by Mary Alford
Mason nodded. “Stay here, Samantha.” He sat the little girl on her feet, then turned to Willa. “Help me with Erik.”
Golden Boy trotted over in a protective gesture and licked the child’s hand. Willa returned to the living room with Mason and grabbed one of Erik’s arms while Mason hoisted his partner to his feet. Erik gave a weak groan. Willa stopped midstride and stared at Mason. She prayed the man outside hadn’t heard.
“We must hurry,” she whispered.
They carried the unconscious man into the kitchen where Samantha watched them with wide, fearful eyes.
Willa quickly moved the thick rug her mamm had knit and opened the trapdoor on the floor. She lifted the lantern from the table to give light. Golden Boy led the way down the narrow steps while she and Mason managed to get Erik safely to the root cellar.
At the front door, the man rattled the handle. He was growing more impatient. There wouldn’t be much time before he tried to break in.
She started up the stairs with Golden Boy at her feet. Before she reached the top, Mason stopped her. “These men are dangerous. If they think you have anything to do with us...” He didn’t finish, but she understood the unspoken words.
“I know, but there’s no other choice.” With a final look into Mason’s worried eyes, Willa hurried up the stairs and closed the trapdoor as quietly as possible. She replaced the rug and went to the living room. The bowl and supplies used to bandage Mason and Erik’s injuries were still in the living room. Both men’s bloodied jackets were lying on the floor nearby.
“Open up. Last chance or I’m breaking down the door.”
Golden Boy growled several times, then barked his displeasure.
“I’m coming.” Willa quickly gathered the jackets and other items and shoved them into the closest cabinet before pouring the water down the sink. Spotting Samantha’s soiled clothing, she shoved them into the same cabinet.
Willa surveyed the kitchen carefully. Samantha’s cup still sat on the table. She carried it to the sink and rinsed it out. Once she was satisfied all the evidence was gone from the kitchen and living area, she grabbed the shotgun and took up the lantern. No matter what she’d face, Gott would protect her, and Golden Boy would fight to the death to save her life.
With a final glance around the living room, Willa unlocked the door and opened it. Several men stood on the porch, and all seemed surprised by her Amish appearance.
The man closest to the door stepped into her personal space. “Where are they?” he demanded in a voice that sent chills down her spine. His angry gaze bored into hers.
Golden Boy, sensing a threat from the man, barred his teeth and snarled fiercely. The man’s attention jerked to the animal. “Restrain your dog or I’ll do it for you.”
Willa grabbed Golden Boy’s collar. “He’s just protecting me.” Though she was quaking all over, Willa did her best to keep her fears to herself. “Why are you here? I don’t know who you’re talking about. It’s just me and my mother living here.”
“Don’t give me that.” The lead man shoved her aside and came in along with his men. “There are footprints everywhere outside your home. All over the porch.” He waved a hand toward the open door and stepped to within a few inches of Willa. “They’re here. Bring them out and you and your mother won’t get hurt.”
Keeping Golden Boy secured became a difficult task. The dog lunged for the man who had shoved her.
“Heel, Golden Boy,” she said when the man pointed a gun at the dog. Willa tried not to show a reaction to his threat or aggressive behavior toward her dog. “I told you, there’s no one here but me and my mother, and she isn’t well.” She lifted her chin and stood her ground when the stranger clenched his fists.
“Search the place,” he ordered without breaking eye contact with Willa.
She couldn’t believe his boldness. “Stop. You have no right to do such a thing. Who are you?”
The men ignored her entirely and responded quickly. They spread out through the small home. One man headed for her mother’s room.
“That’s not your concern. We have our orders and we’re going to follow them. You’d better not be lying to me.”
All she could think about was how terrified her mother would be when a stranger entered her room. She started past the man to be with her mother, but he grabbed her arm in a painful grip. “No, you don’t. You’re staying with me. We can’t have you trying to warn them, now can we?”
Golden Boy lunged again. It took all the strength Willa could muster to hold the animal back. She didn’t want this man to shoot her dog.
Helpless to do anything, Willa watched her mother’s bedroom door anxiously. What was happening? Why would it take so long to search Mamm’s small bedroom? Please don’t let that man hurt her.
Willa tried to pull free of the man’s painful grip, but he forced her along with him to the kitchen. Somehow, she held on to Golden Boy’s collar even as the man relentlessly dragged her against her will.
Once they were in the kitchen, he let her go and moved to the middle of the room, standing right on the rug covering the door to the root cellar. A corner of the rug was turned up. She held her breath. What would happen if he noticed it?
The man went to the sink and glanced out the window briefly, then down to the sink. Had she gotten rid of all the bloodstains? Her heart accelerated when he rested his hands on either side of it. The darkness outside the window reflected an angry scowl on his face.
He whirled toward Willa and pinned her with his glare. Willa fought against looking at the turned-up rug.
“What’s in the barn?” he snapped. She shrank back and tried to find her voice over the fear pumping through her body.
“Nothing. Our family buggies and the animals that sustain the farm. We’re Amish. We’re peaceful people and not part of whatever illegal activity you are pursuing. Please leave us alone.”
He snorted his disbelief. “Everyone is capable of violence given the opportunity. Even you, Amish lady.” He took a threatening step closer and the dog pulled against Willa’s restraint.
The man’s eyes narrowed. He kept a close watch on Golden Boy. Rage appeared to be boiling inside him, and Willa feared the situation would turn volatile at any moment.
Please, Gott, protect us all.
The other men came into the room. “There’s no one here but an old lady, and she’s sleeping,” one said. “We looked everywhere.”
The leader continued to stare Willa down with a seething look that appeared to be his normal expression. After a long terrifying moment, he blew out a sigh. “Perhaps we were wrong. Maybe they moved on. Still, you won’t mind if we search the barn in case they are hiding in there.” It wasn’t a question, and he didn’t wait for an answer. He motioned to the three men who headed out the still-open front door.
Once they’d left, the leader stepped closer to Willa. “If you know where they are, and you aren’t telling us...” He didn’t finish. The unspoken threat stood between them as the man started past her. She held her breath when he stopped suddenly after spotting the folded-up corner of the rug. Would he guess there was another room beneath the house?
He kept his attention on her face while Willa tried to hold on to a blank expression. Her heart ticked off each passing second before he kicked the rug corner over and followed his men out into the rainy darkness.
Relief rushed through Willa’s limbs. She bent over and sucked in several cleansing gulps before straightening. For the longest time, she held on to the dog’s collar and couldn’t stop shaking. The cold of the early morning rushed into the room, snapping her into action. The door remained open and unlocked. She and her mother were vulnerable. What if they decided to come back and question her again? A shiver of apprehension slipped between her shoulder blades.
With her hand still holding Golden Boy’s collar to keep her protector from charging
after them, Willa moved to the living room and stepped out the door in time to see flashlights bouncing past the barn that was off to the right side of the house. They were heading for the woods beyond it. They’d finished searching the structure and were moving on, but she didn’t believe she’d seen the last of them, and that terrified her.
Her family home would be the closest to the old mines where Mason had said they’d been and the logical place where someone hiding inside the mines might go. The porch was covered with footprints from the men as well as from Mason, Erik and Samantha. The man had mentioned seeing the prints, so would he really write her home off so easily? She wondered if they would fall back into the woods and watch her place or search the rest of the properties on this side of the mountains.
There were several Englischer ranches around. Ethan Connors’s ranch lay behind her homestead. Their neighbor was a kind man who checked in on her mamm from time to time.
Willa shivered as she thought about the anger she’d witnessed in the leader’s eyes. She didn’t want another run-in with him or his men, but she didn’t want him to harm her neighbors, either.
She hurried back inside the house and clicked the lock into place. Willa couldn’t imagine how scared her mamm must be after having a strange man enter her room, much less searching it. Despite what the man had said about her being asleep, Willa knew her mother would have been aware of someone in her room.
With Golden Boy at her side, Willa opened her mother’s door. The dog trotted inside and over to the bed where he licked Mamm’s hand.
“Did they leave?” Mamm opened her eyes.
“Jah, they are gone. Did they hurt you?”
“Nay. I pretended to be sleeping, but they still nosed around the room. Looked under the bed. They opened my drawers,” she said with outrage. “Who were they?”
Her mother’s courage made her proud. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. They came here looking for Mason and the little girl he and his partner are protecting. I hid them in the root cellar when the men arrived. I should go check on them, but I’ll be back to talk to you soon.”
Mamm lifted her shaky hands in a shooing motion. “Go. I’ll be fine.”
Willa clutched her mother’s hands and kissed her forehead. “Stay here, Golden Boy.” The animal settled in at the foot of the bed yet remained alert.
She stepped out into the hall and closed the door behind her while tamping down her anger at those dangerous men. Mason had said they were ruthless. Now she’d seen it firsthand. How could they harass a woman so ill?
In the kitchen, her attention fell on the rug. She believed it was by Gott’s own intervention that the leader hadn’t discovered the entrance to the cellar.
Willa grabbed the lantern from the kitchen table and tossed back the rug. She opened the trapdoor and started down the steps. Mason knelt beside his partner, who sat up now, fully alert. Samantha had sandwiched herself between her two protectors. The fearful look on the child’s face was a reminder of what she’d gone through. And the nightmare situation was far from over.
“Have they left the property?” Mason’s worried eyes held hers.
Willa knelt beside him. “I’m not sure. I saw their flashlights past the barn. They searched the house and barn. I think they believed me when I told them it was just me and Mamm.”
“I hope you’re right.” But Mason’s tone held doubt. He faced his partner. “Let’s get you back upstairs by the fire. You’re shaking.”
Erik rose under his own accord and managed to make it up the steps with Mason’s help. The effort quickly took its toll. When he reached the living room, Erik sank back into the rocker clutching his side. Willa brought over a blanket from the chest near the sofa and covered Erik with it while Mason added more wood to the stove.
“I have something for the pain.” She went to the kitchen and brought out the pain medicine her mother used occasionally. She handed him two pills and some water.
Erik swallowed the medicine and handed her back the water. “Thank you.” He leaned his head against the back of the chair once more.
Soon, the fire blazed warm again. Erik closed his eyes, his breathing labored. The bullet must have done a lot of damage to be able to take down a fit man like Erik. She worried if the wound was infected. If that happened, Erik could die.
Despite the heat from the fire, Willa couldn’t stop shaking, either. Not from the cold as much from the danger that had showed up at her door. And she feared that was just the jumping-off point for something much worse.
THREE
They’d managed to escape Bartelli’s men for now, but he feared it had only bought them a short reprieve. Soon, the entire area would be saturated with Bartelli’s soldiers. When that happened, they’d comb every square inch of the community, searching house to house until they found what they were looking for. In a community this small, staying hidden for long would be impossible. Sooner or later, he had to make a move. He just didn’t want it to be the wrong one.
If he could borrow a set of Willa’s dad’s clothing to use as a disguise, perhaps he could fool the men into believing he was an Amish man should he stumble upon them before he reached the phone shanty.
“Do you still have some of your dad’s clothing?” Mason told her his plan and she didn’t hesitate.
“Jah, I do. I’ll get them for you, but what about your injury? Driving a buggy in the fog and rain is hard enough. The mare will be spooked after all the strange men in her home.”
Mason worried more about his partner than controlling the animal. “I’ll be fine.” He lowered his voice. “I need you here to protect Samantha. Erik’s in no shape to fight off Bartelli’s people should they return and realize you hid us.” But leaving Willa alone would put her in danger. She wasn’t equipped to handle so many dangerous men by herself. He ran a hand across the back of his neck. Without help, Erik might not make it. He faced a no-win situation and hoped he made the right call.
Erik moaned, drawing Mason’s attention. The injured man sat up straighter and opened his eyes. “Where’s Samantha?” he asked when he became aware of his surroundings.
Mason moved closer and squeezed his partner’s arm. “She’s safe, brother. Right over there.” He pointed to the sofa nearby where Samantha held Benny close and watched her protectors with a worried frown.
Erik nodded and appeared to struggle for air. “What’s the plan? Bartelli’s men are still out there somewhere.” He looked up at Mason with glazed eyes.
Mason hesitated. As a marshal sworn to protect Samantha, Erik would wish to fight Bartelli with everything he had, but the best thing for him was rest.
“I don’t have a choice. I’m going to the phone shanty. I’ll change into some Amish clothing and take Willa’s family buggy.”
Erik obviously had his doubts. “If what we suspect is true about a dirty marshal, I sure hope you can trust the sheriff. I don’t know anything about him.”
But Mason did. “He’s an honorable man. He’ll do the right thing.”
But before he left, he needed to see Willa’s mother. Beth hadn’t been up and about since they’d arrived at her house.
He shifted toward Willa. “Where’s your mother?” In the letters his mother had written to him through the years, she’d mentioned how seriously ill Beth had become.
“In her room,” Willa said quietly, a sad look replacing her worry for him. “She isn’t well. Mamm rarely leaves her room anymore.”
He hated hearing this about Beth. She’d been like a second mother to him and his brothers since her family moved to West Kootenai from St. Ignatius. “My mother catches me up on the community news from time to time. She mentioned Beth’s health issues. I’m so sorry.”
Willa swallowed several times. “Denki.” Her voice was little more than a whisper. “I wish I could erase this horrible disease from her body, but I can’t.” She lifted he
r palms up. Less than a year earlier, Willa had buried her father. Now her mother’s illness grew worse. Mason couldn’t imagine the pain she’d gone through watching the once vibrant Beth slowly wasting away.
“I miss the woman she was before. So full of life.” The tears in Willa’s eyes made him want to take her in his arms and tell her everything would be fine. To grieve with her for the woman who had always been so lovely to him and his family. But he couldn’t because everything would not. When he’d learned about Beth’s diagnosis it had been devastating because the disease had no cure. It was virtually a death sentence.
“She has her gut days, but mostly...” Willa stopped, pulled in a breath. “Mostly, she is bedridden.”
Mason couldn’t imagine how difficult Beth’s life had become. Before Josiah had passed, Beth had lost her daughter Miriam a little more than two years earlier. The family had suffered more than its share of tragedy.
“I heard about Josiah. I’m so sorry.” He inhaled and took her hands in his. “And about Miriam,” he added quietly. “I know how close you two were.” Still today, the news of Miriam’s tragic passing was hard to comprehend. How could someone wish to hurt such a kind woman. She’d died in a fire deemed arson. The man responsible for ending her life now served a prison sentence.
When the news of Miriam’s death caught up with him, Mason wasn’t sure what he’d feel. But his first thought was for his brother. How hard it must have been for Eli to lose his wife in such a terrible way.
Miriam’s passing had brought up all the guilt Mason had lived with for years. Imagining himself in love with Willa’s older sister, he’d been so certain she would return his affections. When she’d chosen his brother, his world had fallen apart. He’d blamed Eli for taking Miriam from him—told him he no longer wanted to be his brother—and had severed all contact with Eli by leaving West Kootenai and the life he loved behind. He’d been too young to realize his behavior had much deeper roots. And his teenage crush hadn’t lasted much longer than the time it took for him to leave his family and the faith.
