Handsome Widower’s Second Chance

by Elliee Atkinson

  “I don’t either. I’m not sure I want to know.”

  “I’m gonna take off. I gotta get some rest and be at work in the morning. You’re not going back to the lumber mill yet, are you?”

  “Not tomorrow anyway. I have to take care of my kids first, make sure they are safe.”

  “Not sending them to school?”

  “Likely not.”

  “I think that’s probably wise.”

  Both men stood up and Mark unhooked the lantern from the bent nail.

  “Thanks for coming back. I appreciate it.”

  Mark nodded and they shook hands. “You be careful, Adam. I’ll come back tomorrow if I don’t see you to check on you. See if you need anything. You want me to come in the morning?”

  “Before work?”

  “Yeah.”

  “If you want to.”

  “Okay, I’ll ride out here early in the morning.”

  “Thanks, buddy.”

  Adam watched as Mark went back to his horse and headed away from the house. He went back through the door, catching Alice’s eyes as soon as he passed through the doorway. She raised her eyebrows and he shook his head. She frowned.

  “I put some fresh water in the basin for you, children,” she said, standing up from the table. “Time to wash up and get to bed.”

  Adam watched as both children pushed back from the table and jumped to their feet, seemingly not tired at all. They ran to the washroom and he soon heard them splashing water at each other as they washed their hands and faces.

  “Behave, you two, or you’ll be cleaning that water up for the rest of the night!” He called out.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  TERROR IN THE MORNING

  TERROR IN THE MORNING

  It was still dark when Adam opened his eyes and sat up. He had no idea why he was awake and didn’t know what time it was. The half-moon was still up. He could see it through his bedroom window. He slid out of bed and went to the window to look out at the stars.

  “Hello, Holly,” he whispered. “I miss you. I love you.”

  He stayed there for a few minutes and gazed up at the sky, holding back tears of sorrow. When he finally turned away, he realized he was holding his breath and let it out slowly. He walked on silent feet through his doorway into the main room and went to the bottom of the ladder that went up to the loft. He could hear breathing above him. He went up the rungs slowly and quietly, not wanting to disturb anyone. He peeked over the edge and could just see Riley and Alice tucked up in the small bed to the left and Max lying flat on his back in the bed to the right. His heart warmed with love for them all and he went back down the rungs in silence.

  He went out on the porch, taking his small pipe with him. He packed it with some sweet smelling herbs he got from the general store. It was something he very rarely did but waking up in the middle of the night was not something normal for him, either. He sat on the porch steps where he’d been with Mark earlier in the night. It was nearly pitch dark outside. There were trees to his left and desert plain to his right. The trees looked like huge black boulders but he could hear the leaves rustling in the gentle breeze. To his right, the arms of the Saguaro cacti reached up into the sky as if they were trying to surrender.

  He yawned, a sure indication that he needed to get back to his bed. The last thing he wanted to do was fall asleep on the porch, especially since he had not brought his gun out with him. The thought gave him pause. He didn’t want to shoot Nathan. He didn’t even want to shoot Carl or David. Although, if he had to in order to defend his family, he wouldn’t hesitate.

  He went over his conversation with Mark in his head. When he thought about Alice, the way she attended to him, the attention she gave him and his children, he realized she was like Holly in some ways but she had her own personal style. She was not her sister. He didn’t want her to be.

  After talking with Mark, Adam had tried to see if he saw anything new in Alice’s behavior. She had given him a few soft smiles that looked more loving than they had before. When they had been together for family occasions, they had related well but had not gotten very close. Their conversation had always been about general subjects, topics that would not be off limits between a brother-in-law and sister-in-law. He’d never even thought about it before.

  He hadn’t paid much attention to Alice over the last ten years. He was five years older than her, had been three years older than Holly, and always thought of her as a little girl. Marrying Holly when she was eighteen and he was twenty-one, Alice had been a young girl of sixteen and no where mature enough to think of marriage or anything of that nature. If she’d been infatuated with him, he wouldn’t have noticed.

  It was unlikely she would ever have said anything if she had anyway. He stood up, pushing his thumb into the pipe to put out the flame. He stretched his arms above his head and turned to head back inside.

  “Good night, Holly,” he whispered.

  The next time Adam woke up, the sun was bursting through his window, heating up his room and making him squint. He pushed out of bed and went directly to the water basin on the dresser by the window. He poured some fresh water into the basin from the pitcher and shivered when he splashed it on his face. It was warm in his room but the pitcher had kept the water cold. He wanted to heat it up on the stove but thought twice about it after thinking about all the work he’d have to do to get the fire started and get out a pot.

  Laughing to himself for being lazy, he dried off his face and ran a brush through his long hair. He used a cloth to clean off his teeth until they squeaked. He dressed in a clean shirt and pants, snapping his suspenders over his shoulders. He was grateful he had a clean pair of socks and wondered if he dared ask Alice to do some laundry for him. It was hard work, and with the children’s clothes to be washed and his that were nearly always covered in sweat and dust from the wood he worked with, it would prove to be quite a task. It exhausted Holly whenever she did it. He didn’t want to burden Alice.

  He made up his mind to do his own laundry the next time he got a chance.

  He went through the doorway into the main room and crossed through it to the kitchen. He stopped in the doorway of the kitchen and stood there for a moment listening.

  The house was quiet.

  He turned around and looked up at the loft. He didn’t hear motion or breathing.

  His heart pounded against the inside of his chest as he moved back to the ladder. Taking the rungs up quickly this time, he peeked over the edge to see that the beds were empty.

  His heart dropped into his stomach and he felt all the blood drain from his face and body, tingling in his lower legs and feet. Chills covered him from head to toe.

  “No,” he breathed. “No, no.” He jumped from the rungs to the floor. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he ran to the front door and threw it open. They were not in the front yard. He went out onto the porch. “Alice! Max! Riley!” he screamed, cupping his hands on the sides of his mouth. “Max! Riley! Alice!”

  He spun around and went back through the house to the back door, throwing it open and peering out over the desert landscape in front of him. They were not there. He called their names at the top of his lungs, trying his best to keep panic from his voice and failing miserably.

  “No, no, no,” he repeated, spinning around once more and going back in the house to find his boots. He pushed his feet in them and hurriedly tied them up. He’d left the front door open and looked up in shock when a dark figure blocked the sun from coming in.

  It was Mark. Adam shot to his feet, ran to the back door and slammed it shut.

  “Adam! What’s happened?” Mark’s face took on a look similar to Adam’s.

  “They’re gone! They’re gone! I don’t know how I could have slept through it! I woke up in the middle of the night and checked on them and they were fine. They were asleep! Now they are gone! I have to find them, Mark! I have to find them!”

  Mark stepped to the side to let Adam run out of the house. He
slammed the door shut and followed Adam to his horse. “Wait, Adam! Wait!”

  Adam scowled at Mark. “What am I waiting for?”

  Mark held up his hands. “You have to calm down. You have to see what’s happened first before you run wild. Maybe Alice took them to school.”

  Adam shook his head. “She and I agreed they weren’t to go to school today. She wouldn’t take them without telling me. She would tell me!”

  Mark nodded. “Okay, but you need to breathe and think for a minute, Adam. You can’t just go off half-cocked. Think! Where should we go first? We can’t just ride into town like crazy men, knocking on every door. Do you really think it was Nathan? Would he really come in the middle of the night and take the children? And how would he get them out without them making any sounds at all? Your house is small. You would have heard something.”

  “Maybe not. I was sleeping heavy. After I woke up in the middle of the night, I went outside and smoked my pipe. I have some of the herbs that Mack sells at the general store. They make me sleep. I didn’t think about it last night. I didn’t think about it!” Adam was furious with himself. How could he have let this happen? He was supposed to protect Alice and his children.

  “Everyone makes mistakes. You need to give yourself a break, my friend; you aren’t thinking straight right now. You’re panicking and I understand it but it won’t be helpful to us now. Where is the first place Nathan might take the children?”

  “To his parents.”

  “Then that’s where we’ll go. But I’m thinking he won’t have them there. If he’s truly lost his mind, he will still be with his buddies. And there’s no way he could have done this by himself. One of the children or Alice would have made a noise. There had to be at least three people involved in this or you would have been woken up. I’m sure of it.”

  “They were in the loft. All three of them. I don’t know how they could have done all of that without waking me up even if I did smoke a pipe.” Adam cried out in frustration, slamming a fist into the side of his head.

  “Calm down! We have to think straight. Get your horse. I’m coming with you to the Wesley’s. Or should we go there and panic them, too?”

  “Oh, I don’t know!” Adam untied his horse, grateful that it was still there and Nathan hadn’t let him free. Not that Musty would have gone anywhere. He was a faithful horse and knew who his owner was. Adam treated him like gold.

  “We have to decide and we have to decide quickly,” Mark said.

  “You just told me to calm down! How can I calm down and make quick decisions.”

  “We have to think! We need a scout, we need a tracker. Someone who can help us find where Nate and those cowpunchers might have taken Alice and the kids.”

  Adam was having trouble breathing. He was ashamed and scared at the same time. He couldn’t believe he’d slept so heavy, he hadn’t heard a thing.

  “All right.” Mark went to his horse. “I think the best thing we can do is check the schoolhouse first. Just to make sure. Then we’ll check the bars and see if the men have been seen. We’ll stop along the way and ask anyone on the road if they’ve seen them. Then if we can’t find out anything, we’ll head to the Wesley’s. If Alice and the children are there, which I doubt, all will be well. If they aren’t there, which I don’t think they will be, we will alert the Wesley’s. I know Chuck will want to help find them. He might know some of Nate’s old hangouts. He can lead us to them.”

  “I am afraid for Caroline. This is going to send her into a panic for sure.”

  “If it does, we will just have to calm her down.”

  Mark waited while Adam quickly put the saddle on Musty and strapped it on. He pulled himself up onto the horse and pulled the reins so that he would be heading down the path toward town. Mark rode his horse next to him. Mark continued talking as they were riding. Adam suspected he was trying to keep Adam calm with his constant banter. He didn’t want to tell Mark to quiet down. It was a tactic that usually worked and Adam was appreciative.

  “Since they came after you checked on them in the middle of the night, they can’t have gotten too far. I don’t think he’d let any harm come to the children, do you? And Alice, surely he would at least keep her safe from the clutches of his cowpuncher friends.”

  “He didn’t before; I don’t know why he would now.”

  “I simply can’t believe that. We have to keep faith. We have to pray for their safety, and, God willing, we will find them before anything terrible happens.”

  “I don’t want to think something terrible can happen. I have to believe he is not going to harm them. He can’t hurt them. They are his family.” Adam knew he was only trying to convince himself. He could hear Alice shrieking for her brother when Carl had attacked her. Mark said Nate was outside laughing and had said such vile things about her it had lead him to punch Nate in the face. Nathan’s heart was in a bad place. He had turned evil.

  “If he hurts my children… if he hurts Alice, I swear to you, Mark, I will not be able to control myself.”

  Mark nodded. “I know, Adam. I am with you. We’ll find them. I know we’ll find them.”

  Adam kicked his horse into a gallop and took off, leaving a trail of dust behind him. Mark was quick to follow, hoping that they weren’t making a mistake leaving Adam’s house unattended. There were only a few rooms in it. There was nowhere the men could hide without being seen, even if they were in the woods to the left of the house. They would have to keep the children quiet unless they were unconscious.

  The thought made Mark shiver. He felt anger rising up in him. He understood Adam’s panic and wanted to be the calm one in the group. Although, he had his pistol at his side and, like Adam, if any harm had come to either Alice or the children, there would be big trouble.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  ALICE IS AWAKE

  ALICE IS AWAKE

  When Alice woke, a bolt of fear split through her.

  She remembered only being woken the night before with a hand over her mouth, keeping her from screaming. A man’s voice whispered in her ear, sending chills through her body and horror through her mind.

  “I may not have gotten you last time,” the man said. “But I will this time.”

  Her eyes opened wide. Her eyes adjusted enough to see that both children had been wrapped in their blankets. They were being hauled off and lowered down the ladder in near silence. She screamed against Carl’s hand but there was no reaction from downstairs.

  “You either shut your mouth or I’ll put a bullet through one of those kids’ heads.” She heard. She immediately stopped squirming and was silent. Tears streamed down her face as she was pushed over the edge of the ladder and down into the arms of another man. Her head hit a rung on the way down and she lost consciousness.

  There was a lump on the back of her head where she’d hit it on the rung of the ladder. She felt a throbbing pain emanating from it. She squeezed her eyes together and willed the pain to ease.

  Something was wrapped around her eyes so that she couldn’t see. Her arms were behind her and another cloth was wrapped around her wrists, tying them together. Her ankles were also tied together.

  She began breathing rapidly. She was terrified. Were the children all right? Why had Adam not come to the rescue? Had they killed him before taking her and the children from the house?

  She struggled to get her bearings. Without the use of her eyes, it was almost impossible. She pushed her fingers against the ground underneath her. It was a dirt floor. She struggled to sit up but stopped when she realized the men who had taken her and the children could easily be nearby, see her moving and come to taunt her or hurt her. She was surprised she still had her night clothes on and they weren’t ripped off. The thought that perhaps Nathan had come to his senses in that regard and at least kept her from being violated ran through her mind.

  Alice turned her head slightly and tried to listen to the sounds around her. It was completely silent. After just a few moments, though, she
heard the very light breathing of two people. It had to be the children. She hoped it was the children. She had no idea how the men had kept the children asleep and didn’t really want to know. The possibilities were too frightening.

  How could she get the cloth away from her eyes? She decided to take a chance and try to at least sit up. She rocked to one side and then the other. After three times, she was able to lift herself to a sitting position. She brought her knees up and pushed against the cloth with them. It took several tries but she eventually was successful. The cloth moved up to her eyebrows and she peeked through to see what was around her. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the children, still wrapped up in their blankets, lying close together near her.

  She was in an empty room. It had four wooden walls with cracks that let in the sunlight in small rays. There was a window with broken glass. The floor was dirt, as she’d suspected. There was no furniture in the room, not even a mattress or cloth on the floor. She didn’t recognize the place at all and had no idea where she might be. She was glad her nightgown was not torn and her underclothes were intact. She scooted carefully across the dirt floor, wincing as the rocks and hard ground pierced the thin fabric of her gown.

  “Max,” she hissed. “Riley. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.”

  She was comforted by their breathing. It let her know they were alive. How they were being kept unconscious, though, was beyond her. She scooted a bit closer. “Max! Riley!”

  They continued to breathe, not even stirring. The cloth was slipping down over her eyes again. She pulled her knees up and pushed it further up over her forehead. She looked up at the window, wondering if she would be able to get to it. If she could get on her knees, she might be able to walk herself to the window. However, her gown would prove to be a hindrance. She didn’t have free range of motion with the fabric in the way.