Anita Mills Read Online Free

trigger. As the bullet tore through the wood, a man yelped, and a cloud of gun smoke filled the room.
    “She shot me!”
    “Go round back! Go in and drag her out by her hair if you have to!”
    Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a bluecoat coming by the window, and she fired again. He dropped down and crawled back to the riders out front.
    The tone turned conciliatory. “Ma’am, we don’t like hurtin’ women, but we got orders to get everybody out of here. You come on out, and we’ll see you get into town.”
    “Get off my property!” she yelled again, cocking the Colt’s hammer. “If anybody leaves, it’s going to be you!”
    “Ma’am, we’ve got no choice. Just do what you’re told, and nobody’ll hurt you. You’ve got the word of an officer and a gentleman.”
    “You’ll have to burn me with my house, ‘cause I’m not leaving! That ought to make you real proud of yourselves!”
    “Go round back!” she heard somebody shout again. “She can’t get all of us!”
    Her heart thudded painfully beneath her breastbone, but she managed to keep the bravado in her voice. “Come on in!” she challenged them. “There’s enough guns in here for an army, and every one of ’em is loaded! So which one of you Yankee cowards wants the first bellyful of buckshot? You come through that door, and I’m cutting you in half with it!”
    “She’s bluffing! Go get her!”
    She caught a glimpse of blue creeping low, trying to get around the other side of the house. She got to Danny’s window in time to get a good look at his blue-covered rump. Taking aim at it, she pulled one trigger of the shotgun. It sounded like an explosion, and the recoil threw her into the wall as the shot shattered the window. Clutching her shoulder, she wasn’t sure the scream she’d heard was hers or his, but when she dared to look through the jagged glass, she saw the soldier jerking and writhing on the ground. The buckshot had torn through the back of his pants, and his backside looked like raw meat.
    “Dear God, forgive me, but I had no choice,” she whispered, stunned by what she’d done. Recovering, she called out, “Anybody fool enough to try that again?”
    “Throw the torch! Burn the bitch in it!”
    Moving just out of Danny’s door and into the front room, she listened intently, trying to guess which way it’d be coming, and she saw the rider raise the burning brand. “Please, God, don’t let me miss,” she prayed fervently as she leveled the Colt and fired.
    The horse reared, then went down. As the torch hit the ground, the flames shot up, frightening the animal further. It fought to regain its legs, then bolted. The rider picked himself up and limped after it , cursing loudly.
    Regrouping at a safe distance, the raiders disputed among themselves, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. Taking aim at a branch of the old oak tree above them, she fired the Sharps, hitting it, and they scattered. Wheeling their horses, they charged, giving the house itself a wide berth, going around the other side of the barn to torch the pile of hay there. As flames shot up above the roof, they circled to set fire to the coop and smokehouse, then came back to retrieve their wounded before they rode off.
    She tried to open the kitchen window, but the rope stuck. With thick, choking smoke filling the air, and dry wood popping and crackling, she had to watch helplessly while flames consumed the barn. Then the chicken coop caved in.
    The realization that the soldiers were gone, that she’d survived sank in slowly, followed by an awareness of her aching fingers. When she looked down, she had the Colt clutched so tightly that she couldn’t turn it loose. Still holding it, she leaned her head against the wall and let the tears flow.
    When she finally regained her composure, she wiped her streaming eyes with the sleeve of her faded dress, then she looked outside again. A raw spring wind was carrying live coals out toward the