Page 18 of Mail-Order Bride Secret
Where was Otis?
Wally stopped and looked upward. She followed the direction of his gaze and her heart crashed against her ribs.
Otis lay face down, spread eagle on the steeply-angled roof with no handhold but rough shingles.
Something had her rooted to the spot. She glanced down. Nothing but grass—short and brown. No vines. Nothing gluing her there. Only her fear that if she moved too suddenly, Otis would lose his fragile grasp.
Wally held out his arms.
Knowing he was prepared to break Otis’s fall sent cold racing through Madeline’s veins and then stinging heat.
“Otis, can you slowly slide to the edge of the roof, and I’ll catch you?” Wally’s words were soft and gentle. His calmness did not ease the fear pounding in her head.
Ivy jumped up and down, her hands squeezed into fists at her side. “Otis, come down. I’m scared.”
“I’m not.” His voice was loud, but it wasn’t hard to guess he was as frightened as the rest of them.
A man came running from the barn. He touched Lindy on the shoulder. Was this Matt? “Stay right where you are. You, too, Kit.” He went to Wally. “How’d he get up there?”
Wally didn’t take his eyes off Otis. “Right now, I’m more concerned with how he’s going to get down.” The pair of them looked up at the boy.
From the nearest house, a couple came. Madeline guessed it to be Andy and Della. They stopped at Madeline’s side.
“I’m Della. Pleased to meet you though I’d have chosen a different situation.”
Madeline spared a glance in her direction. She was as blonde as Wally had said, her eyes a striking blue. “I guess you know who I am.”
“Indeed. Mrs. Edwards. May I call you Madeline? I’ll understand if you prefer to be more formal.”
“Madeline is fine.” Only half her mind was on the woman’s words. Her face was riveted to the boy on the roof.
Andy joined the other two men. “Is there a plan here?”
Wally’s attention did not shift from Otis. A fact that provided a touch of comfort to Madeline. “I’m staying here until he’s down. I’ll catch him if he falls.”
Andy trotted around the corner and out of sight. He returned carrying a ladder. “This is how he got up. I’ll bring him down.” He positioned the ladder against the eaves.
The movement startled Otis and he started to slide.
Ivy wailed. Lindy screamed, the sound so piercing that Jonathan began to cry. Della gasped and grabbed Madeline’s free hand, mashing her fingers together.
Otis’s descent slowed. Madeline let out her pent-up breath. Andy jiggled the ladder to make sure it wasproperly balanced. He stood at the bottom and gripped the uprights. Raised his foot and put it on the first rung.
Madeline’s air squeaked out as Otis slid again. “He’s falling.” She managed barely a whisper and wondered if anyone heard her.
Maybe Wally didn’t need to. He held his arms like a cradle, braced his feet, and kept his eyes on the boy.
Fabric rasped against rough shingles. The girls stopped screaming but their sobs tore at Madeline’s senses every bit as much as their louder wails had.
Otis’s boots reached the edge of the roof. He toed frantically, seeking something to stop his descent.
She grimaced. He was going to be badly scraped.
“I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
Words of assurance and yet Madeline’s head pounded with the fear Wally wouldn’t be able to catch him.
And then he was falling. Inches from where Wally had his arms out.
