Katie’s arms were warm around Lin’s shoulders and her voice trembled as she murmured a farewell. The valise still stood next to the stairs, and Lin lifted it, walking to the big entry door. From the front of the house, she could make out shoppers on the sidewalk in the center of town, two dogs running down the road, a young boy in pursuit, and a wagon at the side of the road, just beyond the front line of Nicholas’s property.
She glanced over her shoulder to where Amanda stood dejectedly at the side of the house. Small fists rubbed against her eyes as the child watched Lin, and almost, she changed her mind. No, it could not be. Not even for Amanda could she compromise her beliefs, and should she stay, Nicholas would win.
The gate opened beneath her hand and she headed toward town, approaching the wagon that blocked her path beside the road. Two men stood by near the vehicle, looking down at a wheel, and she set off, walking at a fast pace in order to pass them by. With her gaze lowered, she saw only denim trousers and boots, and she quickened her step, unwilling to display an interest in their business.
“Ma’am?” The shorter of the two approached her and doffed his hat. “Ma’am? Do you know where we can find a fella to help with fixing our wagon?”
She looked up and shook her head. “Maybe the blacksmith in town. He’s past the train station and around the bend,” she said, pointing to the far side of Collins Creek.
“Thank you,” the stranger said, eyeing her in a manner that brought her to attention. “Say,” he said suddenly, as if he’d just made a discovery, “aren’t you the lady that takes care of the little girl?”
“Pardon me,” Lin told him, brushing past him, anxious to make her way to the station before the morning train headed into town from the east.
“Amanda. Isn’t that her name?” the fellow asked, lifting his hand to stay her progress, placing it on the handle of her valise.
Lin turned to look fully at him, aware that his interest in Amanda was beyond a casual query.
“What do you want?” she asked sharply.
“Call the little girl over here,” the man said, releasing his hold on her valise and grasping Lin’s elbow. He turned her roughly until she faced Nicholas’s house. “She’s right there by the big tree, watching us. Give her a holler.”
“No.” Whatever the game, Lin was not willing to play it, and she balked as he drew her closer to his side.
His companion left the wagon and strolled closer. “Doesn’t the lady want to cooperate?” he asked, drawling the words in a semblance of cordiality that did not impress her. “Call the girl,” he muttered, capturing Lin’s other arm in a painful grasp. He drew it behind her and then shifted his position until he was at her back, and her wrist was held uncomfortably high above her waist.
“You’re hurting me,” she gasped, fright washing over her as she recognized the danger of her position. “Who are you?”
“Hey, girlie,” the larger man called out, barely raising his voice. It was enough for Amanda to hear, though, as she watched them silently, already obviously aware that something was not aright. “Come on over here to see your nursie.”
“Linnie?” Amanda’s voice was high, its tone uneasy as she stepped slowly across the grass toward the fence that fronted Nicholas’s property. “What’s happening, Linnie?”
“Go in the house, Amanda,” Lin shouted, and then felt the man’s hand roughly snatch at her face, covering her mouth and pressing her head back against his chest. Her teeth were driven into her lips and she tasted blood.
“Come on, little girl,” he coaxed. “You don’t want your nursie to get hurt, now, do you?”
“You leave my Linnie alone,” Amanda cried out, hurling across the grassy expanse to the corner of the yard. There, she climbed with agile movements over the fence that enclosed Nicholas’s property. Leaping from the top, she fell to the ground, a cry of pain causing Lin to jerk against the hands holding her captive.
Then, limping and crying, rubbing her eyes with grubby hands, Amanda ran toward her nursemaid, shrieking her name loudly. Within moments her face was buried in Lin’s skirts, howling her anger aloud, clinging with desperate strength.
“Shut her up,” the taller of the ruffians said. The other man grabbed Amanda around her waist, and the child was silent, struggling to catch her breath, kicking and squirming with an agility that made it difficult to hold her immobile.
“You shut up or I’ll hurt your nursie,” the big man said roughly, twisting Lin’s arm to a higher position.
She groaned, closing her eyes against the pain, aware that tears streaked her cheeks. Whether seeing her Linnie in distress, or because she was too frightened to fight any longer, Amanda closed her mouth, but continued to sob beneath her breath. The two were lifted and deposited without ceremony in the back of the wagon, the large man climbing in behind them.
“Get this rig moving,” he said harshly, waving a hand to order his henchman into the driver’s seat. In less than a minute, the wagon was turned in the opposite direction, heading out of town, and Lin found herself on her stomach, held in place by a man who outweighed her by at least a hundred pounds. She gasped for breath, almost unconscious from the shock of being dumped into the rough, wooden wagon bed.
Beside her, Amanda whimpered, requiring no force to keep her in place, her hand patting Lin’s face in an attempt at comfort. “Don’t cry, my Linnie,” she whispered, bending to touch her lips against Lin’s almost unhearing ear. “I won’t let him hurt you any more.”
“Shut up, kid.” Cruelty marked the words, and Lin shrank from his hard, savage touch against her tender flesh. He’d gripped her wrists so tightly her hands were numb. Her shoulders hurt from the force of his brutality, and only by making herself inhale as deeply as possible was she able to fill her lungs with enough air to keep herself conscious.
“You stay right where you are,” her captor said, removing his grip on her wrist. It fell to her side and she cried out.
“I can’t even move it,” she said, moaning the words aloud. “You’ve cut off all feeling in my hand and arm.”
“Good,” he grunted. “That’ll keep you from causin’ more trouble than you already have.”
“I haven’t done anything.” Her whisper was defiant, and he retaliated by digging his knuckles into her back. She bit back a cry, aware that Amanda would only be more upset should the bully hurt her further. “Don’t hurt the child,” she said, her voice quavering as she uttered the plea.
“We won’t, so long as you behave yourself.” His movements were efficient as he tied her hand and foot, leaving her to lie on her side in the wooden box. “Now, you stay right here beside her, little girl, you hear me?” He climbed over the seat back and situated himself next to his partner, barely sparing a second look at the two he’d left behind.
Amanda whimpered, curling closer to Lin, then lifted her arms to encircle her nursemaid’s neck. “I’ll take care of you, my Linnie,” she whispered. “And Uncle Nicholas will come and find us,” she murmured, her tone defiant. “I just know he will.”
“Katie!” Nicholas burst through the hallway and into the kitchen, Lin’s valise clutched in his hand. “Where the hell did they go?” He tossed the bag on the floor beside him and glared with futile anger at his housekeeper, tearing his hat from his head.
“I found Lin’s bag by the neighbor’s fence, and Amanda’s gone, too.”
Katie’s eyes were reddened with tears. “I don’t know, sir. I truly don’t. I just went out into the yard to get the wee one.” She burst into tears again, dragging a large, white handkerchief from her apron pocket.
“It’s a damn good thing I turned around and came back home,” he told her. “I’ve got to make things right with Lin. I owe her an apology.” One hand ran through his hair. Although, even as he spoke, he knew it would take more than an apology or admission of guilt to mend the gulf he’d managed to place between the two of them.
“I found Lin’s bag first, and one of Amanda’s shoes beside it, down t
he road.” He paused for breath, his lungs pumping harshly, his mind attempting to race ahead. “Did she say where they were going?”
“She was leaving, but she didn’t take Amanda with her. I know that for a fact, because she asked me to look out for her.” She howled in despair and lifted her apron to cover her face.
“That won’t help,” Nicholas told her harshly. “I’m going to town to get my horse and find the sheriff.”
He turned, slamming the door against the wall as he retraced his steps to the front of the house. Shoving his hat back on his head, he crossed the porch, then cut a diagonal path through the yard. He leaped the fence, and ran full tilt toward the buildings at the edge of town.
The door of Cleary’s office was ajar and Nicholas shoved it open, pausing in the doorway to lean forward and grip his thighs, gasping for breath. Cleary rose quickly, rounding his desk to stand beside his friend.
“Tell me,” he said, his sharp eyes taking inventory as Nicholas stood erect and jabbed his index finger in the direction of a holster hanging from a hook on the wall.
“Give me that,” he muttered, the words separated by gasping breaths.
“Damn it, Nick. Tell me what’s wrong.” It was to his credit that he lifted the holster and offered it without waiting for a reply. “Here’s the gun that goes with it,” he said, reaching in his desk drawer and locating the revolver he kept handy for just such an occasion. His own weapon was slung over the back of his chair, and while Nicholas slid his borrowed revolver into its holster, Cleary buckled the leather belt he seldom wore around his hips.
“It looks like someone snatched up Lin and Amanda. They disappeared without a trace. Must have just happened. Not more than ten minutes or so, I’d guess.”
“Let’s go,” Cleary said without hesitation, leading the way from his office and down the street toward the livery stable. At Sam’s appearance, Cleary spoke but a single word. “Horses.” And without hesitation, the tall, husky man hustled into the depths of his barn and led two horses from their stalls.
“Hold these, Cleary. I’ll get your tack,” Sam Ferguson said.
“I’ll give you a hand,” Nicholas told him, following him into the shadows of the tack room where saddles sat upended in a row and harness and ropes were arranged on the wall. Lugging a saddle in each hand, Sam strode past him and settled his load in the dust out front, then went back for saddle blankets.
“I’ve got the reins,” Nicholas said, already working to insert the bit into his gelding’s mouth. He slid the halter off over the horse’s head, straightened the bridle and turned to Cleary’s mount. The tall stallion shivered as a stranger’s hands touched him, but Cleary spoke softly and the horse allowed Nicholas to have his way.
Saddle blankets were shaken and placed atop their backs, then the saddles were settled and the cinch straps tightened. The men worked feverishly, and in moments the task was complete. “Someone may have taken Nicholas’s niece and her nursemaid,” Cleary said briefly to Sam. “Round up half a dozen men and send them out after us.” His jaw set as he stepped into the stirrup and slung his other leg over the saddle, shifting his body into it with an easy motion.
“We’re heading back to Nicholas’s house, and from there we’ll follow whatever tracks we find,” he told the livery stable owner. “Don’t waste any time.”
Nicholas spoke firmly as their horses set off. “They had to go the other direction, out past my place, Cleary. I’d just left home and gone to the bank, when I changed my mind and started back. If they’d come through town, I’d have seen them.”
“You don’t even know who you’d have been looking for,” Cleary scoffed. “You develop second sight overnight?”
“I’m willing to lay money it was those two dandies who showed up in the town with their spankin’ new boots all polished and their pants creased like a pair of hoodlums looking for an easy mark.”
And he’d let them slip through his fingers, he thought with another surge of anger coming to the forefront. They’d been following him, and he’d been in such a damn hurry to get home, he’d ignored all the signs of trouble.
Now Lin and Amanda were paying the price for his stupidity.
Chapter Eight
“Was there a wagon pulled over here when you walked past?” Cleary asked Nicholas. Both men squatted beside the road, where wheels had dug deeply into the soft dirt beside the harder surface of the thoroughfare. As though the wagon had been turned sharply, the ruts had scuffed up the earth, and then faint impressions showed the about-face it had taken. The imprints of two horses’ hooves gave evidence of a hurried departure.
“No, I’d have seen it, that’s certain,” Nicholas answered. “They must have waited until I left for the bank before they drove up.” Heavy boot prints mixed with the daintier marks of a woman’s shoe. A smaller print, probably Amanda’s, Nicholas thought, marked where she’d joined the fray. His index finger touched the depression and he looked up to face Cleary head-on.
“Amanda.” With that single word, he felt a surge of anger so great it impelled him to his feet. He glanced around, then pointed to a spot beside the road. “Look there,” he told Cleary. “That’s where Lin’s bag was tossed, and where Amanda’s shoe was. It must have come off when they snatched her up.”
“I’m thinking maybe Amanda was the one they wanted in the first place, and they got her by using Lin as bait,” Cleary told him. “The question is, who’d want the child?”
“Lin told me of a man in New York who fought for Amanda’s custody. The girl’s worth a fortune, Cleary. If he has Amanda, he could very well get his hands on her money. He was trying for custody before.”
“Well, my guess is they’ll figure her nursemaid is disposable before long. I’d be willing to bet that Lin gave them a run for their money.”
Nicholas thought of the strength in those feminine muscles, the determination in her brown eyes, and nodded his head in agreement. “She’d die to protect Amanda.”
“With any luck, we’ll catch up to them within thirty minutes,” Cleary said. “Just keep an eye on the tracks.”
“Back there is where we saw the mama deer and her baby,” Amanda whispered, lifting her head to peer in the wake of the wagon. “I think the big man is gonna make the wagon go faster now. He’s hollering at the horses, and they’re not behaving very good.”
“Fold my shawl and put it under my head,” Lin whispered, her skull throbbing from the constant battering it was taking against the wagon floor as the vehicle slewed and skidded in a sudden movement.
“All right.” Amanda did as she was bid, her small hands awkward as she slid the crumpled, woolen mass under Lin’s cheek.
Though the shawl protected her head from being bumped against the bottom of the wagon, Lin was dizzy from the fray and fearful of what the immediate future would hold. Surely the kidnappers would not harm Amanda. There would be no reason to inflict pain on her. Though if he thought it would be to his benefit, she could imagine Vincent Preston ordering her death. Surely it was Vincent who had brought this about.
Lin closed her eyes, recalling the day in court when the man’s malevolent look had foretold today’s happenings. He’d determined to get his hands on Amanda, and even knowing he was the little girl’s blood kin, Lin doubted he’d spare much pity for the child’s safety. Irene had marked him well, calling him evil incarnate, and Lin shuddered to think of his power, how far-reaching its extent.
Amanda was so certain that Nicholas would come. Her own thoughts ran in a different vein. The man had gone to the bank, and unless someone had seen the actual kidnapping, there would be no way for him to realize their disappearance. Not until it was too late to find them.
Katie. Perhaps Katie had gone looking for Amanda right away, and discovered she was missing. That hope lit a corner of her mind, and she opened her eyes a bit to see Amanda peering closely at her face.
“Are you awake, Linnie?” Worry lined the small forehead and tears hovered on her lower lashes a
s Amanda bent to brush her mouth against Lin’s cheek. “I’m takin’ care of you,” she promised, one hand patting anxiously on Lin’s shoulder.
“I’m awake,” Lin said quietly. “Just be very still, Amanda. Sit close to me.” She whispered softly, lest she be heard. “Take off your other shoe and let it drop over the side of the wagon,” she said. “Don’t ask questions. Just do as I say. Nicholas will be coming. He’ll see your shoe.”
Amanda nodded wisely, working at the buttons with tiny, agile fingers. “They’re kinda big, Linnie,” she murmured softly. “That’s why the other one came off back there.” With a tug, she eased the shoe from her foot and lifted it over the low side of the wagon, dropping it into the road.
Lin breathed deeply. It was the only thing she could think of to mark their trail, and surely Nicholas would spot it readily. Maybe her own handkerchief could be tossed over the side next. She’d wait a while. Beneath her bound arms the wagon bounced across ruts in the road, and Lin thought of the bruises she would have, the ache in her arms all but bringing her own tears to the surface.
Nicholas. Please find us, Nicholas. The words vibrated in her head and became a prayer. Send him after us. Keep him safe. If there was a trail to follow, Nicholas would show up. He’d leave no stone unturned to find Amanda.
“Those birds don’t know how to drive a wagon,” Cleary muttered, bending from his saddle to scan the ground. “Look here, where they let the horses almost pull them off the road.”
“Maybe something distracted them,” Nicholas said, following the curving wheel tracks where the wagon had veered, then straightened. He could only hope and pray that Lin had not fought them at this point, that they hadn’t…His teeth gritted at the thought of her delicate skin being marred by hurtful hands, ire rising within him at the idea of her flesh being bruised by harsh handling. And worse yet, her body being violated by the men who’d taken her.
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