The dirt road crunched under his feet, pretty much the only sound in the bare, blackened forest. The sight nearly brought Nate to his knees. He’d spent most of the summer walking these woods with an eye toward protecting these trees and restoring the health of Yellowstone’s forest. All that work, gone.
But it would recover. Just yesterday, Ranger Brookes had handed him a charred pine cone.
Nate had turned it over in his hand, the soot leaving stains on his already dirty skin. “What’s this?”
“Those pines you’ve been working to save. They’re all in there.” The man had tapped the cone in his hand. “Normally that cone is so gummed up with resin and sap that the seeds sit dormant. Nothing happens. But see how it’s opened up?”
Nate rolled it between his fingers. “The fire doesn’t kill the seeds?”
“It sets them free,” the ranger said. “Most of us ask God for an easy life. We even ask for it for our children. But sometimes it takes a little heat to break loose the seeds He’s planted deep inside us. Seeds we probably didn’t even know were there.”
The heat of this fire had been incredible. Nate stopped in front of the remains of the two CCC trucks, their frames covered in soot and ash. Ranger Brookes’s vehicle sat just to the right of them.
Not seeing Elsie this week had left a hole in his life, but as he stared at the devastation, he was glad she’d stayed well out of harm’s way. Her father said she’d found a room in one of the dormitories at Old Faithful for the time being, but would return to Mammoth before leaving for school. Hopefully he would get a chance to say goodbye.
The thought of a goodbye left him as dry and lonely as the charred forest.
His foot brushed against something solid in the ash beside the first truck. He kicked it loose. A piece of metal from the vehicle? It tumbled through the dirt, its oblong form too neat for scrap. Nate bent down and picked it up.
He turned it over. It looked like a lighter. Using the tail of his shirt, he wiped it off, the grime settling into the letters formed by an engraver’s tool. Wonderland.
Recognition sent a sour taste clambering into the back of Nate’s throat, choking him. Three ruined vehicles, acres of blackened forest, the danger to Canyon and those he loved—could it all come to this? He’d held this very lighter in his hands before. Teddy Vaughn had placed it there. The same man who had tried to pound him into the ground.
A truck rolled to a stop on the road behind him. “Hey, Nate. You ready to head back?”
Nate ran his thumb over the filthy object. “Red, you good with making a stop first? We need to talk to a ranger.”
* * *
Nate tossed the lighter across the map-strewn table at Roosevelt Lodge, and it slid to a stop in front of Teddy Vaughn. “Care to explain this?”
Vaughn glanced up, dark circles under his eyes. He’d put in as much work as any of them, maybe more. And he looked it. He reached over and picked up the object. He frowned. “Where did you find this?”
Nate claimed a chair across from him. “I think you know the answer to that.”
Red perched on the edge of the tabletop. “Summer a little too slow for you? Maybe you needed some excitement?” He folded both arms across his chest. “Or were you trying to get back at Webber for stealing your girl?”
The ranger leaned forward and looked each of them in the eye, first Nate, then Red. “I could have had Webber sent home after our fistfight in the woods. I kept my mouth shut about that, didn’t I?”
Nate matched his posture. “This lighter was beside our burned-out trucks. I just picked it up.”
Vaughn glanced down, rubbing his thumb over the silver case. He didn’t respond.
The silence didn’t sit well with Nate. “I saw the truck go up, Vaughn. I thought maybe something was wrong with the engine, but it had been sitting for hours. It should have been good and cold.” He gripped the table. “Somebody lit that fire on purpose. Apparently they used your lighter. The same one you used when we did the slash burn last month.”
The ranger locked onto him with his deep-set eyes. “You’re suggesting I did this? I’ve been working the fire for the past week. You’ve seen me out there cutting firebreaks and setting backfires. If I wanted the park to burn, why wouldn’t I just sit back and let it happen?”
“Elsie told me you wanted to be a firefighter but became a ranger instead. Maybe you wanted the thrill of saving the park.”
He tapped the lighter against the table. “She told you that? I’m surprised she talks about me at all. She didn’t seem to care much.”
Nate paused. The man’s mournful expression took him off guard. He’d expected anger, not resignation and regret. “So you thought you’d trap her in a burning forest and then—what? Rush in to the rescue?”
He locked gazes with Nate. “I didn’t even know she was out there. What was she doing up there, anyway? Kissing more CCC men?”
Nate stood sharply, sending his chair skidding back.
Red grabbed his wrist. “Take it easy.”
Vaughn got to his feet slowly, as if the weight of the past eight days hung on his shoulders. “There’s one big hole in your theory, Webber.”
Nate unclenched his jaw long enough to respond. “What’s that?”
The ranger dug into his pocket and pulled something out. With a grimace, he dropped the shiny object onto the table. “My lighter’s right here.”
Elsie sorted through her box of belongings wedged in the corner of their cramped dormitory room. Those intermediate readers had to be in there somewhere, and searching for them was better than sitting here feeling anxious about the start of college rushing toward her. She’d eagerly anticipated this for most of her life, and now that the opportunity was about to become reality, she wasn’t sure how to feel. She seemed to be alternating between fear, excitement, sadness, and uncertainty—with a few other emotions thrown in for good measure.
Mary turned from the window, and she glanced at Rose, curled up on the nearby cot. “Her sleeping pattern has been so odd since we arrived,” she whispered. “She’s restless—up multiple times during the night—then naps for hours during the day. It’s not healthy.”
Elsie pulled out a handful of books and stacked them on the low table. She wanted to leave those readers for Nate. “She’s sad. It’s eating away at her.”
“It’s been a week—well, most of the summer, if you think about it. How long will she mope?”
“As long as she needs to, I guess.” Elsie kept her voice low and glanced over at their friend. Rose had one more year of college, but she attended a different school. At least Elsie would have Mary for company.
Mary set her teacup on the table, picked up one of the books, and thumbed through it. “Speaking of sadness, do you think we’ll get to say goodbye to the boys?”
“It sounds like we might be doing the follies after all, even with everything that’s happened. They’d come for that, wouldn’t they?”
“I hope so. Red was going to sing. I suppose that might be the best way to wrap up the summer. All of us together in one place.”
The thought sent a rush of warmth through Elsie. On impulse, she grabbed her friend’s hand and squeezed it. “Even with the fire and how it will be hard to say goodbye to them—it’s been a good summer, hasn’t it?”
Mary returned the squeeze, eyes shining. “The best.”
* * *
Nate sank into the chair, staring at the two lighters sitting side by side—one shiny and one blackened. “But it’s engraved. I saw it.” He picked up the gleaming one.
“They’re both engraved.” Vaughn laid his hands on the table. “I purchased them both.”
Red frowned. “So it is yours, you’re saying?”
“It was a gift.”
Nate turned the charred one over for comparison. They matched on the front, but the opposite
side held a slightly different design. The silver one had a pine cone. The dirty one, a flower. He ran his fingertip over the dainty design. Feminine. “You bought it for Elsie.”
“Back when I was certain she would return my affections.”
Red took the shiny one from Nate’s hand. “What was it doing in the road?”
“Did she return it to you?” Nate studied the man’s face.
Vaughn shook his head, not meeting Nate’s eyes.
Why would Elsie carry a lighter? She was deathly afraid of flame. Nate rolled it between his fingers, searching his mind for answers, but coming up empty.
“I don’t get it.” Red frowned. “If it was hers, what was it doing out there on Mount Washburn?”
Nate ran his hand over the back of his neck, his skin prickling. He could feel the tension rolling off Vaughn.
“I hate to point this out.” The ranger folded his arms. “But she was at Mammoth when that fire broke out.”
Red jerked his head up.
The room seemed to still around them. Nate could almost hear his heartbeat in his ears. “I don’t like what you’re implying.”
“She was at the mess hall too,” Red said.
Nate sat completely still, staring at the table. Elsie, the firebug? It wasn’t possible. She could hardly look at a campfire, much less start one. And why would she put herself at risk that way, especially considering what she’d endured in her childhood? “What about the one in May, over by Madison? She wasn’t anywhere near there.”
Vaughn shook his head. “That was caused by a road crew working nearby. It wasn’t arson.”
Arson. Such a harsh word. It couldn’t apply to Elsie, his college girl. The one already marked by flames, with her whole life ahead of her. What would happen if the park service investigated her for this? What would happen to her father?
Nate couldn’t bear to think about it.
Vaughn let out a long breath. “Maybe we should talk to her cousin. She claimed he started the fire they survived as kids. Maybe she was more involved than she lets on. She’s always seemed strangely reclusive about those scars of hers. That could be guilt.”
“No.” Nate slapped the lighter on the table. “No, she didn’t start that one. Or any of the others, for that matter. It’s not possible. She was up in the woods with us when the last one flared up.”
“We should still look into it. If she’s lighting fires, she’s putting everyone at risk.”
Nate pushed back the chair and stood. “She’s not responsible.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because I know her heart,” Nate said, as he strode from the room.
He scrambled into the truck. He needed to talk to Elsie before Vaughn got the chance.
* * *
Nate struggled with the shift lever, shoving it into position like Red had showed him a few weeks ago. He hadn’t asked permission to take the CCC truck, but in the heat of the moment, he didn’t much care either. Whatever the consequences, he had to speak to Elsie.
He kept replaying the conversation in his mind. If the lighter was Elsie’s, why was it sitting by the burned-out truck? Had she dropped it?
She and her father had arrived not long before Nate discovered the fire. He tried to picture a situation where she could have lit the fire, then calmly hiked up the mountainside. The idea was laughable.
Now Vaughn as the arsonist—that he could picture. But was it simply because Nate didn’t like the man? Because he’d given Elsie expensive gifts? A lighter—what sort of man gave a woman a gift like that?
The truck jerked with Nate’s inexperience.
Why hadn’t she returned the blamed thing?
He chewed through and disposed of one scenario after another as he bumped down the road toward Old Faithful. He couldn’t completely rule her out in either the Mammoth or Canyon Camp fires either. But his heart refused to accept the possibility that she was involved.
Nate slammed his palm against the steering wheel. This was all going so wrong. They’d had a blissful couple of weeks trying to ignore the fact their time together was short, but he hadn’t anticipated losing eight precious days to this blasted fire. And now he had to face her with an accusation? It’s not how this summer was supposed to end.
He’d dreamed of stolen moments, walks through the woods, evening filmstrips, and that one last talent show. A few more weeks—that’s all it would take.
Take for what?
He hadn’t really thought it through, but somewhere in his heart he’d already begun making plans. Two weeks to solidify their love. To win her so completely that she’d promise herself to him, even though she’d be away at school. Or to convince himself to quit the 3Cs and follow her to that campus. He couldn’t attend, but surely he could find some kind of work. Or maybe the chief ranger would hire him on here, and he could wait. Wait for what? For her to return?
An ache burrowed through his chest. There had to be a way to make this work. Because he’d changed. This place had changed him. And Elsie? She’d transformed him.
Nate Webber from Brooklyn was a miserable failure who couldn’t read, couldn’t hold a job, and couldn’t even protect his younger brother from falling into a life of crime.
But Nate Webber of Yellowstone? He was a man with a future, and it included Elsie Brookes.
Nate took a long breath, the pine-scented mountain air mixing with the odor of lingering smoke. How quickly this place had become a part of him and how much he would miss it. He could almost feel Elsie’s arms slipping around his waist, tugging him close. No matter what happened, no one could take these memories from him.
God, if You’re listening—I need a miracle.
He stretched, the muscles in his back aching after driving for an hour. Spindly pines lined the road. This stand looked healthy. At least they hadn’t all succumbed to the fire. Nate reached into his pocket and pulled out the pine cone he’d picked up at Roosevelt and squeezed it in his fist. The scales were closed, glued shut by sap. According to Ranger Brookes, without fire it wouldn’t open to disperse the seeds hidden within. God could bring good out of disaster. Could something good happen for him and Elsie?
Nate tucked the cone in his pocket and gripped the steering wheel with both hands. Whatever God had planned for the two of them, Nate still needed answers.
* * *
Elsie hurried toward Old Faithful, trying to ignore the silly flutters in her stomach. When Mary had poked her head into the room to tell her Nate was waiting to see her, Elsie’s heart had leapt into her throat. She hadn’t seen him—or any of the fire crew—since the first day of the fire, and it had taken everything she had not to go chasing after him.
When she spotted him pacing over by the geyser viewing area, she couldn’t resist bursting into a run. Nate turned just in time to open his arms before she slammed into him.
He picked her up a few inches off the ground and swung her around. “Oh, college girl, how I’ve missed you.”
She wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his neck. He still smelled of smoke and pines. “I can’t believe you came. And you’re safe. And you got the fire out.” Could anything be more glorious?
He pressed his lips to her temple as he lowered her feet back to the ground. “Unfortunately, I’ve got to turn around and go straight back. There’s still a lot to do. I didn’t tell anyone I was leaving.”
Elsie ran her hands along his arms, trying to reacquaint herself with his touch. “I was afraid the fire would keep you busy through the end of the month, and I wouldn’t get to see you.”
“You know me better than that.” He smiled at her. “I would have found some way to get here, even if I had to walk.”
She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him, not caring who was around to see.
He pulled her in, returning her kiss and adding one of hi
s own.
She sighed. “If it’s this hard to be apart for a little over a week, I don’t want to think of what’s ahead.”
“Neither do I.”
She led him to the boardwalk, away from clusters of visitors waiting for the famous geyser’s next eruption. “Where are you staying right now? Is Red with you? Mary’s been beside herself with worry.”
“We’ve got temporary digs at Roosevelt, but they’re moving us back to Canyon for the last few weeks before we close camp. Red is fine. Trust me, I hear him moaning about Mary all the time. We make a miserable pair. Val deserted us for Bukowski and Maguire because he couldn’t handle all the whining.”
Elsie laughed, the thought of the two men commiserating bringing an odd sense of relief. At least it wasn’t just her. “How long can you stay? You’re not really driving back tonight, are you? It’s getting dark.”
“I know. But I have to. I’m absent without leave, and I took a truck.”
She backed a step. “You what?”
“Red will cover for me.” He paused, then took a breath before speaking. “Elsie, I need to ask you something.”
A shiver raced across her skin. He wasn’t preparing to propose, was he? She glanced around, the vent at the Old Faithful geyser wafting steam up into the evening sky as the first stars appeared. Did she want him to?
She forced her attention back to his face, his moss-green eyes melting any initial resistance. Go ahead. Ask.
He squeezed her hands in his, taking a step back as if to give her breathing space. “I found something at the burn site.”
“You did?”
“It was a silver lighter with a flower engraved on the side.”
Cold fingers crept down her spine. The lighter. Her lighter. She hadn’t seen it since before the fire. In fact, it had been hiding in her drawer for weeks.
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