“I’m sure I have. She’s the one… she’s the one who sings when she hangs laundry. I used to listen to her sometimes,” Kenny lost himself in thought and didn’t realize he was making his friends all the more suspicious of him. “She has such a soft voice, doesn’t she? Easy to listen to.” He was speaking in a wistful tone that gave away his feelings for Becky.
“I take it you are very interested in her,” Adam said, trying to figure out whether he should be angry or amused.
“I like her, yes. Why? What’s happened?” Kenny realized, albeit too late, that he wasn’t supposed to know what was going on. “You say she’s gone missing?”
“Yes, that’s right. She disappeared from her home almost three weeks ago and then, just last night, someone came and took all of her things from the Dupont home. Who do you suppose could possibly do such a thing?”
“Who?” Kenny asked. “More like why? Why would someone do something like that?”
“Do you have any ideas at all?” Adam prompted. He and Mark were both certain Kenny knew something he would not reveal.
“Why would I have any ideas?” Kenny crossed his arms in front of his chest and his legs at the ankles, still leaning against the bar counter behind him. “I don’t know the girl.”
“I’ll be honest with you, Kenny,” Adam said. Mark stared at him, hoping he didn’t say anything that would give away their suspicion. “We got a clue that she had been seen… that is, heard singing out this way in the woods. And we know you live up here, so you are always out and about. You know these woods well, don’t you?”
“Of course I do. I’ve been hunting around here for the last twenty years, since I was a kid.”
“That’s what I thought. So I’ve been pondering whether or not you might have heard that same voice. Singing. That soft voice. You’d recognize it, wouldn’t you?”
Kenny grinned. “Of course I would. I can never forget the sound of…” he stopped and hoped he hadn’t walked himself into a trap. “I would recognize it and I haven’t heard it around here lately. I wish I could. I really wish I could.”
“I hate to say it,” Adam continued. “But I think she might be dead.”
Both Mark and Kenny blanched.
“What are you saying, Adam?” Mark asked, shock lining his voice.
Adam looked at him with a serious look but it was one that Mark, as his oldest best friend, recognized as insincere. “I know of many tales of women who were brutally murdered and then haunted the woods all around their home or a peaceful place that reminds them of before the trauma that ended their life.”
“Becky had never been here before,” Kenny said.
He didn’t realize his slip up until Mark called him on it. “Before? What do you mean before?”
“Slip of the tongue, Mark. I’ve never had her here as a guest. Ever.”
“We do apologize, then, Kenny,” Mark said and stood up abruptly. Adam followed his lead, feeling a bit left behind as Mark took over the conversation. He got Kenny to talking about everything from old memories to making plans to get together in the future for a game of cards. While he did so, Adam looked around, making a mental note of everything he saw in the cabin, searching for anything that seemed out of place or that might give the home a more womanly feel to it.
Kenny walked them out. He looked up at the darkening sky. “Will you two be able to make it back before nightfall? I don’t see any lanterns on your saddles.”
“We didn’t expect to be here after dark,” Mark explained. “Do you have a spare lantern we can borrow?”
Kenny nodded. “Yes, come this way. You can bring it back anytime.”
He led them around the side of the house. Mark gave Adam a look that told him his friend knew exactly what he was doing. There were drapes hung up in every window. The side door to Kenny’s small wooden shed was locked with a simple rope. Kenny took the rope off the handles of the shed, opened it and reached up to a hook by the front of the shed, taking down a lantern.
“Do you have a way to light it?”
“Sure do. That’s kept in the saddle bags. Thanks, Kenny. We’ll be back to check on you again sometime soon.”
“Thanks for stopping by.” Kenny said.
“Thanks for the coffee. It was real refreshing.” Adam shook hands with Kenny.
Kenny followed them to the front of the house and waved as they mounted their horses. “Let me know how things go with the missing girl!” he called out.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
SUSPICION
SUSPICION
Becky came out of the room as soon as she heard the door close behind the men. She peeked through the window to see Adam and Mark riding away from the cabin and Kenny headed back to the front door. After he came in, she rushed over to him and fell into his waiting arms.
“Kenny, don’t let them take me away from you!”
Kenny ran his hand over her blond waves, holding her head to his chest. She listened to his heartbeat and it soothed her.
“It’s going to be all right, my dear,” Kenny said. “Let’s sit down.”
They both went to the couch and sat next to each other, their legs pressed against each other. He held her with one arm around her shoulders and the other squeezing her hand in his. “You shouldn’t be afraid. You are old enough to make your own decisions. You aren’t a child. Even if they wanted to take you back with them, they couldn’t. Don’t you see that?”
“They would feel I am obligated to go back to Bruce. He is probably a mess without me. He can’t function without someone else taking care of him. He can’t cook, or properly clean his clothes, or the house, or…”
“Shhh, Becky, you have to stop,” Kenny put one finger over her lips to quiet her. “You must be more confident and strong in yourself. You are your own person. You aren’t his slave. You aren’t obligated to him. And I really do not believe Adam and Mark would think so. I know those two and I think they are genuinely concerned about you. You know, I think they might even approve if they knew you were here.”
“You really think so?” Becky lifted her head and looked into Kenny’s blue eyes. He nodded.
“I really do.”
“I don’t want to go away. I really want to stay here with you, Kenny.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that,” Kenny said. “I want you to stay here with me, too. I want to take care of you. I want to treat you the way you should be treated, like you deserve to be treated. “Let me take care of you for once. Let me clean your clothes and cook for you and take care of you.”
“I won’t know what to do with myself. I don’t want to be bored. I can’t sit around reading all day. I would feel like I was wasting my life.”
Kenny moved to kneel in front of her and took her hands in his. “Then we will go on adventures together! We’ll explore the woods around here.”
“You already have! I’m sure you know these woods better than anyone else!” She giggled.
“Then we will never get lost!” Kenny exclaimed with a wide grin. “And we’ll both do the cleaning and cooking. We can mix it up. You cook one day and I clean, I cook the next day and you clean.”
“We can take turns and do it whenever we feel like it, too. We can share everything.”
Kenny smiled at her, lifted up onto his knees and pulled her into a hug. When he pulled away, he lowered his head and placed a long, soft kiss on her lips. “Becky, I’m so glad you wanted to stay with me.”
“I’m so glad you wanted to take me away from where I was. But we can’t explore and we can’t hide forever. The people in town will find out. Someone will tell Bruce. I don’t want him coming up here thinking he can make me come back. I don’t want a confrontation between you and him or me and him. I don’t want him knowing where I live.”
Kenny nodded. He pushed himself back up to sit next to her on the couch. “I understand, Becky. And I really think somehow we can let the people in town know that you are safe without knowing where you are. Or maybe Bruce doesn�
��t need to know at all. How many friends did he have in Wickenburg?”
“He knows everyone. But he’s not friends with anyone. I don’t know anyone he’s friends with. I never see him with anyone and he never brings anyone to the house. Not even to get drunk with.”
“Have you ever seen him with a lady friend?”
Becky snorted in a very unladylike fashion. It made Kenny grin.
“I take that as a no.”
She shook her head. “I’ve never seen him with a woman. Who would want to be with a man like that? Maybe if he had been able to get a woman to love him, I would have been freed sooner.”
Kenny stood up. “I’m hungry. Are you hungry? Let’s make some potato soup for lunch. I’ll cut up some meat and we can cook that up, too. I’m in the mood for some fresh food.”
“Potato soup sounds wonderful, Kenny,” Becky stood up and went into the kitchen to pull out the large sack of potatoes from under the cupboard. “We still have plenty left over from when we were going to make soup and didn’t. Do you think they are still good?”
“Yes, I’m sure they are. I’ll get some fresh water from the well to wash them with.”
He walked to the front door and turned back to watch her pick through the potatoes, examining each one for bruises or holes. He liked the way she crinkled up her nose as she concentrated on what she was doing. She glanced up and saw him watching her. A slow smile spread across her face. He smiled back and went out the door.
He stopped just outside the door, staring down the pathway to his house. He was still able to see two specks in the distance. Adam and Mark were still leaving. They were going rather slowly, Kenny thought. He went around the building to the well and dropped the bucket down, letting it fill before pulling it back up to his level. When he unhooked the bucket, he looked down the road before going back in the house and could still see the two specks. Adam and Mark had stopped to talk. He hoped it had nothing to do with him. They were probably speculating where Becky could have gone.
He took the bucket back up to the cabin, set it down, opened the door, and took the bucket in with both hands. It sloshed back and forth but he managed to keep most of it. He poured some in a basin and Becky dropped three of the potatoes in the water. He washed them off with his hands, scrubbing them until they were clean enough for his tastes. Then he handed them to Becky, who took a large knife and chopped them up into long slices. Then she halved those slices and halved them again. He kept putting more potatoes in the water until Becky leaned over his shoulder and said in a soft voice, “Are we feeding the whole town?”
Kenny looked down at her and then over at the large bowlful of chopped up potatoes. He laughed. “I guess I was lost in thought.”
“What were you thinking about?” She asked, coming up to stand beside him and look up into his eyes. He gazed back at her lovingly.
“I was thinking about how blessed I am. How lucky I am. I did something terrible. Or what would have been terrible if I had bad intentions toward you. But I didn’t then, and I don’t now. I am so glad I took you from your home.”
Becky giggled. “I am glad, too. You are my hero.”
“I guess we will have to take some of the leftover potato soup to church. They will gladly give it to the people who need it. There are a lot of people with no food around.”
“I’m glad there aren’t too many. Wickenburg is a very nice town with happy people. For the most part.”
“There a bad apples in every bunch, Becky. That’s not to say that your brother is the only cad in town. There are plenty of them. They just don’t affect our lives every day like Bruce does.”
“He doesn’t affect my life anymore,” Becky smiled up at him again. She stood up on her toes and kissed his cheek. “Thank you, Kenny.”
“You cannot be serious thinking Becky could be haunting these woods,” Mark said incredulously, halting his horse at the very end of the pathway where it turned to lead back to town. Adam gave him an amused look.
“Of course not. I think she’s alive and well. I just wanted to see Kenny’s reaction to such a thing. Did you notice the look on his face?”
“You had me going for a moment, my friend. I really thought you were thinking she might be dead and haunting the woods.”
Adam laughed. “Now why would I be foolish enough to think something like that? Anyway, what did you think? I didn’t see her. I didn’t hear her. If she was there, she didn’t want to be found or was unable to let us know she was there. Do you think he gagged and bound her?”
Mark shook his head.
“He looked a bit nervous to me,” Adam said.
“I thought he looked nervous, too. But I don’t think it’s because of that. I think it’s because she’s there and doesn’t want to leave. No doubt he is in love with her; did you see the way he reacted to her name? He couldn’t hide that no matter how hard he tried.”
Adam nodded. “Yeah, a young man in love is obvious to see, but an older man in love is even easier.”
“He’s not an older man.”
Adam laughed. “He’s got to be our age, maybe a little younger. And my point is that teenagers are obvious when they are in love and it gets nothing but harder to hide as you get older.”
“For most people, yeah. I reckon you’re right. I never really thought about it before.”
“That’s why I know you haven’t found the right woman yet, Mark.”
Mark gazed at him with lifted eyebrows. “Oh?”
“Yes. I’ve never once seen any indication that you were in love with a woman. I’ve seen you taken by them and fascinated by them. But I never saw you with that look like you would give anything to be with a woman.”
“He had that look.”
“And did you notice something about the cabin?”
Mark thought about it but didn’t think of anything in particular. “I didn’t see any stuffed animals if that’s what you mean.”
Adam laughed. “I didn’t see any in the house, but I swear I saw a tail of something sticking through the curtains in one of the windows. And no, this is something else I was thinking about.”
“What’s that?”
“It smelled like a woman had been in there. Like a woman lived there. The scent of a woman was all around the place.”
“You sure?”
Adam stopped his horse at the end of the pathway and turned it to Mark. “Now come on. I’ve been living with a woman for my entire adult life. Yes, I’m sure. I know what it smells like when a man lives by himself. It smells like your house. There’s a big difference between your house and my house. You never notice because you haven’t lived with a woman. But if you think about it next time you go in a house where there is not supposed to be a woman, lift your nose and sniff the air. If you catch the scent of a woman, you know there’s one there. It’s unmistakable.”
Mark laughed. “I can’t believe you think like that. Okay. I’ll check it out next time I go somewhere that’s not supposed to have a woman in it but actually does.”
“We can test it right now,” Adam remarked, turning his horse to face back up the pathway toward Kenny’s cabin. “Let’s go back up there and check again. Surprise him. Tell him we forgot to ask something.”
“You’re gonna have to come up with something pretty quick. I’m not so good at that myself.”
“I’ll think of something. I’ll tell him we suspect he kidnapped her and demand to know where she is if I feel like it. I don’t know him well. I can play the bad guy in this.”
“I don’t want you scaring the man.”
Adam snorted. “What is he, some kind of wimp? You think he can’t handle being questioned? You gotta be the one joking with me now. Come on. Let’s go back up and surprise him. What you want to bet that he caves this time and tells us what he knows about Becky?”
Mark sat on the horse, which was swaying back and forth, thinking about it. “Okay, we’ll go back up there. You sure you saw a stuffed animal tail?”
�
��I’d bet my house on it.”
“That’s pretty sure,” Mark said. “But I don’t think he’s doing anything sinister. I’ll be really surprised, I mean, really surprised if we find Becky in any sort of danger. He isn’t that type. I think he wanted to protect her and save her from what she was going through. It was a horrible life for her with Bruce. Any decent man, especially one who obviously adores the woman, would do just what he did. I guarantee it.”
“I have to agree with you. But it’s best we confirm this and find out exactly what the situation is before we go back to Wickenburg. If Becky is there and she is safe and happy, I don’t see why we have to tell anyone what we’ve found out.”
“Except for the ones who truly care about her. We have to tell Andrew so he can tell his wife.”
“And Alice will know. But we won’t tell Bruce.”
Mark scanned his friend closely. “You are really certain that Becky is there, aren’t you? I can tell.”
Adam nodded. “I really do think she’s in there, Mark. I think we are going to find her in there this time. I might demand to search his house. You might have to hold him back but I’m going to search that house for her.”
“I hope it doesn’t come to that.” Mark looked up at the cabin with regret in his eyes. The closer they got, the more nervous he became.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
COME BACK
COME BACK
Mark and Adam dismounted before they got close to the house and walked slowly and silently toward it. They tied the horses to the low hanging branch of a tree several yards from the house and approached quietly. They stepped lightly on the wooden boards of the porch.
Adam held up one hand and turned his head so that one ear was closer to the door than the other. He silently gestured to Mark to do the same. Mark tilted his head and listened as closely as he could. His eyes widened and he stared at Adam. There were voices in the cabin and one was unmistakably a woman’s voice. They were discussing how much salt was to be added to a soup they were making and what other kinds of herbs and spices they each preferred to add.
Snatching The Bride (Family of Love Series) (A Western Romance Story) Page 16