The day was nothing more than a silver line along the horizon, but Madelaine was already up. After the debacle with Phineas the day before, she hadn’t slept a wink, and her brain hadn’t stopped spinning with all the things she needed to do. She’d made her decision, as heartbreaking as it was. For now, she would leave the ranch to keep her siblings safe, away from Phineas, so he couldn’t force her into marriage until she could figure out a way to get it all back.
With the sky still mostly dark, she slid out of bed, quietly lit a candle, and got dressed. Wrapping a woolen shawl around her shoulders against the cold bite in the air, she went to the fireplace and put a few more logs on the dying fire before she sat back down on the edge of the bed. She pulled out her mother’s old Bible from the deep drawer in the oak dresser next to her bed and placed her hand on the cover of the well-worn, beloved book.
Having enjoyed the luxury of Sunday School and private tutors, Madelaine had always been known as the artist in her family. She loved to read and even to write her own stories and poetry, and she had done so since the early age of fourteen, when she’d begun putting her thoughts to paper. Her mother had gifted her a small leatherbound journal, which she had used to write in ever since and always kept close. Over time, she’d addedloose pages to it because she refused to give it up and change to a new one.
Nervous about whether her decision for today’s plan was the right one, she pulled her trusted old journal from the center fold of the Bible, opened it, and turned to the last page, reading the words she’d written just last night before bed. It was a reminder to stay focused, never to lose faith, and to always find strength in God, to trust in Him and His guidance for all the things she would have to face from this day forward.
All too aware of the dangers and risks of today’s plan, she needed God’s strength more than ever. To pull through, not to give up, and to do what was right for her and her siblings.
Opening her mother’s Bible, she found the verse to give her exactly that. Isaiah, 40:31—“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”
Getting up from her bed, she pulled out the saddlebags she’d hidden underneath. The day before, she’d sneaked them into her room, and last night, when she couldn’t sleep, she’d gone through her things and started to pack. She didn’t bother packing many clothes, since they would weigh too much as well as take up too much space, and she still had to think about her two younger siblings, so the bags were mostly stuffed with their much-needed things.
Most important of all, she had to make sure to take all the legal paperwork she needed to prove her ownership of the ranch. These would be her only guarantee to save her little family and the ranch. They were well hidden, neatly folded in a tightly bound stack inside a leather binder. She took the binder out and opened it to make sure that all the paperwork stating that she was the legal successor to the farm was there.
It was then that a photograph of her parents fell out. The photo had been taken years ago, before they’d moved out here, and both of them, smiling brightly at each other, looked so very happy and very much in love. Madelaine cherished this photograph so much she couldn’t bear to leave it behind, despite her promise to herself not to bring any unnecessary items. To her, this wasn’t an unnecessary item. To her, it was proof that love could conquer anything, because her parents had always loved with all their hearts.
Not wanting to waste any more time, Madelaine tucked the photograph into the space right next to her journal before putting all of the papers inside the back of the book. Then she put everything into the leather binder and wrapped it extra tightly with the leather straps to hold it together, before she put it inside a hidden pocket in her skirt.
Peeking through the curtains, Madelaine noticed that the inky blackness in the sky had turned to an ominous dark gray, and she knew that it was time to go.
As she sneaked out of her room, silently tiptoeing through the dark corridor to her sibling’s room down the hallway, Madelaine was as quiet as a mouse. She’d planned this moment with the precision of a seasoned veteran soldier and knew exactly what to do, how, and when. Within minutes, all three of them left the house unheard and unseen.
She’d wrapped Belle, who was rather tiny for her age, in a shawl and strapped her to her front. Thankfully, Belle was still so tired she fell right back to sleep. Simon was immediately wide awake, but he listened very well and didn’t make a peep. He was happy to climb onto her back, clinging to her like a little monkey, so very excited for this unexpected adventure.
Sneaking out the back door, Madelaine swiftly carried both of the children as well as the saddlebags toward the barn.
It was still dark enough outside, so they wouldn’t be seen immediately, but what Madelaine hadn’t planned for was the foot of snow that had fallen during the night. Thankfully, it was the soft, fluffy kind, so it wasn’t too hard to trudge through it with all the extra weight she needed to carry. The wind blew her footsteps right back over, which was another blessing.
All was quiet in the barn when they entered, and Simon quickly jumped off her back to go greet Tinsel.
“Hello, Tinsel!” he whispered conspiratorially. “We are going on an adventure, and you are coming with us. Isn’t thisexciting?” Madelaine smiled as she got the saddle while Simon explained to Tinsel some kind of plan he’d made up, where they would go and what they would be doing.
It took only minutes to get the horse ready. Madelaine threw the saddlebags over the mare’s backside and tied them to the saddle. Leading Tinsel outside through the large barn door, which she’d cracked open just barely wide enough to let them all through, she handed Simon the reins and went back to close the door, so it wouldn’t immediately cause suspicion.
She grabbed Simon, put him on the saddle, then climbed up behind him.
Once she had arranged her heavy skirt in such a way that she could sit comfortably with both of the little ones in front of her, safely between her arms, she moved Tinsel to quietly walk alongside the outer fence past the house.
The snow helped a lot, silencing every step as if they were walking on soft swaths of cotton.
All seemed to go as smoothly as Madelaine had hoped, but when Tinsel slipped and slightly stumbled, Belle woke up from her deep sleep just as they were walking past the back of the main house, where most of their staff lived. It was still at least fifty yards away from the building, so the initial noise wouldn’t have been a problem.
But Belle, as young as she was, didn’t like nor understand the position she was in—rather tightly wrapped up, strapped to Madelaine’s front, wedged between her and Simon, on the back of a moving horse, in the very early morning—and she promptly began to whine.
Madelaine started to panic and forced Tinsel into a faster trot to get away from the house quicker, but that created even more noise with the reins slapping against the leather of the saddle and the saddlebags bouncing against the flanks of the horse. In the stillness of the early morning, the sound echoed through the silence like gunshots.
Much to her dismay, Madelaine heard a commotion at the back of the staff quarters. Someone stepped outside, calling after them, but she didn’t wait to see who it was. She kicked Tinsel’s flanks, and the old mare jumped into a full-blown gallop down the fence line before Madelaine steered her toward the dirt road leading away from the ranch. Tinsel’s hooves kicked up the snow like a wild blizzard, highlighting their escape.
With one hand on the reins, the other holding onto Simon and Belle, who were bouncing wildly in front of her, she urged Tinsel to go as fast as she possibly could.
Muffled shouting came from the direction of the ranch, which echoed far through the valley. Whoever had seen them riding away had probably raised the alarm and woken up everybody there.
Madelaine urged Tinsel to trot toward town, which would take her a while to get there, especially since snowdrifts had piled up pretty high in places, so Tinsel had to work hard to march through them. The long distance and heavy load of having to carry all three of them, plus the full saddlebags, through the deep snow, took their toll on the horse. Madelaine worried that at this pace, Tinsel wouldn’t be able to keep up for very long.
She kept looking back over her shoulder, and when she was certain that nobody followed them, she allowed Tinsel to walk much slower.
When the sun finally creeped over the eastern mountain tops, drenching the clouds in the sky and the wintery landscape in bright red and orange, Madelaine could see the outskirts of Stevensville. She felt relieved and hopeful. She would finally be able to right all the wrongs. As long as she could find a way to get Phineas and his henchmen out of the house and away from the ranch.
