by Jan Drexler
At the top, she stopped again, out of breath. The sun was below the top branches of the trees directly in front of her.
“I won’t panic.”
As she watched the sun, it seemed to sink even farther.
“I can’t panic.” She took a deep breath. “When I left the camp, I went south. So if I go north, I’ll eventually come to the road, even if I don’t come to the camp first. And once I’m on the road, I’ll be able to find the camp.”
Mattie grasped the pail’s handle to keep her fingers from trembling. She had a plan, but she must find the road before the sun set.
She turned to the right, keeping the sun on her left once more, and walked. No matter what, she must keep the sun on her left.
The air around her turned dusky, even though the sky through the branches above her was still a bright blue. Mattie hurried, stumbling over sticks and the uneven ground. Finally, just when she thought she would have to spend the night in the woods, she stepped into an open place. The road.
Mattie sank onto the grass at the edge of the dirt highway, trying to catch her breath. She could cry from the relief of the sight of the narrow dirt ribbon through the trees, but she had to keep going. It would be dark soon, and she needed to get back to camp before then. Her family was probably already worried about her.
She had walked down the road for nearly a mile before remembering that she had left the pail behind where she had rested.
“I’ll go back for it in the morning.”
Her voice sounded thin in the growing darkness. Once she reached the camp, she would never be so foolish as to go on an errand by herself in a strange place. She spoke louder, letting her words push against the dusk.
“Keep walking, and don’t worry. You’ll be back in the camp before you know it.”
A shadow moved in the trees at the side of the road.
“You won’t find it that way, Mattie-girl.” Cole stepped into the road, his teeth gleaming in the dusky shadows of his face. “Your folks are camping a couple miles back. I knew you would be willing to come with me, but I didn’t know you’d be so eager that you’d come to find me.”
“No.” She shook her head, taking another step back. “I got lost.”
He moved close enough to grasp her arm, but she jerked it out of his reach.
“You know that isn’t true. You saw me scouting out your camp this afternoon, didn’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He grinned at her. “I’m going to take the horses tonight, then we’ll be off to the west. Just you and me. You coming to find me like this makes things so much easier.”
Mattie clasped her shaking hands together. “Why do you think I’d go west with you? I won’t leave my family.”
Cole chuckled, low in his throat, and took a slow step closer. “I’ve seen it in your eyes, love.” He lifted her chin with his finger. “Every time I mention Oregon, your face lights up.”
His eyes seemed to glow in the growing darkness. Every star that strained to shine in the deepening blue sky was reflected in the obsidian flecks. Mattie spun to flee back down the road, but tripped and fell headlong in the dirt and gravel. Cole was standing over her before she could move.
“Oh, Mattie-girl.” His voice was tender, crooning, but the hand that grasped her arm was as hard as flint. “It’s too dark to be wandering down the road alone. You can stay with me tonight. I’ll take good care of you.”
He lifted her close to him in the dark, and Mattie flinched as he pulled her kapp from her hair and loosened the long strands. “I need to wait a few hours before I fetch that lovely string of horses from your folks. We can have some fun while we wait, don’t you think?”
She tried to tear her arm out of his grasp, but his fingers only dug in tighter.
“Don’t fight me.” He knotted her hair in his other hand and forced her close to him. His breath singed her cheek. “We both know you came to look for me. Do you think your friends will believe anything different?” Cole tugged her closer and whispered in her ear. “You’re mine, Mattie-girl. You’ve been mine since the first time we met.”
“No.” Mattie struggled, but his hold was too tight.
“We’re going west together, just like you wanted. I need those Conestoga horses for a stake, and then we’ll head off to Oregon. Just you and me.”
“I don’t want to go with you.”
His confident chuckle raised the hair on the back of Mattie’s neck. “You will. You don’t have any choice.” His breath in her ear chilled her skin. “Your reputation is ruined now. No matter what you tell that Amish sweetheart of yours, he’ll never believe you didn’t come looking for me.” He leaned away from her, stroking her cheek as he watched her face. “And I’ll swear to him that you came of your own free will. Even if he found you and took you back, he’d always doubt you, wouldn’t he? That smug face of his would never smile at you. Every time he looked at you, he’d think of me kissing you, and he’d always wonder whose kisses you liked better.”
Mattie shuddered as his fingers slid to her neck. He leaned closer, his eyes gleaming in the faint starlight. Bile rose in her throat as she realized he was going to kiss her. She turned her head, grasping his fingers between her teeth, and bit down as hard as she could.
He screamed, then cut it short in a grunt as he caught her jaw in a swing from the bitten hand. He didn’t let go of her hair, but dragged her to a tree and threw her against it. The rising moon, nearly full, shone on him as he stood above her, cradling his hand and swearing at her. He grabbed her kapp from the ground and wrapped his hand, holding the makeshift compress against his bleeding fingers with his good hand.
Mattie pulled her knees up, getting her feet under her so that she could try to run, but he kicked at her legs, jerking them out straight.
“Don’t you think about trying to get away.” His voice shook as he tried to control it. “This doesn’t change anything, except that the trip to Oregon isn’t going to be as comfortable for you as it could have been.” He leaned down and pulled her toward him with his good hand. “I need to put you somewhere safe until I get this job done. Come on.”
He flicked her wrinkled and bloody kapp off his hand and picked up his hat. He started into the woods, pulling Mattie by the arm, dragging her when she stumbled on her stiff, cold feet. When she tried to pull out of his grasp once, he whirled around and caught her again with the back of his hand.
“My pa might be a lousy father, but he taught me the right way to treat women. You try to get away again, and I’ll kill you.”
Terror gave way to rage, filling Mattie’s breast with a white-hot, reckless sword. “You murdered that freighter.”
He pulled her toward him, his face distorted. “Who told you that?”
“No one. I knew as soon as I saw the man’s body, even though I didn’t want to believe it.”
Cole’s face turned calm, his eyes as cold as ever. “No one can prove it, and if you think I’ll be easier on you to keep you quiet, you’ve got another think coming.”
Cole grabbed her hair and pushed her along in front of him. The moon was nearly overhead when they came to a clearing and the light shone bright, revealing four horses picketed near a stream. Cole’s saddle lay on the ground at the base of the tree he thrust her against. He pulled a rope out of his saddlebag and tugged her arms around the tree, tying them behind her. She tested her bonds, struggling to get free, but his knots were tight. She was helpless.
Cole caught her chin in one hand and turned her face to the moonlight, grinning when she winced. “I’m not sure which of us got the worst of your first lesson, Mattie-girl. You got me good with that bite, but I gave you some bruises that will last for a while.” He squeezed the sore jaw tighter. “Just remember that the next time you want to show me some sass. I give back as good as I get, and I always win.”
He bent toward her then and caught her mouth in a kiss, rough and possessive. He pulled away, breathing hard and fast,
and ran a finger along her sore mouth. “I’ll be back with those Conestogas, Mattie-girl, and then we’ll ride for Missouri.”
24
Jacob and Josef took charge of the teams of horses as the group made camp. With thieves around, they needed to take care with them, whether Cole Bates was involved or not.
Josef fashioned hobbles from a length of soft cotton rope Yost had in the Bontrager wagon, and they used them to restrain each of the horses. Hobbling made it difficult for the horses to walk quickly, and trotting or running was out of the question, ensuring that the horses wouldn’t be easy to steal. By the time Jacob had helped Josef hobble the last horse, stars had begun to appear in the sky and supper was ready.
It wasn’t until he was seated with Josef and Andrew that Jacob realized he hadn’t seen Mattie. He took a bite of the stewed beans. Naomi and little Davey weren’t around either. The boy’s hand must have gotten worse, and Mattie was helping to care for him.
After supper, though, when he took his plate to the dishpan to be washed, Naomi was there, drying and stacking the plates as Johanna washed them.
“Mattie must be with the boy?”
Naomi’s towel stopped circling the plate in her hand. “Ne. Davey is sleeping. I haven’t seen Mattie since we made camp. I thought she was helping you with the horses.”
Jacob ignored the sinking feeling in his stomach.
He found Henry sitting near the Schrock wagon, finishing his own supper.
“Have you seen Mattie?”
Henry shook his head. “I heard her say something about getting water when we made camp. Isn’t she here?”
“I don’t know yet.” Jacob gazed at the faces around the camp. Beyond the circle of the campfire, darkness reigned, but here in the shelter of the wagons, each familiar face glowed with the dancing light from the fire. He patted Henry on the shoulder. “She’s probably in one of the wagons. I’ll look around for her.”
Jacob circled behind the wagons, but there was no sign of Mattie. He peered into the black underbrush at the edge of the clearing and the thick trees that towered above him. He didn’t want to raise an alarm unless it was necessary, but where was she?
He made his way to Eli Schrock as he sat with the other men, discussing the trail ahead. Eli looked up as Jacob approached.
“Is something wrong? You look worried.”
Jacob tried to clear his brow. “I don’t know if there’s anything wrong or not, but I haven’t seen Mattie since we made camp.”
Eli stood and called for everyone’s attention. “Has anyone seen Mattie this evening?”
Mose stepped forward. “I saw her take a pail and go that way.” He pointed into the woods. “She said she was going to find water.”
“Did anyone see her come back?”
Silence met his question, and Jacob’s stomach turned over. Mattie was missing. Lost in the woods? Or did she break her pledge to him and disappear to the west?
Eli turned to the men around him. “We need to search for her.”
“It is dark already.” Josef stood next to Eli. “We should make torches, and go out to search in pairs. We know she went into the woods, but she may have come out to the road either east or west of us. I suggest that we search all three areas.”
The men agreed with Josef’s plan. With Andrew and Noah staying behind to watch for her return to the camp, the rest of the men split into three pairs. Eli headed for the woods as soon as his torch was lit, followed by Henry. Mattie’s brother Isaac, along with Yost Bontrager, started down the road, heading east. Jacob picked up his torch and glanced at Josef. At his nod, they started down the road toward the west.
“Do you think she could have made it to the road?” Jacob slowed his pace, letting Josef catch up with him.
“Unless she got turned around in the woods. But if Mattie realized she was lost, I think she would have thought clearly enough to head north, knowing she would find the road.”
Not if she had planned to run away the entire time. Jacob shook his head, trying to clear out the thoughts that crowded in. He couldn’t have been so wrong about Mattie. Not his Mattie.
Stars shone in the sky ahead of them. The moon wasn’t up yet, and at the pace he was walking, Jacob would miss any sign she might have left when she came out of the woods. He slowed and held the torch in front of him, lighting the ground along the road.
“Look!” Josef ran ahead and picked up something from the grass. “Bring the light. I think it is the pail from the Schrock wagon.”
Jacob held the torch near the wooden bucket. “There is the plugged knothole in the side. Ja, for sure this is the Schrocks’ water pail.”
He lifted the torch high and looked up and down the road. “Mattie!” As loud as he called, it seemed his voice was swallowed by the crowding trees.
“If she had gone east from this point, she would have arrived back at the camp.” Josef started walking west. “So she went this way.”
“Wait.” Jacob stood in the grass where they had found the pail. Mattie had been here, and had gone west. Why had she dropped the bucket? Why hadn’t she come back to the camp? He shook down the suspicions that crowded his mind. “We need to tell the others we found this clue. One of us needs to go back.”
Josef turned around. “You are right. I will go back to the camp while you go on. I’ll give the message and then catch up to you as soon as I can.”
Jacob watched until Josef was beyond the circle of light from the torch. Overhead, the sky had turned black, with stars shining in a ribbon above the gap in the trees.
He had taken a dozen steps to the west before he had the thought that she could have gone back into the trees at some point. She wouldn’t if she was looking for their camp, but if she had come to meet Cole—
Breaking that thought off with a groan, he continued walking, but kept the torch raised in his left hand so that he could see the grassy edge of the road. After more than a mile, he saw a gap in the trees. Jacob stood in the spot, holding his torch close to the ground and the trampled grass. Someone had been here this evening, but where were they now?
Casting the torch in a wider circle, he spied a white cloth on the ground. His stomach clenched when he recognized Mattie’s kapp. He picked it up and sank onto a fallen log. The torch dangled, forgotten in his hand as he buried his face in the white cloth. Mattie’s fragrance of mingled soap and wood smoke filled his senses. Leaving her kapp behind was something she would never do . . . unless she had turned her back on her family and the Amish community.
He turned it over in his fingers, pushing at the wave of anger that crested and broke over his head. His Mattie, stolen by an Englisher, just as Liesbet had been. He had known she was in danger, but she had given him her pledge. She had promised she wouldn’t go west with Cole or anyone like him. She had lied to him. Lied. And he had been fool enough to believe her.
The flickering light from the torch caught a dark spot on the kapp, and he held it closer to the light. Dark red, and still wet. Blood.
His fingers grew cold, but at the same time a bubble of hope rose. Perhaps Mattie had fought back. Maybe she hadn’t left her kapp behind by choice.
Jacob rose to his feet and paced the length of the opening and back. He didn’t have to wonder who she had fought with. It had to be Bates. And it wasn’t very long ago. Bates had taken her away from this spot . . . he must have been afraid that someone would look for her.
The flame of the torch forgotten in his hand guttered and he lifted it up, trying to preserve the light. Cole Bates was right to be worried. He should know that Jacob would follow Mattie until he found her and brought her home.
Mattie opened her eyes. The moon had moved toward the western treetops, but still filled the small clearing with its light. She must have slept.
Her shoulders ached from being stretched around the tree in this unnatural position. She tugged, testing the rope Cole had used to tie her once more, but her sore shoulders kept her from using any strength in the pull.
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She let her chin drop forward. Her hair, loosened from its normal bonds, hung along the sides of her face. One of the horses shifted its feet and blew. Mattie lifted her head and stared at it. Four horses. A matched team. Something pounded at the fog that filled her head. The freighter. He had described the stolen horses. She let her head fall back against the tree trunk. She had been right. It was Cole who had stolen the horses. Cole who had shot that freighter and killed him.
Cole who had left her tied to this tree to steal Daed’s horses, and the Bontragers’, and the Yoders’. He wouldn’t hesitate to shoot anyone who interfered.
With sudden clarity, Mattie knew Jacob would be his target. She struggled against the rope that tied her with frantic tugs, in spite of the pain in her arms. Jacob wasn’t the only one in danger. None of them were safe from Cole. Daed, Noah, Isaac, Henry . . . What would keep him from killing them all?
She thrashed from side to side, her feet kicking, but it was no use. The rope was tight and strong, and the ground under her feet was wet. Slippery. The odor was overpowering. Cole had tied her behind two of the horses, and her kicking had brought her feet into contact with their droppings. She pushed at the ground with her heels, slipping and sliding, until she was upright against the tree once more. And then the tears came.
What had possessed her to leave the camp by herself? Was Cole right? Had she been searching for him?
She shook her head. “Ne,” she sobbed. “Ne, it can’t be true.”
But when she left the camp to find water, she had been so miserable. She had left looking for more than just a pail of water. She had wanted solitude. To leave the crowded campsite behind and be alone for once. To look for . . . what?
Not Cole. Ne, not him.
Mattie leaned her head back against the tree again, staring up at the moon that drifted between the high branches. She tried to swallow the lump that had grown in her throat, but it didn’t budge.