Chapter 6 Candy and Katie
"Candy, I found the newborn baby clothes for you, they had been packed in the trunk marked clothing!" Katie said as she helped Candy get things ready for the baby. Candy had remembered to pack the baby clothes with the other clothes when she and Jeremy had gone back to finish things in New Bedford after he mother had died.
"I marked them clothes because if I put 'baby' no one would send it to me!" Candy said as she was busy folding some more diapers and putting them into the drawers. Jeremy had built a nice little room for the new baby that would be separated but close by when it was born so that either of them could take care of the baby when it woke in the middle of the night.
"Katie, when will you and Joshua be expecting?" said Candy as she placed the diapers in the drawers.
"Well, I was hoping to announce it soon, but it seems as if nothing is happening. I thought maybe I was late, but it started again. I am worried Aaron said they may have found them; I wonder what is taking so long?" Katie said as she came up the stairs to Candy's room.
"I understand, I hope that they find them soon!" Candy said as she sat on the bed and looked out of the window. Both her and Katie sat on the bed, and held each other for a moment and said a little prayer:
"Dear God, please help them to find Jeremy and Joshua and Jason, please let them be okay, thank you. Amen" They said together and cried a little. All of a sudden Candy felt some sharp pains in her abdomen. She looked at Katie who looked at her.
"I will go get Lottie; she will know what to do!" Katie said as she ran down the stairs and out of the door. She headed for the saloon and stopped; Lisabeth was standing in the middle of the street right in front of her.
"What is it Lisabeth?" Katie asked. Lisabeth just stood there. And kept Katie from going forward or around her.
"Lisabeth, I need to find Lottie right now, please move out of my way!" Katie said trying to move the child right or left. For some reason, Lisabeth was not responding. She saw Miss Essie, actually Mrs. Gustafson, and called out for her to help.
"Oh, my what can I do for you Katie?" She looked and saw that Katie was struggling to move Lisabeth out of the way.
"Essie, can you help me move Lisabeth, it seems as if she is resisting moving me out of the way, I need to let Lottie know that Candy is having pains!" Katie said. Essie moved to help get Lisbeth to move out of the way. It was hard because it felt as if Lisabeth was not able to move. Lottie came out of the saloon saw Miss Essie and Katie struggling with Lisabeth.
"Lisabeth! Come here!" Lottie said in a commanding voice. Lisabeth seemed to come out of the 'sleep' and moved away quickly. She went over to Lottie and stood by her.
"Oh, Thank you Lottie, Candy is in pain, we are not sure if it is time for the baby or not?" Lottie pointed Lisabeth towards the saloon and then went with Katie and Miss Essie to find out what was happening. When they got to Candy's home, the door was wide open, on the stairs was a mess of clean diapers strewn all the way down the stairs. Katie ran up the stairs to see if Candy was there, there was no one. She saw some blood on the floor near the bed. Lottie saw blood on the bottom stair. They both ran out the back to see if she may have gone to the back porch. They then went back to the front; they looked in every room and could not find her.
"Lottie, she isn't here? Where could she have gone?" Lottie thought a moment and said:
"Lisabeth!" Lottie said: "Let's go back to the saloon!
Lottie said as she ran back to the saloon. When they arrived, they found her sitting as still as she had been standing, she did not look at them, nor did she seem to understand what was happening. One of the lumber jacks, a man by the name of Artie said to Lottie:
"She has been sitting and staring like that ever since she came back into the saloon. We left the lass alone, not sure if she is 'teched' in the head or if something else might be happening?" The other men in the saloon said the same thing. They had stayed away from her fearing she might be a witch or something like that!
"Katie, stay out here and wait, I am going to make a tea to help her!" said Lottie as she went back into the kitchen.
"What is it Lottie?" Katie said but Lottie was already in the kitchen making the tea. Katie sat opposite the girl. She did not know what to say or do, she waited until Lottie brought the tea in. She sat it down on the table and then taking a spoon, she opened the girls mouth and poured the tea into her. It took a full 20 minutes for her to empty the entire contents in to Lisabeth.
"Why did you do that?" Katie asked after Lottie was finished getting the tea down her.
"Katie Lisabeth and Marcia have been living here for quite some time. I found out that Marcia was interested in herbal concoctions and had tested a particular herb on her sister. This made her susceptible to suggestion and she tried it on her. Lisabeth will not remember what she was doing, but she will remember why she did it. At that moment, Lisabeth coughed and opened her eyes and looked from Lottie to Katie. In a tiny voice she asked Lottie:
"Marcia did it again? Didn't' she?" Lisabeth asked Lottie who nodded her head.
"Lisabeth, do you remember why she wanted you to stand in the middle of the street?" Lottie asked. Lisabeth took a while to answer and finally said:
"She was with Aunt Clementine, they wanted to kidnap Candy because she would be helpful in getting the Bolts to give up their mountain!" Lisabeth said. Lottie acknowledged this and decided what to do.
"Lisabeth, I will have to put you in the jail until we can get Candy back!" Lisabeth nodded; Lottie took her to jail. Christopher was watching the jail that day. When Lottie came in he saw Lisabeth.
"What is she doing here?" He asked.
"She will be a guest in this Jail Christopher!" Will you please open the door to that cell?" Lottie asked Christopher. He did as he was told and placed her in the jail and locked the jail.
"Lottie, how long is she to be in here?" he asked.
"Until Candy is brought home safely!" Lottie said. Christopher looked at Lisabeth and then at Lottie then he said:
"What happened to Candy?" He said he was worried that something had happened to his sister.
"Marcia has taken her, and they are now at Alki point!" Lottie said. Christopher did not know exactly what he was going to do but he decided he was going to do it anyway.
"Let me get a horse and I will go get my sister and help Jeremy and the others!" He said as he was about to charge out of the door. Aaron Stemple walked in the door with Jeremy, Joshua, and Big Swede.
"What is this about Candy?" Jeremy asked. When Lottie had explained, they were not happy.
"So, Marcia and Clementine took Candy?" Jeremy said looking at Lisabeth who nodded yes. He was furious, but he also knew that getting angry at that moment would not help Candy, Jason, or the rest of the town.
"Jeremy, I want you and Josh to go back to your homes, get cleaned up and come to the saloon. We will meet there!" Aaron said. He looked at Lisabeth and said:
"Lisabeth, you and your sister and your aunt, will be held accountable for the death or harm of either Mrs. Jeremy Bolt and Mr. Jason Bolt as well as the handling of Mr. Jeremy and Joshua Bolt. Do you understand?" Aaron said between clenched teeth.
"Christopher, you will not be guarding this woman! I will have a couple of my men do that! I need you to go to the saloon and wait for the rest of us!" Aaron said.