Madelaine’s head was pounding as if a herd of buffalo had trampled through it. When she first opened her eyes, she had no idea where she was. The room was foreign to her, but she was warm and dry, and when Simon’s small hand fell onto her face as he turned, she felt instant relief. Both of her little siblings were right there in bed with her, all snuggled together under thick layers of blankets.
Despite her raging headache and slightly blurry mind, images of them being chased and then falling off Tinsel flickered through her head, and she immediately checked Belle and Simon for any injuries. They were both fast asleep, and they seemed to be fine. Lifting her hand to her temple, she could feel some kind of soft bandage around her head. Had she been injured so badly? Where were they?
She couldn’t decide whether she should get up and get the two children ready to leave this place, or if she should just let them sleep for a little while longer, until she could actually come up with a plan. Was this place safe?
Then, Madelaine heard male voices talking in the other room.
Terror and panic threatened to overwhelm her as she fought the fogginess in her brain. She desperately tried toremember everything, but the last few hours were all a blur. Had Phineas’ men caught her, after all? To bring her back, so he could marry her? From what she could see, this wasn’therranch, so where had these men taken them? And what had happened to Tinsel?
As her imagination spiraled out of control, Madelaine’s heart raced, but she knew that she needed to stay calm to figure all this out. Not to mention that her head felt like it was stuffed full of cotton, and all sounds appeared to be muffled.
When the door creaked open, Madelaine immediately closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep. She didn’t know what else to do, and she desperately hoped that the children wouldn’t wake up.
It seemed as if the men stayed by the open door, speaking very quietly, but at least Madelaine could hear them more clearly now.
“They’re still sleeping,” one of them said, and Madelaine remembered his voice from somewhere. At the very least, it was not Phineas.
“How long will you keep them here, Luke?” another one, whom she didn’t recognize at all, asked curiously.
Luke. The sheriff!
Huge relief washed over her. She remembered that Luke had brought them all to his house. After the incident. After he had presumably chased away the riders. Madelaine still didn’t really know everything that had happened, and her memory felt like a perforated piece of paper. She was only able to pick up snippets and useless single words, never really understanding the whole picture. All she knew was the gratitude she felt toward this man.
It was then that a sudden vivid memory appeared before her eyes, and instant heat seeped into her cheeks. She nearly gasped with embarrassment and quickly tried to force this memory to the back of her mind, but it was no use. Sheriff Luke’s face was ever so present in her thoughts. Even worse, she couldn’t push back the memory of what he had done and how it had made her feel.
Without asking her, Luke had simply lifted her up onto his arms to carry her to his horse. As if she were as light as a feather, even with Belle strapped to her front. The way she had felt his unbound strength, not only in his arms, but also when she’d sat in front of him on the horse—the way he’d led the steed predominantly with his strong legs, using his arms to keep them safely in the saddle. And his scent—wood, leather, and tobacco—was like nothing she’d never smelled before.
It had been unnerving and thrilling at the same time.
However, these thoughts felt forbidden, so Madelaine tried to shut them down, albeit rather unsuccessfully.
“He isn’tkeepingthem! They can come and go as they please,” another man said, pulling Madelaine back to reality.
His voice sounded somehow familiar, too. She remembered a blond, bearded man, slightly smaller than Luke.
“You know what I mean, Caleb!” the stranger said.
Caleb. The deputy.
There was a faint memory of him wanting to take care of Tinsel.
“Well, you sometimes speak in riddles, James,” Caleb said mockingly.
“Could you two speak quietly?” Luke said sharply. “They need all the rest they can get after their ordeal, being chased and shot at by those despicable men.”
The unknown man—James, apparently—piped up with an angry whisper. “How can it be that we still don’t know who these derelicts are? They have been terrorizing the area for months now!” This James sounded annoyed.
Madelaine listened intently to their conversation, hoping to find out more.
Luke quietly cleared his throat. “I don’t know,” he whispered with a slight growl in his voice. “I have been wracking my brain about this gang, but they’re like ghosts. They never leave anything other than devastation behind. It’s frustrating.”
“So, who is this girl? Did you even bother to find out who she is before you brought her to your house, or were you blinded by her pretty eyes? Do you even know if those areherchildren?” James whispered a little too condescendingly, Madelaine thought, but she had to bite her tongue.
“What nonsense are you talking, James? Women like that don’t just go around stealing children!” Caleb said, a little too loudly.
“Apparently, the two little ones are her siblings,” Luke said quietly. “The boy, Simon, told me on the way back that her name was Peterson, Madelaine Peterson...”
“Peterson?” James piped up again. “Wait a minute! Is she related to the Petersons from the horse ranch? The ones who died in the train crash a few months ago?” This man was annoying, but he was smart. Madelaine had to give him that.
