“Where are you?” she shouted, but the forest was quiet. Why won’t he show himself to me, she thought, and tried to keep her mind on the question. Anything to keep her mind off Laurel.
She ran in the direction that the arrow had come from, but he wasn’t to be seen. When she was out of breath, she stopped running. If Hears Good didn’t want to be seen, no one on earth, not even her father, would be able to find him.
But why, she wondered. Why would he follow her yet not let her see him?
The answer came to her instantly. Because there was someone else nearby, someone who Hears Good wanted to avoid.
With that thought she began running down the hill, slowing only long enough to catch the bridle of her horse. If Hears Good was nearby, then perhaps her father was also. She tripped over ruts and scrub oak and scraped her hands on rocks as she tore down the mountain.
She was tired and it was full dark when she came to a stream and allowed her horse to drink while she replenished her canteen. She looked all around her but saw no one. It was too dark to see much now, and there was only a quarter moon. Her father had taught her how to travel at night, and she’d heard stories of men who’d traveled for days, moving only at night.
“Come on, boy,” she said to the gelding, and picked up the bridle. For what seemed to be the thousandth time, she whistled the call of the mountain lark but received no answer.
Because of the darkness, she had to travel much slower than she’d moved on the trip up the mountain, and with each step she took she felt her mood growing worse. She was tense and angry over Laurel having been taken as well as angry that her friend, Hears Good, a man she’d known all her life, was so near yet wouldn’t come to her. How long had he been following her? She remembered Captain Montgomery saying that many people were following her. He must have seen some sign of Hears Good before now.
She stumbled over a rock and fell face forward into thorn bushes. When she came up, she was cursing. At that moment she hated every man on earth. She hated men and their stupid talk of war, these men who had taken a child to use in the war they were trying to start. She hated the miners who liked to look down her dress as much as they liked to hear her sing. And most of all she hated ’Ring Montgomery because…
She wasn’t sure why she hated him, but she did. Part of her also hated her father because she was so close to him
and he wasn’t coming to help her. Why didn’t Hears Good go and get him and the others? Why—
She was walking along, so involved in her thoughts that it was a complete surprise when a strong arm came out of the dark, encircled her waist, and then a hand slipped over her mouth. The action caused an immediate reaction in her. It was as though she were a keg of gunpowder and someone had lit her fuse. Suddenly, she became a ball of energy and she began kicking and clawing and fighting, and she managed to get her teeth into the palm of the hand that was over her mouth.
“It’s me,” she heard Captain Montgomery say. “It’s just me.”
If that was meant to calm her down, it had the opposite effect. When she bit him and he released her mouth, she began screaming at him. “I don’t want you. I hate you. Get away from me.” She kept fighting him, kicking back with her heels, banging her head against his chest.
He wrapped his arms around her, pinning her arms to her chest. This effectively kept her from biting or clawing him, but her heels were still free to kick, so he lowered her to the ground and threw one of his legs over both of hers.
“Quiet,” he said soothingly as he stroked her sweat-drenched face. “It’s all right. You’re safe now.”
“Safe?” she screamed in his ear. “I was more safe with just the mountain lions for company before you came. Why aren’t you asleep? I was afraid I’d given you enough opium to kill you.”
“It wasn’t enough. Here, stop that,” he said when she again tried to bite him. He put his whisker-stubbled cheek next to her smooth one. “I’m here with you now and you’re safe.”
Maddie stopped fighting him because she had to, because he had her pinned so that she couldn’t move, but her anger was still raging inside her. “Get off of me! Go away and leave me alone. I don’t need you.”
He didn’t move away even an inch, but still held her securely. “Yes, you do need me. Tell me what’s happened. Tell me what you did, where you’ve been.”
She knew she couldn’t tell him. She couldn’t tell anyone. Even if Hears Good had appeared, she couldn’t have told him either. “I can’t tell you,” she raged at him, but to her horror there was a catch in her voice. “I can’t tell even my father.”
He moved his head to look at her. “You can tell me,” he whispered.
It was those words that made the tears start. She tried to choke them back, but she couldn’t. She tried to find her anger again, but she couldn’t renew it. Truthfully, she was glad to see another human being. She was tired of being alone. “I can’t tell anyone. Not anyone.” The tears won out then, a great steady flood of them.
’Ring moved off her and pulled her into his arms. While holding her, he leaned back against a tree and held her to him, cradling her as one would a child. “Go ahead and cry, sweetheart. You deserve to cry.”
Since Laurel had been taken, Maddie had not allowed herself to cry much. She had been very brave and strong as she told herself that she was doing what must be done. But then, perhaps the reason she had been able to be brave was because she had had hope, hope that Laurel was going to be returned to her and that everything would turn out all right. But after tonight her hope was almost gone.
’Ring stroked her hair and held her tightly and securely as she cried. He’d said that she was safe now, and she did indeed feel much safer. And when her head cleared somewhat, she was grateful that he wasn’t raging at her for having once again used opium on him. She tried to pull away from him, if for no other reason than that she was very embarrassed. She sat up in his lap. “I am so sorry, Captain. I don’t usually do this.”
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and handed her his clean handkerchief. Maddie was glad for the darkness that hid her red face. The entire front of his shirt and a great deal of his jacket was soaked.
She blew her nose and the unladylike noise further embarrassed her. “I usually have better control of myself than this. I…” She trailed off, not knowing what to say. She started to get off his lap, but he pulled her back into his arms and snuggled her head against his chest.
She did try to move away from him, but it wasn’t a serious attempt to move and he didn’t have to make much effort to hold her to him. His heart against her cheek felt good, and as she lay against him, she prayed that he wouldn’t again start asking her to tell him where she had been.
“I don’t guess you’ve had many women cry on you before, have you, Captain? I would imagine most women do their best to present their best side to you. Mustn’t let handsome Captain Montgomery see a lady in any way except at her best.”