just been slow to be ready.
She looked beyond the open stable door to the fading night beyond. But that was all changing. “We’re going adventuring, Flower.”
She snubbed the little horse to the hitching post and fetched her tack. Worthless flopped by the post. “Caden thinks he can just break a promise to me, but he can’t,” she told the hound. He rolled his big brown eyes at her.
Thanks to Caden’s relentless instruction, she made short work of saddling and bridling the little mare. At the time she’d wanted to curse him, but now, when time was critical, she appreciated every tedious lesson. She couldn’t afford to let Caden get too far ahead of her. She took the IOU out of her pocket and stuck it on a nail jutting out of the post. Stealing a horse was a hanging offense. She wanted to be sure the Hell’s Eight knew she was only borrowing Flower. Over the IOU she put the note she’d written to Tia and Bella. It was short and to the point. A thank-you and a simple I’ve decided to live my life. As an afterthought she’d added, Please, don’t worry. She hoped she’d spelled everything right.
It was a novel thought that someone would worry about her. She smiled. Taking control of her life was working. She now had friends.
Looping the leash around Worthless’s neck, she tied the other end around the saddle horn. His silent tracking was going to work for her. The last thing she needed was for Caden to know she was following until they were too far out for him to send her back.
She took one last look around. Here she was safe. Beyond the door, her life waited. For a minute she hesitated. Worthless whined and stood. She nodded. “You’re right. It’s time to go.”
She swung up into the saddle, her skirt settling around the pants Caden had purchased for her when he’d noticed how she’d been sore after that first time riding. She hadn’t had pantaloons and she’d been too embarrassed to tell anybody. She’d fretted for days he’d tell and she’d be embarrassed. So much had embarrassed her back then. Gathering up the reins, she sighed. She’d felt so lacking amid the confidence of the Hell’s Eight women. But that had been her own silliness, as Bella would put it.
Then, a few days after that first riding lesson, Caden had handed her a box and told her to open it in private. Her first thoughts had been shameful. Thinking he’d bought her scandalous womanly things, and it had been with great trepidation she’d placed the box on her bed. When she’d opened it, she’d cried. Stupid, silly tears. He’d bought her ugly man-pants to wear under her skirts. Made of soft wool and thick enough so her thighs wouldn’t chafe. She’d lost her heart to him right then, though it took her weeks to identify what that skip of a beat had meant.
She loved those damn pants. Loved that damn man. And now she was planning on loving her damn life. So much had changed around her in the past year. So much had changed within her. She’d gone from a scared child who hid in make-believe to a woman who was learning to live. It was exciting. It was energizing. It was as scary as all get-out. Patting Flower on the shoulder and smiling at the eagerly waiting Worthless, Maddie urged the mare forward. Worthless fell in beside.
“Ready or not, here we come.”
CHAPTER THREE
MADDIE’S SENSE OF adventure took a rapid downhill spiral. It wasn’t as easy as she thought it would be to follow Caden’s trail. Worthless would first pick up and then lose the scent. And frankly, she couldn’t tell the difference. Flower didn’t always want to go where Worthless went, she couldn’t see what she was doing, and that damn breeze rustling the leaves kept whispering in her ears little words of warning. Go back. Go back. But she was tired of going back, so she plunged on, letting her mind drift so worry wouldn’t eat her alive, trusting Worth to get her where she needed to go.
Flower stumbled, tossing Maddie about in the saddle. She grabbed the horn. The mare tossed her head and took two steps back. Worthless whined at the end of the leash as he was pulled off the scent. Lifting her head, she saw immediately why the horse stopped. An overgrown, impenetrable bramble thicket was just sitting there where she needed to go. Darn! She’d have to go around.
The dog whined again, straining toward the thicket as she tugged on the leash.
“We don’t have a choice,” she snapped at the animal. She immediately regretted the harshness. It wasn’t Worth’s fault that she was confused. She just hadn’t expected everything to look so similar in the dark. She had no idea where she was. Flower tossed her head again. No doubt she wanted to be safely home in her stall. Maddie had a sense of day coming, but not much sun got through the thickness of the trees. Worth whined again, straining to the left. There was a slight hole in the thicket there, but it certainly wasn’t big enough for the horse. Wrapping the leash around her wrist, she pulled him back. She sat deeper in the saddle and looked around. In all directions, she saw trees. If she didn’t know better, she’d say the same tree just repeated itself. She didn’t even know if she could find her way home from here. She had no choice but to go forward. She’d just have to take the chance that she could find the trail again. And the discouraging thought came to her that if she and her horse couldn’t pass through here, neither could Caden, which only left one question: What exactly had the dog been following?
“You were supposed to follow Caden,” she told Worth. He looked up at her, tongue lolling, panting slightly. No doubt he was thirsty. She was, too. The mare nickered. Poor Flower was probably thirstier than them all. Maddie reached for her canteen only to discover it gone. It’d fallen off somewhere along the way. Tears burned behind her eyelids. She took another breath, closing her eyes as the panic started deep within. She was lost with no water. Going back was no more possible than going forward. Her great adventure was a disaster. She should have just stayed at Hell’s Eight.
The buzzing started at the edges of her mind. Holding her breath, she reached for her calm place, picturing in her mind the pond at her home outside of Carson City. It was so easy to summon the image this time, to imagine she felt the breeze upon her face. In the summer it was so pretty with the shade of the trees spreading out over the water and the clover sprinkling the shore like a smile. The breeze off the water felt so good on those hot summer days. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and imagined until she could feel the sun on her face, smell the damp earth, hear the soft rustle of the summer breeze through the trees, feel it caress her face and shoulders.
She did love summer days. There was something so hopeful about them that made a body feel as light as a feather. There was nothing she loved more than sitting by her pond, and if she were lucky, with a book to read. She did love to read, and Mrs. Cabel, the schoolteacher, occasionally allowed her to take a book from her library so long as she treated it with respect. She always treated those books with respect. They were her treat, her escape into another world.
But something was wrong. This time of day, the shade was always on the right side of the pond, providing a more comfortable place to sit. It’d be the perfect place for a picnic. She guided Flower to the right. The dog whined and went along. She crossed the rocky surface of the stream. The horse stumbled, jostling her. She shook her head, chuckling. She always tripped over that big stone in the middle. It was so easy to lose track of time here on the sunny side of the pond. In her mind’s eye she reached her spot, smoothed her skirts as she sat on the blanket, leaned back against the tree and just let the cares of the day fade away. She loved it here by the pond.
Pain in her calf snapped her eyes open. She grabbed at her leg. Worthless was on his hind legs, clawing at her skirts. Flower tossed her head and sidestepped. Reality slapped her in the face as she looked ahead. It was not the scene at the pond but a sheer drop-off that faced her. Thirty feet down she could see a river cutting through the ravine. The mare tossed her head and took a step back. Maddie grabbed the horn.
Dear
