The Captive Heart by Dale Cramer

Author:Dale Cramer
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: FIC042030, FIC042000, FIC026000, Amish—Fiction, Frontier and pioneer life—Fiction
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group

Chapter 23

Caleb’s heart was in his throat as he and Harvey set out in the wagon while Jake and Domingo scouted ahead on horseback. Dr. Gant offered to go with them, but Caleb declined. There were sick children who needed him more.

Three hours later, high up on the barren ridge halfway to Agua Nueva, Caleb spotted Domingo and Jake up ahead, kneeling on the ground. Rushing to the site, Caleb set the brake and climbed down from the wagon.

Domingo rose to meet him. “Something happened here. There is blood.”

Unprepared for the sight of so much blood, dried brown on the barren rock—the blood of one of his children—Caleb’s knees almost buckled and his voice quavered.

“Tell me what happened. Where are Rachel and Aaron?”

“Find the buggy and it will tell us something,” Domingo said, his eyes roaming the crest of the ridge. “Bandits will steal a horse, but they would have no use for the surrey. It has to be here somewhere.”

Harvey spotted the wrecked surrey right away, down the hill at the edge of the trees. He ran down to it and shouted back up to the others, “Aaron is here!”

Aaron lay trapped between the seats in the crumpled surrey. Together they righted the buggy and pried him out of it. His normally ruddy skin was pale yellow and cold to the touch. When they stretched him out he uttered a muffled groan. His chest rose and fell slowly under a shirt soaked with blood.

Caleb leaned over him, pressing a finger under his jaw, feeling for a pulse. Fast and shallow. “Aaron,” he whispered.

No answer.

“I don’t know how he’s still alive,” Caleb said, pulling aside the soaked shirt. “He’s lost so much blood. He’s been stabbed—it’s a knife wound, not a gunshot.” Caleb almost choked on the words, imagining the horrifying scene.

Harvey gave up his own shirt to make a bandage, then they struggled up the hill with Aaron as gently as they could and laid him in the back of the wagon. Harvey brought a buggy robe from the wagon box, and he and Jake tucked it around Aaron while Domingo left them to their work and went to scout around on horseback.

“What do we do now?” Harvey asked.

Caleb took off his hat, wiped his brow on his coat sleeve. “We got to get him home as quick as we can. I can’t do nothing for him here.”

“Agua Nueva is about as close as home, and there’s a good doctor there,” Jake said.

“There’s a better one at home,” Caleb said, rising, standing in the back of the wagon. “Harvey, you keep him still and I’ll try to drive smooth.”

Hoofbeats announced Domingo’s return. He trotted up to the wagon and stayed in his saddle.

“Did you see any sign of Rachel?” Jake asked, his voice quavering with fear.

Domingo held out a prayer kapp. “I found this down the hill a little ways.”

“Ada’s kapp was missing,” Caleb said. “It could be hers.”

Jake held the kapp up to his face, pinched a long hair from inside it and held it up to catch the sunlight.

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