diversion. Susanna had been invited, too, but that was a step she wasn’t prepared to take yet.
She had adjourned to the kitchen table to write her weekly letter to Tommy, when she heard banging at the door. Her nerves practically humming, she listened. No, someone was kicking at the door. Her heart in her mouth, Susanna leaped to her feet, her mind crowded with Tommy first, as always, then Captain Reese, and now Nick.
“Yes?” she quavered, not about to open the door.
“Ma’am, it’s Sentry Number 4. There’s someone who needs you.”
Confused, she opened the door. Her coat a mess and her shoes muddy, Maddie Wilby was held tight in the arms of a sentry who juggled his gun on one shoulder.
“Maddie!” she exclaimed, taking the sobbing child from the soldier, who stepped back in obvious relief.
“I found her on the flats by the Rustic Hotel,” he said, his eyes full of concern. “I think she must have walked from Three Mile Ranch.” He touched her head. “When I called out the password challenge, she started to cry. I have a little sister back in Indiana ….” He shouldered his rifle again, nodded to them and left the porch.
His voice came out of the darkness. “Mrs. Hopkins, she told me you would help her, because you are her teacher.”
“I am, Private. Thank you,” she told him, then called after him. “Before you return to your post, could you please inform Major Randolph?” She turned her attention to the child in her arms. “Maddie, my dear, is your mother …”
Maddie nodded, clutching her tighter. “Everyone was crying. I couldn’t see her. I knew you would help me.”
“Yes, but mercy, you took a chance getting here,” Susanna said, sitting down with her, trying to calm herself so she wouldn’t show fear to a distressed child. She sat still a long moment, holding Maddie, wanting to hold her forever, since her own dear child was out of reach, perhaps never to be seen again. As her mind cleared, she knew she had to be brave. Someone else needed Maddie even more.
“My dear, I know just the place for you. Let me get my coat.” She yanked it on, knowing that if she hesitated for another moment, her resolve would fail her. There was only one place for Maddie Wilby, one refuge. She picked up the child and ran toward the footbridge, running from herself, maybe, because she wanted the child for her own. Halfway across the parade ground, she wasn’t sure if she had closed the door behind her. She hesitated and nearly turned back, but from some forgotten reservoir of courage deep inside her, she found determination.
Chapter Sixteen
Joe joined her at the footbridge, plucking Maddie from her arms. With another sob, the child wrapped her legs around him, her face in his shirt. He hadn’t bothered with his uniform jacket or overcoat. Susanna looked down. His shoes were off and he wore moccasins. He must have been relaxing in his quarters when the sentry burst in.
“Joe, she walked from Three Mile Ranch!” she said, hurrying to keep up.
“Good God.” He held the child close. “She has a guardian angel working overtime, this one.”
“Are we doing the right thing?” she whispered.
“The rightest thing anyone has ever done, my dear,” he assured her. “We’re about to cure the common heartache.”
“I want her, but I know she will be better off here,” she said simply.
“Then bless your heart, Susanna Hopkins,” he whispered. “You’re one in a million.”
While Joe soothed Maddie, Susanna knocked on the Rattigans’ door. In his shirtsleeves and socks—Susanna had never seen him so casual—Sergeant Rattigan opened the door almost immediately, Maeve at his shoulder, her eyes anxious.
The moment she saw Maddie, Maeve held out her arms. The child practically leaped into them, causing her to stagger backward until John Rattigan steadied them both. In a moment she was seated in her chair, rocking back and forth, crooning to the child.
“Thank God,” Susanna whispered, finding herself in the post surgeon’s grip now. As Maeve practiced her magic with Maddie, Susanna told the men everything she knew. “The sentry thinks she must have walked in the dark from Three Mile Ranch.” She reached out to Sergeant Rattigan and he grasped her hand like a lifeline. She took a deep breath. “Sergeant, she needs to be here with you and Maeve.”
Susanna never dreamed she would see a sergeant with tears in his eyes. “You thought right,” he told her. “We’ll keep Maddie.” He bowed his head