Chapter Sixteen
Neil stared at his reflection in the mirror, water dripping from his face and beard, which was in dire need of some trimming.
It was still very early in the morning, but he had gotten up as soon as the first light had crept into his room.
After that conversation the day before, he hadn’t slept so great last night.
Things on the ranch had finally calmed down, and things with Poppy had improved a lot, but he had to go and ruin it again.
Poppy’s request to go to church and find a friend hadn’t been unreasonable at all, yet he had to be difficult.
Neil wasn’t blind. He had seen the way the excitement had drained out of her face the second he put a stop to it.
This was clearly important to her, so why did he have to be so negative about it all?
He knew why. He had lost his faith when he lost his parents, having to take care of his younger sister when he was still a boy himself.
There were times when they had almost starved to death and had to deal with one setback after another, so where was God then?
He had learned to rely on himself, not on some God who didn’t care about him.
However, Poppy believed in God, and he needed to respect that.
He would go and apologize to her as soon as they had a quiet moment alone. None of that needed to be talked about in front of all of his men. He picked up the scissors and started to trim his beard. Maybe if he looked the part, she would forgive him a little easier. He would at least try.
The minute he stepped into the dining room, Poppy gifted him with a quick half-smile, but that was it. She didn’t look at him at all for the entire breakfast, so his efforts to clean up went unnoticed. But that wasn’t the only thing he noticed.
Compared to other days, Poppy usually went all out and created many different dishes for breakfast, but today she had kept it as simple as possible—fried bacon, eggs, oatmeal, and corn bread.
No fruit. No pies. No extra meat. She was obviously still angry, even though she kept smiling at everyone as if nothing were wrong.
He vowed to talk to her as soon as he was done with his morning routine.
He was still concerned about some of the horses, who still struggled to eat normally.
They needed to feed them a mash, which was easier to digest, several times a day.
Regardless of how things were between him and Poppy, he needed to make sure that his livelihood was taken care of first.
Neil noticed something else. As soon as Poppy finished eating, she waited for Sophie to take her last bite, then she took both their dishes and disappeared into the kitchen, well before everyone else was done.
Shortly after, she rushed back out to collect all the empty plates, bowls, and cutlery—all without engaging in the usual conversations and banter.
Apparently, their conversation from the day before had had a much bigger impact on her than he’d anticipated.
Neil realized that he needed to learn to treat her kinder.
His mother and father would have scolded him thoroughly if they knew that he had denied his wife the opportunity to visit church.
He remembered the days when his mother had read to him and his sister from her Bible.
He also remembered how comforting that had always felt. Not anymore. Now it felt like betrayal.
He shoved the last bite of cornbread into his mouth and finished his coffee, and he left the house even before Poppy would reappear from the kitchen. He wanted to get things done quickly so he could speak to his wife and set things straight.
Unfortunately, his morning didn’t go as planned.
One of his other mares, which hadn’t been affected by the poisonous plants, decided to have twin foals the minute he entered the barn, and three men had to be there to help her pull the babies out and clean them up.
The birth of new foals were always a big deal at his ranch, and all man-power went to delivering those precious souls quickly and safely so the mother could recover easily.
Also, twins were very rare. Most of the ranch workers that hadn’t been delegated to fence-fixing duty were there to be a part of it.
By the time Neil was finally able to get back to the house, it was already lunchtime.
But he had brought two very precious foals into this world, so he was ecstatic.
He came through the back door with a huge smile on his face, and he didn’t even notice that the kitchen was barren and cold compared to other days, when pots full of delicious stew bubbled on the fire and remnants of flour and dough indicated freshly baked bread.
There was none of that today. He rushed past it straight into the dining room, where he expected to see his wife serving steaming bowls of food for the hungry men.
She wasn’t there either. Neither were the steaming bowls.
The table had been set the way it always was, and on each plate sat a paper-wrapped parcel.
Every one of those contained small loaves of bread, chunks of cheese, dried meats, and a slice of apple pie.
Most men had already taken their seats and started devouring their meals, which were plentiful and sufficient, but that wasn’t the point.
“Where’s Poppy?” Neil asked into the room. “Where’s Sophie? Where are they?”
Paul shot him a pointed look, but Neil couldn’t be sure what he meant by that.
With a grunt, Neil rushed past everybody toward Poppy’s bedroom.
He knocked gently on the door, but there was no response.
When Neil pushed it open and walked inside, the room was empty.
The Bible, which usually sat right on top of her nightstand, was gone.
Neil groaned. This wasn’t good.
He ran back into the dining room, where everybody was eating their food as if nothing were amiss.
“Have any of you seen Poppy and Sophie anywhere?” Neil called into the room, which finally fell silent.
Everybody stopped what they were doing and stared at him.
Then they all exchanged glances, some shrugged, others shook their heads, but the overall consensus was that, with everything happening in the barn, no one had been near the house to see the woman and child.
Neil was certain that Poppy had taken Sophie to visit the church. Where else could she have gone? He spun around on his heels and ran back through the kitchen and out of the house to get his horse.
While he saddled up, he experienced a whirlwind of emotions.
Worry because he didn’t know where they were, how far they’d gotten, and if they were safe.
Regret for not addressing the issue sooner, leaving Poppy to think that he didn’t care about her needs.
Astonishment because he had never thought she’d have it in her to just leave and do her own thing like that. Her courage was impressive but also reckless. She had no idea how things truly worked out here.
She may know all about life in the city—which wasn’t all that safe either if he remembered correctly from the couple of times he’d gone there—but life out here was a whole other situation.
The wildlife around here had no problem taking down humans who didn’t know how to defend themselves, let alone a child.
Then there were the people, aimless drifters, thieves, and scroungers who would see her as an easy pick if she ran into one of them.
The more Neil thought about the dire consequences Poppy could run into, the more nervous he got—and angry. He jumped onto his horse and chased the gelding out of the barn and onto the road as if his backside were on fire. If he weren’t so opposed to it, he’d pray for them right now.
Neil pushed his horse as fast as it would go, and he couldn’t remember the last time he had done something like that.
His eyes scanned the narrow road all the way to the horizon, trying to spot her.
He didn’t even know if she was on horseback or if she had taken some type of vehicle.
Knowing that she had no experience riding and that she’d taken Sophie with her, Neil hoped for the latter.
The road leading from his ranch to town wasn’t one of the major routes, so it was barely used.
The barely visible ruts stemmed from the wagons and buggies his family had taken to and from, but they could be easily overlooked.
Riverton wasn’t too far away, but it was far enough that the long stretches of wild country posed a serious risk of getting lost. If someone got hurt along the way, it could take days for them to be found.
Neil kicked the flanks of the racing horse, forcing every last ounce of energy out of the animal. He needed to save his wife and her precious little sister.
The first thing he noticed was Barrel, one of the draft horses they used to pull the wagon.
The animal was as big as a mountain and as calm as a rock—nothing could shake the horse’s composure—and a huge weight lifted off Neil’s shoulders.
So Poppy had been smart enough to take the wagon. At least she'd done that.
The second thing he noticed was the wagon standing at an awkward angle, precariously tipping to one side.
The third thing he saw was that there was nobody in it. Cold sweat pearled on Neil’s forehead. Where were they? Had they been attacked? What happened here?
Then he heard a woman crying. He jumped out of his saddle before his horse came to a stop.
Poppy half sat, half laid behind the wagon, rocking Sophie back and forth, and both were crying. Poppy was clearly distraught, but her sobs didn’t just sound like crying. They sounded as if she were in pain.
“Poppy!” he called out to her. Her head spun in his direction, and the relief he saw on her face took his breath away. Then she began to cry in earnest.
“Neil! Oh, thank God you’re here!” she exclaimed in between heaving sobs.
“Sweetheart!” he said to her as he sank to his knees and pulled her and Sophie into his arms. The little girl almost climbed up on him and slung her little arms tightly around his neck. “Are you all right? What happened?”
Poppy couldn’t answer immediately, but she didn’t need to.
One glance at the wagon explained exactly what had happened here.
One of the wheels had broken off its axle, rolled down the embankment, and shattered on the nearby rocks.
Barrel was the only driving force that held up the wagon, or it may have followed and rolled down the embankment toward the small river that ran along there.
If that had happened, Poppy and Sophie could have been seriously injured. Neil didn’t even want to think about that possibility.
He inhaled sharply.
Just this morning, he had ordered one of his men to get the wagon ready to change out both the front wheels.
Some of the spokes had cracked, and they needed to be replaced.
It was normal maintenance on these heavy vehicles.
Each ride to and from town across the rugged landscape put a huge strain on all the moving parts, and Neil was adamant that they were checked regularly for this exact reason.
By the looks of it, the ranch hand had indeed gotten the wagon ready to work on it. He had strapped Barrel in front to hold the wagon in place, just like he did right now, and to move it if necessary during repairs.
Poppy didn’t know any of that.
She had probably seen the wagon and just taken it, thinking she could drive it all the way into town and back.
“I am so sorry!” she sobbed against his chest. “The wheel... I couldn’t—”
“Shh. It’s okay,” Neil said as he put his hand around the back of her head. “I know. It’s okay.” He let her cry for a while, because she seemingly needed it. He just held her there until the sobs died down.
Meanwhile, Sophie calmed down a little quicker. She just clung to him on the one side, putting her head onto his shoulder, as if she were patiently waiting for Poppy to stop crying. What a brave little girl she was. Neil kissed her on the top of her head.
“Can you stand up?” he finally asked Poppy as he gently pulled away from her, but she shook her head with a painful expression.
“I hurt my ankle,” she sobbed. “I can’t stand on it.”
“Don’t worry,” Neil reassured her. “I’m here now. I’ll get you home safe.”