not stopping, Abby,” Frances said. “We’ll search all night if we have to, but we need to be smart about it.”
“We need more people,” Rachel said. She walked over to the bunkhouse and knocked on the door to roust the ranch hands and then walked back.
“Where haven’t you looked?” Clara asked.
“We’ve looked everywhere I can think of,” Frances said.
“Is it possible she fell asleep somewhere?” Clara asked.
That was a question they all pondered for a moment.
“Outside?” Abby asked.
Clara shrugged. “Maybe. It’s miserable inside. Maybe she found a cool place to lie down and fell asleep.”
While they were talking, Frances’s mind clicked through possible places Emma might be. The ranch was a big place and they’d have to wait until daylight to mount a full-scale search if she couldn’t come up with another idea. Then she hit upon something. “Emma said something this morning ’bout making a blackberry pie. Let’s check the blackberry patch down by the river.”
Abby turned to look at her mother. “You can’t pick blackberries in the dark.”
“I know, but maybe she’s hurt and can’t make it back to the house.”
Abby picked up her lantern and started walking. “Let’s go.”
“Wait, Abby. Just a moment, please.”
Abby stopped and began gnawing on her fingernail again.
Frances looked back over her shoulder and shouted instructions to the men now spilling out of the bunkhouse.
“Now we can go,” Frances said. “Everyone, spread out and form a line.”
Once everyone was situated, they began walking toward the river. They all shouted Emma’s name repeatedly and all they heard back was silence. Although the sun was long gone, the heat it created was still present and they were all sweating. And the lanterns didn’t help, their heat only adding to the misery. They walked all the way to the berry patch with no sightings of Emma.
Jesse “Stringbean” Simpson, ranch foreman, held his lantern close to the ground, looking for sign. “Everyone, take it slow and easy,” Jesse said. “We don’t want to clutter the ground up in case we find somethin’.”
Abby and the rest of the group continued shouting for Emma as Jesse worked his way into and through the brush, studying the ground.
“Found something,” Jesse shouted.
Abby rushed over. “Where is she?”
Jesse stood and handed a basket to Abby. “Found that basket and a bunch of spilt blackberries.”
“This is my basket. Where’s Emma, Jesse?” Abby shouted, on the verge of hysteria.
“Don’t know that yet, Miss Abigail.” He picked up his lantern and slowly backed away. “Ya’ll stay there for a minute while I do some lookin’.” With the lantern held low and his eyes focused on the ground Jesse stopped, walked sideways for a bit, then turned and walked west for about a hundred yards before returning. When he looked up, his face was pinched with worry.
“What is it?” Abby asked.
“Looks like four ponies rode right through here,” Jesse said.
“Shod or unshod?” Frances asked.
Jesse looked at the ground for a moment then looked up and said, “Unshod, ma’am.”
Abby let loose a wail that pierced the night as she sank to her knees.
Rachel hurried to her side and knelt down, wrapping her arms around Abby as Frances took charge, telling Jesse to gather the men and saddle up the horses, praying they weren’t too late.
Abby shook out of Rachel’s arms and lurched to her feet. “I’m goin’,” she shouted as she bulled in between Frances and Jesse. She looked Jesse in the eye and said, “Saddle my horse, please.”
“Ma’am, we’re going to have to ride hard and fast if we have any hopes of catchin’ them Injuns,” Jesse said.
Abby took a step closer to Jesse. “I can ride as good as anyone on this ranch. She’s my daughter and I’m going.”
Frances saw Jesse looking at her for help and she stepped forward, putting an arm around Abby, and, with a firm hold, steering her away. After a short distance, Frances stopped and turned to face her daughter. She reached up and gently placed her hands on either side of Abby’s face. “I know you’re hurting, but you have to let the men handle this. Jesse is right—they need to ride hard and fast and they can’t do that if they have to worry about protecting you, too.”
Tears rolled down Abby’s face, wetting her mother’s hands. “She’s needs her mother.”
“You’ve got two other children who also need their mother. You have to let the men do their jobs. When Cyrus and the others get back, they can take up the hunt, too. We’ll get her back if we have to move heaven and earth.”
Rachel stepped over to join her mother and sister. “We’re burning time and every second counts, sis. Let the men handle it.”
Abby wiped her nose with the back of her hand and offered the tiniest of nods.
Frances gently thumbed away Abby’s tears before letting her hands drop. She looked over at Jesse and the other men and said, “Saddle up. We’ll pack some provisions while you men get loaded up.”
Rachel took her sister by the hand and led Abby back to her house. Frances offered a few more instructions to the men and offered them bonus pay for their pursuit then she and Clara followed Rachel. Inside, Frances put on a pot of coffee then she and Clara began gathering supplies for the men.
A few minutes later the men, six in all with the others away, stopped by the house. Clara and Frances carried the supplies outside and the men divvied them up and stuffed them down their saddlebags. Frances stepped over, grabbed Jesse by the elbow, and steered him out of earshot. “Jesse, this is hard country and it takes hard men to get the job done.”
Jesse nodded and said, “Yes’m.”
Frances lowered her voice and said, “I have only one request.”
“What’s that, ma’am?”
“I want you to kill every one of those filthy savages who kidnapped Emma.”
Jesse looked off into the dark for a moment, then turned to look at Frances. “What if it be Comanches?”
“I don’t give a damn what they are,” Frances said.
“All of this is assumin’ we find them. Ain’t no guarantee of that,” Jesse said. “They could be thirty, forty miles away by now. We got no idea how long the girl’s been gone.”
Frances
