Silver Mist

by Raine Cantrell

  Halfway around the pit Eden tackled Lucio. They rolled from side to side, and Lucio managed to land several blows on Eden’s face until his head snapped back with the last one. Eden began an intense battering against Lucio, no matter how he squirmed to get free.

  Locking his legs around one of Eden’s, Lucio struggled to throw him off balance, his outflung injured hand groping for a rock. When his search was rewarded, he fisted it in his hand, repeatedly punching Eden’s lower back.

  Fire spread out from his kidney, and Eden fell back with a gut-wrenching cry. He lost whatever breath he had left when Lucio kicked his body free and was up, running again. Eden barely staggered to his feet when Jake reached his side.

  “Finish it.” He shoved a gun at Eden.

  Shaking his head to clear the pain haze enveloping him, Eden wiped the blood from his mouth. “Not … that way,” he bit off. His eyes found Lucio on the far side of the pit.

  Men crowded Lucio in a single line so that he was forced to change direction. Eden was waiting back the way he had come. Lucio looked behind him at the dredging machine, and before Eden could move, Lucio was already scrambling awkwardly up the broad platform.

  Pain made Eden stumble time and again, but he wouldn’t, couldn’t, stop and forced himself to run. Lucio had managed to climb midway up the hoist’s tower by the time Eden stood panting at the base.

  “Lucio!” he shouted. “There’s no place to go.” But he was already gripping the supports to haul himself up. Eden swayed, sweat drenching his body from the intensity of pain. Lights danced in front of his eyes, and he shook his head to clear it. Nothing was going to stop him. His fingers slipped constantly, and his body trembled from the effort he demanded of it. The closer to the top that he climbed, the more the tower shifted from side to side. Above him he heard Lucio’s curses as his foot slipped. Eden forced himself to climb another tier.

  “You’re out of … room … bastard.” Eden stopped to watch Lucio try to grab hold of the free-swinging cable. He knew that if Lucio managed to get hold of it, he could slide down or swing himself out over the river. The swift moving current would carry him away. Eden also knew the limits of his own strength: Fighting the fire had taxed him. No sleep and the pain he was enduring almost drained him. The thought of Lucio escaping him now gave him an added burst of fury that spurred him up the short distance separating them.

  Seconds later he gripped Lucio’s boot, pushing with the heel of his hand against the flat sole. Sweat blinded his vision, and only instinct made him turn his head at the last moment to avoid the kick Lucio aimed at his face. Eden locked his legs around the strut and bent backward with his hands free just as Lucio made a last desperate lunge for the cable.

  Eden grabbed it from below. Lucio tried to yank the thick coarse hemp rope from his grip. He kicked at Eden’s chest, and the blow made Eden release his hold, but Lucio had to twist his body as the rope suddenly snapped back at his face. Eden knew Lucio’s throwing up his hands to protect his face was a reflexive move, and he surged up beside him, trying to get hold of his arm. The cloth tore. Eden stared at it. Lucio fell backward, his scream echoing before his body crashed through one of the walkways and sprawled in the pit below.

  Men stood stunned for a moment, then ran forward, but Jake warned them back.

  “He needs help, man,” someone called out.

  “He’ll never make it down alone!” yelled another.

  “Leave him be,” Jake ordered, staring up. “He’ll make it. Just leave him be.” He was distracted by Dara rushing to his side. Her attention was all for Eden, and he looked away to where his wife knelt beside her brother. He knew Clay’s wound wasn’t serious. He hadn’t shot to kill him. Anne finally looked up, meeting his hardened gaze. Slowly, then, she came awkwardly to her feet. Jake started toward her to help her, but something stopped him. He heard Clay call out for Anne to stay with him, but she continued walking until she stood before him.

  “Jake … I …” Her blue eyes were filled with tears. “I don’t know if you can ever forgive me.”

  “You’re my wife and I love you,” he whispered hoarsely, holding out his arms, shuddering from the depth of his emotions when she took that last step and came against him. Feeling her tears soak his shirt, his own eyes burned and he murmured the reassurance that it was over. When her sobs subsided, Jake murmured his one regret. “I wish Lucio had told me the truth about Linda before he died.”

  Dara heard them. Her hand gripped the edge of the platform. She turned on them in a rage. No one’s feelings mattered after what she had watched Eden go through.

  “You want to know, Jake. I’ll tell you.” And she did, sparing him nothing. When she was finished, the rage died. She returned to her post as helpless observer, her gaze fastened on Eden, praying as he began his descent.

  “Dara, please,” Jake began, but Anne stopped him.

  “There’ll be time to talk later. She wants what I have. Dara wants Eden to hold her, the way you’re holding me.” She gazed at the man she loved and whispered, “I’ve been so wrong to blame you when I lost our child. I wanted to die that night. I didn’t…” Her sobs began again, and she had to force herself to finish. “I didn’t want to live if anything happened to you.”

  “Hush, Anne. We’ve both got ghosts to put to rest. Just be sure, honey. I have to arrest your brother. Thankfully, none of those men were killed, but Eden could decide to press charges.”

  “I trust you. I promise to always trust you to do what’s right for all of us.” Her gaze lifted to where Eden struggled, then lowered to where Dara tensely waited. “Will he be all right?”

  Jake cradled her against the warmth of his body. “There’ll be time now to make everything right, for us and for them.”

  Dara added that thought to her fervent prayers. Every harsh breath that Eden drew became hers. Every time he hesitated, her heart seemed to still until he managed to move again. Now he was close enough for her to see the trickle of blood from the comer of his lips.

  The echo of his earlier words grew in her mind until she wanted to scream with the torment he must be feeling. He hadn’t wanted to kill Lucio. Love expanded inside her as she heard her own words to him. She had declared him a man that believed in his convictions. A man that would do whatever he had to. But she hadn’t understood what a price might be paid in acting on them.

  Her longing intensified to hold him, to cosset him with the new depth of her love. He was all she had ever dreamed of finding in a man. Every word she had stated with all the passion within her took on a new, deeper meaning. Dara whispered a prayer of thanksgiving when he finally came within her reach. Compassion darkened her eyes. His physical pain became hers, but she knew that could be healed. It was the scar this would make on his mind and soul that she feared. She raised her hand to touch his leg, but lightly, so lightly that she didn’t think he had felt it. Tears burned her eyes to see his skinned hands grip the rigid bar as he lowered his feet to the ground.

  His shirt was plastered to his back, and sweat ran freely down his face as he stood there swaying. She was suddenly afraid that he would turn from her after what she had witnessed.

  “Eden … oh, love…” Dara reached up, her fingertips hesitant as she caressed his cheek, the cut on his lip, the line of his strong chin. She couldn’t measure the effort it cost him to drag his head up and look at her.

  It was the dark agony of his eyes that held her still.

  “Did he … hurt you?” he managed to ask, his breaths ragged.

  “No, love. It’s you—”

  “I … killed him.”

  “I still love you, Eden. More than I even knew,” she whispered, desperate to be in his arms. “It’s over now.”

  His shoulders sagged, and he caught up her hand with his, bringing it slowly to his lips. For a long moment Eden searched the dark velvet depths of her eyes, every tear that fell a knife thrust inside him. This was a pain he couldn’t bear.

  �
��I love you,” he breathed against her palm, drawing her closer. “I love you,” he repeated, feathering the words she had longed to hear across her mouth. “You filled needs I didn’t know I had, love. You’re life to me,” Eden whispered, sealing those words with the promise of his kiss.

  Epilogue

  There were three weddings in Rainly that winter. Dara and Eden’s came as no surprise, nor did the marriage of Caroline Halput and Pierce. But it was a bit of a shock to see blushed cheeks and a twinkle in the eyes of Miss Loretta before she said yes to Luther.

  Rainly was never a peaceful community again. Saturdays were the day farmers came with their families to shop and the miners flooded the town to drink, gamble, and fight. To Jake’s regret, they sometimes died.

  Alfred Weeks claimed Lucio’s properties and retained a shrewd Satin as his manager. Eden didn’t press charges and Clay became a recluse. Matt, with Eden’s blessing, went off to New York.

  The year 1889 drew to a close and the Gay Nineties began.

  Author’s Note

  Rainly is a fictional town, a composite of the farm communities that existed and the mining towns that sprung up during the era of phosphate discovery in the state of Florida. Most of these mining towns have disappeared, but a few have gone on and survived into thriving towns today. Phosphate is still mined in Florida.

  Acknowledgments

  I wish to thank Stuart Mclver, a Florida historian who makes the past come alive; and Barbara Coulson of the Ocala Public Library and the librarians of the Hallandale Public Library for their help.

  More from Raine Cantrell

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