Noelle had never seen the small, wiry man who stood on the other side nervously shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "I gotta see Mr. Copeland right away!" the man exclaimed.
Quickly Noelle pushed Nathan aside. "I'm Mrs. Copeland. Tell me what's wrong."
The man's eyes darted into the hallway behind her. "You get Mr. Copeland, ma'am. I got a horse waitin' for him. There's a fire at the shipyard."
"Dear God, no!" Noelle whispered, and then, sharply, "Nathan! Get as many of the men as you can. I'm going ahead." Not bothering to fetch her cloak, she brushed past the stranger and raced across the porch toward the horses at the bottom of the front steps.
"Wait!" the man cried. "I came for Mr. Copeland!"
"My husband isn't home," she declared as she caught up her skirts and mounted the nearest horse. "Hurry! There's no time to argue." She did not wait to see if he followed her.
As she reached the edge of the pine trees near the main road, her mind was racing. How long ago had the fire started and how far had it spread? There was a new cutter they were getting ready to- Without warning, two horses shot out from the night shadows on either side of her. She jerked back on the reins as they blocked the road. "What do you think you're-"
"Son of a bitch!" a familiar voice exclaimed. "Where's Copeland?" Even before she could make out his features, Noelle knew it was Luke Baker.
Another horse drew up behind her. "He wasn't there, Luke. She took off 'fore I could stop her." It was the stranger who had come for Quinn.
Fear clawed at Noelle as she looked around at the unshaven faces of the three men who surrounded her. There was no fire at the shipyard. It was a trap. Somehow Luke Baker had escaped from prison and come after Quinn.
Bracing herself, she dug her heels into her horse's flanks. But she was too late. Baker had anticipated her movement. He swung out his forearm and caught her painfully around the waist. He jerked her to his own horse just as hers shot out from beneath her. "Now, that wasn't too smart, little lady," he sneered. "You didn't really think I was gonna let you go that easy, did you? Get that horse, Greeley. We got a long way to ride. Looks like we can't get Copeland, but I gotta feelin' she's gonna do jes' fine."
"No!" Noelle clawed at the knotted muscles of his lower arm. "No! Let me go!"
"Shut up!" He jerked hard against her ribs, sending the breath rushing from her body. "You're comin' with us, little lady. When your husband finds out I got you, it'll be better than killin' him like I planned. He.knows me well enough to figure out what I'm gonna do with you."
Noelle's struggles grew more frantic, and Baker landed a sharp, ringing blow on the side of her head. "Fightin' won't do no good," he jeered. "You belong to me and my boys now. And we're gonna treat you real fine."
They traveled the rest of that night and for the next two days keeping off the roads so they wouldn't be spotted, sleeping in snatches. The men were like rodents, she thought, skulking at the perimeters, afraid of open spaces and daylight. Other than a few vulgarities when she went into the bushes to tend to the needs of her body, they did not molest her, but she knew it was only the speed at which they were traveling that protected her.
The second day of riding was even more difficult for her than the first as they drew nearer the mountainous area of northern Georgia. The insides of her thighs were chafed and raw, and her wrists throbbed from the ropes that bound them to the pommel of her saddle. Her hair had come undone and hung in tangles down her back, and her green cashmere dress was ripped at the shoulder. She was also colder than she could ever remember with not even a shawl to protect her from the January chill.
She discovered they were heading west toward St. Louis, and her spirits sank even lower. Images of her knife lying uselessly in a drawer in her bedroom at Televea haunted her. She tried to distract herself by studying the three men and thinking about escape. Of the three, the one called Otis seemed to be the least ominous. He was large and burly, but dull-witted. Greeley, the man who had come looking for Quinn, was barely taller than she, but there was a furtive intelligence about him that made her suspect he was nearly as dangerous as Luke Baker. As for Baker, he terrified her. He seemed somehow less than human. She learned that he had escaped from prison the week before, killing a guard in the process. She tried not to think about what would happen when their pace slowed.
It was barely dark on the second day when they pulled into a clearing surrounded by pines and Baker announced that they would make camp for the night. "By now we lost anybody might of tried to come after us. I think we can take it easy for a while, don't you, boys?" Noelle's stomach lurched as Greeley and Otis hooted out their agreement.
Baker pulled her from her horse and tossed her down on the edge of the campsite, first making certain her wrists and ankles were tied securely. Before long, the men had built a fire and begun drinking.
She did not know how long she lay there, her cheek pressed against the frozen ground, her body screaming in agony from the tight ropes. They finished one bottle after another, bragging drunkenly about the money they were going to make in the spring, robbing the trappers who were on their way to St. Louis to sell their furs. She tried to ease the pressure on her wrists and ankles by shifting her weight.
"What's the matter, purty lady? Those ropes cuttin' into you?" Baker took a swig from a bottle Greeley passed to him and then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Don't you worry none. Won't be long before I untie you. Then you gonna be able to stretch all you want."
Noelle tried to shut out their obscene laughter.
"What're we waitin' for, Boss?" Otis staggered to his feet. "Let's strip her and see what we got!"
Baker lashed out with his foot and kicked him viciously in the side of his leg. "Siddown! You don't do nothin' until I tell you. She's mine! You better understand that from the start. You'll git your turn, but not until I say."
"You bein' a little rough on Otis, ain't you, Boss?" Greeley looked over at Noelle, and she shuddered at the menace in his eyes. "Can't hardly blame him for wantin' a piece of that. Mighty anxious myself. For the past two days she's been lookin' down her nose at us. Treatin' Otis an' me like dirt. Actin' like she's too good for you, Luke."
Fear prickled along her spine as Noelle saw that Greeley's words had found their mark. Baker pushed his huge body up from the side of the campfire and lumbered toward her. His hand crushed her arm as he yanked her to her feet and dragged her over to the campfire.
"Greeley is right, purty lady. I think it's time you made up to us for bein' so unfriendly."
Noelle struggled against him, cursing the ropes that shackled her ankles and kept her arms pinioned behind her. "You disgust me!" she hissed. "You're worse than animals. All of you!"
"Looks like you need to learn some manners," he snarled.
Greeley grinned. "I'll just bet you're gonna teach her some, ain't you, Boss?"
Baker's thick lips curled back over his teeth. He pulled her against his chest and, snaking his arm around her, began opening the bodice of her cashmere dress with sadistic slowness. She felt his fingers unfastening each button until the garment fell down to her waist and only her chemise protected her flesh. Then, with the men cheering him on, he slipped his hand inside and began to fondle her.
"No!" She jerked her head to the side and sank her teeth deep into his arm.
With a yelp of pain, he grabbed her hair and wrenched her head back. Viciously he slapped her across the face, drawing blood where her tooth cut into her bottom lip. Before she could recover, he yanked her back until her shoulders slammed into his chest and split open her chemise. The silver disk hanging around her neck glittered in the firelight as her breasts tumbled out, completely exposed to their hungry eyes.