by Ivy McAdams
She grit her teeth. “Wouldn’t want your piggy bank injured.”
His lip curled in a half-snarl as he pulled Georgene up next to her and reached a hand out to touch her face. She flinched, but his palm cupped her, a thumb sliding over her cheek as the tips of his fingers edged into her hair.
She cursed the oaky scent that enveloped her, the urge she had to press a kiss into his palm. The way her head swam at his touch, and how she nearly forgot her anger.
“Don’t sell yourself short, sweetheart,” he murmured. “You’re still worth money injured.”
Some of the blood drained from her face, but a bigger fire burned in her chest. She swatted his hand away.
They dismounted and hid the horses in the brush, giving them each a carrot to munch on, and Sadie settled herself in the shield of the berry bushes.
“Just keep quiet,” Clay whispered as he peered through the brambles at her. “No matter what you hear up here, don’t come out.”
Nerves flickered throughout her chest, but she nodded.
When he’d gone, she set her jaw and grumbled.
Still worth money injured.
Sadie hugged her knees to her chest and blew out a long breath. Maybe it would be a safer bet to go along to Aunt Hilda’s, no matter how awkward and unwelcome the encounter would be.
At least she wouldn’t be at the mercy of Ace Van den Berg’s greed. Or Clay Pearson pulling at her heartstrings.
She huffed out a sigh and crossed her arms over her chest. As much as she wanted the anger in her to burn through the rest of her emotions, pain grabbed at her. Her heart ached. She’d been so happy that morning. A woman on top of the world.
It’d been smashed with a look and words so indifferent that they took her breath away.
Where had her Clay gone?
She closed her eyes and took a long breath. She wished Papa was still there. He was such a smart man. He’d be able to work out all of her problems.
Except he’d be horribly disappointed in her. Her stomach rolled at the thought. He’d worked out a nice arrangement for her, and she’d spoiled it.
Above her Georgene and Mason’s horse shifted and bumped about, looking for more carrots. The buckskin mare poked her nose into Sadie’s hair and blew out a warm breath. Sadie rubbed her fingers along the horse’s nose. As the beasts bumped and leaned apart from one another, Mason’s saddlebag shook and dropped some papers.
Sadie pulled them out of stomping hoof range. One was addressed to Jeremiah back at camp. The other to Ace himself.
In Aunt Hilda’s handwriting.
Sadie gasped, her fingers tightening on the letter so quickly she nearly crumbled the thing into a ball. She jerked her head around for check for spectators. Mason and Clay were a quarter mile down the road already.
Her fingers trembled as she turned the letter over. There was Aunt Hilda’s address on the back of the smooth white paper.
Sadie’s tongue felt much too dry and her eyes wide as she slipped a finger beneath the blue seal and snapped it loose.
Georgene blew out a whuffle of breath when Sadie popped her head up for another quick peek. The men were gone, but not far from where she'd seen them last, a coach was rolling down the nearest hill toward them.
She squatted low again as she opened the letter.
There were very few words on the page. A formal address and a signature enclosing just two lines. Even the long and elegant pen strokes weren’t enough to ease her nerves on what the sentences would contain.
Dear Mr. Van den Berg,
I appreciate your gentlemanly nature as to inform me of Sadie Tanner’s whereabouts, in case others may be in search of her. I regret to inform you, however, that no one in this household claims a Sadie Tanner, and I will not be sending my own family’s money in order to fetch her.
Do have a good day,
Hilda Tanner
The letter lowered in Sadie’s slack hands as the words pierced her like knives.
She knew the woman wouldn’t send help, but she hadn’t expected the cruel, indifferent words Aunt Hilda had written.
No one in the household claimed her.
It didn’t matter that it was only Hilda and her spindly butler that lived in the big house in St. Aspen. It still hurt to hear.
Someone shouted down the road, and she popped her head up. The coach had stopped, and the driver was on the ground, fretting over someone in the road. Her heart stopped.
Clay lay in the red dirt, and her chest clenched.
“Sir, are you okay?” The driver’s voice was frantic even over the distance.
Georgene blew a hard breath into Sadie’s hair.
“There’s a snake in there. It bit me!” Clay shouted, writhing on the ground.
Sadie’s mind snapped back to the plan he’d discussed with Mason. It was a show. A distraction.
She ducked back down into the brush and stuffed the letter into her pocket.
It was no matter that Aunt Hilda didn’t want her. Or that Clay would rather sell her off for money than keep her around. She didn’t need any of them. She just needed to vanish before they realized their ransom scheme was botched and they no longer had use for her.
She stood and snatched Clover’s reins from the cluster of trees and pushed her out of the brush. The gray mare tossed her head in surprise but backed away as Sadie instructed.
A nagging feeling pulled at the edge of her consciousness, but she pushed it away. Clay and Mason were bringing back their intercepted mail money. Ace wouldn’t need her anymore. It wasn’t as if they were going to get any more money for her anyway.
Sadie pulled herself into the saddle and yanked her reins around, spinning Clover in a tight circle. They sprang from the brush.
Someone shouted down the road. Then a gunshot.
Sadie gasped, wheeling around in a panic. Clay stood firm in the road, pointing and yelling words she couldn’t make out. Mason was ducked behind the corner of the wagon as a second coachman shot into the air. The scene was chaotic, and fear for their safety made her nerves falter. She wanted to run to their aid, but she had no weapon. No way to offer any assistance.
Besides, it was her one window to get away before everyone knew Aunt Hilda had refused to pay for her. There wasn’t time to hesitate.
She heeled the mare into a gallop, ducking through stray limbs until she was on the open road again. There was no way the group behind her didn’t see her, but she didn’t look back. Just forward down the long road back to Emerald Falls.
Back to the only person left in her life that made any logical sense.
Robert Murphy.
Chapter 17
“Why Miss Sadie Tanner, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Robert gaped at her. “What on earth are you wearing?”
Sadie grimaced and looked down at her dusty pants and damp, wrinkled shirt. It was a stark difference from the cleanly pressed checkered shirt and dark trousers he wore, standing in the open doorway of the Murphy ranch house and staring at her as if she’d just been dragged in by the cattle.
“I had a little mishap back there,” she said, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. “I lost my dress, and I―”
Robert waved a hand. “It’s quite alright. Let’s get you some new clothes. Leeann.”
A sharply dressed woman with white gloves and a cleaning rag appeared in the archway across the room behind him.
“That’s not necessary,” Sadie said. “I have some―”
“Leeann, get Miss Tanner into the guest room and draw her a bath. She’s going to need some extra clothes.”
“Oh, Robert. Really. I don’t need all that.”
“Nonsense. You’ll feel much more up for talking once you’re clean and comfortable” His smile took up his whole face, one she’d always found quite charming. This time it twinged one of her nerves.
“Don’t you even want to know where I’ve been?”
“Of course. I’ll be waiting for you in the sunroom.”
Lee
ann reached for her elbow and tugged her from the foyer. Sadie jerked away, slapping a hand against the closing front door.
“My horse,” she gasped.
Clover, loaded down with the last items she had in the world, stood hitched just outside. The animal’s ears swiveled as she peered back at Sadie.
“I’ll take care of it,” Robert said, snapping his fingers and waving a ranch hand toward the mare.
A young boy, about twelve by the look of him, scurried out from around the side of the house and went after the horse.
“All is well.” Robert flashed another grin at Sadie, and Leeann put coaxing fingers on her again.
Sadie wanted to yank free of her, but a bath also sounded amazing after days of sitting around a campfire. With a defeated sag in her limbs, she let Leeann lead her away.
* * *
After a soothing warm bath, Sadie dressed in a soft blue dress adorned with lace and wavy ruffles along the hem. It was beautiful, but she couldn’t help but feel out of place. Nothing she owned was as nice as the dress he’d given her. Nor as starched and hot.
Even with the gentle breeze tickling her ankles as she walked, the dress didn’t breathe any better than a cat in water. She took up the blue lace fan that had been sitting out with the dress, the one she’d laughed at just moments earlier, and began to fan herself in earnest.
“You gave us quite a fright, Miss Tanner. Just disappearing like that.” Robert handed her a cup of tea, and she paused, reluctantly setting her fan aside to take the saucer.
“The circumstances weren’t exactly intentional.”
“Yes, I heard about the train robbery.” He sat in the wooden scroll chair across from her. “That was devastating news. Especially after no one aboard knew what had happened to you.”
She paused with the teacup touching her lip. His eyes were soft and sincere-looking, locked on hers.
Devastating.
He’d said the news was devastating.
Because of how awful it’d been for the townspeople of Emerald Falls? Or because she’d gone missing?
Mr. Brown did say Robert had been looking for her.
She took a small sip of her tea. It was bitter, and she fought back a grimace as she set the cup in its saucer.
“It was certainly frightening at the time,” she said.
“What happened? Two hooligans held up an entire train?”
Her back teeth clenched together as she gingerly slid the teacup onto the low table in front of her.
“Something like that. They lifted some valuables. I don’t think they got away with much.”
Except for her.
Robert shook his head. “No matter what they took, they shot a man. They disrupted the peace of train passengers. Those men should be hanged.”
She adjusted her skirts, fanning some air underneath to cool her legs, as she dug for something else she could say. Something that wouldn’t paint a big red X on Clay’s back.
“You’re right. They’re scoundrels, those Croakers.”
“Croakers did this?”
Her brow creased, and she lifted a shoulder casually. “Who else would do such a thing?”
“I’ve heard word of other gangs nearby. They could be getting bigger and bolder. Some of them could be worse than the Croakers.”
She tucked her fingers into her lap, pressing the toe of her dress shoe into the floor to keep her knee from bouncing.
“That could be, but I know I heard some mention of Croakers when we were getting off the train.”
Robert tilted his head with an alarmed perk of his eyebrow. “Why did you get off the train?”
“We, er, well, Papa and I were taken. By the men. They forced us off the train.”
Robert stood and crossed over to the settee in one long stride. Her insides clenched as he slid in next to her, much too close. His hand hovered near hers but didn’t touch.
“You were kidnapped?”
Her voice came out in a breathy squeak at first. She cleared her throat, dropping a shoulder to lean away from him. “Yes. They took us off the train, but we―we got away.”
“How?”
Her breath caught in her throat. How? She lowered her face into a hand, pressing her fingers around her eyes. It had been a traumatizing experience at the time. Terrifying, being ripped from a train. But it seemed so far away. The Clay she knew was not the same man that had demanded she jump from a moving car.
Although the Clay she thought she knew was also not the one who would sell her off to a woman who cared for her as much as she cared for a wad of horse manure on the bottom of her shoe.
Robert’s hand rested on her shoulder, and she suppressed a shudder.
"There was some shooting going on," she managed to whisper. "Maybe the sheriff, I'm not sure. Shooting at those men. It was chaos. Papa and I got away, but we got separated." She coughed, dragging her hand over her face. "I don't know where he ended up. I searched for a few days. Hopefully, he'll just come back here."
She saw Robert nod out of the corner of her eye. “Maybe he will. I’ll be sure the sheriffs get back out to comb around for those degenerates. Stealing young, lovely ladies around here. Who do they think they are?”
Sadie bit the inside of her lip. She knew she should be just as horrified it had happened, but she couldn’t conjure up quite as much disdain.
She shifted closer to the edge of the couch, collecting her words to ask to be excused, when a commotion came through the front door. Sadie leaned to the side just enough to peer into the foyer.
A short round woman with a brown lace dress and a bob of dark hair rushed in.
"Lands sake, it's true," Mrs. Murphy coughed, staring at Sadie with wide eyes as she strode into the sitting room. "Someone in town told me they'd seen you. I thought they'd done lost their minds. Where on earth have you been?"
Sadie’s frame hardened, but her insides turned to mush. The woman’s scolding tone was not quite the welcome she hoped for.
“Kidnapped,” Robert said simply.
Mrs. Murphy’s eyes did not relax. “Kidnapped? Good heavens, by who?”
“Croakers.”
The woman shifted forward to position herself more in front of Sadie, pinning her with hard eyes. “Is that true?”
An uncomfortable heat rose up inside Sadie’s dress, and she glanced at the blue lace fan on the table next to her. It was too far to grab nonchalantly. She’d have to suffer Mrs. Murphy’s gaze without it. She swallowed a knot of nerves and clenched her hands in her lap.
“Yes, I was kidnapped.”
“By Croakers? I’ve heard such awful stories, especially with young ladies. Did any of them force themselves on you?”
Sadie recoiled, horrified by the suggestion.
“Mother,” Robert chided.
“What?” the woman spat, blinking innocent eyelashes. “You know it happens.”
Sadie knew it did. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been terrified of the possibility upon arriving at the Van den Berg camp. She had been. But Clay had been there to protect her.
The way Mrs. Murphy blurted the words out with a furrow in her brow, however, made Sadie squirm.
“No one forced themselves upon me,” she said, doing her best to relax her jaw.
Mrs. Murphy stared at her for a full two breaths before nodding. “It’s good to see you back in one piece, dear. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
The flat voice offered no sympathy, but Robert smiled just the same.
“I’ve had Leeann prepare a room for her so she can rest,” he said.
Mrs. Murphy lifted her chin, staring down at them with a haughty expression. “That’s a fair idea. I’m sure she’ll need to recover after her incident.”
The sticky heat of Robert’s hand and hip against her vanished as he stood. She felt cooler, less rigid without him next to her. Sitting with him on the settee didn’t use to be so uncomfortable.
Mrs. Murphy’s eyes on her didn’t falter, however. Sadie wanted to
raise a hand to her face to block them out, but she kept her fingers clenched at her sides as she stood and followed Robert past the short woman and out of the room.
He led her down the hallway to an open door. Inside was a single bed, dressed in soft blankets and extra pillows and flanked by two wooden dressers. A beautiful porcelain bowl and pitcher sat atop one chest of drawers, and her dirty clothes sat folded on a short wooden stool in the corner.
“We’ve got new satin sheets on that bed. Take all the time you need for a rest,” he said. “I’ll have them hold a plate of food for you from dinner if you sleep through.”
Despite the awkward tension that thrummed through her, she was thankful for Robert’s hospitality. He’d always been a gentleman.
“Thank you. I appreciate you letting me stay.”
He snorted a laugh. “You expect I’d turn my fiancée into the street?”
The word sent a jolt up her spine.
“Well, no. But―”
“Where else would you go? Your papa isn’t at home. You have no other family. Thank goodness you have a betrothed to go to.”
Her muscles tightened, and she put a hand on the edge of the open door to steady herself. Her teeth set, and it took all her remaining energy to force down the anger erupting inside her.
“I can survive well enough in my home by myself,” she said, despite wanting to yell it.
He stared for a silent moment, reading the energy leaching out of her eyes. Then he smiled, that darn honeyed smile that swept some of her tension away.
“I’m sure you could. You’re a strong woman.”
Her fingers twitched on the door.
“A lady must be if she wishes to survive this world. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
He bowed his head as she eased the door shut. Once he was gone, she hovered next to the crack in the door and listened as he rejoined his mother down the hall. Mrs. Murphy spoke in harsh whispers, mentioning something of the “truth” and a “dowry.” Then the voices moved off too far to hear.
Sadie pushed the door closed until it latched, then pressed her back to it and drew in a long breath.
She didn’t know all the details of her dowry, an outdated tradition Papa’s wealthy family still practiced, but it apparently had been generous enough to keep the Murphys interested in her even after her disappearance.