The Chocolate Palomino

Isaac Lundstrom smiled when the woman told him to pull down his trousers and lay down on the bed. Isaac, or Ike as he preferred to be called, thought this was a little odd, but the woman called herself Angelique Beauchene and said she came to Byron, Mississippi from New Orleans when the Union troops occupied the city. The name meant she was French. She also had long, copper-red hair. Both those things made him want to see if what he'd heard was true or not.

Every man he'd ever talked to said that redheaded whores were the best whores, and he'd heard from the Confederate soldiers from Louisiana that French women knew how to do things with a man that sounded almost too good to be true. They told of certain French women in the whorehouses in New Orleans who would take a man's manhood into their mouth and lick and suck on it until he spurted, and then still keep licking and sucking until his manhood was stiff again. Then, they'd spear themselves on the man's rigid organ and ride him until he spurted again.

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Ike had come to Byron to hide from the law. He'd grown up on a twenty-five acre farm in a bend of the Pearl River about three miles from Byron and about four miles from Jackson, so he knew the area well. After the South surrendered to the Union, he didn't want to start farming again. Instead, he migrated to Texas because he'd heard there weren't a lot of Marshalls and Sheriffs in Texas, and he could earn a living by robbing general stores.

He figured no Sheriff in Texas would come so far to arrest a man who'd only robbed several general stores in Texas. He'd planned on that. After he'd robbed the general store in Sulphur Springs, he'd laughed at the people inside and said if they ever got to Dallas, maybe he'd see them and rob them again.

Ike figured when those people talked to the Sheriff of Sulphur Springs, they'd tell him that the robber was headed for Dallas. They'd give his description to the Sheriff who would then draw up a wanted poster and post it on the wall of the jail as well as send a few copies to Dallas and the other towns along the way.

That's what the other six Sheriffs had done and Ike knew that because he'd seen the wanted posters. Ike had managed to elude them by moving around to different locations far enough apart that it wasn't likely word of him had reached that far, but it might have. That farm in Mississippi was looking like a place to go hide for a while.

To that end, Ike did ride toward Dallas for about an hour, but then turned south. He rode south until dark and then camped in a grove of trees. He didn't build a fire because that might attract someone. He ate some of the beef jerky from his saddlebag and then slept until dawn. From there, he'd turned east and over the course of the next month, had ridden across Texas to Louisiana and then to Byron. He was feeling pretty pleased with himself when he rode into town. The wanted posters would not have made it this far from Texas.

Ike didn't remember there being a whorehouse in Byron, but it didn't surprise him that there were women there willing to sell their bodies. Most of the able-bodied men in the South had either enlisted or been conscripted into the Confederate Army during the war. They left behind wives with no way to support themselves. For more than a few of those wives, it was either starve or service the soldiers from whichever side happened to control the area at the time. When the war ended and their husband didn't come back home, they had little choice but to continue in the profession. No man would have seriously considered marrying a former whore.

He'd found the redheaded woman, well, actually she'd found him, in the general store. Ike intended to go back to the farm where he grew up and start farming again. This last robbery had added enough to his purse to let him buy a team, a milk cow, and some seed, but after traveling for a month, he was out of food. He'd gone to the farm first and was pleased to see the house and barn were still standing. While he was there, he visited the graves of his mother and father under the apple tree in the back yard. Both had caught cholera and died while he was fighting for the Confederacy.

Ike rode into Byron then to buy some food and have a look at what had changed in the town. He was in the general store buying a side of bacon when the woman walked up to him and touched him on the arm.

"Sir, it embarrasses me to no end, but I was wondering if you would help a lady in distress?"

Ike turned to see a woman with red hair smiling at him. He also saw the twin mounds of her breasts above the neckline of her dress and knew what she was. Any other woman might have worn a dress like that, but she'd have pinned a lace handkerchief over her breasts so they didn't show. That this woman had bared her breasts could only mean this woman was a whore.

He grinned.

"What sort of distress would that be, Ma'am?"

The woman looked at the floor.

"Well, Sir, my name is Angelique Beauchene and I moved from my home in New Orleans to Byron when the Union Army occupied the city. There were so many stories about what they did to women that I feared for my virtue.

"The money I had with me in the house in New Orleans lasted me up until yesterday, but today, I am but a pauper. I've had nothing to eat all day and I do not have a place to sleep tonight. I was wondering if you might know of some kind soul who would take pity on a poor woman and offer her a meal and shelter for the night."

She looked up and grinned then.

"I assure you that I would be very grateful."

Ike smiled back. Maybe she was what she said or maybe she was a whore. Either way, the thought of how she might be grateful made her hard to resist.

"Tell you what, Ma'am. I have a farm 'bout a hour from here. If'n you can wait a few minutes whilst I buy some vittles, I'll take you home with me."

The woman threw herself at Ike and circled his neck with her arms. He felt her soft breasts against his chest.

"Oh thank you, thank you, Sir. You have saved a poor woman at the very end of her rope."

Ike bought a side of bacon, some potatoes, and a pound of dried beans, then took the woman to his horse.

"Got no buggy, so you'll have to ride behind me."

The woman smiled.

"Sir, I have ridden horses many times before. My father raised them before he was killed by the Union. I shall have no problem riding behind you."

As Ike rode out of town he was smiling. He didn't have any problem with the woman riding behind him either. That was because she had both arms around his belly and was holding on so tightly he felt her breasts pressing into his back.

He also was pretty sure she could feel how hard she was making his manhood. Once in a while, he'd feel just a slight touch to his crotch. If this Angelique wasn't a whore, she sure would make a good one.

At the farm, Ike found a frying pan and started some bacon frying, then peeled two potatoes. They'd go into the bacon grease as soon as the bacon was done. There wasn't time to soak the beans, but he figured beggars can't be choosers, and he wanted to get the meal over with as quick as possible. The house had only one bed with blankets, so Angelique was going to have to sleep with him.

It was after they ate that Angelique asked where she would sleep. Ike told her she'd have to sleep with him or be cold all night. She grinned.

"I said I would be grateful, Sir, and I will. Shall we go to bed now?"

When they were in the bedroom, Ike started to embrace Angelique, but she gently pushed him away.

"Sir, I have my own ways of showing a man how grateful I can be. Please allow me show you. I assure you it will be like nothing you have ever experienced before.

"I enjoy playing a bit before the grand finale, so to speak. Would you please pull your trousers down the your knees and then lie on the bed on your back. This is a favorite way of mine at the start."

He was more than a little surprised when Angelique sat down on the edge of the bed, grinned, and then began stroking his manhood. He decided right then and there that the men he'd served with were right about redheaded women.

Once Angelique had his manhood standing stiff and tall, she whispered, "I have another favorite thing I do. It excites me to no end to tie a man's arms and legs to the bed. I shall do that to you now, and you will find it just as exciting. You will not be able to resist what I am doing to you, that being exciting you until you are so aroused just a mere touch would cause you to spurt your seed in a most violent but wonderful manner. Once you have the experience, you will want it always.

"I too will be very aroused and once I have readied you for a second time, you will find that I am more woman than any other woman you have ever met.

Angelique reached inside the small traveling case she'd sat on the bed and pulled out several slender ropes. Ike didn't resist while she tied his wrists to the headboard of the bed. It was like she'd said. He'd never had a whore do that before, but it was exciting to think about what she'd said he'd feel.

What came next was Angelique tied each of his ankles with another cord, tied the end of the cord to the foot of the bed, and then stroked his cock really fast, fast enough he was almost ready to spurt. When he started to raise up into her stroking hand, Angelique stopped.

"If you want me to continue, we have to do the third thing I like. Please turn over and get on your hands and knees so I can slide my face under you and play the calf on the cow."

Ah, thought Ike. This what the men in his unit had been talking about. She was going to get under him and suck on his manhood. As soon as she untied the cord on one of his ankles that held him down on the bed, he turned over. It would have been easier to get on his hands and knees if she'd untied the cord around one of his wrists too, but she didn't.

Once Ike was on his hands and knees with his arms crossed at his wrists, he felt Angelique fondle his sack and then reach for his manhood again. She alternated between stroking his shaft and fondling his sack for a while, but then Ike felt her fingers tighten on his sack. When it started to hurt, he tried to roll back over.

For a second, Angelique stopped squeezing his sack. Instead, she jumped up and then onto the bed. She landed with her knees on Ike's back so hard he was pounded back down on the bed and the force took his breath away for a few seconds. During those seconds, Angelique grabbed his sack and squeezed hard. Ike collapsed under her weight and barely heard her voice through the pain in his crotch. He'd only felt pain that bad once before and that was when he'd been kicked in the crotch by a horse.

"I'm going to handcuff you now. Don't fight me or I'll squeeze and pull on your sack hard until you pass out from the pain. You're going to Longview, Texas to stand trial for robbing a store there."

Ike couldn't have resisted. The pain in his crotch wouldn't let him do anything, much less resist when Angelique put the iron handcuff on his left wrist and slid the ratchet mechanism until it was tight. She untied that wrist then, pulled it behind his back and held it there with her knee while she untied his right wrist.

Ike felt her increase the pain by using her fingernails as she pulled his right hand behind his back. That grip on his sack stopped as Angelique pulled his wrists together and fastened the second handcuff, but that didn't stop the pain.

Angelique tightened the second cuff and then locked them both with a key. Then she got off Ike's back. The voice he heard then wasn't he voice of a French whore. It was more like the voice of a lawman.

"Ike Lundstrum, stand up so I can pull up your pants, and don't try anything. You're wanted dead or alive, and it doesn't really matter to me which way I deliver you to the Marshal in Longview except if you're dead, you'll start to stink worse than you already do before we get there and I hate that stink. Now get on your feet. If you try anything, I'll knock you down, shoot you in the belly, and then watch you die before I take you to Longview."

When Ike stood up, he saw that Angelique was holding a revolver in her hand. The pain in his crotch was so bad it was hard enough to just stand up, but he managed to do that and then let Angelique pull up his trousers, button the fly, and then button his suspenders in front.

When she finished, she chuckled.

"I told you it would be an experience you'd never forget but there is more to come. Tonight, you're going to sleep on the floor and handcuffed to this bed. Don't even think about getting away. I'm a light sleeper and I'll have my revolver right beside me.

"Tomorrow we're going to take a ride to Jackson. Well, I'm going to ride. You're going to walk with a rope around your neck that's tied to the saddle horn. If you try anything, I'll drag you by the neck to the train station in Jackson. From there, we'll take the train to Longview. You'll be in jail there by tomorrow night and I'll collect the reward and be on my way."

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Ike's pain had faded by the time Angelique walked him into the jail in Longview. It had been a rough trip from his farm to Longview though. Angelique had made him walk the four miles to Jackson, just like she'd said, and it was a tough walk. She'd untied his ankles, but then re-tied them so he could only take short steps, and she didn't buy passenger seats on the train in Jackson. She'd explained to the ticket clerk that Ike was under her care and she didn't want to expose the rest of the passengers to him because he was touched in the head. They rode in the baggage car and he'd had to sit on the floor while his feet were tied to a ring on the side of the car.

What was especially galling to Ike was that a woman had caught him. He'd expected if he was ever caught, it would be by a lawman like a marshal or a sheriff, but it would be a man. A man might give him a fair chance to fight. Angelique had tricked him with the promise of sex and he'd fallen for her trick.

When Angelique took her handcuffs off him in the jail at Longview, he asked her how she'd found him.

Angelique looked him in the face and smiled that same smile that had made him give in to her back at the general store.

"I saw your wanted posters in several towns in Texas and when I talked to the people you robbed, they all said you sounded like you were from the South. Two men who had served in the Confederate Army said judging by how you talked, you were from Mississippi.

"When I looked on a map at where you'd robbed general stores, it looked like you were working your way East and South. Little boys always go home when they're in trouble, so I figured you'd be headed that direction. I just didn't know where.

"I found that out in Sulphur Springs. The storeowner told me he'd begged you not to rob him because he was just beginning to make a profit after the war. You evidently told him that people in Jackson still hadn't recovered either. I knew there is a Jackson in Mississippi.

"I took the train to Jackson that afternoon and when I got there, I asked around if anyone knew of a family of Lundstroms in the area. I said I was Mary Lundstrom of the Virginia Lundstroms and was looking for my aunt and uncle who had moved to Mississippi. The man who ran the wagon shop there said he'd sold a wagon to a Mister Lundstrom a few years before the war and that the man had said they lived on a farm about three miles from Byron.

"I just went to Byron and waited for a week for you to get there. I was starting to wonder if you'd gone somewhere else until I saw you from my hotel room window when you rode up to the general store. I couldn't see your face, but you should really have changed horses somewhere along the way. There aren't that many chestnut horses with a white mane and tail around and that's what the people in Sulphur Springs said you rode away on.

"The man at the livery stable in Jackson said your horse was a chocolate palomino. I'd never heard of one, but he said they're pretty rare and he wanted to buy him. He offered me two hundred dollars for him and another twenty for your saddle and bridle. Funny that he was worth more than you. I only got a hundred for bringing you back to Longview. I could have gotten another fifty if I'd taken you back to Sulphur Springs, but it wasn't worth the trouble. I'll make it up by keeping the sixty dollars I found in your saddlebag. You won't be needing it where you're going."

That said, she walked out of the jail, got on Ike's horse and started back toward Texas. She had two more wanted posters in her traveling case, and she intended to collect those bounties as well.

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Wade Masterson rode into Kerrville, Texas, only because he needed two things. The first was enough bacon, corn meal, and dried beans to last him the month he figured it was going to take. The second was he needed to talk to the owner of the Kerrville Bank.

The reason Wade needed both was that he'd been tracking Jacob Conners and his gang for two months and thought he'd finally figured out the general area where they might be. That area was in the Texas Hill Country about twenty miles from Kerrville. Kerrville was also the location of the last bank the Conners gang had robbed two weeks before.

Wade had been trying to find them since they'd robbed the bank in Helotes. Since that time, the gang had robbed the banks in Boerne, Comfort, and Sisterdale. After that first robbery, he'd seen wanted posters for all six. The reward for Jacob Conners and Aaron Conners was fifty dollars each. The other four were worth forty dollars each. Wade intended to bring them all back to Helotes to stand trial. He'd collect two hundred and sixty dollars for his trouble.

That changed after they robbed the bank in Boerne. In Boerne, the teller had decided to pull the revolver he kept under the counter. Jacob had shot him dead. The sound of gunfire brought two men out of the livery stable and the man watching that end of the street shot them before they were half way to the bank.

The wanted posters after Boerne had raised the bounties for Jacob and Aaron to a hundred dollars each and the bounties for the others from forty to seventy-five. On these posters, the words "Dead Or Alive" were printed in letters three times as large as the rest.

Wade had killed enough men during the war to last a lifetime, but that was war. He'd try to bring them in alive, but if they chose to resist, he had no problem bringing them in tied over the saddle of a horse. A man who killed when just robbing a bank wasn't worth the trouble of much convincing, especially since the Connors gang seemed to plan to kill anyone who got in the way of their robberies.

Their method was always the same. Four of the men would ride into town, two at a time, and take up stations at the general store and the Marshall's office. One of the two at the general store would go inside and buy some food and then come outside and the two would load the purchases into burlap bags slung from the saddle horns of their saddles. The two at the Marshall's office would tie up at the rail in front and then act as if they were re-tying their saddle cinches.

Jacob Conners and his brother, Aaron, would be the last into town. They'd ride up to the bank and go inside. When the other four saw Jacob and Aaron enter the bank, their part in the robbery was put into play.

The two in front of the Marshall's office would go inside, take the Marshall and any deputies at gunpoint, and force them into the jail cells in back. That mostly eliminated the threat of a gunfight. They would then go outside, mount up and cover any side streets near the bank.

The two at the general store would go back inside. One would hold the clerk and anyone else inside at gunpoint while the other tied them up. Then they'd take what money was in the cash box along with all the whiskey they could fit into another bag. After warning everybody in the general store that if they came outside, they'd be shot, they'd ride to the bank and take up positions facing both directions of the street. They were there to shoot anybody who decided to stop the robbery.