Out of Control

by Mary Connealy

  “Can we just leave that for now?” Rafe cut her off. “I think we need to figure out about Seth’s friend down there. Was it one of your imaginary friends, Seth? Why didn’t your friend have a bedroll?”

  “He did.”

  “But there was only one,” Julia said.

  “Yeah, that was his. I didn’t have a blanket. I didn’t have anything much but the food he’d give me. My horse, though. Where’d he go?”

  Seth turned to look to the west, the direction of the valley and the cave entrance. Rafe clamped his hand on Seth’s wrist. “Don’t even think about leaving us to go back in that cave.”

  “I won’t.” Seth looked back at Rafe and smiled. “I don’t want to live in the cave anymore. I want to go home.”

  “Tomorrow we’ll go home, Seth.” Ethan hugged Seth a bit tighter. With Maggie in one arm and Seth in the other, Ethan was pretty busy.

  “No.” Julia snatched Maggie away from Ethan as if to punish him. “I want Seth to show me around in that cave.”

  “What about his friend?” Rafe didn’t like Julia being in charge. She was too single-minded about that blasted cave. “That might be who scared you and left you stranded in there. It’s still not safe in there. And the floors are still thin as—”

  “I don’t think there is a friend.” Julia gave Seth a smile that looked as untrustworthy as Confederate currency. “And if Seth has been all over, then he’ll take us places he knows he’s walked on before.”

  “Which doesn’t mean the floors might not crack and collapse,” Rafe said.

  Seth whimpered and leaned closer to Ethan. Rafe really needed to get him home. Far from the cavern. Far from the danger of him running back in and disappearing.

  “We can explore the cavern tomorrow.” Julia’s phony smile was even perkier. “I’ll make sure Audra is settled comfortably. She can tend the baby for a few hours. Ethan can watch Maggie. Rafe, Seth, and I can go explore. Seth can show me all the rooms he’s found, and I’ll keep a detailed map as we walk. That way I can find it again.”

  Seth looked more cheerful. “Will the cave take me home?”

  “We’re not going down there.” Rafe decided it was time to put a stop to this conversation for good. “We’re not risking Seth getting lost down there, and we’re not leaving Ethan here to tend a new mother and two babies. And that’s final.”

  CHAPTER

  20

  “Where do you suppose Seth’s horse went?” Julia thought of it as Rafe led the way toward the cavern, from the caldera entrance. “If someone, some ‘friend,’ took his horse, then that same ‘friend’ might take ours.”

  Rafe turned to her, his brows drawn down into a straight line, a scowl on his face. “Is this really a good time for you to remind me that someone might still be hiding in there?”

  Julia clamped her mouth shut before she lost her chance to explore. Instead she focused on the madman who would soon be her brother. “So, do you know how long you’ve been living in the cave, Seth?”

  Shaking his head, Seth looked from the cave to her. “The war’s been over for a year?”

  Nodding, Julia said, “They signed the peace treaty in April of 1865. It’s now June of 1866. It’s been more than a year. I heard about Andersonville. People called the men released from there walking skeletons.”

  Seth seemed to look through the cave entrance and into the past. “I wasn’t there that long. I . . . I was taken prisoner. I was with Sherman.”

  Rafe came up beside Seth, frowning. “Sherman burned Atlanta, didn’t he?”

  “I was . . . I was a captain by the end. I was in Atlanta with Sherman. I helped with the burning. The fire everywhere. Fire.” Seth shook his head as if to jar his thoughts free of fire. “After Atlanta I was . . . I always did a lot of scouting. I liked it. It reminded me of running around the ranch when we were kids, hunting, playing hide and seek. I always had a knack for sneaking.”

  Clapping Seth on the back, Rafe said, “That’s the pure truth, little brother.”

  “But when I got to be an officer, they wouldn’t let me do that anymore. But our scout died and Sherman needed me, so he let me go back to it. I’d go behind enemy lines. Find their camps. Count troops.” Seth shrugged. “I got caught. Shot, maybe. They threw me into Andersonville.”

  Rafe’s hand tightened on Seth as if to help bear the weight of ugly memories.

  “When I got out, I was sick awhile. I thought I headed home as soon as I got out of the hospital. So why’d it take me a year?” Seth frowned. “I met my friend along the way.”

  Rafe had been watching Seth intently. When he mentioned his friend, Rafe’s eyes shifted to Julia. She lifted one shoulder. Then Rafe turned to the cave.

  “Is your friend in there?”

  “I don’t know. We both had horses. Mine must’ve run off. Maybe he went after it. Maybe . . . maybe he got lost, too.” Seth rubbed the back of his neck. He managed to move his collar enough that Julia could see scars disappearing up into his scalp and down below his collar. “Can you help me find my way home, Rafe?”

  “If you want to go home, I’ll take you right now.” Rafe gave Julia an apologetic look.

  She prepared to argue with him, knowing she’d lose. They probably should put this off. Seth wasn’t up to it now. Maybe not ever.

  “No, I wanta explore. I’ve always loved to explore in that cavern. It’s beautiful.” Seth’s eyes lit up. Wild and blue and, Julia was sorely afraid, just the littlest bit insane.

  “You aren’t going to run off, are you?” Rafe hesitated.

  “Nope, I’m not running off ever again. I want to stay with you so you can help me find my way home.”

  “And you can show us all the prettiest things you’ve seen in the cave.” Julia hooked one of her arms through his. Rafe must have given him another bath, because Seth smelled just fine now. His skin was chalky white and peeling, like layers of old skin that would have to be scrubbed off over time. His clothes—she recognized a blue shirt Ethan had worn—hung on his gaunt frame. But he looked much better with a shaved face and shorter hair. “Have you got the rope, Rafe? We want to be really cautious in there. You’ll let us tie ourselves together, won’t you, Seth? We don’t want to get separated.”

  “Sure, whatever you want.”

  Julia saw a lot of the tension leave Rafe when Seth agreed. Tying himself to Seth would give Rafe a much bigger chance of keeping track of him.

  “It’s not dangerous, though.”

  Julia thought of Seth’s scars. “It can be dangerous, so let’s be real careful.”

  “I’ve hunted around, and I know where the cave floor is thin. I know where it’s safe and where it’s not.”

  “We can’t stay too long,” Rafe said. “Ethan looked a little overwhelmed with Audra and two babies.”

  Scared to death was more like it. Julia didn’t say that out loud. No sense giving Rafe a bigger reason to hurry.

  Rafe pulled out his matches and lit three lanterns so they each had their own. He made short work of fastening the rope to each of them. Seth at the lead. Julia noticed Rafe doubled up the rope as if Seth might cut the rope and escape—though to Julia’s knowledge, Seth had no knife. She sure hoped not. Seth and sharp objects didn’t seem like a real good combination.

  “I’m giving us a few feet of rope, so if someone falls we’ll have a better chance of bracing ourselves and not be pulled down. Seth can lead.” Rafe talked as he tripled the knot. “I’ll go next.”

  Julia suspected Rafe wanted to be a buffer between Seth and her.

  “Then Julia can bring up the rear.” Rafe made quick work of tying them together. Then he slipped his arm around her waist and kept her beside him.

  Seth headed into the cave with no hesitation, so eager to get in he could barely hold back from running. Julia was so eager to follow that she only noticed she’d left Rafe behind when the rope, tied around her stomach, jerked. She and Seth both turned back. Rafe rolled his eyes and caught up with them.

&n
bsp; Instead of going into the downslope tunnel, Seth went straight and they found the little room where a bedroll still lay beside the cold ashes of a campfire.

  “Did you sleep here?” Rafe didn’t see any other exit from this room, so he wasn’t sure why Seth had brought them here.

  “Yep. But this is my friend’s bedroll. He seemed to hate the light after he’d been in here awhile. He was kinda crazy.”

  Rafe and Julia exchanged a glance.

  Seth bent over and picked up a little packet of some kind off the floor. “I got this after Andersonville. I wondered where it went.”

  “What is it?” Rafe asked.

  Seth showed them a little stack of papers folded thick and wrapped in a patch of leather. “It’s a bunch of pages out of a Bible. I like having it close.” He stuck it in a pocket of his shirt.

  “I thought we’d go down that lower tunnel, Seth.” Julia was chewing on her upper lip, trying to control her impatience. “I don’t see a way to go on into the cavern from here.”

  “I remembered sleeping in here and wanted to see it.” Seth led back the way they’d come and headed down the lower tunnel. They were quiet, Seth lighting torches along the way, until they got to the hole he had skirted alongside of when they’d found him.

  “Seth, wait!” Rafe ordered.

  Turning back, his eyes glinting in the lantern light, Seth said, “Why? It’s a long walk to the best caves.”

  “I just want us to be really careful on that ledge.” Rafe went ahead of Seth and dropped to his knees. He held out the lantern. “I want to make sure this part of the floor isn’t thin.”

  “It’s fine, Rafe. I’ve walked across it plenty of times.”

  Rafe didn’t answer as he leaned down and tried to see the underside of the ledge. Chafing at the delay, Julia crossed her arms and tapped her foot, her mouth clamped shut so she wouldn’t start nagging the man to hurry.

  “It looks fine. But, Seth, I want us to string out. I’ve left about six feet of rope between each of us. I want you to go out slowly until you reach the end of the rope.”

  Julia thought about the end of her rope and how close she was to reaching it. Her toe tapped faster.

  “Then I’ll start across and . . . Julia will you stop that?” Rafe snapped as he rose to glare at her. His voice echoed over and over. It came back from beneath them and from the tunnel in both directions, as if ten men were yelling at her.

  She froze. Her tapping toe included. Annoyed that she’d obeyed him but sorry she hadn’t been a bit more subtle about her impatience, she shrugged. “I’m sorry. I’m just eager to explore.”

  Shaking his head, Rafe said, “Go, Seth.”

  It was a ledge about a foot wide, narrower in some spots, wider in others. On her right was a solid wall of stone. On her left, empty space that fell to jagged rocks. There was a drop of at least twenty feet where Seth had plunged through the floor and Ethan had nearly fallen, where a dropped lantern had burned Seth terribly. No wonder Ethan and Rafe hated this place. The wonder was that Seth didn’t.

  Julia was careful. She’d never noticed this ledge in her earlier explorations. The hole had seemed like a dead end, and she’d turned back. The ledge was wide enough; it didn’t seem dangerous so long as it didn’t break under her feet. Seth was nearly halfway across when Rafe set out. Julia waited, obeying him. Seth got across and turned back. Rafe reached the midway point, and Julia set out. They crossed the ledge without trouble.

  “Now, I want to show you something really beautiful.” Seth gave her that untamed smile. Julia nodded and they set out, single file but closer together. They came to a torch and Seth lit it.

  “Seth, why did you put out our torches yesterday?” Rafe asked.

  Julia had wondered about that, too. Rafe had lit them all as they’d walked in. Then, on the way out, they’d been extinguished.

  “And is there a way around that hole?” The tunnel was wide enough that Julia came up to walk beside Rafe. She walked, running her fingers along the tunnel wall, enjoying the feel of rough stone gently scratching her hand. “There has to be for you to have put out torches, then gotten ahead of us, across the broken place in the floor.”

  “This tunnel leads to a T just ahead.” Seth’s voice echoed in the confined space. He spoke more quietly, as if to stop the haunting voice that echoed every word. “To the left is that entrance where we used to come down, Rafe. To the right is a beautiful room.”

  “I’ve seen it.” Julia knew the room exactly. “And I’ve seen side tunnels almost as beautiful, though not as big. But I haven’t begun to explore the ends of it.” The air was dank and cool, no matter how hot the day. Julia had never noticed the temperature change down here.

  “See the markings?” Julia pointed at black lines on the tunnel on Rafe’s side, clearly visible if a person looked, yet very much part of the darkness if you weren’t aware of them.

  “Yes.” Rafe touched one.

  “I marked the tunnels so I wouldn’t get lost. I bring a piece of charcoal along and my arrows always point back to the entrance.” Julia pulled out a blackened chunk of wood she’d fished out of the fireplace.

  “Then you’ve been down this way?” Rafe’s voice echoed. Seth looked back as he moved along.

  “Yes. But I stopped when I came to the hole. I didn’t realize there was enough room to walk along the side of it. To think I was so close to that caldera.”

  They reached the T, and Seth lit a torch located there and turned right. Julia’s heart sped up to think of the first magnificent room. She’d sat in there many times, soaking in the beauty. Towering, glistening stalactites and stalagmites, the constant drip of limestone-laced water that was building on each formation it had created.

  They came to the room. Seth lit a torch, then another and another until the room was visible at all but its farthest reaches.

  Julia listened to the dripping water.

  “I’d forgotten how beautiful it was.” Rafe spoke reverently, almost prayerfully.

  Light danced off the glistening wet rock formations.

  “This isn’t the room I want to show you.” Seth sounded eager to be off.

  Julia wanted to stay. She wanted to bask in the beauty of this place, but if she could show Rafe what she’d found, she knew he’d agree to let her explore.

  “Can we go through that tunnel, Seth?” Julia pointed to one of several tunnels that opened off this big room.

  “I like that one, but the stuff I really love is that way.” Seth pointed to a smaller opening.

  Julia had seen it before, but she’d never gone in. She knew better than to dismiss a tunnel opening because of its size, but she hadn’t gotten to that one.

  Curbing the urgent need to show Rafe her fish fossils and force him to admit they weren’t just some abandoned bone from a lunch pail, she decided that if Seth thought there were things worth seeing this way, then she’d follow.

  “What formed all these?” Rafe ducked low to fit through the tight tunnel. “A volcano? Is that what you think?”

  From close behind him, she marked the tunnel as she talked. “Many would say a volcano, but I’m not so sure.”

  “What then?” Rafe’s voice echoed in the tunnel, and their footsteps sounded hollow and bounced back. For a second, Julia thought she heard more footsteps than just theirs. She wanted to tell Rafe and Seth to stop so she could listen, but she shook off the notion. She’d never let cave exploring spook her. She wouldn’t start now.

  Then she thought of just how frightened she’d been the day she got stranded down here. Fear tightened her throat.

  “God flooded the earth in Noah’s time.”

  “I know. It rained for forty days and forty nights. How would that create these huge caves and tunnels?” Rafe straightened, and a few steps later, Julia stepped out into a cave about three times larger than her cabin, which wasn’t all that large.

  “It didn’t just rain.”

  Rafe stopped and turned to her, which jerked Set
h to a stop.

  “Let’s keep going.” Seth pulled on the rope.

  “It didn’t?” Rafe knitted his brow.

  Julia decided it was a good time to rest awhile. She drew an arrow on the wall right next to the cave tunnel they’d just come through. She didn’t know if there were multiple openings in this cave, but to be safe she marked it. “No, we think of the rain, but God sent fountains of water up from the ground, too.”

  Rafe frowned. “I don’t remember that.”

  “Genesis says on the day the Great Flood started, ‘were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of the heaven were opened.’ The windows of the heaven, that could be rain, although I wonder about that. A very strange rain, I’d think. The rain came for forty days and forty nights. But the part about the fountains of the great deep—I think of the way a volcano erupts out of the deep, and I wonder if water didn’t sort of erupt in the same way.”

  “And formed these tunnels and caves?” Rafe looked at the cave they were in at the moment. The three lanterns did a good job of lighting it all the way to its edges.

  “That would explain the fish, Rafe.”

  “You have fish?” Seth came up beside them. “Because I’m hungry.”

  Rafe’s eyes fell shut as if he was slightly pained.

  Julia was surprised by her willingness to help, even if just for Rafe’s sake. She didn’t like the untamed look in Seth’s eyes, but with Rafe right here in case Seth showed signs of being dangerous, and the heavy rope in case Seth took it into his head to run, things seemed well under control. “It feels like it’s mealtime, doesn’t it? I don’t have fish, but I have sandwiches from last night’s venison and a can of peaches.”

  “More peaches?” Seth reached for the bag Julia carried over her shoulder. She took a step back, then regretted the telltale movement.

  Seth wiped his hands on his pants as if he was nervous. “I love peaches. My mom used to give me peaches.”

  She jerked her head toward a level spot in the floor, against the cavern wall. “Let’s eat.”