CHAPTER 31
Enoch stared at the front door of the mercantile, where Mandie should appear any second. What was taking so long? Bea had stepped through that entrance at least ten minutes ago, saying his bride and her mother would be right behind her.
“They’re probably just having a moment.” Bea rested a hand on his back, that motherly touch that should reassure him.
But it didn’t. The coiling inside him only pulled tighter.
Mandie probably needed time with her mother. Time for the two of them to talk through all that had come between them. But something in his gut said this wasn’t that moment.
He sucked in a breath and straightened. “I’m going to check on them.” But as he stepped forward, his mind spun through what might hold them up. He turned back to his brothers and scanned them. “James, come with me?”
Just in case. No one had seen or heard of Clayton coming back through town, but that didn’t mean the man wasn’t lying in wait somewhere. Waiting to make his move.
And before Mandie married Enoch would surely be the moment he chose.
Now the tension in Enoch’s gut surged up to create chaos in his mind. A flurry of images and possibilities for what the man could be doing to Mandie this very minute.
He broke into a run, sprinting the last section across the street up onto the boardwalk in front of the mercantile. He forced himself to slow so he didn’t tear down the door as he burst inside.
Mrs. Holbrook jerked her head up from behind the counter, startled by their sudden entrance. “Mr. Balfour. Is everything all right?”
He heaved in air. “The ladies—Mandie and her mother. They haven’t come down to the river yet.” He fought to keep his voice level, though his pulse hammered against his collar. “Are they still upstairs?”
Mrs. Holbrook shook her head, confusion wrinkling her weathered features. “Oh no, they left through the back door maybe five minutes ago. Said they were heading straight to you.”
Five minutes. His blood turned to ice. They should have reached the river before now.
“Which way did they go?” James stepped up beside him.
“Out the back, through the alley.” Mrs. Holbrook started toward the rear of the store. “They were dressed so lovely, your bride especially. That gown with the ivory trim was just?—”
Enoch wove between the shelves to follow her, James close behind him.
She led them through the narrow hallway to a door at the rear. She pushed open the door, and they stepped onto a dirt trail that ran behind the row of buildings.
“They went this way?” Enoch scanned the buildings connected to the mercantile, a single back door to each. No sign of ivory trim or Mandie’s dark hair. No sign of anyone.
He started forward, scanning the ground and the buildings. The first door must be for the doctor’s office. The next for the?—
His gaze caught on something that stopped his breathing.
Ivory combs. Scattered in the dirt near the second building.
His chest constricted as he stooped to gather them. One was cracked, as if it had been dropped—or torn loose in a struggle.
“James.” His voice came out rough as gravel. He held up the combs, and his brother’s face went ashen.
“They were taken.” James stepped closer to the second door, pressing his ear against the weathered wood. “This is the back of the saloon.”
Enoch moved beside him, straining to listen.
At first, only silence. Then—muffled voices.
Men’s voices.
Enoch held himself perfectly still, searching for words or tones that might sound familiar.
Then it came—a suave Southern drawl that made his blood heat to fire.
