Slade rode toward them. “What’s the problem?”
“The necessary.” Annabelle twisted her face into an expression that she hoped looked like she had to go really bad. Her mother would be horrified at how unladylike she was being, but if it saved her life, and that of a young child, surely it would be worth it.
He glared at her, then at Tom. “Now?”
“I’m afraid if I wait any longer, and all the jostling on the horse...”
Tom got off his horse. “Boss, if she ruins my saddle...”
“Fine.” Slade pulled out his pistol. “But if you try anything, remember I’ve got the kid.”
She swallowed, then scooted off the horse. “I understand.”
No, running away was not an option. Especially given that Slade had one hand on Nugget, and the other held a gun.
“I’ll just go behind those bushes.” She stared at him, daring him to argue.
“What happened to your hair?”
Annabelle reached up, realizing that with all the pins she’d taken out, it was starting to look a mess. She couldn’t afford for Slade to look too closely or start wondering about the missing pins.
“I told you, all the jostling is rather uncomfortable. I keep trying to push my hair back up out of my face, but it’s not as though any of you are taking care to make this an easy ride.”
The gleam in Slade’s eyes made her realize that he was enjoying every moment of tormenting her. The more miserable she said she was, the more he enjoyed it.
“We don’t cater to prissy spoiled brats here. Guess you’ll have to make do.”
She gave him the kind of haughty look she knew he expected from her. Though she was learning to be more than the child everyone thought her, now was not the time to prove she’d changed. The old Annabelle was exactly what Slade needed to see.
“When my father finds out—”
“We’ll be halfway to Mexico with the silver.” He leaned forward and ran a finger down her cheek. “And I haven’t decided if I’ll kill you first, or keep you around for entertainment for a while, and then sell you. Pretty golden hair like yours will fetch a mighty fine price.”
Slade rolled one of her curls around his finger, then gave it a sharp yank. Had he pulled any harder, she was sure she’d have a bald spot. It took every amount of energy not to kick him in the shins.
She brushed past him and headed into the bushes. She relieved herself as quickly as she could, then took three of her hairpins and fashioned them into an A. Maybe that would help anyone looking for her.
Now to find a place to leave it unobserved by the bandits, but in such a way that anyone looking for her would spot the clue.
As she walked back to the horses, every bandit’s eye was on her. At least they weren’t underestimating her abilities to try to escape. Because she would. With Nugget.
She spied a rock, that if she could just get the hairpins on it, would hopefully put them in view of anyone coming from the direction of the camp.
“Ouch!” Annabelle pretended to stumble on her way to the horse. She scooted toward the rock, pretending to try to right herself. Then, because it was so close, Annabelle went and sat on the rock, making a show of examining the foot she’d injured the day before.
“I do hope it’s not worse.” She glared at Slade. “It’s the same ankle I hurt yesterday. I should have listened to Gertie about keeping off it longer. Then maybe you wouldn’t have been able to kidnap us. We’d be safe in the cabin right now.”
Annabelle started to cry, thinking she’d have to fake the tears, but as they flowed readily, she realized what a mess everything was. Her words were supposed to have been a ploy, to distract the men from noticing her setting the pins for someone to discover them. But they were true.
Slade strode toward her, his face filled with disgust.
“Even if you’d stayed at the cabin, we’d still have gotten you. Probably easier and without a fuss. You think your pa or Gertie would have objected to me taking you two for a ride?”
His confidence made her realize just how he’d fooled them all. If Slade had come to the cabin and offered to take her for a ride, she and everyone else would have agreed.
“Then why kidnap us?” She stared at him defiantly as he hauled her to her feet.
He grinned. “Because it’s more fun this way.”
With great ease, Slade picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. “Wouldn’t want you to hurt your foot any more, would we?”
How had she not seen what a bully Slade was?
Slade handed her to Tom, who helped hoist her back onto the saddle.
“No more delays,” Slade said as he tugged again on one of her loose tendrils.
Another hairpin clattered to the ground, and she couldn’t help but hope that was the first one her rescuers found. It would serve Slade right for his meanness to be the instrument of his downfall.
* * *
When Joseph and Wes arrived at Gertie’s, the rain had stopped, but the place was in an uproar.
“What’s going on?” he asked Gertie.
“Annabelle and Nugget are missing,” she said, looking over at Frank. “They were picking flowers, then the storm hit. I just don’t know where they could be.”
Polly slammed a pot to the ground. “I’ll tell you where they are. She’s run off with Tom, despite all of her protests about not being the sort to dig her claws into someone else’s man.”
He couldn’t believe that Polly’s petty jealousy was keeping everyone from looking for Annabelle. “That isn’t what happened.” Joseph glared at her, then turned to Frank.
“There’s a lot Wes and I need to catch you up on. But we’ll have to do that as we look for Annabelle and Nugget. Slade has them, and—”
“No, he doesn’t.” Polly stood and squared off with him. “I saw her ride off with Tom. Nugget wasn’t with them. He had his arms around her, and I can assure you, she was not upset about it.”
He stepped aside and addressed Frank. “Tom must be working with Slade. When we were on the ridge, Slade tried to kill me. He stole my pa’s Bible out of my saddlebag. I believe it holds the clue to the location of the silver.”
The doubt on Frank’s face, along with Polly’s screeching in the background made it almost impossible to believe they’d get Annabelle back safely.
“It’s true,” Wes said, breaking in to the conversation. “I’ve seen Slade and Tom hanging around town together. I’m sure he’s got other men who’ve got Nugget. We need to find them—fast.”
Frank’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he looked from Wes to Joseph. “You’re certain Slade tried to kill you?”
“Yes. As I said, I’ll give the rest of the details on the way. We’ve got to find Annabelle and Nugget.”
Which seemed almost hopeless given that Frank was still doubtful about the circumstances of his daughter’s disappearance, and that without his pa’s Bible, they had no idea where...
Joseph glanced around the people gathered. “My pa referenced something about Nugget’s secret rock house in his Bible. Does that sound at all familiar?”
Gertie nodded. “The girls were talking about one. Caitlin!”
She ran toward the tent, where a teary-eyed little girl emerged. “Did you find Nugget?”
“No.”
Joseph watched as Gertie bent down in front of her daughter. He prayed Caitlin would know where it was.
“I heard you girls talking about a secret house. Do you know where it is?”
Caitlin nodded. “Nugget said it was by her papa’s cabin, at monkey rock, and that someday she’d take me there to play in her treasure room.”
All this time, Nugget had probably known where the silver was.
“Thank you, Caitlin.” Joseph bent and gave the little girl a hug. “I promise, we’ll do everything we can to find Nugget.”
Please, Lord, don’t let this be a broken promise. Nugget had to be safe, she just had to be.
“I know where we’re going,” he told Wes, who was already headed for the horses.
Joseph looked over at Frank. “Are you coming?”
The older man nodded slowly. It was clear he still couldn’t wrap his mind around Slade being behind everything, but hopefully, during the ride, with Wes to help explain what he knew of the man, it would become clearer.
Now he just needed to pray that they’d reach Annabelle and Nugget in time.
Chapter Twenty-One
When they reached the turnoff for Nugget’s father’s cabin, they didn’t turn, but rode on.
“The cabin’s that way,” Annabelle said, twisting to get Tom’s attention.
“We’re not going to the cabin, Miss Know It All.” He yanked on Annabelle’s hair in imitation of Slade.
What was it with these men and her hair? At least it gave her an excuse to pull out yet another hairpin to leave as a marker. She dropped an extra one, and another closer than what she ordinarily would have in hopes that they’d pick up on her clue and keep going.
What must her father be thinking right now? Had they gotten word of Joseph’s death? Did he know Slade was the culprit, or would her father be wondering who could have taken her?
Did they even know they were gone?
Annabelle pushed those thoughts out of her head. She wasn’t going to give up. She simply couldn’t. Too many bad things had happened already, and she wasn’t going to let this have the same end.
They reached an outcropping of rocks, which must’ve been the other side of where Joseph’s father had built his cabin.
“There!” One of Slade’s men pointed in the direction of a rock formation.
Tom dismounted, then yanked her off the horse. “Walk.”
She did as she was bade, eager to catch up with Slade and to check on Nugget.
When they got to the base of the formation, Slade turned toward Annabelle. “Get the kid to tell me where the silver is.”
Annabelle started toward Nugget, who raced into her arms. “That man is mean.”
“I know.” Annabelle hugged her tight. “Is the silver here?” she whispered.
Nugget nodded. “Papa said I shouldn’t tell anyone.”
How could she convince a child to betray her father’s confidence? Worse, how could she get the information about the silver to Slade in such a way that he’d let them live, at least long enough for them to escape?
“You know that the mean man is going to hurt us if you don’t tell him?”
Tears ran down Nugget’s face. A child so young should not be responsible for all the things she’d had to face.
With a look braver than her age, Nugget wiped an arm across her face, took Annabelle’s hand, then tugged her in the direction of Slade.
“In that cave,” Nugget said, pointing at a small fissure in the rock.
Slade went to the spot Nugget indicated, staring into it. He tried squeezing into the space, but his body was too big.
“How’d he get the silver out? Is there another entrance?” He returned his attention to Nugget.
She shook her head, then said quietly, “I got the silver for him.”
If there was anyone Annabelle wanted to hurt more than Slade and his men, it was Nugget’s father for putting a child in this position. How could he?
Slade, though, had no such thoughts, as a wicked grin crossed his face. “Then get it for me.”
Nugget glanced in Annabelle’s direction. “Annabelle has to come with me. There’s enough room. Mama used to come so’s the bats wouldn’t get me.”
Bats. Annabelle swallowed. Well, if she had to choose between bats and bullets, she supposed bats were the best option.
“You wouldn’t be trying to pull anything, would you?” Slade got right in Nugget’s face, but the little girl remained unmoved.
“She’s a child,” Annabelle said. “What exactly do you think she’s going to pull?”
Slade turned to his men. “Where’s the dynamite? Let’s just blast it out.”
The men whispered amongst themselves, then Bart came forward. “Slim used it all on Joseph. There isn’t any more.”
For a moment, Annabelle was sure Slade was going to shoot him on the spot. Then Slade looked over at the one she presumed to be Slim.
“Then Slim had best get in to town and get us some more.”
Slade returned his attention to Nugget and Annabelle. “I guess it’s time for you to prove there’s really silver in there. Go in and get me some silver.”
Nugget scrambled into the cave, and Annabelle followed, barely able to squeeze into the tight space.
“Nugget?”
Annabelle could hear a soft scrape, then a light shone in the distance.
“Crawl on your belly to my light.”
She did as the tiny girl ordered, finding herself in a large cavern.
“Papa told me to come here if anyone ever tried to get me to tell them where the silver is.”
Nugget shone the lantern around to indicate an empty cavern that had shiny flecks of some sort of mineral adorning the wall. Unfortunately, it wasn’t gold or silver. That much Annabelle knew. “Mama called it my secret house.”
Annabelle closed her eyes. They were safe for now, but once Slade realized they were not coming out, he’d just get dynamite and blast them out.
“But how do we get out?”
Nugget shrugged. “Papa always came.”
“But your papa is dead. Is there any other way out?”
Annabelle took the lantern and looked around for some sign that the cavern had another exit. Every fissure in the cavern appeared tighter than the one they’d just entered. Nugget went to one of the spaces and pulled out a blanket.
“I want my mama,” she said, plopping down on the hard ground and wrapping the blanket around her.
Annabelle joined her and pulled the little girl into her lap. “I know. I want my mama, too.”
Because her mother would know exactly what to do. She always did. At some point, Slade was going to get impatient for the silver. And if he found dynamite, and the rocks exploded around them, they surely wouldn’t survive.
Lord, please. Help me find a way to get us out safely. We can’t have come this far for nothing. My faith is so lacking, but the Bible says that if you have faith as small as a mustard seed... Surely I have that much in me. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be calling on You now.
Annabelle wasn’t sure what else to say, so she cuddled Nugget closer to her and tried peering around in the limited light. If Nugget had faith that her papa would come get her, there had to be another way in if the way they’d entered was too small for a man.
“Nugget? Will you tell me where the silver is?”
The little girl sighed. “You won’t tell the bad men, will you?”
“I won’t tell them.” Please God, let me not break this promise.
But Nugget seemed to know Annabelle was weak. “Yes, you will.”
So Annabelle continued her search, shining the light and running her hand along the surface of the cave walls. She stumbled over a pile of rocks.
Could this be it?
She started digging among the rocks, moving them aside in hopes that they would lead to a passageway. Each rock seemed heavier than the last, but it didn’t make a dent in the pile.
“It’s not there,” Nugget said, moving to stand beside her.
Great. Annabelle let out a long breath. She’d been working to get them out of the cave, and Nugget was still trying to protect her father’s silver.
“Then where?” She tried keeping the exasperation out of her voice, but she was running out of options.
Nugget looked at her with big, watery green eyes. “I promis
ed my papa.”
“Then at least tell me how he got in.”
Shadows crossed Nugget’s face, and she’d liked to have thought that it was because Nugget was carefully considering the idea. That meant there had to be another way.
“Papa came in from the big rock.” Nugget pointed, and when Annabelle swung the lantern, her heart sank. The big rock was bigger than the two of them put together.
“Some other bad men came for Papa once, and he told me to stay in here until it was safe.” She walked to the spot where she’d found the blanket, then pulled out a canteen. “The food’s gone, but Papa left us water and this lantern.” Nugget held up the lantern that illuminated the cave.
This was not what she was looking for. But maybe, if she got Nugget to tell more of the story, she’d find out something that could help them. “How long were you in here?”
“Ages.” Nugget let out a long, dramatic sigh. “But then Papa pushed the big rock out of the way and he saved me.”
“Annabelle!” The echo through the cave reminded her that they didn’t have ages. They had only as much time as the men had to bring dynamite in from town. Which, if they rode hard, only gave them a couple hours.
She turned toward the opening from which they’d come. “We’re still looking. It’s all a bunch of rocks.”
“You best find me some silver.”
If only Annabelle and God had been on good enough terms that He would listen to her prayers. But maybe...
Lord, please help us. Help me find a way to save us. To save Nugget. You saw fit to save me when all of these good people died in spite of all my prayers. Why did You have to take Joseph, too? And now to leave me in this situation where only You can save us? This time, if You have to take someone, let it be me instead of a little girl who hasn’t done anything wrong.
Because that, of all things, was her greatest fear. That somehow, God would once again take someone she loved and leave her behind to regret.
Rocky Mountain Dreams & Family on the Range Page 20