“I don’t know. I just know that I loved your father and I went with him and I have never regretted it.”
“In that case it was you who had to give in, but now ’Ring is the one who has to give in to me.” Maddie put her hands over her face. “I don’t even know if he’s alive. He went to that awful town after that man who took Laurel. If’Ring is killed, it will be my fault. Laurel was taken because the man wanted to hear me sing, and if’Ring—”
Amy put her arms around her daughter. “You can’t blame yourself. It was his decision.”
“All decisions are his,” Maddie said bitterly.
That night she didn’t sleep much but lay awake, staring at the ceiling. She came up with no answers, but long before the sun rose, she got out of bed and dressed.
Outside the long adobe house it was still dark, but her father was waiting for her.
“I’m going after him,” Maddie said, her mouth set in a firm line. “I shouldn’t and I may regret doing it, but I’m going after him.”
Her father gave her a little smile. “I thought you would. We Worths usually go after what we want. You wanted to sing and you did it.”
“And now I want this man.”
Jeff grinned at his daughter. “You get that from your mother.”
Maddie looked up at him. ’Ring had said that Jefferson Worth must be old by now, but he was still quite handsome and Maddie couldn’t imagine being alive when he wasn’t. On impulse, she threw her arms around his waist and hugged him.
Jeff stroked his daughter’s hair. “We’re wastin’ time. Let’s go get him.”
By the time they were ready to go, their horses saddled, and their packs filled, Thomas, Bailey, and Linq were ready to ride with them. And when they were mounted, Amy, Laurel, and Hears Good joined them.
Maddie couldn’t bear to look at them. Always, her family had been there for her.
“Let’s go save this boy of yours,” Bailey said impatiently. “I been wantin’ some excitement. Too quiet around here. Though what we’re gonna be able to do with a bunch of women and children along beats the hell outa me.”
“I can outshoot you,” Laurel said. “You’re too blind to see past the end of your nose.”
“Jeff, that girl of yourn ain’t respectful,” Bailey grumbled.
Maddie smiled at her father, and they started down the mountain.
It was on the second day of travel that quite suddenly Thomas and Jeff halted, Hears Good dismounted and slipped into the trees, while Linq and Bailey moved the three women into a circle of protection.
Maddie held her breath. It had been years since she had lived like this, where every movement might mean danger. All of them were as quiet as they could be while they listened. At first Maddie could hear nothing, and she wondered at her father and the other men for being able to hear so well.
When she did hear something she wasn’t sure what it was, but then her eyes widened and she sat up straight. “It’s him,” she whispered.
Her father turned and scowled at her. He had taught her not to speak when they might be in danger.
But Maddie ignored him as she kicked her horse forward and started down the mountain, the others close behind her.
She hadn’t sung a note for over three weeks, but now, atop the galloping, slipping horse, she began to sing. She wasn’t sure what she was singing, but she thought it was from Carmen, when Carmen sang about her soldi
er.
’Ring came tearing up the side of the mountain toward her, and when he reached her, he pulled her onto his horse and began kissing her eagerly.
“I couldn’t do it,” he said. “I couldn’t lose you.”
Maddie didn’t care about any words, she just wanted to hold him and feel him and touch him. They sat on top of the horse kissing, their bodies entwining, while around them people began to gather, Maddie’s family on one side, ’Ring’s on the other.
After a while the two families began to grow restless, and Jamie nudged his horse forward. “I’m James Montgomery and that’s my brother ’Ring,” he said to Thomas and Jeff. There was a bit of awe in his voice at meeting these men who were legends to him.
It was ’Ring who became aware that he and Maddie had an audience, and he kneed Buttercup forward so that they were hidden from view in the trees.