Before the Dawn (Truly Yours Digital Editions) (21 page)
Read Before the Dawn (Truly Yours Digital Editions) Online
Authors: Erica Vetsch
“Not yet.”
With each step, objects and shapes began to emerge from the gloom. She discerned David’s outline, hunched shoulders, torn shirt, and tattered pants. Dried blood and dirt caked his hands in dark streaks as he sought handholds to help them up the slope. “David, I can see it. About ten yards ahead maybe? I can see stars through branches.”
“Do you want to go first, since you can see it?” He stopped and spoke over his shoulder.
Tears pricked her eyes and altered her voice. “No, David. You’ve led us this far. You go first.” A cool breeze that smelled of night dew brushed her cheeks.
David reached the opening and swiped his hand across the bramble stretching across it. Twigs snapped, and the opening widened. “We made it.” David shouldered his way through the limbs of tiny new spring leaves, and once free, turned back and held out his hand. “We made it, Karen.”
She struggled the last few steps up the rocky slope and all but fell into his arms. Tears wet her cheeks, and she clung to him. “Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord.” Her light-starved eyes took in every contour of the hills, every tree and shrubby shape. Pale stars winked overhead in an indigo sky. Fresh, sweet, cold air swept over them and murmured in the sparse pines, and somewhere a cricket chirped.
“Can you tell where we are?” David lifted his face to the wind and breathed deeply.
Karen loosened her grip on him and turned to survey the valley below and the hill behind them. “We’re about halfway up a fairly steep hill, and there’s a creek in the ravine below. You can just hear the water.”
“That’s our first priority, then. I don’t know about you, but I could use a drink of water about now.”
They skidded and slid down the slope. Loose stones and tufts of grass made the going difficult, but eventually they reached the water. David moved with more confidence than she would’ve thought possible just a few months ago, keeping hold of her hand until they knelt beside the creek.
Water had never tasted so good. She cupped her hands again and again, wetting her neck and splashing the front of her dress in her haste. When she couldn’t hold another drop, she sighed. “Which way do we head now?” Weariness crept over her again, and her limbs turned to lead. If only she could curl up and take a nap. She chafed her hands, icy after plunging them into the stream.
“Downstream.”
She didn’t question him. “The creek curves to the left around this hill.”
“I know you’re tired, but the sooner we get back to town, the quicker someone can get after Marcus.”
Rocks littered the streambed and made for slow going. Tailing piles from played-out mines lay like giant tongues on the hillside. They picked their way around the base of the hill, and Karen kept a watch out for a lamp or sign of habitation.
She found none until they rounded the brow of the hill, and she stopped to get her bearings. Above them, she thought she caught the glow of firelight. The skeletal frame of an abandoned derrick lay twisted, hanging down the slope as if pushed over by a giant’s hand. A sharp, new scar marred the earth, darker than the surrounding dirt and rocks. “David, there are people up there. Can you hear them?”
“Where?” His face turned to the sound of rocks and men’s voices.
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.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ERICA VETSCH is married to Peter and keeps the company books for the family lumber business. A homeschool mom to Heather and James, Erica loves history, romance, and storytelling. Her ideal vacation is taking her family to out-of-the-way history museums and chatting with curators about local history. She has a bachelor’s degree from Calvary Bible College in secondary education: social studies. You can find her on the Web at
www.onthewritepath.blogspot.com
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DEDICATION
For my parents, Jim and Esther Bonam
A note from the Author:
I love to hear from my readers! You may correspond with me by writing:
Erica Vetsch
Author Relations
PO Box 721
Uhrichsville, OH 44683
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