“Can I tell you something?”
“Anything.”
“I don’t think I can identify the man I heard on the platform. I think I convinced myself that was the sole reason, but the truth is I’m not certain I can. The man with the cane I can identify, but I’m not confident about the other man.”
Garrett sat spine straight. “The man with the cane?”
“Yes. He was the one who offered the bribe.”
“Are you certain?”
“Quite. After the conversation, he came whistling around the corner and greeted me where I sat on the bench. He had a very slight Spanish accent. The other man sounded like any other man on the platform that day, but I didn’t actually see his face.”
“But you would be able to identify the man with the cane again if you ran into him?”
“Of course.”
“That’s good enough.” Garrett would set up a meeting between the big bugs and Beth, but by then it wouldn’t matter. Everyone would know anyway. Until then he needed to find out who the traitor was in the camp.
A twig snapped in the darkness and Beth flinched, her eyes wide with fear.
“As long as we stay by the fire we should be fine. Predators tend to stay away from flames.”
“It’s a lot more calming than where I spent last night.”
“How did you last? You swam to shore, right? Spring nights on the mountain aren’t exactly warm. How did you get dry and not freeze?”
“It was a miracle, I suppose. One of those things that can’t be explained. There was enough light for me to find a hollowed-out tree, and just when I was about to break, a cow elk laid in front of the opening and heated up the space enough to dry my clothes and keep me warm throughout the night.”
“You were lucky. If you’d have had to go through the whole night alone, wet, and cold then you wouldn’t have made it.”
“Luck, or something more divine. Either way I’m grateful to be alive, and that you came to look for me.”
“Not just me.” He adjusted his seat so she could snuggle deeper into his chest. “The whole camp. I’m sorry. I had to tell them who you were.”
“It’s better this way. Maybe now they’ll think twice before locking me in an outhouse.”
He chuckled. “They all regret their actions toward you. They’re decent, hardworking, and respectable men when it comes to women. How they treat each other, though, would make a severe socialite swoon.”
“I don’t hold any contempt for the crew. I came up here expecting to be treated as a man, and I got what I desired, I suppose.”
“Regardless, there’s no room for misconduct such as that in a lumber camp. Someone could get hurt.”
“Please don’t. I don’t want the men to have contempt for me, any more than they probably do already.” The plea in her voice cooled the raging heat in his gut, and he nodded.
Beth fell silent as her fingers slid through his. She wiggled beside him, and he turned as she faced him.
Her lips parted slightly, their moist heaven beckoning him to partake as the firelight painted them with a coral sheen.
Just one more taste.
Tucking his fingers beneath her chin, he used his thumb to caress the silky smooth contours. “You tempt me more than any woman should.”
She shook her head, and her mouth slid against his thumb. “I don’t mean—”
A desperate chuckle escaped from deep within his chest. “No. You don’t, but you do.”
A longing flickered in her eyes. Did she yearn for the touch of a man, or just him? Who was he to toy with her when it was another man who would be beside her forever? Garrett gritted his teeth against the thought. She was his.
“I am weak,” he said, and slowly covered her mouth with his. She stopped breathing and leaned into him as he deepened the kiss. A lifetime of this moment slid through his resolve, picking away at the honor engrained in his being. He could have her—her body soft and heated whenever he wished.
He pulled away and stared down into her passion-clouded eyes. “I cannot be weak, Beth. You cannot let me have such liberties.”
She licked her lips and swallowed hard while a deep red blush tainted her cheeks. “I’m… I don’t…”
“I’m to be married once the season ends,” he reminded—whether her or himself, he didn’t know. “I made a bargain with the devil it seems, and he has tormented my soul since. My father would allow me one last summer at the camp, and after, I will settle down with a wife and take over the family business. His stipulation was that he is to choose my bride. I assume that’s why he sent Victoria. That, and to test my temper.”
Beth’s lips tightened into a thin line, and her voice quivered. “Oh.”
“Beth. Please. I didn’t mean to kiss you. You are the only person on earth who can bring me to the point of breaking. If I hadn’t made the bargain with my father, you and I…”
She took a quick breath and shook her head, once again looking at him. “It’s fine. I was weak as well. We’ll let only the trees know this ever happened between us.”
He smiled his response in order to hold back the desperate laugh that caught in his chest. How could she not understand that she tempted him simply by being near?
Chapter 14
“Beth! Thank God! We’ve been worried sick.” Carrie swooped Beth up into a deep hug when she and Garrett stumbled into camp late the next morning. “Simon’s in Aunt June’s cabin. He’s bad. I’ve been by his side ever since Wall brought him here. Another hour on that horse, and I don’t think Simon would have made it.” She grabbed Beth’s hand and towed her into the small cook cabin, leaving Garrett to trail behind.
Light from the window and a small fire blazing through the open door of the cook stove illuminated the still form of her brother, covered by a dull gray wool blanket.
Beth kneeled beside the bed. He was wrapped like a leper in scarlet soiled bandages covering almost every inch of his exposed body.
“Wall said it was a cougar,” Carrie reverently supplied. Tears filled her friend’s eyes. “He’s lucky to be alive. There aren’t many people who survive a sneak attack from a mountain lion. He’s going to be scarred pretty bad for the rest of his life.”
Beth tried not to let her body shake when tears began to fall along with her friends. She didn’t look at Carrie as she spoke. Couldn’t see anything but the still form of her brother. If it wasn’t for her, he wouldn’t have been out there searching, and would never have run into the vicious predator. If she’d stayed home like the proper lady she was expected to be, then he would be chopping trees in the forest instead of passed out in Aunt June’s bed. Of all the selfish and outlandish things she’d done in her life, this was the one she regretted the most.
Garrett eased into the room. She could feel his warm presence behind her, calming and supportive.
Carrie repeated her earlier statement to Garrett.
“Is he well enough to travel to Missoula?” he asked.
“No,” Aunt June said as she walked into the cramped space. “Maybe in a few weeks. I’ve got supplies enough here, and I’ve seen enough loggers’ injuries to know my way around healing a man’s body. With any luck, he won’t get an infection.”
“Simon.” Beth grabbed his hand. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have forced you into this whole mess. I swear, I won’t say anything to the mayor about his wife.”
When Simon didn’t wake, she said his name again, her voice shaking.
Aunt June wrapped her arm around Beth’s shoulder. “Best let him rest, dear. He’ll be up for a good talk later when he wakes.”
“Why don’t we get you cleaned up and fed, and then we’ll come back and see if Simon is awake.” Carrie took a stance on Beth’s side.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Garrett said, “I need to go find Luther.”
Beth nodded n
umbly and allowed her friend to escort her outside. Carrie headed toward Victoria’s railcar. “My stuff is at the cabin.”
Her friend shook her head. “Victoria offered to let you and I stay with her when Wall brought your brother. Aunt June thought it would be best and had our stuff moved in there. It’s quite cozy, really.”
“Are the Devil May Cares terribly upset with me?”
“I think a few are shocked, but I think they’re happier that you’re alive. From what I hear, you’ve proved yourself within their ranks. Some might be a little upset, but they’ll get over it. It’s not like you’re the first woman to be in a logging camp, just the first one to become a Devil May Care.”
Beth felt deflated, beaten before she even got a chance to pick herself up off the pine-riddled ground. She hadn’t intended to betray the Devil May Cares, or any other logger who worked for Big Mountain. All she wanted was to find the man from the platform.
Now she’d not only betrayed her crewmembers, but was forced to share a home with Garrett’s future wife. She’d already learned her lesson, but life was cruel and wanted to rip open the stitches of her heart and make her bleed once more.
Carrie climbed the railcar’s metal steps and opened the door. “I know this isn’t what you had planned for this summer, but after what happened I truly believe it’s for the best.”
Beth smiled to her friend, but the motion must have looked pitiable because Carrie gave a sad smile in return.
“I’m fine, Carrie, really. After what Luther did, I realize that my reasons behind coming here are as thin and translucent as a dress made out of nothing but French lace.”
“No. You came to save the company from the saboteur, and that’s what we’re going to do. We just need a different strategy now that everyone knows you are a woman.”
“Good job I’ve done so far. Look at all of the things that have happened. The boom logs, going down the river—”
“What do you mean?” Victoria’s voice made both Beth and Carrie jump and reel around as the graceful woman walked around the corner and into the dining area of the railcar. Her long, lustrous dress swept the carpet with a whisper of diaphanous French lace trailing the bottom hem. Beth couldn’t help but envy the woman. She’d never seen a finer dress, cut not to the height of fashion, but one that would define the next obsession in ladies’ attire. Not only that, but she held the key to Garrett’s life.
Carrie gave a wide-eyed stare to Beth. “We may as well tell her.”
With a wave of her hand, Beth gave her friend permission to expel all she knew of the plan to save the logging company. Victoria listened intently. Like Garrett, she masked her emotions well, not letting even a glimmer of thought cross her eyes. They were indeed the perfect pair.
After explaining Beth’s reasoning behind coming to camp, Victoria’s flawless face turned down in confusion. “Why didn’t you come to camp to work as a cook? Why the Devil May Cares?”
“I get closer to the men,” she answered simply. “I figured if I’m going to be coming up here to put myself in the way of a saboteur, I may as well make it count. I needed to have access to everyone. Be trusted enough to talk to them without reserve.”
“Hmmm.” Victoria flipped open her fan to wave it before her face. “I’m in.”
“You’re in? The Devil May Cares?” Beth asked, confused.
“No silly. The plot to save the company. I’m in.” She nodded, and curls bounced behind Victoria’s neck and flipped over her shoulder. “I can’t sit by and watch some fool ruin my father’s business. My business. I need to help protect it. That’s what any good Harrison would do.”
“Your father’s business?” Beth tilted her head to the side and furrowed her brows. “I thought Garrett owned the Big Mountain Lumber Mill.”
Victoria’s eyes danced with humor. “Why would you think that?”
Beth thought back to all the times they’d talked about Garrett’s father, but not once had he said what business his family was in. “I guess I just assumed.”
“As of now, he does not, but once we are wed then Father will offer him a partnership. Once we are married, that partnership will be mine as well. And I protect what is mine.”
Beth nodded. Not only was the beautiful woman destined for the man Beth was growing to love, but she owned the business that Garrett worked hard to make successful. Beth didn’t stand a chance against Victoria.
* * * *
A long screaming whistle resonated through the trees, only this time it sounded different, more frantic. Beth stilled as chills raced down her arms, defiant to the warmth of Aunt June’s cook fire. A logger rushed past her, and she grabbed his shirt to stop him. “What’s happening?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Something bad.”
Beth released his sleeve, and the logger took off toward the water. She sent a concerned glance to Aunt June and Carrie who stood staring at her from the other side of the fire.
“Go!” Aunt June encouraged. “Come back and let me know if I need to ready a bed on the floor of my cabin.”
“Me too, Aunt June?” Carrie asked.
“Go, girl,” she said, and motioned for Beth and Carrie to leave.
“Will you look after Simon?” Beth pleaded. “I just left his bedside, but he’s still the same.”
“Of course,” Aunt June answered.
“I’ll follow you.” Carrie hiked up her skirt to run.
Beth led the way down the path. Smoke began to fill the space between the trees the closer she drew to the water, and she covered her mouth with the sleeve from Garrett’s jacket.
The trail opened up to the lake beach, and the vision from the smoke cleared enough for Beth to realize what had happened.
“The chute’s on fire,” she screamed over the shouts of the men and sizzle of the flames.
“What do we do?” Carrie coughed.
“You go back to camp and tell Aunt June. I’m going to find Garrett.”
Carrie nodded and coughed again as she turned and raced back down the way they came.
Beth searched the scrambling men rushing from the water’s edge, to the chute, and back. Running to the lake, she found Wall shin deep in water and directing the men as they filled buckets and ran back to the chute.
“Where’s Garrett?”
“What?” Wall asked, occupied with filling a bucket for a logger.
“Garrett!” she yelled louder.
“Up there.” Wall pointed to the hill at the top of the chute where the flames of the inferno seemed to lick the sky.
The unmistakable outline of Garrett as he worked hard to douse the flames was hard to make out in the dense smoke.
“You’re not going up there,” Wall shouted.
“I want to help.”
Wall inclined his head, and motioned toward a bucket as he handed it to a nearby logger. “Fill these when the men bring them. Be fast.”
She waded into the water, and took up a stance on the other side of Wall. She grabbed the first bucket to come her way and pulled it through the water to fill. Water sloshed over the edge when she handed the bucket over and grabbed another.
She continued to help until her muscles screamed for her to stop, but she ignored the pain and pressed on. After a time, the noise around her began to die down, and she slowed a bit.
“We can stop.” Wall let his arms drop to his sides and made his way back to the bank. His body drooped with exhaustion. She followed, and only then realized how tired she felt.
She studied the black skeletal remains of the chute. Thin ribbons of smoke drifted to the sky, but the flames were no longer visible. Men with shovels overturned the blackened earth, and others poured what water they had left on the ashes.
Garrett picked his way off the hill, exhaustion apparent in the way he carried his shoulders. She waited for him to draw clos
er.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“I came to help.”
“You should have stayed back at camp like the other women.” Garrett’s face went rigid as if made of stone.
“She doubled the output of the water,” Wall defended. “We would have had a harder time fighting that fire if it wasn’t for her.”
“I came to help. I stayed at the water, away from the danger.”
“In the future, if something is happening and it’s dangerous, stay away completely.”
Beth glared. Why was he being so abrasive now? She’d split logs, rowed a bateau, even cleaned out the outhouses. So why was he all of a sudden against her help? “If the event warrants me staying away, I will, but this did not. I helped, and I was needed.”
“Goddamn it, woman!” Garrett yelled. “You could have been killed. Trampled by the men fighting the fire, been buried under a falling tree, or burned in the flames, among other hazards. We don’t need two Sanders taking residence in Aunt June’s cabin, your brother’s enough. From now on, you will stay and help at the camp.”
“But I wasn’t in any danger. I stayed by the water, and I was fine.” Beth couldn’t take any more and turned to stomp to the camp. Never before had she seen Garrett in such a mood. His past commanding ways were nothing compared to the tyrant that stood there now with soot over every inch of his body. This Garrett was a bully. Even though his points were valid, she wasn’t going to be pushed around.
* * * *
Chaos reigned around Garrett and the lake, but at least the danger had passed. He watched Beth leave and wanted to follow, but he couldn’t. He had too much to do in the aftermath of the fire, like find out who had started it.
Wall stood next to him staring at the spot where Beth disappeared with a reverent respect shining on his face. “That’s some woman.”
“A woman I’d like to take a switch to right now. What were you thinking letting her help? She could have died.”
White Water Passion Page 16
