Trail of the Escaped Captive (Preview)

Chapter One

Sarah Waverly started to open her eyes, but the bright light of the sun hurt too much and she shut them again. Her head throbbed. Her throat was dry and scratchy. In fact, her whole body ached and felt as though it was bobbing and bouncing without any influence of her own.

All at once, the reality of her situation came rushing back to her. Sarah snapped up her head and opened her eyes, wincing at the stabbing pains that came as a result. She was curled in the corner of a tall wagon, and the small bit of hay scattered in the bottom of it did nothing to help cushion the jolt of the road underneath her. Her stomach rolled along with every movement. She tried to sit up and realized her hands were tied together. 

Panicking, Sarah pulled at the rope. It dug painfully at her skin, but that wasn’t as bad as knowing she was being held prisoner.

“I’ve already tried,” a tired voice said nearby.

It was Lenora. She usually kept her black hair pulled severely back into a knot, but now there were strands of it that hung down into her eyes. Two other girls lay nearby, curled up much the same way Sarah had been a moment ago. They bounced limply in time with the cart.

“I’ve been trying for a couple of hours now,” Lenora said, “but I can’t make any progress.” She held up her hands to show that the ropes had been somewhat frayed around the edges but still held strong.

“What are we going to do?” Sarah asked.  Despite what Lenora said, Sarah couldn’t give up. She wrenched and pulled, feeling a faint sliver of hope when she thought she’d made a little bit of space in her bonds. When she tried to slip her wrist free, though, the ropes held tight.

“I don’t know what we can do.” Lenora’s voice was always rather somber, but now her words rang with pure defeat. “All my time working at The Golden Spur, I thought I was safe.”

Tears threatened the backs of Sarah’s eyes. She blinked hard, forcing them back. “So did I.”

How could this have happened? Her mind was still foggy, but the details were clear. It was early in the day, and the saloon had been quiet. Most of their regulars wouldn’t start making their way in until at least late afternoon. There wasn’t a lot of evening entertainment available in the small town of Rockford, Wyoming, and that made The Golden Spur a popular place.

With the sun shining in the windows and only a few men at the bar, Sarah had been busy cleaning. She was singing to herself, practicing one of the new numbers she planned to debut that night, when a group of men had burst in through the door with the guns at the ready.

“It all happened so fast,” Sarah whispered, remembering her sheer terror as a man came straight for her. She’d fought against him as he’d grabbed her wrists, but he was so much stronger than she was. Something hard had slammed into the back of her head, likely the butt of his pistol, and the world had gone dark.

“Poor Jamie never even got the chance to get his shotgun from the rack behind the bar,” Lenora agreed. A few years older than Sarah, she was in charge of the food. Rumor had it that she used to sing, back before she’d come down with an illness that had ruined her voice, but Sarah had never heard her.

Sarah gestured with her chin toward the two inert forms in the back of the wagon with them. “What about them? Are they okay?”

Lenora frowned. “I think so. I tried to wake them up earlier, but they got the same treatment you did.”

“Quiet back there!” a gruff voice yelled. “We’ve got miles left to go, and I don’t want to listen to you yammering the whole time!”

“We could always gag ‘em,” another male voice suggested. This one came from somewhere off to the side.

Now Sarah understood that there were men on horseback surrounding the cart. She’d been confused and upset, and that had kept her from truly assessing their situation. She looked at Lenora. Where are we going? she mouthed silently.

Lenora shrugged and shook her head sadly.

Sarah sank into her corner, trying to think. She didn’t understand why anyone would want to come to the saloon and take all the girls who worked there. To what end? And as far as she could recall, she’d never seen any of these men in her life. Was this a robbery gone wrong? Or was there something else happening here? She didn’t know what she was going to do. She only knew that she wanted to go home, to her little bedroom above the saloon.

For now, all she could do was figure out as much about her situation as she could. Sarah wondered if she was fooling herself to think that she might be able to save herself and the other women from this situation. After all, what could a woman with her hands tied in front of her possibly do against a group of armed men?

Sarah drew her knees up to her chest, sliding her arms down over them, and rested her head on her knees. 

She thought about her grandfather. He’d always been a good man, one to look up to, and he had advice about everything. Things always come in their time, he’d told her once. Sarah couldn’t even remember what she’d been impatient about, but she easily recalled his deep, rumbling voice. We don’t get to pick that time, but we have to trust that it’s right.

Grandpa was in heaven now, but would she ever get to see her grandmother again? Would she ever see that little room above the saloon where she’d been staying, so small that it barely held a bed? Or the little cottage where her grandmother lived? It was her home, and it had always seemed so far away once she’d started working at The Golden Spur. Now, it might as well be on the other side of the world.

“Hey, Hargrove,” one of the men called. “How long before we get to Butte?”

“At least a few more days,” came the response. “Then we can unload our wares and move on to the next job.”

Wares? What were these men selling? There was nothing in the back of the wagon that she could see. 

A deep laugh off to her right sent shivers down her back. “How much do you think you’ll even get for the oldest one? The way she frowns, I don’t know that anyone will buy her.”

Sarah’s heart leapt into her throat. She turned to Lenora, but the dark-haired woman had fallen asleep. 

That left Sarah all alone to sort this out. Could she be right? Could these men really be saying what she thought they were saying? She blinked and listened harder, wishing desperately for a drink of water.

“Oh, hell. Someone will want her. We caught her in the kitchen with an apron on, so she must be the cook. Anyone with a bit of skill can fetch a decent price.”

That uncomfortable laugh came again. “I wonder what skills the rest of them have.”

They were slave traders. She wanted to believe that she was misunderstanding the situation. She wanted to just be tired, confused, and scared, and therefore hearing things.

But Sarah knew that wasn’t the case.

Their travels dragged on into the evening. When the wagon finally rolled to a stop, her eyes still swam with the motion. All the other girls were awake now, and Sarah saw her own fear reflected in their eyes as the back of the wagon was opened. The back gate was tall enough that it angled down to the ground and served as a ramp.

“Come on, now.” This came from a thickset man with a scruffy beard and small eyes. He gestured impatiently at them. “Get out.”

“Why?” Sarah asked as she slowly struggled to her feet. Her body hurt down to her bones, stiff and sore from being in the wagon for so long. 

“For a ball with the president. What do you think?” he snarled. 

The women filed down out of the wagon. A second man kept his pistol aimed at them as he pushed them toward a small clearing, where a third man was lighting a fire. 

Yet another handed them each a crust of bread. “Better make it last, ladies,” he said with a laugh. “We’ve got a long way to go yet.”

Sarah shivered. This was the one she’d heard laughing before, the one that made her skin crawl before she’d even seen him. She stared at the bit of bread with a deep frown, unsure if it was safe to eat.

“Eat up, sugar,” he said with a wink. “They won’t like you if you’re too skinny.”

“In that case, I ought to starve myself,” she snapped back, feeling a momentary wave of bravery and strength. She swept her eyes up and down his skinny frame. “Looks like you need it more than I do, anyway.”

“How dare you?” He charged toward her, his hand raised.

“Easy there, Joe.” Another man caught Joe’s arm, his thick fingers clamping around it. This man had long blonde hair tied at the nape of his neck. His short beard matched it. “I can’t get as much for them when they’re all bruised up. I don’t think you want to make up the difference, do you?”

Joe glared at Sarah and then spit into the fire. “She’s not worth the effort, anyway.” He headed off to unload other supplies.

The blonde man slowly stepped in front of Sarah and squatted down so that he was eye-level with her. “I don’t want any more trouble out of you, or else I’ll let him do what he wants. Is that clear?”

She ground her teeth together, choking back another smart comment. This man was clearly their leader. He had control over the others, and until she knew how to get away from them, she’d better not cross him. “Yes.”

“Hey, Hargrove!” the bearded man shouted. 

“If you’ll excuse me.” Hargrove touched the brim of his hat in mock politeness and walked away.

Lenora leaned close to Sarah. “You’re pushing your luck.”

“Maybe,” she agreed, “but we’ve got to figure something out.”

“What?” Zella asked, her eyes wide with fear. “There’s nothing we can do. There are so many of them!”

“Eight,” Annie confirmed, her gaze firmly fastened on their captors.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to figure it out,” Sarah told them. The men would stop them if they spoke too much. “If you see me doing something, make sure you run.”

* * *

That opportunity didn’t come for several days. The group made their way through the wilderness. Sarah only knew they were in the mountains because of the steep slope of the wagon bed that made them slide into each other occasionally. Cold spring rains washed down over them, but their captors didn’t seem to care whether or not the women were soaked. At least one set of eyes was on them at all times. Sarah kept watching for her chance, looking for some break in their routine that she could take advantage of.

After another day of rain, the wagon came to a sudden halt. The whip cracked and the wagon lurched, but they made no progress. 

“What the hell?” Sarah recognized the voice of Matthew, the one with the scruffy beard and the beady eyes that usually herded them in and out of the wagon like livestock.

“I thought you said this road would be clear,” Hargrove accused.

“It should’ve been.” That was Joe, the skinny one who thought he had something to prove. “I’ve been through here a dozen times, and it’s never been like this.”

“Did you come through in the spring?” challenged another man. Sarah thought this one was Andy. He seemed to think he was the smartest in the group, even though Hargrove was clearly the one in charge.

The arguments continued for a bit, and the wagon shook and rolled. Finally, Matthew opened the back of the wagon. “Out. We can’t get through with your weight,” he chuckled.

Sarah held back, waiting until the others got out. When she stepped onto the ramp, more confident now than she’d been that first time, she noticed that Matthew was busy assessing the situation with the stuck wagon. In fact, all of them were. 

It was now or never.

She balled her fists and swung. Pain exploded in her fingers as she crashed into his jaw. Matthew flung his arms in the air to catch his balance as Sarah stumbled the rest of the way down the ramp. 

“Run!” she cried to her fellow captives. Her own feet carried her as she shot off down the road in the direction they’d come from. The mud wasn’t as bad here, but it quickly accumulated on the bottom of her shoes. She ducked into the surrounding woods, sliding as the mud came off again in the bed of dry pine needles under the trees.  Numerous voices shouted behind her.

“Get them!”

“What the hell are you doing?”

Sarah risked a look back. They were free! Lenora, Annie, and Zella were all charging into the woods after her. The men, however, where hot on their heels.

Sarah ran as though the devil himself were chasing her. She cursed her bound hands, which slowed her down. A shot rang out over her head, and she resented the scream that burst from her lips. But she was still alive. They hadn’t shot her. She could do this. She had to!

“Ah!” 

“Got her!”

Lenora, slower than the others, had been captured.

Guilt moved through Sarah’s fear, but she couldn’t go back. Even if she did, she wouldn’t be able to fight them. Her lips muttered silent prayers as she charged down a hillside, barely keeping her feet underneath her. Wet branches smacked her face and tore her clothes. A tree root arched up from the ground to trip her. For a brief moment she was airborne, her heart hammering in her ears. Miraculously, she landed on her feet.

More shouting and screaming erupted behind her. She didn’t dare turn around again, because she knew exactly what she’d find. Sarah couldn’t bear the thought of Annie and Zella falling back into the hands of Hargrove’s men, and yet she ran.

The trees opened up in front of her, and the loud gushing of a stream drowned everyone else out. Sarah skidded to a halt as she eyed the rushing rivulet, engorged from all the rain as it hurried down the mountain. The water, white and foamy, hurtled over rocks and twigs. She couldn’t tell how deep it was, but Sarah didn’t see any other choice. 

She slid down the muddy embankment and gasped when she hit the icy stream. Sarah’s shoes instantly filled with water. Only a few steps in, the stream was knee-deep, and then it rose to her waist. It soaked her skirt, dragging her down with each step. She pushed forward with all her strength, but a step now only took her a few inches closer to the other side. She was never going to get away now.

“There she is!”

Sarah turned to face her captor. Joe stood up the hill from the stream, his skinny face twisted into a snarl of hatred as he raised his pistol.

Her foot slipped out from underneath her. Sarah tumbled into the stream, and the world was drowned out as she was pulled under. She kicked and struggled, trying to swim. The bonds around her hands made it impossible. Her muscles burned, but her skin was growing numb from the cold. 

If Hargrove didn’t get her, then the stream would.

Her body slammed into a rock, and then all of a sudden she felt the muddy bottom of the stream under her feet. The current had thrown her into shallower waters. Sarah rolled to her right, hoping it was the right direction. Her head came out of the water and then her shoulders. She flung her hair out of her eyes and flicked her fingers over her face. The water only came up to her waist now, but the embankment here was too steep to climb. It rose well over her head, straight up with a little ledge of overhanging grass.

But there, just in front of her, the embankment had been partially washed away around some tree roots. The strong twists of root still held up the dirt on top, forming a little cave inside the embankment. With the last bit of her strength, Sarah surged toward it. She thrust herself inside.

There was a layer of muddy water inside her little cave, and it swirled around her as the stream went by outside. The speed of the water had slowed down a little, and that must be the reason she’d been able to escape the current.

“Do you see her?”

She froze, not even daring to breathe.

“Naw. Haven’t since she went under.” 

The earth above her head echoed with the thuds of footsteps. Hargrove must have sent a couple of his men after her. They were right on the side of the stream, still trying to find her!

“Probably drowned.”

“Hargrove isn’t going to be pleased. He’s either going to want her or a body.”

Her stomach rolled inside her. She clamped trembling lips around the urge to vomit, desperate not to give herself away. 

“Let’s go a little further downstream,” the first voice suggested. “It was carrying her pretty quickly, from what I could tell.”

Dirt fell down into her hair as the man directly above her hiding place walked away.

Sarah lay back against the muddy wall of the cave. She had escaped, but she wasn’t exactly free.

Chapter Two

Thomas Blackwood lifted his rifle to his cheek and sighted down the barrel. The bull elk was exactly what he’d been hoping for on this trip. His antlers were huge, branching out like an oak tree into numerous spikes and creating a heavy rack that made him carry his head low, with the lower edge of his neck swinging down like a swaybacked horse. The hump of muscle on his shoulders was round and proud. This beast had lived a full life and had undoubtedly contributed many young to his herd over the years. 

Tom’s heart thrummed in his veins. He forced his breath to slow down. He’d traveled all the way out there, as far from civilization as possible, to seek one of those elusive creatures. Though he was an excellent hunter, the elk always seemed to know when someone was coming. This would be enough meat and fur to make it more than worth the trek back into town. It would fetch a good price, and he would be able to come back out for a much longer trek the next time. Slowly, he squeezed the trigger.

A scream ripped through the air.

The gun went off. The elk started, bolting forward and crashing into the trees. Tom scrambled to get it into his sights once again, following it with the barrel of his rifle. He couldn’t let this one go! It was so perfect. He desperately scanned the trees, but it was too late. The elk was gone, slipping back into the wilderness. “Son of a bitch!”

Tom sighed and let his gun hang slack for a long moment. The elk wouldn’t come back. In fact, it probably wouldn’t return to this area for at least a day. It knew now that there was danger here, so it would move along. They were surprisingly smart creatures, and even if he stayed here and hunted for another week from this spot, Tom might never see it again.

That scream sounded again, one that sounded like a woman in distress. He hadn’t seen any mountain lions out here, but that eerie cry could only belong to one of the big cats. “Jealous, huh?” Tom said to the woods around him. “Thought I might get your dinner instead of you?”

Tom picked up his bag and headed back to his camp. It hadn’t been a successful day, but many of them weren’t. That was the life of a hunter. There were days when he could take down two whitetails almost back-to-back, close enough that it was difficult to get them both gutted and back into town before the meat cooled off too much. Then there were other days when he saw almost nothing but squirrels, and he wouldn’t bother with them unless he was starving. They weren’t worth the bullets. 

He’d try again the next day.

Already, he was formulating his plan. He’d get up early and skip breakfast to avoid too much noise or a fire that would scare the animals away. Tom would slip from his tent and see what could be found. If he was unsuccessful after a couple of hours, he’d get a bit of food and start over again. His stomach was grumbling already.

Another scream split the air as he stepped into his campsite, and Tom paused. Mountain lions could make a terrible racket, and they scared plenty of folks who came out into the wilderness and didn’t know about their humanlike screams. But this was starting to sound less like a mountain lion and more like an actual woman.

“Get back!” the voice screamed.

That was definitely not a mountain lion. Dropping his bag near the tent, Tom took off in the direction of the scream. It wasn’t easy. The mountains and ravines echoed and deflected sounds, making even loud and distinct animal calls sound like they could come from almost anywhere. It was only the years of training he had under his belt that let him know to head west, toward a steep ravine. He hadn’t explored in that direction very far. Was there another camp nearby that he hadn’t been aware of? That felt impossible. He’d have seen their smoke or heard them making camp. Tom didn’t miss things like that.

“No!” the woman yelled. She sounded terrified and desperate. “Go away!”

Tom reached the edge of the ravine and could barely believe the sight before his eyes. It was a woman all right, and definitely not a mountain lion. Mountain lions didn’t wear fancy dresses with beads and lace. The woman’s fiery red hair had once been pulled into an updo that was now partially undone around her shoulders, and it blazed in the late afternoon sunlight that reached down into the ravine.

He squinted a little, unsure that he was seeing things correctly. Were her hands bound in front of her?

She was struggling to get up the far side of the ravine. The five wolves that pursued her were having a much easier time of it. Their heads were low and their mouths open, eagerly pulling in her scent. They could take their time as they climbed up after her. They were predators who knew when they’d won. 

The wolf in the lead had its yellow eyes focused on her. It lunged forward, its teeth clamping hard around the hem of her dress. 

She screamed again.

Tom fired a shot into the air. The sound ricocheted through the ravine. All five of the wolves jumped, startled at the sound. So did the woman. Four of the wolves scattered, scampering back down the side of the ravine and streaming across the floor of it, off to look for their prey elsewhere.

The fifth, however, still had its teeth in the woman’s dress. She shrieked as she grabbed the fabric and tried to pull it away. Her bound hands made it difficult to clutch at the material. She was perched on a small ledge, barely big enough for her. 

The wolf was too close to securing a meal for itself to bother running away with its compatriots. Its muzzle curled into a snarl. It pressed its front paws into the ground and pushed its hind end into the air as it dug in, bracing itself against the numerous blows that came from her boots. Even when she landed a kick square in its face, it wouldn’t let go.

From his position on the opposite side of the narrow gully, Tom could see just what the wolf was aiming to do. If it could drag her down from that narrow ledge and injure her, then it would have all the opportunity it needed to finish her off.

He gritted his teeth as he aimed his rifle once again. The damn thing was moving a bit too much, making a clean shot difficult. Tom wanted a quick death for it, and of course he couldn’t risk hitting the woman. He squeezed the trigger.

This time, he didn’t miss. The wolf’s jaws went slack. It stumbled back a couple of steps and then fell, rolling down the side of the ravine. When it hit the bottom, it didn’t move again.

Keeping his rifle handy, Tom lowered himself over the side of the ravine. His boots skidded in the loose dirt and mud on the steep side, and for a moment he wished he’d looked for a safer way to get down. It was too late to change his mind now, though. Tom let gravity carry him to the bottom, where the body of the wolf still lay.

“Is it dead?”

He looked up at the woman. She was still on her little ledge, looking stiff and scared as she peered down at the corpse of the wolf. Her hands were clasped in her lap. Though she was dirty and her hair had come undone, she looked like a princess staring down at him from her throne. It amused him a little. “He definitely won’t be bothering you anymore.”

“Good.” She leaned forward a little, her bright blue eyes focusing carefully on him. “What about you?”

“What about me?” Once he asked the question, he understood what she meant. “Oh. Well, if I had any intention of harming you, I probably wouldn’t have shot that wolf. I’d rather not have shot him at all, to be honest. I don’t like to kill a creature unless I know it’s going to be used for food, and nobody is going to eat that scrawny wolf.”

She screwed up her mouth as she listened to him, and then finally she nodded. “Fair point.” The woman then began the arduous process of turning around. Her skirt was in her way, the fabric twisting up and refusing to cooperate as she lowered herself from the ledge, skidding on her feet and backside down to the bottom of the ravine. 

Tom watched with amusement and curiosity. Who was this woman, and why was she all the way out here dressed in clothes like that? She’d been terrified of the wolves—and rightly so—but was bold enough to climb down on her own, even with her hands tied. 

She slowly regained her balance and limped toward him, holding her bound hands up. “Do you mind?”

This was certainly the most unusual creature he’d ever found while he was out hunting.

Chapter Three

“Thank you.” The man’s knife flashed as he slid the blade under the ropes, and Sarah watched with delight as they fell to the ground. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

He gritted his teeth as he inspected the raw skin underneath them. “Looks like those were on there for a while.”

“At least a few days, I think.” Sarah instinctively rubbed them and then instantly regretted it. The action only made them burn worse. She took a step and then sucked air in. “Ow!”

“Did that wolf get you?” he asked. He’d been watching her closely this whole time, but he stepped forward with concern.

“No, although he certainly tried.” She reached down with one hand to lift the edge of her skirt, revealing a gash just above her boot. “That was from earlier today, not long before the wolves started chasing me. I slipped, of all the silly things. I’m sure it’ll be fine once I get it cleaned up. But really, I can’t thank you enough. I don’t know what I’d have done if you hadn’t come along and scared them off. Well, most of them, anyway.”

Sarah looked up at the steep slope the man had come down. “I don’t think we can get back up that way. Or at least, I can’t. I only came down in here in the first place because I was hoping I might find a few berries on a bush back that way. Then the wolves came.”

The man was watching her with an odd look on his face. “You were down here looking for berries?”

“Well, I had to eat something, didn’t I?” she asked. Her stomach growled, reminding her that she still hadn’t found that something. Sarah felt energy rushing through her veins right now, but she knew it was only because the wolves had scared her so badly. That was the first sign of true danger she’d had since she’d evaded Hargrove’s men, other than starvation.

The man tipped his head slightly to the side, his hazel eyes narrowing. “What are you doing way out here, anyway? And why were you tied up?”

Sarah took half a step back, trying not to wince when the gash on her ankle throbbed. This man had rescued her from the wolves, but that didn’t mean he had good intentions for her. She’d welcomed his help out of desperation, but how did she know she could trust him? What if he was another of Hargrove’s men, someone she just hadn’t seen before?