Chase the Wind (8 page)

He had ridden close to an hour when he was knocked from the saddle by an impact that left him lying breathless in the snow. A shadowed figure loomed over him, and a few others stood behind.

“Randolph Mason sends his regards,” the shadow jeered. Ian was hauled to his feet and punched in the stomach before he had a
chance to regain his breath. He fell to his knees. Another shadow
grabbed his hair and pulled his head up.

“Mr. Mason would like you to know that he plans on riding all
of your mares.” The shadow punched his jaw, causing Ian’s ears to
ring.

“Mr. Mason said to tell you he’s especially fond of the mare you
call silver angel,” another shadow said into his ear. Ian closed his
eyes. Another punch was coming, and he didn’t care.

Ian had awakened the next morning stiff and cold. He had
dragged himself onto the chestnut and made his way to the same tavern where he now sat. He had spent the day recovering there
before heading home to Richmond.

Now the rain was tapering off. Ian scanned the sky through the window to see if there was a break in the clouds. There was, but
more bad weather was in store. At least for the moment the heavy
pounding had given way to a light pattering against the pane. He needed to leave; he had lingered long enough. Ian rose from the
table and made his way to the door.

“A toast!” The table of revelers exclaimed. “A toast to Randolph
Mason and his marriage to the Ice Princess!”

Ian froze in his tracks.

“I guess she won’t be the Ice Princess after tomorrow night,” one
of them offered.

“Mason will thaw her out right quick!” another added, and the
entire table burst into laughter.

Ian stood in the door as the realization hit him. Faith had re
marked at one time that Mason had called her the Ice Princess. She
was marrying the bastard tomorrow. He stumbled out into the
yard. The rain was lightly falling, and he turned his face up to the sky to let the drops splatter on his face and trickle down his collar. He stood there for a moment blinking up to the heavens. Then he squared his shoulders and shoved his hair back before setting his hat firmly on his head. He was going to see Faith. He wanted to hear from her lips that she loved Randolph Mason.

Chapter Five

Faith woke with a start. The thunder had awakened her as it rolled across the river and rumbled through the treetops. The rain was coming down hard, and the wind was blowing it in her open win
dows. She kicked the quilt off and quickly closed the window at
the front of the house. She stopped, however, when she got to the
side window. She stared at the oak tree as the wind blew the rain in on her body. Was it possible for her to escape by way of the
tree?

The realization of what she was thinking hit Faith like the raindrops hitting her body. She had been living as a sleepwalker these past six months. Since the day she’d asked Ian to leave, her emo
tions had been dead. It hadn’t mattered what anyone said or did, if only they left her alone so she could dream of Ian. But Ian was
in Richmond where Mason couldn’t touch him. It was that simple,
she realized. She could go to Ian, be with him if he still wanted her. If he didn’t, well, she’d just worry about that then.

Faith wheeled around and surveyed the room. The carpetbag
came out of the wardrobe. She packed it as she had before with a
few essentials, her mother’s Bible and the quilt. She hastily dressed
and then stood at the window braiding her hair, her mind racing
over the best way down. If she could make it to the tree, the rest would be easy. A bolt of lightning split the air. She began to count, and when the thunder started to rumble she dropped the carpetbag to the ground. She straddled the sill and surveyed her options. If she could reach the branch above, she could swing her feet over to the one below, possibly going hand over hand to bring her body into the center of the tree.

She took a breath and stood up on the sill, grabbing the frame with her left hand. She took a deep breath and reached out. A gust of wind took the branch out of her reach. The rain was running into her eyes. She looked down at the ground two stories below. The wind died. She reached out again, then leaned, letting go of the window frame. Now she was dangling from the limb, the wind whipping the leaves against her. She swung her feet into the tree and managed to brush the limb below with the toe of her boot. The rain was making the branches slick, and she tightened her grip. She crossed hand over hand until she could get a foothold on the branch below. She made her way into the center of the tree and wrapped her arms around the wide trunk. She needed to keep the trunk between her and the house in case someone was in the drawing room. On her way down, she noticed that the rain that had been blowing moments before had almost stopped. The only remaining problem was hitting the ground without breaking a bone. She managed to land gracefully without any damage to life or limb, and she smiled to herself as she looked over the route she had just come. If only the trek to Richmond could be that easy. She crept up to the house to retrieve her bag. She heard voices inside and stood next to the open window, listening.

“When are you to collect the money?” Miriam was asking.

“I told you, after the ceremony.” It was her father, sounding very impatient.

“Will it be enough?”

Faith heard her father’s bitter laugh. “Is it ever? I thought the price Jenny’s father gave me to marry her when she was carrying her little bastard daughter would be enough to last a lifetime, but it was gone in a few short years.”

Faith listened to the revelation without batting an eye. It made perfect sense. Her mother had loved someone else. She picked up her bag and headed towards the woods behind the barn.

The rain had not really stopped. It continued in a slow drizzle, just
enough to make Ian’s last few miles uncomfortable. Night was com
ing early, the clouds that had gathered to the west canceling out
the evening sun. He routed himself around the north side of town and came down the river trail to the woods behind Faith’s house. He left the gray in the usual place, the grove of trees being well sheltered now with the undergrowth that was common in the summer. He came around the outside of the barn and quietly made his way to the oak tree. He stood with it between him and the house
and studied the situation. It sounded as if a row was going on inside
the house. He saw the big black, Armageddon, tied to the fence post and a horse and buggy stationed beyond. He heard words
being exchanged but was unable to make sense of the conversation.
If they’re unhappy now, wait until I get through with them,
he thought
to himself as he swung up in the tree.

He had climbed up to Faith’s window in a matter of seconds
and
had to smile when he saw the sash wide open. No doubt there was a puddle on the floor beyond. He reached out
for the sill and
quickly scanned the room. The door was barely hanging by one hinge, but something else was wrong. Something tickled the back
of his mind. His eyes went round the room again and settled on
the bed. The quilt was gone. Ian knew Faith well enough to know that she wouldn’t go anywhere without that quilt. It was gone, so
therefore she was gone. She must have changed her mind about
the wedding at the last minute, and that was what the uproar was
about. The thing to do now was to find her before Mason did.

He was hanging from the lowest branch, ready to hit the ground,
when he saw her boot prints in the soft earth beneath the tree. He
landed gently and looked back up at the route he had taken. He
smiled at the picture that formed in his mind. He couldn’t wait to
hear about her tackling the tree. The prints went to the window
and then took off around the barn. He had practically walked over
them on his way in. He heard movement at the window above him
and flattened himself against the wall. The heated conference had
moved from the front hall to the salon.

“I thought you had her under control, Taylor.” That was Mason
speaking.

“She never gave any sign,” Faith’s father replied.

“Now, Randolph, I’m sure it’s just a case of pre-wedding jitters,”
Mason’s mother suggested.

“We must find her before anyone discovers she’s missing,” Mir
iam was adding. “It would be most embarrassing for both families
if word of this got out.”

Ian quietly moved away from the window. There was only one
place he could think of that she would go, and that was to find
him in Richmond. He’d probably ridden right by her on his way
into town. There were several routes available to her, and he
needed to consider them quickly before Mason found her. Since
he had come in on the road from the east and north, he would check the ferry to the south across the Kanawha. She probably
didn’t have much money and would need to pass in secret. Those
constraints would reduce the transportation available to her.

He made his way around the barn, practically walking in her
footprints. They disappeared in the leaves and debris that covered
the ground in the woods. He mounted the gray and followed the path out, scanning the earth as he went. There, she had turned to the south, she was going to cross the river and go east on the other side. He kicked the gray into a gallop along the trail, his churning hooves flinging up mud and erasing the signs of Faith’s passage. The trail ended where the business district began. Ian rode down
the main street now, the buildings here backing up to the river.

He came to the place where the two rivers met and he turned
east, searching for the path that led down to the ferry. He spied
the trail and urged the gray down. The ferry was gone, the place deserted. Ian jumped from the back of the gray to better scan the
earth around the dock. It was nearly dark, and the rain was picking
up. The shack that housed the ferry master looked empty, and he could only surmise that the man had already crossed the river. It was too dark to see if the ferry was docked on the other bank. Ian wanted to make sure, so he went to knock on the door. The door was unlatched and he pushed it open, cautiously sticking his head
into the one room shack. He caught the flash of some projectile
and raised his arm to block a pewter pitcher that was aimed at his
head. He launched his body into the corner from which the weapon
had come and crashed into a body. He tried to find a purchase on
his squirming attacker and found his hand curved around a soft
breast.

“Faith?” he asked the darkness. He heard a small intake of breath
and sat back on his heels. The body moved away, and he heard
fumbling across the room. A lantern came to life, spreading a small
circle of warmth in the dreary shack. She walked up to him, carrying the lantern, and held it up to his face in the darkness. The hair
had fallen across his eyes and he pushed it back. Her face went
from bewilderment to joy in a matter of seconds, and she flung herself into his arms, dropping the lantern in the process. Ian held
her to him, then instantly shoved her away and began stamping
out the flames that were dancing across the floor from the broken
lantern. When they were out, he found her again and drew her
within the circle of his arms.

“What are—” she began, but he put his finger to her lips.

“We’ll talk about it later; we must be away before they find us.”

“I never stopped loving you,” she said in the darkness.

“I know,” he replied. “Let’s go.” He pulled her out the door,
giving her a second to scoop up her bag. He mounted the gray and
pulled her up behind. He hooked the bag on the horn as she
wrapped her arms around him. Her cheek settled against his shoul
der, and he caressed her hand as he gathered the reins.

“I hope you don’t mind going west,” he said as they went up the
embankment to the road.

“As long as we’re together, I don’t care where we go,” she said
against his shoulder.

“We will be, I promise.” He kicked the gray into a canter. “We’ll
go north and take the ferry across.”

“But that will take us by the Masons place.”

“I know. They’re all at your house now.” She laughed at that, a
laugh that bubbled up from within and made Ian’s heart leap.

The streets were mostly deserted due to the rain that had now increased in tempo. They were both soaked through, but neither seemed to care. They had soon passed through the town and were
on the road to the north. The rain was getting worse, with the wind picking up again, and the far-off rumble of thunder could be heard.
Ian slowed the gray on the road; it was almost impossible for him
to see and he couldn’t risk the animal stumbling.