The rasp of metal on wood as Sianna wielded the poker at the hearth broke the quiet seal hovering over the farmhouse. Satisfied that the fire was stoked to burn long and low the rest of the night, and not require much to get it roaring for the morning's fare, she straightened, the metal poker returned to stand with the other hearth utensils.
Johnny checked the last of the locks with a solid click before he made his way back to the kitchen and behind Sianna. His arms wrapped around her waist and he rested his chin against her head for a moment. "Everythin's locked up - ya abou' ready for bed? Up before dawn for th' next stage movin' our guests alon'."
"Mmmm hmmm. Verra ready." Squeezing his hands, she glanced to the chocolate pie on the counter that had reduced by half at lunch and then the tea kettle. "Unless of course ye wish tae have a bite of something sweet...." The way her voice trailed off indicated her own decision, or indecision, on the subject.
The rumble of his laugh was deep through his chest against her back. "Ya know ya don' have ta ask me twice if'n I wan' somethin' more ta ea'. Sure, somethin' swee' soun's like a topper for th' day." With a lean down he pressed a kiss just below her ear with a smile and a rub of his scruffy stubble on the soft skin there.
She shivered as the touch of it sent a chill down her spine. "Ye want tae cut some slices whilst I set the kettle tae boiling?" Turning to the side, she placed a kiss to his cheek before moving in that direction without even waiting for the answer.
"Sure thin'." He found a knife and the pie server thing and set to cutting - one large slice and one more to a quantity Sianna could handle. By the time he finished, half a pie had become a quarter-pie and two pieces of the chocolate goodness rested on a pair of plates with matching forks.
The mugs had been gathered, the tea bags waiting for the kettle to boil. Watching him for a moment, she smiled warmly. Opening her mouth to say something, a loud noise interrupted her train of thought. It wasn't a shrieking whistle, however. It was the cackling outcry of unhappy chickens from the coop outside.
The outburst of noise brought Johnny's head around with a sudden frown. "Fox in th' coop again, ya think?" He was already looking for his jacket to pull it back on - and the studded mace he used where another person might have grabbed a baseball bat. He didn't need a light, however.
"Aye, th' blasted wretch. I hope he dinna get too many. I'm tired of bein' his market whenever he's hungry. He made off with one last week and killed a couple of th' wee chicks." Setting the kettle back so that it wouldn't boil just yet, Sianna followed on Johnny's heels but paused at the doorframe.
He'd stepped off the porch and looked away from the light before he blinked once slowly to lower the film of his enhanced vision over his eyes. Small twitches of the muscles around his eyes cycled the modes of view until he settled on one that fused infrared with the ambient light from stars, moon and the windows of the house. It gave clarity back to the world in shades of gray and black. "I'll jus' run him off again an' see if'n I can figger where he keeps gettin' in at, in th' mornin'." He gave an idle swing of the mace in his hand as long strides took him toward the coop.
Sianna nodded. "Aye. A snare would no' come amiss either. I'd nae decline a fox fur collar on a coat for next winter." Her chuckle echoed lightly, her breath forming a cloud in the early spring chill. Arms wrapped around herself, she adopted a lean against the jamb to watch the darkness and wait.
It wasn't terribly far from the house to the chicken coop, but it was very dark away from the immediate circle of light from the house - at least, to anyone with unenhanced vision. Which was how, as it happened, that the person creeping onto the farm from the south had managed to stumbled into the coop to begin with. The man took himself behind the wall of the building as Johnny neared.
Johnny, meanwhile, had glance back over his shoulder to call to Sianna, "I ain't seein' a fox -" He broke off when the flash of movement caught the corner of his eyes.
"Think it a weasel then? They would no' have squawked for naught..." Her voice was soft, but the consonants emphasized so that her voice would carry on the night air.
"Get back inside and lock the door." His voice had gone from lazy, slurring drawl to the sharp enunciation of command in the distance of two strides - the space it took him to see that this was no weasel that had disturbed their chickens. It was a man, and one who came armed and alarmingly stealthy to their farmhouse.
The force of the lock slamming home made her arm go numb. Sianna hurried to douse all the low burning lamps to shroud the house in darkness and provide no point of reference to whatever it was that warranted the command. Weapons had been placed around the house for ready access ever since they had first agreed to continue on as a station for the railroad. Taking two dirks from the box near foyer, she stealthily crept back towards the door, senses alert and every nerve on the defensive.
Johnny's advantage was that this dark night was nearly as clear to him as daylight. The man's advantage was the revolver in his hand. It discharged once with a flash that blinded and the scent of gunpowder in the air. Impact was a thud into Johnny's upper arm and the second, melon-cracking sound was Johnny's mace impacting with the man's skull. The man went down in a boneless heap and Johnny stood still, blinking repeatedly to try to clear his vision.
The gunfire, however, alerted the man's pair of companions. One of them - in the barn - had found one of the concealed doors built into the floor, and the other cursed and ran across the open space from the well house with the cold storage toward the house and the chicken coop. For those few minutes he was clearly outlined as a darker motion in the night.
The gunshot made her start like a deer, throwing back the lock and sprinting out the door, a dagger in each hand. Clouds shifting above allowed a shaft of moonlight to illuminate the shadowy shapes of trees and structures, revealing the man on the move. Sianna pulled to a sharp halt and whistled a signal through her teeth as she let one of the daggers fly.
Johnny would kill her for running out of the house later. After the bleeding had stopped, for example. When Johnny rounded the chicken coop and the man had tumbled to the ground with a dagger in his thigh, spurting blood from the femoral artery, he scowled. "I told you to get inside and lock the door." Hopefully nobody had used the chance with the door open to get into the house. He strode toward the building to check that very thing. The third man, the one in the barn, stayed where he was - he'd had enough of a view to see the other two fall, but there was no way the 'farmers' would see him there through the wood of the barn walls.
"Aye, I did that. Ye did no' tell me I had tae stay there once I heard gunfire." Sianna followed once more on his heels, understanding of the scowl but not referencing it at the moment. Countless thoughts ran through her head, but the pounding adrenaline kept them from solidifying. Glancing around her, the cloud cover growing thick once more, she whispered hotly. "Eyes will need tae be set tae th' windows..."
"I'd assumed you'd know that. I'll check the rest of the house to make sure nobody got in while you were out. Wake up Val, we'll stand watch and watch until the morning. Then - we'll get these people out of here, and I'm calling Alain." His still had his hand wrapped hard around the bleeding hole in his arm; the pain cut his voice sharper than he probably intended it.
Johnny checked the last of the locks with a solid click before he made his way back to the kitchen and behind Sianna. His arms wrapped around her waist and he rested his chin against her head for a moment. "Everythin's locked up - ya abou' ready for bed? Up before dawn for th' next stage movin' our guests alon'."
"Mmmm hmmm. Verra ready." Squeezing his hands, she glanced to the chocolate pie on the counter that had reduced by half at lunch and then the tea kettle. "Unless of course ye wish tae have a bite of something sweet...." The way her voice trailed off indicated her own decision, or indecision, on the subject.
The rumble of his laugh was deep through his chest against her back. "Ya know ya don' have ta ask me twice if'n I wan' somethin' more ta ea'. Sure, somethin' swee' soun's like a topper for th' day." With a lean down he pressed a kiss just below her ear with a smile and a rub of his scruffy stubble on the soft skin there.
She shivered as the touch of it sent a chill down her spine. "Ye want tae cut some slices whilst I set the kettle tae boiling?" Turning to the side, she placed a kiss to his cheek before moving in that direction without even waiting for the answer.
"Sure thin'." He found a knife and the pie server thing and set to cutting - one large slice and one more to a quantity Sianna could handle. By the time he finished, half a pie had become a quarter-pie and two pieces of the chocolate goodness rested on a pair of plates with matching forks.
The mugs had been gathered, the tea bags waiting for the kettle to boil. Watching him for a moment, she smiled warmly. Opening her mouth to say something, a loud noise interrupted her train of thought. It wasn't a shrieking whistle, however. It was the cackling outcry of unhappy chickens from the coop outside.
The outburst of noise brought Johnny's head around with a sudden frown. "Fox in th' coop again, ya think?" He was already looking for his jacket to pull it back on - and the studded mace he used where another person might have grabbed a baseball bat. He didn't need a light, however.
"Aye, th' blasted wretch. I hope he dinna get too many. I'm tired of bein' his market whenever he's hungry. He made off with one last week and killed a couple of th' wee chicks." Setting the kettle back so that it wouldn't boil just yet, Sianna followed on Johnny's heels but paused at the doorframe.
He'd stepped off the porch and looked away from the light before he blinked once slowly to lower the film of his enhanced vision over his eyes. Small twitches of the muscles around his eyes cycled the modes of view until he settled on one that fused infrared with the ambient light from stars, moon and the windows of the house. It gave clarity back to the world in shades of gray and black. "I'll jus' run him off again an' see if'n I can figger where he keeps gettin' in at, in th' mornin'." He gave an idle swing of the mace in his hand as long strides took him toward the coop.
Sianna nodded. "Aye. A snare would no' come amiss either. I'd nae decline a fox fur collar on a coat for next winter." Her chuckle echoed lightly, her breath forming a cloud in the early spring chill. Arms wrapped around herself, she adopted a lean against the jamb to watch the darkness and wait.
It wasn't terribly far from the house to the chicken coop, but it was very dark away from the immediate circle of light from the house - at least, to anyone with unenhanced vision. Which was how, as it happened, that the person creeping onto the farm from the south had managed to stumbled into the coop to begin with. The man took himself behind the wall of the building as Johnny neared.
Johnny, meanwhile, had glance back over his shoulder to call to Sianna, "I ain't seein' a fox -" He broke off when the flash of movement caught the corner of his eyes.
"Think it a weasel then? They would no' have squawked for naught..." Her voice was soft, but the consonants emphasized so that her voice would carry on the night air.
"Get back inside and lock the door." His voice had gone from lazy, slurring drawl to the sharp enunciation of command in the distance of two strides - the space it took him to see that this was no weasel that had disturbed their chickens. It was a man, and one who came armed and alarmingly stealthy to their farmhouse.
The force of the lock slamming home made her arm go numb. Sianna hurried to douse all the low burning lamps to shroud the house in darkness and provide no point of reference to whatever it was that warranted the command. Weapons had been placed around the house for ready access ever since they had first agreed to continue on as a station for the railroad. Taking two dirks from the box near foyer, she stealthily crept back towards the door, senses alert and every nerve on the defensive.
Johnny's advantage was that this dark night was nearly as clear to him as daylight. The man's advantage was the revolver in his hand. It discharged once with a flash that blinded and the scent of gunpowder in the air. Impact was a thud into Johnny's upper arm and the second, melon-cracking sound was Johnny's mace impacting with the man's skull. The man went down in a boneless heap and Johnny stood still, blinking repeatedly to try to clear his vision.
The gunfire, however, alerted the man's pair of companions. One of them - in the barn - had found one of the concealed doors built into the floor, and the other cursed and ran across the open space from the well house with the cold storage toward the house and the chicken coop. For those few minutes he was clearly outlined as a darker motion in the night.
The gunshot made her start like a deer, throwing back the lock and sprinting out the door, a dagger in each hand. Clouds shifting above allowed a shaft of moonlight to illuminate the shadowy shapes of trees and structures, revealing the man on the move. Sianna pulled to a sharp halt and whistled a signal through her teeth as she let one of the daggers fly.
Johnny would kill her for running out of the house later. After the bleeding had stopped, for example. When Johnny rounded the chicken coop and the man had tumbled to the ground with a dagger in his thigh, spurting blood from the femoral artery, he scowled. "I told you to get inside and lock the door." Hopefully nobody had used the chance with the door open to get into the house. He strode toward the building to check that very thing. The third man, the one in the barn, stayed where he was - he'd had enough of a view to see the other two fall, but there was no way the 'farmers' would see him there through the wood of the barn walls.
"Aye, I did that. Ye did no' tell me I had tae stay there once I heard gunfire." Sianna followed once more on his heels, understanding of the scowl but not referencing it at the moment. Countless thoughts ran through her head, but the pounding adrenaline kept them from solidifying. Glancing around her, the cloud cover growing thick once more, she whispered hotly. "Eyes will need tae be set tae th' windows..."
"I'd assumed you'd know that. I'll check the rest of the house to make sure nobody got in while you were out. Wake up Val, we'll stand watch and watch until the morning. Then - we'll get these people out of here, and I'm calling Alain." His still had his hand wrapped hard around the bleeding hole in his arm; the pain cut his voice sharper than he probably intended it.