! We're married! And we got a baby on the way!"

"What?!" Buck was stunned. All four Forresters' eyes automatically riveted on Twink's abdomen, making her whimper with a new fear.

But there was no point in denying what her husband had revealed, even though she doubted the wisdom of the revelation. "Hit's true," she admitted timidly. "I've missed two monthlies a'ready." She cringed at their attention, wishing that their eyes would aim somewhere else. After a moment they did; their eyes sought and found each other's, uncertainty in them for the very first time. Twink hardly dared to hope. But the transformation in the bearded men was undeniable.

Remarkably, Pack said, "Iffen they're married, the quarrel is settled."

Arch admitted, "And I don't wanta kill a innocent leetle baby."

Mill-wheel added, "And the baby needs a pa." He removed his foot.

Buck looked down at Jody, and gently pried him off of him. Jody didn't resist, sensing a momentous change. He looked up hopefully, and Buck said to him, "You're offen the hook, too. Iffen we ain't gonna kill Oliver and Twink, we sure ain't gonna kill you for he'pin' 'em."

Jody nearly cried with relief, and hugged Buck with renewed enthusiasm. This time, Buck rewarded him with a few kind pats on the back.

"Git goin'," Mill-wheel said. "All three o' you, go. We'll find Lem and explain to him."

Oliver struggled to rise. He winced and groaned in pain. Mill-wheel tsked and actually bent and helped him.

Arch's and Pack's iron grip on Twink instantly disappeared. She rubbed the sore places on both arms which would be bruises by morning, but at least she was going to live long enough to develop bruises. She watched the men in wide-eyed wonder.

"Go," Arch said.

Oliver hobbled painfully over to her, collecting Jody by the arm on the way. He turned back only long enough to deliver a heartfelt, "Thank you!", and then he pulled them both away just as quickly as his wounded body was capable of going.

Lem had grudgingly yielded to his brothers' persuasion, and allowed the married, expectant couple to live. And to live in Volusia. Awkward as it was, the two remained in their hometown. They avoided the Forresters whenever possible, out of simple prudence and courtesy. But it was not always possible

One day, Oliver was exiting Boyles' Store, and nearly collided with them. He stopped abruptly, paled, and failed to entirely stifle an outcry. He watched the mountainous men wide-eyed.

For a moment, they blocked his path, incidentally, passively surrounding him, their expressions stern.

Then, Lem suddenly smirked, and condescendingly said, "Howdy, Oliver."

The former sailor could hardly even find his voice. "Uh, hey," he barely managed. His heart pounded.

Buck grinned. "We promised we'd not hurt you. We ain't promised not to tease you."

The Forresters laughed heartily, and went on about their business.