Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Sheila looked around her for some way to escape. The cabin windows were too small to climb through, but that hardly mattered. Their hands and feet were bound, and they were tied to each other, back to back. Somehow, she needed to free herself and Paddy of their bonds first.
The numbness was gone from the swollen left side of her face, and as she craned her neck, her cheek and the corner of her mouth stung. Her lips felt puffy.
That bastard Elijah Starr struck her.
The pain itself didn't bother her nearly as much as the insult.
No one had ever struck her before. Not in New York. Not in Elkhorn. And certainly not in front of a child she was responsible for protecting. The humiliation burned almost as fiercely as the bruise.
Fiery anger and waves of frustration continued to race through her veins.
Standing there in front of the cabin, even before they grabbed Paddy, she’d realized she couldn’t shoot this horror of a man. There was no point in it. She and the boy had no chance of escaping the other seven who’d have been left. They were trapped.
The more she thought about it, the angrier Sheila became with herself for the way she’d dealt with them. She’d gone about it all wrong from the very start. She was outnumbered and they had more weapons.
Maybe she should have greeted the blackguards and welcomed them like guests. Perhaps she should have pretended to be oblivious to the danger they presented. Rather than confronting them, she could have stalled and bought herself enough time for help to arrive.
There was no use in doubting herself. Elijah Starr would not have been fooled. And even if Gabe had run for Elkhorn the moment she sent him into the trees, no help would have arrived for a couple of hours, at least.
And now she knew they’d had other plans in place.
“I let you down, miss,” Paddy said in a small voice, breaking into her thoughts. His thin shoulders were sharp and tense against Sheila’s back.
“You did no such thing. You were brave, and I’m proud of you.”
“I shouldna run so close to them.”
“I told you to go.”
She glanced at the cabin door. Before throwing them in here, Starr’s men had carried out the table and bench and the stool. They’d left the door ajar, and she could see the corner of the table. But she could see very little of what was going on beyond that.
Still, she had no doubt they were waiting for someone. The ranch was a meeting place.
Some time ago, a few of the men had ridden out while the others remained, sitting away from the cabin. She could hear their voices, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying.
When the sound of distant gunfire reached them less than a quarter of an hour ago, the men outside had hardly stirred. She prayed Gabriel had gotten away.
“Whaddya think they’re gonna do to us?”
Nothing good, she thought. “We’ll be saved, Paddy. Gabe went for help. I’m certain the sheriff is already on the way.”
The boy was silent for a moment. “I hope they don’t do nothing to Bear.”
“They haven’t yet,” she said hopefully. Paddy had tied Caleb’s dog with a short rope, and except for an occasional growl, it appeared that Bear had settled down at the end of the porch.
“I wish Mr. Marlowe was here.”
“So do I,” she murmured.
A moment later, the pock-marked face of one of Starr’s men appeared in the doorway, and his disgusting leer was enough to turn her stomach.
“Howdy, sweetheart. Everything all right in here.”
She glared in disgust.
“Stay away from my mother,” Paddy snapped at him with his high-pitched voice. “If’n you know what’s good for you!”
She pressed her back against the youngster, hoping he understood how much she appreciated the gesture.
“That right, sonny?”
The vile creature started to come in, but the sound of approaching horses in front of the cabin stopped him. He backed out and disappeared.
“Do you think it’s Gabe with the sheriff?” Paddy asked.
“I don’t know.”
She wished it were, but he hadn’t had enough time to get to town, gather help, and return.
And if Caleb somehow had returned from Bonedale, she prayed he had the good sense to stay away until he had help.
The fact that she knew he would do no such thing was not comforting. Quite the opposite.
“Paddy, let’s try to move a little so I can see out the door.”
Working together, they inched over until Sheila had a better view of the porch and the area beyond.
She was surprised to see a pale, angry-looking Judge Patterson and his mammoth bodyguard among those riding in. What shocked her, though, was seeing Frissy riding beside Elijah Starr and talking with him. And she could see he was still wearing his gun belt and pistols beneath his open coat.
“Don’t Mr. Frederick work for the judge?” Paddy asked.
“He was working for him. But I’d say he’s found a more lucrative source of employment.”
The men dismounted, and Frissy rudely shoved the judge up onto the porch.
“Sit down,” Starr ordered from somewhere off the porch.
“I refuse to do anything you say. Who do you think you are to treat me—”
“Make him sit.”
Frissy took his former employer by the collar and slammed him onto the bench by the table.
“You’ll be hanged for this, Starr. You and your whole filthy lot. You can’t kidnap a judge—”
“Shut up,” Frissy ordered, slapping the bowler off Patterson’s head.
“Enough.”
Elijah Starr appeared for an instant as he passed into and out of Sheila’s view. He had a leather document folder in his hands. Through the narrow opening of the door, she could see the judge glowering up at him.
“Pay attention.”
“The hell I will! I’ll have you horsewhipped. I’ll feed you to the wolves personally. I’ll gut you like a trout from—”
Sheila saw Starr’s gloved hand bang down on the table, silencing the judge. “A learned man of law like you surely must know the Bible. Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Good advice for you right now.”
Patterson crossed his arms over his chest, cursing audibly.
“You don’t seem to understand,” Starr continued smoothly. “I’m going to give you a chance to walk out of here alive.”
“Ha! You bought the allegiance of dogs I mistakenly trusted. Dragged me here against my will. And now you think you’ll take me for a fool.”
“Not a fool. A rich man. And I’m going to make you even richer.”
“I’d rather die starving in the gutter than take one penny of Goulden’s filthy blood money.”
Starr laughed, but Sheila heard no mirth in the sound. “But you have no choice, Judge. You will either sign these papers, take his money, and retire to wherever your conniving heart desires—albeit, somewhere far from Elkhorn—or my directions are to kill you.”
“You can’t make me do this. Whatever these documents are, I’ll never sign them.”
“I have no qualms about killing you. You’re standing in the way of progress. This is our destiny.”
The judge scoffed. “Is that what you call it? Are you such a hypocrite that you can’t call greed by its name?”
“You understand that this is only a courtesy.”
“A bald-faced lie,” Patterson spat out. “What’s to stop you from killing me once I sign?” He shook his head. “Only a week ago, your henchman were trying to gun me down in the streets. You can burn in hell!”
“One of us will.”
Sheila wondered what had changed from then until now.
“This is no courtesy. Suddenly, you need me.” The judge stopped abruptly. A long deadly silence ensued.
Sheila could hear Paddy breathing behind her. She was afraid to move for fear of drawing the attention of those outside. But she was wondering if something had happened on the porch that she couldn’t see.
Judge Patterson whirled on the bench and pointed a finger accusingly at someone behind him. “You, Frissy! You are the Judas. And not just a traitor. A spy! When I found you in my office, that’s what you were doing. The map with the route for the rail line. The one with all the properties marked.”
“That’s right, Judge,” Starr replied, drawing Patterson’s eye back to himself. “We know that you’ve been busy securing options on all those properties. It wasn’t good enough that you controlled the area in the center of Elkhorn, you wanted it all. You planned to cut Mr. Goulden out entirely.”
“And I will, if he refuses to concede majority control to me,” Patterson sneered. “I already have investors lined up. I tell you this now, Goulden will never own me or my town or any railroad line running through it.”
“You are quite mistaken.” Starr paused. “And you know what the Bible says about the prideful.”
Sheila heard the cold note of danger in the blackguard’s voice. The judge, however, appeared to be oblivious to it.
“You know—and Goulden knows—that without my signature, he has nothing. Not one foot of track that profits him will be going anywhere near Elkhorn.”
Before he even stopped speaking, cold dread washed through Sheila as she saw a flash of a knife in Starr’s hand.
“Let me explain to you, Judge Patterson, exactly what is going to happen…”
Sheila stopped listening. However Starr was going to coerce Judge Patterson into going along with their demands—and she was certain it was about to become bloody—the situation didn’t bode well for her and Paddy. They were unwanted witnesses. They would never be allowed to live.
And if, by some miracle, the sheriff and his deputies showed up, a confrontation would result between Starr’s killers and whomever Zeke was able to roust at a moment’s notice.
The two of them would be used as hostages. She recalled how Dodger Clanton had tried to use her as a shield out beyond the Devil’s Claw. He’d been beaten, but Zeke was no Caleb.
The thought came unbidden. Caleb would never risk shooting through a hostage.
He would find another way. He always seemed to find another way.
It was infuriating, to be sure, the way the man charged headlong into danger with all the caution of a runaway freight train.
But somehow, he managed to think clearly once he got there.
She shuddered at the thought of everything that could go wrong.
Please be far away from here, she thought. And immediately hated herself for thinking it. Because if anyone could stop the nightmare unfolding outside that cabin and keeping Paddy safe, it was Caleb Marlowe.
The scream from the judge ripped through the air, and Paddy’s back pressed harder against hers.
“You stabbed me.”
“I secured your left hand to the table. Reasonable, don’t you think? The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. Pick up the pen.”
The judge’s groans and curses continued, but a sound outside the open window on the back wall of the cabin drew Sheila’s attention. A footfall. A tap?
“Someone’s outside,” Paddy whispered.
The shutter on the window had been closed, but Sheila had opened it when she brought Caleb’s shirt and cookies in earlier. That was about a hundred years ago.
The judge continued to put up a loud verbal battle against Elijah Starr, in spite of his hand being pinned to the table.
She gasped when Caleb’s face appeared in the window. The relief rushing through her at that moment was like nothing she’d ever experienced.
For one dizzy instant, everything else vanished. The judge's shouting. The threats. The fear. The bruise throbbing on her face.
Caleb was here.
Against all reason, against all common sense, he'd come.
She wanted to shake him. She wanted to kiss him. She wanted to demand what kind of fool rode alone into the middle of so many armed men.
For the first time since Starr and his men arrived, she took a full breath.
“Mr. Marlowe,” Paddy whispered louder than he should have.
She hushed him and glanced nervously at the partially open door. They were too involved in their confrontation. She turned to Caleb. The window was far too small for him to crawl through. In fact, she was certain it was too small for either her or Paddy to get out, even if they were free.
Caleb put a hand in and pointed to one of the wide boards beneath the window.
Even now, with death sitting on the other side of the cabin wall, he looked maddeningly calm.
“Root cellar,” he whispered. “Room for you both. Stay there.”
She stared at the floorboard and realized it wasn’t nailed down like the others. She looked up and nodded, twisting her body and showing him the ropes that were binding them.
Caleb reached in and carefully tossed a knife toward them. With a soft thud, it landed harmlessly next to her thigh.
Sheila and Paddy rolled until she could reach it. It took only a minute or so before she managed to cut through the first rope. After that, they were free in a moment.
With a glance at the door where the argument still raged, she crept to the floor board Caleb had indicated.
Slipping the knife blade into the seam where it joined the one next to it, she pried the board and it came up easily.
Quietly, she herded Paddy into the dark, empty space and climbed in after him.
Sheila looked up at Caleb.
“You two stay there,” he whispered. “Don’t come out ’til I come for you.”
Their eyes met for a brief moment.
The hundred things she wanted to say crowded into her throat.
Be careful.
Don't get yourself killed.
Come back to me.
But there wasn't time. Taking a deep breath, she lowered the wide board into place above them.