She jerked up at Rosie’s call. Her sister waved her forward.
Lorelei’s heart surged as she tugged her mare into a faster walk behind her.Lord, let these be the right ones.
The tracks Rosemary had found ran slightly off the main path and fit both qualities White Horse had said to watch for. It seemed several horses and one mule had ridden through here.
White Horse moved quickly as he followed them, his long strides covering ground. Rosie stayed just behind him with little effort, her own quick steps almost a match to his.
Maybe it was Lorelei’s skirts that slowed her down. She’d not had her trousers at the fort to change into for this search and hadn’t thought to have Rosie bring them when she went home in the night to let the others know what they were doing. But she should be able to manage anything in skirts the others could in trousers or leggings.
Perhaps she should mount now, for she certainly wasn’t adding to the hunt by keeping on foot. If anything, she slowed them down.
Just as she made up her mind to do so, White Horse turned and motioned to the horses. “Ride now.”
Once in their saddles, they moved faster. A faster walk, anyway.
White Horse seemed certain of the path, so she focused her attention on the terrain around them. They would need to be able to return the same route—with Tanner and the calf and the rifles, Lord willing. And maybe even the mule, if they could manage it, though its ownership was questionable at this point.
At first, they took the same route they’d traveled when the three of them went in search of the cave Adams told them about. But after riding about an hour, their path shifted farther north. Still westward bound, but at least one, maybe two mountains over from the valley with the tiny stream.
The sun had burned away the morning mist and dried the dew from the grass, though much of the mountain slope they traveled now was littered with small rocks, and the horses even trekked across solid stone at times. How White Horse could continue tracking in this terrain showed the depth of his skill.
She reached for the leather pouch containing her drinking water and lifted it for a sip—not too much, for she could already feel the call of nature pressing in her middle. Surely White Horse would pause to let the horses rest. They’d brought enough food for two days, but it was mostly smoked meat and a few biscuits that could be eaten while they rode.
But as they descended the slope and began to travel up and around the next mountain, White Horse never stopped them, only pushed harder.
The pressure within her pressed stronger too. Maybe she shouldn’t have taken so many sips of water, but the sun and her worries had made her mouth impossibly dry.
This section of the mountain had no trees to hide behind, and all the rocks came up no higher than her ankles. But she could go no farther without a private moment.
“Rosie.” She tried to keep her voice quiet enough to reach only her sister, but both turned to look at her, though neither slowed their horses.
She motioned vaguely to the area around them. “I need to stop and, um, answer nature’s call. You two keep riding and I’ll catch up.”
Rosie glanced at White Horse then back to Lorelei, her expression uncertain. “Are you sure? We can wait.”
Lorelei shook her head. The last thing she wanted was White Horse there as she took care of private matters.
Rosie seemed to understand, for she faced forward and nudged her horse as she waved White Horse onward. “Catch up with us as soon as you can.”
Lorelei halted her mare and dismounted, her inner need growing stronger by the second as she waited for the two to ride out of sight around the curve of the mountain.
When at last she was alone, it didn’t take long to take care of concerns. She breathed a long sigh of relief as she moved back to her horse and patted the mare’s shoulder. “How are you, girl? I’ll bet you’d like some water too.” They hadn’t crossed a creek yet that morning, but they’d find one soon. Small rivers and streams ran in nearly every valley among these mountains.
After remounting, she straightened her skirts and started in the direction Rosie and White Horse had gone. She’d likely see them as soon as she rounded the bend in the slope.
She pushed her mare into the fastest trot they could manage over the uneven, rocky terrain, but as they moved around the mountainside, the sight before her wasnother sister and White Horse. A forest of low pines covered the bottom of this incline and a good way up the next, concealing her companions. She could have just waited until this section to take care of her personal need. But at least now she felt better.
Except for the pressing worry about Tanner and the calf.
How much faster were the thieves traveling than she, Rosie, and White Horse? Did they have Tanner as a hostage, or was he following the bandits too? White Horse hadn’t been certain from the tracks.
When she reached the edge of the tree line, the rocky ground turned to needle-covered soil. The path Rosie and White Horse took was easy enough to find, and even a novice tracker like her could tell these prints were very recent. She could call out for her sister, but better to follow their trail and keep quiet. If the thieves were nearby, the last thing she wanted was to alert them of their presence.
The tracks wound through the pines, moving down the mountain, then tracking along the base of the next. At times, the prints of the two animals split apart as they maneuvered the trees, but they always came back together. One horse seemed to take more steps than the other, for there were more hoof tracks on that one’s path when the two separated. Perhaps that was White Horse’s stallion? His slightly shorter height might mean he had to move his legs more often to account for the speed White Horse pushed him to.
As much as she could, she kept her mare at a trot unless she lost sight of the tracks. Shouldn’t she have caught up with them by now? Maybe she should call out to make sure she was on the right path.
She had to be. Even the pine needles the horses kicked up still showed wet on their undersides. These tracks had been made that morning. They had to be from Rosie’s and White Horse’s mounts.
