Wade grinned at her. “All right, this is what I want you to say.”
Dear Clay,
I was not born to be a rancher’s wife. I miss the big city. You may file for an annulment if you wish or I will when I return home. Please forward my trunks to the Quincy Hotel in Chicago. Mason knows the address.
Grace
Wade watched as she wrote, “That’s good. Short and sweet. As long as Clay believes it and files for that annulment everything will work out. He won’t stay married to you. It would be too much of an embarrassment. That makes my marriage to Elizabeth the only valid one, and I win. Leave your wedding ring on top of the note.”
“What do you plan on doing with me?” Grace felt a bit frantic but pulled off her ring and placed it on the paper.
“Nothing bad. I have a place to keep you for a few days. When Clay stops looking, I’ll arrange to get you to Cheyenne and put you on a train away from here. What happens then is your problem. I know Clay. Even if you wrote or sent a telegram wanting to come back, he wouldn’t take you back, and he certainly wouldn’t believe his brother would abduct his wife.”
“Clay won’t believe this. He knows I’d never leave. You’ve gone mad,” Grace insisted.
Wade raised his hand, and Grace cowered hating herself for not fighting back. She didn’t have a choice but to listen to Wade. Maybe she’d have a chance to break away from him later.
Wade waved his gun toward the door. “Let’s go before someone comes back.”
Grace picked up her carpet bag and headed toward the kitchen door stopping to grab her shawl.
“Better take your coat, too. You’re going to need it, and we can’t have Clay thinking you didn’t really leave.”
Grace squinted her eyes at Wade praying all the while that Clay or someone at the house would realize she didn’t leave of her own accord and praying for the strength to get away from her spiteful brother-in-law.
Coat and shawl in hand, Grace opened the back door and stepped out onto the porch seeing her horse was already saddled and waiting. She glanced around the yard quickly hoping someone might see her, but there wasn’t a soul in sight.
“Get on,” Wade growled.
Grace mounted her horse thankful she wore riding clothes since she was sure Wade wouldn’t care if she was in a dress. He was determined to force her to leave. After she was on her horse, Wade hooked the carpet back behind her and tossed her shawl and coat over the front of her saddle. He climbed on his stallion and motioned with his head.
“Head north and keep going until I tell you to change directions.” He slapped her horse’s rump with his hat to get it moving, and he rode next to her heading across the open range.
They rode up into the hills further than Grace had ridden before, and she had no idea where they were.
“Where are you taking me?” Grace asked.
“Somewhere no one will find you and too far away for you to walk out if you can figure out where you are.”
After what seemed like at least two hours to Grace, they crested a hill into a small valley covered in loose stone with a trickling stream running through the middle. A tiny shack of weathered gray wood sat next to the stream. Two lone cottonwood trees stood behind the house living off the water of the stream. A bit of vegetation grew here and there through the rocks of the nearly barren valley. Grace’s eyes scanned the area around her hoping to find some sort of escape. She knew once they reached that shack that Wade would leave her alone and take her horse. With the loose rocks underfoot, she couldn’t try and escape. Her sweet mare was dependable, but she was no match for Wade’s black stallion.
Wade reined up in front of the shack. Grace sat on her horse staring at the shack wondering how long Wade intended to keep her there.
“Get down, we’re here,” Wade insisted.
Grace slowly dismounted knowing she was at Wade’s mercy but vowed she’d do all she could to find her way back home to Clay. She also understood the depth of Wade’s determination to gain control of the ranch.
Chapter Fifteen
Wade opened the door of the shack and told Grace to go in ahead of him. She entered and coughed at the musty smell and dust that flew around in the breeze that flowed in through the open door. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could see a small cot in the corner of the tiny room, a table with one chair sat across from the cot, and a pot-bellied stove took up the third corner. Two crates sat on the floor next to the table. Slivers of light entered the room from around wooden shutters on what she assumed was a window at the other end of the shack.
Grace spun on her heel to face Wade. “You expect me to stay here?”
“Yes, you don’t have a choice. I’m stronger than you, and if you fight this, I’ll tie you up. You have everything you need here. There is canned food in the crates and fresh water in the stream. You’ll have to eat your food cold. I wouldn’t want anyone to see smoke coming from this direction,” Wade said with a grin.
Grace shook her head. “It’ll get cold. What if it rains or worse we get a spring snow?”
“You’ll survive. When I brought the food, I put two wool blankets in the crates along with a pillow. I don’t want you
