She flounced off, her head held high, and by the exasperated groans from Mary and Polly, it was clear that Flora hadn’t been doing any work at all. Jasper knew all too well that Flora often showed up to make an appearance at charity work so people thought she was helping, but she often just stood around, completely useless.
“What about you, Sarah?” Jasper narrowed his eyes at her, taking over Will’s investigation. Something wasn’t right, even if no one else seemed to care.
Before answering, Sarah looked away, her gaze settling on Flora, who wore such a deep scowl Jasper could hardly fathom why the other girl was considered so beautiful. Disgust filled him once again at the reminder of how he used to flirt with her.
How could he have thought a woman with Flora’s character held any value? An image of Emma Jane popped into his head. She might not have been considered one of the most beautiful women in town, but...
He shook his head. Dwelling on her characteristics wasn’t going to help him find her.
Sarah leaned in and lowered her voice. “Flora thinks it’s unladylike for me to have such admiration for horses, but the only reason we saw Emma Jane was because I’d been staring at what a beautifully matched pair of chestnut roans they were. I have not seen such fine horseflesh. I have to go.”
Then she straightened and turned, rejoining Flora.
Will nudged Jasper. “Where have you heard talk of a matched pair of chestnut roans?”
A flash of memory hit. “Didn’t Eric Abernathy come into the sheriff’s office the other day, ranting about his brand-new horses being stolen?”
Will nodded. “That’s right! I remember now. He’d just had them brought over from back east. He was madder than a newly woken bear that no one would form a search party to help find them. We just didn’t have the manpower.”
“I’m sure it’s the gang.” Jasper frowned. “But why would they take Emma Jane?”
A shout sounded from the stalls. “It’s Nancy! She’s dead!”
Jasper and Will ran in the direction of the voice. A woman stood by the door to the stables, sobbing. “I just told Ray... I didn’t mean...”
“Ray? He was here? What did you tell him?” Jasper glowered at her, grabbing her by the elbow. How had he missed one of the gang members in town?
“He’ll kill me, too.” The woman jerked from his grasp, then ran off.
Jasper started to go after her, but Will’s voice stopped him. “Don’t waste your time. Come here. I found something.”
As he stepped over the body, Jasper’s gut clenched. Another woman. Dead. Nancy had warned him that talking to him would get her and Emma Jane killed. Was this the result of Jasper’s actions?
Will held up a Bible. “Recognize this?”
Jasper pulled it out of Will’s hands without even looking at it. He didn’t need to. “Emma Jane hasn’t gone anywhere without it since the wedding.”
The memory of her sitting in her bed in her nightgown, reading that Bible, came back to him. So innocent. Emma Jane hadn’t been part of this fight. All she’d wanted to do was the right thing, to help, and now she was in grave danger.
Why hadn’t she listened to him and just stayed out of it? Knowing Emma Jane, she probably went to talk to Nancy on her own and somehow got caught up in this mess. Clearly, his wife hadn’t realized how dangerous the people they were dealing with were. She should have trusted him.
“You think she saw the murder and they took her to keep her quiet?” Will motioned toward the body.
Jasper swallowed the lump in his throat. “Why didn’t they just kill her?”
“A Jackson?” The tone in Will’s voice reminded him of how Will had come into his life. After Will had saved Henry’s life, Henry had asked Will to teach Jasper how to protect himself. Growing up, there’d been a number of kidnapping threats.
He’d just never imagined that, as an adult, those threats would still be there. Despite everything Jasper had done to learn to protect himself, he’d forgotten one important lesson. Passing those lessons on to his wife. Especially a headstrong one who didn’t trust him to do the right thing and took matters into her own hands.
“I never thought...” Jasper’s head spun as he realized the danger Emma Jane was in.
“Emma Jane is tough. You told me yourself that, during the mine cave-in, she possessed an inner strength you admired. She’ll get through this, too.”
Jasper nodded slowly, his gaze drawn back to Nancy’s body. What would they do to Emma Jane? His gut churned at the thought. Was this because she was a Jackson, or was this Nancy’s warning coming true? Or had Emma Jane somehow become more involved in trying to solve the case?
He looked around for clues, for any signs of struggle, but other than the dead woman lying at the entrance to the stall, the barn looked exactly as it should.
Will walked over to the other side of the stall area, leading out to the street.
“Over here!”
Jasper quickly joined him, looking at the place Will indicated on the ground.
“There haven’t been any horses staying in this barn since we put the women up in here. Two sets of horseshoe prints. That has to be the kidnappers.”
The prints left a clear trail as far as Jasper could see. Fortunately, the barn was at the edge of town, and the trail went straight into the brush, where other horses weren’t likely to tread on them. Easy enough to follow.
“I’ll get the horses.” Jasper started toward where he’d left his mount without waiting for Will’s response.
“We should get the sheriff first.”
Jasper didn’t pause. “You get the sheriff. I’m going after my wife. I’ll leave tracks so you can catch up.”
Chapter Eight
“What were you thinking, bringing him here? Bad enough you brought the woman, now him?”
Emma Jane looked up from the fire, where she’d been heating up a soup she’d cobbled
