Wild Passion

by Dawn Luedecke

  A ranch wouldn’t be bad, would it? Better than in town at least. Then she’d live on a homestead instead of rough-built cabin surrounded by wild animals and men with no respect for manners. She needed to refocus her goals.

  Beth stepped boot deep into the lake with no concern for the water seeping into her clothes. What Carrie wouldn’t do to be as brave and fierce as her friend. Beth had her faults, but she was the most loyal and determined friend to those she loved. She could always be counted on in a tough situation.

  “We’re going down the river?” Carrie asked, and set her side of the boat down on the bank.

  Beth adjusted the bateau in the lake. “I’m not about to sit around and wait for the fire to reach us. I know Garrett will come for us, but we don’t know how long it will take. This is the fastest way for us to get away from the flames.”

  “What if the river flows over by where the fire is?”

  Beth shook her head and climbed in to take up the oars. “The fire is northwest of us. The way the wind is blowing now, the flames are coming straight at us. If we’re lucky, though, the wind will shift north, or blow back on the fire to turn it away. Either way, we should be good. Unless the winds shift south.”

  “Then we’re in even more trouble?” Carrie climbed in opposite Beth. The crate full of food and supplies sat square in the middle of the boat. Nots wiggled again, and popped her head out of the top of her dress. Somehow the warmth she gave calmed Carrie enough to at least follow Beth’s orders. Without the pup, she’d be in a swirl of emotions. Unable to think straight enough to get off the mountain alive.

  “Let’s pray that it doesn’t.” Beth shoved off from the bank and rowed the small boat toward the mouth of the river.

  Carrie took a deep breath and clutched the side of the bateau as it rocked. She wasn’t cut out for this. Didn’t have the adventurous soul her friend before her possessed. Wasn’t usually willing to take risks with her life the way Beth seemed to do…until today. “What if Garrett comes back for us? He’s going to be in danger.”

  “Garrett will bring the train up so he can have a straight shot back home. Once he reads my note, he’ll either go back down on the engine or bring the second bateau down the river to find us. If the fire is far enough away by the time we reach The Thirsty Woodsman Saloon, we’ll see if we can go in and find help.”

  “The Thirsty Woodsman?” Carrie asked. She knew the place. Last year when they’d taken the drive down, they’d stopped near the filthy saloon to unjam a blockage in the river. Because of the way the river wound around and leaked into other lakes, the ride to the saloon was days away from where they were now. At least. “Are there no homesteads or other stopping points before there?”

  Beth shook her head as the boat caught the current and shot into the mouth of the river. “That’s the closest we can get. We’ll plan to make it there, and then see if we can’t get us a horse to take the remainder of the trail to the mill.”

  Carrie’s chest tightened to an almost painful level, and her breath grew shallow. They’d never make it out alive. “I don’t like this plan, Beth,” she shouted over the water.

  “It’s too late now, and it’s a helluva lot better than burning to death in the cabin.” Beth maneuvered the bateau around a rock, then slid her a quick glance. “It’ll be fine. We’ll row through the night. If the river’s fast enough, we will be there before the end of the day tomorrow. We don’t stop and we’ll be fine.”

  Beth had a point, but that didn’t make the plan any more enticing—not that she wasn’t grateful for her friend jumping off a train to rescue her. But a plan to put her trust in a winding river to get them down the mountain faster? Carrie’s only hope was to make it off the mountain alive. The only thing she wanted was to see Simon again. Feel the strength in his arms as he held her. Feel his lips against hers. She had to live. Even if only long enough to tell him, despite her plans for her life, that she loved him.

  * * * *

  Simon jumped from the train before the screeching wheels even had a chance to settle. His legs burned as he ran, but he didn’t care. He searched the throng of loggers in the mill yard, disembarking from the train with Garrett’s caboose. They’d made it down before the fire.

  Where was Carrie?

  Aunt June appeared beside him and stood on tiptoe to survey the crowd. Her brows pulled down in worry. Not waiting to see if she planned to follow, he headed toward the caboose. Chills raced down his spine and his stomach grew heavy with each second he didn’t see Carrie’s blond hair shining among the men. She had to be here.

  Garrett’s large frame stood out amidst the men milling around the train yard, and Simon motioned to him. “Oy, Garrett!”

  His friend raised his head in greeting.

  “Have you seen Carrie?”

  “I saw her get in the caboose with Beth before we pulled out.”

  Simon walked past Garrett and fought his way through the crowd to the back of the train.

  “Everything all right?” Garrett’s voice sounded behind him, and Simon looked back to see his friend following.

  “I want to check to see if she’s here before I relax.”

  “I watched her get on myself. Otherwise I wouldn’t have given the engineer the go-ahead to leave.”

  Simon nodded, but his chest tightened. Something wasn’t right. Carrie and his sister should have stepped out of the train by now. Perhaps he was overreacting? But then again Carrie had been left alone with his troublesome sister.

  He took a few deep breaths and leapt onto the back of the train. Normally he would have yanked the door open, but it was locked in the open position. His fingers grew cold. No sound came from within, and he doubted he had missed them disembarking.

  Where the hell were they?

  “Carrie!” he called as his heart dropped to the empty pit in his stomach and a lump formed in the base of his throat. He leaned in and spotted her bag half open near the wall. It took him no time at all to search the backroom, but there was no sign of either Carrie or Beth.

  “Carrie!” he shouted louder.

  “Beth,” he heard Garrett call from outside the railcar. His friend leaned over the side and searched the crowd. He waited for a second, then shook his head. “They’re not here. What the hell happened to them?”

  Garrett’s jaw flexed and his chest rose and fell as if he too felt the tightness that gripped Simon’s heart like the coupling of a train. His friend’s question burned in his mind. Where were they?

  He couldn’t lose the only women in his life who cared about a mudsill like him. He couldn’t lose them. Either one. For the first time in his life, he felt the need to cry, but he fought the urge. Replacing it with sheer rage instead. He slammed his fist into the wall of a railcar for the second time today. A piercing ache spread from his knuckles to the inside of his elbow, but he didn’t care.

  Garrett took a step inside the caboose. “They’ve got to be up the tracks somewhere.”

  Simon studied the track leading up the hill. “Let’s go. I’ll not lose them. Not now.”

  “It’ll take hours to get the tracks cleared and a train ready to go up. We don’t have time.”

  Simon waved toward the middle of the train as the workers brought the livestock out of the stock cars. “We’ll ride. Follow the tracks.”

  Garrett gave a single nod and leapt off the train. Simon ran behind his friend, only to be yanked back by a weak hand. He turned, ready to knock out whoever had tried to stop him from going, only to see Aunt June staring back at him. She frowned. “Where are they?”

  Simon shook his head. When she let him go, he gave her a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll find them.”

  “Come back with my girls.” Aunt June’s chin quivered, but he didn’t stay long enough to see if she cried. He pivoted and ran after Garrett. A few railcars down, Garrett and a logger readied two horses with sadd
les. Simon approached as the logger checked the cinch and stepped back.

  The mount’s reins dangled, so Simon scooped them up and swung them over the horse’s neck as he mounted. He adjusted the leather straps in his hands and kicked the horse into motion.

  The sound of Garrett’s horse behind him pounded in conjunction with his own mount’s hooves. The noise helped Simon focus on the task at hand instead of the frantic emotion bubbling in his gut. He counted the beats of the hooves in time with his own breaths to keep from spiraling mentally.

  It would take them hours to ride to where the camp was, and by the looks of the fire, they might not make it in time. He planned to try, though.

  Where were they? Had they fallen from the train or stayed behind for some ridiculous reason? No reason would ever be acceptable for staying behind in the midst of a forest fire. He didn’t know if he could ever forgive either one, but first he needed to find them.

  The men rode hard up the mountain—a task that would have been more difficult through the smoke had they not had the tracks to follow. Simon coughed, and then pulled his handkerchief from around pocket and tied it around his face. Taking his cue, Garrett did the same. Before long the thick air around them grew dark as the sun set. To his left, high in the forest, the bright orange of the fire illuminated the smoke around the flames.

  “This way!” Garrett shouted, and turned down the wagon trail that led straight to Aunt June’s cabin.

  Simon’s bones chilled at the eerie silence of camp. No sound of timber falling, mumble of the loggers, train whistle or grinding of the tracks, not even the gentle clank of the cook dishes filled the trees as they normally did. Nothing but the far-off roar of the fire as it ate its way toward the logging operation.

  “Victoria’s going to be furious,” Garrett said, and dismounted next to the cabin. “If this fire eats up not only the trees but all of the equipment, Great Mountain will be left with nothing but the hauls we got down.”

  Simon shook his head and tightened his lips. Although he wasn’t one of Victoria’s greatest followers, he didn’t want to see her suffer.

  “What started it?”

  Garrett stared at the far-off flames. “Dry lightning. We think. There’s been rainless storms in and out over the last week. None down here, but there was one further up the mountain a few days ago. Lightning can strike from miles away.”

  “Where are the women?” Simon dismounted, and tromped about the camp, searching for signs of Carrie.

  “Over there,” Garrett called, and pointed toward the cabin door as he ran.

  He got to the missive before Simon, and swiped it from the piercing grip of the knife.

  “They’ve gone down the river.” Garrett handed the note to Simon, and Simon ran a quick eye over his sister’s swirly scribble.

  “She thinks you brought the train up. Told you to go back down on it. She plans to try and get to The Thirsty Woodsman.” Simon slapped the paper against his thigh. “What in God’s name is she thinking?”

  “We’ve two choices,” Garrett said, heading toward his horse. “We go down the tracks and wait, or follow the river and hope to find the women.”

  Not bothering with the stirrups, Simon swung onto the saddle and adjusted the cougar bone tucked into his belt. “I’m not leaving my sister or Carrie to fend for themselves on the river.”

  “If they left shortly after the train, they’d be by The Thirsty Woodsman tomorrow afternoon. We can’t pick our way down the bank in the dark, and I’m not willing to stay and wait until morning.” Garrett mounted his horse as well.

  “So tonight, we ride the tracks until the saloon. Then when the sun comes up, we’ll head up the river and head them off.”

  Garrett frowned, but nodded. Simon agreed. He didn’t like the plan any more than his friend, but it was all they had to go on. They’d both found out the year before how dangerous searching the banks of the river at night could be. Their best chance was to go down far enough to head the women off on the river. Once the women were secure with them, they could high-tail it down the mountain to safety. For now, they had to ride. And pray.

  Chapter 20

  Carrie concentrated on keeping her breath even. The night had long since closed in around her, but that didn’t make each bump of the boat on the rocks and riverbed beneath them any less frightening. Oh God, what she wouldn’t give to be wrapped in Simon’s arms back at Mother Goose’s Cottage—with no threat from the fire and no one else in the world but them.

  Would spending a lifetime with a man like Simon, even with his gruff flaws, be so bad? Not when days, and nights, were as amazing as the time they’d spent together. Would he give up logging and get a job on Wall’s ranch as a cowpuncher so they could be together?

  Carrie silently chuckled at the thought of Simon riding fences. He’d find a job in a bank before taking up as a cowboy. Was there something else she could do in town for a job? She needed to remember that Simon was nothing like her father. He’d never put his pride before family and common sense.

  Then again, Simon wasn’t the type to marry. Plenty of Missoula women could claim to have experienced the way he loved women, but not one of them could claim he’d ever been on the verge of marriage to any of them. He was a proud bachelor. Would he give up his status for her? It wasn’t like she was any different from the other women in town. She’d fallen for the same man that they had.

  “There are rocks ahead.” Beth’s voice pierced her thoughts.

  Carrie examined the river before them. Moonlight glittered off the white of the rapids, and her heart sped up to pump blood through her veins as fast as the river current flowed. She must forge her own path without a care to the consequences. No matter what happened tonight, she was going to fight like Beth always did. Fight for her life, for Simon, and for her freedom. Could she have all three? Maybe, if the stars aligned and she fought like hell.

  God, she hoped fate was in her favor tonight.

  Carrie clutched her seat with one hand and placed the other over her chest where Nots slept. The boat rocked and swayed. Bumping into rocks as it pinged around the river like when she would throw a flat rock across a glassy lake. Only this lake wasn’t glassy. It churned and bubbled.

  “Hold on!” Beth yelled and, through the faint light from the moon and forest fire, she dipped low and dug the oar into the water, alternating sides until they were clear of the rapids.

  The boat slowed, and Carrie sat back with a sigh.

  Only one woman she knew could have navigated a white-water rapid safely in the dark. If they ever got to town alive, she would buy Beth a wardrobe—or new pair of logger’s boots—for jumping off the train to come to her rescue.

  They floated with the current fast, then slow, only to speed up again, using the feel of the river, faint light from the fire, and moonlight to guide them until the sun peeked out from behind the mountains. The daylight illuminated everything with a bright sheen. The tense ache in Carrie’s shoulders eased, and she slouched back in her seat.

  She grew tired as they floated through a lake and another river, taking breaks every so often to stretch their legs and take care of business. Beth pushed the boat into the water one last time. Carrie’s gaze stopped on the small box of food Beth had had the good sense to pack, and her stomach growled. With a quick glance at the sun to gauge the time, she scooted toward the box and searched the contents. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

  Beth nodded. The weary gleam in her eye and lack of her usual smile were telling signs as to how exhausted she too had become. Her friend must be ravenous after the work she’d done to get them down the mountain. “Maybe some food will give us some energy.”

  “Do you want me to take over while you eat and then rest?” Carrie shoved a large piece of dried meat into her mouth. The savory substance wasn’t quite enough to squelch her hunger, but that didn’t matter. They we
re alive. And far enough away from the fire to relax, but not far enough away to want to stop.

  Beth studied the river ahead. “There shouldn’t be any big rapids. I suppose I could give you a quick lesson and then rest my eyes for a spell.”

  “Simon let me try a little when we went out on the lake.” She reached for the oars. “I promise not to tip us over.”

  Her friend gave a faint smile, handed her the peavey and oars, and snatched up the food like she’d never before had something so delectable. Carrie chuckled. “You’re quite rabid with that meat.”

  “I’m starving. For a few weeks now, I can’t seem to eat enough, and half of the food I eat makes me nauseous, and I end up tossing it out.”

  “Have you got a little Jones in there?” Carrie teased, but the words penetrated her thoughts. Had she put not only her best friend, but her friend’s unborn child in danger?

  And what about herself? Could she be with child? She wasn’t overly hungry, but then again she was the cook. She tasted virtually everything she made, and she ate quite frequently. Nothing made her nauseous. At least nothing but the moment the train left them behind. How long had it been since she had had her womanly time? Good heaven above. Had Simon left her with something more than a memory?

  Best not get ahead of herself. She wasn’t even certain Beth was with child, let alone herself. Chances were slim.

  Carrie maneuvered the boat around a large boulder as she watched Beth inhale the food, then sit back and close her eyes. Beth would make a perfect mother. Despite all of her adventures, Beth was one of the most caring people she’d ever met. Would Carrie be as perfect a parent as Elizabeth? Not if she had to work hard just to keep the both of them fed. She’d have no time to raise a child.

  No.

  She wasn’t pregnant, and life would continue as she had planned. Maybe she could live through Beth and her babe. She’d spoil the little peach rotten until her dearest friend begged her to let the child alone for behavior’s sake.