Would-Be Wilderness Wife

by Regina Scott

  He sounded puzzled again, but something else simmered behind the words. Frustration? She was certain he wanted to learn what had caused his mother’s illness. Did he disapprove of Catherine’s methods?

  “I don’t see anything dangerous in here, either,” she agreed, closing the lid, “but it’s wise to check all possibilities when it comes to your family’s health.”

  He snapped a nod and stalked deeper into the barn.

  Mystified, Catherine lifted her skirts out of the dirt and followed. “Really, Mr. Wallin, this search is important.” She detoured around a suspicious-looking clump on the floor. “Do you want one of your brothers to sicken? Beth to grow ill?”

  “Of course not.” The words sounded as if they had been bitten off. “But I’ve been keeping them safe for years. I don’t know what’s changed.”

  He’d stopped at the end of the barn, where another set of wide doors led out into the forest. The breeze carried the scent of damp wood and new growth. She could hear birds calling from the shadows. Yet Drew stood a silhouette against the light, neck stiff, shoulders braced.

  Catherine lay a hand on his arm. “Forgive me, Mr. Wallin. I never meant to imply any of this was your fault. You cannot know everything about medical science. It’s constantly changing! What we were certain of last month will be challenged as folklore tomorrow. I merely wish to help.”

  His hand came down on hers. “Thank you.”

  The two simple words, said with conviction, warmed her more than she’d thought possible. Or perhaps it was the feel of his calloused palm pressed against her skin. She couldn’t help remembering the scars she’d seen yesterday. This was a man who had earned his place, whose physical efforts kept his family fed and clothed and housed. A man who took the health of his loved ones as seriously as she did as a nurse.

  She traced the vein of puckered skin across the back of one hand. “How did this happen?”

  He did not pull away from her touch. “A saw snapped. The end whipped free and caught me. I was just glad it missed my face.”

  So was she. She swallowed at the thought and dropped her hand.

  He was gazing down at her, face in the shadow, hair a golden nimbus of light. She waited, expecting a word, a movement.

  The touch of his lips to hers.

  “Do you hear that?” he asked.

  She didn’t think he meant the birds outside. Now that she wasn’t so focused on him, she did hear something else—a rumble and a snort that sounded somehow familiar.

  Drew grabbed a long iron pole from the wall and poked it up into the hay stored loosely above their heads in the mow. Someone yelped, and a moment later, Levi’s curly-haired head popped into sight.

  “What are you doing up there?” Drew demanded. “I thought you were with Simon.”

  Levi slung a leg over the nearby ladder and clambered down to drop beside his brother and Catherine. Hay stuck out at odd angles from his curls, clung to his flannel shirt and poked from the suspenders holding up his rumpled trousers. “Simon thought you might need help with Ma.”

  Drew towered over him, voice deepening. “And you thought the best way to help Ma was to sleep in the hay?” He pointed out the door. “Git!”

  Levi dashed out of the barn.

  Drew shook his head as he and Catherine followed. “Can’t turn my back for a minute.”

  “It was only a lark,” Catherine said. “But if you’re concerned, you can always find better things for him to do.”

  Drew cast her a glance. “Good idea. Levi! Show Miss Stanway to the spring.”

  Levi led her to where the ground sloped upward between the barn and the main house. A deep, stone-lined basin followed the curve of the hill; a wall of mortared stone about three feet high enclosing the water filling it. At the back of the pool, overshadowed by the firs, water bubbled, cool and clear. A wooden weir on the west side allowed the spring to overflow in a stream that ran away from the house down to the lake. Just inside the pool, a stone lip provided space for cooling food like milk and cider. Iron rings driven into the ground around it served as anchors for the ropes that held several wooden buckets for accessing the water.

  Catherine picked up one of the buckets. The wooden staves were worn, the iron binding them turning red from prolonged exposure to water. “How often do you clean these?” she asked.

  Levi rolled his eyes as if he thought she was being too fussy. Drew frowned as if thinking. “Since we only use them to draw fresh water, would they require cleaning?”

  Catherine ran a finger around the inside of the bucket and held it up for him to see the green smearing it. “Moss will grow with damp and dark. Scrub them out at least twice a year.”

  He nodded, brow clearing. “I will.”

  How easily he believed her. It was refreshing, and she felt herself drawing in a deeper breath, her shoulders settling.

  Levi was clearly less impressed. “Never heard of moss making a body ill,” he scoffed.

  “You never heard of keeping the windows open, either,” Drew reminded him. “And Ma is better for it.”

  He stuck out his lower lip, as if considering the matter.

  “I doubt the moss caused your mother’s fever,” Catherine said, “but it is a sign that things could be more sanitary.” She leaned over the lip and gazed down into the dark pool. The sun filtering through the trees turned the water to amber. She sniffed the cool air.

  “Does that smell odd to you?” she asked Drew, straightening.

  He leaned over beside her, his broad shoulder brushing hers. She could feel the warmth radiating from him and had to fight the urge to hug him closer. He gave a perfunctorily sniff as if he doubted her senses. Then he frowned again. “I smell something. Could be from the barn. We are downwind.”

  “Let me take a gander.” Levi stuck his head over the wall, then straightened and shrugged. “I don’t smell anything.”

  Drew reached across to cuff him on the shoulder. “That’s because you’ve been avoiding a bath for weeks.”

  “Have not!” The youth’s cheeks were turning crimson. “I jump in the lake on a regular basis.”

  Catherine hid her smile as she peered in the pool again. “I’m sure there’s an odor, and I doubt it’s coming from your brother. Could something have fallen in?”

  “With the lake so close, there’s generally no need for an animal to risk trying to scale that wall,” Drew reasoned. “But the best way to be sure is to put someone into the water.” He turned to his brother. “I’ll hold the rope, Levi.”

  “Me?” His brother scrambled back, dark blue eyes widening. “I’m not going in there.”

  “Surely there’s some other way,” Catherine protested. She could not imagine it was safe or sanitary to let the youth enter the drinking water.

  Drew had pulled up one of the buckets and was untying it from the rope. “No other way I know,” he said, tugging on the line as if testing its strength. “We could wave around a lantern, but if that smell’s caused by firedamp, we’ll only cause an explosion.”

  “An explosion!” Catherine cried, hands pressed to her chest.

  Levi turned white. “You can’t put me in there, Drew. I won’t go.”

  Drew shrugged, coming around the wall toward his brother. “You’re the logical choice. You’re light enough to brace easily and strong enough to take care of yourself. Besides, you’ll know what you’re looking for.”

  Levi shook his curls off his forehead and pointed at Catherine. “She’s light. Make her go.”

  Catherine felt a moment of panic, but Drew waved away the suggestion with one hand. “You can’t send a woman in a dress into a pool that deep. The weight of her skirts would pull her down, and you’d never get her out. The idea is to fix the spring, not plug it up.”

  Catherine nearly choked. That was his reas
on for not putting her in the pool?

  Levi wavered a moment longer, then stalked up to Drew and held up his arms. “Fine. I’ll go. But you owe me.”

  “Is this safe?” Catherine asked as Drew knotted the rope around Levi’s waist. “How deep is that pool?”

  “About six feet,” he told her. “He’s not the best swimmer in the family, it’s true, but if the rope fails and he can’t reach the side easily, it will only take me an hour or so to locate Simon to help get him out.”

  Levi stared at him. “An hour!”

  Catherine frowned at Drew. For someone so careful of his mother, he seemed to have little regard for his brother’s well-being. But as Levi slung his leg over the edge of the wall, Drew winked at Catherine. What was he up to?

  He braced his feet on the stones and nodded to his brother. Levi leaned back against the rope and slowly edged into the pool. Drew played out the rope, and his brother shuddered as the cool water inched up his legs, then his torso. Catherine watched, fingers clasped, until only his curly blond head showed above the top.

  “We’ve never had an issue with firedamp,” she heard Drew murmur beside her. “I’ll only keep him in a moment, but maybe he’ll think before jumping into things in the future.”

  Catherine managed a breath and nodded. It seemed Drew Wallin knew his brother better than she’d thought.

  “Report,” he called to Levi.

  “Moss,” Levi replied, twisting in the water. The eddies around him told Catherine that Levi was moving his arms and legs to stay afloat. “And something darker over there.” He bobbed toward the far side of the pool, closer to the trees.

  The rope tightened beside her. Catherine glanced up and caught her breath. Drew stood, arms stiff, shoulders hard. Surely King Arthur must have looked like that when he’d pulled the sword from the stone.

  “Get me out!” Levi shouted, and Drew hauled, muscles bunching. Catherine shook herself and held out her hands to grab Levi’s arms and help him up onto the wall. His hands were covered in something black. At first she thought it was mud, but Levi thrust a finger under her nose, and she recoiled at the potent smell.

  “Manure,” he said, shaking off his hands and shaking his head at the same time. “Just a little. If there was more, it probably flushed out by now. Someone must have dumped it into the pool by mistake.”

  Catherine felt ill. “Surely everyone knows that isn’t healthy.”

  “Everyone knows.” Drew’s words were no less forceful for their quiet. He dropped the rope and tugged his brother upright. “No one in my family would do this, mistake or otherwise. Someone tried to poison the spring. I want to know who, and I want to know why.”

  Chapter Eight

  Drew fought down a rising temper. He’d heard tales of cattlemen and farmers fighting over grazing rights and poisoning each other’s water supply, but that had been in other territories. No one he knew bore any grudge against him. Why dump manure in the spring?

  “We should call back Deputy McCormick,” Catherine said. “Surely this is against the law.”

  Drew focused on her. Her head was high, her eyes narrowed to blue chips of ice. She looked ready to fight anyone who would dare to threaten the health of her patients. Despite himself, he felt a smile forming.

  “McCormick mentioned some of the other farms out this way had been harassed,” Drew told her. “There may be a pattern. I’ll report the matter when I take you back to town. In the meantime, we’ll keep a closer eye out for strangers.”

  “It was probably just a mistake,” Levi protested. “It’s not as though we need to mount a guard or something.”

  Was the boy determined not to do an honest day’s work? Drew forced himself to take a deep breath before answering, “If we all lend a hand, it won’t be a burden on anyone.”

  Levi’s lean face was turning red. “I never said it was a burden. But all you think about is working! Having a little fun isn’t a crime, you know!”

  His vehemence seemed too strong, even for his mercurial personality. Drew eyed his brother. “Do you know who did this, Levi?”

  “Me?” He took a step back. “No! Of course not! I’m just upset they made more work for us.” He turned and stalked off to the barn.

  “Surely he wouldn’t poison a spring his family uses,” Catherine said, her tone unusually gentle. Drew glanced back at her to find her watching him as if to gauge his response. “He may not appreciate the importance of good health, but he must realize he’d have to drink the water, too.”

  There was that. But something was bothering his brother. “I doubt Levi dumped manure in the spring,” he told her. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if he hadn’t angered some other young bucks who thought this was fair retaliation. I’ll let him cool down a bit before I talk to him again. I won’t tolerate this kind of nonsense.”

  “Agreed,” she said with a nod. “In the meantime, what do you intend to do about the spring? Levi is right about one thing. Your mother became ill at least two weeks ago, so the manure was added before then. Very likely the bulk of the contamination was flushed out with the rains, but obviously some remains.”

  “I’ll have Levi clean it out,” Drew said. “We’ll only draw from it for the stock until we know it’s purified. We can use the pumps on my claim and Simon’s for the house. It’s farther to go, but they’re capped. It wouldn’t be easy to dump anything down them. Beth can show you how to work my pump.”

  She frowned at him. “Are you leaving?”

  “I need to find my brothers,” he said. “They’ll want to know about this. I’ll leave Levi in case you need an extra hand.”

  “I’m sure he’ll be quite helpful.”

  He could hear her sarcasm. “He will if I have to beat it into him.”

  She blanched. “Please, Mr. Wallin. There’s no need to strike the boy.”

  Did she think him a brute? Many saw his size and immediately assumed his temperament was as large.

  “It’s only a matter of speaking, ma’am,” he replied, turning away. “I’ve never had to raise a hand to any of my brothers to get them to obey.” With a nod, he set off for the woods.

  Once he’d reached his brothers, he filled them in on the day’s events. They were glad to hear that Ma was feeling better but irate that anyone would damage their main water supply. Unfortunately, no one could determine a reason.

  “What about that prospector who sold you your fancy waistcoat?” Simon asked James as the brothers finished clearing away the smaller trees that might damage the spar when it fell. “Could he feel cheated?”

  “I don’t see why,” James replied, swinging his ax into a sampling. “I paid him well enough for it. If anyone is aggrieved, it should be me.” He paused a moment to lay a hand on his heart and bow his head.

  Drew ignored the melodramatics. “Deputy McCormick said there’s been other harassment out this way. We’ll just have to keep a closer watch.”

  None of his brothers looked amused by the thought. Between the main farm, their own claims and the logging, they had more than enough to do.

  Still, he couldn’t deny a sense of peace as he returned to work for the first time since he’d started nursing his mother. There was something about the feel of the ax in his hands, the weight of its swing, the sound as it came into contact with the tree, the vibration up his arms. Although accidents could happen at any time, he knew to his sorrow, the work was predictable and productive. And when the tree was down and the land was cleared, he could see his accomplishments and knew he’d done well. He only wished raising a passel of brothers and a headstrong sister was as simple.

  * * *

  After Drew left, Catherine returned to the house. She agreed with him that his brother’s actions were suspicious, but she hated to think that a group of boys would take matters so far as to poison a neighbor�
�s water supply. They had to know this prank could have had dangerous repercussions.

  “So what do you think?” Beth asked when Catherine rejoined her and her mother upstairs. “Was something wrong with the spring?”

  Mrs. Wallin was sitting up in the bed, and the sock and needles resting in the lap of Beth’s blue gingham gown told Catherine what the girl had been doing while she waited. The two women listened as Catherine explained what she and Drew had found. She purposely omitted any mention of Levi’s possible involvement, but Beth hopped to her feet, face reddening, tumbling the sock to the floor.

  “Oh, that Levi! I will skin him for this!”

  “Elizabeth Ann Wallin,” her mother scolded. “I can’t believe your brother would do such a thing.”

  Catherine was watching Beth, whose color was only darkening. “Why do you suspect your brother, Beth?”

  She bent to retrieve the sock and needles, voice muffled. “I shouldn’t. Ma’s right.” She set her things on the chair, then caught up a bit of hair and twisted the golden strand around one finger. “It’s just that he’s made no bones about the fact that he thinks we should have taken a claim closer to town. He says when it’s his turn, he’s not choosing acreage this far out.”

  “And that is his decision,” her mother said, voice firm though her face was pale. “Just because his brothers lined up their claims along ours doesn’t mean he must.”

  “Yes, Ma,” Beth said. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll just go start the baking.” She headed for the stairs.

  Catherine knew she shouldn’t interfere, but something about Beth’s reaction told her there was more to the story. “I’ll come with you,” she said, following her. “I need to explain what we’re doing about water now.”

  Mrs. Wallin wiggled deeper under the covers. “You do that. I think I’ll just take a nap.”

  Catherine caught up with Beth at the foot of the stairs. As if Beth had guessed her purpose, she paused and lowered her voice. “I’m sorry, Miss Stanway. I should never have spoken that way about Levi. It’s just that he makes me so mad! All Pa did, all Drew and the others have done to build us a home, make our own community... I hear him sneak out sometimes, going off at night when he thinks Drew and the others are asleep. He doesn’t seem to value anything Drew taught him!”