Montana Sky: Isaac (Kindle Worlds) (Letters of Fate Book 2)

by Paty Jager

  He made sure not to mention the outcropping just in case Tulley was awake and listening. The man would be a fool to try and do anything now. He could have bad ribs and a headache from the way he landed on the rock. Any other time Isaac would have made sure the man was still alive and give him aid, but after witnessing the attack on Allie and knowing it was the second time the man had attacker her, Isaac had no compassion for Tulley. He could rot.

  Allie pulled the duster on. The garment covered her all the way to her feet.

  Isaac handed her clothes over, grasped her free hand with the hand not holding his rifle and they walked up the cliff. He’d left the mule eating grass outside their camp. Without the mule, they could take a more direct and harder to follow trail up to the camp. He hoped when Tulley woke up, he’d go down the mountain to recover and not try to follow them. But if he did, Isaac was making sure the trail would be untraceable.

  “I need to rest. My boots are scraping my feet.” Allie tugged on his hand and sat on a rock.

  “Put your socks on.” He knelt in front of her, helping ease the boots from her feet. Shiny red spots above her heels proved her right. Isaac took the stockings from the clothes piled in her lap and slid her right foot in one, drawing the stocking up her leg over the top of her union suit.

  He raised his gaze to her face. Her rosy cheeks and lowered lashes along with her rapid breathing started his thoughts in a direction that would only cause problems. Grasping the boot, he put it on and quickly put the other stocking and boot on.

  “Let’s go. I think you’re going to be pleased with the area under the outcropping.” Isaac held out a hand, drawing Allie to her feet.

  She stood, clutching her clothes and staring into his eyes. “Why would I be pleased?” she asked.

  “It’s roomy, out of the weather, and I found a name carved in the stone.”

  Her eyes widened and lit up. “Wagner?”

  “I couldn’t tell and didn’t have time to make a fire and check it out.”

  “What are you waiting for? Let’s go.” She started forward three steps and spun back toward him. “Which direction?”

  He laughed and grasped her hand, leading her the rest of the way to camp.

  The mule was contentedly munching on grass as they approached the outcropping. Nothing looked disturbed. He’d dragged a bush across the front of the opening to be able to see if any critters were using the place for a home.

  Isaac stopped in front of the drag marks. “Wait here.” He moved along the line he’d made studying the ground. Nothing crossed his line. He held out his hand. Allie grasped it, and he led her into the shallow indention in the rocks.

  “This isn’t a very big space,” she said, placing her clothing on the small pile of supplies.

  “It will do for the one night.” Isaac wasn’t sure he could sleep in this close of quarters with Allie after all that had happened today. But he had a feeling she wouldn’t sleep in here alone.

  “Where is the name you found?” she asked, staring at the rock wall on the right side of the entrance.

  “Back in far enough we’ll need light to see it. I didn’t have time to gather wood for a fire, but there was already a fire ring in here.”

  “Proof someone, possibly Father, stayed in here.”

  The excitement in her voice made him hope this was the place Alan marked as the mine, and he hoped they found enough gold to make her happy quickly. With Tulley and who knew who else roaming around this mountain, they were safer elsewhere.

  “It could have been anyone on the mountain looking for a place to get in out of the weather.” Isaac put a hand on her shoulder. The rage he’d felt seeing Tulley wrestle her to the ground had subsided enough he could talk about it.

  “Did Tulley hurt you?” he asked.

  She flinched but shook her head. “Nothing more than some bruises where he threw me on the ground.” A smile appeared briefly. “I think I gave him more bruises.”

  Isaac couldn’t stop his arms if he’d wanted to. He pulled her against him. “When I saw you two down there, I wanted to kill him for attacking you.” His heart raced and his anger started to swell.

  Her hands rubbed up and down his back. “He isn’t worth killing. Hopefully, the beating he received today will keep him away from us.” She lay her head against his chest.

  The act triggered every protective ounce in him. He’d never let anything happen to Allie. She’d grown in his heart and he’d be damned if he’d let anyone hurt her.

  He didn’t want to let her go. Holding her felt like he had found a home.

  She lifted her head and cleared her throat. “All that swimming made me hungry.”

  “I’ll get that firewood, you rummage through the supplies we brought.” Isaac walked out of the outcropping feeling like a new man. One who had a future.

  Alamayda felt her clothes. They were dry enough to put on. She unbuttoned Isaac’s duster and slid the garment down her arms. The vision of him coming to her rescue flashed through her mind. And then giving her his coat to cover her. She never dreamed she’d find a man to champion her.

  She glanced down at the gapping front of her union suit. It was all she had until they went back to the main camp tomorrow. She’d have to make do. The buttons had been ripped from the garment. She shuddered thinking of what could have happened if Isaac hadn’t shown up when he did. Why did that man keep attacking her? She’d done nothing to him.

  Hearing Isaac outside, she quickly pulled on her shirt and buttoned it up. He’d seen her red clad legs, seeing them again wouldn’t hurt anything.

  Isaac stepped into the small covered area his arms loaded with sticks. He dropped them by the fire ring and glanced her way. “Your clothes dry enough?” he asked.

  “Yes.” Her hands dropped to her sides as his gaze wandered from her face down to her boots and back up to her face.

  “Get your pants on before you get cold. The sun’s goin’ down and it will be a lot colder up here than down at camp.” He crouched by the rock ring and started laying sticks to build a fire.

  Alamayda stepped out of her boots, pulled her trousers up her legs, and stepped back into her boots.

  Isaac had a fire started and was adding more sticks as Alamayda walked over to the food box along the wall not far from the fire near the entrance of the outcropping. She rummaged in the box for the supplies she’d packed to make dinner. Unfolding the cloth she’d wrapped around the deer steaks she’d salted to cure as they traveled, the area became brighter.

  She glanced over her shoulder.

  Isaac held a stick with a flame. “Might as well check out this writing now as later,” he said, motioning for her to come to him.

  Alamayda walked over and stood beside Isaac.

  He knelt. “It’s down low on the wall.”

  She knelt beside him and stared at the wall as he moved the light closer to the rock wall. All she saw were rocks jammed together and a large grayish one with streaks of white. “Where is the writing?” she asked, running her finger tips over the rock.

  “Down here.” Isaac pointed and lowered the light.

  There was a faint W scratched in the big rock. She traced the letter with her finger. “It’s really hard to read.” There were more indentions but so faint she couldn’t discern what they could be. An idea popped into her mind. “Just a minute.”

  Alamayda stood and hurried over to where she’d dumped her clothing. She picked up the knapsack with her drawing things and the money she’d pulled out of the pockets of her union suit before she washed the garment. She ripped a piece of paper out of her sketch pad and grabbed a pencil. Back at the wall, she placed the paper over the rock and colored back and forth on the paper with the pencil. Her heart pounded in her ears as white lines emerged where the word had been carved in the rock. They were faint and parts were invisible, but when she stopped rubbing the pencil back and forth the letters appeared to spell Wagner.

  Elation and sorrow washed over her at the same time. They
found the mine, and for once, her father had come through. Even though she’d been adamant with Isaac that her father had found a mine for the family, deep down she hadn’t believed they would find anything. Her father had let the family down too many times for her to have truly believed he gave them a gold mine.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Isaac stared at the word on the paper. This wasn’t a wild goose chase. Alan had found a gold mine. But why hadn’t he mined it and gone home to his family? And why insist to his daughter he found one and then make it so hard for her to find it? He was happy Allie would get the life she wanted and deserved, but he was confused about her father’s motives.

  “Looks like we’re right where we need to be,” he said, helping Allie to her feet.

  She faced him. The happiness glowing on her face was illuminated by the torch.

  “Yes. I can’t believe this is the place.” She stared at the paper with the faint white lines spelling Wagner.

  “This changes things,” Isaac said, walking over to the fire and putting the torch he’d made into the flames.

  Allie followed him and knelt by the fire. “How?”

  “We need to bring all our things up here. It’s a steep climb, the mule can’t pack it all in one trip.” He didn’t like the idea of leaving Allie alone up here or down at the camp. It would take a day to get to the camp and load up. He’d not make the trip back up in the dark, so that meant spending the night down there and head up here, unload and spend the night and head back down and get the rest of the supplies and spend the night. That was too much time to leave Allie alone at either place knowing Tulley could still be hiding out watching them.

  “I agree about the mule. The climb in some places is too steep to endanger him.” Allie set a cast iron skillet on a rock in the fire and placed the steaks in the pan. “But shouldn’t we make sure there is gold here before we setup camp?”

  She had a point.

  “It could take days before we find any gold. With the name carved in the rock, I’d guess if this isn’t the mine it is somewhere around here. Best to make this base camp.”

  “What about water?” Her practical mind was part of what convinced him to come with her on this journey. He’d known from their first meeting she wasn’t flighty.

  “I can fill canteens from the nearest spring or falls.” He’d purchased three canteens from the company store, thinking it would be an item Allie may not think about, but she’d also purchased two canteens. They would have enough water each day.

  “I can start looking for the gold while you bring up our supplies,” Allie said.

  “I don’t think you should stay here by yourself,” he replied, watching her reaction.

  “It would make more sense for only one person to get the supplies while the other looks for the gold,” she protested.

  “We don’t know that Tulley left the mountain.”

  Her eyes closed and she visibly shivered.

  Isaac wanted to put his arms around her and tell her no man would ever hurt her again. He’d make sure of it. Instead he kept his distance and said, “It would be best for you to go with me. We’ll have to spend the night each time. I won’t leave you here alone that long.”

  Allie’s big eyes studied him. He wondered what she was thinking.

  Finally, she turned her attention to the sizzling steaks. “If you think that’s best.”

  He did and that she didn’t fight him was a triumph. Perhaps she was learning to trust his knowledge. “It would be best. We don’t know where or what this mine could be. If you or I go poking around alone, we could get stuck or hurt.”

  She nodded and turned the steaks.

  He still wanted to use that pool they’d found to clean up, but was leery of leaving Allie alone even for that long, and he didn’t want to return to the pool and possibly lead Tulley back to the outcropping.

  Allie put the steaks on plates and handed him one along with utensils. They ate in silence. The sun was going down quickly. He finished and stood.

  “Where are you going?” Allie asked, putting the plates on the cooking box.

  “Take a look around. See how close water is and clean up a bit.” He smelled as rangy as a mutt that had rolled in something dead. He’d had a whiff of how clean Allie smelled when he’d carried her over to her clothes. He didn’t want her wishing he was far away because of his smell.

  “I’ll get the bedrolls set out while you’re gone,” she said, swishing water around on the plates.

  He didn’t reply. The way she’d taken to the camping life had surprised and pleased him. He knew she’d grown up making do on a farm, but from the way she spoke and her manners, she made one think she was a city girl. How had she become so learned and mannerly when she was busy keeping the farm from the bank and her sisters and brother fed and clothed? There were so many things about Allie he hoped he learned while they found her gold.

  Isaac walked to each side of the outcropping and listened. On the right he heard a faint murmur that could be a creek. He set out around the side of the mountain in the dim light to see if it was a creek he heard. Fifty feet or so down and to the right he spotted willows. On the other side of the willows a creek shimmered in the growing moonlight. It was five feet wide and about a foot deep but it would supply them with water and he could use it to bathe.

  He sat on a rock beside the creek and pulled off his boots and clothes. The air had grown chilly and the water was cold enough to turn his toes blue when he stood in it, but naked as the day he came to this earth, he used his bandana to scrub the sweat and dirt from his body.

  Stepping out onto the dead leaves on the side of the creek, he wished he’d had clean clothes to put on, but these would have to do until the camp was moved up here. Clothed but still shivering and his teeth chattering a bit, Isaac headed back to the outcropping.

  ***

  Alamayda put all the cooking things away and took a trip out to the bushes before returning to the small cave. She noted the fire was set to the front of the cave to allow the smoke to slip out the opening. Isaac had placed the few supplies they brought along the right-side wall. She wished they’d brought the lantern with them. Then she could see how far back the cave might go. But without the light she didn’t want to wander much farther than the width of the two bedrolls. She placed them side by side behind the fire. With the tops toward the fire and the feet disappearing into the darkness beyond.

  Waiting for Isaac, she sat on her bedroll and wrote in her journal about finding the pool and the cave with the carved name. She paused trying to decide whether or not to include the attack. Not wanting to dwell on her panic and fear, she wrote about her feelings at finding or being close to the mine.

  The mule snorted and shifted outside the cave.

  Alamayda set her journal and pencil down and grabbed the shotgun she’d placed next to her bedroll.

  Shale rock slid, chinking and clattering. That wasn’t the mule. She’d noted he was tied to a patch of grass twenty feet from the cave entrance. The shale rock was all around the entrance of the cave.

  Steps crunched across the rock and stopped when the person stepped onto the large flat rock that formed the floor of the ledge.

  Not making a sound, she sat staring at the entrance. Her heart raced and her mouth dried. She’d never killed a person but if the person walking inside wasn’t Isaac, she wasn’t going to wait for an introduction before she pulled the trigger. She wasn’t up to anymore encounters with strangers today.

  “Allie, it’s me,” Isaac said, walking into the light ring of the fire.

  Alamayda lowered the shotgun and let out a breath as her heart slowed its pace. “You were gone a while,” she said for no particular reason other than to make sure her nerves were settled.

  “I cleaned up in the crick I found. It’s about fifty feet to the right and down when you leave the ledge. Can’t miss it. There’s willows growing along the bank.” Isaac stopped on the other side of the fire. His gaze was taking in the
bedrolls.

  “I think it’s best I put my bedroll on this side of the fire.” He walked around and grabbed his bedroll.

  She grabbed the end as it slid by and held tight. “That side of the fire will be colder.”

  Isaac didn’t tug on the bedroll, he just stared down at her. “Allie, your reputation isn’t goin’ to be worth two wooden nickels when we part ways. And havin’ me sleep next you is goin’ to make me have to stay awake all night to make sure I don’t touch you.”

  Alamayda peered into Isaac’s eyes. There was fear and heat in the gray depths. Why was he scared of her?

  “No one will know me where I go from here. No one will know I spent all this time alone with you.” She tugged on the blanket. “And there is no reason for you to fear touching me.”

  He swallowed. His Adam’s apple bobbed and the concern on his face hadn’t vanished. “Allie, I can’t sleep next to you.” He pulled the bedroll from her grasp and settled it on the opposite side of the fire.

  She didn’t understand his need to keep the fire between them. But if he believed he couldn’t sleep next to her, so be it. As her mind tried to make sense of what his reasons could be, her heart ached. She thought he’d come to like her, but his adamant comment that he needed to keep his distance made her think he’d just been nice.

  She pulled off her boots and slid into her bedroll fully clothed. His rejection of her had her spirits low and her mind wanting sleep to escape.

  ***

  Alamayda woke, shivering. The fire was low. She slipped out of her bedroll, dancing across the cold floor and poked a few more sticks into the fire. Darkness loomed outside the cave. She noted Isaac seemed to be warm enough to sleep. Picking up her bedroll, she moved it next to Isaac’s, climbed in, and snuggled next to his bedroll and body.

  She knew he’d be mad when he woke, but she wasn’t going to freeze and not get sleep when he was a warm body to snuggle up against.