Iain

by Melissa Mayhue

  At least now he understood better why he’d been sent to help her. She had no men folk of her own to be there for her.

  “No, let me,” he said, jumping in front of her to grab the grain sack she reached for.

  “If you want to,” she said with a grin as she backed away. “But I lift these things all the time. I’m not some delicate little…hey, you okay?”

  “Yes,” he lied.

  In truth, the pain that shot through his hand when he reached under the grain sack was next to intolerable. He straightened and lifted the sack away to find a coiled snake. A snake, which from the feel of it, had just bitten him.

  “Holy crapola!” Sallie squealed, taking a step back. “Get away from that thing, Iain. That’s a rattler, sure as I’m standing here. It didn’t bite you, did it? They’re poisonous.”

  “No, it didn’t,” he said, dropping the sack at his feet to stare at his hand.

  Two distinct holes adorned the back of his hand, slowly closing, disappearing as he watched. So, he could feel pain, but suffered no ill effects. Maybe he wasn’t quite as alive as he’d thought himself to be. Perhaps there was an advantage to being a ghost.

  “Are you sure? Let me see,” Sallie ordered, pulling his hand into hers to examine it. “Okay, I guess you’re right. I thought for sure the way you’d jerked back…but I guess not. Thank goodness. That could have gone so badly.”

  It certainly could have. If Sallie had been the one to pick up that bag as she did every night.

  He allowed her to hold his hand, turning it back and forth as if she couldn’t believe his good luck. He should have pulled away from her much sooner than he did but the sensations passing through him at her touch were too pleasurable. It had been a long time since anyone had touched him like this. A long time since anyone had cared. Still, there were more pressing matters requiring his attention. Matters like the deadly beastie coiled before him.

  “Have you a weapon? A tool?” he asked, preparing to make sure the snake never got a chance to harm her.

  “What for? You aren’t thinking you’re going to kill it. We’re going to get this guy into this plastic bucket and put the lid on it.”

  She grabbed the bucket she intended to use, but he took it from her. If anyone was going to get bitten—again—he intended that it should be him.

  “The only thing we have up here that even remotely resembles a weapon is Jebediah Toliver’s civil war sword over in the museum office,” she said with a chuckle as she stretched around to watch him. “I seriously doubt our little friend here would wait for me to run and get that even if we did want to cut his head off. Which we don’t.”

  Iain wanted to give her a reassuring smile, but the coiled menace in front of him demanded his full attention. Sallie was watching too closely to miss it if the snake should bite him again. Explaining a disappearing snakebite was one conversation he didn’t particularly want to have with her tonight.

  Once he’d managed to trap the creature, she slapped a lid on top.

  “There are already little holes in this lid. I was using it to strain pebbles out of the water.” She grinned up at him as if they’d just shared an exciting moment. “I can’t believe we found a rattlesnake up here. It’s the first one I’ve seen in the four years I’ve been here. I’ll call Animal Control and see if Skip can come out to pick it up tomorrow. Wow. Guess we’d better warn everyone to be extra-careful from here on out.”

  With the bucket safely settled in the corner, Iain hoisted the feed sack onto his shoulder and followed her from the shed to dump the grain into the feeder. A comfortable silence settled over them as they finished feeding and watering all the animals.

  Once they’d secured the area, Iain trailed along beside Sallie as she headed toward the sleeping quarters.

  In the silence that continued to stretch between them, he heard a soft sound from behind, like a boot sliding on loose gravel. Slowing his gait, he allowed himself to fall a step behind Sallie and then dropped to one knee, head bent to listen.

  “What’s wrong?” Sallie asked, turning as she apparently realized he was no longer at her side.

  “Pebble in my boot,” he said quickly, straining to hear into the dark that had fallen around them.

  Someone was out there. Someone who watched and listened.

  “Do you need help?” she asked.

  He shook his head. What he needed was silence, but he could hardly say that aloud.

  “Okay, then.” She worried her teeth at the edge of her bottom lip, looking from him back into the direction they’d been headed. “If you don’t need me, I’m going to take off. We have our first load of visitors coming up the mountain tomorrow and I still have to finish the final schedules before I get to bed tonight. And call Skip to see if he can come out and get our little visitor.”

  “Go,” he said, flashing a smile to soften the edge of his response. “Tend to yer duties. I think I’ll stay out here for a while and enjoy the quiet of the evening.”

  “Okay,” she said again. “I’ll have assignments posted before breakfast. As I’ve explained, you’ll be shadowing me on the tours I lead tomorrow so you can start getting your feet wet. Go ahead and stay out as long as you like, but don’t forget to keep your distance from the river. It’s pretty dark over there since the fence and the lights got washed out. Good night, Iain.”

  “Good night, Sallie,” he said, rising to stand as she walked away.

  The only sounds reaching him now were those that belonged to the night. Damn his slow ears, anyway. He should have picked up on the noise before he had. He might have, too, if he hadn’t been so focused on the time he spent with his lovely companion.

  Any doubts he’d had earlier about her being the reason he’d been sent here were gone now. Learning that she had no family to watch over her had been the last piece of the puzzle falling into place. Sallie needed protecting and he’d been sent here to be her protector.

  Iain stared into the shadows of the night, willing himself to see into the farthest reaches of the dark nooks and crannies, but it did no good. Whoever was out there, or had been out there, was either too well hidden or was gone by now.

  With a sigh, he turned and headed toward the quarters where he slept. The bed he’d been assigned was comfortable enough but he had doubts about his ability to sleep tonight. There was a mystery afoot and far too much he didn’t know.

  Though one thing did stand out in the back of his mind. Dale, with his lies about having a relationship with Sallie, bore watching. Closely.

  He pushed open the door to the sleeping quarters to be greeted by the warm glow of light. A moment later, Justin wandered in from the bathrooms, his face covered in white lather.

  “Tomorrow it begins,” Justin said with a chuckle. “Thought I’d at least start the season with a clean shave. If it’s anything like last year, we’ll get so busy soon that all I’ll want to do at night is drop into bed, so who knows when I’ll have the luxury of doing this again?”

  Iain smiled a response, but didn’t bother to answer as his co-worker disappeared back into the bathroom. Instead, he threw back the blankets on his bed and admired the fine quality of the bedding as he had each night since he’d been here. Things had changed significantly since his day.

  “Mind if I flip off the lights?” Justin asked as he came back into the room, wiping his face with a small towel. “We’ll have to be up and at ‘em early so I need to hit the sack.”

  “Not at all,” Iain said, sitting down to remove his boots.

  Once he sat on the soft bed, he realized just how tired he was. After the years he’d spent in limbo, exhaustion felt good. Everything he’d taken for granted his whole life, everything he’d been denied for the past two hundred years, felt good.

  Being alive felt good.

  “We kind of have a lights out early policy here once the season starts. If anyone wants to stay up and read or whatever, they can hang out in the food hall,” Justin explained.

  He padded ov
er to the switch on the wall, but hadn’t yet flipped it when the door swung open. Tony, Dusty and Dale came into the room, laughing.

  “Oops,” Tony said, shrugging sheepishly. “I forgot it’s back to work routine. Sorry, Justin.”

  For his part, Justin simply arched an eyebrow and shut off the lights. “Either get here earlier or remember to carry your flashlights. As of opening day, sleeping quarters is for exactly that. Sleeping.”

  Iain rolled onto his back and pulled the covers up, his mind racing with all he’d encountered today. He’d never been one to jump to conclusions, but he strongly suspected that Dale was the one who had followed him and Sallie, both at the animal pens and in the mine that first day he’d been here. Tomorrow he’d see what he could learn to either prove his theory or eliminate the man from suspicion.

  For tonight, however, he needed some rest. Though he didn’t have any ideas what dangers Sallie would face tomorrow, he had no doubt there would be dangers. He had to be ready for anything that might come her way. It was the reason he was here.

  She was the reason he was here.

  Chapter 5

  “Welcome, everyone, to the Toliver Mine. We’re going to divide you into three groups in just a moment, but before we begin, I’d like to share just a few safety precautions that everyone needs to follow.”

  Sallie stood in front of the group of people who had filed off the train and down from the station to gather in front of the mine entrance. In Iain’s view, she looked completely comfortable speaking to the crowd, in spite of her claims the night before about preferring the company of animals.

  “The first thing to remember is keep an extra-close eye on your little ones. Our river is wildly beautiful and it tempts even the most cautious to draw near. But, its beauty masks its danger. We’ve had a particularly warm, wet spring here in Colorado and between the daily rains and the elevated snow-melt upriver, flooding has been a constant problem. As you can see, we lost our fencing to the last round of flooding and I can promise you, the banks of the river are loose and crumbly. It wouldn’t take much weight at all to send the mud and anyone standing on it right down into the water.” Her words were delivered calmly, but there was no doubt as to her seriousness. “We’ve placed logs in a line over there, to serve as a warning until the fencing company can get their crews out here. Don’t cross over to the other side of the logs. Nothing on the other side is safe,” she continued.

  “Because if you fall in, we are definitely not coming in after you,” Justin piped in as he joined her in front of the group, a big grin on his face. “You aren’t getting out until the authorities fish your body out at the bottom of the mountain.”

  Annoyance flashed over Sallie’s face, but it was gone so quickly, Iain wondered if anyone else had even noticed the expression.

  “A little dramatic,” Sallie said, glancing to her co-worker. “But a sad fact, I’m afraid. So, bottom line, keep everyone in your party away from the water.”

  Iain waited quietly for the visitors to divide themselves into three groups. Justin took the first group, Dusty the second, leaving the third for Iain and Sallie. He already knew from the explanations at breakfast that the three groups would start in different places so that only one group at a time would be inside the mine. He and Sallie started with the miners’ shed, where Sallie went through a quick history lesson covering mining in general and what life was like for miners at the time.

  In every training session, Sallie had stressed to him the importance of quickly learning about the group you led. Remembering each member of your group was the one way to recognize quickly if you’d lost anyone along the way. Their group consisted of one older couple, a large family group that appeared to be made up of a mother and father, grandparents and two children, a boy perhaps ten or eleven years old and a girl maybe six or seven. The group was rounded out with a couple who appeared to be in their late teens and another couple with a small boy, perhaps three or four years old.

  Lots of little people to keep in mind as they wandered through the camp buildings and then into the mine.

  Their group began in the miners’ shed, where Sallie told them stories that highlighted what life for miners in any mine would have been like at the time.

  Once they finished in the miners’ shed, their group formed a line and trekked farther down the hill to the old mine office. Again, once everyone gathered, Sallie launched into a history lesson, this time covering facts that pertained specifically to the Toliver Mine. She kept things light and had the group laughing as she pointed out various items in the room that made the place as much a museum as a stop on the tour. The ornate sword hanging on the wall led Iain’s thoughts back to the conversation he and Sallie had first thing this morning with Skip Harris, the Animal Control officer.

  “Huh,” the old man had said after peeking into the bucket. “I’m pretty sure that’s a Massasauga rattler. I’ve seen photos, but never a live one. I pulled some info off the ‘net last night after Sallie called me and described this little beauty. This species is native to Colorado, but not up here. You just don’t find these babies above fifty-five hundred feet. Certainly not up here near ten-thousand. We’ll have to think about where you came from, won’t we, my lovely?” The officer had lifted the bucket when he spoke, grinning at Iain as he finished. “I like critters. They’re downright fascinating to me. ‘Specially ones like this that just plain don’t belong where you find ‘em. You mind if I keep the bucket?”

  “It’s yers,” Iain had answered, already wondering how such a creature had found its way into Sallie’s shed, considering all the Animal Control officer had told them.

  Based on Skip’s reaction, Iain suspected that someone might have put it there. But had their intention been that Sallie should be the one to find it? Maybe. All Iain knew for sure was that he was going to stay as close to her as possible. And later today, after the crowds were gone, maybe he’d do a little investigating to find out where Dale had been last night and what he’d been doing that had caused him to get into the dining hall so much later than everyone else.

  Assuming he was still here to do that investigating.

  Soni had sent him to save Sallie’s life. Had Sallie been the one to lift that sack instead of him, she might not have survived the snake’s bite. Although, had that been the event he’d been sent to change, the witch would already have come for him. Wouldn’t she?

  He had no more time to concentrate on that question. It was their group’s turn to head into the mine. They made one last stop at the old ore cart that had been filled high with hard hats in a variety of colors to allow each guest to find one they’d be comfortable wearing.

  “A couple more things before we go inside,” Sallie was saying as Iain arrived at the back of the group. “Like everywhere else we’ve been today, you need to stay together. There’s electric lighting along the main path when we get inside, but there are secondary tunnels leading off like a maze, and they’re all as dark as the original mine. Those tunnels have barricades to warn you to stay out and for good reason. They aren’t tourist-proofed, so we don’t want anyone getting lost down there. Also, keep in mind that it’s about fifteen to twenty degrees cooler inside, so if you have jackets or sweaters, you might want to put them on now.”

  “Thank goodness,” the grandmother said to a burst of chuckles from the group. “I’m looking forward to some cool!”

  As they made their way into the tunnel, the guests peppered Sallie with questions, all of which she answered efficiently and often with humor.

  Iain recognized the side tunnel he’d wandered into his first time in the mine and saw that the yellow caution ribbons were back in place, along with a wooden sawhorse to block the opening.

  “Why can’t we go down there?” the older boy asked, pointing in that direction.

  “Too dangerous,” Sallie answered, pulling her flashlight out of her pocket and focusing its beam down the dark tunnel. “What you can’t see from here, around the bend in that tunn
el, are some boards lined up on the ground. A long time ago, some of the men working that tunnel drilled a shaft down there. They slanted it at a really sharp angle, figuring they just might be able to tap into the vein of silver that ran through the neighboring claim.”

  “Sounds illegal as hell,” one of the men commented.

  “It probably was,” Sallie agreed. “But it wasn’t the law that gave them their comeuppance. After a few hundred yards, the shaft flooded and there was a cave-in. Once they finally managed to escape, they boarded up the hole. But it’s still there and still every bit as dangerous as it was then.”

  “Did anyone get killed when they had the cave-in?” the boy asked.

  “Cameron!” his little sister objected, but she pushed around him, looking up at Sallie with huge eyes. “Did they? Are there ghosts in here with us?”

  Sallie shook her head, matching the child’s serious expression. “Luckily, everyone survived the cave-in. But shortly after, one miner was lost when he fell into the hole. That’s why it’s boarded up to this day and the passageway barricaded.”

  “So, are there ghosts?” the child asked again. “There are, huh?”

  “That’s a dumb question, Kelsey,” her brother said, but he appeared to be waiting for an answer, too.

  “Some people say that ghosts do walk these passageways,” Sallie said, bending down to the little girl’s height and smiling broadly. “But I doubt it. Ghosts aren’t real.”

  “Oh, but they are,” Iain blurted out, wishing he could pull the words back as soon as he spoke and all heads turned his direction.

  “I knew it,” Kelsey said, sidling closer to her brother and reaching for his hand. “Are they bad ghosts?”

  Iain glanced toward Sallie to find her frowning at him. Obviously, he needed to handle this delicately, though he could hardly back out now that he’d started.