Page 41 of The Gold Rush Bride

Running, she was at his side in a heartbeat. “What?”

“Seth. You tend to him while I bury our perpetrator away from the claim in the woods.”

She entered the tent and saw Seth lying on his cot. He was bleeding from his side. “Seth, what happened?” She grabbed a towel and held it to his injury to stop the bleeding. “I need to clean the wound so I can see the damage.”

After applying pressure for a few minutes, she wet a washcloth from the bucket of water next to his small stove. The water was still warm, like he’d been heating it before he headed out to their claim.

She went onto her knees beside the cot and unbuttoned his shirt and his long johns. Clothing was too precious to rip them. She pulled his right arm out of the both garments. Once she got a look at the wound from the front, she rolled him so she could check his back. He had a larger wound on his back, showing the bullet had gone through and wasn’t lodged anywhere in his body.

“Seth. Can you hear me?” She patted his face. “Come on, Seth. Wake up.”

He groaned and opened his eyes. “Sadie?” He tried to sit up. “Danger. Claim jumpers.”

She placed a hand on his shoulder to keep him from moving too much. “It’s okay. Barnaby is here. He’s burying the body of the man you killed. Were there more of them?”

Seth’s eyes widened.

A hand wearing a dirty leather glove covered Sadie’s mouth from behind.

She tried to scream and tried to pull the hand from her mouth.

The hand didn’t budge.

It pulled her backwards through the opening in the tent.

She fought, tugging at his hand, digging her feet into the floor, hitting back at him and reaching nothing but air. Sadie couldn’t dislodge the man’s hand to scream.

Then she realized Barnaby wouldn’t hear her anyway, because he was in the woods burying the man’s accomplice, so she went limp. Her captor had to double his efforts to get her out of the tent, but once out, he held a gun to her side.

“Call out or make any sound and you die right here, right now.” A growly voice whispered. “Followed by the wounded man and then that mountain of a man you showed up with. Understand?”

Chills ran up and down her spine at the thought of the man killing Barnaby and her baby. She nodded.

“I’m removing my hand, don’t forget. One sound is all it takes.”

Even though he’d told her not to, she considered screaming for Barnaby. But she would only get herself and her baby killed. She couldn’t allow that to happen.

He removed his hand.

She said nothing. Not a single sound...just to be safe. She looked back at the tent and knew Seth couldn’t help her. She just hoped he didn’t die before Barnaby returned. Sadie needed for Seth to tell Barnaby what happened.

The man forced her to bend over. Then he did the same, as though by getting lower, Barnaby wouldn’t see them. He walked her into the forest, careful to keep his pistol trained on her.

She was sure she would die or he would rape her, or both. Sadie would rather die than be raped. If Barnaby would just come out of the forest now, she would be saved. But he didn’t.

When they stepped through some trees and into the forest, he straightened.

Sadie did the same, still looking at the place straight behind their claim. But she saw nothing, no movement of any kind. She knew the trees were thick and, even if he’d been returning, he most likely wouldn’t see them because he wasn’t looking for them. They would already be too far in to be seen from the river.

The man sidled in behind her.

She’d noticed before that he was only about an inch or two taller than she was. He wore grubby wool pants and a wool flannel shirt that was the standard for miners to wear. From the stench, it was clear he’d never washed his clothes. She’d decided from his dirty hair and beard, it had been a lengthy time, if ever, since he’d taken a bath.

He poked her in the back with the barrel of his gun. “Move. We’ve got a long way to go, and I don’t want to get caught out here at night.”

She didn’t either, so she picked up her pace, wondering if it wouldn’t be better to be devoured by wild animals than what he undoubtedly had in mind. She walked farther and farther away from the man she loved. Away from Barnaby.

* * *