Colorado Dawn (22 page)

She hugged him. “We’re rescued. I think there’s a road here…or at least a path. It zigzags up the grade.”

Halfway up, the muffled noises clarified into the sounds of digging and men shouting. A mule brayed, and metal implements struck rock again and again.

“Hello?” David shouted, but the work above didn’t stop. He tried again. “Hello!”

“What can they be doing in the middle of the night?” Karen stubbed her toe on something. Her skirt caught and she had to stop and free it. “David, you said you thought you knew which mine we might’ve been in. What was it called?”

“The Wildcat?”

Karen lifted the board she’d stepped on and angled it to get a better look. “I think you were right. I’ve got a piece of a sign here. It says Wildcat Mining.”

The sound of timber splintering cracked through the air, and cheers went up. “We’re making good progress now. You men with the pickaxes, get started on those boulders.”

“That’s Sam!” David’s face brightened. “They must be digging for us.”

With the last of her energy, Karen climbed the hill. David kept his hand on her shoulder, and at last they topped out on a little plateau. Bonfires roared in a semicircle around a pile of boulders and shattered wood. A dozen men crawled over the rocks, lifting them down and carting them away. Dust sifted through the air and swirled in the breeze.

“Sam!”

She sank to the ground, exhausted. Sam broke from a group of men and charged toward them, grabbing David by the arm then pulling him into a hug.

“You’re alive! How did you get here? We’ve been digging for hours.”

Karen could barely see through her tears as David tried, between backslaps and handshakes, to explain how they got out of the mine. Someone pressed a warm cup into her hands and dropped a blanket around her shoulders.

Sam knelt before her. “Are you all right? We’ve been worried to death.”

She sipped the coffee, letting the hot liquid warm her from the inside out. “I’m fine. We’re both fine. Just so very tired.”

“Right. Explanations can wait. Let’s get you two home.”

Nothing had ever felt as good as the hot bath and clean nightclothes Matilda prepared for Karen. She fussed and mothered, supervising the bath and washing Karen’s hair for her. All the while she marveled at their escape and at the changes in David. “David seems so much like his old self. I don’t know what happened down there, but I’m thanking God for it.”

Karen eased her feet into the lamb’s wool slippers Matilda had warming by the fire and stuck her arms into the sleeves of a thick wrapper. “I am, too. We got off to a rocky start, but everything is wonderful now.”

“Praise the Lord.” Tears glistened in Matilda’s eyes, and she turned away, swiping at her cheeks. “Now, drink this tea. Then it’s bed for you.”

The clock struck six times. “No, there’s something I want to see first.” She padded downstairs to the study, following the sound of male voices. She stopped in the doorway, still holding her tea.

David, freshly tubbed and in a dressing gown, stood by the fire, leaning his forearm against the mantel.

Sam sat on the corner of the desk, one booted leg swinging. Dust and dirt streaked his face and clothes, and sweat plastered his hair to his head. “Marcus had a snitch in the sheriff’s office. The minute we left there after getting the warrant, one of the deputies ducked out and ran right to Marcus.”

“How did you know we were in the Wildcat?”

“When Karen didn’t come back from the greenhouse, Mother got worried and went down there. She found flowers all over the path and sent Buckford for us. We were climbing the walls because you were missing.”

Jesse rocked in the chair behind the desk. “I knew in my gut that he’d come for you both, but we had no idea where he would take you or what he’d do to you.”

Sam turned his hat in his hands. “Then a couple of men came belting into town yelling that there had been an explosion on Wildcat Hill. Father remembered that Marcus had done some work for Wildcat Mining just after he finished his schooling.”

Turning his back to the flames, David tucked his hands into the pockets of his robe. “Where’s Marcus now?”

Sam swallowed and darted a look at Jesse. Jesse’s brows lowered and the lines beside his mouth deepened. “Marcus must’ve misjudged the explosives. We found him in the rubble. He’s dead, David.”

Karen’s hands shook, sloshing her tea.

Matilda appeared at her shoulder and took it before it spilled. “Come away, Karen,” she whispered. “You need your rest.”

Karen shook her head.

David shoved away from the mantel. The blood had drained from his face. “Do you think it was an accident, or did he take his own life, like his father did?”

Jesse flinched. “He was under a lot of pressure. We don’t know what was going on in his head. Accident or not, it cost him his life.”

Sam stood. “You girls can quit hovering in the hall. We’re done talking. I’m going to get cleaned up. Mother, don’t you think Karen should be in bed?”

Karen inched into the room and stood on tiptoe to place a kiss on Jesse’s cheek first then Sam’s. “I won’t be long out of bed.”

Jesse hugged her as if she were spun glass. “Drag David upstairs with you. He looks terrible.”

The family filed out, leaving David and Karen alone.

“It’s not true, you know.” She crossed the room and wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning her head against his chest. He smelled of soap and clean linen. She breathed deeply, her eyelids heavy.

“What’s not true?”

“You don’t look terrible. You’ve never looked better to me.”

His heart thudded steadily under her ear.

“I’m sorry about Marcus.”

He nodded. “Why aren’t you in bed? You’re practically falling asleep in my arms.”

“I can’t think of a better place.” She smiled. “I wanted to wait for you, and I knew if I got into bed, I’d fall asleep before you got there.”

They walked out of the study arm in arm and up the stairs.

At the landing, she stopped. “David, the sun is up.” Faint warmth came with the light, and she squinted against the brilliance. “Can you feel it? The dawn of a brand-new day.”

To Mr. David Heter, teacher and friend, who nutured my love of words and books and who encouraged me to write. Thank you for your guidance and all the prayers you prayed for me.

St. Louis, Missouri, December 14, 1885

H
e should’ve known she was hiding something. From the moment Sam Mackenzie had asked Yvette Adelman to marry him, something had been wrong. Only he’d been too besotted by her beauty to want to dig any deeper, which compounded his foolishness.

Sam tilted his head toward the conversation in the next room and considered the old adage about eavesdroppers never hearing any good about themselves. If that wasn’t the plain truth. He blew out a breath and wondered at which point he should push the door open and confront his fiancée and her mother. Maybe he’d best listen a little more and make sure he had heard right.

“I won’t have any trouble. Sam Mackenzie is an absolute sheep and too dumb to realize it.” Yvette’s lyrical tones belied the insulting words.

Sam’s mouth twisted, and his chest felt hollow.

“He’s loaded. That’s all that matters.” Hortense Adelman’s voice carried across the drawing room and through the inch-wide gap in the pocket doors. For a tiny woman, she sure had a powerful speaking voice. He hadn’t been at all sorry at the thought of leaving his soon-to-be mother-in-law behind in a few days.

“He adores me.” Yvette laughed. “I’ve only to mention that I want something, and he’s around here with it in a trice. And he’s eager. I barely had to suggest moving the wedding date up, and he pounced on the idea. In two days I’ll be Mrs. Sam Mackenzie, we’ll be on a train for Colorado, and I’ll be rich. A few weeks in the Mackenzie mansion in Martin City—doesn’t that sound like a dreadful frontier hamlet?—then I’ll tell him how homesick I am for St. Louis, how much I need my mother. I’ll be back here by Easter. Once I’m in the city, I can put off returning to Colorado indefinitely. I’ll have money to burn. By next fall, things will be settled, and I’m sure I can be back in St. Louis society with no one the wiser.”

“What about Anthony? You won’t see him anymore, will you? That would ruin everything. If Sam caught you two together, everything would explode.”

“Oh pooh, I could explain Anthony to Sam. Sam would believe whatever I told him.”

Sam’s neck muscles knotted, and his throat tightened. The bouquet he held shook, and his thumb made a crease in the foil cover of the chocolate box. He eased them onto the table beside the door.

“I’m still amazed at him appearing in our hour of need, Yvette.”

“I told you things would work out fine. I just needed to find the right man to come along. And soon.”

Her laugh, one of the things that had first drawn Sam’s attention, lilted like music. How could something that looked and sounded so good be such a sham? He squared his shoulders and pushed open the pocket doors. “Good afternoon, Yvette, Hortense.”

The way they both jumped would’ve been comical if he hadn’t known what they were up to. Yvette got to her feet, graceful and fluid as always. Sunshine from the bank of windows shone and raced along the fiery ringlets on her cheeks. Her skin, usually white and cool as marble, now showed a hint of color. She widened her sapphire eyes and flicked her lashes. “Why, Sam, I didn’t expect you so early.” She crossed the room and held out her hands, raising her face for his customary kiss. When he failed to oblige, she pulled back and ducked her chin. “What’s this? You’re not getting shy practically on the eve of our wedding?” She batted his arm.

“Shy?” He shook his head. “A sheep like me?” Turning from her, he took the chair beside the fireplace. “That is what you called me, isn’t it?”

Yvette shot a glance at her mother and then shrugged. “You’ve been eavesdropping. Darling, you misunderstood. Whatever you thought you heard has been misconstrued.” She pursed her lips into a bow and blinked at him, the picture of innocence. From her auburn curls to her kid slippers, everything about her was perfect. The white, frothy dress with blue flowers just the color of her eyes, the cameo threaded on a ribbon around her slender neck, her long, delicate fingers ending in perfectly rounded nails—everything calculated to please a man’s eye. She put her hands behind her back in an appealing gesture, one he’d fallen for too many times.

“I don’t believe I misunderstood. I believe I understand for the first time.” He shook his head. “You’ve been deceiving me from the minute I met you.”

She spread her hands, palms up. “Sam, I can explain.”

He looked at Hortense, who sat frozen in her chair, her skin mottled and her mouth slack. “I don’t need to hear any more of your lies. This farce of an engagement is over. You’ll have to find yourself some other idiot.”

Yvette’s mouth opened, and a little squeak came out. She shook her lovely head. “No, Sam, you don’t mean that. You love me.”

A rueful chuckle escaped him. “I sure thought I did. I feel almost as much of a fool as you made me out to be. Suckered by your looks and your pretty talk. I think I was in love with the idea of you, flattered that someone so beautiful would fall for the likes of me. I let you manipulate me, talk me into a short engagement.” He shook his head. “I should’ve known. Something’s been off about our relationship from the start. You had me measured up for a matrimonial noose the minute we were introduced.”

Hortense gave a strangled cry. “Don’t do this to my girl. You’ll ruin everything.”

“Mother, please leave us alone. I know we can sort this out if we can just be alone for a little while.”

Hortense scuttled out of the room as if her hem was on fire. She threw one last desperate glance over her shoulder before closing the doors behind her.

Two perfect tears squeezed out of Yvette’s eyes. “Sam, please, I beg you not to do this. Let me explain.” She stepped toward him, but he rose and rounded the chair, putting it between him and his ex-fiancée.

“No, it wouldn’t be the truth. I think being truthful is beyond your capabilities. You’ve traded on your looks and gotten favors from men for so long, it’s become a habit. You say whatever you think they want to hear. You lie when it suits you, and you deny the truth when confronted.” He sighed, giving free rein to all the doubts that had been building over the past month. “This isn’t the first time I’ve caught you lying, but I believed your explanations because I wanted to believe.”

Yvette’s face crumpled. “Please, Sam, say you don’t mean the engagement is off. I’ll apologize if something I said hurt your feelings. I don’t really think you’re a sheep. I love you, and I know you love me.” She edged around the chair and stroked his arm.

His guts roiled. Where once he had eagerly anticipated her touch, now it felt akin to a snake slithering across his skin. He jerked back. “No. It’s over. They say there’s a sucker born every minute. Well, I’m all done being your sucker. I used to believe in love. I think that’s why I fell for you so quickly in the first place. I
wanted
to fall in love. But being with you has cured me of that notion for good.”