Chapter 28
Jonas saw Percy before the boy reached the pasture gate.
He was coming hard across the open ground on horseback, bent low over the animal's neck in a way that immediately set Jonas on edge.
Percy was a capable rider, especially for a boy who had learned more from necessity than instruction, but there was nothing controlled about the way he approached now.
The horse's dark coat was wet with sweat despite the cold, its breath blowing white in the afternoon air, and Percy was hauling on the reins before he had fully cleared the gate.
Jonas dropped the length of wire he had been repairing and started toward him.
“Percy?”
The boy swung one leg over the saddle and nearly fell when his boots struck the frozen ground. Jonas caught him by the upper arm before his knees gave way.
“She's gone.” Percy seized the front of Jonas's coat with both hands. His face was white beneath the dirt streaked across it, and one side of his hair had dried blood matted near the temple. “Silas took her.”
Every other thought left Jonas's mind.
“What happened?”
“Martha. He took Martha.”
“I heard you.” Jonas forced his voice lower even as his pulse began hammering. “Look at me, Percy.”
The boy's eyes lifted to his.
“When?”
“I don't know. A couple hours. Maybe.” Percy's breathing came too fast, each word breaking around it. “I couldn't get loose.”
Jonas looked down properly then.
A raw red band circled one of Percy's wrists.
Cold settled into Jonas's stomach.
“What did he do to you?”
Percy glanced toward the ranch house as though only now realizing how far he had come. “I saw him.”
“Silas?”
Percy nodded rapidly. “At the inn. I was coming in from the stable, and I saw him upstairs. He was dragging her.”
“Dragging Martha?”
“She wasn't awake.”
Jonas went perfectly still.
Behind him, one of the cattle shifted against the fence, and somewhere farther out a crow called across the pasture. The ordinary sounds of the ranch seemed suddenly distant.
“Tell me exactly what you saw.”
Percy swallowed. His hands had begun shaking badly enough that Jonas could see it through the sleeves of his coat.
“I came through the back because I needed to ask Martha about the bay mare. I heard something upstairs. Like something hit the floor.” He wiped his nose against his sleeve without seeming to notice.
“I went up, and Silas was coming out of one of the rooms with Martha. He had her under the arms. Her feet were dragging.”
Jonas's jaw clenched until it hurt.
“Did you see blood?”
“I don't know. I saw some on the floor. Maybe on her hair.” Percy's face crumpled for an instant before he fought it back under control. “I yelled at him.”
Of course he did.
“What did Silas do?”
“He dropped her.”
Jonas felt something savage move through him.
Percy hurried on. “Not hard. He put her down and came at me. I tried to run, but he caught me before I got to the stairs. I kicked him.”
Under other circumstances, Jonas would have taken a moment to be proud of the boy. But there was no time, and no space in his head for anything but fixing this and getting to Martha.
“Good,” Jonas said.
“He hit me.”
Jonas's gaze went immediately to the dried blood at Percy's temple.
“With what?”
“His hand, I think. I don't know.” Percy touched the side of his head gingerly. “Then he took me into another room and tied my hands. He put a rag in my mouth and tied that too.”
“What did he say?”
Percy's gaze dropped.
Jonas crouched so they were nearer eye level. “Percy.”
“He said if I made trouble, he'd come back for me.”
The boy tried to say it as though it did not matter. The tremor in his voice betrayed him.
Jonas put a hand against the back of Percy's neck. “You did exactly right coming here.”
“I should've stopped him.”
“No.”
“I should've—”
“You're twelve years old.” Jonas tightened his grip enough to make Percy look at him. “You were tied up by a grown man. You got yourself free, found a horse, and rode here. That's more than most men would've managed.”
Percy's mouth trembled. “But he has her.”
“I know.”
“I think he took her toward the woods. I got to the window after I got one hand loose. I saw a horse. Maybe two. He had her over one of them.”
Jonas stood.
His mind had already begun sorting through the information he had.
Silas had perhaps two hours. There had been no fresh snow since the day before but patches remained beneath the trees, and the thawing ground would take tracks well in places.
If Silas had taken Martha unconscious on horseback, he would not have moved quickly at first.
Jonas could find them.
The certainty brought no comfort, only a cold fear.
“Come with me.”
He led Percy toward the house, keeping one hand at the boy's back. The ranch yard came alive before they reached it. Reuben stepped out of the barn carrying a bridle over one shoulder, and Tobias emerged behind him with a feed sack in his arms.
Reuben took one look at Percy and dropped the bridle.
“What happened?”
“Silas took Martha,” Jonas said.
Both brothers stopped.
Tobias set the sack down carefully. “When?”
“Couple hours ago. Percy's been tied up since.”
Reuben's expression hardened. “Where?”
“Toward the woods. Percy saw him leaving.”
“I saw which way,” Percy said quickly. “I can show you.”
Jonas shook his head. “You're staying here.”
“No.”
The force of the answer surprised all three men.
Percy stepped away from Jonas. “I know where he went.”
“You know the direction. That's enough.”
“If it were me, Martha would stop at nothing to get to me.”
The boy wasn’t wrong.
Percy's chin quivered, but his eyes remained fixed on Jonas. “If it was me, she'd come.”
Jonas knew that was true.
He also knew Martha would skin him alive if he took Percy toward armed men.
“And that's exactly why you're not coming,” Jonas said. “Martha already has enough to worry about without wondering whether you're about to get yourself shot.”
Percy opened his mouth.
“Listen to me.” Jonas lowered his voice. “I need Sheriff Crane. I need someone I trust to get to him quickly and tell him exactly what happened.”
The boy's expression changed.
Jonas saw the moment he understood this was not an attempt to get rid of him.
“You want me to go back?”
“To town. Straight to Crane.”
Percy swallowed and nodded.
“Tell him Silas Mercer took Martha by force. Show him your wrists as proof. Tell him you saw it happen. Tell him Silas struck you, tied you, and threatened you. Tell him we followed the trail north from the inn toward the woods.”
“What if you go somewhere else?”
“Then Crane tracks us. We’ll leave plenty of trail for him to follow.”
Percy glanced at the raw skin around his wrists. “I can do that.”
“I know you can.”
Tobias had already moved toward the barn. “I'll saddle fresh horses.”
Reuben followed him. “How many?”
“Three.”
Percy looked at Jonas again. “Bring her back.”
Jonas held the boy's gaze.
“I will.”
Within minutes the ranch yard filled with the sharp sounds of preparation: saddle leather pulled tight, buckles striking metal, horses shifting impatiently beneath hurried hands.
Tobias returned from the house with Jonas's rifle and his own, along with ammunition wrapped in a worn leather pouch. Reuben strapped a revolver to his hip.
Jonas checked Percy's horse before allowing him to mount again. The animal was tired but sound.
“Don't run him the whole way,” Jonas said. “He'll get you there.”
Percy gathered the reins.
Then he hesitated.
“She wasn't moving, Jonas.”
Jonas's hand stopped against the horse's shoulder.
“She was breathing,” Percy added quickly. “I could tell when he put her on the horse.”
Jonas nodded once. “Go.”
Percy rode.
Jonas watched until the boy cleared the yard, then turned to his brothers.
Tobias’s face was grim. “You want to tell us why Silas Mercer is dragging Martha into the woods?”
Jonas met Reuben’s gaze.
Reuben knew enough from last night to understand that whatever Silas wanted might have roots Jonas did not yet understand.
“I don't know,” Jonas said. “But I intend to find out.”
They rode for Willow Crossing at a punishing pace.
The afternoon had begun turning colder. Wind came down from the higher ground and flattened the dry grass in waves, carrying the smell of damp earth and distant wood smoke. Jonas kept his body low against the horse's movement and tried not to think about Percy seeing Martha unconscious.
He failed.
Every few minutes the image returned. Though he hadn’t been there to see it, he couldn’t stop the vivid image in his head; just as Percy had described it.
Her feet dragging.
Blood in her hair.
Silas's hands on her.
Jonas had spent the night telling himself he needed time. By morning, nothing had changed. He still loved Martha. He was still furious with her. He still did not know whether the trust between them could be repaired.
Now none of that mattered in the immediate way it had hours ago.
Whatever Martha had done in her past, Silas had taken her against her will.
Jonas did not have to forgive her to know she needed him.
He did not have to resolve the past before refusing to let Silas decide her future.
They reached the outskirts of Willow Crossing with their horses lathered. Jonas expected to go directly to the inn, but he saw a cluster of people in the road before they reached it. Word had already begun to spread.
Eliza stood at the center of them without a coat despite the cold.
She ran toward Jonas before he had fully dismounted.
“Percy just came through on a wild tear, wouldn’t stop to say hardly anything as he rode past me.”
“He's going for Crane.”
“I know. He shouted at me that he’d found you and was going to Crane.
” Eliza's face was pale, her eyes swollen as though she had been crying.
“Martha went upstairs to clean blood from a guest's room.
When she didn't come back, I went looking. The room was empty except for the bucket and...” Her voice caught. “There was more blood near the bed.”
Jonas's stomach turned.
“Not much,” Eliza added worriedly. “I don't think it was much.”
“Where's Silas's horse?”
“Gone.”