White Dove's Promise

by Stella Bagwell

  Flustered that she’d allowed her thoughts to wander, she said, “My daughter normally goes by Peggy.”

  Jared nodded at Kerry while from the corner of his eye he could see that Bram was already talking over a course of action with the rescue people. “Peggy has wormed her way back into a shaft of pipe that I can’t reach,” he explained to her.

  Sick with fear, she gripped his fingers. “Someone else—someone smaller—” she began, only to have him dash away her hopeful suggestions with a shake of his head.

  “It would take someone smaller than Peggy even. I’ve found where she’d crawled through to another section of pipe, but her movements disturbed the surrounding ground, causing some of it to cave in behind her. Even if she was smart enough to turn around and find her way back, she couldn’t get past the dirt and rocks that are blocking the end of the pipe.”

  “Oh God! Oh please tell me you can get her out! Please!”

  One of Jared’s hands lifted to her shoulder. He gripped it firmly as he looked directly into her eyes. “Kerry, I promise you I’ll get her out. I’m not sure exactly how to do it yet, but I’ll get her.”

  Kerry desperately wanted to believe him, but the whole situation sounded so awful. Her baby was in a deep dark hole with no way out. “But she might not have enough air! If it takes a long time to get her out—”

  “Now, Kerry, don’t panic. If you collapse you won’t be much good to Peggy once we do bring her up.”

  Tears were blurring her eyes and she blinked furiously to prevent them from spilling onto her cheeks. God knew she had a good reason to fall apart, but over the past few years, she’d had to battle her way through tough times. The experiences had taught her to steel herself against personal pain and anguish, to show a brave face even though her heart was breaking. That was the strong, Comanche way, and she wanted Jared Colton to see that she was no weaker than he.

  “You’re right, Jared,” She drew in a bracing breath and squared her shoulders. “What can I do to help?”

  Jared glanced up the sloping ground to where Kerry’s mother was waiting with a group of people that had grown to large proportions in the past hour. “Just go back to your family and wait. We’ll take care of everything.” He looked down at her as another notion suddenly struck him. “Wait—there is something. If your husband is here, he could be a help. If he’d be willing to crawl down into the pipe and call to Peggy, she might respond to him. That would help us pinpoint her exact location.”

  Bitter regret twisted deep in Kerry’s stomach. Damon wouldn’t be willing to send Peggy a birthday card, much less risk his life to save hers. She tried to swallow away the guilt and sorrow that she felt, not for herself, but for her innocent daughter.

  “Uh, he’s…not around. But I could crawl into the pipe and call to Peggy,” she quickly suggested.

  Jared shook his head. “It’s too deep and dangerous, Kerry. I don’t want to put you at risk.”

  Her heart sank. “Oh well,” she said huskily. “Then I’m—uh, sorry, Jared. Because Peggy doesn’t have a father.”

  Chapter Two

  The next few hours were some of the hardest Jared had ever endured. For the sake of the little dove trapped beneath the ground, he was trying to focus all his mental ability on the rescue operation. Yet there was a small part of his thoughts that continually strayed to Kerry.

  To learn that she was a single mother had knocked him for a loop. The Kerry WindWalker he remembered was the quiet, reserved waitress who’d worked seven or eight years ago at Woody’s Café. At that time he’d tried to get to know her personally, but she’d stubbornly kept the conversation between them to the same light exchange she used for all the customers in the homey little eating place. She’d had a reputation for being prim and proper and, in spite of Jared’s best efforts, she’d left Black Arrow with that same squeaky-clean standing.

  Jared could only suppose that the years away from Black Arrow had changed her. Although there was one thing that remained the same, he thought ruefully. She had no man in her life. The fact that she’d been raising her daughter alone saddened him. Yet he had to confess there was a selfish part of him that was glad she wasn’t attached to some other man.

  “Okay, Jared, that’s ten feet. Want me to go any deeper?”

  Shaking away his thoughts, Jared looked up at Newt, a burly oilfield worker who was operating a large auger. This was the second hole that had been drilled into the ground near to the spot where Peggy was trapped. The first had failed to give Jared an entrance to reach her. After a long, careful study from inside the ground, coupled with the engineering blueprints he had of the original layout of the drainage pipes, he’d finally decided to try another, at a closer angle.

  “No. That’s good. Hop out, Newt, and I’ll go down. Maybe this one will get me all the way back to her.”

  Someone caught him by the arm and Jared glanced around to find Bram at his side. Having his brother here for support, even in the capacity of sheriff, helped him forget that he’d been at this for hours and that his body was now running on sheer adrenaline.

  “Newt has reached the right depth,” he quickly explained to Bram. “I’m going down again.”

  “What if you can’t get through this time, Jared?”

  “I’ve got to,” Jared said grimly. “I’m afraid to drill any closer. From what I know about this network of pipes, Peggy probably has some space to crawl back and forth. I can’t risk drilling into an area where she might be.”

  Bram let out a weary breath. “I know you’re right. But she’s been down there for hours now. The tunnel you’ve just now bored may not be any better than the last one.”

  The desperation in Bram’s voice matched the feelings that Jared had been dealing with from the moment he’d spotted Peggy’s little footprints. He wouldn’t rest until that child was placed safely in her mother’s arms.

  Jared lifted the hard hat from his sweaty head and shoved a weary hand through his damp hair. “Believe me, brother, I want to get her out just as badly as you do. So have a little confidence in me, will you? This time I’ll get in. I have to,” he said with steely determination. Glancing back over his shoulder, he scanned the crowd that had continued to grow throughout the evening. “Have you seen Kerry?”

  “I talked to her about ten minutes ago. I explained that you were drilling again at another angle.”

  “How was she doing?”

  Bram’s tight grimace spoke volumes. “She’s holding herself together, but it’s pretty obvious she’s not far from collapsing. Her mother tells me that no one has been able to make her eat or drink anything since we’ve been out here.”

  Just the thought of what she must be going through was enough to make Jared sick. “See what you and Gray can do with her,” Jared told him. “I’m going down. And I’m not coming up until I have Peggy with me. Even if it means I have to dig her out by hand!”

  By now Newt had removed the steel auger from the newly drilled hole. Jared hurried toward the open cavity. Bram followed to snatch a hold on Jared’s shoulder before he could lower himself into the newly bored hole.

  “Jared, you’re exhausted,” he pointed out. “You’ve already worked for hours. Let someone else go down. Let me. Or Gray.”

  Shaking his head at his older brother’s plea, Jared said, “You’re the sheriff. You need to be out here where you can make sure everyone is safe and doing what they’re supposed to be doing. This town would be in chaos if it lost you.”

  Jared’s offhand compliment put a twisted smile on Bram’s face. “This town survived a long time before I became sheriff and it’ll go on surviving once I’m no longer in office. But that’s not the issue. You’re about to fall over and Gray—”

  “Doesn’t like to get his hands dirty,” Jared joked and winked. Then before Bram could try to dissuade him any further, he lowered himself into the ground.

  Kerry was trying her best not to keep glancing at the small watch on her wrist, but each minute seemed to be
crawling by as she and the rest of the hundred or more people around the excavation site waited for Jared to reappear and prayed that Peggy would be in his arms.

  “Kerry, is there anything I can get for you? A sandwich? Or cold drink?”

  Kerry looked around to see Christa, a co-worker at Liberty Bank, who’d also become a good friend. The tall, curvaceous blonde was two years younger than Kerry and had already gone through a traumatic divorce. Over the past months Kerry had been trying to help her young friend get through the trying ordeal. Now the tables were turned and Christa was here to lend Kerry what support she could.

  Trying to smile, Kerry passed trembling fingers across her forehead. “No thanks, Christa. I tried to eat earlier, but everything just stuck in my throat.”

  With a worried frown, Christa grabbed a folding portable stool that one of the local churches had distributed for the crowd. Once she was sitting next to her friend, she said, “Clarence told me that you worked through lunch. It’s nearly eight o’clock now. You have to be starving.”

  Kerry placed a reassuring hand over Christa’s. “I’m fine. Or at least I will be once they get Peggy out of there.” Closing her eyes, she swallowed at the knot of fear that had lodged in her throat and refused to go away.

  “I noticed the sheriff was talking to you a few minutes ago,” Christa remarked. “What was he saying? Does he know anything yet?”

  “He said that the phone Jared had taken with him had apparently quit working. They haven’t been able to make any contact with him in the past twenty minutes.”

  Christa shook her head. “Well, that doesn’t necessarily mean that something has gone wrong. The battery could have gone dead on the phone or the signal may not be getting out.”

  Opening her eyes, Kerry focused a desperate look on her friend. “I hope you’re right, Christa. I can’t—I have to think that things are going to be okay. Otherwise—” She couldn’t go on as tears trickled onto her cheeks. Moments later, she felt Christa’s hand gently patting her back. Sniffing, she wiped at her tears and tried again, “Oh Christa—I don’t know what I’d do if I lost my daughter.”

  “You’re not going to lose her,” Christa said with firm resolution. “The Coltons will see to that. They’re a smart, diligent family. And they care about people. If Jared can’t get her out, he and his brother will call in some expert who can.”

  Kerry glanced around her to make sure her mother wasn’t within earshot. “I’m glad to hear you say that,” she said in a voice only Christa could hear. “Mom keeps preaching that they’re making a mess out of things and just wanting to big-shot around and take over the situation.”

  A puzzled expression came over Christa’s face. “I can’t understand that. Let’s face it, the fire and rescue people in this town mean well and they do a good job most of the time, but they’re not that highly trained. They have no idea what’s under this ground or how to get into it without tearing everything apart and endangering Peggy even more. Jared’s an engineer. He knows what he’s dealing with.”

  Kerry let out a long, shaky breath. “That’s what I was thinking, but Mom seems to have something against Jared in particular.”

  Christa shrugged. “Well, from what I’ve heard, he used to have quite a reputation with the ladies. Your mom probably holds that against him.”

  Shaking her head with weary disbelief, Kerry said, “That has nothing to do with him getting my daughter out of the ground! I don’t understand her—”

  “Kerry! Look!”

  Christa’s abrupt cry was coupled with a ripple of excitement passing through the people gathered around the site. And then Kerry saw the reason for all the commotion. It was Jared! He was climbing out of the deep ditch and Peggy was nestled safely in his arms!

  Choking back a sob of sheer relief, Kerry jumped to her feet and stumbled across the rough ground to meet them.

  “Peggy! Oh baby!” she cried, not bothering to hide the tears of joy that were beginning to stream down her face.

  Jared grinned down at her. “Your daughter is a little muddy and dirty, but other than that she seems to be okay,” he said.

  From the moment he’d reached Peggy back in the narrow cavern of pipe, she’d had a death grip on his neck. Even now, with her mother near, she was reluctant to loosen her hold and allow him to place her in Kerry’s arms.

  Gently, Jared patted the child’s back, then carefully pushed the long tangle of black hair from the side of her face. “It’s all right, Chenoa,” he murmured to the frightened little girl. “Your mommy is right here. She’s been waiting for you. Just like I promised.”

  Kerry swallowed down her tears in an effort to make her voice sound as calm and normal as possible to her daughter. “Peggy, it’s all right, honey. You can come to mama now and we’ll go get Fred.”

  Lifting her face from Jared’s wide shoulder, Peggy looked warily around her, then down at Kerry’s outstretched arms.

  “Mama,” she said through sniffles and hiccups, then reached for her mother.

  Jared had accomplished a few difficult jobs down through the years, jobs that had left him feeling proud, maybe even a little smug. But he could truthfully say nothing he’d ever done felt as wonderful or satisfying as being able to place Peggy into her mother’s arms. And the elated smile that was now spreading across Kerry’s face was worth every minute he’d spent crawling through that muddy underground maze.

  Hugging her daughter fiercely to her breast, Kerry looked up at Jared. She was unaware of the crowd surging around them, nor did she hear their cheers of joy. There was only him and her and the precious feeling of her daughter’s arms clinging tightly to her neck.

  “Thank you, Jared. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

  The raw emotion in her trembling words humbled him, touched him in a spot he hadn’t known he possessed.

  “There’s no need for you to thank me, Kerry. I wanted to get Peggy out of there as much as you wanted to have her back.”

  Shifting Peggy’s weight to one arm, Kerry extended her hand to Jared. He folded his fingers around hers with a firm reassuring grip. As their hands warmed together, he realized the past horrific hours had connected him to this woman in an oddly intimate way. Even now he could feel her relief and joy in the same way he’d felt her earlier desperation and fear.

  “I’ll never forget what you’ve done for me,” she said to him. “And when Peggy gets old enough to understand, I’ll explain to her that a very brave man saved her life.”

  Jared was like most any red-blooded male from eighteen months old to eighty. He liked to show off for any appreciative female, maybe even preen a little bit if the occasion warranted. But tonight was a different situation. And he didn’t want this woman to get the impression that he was hero material. He wasn’t. He was just a man who wouldn’t give up until the job was done.

  “Not brave, Kerry. Just stubborn,” he corrected.

  Her eyes still wet with grateful tears, she raised up on tiptoe and kissed his dirty cheek. “Then thank you for being a stubborn man, Jared Colton.”

  “Kerry! Is Peggy all right? Is there anything broken?”

  Stunned by the brief, intimate contact, Jared watched Kerry turn away to answer Enola’s frantic question. Moments later, he felt a nudge in his rib cage and looked around to see that he was now bracketed by a grinning brother and cousin.

  Gray, who was only a year younger than Jared, said, “Well old cousin, looks like you’re certainly the hero at this little gathering.”

  His description of the crowd around them as “a little gathering” was quite an understatement. It seemed like half the townsfolk were swarming around them like bees.

  Jared slipped off his hard hat. The night breeze felt cool against his sweating head. Pushing his fingers through his wet hair, he said to Gray, “Hell, I didn’t do anything but crawl into a hole.”

  Bram punched him affectionately in the shoulder and chuckled. “Looks to me like Kerry WindWalker thought you did more th
an that.”

  Jared glanced back around to see that she and her young daughter had been swallowed up by the crowd. It was just as well, he thought.

  “The only thing you saw was a woman grateful to get her daughter back,” Jared said, aiming the statement at both his brother and cousin.

  Bram was about to make another comment on the subject when one of his deputies approached with a question for his boss. The moment Bram turned his attention to the deputy, Jared used the opportunity to make his own escape.

  “I’m going home,” he told Gray. “Tell Bram I’ll deal with getting some of this heavy equipment back to its rightful owners.”

  Gray slung his arm around Jared’s shoulders. “Will do,” he assured him. “You go get some rest.”

  “Yeah. I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Jared told him.

  As Jared slipped through the crowd, several people called out to him, a few even stopped him to shake his hand, pat his back and offer him congratulations on a job well done.

  Normally, Jared would have hung around and lapped up all the attention and praise. It wasn’t often a man was handed the chance to do something as meaningful and worthwhile as saving a child’s life. And it warmed him that people appreciated his efforts. Yet he didn’t linger in the crowd. Instead he continued toward the quiet, dark spot where his truck was parked.

  By the time Jared climbed into the vehicle, bone-weary exhaustion had overtaken him. He drew in a string of long breaths, then rested his forehead against the steering wheel for several moments before he finally started the motor.

  As he pulled away from the scene, he glanced toward the activity still going on around the excavation site. Rescue workers were already starting to move away the fire trucks and other recovery vehicles which had been needed during the long hours. Some yards away from the commotion, he spotted Kerry at the back of an ambulance with Peggy in her arms and talking happily to Jenna Elliot.