Angels Watching Over Me (Shenandoah Sisters Book #1) (22 page)

‘‘I was just thinking about that,’’ replied Katie. ‘‘I think I will. It will be about God and the friend He sent me.’’

I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of me, Mary Ann Jukes, being in a poem!

‘‘I reckon we oughta be getting back, huh?’’ I said.

We both stood up. Katie turned toward me, then reached out and gave me a big hug. We stood like that for probably a whole minute, neither of us giving thought about one of us being white and the other being black. Then the dog started sniffing around us and whimpering like he wanted to get in on the act. We laughed and started back.

I reckon I realized it myself now too . . . we were just
friends
.

Q
UESTIONS
32

A
S WE WERE WALKING BACK,
I
SAID,
‘‘Y
OU
know, Miss Katie, I’ve been thinking about that letter from your uncle. Are you sure you don’t know what he was talking about, or remember him coming for a visit or anything?’’

‘‘I don’t think so. But now that you remind me . . . maybe I do remember hearing Mama and Daddy talking about him once, a while ago. I wonder if he visited and they were talking about him afterwards.’’

‘‘Could that have had something to do with why your other uncle came for the visit a year ago?’’ I asked.

‘‘Maybe so,’’ she said thoughtfully. ‘‘Now that you mention it, he asked a lot of questions.’’

‘‘I bet your uncle—what was the name of the one who was in California?’’

‘‘Uncle Ward.’’

‘‘I bet he found gold in California. I heard tell of California having lots of gold. A slave ran away once and everyone said he was going to California to find gold. So if your uncle found some, maybe your other uncle wanted it.’’

‘‘Uncle Templeton didn’t say anything about any gold, although he did ask if Mama had heard from Uncle Ward.’’

‘‘What about—’’

All of a sudden I just had an amazing thought. ‘‘Could he have brought it
here,
Miss Katie?’’ I asked.

‘‘Brought what here?’’

‘‘The gold he found in California. Could he have had it with him when he came?’’

‘‘I don’t know. But what would—’’

‘‘Don’t you see what I mean! What if he never came back for it?’’

‘‘Do you mean—you mean it might still be here . . .
now
?’’

‘‘Yes,’’ I replied. I couldn’t help but be excited. ‘‘Could it
still
be here?’’

‘‘I . . . I’m not sure,’’ said Katie, ‘‘but it could be—’’ ‘‘That letter made it sound like he was afraid and wanted your ma to help. What if he gave it to your mama to keep for him, but then maybe he got killed in the war so he never came back. And if he didn’t—’’ I stopped when Katie’s eyes got real big.

‘‘What is it?’’ I said.

‘‘I just remembered something! I remember hearing Caleb and Joseph talking one day about Uncle Ward!’’

‘‘What did they say?’’

‘‘I wasn’t paying much attention. But now that I think about it, I remember hearing my mama and papa talking too, before my daddy left. Something about Mama keeping something for her brother, and then about him coming back, and giving it to him—’’

‘‘Just like I thought!’’ I exclaimed.

‘‘But my daddy said he didn’t think he would come back with a war on. Then they were talking about her brothers, Ward and Templeton, hating each other and what would happen if Uncle Templeton found out.’’

‘‘If he didn’t ever come back, then—’’ I said, ‘‘then it
could
still be here!’’

We were walking pretty fast by now, our legs trying to keep up with our tongues.

‘‘Is that what those bad men were after?’’ Katie asked, panting to keep up with my longer legs.

‘‘Hmm . . . doesn’t seem likely.’’ I shook my head. ‘‘Otherwise why would they have killed your family and other folks around? Why would they have killed your ma if she was the one who knew where it was? Why wouldn’t they have searched the place? Just doesn’t seem likely to me.’’

We were both quiet for a while.

‘‘Where might it be?’’ I wondered out loud. ‘‘Think, Miss Katie. Is there any place where your ma and pa might have hid something valuable? Did they have someplace like my mama’s chest under the bed where they kept treasures, a box or a—what’s that kind of thing called where people put stuff and lock it?’’

‘‘A safe? I think my daddy had one in his office.’’

‘‘Show me.’’

We were pretty excited by the time we got back to the house. We hurried into the house and upstairs to the office.

Katie looked around, then walked to a picture on the wall and swung it open. It was attached on the side instead of the top. Behind it in the wall there was a black metal door with a round knob on it with numbers all around in a circle.

‘‘There it is!’’

‘‘Can you open it?’’ I asked.

She tried the handle, but it was locked.

‘‘That’s gotta be where it is,’’ I said. ‘‘How do you open it?’’

Katie shook her head. ‘‘I think it’s something like a puzzle. You have to turn the dial back and forth. I saw Mama fiddling with it once.’’

‘‘But you don’t know how to do it?’’

She shook her head again.

‘‘Maybe there’s something in the desk that tells about it,’’ I said, walking over and looking at the papers and boxes and files on top of it. ‘‘You gotta look, Miss Katie, and see if you can find something that tells about it.’’

‘‘I will, Mayme.’’

‘‘Maybe it better wait till later,’’ I said. ‘‘I can smell that fresh bread down in the kitchen, and it’s making me hungry.’’

‘‘You’re always hungry, Mayme,’’ Katie laughed. ‘‘Let’s go eat.’’

‘‘Maybe we should finish the old half loaf first,’’ I said. ‘‘And besides, the new ones will be too hot to cut.’’

U
NEXPECTED
V
ISITORS
33

N
OW WHERE IS IT?’’
I
SAID AS WE WALKED
into the kitchen.

Katie glanced around too, but the leftover half loaf of bread was nowhere to be seen.

‘‘That’s a mite odd,’’ I said. ‘‘Did that dog follow us into the house when we came back from the woods?’’

Katie laughed. ‘‘I’ve never seen him eat bread, and he sure isn’t here now.’’

I shrugged and headed out to the barn while Katie worked on our lunch. I had to clean out the stalls after the morning’s milking.

As I came in, something scurried into a dark corner.
Probably a barn cat,
I thought when I didn’t see or hear anything more.
Maybe it’s the critter that ate that
missing bread,
I joked to myself as I climbed up into the hayloft to throw down some clean hay for the animals. I tossed down the bales, then clambered back down the notched pole to the barn floor.

I had just started to shovel the manure out of the stalls when suddenly Katie ran in, a look of terror on her face. Her eyes were huge, and she was trying to say something.

‘‘There’s . . . it’s some . . . there’s men coming. On horseback,’’ she stammered.

A shiver went all through me. It was just what I’d been afraid of. After the two earlier visitors we’d had, and my talks with Katie about what was to become of us, I’d hoped the next people we’d encounter would be someone Katie trusted, someone who could help her—a relative or a friend, or maybe someone from nearby like a sheriff or a minister or something, or maybe even that Mr. Thurston fellow again.

But the first thing to come into my mind, when I heard her say
some men
was that marauding gang that had killed my family and hers. If they’d come back, I knew well enough what they’d do if they found us alone. They’d kill me and do things to Katie I didn’t even want to think about. She was pretty enough and growing up. That much was plain to anyone who took a good look at her. And if they found an empty house, they might just decide to stay and take it over themselves.

I didn’t need to tell Katie to be quiet. She was trembling from head to foot. It wasn’t but a few seconds after she came in before I heard horses outside, then men’s voices.

I set the pitchfork down as quietly as I could and crept to the door of the barn. I peeked out and saw a couple of men on horseback. Luckily it wasn’t anything like the big band of riders from before. They were riding into the open space between the barn and the house.

I jerked my head back and scurried to Katie, grabbing her hand and motioning with a finger to my lips. I pulled her to a dark corner where we ducked down out of sight behind an empty stall. I stuck my face up to the boards and shut one eye, trying to peer out through a crack.

‘‘See if anyone’s home,’’ said a rough, deep voice that made me shiver just to hear it. ‘‘I’ll check the barn for feed.’’

I could see plain enough that there were three of them. I suppose they could have been just friendly neighbors. But I doubted it. They were scraggly and mean looking. I couldn’t help but be reminded of the men who’d killed our families.

‘‘Look through here,’’ I whispered. ‘‘Anybody you know?’’

Katie leaned across me and squinted, then leaned back and shook her head.

The next moment we heard the door of the barn creak open, and a shaft of light followed. Then came the dull thud of boots walking slowly across the wood floor. Katie was huddled so close I could feel her whole body shaking. She stuck her head against my chest, and I put my arm around her and stroked her hair. I was afraid she might start crying, but she didn’t.

Suddenly the boots stopped. The man was in the middle of the barn, only about twenty feet from us. I could sense him looking around.

‘‘Anybody there?’’ he called out.

Silence. I wondered if he could hear our hearts pounding.

He stood there for what seemed like forever. Then the boots started walking again. I heard what sounded like oats being scooped out of the bin into a bag, then he went back outside.

I peeked through the crack again. The other man was just walking back from the door of the house.

‘‘Ain’t nobody in the house, Jeb,’’ he said.

‘‘Abandoned?’’ asked the man who had been in the barn. He handed the bag of oats to the third man, who started giving handfuls to their horses.

‘‘Don’t look like it. Place’s all tidy and a fire’s on. Fresh bread’s on the table.’’

The one called Jeb scratched his chin.

‘‘Huh . . . barn looked worked too,’’ he said.

‘‘Might be women here. Wouldn’t hurt to look around.’’

I felt Katie’s trembling become even more noticeable.

‘‘I could use a woman, Jeb,’’ he went on. ‘‘It’s been—’’

‘‘Shut up, Hal, you fool! You’ll get all the women you want after we find what we’re looking for.’’

‘‘Where are they, then?’’ asked the other.

‘‘Don’t know.’’

‘‘Out in the fields someplace?’’

Jeb shrugged. ‘‘From the looks of it, there’s folks about.’’

‘‘Then we’ll just wait and kill ’em when they come back,’’ snarled the other man with a nasty laugh.

‘‘Yeah, and you’re a blamed idiot. Ain’t you had your fill of killin’? We don’t need a price on our heads. ’Sides, we’ll never find him if we kill his kin. If this is his sister’s place, then she’s likely to know something.’’

‘‘Maybe not, Jeb. We ain’t found a trace of him in months. He likely never even made it back this far.’’

‘‘What else we gonna do? We’ll just feed our horses and rest up a spell. When they come back, we’ll just be real friendly and ask if they can put us up for a couple a nights. We’ll do our nosing around and get a lead on Ward and the dough. Now go inside and rustle us up some grub. I’ll unhitch the horses.’’

They’re sure to find us sooner or later,
I thought. We had to do something.

‘‘Come with me,’’ I whispered real quiet to Katie.

Slowly I got to my feet, took her hand, and led her toward the back of the barn. If we could get out the back door and make a dash for the woods, we might be able to get away without being seen.

I opened the door slowly. It was a good thing it didn’t make much noise. Nobody was in sight. The three men were all still on the other side between the barn and the back of the house, or maybe they’d gone into the house by now.

‘‘Can you run with me?’’ I whispered.