A Heart's Blessing - Linda Ford Page 0,49
We’ll never catch them.”
“We’re certainly going to try.”
They trotted down the narrow path until they reached an open area and stopped to examine tracks.
“That way.” Ryder pointed toward the nearby grove of trees. They raced across the grassy field.
A horse whinnied, and they stopped. She had a vise-like grip on his hand. “They’re that close?” she whispered.
Ryder drew her into the shadows, and she strained to listen in the direction the sound had come from. She heard another nicker, as if a horse was calling to them.
“Stay here,” Ryder whispered in her ear.
She nodded and stepped back into deeper shadows as he crept forward. She pressed her fingers to her mouth, hardly daring to breathe.
The horse whinnied again. Branches cracked. Leaves rustled. Then nothing until the sounds came again, coming closer.
Her pulse thundered in her ears as she pressed deeper into the trees, praying for safety for herself and Ryder and especially for the children. Please, God, help us find and rescue them before Alonzo gets his hands on them.
“Delcie.” It was Ryder’s soft voice. “You’ll never guess what I found.”
She hurried to him. “The children? But how?”
“Sorry, not the children, but they left the preacher’s horse. Now we can hope to catch up to them.”
“It will soon be dark.” The lengthening shadows proclaimed the passage of time.
“I know. So let’s not waste a moment.” He swung to the saddle and pulled her up behind him.
She clung to his waist as they raced across the grass. “How do you know where to go?”
“The slanting rays show the imprints of the horses’ hooves.”
She leaned around him to see that it was true. “Thanks be to God. For so many things.”
“Amen to that.”
They approached some trees and Ryder slowed the horse.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
“Go carefully. I’ll walk.” He dropped to the ground.
Without him to cling to, she felt vulnerable and alone. “I’ll walk too.”
He helped her down. “We’ll leave the horse here.” He tethered the animal to a small tree and then examined the ground. “This way.” He took her hand and they stepped into the trees.
The trail was narrow and covered with soft leaves that rustled underfoot, forcing them to move slowly.
In a few minutes, Ryder stopped and pressed a finger to his lips to indicate she should be quiet. Not that she needed to be told. Her heart banged in the silence. Could anyone hear it?
Then she heard what had stopped Ryder. Voices she recognized as Sam and Emmet. Now what? How were they to overcome the men? One with a knife—the blade much longer than Ryder’s pocket knife—the other with a gun. And the children at risk.
Ryder must have had the same questions, because he didn’t move but stared past her as if seeking answers.
She squeezed his hand, bringing his attention back to her.
A horse nickered again. The animal was to her left.
“Make yer horse be quiet,” Sam ordered Emmet.
“Aw, he ain’t hurtin’ nothin’.” But Emmet spoke to the horse. Then he said, “’Sides, no one ken find us.”
“Don’t hurt none to be careful.”
Ryder leaned close so his mouth was almost at her ear. “Let me have a look at where the children are, then I have a plan.”
She nodded.
He eased away. She breathed slowly lest she make a sound.
A moment later he returned and again pressed his mouth to her ear. “The children are near the horses. If we can get to them without alerting the men to our presence, we can set the horses free, making sure they go in different directions so both men will chase after them. When they do, we’ll get the children and run back to our horse.”
She saw flaws in his plan, but she didn’t have a better idea, so she nodded.
They inched closer to the horses. She could now see the animals. Sally and Kent were half a dozen steps away, and the men were at the far side of the clearing sitting on the ground, with a saddlebag between them. One man held a biscuit. The other a bottle. Maybe they’d had enough from the bottle that their senses were dulled.
Ryder pointed for her to go to one horse while he went to the other. The animals were tied to trees that provided cover for her and Ryder. The horses faced different directions, which made their plan easier to carry out.
Following his lead, she untied the rope holding the horse and, at his signal, slapped the horse’s rump. Both horses bolted across the clearing and crashed through