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Gabi glanced back at the saddle shop. Would her father notice if she went to the cabin to see Uncle Theo and Rena? She could run all the way there and be back before he missed her.
Maybe she should write a note for him to find, just in case he came looking for her, but she didn’t have any paper, and she didn’t know how to spell all the words she wanted to use.
She went out back and picked up her stick, used the toe of her boot to smooth the dirt, then spelled out Rena. Pleased with her handiwork, she was excited she remembered how to spell her friend’s name.
Gabi knew if she followed the road toward the mine, she’d be able to get to the cabin, but she promised Papa to stay out of the street. She ran down the alley and past the park, then kept going until she got to the road to the mine.
“Stay out of the street,” she whispered to herself, then she scampered into the trees.
It was a grand thing to go on an adventure, especially one that would take her to Rena.
Gabi walked and walked and was sure she’d come to the stump that looked like a chair that meant Uncle Theo’s cabin was nearby, but the trees grew thicker and she couldn’t hear the babble of the creek anymore. She changed direction, trying to see the sun through the trees, but she couldn’t find it.
Frightened, Gabi turned around and decided an adventure on her own wasn’t such a good idea after all. She’d run straight back to Papa.
Only, when she ran, all she could see were more trees. A shadow moved, and a branch snapped, drawing out Gabi’s terrified scream. Maybe all those stories her father told her about goblins and gnomes and trolls and sprites were true. What if they were coming to get her? What if she never saw her papa or Rena again?
Tears streamed down her face as she blindly ran through the woods, desperate to find her way home.
“Gabi?”Joshcalledashe stepped out the back door, expecting to see his daughter playing on the step. All was quiet in the alley, so he walked through his shop and opened the front door. “Gabi Jo?” he called, looking up and down the street, even across at the bank, but she was nowhere to be seen.
He closed the shop door behind him and jogged over to the hotel. Sometimes, Gabi liked to sit in the hotel lobby and pretend she was a guest. Edith never seemed to mind.
Josh strode to the front desk, where Edith appeared to be sorting mail. “Afternoon, Mrs. Piedmont. Have you seen Gabi?”
The woman looked up and nodded. “About twenty minutes ago, she was sitting on the bench out front. Don’t tell me you’ve misplaced her again, Joshua.”
It had been a joke between him and the hotel owners for a while that he “misplaced” his daughter. The first time Gabi had wandered into the hotel, Josh had been frantic to find her. He’d dropped to his knees in relief when he’d discovered her sitting in the lobby looking at a child’s picture book Edith had given to her. Rather than make a fuss, Edith had said he must have misplaced her. Anytime Gabi showed up in the hotel and Josh came looking for her, Edith always teased him about misplacing his child.
Today, something seemed off, though. He had a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach that something terrible had happened to Gabi.
“Twenty minutes ago?” he asked as he edged toward the door. A lifetime of changes could happen in that short amount of time.
“Do you need help looking for her, Josh?” Edith stepped from behind the desk and hurried over to him.
“If you don’t mind,” he said, already opening the door and holding it as Edith sailed outside.
“Go look through your shop again and in the alley. I’ll walk to the end of the street and back. If we don’t find her soon, I think we should enlist more help to search for her. It’s not like Gabi to run off.”
“No, it isn’t, and that’s what has me worried.” Josh crossed the side street to the saddle shop, yanked open the door, and looked in all the spots Gabi normally played or hid. “Gabrielle Joy, if you are playing hide and seek, it’s time to come out!”
When the shop remained silent, he raised his voice again. “Gabi! Come out if you are here.”
He strained to listen for a giggle or any hint of movement that would assure him his daughter was there. Nothing. No sound at all except the frenzied pounding of his heart that was now roaring in his ears. If anything happened to his daughter, he didn’t know how he’d survive. She was precious to him beyond words, and it wasn’t just because she was his last tie to Maxine. Gabi Jo was his joy and the light of his heart.
Grief had nearly crippled him when he’d lost Maxine, but to lose Gabi? He couldn’t even bear to consider it.
“Gabi!” he bellowed, storming through the shop to the back room. He moved aside boxes, upended a crate, then opened the back door and yelled her name again. Edith hurried toward him from the end of the alley.
“Did you find her?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
“No one has seen her,” Edith said as she reached him, panting from the exertion of racing up and down the street. “I think you should let Marshal Durant know. If you want help searching for her, I can ask Henley and some of the others to lend a hand.”
“Ask them, please, and thank you, Edith.”
Josh took off at a run for the marshal’s office. The door was locked, and no one was there, so he stepped into the stage office across the street and asked them to pass on a message to the marshal if they saw him that Gabi was missing.
Josh had only taken a few steps when he ran into Doctor Holt.
