Wild Forever (The Gilbert Girls, #3) Read online

  They were too far away from Crest Stone, from the mountains where Sheriff Young and his men were searching. It was too close to town.

  But as the girl glanced behind her and then surveyed the river in front of her, as if searching for a safe spot to cross, Penny knew it was true.

  “Adelaide?” she called tentatively.

  The girl looked up and started. “Help me!” she cried.

  Penny quickly glanced down the river in either direction. Just to her left, a number of stones poked up here and there. Adelaide could cross at this very spot. “There!” she pointed. “Cross over to me.”

  More rustling sounded from the trees across the river. Adelaide sprang into action and placed a foot onto the first rock. Penny ran to meet her, but just as Adelaide went to step on the second stone, her shoe slid, and she fell into the water.

  In less than a second, Penny stepped forward on the stones to go after the girl. It was shallow, nowhere near deep enough to endanger anyone, but time was short. Getting her away from those dangerous men was the only thing that mattered. Her feet slipped and slid underneath her, and she wished she wasn’t wearing the pretty Sunday shoes she’d bought just last month. They were useless when it came to keeping her perch on these rocks.

  Adelaide stood in the water and started forward again. Penny was so close they could almost reach out for each other. Just as she lifted a hand, a man burst through the trees.

  Penny clasped Adelaide’s wet hand. The man spotted them almost immediately. A string of words not fit for the ears of good folk erupted from his mouth, and he charged toward them.

  Penny’s heart hammered as she pulled Adelaide toward her. They had no time. If that man reached them, Penny knew she was no match for him. She stepped into the water, giving up on the slower walk across the stones. Her legs froze almost instantly, but she pushed forward, back across to the safe side of the river with Adelaide tucked against her. A splash sounded behind them as the man leapt into the water. Penny’s mind raced. If they didn’t get away . . .

  “Quick,” she said to the younger girl. “Tell me where they’re keeping you, and I’ll relay it to your brother. Just in case . . .”

  “In the mountains,” the girl said, her breath coming in wisps. “Several hours south of here. I just can’t go back to that—” She gasped as the man grabbed her skirts, and her next words were lost in her breath. She turned back to Penny. “Please. Run!”

  Penny paused, still gripping the girl’s hand even as the man pulled her toward him.

  “Who are you?” he growled at Penny as Adelaide’s hand slipped from her grasp. There was nothing remarkable about him except his eyes, which were ice blue and seemed to stare into Penny’s very soul. He had to be Royal Hagan.

  Penny didn’t answer. Instead, she reached for Adelaide, but the man pulled the younger girl to his side.

  He narrowed those cold eyes at her. “What did she tell you?”

  “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll let her go, Royal Hagan!” she shot back at him.

  He lunged for her. Penny lurched into action, barely moving fast enough to escape his soaked, gloved hand. The water felt like frozen weights around her ankles, but fear pushed her forward.

  Behind her, Hagan grunted as he waded through the river after her.

  “Leave her alone!” Adelaide shouted.

  Penny reached the bank and clambered out. Behind her, Adelaide had stalled Hagan’s progress, pounding him with her fists. He grabbed hold of her hands and yanked them behind her. His gaze shot to Penny. “What do you know?”

  Penny didn’t answer. Instead, she ran. She couldn’t bear leaving Adelaide alone with that horrible man, but she also couldn’t leave the girls on the other side of the boulders in danger. They’d likely heard the commotion and were headed this way now. Although . . . that could be in her favor.

  She stopped and whipped around. Hagan was getting closer to the bank, Adelaide still struggling next to him.

  “You’d best get out of here now!” Penny yelled. “There are about twenty of us on the other side of these rocks. Do you think you can outrun all of us?”

  Hagan paused, glaring at her. Penny held her breath, hoping he believed her. She’d inflated their numbers by about half, and she had no idea how close any of his men were.

  After a few seconds, he spat into the water and pointed at her. “I’ll find you.”

  The words made Penny shiver. All of a sudden, she felt the cold of the water that had seeped through her skirts and her sleeves. Her teeth chattered, but she forced herself to stand her ground until Hagan whisked around and dragged Adelaide back toward the other bank.

  Then she ran.

  Chapter Seven

  Ben raced through the hotel. The message from the kitchen boy had been vague. Something about how one of the Gilbert Girls had run into Hagan earlier in the day. He was desperate for any news, any lead at all. Wandering around the mountains with no plan wasn’t working, and so far, their interviews with folks in Crest Stone hadn’t gotten them anywhere.

  This girl might have the information he so desperately needed.

  He didn’t slow down as he entered the parlor on the second floor. He’d been told upon arriving that it was reserved for hotel employees to entertain family and friends, or to simply gather together throughout the day during their off hours. It was a well-furnished room, keeping with the design of the hotel but more homelike. Miss May sat on a red settee, but leapt up the moment she saw him.

  “Sheriff! Finally. Where have you been?” Those hands were on her hips again. And her dress . . . it was stained from her ankles to midway up the skirts.

  Ben paused halfway through the room. It couldn’t be her. Of all the women in the hotel, it couldn’t be this one.

  “Pardon me,” he said, adjusting his vest. “I received word that one of the waitresses met Royal Hagan earlier today. May I presume it was one of you ladies?” He looked between the older woman on the settee and another young woman with an olive complexion and bright brown eyes.

  “It’s Miss May you’ll want to speak with,” the older woman said, tugging gently on Miss May’s hand and forcing her to resume her seat. “I’m Mrs. McFarland. I handle the business affairs of the hotel with my husband. And this is Miss Reynolds, a dear friend of Miss May’s.” She gestured to the young lady who sat to the left of an impatient Miss May.

  He nodded to them before setting his hat on an end table. “Pleased to meet you both. Miss May, how wonderful to see you again.”

  Miss May sucked in her bottom lip, as if she couldn’t be bothered with these pleasantries. Ben couldn’t either, to be honest, not when his sister’s life was at stake. His fingers twitched as Mrs. McFarland gestured to a chair opposite the settee. He sat. Miss May, he noticed, was perched on the edge of her seat like a bird about to take flight.

  Or a rattlesnake about to strike.

  “I suppose you were wandering about the mountains again?” Ben said. The moment the words were out of his mouth, he wanted to take them back. He’d get nowhere with her that way.

  Miss May’s face went red with annoyance. “I was not, although that’s none of your concern. I was about to have a picnic lunch with my friends.” The girl next to her gave her an encouraging smile, while Mrs. McFarland furrowed her brow.

  “I apologize,” he said, wishing his mouth would wait for his brain sometimes. “Please, continue.”

  Miss May took a deep breath. Then she told of a girl attempting to escape a man Miss May thought to be Hagan. It took all of Ben’s self-control to remain in his seat. She had seen Adelaide—it was clear from her description that this girl was, in fact, Ben’s sister—and she was alive and well! And then she spoke of Hagan spotting her and giving chase.

  “I escaped, but he said ‘I’ll find you’ in this . . . this voice.” Miss May shuddered, and her friend wrapped an arm around her waist.

  Ben’s heart about broke open on the floor. She was terrified, this wild creature he’d
found roaming the mountains just a few days prior. As well she should be. Royal Hagan was not known for empty threats.

  He rose, unable to remain still a moment longer, and sank to his heels before the women. He looked Miss May right in her lovely green eyes. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”

  She gave him a tentative smile, and he held her gaze a moment longer than he probably should have. Heat flooded his entire body under the weight of her trust in him. He stood again and paced across the room. “You were outside Cañon City?” he finally asked.

  “Yes,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. She coughed a little and spoke again. “Perhaps a mile or so, right along the river.”

  “What the devil was Hagan doing so close to town?” he mused under his breath.

  “Pardon?” Miss May asked.

  “I’m sorry.” His face went warm at using such language around the ladies. Mrs. McFarland was nearly glaring at him. He needed to get his bearings. “Did my sister say anything to you?”

  Penny’s face softened. “She asked me for help. She said they were keeping her in the mountains several hours south of where we were. I’m sure he suspected she told me, and that’s why he threatened me. When it became clear she couldn’t get away from Hagan, she told me to run.”

  “Is that all?”

  She hesitated, then said, “Yes. I’m sorry. That isn’t particularly helpful.”

  “It’s fine,” he said. Although he’d hoped for more, it was good to have confirmation they were searching in the right place. “I’m glad you were able to escape.” He held out a hand.

  Miss May took it, and it was as if lightning had struck him. Ben rested his other hand on top of hers. Her skin was warm through her fine white glove, and her hand was so small in his that it made him even more determined to protect her. “I’ll find him and Adelaide, you have my word on that. But Hagan’s threats are not to be taken lightly. In order to keep you safe, you need to remain within the hotel property.”

  Her hand went stiff in his just before she jerked it back. He dropped his arms to his sides to disguise the sense of loss that flooded him.

  “You can’t keep me prisoner here,” she said.

  “It sounds as if it’s for the best,” Mrs. McFarland said.

  “I can’t protect you if I don’t know where you are,” Ben added.

  Penny locked eyes with him, as if she was daring him to keep her penned up. He held her gaze, and his own defiance built. She didn’t know him. Acting like this would only make him want to work harder to keep her safe.

  “Fine.” She said the word deliberately and carefully, and he knew it took everything she had to to do so.

  “Good.” He gathered his hat from the end table and tapped it against his leg.

  She nodded curtly, but her eyes spoke buckets of disdain.

  Too bad, he thought as he turned to leave the room. She was stuck with him. And as much as he should have been irritated at needing to keep track of this woman, a smile curved his lips as he made his way back downstairs.

  Chapter Eight

  Penny awoke with a start. She sat straight up in bed, her breath coming fast and beads of perspiration clinging to her face and neck. It had been a dream, but . . .

  She pushed herself back against the simple pine headboard and brushed the damp strands of hair from her face. As her breathing slowly returned to normal, she replayed the dream in her head. She’d relived the events of yesterday, with a few dream-enhanced touches. Adelaide, brave and quick, making her way across the river. And then Hagan coming after her. Adelaide’s pretty blue dress was torn and stained with dirt. When she reached Penny, Adelaide told her where Hagan had been keeping her, and then said, “I just can’t go back to that shack.”

  That shack. Penny stared into the darkness, then flung off the bedclothes and fumbled for her lamp. Once it was lit, she leaned on her hands against the night table. She’d had no new roommate since Caroline had left to be married last month, and while usually she missed the company, now she was thankful there was no one to wake as she replayed the words in her head again and again.

  She stared at the flame flickering inside the glass. That shack. Adelaide hadn’t said those words at the river. Or had she? Were those the words Penny couldn’t hear when Adelaide turned as Hagan grabbed her skirts? Penny put a hand to her forehead, debating.

  Once, right after Emma had been married and left, and Penny had begun walking the mountains, she’d gone too far and come across an abandoned fur trapper’s cabin. It had taken her so long to return to the hotel that she’d had to sneak in after curfew. Since it had been so far, she’d never gone back.

  Perhaps that’s what Adelaide had said at the river. Perhaps that was where Hagan was keeping her. It was quite a ways from that spot west of Cañon City where she’d met Adelaide yesterday, but maybe Hagan had business in or near town and wasn’t willing to leave Adelaide alone. That thought made Penny smirk. If that was the case, it made her like the girl even more.

  She needed to tell Sheriff Young. Right now, before he left with his men for the day.

  Penny yanked off her nightgown and hastily laced up her corset. She threw on yesterday’s petticoats, skirt, and shirtwaist. The skirt was wrinkled and stained from the water and dirt, but she didn’t have time to waste searching for a clean one. She wound her hair into a messy chignon, secured it with far too few pins, then grabbed the lamp and raced from her room.

  The hotel was completely silent at this hour. One clerk sat at the front desk, fast asleep. Penny stood uncertainly in the lobby. It hadn’t occurred to her to figure out how exactly she would obtain an audience with the sheriff at this hour.

  There was only one solution. This was a life and death situation, and she said a quick prayer her position at the hotel wouldn’t be on the line.

  She moved silently behind the front desk. Open wide next to the snoring clerk lay the hotel registry. Penny ran her finger down the list of names. There. Sher. Benjamin Young & co., Rooms 207 and 208.

  The clerk started, and Penny froze. She held her breath while he slipped back into a rhythmic pattern of breathing. When she was certain he was asleep again, she snaked her way around the desk and ran upstairs.

  Room 207 was on the opposite side of the building from the ladies’ dormitories. Penny found it easily. She raised her hand to knock, but hesitated. It was highly improper for her to knock on a man’s door alone at any time of day, and night was ever so much worse. She pursed her lips. This was exactly the sort of thing that had ruined her reputation at home. Well, not this particular act, but acting upon impulse in this same way.

  But . . . Adelaide’s life was at stake.

  Penny knocked. She shifted her weight from foot to foot. Maybe he didn’t hear her. She knocked again, louder this time.

  Nothing.

  “Sheriff!” she said through the door, praying she wouldn’t wake anyone else in the rooms nearby.

  Still nothing. Sheriff Young was either a very heavy sleeper or he wasn’t in his room. There were three other men with him. Perhaps someone was in the other room. She moved down to Room 208 and repeated the process. There was no answer.

  Penny clenched her fists and sighed in frustration. Where were they? If this were a town of any size, she’d say they were out carousing. But there were only two other businesses in the new town of Crest Stone besides the hotel—Drexel’s General Store and the smithy. And besides, the sheriff didn’t seem the sort of man who drank too much or gambled away all his earnings.

  She leaned back against the wall to think. Perhaps they’d return from wherever they were before morning. She’d have to wait them out.

  The floor wasn’t the most comfortable place to sit for two hours. At six, Penny started pacing the hallway. If they weren’t back by now, they likely weren’t coming back until later in the day.

  And that might be too late.

  She remembered where the old cabin was, and she was certain she could find it again eas
ily. She wasn’t due to work until the noon train. If she left now, she could make it to the cabin and return in plenty of time to change for her shift.

  Penny retraced her steps to her own room for a coat and a hood. When she reached the lobby, only a handful of hotel employees were awake. Penny hovered on the stairs until all but the front desk clerk removed themselves to other parts of the hotel. If she slipped around the staircase and made her way to the rear of the building, she could exit through the door to the garden with no one being the wiser.

  As the door shut and Penny found herself in the near-freezing temperatures and the dark garden, she wondered if she should turn back. Sheriff Young had told her not the leave the hotel grounds, after all.

  But Sheriff Young was nowhere to be found.

  She’d stay back and observe the cabin from afar. If it looked like Adelaide was there, she’d run right back to Crest Stone and find the sheriff. If the cabin looked untouched—well, nothing wasted. Mind made up, Penny said a quick prayer and stepped from the garden toward the trees that lined the creek.

  Chapter Nine

  “She’s gone?” Ben stared at the girl who told him that Miss May was neither in her room nor in the dining room.

  “I don’t know about that,” she said. “I imagine she simply went for a walk. Penny is awfully fond of her walks.”

  “I told her not to leave the property,” he said through clenched teeth.

  The girl shrugged her shoulders. “Penny’s also not one to take kindly to orders.”

  Ain’t that the truth. He thanked the girl, hoping he hadn’t been too short with her. It was hardly her fault that Penny—Miss May—didn’t think through her actions before taking them.

  He and his men had just returned from riding overnight to Cañon City and back to find out if Hagan had been seen in town. They’d come up empty-handed. Exhausted, all he wanted to do was sink into a deep sleep. But now it looked as though he’d be searching for yet another girl in the mountains. He’d have to go alone. Harry and the others had already turned in. He couldn’t wake them and ask them to saddle up again.