Julia

Chapter Six

Julia awoke abruptly in the middle of the night to the sound of Jason growling. She listened, and discovered that he was not in her room, but at the front door of the house. She lay very still, trying to decide what it was that might have set him off. However, after a few moments, he quit. She lay still in her bed a moment longer making sure things were peaceful and quiet before finally letting out a sigh of relief. All at once she heard Jason come into her room at a quick pace. Julia sat up in bed and watched the dog in the moonlight. He stopped in front of her window to listen to sounds outside that her human ears could not hear. After a few moments, he ran from her room and through the open door into Eric’s room.

Something is not right, Julia thought. She slowly got out of bed and put her robe on when she felt a slight draft coming into her room. As she exited her room into the kitchen, she realized that the front door was open. Julia’s heart sank into her stomach and suddenly her old reflexes kicked in, reflexes she thought she had lost since she began living with Eric. She paused to survey the kitchen and the living room. She could not see much, there was very little moonlight coming in through the windows. She slowly crept to the front door, then closed and locked it hoping who ever it was had been scared away by Jason. Just as she turned the key in the lock, she heard a floor board creak behind her. Stomach hardening with fear, she turned around, hoping to see Jason at her feet. Her hopes were met only with the broad side of someone’s fist. Julia shrieked in fear and pain as the force of the blow knocked her onto her back. Julia lay on the floor for a minute, fighting the blackness that threatened to overcome her. Whoever was in her house was very strong and apparently meant business. At that moment, Julia heard a bark followed by the slamming of a door.

“Ha, you stupid dog, you were expecting me to come through the window, weren’t ya’?” came a gruff and deep voice. Jason continued to bark frantically from behind Eric’s bedroom door. Julia had finally gotten to her knees and was reaching for the door. She had barely managed to unlock it when she heard a, “No no missy!” The man ran to her and grabbed her by the wrist, yanking her hand away and coming dangerously close to breaking her arm. “Can’t have you running off and telling people that I’m here now can I?”

Julia, whose strength was now returning, cried out and fought to free herself of his grasp. The man threw her to the ground, but Julia only jumped up and began to race to the kitchen area. Grabbing at a cabinet, she searched in vain for a knife, a pot, anything that could be used as a weapon. When all that met her groping fingers was soft cloth, she realized that she had opened the wrong door. The cabinet she really wanted was just to the left of the one she was searching in but in the darkness and confusion of her fear. Julia scrambled for the other cabinet, however, her mistake was realized too late. The intruder was now upon her and was wrestling her to the ground. Julia fought to free herself, using every self defense technique she had ever learned, but he now had her pinned to the ground, sitting on her stomach and using his full body weight to keep her still. His large hands grabbed her wrists and he forced her to lie on her back. At any other time Julia would have been able to free herself, but her time with Eric had given her a sense of security. Now her reflexes were too slow and her strength was not what it used to be. That’s what you get for letting yourself settle down! Julia thought angrily to herself, wishing she had had enough sense to keep up on her survival skills.

“Quite the fighter, aren’t you?” He laughed at her as if laughing at the efforts of a little girl who had been pinned by an older, much stronger sibling. It was not a pleasant sound, and Julia shivered beneath him. The man sitting on her stomach was so heavy that her lungs were beginning to give out and she had to fight for every possible breath. “I guess that I’m just going to have to kill you,” he said in a much more serious tone, “Since you obviously aren’t going to cooperate.”

He lifted one hand to reach down for a weapon hidden in his boot. The brief lack of attention on his part was all she needed. She took her free hand and with all her might, slammed her fist into his stomach. The man grunted and doubled over with pain. Julia threw him off with every ounce of strength she possessed. She jumped up and began to make a run for the front door, but she was not quick enough. Her visitor reached out and grabbed for one of her legs. Julia came down hard on the floor with a cry. Once again she wrestled with the man, only in vain. After a moment, he once again had her pinned.

“You think you're tough don’t ya?” snarled the man. “You had better tell me where the key to the stable is, before I do more than just kill you!” Julia knew that his threat was not an empty one and that this man would not make the same mistake twice. In a last effort of escape, she slammed her head into the bridge of his nose with all the force she could muster. She heard a sickening CRACK and for a moment she thought that it must be her own skull. Pain shot through her head as the man fell off her, clutching his nose. Blood was now gushing all over the wooden floor and for the first time, Julia hear Jason’s frantic barking coming from inside Eric’s room. She got up and ran to the door, and opening it, released the snarling Jason from his prison. The dog wasted no time in attacking the helpless man on the floor. The two fought for only and brief moment. Jason had the man beat from the start, for when Julia hit his nose, the bone shattered and went straight to his brain. Between his damaged brain and furious dog, he was dead within a minute. Even after the man had died the faithful dog continued to bite and claw the body as if making sure that there was no way for him to get up any more. Julia simply slumped to the floor, calling Jason to her. Wearily, he trotted over, keeping a watchful eye on the dead man as if to say, Don’t even think about moving.

Julia clung to the bloody dog and began to sob. “I am so sorry!” she cried. “Thank you for staying even after I was so mean to you.” The dog sat patiently, his fur still bristled at the collar, and let Julia hug him and cry, all the while keeping his ears perked for anything else that might come into the house. The two sat like that the rest of the night, Julia clinging to Jason and both unable to fall asleep. When dawn finally broke, Julia became too exhausted to stay awake any longer. She eventually fell asleep on the floor, with Jason right beside her.

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When Eric arrived at the ranch that evening, the property seemed deserted. Normally, there were lights inside both the house and the barn, as Julia was normally still doing chores at this hour no matter how dark it was. At first he thought he was mistaken, but as Eric came closer to the ranch, he discovered that his first instinct about the place being deserted was correct. The barn was locked even though this was the horses’ normal feeding time and Eric and Julia normally did not lock the barn until just before they went to bed. “That’s odd.” he thought to himself out loud. Maybe Julia got things done early. He unlocked the barn and took his horse inside to unsaddle and feed it. When he entered, all the horses looked at him and began to whinny and nicker at him in a rather pathetic way. He looked in the first trough he came to and, finding it completely empty, realized that they had not been fed at all that day. This, too, struck him as odd. If the barn was locked, shouldn’t that mean Julia had finished early? he thought to himself. Yet he could not ignore the fact that the horses were begging to be fed. They stamped and whinnied all the harder at his apparent delay in chores. Then he decided that Julia must have gone into town on an errand and simply was not back yet. He could not figure out why she would have locked the barn for a simple trip to town, but then again it really did not matter. Maybe it was a good idea to start locking it whenever they were gone. He did not want anyone to steal his horses and it was better to be safe than sorry.

He put his horse in its stall, took care of the saddle, then fed all the horses. He had to laugh as he dumped the hay and grain mixture into the first trough and the hungry horse began to munch it as if it had not eaten something so good in it’s entire life. All the other hungry animals began to stamp their feet in jealousy. “Well, looks like I’m rather popular around here these days!” he said with chuckle. He quickly proceeded to finish feeding the animals, a little miffed that Julia had not had the sense to do so before she went to run errands that were going to keep her out so late. When he was through, he closed the door to the barn and re-locked it with the spare key that he always kept with him.

Eric turned up the dirt walk toward the house whistling softly as he did. He was very tired and decided not to wait up for Julia. What ever it was that she was doing, she probably would not be back for some time. And even if she did get back soon, he did not have the energy to stay up and chat.

When Eric reached the front porch he suddenly realized that something was not right. The door had been tampered with and he could hear a low growling from inside the house. With his nerves on edge and every sense alerted for danger, Eric softly put his hand on the doorknob and began to turn it.

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When Julia awoke, the sun was setting. Jason was at the front door with his ears perked, and the horrible man who had tried to take advantage of her and then kill her in an effort to steal the horses was still lying on the floor in a small puddle of dried blood. She heard the horses in the barn began to whinny but it was not until she heard footsteps coming toward the house that she began to worry. As the footsteps got closer, Jason began to growl, the fur around his neck bristling and making him look as ferocious as he had that morning. As quickly and quietly as she could, Julia got up and raced to Eric’s room, looking for the gun she knew that he kept there. Lifting the mattress, she grabbed the rifle and cocked it, then headed for the door. Fear and panic mingling with the lack of sleep last night were beginning to rise and catch in her throat. The sun had finally disappeared and would offer no help for her as she aimed at this new danger. Even now, she could barely make out the low growling form of Jason.

Julia tried desperately to swallow the sudden onset of tears that began to assault her and she took in a quick deep breath as she tried to regain enough of her composure to aim the rifle steadily at the door. Slowly, she heard the latch on the door open, and a tall figure stepped over the threshold, then stopped as he saw her. Julia cocked the second barrel and prayed that Eric kept the rifle loaded. If there were no bullets inside the weapon, she knew that she had lost the battle before it even began, for she knew she was too worn to deal with a second grown man. Jason stopped his growling and came to Julia’s side.

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Eric slowly opened the door, knowing that as soon as Jason smelled him, that the dog would realize who he was and stop growling. Lucky for him, his assumption was correct. As soon as he opened the door, the dog realized who the “trespasser” was and trotted toward a figure standing in the middle of the room. Eric looked up and saw that a woman was aiming a rifle at him. She was in a nightdress and her hair was tousled and matted with something that looked like dried blood. It was then that Eric looked down and saw the dead man on the floor. The woman standing before him cocked the rifle.
“Don’t you come near me.” Her voice was a soft, menacing growl. “I killed him and I will kill you.” Her voice sounded tired and hoarse, but Eric knew she meant business. Eric put his hands up in the air to show that he was not armed.

“Julia?” questioned Eric. He saw the woman soften a bit and took the opportunity to try and talk peace with her. “Julia, why don’t you just put that gun down and we can talk on friendlier terms.”

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Julia dropped the rifle and stumbled toward Eric, sobbing hysterically as she went. She reached him and fell into his outstretched arms. He cradled her as if cradling a young girl who has just woken up from a nightmare, slowly stroking her hair and doing his best to comfort her.

“I can’t believe it is really you!” she sobbed.

“What is going on?” he asked looking around him at the scene from the night before. Julia was so hysterical that her next words were barely distinguishable.

“Oh Eric it was horrible! First I heard him rattling around the outside of the house, then he came in! I couldn’t get away and Jason was locked in your room!”

“Whoa, whoa... easy girl. Slow down, take a deep breath, and then tell me again what happened.” Eric was nearly as panicky as Julia was. He did not like what he saw before him and the fact that Julia was in such a horrible state spoke for it’s self. He had never seen her so devastated.

Between sobs, Julia spilled the story of the man who had broken in and attacked her, of how he nearly killed her, and how Jason had finally saved her.

“What do you think he wanted?” Eric asked at the end of her story.

“I think he was looking for a key to the barn, to get the horses out.” Julia’s eyes were puffy and red and she looked even worse than when Eric had first found her. By this time, he had lit a lamp so that they would not have to talk in the deepening dark.

“A horse thief,” Eric mused. “Why would he come in the house to get a key for the barn if he could just break in? You really think he was after the key?” It would not be like a burglar to break into a house and face the possibility of getting caught by the owner if he could get what he wanted and escape before anyone had a chance to catch him. But then again, he thought to himself, burglars are not always the smartest of people.

“I know he was. He asked me specifically where it was. Besides, I really don‘t think he realized that anyone was home.” This fresh remembrance of the night before brought a fresh onset of uncontrollable tears. Julia was in a horrible state. Her bruises were beginning to show a deeper color than the original blue Eric saw when he came in. Her hair was a wreck and tear stains marked her cheeks, even as fresh ones began to fall. Eric had already taken the body outside when he realized that Julia was not going to be able to give him a straight story with the corpse of her attacker on the premises. It had helped but the blood staining the floor was nearly as bad. He could not do anything about that at the present time however, and he decided that as long as he could keep her talking, she could ignore it. But talking seemed to be nearly just as bad. Dark circles from lack of sleep peeked out form under swollen eyelids.

“Well, we can’t do anything about this now. Come on, you are going straight to bed so you can rest.” Julia began to squeak out a protest saying that the horses needed help. She argued that they had been neglected all day and that she was not tired. Eric however, knew better and was firm in his resolve, realizing that as much as she may want to stay awake to prevent further attack, she needed to be in bed. She was far too hysterical and the lack of sleep was making her even more so by the minute. He led her to her room and helped her get her aching and bruised body into bed, careful as he went not to bump them and make them hurt worse.

Julia continued to protest. However, as soon as her head hit the pillow, her protests began to die away. Exhaustion took over and with the comforting presence and security of Eric by her side, she soon drifted into an uneasy sleep. Eric stood there watching her for a moment. He could not imagine what last night

had put her through. He knew that she was a tough woman; what had this man been like that he could have put this rugged mountain girl into such a childlike state?

As Eric continued to stare at the sleeping Julia, he realized how much he had come to depend on her. He had never told her, but before she came to help him with the ranch, he had been afraid that he might go broke. As good as he was and as successful as he had been, business in the valley had been slowing down. When she had come to work for him, he had been able to go farther into the mountains and still keep business

going in the valley. He suddenly realized what a great team they made and how much he needed her. This made him appreciate all the more what she had done for him.

After a while, Eric went out to dispose of the body properly. He loaded it onto a wagon and then traveled far up the river to a secluded spot where no one would ever disturb the grave. He grabbed the shovel out of the wagon and began to dig. The ground was soft and moist and with a little help from the moon it did not take long for Eric to dig a shallow grave. He dumped the body into the earth and covered the hole as quickly as he could, anxious to be done with the whole mess. After this was done, he threw the shovel into the wagon and went back to the ranch to look after the horses and Julia.