Mail Order Bride: Captured Hearts: a Clean Western Historical Romance (Mail Order Brides of Gold Creek Book 6) Read Online Free PDF

fail her.
    She turned back to Huyana, hoping to gain some strength from her fearless power, but to her shock, the little girl was gone. She spun around, frantic.
    “Huyana?” she called out, but received no reply.
    She then split the bushes and saw Huyana running as fast as she could toward the grand old house and up the steps.
    “Huyana! No!” she cried out, then scrambled through the bushes to follow her.
    She dashed up the steps after her and into the empty hallway. Huyana was already halfway up the stairs, her small bare feet pounding on them with so much strength that it sounded like a fully grown warrior. Mollie sped up the staircase much faster than Huyana could, so was able to swoop in and grab her. Huyana fought and struggled for a moment, but when she caught chance eye contact with Mollie she stopped and allowed herself to be carried down the stairs.
    When they were halfway back down, a man came out of a side room and stood at the bottom of the staircase, brandishing a gun and pointing it right at Mollie’s head. She screamed and ran back up the stairs, Huyana jumping out of her arms and going up the stairs on all fours, as swiftly as a cat.
    “Get her!” the man shouted behind them, sounding scarily close.
    Just a few feet ahead of him, Mollie was glad for the sharp angle of the corridor that would hide them from his view. She guided Huyana into the corridor then onto a side room, where they hid behind the door. She had to hold her breath to keep from panting so loudly that it would attract attention. She put her finger on her lips to show Huyana that she needed to be quiet.
    “Come out,” the man said.
    They could hear his footsteps on the creaking boards outside and Mollie feared that perhaps these would be their last moments. Within her terror she also felt a pang of guilt – now Antinanco’s daughter, the man who had risked everything to help her, would die and it was all her fault for not watching her. She clutched Huyana and wished that she could go back in time to a few moments ago, so she could have prevented her from making that fateful break.
    The moment she had dreaded finally arrived as the man stood at the threshold and fired blindly into the room.
    “I know you’re in there!” he said, as the bullet tore its way through the wooden wall.
    All of a sudden there was another gun shot and the sound of a tussle as two men roared and a large thump followed. Mollie uncovered her eyes and looked through the crack in the door. She could see that a cowboy had pinned the bandit to the ground and they struggled together, dealing heavy blows to each other and gripping and rolling across the floor.
    “Run!” the cowboy hollered.
    She didn’t need to be told twice. She grabbed Huyana by the hand and pulled her along as they fled down the stairs, though Huyana struggled against her, desperate to fight. Halfway down the stairs, Mollie turned to see that the cowboy was Ira! She instantly recognized him from his picture in Matrimonial News.
    “Ira!” she said.
    He looked up momentarily.
    “Mollie,” he whispered.
    The bandit took advantage of Ira’s shock and dealt him a hearty blow to the head. Huyana took advantage of Mollie’s hesitation and ran back up the stairs. Before anyone knew what had happened Huyana delivered an almighty stomp to the bandit’s head. He screamed out in pain and was disorientated enough for Ira to gain control of the tussle, roll him over and tie him to the banister. He knocked him over the head for good measure, then got to his feet.
    The three of them, Ira, Mollie and Huyana, stared at each other for a moment.
    “I’m gonna blow it!” they heard someone shout as a thunder of footsteps sounded on the second staircase.
    “Come on!” said Ira, grabbing Mollie and Huyana and leading them down the first staircase. “Let’s go!”
    By the time they were halfway down the stairs, a huge crowd of people had emerged on the landing they had been standing on, the Arikara and