“You’re doing fine, miss. Remington’s got you squared away.”
He did indeed, Phoebe thought. In spite of his suspicions and his nagging, he had never once given up the mantel of guardian angel. He could have abandoned her and told his father that he’d tried, but his sense of honor would not allow it. Thaddeus must have depended upon Remington’s decency, his pride. It said a great deal about the son Thaddeus had raised. It said a great deal about Thaddeus.
“Why did those men take me?” She addressed the question to the group at large, but expected that Thaddeus would answer first. He did not. It was the deputy who filled the silence.
“Most likely they knew you had some connection to Mr. Frost here. Ain’t likely you were chosen because they thought your condition was, um, delicate. Remington told us about the package you was carrying. Even miscreants and commandment breakers generally have respect for a woman with child, so it beggars the imagination that they would steal you away on account of that.”
“Then therewasa ransom demand?”
“Oh, sure,” Blue said. “Two thousand dollars.”
Phoebe gaped. “That can’t be right.” She looked at Thaddeus. “You did not pay them, did you? Tell me you did not give them a single cent.” But she saw that he had. “Oh, Thaddeus. You are too generous.”
Blue Armstrong slapped his thigh and chuckled. “No one’s faulting Mr. Frost’s generosity, miss, but you have to allow that this time it was extortion that moved him to clean out the bank’s safe.”
“Two shelves,” said Bob Washburn. “Just the two shelves.”
Phoebe ignored that exchange and said to Thaddeus, “You got it back, isn’t that right? We are all heading into town because you got your money back.”
Thaddeus said, “We got you back. That’s how it works.”
Phoebe frowned deeply. “But the passengers. They lost their possessions.” As an afterthought, she added in outraged accents, “Those men took my reticule.”
Thaddeus chuckled. “We have your reticule. One pair of reading spectacles, a red enameled etui, a tortoiseshell hair comb, one pencil stub, and a notepad. Is that about right?”
“Yes,” she said quietly.
Remington said, “I guess Mr. Shoulders wasn’t moved to return your derringer.”
“So it’s true you had a gun,” Blue said. “Heard it back at the hotel from some of the passengers, but I wasn’t sure I could believe them.”
“It was just a palm pistol,” she said, feeling heat creep into her cheeks.
“A pea shooter,” said Remington.
Ben spoke up. “And you really shot one of them?”
“Ibarelyshot one of them.”
“Regular Annie Oakley,” Remington said. He wasn’t able to stop her from jabbing him with an elbow, but she was so close and his coat was so heavy he barely felt it. To give her some satisfaction for having made the gesture, he whispered for her ears alone, “Your aim is improving.”
Phoebe swallowed the bubble of laughter that tickled the back of her throat. A shadow crossed her face as a cloud crossed the moon. When her features were exposed once again to the moonlight, her expression was grave and her attention was all for Thaddeus.
“When we get to Frost Falls, I have to face passengers who don’t care overmuch that I am returned unharmed. They don’t care much at all about your two thousand dollars. What they care about are the things that were stolen from them. Money. Jewelry. Memories. Weapons.”
“No one is forgetting that,” said Thaddeus.
“Mr. Frost is right, Miss Apple,” the deputy said.
Remington said, “It’s in the sheriff’s hands.”
She fell quiet, considering, and then nodded faintly. “There’s one other thing,” she said at length.
“What’s that?” asked Thaddeus.
“Where is Fiona?”
Chapter Ten
