In fact, on nice days they often rode down the two miles to Thunder City, a small mining town below Roosevelt with two saloons.
If it were raining, they didn’t go out at all.
Every night, after Bonnie and Duster retired to their bedroom, Dawn moved quietly down the carpeted hallway and crawled into the warm featherbed with Madison. Sometimes they made love silently, sometimes they just held each other and slept.
She felt like she had known Madison for a very long time, and he said the same thing about her. They fit perfectly together and she loved everything about him.
And as every day went by, she loved him even more. He was polite, generous, funny, and smarter than any man she had met. It was difficult in public to keep her hands off of him.
And he made love in a way that sent her spinning over the top every time. He was gentle, forceful, and knew exactly what to do and when.
She kept thinking that there had to be something wrong with him, but so far she hadn’t found anything.
She was in love, plain and simple, and about a month in she told him that and he said he was also in love with her.
Madison spent a lot of time on his own, out talking with miners. And he always came back and shared every detail with Dawn, since she couldn’t go out with him easily in the society in this place. He didn’t mind sharing at all and actually enjoyed being her eyes and ears and asking questions she wanted him to ask, often about the people when he would have been more interested in the mining details.
A number of times over the months, Bonnie had warned her about never going out without Duster or Madison. There were so few women in this town, and from what they could tell, Dawn was the only single lady.
Duster had taken it on himself over the first two months in the valley to teach both her and Madison how to fire their saddle rifles. They often went down below Thunder City and after lunch had a session of target practice.
She had gotten pretty good, but not as good as Bonnie or Madison.
Bonnie told Dawn that Duster had made it clear to a few men that if Bonnie or Dawn had any problem from anyone, they would answer to him personally.
And even though Roosevelt didn’t have any official law enforcement position, Duster sort of took over the job as Bonnie said he normally did, settling arguments between miners and one time having to run a man out of town by shooting at his feet a few times while a crowded saloon full of men laughed.
Then, almost two months into their stay, the valley had its first death.
Every time they had gone down the valley, Dawn had looked up the hill at where the Roosevelt Cemetery would be. But so far it was nothing more than an open hillside, the trees long cut down for building and firewood. Only stumps and brush remained.
The first man to die was William Armstrong. He looked to be in his mid-forties and owned a small supply store with his wife near the lower end of Main Street. Dawn and Bonnie had talked to both him and his wife, Grace.
Williams seemed to have died of a massive heart attack, simply keeling over in his store.
The day they buried him and placed a wooden cross on the hill, it was raining lightly. Dawn stood to one side and listened to the short ceremony with Bonnie, an umbrella keeping the rain from her black hat and dark dress.
Madison stood on the other side of her, his hat in his hands, the rain dripping off his handsome face as he stared ahead, not saying a word.
A large rock rested about five feet from Dawn and she knew that in over a hundred years that rock would have a metal plaque on it with William Armstrong’s name at the top.
A month later they attended another funeral and then didn’t attend yet another. The man who died was a miner working up Mule Creek. Dawn was told he died of some sort of infection. The next funeral Duster would not allow them to attend and Bonnie agreed. It was for a working girl who went by the name de Faunte.
It was no wonder there was no first name on the plaque for her. No one knew her real name.
Dawn made a note to herself to try to research her more when they got back. There had to be a trail the woman left getting here. Chances are Dawn would find nothing, but she felt compelled to at least try when she got back to her modern computers.
The last week of August dawned perfect. The day was a beautiful, warm day with a sky up between the mountains that seemed to be a blue as any water. There was a slight breeze coming down the valley, cooling it slightly. Dawn and Bonnie had stayed back at the cabin instead of riding with Duster and Madison up to Colonel Dewey’s mill. They weren’t supposed to be back for at least another hour when Dawn heard stamping on the front porch and the door burst open.
Duster helped Madison through the door, almost carrying him as Madison hopped and leaned into Duster. They were both covered in dust and sweating. Madison’s face was twisted up in pain in a way that made Dawn’s stomach hurt. Feelings of panic swept over her, but she pushed them back.
Dawn and Bonnie had both been working on dinner and laughing about how perfect the weather had been the last month. They had bought fresh trout again that a supplier had brought up for them from near where Monumental Creek dumped into Big Creek.
They both immediately rushed to Madison as Duster helped him drop to the couch.
Blood coated Madison’s right leg from his knee down, and he was clearly in extreme pain.
Dawn sat next to Madison, holding his hand while Duster held him on the other side and Bonnie carefully cut the leg of his pants away.
“Broke the stupid thing,” Madison said, his teeth gritted.
“Big rock rolled down on him near the top of Mule Creek,” Duster said. “Killed his horse and knocked Madison for a tumble down into the gulch about twenty feet.”
“It could have killed you,” Dawn said, her stomach twisting even more. She couldn’t think of losing the man she had come to love so much. Just the idea of that scared her more than she wanted to think about.
“I’m tough,” he said, trying to smile at her, but failing through the extreme pain.
Then Bonnie cut away the last of the pants and Dawn had no doubt that tough wasn’t going to do it. A splintered bone stuck out of Madison’s skin. It didn’t look like it had broken any major blood vessels, or he would have been dead by now, but the wound was dirty and bleeding pretty hard.
“Bad, huh?” Madison asked, his head back, the pain clearly filling his face.
“Bad,” Dawn said, squeezing his hand.
“You’re supposed to tell me no problem,” Madison said.
“I’m better in bed than beside it,” Dawn said, brushing some hair from the dirt on Madison’s face.
He laughed and then coughed, a cough that sounded like he might also have a few broken ribs and internal injuries.
Her panic almost overwhelmed her but somehow she managed to stay with him.
“We got to get this cleaned,” Bonnie said, standing and heading for the water pitcher on the counter.
“I’ll dig out the antibiotics and pain meds,” Duster said, patting Madison on the shoulder and heading down the hall toward his bedroom.
“What a stupid way to end the summer,” he said, shaking his head.
She brushed his hair back off his face and then kissed his cheek. “It’s been a perfect summer and we’ll have more.”
He looked at her, the pain filling his eyes. “That a promise?”
“A promise,” she said, squeezing his hand.
“Good,” he said, laying his head back and closing his eyes. “Because I like it here.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
THE MEDICINES that Duster brought out of his stash knocked Madison completely out. Dawn was glad for that because of the pain Madison seemed to be dealing with.
He was strong, the strongest man she had ever met, but no one could deal with that kind of pain.
And Madison also had a nasty-sounding cough that made Duster frown and scared the hell out of Dawn.
Back in 2014, they would be rushing him to a hospit
al. But here, in the middle of the Idaho wilderness in 1902, there were no doctors or hospitals of any sort.
No help at all for the man she loved.
Dawn had learned over the summer that Bonnie and Duster had both picked up a lot of medical knowledge over the years, and were both experts in first aid in situations like this.
As Bonnie had told her once, “You had to be. Trusting the medical in this time period often meant death.”
They had left Madison stretched out on the couch, the leg wrapped and elevated slightly. Even though he was out cold, they moved over into the kitchen area to talk.
“It’s as bad as I’ve seen a leg,” Bonnie said, shaking her head. “I’m afraid we might sever an artery if we tried to set it.”
“I agree,” Duster said. “We need to just splint it completely so it can’t move in the slightest.”
Bonnie nodded and Dawn hated the silence that followed as they stood there and thought. Outside the sounds of the valley filled the air, from the hammering of people building to get ready for the coming winter to the pianos dueling from the saloons.
“The horse landed on top of him,” Duster said, his hand on Dawn’s shoulder as he looked across the room at Madison. “He more than likely has internal damage.”
“We can’t move him,” Dawn said softly.
She felt like an entire truck of sand had been dumped on her and all she could do was stare at the injured man she loved laying on the couch. She couldn’t think.
She didn’t feel like she could even form words.
“No, we can’t move him,” Bonnie said, nodding.
She looked at her husband. “How much of the drugs do you have? We need to keep the pain down.”
“A couple weeks worth,” Duster said. “Different types, but they’ll all do the job.”
“I’ve got two or three weeks worth as well,” Bonnie said. “Maybe more.”
“We have enough time,” Duster said, nodding. “I’m going to go get Craig and Susan to help move Madison into the back room. I’ll bring back some boards for the splint.”
“What are you thinking?” Dawn asked, feeling as confused as she had felt in a long, long time.
“I’m going to make a ride tomorrow for Silver City, pull the plug on this wonderful summer.”
He turned and left.
“We have no choice,” Bonnie said. “We’re done now for this trip.”
Dawn stood there, finally understanding what Duster was thinking.
Of course, why hadn’t she remembered?
Why hadn’t she thought of that? Of course that was the answer.
After months living back here in 1902, feeling like she was part of this world and this valley, she had forgotten that in her real time, in 2014, if Duster could disconnect the machine from this time line, they would all be there again, standing in the crystal cavern, with only two minutes and fifteen seconds passed in their real time.
An entire summer in one hundred and thirty-five seconds.
And Madison would be whole and healthy, just as Duster had returned to normal after his accident when Bonnie forced him to reset.
How could Dawn have forgotten that in such a short amount of time?
Duster and Bonnie said they had spent up to fifty years in the past on some trips. How could they even remember the future after all that time?
She sighed, feeling the relief surge through her. They had enough drugs to keep Madison out of pain while Duster made it to Silver City.
He would be all right.
The relief flooded over her and she wanted to cry.
Bonnie put her hand on Dawn’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. It takes a number of trips to remember that we can go back to the future and just reset.”
“Then he’ll be fine?” Dawn asked, barely holding back the tears of relief.
Bonnie nodded. “No matter what happens here, he’ll be fine when we go back. The rules of time and space won’t allow anything else to happen it seems.”
“Never thought I would be so happy to hear about science,” Dawn said, looking over at Madison. Then she turned to the water pitcher and dampened a towel to go clean off the face of the man she loved.
If nothing else, she could keep him comfortable until Duster pulled the plug on this trip.
And then in real time, she and Madison would go from there.
PART THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
THE SUN WAS BARELY coloring the tops of the hills the next morning as Dawn and Bonnie stood on the porch and watched as Duster rode up the trail with only a slight wave back. The valley was just coming awake and not even the pianos had started up yet. His long duster was blowing behind him and he had his head down and looked like he was getting ready to ride hard.
The day before they had managed to get Madison into the back room with the help of the Roosevelt General Store owners, Craig and Susan.
Dawn liked them both and both seemed to be very solid people.
Craig stood about as tall as Madison and had broader shoulders and a slightly balding head. Susan seemed to always wear an apron and have her brown hair pulled back up tight on the top of her head.
She had warm, caring eyes and Dawn had liked her the first time they had met.
After they helped Madison to the back room, Susan had patted Dawn’s shoulder and said simply, “He’ll make it. Honest.”
That was very nice of her to say and Dawn only nodded.
Duster didn’t mention to Craig and Susan that he was leaving, and they promised to keep Madison’s injury a secret for now without a question as to why. More than likely Duster had paid them extra.
Duster figured that it was better in this mining community to not have the drunk single men thinking that there were two women alone in a cabin very close by.
Bonnie and Dawn both made sure the doors were blocked closed at night and they didn’t venture outside at all during the day, not even out onto the porch. As far as anyone in the valley was concerned, all four of them were fine and still in the big house against the side of the hill.
Bonnie had rifles standing against walls in the hallway, both their bedrooms, and in the living room and kitchen, all within easy reach.
Dawn wasn’t sure if she could use it, and said that to Bonnie at one point and Bonnie just shook her head. “Trust me,” she said. “You got some drunk coming at you, you’ll use it.”
To Dawn that sounded like the voice of experience, but she didn’t ask.
Together they managed to keep Madison sedated and as comfortable as his injuries would allow. Since Duster had given Madison that first dose, they hadn’t allowed him to wake up fully.
As Bonnie said, just better to have him wake up in the crystal cavern and not remember much of any of this. “You can fill him in later.”
Dawn spent most nights sleeping beside Madison’s bed on a comfortable chair they had pulled in from the living room, her feet up on a footstool. If he did wake and need her, she wanted to be there.
They let him come close to being awake only to get water down him, and at one point Bonnie said that if Duster took too long she would set up an IV as long as no one came in and saw it.
At times Madison started coughing and twice it took both of them to calm him, even in his sleep.
On day three she and Bonnie were silently cooking themselves some dinner when Dawn finally asked Bonnie the question that she had been afraid to ask up until now.
“How long do you think it will take Duster to get back up to the mine in Silver City?”
“The weather’s been good,” Bonnie said. “Maybe four days at the earliest. He looked like he was going to ride hard. Five or six days if he runs into some sort of problem along the way.”
Dawn nodded and they ate the salad and fresh venison steaks in silence.
Dawn just couldn’t believe that this was all going to just reset like Bonnie and Duster thought it would. Granted, she had seen it with Duster, but now, after almost three months here in the pa
st, that crystal cavern felt very, very far away.
In fact it felt like it had been a lifetime since she had been in her office on Campus, but in real time, it was less than a day.
Wow, that was hard to grasp after three months of living in this magical valley.
And a miracle that suddenly Madison would be healthy just didn’t seem possible. She had to believe it was, because Bonnie didn’t seem to be worried in the slightest.
And if Madison were going to live for them to have a life together, the miracle had to happen.
Dawn had to hold onto that belief.
Somehow.
CHAPTER THIRTY
ON THE SEVENTH DAY after Duster left the valley, Bonnie shook her head over breakfast of eggs and pancakes and said simply, “Something has happened to him.”
Dawn had feared that was the case, but as the last two days had stretched into an eternity, she had been afraid to say anything as Bonnie got slightly more agitated and clearly worried.
Madison was in extreme pain, even though they kept him mostly knocked out. Dawn was worried Madison wouldn’t even last until Duster reset things in the cavern and pulled them out. They did their best to get him water and some broth, but the pain was so extreme and the coughing getting worse, there just wasn’t much they could do for him.
And on top of that, his leg was starting to get infected.
It was September 2nd and the last two days it had been raining, cold and hard. The road outside was a constant stream of people packed and leaving the valley. This high in the mountains, snow was not unusual in September and often the valley was locked down by late September.
It wouldn’t have surprised Dawn if there was already some snow over the top of Monumental Summit.
“So what do you think we should do?” Dawn asked.
Bonnie shrugged. “We bring in Craig and Susan to watch Madison and we make a run for Silver City.”
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