Once Upon a Mail Order Bride - Linda Broday Page 0,80
A community dance.
A community of people helping people. And now they pulled together to find two lost kids.
Twenty-Two
By nightfall, the men had returned from their search empty-handed. Jenny and Ely—assuming they were alive—would spend the night alone with no food. Probably no water either. Deep sadness enveloped Addie, and she went about her chores in a fog. Ridge and Bodie barely said a word during supper or afterward, while they hammered temporary boards over the damaged portion of the roof.
Addie kept to her thoughts, happy to have been able to do something, however small, to ease Rebel’s burden. While they’d been cleaning up and sorting household goods, Tally had told Addie the horrifying story of how she and Clay had rescued Jenny and Ely from the same horrible asylum where Tally had been imprisoned. They’d been left there by their poor excuse for a father following the death of their mother. Rebel had taken them in, then Travis had adopted them. Now this. What more could happen to that family?
Lying in bed later, Addie snuggled next to Ridge, her head on his chest, and listened to his strong heartbeat. Gratitude welled inside her again that they’d been spared.
Ridge idly ran a hand down the arm she’d thrown across his stomach. “I wish I knew where to look next for those kids. Rebel and Travis are about to go out of their minds.”
“We would too if they were ours,” she answered.
“Do you want kids, Addie? We’ve never discussed it.”
“Yes, I would. I’d love to feel a child of yours growing inside me.” She raised her head and met his gaze. “What do you want?”
“The same. I think four is a good number—two boys and two girls. But I can’t let myself consider it while I have these charges hanging over me. I don’t want to bring a child into this world of danger. Riders could come and haul me out of here any day.”
The possibility squeezed her heart as though an iron fist had reached into her chest. “You’re safe here with Clay, Jack, and the others to help keep watch.”
He ran light fingers across her face, his voice soft. “I’m not safe anywhere. Eventually I’ll face another posse or bounty hunter. Or Tom Calder. He’ll never give up on his desire for vengeance.”
“Maybe he’s dead by now.”
“I doubt that. Hate like that keeps a man living. No, he’ll come one day.”
“Why aren’t you fighting mad? You should be angry.”
“I clung to anger and bitterness for a long time before I realized it accomplished nothing.” He sighed. “I’ve accepted my fate. Now it’s time for you to do it too.”
How? She refused to consider the possibility of his capture. “No, Ridge. I’ll never fold my hands in defeat. As long as I have breath, I have hope.”
“My way eases the knots in my belly.” He pulled her down for a long kiss and ran his palms over her body.
Addie forgot everything except this man with a slow touch of fire and a need rising for what he could give.
* * *
The morning dawned gray and dreary to match their moods, big puddles still standing from the storm the previous day. Ridge hurried to eat, then rode over to the Diamond Bessie Hotel to join the search party again. He’d left Bodie at home to do chores and repair the roof. Addie had wanted to come, but he’d talked her out of it this time.
A group of men stood silently in the light rain, their somber faces saying all he needed to know. His spurs jangled as he dismounted and strode to Travis, who was hunched over a map with Clay and Jack under the awning. “Morning all,” Ridge said quietly. “I was going to make some suggestions, but I take it you’ve beat me to a plan.”
Travis glanced up, his eyes hollow, his face gaunt. “Yeah. We have to find Jenny and Ely today. I promised Rebel I wouldn’t come back without them. It’s a promise I have to keep.”
“We’ll find them. Just keep believing.” Ridge glanced at the map and stabbed a finger at a section of inhospitable terrain that was littered with caves—Devil Back Range. “I’ll take this. That’s about the general location where the tornado lifted back into the clouds. If the storm picked them up, it may have dropped them there.”
“Exactly what I was thinking.” Clay adjusted his hat on his head. “I’ll take the area just in front of that and then help Ridge. It’ll take