Kaki Warner by Miracle in New Hope

sack and cans rolled across the floor. When I bent to pick them up, I saw . . . ” Her chest tightened. Tears clogged her throat.
    “Saw what, Mrs. Ellis?”
    Words burst out of her. “That Hannah was gone—I don’t even know when. I never even felt her let go of my skirt.” Deflated by her outburst, she sagged, tears spilling in hot streaks down her cheeks. “How could I not have known? How could I have just let her slip away?”
    A big hand closed over hers, stopped the frantic twisting of her fingers. It felt warm and solid, a lifeline amid the tempest in her mind. “It wasn’t your fault, Mrs. Ellis. Kids wander. Don’t blame yourself for that.”
    His kindness undid her, broke through the carefully constructed wall that held the anguish at bay. Gasping, she bent over, her fingers digging in to the hand that held hers, a part of her astonished by her outburst, but another part relieved to surrender to the grief she’d locked inside for so long.
    ***
    Daniel stood frozen, her tears burning like hot brands on the cold skin of his hand. Each muffled sob was a kick to his chest. “Lacy,” he murmured, not sure what to do or say. The rawness of her pain awakened his own and triggered a rush of memories that brought an ache to his throat. “Please. Don’t cry.”
    She began to rock.
    His fingers still gripping hers, he hunkered beside her and rested his free hand on her bowed back. “I’ll find her, Lacy. I’ll find Hannah and bring her back to you. I swear it.”
    She lifted her head. She looked shattered, her face a grimace of despair, her eyes savage in their pain. “How, Daniel?”
    He had never expected to hear his name on her lips. The sound of it made his heart soar. “I’ll find a way.”
    “But if she’s dead . . . ”
    “She’s not.”
    “What are you doing, Hobart?” a voice barked.
    Looking over his shoulder, Daniel saw Tom Jackson stomping toward them.
    “Get your hands off my sister!”
    Reluctantly, Daniel did. Rising, he turned to face the approaching man, ready to put himself between brother and sister if necessary. This suffering woman didn’t need any more distress right now.
    Swiping the tears away, Lacy straightened and looked wearily up at her brother. “It’s not what you think, Tom.”
    “Oh, no? You—crying like you never do—and him with his hands all over you? What the hell am I supposed to think?”
    Knowing this wasn’t the time for a confrontation, Daniel worked to keep his tone mild. “Your sister says you want to leave for New Hope tomorrow. If you hear what I have to say, you might change your mind.”
    ***
    “A cat?” Jackson threw his hands up in disbelief. “You’re basing all this on a cat?”
    “Hush, Tom. Let him finish.”
    The sun had gone down, and the cold had driven the three of them back to the fire. Jackson had built it up to a crackling blaze, and now, bundled in coats and scarves, they huddled upwind of the smoke, Lacy Ellis sharing a log with her brother, Daniel sitting on a rock on her other side.
    He was still rattled by that scene earlier at the creek. It tangled his thinking, made him wonder if his drive to continue the search for Hannah was based on a true conviction that she was still alive, or a desire to keep her mother beside him a little longer. He was smitten, for sure. And he didn’t know what to do about it.
    “Go on, Daniel. Finish what you were saying.”
    If her brother noticed Lacy’s use of Daniel’s given name, he made no comment. Daniel was relieved. The situation was awkward enough as it was.
    Forcing his errant thoughts away from the woman beside him, Daniel picked up where he’d left off. “We know your daughter likes cats. And we know there was a cat in the store—a cat the proprietor said spends most of its time hunting frogs at the creek, the same creek where all the pilgrims’ wagons were parked.”
    “Ours, too,” Tom Jackson reminded him.
    “Did your wagon look much different from the