Laura smiled and nodded, though she was watching the trail and he felt comfortable without her eyes boring into him, searching out his secrets, as some adults did.
“He was never very kind.” He thought back to the cruel words that had been heaped upon his head from his earliest memories. Even before his mother had died, his father had been mean, but at least he’d had her to temper a life of unrelieved unpleasantness.
“Tell me about your mother,” Laura urged softly.
He smiled. “She was pretty for starters,” he said, recollecting her light brown hair softly curling around her face, the crinkles fanning out from her eyes when she smiled, and the smell of lavender, a scent he would always associate with her. As they walked he talked about her, at first the pain of loss in his chest almost crippling him. But as he continued, and more memories came to him, the pressure eased until he was laughing as he told a funny story about her.
Laura smiled and glanced at him. “She sounds wonderful. But why didn’t you stay with your father after her death?”
He ground his teeth together and squinted hard, trying to keep angry tears at bay. He was too old to cry, and the time for weeping was past in any case. “He hit me one too many times.” Turning his head from her he watched Billy poking the ground with a stick he’d picked up. “I was taking care of myself just fine. I’m almost grown, you know. After I left him, I lived on my own for awhile.”
“I know it’s not the same, David, but I’ve been on my own for awhile, too.” She paused to look at him, as if measuring her words carefully. “My parents died when I was young but I was fortunate that I had grandparents who took me in. Eventually they got very old and my grandfather died. My grandmother wasn’t well and I cared for her and ran their shop and household. She just recently passed away and now I have to decide what to do with my life.”
David didn’t want to belittle her experience but he couldn’t see how she could compare a boy living in the wilderness, foraging for food and fighting for survival, to taking care of an old lady and running a business. At times he had thought he would die. He doubted she had faced that sort of danger. “I’m glad you were safe in a house,” he said.
She laughed and it was high light sound like a wind chime. “I can tell you aren’t impressed. Just remember, not everyone has the same skills, or challenges. What was difficult for me might not have been hard for you, but the same is true in reverse. Instead of comparing the details of our experiences, perhaps it would be best if we appreciate the sum total of those by acknowledging how we felt. “
David wasn’t sure what she meant exactly, and still had a hard time imagining that she would have felt anything near as fearful as his own emotions, but he didn’t like to argue so he nodded and scanned their surroundings for berry bushes.
“I see Billy and Anne but I don’t see Mary.” Laura’s voice held a tinge of concern.
The young man stopped and planted his feet wide, as he twisted at his waist to look in every direction. “I don’t see her either,” he said, feeling panic rising.
Billy and Anne joined them in calling for the youngest child but there was no answering cry. David examined the ground and said he had found a shoe print that looked her size. They should stay behind hm and he would track her. But before long, Mary’s trail ended at a pile of huge rocks.
“I can’t pick her trail back up,” he said seriously to the group. “You all should go back to town while I continue searching.”
Anne wiped tears from her face. “I won’t leave these hills without my sister.”
“And I won’t leave any of you here, so let’s continue looking. When we don’t return, Emma will send out a search party.” Laura skirted around the rocks, trying to find some sign of where the child had gone.
On the far side she called out to David. When he came to her and saw what she was pointing at, fear struck him and made him almost dizzy. “Bear sign,” he whispered.
Laura nodded. Keeping her voice quiet to spare the other children, she murmured, “It looks like an adult and two cubs.” She stood up from where they were crouched and raised her voice. “We’ll camp here for the night. Start gathering wood, but no one goes beyond my sight. Understood?”
Anne and Billy nodded.
“If we have a fire it will keep animals away and hopefully Mary will see it.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Mr. Coffman had given David a flint and steel of his own, to easily make fires no matter where he was. It had all started because he told Mr. Coffman a little about his time when he was on his own and how he’d had to struggle and struggle to make a fire from rubbing sticks together. It wasn’t at all like it sounded in the stories! He’d been pleased by how he’d been able to survive and maybe bragging a little, certainly not whining like a little child, but Mr. Coffman had brought him the flint and steel the very next day. “Anything can happen out there, David,” he’d warned. “And if it does, this ought to make it easier.”
David had blustered about how he didn’t need any help, but secretly he’d been pleased that Mr. Coffman had thought of him. Whenever the fire went out in the kitchen in the orphanage, he’d taken great pleasure in lighting it himself and had practiced lighting a few outside during breaks when he was working.
“You got that done quickly,” Miss Berg commented as she set down an armful of wood beside the fire.
“It’s easy when you’re an experienced outdoorsmen,” he agreed. He’d had to strike the steel several times before he got a spark that worked well enough, but Miss Berg had been busy collecting more wood and hadn’t seen his struggles, which he was grateful for.
“Now Anne,” Miss Berg said, once the girl had laid down her own burden of wood. “Could you collect pine boughs for bedding? It’ll make us much more comfortable.”
Anne frowned. “I’ll need something to cut the boughs off with.”
Miss Berg rested her fists on her hips and turned toward him. “David, I thought I saw you with a knife earlier. Is that correct?”
Reluctantly, he drew out his Bowie knife, though he didn’t offer it to Anne. His hand clung to the hilt. “It’s a fighting knife. It’s for killing things, not cutting through twigs.”
Miss Berg fixed him with a look. “Oh? Do you intend on stabbing woodland creatures to death and making us beds with their fur? If so, you’d better hurry.”
He sighed and held the knife out to Anne. “No, ma’am.”
While Anne gathered soft pine boughs, Miss Berg set Billy to work digging trenches for their beds and she herself laid out a little cloth she’d brought. Wrapped up inside was a loaf of bread and a wheel of cheese. To that she added the few berries they’d been able to gather and then settled some pine cones in around the edges of the fire.
David did his best to appear disinterested in all of this. It seemed a lot of fuss, to make things softer and prettier than roughing it living off the land. A fire was good, but did they really need cozy beds? Did she have to set out their food like it was some cheerful picnic, instead of them being stuck out here on the search for little Mary? Still, despite his efforts, the pinecones caught his attention. “What are you doing that for?”
“Heating them up will make the pinecone open up, so you can get at the nuts inside. They can stay sealed that way for years, just waiting for a fire.”
“And how did you know that?”
Miss Berg looked up from preparing her odd little picnic. “I read it in a book.”
By the time Anne and Billy had completed their chore and David was satisfied with the fire, they were all in better spirits. Not exactly cheerful, but the fear from before was settled down like dust after a storm.
After they ate, Miss Berg shook her cloth out, then folded it up again to tuck it away. Anne didn’t want to sleep with Mary still missing, but Miss Berg assured her that she needed some rest and they could trade off throughout the night keeping watch.
“I’ll take first watch,” David volunteered as soon as he heard that.
<
br /> Miss Berg tipped her head to the side thoughtfully, as though she were thinking of arguing with him, but instead she just gave a small nod. “All right then. You can wake me up in a few hours.”
The shadows were stretching out long and dark while the others got comfortable in their beds. David shifted his attention between watching the growing darkness and running his thumb along the blade of his knife, checking for knicks from Anne’s use of it. Out amongst the pines, something cracked.
He looked in that direction, waiting, but there wasn’t much to see, not with the light weakening and when he did think he saw something, it appeared to be nothing more than a black shadow. Except the shadow was moving, and not in time with the wind. More cracks, more rustlings. The noise it made seemed so much bigger than should have been possible and David jumped to his feet as realization struck him.
“Bear,” he hissed.
Miss Berg sat bolt upright from her makeshift bed and followed where he pointed with the knife. Billy only made the faintest of whimpers, while Anne began crying softly.
“We don’t have any food and the woods are full of berries this time of year. It shouldn’t bother us,” David said, but he couldn’t make himself sound certain.
The living shadow lumbered closer to them, then stood up on its hind legs. Standing, the bear was about his own height and he was certain it outweighed him. Black bears weren’t particularly large as far as bears went, but it was a bit like saying something wasn’t a large bullet wound. His knife wouldn’t do any good against that, he realized, and he threw the blade at the ground to let it stick there harmlessly, before reaching into the fire. His hand wrapped around the unburnt end of a good, long stick and he drew out his flaming club to swing at the bear.
Instead of being frightened away by the fire, the bear roared.
CHAPTER SIX
David felt like every muscle in his body had turned to water in the face of the bear. It dropped onto four legs, claws tearing at the ground as it huffed, then roared again. He’d seen bears before, from a distance, but never anything quite like this and he wasn’t sure what had happened.
Echoing off the trees and hills, a rifle shot rang out. The bear charged and David threw himself to the ground, certain he was going to be mauled to death, but at least the bear would get him before hurting the others. Hopefully, it would give them the time to escape safely.
“Git over here with me! Her cubs’re on the far side o’ your camp!” a voice yelled.
David pulled his face up from the forest floor, realizing he hadn’t been mauled after all. He looked to see the bear going past his sleeping space to collect two small cubs, who had been creeping close. She was distracted for the moment, but David worried it would not last long.
“Come on,” he hissed to the others. He snatched up his knife in one hand, keeping his flaming club in the other, and led the way. Up ahead, a lantern showed them where they were going, though it seemed awfully close to the ground. Only when they got close enough to see who was holding the lantern did he realize why.
“Mary!” Anne cried. She dropped to her knees and hugged her little sister and even gave her a kiss on the cheek, despite the younger girl’s protests.
Beside Mary stood a craggy old man who looked more like a twisted tree trunk than a human behind. The same man they had run into outside the store earlier that day, he now used a hook at the end of one arm to balance his rifle, so he could pull the trigger with his good hand. Once he was certain everyone was far away from the cubs and the mother bear was herding her little family in the opposite direction, he lowered the gun.
“Lil Mary here fell in a stream an’ got a chill, else we woulda found y’all sooner,” the prospector explained.
“We’re relieved you found us at all,” Miss Berg assured him. “My name is Laura Berg.”
“I know. Mary told me all about the four of you after I found her, lost an’ wanderin’.” He gave a small nod and one side of his scarred face twisted upwards. A smile, David realized. “Name’s Dennis Hemmin. Friends call me Ol’ Denny.”
“Oldeny?” David echoed with a frown.
“Like Denny but old, ya see?” He grinned, showing several blackened or missing teeth. “Now let’s git y’all back to my cabin an’ warmed up.”
They lingered only long enough to be sure the fire was out and they had gathered everything before they let Ol’ Denny lead the way. He limped and looked to be pained by the journey, but never gave voice to any complaint.
Unlike the soddies so common down in Sweet Town, there was no shortage of lumber in the hills. Ol’ Denny’s cabin was built of pine logs that had been chinked well, so no light shown through the logs. A fire in his pot belly stove made it cheery and warm inside and as soon as Ol’ Denny pulled the lid off the stew simmering on top, David’s belly growled. The old prospector heard and gave him a grin and a wink.
“Nuts an’ berries ain’t satisfyin’ to a growin’ young man, are they?” he quipped with a laugh.
Despite the difficulty between his limp and one missing hand, Ol’ Denny insisted on serving everyone a bowl of stew before he finally settled into his chair by the stove. Unlike a lot of prospectors, David noticed that he didn’t have a dog or even a cat to keep mice out of his grain. He decided to keep an eye out for anyone who had extra puppies in town or at any of the worksites Mr. Coffman took him to. A cabin needed a dog.
Bit by bit, he relaxed. Maybe judging people correctly by appearances wasn’t as easy as he’d thought. Miss Berg was clearly more capable and stronger than he had expected, never panicking and always keeping a cool head no matter what the day and night threw at them. Ol’ Denny might have looked frightening, but had spent the entire afternoon helping a lost little girl warm up from falling in a stream, before he went out in the dark to hunt down her friends for her and even scare off a bear to keep them all safe. And as if that hadn’t been enough, here he was sharing his warmth and food with them when it was all said and done!
Yes, he needed a dog. Maybe a good crutch or cane to help with that limp, and David was sure he could make one.
After they’d all been eating for a few minutes, Billy raised his eyes from his bowl to gaze at Ol’ Denny. “Why do you have a hook?”
David’s first impulse was to tell Billy that was a disrespectful thing to ask, but he bit his tongue. It was rare enough the younger boy ever spoke at all that he didn’t want to discourage him. Two warring impulses fought over what to do.
Ol’ Denny solved the problem handily for him. “Better than a stump, ain’t it?” He held his hook up, turning it a little so the metal caught the light. “Back when I was a young man, I followed the gold all the way to California. Thought I was gonna git rich an’ never have a care in the world. But we was usin’ dynamite to move rocks an’ sometimes you move more’n you bargained for. I was lucky I survived, but my hand was crushed an’ my leg wasn’t in the best o’ shape neither.”
“And yet here you are, still prospecting for gold?” David asked in quiet awe.
“I said I was lucky. I never said I was smart.” Ol’ Denny cackled.
THE END
To read more of Laura's story, as well as the other's who live and visit Sweet Town, Dakota Territory, please visit Sarah's webpage. http://saltpress.com/sarah_christian/.
About the Author
Dear Reader,
First of all, thank you for reading this book. I've enjoyed inviting you into Sweet Town and I hope you love the folks there as much as I do. Writing can be a lonely endeavor, and it always gives me inspiration and hope to hear from you. Please visit my Facebook page, or connect with me on my author page on Amazon.
Thanks again,
Sarah About Sarah Christian
Born and raised in a small town in Minnesota, Sarah loved the sense of community and extended family she grew up with. After going to college in the Twin Cities, Sarah decided she couldn't live without the warmth of a small town again. She returned home where she married her chi
ldhood sweetheart and is now raising two daughters. In the Sweet Town series, Sarah hopes to share a bit of the happiness, community, and country quirkiness from her own life.
Other books by Sarah Christian:
Sweet Town Series
A Bride's Price (1)
What Child Is This (2)
Calling His Bluff (3)
Not Always Nice (4)
Preacher's Wife (5)
Doctor's Midwife (6)
Carpenter's Rose (7)
Silver Bells (8)
Blacksmith's Christmas Bride (9)
Teacher's Pet (10)
Rancher's Woman (11)
Author's Muse (12)
Orphan Lost (13)
Nature's Autumn Decorations: And How To Use Them (Ladies of Sweet Town Gazette Book 1)
Nut Gathering Party (Ladies of Sweet Town Gazette Book 2)
All Hallow Eve (Ladies of Sweet Town Gazette Book 3)
With C.M. Stone
Hope for Nolan O'Donoghue (1)
Temperance for Doran O'Donoghue (2)
Verity for Brendan McGall (3)
Patience for Tomás Little Coyote (4)
Follow Sarah Christian:
Web Page: http://saltpress.com/sarah_christian/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SarahChristianSweetAuthor/
Newsletter
Author page on Amazon.
Copyright Notice
Orphan Lost
A Sweet Town Romance
by Sarah Christian
Published by Salt of the Earth Press
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Orphan Lost Page 2