She gave her head a shake. “I must be more tired than I thought because that didn’t even make sense until you said it.”
He hooked an arm around her shoulders and said, “Come on. Let’s get you back up to the house.”
Soaking wet, with every step, she left a puddle. The shivers occurred long before they hit her property.
He looked at her in concern. “I’m just glad you made it out of that river,” he said. “It’s flowing really high. Even now,” he said, looking at the pathway that was just underwater.
“I know,” she admitted, struggling to stay upright. But having Mack beside and slightly behind her was like having a huge timber of support. They finally made it back to Nan’s house, and he helped her up the little grassy bank, so she was standing at the top. He bent down and picked up Mugs and Goliath, then put them back on the grassy edge too because they were scrambling around, so excited to see her safely home again. Quickly they all trooped to the house.
Noticing she was still shivering, Mack nudged her to the back door. “Go on, get up to the bedroom and get changed.”
“Only as long as you don’t open that note right away,” she said, pinning him with a gimlet eye.
He rolled his eyes. And then he sniffed the air. “You have coffee on,” he said in delight.
She glared at him. “I know, and I didn’t even take a cup down to the river with me.”
He chuckled. “All the more incentive to get up and get changed,” he said. “I’ll pour two cups.”
With that, she made her way to the stairs, leaving a wet trail behind her. Up in her bedroom, she struggled out of the wet clothing and into dry clothes, thinking she would have to do laundry at this rate. She gently patted her wet hair with a soft towel, careful of her stitches, before she made her way back down. “How is it I can be so cold on such a beautiful warm day?”
“Well, not everybody is taking swims in icy water.”
“I didn’t think it could be anywhere near that cold,” she muttered. She accepted the cup of coffee he handed her gratefully and sat down at the kitchen table and hugged it close.
“Glacier fed, remember? And those ugly storms in the mountains explain the flash flood down here,” he said, as he sat down beside her. His gaze was concerned, as he looked her over.
She gave him a wan smile. “I’m much better now,” she said firmly. “Especially now that I have Thaddeus with me.”
Thaddeus immediately hopped up on the table and walked toward her. “Big guy, big guy,” he cried, earning a chuckle from both of them.
“You are my big guy,” she said, reaching over to gently stroke his chest. He hopped up on her shoulder and crooned against her cheek. She closed her eyes and leaned into him. “I missed you, big guy.”
“Thaddeus missed Doreen.”
Her eyelids flew open, and she stared at Mack. “Did he just say that?”
Mack looked confused. He looked at Thaddeus and back to her. “What did you say, Thaddeus?”
But Thaddeus just looked at him and said, “Big guy, big guy.”
“Doreen loves Thaddeus,” she said and then repeated it over and over, but he looked at her like she was a lunatic. She sighed. “I’m sure he said, Thaddeus missed Doreen.”
“Well, I’m not sure,” Mack said. “It sounded something like that, but I’m not positive that’s what it was.”
In her heart of hearts, she knew that’s exactly what it was, but if Mack hadn’t heard it himself, he wouldn’t believe her. Still, it didn’t really matter. She knew. As she sat here, she looked at the band Mack now held and asked, “What is it?”
“What it is,” he said, “is a piece of paper held on by this little clip.” He held it out.
Like a paperclip. “Wow, it’s amazing that he didn’t lose it.”
Mack nodded. “It is meant for something small, like this note.”
“Maybe,” she said, “but his leg is very small too.” Leaning forward, she watched as Mack carefully opened up the tiny piece of paper, only about three inches by one inch when totally unfolded. As she stared at the message written there, she gasped. “Oh, my gosh,” she cried out. “Surely that can’t be what I think I’m seeing.”
“I’m afraid so,” he said, his voice grim.
She snatched the piece of paper from his hand and stared at the message.
Help. I’m being held captive.
Chapter 4
“Somebody is being held captive. Thaddeus found them, and now they’re asking for help.” Doreen stared at Mack in shock. “There’s no way to know where Thaddeus was.”
“No,” Mack said, “that’s a problem.”
She looked at the piece of paper, then turned it upside down and flipped it over. “What are we supposed to do with this?” she asked. Then she remembered the boys who had been chasing Thaddeus—or at least following him downriver. “There were two boys,” she said thoughtfully.
Mack immediately leaned forward. “What two boys?” She told him what she’d seen, and he asked, “Would you recognize them?”
She stared at him and shrugged. “I’m not exactly myself right now,” she said apologetically. “And they were quite a ways away.” She paused. “And once I caught sight of Thaddeus riding that branch,” she said, “I didn’t even think about the boys.”
“Of course not,” he said. “Do you remember how far up the river they were?”
She nodded. “At least a little way up the river,” she said, “not far. Maybe thirty or forty feet, but they were on the other side.”
He thrummed his fingers on the table, before jumping up and saying, “I’ll go take a look.”
She hopped up too. “I’m coming with you.” He spun and glared. She took a step forward and glared right back at him, shoving her chin up pugnaciously. “And I’ll bring Thaddeus.”
His eyebrows shot up, as he contemplated Thaddeus and then her. “Fine,” he said, “but we’ll just see where the boys might have gone.”
“Fine,” she muttered. She quickly swallowed half the cup of coffee in her hand and said, “What a waste of coffee.”
“Put it in a travel mug,” he suggested.
She looked at him, smiled, and said, “See? I’m really not myself right now.”
He just rolled his eyes and waited long enough for her to pour the coffee into a travel mug, then topped it up from the pot. And then the three of them trooped down to the creek again. Only the rest of her clan wasn’t having anything to do with that. As soon as they hit the river, Mugs barked, and Mack realized that the whole group had come along.
He pointed at the river, turned, looked at her, and said, “That’s another reason why you need to stay here.”
“Not happening,” she said.
“And what will you do to get them across the river?” he asked.
She smiled, immediately scooped up Goliath, and shoved him into Mack’s arms. “That’s what I’ll do,” she said. She then snatched Mugs, who was much heavier, and picked him up herself. “I should have given you Mugs though,” she muttered, earning a snort from him.