Her Montana Man (20 page)

“The council hired ’im,” Jonas pointed out.

“And the council can fire him just as easily.” Royce got to his feet, but was none too steady on them. He

gripped his jaw and worked it left and right, then opened and shut his mouth. A tiny rivulet of blood

trickled from the corner and made a bright red dot on his starched white collar. Another spot appeared

beside the first.

Eliza Jane took a few steps closer. She looked from one man to the other. “Nothing matters but getting

Tyler home safely,” she bit out. “Everyone’s worried and tired, but you don’t see the rest of us insulting

each other or getting into fisticuffs at the end of a dreadful day.”

She was angry and frightened, and color had risen in her cheeks. “Eat, for heaven’s sake. Get some rest.

But stop behaving like ruffians.”

Jonas was still angry enough to beat Royce Dunlap into a fine paste, but also glaringly aware that Eliza

saw his impulsive behavior as reprehensible. He nodded. “My apologies.”

Rowena had shown up with a covered tray. She placed it on a table and nodded at him.

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Silas sat and helped himself to a plate of savory roast and herbed potatoes. Maddie urged Eliza to take

a plate. Once she did, Jonas seated himself across from her.

Rowena brought the men coffee and Bonnie supplied Eliza with another cup of tea. Royce finally took a

seat near the door.

“Everybody needs some sleep,” the marshal said.

“We’ll meet in front of my office and head out at first light.”

Jonas hated that he couldn’t comfort Eliza Jane publicly. He became aware of how secretive their

relationship truly was and how damaging it could be for her to have it discovered.

“I don’t think you should be alone tonight,” Jonas said to her.

She looked up, her eyes filled with worry and a deep sadness. “If it is ransom they want, they won’t hurt

him. But then why haven’t we heard anything yet?”

“I don’t know,” he answered, wishing he had the answers, or at the very least the opportunity to comfort

her. “Maddie could stay with you. Or one of the others if you’d rather.”

She nodded. “I like Maddie.”

Jonas spoke to the other woman, and she was more than willing to keep Eliza Jane company that night.

The two women headed for the hotel.

Royce left a short time later.

Jonas remained and poured pitchers of beer to share with the men who’d stayed. The mood was

subdued, the Silver Star uncharacteristically void of music and laughter.

Well after midnight, he locked the doors and went home. He stood on the boardwalk for ten or fifteen

minutes, looking up at the night sky, finding the Big Dipper and swallowing down his unease. Somewhere

a frightened little boy was away from his “mother” for the first time.

Jonas’s father had been absent during his childhood, and Tyler sure deserved better than that. Jonas

didn’t have much experience praying, but he pleaded with the heavens for Tyler to still be alive and for

him to be returned to them safely.

A wolf howled in the distance.

Eliza would never sleep until she knew Tyler was safe. Maddie had fallen asleep on the other side of the

bed, and Eliza was grateful for her presence. Hundreds of sickening scenarios swam through her head,

each more grisly than the last.

Though she couldn’t truly comprehend the fact, someone had deliberately taken her child. From Daniel’s

description, the person had likely used chloroform on a cloth and sedated all three boys so he could get

them out of the alley behind the hotel and dry goods store without a tussle. They’d probably been moved

in the wagon that Daniel and Matt recalled sitting back there. No one in the businesses remembered a

delivery or pickup that early.

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At this point, she would almost be relieved to see a ransom note. Knowing a reason would be

something
.

Head throbbing, eyes dry, she woke after only an hour or so of sleep. She felt guilty for sleeping at all

while Tyler was somewhere unknown, possibly hurt, undoubtedly terrified. It was still dark, but she lit a

match and looked at her brooch. It would be light soon.

“Did you sleep?” Maddie asked.

“A little.”

“I’ll go get water,” Maddie told her, giving Eliza a few minutes of privacy.

The hotel was already waking up by the time they were washed and dressed. Doors opened and closed

and muffled voices could be heard from below.

Three successive cracks of gunfire caught Eliza’s attention on her way down to the front foyer. She ran

the rest of the way down the stairs. Boot heels sounded and Jonas shot out of the dining room, followed

by several other men dressed for riding. The kitchen helpers showed up to learn what was going on, too.

Eliza followed as Jonas drew his revolver and threw open the front door. He hurried out across the

porch and down the stairs.

“Stay back!” he called over his shoulder.

She stood on the porch and strained to see in the dim morning light.

“He’s got the boy!” someone shouted from farther down Main Street toward the bank and the jail.

Eliza heard only those words and shot down the stairs, running full out in an effort to catch up with

Jonas.

oors opened along the street, several of the store owners who lived above or behind their shops having

been awakened. As they passed the bank, the sun broke over the horizon, casting Main Street, the

buildings and the inhabitants in a pinkish glow.

A man sat on a horse in front of the jail. The marshal rode up from the direction of his home on Second

Street just in time to witness the gathering. Luther Vernon waited atop the horse without climbing down.

The horse shied and shifted its hind end around, bringing into Eliza’s view the pale-haired child sitting in

front of him.

“Tyler!” she shrieked.

Tyler turned his whole upper body and spotted her running at them, skirts flying. “Aunt Liza!”

Luther Vernon gripped Tyler under the arms, working the boy’s legs over the saddle horn, and then

leaned sideways to lower him to the ground.

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Jonas got there first and caught the boy, easing his descent. Tyler had eyes only for Eliza as she reached

him and fell to her knees, a joyful cry bursting from her throat. She grasped him to her breast and held

him as tightly as she could, feeling the tremble in his slender frame and the rapid beat of his heart against

hers.

Her son was safe and alive and in her arms. Never had she been more grateful or relieved. Never had

she wanted to laugh and cry and burst apart with relief all at the same time. She held his face between her

hands and kissed his eyes and cheeks, used her hem to wipe tears and dirt from them, and told him she

loved him.

“Where’d you find ’im?” the marshal asked.

“Searched along Yakima Ridge. Found him behind some huckleberries, tied to a tree.” Luther reached

into a saddlebag. “Here’s the rope.”

Marshal Haglar took it and looked it over. “Looks like the same hemp that the Harper boys were tied

with.”

“I want the reward,” Luther said. “Risked my neck for it.”

“Take that up with Dunlap,” the marshal told him.

The crowd parted and Royce stepped from the boardwalk into the street. “You found my son?”

“There he is,” Luther told him.

Royce turned and looked at Eliza. “Good thing someone was out looking instead of sleeping.”

At the sound of his voice, Tyler turned in Eliza’s arms and spotted Royce. “Papa!”

Royce walked forward, and Eliza released Tyler, who hugged the man around the waist. Royce patted

his head awkwardly. Eliza had the impression that he would brush off his jacket once no one was

looking.

“Come with me to the bank,” Royce called to Luther.

“You’ll have your reward money immediately.”

Luther slid from the horse and tied it at the post in front of the jail. Royce said something to Tyler before

turning away from him, and the two men headed for the bank.

Jonas stood watching Tyler with an undecipherable expression on his face, then met Eliza’s gaze. She

read suspicion and displeasure in his eyes. Jonas had recognized Royce’s lack of emotion or concern. He

strode to Tyler and hunkered down. “Marshal’s gonna take you on over to his office and ask you some

questions. After you talk a spell, you can go back to the hotel with your aunt.”

“Can she come with us to the marshal’s?”

“You bet.” He nodded at Eliza, and she reached for Tyler’s hand.

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Tyler glanced up. “You comin’, too?”

“Right behind you.”

Inside the small office, Eliza took a chair and pulled Tyler onto her lap and pressed her face to the back

of his head. He smelled of outdoors and maybe a little like horse and sweat. She didn’t want to let go.

His telling of the events sounded pretty much like Daniel and Matt’s, except Tyler told them he’d been

kept blindfolded and tied in some kind of tiny structure. He’d been given food and water and then hauled

onto a horse again, and left alone out of doors.

“Were you cold?” she asked.

“Uh-uh. The man covered me with a blanket and then later he took it away.”

Jonas hunkered down in front of Tyler. “Are you hurt anywhere?”

Tyler opened both arms outward, and at first Eliza thought he was reaching for Jonas, but when Tyler

pushed his wrist under Jonas’s nose, his intent became plain.

Jonas took Tyler’s forearm and gently eased back his sleeve, exposing raw chafe marks. The other wrist

was the same.

“Doc will fix those right up for ya.” Jonas’s voice seemed gruffer than usual. He tousled Tyler’s hair and

got to his feet without looking at Eliza.

“You can take ’im home now, Miss Sutherland,” the marshal told her.

Home had come to mean the safety of the hotel, and she couldn’t wait to get her boy there.

“I’ll come see you shortly,” Jonas told her. “I’ll send Doc over.”

She nodded and led Tyler out.

“Somethin’s not right here,” Jonas said as soon as she’d closed the door behind her.

“I don’t like it, either,” Warren answered.

“Luther Vernon is on Dunlap’s payroll. I don’t trust him.”

“We don’t have anything to go on, Jonas.”

Jonas scratched his chin, relieved that the child was safe, but feeling that he’d fallen short somehow and

sensing they’d missed something. “Don’t see how Vernon could’ve searched in the dark. That ridge is

mostly rock. Only a fool would ask his mount to do that.”

“I’ll ride out there and look around,” Warren said.

“I’ll go with you after I ride over to Doc’s. Let’s put somebody on the man’s tail.”

After Doc checked Tyler over and pronounced him unharmed, he gave Eliza a tin of salve. Lilibelle filled

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plates with food. Doc joined Ward in the dining room while Eliza sat with Tyler at the kitchen table.

The weary eight-year-old picked at his bacon and eggs. “My tummy feels kinda dizzy.”

“Dr. McKee said you might feel that way, and possibly have a headache, too, from the bad-smelling

stuff that put you to sleep. Have you thrown up?”

Tyler shook his head.

Daniel helped Ada heat water and fill the tub in the bathing chamber, then Daniel and Matt went off to

school, Ward accompanying them out the front door.

Eliza led Tyler along the back hall to the bathing room and helped him undress and get into the water.

After soaping his hair, she rinsed it. She had him stand so she could wash him and look him over. “Do

you hurt anywhere else?” she asked.

He shook his head, but offered, “I lost my schoolbooks.”

“I’m sure Miss Fletcher will replace them.”

“Did Dan and Matt lose theirs, too?”

“I would guess so. Tyler, did anyone hurt you?”

“They wasn’t very gentle, but they didn’t hit me or nothin’. Why did somebody do that?”

“I don’t know. But I was never more afraid in my whole life,” she told him, drying his hair with a warm

towel. “Do you think you can sleep now?”

“What about school?”

“You need to rest.”

“But I already missed a day.”

“If you feel up to it, you can go to school tomorrow.”

She pulled the plug. He stepped out of the tub, and took the towel from her to dry himself. He stood

wrapped in it while she dabbed salve on his sore wrists and wrapped strips of soft cotton fabric around

them.

Once he was dressed and they had returned to their room, she pulled the curtains closed and tucked him

into his narrow bed. “I’ll sit here while you sleep,” she assured him.

“Go work if you want, Aunt Liza,” he told her, but his shaky voice wasn’t very convincing. He was

trying to act brave and grown-up.

She shook her head. “I don’t want to leave you.”

He closed his eyes, and she sat in the overstuffed chair nearby. Once she knew he was asleep, she

moved to her bed and drifted off. She dreamed of her mother and Jenny Lee. They were eating tea

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cakes and talking on the sunny front porch. Jenny was laughing, her golden hair catching the sun, and