“How is business this morning?” Merrick asked.
“Busy.” Wiley dusted his gloved hands together after setting an empty crate on the ground near several others. “I’d ask you the same but it doesn’t look as though you’d know yet.” He gave Merrick a good-natured grin.
“Leave the man alone. He’s lucky if he ate breakfast this morning, much less got any sleep.” Carlisle appeared with another couple of stacked crates, which he set down quickly.
“If he’s anything like you, he’ll be curled up in the back, fast asleep, by noon,” Wiley said.
Carlisle shrugged. “Not proud of it but not regretting it either. Best sleep I’ve had in months.”
Merrick doubted the forge would be nearly as comfortable as a pile of straw in the livery. “Little chance of that happening, I’m afraid. I’ve too much to do.” He felt perpetually behind in work these days.
“Roman would agree, but he’s got me shouldering the work instead,” Wiley said.
Carlisle ran the back of his arm across his forehead. “You joke now, but it’ll be your turn soon.”
Merrick raised his eyebrows at this news.
Wiley confirmed it with a grin. “It’s true. I’ll be the one napping instead of working come fall.”
“Congratulations,” Merrick said as he clapped Wiley on the shoulder.
Fred, who helped at the livery, drove up with a wagon, and Merrick helped the men load in the crates they’d carried out.
By then, it was high time he got himself to work. He consulted the list of orders he’d needed to create the day before when he realized how far behind he was. But before he could begin, more customers arrived. Merrick dutifully added their orders to his list, wondering when he might ever catch up.
He worked through the noon meal, ignoring his stomach. Supper would be here soon enough, and he’d feel better if he settled into bed that night knowing he’d put in a full day of work.
The fire seemed to burn especially hot that day. As he worked, he imagined little Davy coming to help him as he got older. Perhaps Eleanor’s nephew, Roger, would want toapprentice with him in a few years. He imagined the two boys working side by side, and he’d never felt prouder in his life.
The afternoon light had grown longer, and Merrick decided that by the time he finished the horseshoe he was working on, it would be time to close up for the evening. He’d just turned back around to the forge when a voice called his name.
“Eleanor?” He set the tongs down to find her in the doorway. Her hair fell from its pins, and her face was frantic. And one very important thing was missing from her arms—Davy.
“What is it?” he asked. “Where is the baby?”
“That’s just it.” She worried her hands together. “I can’t find him.”
Chapter Twenty-one
ELEANOR HAD BARELYfinished telling Merrick before he was out the door and running to the house. She followed, knowing he’d find nothing there. She’d searched the place from corner to corner, looking everywhere even as she knew a tiny baby couldn’t have lifted himself from his cradle and gone anywhere on his own.
