Chased Distance: A Novella (WLW)

Chapter Ten: March 14th, 1876, Jackson, Mississippi

!!!This chapter contains dark themes!!!

Elu watched the rain trickle down the window to Bethany's sleep room in the train, awaiting her arrival and focusing her gaze outside to the platform. While she was asleep, Bethany left and hadn't returned. She told the woman at the clerks desk that she was going to check on something and for her to tell Elu she'd gone, but would be at the platform before their departure.

After their encounter with those men and their leering looks toward the unsuspecting, always so innocent Bethany, Elu hadn't wanted her out of her sight. However, she was still nowhere to be seen. It was now fifteen minutes to departure and Bethany had yet to return to her field of vision. Elu was beside herself with the worry that she may have scared her away, but just as the train's whistle blew, she spotted her approaching. Leaping to her feet, she ran out of the room and through the train, then out onto the platform to meet her.

Upon spying Elu's approach, Bethany hunched over and fell to her knees, holding her gut. Elu cleared the rest of the distance to her and found the skirt of her dress was in tatters and smudged with mud and something brick red. Covering her with her long coat and keeping her hidden from suspecting eyes, Elu escorted her inside and locked the door once they were safely tucked within their sleeping room.

"Take off your clothing and--" As Elu spoke, she watched Bethany trying to disrobe with horribly trembling fingers and gingerly guided her to the bed. Bethany immediately leaned back with a whimper and trembled from head to toe as Elu silently removed her outer garments, then laid her back down. "Oh god..." As her wounds were exposed, Elu cupped the side of her face and met her gaze, finding her eyes glazed over with fresh tears. "What happened?"

"There was one of them in the--" Bethany gasped as she gripped her beaten and terribly bruised side, but kept her eyes with Elu. As if determined to push on by some unspoken force, she latched onto Elu's hand and once she'd caught her breath, continued with, "My father is definitely in Louisiana! Elu, he is there and we have to find a place in New Orleans! We...!"

A tremor ran through Bethany's petite body and Elu ran the backs of her knuckles along her cheek. "Alright, we will go there, but please, rest. Just rest now. I must retrieve some medicinals. Just close your eyes and rest."

Once Bethany had grown still and her eyes languidly closed, Elu ran and retrieved some water in a bowl from the dining car. When she returned, Bethany had rolled onto her side, clutching her stomach in her restless slumber. Kneeling down beside the bunk, Elu glanced along her legs toward her torn garments and released a sigh of relief as she realized Bethany hadn't been ravaged by unwarranted hands. Still, she was beaten enough to leave her barely hobbling toward safety and Elu wanted to go after the men who did it to her.

She would tear them apart if they reared their heads before, or in Louisian ever again.

Pulled from her inner turmoil by Bethany's whimpers, she began tending to her wounds and found bruising along her gut and the right side of her ribs and there was a bloody arrowhead tucked away in the cleavage of her camisole. Elu removed it, examining its length, and noticed it didn't match any of Beth's injuries. In fact, it was one of hers.

"I stabbed one...o-of their legs with it..." Bethany stammered, drawing her attention to her now alert features.

"Good riddance." Elu grabbed the bowl with fresh lengths of cloth and dipped one of them into it. As she started cleaning Bethany's bruised skin, thankful that the few cuts she'd obtained were mostly superficial, she added, "He's lucky that's all he got."

"There was a sheriff's deputy nearby and he did nothing... Just let...let Ferot's man beat--" As Beth began to panic and turn over, Elu took her hands and cradled them along her chest.

"He cannot get to you here. The train has departed." As she ran her free hand along the side of Bethany's neck, she felt her pulse's quickened pace grow slower and heard her breath calm before she went back to tending her wounds. "I apologize I frightened you enough to make you leave without me, but I will not disappoint you again. I promise, I won't leave your side."

"You never frighten me, Elu." Bethany caressed her cheek, then rolled onto her back with a grimace. "Nor have you disappointed me. In fact, you saved me today. When did you place the arrowhead in my garments?"

Leaning into her touch, Elu timidly replied, "When you were asleep the other night after you retrieved your clothing. I wanted you to have protection, but perhaps with how life is now, we should consider getting you a--"

"I still refuse to carry a revolver, Elu." Bethany dropped her hand and sent her a pleading gaze before turning it toward the ceiling. "That won't change. Guns took my mother from me and I will not use them."

"Then we must find a reasonable way for you to defend yourself, because I cannot do this anymore!" Elu stopped her task and stood in a huff, pacing from one side of the room to the other several times. "First, what happened at the river, and then when that man Foret and his underlings kidnapped you...! You must be able to defend yourself, Bethany! Can you not see that?"

"I can." Elu's irritation disappeared as Bethany concurred with her reasoning and sat up, holding a rag compressed to her side. She knelt down in front of her and sat back on her heels, unsure of what to say. This was the first time Bethany had acquiesced control to her and so out of character. She was always so headstrong and steadfast, but now she was saying, "Teach me defensive tactics as soon as I am healed enough, please. You are right, Elu. I need to be able to hold my own against those pursuing us, I need to stay with you and not doing so only puts you at more risk."

"I...don't care about me... I care about you being hurt, Bethany." They stared into one another's eyes until Bethany reached out once again.

She trailed the tips of her fingers along Elu's cheek. "Nadleehi. I heard you say that and something about it just... What does it mean?"

Getting back to the remaining wounds still needing attention and focusing on those along her left cheek, Elu leaned in and explained, "When I was traveling, I came across many different tribes who had men and women performing both male and female duties. In New Mexico, they called them the Nadheeli within the Navajo Dine. Some men were accompanied by male companions, and the same can be said for a handful of their women, due to them being seen as a third sex entirely."

Beth was very quiet and pensive as her eyelids grew visibly heavier, then finally replied, "And...they are accepted?"

"By some, but not others and it changes with each tribe's reservation. It really depends on how much they have let European religion change their way of life." She wiped the last of the dirt from Bethany's cheek, softly smiling when she saw that there were no bruises or cuts on her delicate features once it was clean.

"How could you possibly know all this?" As Elu moved to clean along her outer thigh, Bethany whimpered, but with a face flushed redder than the evening sinking sun. She shook her head as she cleared her throat, adding, "H-How... How did you learn so much in o-only twelve years?"

"When traveling, there isn't much left to do but study the cultures around yourself." Elu spared her further embarrassment as she finished cleaning off her leg and covered her with the bedsheets. Leaning over her with an elbow beside her head, she kissed Bethany's forehead and heard her breath growing steadier. Sitting back, she found her eyes closed as she finished talking her into a deep sleep. "I find all indigenous cultures lovely. Many have traditions not unlike our own, but others starkly different. I will tell you all about it and my travels. I will tell you anything and everything you want, including teaching you to better protect yourself. You will feel safe again, Bethany. I promise."