The women kept most of the conversation going. Mary and Rose were two lovely ladies with a great sense of humor as well as ample humility, so Madelaine had fallen in love with them rather quickly.
It was a cozy and warm atmosphere, but Madelaine couldn’t shake the feeling that something was about to happen. With Luke being extra quiet and very contemplative, and Caleb not being particularly forthcoming either—he kept avoiding her eyes—she was almost certain of it. She noticed how tired Luke seemed, yet he couldn’t sit still, and after the dinner was finished, he, Caleb, and Timothy nearly left the dining room in a hurry.
Trying not to be too obvious, Madelaine pretended to take Belle to bed but hovered in the hallway closer to the room themen had disappeared in, hoping that her little sister wouldn’t make a sound.
“So, we’ve got enough scouts out there tonight?” she heard Caleb ask.
“Yes, everybody is briefed when, where, and what is going to happen tonight and tomorrow night,” Luke confirmed quietly. “They all know what to do. We have instructed them as well as we could.”
“I’d like to go out there myself,” Caleb said. “I want to see for myself how many of them there actually are. I need to be sure that we truly know what we are dealing with.”
“I hear you,” Timothy said. “But with the number of men we have, we should be able to take them down tomorrow. We can’t risk getting caught before that. But I am more than ready for tomorrow night. I’ve waited years for this!”
“You and me both,” Luke agreed.
“I’ll still take a ride out there, after everybody’s gone to bed,” Caleb said.
Madelaine heard Luke sigh. “All right,” he said. “I’ll come with you, but we won’t stay long. We need all our strength for the take-down tomorrow.”
What were they talking about?
Madelaine and Luke were sharing the same bedroom at Timothy’s, but not the bed. They didn’t want to cause too many problems, and since they were married, there was nothing wrong with sharing the same room. However, Belle and Simon shared the bed with her, and Luke had been kind enough to sleep on a makeshift mattress—layers and layers of blankets on top of his heavy coat—on the floor.
Since she’d overheard the men’s conversation, Madelaine couldn’t fall asleep, nor did she want to. She pretended and waited, and sure enough, eventually, Luke got up from his bed. Since he’d slept in the clothes he’d worn during the day, he only grabbed his boots, hat, and coat before he sneaked out the door.
Madelaine’s heart hammered all the way into her throat. She had no idea what she was in for, but she had an incessant urge to find out. This urge was so strong she was prepared to leave both of her young siblings asleep in her bed. Hopefully, she’d be back before they woke up.
She grabbed her coat and followed Luke out of the room, careful not to make a noise. The house was dark, but thankfully, Madelaine had learned the layout rather quickly in the short time she’d been here, so it wasn’t too difficult to navigate the rooms.
Luke left through the back door, which was located in between the larder and the kitchen at the back of the house. From there, he made his way to the barn. Madelaine was careful not to be seen and kept to any shadowy place she could find, although the moon wasn’t full, and the light was barely enough to illuminate anything. Luke never looked back to see if he was being followed, which was to Madelaine’s advantage.
When he disappeared into the barn, she heard him and Caleb speak, but didn’t dare venture inside just yet. As soon as she saw both men leave, she ran inside the barn and took Tinsel outside. Having known her mare most of her life, she trusted her with her life. Madelaine didn’t have the time to put a saddle on her horse, so she rode the way she’d done as a young girl many times—bareback. It had the advantage that it was silent, since no tack was slapping against any leather, and Madelaine remembered how to do it as if it were yesterday.
Following the men as close as she dared to, their expedition led them far north and deep into the woods. The further they rode, the more Madelaine questioned her decision. She hadn’t anticipated such a long distance, or she wouldn’t have left the children where they were. Unfortunately, there was no turning back now.
Suddenly, she saw a faint shimmer of light in the far distance. Luke and Caleb chose not to get too close to it, and Madelaine noticed other men lurking around the place as well. There were just a handful of them, but when Madelaine left Tinsel nearby to sneak the rest of the way on foot, praying toGod that the horse would be there when she returned, she got close enough to at least hear the men’s voices. It was too dark to identify them clearly, since they were obviously trying to remain hidden themselves—from whatever that lit up place was, beyond the trees, even further into the woods.
Madelaine could clearly hear Luke’s and Caleb’s voices, even though they were barely a whisper. There was James, who she remembered from the first day at Luke’s house, and several other men she didn’t recognize. She sat there for quite a while, but she soon realized that not much was happening. The men had hunkered down in their spots and didn’t move. They didn’t speak, and they didn’t do anything other than watch the lit-up place beyond.
Feeling guilty for leaving the children alone in their room, Madelaine decided to give up her quest and return to Timothy’s house. She needed to be extra quiet as she retreated from her hiding spot behind the men and also try not to make any noise getting back to Tinsel, who was still there after all. Madelaine walked a fair distance before she mounted her mare, which wasn’t easy without the use of stirrups, but she managed.
The night was too quiet, too unmoving, too stagnant, and too cold, and Madelaine had to admit that riding back all alone in the middle of the night in the dark was the scariest thing she’d ever done. If she ever got the chance to yell at Luke for making her come out here, she’d immediately take it.
***
Luke, Caleb, James, and the others had been laying in the snow, hiding and watching for over an hour, patiently waiting for something interesting to happen. Up until now, everything was as it had been before—a bunch of drunken men around a huge firepit up front, walking in and out of the house without a clear pattern, some eating something they’d roasted in the pit, others talking overly loudly about nothing but meaningless escapades.
It might have seemed pointless, but that wasn’t the case. All the men hiding and watching were scouting out the number of men there, listening to their conversations, trying to pick up something that might be useful information later on.
Another very important fact were the horses, which these derelicts kept in too-tiny corrals around the back of the house. When Luke had ventured there a short while ago, he had seen his own horses—including Chester, who looked sad and miserable among all the others. It immediately confirmed that Luke’s suspicions about this gang were correct—they were linked to the recent attacks.
Luke only wondered if these gangsters would be brazen enough to try and sell these new horses at the auction in two days—without any proper documentation, and the former horse owners probably being around, looking for their animals. Then again, this particular group didn’t seem to care much about anything, and that could be a possibility.
“Phineas! Get your ass over here, would you!?” someone yelled from over by the firepit.
Luke and Caleb immediately exchanged eye contact.
“Yes, Boss! I’m coming! I’m coming!” Phineas said as he hurried to a man Luke hadn’t seen before—not here and not at the fairgrounds.
