by Jean Barrett
Brett Buchanan’s Appalachian hideaway was no ordinary retreat. Nestled on a high terrace against a thickly wooded mountainside was a Scottish-style baronial castle complete with crowstepped gables, turrets with conical roofs, and corbeled battlements that looked as though they were intended to defeat an invading army. To Ellie, the place seemed more like a fairy tale than a house. Noah viewed it differently.
“It’s a fortress,” he said angrily. “He’s got my kid locked up in a damn fortress. Why is all this security necessary?”
Ellie had no answer for him, but she could see what he meant. Across the road from where they were parked, a stream coiled around the foot of the mountain. It was like the moat of a castle, only the drawbridge that crossed it was a stone span.
Iron gates sealed off the entrance to the drive on the other side of the bridge. Above the bank of the stream, on either side of the stone gate piers, was a cyclone fence topped by strands of barbed wire A formidable-looking obstacle that probably enclosed the entire property.
“Place has to be costing him a fortune,” Noah muttered. “But then he always was an extravagant bastard.”
She glanced at him, understanding his immense frustration. He’d been excited when they left Rosebay. Tense with the anticipation of finally nearing the objective he’d traveled a thousand miles to reach. But now what he was so desperate to recover was behind seemingly impossible barriers.
She knew he wouldn’t be defeated, though. One way or another, he would get his son back. He’d somehow overcome the challenges of this place, whose lofty arrogance must make him feel it was more imperative than ever that he get Joel out of there.
Ellie gazed again at the castle perched on its ledge far above them. It was a beautiful Gothic absurdity, and it made her nervous.
“Let’s move on,” she suggested, “before someone up there spots us.”
“You’re right. There’s no way in from this side unless I’m invited, and somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen. Let’s see what the fence looks like up ahead. Maybe I can find a way around it.”
But there was no break in the fence as the van crawled slowly along the road that paralleled the stream. Even if there had been one, the waters prevented them from reaching it.
The castle was well out of sight behind them, concealed by the unbroken mass of the woods, when Noah, searching the perimeter of the estate, called out to her.
“Stop!”
She pulled off on the shoulder of the road and looked where he pointed. One of the massive trees on the other side had fallen across the stream, offering a footbridge over the waters.
“Time to check out that fence,” he said. “I want to see if I can climb it”
“You’re not going to try to go up to the house in broad daylight?”
“Guess that wouldn’t be smart. I’ll come back after dark, but I need to know now just where I can get in. Stay put, Ellie.”
He was out of the car in a flash and across the road. Ellie parked the van out of sight among the trees. By the time she joined him, he was already edging his way along the fallen tree. Hearing her behind him, he turned his head and scowled at her.
“I thought I told you—”
“You might need help climbing that fence. Don’t argue about it.”
“All right, but you’re staying on the ground.”
She had no intention of tangling with the wicked-looking barbed wire that topped the fence. As a matter of fact, though she didn’t say so, and he wouldn’t have listened to her if she had, this whole business was beginning to feel like something out of an unlikely combat movie. There had to be a safer, saner method for reuniting Joel with his father. The trouble was, she couldn’t think of one.
Ellie followed him over the bridge. With careful balancing, it wasn’t difficult to cross since the trunk was broad and the bark rough. The high bank on the other side was thick with underbrush and drifts of fallen leaves. They climbed it, wading through the tight growth to reach the fence.
Excluding the barbed wire, the fence was probably a good ten feet or more in height and solidly constructed. She watched in silence as Noah evaluated the barrier, scanning its length in both directions.
“There,” he said, “that’s what I want.”
He moved off to the right. Puzzled, she went after him. When she caught up to him, he was gazing at the bough of an oak which extended out over the fence just inches above the barbed wire.
“The fence itself is no problem to climb,” he explained. “It’s the angled barbed wire that’s going to stop me. Or it would if it weren’t for that branch up there. I can use it to swing myself over the top.”
“Will it support you?”
“Let’s find out.”
Secunng easy holds for his hands and feet in the stout wire mesh, he began to scale the fence.
“Careful,” she warned him.
“After climbing out of a deep well, this is a piece of cake,” he teased, inching his way upward.
He was clinging to the top of the fence with one hand, and reaching for the limb with the other, when she heard it. A scrabbling sound in the deep woods behind the fence.
“There’s something up there,” she hissed.
“You hearing wild boar again?” He had succeeded in grasping the bough.
“It’s headed this way. Come down,” she insisted.
Even Noah couldn’t mistake the noise this time. There was an animal bounding through the undergrowth, streaking directly toward them down the mountainside with the instinct of a predator. And behind it, still a safe distance away but approaching rapidly, was another figure crashing through the thickets on the slope and shouting after the animal.
“Caesar, get back here!”
Ellie knew that chilling voice. She had heard it last night on the terrace of the Mill Inn. Panic seized her. They were about to be discovered!
Noah needed no urging this time. He released the branch, one of his hands finding a fresh grip on the mesh as he prepared to scramble down the fence. But when he started to lower his other hand, the sleeve of his jacket caught on the barbed wire. She watched in horror as he tugged at it repeatedly, cursing under his breath.
He was still struggling to free himself seconds later when the dog, some kind of a large hound with a vicious temper, hurtled through the trees. Leaping and snarling, it attacked the fence where Noah was trapped. Ellie knew that the dog’s master, still shouting after him, would be here in another minute.
“Noah, hurry!” she pleaded in a frantic whisper.
With one fierce shove against the fence where the hound still fought to reach him, he succeeded in tearing his sleeve from the barbs. But the effort cost him his hold on the mesh. He came slamming to the ground, landing so hard that he lost his footing. His body went tumbling down the steep bank into a dense tangle of witch hazel.
Ellie, without hesitation, dove after him.
Chapter Ten
The witch hazel was spangled with tiny autumn flowers. Yellow flowers. Peering through their thickness, Ellie could see the burly figure of Peaches behind the fence above them. He carried a shotgun.
She hugged the damp earth under the shrubbery, aware of Noah pressed close beside her. Both of them were flat on their stomachs, not daring to move or to speak.
She prayed that the dog wouldn’t get under the fence. He was pawing at the ground below it, whining and straining at the mesh. He knew they were here in the witch hazel. Mercifully, Peaches didn’t. Not yet, anyway.
“What is it, Caesar? What are you after?”
Ellie held her breath as the bodyguard ducked his head, his sharp gaze searching the area where they were concealed. Could he possibly detect them? It seemed forever until he straightened.
“There’s nothing there now. It was probably a squirrel, and we’ve got better things to hunt. Come on, you cur.” The animal resisted. “Come on, I say.”
Gripping the hound by the collar, he dragged him away from the fence. Caesar we
nt reluctantly. A moment later, shouldering the shotgun and with the dog at his heels, Peaches climbed back through the woods.
Ellie and Noah waited until there was no sight or sound of them. Then, releasing her breath in a long sigh of relief, Ellie rose cautiously from the shrubbery.
“That was too close for—”
She broke off, alarmed by the sharp hissing sound from Noah as he climbed to his feet. When she turned to him, he wore a grimace of pain.
“What’s wrong?”
“My damn ankle. When I went to put weight on it…hell, I must have injured it somehow when I hit the ground.”
She wasn’t surprised. He had come down like a boulder. “Can you make it out of the shrubbery so we can look at it in the open?”
Refusing the arm she tried to offer, he hobbled through the witch hazel, sinking down on the grassy bank. She knelt beside him, removing his shoe and sock. Bending low, she examined the ankle.
“What do you see?” he demanded. “And will you recognize it if you do see it?”
“Maybe. I did have a course in first aid. It was required when I qualified to take children into my home.”
“Good. So how bad is it?”
“There’s no abnormal angle, which would indicate a fracture. But I’ll need to rotate it to know better. I’ll try to be careful.”
He made no complaint as she gently tested the joint, but she knew by the way he sucked in air that the ankle was agonizingly tender.
“I’m pretty sure it’s not broken,” she reported.
“Then I just twisted it, huh?”
“It’s more than that. It’s a bad sprain. Noah, it’s already swelling like a melon.”
“You mean I can’t walk on it?”
She shook her head. “I’m afraid you’re not going to be rescuing Joel either tonight or in the next few days.”
He swore savagely. She sympathized with his anger and frustration, but he had to understand that his injury needed attention.
“You should see a doctor. If the ligaments are completely torn—”
“No doctor. Do you know what kind of risk that would be? There must be some other way to treat it.”
“There is. You’ll have to keep off it as much as possible. It needs to be elevated, and it needs ice and compression to reduce the swelling.”
“What else?”
“It’s going to hurt. A lot. Sprains are more painful than breaks.”
“So I’ll take aspirin. Ellie?”
“What?”
“It’s going to be fun getting me back across the log to the van.”
It wasn’t fun. In the end, unable to balance himself on the trunk, Noah had to crawl across its length on hands and knees. By the time they reached the other side, his male pride was no longer a consideration. He accepted her support with grim resignation.
She was relieved when they finally arrived at the van. Noah was white with pain and exertion as she helped him into the passenger seat. Anxious to get them away from the scene as quickly as possible, she climbed behind the wheel, swung the van onto the road, and sped back toward Rosebay. Noah had no comment until they flashed past the gates to the estate.
“The way you’re driving, I’m guessing you’ve got a destination in mind.”
“The general store. The place is bulging with stuff. We need to get you an ice bag and an elastic bandage.”
There was something else she wanted from the store, but she didn’t tell him about it. Not yet. Though a plan had already formed in her mind, she had to build a solid argument before she shared it with him. It was not going to be easy to convince him.
Even suffering as he was from the sprain, she should have known he was too perceptive not to realize that her mind was seething with more than just concern over his injury. But he waited until they parked in front of the general store before he demanded an explanation.
“Let’s have it, Ellie.”
She was ready. She came straight to the point. “They have a notice board in there with vacation rentals listed on it. Some of them are isolated mountain cabins. There’s nothing you can do now for the next several days but heal that ankle, and you need someplace safe to do it.”
She could see by the grim tightening of his jaw how much he hated his situation, but he grudgingly accepted the necessity of a temporary hideaway. “Okay, so we hole up for a couple of days in a cabin.”
“You do,” she corrected him. “I’m going to be with Joel in that ridiculous castle.”
“The hell you will!”
There was an explosive expression on his face. She ignored it and went on with her proposal.
“Noah, I can make this work. Brett gave me the address because he wanted me to visit them at the estate. All right, he’ll probably be surprised when I suddenly turn up at his door, but he’ll welcome me as his guest.”
“You think so?” he said angrily. “You think his bodyguard isn’t going to question what you’re doing there when Ferguson told him I’d grabbed you?”
“He has no real proof of that. You said it yourself last night Brett will believe me when I tell him the Ozarks didn’t work out, that I decided to accept his invitation and paint the mountains here. If I’m asked, I never saw you. I don’t know anything about where you are, and I’m just as shocked as everybody else that you escaped and are still on the loose.”
He opened his mouth for another stern objection, but she cut him off. “No, listen to me. It all makes sense. You can’t be there yet for Joel, but I can. I can watch over him for you, I can make sure that he’s safe. Then when the time comes, when your ankle is no longer a problem, I can bring him out to you. Your intention to sneak in there and run with him wasn’t a good plan, anyway, but this way—”
“No! It’s too dangerous! You forgetting that Buchanan could be a killer?”
“He has no reason to harm me. I’m not a threat to him. It isn’t as if I’m going in there to snoop. Though, of course, there’s always the chance that I might learn some answers just by being there. Don’t look at me like that. I know how to be careful.”
He stared at her for a moment in silence. Then, maddened by his helplessness, he brought his fist down hard on the padded dash. “This isn’t what I wanted,” he said. “Once we’d located Joel, I wanted you to turn around and go home. I wanted you safe and sound where I wouldn’t have to worry about you.”
She could understand what he was feeling. He was essentially a man of action, and now he’d been taken out of the game. Forced to sit on the bench and watch while she carried the ball. Even though his removal was a temporary one, it drove him crazy.
She leaned toward him, appealing to his emotions on another, softer level. “Please, Noah, let me do this for you. Let me do it for Joel.”
His son’s welfare was something he couldn’t ignore. In the end, he surrendered to her argument.
“All right,” he grumbled, “but if this doesn’t work out, if Buchanan should get suspicious of you in any way at all, I want your guarantee that you’re out of there.”
She gave him that promise before she left him in the van and hurried into the general store.
The elderly storekeeper was happy to provide her with everything she requested, including an available cabin that was secluded but equipped with the essentials. She was thankful the woman asked no questions. If she wondered why Ellie wanted the rental, or who else might be occupying it, she kept her curiosity to herself.
Ellie came away from the store armed with two bags of groceries that also contained an ice bag and an elastic bandage, a key to the cabin, and directions to its exact location. Her credit card had taken another beating, but she would worry about that later.
Noah, however, expressed his concern over the subject the moment she rejoined him in the van. “I’ve put you through a lot, Ellie, but I’m damned if I’m going to leave you in debt as well. When all this is over and Joel and I get relocated, I’ll find some way to repay you.”
For a moment she was
angry that he should regard the money as important when, compared to everything else, it didn’t matter at all. But she said nothing, knowing this was his male pride talking again. She wished, though, that he could see all of this—the money, her being here for him, her wanting to help him in any way she could—for what it was. An expression of her belief in him—of her love.
But what if he did recognize that love and was afraid to acknowledge it? Afraid he would hurt her because he didn’t share her feeling? They had never discussed this aspect of their relationship. Not in specific terms. She longed to know, but there had been no time.
Nor was there any time now to pursue the subject. She needed to concentrate her thoughts on the job ahead of her. The rest must wait. But the longing wouldn’t go away. The nagging hunger to know that she meant something to him, even if a future together was impossible. Because if she had that much, his love to cherish, then when he and Joel left her behind she could somehow endure the pain of their separation.
She had to stop this! Had to focus on the here and now!
To divert herself as well as Noah, she began to rapidly describe their destination as she drove in the opposite direction of the Buchanan estate, crossing the valley to the mountains on the west.
“The cabin is in an open hollow up there. They call them coves around here. The Cherokee River runs right through the cove. In fact, the cabin’s back door opens practically on the water. There’s a raft there, so you can fish if you’d like. I think you could manage that. But she said to be careful because there are some bad rapids not far downstream…”
Noah listened without comment. She knew he wasn’t interested in fishing. He was struggling to maintain his self-control in a situation he loathed.
A deserted back road carried them up through the forests to a fold between the mountains. When they topped the ridge, the trees opened briefly, affording them a glimpse of the small, weathered cabin tucked beside the rushing river far below. Then the narrow track descended through the woods along a series of zigzags.
They had emerged into the clearing on the level floor of the cove before they saw the cabin again. This time it was only yards away, a picturesque, split-log structure sheltered under a sourwood tree, so brilliant a crimson it glowed like a torch.