Mary and Anna discovered Ruth was missing about 15 minutes later when they realized she should have done changed by now. They frantically searched the house and then the outside. The only discovery they made was her Bible laying on the ground opened by chance to the 109th psalm.

Mary picked it up and they called for her and went to the edge of the woods to see if they could see anything else. When they didn't, they went back to the house. Feelings of dread were in the pit of their stomachs as they waited for the men to return.

They ran to them as soon as they saw them, the men having just dismounted off the horse and mules. "Ruth's been taken," Mary informed them.

"Taken?" Kid repeated, eyes wide with panic.

"She must've seen her horse or Samuel or both and went outside and he took her. All we found is her Bible laying on the ground," Anna quickly explained.

He took the Bible from Mary. Samuel had her. He berated himself for not staying with her as cold terror gripped him.

He had just gotten down from his horse, but he swung back up on him.

"Where are you going?" Mary demanded.

"Back into the woods. Where'd you say you found her Bible?"

Mary pointed to the spot. "Over there, but you ain't going anywhere till you've grabbed a bite to eat."

"I don't want anything to eat," Kid said stubbornly.

"You're not going to be any help to her if you weaken yourself by starving," Mary reasoned.

Kid compromised. "I ain't coming to the table, but I'll take something with me."

Mary having predicted the stubbornness ahead of time had wrapped lunches in brown paper for all of them. James, Robert, and Clyde also got back onto their mules and set off into the woods again.

By dusk, they'd all yelled themselves hoarse calling her name with no results. There was only the tiniest sliver of moon in the sky.

"We'll have to wait until morning," James said reluctantly. "Even with lanterns, we ain't going to be able to see much."

All he could think about was how frightened Ruth must be and of how she must be waiting for him. He wouldn't even think of how he might already be too late. "I'm not turning back."

"Have some sense, son," James told him. "I don't want to quit anymore than you do, but we're bound to overlook something important in the dark and if we have no sleep at all, we'll be no match for Samuel when we find them. The best thing for us to do is turn back and start again at first light."

James made good points that Kid could wrap his mind around if not his heart. His heart cried out to keep looking until he found her, but James was right about both points, so he turned his horse back towards the house.

sss

Ruth stirred as her senses slowly returned to her. Her brain felt foggy and her confusion grew worse as she took in the fact that her body rested on a rough hewn floor and she couldn't move her hands and feet. Her eyes opened and she found herself in a dimly lit shack. There was a small window, but it was covered by a dark piece of muslin. The length of the floor only extended a few inches past her feet. She didn't have the slightest clue where she was or how she had gotten here.

Her head was pounding. She heard the snicker of her horse from somewhere outside and it began to come back to her in snippets how she'd ended up in this situation. She had no idea how much time had passed. It could have been minutes or hours for all she knew. Her captor was nowhere around.

She attempted to move and a wave of nausea hit her. It was most likely a good thing she hadn't eaten her breakfast or it would probably be all over the floor right now.

"Lord, help me," she prayed out loud; her prayer would have been longer but the door opened.

She moved her body into a sitting position, not an easy thing as she was bruised from head to toe. He had obviously not been gentle in getting her here.

"You're awake, I see," Samuel said. "Good. I wanted you conscious when you get what you deserve."

"What I deserve? What's that?" she couldn't keep herself from asking.

There was an unmistakably wild look in his eyes as he answered her, "You brought evil to these hills with your satanic powers."

Her disheveled hair hung down around her face, having come loose. He grabbed it now and pulled at it so hard that tears stung her eyes as he used it to raise her. Long hair made too good a handle. "Do you really believe I'm a witch?"

He snorted. "It doesn't matter, does it? You're still a poor excuse for womanhood. Taking on a role reserved for a man and I don't intend to sit back and let you destroy my future wife's good name and her family's."

"No, you're just trying to ruin them financially."

"It's worth it to stop you. My original goal was to scare you into leaving, help you see how you're hurting your family, but you wouldn't go. You left me no choice, but I got to thinking that it's better this way anyway. You can still corrupt them through the letters you send home and just hurt them by doing what you do. If you're dead, everyone'll be wont to have pity and the scandal and your influence will die with you."

She paled at his ravings. There was no doubt he intended to kill her.

"You shouldn't be worried though if it's not witchcraft you're practicing, you'll be meeting the Maker you claim to love so much with a clear conscience." He released her, a small chunk of her hair remaining behind in his hand. He brushed it to the floor as if it burned him. "But I have a feeling it's hell you'll be going to." He went to a bundle of wood in the corner that he began to move and place to make a fire.

Ruth's heart hammered in her ears. He was going to set the shack on fire. She desperately grasped for something that would buy her some time. "Do you really think Anna would still love you if you killed her sister? Kid knows that it's you. She'll know it was you when they find my body."

"There won't be a body left. Just your charred remains," he said, pointing out that gruesome fact. Then he appeared to think about what she said. "Maybe you're right. Your death is what's best for her, but she won't see it that way at first. I can't afford to lose her affections. I suppose it would be best if someone else did it. Sentiments being what they are that shouldn't be too hard. I'm sure I could convince Michael to do it for me."

He dropped the wood. "Don't go anywhere," he added tauntingly, knowing as well as she that there would be no escaping the tight bonds that were cutting into her wrists and ankles.

The door slammed shut and she shivered, whether it was because of the cold or because of Samuel's evil intentions she didn't know, but she prayed that Kid would find her before it was too late.

sss

Kid hadn't slept all night. His eyes were bloodshot and his body ached with weariness, but he couldn't rest, knowing Ruth was out there somewhere. He went to the living room just as soon as the sky began to gray from the impending sunrise. He wasn't the only one up. From the dark circles around everyone's eyes and their nervous, jerky movements, no one had managed much if any sleep.

"Someone should go to church," Mary said. "Maybe somebody there has seen something or heard something that can help."

"I'll go," Kid said. He hoped to see Samuel there though he knew it was a long shot.

"I'll go with you," Mary said. She didn't say it, but she knew that the community would be more sympathetic to her pleas and Kid couldn't disagree with her.

"Robert and I'll go back into the woods," James said. "Anna and Clyde, you'll stay at the house in case Ruth or Samuel make it back. Keep your guns on you."

Kid and Mary went out to the barn.

"It'll be faster if we take my horse instead of the wagon," Kid told her. "You okay with riding one?"

"I was riding horses before you were born," she told him as he helped her onto his particularly high horse before swinging up onto it himself.

As they got close to the church, he could hear Ruth's grandmother's voice carrying over all the rest of the congregation as they sang a hymn. Inside, he looked out on the faces. Attendance was up from last week. He didn't see either of the Browns. He didn't see the rest of Ruth's family. Laura was still recovering probably and Evan too young to take out in this cold. He supposed Mrs. McKenzie should be told before they announced it. He caught her eye and gestured for her to join them outside.

"Ruth's missing," Mary explained quietly outside the church door, "and we believe Samuel's taken her."

"Oh, heavenly Father," she murmured. "I always got an uneasy feeling around that young man, but he did seem to care for Anna and he's been a regular church attendee. What's he going to do to her?"

It was a question none of them could answer. "We'll find her, Mrs. McKenzie," Kid assured her.

"Have you prayed about it?" she asked.

He had to admit he hadn't. Ruth's first response would have been to pray, he thought with a smile of tenderness. She was a prayer warrior if ever there was one. Too often, his own strength was his first response; it felt as if praying wasted time that he didn't have to spare and that prayer was for when you didn't have any options left, which was a bad way of thinking he knew.

He bent his head along with the 2 ladies and Fiona led them in prayer. "Gracious Father, watch over our Ruthie until we can get to her. Direct our paths and comfort our hearts. Give us the strength we all need in this trial. We pray for Samuel too that You would help him to see the error of his ways. Amen." Kid added his own silent prayer that God would show him the way to her.

Fiona marched to the front of the church and interrupted the service. "My granddaughter Ruth is missing. Is there anyone who will help us find her?"

Kid was heartened by the number of men who stood up to help scour the area.

"Is there anybody who saw or heard anything yesterday that might help us know where to look?" Mary asked.

Silence answered her.

"In light of all this, the rest of the service is canceled," the pastor said.

The people flooded out, their talk over the news deafening.

Michael was in the crowd outside and managed to rise above the noise with, "I ain't going to waste my Sunday looking for that witch. She's getting her just desserts is what I say. She's been asking for this."

Joan agreed with a vigorous nod of her head and then added spitefully, "If it wasn't for her, my brother would still be alive. Anybody who helps search for her is no friend of the Campbells."

Kid stormed up to Michael and busted him in the nose. He felt like going after Joan too, but her being a woman saved her from his fury.

"That's not helping Ruth," Mary said quietly though she didn't look particularly sympathetic toward Michael, who looked to be nursing a broken, bloody nose from his sprawled position. Joan had given him her lace handkerchief and was crouched down beside him.

His fists uncurled slightly. Mary was right. He was wasting energy on the wrong people. It was Samuel Brown who was a dead man walking.