Trail of the Escaped Captive – Extended Epilogue

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“It smells delicious in here,” Tom said as he came in through the back door. He’d been out taking care of the livestock while Sarah managed the house. She was at the stove, cooking away.

“It’s nothing special,” she said, turning to give him a kiss. “Just our typical eggs and toast.”

He smoothed his hand along her lower back as he kissed her in return. “It might be typical, but I still never get tired of it.”

“Is Great Grandma coming today?” Caleb jumped up and down in the kitchen doorway, his blue eyes wide. At five years old, he was full of boundless energy and numerous questions. 

“You’ve asked me that every single day for the past week,” Sarah told him as she scooped scrambled eggs onto a plate.

“I just really want to see her,” he explained as he took his seat.

“I know. So do I.” She added a piece of buttered toast to his plate and set it in front of him. “And guess what?”

“What?” This came from two-year-old Grace, who just wanted to be a part of the conversation. She was already seated at the table, playing with her rag doll.

“Great Grandma is finally coming today!” Sarah announced.

“Yay!” Caleb waved his fork in the air.

Grace clapped her hands and scrunched up her nose, accentuating her chubby cheeks. 

“When will she get here?” Caleb asked as he dug into his eggs.

“Probably sometime before lunch.” Sarah fixed Grace’s plate next, exchanging it for the rag doll. 

“Anything you need help with?” Tom asked. He’d noticed that Sarah was having a harder time keeping up with the kids lately. She’d assured him the previous night that she was perfectly fine, but he wanted to help wherever he could.

They carried the weight of life’s work equally, just as they had when they’d first met. Whatever needed to be done, they both worked at it until everything was finished. In the six years that they’d been married, that was one thing that hadn’t changed. At the end of most days, they fell into bed exhausted but satisfied. 

“I think I can manage.” Sarah dished up his breakfast and handed it to him. “Once I wash up, I’ve just got to put fresh sheets on the bed for Grandma.”

“I know you,” Tom warned. “You’re just like her, and you’re going to spend time fixing the whole room up as nicely as possible. You’ll even have a vase of flowers for her.”

“What’s wrong with that?” she asked innocently.

“Not a thing on its own. I just don’t want you to think you have to do it all yourself.” He worried that Sarah sometimes overworked herself. He was guilty of the same, every now and then.

“I’ll try not to go overboard, since I’ll still need to get the picnic basket put together. Besides, you’ll be busy enough getting the you-know-what gear out of the shed,” Sarah told him.

“What gear?” Caleb, who hadn’t been paying any attention to the talk of sheets and flowers, suddenly perked up.

“Pih-nic?” Grace asked.

Sarah put her fingers over her mouth. “I said too much!”

“That’s right,” Tom told his children. “When Great Grandma gets here, we’re going to have a picnic down by the creek. And Caleb, I thought you and I could do some fishing.”

The little boy could barely keep himself in his seat. “Can we go right now?”

“No, we’ve got to wait until Great Grandma gets here. You also have to clean your plate and get washed up for the day,” Tom reminded him.

“Okay!” Caleb leaned down and scooped two forkfuls of eggs into his mouth.

“Slow down and chew.” It was difficult to scold Caleb for his manners when Tom was trying so hard not to laugh at his enthusiasm.

It was then that Tom noticed Sarah hadn’t sat down yet. “Are you joining us, honey?”

She was standing at the stove, bracing one hand on the oven handle and pressing the other one to her mouth.

Tom scraped his chair back and stood. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m fine,” she quickly insisted, picking up her plate and bringing it to the table so that she could sit down across from him.

He resumed his seat, but he was still worried as he looked at her plate. “You’re only having toast?”

“I’m just not in the mood for eggs today.”

When they finished their breakfast, Tom stayed inside to help Sarah clean up the kitchen and the children. 

“Don’t you need to get your things together?” Sarah asked him.

“It won’t take long,” he promised as he wiped Grace’s face clean with a damp rag. “Besides, I always miss the three of you when I go out hunting. It’s nice to be with you when I’m home.”

Sarah smiled at him sweetly, though Tom noted the exhaustion in her eyes.

He put the fresh linens on the bed while Sarah fussed with flowers and removed nonexistent dust from the room. “I’ll head out to the shed. I’ll bring the picnic basket in first so you can pack it.”

“Thank you.”

As he stepped outside, he heard the creaking wheels of a familiar cart. Tom turned and looked up the road. Sure enough, Hilda was coming over the hill. She waved eagerly, and Tom waited for her in the barnyard.

“You made it,” he said, pleased to see her. She didn’t need any assistance, but Tom reached up to help her down from the cart anyway. “Did you have any trouble?”

“Not a bit,” Hilda insisted. “Getting out in the fresh air for a while is good for me. Mr. Sloan tried very hard to convince me to let one of his boys bring me. They’re dear things and always eager to help, but sometimes an old woman needs to know she’s still capable.”

She stepped to the ground and rubbed her horse’s nose, and then she looked up at the house. “My, my! You two have created quite a lovely home for yourselves! Sarah said in her letter that the addition was completed, but I had a hard time visualizing it. You’ll have plenty of space now.”

Tom admired the place as well. Their wedding gift from George Waverly had been quite a blessing, allowing them to build a home up in the mountains between Cedar Ridge and Stillwater. The sale of Tom’s house had funded the addition. Their little piece of the world was perfect, as far as he was concerned. Tom didn’t have to go far from home to hunt, but they could still visit their friends and family. 

“Does that mean we can convince you to come live with us?” Tom asked. Sarah had wanted Hilda to join them in their mountain home as soon as they moved in. Hilda had asserted that a newlywed couple needed time to themselves without an old woman underfoot. She’d come to stay for a few weeks when each of the children were born, but then she’d always returned to her cottage in Cedar Ridge. 

Hilda pinched his arm. “Someday you’ll talk me into it, Tom, but not today! As long as I can still take care of myself, I want to stay where I belong.”

“Great Grandma!” Caleb burst through the front door of the house and came running. He slammed into Hilda’s legs, nearly knocking her over, and wrapped his arms around her.

Hilda didn’t mind in the least. “There’s my sweet grandson. Let me see how much you’ve grown. Oh, yes. I think you’ll be as tall as your father by next summer.”

Caleb giggled. “No, I won’t!”

“We’ll just have to see,” Hilda replied with a wink. 

Sarah emerged from the house next, holding Grace’s hand as the little girl toddled eagerly across the lawn. “Grandma, I’m so happy to see you.”

“You too, dear.” The older woman embraced them both and then scooped Grace off the ground with surprising strength. “Look at those little red curls! You look just like your mama!”

Sarah took the empty picnic basket from Tom so that he could carry Hilda’s baggage inside and put away the cart. “We’ve got your room ready for you.”

“You can’t call it my room yet,” Hilda warned her.

“Someday?” Sarah asked.

Her grandmother nodded. “Someday.”

Hilda helped pack up the picnic basket while Tom and Caleb got the fishing gear from the shed. Then the whole family headed out from the back of the house, down the hill and toward the creek.

It was a bright, sunny day. Tom leaned back on one elbow with a full stomach, listening to Hilda and Sarah catch up on all the latest news and watching his children splash in the shallows of the creek nearby. He breathed in the fresh air and sighed with happiness, nearly falling asleep. 

This was the good life. It was hard to believe now that at one time he’d been satisfied with spending so much time on his own. He still had his forays into the wilderness to hunt and trap, to provide for his family, but he was always happy to return home to them once again. There was nothing better than the bright looks on their faces when they saw him or the children’s little arms wrapped around him. Tom felt in his heart that he was meant to be a husband and a father, and he was grateful to God every day that it’d happened for him.

“Pa!” Caleb ran up to him, his hands and feet damp from the creek. “Can we fish now?”

Tom chuckled at the boy’s enthusiasm. “Sure, we can. Let’s get our things, if you ladies will excuse us.”

With his rifle over his shoulder and a fishing pole in his hand, Tom led Caleb down the creek a bit, to a place where the water was shallow and they could cross on the rocks. “Be careful, now. The wet ones can be very slippery.”

“Why do we have to come all the way over here to fish?” Caleb hopped from one rock to the next and flung out his arms to catch his balance. “Why can’t we just stay over where Mom and Great Grandma are?”

“The water isn’t deep enough for the fish there,” Tom explained. “They like this spot on the other side of the creek.”

Fishing with a young child was a challenge, but it was one Tom was up for. He never had to think about what he was doing, but Caleb’s curiosity inspired him to explain every little detail. Tom encouraged Caleb when a fish stole his bait, and they laughed together when a turtle poked his head up above the water to see what they were doing.

All of a sudden, though, Tom had the distinct feeling they were being watched. He glanced across the creek at Sarah and Hilda. They were laughing and talking, calm and happy. Grace had fallen asleep between them, curled on her side on the picnic blanket. It was an idyllic scene, but Tom’s senses were firing.

There. Tom spotted movement just to the north, on the same side of the creek as Sarah and Hilda. He’d been crouching next to Caleb, but he stood to get a better look through the overhanging trees.

“Did you see that baby fish?” Caleb asked. “Pa?”

“Hang on, son.” His heart hammered as he tried to peer through the trees. Something was coming. It was only the slightest movement of shadow, but his instincts were trained into him. 

Tom picked up his rifle. “Caleb, this is important. I want you to stay right here.”

“What if I get a fish?”

“It’ll just have to wait. Stay put.” Tom moved quickly to the rock bridge, keeping his eye on that shadow and trying to determine what it was. 

Spotting his movement, Sarah turned to look in the same direction her husband was. She gasped in alarm. “Bear!” She grabbed the sleeping Grace and got to her feet.

Tom hurried across the creek. There were too many trees in the way for him to get a good shot! “I’m coming!” he cried.

Hilda and Sarah were backing away slowly, but the bear continued to approach. It lifted its snout in the air, smelling all the delicious food they’d brought out for their picnic.

Tom reached the other side of the creek, giving him stable footing and a clear shot just as the bear charged. He leveled his rifle and aimed carefully, waiting an extra second to make sure his loved ones were out of the way. He pulled in a breath, and as he let it go he squeezed the trigger.

The bear continued to charge forward, fury in its eyes. It roared in pain and took another step. Then it reared back, roared again, and fell to the ground.

Tom kept the gun leveled at the beast until he was sure it was dead, and then he turned to his wife. “Is everyone all right?”

Sarah clutched Grace tightly. “Yes.”

“Okay. Let me go get Caleb.” He crossed the river to fetch his son, bringing everyone back together. 

“That was amazing, Pa!” Caleb was shouting. “Can I go look at it?”

Hilda took his hand. “We have to stay back a bit, just to be safe,” she told him.

Tom pulled Sarah into his arms, kissing her and then kissing Grace’s forehead. “I’m so glad the two of you are all right.”

She nodded and brushed a tear from the corner of her eye. “Tom, I think you mean the three of us.” Sarah ran her hand over her stomach.

He stepped back to look at her. Everything he’d been noticing the last few days about her suddenly made sense, and he could kick himself for not figuring it out earlier. “A new little blessing?” he asked hopefully.

Sarah nodded. “I’m pretty sure.”

Tom kissed her again, thrilled to know that they were about to start the next part of their adventure together.

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OFFER: A BRAND NEW SERIES AND 2 FREEBIES FOR YOU!

Grab my new series, "Blood and Honor in the Wild West", and get 2 FREE novels as a gift! Have a look here!

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