Page 365 of Conveniently Wed
As it was, all they had was some flattened grass.
They searched for clues when a yell drew their attention toward the barn. Garrett slapped his horse on the rump and mounted on the run with the rest of the men hurrying to follow.
He raced toward the home place, topped the rise, and nearly plowed over Aundy’s cook.
Swiftly pulling back on the reins, he circled Li then bent down to look in the man’s frightened face.
“Missy need help!” Li repeated over and over while Garrett stared at him, trying to make sense of his words.
“Help? Who needs help, Li?”
“Hurry! Bad man has Missy. Hurry fast!” Li waved his hands in the direction of the house while trying to catch his breath. “Bad man take Missy.”
Garrett gave Li a hand, hauling him up behind him on the horse. They rode to the bunkhouse where Li jumped off and waved his hands toward the house. “Bad man, Ashton, take Missy with him.”
“Ashton? Ashton Monroe?” Garrett asked, wishing Li could speak better English. As wound up as he was, it was nearly impossible to understand him. “How do you know Ashton?”
“He beat me, leave me to die when I not do something bad for him. Then Missy find me,” Li said, pointing toward the road. “He hurt Missy. Hurry!”
“Who’s gonna hurt Missy?” Dent asked as he and the rest of the men rode up while Bill and J.B. hurried out of the barn to see what created all the commotion.
“Ashton Monroe,” Garrett said, looking at Kade. “Li said he took Aundy and rode off. We have to find her. If he’s behind all this, there’s no telling what he’ll do.”
“Why he want Missy?” Li asked, looking from Garrett to Dent.
“We’re about to find out,” Kade said. Hastily making plans, he asked J.B. to stay with Nora at the house, and Bill and Dent to keep an eye on the place while George and Glen went back out to watch over the sheep and clean up the dead carcasses. Garrett, Fred, and Hank would go with Kade to find Aundy. Li would watch over Lem at the bunkhouse.
“Any ideas on why Ashton would kidnap Aundy, kill her sheep, shoot the boy, and try to run her off the place?” Kade asked, wishing he’d paid more attention to Ashton at dinner the other night. Busy ignoring the Raines sisters, he hadn’t noticed much else.
“Not really. There has to be something he wants real bad on the farm. Why else would he try to run her off?” Garrett asked, thinking aloud. Ashton’s fawning over Aundy bothered him more than he cared to admit. Whenever the man got close to her, waves of jealousy washed over him until it was all he could do not to punch the sweet-talking southerner in the face.
If he really did take Aundy and was behind all the terror at her place, he’d do a lot more than break Ashton’s perfect, aristocratic nose.
Riddled with anger, Garrett should have told Aundy the truth the other night. She’d hurt him when she pushed him away. Instead of talking out the problem, making sure she knew how much he loved her and asking her to marry him, he’d kissed her with a ruthless intensity and stormed out the door.
If he planned to love Aundy for the rest of her life, he had to learn to let go of his pride and resign himself to the fact that she was anything but a typical woman.
Most women he knew were content keeping a home and raising children. Something in him knew Aundy would want more. Too bright and lively to stay in the house and be completely domestic, she wanted to be outside doing, learning, succeeding on the farm. Garrett would have to give her plenty ofroom to spread her wings if he didn’t want to lose her altogether. He loved her too much to consider the possibility of a future without her in it.
Thoughts of telling her how he really felt spurred him on to Dogwood Corners.
“What if he isn’t there? Then what?” Garrett asked Kade as they galloped down the road.
“Then we’ll go to town and round up a posse and find him.” Kade didn’t want to drag more people into something that could quite likely end with gunfire, but he’d do whatever was needed to make sure Aundy returned home safe and sound.
At the point where the road met with the lane leading to Ashton’s stately home, Kade stopped and looked around the group, hoping things went better than he was expecting. “Here’s what we’re gonna do…”
A sharp pounding behind her eyes roused Aundy. She struggled to remember what she’d done to hurt her head and recalled arguing with Ashton before everything went black.
Slowly opening her eyes, she was face down on a bed in an unfamiliar room. In case Ashton waited nearby, she cautiously looked around without moving.
Carefully listening, the only sound she heard was her own breathing and decided she was alone. She rolled onto her side to discover her hands tied together in front of her with what appeared to be Ashton’s handkerchief.
She held the knot up to her mouth then yanked and tugged at it with her teeth. Aundy almost had it loose when the creak ofa floorboard let her know someone was right outside the door. Quickly rolling onto her stomach, she made sure to tuck her hands beneath her then closed her eyes.
Footsteps thudded across the floor and stopped next to the bed. She smelled Ashton’s cologne, a scent she now found nauseating. Everything in her wanted to jump up, kicking and screaming. Instead, she pretended to remain unconscious, careful to take even breaths.
“Maybe I hit you a little harder than necessary, my dear,” Ashton said, placing a hand to her head. When she didn’t move, he withdrew his hand and paced the floor. It was like he’d opened the door to his thoughts and they all spilled out of his mouth. “You stupid bumpkins don’t take a hint. I tried to buy you out, but you just don’t listen. First, it was that idiot Nash family holding things up. Trying to get rid of J.B. didn’t work. Who knew the old coot would recover? I thought when I spooked Erik’s team and the wagon crashed, I’d be able to pick up his place for a song. Except he had to go and leave the land to you, the most stubborn, unreasonable female I’ve ever encountered. Now, I’m going to have to marry you and kill you all in the same day. Then I’ll finally have my gold.”
