by Kari Trumbo
He didn’t bother with the light. There was no change in the darkness over her eyes. His footfalls strode right up to the pallet. His hand slapped her cheek as he swiped for her in the darkness.
“I don’t need no light to get around in here. But you do. I can tell right where I am just by the sound the cave makes with each of my steps.” A cold bottle landed in her lap. “Drink up, love. You’ll never get another chance.” He clutched her shoulder and yanked her forward. His clammy hands followed her arms, the sickening feeling of his flesh against hers made her tremble. She jerked her hands out from behind her and shoved him off.
He fell backward as she pushed to her feet and slid the tie off her eyes.
Go right along the wall!
She reached out and found the solid wall, moving as fast as she could to find the hole, but Roy was on her before she’d taken more than a few steps. He pinned her there, holding her hands above her head, her face smashed into the cold stone. Hattie pushed and flung her head back into his face to loosen his grip.
“No! Stop!” She screamed and kicked back at him.
He crushed her flat against the cold stone, his whole body trapping her. “You never fought me before.” He ground into her ear. “You welcomed my touch when I took you from Deadwood. You danced under me, you wanton little—”
“No! Never! I welcomed the drink, but not you. I hate you!” She wiggled against his strength, but he pinned her harder.
His huge hand wrapped over her mouth. “Too much talk. I never wanted you for your mouth.”
She held her breath against his hand. Taking her chances with the opening at the back of the cave would be better than her fate with Roy. She knocked her head back again and heard a satisfying crack. He let out a wail like she’d never heard before. She dashed along the wall but her tussle with Roy disoriented her. She didn’t know how far off the ground the entry was or where she was looking.
She heard Roy groan and step toward her. Her heart raced in her chest, surely he could hear it. She stood still, willing him to stay away from her.
“I know you’re still in here. You ain’t tall enough to reach the door and get yourself out of here. See, it’s the perfect little hold for you. You won’t ever get out without my help and I won’t help you.” He gargled as he cackled at her. She must’ve broken his nose good. His steps came closer, but he couldn’t know where she was, not as long as she stayed perfectly still. Her lungs burned from a lack of air, but she refused to take a full breath, forcing her body to be satisfied with short shallow breaths through her nose.
She heard the whoosh of his hands through the air and knew if she didn’t do something quickly, he’d just light the lamp and then she was done for. He was angry enough to kill. Her body involuntarily shivered and she gasped.
“Ha. I knew you couldn’t stay silent for long. I’ve got you now. You don’t dare run because you’ll die if you fall down that hole.”
He was right. She’d die if she fell, almost as surely as her heart would die if she gave herself to Roy again. She took a step back and then another. Ezzy’s voice whispered in the back of her mind, “I know my Lord, and you need Jesus.”
I don’t want to need Jesus… She could hear Roy advancing on her, his slow steady steps coming closer and closer.
Hattie, jump.
She couldn’t deny it any longer. Risking the deep was a better option than facing Roy. She took a run for the back, determined to just let her body fall. The ground disappeared from under her feet, and she screamed. The slippery rock caught her and she slid. She couldn’t tell how fast she fell or how far she went. The scream died on her lips as she realized she was not only alive but getting away from Roy, but to where? The cave floor dropped out from under her and she landed in a very cold lake in complete blackness, her skirts and petticoats dragging her down.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
ROS SHUFFLED OFF DOWN the hall and then down the stairs. Hugh had to make a decision; risk wasting more time by looking in each room or trust Ros. She could easily be bluffing. She hadn’t become a successful madam by being honest.
Hugh paused in Ros’s doorway as he looked at each door. “We need to find someone who knows Roy’s whereabouts.”
Beau glanced out beyond him down the hall. “Didn’t you say that Roy brings girls to work here? Isn’t it likely that Hattie isn’t the only one he brought here against their wishes? Might take a while, but no longer than it would to just start looking.”
He didn’t want to see the insides of those rooms, or those women. Each time he thought about where Hattie had been, it tore him up. He hadn’t found her in time to prevent all those terrible things that happened to her. Hattie had wanted freedom and had been too young and impetuous to understand that people could be deceitful. She’d grown into womanhood in the worst possible way; a slave to the man she’d trusted.
Hugh strode to the first door. “Let’s get this done with. I don’t want to be here any more than you do.”
“Yeah, if I want to be welcome in my own room tonight, I’d best buy a bath after this. I can smell the perfume as sure as if a skunk was in the room.”
Hugh unhooked the hanging chain on the first door. He knocked and waited for a reply.
“I ain’t taking callers yet. I ain’t even eaten’ yet! If you need something right now, there’s a girl behind the bar what can’t say no.”
Beau frowned and looked away. Hugh’s stomach turned at the idea.
“Ma’am, we’re aren’t here as callers. We’re looking for Roy Hayden.”
“Good luck. He don’t tell no one where he hides. The snake.”
The woman didn’t open the door and Hugh wasn’t willing to open it against her wishes.
“I can help you.” A voice called to them from down the hall. Hugh followed it to Hattie’s old room. He unlatched the chain as his gut tightened in knots. Who was waiting on the other side of that door?
“Are you going to open the door or just stand out there. I’m not going to bite and I’m as decent as you’re liable to find me.”
Hugh pushed the door open. The room was just as he’d left it, but a woman who looked to be about ten years older than him sat at the dressing table. She was thin as a rail and her dress hung loosely off her shoulders. The lines on her face were deep and her hair held banners of gray all down her back.
“Did I hear correct that you’re looking for Roy?” She dabbed some sort of cream on her face and it accentuated every line, but made her pale. She’d somehow managed to avoid getting hit, least as far as he could tell.
“Yes, ma’am. We think he may have taken someone and we want her back.”
“If he found her, she’ll end up somewhere like this. I was a widow, couldn’t pay my rent anymore. This weren’t exactly what I wanted to be doing, but it’s better than starving. And men who think you’re old enough to break treat you better than they do the young ones.”
Hugh shuffled his feet. The longer she talked, the longer Hattie waited.
“I know you think you can save her, but Roy’s not one to let her escape. He lives in a hole in the rock a mile or two east of town. You won’t find it unless you feel along the rocks. Until you’re right in front of it, it looks like you’ll walk into stone. I was only outside of it. He didn’t want me to climb in and not be able to get out. I hope you do find her, but I don’t think you will.”
“What soured you toward him enough to rat on him?” If she was pretending to hate Roy, she could give them information that would take them in the wrong direction, preventing them from getting to Hattie.
“He told me I’d have money to pay my own rent. That I’d make enough so I wouldn’t have to do this for long. He didn’t tell me that most of my pay would go to him as a finder’s fee.” She gritted out the words. “He’s a slippery one, that’s for sure. What he doesn’t know will get him, though. I’ve been talking to Ros and slowly turning her mind about him. It’s all in how you talk to someone, and even more in how you list
en. Soon enough, he won’t be able to show his face here. Then, I’ll get my whole pay and I’ll leave this place. I see the Franklin House out my window and every day I think of what it would be like to work there, not here.”
“Thank you, ma’am. I hope you succeed.” He didn’t know what else to say to the older woman.
“Don’t ma’am me until I earn the title back. For now, I’m just Helen.”
Beau ducked out of the room and Hugh followed. “East of town. I know that area fairly well. I lived out that way until yesterday.”
Beau’s eyebrow raised again. He was beginning to hate that questioning tick.
“Yes, Hattie was there, too.”
“Do you think she could just be hiding out there, somewhere she feels safe?” Beau’s long-legged stride took them outside of town quickly.
“It’s a possibility, though I don’t think she felt that safe there the last few days.”
Beau whipped around to look at him, his hands bunched right above his gun belt. “And just why is that, Hugh?”
“It’s not what you think. Someone tossed a rock through the window when she was up late one night. The next day, she was attacked as she was walking down the mountain.” It wasn’t worth mentioning that she was running from him, it was only because she was afraid of what she was hiding from him. The fact that she felt she needed to hide something at all still hit him like a punch to the gut. What hurt worse was that she’d rather put herself in danger than tell him.
“While we’re here, let’s check it just to be sure. Then we can search the rocks. There’s a lot of ground to cover and only about four more hours of good light.
Hugh nodded his agreement and prayed Beau was right, that she was curled up in her bed at the cabin and they could all go back to Keystone happy.
Hugh was standing outside the cabin while Beau checked inside when he heard a faint scream drift down the side of the rocks.
“Beau, did you hear that?” He ran behind the cabin and waited to hear more but it was silent. Then, another quick screech that sounded more terrified human than injured animal.
“Hugh, let’s go!”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
COLD SEEPED INTO HATTIE until she couldn’t control her shivers. There was no light, nothing to give away where she was and almost worse, she couldn’t hear Roy. Would he follow her? Would he dare to jump down the hole? She’d learned to swim in the Yellow Medicine river as a child, but that had been a long time ago. Her boots and skirts were like stones pulling against her. She kicked her feet and pressed forward. There was a solid ledge at the edge of the pond but her hands were so cold she couldn’t grip the edge.
She moved herself along the side of the rock, trying to find a way out of the cold water. She stopped for a moment and listened. Roy was still silent above her head. He hadn’t given chase or she would’ve heard him splash in the water. If he thought her dead, all the better. Her teeth chattered into the darkness and she clenched them, hoping to stay silent as she moved forward, searching for a way out.
The water became shallow and she walked along the bottom. Soon it was low enough for her to pull herself out and sit on the dry ledge. The air inside the cave raised gooseflesh all down her arms. She collapsed into a heap against the wall. Her heart had been in the same heap the day before when she’d realized Hugh didn’t want her.
She grit her teeth tighter until her gums ached, but what did it matter? What hope did she have of ever getting out of this and what would her life be if she did? She’d be forced to live on a ranch with the man she loved and would watch him live happily without her, or worse, with someone else.
She clutched her knees to her chest and tried to collect some heat around her. Her arms shook and she scraped her hands up and down them. Speaking out loud would let Roy know she wasn’t dead, but she wanted to scream, to call for help. Anything to get free of the dark and cold.
All right. You have my attention, God. The last two times I’ve wanted to give up, you presented a way of escape. I heard you tell me to jump, now what?
A sliver of light appeared overhead and she squinted up at it.
“Hattie, you down there?” Roy called from above. He let loose with a long string of curses, the likes of which she hadn’t heard since her pa was alive. “You fool!” he yelled. “Now I’m gonna have to tell the miners.” The mumbled words bounced off the walls around her.
The miners. She was deep under the ground, possibly near the mines. She’d only been by the mines three times, which one was farthest out of town? The Bullion…that was the name. There had been a clutch of men standing outside the mine for lunch when she’d walked by, but how long ago had that been and would they still be there? Most importantly, how could she let them know she was there without alerting Roy? She stood and inched her way about twenty paces around rock formations she could only feel with her hands until she found solid wall. It was wet, just like in Roy’s chamber.
She continued to feel along the wall and delved deeper into the cave, or so it felt. It was no darker or lighter, just colder to her skin. She kept moving, listening for the sounds of mining. They used water to mine the area around Keystone and water should make noise, but she could pick out no sounds in the heavy silence.
Her heart would not slow its frantic pace, every movement was frightening as she couldn’t see if she would drop into another cavern or her foot would find solid rock. Each new step was a painfully slow process as she slid her feet along the floor of the cave. She wouldn’t cry, what good would tears do? They’d never helped her before and they wouldn’t help now.
Hattie. Sit and wait. Be still.
No! She didn’t want to be still. If she stopped, she may not find the miners, may never get out of this alive. They may never even find her body down there. She shivered again and moved her foot then yanked it back as the floor opened up beneath her.
Okay. I’m listening. I’ll not move anymore. How could she be talking to the Lord and why was He talking to her? Was this what people experienced right before they died? Did they have strange waking dreams with voices?
From far off, a sound tickled her ears. Her name. Someone was screaming her name. It was…Hugh.
She sucked back as much air as she could muster and screamed, “I’m down here!” Her voice rose to a deafening crescendo as it echoed up through the cavern.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
THEY’D BEEN SEARCHING along the ridge line for what seemed like an hour when Beau motioned for him to come over. There it was, the small entrance to a cave. It was so small that a man much larger than Hugh or Beau wouldn’t be able to fit. Hugh drew his gun. “I go first,” he whispered. “Follow me.”
Once he maneuvered into the opening and started crawling down the shaft, the walls seemed to close in on him. He had to push forward, had to find Hattie. She had to be in here. There was nowhere else for him to look, but what would he do if he found her with Roy? If she was there against her will, he’d want to kill the man. He gritted his teeth and focused on the halo of light ahead of him, getting bigger with each inch. He crept slowly to the edge.
Roy lay on his belly on the other end of the cave, a lantern beside him. He yelled for Hattie down in the floor and Hugh’s anger rose to the boiling point. He flung himself through the hole and landed with his gun pointed at Roy, the hammer gave a satisfying crack in the hollow cave.
“Get up and turn around slowly, Roy. You’re under arrest.”
The man looked over his shoulder at him. His face was filthy and bloody and he growled. “For what? I didn’t do nothing. She came here looking for me, then jumped off the edge. Must’a been the drink. I didn’t do nothing.” He repeated, his eyes not fixed on anything in the room. “What’d you do to her? She was just fine, good working girl until you came to town. I oughta’ throw you down that hole.” Roy stood and took a run at Hugh.
He heard Beau drop into the cave behind him. Hugh knew he had at least twenty pounds on Roy and a good few inches. But Roy wa
s pert near crazy. He took his stance and just before Roy hit him, he dropped his shoulder, taking him in the gut. Roy groaned and Hugh wrapped his arms around Roy’s stomach, cutting his leg in behind Roy’s ankle to bring him down. Beau cocked the hammer on his pistol and the fight went out of Roy. He laid there shaking.
Now that Roy was down, he took a look around. There, on the bed, was the missing letter opener. His anger burst forth like a cannon and he yanked Roy off the floor and shook him.
“Where’s Hattie?”
Roy’s head flopped around as if he were drunk. “I told you. She jumped. I called down there, but there was no answer. She’s dead.”
“Heaven have mercy on you if she is, because I won’t have any.”
He glanced at the opening in the floor he hadn’t seen before. “Beau, you take care of Roy. I’m going to see if I can find her.”
Beau didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to. He was as dependable as they came. Hugh grabbed a lantern off the wall and lit it, then dangled it down the hole. It was deep, but there was a steady slope a few feet down.
“Hattie? Can you hear me?” His voice sounded too harsh to his own ears. Desperate.
“Hattie?”
“I’m down here!”
“Don’t move, sweetie, I’m coming to get you!” Sweetie? Where had that come from?
He swung his leg off the edge and just barely caught the slide with his toe. He didn’t want to go tumbling down if he could help it. Especially not if he hoped to keep the lantern lit.
“Keep talking to me Hattie, so I can find you.” And so that I don’t go crazy with worry.
“Hugh, that’s you, isn’t it?” Her voice was shaky with cold.
“Yes, darlin’. I’m just trying to find a way down to you. Your voice sounds like an angel, keep talking.”
