Love in Disguise (38 page)

No sooner had she spoken than she heard a scratching sound, followed by the bright flare of a match. Blinking against the light, she saw Donald standing in front of her, his hands and feet free. While she looked on in astonishment, he pulled a candle from his pocket and lit the wick.

“How did you do that?” she gasped.

In the candlelight, Donald’s smile took on a sinister gleam. “Let’s just say I learned a lot practicing those rope tricks.” He looked down at her and Steven. “You’re both nice people, but if I let you go, you’ll turn me in.”

Steven eyed him steadily. “That would mean adding murder to what you’ve already done.”

“You’re going to leave us here?” Ellie felt her last hope drain away. “No, Donald. You can’t.”

He took two steps back, and then his shoulders slumped. “You’re right, I can’t.” With a few deft movements, he untied the rope holding Ellie’s hands, then moved to release Steven, as well.

Ellie shook her hands free and reached to undo the knots binding her ankles. Yanking her skirt free of the jutting rock, she scrambled over to Steven. Just as she reached him, a muffled
whump
filled the room, followed by an ominous rumble.

The candle flickered wildly. Ellie pressed close to Steven. “What was that?”

“Dynamite.” He whipped a bandanna from his pocket and handed it to her as a cloud of dust rolled into the room. “Here, put this around your face. I think they’ve just dropped the ceiling on the exit.”

He tugged his shirt up over his mouth and nose. Behind him, Ellie saw Donald do the same. Long minutes later, the air cleared enough to let them breathe without too much difficulty.

Ellie pulled the handkerchief from her face. “What do we do now?”

“Let’s check that exit. This is one time I hope I’m wrong.” Steven held out his hand to Donald, who reluctantly surrendered the candle. Steven cupped his hand around the flame. “Thank goodness that blast of air didn’t snuff it out.”

No one spoke as Steven led the way in the direction Tom and Marvin Long had taken. By Ellie’s estimation, they walked about a hundred feet before reaching a forbidding pile of rocks and dirt.

Steven surveyed the rubble. His grim expression did nothing to allay Ellie’s mounting terror. “How bad is it?” she asked.

“There’s no way to know, but it was a large explosion—we’ll never be able to dig our way out.”

Her breath came in ragged puffs. “Are you saying they’ve won? We’re going to die down here?”

Steven pressed his lips against her forehead. “Don’t give up hope. We aren’t done for yet.”

“What have you got in mind?” Donald was making an obvious attempt to look brave, but the thread of panic in his voice echoed the fear in Ellie’s heart.

“We need to get back to the other end. There isn’t as much debris there. We can move it with our hands.”

Donald eyed the candle. “How long do you reckon that light’s going to last?”

Steven grimaced, as if he wished the other man hadn’t raised the question. “A new candle will last about an hour and a half.”

Something in his voice set off a warning bell in Ellie’s mind. “Is that a new one?”

Steven hesitated, then shook his head. “It’s already burned about a third of the way down.”

Ellie made a rapid calculation. “So that means we have an hour of light left?”

“We would, if we were sitting still, but we’re going to be on the move. I’d give it thirty minutes. Forty, at the outside.”

Donald’s voice rose half an octave. “It’ll take us half that long just to walk back . . . and that’s if we can go straight there without getting turned around.”

“In that case, we’d better get moving,” Steven said. “The important thing is to get there. If we have to, we can go on digging in the dark.”

If his remark was meant to be encouraging, it failed miserably. The panic Ellie had tried to hold at bay ever since being captured by Marvin Long tore through her like a monster’s claws.

She wanted to say something courageous to reassure Steven she wouldn’t be a burden and could accept her fate as calmly as he seemed to, but her throat felt as though a giant had wrapped his hand around her windpipe. She couldn’t have spoken even if she could find the right words.

Lord, I read that you always watch over your people. I sure hope you’re watching right now.

Steven stepped out with a confidence Ellie hoped was well-founded. Their route from the mine through the cave had followed so many twists and turns, she didn’t see how anyone could find his way back through that maze.

They marched along single file, the crunch of footsteps on the cave floor the only sound marking their passage. Ten minutes later, Steven stopped.

“What is it?” Ellie’s voice sounded unnaturally loud in the echoing gloom.

“We’ve gone this way before. I recognize that column over there.” He held the candle high, indicating a limestone pillar.

Donald’s voice reached an even higher note. “You mean we’ve been going around in circles?”

“I’m afraid so.”

Ellie’s gaze fastened on the dwindling candle. According to Steven’s reckoning, they had twenty minutes left, no more than thirty. How could they ever find their way back in the dark?

They couldn’t.

The knowledge hit her like a blow, and she clenched her lips together to hold back a moan. She looked around at the eerie formations, wondering what it would be like to be stranded in the darkness with those otherworldly shapes for company.

Donald raised another thought. “We could wander around in circles in this cave for a year. . . . Except we won’t last anywhere near that long.”

Steven’s mouth tightened. “How about keeping your thoughts to yourself, unless you have something helpful to say?”

“What about footprints?” Donald persisted. “Aren’t there any we can follow?”

“None that are clear enough to show me which direction to take.” Steven wiped his free hand across his brow, then set off along a narrow path to their right. “Let’s try this way.”

“Wait!” Ellie held her ground.

Steven turned. “What is it? We don’t have time to waste.”

“That’s the wrong way.” She pointed to the left. “Bring the candle over here.”

Steven complied, impatience showing in every movement. “What makes you think this is the right one?”

Ellie swept her arm out in a triumphant gesture. “Althea told me. See?”

Steven and Donald exchanged glances, and then Steven rested his hand on her shoulder. “Mrs. Baldwin isn’t here, Jessie. It’s easy to let your imagination run away with you in a place like this.”

“I am not hallucinating.” Grabbing Steven’s hand that held the candle, she raised it higher. “Look at that rock over there. It looks like Althea Baldwin’s profile. See?”

“Okay,” Steven said slowly.

She wanted to shake him.

“Don’t you understand? I noticed her before, when Tom led us through here. She was staring the way we came from then, so all we have to do is follow her nose to the mine.”

Steven whooped and gave her a hug that nearly squeezed the breath out of her. “Good for you, Jessie. Let’s go!”

Ellie allowed a ray of hope to rise within her for the first time since the explosion blocked their exit from the cave. Maybe God was going to get them out, after all.

The men seemed to catch her optimism and moved along more quickly. Ellie’s elation grew as she noticed other familiar formations. There was the big rabbit, and farther along, the fearsome troll.

Just beyond the troll, Steven halted again.

Ellie trod upon his heels before she realized he’d stopped. “Now what?”

“I need something I can set this candle on.” He held out the stub of wax, burning ominously low between his fingers. “It’s getting too hot to carry in my hand.”

Ellie stared at their rapidly diminishing source of light and voiced the thought she was sure must be on Steven’s mind, as well. “We’re not going to make it back to the mine entrance, are we?”

He gave her a quick squeeze, then broke off a thin, flat slab of rock jutting out from the cave wall. “We know we’re on the right track, thanks to you. We’ll go as far as we can in the light. When the candle burns out, we’ll take it one step at a time. It’ll take us longer, but we can feel our way there as long as we know we’re heading the right direction.”

Behind them, Donald cleared his throat. “Maybe we won’t have to.”

30

E
llie and Steven spun around to see Donald staring at a spindly formation that looked like a cluster of jackstraws.

“What do you mean?” Steven demanded.

Donald reached out his hand. “Can I see the candle for a minute?”

Steven stepped to his side and raised his improvised candleholder. “Why don’t you show me what it is you want us to look at?”

Donald indicated a point beyond the feeble gleam. “We can get out that way. If we hurry, we can make it before we lose our light.”

Steven eyed him skeptically. “What makes you so sure there’s a way out?”

“I don’t have time to explain. Do you want to stand here arguing or get out while we still can?” Donald stood up as straight as his round shoulders would allow, and his voice held an assertive tone Ellie hadn’t heard before.

Steven turned toward her, looking as surprised as she felt by Donald’s sudden show of confidence. “What do you think?”

She looked from the flickering candle flame to the newfound assurance on Donald’s face. “Let’s try it.”

Steven handed the candle to Donald and let the older man take the lead past the jackstraws and into the unknown. Their path zigzagged upward before it led them to a dark opening in the cave wall.

Ellie scrambled after the men, struggling to commit each twist and turn in the path to memory. If Donald’s promised exit failed, perhaps they could still find their way back in the dark.

“Through here.” Donald held the light for them to pass through the fissure and into a small room. A wooden ladder leaned against one wall, leading to another hole in the ceiling.

Steven stared around him. “What is this place? It can’t be part of another mine.”

Donald ignored the question and held the candle out to Steven. “I’ll go up first. You can hand the candle up to me once I reach the top.”

Steven kept his hands at his sides. “I have a better idea. Why don’t I go up first, and you hand me the candle?”

Donald accepted Steven’s suggestion without argument. “Fine. You go on ahead.”

Steven clambered up the ladder and disappeared over the edge of the hole. The next moment, his hand reached back over the opening. “All right, I’m up. Give me the candle.”

Donald handed him the rock with its precious blob of wax. Ellie saw the light move around before Steven’s head popped over the edge again.

“It’s all right. Come on up.”

Donald helped her step onto the first rung of the ladder. Clutching the ladder with one hand and her voluminous skirts with the other, she made her way up as quickly as the yards of fabric would allow. Once at the top, Steven pulled her the rest of the way over the ledge. Donald followed an instant later.

Steven held the candle up. “You want to tell us where we are?”

The dim glow illuminated another small room containing a broken chair, several pieces of tattered luggage, and a heap of empty crates. Blackened timbers hung from the ceiling at a crazy angle, and an acrid stench permeated the air.

The pungent smell and the sight of the timbers stirred Ellie’s memory. She gasped and turned to look at Donald. “The hotel?”

He gave a short nod. “What’s left of it. This is the storeroom in the basement.”

Steven walked over to a charred set of stairs that slid to one side the moment he laid his hand on one of the steps. “We’re not going to make it up that way.”

Donald gestured toward the hole in the floor. “Give me a hand with this ladder.”

Steven handed the candle to Ellie. She held it while the two men hauled the ladder up through the floor, unable to tear her focus from its sputtering flame.

Steven set the ladder in what remained of the stairwell and shook it to make sure it was secure. He turned to Ellie with a broad smile just as the candle flickered and died.

Ellie sucked in a panicked breath, then realized she could still make out Steven’s form through the gloom. Looking up, she saw moonlight filtering in through the latticework of charred beams.

Thank you, God.

She wanted to grab Steven’s hands and spin around in a jubilant dance, but that would have to wait. They weren’t out of danger yet.

They ascended the ladder in the same order as before. Steven cautioned her to keep her head low when she reached the top. “Be careful up here. Some of the walls have already fallen, and the rest could go at any minute.”

Once out of the storeroom, they made their way across the rubble and ash that littered the main floor of the hotel, testing every step along the way.

They didn’t reach the street outside a moment too soon for Ellie. That section of Grant Street lay deserted in the waning moonlight, with distant sounds of laughter and tinny piano music drifting in from the east.

The silver glow showed clear evidence of their rugged trek. Smudges of charcoal streaked both men’s faces, and clumps of gray, powdery ash clung to clothing already coated with dust from the mine.

They looked as if they’d just climbed out of a grave. Ellie felt sure she looked rather like Banquo’s ghost herself. But at that moment, only one thing mattered.

“We’re alive,” she said softly.

Steven responded with a triumphant smile, which faded the next instant. “Come on.” He grabbed her hand and started in the direction of Second Street. “We have to make sure your aunt is all right.”

“That won’t be necessary.”

He stopped short and stared at her as though she were crazy. “What are you talking about? You heard what Tom said.”

“There isn’t any Lavinia.”

“You mean she really isn’t your aunt. But what does that matter? Whoever she is, she’s in danger, and we have to help.”

Ellie dug in her heels and stood firm. “I mean there is no Lavinia Stewart, period. No Jessie, no Lavinia, just me.”

She watched him struggle to work out what she meant, recognizing the moment he understood her double deception.