Saving the Kidnapped Maid (Preview)

Chapter One

September 1868

En route to Merrick’s Rest, California

How had she managed to doze off?

Jolted awake by the constant rocking and bumping of the stagecoach, Tonia Parish had no idea how she’d slipped off into the same dream she always had. Tendrils of it still lingered in her mind. The blue dress and the ribbons in her dark hair that hung in pigtails. The neat little blue shoes she loved that her mother had told her not to get dirty. And finally, the boy chasing her. She always remembered him as a figure behind her, laughing, threatening to tickle her if he caught her. She was laughing in the dream, that carefree childish laugh of the very young.

Were they playing tag? That had to be it.

There was a fancy house behind her, and she was running as fast as her little legs would carry her away from it, out into… what? She had no idea. All she had seen in the dream, all she ever saw of her destination, was a wall of green.

Maybe it was a garden? Yes, it had to be. Who would let a young child run out into the wilderness? No one. But this was a dream, so who knew? Anything was possible.

Although Tonia hadn’t reached the end of the dream today, she knew what it was. A flurry of black and white wings beating the air around her, blocking off her vision.

She always assumed it was a flock of magpies landing around her. Sometimes, they spoke to her in her dream. Those times were rare, though. Mostly, they just grabbed her with their claws and carried her off into the sky, screaming.

“You make the most alarming noises in your sleep,” Ally said accusingly. “I couldn’t even concentrate on my reading. You made such a fuss.” She raised a perfect brow and glared at Tonia. “What’s wrong with you? Are you okay?”

She didn’t sound all that concerned. She usually didn’t, unless it directly affected her.

“Sorry, Ally,” Tonia said. Ally, who was two years her junior, was in fact her employer. Well, the girl’s father was. Mr. Bartholomew Wilson of the Wilson Transport Company. He was a respected, wealthy businessman who had something to do with the mines in the hills. Tonia thought it was related to moving ore and supplies to and from the mines.

Ally’s face softened a little. “It must be so hard being you,” she said in a gentle tone that was probably intended to be kind. “You’ve had to suffer such hardships. I can only think it’s my family’s influence that has helped you to turn out so cultured and well-mannered.”

“I suppose so,” Tonia said carefully. Her whole family was employed by the Wilsons. Her father was a driver in the transport company, and her mother was their housekeeper. It was a prestigious position among those who served, and it was quite uncommon this far west. In fact, Tonia was willing to bet that even the very rich who lived in Merrick’s Rest didn’t all have housekeepers and maids. And now, here she was, working as Ally’s lady’s maid. If she upset Ally, who knew how far the ramifications would ripple out? Like the rings a stone made when dropped into a still pond.

“Still, maybe I should ask Father to find you some sort of doctor to help with those dreams,” Ally continued. She played with a dark brown strand of hair as she spoke, turning it thoughtfully in her fingers.

“That’s very kind of you,” Tonia said. “But it’s not necessary. It’s nothing, really. I must have jolted awake when the coach hit a dip or something.” She peered out of the window at the scenery that was rolling sluggishly by. “I suspect once they finish the railway, travel will be a lot faster than this.”

Ally peered out of the window too and sighed. “I don’t know if I would like that.”

“I’ve heard that train rides are smoother,” Tonia said with longing. Her kidneys were probably sitting up under her lungs by now. She hated the feeling of being a bag of sloshy parts jiggling around.

“Well, smoother I wouldn’t mind,” Ally said. She smiled, and Tonia thought that perhaps, if they hadn’t been thrown together with the knowledge that one was more important than the other, they might have been actual friends.

For a while, they watched the grassland and trees move by at a decent pace, and then Ally turned her attention back to her book. She loved to read and spent a lot of time with her nose in some romance story or other.

Then Ally looked up, as though she’d had a sudden idea. “You know, money is no object, Tonia,” she said. “If I ask my father, he’ll get you whatever you need. Even if you can’t work for me anymore, he’ll make sure you’re taken of. You know that?”

Tonia didn’t know that. One of the maids, Doris, had been dismissed only the week before with little warning or ceremony. Tonia’s mother hadn’t told her why; she’d just said it was necessary. But Tonia knew it meant that poor Doris had fallen prey to the capricious whims of the rich, and who could really understand them? Things had different value to someone who could replace something so quickly and easily as simply as blinking an eye.

“Honestly, Ally, I’m fine,” Tonia said.

Ally nodded. “Fine.” She snorted. “All of this traveling is wreaking havoc with my hair and outfit. I told you that I would need the extra pins in this hair style. It’s coming loose, isn’t it?”

“We can fix it before we arrive,” Tonia said reassuringly. “I have more pins and things in my handbag.”

“Good,” Ally said, a little stiffly. “I want to look my best. No, I need to look my best. It has to be love at first sight with James. He can’t think I’m plain or ugly.”

Her voice hitched on the last word, and she began to fidget with her hair again, twirling the loose strand around and around until it grew in volume, falling out of the carefully styled updo that had taken Tonia so long that morning.

The whole situation struck Tonia as odd.

Ally was still in her prime at only twenty. She was pretty, even if her features were a little pinched, and she had all of her father’s money on her side. Surely, she would be able to find a suitable young man to marry without the help of a formal arrangement.

Tonia suspected there was more going on behind the scenes there, since the man they were traveling to meet was none other than James Merrick, heir to the Merrick mining fortune. And it just so happened that Mr. Wilson’s company was in business with the Merrick mining company.

“How much longer do you think?” Tonia asked. “Until we get there?”

“I don’t know,” Ally said. “Ask the driver.”

Tonia nodded and opened the window, sticking her head out. She tried to get Tom the driver’s attention, but he couldn’t seem to hear her over the noise of the horses and the coach jangling.

She came back inside, and this time, she opened the door. Then, hitching her skirt in one hand, she grabbed a rail on the side of the coach and swung herself up to the driver’s seat.

Tom was a pleasant young man with a quirky smile. “Oh, Tonia,” he said. “Is everything okay?”

“That depends on what you consider okay,” she said with a tired smile.

“Is she upsetting you?” he asked.

“Not yet,” Tonia said. “Tell me, Tom, how much longer until we get there?”

“Oh, about four hours, still,” he said. “I’ll need to give the horses a break soon, though. From what I can recall, there’s a pond up ahead. That would be a good place to water them. Do you need to stop?”

“Yes; she needs her hair fixed,” Tonia said.

Tom chuckled. “Well, she must look her best when she meets one of the richest men in the whole state.”

“He’s that rich?” Tonia asked.

Tom nodded. “Don’t you pay attention? James Merrick will be the richest man this side of the Rockies when his old man dies. And with Ally as his wife, they will be quite disgustingly rich. They’ll have pots of money.”

“Lucky them,” Tonia said flatly.

“What’s wrong with money?” Tom asked.

“Nothing,” she said. “Only it seems to take perfectly nice people and turn them into unfeeling pigs. You’re just a number or a pair of hands to them, not a person with dreams and hopes and thoughts of your own.”

“Oh dear,” Tom said, looking at her with mock concern. “I think you’ve been closed up with a certain young lady for a little too long.”

Tonia sighed. “You might be right.”

“Has she been making you read those soppy stories of her to her?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No, thankfully. So, we’ll take a rest soon?” She didn’t add that it wouldn’t be much of a rest for her, since she would have to make Ally presentable again.

Tom nodded. “We’re about five minutes from the pond I was talking about.”

Climbing back inside, Tonia found Ally waiting for her. She had her arms folded across her chest. “That took longer than expected,” she said primly.

Tonia ignored the comment. “We’ll be stopping in about five minutes, and then we can fix your hair.”

“And how much longer in this coach?” Ally moaned. “My rump is feeling quite ill-used.”

Tonia had to admit that her backside could do with a break from being bounced constantly. A stop would be nice.

True to his word, Tom slowed the coach, and soon they came to a halt in a little glade of fresh green grass surrounded by trees. A pond of clear water lay in the center of it and both horses, freed from the coach for a while, went to drink happily.

“They need a rest,” Tom said, watching them drink, “so feel free to stretch your legs. Just don’t wander off too far.”

“We’ll stay in the glade,” Tonia assured him.

Ally was splashing water on her face and hands. “I feel like there is a thick layer of dust coating me,” she said with a snort. “You’re so lucky no one will care what you look like when we arrive in Merrick’s Rest. It’s such a burden having to try and look properly presentable all the time.”

Just because the statement was true didn’t mean it wasn’t hurtful. Tonia should be used to Ally’s thoughtless comments by now. And yet she wasn’t. She didn’t know if she would ever get used to the way rich folks seemed to disregard other’s feelings so easily. Surely it should give them some pause and yet it didn’t seem to.

“Come on; let’s get you cleaned up,” Tinia said. “Of course, with the way this journey is going, we’ll probably have to do it again before we arrive.”

“Don’t sound so annoyed,” Ally said as Tonia sat her down on a boulder by the water and began to fix her hairstyle. It was slipping free of the pins. Tonia would just have to force them back into place, regardless of how Ally complained about them jabbing and poking her.

“Sorry,” Tonia said. “I just wish your hair would stop escaping everything I try to do with it. It seems to have a mind of its own.”

Ally chuckled, giving her thin, silky hair a toss as it lay loose down her back. “It’s like me…free-spirited.”

“Of course,” Tonia said.

Was Ally free-spirited? Possibly. It depended on one’s definition of the word.

Tonia herself had always thought of a woman running barefoot, hair streaming behind her, through a field of grasses and wildflowers, right into the sunset without a care in the world. She imagined that such a woman would never agree to an arranged marriage or would spend so much time worrying about what others thought of her. Such a woman wouldn’t care about any social norms. Tonia would’ve loved to be such a woman, fierce and independent. Someone who could stand on her own two feet without needing to inherit a fortune to become the master of her own fate.

Those were the kinds of books that Tonia liked to read. The stories about people who did things that mattered in their lives. She admired women like Ada Lovelace, the brilliant mathematician who also happened to be female. Tonia had found the magazine in Mr. Wilson’s trash bin. The articles were interesting, especially the one about prominent women who were helping to change the world. There was a whole paragraph on the suffragettes who were working so tirelessly to get women the vote. It was all very inspirational.

Of course, the article had been written by a man, and had occasionally exhibited a somewhat condescending, patronizing tone, but despite that, Tonia had marveled at what women were capable of doing nowadays. She longed to join the ranks of those truly free-spirited women who didn’t bend the knee to anyone.

“Ouch!” Ally cried.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Tonia said. She had shoved that last pin into Ally’s head with a little more force than she’d meant to.

“Will it stay this time?” Ally asked.

“Yes,” Tonia said, hoping she was right.

“Good, because I think you made a hole in my head with that last one,” Ally said, rubbing the area gently with two fingers.

Tonia was about to apologize again when suddenly there was a commotion. With a thudding of hooves, six men came racing into the glade. Sunlight glinted off metal in their hands. Amazed, Tonia realized that they were holding pistols aloft. Their faces were covered with black and white bandanas.

Ally began to shriek and grabbed Tonia, hiding behind her. Tom came running, waving his hands at them to…what? What should they do?

“Run!” he yelled. “Ru—”

And then there was the boom of a pistol firing, and Tom fell face first in the dirt and lay there unmoving.

The men came racing up to where Tonia and Ally stood, still as statues, shock numbing their panic. Ally pawed at Tonia, already crying.

“What do you want?” Tonia demanded, finding her voice despite her shaking knees. “If it’s money, you can just have it,” she said, and pulling the purse from Ally’s limp hand, she held it out. “Here, take it. Just don’t hurt us.”

“Please don’t hurt us,” Ally said softly behind Tonia’s shoulder. She hid her face in Tonia’s back, clutching her as though Tonia was her link to life.

“Well?” Tonia demanded.

The men were still on horseback, staring down at her and Ally.

“Make them stand next to each other,” one cried.

Another jumped down from his horse and wrenched Ally from Tonia. Ally cried out again and reached for Tonia.

The man forced the girls to stand side by side, and then he stood back. He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and looked from one to the other of them.

“I don’t know, boss,” he said. “They look the same.”

Tonia frowned. Yes, there was a resemblance between her and Ally. but Tonia’s hair was a good deal darker, her eyes a light hazel where Ally’s were chocolate brown. What was the man talking about? And, more concerning, why would someone have a piece of paper about either of them? What was going on?

“Which one of you is Ally Wilson?” asked the man, who seemed to be the leader.

Tonia turned to look at Ally.

To her horror and surprise, Ally was pointing at her. “She is,” she said in a timid voice.

“No,” Tonia said bewildered, shaking her head. “I’m not Ally!”

The man let go of Ally and grabbed Tonia instead, tossing her over his shoulder than easily as if she was a sack of potatoes.

“Let me go!” she roared and kicked out.

The man screamed as her knee connected with his stomach, and the pressure of his hands on her body vanished.

Tonia dropped to the ground, but she didn’t get her hands up in time to break her fall, not properly. Her head collided with the ground, and everything went black.

Chapter Two

September 1868

En Route to Merrick’s Rest, California

The delay hadn’t been James’ fault, but he also hadn’t done much to avoid it. James Merrick knew that his father would be somewhat annoyed with him, cutting it so close, but work was work, after all. And a Merrick should know what his duty was, and he should do it.

That was what James had been doing. As his father’s right-hand man, and a deft negotiator, he’d gone up to the gold mine in the hills to reassure the miners that their plight was known, their requests heard, and that management was taking it all very seriously.

In the last four months, production in the mine had dropped dramatically due to injuries, strikes, and illnesses that seemed to rampage through the mining camp like bulls that saw nothing around them but red. Working conditions were not good, and now they were impacting the bottom line. There were a few things that made Jonathan Merrick, James’ father, sweat quite as much as something affecting the bottom line.

“I think, all things considered, that went well,” Colin Pickering said as they rode out of the mine. He was one of the firm’s lawyers, and he had accompanied James to the mining camp to ensure that James didn’t promise anything too radical to the miners. It was a vast sea of tents that once were white but now had a brownish-gray tinge from the dust and dirt spewed up by the mine.

Everything there was brownish-gray, and none of it was appealing.

“They have gone back to work,” James said flatly. “It’s about the best outcome we could hope for.”

“Your father will be very pleased,” Colin said, beaming. He was in his early forties with a narrow face and frame and he had a fussy look about him. He pushed his wire-rimmed spectacles along the bridge of his nose and smiled at James.

“I have to admit, I was worried for a while there,” he said with a dry little laugh. “I thought we were in for a difficult time negotiating the end of the strike. But you stepped in so easily and smoothed all that nasty business over. Your father will be very proud.”

“That remains to be seen. Their complaints are valid,” James said with a shrug. “We need to address their living arrangements and make sure that they have all the supplies they need. And that’s just the beginning. I think the days of treating miners like second-rate citizens who don’t deserve proper working conditions are over.”

“So, you mean to really propose those changes to your father?” Colin asked, suddenly looking worried. “I thought that was all a ploy to get the men back in the shafts.”

“Yes, I mean to tell my father about all of it,” James said. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because, James, it will cost a lot of money,” Colin said, as though that was obvious. “Mines are supposed to make more money, not cost more.”

“If the miners keep dropping dead, it will cost us more to replace them,” James said harshly. “Sometimes you have to spend money to make it, Colin.”

Colin swallowed. “They weren’t dropping dead. Stop being so dramatic,” he said in a huff.

James sighed and urged his horse to walk a little faster. Colin was a good lawyer. He knew the law and steered the company along carefully so that they were never in danger of setting a toe out of line. It didn’t mean that he was morally in the right, though. The realm of the law and the realm of the decent and humane were not always the same thing. Sometimes there was a vast chasm between the two.

This was one of those times.

Current law didn’t protect the miners, and James had the terrible feeling that they were being exploited. They were being treated as though they were unimportant and dispensable. It was like the managers had forgotten that those things going into the depths of the earth and carved out the ore were people. Human beings with thoughts, feelings, families to feed. If they got sick from the terrible working conditions, they couldn’t provide for their families. That meant that wives and children went hungry, and James could never live with that.

But Colin was right about one thing, at least. Approaching Jonathan Merrick with drastic changes would get all the miners thrown out before James even managed to make the smallest changes. He would have to be smart about it.

“James, are you in the least bit excited about this evening?” Colin asked.

“This evening?” James asked.

“About meeting Ally Wilson? Your fiancée?” Colin asked. “She should be at your house by now. Wasn’t she supposed to arrive yesterday?”

“Yes, I think she was,” James said distantly. The idea of an arranged marriage still didn’t sit well with him, but he’d been unable to come up with an alternative, and so that was that. Perhaps he had wanted to delay the inevitable, and that was why he hadn’t pushed for the negotiations to wrap up quickly enough for him to get home in time to meet her when she arrived.

“So, are you keen to meet her?” Colin asked. “I hear that she is quite a pretty and well-read young lady.”

James wasn’t sure what to say. “I…I really don’t know, Colin.”

“She’ll make a fine wife for you, I’m sure,” Colin said. “And since her father has the largest transport company this side of the Rockies, I think it would benefit the miners too. Think of it. You could negotiate with your new father-in-law and get a good price for shipping all of those much-needed supplies you’re so keen for.”

The sly look on Colin’s face was enough to make James cringe. “Surely, marrying someone because their father is useful to us seems incredibly cold and selfish to me,” James said. “Is it?” Colin asked and shook his head. “It’s done all the time. In fact, I’d say that alliances through marriages have been a staple of social life for time immemorial. Very practical. It keeps the wealth in the right hands.”

James had no doubt who Colin thought the “right hands” were, and it certainly wasn’t the miners. They did all the work for a mere fraction of the spoils. It seemed wrong to James. If he was going to reshape the mining industry, he would allow the miners to buy shares in the mine. That way, they would be working for someone who would pay them dividends. It would be theirs, and as such, they would be motivated to work harder and achieve more. But he didn’t think that Colin would appreciate that, so he kept his thoughts to himself.

For a while, they rode on in silence.

Around them was a large pine forest. The trees stood tall and straight like poles and the birds swooped and sang in the branches above their heads. It was a pleasant day, and not too hot for once.

California was generally hotter than James was comfortable with. He’d been born in New York, but his family had moved out to California when he was five years old, and then his father found gold in the hills. Jonathan Merrick had eventually established an entire town so that he could be near the mines that were adding to his inherited fortune. Merrick’s Rest. His father’s town. It seemed that everything in James’ life revolved around his father. Even his future bride had been left to his father’s devices.

“…. Vanderbilt will be there?” Colin asked, bringing James from his reverie.

“What?” James asked, frowning.

“Mrs. Vanderbilt,” Colin said. “Will she be at your house for dinner tonight? You know, to meet Miss Wilson?”

“I suppose so,” James said with a shrug. “She tends to hang around.”

“Don’t say it like that, James,” Colin said. “She is a respectable widow. And after all the sadness that has followed her around, I think she deserves some happiness.” He sat up straighter in his saddle as he said it.

James took his hat off and ran a hand through his brown curls. Even in the cooler weather, he was still sweating. One final blast of furnace heat for summer, before the winter clouds rolled in from the Pacific Ocean to bring rain and relief.

“Why do you care so much if Mrs. Vanderbilt is there?” James asked when Colin didn’t keep talking.

“Only because she is a fine woman who needs a man in her life,” Colin said.

“She has my father,” James said flatly. “They’re very good friends and have been for years.”

Mrs. Vanderbilt was their neighbor. She had lost both her husband and her daughter years ago, and since then, she had been in their lives constantly. She had practically raised James when his mother died.

“Does she? Jonathan doesn’t seem to be suitably attentive,” Colin said.

And then James understood. He grinned.

“You like her,” he said.

Colin stiffened. “Well…”

“You would like her to notice you,” James said, slyly. “You know, if you help me to get the miners at least half of what they’ve asked for, I will happily tell Agata all about your stellar qualities and what an excellent husband you’d make.”

Colin eyed him. “Do you think that would work?”

“Oh yes,” James said with a nod. “Absolutely. She values my opinion on a lot of things.” Not regarding her romantic endeavors, but it might be worth a try. But he didn’t say that aloud.

Colin puffed out his thin, narrow chest, a little bird trying to look impressive. James smiled. What else could he do? The lawyer was a man, the same as any other, and Agata Vanderbilt was beautiful.

Despite being in her early fifties, she was still stunning. Her long black hair only had the thinnest strands of silver, and her alluring dark eyes still turned many heads. But it was her aquiline features, the prominent cheekbones that gave her the look of a Roman goddess, that seemed to attract the most attention. It was no wonder that Colin Pickering found her so appealing.

They rode down out of the forest and into a valley, a vast expanse of grassland. Small critters, mostly hidden by the grass, took off running at their approach. The only sign of their flight was the bending and swaying of the grass stalks without any breeze.

“Luckily, it’s not too far now,” Colin said, wiping the perspiration from his brow with a handkerchief. “We should reach the town in about three hours.”

“At this pace,” James said with a nod.

He wondered if he could slow it down somewhat. What he needed was time to think. There hadn’t been much of that since his father’s announcement at dinner three weeks ago that he had found James the perfect wife.

Of course, James had been surprised and then quite angry, but it wasn’t as though he had been looking for a wife. He had always assumed that a wife came when a man was ready for her and hadn’t thought he would need to look. It hadn’t seemed to be a priority because of the trouble at the mine. It was his father’s insistence that he get married practically immediately that troubled James. His father always had reasons for his actions however, he wasn’t sharing them this time. It was concerning.

It had taken Jonathan Merrick some time to get James to agree to at least meet the lady in question before everything was finalized, the wedding date set, and the whole thing considered signed and sealed.

But now that it was nearly time to actually meet Ally Wilson, James wasn’t sure that he wanted to. For some reason, the thought of marrying the woman his father chose for him was off-putting. It was as though his father had gone to a bakery and chosen the cake that James would have to eat for the rest of his life. A whole life might be a long time…and what if he didn’t like the cake?

All of these concerns filled James’ mind to the point where he was paying little attention to anything around him.

And that was why he didn’t spot the man on horseback blocking their path until they were right on top of him.

It was a choke point. A narrow path between the hills that led out onto an open plain. There was nowhere to go but through from where they were, and it was too late to turn around and ride the other route, which took much longer. Not with a man blocking their path.

The man sat on his horse casually, looking relaxed. He smiled at James and Colin as they approached.

“Howdy,” the man called, touching the rim of his wide-brimmed hat. It was pulled down at an angle that obscured his face from view.

“Howdy,” James said, reining in his horse a good thirty feet or so away. “Is there a problem?”

The man shook his head. “That depends. You’re James Merrick, aren’t you?”

“You don’t have to answer that,” Colin said in a hushed voice.

James eyed him. “Nope,” he replied to the man. If there was ever a time for lies, this was certainly it. “Why are you looking for this Merrick fellow? Does he owe you money?”

The man chuckled. “No, not in the traditional sense,” he said, and lifted the brim of his hat. “See, I had it on good authority that James Merrick would be riding through here yesterday afternoon. He never arrived. Now, that makes me wonder about things.”

“Well, I’m sorry to hear that,” James said, hand straying to his hip where his pistol sat neatly in its holster.

“You’re sorry,” the man said with a nod. “See, I think you’re lying. You look exactly like him. What do you think, boys?”

And that was when the rest of the men appeared. It was like a magic trick, only much more likely to be deadly. They came out from behind trees, bushes, boulders; and all of them were holding pistols. Every barrel was trained on James and Colin.

“Well, this is preposterous!” Colin cried. “He said he isn’t this Merrick person you’re looking for! You should let us pass. This is illegal! You have no right to stop us here.”

“You sound a lot like a lawyer,” the man said with a sour look. He had a weathered face, as though it had been out in the elements for far too long. “And who would travel with a lawyer but someone worth a lot of money? Am I right, boys? No one else would bother with a stiff shirt like this one.”

The men laughed in unison, as though they’d rehearsed the routine.

Then everything happened very quickly. James reached for his pistol but found that someone big and burly had come up beside his horse. Before his hand could close around the pistol’s handle, he was yanked from his saddle by a giant of a man.

He only had a moment to wonder where this enormous person had been hiding before he was being dragged to the ground by his shirt front. Try as he might, he couldn’t seem to get his feet under him.

Fumbling, he managed to pull his knife from its sheath at his belt, and he stabbed the giant in the leg. The man let out a scream and dropped him. James came up fighting. He hit the big man on the jaw and felt a crunch of pain in his fist.

The big man swatted James away, slamming him into a tree trunk. Hitting his head hard, stars burst behind his eyes, and everything swam in his vision.

There was shouting and the boom of a gun being fired.

Blinking, James looked around and saw that Colin was surrounded by bandits and firing his weapon into the throng. One went down, and then another, but there were so many of them.

One of them must have hit Colin’s horse, because the animal, already distressed and nervous with the men crowding around it, bolted forward and charged.

The last James saw of Colin, he was riding at breakneck speed through the narrow pass and away.

“Leave him!” the leader called. “He’s not the one we want. This feisty pup here is the one.” He leaned down so that his face was close to James’s. “Aren’t you? You’re the one I want. James.”

All the wind, and the fight, had been knocked out of James. He was as limp as a rag doll, with the world swimming into and out of focus.

Then the giant bent down and picked James up again, this time slinging him over a shoulder as though he weighed no more than a child. He tried to struggle and fight, to get free. It was the only thing he could do to try to save himself. He couldn’t let these bandits take him. But it was all in vain.

Something slammed into the back of his head and darkness claimed him.