Betina Krahn

  He had worked so hard, struggled for so long … for what? For a pair of steel rails that ran across a wasteland into nothingness? Unable to bear the sight and the emptiness it opened inside him, he turned away, and spotted Diamond sitting on a rock outcropping on the top of the nearby ridge. She was hanging on to a shovel and had propped her head against the handle. Her forehead and hair were sooty from the smoke and her once-pristine clothes were as grimy as any of the men’s.

  Never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined her like this. Duty, exhausted, hands probably full of blisters—for the first time. She hadn’t tucked herself safely away, hadn’t hidden from the terror around her. She had picked up a shovel and charged into the smoke and flames ahead of many of his men.

  Why would she do such a thing? Why the devil would she risk her health and safety to help him save his railroad when—like a giant horse’s arse!—he’d just told her that he didn’t need her?

  “You’re so determined to keep the Montana Central and Mountain all to yourself …” Her face appeared in his memory. “… selfish and prideful and hurtful …” He had hurt her. He had tried to put her in her place, to demand that she sit still and behave like a good little wife while he strutted and roared … and floundered … trying to prove that there was something of value inside him.

  And still she rushed out to help him.

  She was who she was, her actions said. He couldn’t change that. Nor, he realized with humbling insight, would he want to. Then what was he trying to do? He loved her just as she was … the helpful, ingenious, interfering, loyal-to-a-fault, forgiving woman that she was. Loving woman that she was.

  He loved her.

  He suddenly felt as if blinders had fallen from his eyes. A wave of weakness hit his knees. He was stubborn and prideful and ridiculous and selfish and arrogant. And she still came out to help him. He had tried to keep her at arm’s length while still trying to hold her. And still she came out to help him …

  “Bear!” Halt came trudging up the slope, using his shovel as a support.

  Bear tore his gaze from Diamond. “Damned good thing you got here when you did.”

  “We’d ’ave been here sooner, but we run into a bit of trouble. Come wi’ me, lad.” He struck off for the remnants of camp, pulling Bear along with him. A number of Halt’s men had gotten their second wind and shoved to their feet to head back to camp with Bear and Halt.

  When they reached the middle of the camp, Bear found two men lying on the ground, trussed hand and foot. Halt rolled one over with his foot.

  “Caught them two and one of Beecher’s hired guns pourin’ pitch over brush … preparin’ to set it afire and drag it. Beecher’s man got away, but we got these two.”

  Bear stalked closer, scowling at the battered face and recognizing the man. He quickly jerked the other one over and the fellow coughed and spat dust.

  “Carrick and Sikes.” He wasn’t too surprised. “Dammit—I should have known. You two have been nothing but trouble since the day I took you on.” Rage filled him. He grabbed Carrick by the collar and hoisted him up, shaking him like a dog does a bone. “You lyin’, sneakin’, low-down—you tried to burn us out!”

  Halt stepped in to keep Bear from venting his full fury on the pair. When Bear dropped Carrick back on the ground, the thug managed a chilling laugh.

  “Yeah, we done it. Set this here fire. Beecher told us to.”

  “And the tools”—Bear insisted—“you took them, too!”

  Sikes snorted, his eyes filled with sullen defiance. “Ain’t all we took.”

  There was a taunt in his tone that made everyone in earshot brace.

  “Yeah?” Bear set a boot down on the wretch’s throat. “What else?”

  There was a long, suspenseful moment while Sikes realized that both the fury in Bear’s eye and the pressure from his boot would only worsen. The answer, whispered hoarsely, had the effect of a thunderclap.

  “Dynamite.”

  Bear looked up at Halt, who wheeled and headed for the sagging supply tent. Moments later he was back with a grim confirmation. A good portion of their dynamite was missing. Bear’s blood suddenly ran cold in his veins.

  “Talk!” He jammed his boot against the thug’s neck again. “What’s he going to do with it?”

  “Too late, boss man.” Sikes gave him a malicious smirk that showed the blood on his yellowed teeth. “It’s a’ready done.”

  Bear wheeled, his mind racing, and ordered the camp torn upside down. They were sitting on a powder keg. But as Halt and the men raced to uncover the dynamite, Carrick gave a nasty laugh.

  “Ye’ll never find it.”

  Bear looked suddenly at the track—the train! They had planted it aboard the train! As he grabbed a crew of men and sent them rushing to saddle horses, he spotted Diamond and a number of the others returning to camp. He groaned and headed for her—thinking that he had to get her away from the camp.

  Then it happened.

  The ground rumbled. They felt deep, powerful vibrations that trembled them all the way to their fingertips. The sound seemed to go on forever, quaking them, unnerving them. But then it stopped and all was deadly quiet.

  It was a minute before the full impact struck Bear. There had been a blast, but where? His first thought was the train, but there was no light or smoke coming from the horizon north and west, along the track leading to their engine and cars. He scanned the rest of the horizon until he came to an eerie light blooming along the northeastern ridge.

  “That’s not our track or the forward camp. What could Beecher possibly—” He looked at Halt, then at Diamond, frowning.

  “The closest thing in that direction,” Diamond said, scarcely realizing what she said, “is the Danvers place.”

  A few shocked heartbeats passed.

  “Oh, God …” Bear closed his eyes, but quickly reopened them. “The Danverses. The bastard’s dynamited their farm.”

  For the second time, Bear ordered his men to grab shovels and blankets. This time they mounted horses and piled into the two supply wagons, setting off at a breakneck pace over the rolling plain toward the Danvers farmstead.

  Diamond had struggled to saddle a horse, and Bear—thinking of the fire, devastation, and perhaps even death that might lie ahead at the Danvers place—had almost ordered her to remain behind. Then he thought of Luanna Danvers and of Diamond’s determined and much-needed help earlier. He shouldered her aside and lifted the saddle into place and tightened the cinch for her. When he helped her up into the saddle and glanced up at her, her eyes were glistening strangely.

  By the time they reached the last rise overlooking the Danvers farm, they already knew there was fire, and plenty of it. Columns of smoke illuminated by flames below had been visible for some time, and the smell of burning wood—so different from the smoke of the brush fire-reached them well before they arrived. Still, none of them was prepared for the sight of wooden buildings lying in a thousand pieces all over the yard. Timbers and boards, twisted bits of metal, and charred grain had been blown in all directions. The surrounding slopes were littered with debris and the remnants of the house and main barn were both still burning.

  Bear hit the ground running, shouting orders to find both the family and the well. The men found the wooden structure above the well damaged by the blasts, and worked frantically to clear it and rig a bucket line. Meanwhile, all they had were the shovels they brought with them and a few hammers left on the floor of the wagon. They could hear frantic animals trapped somewhere inside the smoke, and in desperation took those huge spike mauls to the still-standing walls of the barn. Wherever they broke through, heat and smoke from the smoldering hay and bedding came boiling out, and they were forced to retreat.

  In the heat and confusion, Bear and Halt searched for Danvers and his family. On the porch of the burning shell of the house, they found the farmer pinned under a smoldering beam. He wasn’t conscious, but that was just as well; his leg looked badly damaged. They found
boards, pried him out of the wreckage, and carried him off to a safe distance. Then, desperate to find Luanna Danvers and her children and fearing the worst, Bear covered his face with his kerchief and went charging into the burning shell of the house.

  Heat seared his lungs and drove him back outside, but not before he managed to collect the impression that there weren’t any bodies inside. Starved for air and racked with coughing, Bear staggered out to collapse on the ground near Danvers.

  Diamond sat by the senseless form of Jim Danvers, wiping his face with a piece of cloth ripped from her petticoat, watching the chaos, feeling helpless in a way she had never experienced before. The Danverses’ home had been utterly destroyed. Blown to bits. The unthinkable violence of it shook her to the very core. For the second time that day, she was feeling the wrath of evil unleashed and scrambling to make sense of it.

  How could anyone do this to a young family whose only offense was struggling to make a living? No, they had committed one more crime: they had listened to and believed her when she said that leasing the land to Bear wouldn’t be “selling it” and wouldn’t get them in trouble. How could she have known the finer points of her clever solution would be lost on a man like Beecher?

  Then she looked up and saw Bear charging into the burning house and her heart stopped. He was risking life and limb to rescue these people, to make right her mistake. Terror gripped her and she abandoned her post by Danvers to pace desperately around the burning house.

  There had to be something she could do—there had to be!

  Frantically she looked around and spotted the men bringing up their first bucket of water. Buckets—blankets—anything they could wet and use for cover. She ran this way and that, spotting a soddy shed and realizing that behind it—protected from the blast—hung Luanna Danvers’s wash line. The farm wife had obviously just done her wash—sundry clothes, sheets, and blankets were still pinned to the rope that had collapsed partway into the dirt.

  Racing for them, she ripped the linens from the line and headed for the well. The men took them gratefully, ripped several of them in half, and wetted them down. She saved one of the cotton quilts, wetted it as best she could, then headed for the house … and Bear.

  He was stumbling out of the house as she arrived. When he fell onto the ground near Danvers, she rushed to him and fell to her knees, wiping his reddened face with the wet blanket. He looked up and her heart turned over. If she had lost him to this senseless fire … Swallowing down that thought, she looked over at the unconscious Danvers. He had a family, too … a wife and children … who now were missing.

  “I’ll be back,” she said, scrambling to her feet.

  Bear had seen the tumult in her face and felt the anxiety in her touch. She wiped his face with the cool corner of a wet blanket, gave him a look that spoke what would take volumes to explain, then glanced at Danvers and bounded up.

  “Diamond!” He tried to call to her, but the smoke had robbed him of all but a rasping whisper of a voice. He watched in horror as she wrapped herself in that wet quilt and ran for the rear of the house. “Damn-fool woman.” He gritted his teeth as he struggled up. “Just gotta help.”

  He staggered over to Halt and grabbed his arm. “Find Diamond …”

  Together they lumbered around the house, searching through the flickering light and smoke for some sign of her. They finally heard her calling for Luanna Danvers and followed her voice. She materialized out of the choking gray haze and he grabbed her by the shoulders.

  “Wait!” she said, fighting his hold on her. “I heard something!”

  They went still and an agonizing moment later heard what might have been voices … muffled and indistinct. Batting smoke from their faces and trying to breathe only through the wet quilt, they huddled close and listened intently. The sound came again. Even through the roar and crackle of flame and the shouts of the men, they managed to hear it.

  “Help! Help us!”

  High-pitched voices. Children. They looked at one another, then when Diamond pointed, indicating a direction, they nodded and followed.

  As they exited the swirling haze, still half-blinded by the smoke, they could see nothing promising. It wasn’t until Halt stumbled and went down on one knee that they realized that they were practically standing on the wooden door of a root cellar. Beams from the exploded barn roof had landed across one end of the doors, sealing the entrance. But when Diamond called out, she was answered by a chorus of voices.

  Bear and Halt fell on those beams and debris, scrambling and straining to shove them off the doors. Minutes later, they were pulling Luanna Danvers and three of her children from the root cellar.

  “Jim—where’s Jim?” she asked frantically as they hurried her around the devastation of her home. When she spotted him lying on the ground in the front yard, she let out a cry and raced to his side. Danvers roused as she cradled him and called his name. When he had roused fully, she fell across his chest, sobbing, and her husband weakly patted her head. Moments later she sat up and looked around. “We saw em comin’,” she told Bear and Diamond. “Jim told me an’ the kids t’ head fer th’ root cellar. Him an’ Daniel—where’s Daniel?” She looked first to her husband. “He was with you.”

  Danvers coughed. “Sent ’im to open th’ barn door an’ let the horses out.”

  Luanna Danvers turned in horror to the flaming remains of their barn. “My God. Daniel!”

  Barely a second passed before Bear was in motion and calling to ask the men beating at the flames and throwing dirt on smoldering embers if they’d seen a little boy. None had. He ran around the barn and corral, and stopped dead when he spotted the closed barn door. The boy hadn’t made it to let the horses out. He must have been caught in the blast.

  Daniel Danvers was nowhere to be found. Bear, Halt, and Diamond searched while the men battled the flames. As the fires came under control, some of the men turned to rounding up the animals that had survived the blast. A cow, a few pigs, several chickens that smelled of burned feathers appeared. Then Bear spotted a fellow leading in a plow horse.

  “Where did you find him?” Bear asked the fellow.

  “Over that rise … just wandering.” The man pointed.

  Daniel must have let the horses out then reclosed the door! They redoubled their efforts. After a time Diamond went back to the distraught Luanna Danvers and her heart ached for the woman. What if it were Robbie who was missing? Thoughts of Robbie and his bag of tricks caused her to straighten and focus on a whole new range of possibilities.

  “Does Daniel have special places to hide?” she asked Luanna, grabbing the woman’s hands. “Like when it’s time for the chores he doesn’t’ like to do?”

  Luanna, still somewhat dazed, recalled: “I caught ’im a few times … lollygaggin’ in one of th’ sheds … over near the barn.”

  Diamond ran to Bear and together they headed for what was left of the sheds and searched them, finding nothing until they reached the one closest to the barn. The wood had collapsed over the sod foundation. They had to pull boards away to get to what once had been pegs and shelves filled with half-tanned skins, chains for pulling stumps, carpentry tools, and spare wood. They called the boy’s name and after a while Diamond caught sight of a child’s worn shoe. Digging frantically through the debris, they located and pulled him out. He was dazed but otherwise unharmed.

  Luanna Danvers threw her arms around the boy and sobbed with gratitude, thanking Bear, Halt, and Diamond for all they had done to save her family.

  The fires were gradually extinguished, and the breeze cleared enough of the smoke for them to assess the damage. It was nothing short of devastation. Bear’s countenance darkened and his shoulders sagged as he surveyed the wreckage. Gravely, he turned to Luanna Danvers.

  “I’m sorry for all of this. I promise you, Mrs. Danvers … I’ll personally see that your farm is rebuilt … better than ever.”

  “It don’t matter,” she told him with tears streaming down her face. She
gathered the rest of her children into her arms and lap and gave them a collective hug. “These here are the most important things we got. An’ they’re all safe.”

  “All the same,” Diamond put in, despite the lump in her throat, “we’ll see you’re repaid and that your home is rebuilt. We’ll find someone to bring in your crops, if your husband isn’t able. You don’t need to worry about a thing.”

  Three of the men were assigned to place Danvers in one of the wagons and drive him and his family into town. Jim Danvers needed a doctor for his leg and the family needed a place to stay for a while. One of Silky’s boarding houses would have room for them. With profuse thanks, Luanna climbed up into the bed of the wagon beside her husband and called to her children. They scrambled in, and the family was carried off into the night and into the promise of a future that would be rebuilt.

  TWENTY-TWO

  Diamond and bear were among the last to leave the farmstead. It was so far into the night that it would be dawn before long. Diamond had long since exhausted her second wind and now barely had the strength to climb into the saddle. Still, she reined up on the ridge overlooking the charred and smoking skeleton of the farmstead and surveyed the destruction.

  The smell of the burning wood and the roar of the flames would be with her as long as she lived … as would the guilt she felt for having talked the Danverses into leasing Bear the land. She heard Bear mutter, “Come on. We’ve done all we can for now,” and she turned her horse to follow his.