by Cassie Hayes
“And your staff triple-checked the hot springs?”
“I sent my two most trusted men,” Jackson confirmed. “They searched every pool, and dressing room, even the outhouse. Nothing.”
Easton’s belly cramped. The snow was no longer falling thick and soft. Wind had spooled up, and the white fluffs from earlier had turned into stinging nettles. If Mrs. Hildebrand was out there, wandering around lost…
“I think I know where she went,” Molly called, skipping down the stairs so fast Easton’s heart leapt in his throat. She didn’t look happy, exactly. More determined than anything.
“Where?” Easton rushed over to her, just in case she tripped and she went tumbling. But she didn’t. She bounded down to the second-to-last step and stopped so she wouldn’t have to crane her neck to look up at him. She set down a satchel next to her feet so she could button up her coat and wrap a big red scarf around her neck.
“The Secret Springs.”
Easton frowned. He and his men knew about what the locals called the Secret Springs, nestled in the forest not far from the Institute. Few bothered with them since the Institute’s springs had such comfortable accommodations, but some of the locals refused to pay a fee to enjoy them, preferring to follow a faint, ungroomed trail through the trees to a natural upwelling in the rocks. It wasn’t a particularly difficult trek, but a mother-to-be making that hike seemed impossible.
“No,” he said flatly. “She’d never make the Secret Springs.”
“And that’s exactly why we have to go find her,” Molly argued.
“What makes you think that’s where she went, anyway?”
“Some porter told her their waters were the most powerful, and she’s desperate to have that baby. I know that’s where she went, Easton. It’s the only thing that makes any sense.”
Determination and conviction glinted in her steel-grey eyes. Easton still wasn’t convinced, though he had no other ideas of where else Mrs. Hildebrand could have gone.
Normally, he would have organized a full search party, but with the weather deteriorating so quickly, it was far too risky. Of course his men were out warning the rest of the town, and it would take too long to hunt them down to help. By the time he rounded them all up, dark would have fallen. The only thing worse than searching for a missing person in a snowstorm was searching for a missing person in a snowstorm at night. As it was, he’d just barely have enough light to make it to the Secret Springs and back without the burden of assisting a hopefully uninjured pregnant woman.
“Fine,” he said, whipping his hat off and running a hand across the top of his head. “But you’re staying here, where I know you’re safe.”
Molly gave him a look like he was the class dunce. “Don’t be ridiculous, Easton. What if she’s in distress? Or, the good Lord forbid, giving birth in the middle of the snow? Do you know how to deliver a baby? What if something goes wrong?”
Easton felt the grimace, but was powerless to stop it. Mounties learned about hunting down villains and bringing them to justice, not birthing babies. “Um…”
“Exactly!” Molly sniffed, then covered her head with the scarf and snatched up her bag. “I have everything I need in here, thanks to Sinead setting me up with everything in case of an emergency. And I’d say this is an emergency, wouldn’t you?”
He stumbled on what to say, but when Jackson snickered at the exchange, Easton shot him a hard glare. “Enough of that, now.”
Turning back to Molly, vaguely aware of Jackson scurrying away, he said, “Fine. But you stick close to me, and if she’s not there, we high-tail it back, agreed?”
“But—“
“Agreed?” he demanded more firmly. “If not, we can sit here and cuddle by the roaring fire.”
Molly rolled her eyes. “Agreed.”
The moment they entered the tree line, the piercing, painful wind calmed some, allowing them to talk. Easton went first.
“Molly, I’m so sorry for what I said. I didn’t mean for it to come out the way it sounded.”
Molly, tromping ahead of him, her long red skirt caked with snow up to her knees, shook her head. “Yes you did, and that’s okay. I’m sure a part of you wonders if I only stayed because I have nowhere else to go.”
He hadn’t, until that very moment. When she said it, he realized that’s exactly what he’d wondered. “I…”
Molly glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “I’d stop right now and show you just how much I honestly and truly love you, Easton Cooper, but we have more important things to do at the moment. I hope you’ll believe me when I tell you there is always someplace else to go — a friend’s house, a church, a tent in the woods — but there is absolutely no place I’d rather be than with you.”
Easton let go of that nagging insecurity he hadn’t even been consciously aware of and felt it float away like a helium balloon on the wind. It was almost as if the last puzzle piece of his heart locked into place, and now he was whole.
“Besides, I’m the one who should be apologizing,” Molly said, her breath coming out in steamy rushes, only to be broken apart by the breeze. “The news my parents actually disowned me hurt me deeply, and I suppose I lashed out at you to make someone else feel as badly as I did. I’m so sorry.”
Her voice had become smaller and smaller until the last words were just a squeak. Despite the urgent nature of their mission, Easton grabbed her arm and whirled her around to face him. Tears pooled in her eyes, so Easton kissed them away.
“I will be your sounding board any time you need one, my love,” he said, salt tickling his tongue. “As long as we can talk things through and go on loving each other.”
A single sob shook Molly’s shaking frame, and she dropped her head in a nod. With a sniffle, she met his eyes. “Now let’s go find Constance.”
On a fine day, the easy hike to the Secret Springs would have taken ten minutes, but in the storm it took closer to thirty. Gloom had already settled into the nooks and crannies of the forest, but at least there was enough light to see the path ahead. Easton had borrowed a new-fangled flashlight from the manager before leaving the hotel, but who knew how much life was left in it. He wanted to save it until he really needed it.
“I think I see it!” Molly shouted, and sped up as much as she could in the snow, which grew deeper with each passing minute. When she rounded a bend and disappeared from sight, his heart thumped triple-time, even though he knew she was only a few feet ahead of him.
Rounding the corner, Easton saw Molly standing over the rocky pool, her shoulders slumped. Even from a distance, he saw no sign of Mrs. Hildebrand, just some litter an inconsiderate visitor had left behind. He wrapped his arm around his wife’s shivering shoulders and gave her a reassuring half-hug.
“See? She’s not here either. She must be in town, or she found some hidey-hole in the hotel we didn’t find. Let’s get back before—“
“No.” Molly stooped and grabbed the litter. “This is one of the elixirs she’d been taking to bring on labor. She promised not to take them anymore. She also promised not to go to the hot springs anymore, but look…” She touched one of the rocks surrounding the pool and held up her hand. “It’s still wet, not frozen. She’s been here, Easton, and she couldn’t have gone very far.”
She certainly hadn’t gone back the way they’d come, and there was no other path to the hotel, that he knew of.
“There!” Molly shouted and bounded through the snow drifts. “Tracks lead this way!”
Easton ran after her, not bothering trying to stop her. He wasn’t about to risk Molly’s life searching for too much longer, but he also had a duty to do whatever he could to find Mrs. Hildebrand. Ten more minutes, and then he’d insist on turning back. Even then, he’d have to use the flashlight by the end.
They had barely tracked the footsteps for five minutes before they disappeared. The snow had partially filled them in, but the darkness and the blinding snow made them impossible to see.
“Constance!” Moll
y cried, her voice barely rising above the level of the shrieking wind. “Constance!”
“Molly,” he said gently, pulling her to him. Her entire body shook violently from the cold, one of the first signs of hypothermia. “That’s it. We’re turning back.”
Molly broke free and screamed, “No! She’s out there, Easton! We have to find her!”
“I’m sorry, Molly, but we’ll be lucky if we make it back alive, and that’s only if we go back now.”
Molly screamed for her friend a few more times, frantic to find her. Easton sighed and flicked on the flashlight. He was momentarily blinded by the wall of white light reflecting off the snow, but his eyes quickly adjusted. The beam barely reached ten feet in front of them, and then it started flickering. He moved to switch it off to save the batteries when Molly pointed ahead of them.
“There! Shine it over there!”
He saw nothing at first, but a second pass revealed a patch of red showing through a blanket of white. Molly dug it out and whooped in triumph.
“It’s my mother’s shawl! She has to be up ahead, Easton. Please, just a little farther.”
He wanted to say no, that it was time, but a movement off to the side caught his eye. The reindeer Molly called Rocky trotted past at a quick clip. He stopped and stared straight into the beam of light, then turned and continued into the darkness. On a hunch, Easton followed the animal’s track.
Within a minute, a dark, looming shape appeared at the edge of the circle of light. His breath caught in disbelief. Two more steps confirmed his suspicion. It was a small, dilapidated shack, probably built by some unknown hunter or trapper ages ago. And the door stood open.
Chapter 9
At Easton’s shout of surprise, Molly dragged her eyes from where she was stepping to the structure illuminated by his fancy electric light.
“Constance!”
They ran together, blinded by the near-white-out conditions. Molly had never been more cold in her life, but she barely felt her frozen toes anymore. All that mattered was finding Constance.
Easton bolted through the open door first, and just as she was about to rush in, Molly caught a glimpse of Rocky standing in the lee of the little shack, watching her. His coat was tipped with white clumps, but he looked otherwise unperturbed. She blew him a kiss.
“Stay safe, my friend,” she muttered, then closed the door behind her.
Wind shrieked around the cabin. A few loose boards rattled and allowed frigid air, along with a smattering of snow, to blow in. Easton kneeled over the crumpled form of Constance Hildebrand, lying motionless on the floor. For the briefest of moments, Molly thought they were too late. But then Constance let out the sweetest, most blood-curdling scream Molly had ever heard.
“Constance, it’s Molly and Easton,” she said, rushing to her friend’s side as she writhed on the floor.
“Molly! It hurts!”
“I know, honey, I know. I want you to hold my hand and take a few deep breaths for me.” Turning to Easton, who looked absolutely petrified, she said quietly, “First, start the biggest fire you can build. Second, find something to melt snow in. Third, seal up that gap over there so we can get warm.”
He stood, although he looked a bit shaky, and nodded, giving Constance one last, mystified look. Then he set to work.
“Molly,” Constance said through gritted teeth, “where am I?”
The world around Molly disappeared, and the warmth of confidence that came with experience calmed her nerves. She smiled and brushed a dead leaf from Constance’s forehead.
“I have no idea, actually. We followed your tracks from the Secret Springs to here, but it’s too dark outside to know where we are exactly. All I know is I’m glad you found this place, Constance. Now breathe with me.”
After the contraction passed, Molly and Easton moved Constance closer to the weak fire. Molly crumpled her shawl and placed it under Constance’s head. Soon the fire would be roaring and they might have to move her farther away, but for now they all needed to warm up.
“What happened, Constance? Why did you come up here?”
Tears spilled freely from the woman’s deep brown eyes. “I’m sorry,” she whispered weakly. Molly didn’t like the sound of that at all. “I’m just so tired. I know I promised not to, but I…I’m just so tired.”
Constance’s eyelids drooped and her voice trailed off. Molly felt for her, and had no doubt the woman was exhausted from her misadventure, but now wasn’t the time for a nap. Molly shook her shoulders gently, rousing her.
“Tell me what happened, every detail, while I check you and your baby, okay?”
“Okay,” Constance whimpered. But the moment Molly threw the woman’s skirt over her knees, she snapped awake. “Oh! But there’s a man in the room!”
“I won’t look, ma’am,” Easton said from the corner, where he was stuffing an old gunny sack in the hole.
“If it wasn’t for Easton, we never would have found you. He not only saved your life, but your baby’s too. Isn’t that wonderful?”
“Y-yes, I suppose,” Constance replied hesitantly. Another wave of pain gripped her, and any objection to Easton’s presence flew out with the last draft of cold.
Molly said a quick prayer and crossed herself before examining Constance. The Lord had been watching over her friend, that much was certain. Aside from being cold, Constance was fine. The baby was positioned correctly, but she wouldn’t know much more until the little bundle of joy made an appearance.
“You’re doing great, Constance. Those contractions were just a few minutes apart, so I think your baby’s almost here. Just keep taking nice calming breaths, and tell me what happened.”
Constance explained, through her breathing and a couple more contractions, that she’d become bored and impatient after Molly left that morning. Her back had been aching all night, and all she could think about was soaking in the hot springs, but she hadn’t wanted to risk Molly catching her using the Institute’s pools. She’d promised not to, after all. She’d heard about the Secret Springs, and how they were rumored to have even more magical powers because they were the source for the Institute’s springs. The forecast didn’t call for any more snow, and she’d thought the walk would help start labor.
“What about the elixir?” Molly asked, trying to keep any note of accusation out of her voice.
“I’d been using it for weeks, so I didn’t think one more dose would hurt,” Constance whined defensively.
“Okay, then what?”
“I guess I fell asleep. I only woke up because my head dipped underwater.”
Molly couldn’t hold back her gasp of shock or a flare of righteous anger. “I told you that elixir was nothing but dressed-up alcohol! You could have drowned!”
Constance began crying, and once again, Molly chided herself for speaking before thinking. Hugging her friend, Molly cooed, “It’s okay, I’m sorry. You’re fine, you’re fine.”
Only when Constance was calm again did Molly press for more information.
“Once I woke up, I climbed out of the pool and got dressed. My entire body was redder than the lobsters my family eats at Christmas. Do you think I boiled my baby, Molly?”
Molly almost laughed, but the sheer terror in Constance’s eyes stopped her. “No, your baby’s fine. If you didn’t get boiled alive, your baby didn’t. What did you do after you dressed?”
Molly honestly wanted to know, but part of the exercise was to distract Constance, to keep her talking and awake.
“I had my first contraction. I’ve never known such pain before. I sat on a log for a very long time, wondering what to do. The snow had started while I was asleep and covered my tracks. But I had no intention of giving birth out in the middle of the forest, all alone, so I waited till the pain had eased and I set out. I guess I got turned around, though. I thought I knew where I was going, but it didn’t take long before I realized my mistake. I’m not ashamed to say I was scared, Molly.”
“I bet.”
<
br /> “Oh! Here comes another!”
That contraction came even sooner than the last, which meant Constance was close, but not quite ready. She caught her breath and continued the story, as if she needed to get it all out before concentrating on bringing her child into the world.
“I started crying — panicking, actually. I turned to follow my tracks back and see if I could figure out where I went wrong when a huge beast burst out of the woods.”
“What was it?” Molly asked, breathless with fear for her friend.
“A reindeer, of all things. It jumped out at me, gave me the fright of my life, then sauntered away. He kept stopping and looking over his shoulder at me, like he wanted me to follow him.”
Molly caught Easton’s gaze. Rocky.
“I swear it’s true!” Constance must have seen the exchange and misunderstood the meaning. “And he led me right here to this cabin. By then, the contractions were coming pretty quickly. I just barely made it into the cabin before collapsing.”
Sobs shook her shoulders and Molly pulled her into her arms. “Shh, no tears. This is a happy day. The happiest. You get to meet your baby!”
Constance’s sobs turned to moans, then screams. “It’s coming!”
Molly lost track of time as she tended to Constance. Easton crouched at her head, speaking to her in low, soothing tones as Molly worked. Once he even grimaced in pain when Constance gripped his hand too hard. Molly wanted to tell him he had no idea what pain was, but then again, neither did she.
She hoped to one day, though. And many times.
After what seemed like an eternity, the screaming stopped, replaced with quiet sobs of exhaustion, and then an ear-piercing squall. Easton wanted to slap his hands to his ears, but Molly motioned for the shawl under Mrs. Hildebrand’s head. The poor woman barely registered that he removed her pillow, but as soon as Molly brought the baby girl — swaddled in the shawl — to her, she perked up and smiled in wonder at the tiny life she’d created.
