The Cactus Creek Challenge (35 page)

Jenny’s mind was numb, her heart one big ache in her chest. She could feel the hard seat of the ladder-back chair, her toes pressing her boots primly together on the plank-and-peg floor of the sheriff’s office, her fingers laced together, gripped tight in her lap, but she couldn’t seem to marshal her thoughts beyond the fact that someone had taken her sweet Amanda. She could hear and feel and see, but she couldn’t think.

The door opened and she half rose, praying it was all a mistake, that Amanda had been found safe and sound.

Cassie entered, alone, her face a mask of worry, and Jenny slumped back into her chair, regripping her hands to keep them from trembling. Her friend knelt before her, taking her elbows and squeezing them.

“Ben and Carl have gone after her. They’ll bring her back.” She took Jenny’s hands in hers. “You’re ice cold.” Chafing Jenny’s fingers between her palms, she looked over her shoulder at Jigger. “Stoke up a fire and get some coffee on.” The deputy, who had been hovering anxiously, went to work as if grateful to be told what to do.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Jenny whispered. “I was so careful. How did he find me?” She had no doubt her father-in-law was behind this. He wouldn’t come himself, but he wasn’t above hiring someone to do his dirty work.

Cassie rose, peeking through the gun loop in one of the shutters, checking the street. “The twins recognized the kidnapper, and it’s someone local.”

“What?” Jigger rattled the dipper against the coffeepot. “Who?”

“Ivan Shoop.” She turned to Jenny. “You’ve met him. So have I. He’s the man who returned the horse to the livery all covered in welts and sweat. Ben says he’s the oldest of the Shoop brothers, and he’s been in the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the past few years.”

Ivan Shoop. The name meant nothing to her. She remembered the obnoxious, hateful man from the stable, but that was a couple of weeks ago, and she’d seen no trace of him since.

“Why would he want to take Amanda?” Her heart clawed up into her throat. That such a cruel, hard man would put his hands on her daughter—hot tears burned her eyes.

Jigger clanked the coffeepot onto the stove and hitched up his belt with his good hand. “Obadiah Wilder sent Ivan Shoop to jail. The whole lot of them are thieves and layabouts.”

Picking at a thread on her cuff, Jenny shook her head. “Is he angry with me about the horse? Is that why he took Amanda?”

Cassie leaned against the desk. “Ben thinks he took her in order to get Ben and possibly Carl out of town, leaving the gold more vulnerable, possibly for his brothers to go after. Anybody watching the jail over the past few days might’ve seen Mr. Franks and Corporal Shipton leaving. They’d know Jigger broke his wrist. Thanks to my stubbornness, I let the gold be spilled on the street so every busybody in the county knows it’s here.” She pounded her fist against her thigh. “If only I hadn’t been so stubborn and single-minded.”

“Now, Cass”—Jigger shuffled over and patted her shoulder in tender awkwardness—“this ain’t your fault. The wind has been blowing hard in your face this whole month. Why, me and Ben can go a month or six weeks and never have to even raise our voices to protect the law around here, and you’ve had one crisis after another, it seems.”

Hasty footfalls echoed off the boardwalk, and someone hammered at the door. Jenny’s heart hammered right along with it. “Teacher. Miss Bucknell!”

Cassie opened the door to allow Quincy Harrison inside. He panted and sweat darkened the curls at his temples.

“Where is Mr. Wilder? Is he coming behind you?”

He shook his head, still gulping for air. “He ain’t coming.”

Cassie paled, her eyes widening. “Isn’t coming?”

“No, ma’am.” Quincy swallowed hard. “He got throwed from a horse he was breaking and busted a couple of ribs. Your pa is out there right now doctoring him. Mr. Wilder said he’d come anyway, but Mrs. Wilder said she’d snub him to the bedpost like a green-broke mule if he didn’t stay in bed until he could breathe without feeling like he was sucking in knife blades.”

Jenny bit her lip, staring from Cassie to the gold and back again. Yes, the gold was important, but not more important than getting Amanda back. She should’ve gone with Carl. Her heart was already out there with him anyway.

No, that wasn’t right. She stopped listening to Cassie and the boy. Her heart wasn’t out there with Carl; it was with Amanda.

True. With all of her mother’s heart, she ached for her daughter, feared for her safety, prayed for her return.

But her woman’s heart, if she was honest with herself, was also with Carl, praying he, too, would come back safely. How she’d come to rely on him the past few weeks. He’d made her laugh again, made her feel alive again, feel worth something, someone who had some other purpose than to be a punching bag for a drunken, cheating, no-good husband.

He’d made her feel like a woman again.

Time to worry later about what those feelings meant. For now, she’d put them away, concentrate on Amanda, and pray harder than she’d ever prayed before.

Cassie sent Quincy out to join the students in their surveillance and barred the door behind him. She closed her eyes for a moment, leaning her head back against the jamb, feeling as if every ounce of that gold was sitting squarely on her shoulders, pressing her into the ground until she disappeared under the weight of it.

Another knock on the door. Cassie drew her gun and approached. “Who is it?”

“Cass, it’s me, Millie.”

She unlocked the door and drew her sister inside. “Millie, I don’t have time for a visit right now.”

“And I’m not visiting. Mama sent me to fetch you. Louise has started her laboring. Mama wants you to come and help out. Dad had to go patch up Mr. Wilder, but he’ll be back at the house soon.”

Mama had gotten her way, and Louise and Donald had moved into the Bucknell house for Louise’s confinement about ten days ago. Since then, Mama had been watching her eldest daughter like she might explode at any moment.

“Tell Mama I can’t come. She doesn’t need me there anyway. Give Louise my love, but I have to stay here.”

“She’s not going to like it.”

“Dad will explain it to her. Now go.” Cassie gave Millie a nudge out the door and dropped the crossbar into place again.

Jigger cleared his throat. “That tears it right down the middle, don’t it? Obadiah laid up, Ben gone, me with a busted hand, and all your help trickling away like sawdust out of a rag doll. What’re you going to do?”

With her eyes closed, she was back in the stable with Ben, his hands on her shoulders, his eyes staring down into hers, regretful at leaving her behind with such responsibility, and yet putting his faith in her to see it through, to do her best. She raised her chin and straightened away from the door. “I’m going to protect that gold. Jenny, you should go. No point in you being in harm’s way.”

The petite baker stood and put her hands on her hips. “What a ridiculous thing to say. I’m in this now. It’s my daughter who has been taken, and I’m not going to let her suffering be for nothing, which it would be if the kidnappers’ plan succeeds and they get their hands on the gold. I’m staying, and that’s that.”

They shared a long look, and Cassie drew comfort from the stubborn light gleaming in Jenny’s eyes. She held out her hand and Jenny clasped it, squeezing her fingers.

“Very well. It’s going to be nightfall in a couple of hours, and I imagine if trouble’s going to start here at the jail, it will come then. Jenny, whoever might be watching won’t suspect you’ve thrown in with us or are in any way a danger, so it might be best if you were the one who went out and got us some provisions. I gave what I brought to Ben and Carl for their journey. We’ve got water and coffee, but some food wouldn’t go amiss. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long night.”

Scratching his ear, Jigger scowled. “Are you sure you shouldn’t at least try to get some other menfolk from town in here to help?”

“Suppose I did? Who would come? Hobny? Ralph? None of them are any good with a gun. They might end up getting hurt, and I couldn’t live with that. Donald isn’t an option either. His place is with Louise right now. And anyway, if something happened to him, I’d never forgive myself. I think it’s best if it’s just us three. Any more than that is asking for trouble of a different kind.” Cassie opened a shutter a crack and watched the street. Mary Alice looked out the bakery door, and up the street two of Cassie’s students played mumblety-peg in front of the mercantile, watching every person who went in or out.

“When you get the food, check with Mary Alice. She’s manning the bakery and collecting whatever news the kids can bring her.”

Jenny nodded and slipped outside.

Now they just had to rely on their scouts and pray for Amanda’s safe return.

B
en kept up a stiff pace for close to an hour, pushing his horse at a canter across the open ground, following the churned-up trail Ivan Shoop hadn’t even tried to hide. His gelding began to flag, tossing his head, throwing flecks of foamy sweat, so Ben eased him into a trot, then a walk to give him a breather. After three weeks of doing pretty much nothing but eating his head off and loafing around, his mount was both fresh and a bit soft. Getting there quickly was important, but getting there at all even more so. He angled down toward the creek and pulled to a stop to let his horse drink.

Carl drew up alongside, reaching for his canteen and yanking out the stopper with his teeth. “He’s making a straight shot for the canyon rim, isn’t he?”

“From what I can tell.” Ben accepted the canteen, took a swig, and handed it back. The water was lukewarm, but it was wet and tasted good. “I don’t know that we’re gaining on him, but we’re not losing him either. And at the rate he’s going, his horse is going to be played out before ours.”

With a grunt, Carl looped the canteen strap around his saddle horn. “He’s not one to care about his horse’s comfort. He’ll ride him into the ground if it will get him what he wants. You saw that sorrel he brought back to the livery. He’s lucky I wasn’t there then. I’d have broken him like kindling. I wish I had been there. I might’ve stopped all this foolishness before it started.” His big fist covered his saddle horn and squeezed as if he wished it was Shoop’s neck.

“I did have one thought about what he might be up to.”

“What’s that?”

“If the Shoops just wanted to get us out of town, Ivan might’ve snatched Amanda, ridden off with her out onto the prairie, and dropped her off. Then he might swing around and head back a different way to help his brothers with the heist.”

Carl’s eyes burned like the blue part of a candle flame. “So she could be wandering around alone out here.”

“More likely, she’s either sitting down waiting for us to come get her, or she’s using what I taught her and tracking her way back to town.”

He ruminated on that, stroking his beard. “If he turned her loose, I’d put my money on her heading home. She’s a smart little thing, like her mama.”

“I noticed you two seem to be striking sparks off each other lately. You got the look of a man who’s thinking hard thoughts about becoming a husband.”

A grunt and a sideways glance. “You should talk. Did I or did I not see you and Cassie in a clinch in the center aisle of my barn? I wasn’t aware of just when you changed your mind about her.”

Warmth flooded his chest, and the memory of her in his arms invaded his head like a drug. “Actually, I think that
was
the moment when I changed my mind about her. She’s quite a woman.”

“’Bout time you figured that out. I thought that little gal was going to have to club you over the head and drag you to the preacher before you put it together that she’s been in love with you for as long as I’ve known you both.”

“She’s what?” He shoved his hat back, grabbing hold of that slippery notion. “That’s ridiculous.”

“You think so? You may be a good lawman, but you aren’t very bright when it comes to women. I’ve seen the way she watches you, like you were the last peppermint stick in the candy jar. And just let anyone say a crossways word about you, and she turns into a wildcat defending your honor. Not to mention what Amanda told me.”

The blows kept on coming. “Amanda?”

“She’s a right observant little thing, and she said she thinks ‘Teacher’ is sweet on you, because she and that big girl who looks out for her at school—Mary Alice?—found a love letter a couple of weeks ago that Cassie wrote to you. I guess you’d sent the two of them inside to get something out of the desk, and they came across the note. Amanda said they put it back, way inside the drawer, but she hoped you’d figure things out and love Miss Bucknell back as much as she loves you.”

Ben couldn’t stop the grin that split his face. Cassie, the little scamp. That had to be the note he’d found and taken to her at the jail, and she’d let him believe it was Mary Alice’s work. He was going to give her some guff about that. Right after he kissed her breathless, that is.

Once they got Amanda back, got the gold safely to the army, and finished out this taking-forever Challenge month.

“You think Cassie’s all right guarding the gold? I sure hated leaving her like that.”