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E leven

“I don’t like leaving Tilda in there alone with her brother.” Josh should have pushed to marry her right away. As her husband he would have a much stronger place in her life. And it would always be reasonable for him to stay at her side.

Yet it was time for the roundup. They needed to gather the cattle and get themselves ready to drive the herd to San Francisco. And sitting in the kitchen with Tilda, wife or not, probably wasn’t necessary. Besides, she’d told him to leave.

As he mounted up to ride to a distant pasture, he decided he’d ask her one more time if she was sure about his not being there with her. He trotted the horse over to the ranch house, swung down, and tied the reins to the hitching post.

“C’mon, Josh,” Zane called. “We’re already getting a late start.”

The rest of the cowhands were riding out of the yard to the far pasture. Roundup took lots of hands but didn’t require great cowboy skills. Especially if the inexperienced hands hung back and didn’t try to chase after runaway steers on a fast-turning, cutting pony.

Josh said to Zane, “I’m going to check on Tilda before I head out.”

Zane nodded and started leading his horse toward the house.

Josh dropped his voice so that no one could hear them. “I shouldn’t have left her.”

“I thought she told you to go on the roundup.”

“She did. And she meant it. But she’s been alone in that house with him for too long.

Gretel is at her house still. Michelle is in her workshop.

Annie has Caroline at the schoolhouse.” Josh paused, shook his head.

“Between the two of us, I think she had some real rude questions she wanted to ask Ben and thought he’d be a whole lot less embarrassed if she asked them with no one else there. ”

“I can’t say I care for the guy, but he sure knows lots of stories. The things he says, the way he looks ... I’d say he’s her brother all right.”

“I’m just going to step into the kitchen for a minute, maybe make a few sandwiches to bring out to the range.”

Since they intended to be back at the ranch for the noon meal, no doubt Zane saw right through Josh’s excuse.

“Bring her along with us if you don’t like her and Ben being alone together. She can ride almost as well now as some of the students.”

They glanced at the last of the cowboys riding away. Zane headed out after them.

Josh moved to the back door of the house. He stepped inside to utter silence. Frowning, he called out, “Tilda, are you in here?” Then he saw the mess on the floor—a coffee cup smashed in a hundred pieces.

Tilda wouldn’t have gone anywhere with her brother, ex cept maybe to find Josh, yet he hadn’t seen them come out the back door.

He charged through the house, shouting her name, looking in every room, until he reached the rarely used front door and saw it was ajar. He was sprinting by the time he got outside.

The tracks of two horses were clear by the hitching post. Josh could tell the horses had stood there for quite a while. How long had they been gone? And to where? The tracks were carefully positioned so they’d ride away with the house between them and anyone in the ranch yard.

He ran back into the house and then out the back door.

A quick glance around revealed that the whole crew had ridden away.

Looking frantically around, he saw Gretel coming toward the house.

“Gretel! Get word to Zane! I’m tracking Ben.

Looks like he rode toward Dorada Rio, and he’s got Tilda with him. She wouldn’t have gone willingly.”

Gretel, with a child holding her hand and another in her arms, immediately nodded. “Go, I’ll send help.”

No questions. No dithering. He sure liked that tough German woman.

Josh swung up into the saddle and was galloping before he left the yard.

He kept a sharp eye on the tracks and saw where they joined the trail to town, just out of sight of the Two Harts. And going by the tracks, they were galloping flat-out.

The train passed through Dorada Rio midmorning.

But Ben had mentioned his private train cars, which meant his train could run anytime.

Ben had decided to give up on being patient.

He was taking Tilda to the train. But how did someone force a person, a captive, onto a train?

Surely he’d be stopped by others in town, wouldn’t he?

* * * *

Tilda was dimly aware of motion, but it was as if her arms were limp, her head thick with fog.

Hooves pounded. Someone held her. She tried to open her eyes, but then realized a cloak or blanket had been drawn over her head. She twisted in the grip of something or someone.

Something pressed over her face again. That sickly sweet smell invaded her nose and mouth.

“Careful how much of that you give her.” Another voice. One farther away, and one she couldn’t place.

“We need her asleep for the train. Once we’re in the private car, it won’t matter if she wakes up.” Ben had her. Ben was doing something with her, but what? Her mind was too cloudy to reason it out.

“You get her on board. I’ll load the horses.”

Then she was gone again.

* * * *

Josh charged into town to find no train. He hoped for a single moment he’d beaten the train into town.

Then he saw people milling around the station. They were waiting for the train. He looked around, studying every person, every corner. He didn’t see Ben or Tilda anywhere.

Josh thought he heard a distant engine, heading north.

The tracks ran straight to Sacramento, which wasn’t too far away.

He didn’t think the train would have to stop for water or coal on its way there.

But it would have to reload to head on east, if Ben’s plan was to take Tilda all the way to New York City.

He spotted Parson Lewis’s wife. He’d had time to think on his mad dash from the ranch.

“Mrs. Lewis!” He rode fast toward her until she looked alarmed.

He pulled up just in time. “The new teacher at the Two Harts, Tilda—she’s been kidnapped.

Zane should be right behind me. Tell him to wire Ellie in Sacramento.

She’s at Mayhew Westbrook’s home. But he’ll know that.

Tell Ellie to get help and get to the train station, just in case I can’t catch the train and stop it. ”

Her eyes sharp, Mrs. Lewis, a western woman who’d learned to react well in an emergency, nodded.

“A very fine private car was on this morning’s train, pulled by its own locomotive.

I didn’t see anyone get on, but someone must have, or why was it here?

If he’s a kidnapper, she must have been knocked unconscious.

Otherwise she’d’ve struggled. Onlookers would notice a woman being taken against her will.

The train left only minutes ago. Go. If Zane isn’t along soon, I’ll wire this Mr. Westbrook myself.

I’m going to the sheriff, too. He can wire the next station down the line and stop the train before Sacramento. ”

The woman was thinking faster than he was. “God bless you, Mrs. Lewis.” Josh wheeled his horse and raced after his kidnapped fiancée.

He asked for everything from his horse. The poor critter had already run at top speed from the Two Harts.

Josh should have taken a few minutes and found a fresh horse, yet he couldn’t risk the delay.

But this was a buckskin stallion Josh favored—a strong horse with great endurance.

A road ran alongside the train tracks, and he rushed down it, praying for all he was worth.

He’d ridden half a mile before he heard the sound of a chugging train in the distance.

* * * *

Tilda’s head, still feeling fuzzy and oddly detached, cleared enough so she could open her eyes. She was moving, bouncing along. She recognized the motion. She was on a train.

“What am I doing on a train?”

“Good, you’re awake.” Ben leaned over her. She was stretched out somewhere, lying flat on her back. A chill iced her spine as she looked into his dark eyes.

“I had to take you before you married Josh Hart, you understand that, don’t you?” He folded his hands, looking sincere. “We’ll meet up with Father. You won’t want a western rancher when you see the luxury we live in back east.”

She’d known not to trust him. Despite his efforts to be friendly and charming, despite his profession of brotherly love, she’d known. She felt a moment of self-disgust that she hadn’t trusted her instincts.

Questions flooded her dazed head, clamoring to get out. In the end, she said, “How did you get me onto a train?”

“I’ve been planning from the first that you’d likely refuse to come home with me.

I don’t fail when Father asks something of me.

My train was waiting in the nearest town with a rail spur available.

I spent last week getting all the details ironed out.

It was as simple as taking you out the front door.

I noticed how nobody uses that door. And none of the ranch work goes on out front.

I’ve been waiting for my chance to act. Henson has been coming to the ranch daily.

” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder.

Tilda’s eyes shifted to the man standing behind Ben, a man built sturdy as an oak. Big and tough-looking. Dressed well but with no nonsense in his eyes.

“I’ve been waiting for a chance to get you away.

Last night after supper, when you said we could have a private talk after breakfast, I wired him from the ranch, and he sent for our train in town.

I’ve been using that telegraph any time I like since your family doesn’t pay much attention to it unless they need it, which isn’t often.

Henson got word to Lodi to hitch up my private car and bring it to Dorada Rio.

I had the train waiting, but I needed to get moving before the regular train came through.

We loaded you onto the train real fast and locked the doors.

No one noticed a thing. Or if they noticed, they didn’t try and stop us. ”