Rocky Mountain Redemption

by Lisa J. Flickinger

  Preach rubbed the side of his cheek, exhaustion etched on his features. He faced Aunt Lou as she stomped up the path. “We’re not up to anything, Lou. I’m going to get some shut eye.” He stepped into the moss on the side of the path to circumvent Aunt Lou.

  She grabbed his arm and yanked. “Not so fast.”

  As Preach hesitated, the cords in his neck pulsed above the collar of his shirt. He looked down at her grip on his bicep.

  “Let go, Aunt Lou. We were simply talking.”

  “If you were simply talking, then what’s this?” In two strides, Aunt Lou reached Isabelle and swiped out with the back of her hand. The nest in Isabelle’s palm fell to the dirt path. As it landed, the sparrow’s tail snapped in two places. The bird separated from the nest and rolled into the moss.

  The orb of one sparrow eye stared up at Isabelle helplessly. She dropped to her knees. “How could you?” Isabelle plucked the broken pieces from the ground.

  There had been no reason for Aunt Lou to break the gift. It was the sweetest thing someone had done for Isabelle in a long time. She looked at the fragments. Perhaps she and the sparrow were even more alike than before, both broken bits of something that had once been whole. Isabelle sniffed. She’d save the crying for later.

  “Lou,” Preach’s tone held a warning, “that wasn’t necessary.”

  “To you or to me? I told you earlier, as far as you’re concerned. Isabelle does not exist. I expected you to listen.”

  “What are you so afraid of?” he asked.

  “The last thing this girl needs is some sweet talking savage sweeping her off her feet and leaving her with a young one to care for.”

  Isabelle sucked in a ragged breath. Had her ears deceived her?

  “Your words are an insult to both your niece and myself.”

  No, they weren’t. The heat built in Isabelle’s chest as she stood and brushed the soil from her skirt.

  Aunt Lou huffed. “It’s not without reason her father sent her to the camp to stay with me. The girl’s tainted.”

  Preach’s silence indicated he understood Aunt Lou’s implication. Isabelle closed her eyes. If only she could crawl into a hole, a dark hole, and never come out.

  Several long moments passed.

  “Nevertheless,” Preach said, “Isabelle deserves your apology. We weren’t doing anything immoral.”

  “An apology? An apology is not something she will be getting from me. You go back to the bunkhouse. It appears you weren’t as tired as I’d thought.” Aunt Lou’s skirts nearly toppled Isabelle as she whisked by her niece toward the cook shack door. “Isabelle, come inside.”

  Preach picked up the pieces of the bird. “You keep the nest,” he said, his voice a low whisper. “If I can’t fix the bird, I’ll carve you another.”

  “Please don’t.” Isabelle’s hand shook as she stared at the nest in her palm. “I like it better this way.” Hollow, hopeless…heartbroken.

  Preach slid his hand under hers and stared into her eyes. “Your Aunt may not be sorry for what she did, but I am. I’m sorry for the distress I’ve caused you. I won’t bother you again.”

  Of course he wouldn’t. No decent man would once they’d heard.

  Chapter 4

  “What do you mean she’s gone? Gone where?” Preach blinked at Lou through the crack in the bunkhouse door before rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Her insistent knock had broken the first three-hour stretch of slumber he’d had in two nights. His head pounded, and it had taken him a few moments to locate his breeches and slide them on before he staggered to the bunkhouse door.

  Lou must have just woken up, too. In the lamp’s light, ratted gray locks tumbled over the brown wool of her shawl.

  “She’s gone!”

  “Keep your voice down. The others are finally sleeping.”

  “I knocked on Isabelle’s door to wake her, and there was no answer. Her bed was made up. I don’t know if she slept in it or not.” She tugged the apron at her waist. “A book is missing and a couple of dresses.” Lou reached through the narrow opening and gripped his wrist with the strength of a man. “Preach, you have to help me. My brother would never forgive me if I…if…” Lou covered her brow and moaned. “What have I done?”

  Preach glanced over her tousled head. Thick frost coated the trees along the clearing. It was the coldest night since the start of the season. “She wouldn’t have left last night, would she? It’s a long way to Stony Creek in the dark.” And much too cold if you’re not accustomed to the mountain temperatures, let alone thin as a rail like Isabelle.

  “I don’t know. She went to bed early. She was upset at me for breaking the carving, so I let her be. I didn’t look for her until this morning. Preach, she doesn’t know the way to town, and the road’s such a mess. She has no idea what cut-off to take. She’ll never make it.”

  “Is she on foot?” An animal would go a long way to keeping the girl warm.

  Lou glanced over her shoulder toward the corral. “I imagine so. She’s never ridden. She’s a city girl. That’s why we need to find her before—”

  “Find who?” Snoop asked rubbing his jaw. Wearing his red woolen union suit, his bristled, black hair standing on end, he’d snuck up behind Preach.

  “Go back to bed.” Preach turned to face Snoop so he could see Preach meant business. “The others will wake up soon and be begging for liquids. I’m going out. Lou needs my help.”

  When he and Lou found Isabelle, the last thing she needed was Snoop asking her questions. Lou’s insult from the day before had caused her niece enough trouble.

  Snoop took a step toward Preach. “I’m not likely to fall asleep now.”

  Snoop had slept through most of the insistent calls during the night from the men for sips of water or the use of a bedpan. He’d enjoyed a full night’s sleep.

  Playing nursemaid was getting old. Preach couldn’t wait for the others to recover and get back to work. But it didn’t matter if Preach was bone tired, he wasn’t letting Snoop help in the search for Isabelle. For all Lou knew, Isabelle might have just gone to the creek to pray or whatever it was she’d been doing that day with her head tipped back, lips moving silently. Preach’s mind lingered on the image of Isabelle the first day they’d met.

  “Preach?”

  He looked down at Lou, seeing deep furrows lined her brow. “Don’t bother trying to go back to sleep, Snoop. The men are your responsibility now that you’re up. I’m leaving.”

  As Preach stepped outside and latched the door to speak to Lou, wisps of his breath spiraled into the crisp morning air. “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll go and take a look. If she left, she probably hasn’t gotten far.”

  “She’s lost, I know she’s lost.”

  “Not likely.” Preach shrugged. “But if she wants to go, you’ll have to let her.” It was probably best for him and Isabelle if the girl did leave the camp. The feelings she stirred up in his gut were better left undisturbed. “She’s not a prisoner, Lou.”

  “I promised my brother I’d take care of her until she agreed to…”

  “To what?”

  “My brother’s business. I told him she’d be safe here. I never thought she’d take off.” Lou whipped around. “Isabelle, where are you?” Her voice echoed across the camp.

  Several horses turned to look, breath curling from their nostrils.

  If Snoop had only suspected before, now he knew for sure there was another woman at the camp. “I’ll get dressed and be with you shortly,” Preach said. “Go ahead and find out if she’s taken one of the horses. Give them some hay while you’re at it. I’ll check the creek.”

  “Thank you, Preach.” Lou’s shoulders slumped as if they had no fight left in them before she whispered, “Please find her for me.”

  Preach nodded before Lou turned toward the barn.

  “I knew it!” Snoop sat on his bed lacing his leather boots over thick, wool socks.

  “You knew nothing, ya lunkhead, now keep it down.” The shin
e in Snoop’s eyes did not bode well for trying to convince him to stay at the bunkhouse.

  “Hee hee, I’ll be coming into a windfall as soon as the boys are well enough to pay up. Perley set the odds at four to one. I’m not sure why you didn’t wager seeing how you knew all along I was telling the truth about the curvaceous creature with the pile of sable curls walking the trail to the cookhouse.”

  Now the wood nymph was curvaceous? “If that’s what you thought you saw, then you’re mistakin’. You don’t deserve the winnings.”

  “Don’t be sore, Preach. I know what I saw. I may not have all the details precise, but I know she was beautiful.”

  Likely the most beautiful woman Preach had ever met. A woman versed in the scriptures, a woman who liked to care for the downtrodden. The thought buoyed his spirits.

  Preach returned Snoop’s insistent stare. Regardless of Preach’s feelings, Lou had referred to some sort of predicament. Like Preach had been telling himself until the early hours of the morning, it was most likely the same predicament men and women have been getting into since the beginning of time. Knowledge of scripture or not, now that Preach was a pastor, he couldn’t let himself be tempted by the likes of Lou’s niece—as much as he would like to be.

  Snoop’s grin stretched across his cheeks. “I’ll surmise her name was Isabelle. What does she have to do with Lou?”

  “I don’t have time for your questions. The girl’s gone missing, probably just headed for town. I’m going to saddle up Rosie and take a look.”

  Snoop crossed to the stove and pulled his shirt from one of the T-shaped stands hanging from the rafters. “I’m going, too.”

  Preach’s low whisper rumbled. “You’re not. Stay here and look after the men.” Preach didn’t want Snoop anywhere near Isabelle.

  Snoop snapped his chin Preach’s direction and smirked as he fastened the last button on his checked shirt. “You look after the sorry bunch of snivelers. I’m going to find the girl. Besides, I saw her first.”

  Preach made a fist. Just one blow and Snoop would be lucky if he could ever smirk again. Would You forgive me, Lord, if I hit him?

  “If you won’t, Lou can look after the men.” Snoop tromped to the door. “And may the best man win,” he called over his shoulder and sniggered before stepping out onto the path.

  Preach smashed the side of his fist against the log wall at the head of his bed. “Ouch!” he said between gritted teeth before he pressed his sore fist.

  “Preach…what you doing?” The muffled words emanated from Will’s bunk, his blond curls the only thing peeking from the cocoon of his wool blanket.

  “Go back to sleep, Will. It’s not even daybreak yet.”

  “I’m thirsty.”

  “Lou will be over shortly, let her know.”

  Preach threw on the rest of his clothes, grabbed his Mackinaw from beside the stove, and lit a lamp before stepping into the chill of the morning

  There was no sign of Isabelle down at the creek or in any of the outbuildings. Preach entered the cook shack to make sure Lou hadn’t been mistaken. His gaze lingered on the clothes lining the log wall in Isabelle’s room, work clothes—all of them. Isabelle wasn’t planning on being a cook’s helper or keeping house anywhere else.

  The frost crunched under Preach’s boots as he crossed the yard to the makeshift barn fashioned of narrow logs, which had been stood on end and topped with a hip roof.

  Lou was climbing the crude ladder to the loft.

  Seven horses stomped their hooves waiting on Lou to fork hay down into the corral as Snoop tightened the cinch on a horse he’d tied to a rail.

  All animals accounted for—foolish girl.

  “Which direction are you going, Snoop?”

  Snoop jerked his chin up and snorted. “Any direction I please.”

  Preach squeezed his left hand and released it, the sting from hitting the wall a good reminder to control his temper. “There’s no point in us covering the same ground.”

  “How do I know you won’t give the girl a ride to the train station in Stony Creek? I got a lot of money riding on her showing up again. Money I need.”

  “For what?”

  “The more I have, the more I’ll get.”

  “You keep reassuring yourself of that.” Snoop might have struck on something. If Preach gave Isabelle a ride to the station and bought her a ticket, she could go back to her family—where she belonged. It would also solve the problem of the draw he felt toward the girl. He needed an untarnished woman to settle down with.

  Cheating Snoop out of his winnings when he couldn’t produce the wood nymph would be icing on the cake. Preach worked to keep the elation from his voice. “Like you said, may the best man win.”

  Preach watched Snoop’s back as he rode to the entrance of the camp where the road split into three forks. Two north forks led deep into the bush where the loggers felled their quotas of trees and the skidders piled the cut logs. The south fork, although appearing to veer away from Stony Creek, was the only fork that led to the town.

  What were the chances Isabelle would recognize the road she’d traveled on in the middle of the night?

  Apparently, Snoop didn’t think they were high.

  “Yah!” He kicked his heels into the horse’s ribs as he rounded the bend of the northernmost fork.

  Snoop was probably right, although Preach was figuring on Isabelle having a sense of direction. Preach thought about Isabelle’s pale skin with no spots or marks to speak of—not a girl who’d spent any time outdoors. If she had taken the south fork, he could catch up with her, deliver her to the station, and be back before Snoop returned from the woods.

  “You gonna keep staring off like some kind of idiot, or are you going to go and find my niece?” Lou yelled from the loft, all traces of the softened demeanor she’d shown at the bunkhouse gone.

  The smell of manure stung his nostrils as he crossed the corral and snugged a finger in Rosie’s halter. All the horses at the camp were bred to pull, not ride. Snoop had saddled up the youngest, probably hoping the horse’s age would give him an advantage. Preach was glad Snoop hadn’t taken Rosie out of spite. She might be older, but she was broke to ride. “I’ll give Rosie some oats and see what I can do.”

  An hour and a half later and just shy of town, there was still no sign of Isabelle. There’d been no tracks on the way down, either. If she’d come this way, she’d followed the frozen road. But if she had, why hadn’t Preach come across her yet?

  Dawn had pushed its way into the valley about an hour before, but it hadn’t warmed the air. Preach tugged the reins to draw Rosie to a halt. He rubbed his palms together and blew into his hands to warm them. It didn’t help. He should have grabbed some gloves before he left.

  “Where is she, Rosie?”

  The horse’s ear twitched.

  “You’d tell me if you could, wouldn’t you?” He patted the horse’s withers.

  If Preach was cold, Isabelle would be close to freezing. At least if Snoop had found her, she’d be on her way back to the heat of the cook stove, and Lou could care for her. More than likely she would tear a strip off the girl’s hide first. There was no way Lou would let Isabelle know how anxious she’d been when Isabelle went missing.

  Preach had been worrying the comment Lou had made about taking care of the girl until she agreed to do—whatever it was—for over half an hour. Could Lou have meant marry the fellow? Isn’t that what most proper girls did when they’d succumbed? The thought of Isabelle marrying someone else burned in his chest.

  As far as her family was concerned, she was soiled—not the kind of woman Preach needed to help him lead a flock of the Lord’s people. But the closer he got to town, the less he liked the idea of finding Isabelle and putting her on the train. Maybe Snoop would find her first and take the decision out of his hands.

  Chapter 5

  Isabelle’s teacup rattled in its saucer. Was that Preach? Of course it was Preach. Who else stood head and shoulders abov
e everyone else, broad chested, arms wide enough to—

  “Isabelle,” Miss Sophie said, “are you all right?”

  Isabelle inched her chair back, concealing her form behind the heavy, brocade curtains lining the window in Miss Sophie’s sitting room.

  Isabelle’s mother would have loved the mahogany furnishings and the rich tapestry adorning the walls, although it would have been difficult to convince her she could find such refinement at the world’s end. Mother had never understood why her sister-in-law preferred the “wilds” over city life.

  “I’m chilled.” Isabelle smiled and lifted the rim of the dainty floral cup to her lips. The Earl Grey liberally doused with milk and sugar warmed its way to her stomach.

  Preach had come looking for her.

  He must have left the camp before daybreak. It had taken Isabelle over four hours to walk to town after sneaking out at three o’clock in the morning. Most likely Aunt Lou had forced Preach to search for her.

  It probably hadn’t been fair for Isabelle to leave the camp the way she had. Surely Preach had figured out by now Isabelle was more trouble than she was worth.

  But Isabelle couldn’t have stayed at the camp one more day, not after she’d seen the look in Preach’s eyes when he’d held her hand and apologized for causing her distress, the look of both pity and repulsion. Seeing his reaction had burned to Isabelle’s core. She drew in a breath and swallowed the emotion threatening to overcome her.

  Miss Sophie rose from her chair and squeezed Isabelle’s forearm. “Of course you’re chilly. You’re as tiny as a bird. I’ll stoke up the fireplace again. It will warm your limbs until the blood starts running. You had a long walk in the cold.”

  Tiny as a bird? Perhaps a sparrow? If only Aunt Lou hadn’t destroyed Preach’s beautiful gift. If only she hadn’t said those dreadful words.

  And if Isabelle was as tiny as a bird, what would that make Miss Sophie? The woman stood no taller than five feet. Her animated expression and quick movements belied her age. Upon meeting Isabelle an hour and a half ago, she’d exclaimed, “In all my seventy years, I’ve never seen someone as forlorn as you standing on the train platform.”