Now and Forever

by Mary Connealy

  She gave him a grateful smile. “Aren’t you going to scold me about the coal?”

  “Maybe in the morning. Right now, I think that might make it hard to sleep.”

  Nodding, she relaxed against him. He heard her breathing turn steady, but it was a long time before it deepened enough that he believed she was asleep, and longer still before he could relax.

  Not the saw!

  What in the world?

  Not tree limbs. Human limbs.

  Tucker could only think of one reason a woman might need a saw to deal with human limbs, and when he thought of the sheep-loving Shannon Wilde having to deal with such a thing as amputating a leg or an arm, he shuddered. He wanted to shake her back to wakefulness and demand some answers.

  But they both needed sleep more than he needed answers. Finally his own exhaustion caught up with him, and he dozed off with Shannon in his arms.

  7

  Shannon woke up cuddled much too close to a man she didn’t have any business cuddling up to.

  What would Bailey say?

  Shannon eased herself away from Tucker, lifting her head off his broad chest. She looked at him and saw his eyes were wide open. She was instantly aware of the light; the coal was still burning. She had no idea how long she’d slept, but she’d gone back and forth to that cavern several times to make sure she had plenty and had a big stack burning before she’d felt safe enough to sleep.

  And now she felt really rested. Surely she’d slept for hours.

  Tucker had to know what she’d done. She remembered the nightmare, too. She hoped he decided to fuss at her about her sneaking around. She much preferred that to talking about the cause of those awful dreams.

  “So you broke your promise not to leave?”

  Relieved, she slipped away. Quickly. Afraid she might not get away if she gave him time to grab hold.

  Standing, she looked at the fire. It was down mostly to glowing embers, yet still it cast a nice light.

  “I was falling asleep.” Shannon could see her hands were coated in black, her shirt too, probably her face and neck—all of her. She must look a fright.

  “I feared I’d nod off and we’d wake up in the pitch-dark. I just couldn’t risk it. I was careful. I watched for the tunnel to branch off. I got to a cavern that had more than one tunnel branching off it, and I didn’t go any farther for fear I couldn’t find the right tunnel to get back to you. But there was coal there. I carefully marked this tunnel by leaving my boot in the entrance, and then gathered coal and brought it back here for us.”

  “Are you done?” Tucker snapped.

  She drew in a breath. He seemed to be gathering his strength to start snarling.

  She didn’t want to hear it. “What could I have done? I couldn’t stay awake and I couldn’t let that fire go out. We both needed rest. I’m sorry. I should have forced you to stay awake and keep walking until we found a supply of coal. That would have been safest, but I didn’t see that I had any choice, Tucker.”

  “Now are you done?”

  The only thing she could do at this point was cry, something Kylie recommended when dealing with men, but Shannon didn’t have the knack for it. “Yes, I’m done.”

  She braced herself to get her ears pinned back.

  There was an extended silence, and Tucker’s blue eyes glittered in the light cast by the coal fire. At last he said, “Thank you.”

  Shannon had braced herself for such a scolding that she stumbled forward a step. “What?”

  Rubbing a hand over his mouth as if trying to hold back the words, Tucker finally spoke. “I think you took a big risk. I can lay here and let it make me loco to think of what could have happened, but it’s obvious you were careful and here you are, safe.” He drew in a breath so deep it lifted his shoulders, then let out a sigh. “Most of my anger is because I can’t help. I’m not used to lying back and letting others do for me. So I’m not going to make all you’re doing harder by growling at you. I’m just going to say thank you.”

  It was a trap so she’d come closer to him, and then he’d grab her and shake her until her teeth rattled. But he seemed calm. She decided to believe him but stay out of grabbing range. “Would you like something to eat and a drink of water? Then I want to get moving.”

  She’d have to let him touch her then. “The cavern I found ahead had several openings out of it. One had fresher air than the others. I’m hopeful it could lead us out of here.”

  “Sounds good. Let’s eat and get going.”

  She pointed at the pile she’d made near Tucker. “That’s what was in your pack. I emptied it to use it to haul coal and didn’t want to get everything coated with black dust. The canteen is there and the beef jerky.”

  “We need to be careful with the jerky, eat only a little at a time. There’s not that much left.” Tucker got busy arranging the food.

  Because they didn’t know how long they might be down here.

  Tucker didn’t say that, but Shannon knew it was what he meant. They could starve to death. And long before they starved, they’d grow weak and not be able to go on.

  Her stomach growled as if to remind her that she’d barely eaten anything yesterday—if a full day had even passed. Where they were, it was hard to judge the passage of time, but it felt like a full day at least since they’d fallen. A few bites of beef jerky. A few swallows of water. They could last a while on that for each meal, but not forever.

  “Just give us each a couple of bites, enough to get going. We’ll portion it out.” Shannon whacked Tucker’s pack against the wall, to get it as clean as she could.

  Food and water didn’t take long. Shannon filled their cup with fire and left the rest to burn out on its own. They were ready to go.

  Tucker slung an arm around her shoulder. She took a step, but he pulled her to a halt.

  She’d wondered about him grabbing her. Well, he had her now.

  Turning to face him, he brought one hand up and caressed her cheek. “Your face is streaked with coal dust.” He laughed a bit. In the dim light left by the still-glowing fire they were abandoning, she saw his kindness and his pain.

  He held up the hand he’d touched her with, and his fingertips were black. “Thank you, Shannon.” Then he leaned forward and kissed her. The motion was so smooth and over so quickly that she didn’t have time to stop him or to decide if she wanted to participate. He looked deep in her eyes and she looked back, not quite sure what she saw.

  “Would you like to tell me about your nightmare?” Tucker asked.

  “There’s not much in the world I’d like less than to talk about my nightmare, Matthew Tucker.” Shannon waited, hoping he’d let it alone.

  Tucker studied her. He seemed to look deep into one eye, then shift his gaze to look into the other, as if he were trying to see past the surface, see into her mind and read all her secrets. She sincerely hoped that wasn’t possible.

  “Let’s go, pretty lady.” Tucker faced forward. Shannon slid her arm around his waist. They set out, one step at a time. Shannon knew that their time and strength were limited by their food and water. They could last another day, maybe two. Three would be very tough.

  After that, this long black tunnel would become their tomb.

  Tucker’s head took longer to clear every time he woke up.

  He eased Shannon’s head off his shoulder and sat up. His leg hurt so bad he might as well have been resting it on the fire. It scared him to think how weak he was getting and how every day, with the strain he put on himself and the poor food and lack of water, how much smaller his chances were of healing well.

  He ate a bite of the jerky when he was too hungry to resist, and he knew Shannon was doing the same. His sips of water got smaller every time he took one. Only a bit of water sloshed in the bottom of the canteen now.

  Shannon’s fresh-air tunnel didn’t lead to the outside world. Instead it just went on and on and on. Tucker felt as though he were walking to the center of the earth, guided only by a cupful of
fire.

  They’d stop and rest when they found a spot with a coal deposit. Or if they found a deposit too early on and felt they had to continue on, they’d fill Tucker’s battered sack with coal. But then they’d have a heavy weight to tote along.

  Scooting over on his backside, he leaned against the cavern wall, wondering if they had made any real progress. Was it possible these tunnels twisted around and they’d been walking in circles?

  He’d taken to marking the walls with a chunk of coal. There were no marks left behind from an earlier pass. And he felt like they were moving in an upward slope, but every step was hard. Maybe that was what made him feel like they were climbing.

  He absently watched the oily black smoke curl up from the coal fire. It was still flaming high, so he hadn’t slept long. The ache from hunger in his belly made it hard to sleep for very long.

  He stared at the ceiling of the cave, less than ten feet overhead. Suddenly he realized the ceiling was winking at him. With a jerk forward, he stared more closely, unsure what it was he’d seen.

  “Shannon, wake up!”

  She sat up so quickly, he wondered if she’d even been asleep.

  “What’s wrong?”

  He pointed straight up. “I see a light.”

  With almost a desperate willingness to see what he wanted her to see, she studied the rock overhead. “I can’t see a thing.”

  “It might be where you’re sitting. I think I’m seeing a star. If it’s night, it makes sense that you might not see one even from a few inches away.”

  “A star? Like there’s a hole that leads to the outside?”

  Tucker didn’t know whether to celebrate or give in to a desire to panic. What if it was a hole? A hole too small to climb through or too high to reach. It was the kind of thing that could drive a man mad—to be this close to escape and not be able to get out.

  “It’s definitely starlight. And the cave ceiling is not more than ten feet up. Give me a chunk of coal. I’m going to see if I can throw it through the hole. Maybe I can get an idea of how big it is.”

  Shannon handed the coal over.

  Hefting the egg-sized piece of black stone, Tucker judged the distance, then winged his coal upward. It went sailing straight out.

  “That doesn’t tell us much.” Shannon looked from the ceiling to Tucker.

  “Except that there really is a hole. We need sunlight so we can see what we’re dealing with. If it’s big enough, we’ll find a way to reach it tomorrow. You can stand on my shoulders and pull yourself out and go for help. If you can’t reach it, maybe we can find rocks big enough to stack and reach it that way. If we can’t do that, maybe we’ll find another cave nearby with a bigger hole.”

  “We’re going to get out of here.” Shannon threw her arms high in the air and squealed with excitement.

  He knew plenty could still go wrong, but it felt good to have some hope for a change. He leaned over, grabbed her, and kissed her square on the lips.

  “The outside world’s only ten feet away,” Tucker said. “As soon as the sun rises, we’re going to figure out a way to get out there.”

  8

  Shannon never figured she’d go back to sleep, but when her eyes opened next, the cave was bathed in sunlight. True sunlight. Nothing had ever been more beautiful to her.

  She lay curled up with Tucker and didn’t waste one second shaking him awake. “Let’s get out of here!” She was on her feet, striding to the bright beam of light pouring down from that hole—a hole just barely wide enough for both of them to climb through. “It’s big enough, and not that high. I think I can climb out of here if I stand on your shoulders.”

  She turned and smiled as he got carefully to his feet. Her smile shrank. The thought of him lifting her, he’d hurt himself.

  “Let’s scout around,” she said, “see if there’s a better place, a place we can just walk out. We’ll feel pretty silly climbing out that little hole if there’s an easier way out just around the next corner.”

  Tucker shook his head. “Can you shove those two rocks over and stack them?” He pointed to two flat rocks. A size Shannon could lift. “I can brace my knee on my bad leg on them and you can climb up, stand on my shoulders and just climb all the way out.”

  “I don’t know where we are. I might be gone a long time getting help.” Shannon thought of the miles they’d been swept downriver and the distance they’d hiked inside the mountain.

  “What if I never find help? I’m pretty confident in the woods, Tucker, but what if I leave and can’t find my way back here? There must be a way for you to get out, too. Maybe I can find a tree branch and shove it down through the hole, give you something to climb out on. Or maybe I can find a tree root or vine stout enough to use as a rope.”

  Tucker considered the opening. “That hole would be a tight squeeze for me, so a branch would probably take up too much space to let me climb through. My whip’s too short. A root or a real sturdy vine might work. But you have to find something strong to tie it to, like a tree or a big rock, so I can pull myself up. Look around once you’re up there. I’d as soon not send you off in the wilderness by yourself.”

  He pulled the scabbard off from around his neck that held his cutlass. “Use this on a vine or a root if you find one. If you can’t, and you have to go for help, use it to mark a trail so you can find your way back.” He looped the knife around her neck and guided one arm through so it crossed her chest.

  Once she had his knife, he held tight to the leather straps of the scabbard and looked her hard in the eye. “We’re going to get out of here, Shannon. We’re going to find a way.” He kissed her, then nodded.

  She believed they’d make it, but a frightened place in her heart wondered if she might never see him again. The very thought made her wrap her arms around his neck and hang on for dear life.

  Finally it ended, and Tucker said, “C’mon. We don’t have time for such nonsense as kissing. We’ve got work to do.”

  Shannon gasped. Tucker laughed and gave her one more kiss. Then she stacked the rocks, and he braced his knee on one while he stood upright on his good leg.

  It wasn’t a pretty piece of climbing, but Shannon got onto his shoulders and was high enough that her head stuck outside. She wanted to break down and cry—Kylie would be so proud.

  Knowing she was a burden to Tucker, she thrust her arms through the hole and heaved herself up and rolled out onto a slope so steep she almost took to rolling all the way down the mountainside.

  She got to her feet, looked around frantically, trying to think how to save Tucker, and the first thing she saw was a man with a full white beard, dressed in leather from head to toe. He stared at her like she was a ghost.

  All she saw was help.

  “I have a friend down in this cave. I need help getting him out.”

  His eyes went to the knife across her chest. “Your friend ain’t Matt Tucker, is he?”

  “Yes! How did you know?”

  The old man giggled like he’d lost control of his senses. Then he pulled his rifle off his shoulder and fired into the air.

  Shannon staggered backward and nearly fell back through the hole. The old man rushed at her, and she jumped and brandished the knife, ready to fight him or run for her life if necessary. Instead the man went right past her.

  “Shannon!” Tucker roared from below. “Who’s shooting?”

  “That you, Tucker?” The old man’s voice broke as he dropped to his knees.

  “Caleb?” The tone of Tucker’s voice almost brought tears to Shannon’s eyes. She figured it out at that second. This man had been searching for Tucker—and for her too, but she was incidental. She looked down at her hands, blackened with coal dust. She could only imagine what the rest of her looked like. No wonder he’d looked at her strangely.

  “We’ve been searching high and low for you, boy. I figured you was too ornery to die. Sunrise has about worried herself down to a nub, though. Fretful woman.”

  “Sunrise is
here?”

  “She’s got a crowd searching. Five days we’ve been working the edge of the Slaughter.”

  “Five days? I lost track of time. I knew it’d been a long stretch, but it’s so dark down here we had no idea of day or night.”

  “You never came through the last chute, so we figured you got out somehow.” While he talked, Caleb uncoiled a rope from his waist. “I’m lowering a rope.”

  Running footsteps turned Shannon’s head, and two more men, much younger but dressed much like Caleb, came into view.

  “He can’t climb out alone,” she said quietly, thinking of Tucker’s manly pride. “His leg is broken. You’ll need help.”

  Caleb spun around. “He’s been down there for five days with a broke leg?”

  Shannon nodded.

  Caleb looked past her to the men arriving. “We’ve found him, boys. All we gotta do is hoist him out through this here hole.”

  He quit lowering the rope. Caleb must know Tucker well enough to suspect he wouldn’t want to admit he couldn’t climb out hand over hand. So he didn’t give him a chance to do it.

  When the two men reached her, they gave her a startled glance, then rushed on to Caleb. “Tie this off, Tuck. Let us haul you up. We all want to claim we helped.”

  Caleb giggled again in that same wild way. He was sparing Tucker’s pride in the best way he could. “It’ll be a tight fit, but you can do it.”

  “Thanks, old friend.” Tucker’s voice sounded strong and happy. Shannon couldn’t blame him. It was all she could do to keep from jumping up and down for joy. Their ordeal was finally over.

  The three men had Tucker up to the surface in seconds. He was coated in soot. She could see him down in the cave, of course, but she’d gotten used to their sooty condition. Now, with these men looking at them so strangely, she realized what they must look like. Considering she’d done the fetching of the coal, she was most likely a bigger mess than Tucker.

  Tucker lay flat on his back on the edge of the bare mountainside, and his eyes went straight to her. Not long, but long enough.