A Chance at Love

  Loreli felt sick. “What?”

  He forced a piece of paper in her face and growled, “Read this!”

  Her hand shaking, Loreli read:

  Lass,

  One thousand dollars or I sell them overseas. Desperate times beget desperate measures.

  TC

  Chapter 16

  Loreli reread the words. She felt sickened.

  “Will he really do what he says there?” Jake asked.

  Loreli couldn’t lie. “I don’t know. If he’s desperate enough to do this…” Her words trailed off. Her worry over the girls grew with each breath she took. “We have to find them.”

  “I’ll start with the sheriff. Maybe someone in town has seen them. He has to be holed up somewhere close.”

  Loreli agreed. If Trevor needed the money that desperately, he’d be nearby so he could access the ransom quickly. Had he wanted her to travel to make the exchange, she assumed he would have stated that in the letter.

  Jake left the room for a moment, then returned with a rifle. “I want you to stay here.”

  Loreli looked at the firearm. She’d never seen him arm himself before. “I’m coming with you.”

  “No, you’re not. What if he comes here looking for the money?”

  “Then I need to go to town and get it. I will pay him whatever he wants to get the twins back. This would never have happened had I not entered your lives. I’m truly sorry for that,” she told him honestly.

  The mask had descended on his features. “Get dressed so we can go.”

  Loreli hurried up the stairs.

  He rode Fox. Loreli rode Phoebe. The first stop was Matt Peterson’s. When he heard the news, he put down his plow, ran and got his gun, then saddled up to help with the search.

  The next two stops added Art Gibson, Brass Barber, and his son, William, to their small contingent. All of the men were armed.

  The town was bustling as they rode in. Their determined faces and manner made folks on their walks pause and stare curiously, but Jake and the others paid the townspeople no mind.

  Sheriff Mack’s lips tightened grimly as Jake related the details. “Let me see the note.”

  Jake fished it out of his pocket and handed it over. The clouds in Jake’s face had not lightened.

  The sheriff then turned to Loreli. “Any idea where he might be?”

  “If I knew sheriff, I’d already be there,” Loreli snapped, more crossly than she’d intended. She was quickly contrite. “I’m sorry. I’m just upset.”

  He nodded. “I know you are. No hard feelings.” He seemed to think a moment, then said, “I’m going to wire the marshal in Lawrence, see if he has any ideas, but in the meantime, do you know if that Trevor fella struck it up with anybody while he was here?”

  Loreli didn’t hesitate. “Yes, Millie Tate and Rebecca Appleby.”

  The sheriff raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

  Loreli then told him about Trevor, Millie, and Rebecca on the porch after the fight, and then about Millie and the brooch.

  Sheriff Mack grabbed his hat. “Let’s go talk to Miss Tate. Jake, why don’t you and Miss Loreli come with me. Brass, you and the others split up and take a stroll through town—see what you can hear or find out.”

  Millie’s shop was closed. The sheriff tried the door, then looked in through the window. “Funny. Her shop’s almost never closed.”

  Loreli peered through the small glass window front as well, but saw no one inside but the dress forms, fabrics, and notions.

  Sheriff Mack said, “Well, let’s ride out to the Appleby place and talk to Miss Rebecca. Maybe she can tell us something.”

  “I have to go to the bank and see if I can make the arrangements for the money,” Loreli said.

  “I’ll meet you back at the house,” Jake said.

  “It will just take a minute.”

  “Go home, Loreli. You’ve done enough. The sheriff and I need to go.”

  Loreli’s lips tightened. “Okay, Jake. Godspeed.”

  He turned and followed the sheriff back to the horses.

  Watching him walk away, all she kept hearing was, You’ve done enough. The words hurt. He was correct, however. Satan was loose in paradise and it was entirely her fault. Trevor’s perfidy had also impacted the budding relationship she and Jake had been building, but she didn’t have time to worry over it now. She had to get to the bank.

  Cyrus Buxton looked up when she entered. “Mornin’, Miss Winters.”

  “Mornin’, Cyrus. I need to withdraw some money.”

  “You can’t,” he told her in a sheepish voice.

  Loreli searched his face for a moment. “What do you mean, I can’t? I thought my money was here?”

  “It is—well—was.”

  Loreli could feel her temper rising but she remained calm. “Cyrus, what the hell are you talking about?”

  The voice of Sol Diggs came from behind her. “What he’s talking about is that your deposits are under investigation.”

  Loreli turned. “By whom?”

  He smiled wolfishly. “Me. I think some of the account numbers you gave my bank may have been in error, and since I don’t want to deposit money in your account that could possibly belong to someone else, I’m waiting for further verification from your banks back East. We should have it all cleared up in, oh, a month or two.”

  “You picked the wrong day to play your bluff, Diggs. I need a thousand dollars of my money right now,” she said coolly.

  He chuckled patronizingly. “I’m sorry, Miss Winters, but the whole thing is out of my hands.”

  Loreli thought about how scared the twins must be and how much she wanted to squash Diggs beneath her heel for this pitiful little stab at revenge. “Fine. Within the hour, the sheriff is going to receive a warrant for your arrest. You’re going to be charged with bank fraud, personal theft, forgery and anything else I can think of while I’m on my way to the telegraph office. When I’m done, every time you hear the word Winters, you’re going to break out in hives.”

  His eyes were wide.

  “Better tell the Queen she may lose her house too,” Loreli snapped.

  And she headed to the door.

  Diggs hastened to stop her exit. “Uh, Miss Winters. Hold on a moment. I was only teasing. You can have all the money—”

  “Save it, Diggs. If you didn’t want to play the game, you shouldn’t have dealt the cards.” She stormed off.

  Sheriff Mack and the others were gone by the time Loreli made it back to his office. His young deputy was on duty. When he read the message Loreli wrote out for him to send, his eyes widened. “You’re sure about this, ma’am?”

  “Yes. Send it on, please.”

  So he did.

  Twenty minutes later, she received her answer. Arrangements had been made for the money she needed. A Pinkerton had been hired to deliver it in cash tomorrow. The Diggs matter was also under investigation. Her barrister had already begun contacting the proper banking entities. Warrants would be filed later today.

  The young deputy said, “You must have some powerful friends.”

  “Yes, I do,” Loreli said.

  When Jake and the rest of the men arrived at Rebecca’s she was in the yard throwing feed to the chickens. She stopped upon seeing them and walked over. “Morning, men. What brings you here?”

  “When was the last time you saw Millie?” Jake asked.

  “Sunday afternoon after church,” Rebecca answered coolly. “She rode out here to tell me that the Winters woman pulled a gun on her and robbed her. Has something happened?”

  “Yes. Trevor Church has kidnapped the twins,” Jake said.

  “What? When?”

  “Sometime last night.”

  “I knew that woman would bring you nothing but trouble, Jake. Didn’t I say that?” Rebecca said.

  “Do you have any idea where Millie might be?” Jake snapped.

  “No.”

  Jake turned Fox around. “Let’s go, sheriff.”

/>   The men spent the rest of the afternoon searching abandoned farmhouses and talking to anyone who might know anything, but found nothing.

  At one point in the search, Jake said in frustration, “They have to be somewhere.”

  “There’s another place about a mile west of here. Let’s try there before we head back to town,” the sheriff said.

  They all agreed, but found nothing there either.

  Jake rode home filled with both anger and despair. Somewhere his girls were being held against their will, probably terrified. All he could think about was getting them back safe and sound, and then killing Church. What kind of man would use children as pawns? Men who lived in Loreli’s world, came the answer. Jake knew that Loreli loved the girls and would forfeit her own life before letting them be harmed, but how many other dangerous people would come calling at his farm because of her? Were there other Trevors lurking about waiting to use his girls as leverage against Loreli for reasons yet to be known? Would he have to spend the next twelve months constantly on guard, and looking over his shoulder so as to keep his family safe? Jake didn’t know the answers and it scared him.

  Loreli returned to a silent, empty farmhouse. As the day lengthened, her worries mounted. Where was Trevor holding the twins? Were they hungry? Had he fed them? Were they well? So far there’d been no further contact from him, so she had no idea as to when and where he wanted to make the exchange. Jake hadn’t returned as of yet either. She spent the day pacing and praying that he’d come home with Bebe and Dede in tow, but by five o’clock that afternoon, her prayers had yet to be answered.

  An hour later, Jake returned and Loreli stepped out onto the porch. He was alone.

  As he dismounted he asked anxiously, “Are they here?”

  “No. Did you find out anything?”

  He shook his head.

  Loreli sighed. Looking at him made her heart break even more. He loved those girls like he loved his life. The worry was undoubtedly eating him up inside. “Rebecca wasn’t able to help?”

  “No. She hasn’t seen Millie since Sunday.”

  “Did you go into her shop?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “We concentrated on the abandoned farms. Hoped Church was holed up in one, but searching her shop is a good idea.” He remounted. “I’m going back to town.” Jake knew the search might be futile, but he was at his wits’ end, and he needed to stay on the move. Trying to end this nightmare fueled every breath.

  “I’ll saddle Phoebe and meet you there,” Loreli told him.

  “Stay here.”

  “No, Jake. Those girls are my heart. I caused this, and if you’re angry at me, I can live with that, but I can’t live with them being gone this way and not helping find them, so I’m going to town too. Whether you want me there or not!”

  His lip tightened beneath his mustache, but she didn’t care. She hurried to the barn.

  When she rode back, he was mounted on Fox and waiting. It gave her hope that maybe the barriers of mistrust and anger building between them could be breached, but he acknowledged her only by saying, “Let’s ride.”

  Sheriff Mack was still on duty when they walked in. He looked as tired and spent as Jake and Loreli. Sheriff studied Loreli for a moment, then said, “Miss Winters, I just got a wire from the state treasury people telling me to shut down Sol Diggs’s bank. I got another one a little while ago from the Federal marshal in Topeka, telling me to place Sol under arrest.”

  “So have you?”

  “No, not yet, but—” He looked at her as if he didn’t quite know what to ask.

  “Sheriff, can we talk about all this later?” Loreli asked. “Jake and I want to take a look inside Millie’s shop. Maybe we can learn something there.”

  He tossed the telegrams onto his desk. “Might be a good idea. It worries me that no one’s seen her. Let’s go.”

  Because the sheriff had keys to the doors of all the town’s businesses, they had no problem getting inside. The place was dark and quiet. The sheriff found a lamp and lit it. The three of them looked around.

  “Does she live here as well?” Loreli asked.

  “Yes, in the back,” the sheriff answered.

  Lighting another lamp, the sheriff picked it up and led the way to the small room in the back. Millie’s body lay sprawled across the bed. The pair of black stockings tied around her neck showed she’d been strangled.

  The sheriff said sadly, “Guess we found her.”

  He walked closer to the bed. He shook his head. “What a waste of life,” he uttered.

  Loreli gasped and closed her eyes for a moment. No, she hadn’t liked Millie, but no one deserved to die so violently. Had Trevor done this? The thought made her shudder.

  Jake turned his eyes away from Millie’s body and asked the sheriff, “Are there any other rooms here? A cellar, a crawl space? Any place where the girls could be hidden away? They’re here somewhere. I can feel it.”

  Loreli could feel it as well, and wondered if love accounted for such strong, eerie sensations.

  “There’s a small storm cellar out back,” Sheriff Mack said.

  They quickly searched out the cellar. Large pieces of wood lay across the plywood and tar-paper roof. While Loreli held the lamp, Jake and the sheriff removed them and set them aside.

  “Don’t remember this wood being here before,” Sheriff said.

  Jake pulled up the door and called down, “Bebe! Dede! You girls down there?”

  Silence.

  “Loreli, bring that lamp,” Jake said.

  Loreli stepped to the edge of the cellar and shined the light down into the black hole. A short flight of earth-carved steps were revealed.

  Jake called for the girls again, but only silence echoed.

  Under Loreli’s lamp Jake climbed down the steps, then took the light from Loreli so he could see the rest of the way down. Jake looked around the shadows for a moment, then his heart stopped. “I found them!”

  They were lying side by side on the dirt floor in a corner. Praying they weren’t dead, he hurried to them. “They’re here!”

  Their little bodies looked so lifeless, Jake was shaking as he knelt slowly beside them. Afraid of what he might discover, he touched Dede’s cheek. It was warm. “They’re alive!”

  He shook their shoulders gently. “Be! De! Wake up.”

  They didn’t move. “I think they’ve been drugged.” He had to get them out of here. He looked up at the sheriff and Loreli. “Walt, I’m going to hand them up.”

  It took them a few minutes to bring the girls to the surface, but once it was accomplished, the men carried them back to the sheriff’s office. They laid the girls down on the cot in the lone cell and covered them with a blanket. Their faces were dirty, their nightgowns crusted with mud, but they were alive!

  While a tearfully grateful Loreli looked on, Jake examined them to make certain they had no external injuries, such as broken limbs or contusions.

  “How long do you think they’ll stay sleep?” Sheriff Mack asked.

  “No way of knowing what he gave them,” Jake said. “Their pulses are strong and they seem to be breathing well, so, we’ll just have to wait and see.”

  Loreli walked over and ran a loving finger down each soft cheek. Paying the grim-faced Jake no mind, Loreli bent down and kissed them on their foreheads. The tears ran freely down her cheeks. Her babies were safe.

  “I need to go take care of Millie’s body,” Sheriff Mack said. “You two going to be all right?”

  Both nodded, so the sheriff hurried away.

  In the silence that followed, Loreli looked to Jake, but his eyes held no forgiveness. Not that she had been expecting any. His nieces would never have been harmed had Loreli not come into their lives. “I’m sorry, Jake.”

  “I need to get them home.”

  She noticed he hadn’t said “we.” Loreli knew what she needed to do. “I’m—going to be leaving here, Jake. I don’t want this to ever happen
again.”

  He met her eyes. “That might be best.”

  Her heart broke. Deep inside she had been hoping he would say her leaving wouldn’t be necessary, but she knew how unrealistic that was. Were the shoe on the other foot, he would be the last person she’d want around her girls in light of today’s terrifying events. “I’ll—see if I can spend the night at Fanny’s.”

  Jake had to bury everything he felt for her deep inside. He loved her, lord knew he did, but she couldn’t stay. He never ever wanted to go through an experience like this again, nor would he allow the girls to. His heart would ache every day they were apart, maybe for the rest of his life, but she had to leave. This was for the best.

  Loreli looked into his familiar face and had to set aside how much she would miss him. She ran her eyes over the two precious angels sleeping side by side on the cot. Lord, how could she leave them? “You will explain to the girls?”

  He nodded. “I will.”

  “Keep the furniture. Give away the clothes and whatever else.”

  “What about the jewelry?”

  “Sell it. There’re only a few pieces. Buy the girls some horses so they can race.”

  Loreli took a deep breath to keep the tears away. “Good-bye, Jake.”

  “Bye, Loreli.”

  She walked to the door and didn’t look back.

  In the silence that followed her leaving, it took all Jake had not to go after her, but when he glanced over at the girls, the rage he’d felt for the man who’d endangered them rekindled, making him remember why Trevor Church had come to Kansas in the first place. Jake didn’t want to see Loreli Winters ever again.

  Loreli spent the night with Fanny. The sheriff stopped by a few days later to let Loreli know that the twins had recovered. The news lifted her mood a bit, but it didn’t fill the ache in her heart. She wanted to hold them, kiss them, tell them how sorry she was for what Trevor had done. Warrants had been issued for Trevor’s arrest, but the authorities had no clues to his whereabouts.

  The next day, Loreli was escorted to the train by Fanny and the rest of the brides. They’d rallied around her, and she’d been moved by their loving support. Now, as the train whistle blew, it was time for Loreli to say good-bye.