“What used to be hot springs.”
“Did you see the children?”
“Yes. I saw them twice and each time I thought I saw someone with them.”
“Old? Young? Man or woman?” asked Ariel.
“It was too dark to see.”
“How did you hurt your head?”
“There was a sound. It was like a shot, but it could have been lightning striking a tree. I don’t know. One minute I was standing, then the next I was falling. I tried to catch myself, but it was all loose gravel. I thought I’d fallen into one of the pits, but it must have been down a hillside. I think I was knocked unconscious.”
“How did you get back to the cabin?”
“I don’t know. I was lying on gravel, rain was hitting me in the face, my head hurt, then the next thing I knew I was on my own porch and an angel hit me in the face with a wet towel.”
Ariel didn’t smile. “David must have found you.”
“Who is David?”
“Did you see a man, tall, blond, handsome. Beautiful, really. He left Phyllis’s house early this morning.”
“I saw no beautiful men,” Gideon said. “And no beautiful twins.” Again, there were tears in his voice.
“We’ll find them. I think that first we should—”
“Get R.J. and Sara out. What took me so long to get here was that I got a winch and some rope. The tree fell across the hole. I’ll tie the winch onto the tree and haul them up. You can stay with Sara while R.J. and I look for the twins.”
“You’re injured, so you stay with Sara.”
Gideon gave her a sideways look. “I bet you rule your household, don’t you?”
“I don’t have a household. I live with my mother and she rules everybody.”
“Rules you?” Gideon asked, then before she could answer, he said, “There it is,” and began to hurry forward.
Following him, Ariel saw that he was limping, skipping now and then to stay off an injured ankle and foot. There was dried blood on his neck and his shirt, and a long tear in the back of his shirt, covered in more dried blood. She had an idea that he had many more injuries than could be seen. He should be in a hospital, she thought.
Minutes later, she saw him stretched out on the ground, most of his body covered by the branches of a big pine tree. When she reached him, she looked down to see R.J. standing about twenty feet below.
“Ariel!” he said. “What are you doing here?”
She was disgusted at yet again hearing that tone that said she could be of no help. “I heard there was a rare form of lizard up here and I need some new belts.”
R.J. looked at her in silence, as though he didn’t know if she was serious or not.
“I came to save the lot of you,” she said. “How is Sara?”
“I’m fine,” Sara called from the corner. “I just have a broken leg and a great need of painkillers. Opium, I need you!”
“Have you seen the children?” Ariel called down.
When R.J. and Sara were silent, Ariel looked at Gideon.
“They had enough to worry about, so I didn’t tell them the kids were missing.”
“The twins!” Sara said to R.J., then looked up at Ariel. “Get R.J. out and you three go looking for them. I’m safe here. Please hurry. How long have they been missing?”