Lillian reluctantly followed Abby away from the men. The woman was intimidating. She had to be nearly Mic’s height, though more slender. The hilts from several knives flashed from the top of her boots and beneath her duster.
She glanced over her shoulder at Mic, uneasy to be straying so far from him with this unknown threat. He flashed a grin at Noah as he accepted a tin cup from him. He didn’t seem the least bit worried about her with Abby, and that put her at ease. However, she kept them within sight.
“Watch your step,” Abby said.
Quickly turning her gaze forward, she looked at the ground but didn’t see anything she should avoid stepping on. She looked back at Abby who had stopped and was studying her from head to toe.
Her eyes narrowed. “Do you love my brother?”
Lillian rolled her eyes and sat on a fallen log. “I just love how everyone in this family keeps asking me that, as if I’m on trial or something. If you want to tell me I’m not good enough for him, then just come out and say it.”
Abby frowned down at her. “On trial?” Then her face cleared. “Wade? He’s giving you grief?”
“Just about everyone has insinuated something bad about me since you all decided to force me out of the stagecoach. I’m tired of having to prove myself. You’ll just have to watch what I do and decide my motives from there.” Maybe she came off sounding meaner than she intended. She released her breath and kicked at a rock. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be impolite. I don’t even know you. It’s just that everyone keeps asking me if I’m sincere when it comes to Mic. I wouldn’t have married him if I wasn’t.”
Abby touched her arm. “We’re all protective of Mic. He knows a lot about the world, but he’s quite blind when it comes to people. However, that isn’t why I asked if you loved him. I can see by looking at Mic that you are good for him, that he loves you more than his life. But unlike my brothers, I also know the rules that govern women are different. I wanted to make sure you are in love with Mic and not forced to marry him because propriety would demand that you do so.”
Lillian relaxed. “No, I wasn’t forced to marry him. I don’t think anyone wanted me to marry him, least of all Wade. But I’m not going to let anyone tell me what I can or can’t do anymore.”
“I can see why Jeremiah likes you. Be assured that Jeremiah wouldn’t have married you two if he protested your union. Although I would have liked to have been there. Jeremiah has an interesting sense of humor. And if Wade didn’t protest the marriage, then he’s fine with it now.” She sighed. “The trick with them is not to let them bother you. The more you fuss, the more colorful they get. Especially Jeremiah. However, once you earn their respect, they’ll do just about anything for you.”
Lillian stared at Abby’s face, trying to understand what Abby wanted from her. Brushing back a piece of errant hair from her face, Lillian ventured, “Did you want to tell me how to handle Mic’s brothers?”
Abby smiled. “I can see why Mic was attracted to you. You have strength and passion, even if they’ve been suppressed. Although I imagine there is more to it than that. As for handling the boys? It’s rather easy once you get used to them. And I think you’ll be a good sister once they get used to you.”
Unsure of what to say, she cleared her throat and smiled. “Thank you.”
Abby returned her smile. “Now let’s teach you about the feminine wiles that my brothers know so little about.”
Recalling the way Abby had insinuated her brothers didn’t understand feminine wiles as well as they thought they did, she turned to her in interest. “What can you teach me about them?”
“First, you have to understand men,” Abby said, taking a seat beside her on the log. “Even my brothers, to a certain degree, believe a woman is weaker than a man. It gives one an advantage over them.”
“But we are weaker. At least, I am. Wade had his arm wrapped around my throat, and I couldn’t figure a way to get out of it. I wasn’t strong enough and tears didn’t work.”
“You have to outsmart him. Which means you might have to bide your time. It means you might have to observe him, see what works and what doesn’t. Tears don’t work well on Wade after I used them once and kneed him in his man parts. I’ll claim to my dying day that it was an accident. Now tears would work on Mic every time.”
“How can you tell if tears work or not?”
“If you cry and a man’s eyes soften or there is disgust there, then it worked. If he stops watching you quite so closely or his grip loosens, then it worked.”
“I understand the softening part, but I don’t see why disgust works.”
“If he’s disgusted by your display of weakness, then he isn’t going to take advantage of you in a more personal way. His attention won’t be as focused. Because you’ve just affirmed his estimation of a woman as weak and stupid. It means he’ll forget to watch you as closely and there will be that moment when you can escape.”
That made sense. Lillian nodded. “I understand. And if I need to kick him there? Then what?” Lillian still couldn’t imagine kicking a man in such a sensitive region, but Mic seemed pretty insistent about it and if it meant doing that or being in danger, she’d just have to do it.
Abby stood. “Stand up.”
She took a deep breath and rose to her feet. “I’m still learning what to do, so I ask that you take it easy on me.”
Abby stepped closer to her, put her hands on her shoulders, and raised her knee. It came up between Lillian’s legs but never connected.
Even so, Lillian jerked, surprised by how quick the motion was. And undoubtedly, it would hurt if she did that to a man. If she’d learned nothing else from her time with Mic, she now understood how sensitive that part of a man’s body was.
She released her. “Like that. Or if you are in his embrace and can’t use your arms for leverage, just lift your knee. But it’s not something I suggest for you.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s not in you. You’d probably hesitate and he’d block it.” Abby lifted her hand to the back of her neck and pulled out what looked to be a very long hairpin, only thicker. “This is what I would suggest. It takes less strength. The best way to use it is to look into your attacker’s eyes and picture Mic. Think of him when you flirt with your enemy. The easiest way to get under a man’s guard is to be pleasant. A smile that says you are his for the taking. Then stab it deep into that tender part. He’ll let you go and you have your chance to run.”
Lillian flinched, not knowing which part of that scenario sounded worse. She couldn’t imagine trying to flirt with anyone else but Mic, and the thought of sticking a pin in that part of a man’s body made her wince. Releasing her breath, she reminded herself that she would have to do it in a hopeless situation. She hadn’t stopped to consider how lucky she’d been that Mic and his brothers hadn’t been the type of men who would have made her resort to such measures. She cleared her throat then asked, “When I run, where do I run to?”
“Anywhere you can. You’d better have an escape route ready. If you can hide, do so. But don’t let the man get his hands on you again. And remember, whatever happens to you, whatever you are forced to do or is forced upon you, Mic will come for you and he will make them pay dearly.” She squeezed Lillian’s arm. “He won’t stop loving you, ever. And you will always have family with us. We may be crass and hard to understand, but we take care of our own.”
Despite the fact that Abby added the encouragement, Lillian didn’t feel any better. If anything, the bad feeling she’d had since that morning only grew stronger. “Abby, if I have to run, shouldn’t there be a place where Mic will know where to find me?”
Her blue eyes were sad as she spoke, “If you were at your home, I would say a place special to you both. But what if you aren’t home? Then where could I tell you to go?”
“I don’t know.”
Abby removed the sheath around her neck and placed the hairpin into it, handing it to Lillian. “Mic will never be far from you and he’s the best tracker I know. He will find you wherever you are.”
Lillian stared at the thin leather sheath and turned it over in her hands. “So if I put something that is uniquely mine in here and dropped it, then it will help Mic find me?”
“What do you know of tracking?”
“Not much, if anything. I know how to hide in places like a bramble bush.”
“Good place.” Abby smiled. “Quick lesson. If Mic knows where to look, he can find you with a foot imprint, a strand of hair, a broken branch, or bent blade of grass. You leave him a trail of beads from a necklace or something similar and he’ll follow it.”
“If you two are done gossiping,” Wade shouted, “it’s time to go.”
Abby turned and shouted back. “Go jump in a sandpit!”
“Snakes aren’t in sandpits, are they?” Lillian asked Abby.
Abby shrugged. “Sometimes.”
With a wicked grin, she called out, “Jump into a large sandpit with lots of snakes.”
Abby laughed and threw her arm around Lillian’s shoulder. “And that’s how you deal with Wade.”
“It’s too bad we can’t get rid of him, but I suppose everyone has their burden to bear.”
“Wade’s not bad. He’s just going through a tough time and taking it out on everyone around him. The loss of Jane and Lloyd hit him hard. She died a few months ago and we didn’t even know that Lloyd was alive until a few weeks ago. The thought of his child in Charles’ hands...” Abby cleared her throat. “I should say that Wade’s child in Charles’ hands is very bad. The man is a monster.”
“I suspected as much when I heard what Charles was like.” And she had noticed the way Mic hesitated when she asked about how safe Lloyd was under Charles’ care. “Do you think tonight is going to go well, that we’ll get Lloyd back?”
“Between us, I’m more afraid one of them will get hurt. But that boy will be taken from that house, even if they have to tear it apart.”
It was the same kind of reassurance Mic had given her, but she didn’t really expect the same answer. Mic had wanted to protect her, to make her think it’d all work out, and despite her desire to believe him, deep down, she just couldn’t. All Abby did was voice her fears. “Thanks for telling me the truth.” She paused and forced a smile, knowing that even as she did so, it was a weak attempt to keep the mood light. “I suppose we should go.”
With a nod, Abby led her back to the camp.
***
Around midnight, Lillian’s fingers dug into the bark of the tree. Her nerves were on edge as she watched the two-story yellow house a few hundred feet away from her hiding place. Mic and Wade had just gone into the house. Not too far off, Jeremiah was waiting in the shadows outside in case he needed to intervene.
Lillian took a deep breath and swallowed the lump in her throat. Abby, Noah, and Caleb were hiding behind other trees on the property, also looking for any signs that Charles or someone else had spotted Mic or Wade. She wished she felt as confident as they seemed to be. She couldn’t help but think something was going to go wrong. It was the same feeling she had the day Albert asked to speak with her and she later found out he had arranged for her to marry Robert.
Pushing aside the memory, she scanned the house and land surrounding it. So far, everything was calm. A coyote howled in the distance and she shivered. She didn’t know if she’d ever get used to the animals that lurked out there, but right now an animal seemed like a better bet than being in that house.
A few tense seconds of silence hovered over the land before a gunshot rang from the house. Lillian started, her heartbeat coming to a temporary stop. It took her a moment to notice a handful of men pouring from the bunkhouse in various stages of dress. Snapping to action, she bolted over to Abby who had grabbed the horses’ reins.
Lillian wiped the sweat off of her hands, glancing back at the house as she ran. She didn’t see Mic, Wade or Jeremiah anywhere. She nearly tripped so she turned her attention forward.
She reached Abby and took the reins to one of the horses. Her grip tightened as she looked back at the house, hardly aware that Noah and Caleb had come up to take the other horses’ reins. They waited in silence as the men ran into the main house.
“Where are they?” Caleb muttered, his anxious tone matching the way Lillian felt.
“Spread out,” Abby said. “They could be coming from any direction.”
Lillian and the others obeyed. Lillian went toward the west side of the house, still a ways off but close enough in case someone came out. She pulled out her knife in case one of them would be Charles’ men.
“Over there,” Abby called out in a hushed voice, pointing to the side of the house closest to Lillian.
Lillian’s gaze went to the west end of the house where Wade emerged, holding a boy in his arms. Lloyd. They got him!
Excited, she almost missed the woman who was running with him. Lillian’s grip on the reins tightened as she waved for him to come to her.
Wade stumbled within a few feet of her and fell to his knees, his hold on Lloyd loosening. The woman grabbed the child in her arms and pulled at Wade’s arm, trying to get him to his feet. He rose slightly, faltered, and fell down again.
Lillian rushed over to them, worry gnawing in her belly. What was wrong with him? He struggled to rise again and Lillian finally noticed the dark stain spreading across the waist of his shirt.
“What happened?” she asked, sliding her arm under Wade’s shoulder to help him up.
“He was shot,” the woman answered, her voice rising in hysteria.
Abby joined them a second later. “Help me get him on the horse, Lillian.”
The woman backed away, still holding the boy in her arms, and rocking slightly. Her terrified eyes kept darting toward the house. Lillian helped Abby lift Wade to his feet. Groaning in pain, he grabbed the saddle horn and pulled himself into the saddle while they pushed him the rest of the way up.
“Is he going to be alright?” Lillian asked as she rushed to his other side to secure his foot in the stirrup while Abby took care of the other foot.
“He’ll be fine if we get him out of here right away.” Abby turned to the woman. “Who are you?”
“Lloyd’s nurse. Charles has me take care of the boy. They came for him in the nursery, and the boy called him ‘Papa’.” She pointed to Wade. “I was with Lloyd and they promised to take me with them. Him and the other man. We were almost out of the house when Charles found us. He tried to kill Lloyd and me, and his pa stepped in front us. The other man went for Charles and we escaped.”
It took Lillian a moment to realize the other man she referred to was Mic. “What happened to the other man?”
“I don’t know. He told us to run and we did. There was another man, a-a giant. Lloyd’s pa told him Mic was still in the house.”
Lillian looked at the house, wondering where Mic was and praying he’d get out before something else bad happened.
Abby handed Lloyd to Lillian then turned to the woman. “Get on the horse with Wade. You head southwest as fast as you can go. The others will find you.” She helped the woman mount and slapped the horse’s rump. The horse took off at a gallop. Abby took Lillian by the arm and led her over to a tree where she’d tied her horse. “We have to go. Jeremiah will take care of Mic. We need to take care of Lloyd.” She untied the reins and mounted the horse then reached for Lloyd.
Lillian handed Lloyd to her, her gaze going back to the house where kerosene lamps were lighting the interior. A few men wandered around outside, lanterns in hand as they scouted the area. She swallowed the lump in her throat. She didn’t want to leave Mic, not when she didn’t know what had happened to him. She didn’t even want to leave Jeremiah behind. But what choice did she have? She didn’t even see Caleb or Noah anywhere.
“Come on,” Abby told Lillian, hand extended to her. “Someone’s coming!”
Lillian reached up when someone grabbed her wrist. She turned. She gasped, frozen. It couldn’t be!
“Why, Prudence Van Horn. It certainly is a pleasure meeting you here,” Robert said, his tone smooth, a smile on his face, a spark of anger in his eyes.
Lillian blinked then gulped. Her mind ran through a list of things she could do. She could fight him, but that would only alert the men to Lloyd, and they didn’t come all this way to let an innocent boy suffer. Decision made, she let the tears fill her eyes. “Oh, thank God you’re here. I’ve made such a big mistake. I never should have left Virginia.”
He glanced at Abby.
“The bandits kidnapped me and kept me prisoner. But you’re here now and everything will finally be alright.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and cried. Standing on her tiptoes she saw Abby’s conflicted expression and motioned for her to leave while he was distracted.
Understanding and fear in her face, Abby nodded and kicked the horse’s sides. In keeping with her disguise, she growled, “Good riddance,” in a pitch low enough to be mistaken for a man. “You were nothing but trouble anyway.”
Robert pulled Lillian away and grimaced. “For heaven’s sakes, get a hold of yourself, Prudence. You know I can’t stand it when a lady cries.”
“I’m sorry,” she replied and did her best to wipe the tears away despite having Wade’s blood on her hands. “It was horrible. The things they did to me, what they put me through.”
“That’s what you get for running off.”
She sniffled and lowered her gaze, bile rising in her throat at the words she spoke. “You’re right. What I did was wrong. I…I was just so scared of being married.”
“So you came out here as a mail-order bride?”
“A bride?” She dared a peek at the house, still not seeing Mic or the others as Charles’ men searched the property. “No, I was told I’d be a governess for the child and a lady’s maid. That’s what Mister Gray said. He said another woman had already written to him about being a wife and that she was accustomed to the finer things in life and desired a lady to care for her and his child. Or at least,” she wiped the blood off her hands as best as she could, “that’s what I thought. I’m so confused.”
He groaned. “Nothing has changed about you. You’re just as useless as before. Very well, I’m here now to handle things. Come into the house.”
She bowed her head further, hoping her anger didn’t show in her eyes. “Yes, Robert.”
Seizing her arm in a punishing grip, he stalked toward the house, dragging her behind him. She stumbled over the uneven ground, forcing him to slow down or let her go. He opted for slowing down, glaring at her. “Where is your trunk, Prudence?”
She gulped. “I don’t know.”
The thought of jerking her arm from his grip and running crossed her mind, but there was nowhere suitable to hide and with all the men running around, she was more likely to be shot than escape. She had to bide her time and stay alert for the right moment.
Scanning the property again, she hoped for a glimpse of Mic, Jeremiah, Noah, or Caleb, and at the same time she was glad she didn’t see them anywhere. Maybe they’d gotten out of the house and were hiding somewhere. Either way, she just hoped she could fool Robert long enough to escape. Fortunately for her, tears worked on him.