Nothing Short of Wondrous

by Regina Scott

  He didn’t know whether to hug her close in thanksgiving or argue with her. With them both on horseback, hugging was impossible. And he couldn’t quite bring himself to argue. Her acceptance felt too good, like a cool breeze across the desert. He could take a deep breath for the first time in a long time. He urged Bess to catch up with her.

  “Thank you,” he said as he came abreast.

  She glanced his way. “No need for thanks. I just hope you’ll remember what I said.”

  “I will,” he promised. “Sometimes I think I see that man you described. It’s easier here.”

  Her gaze went out over the terrain. They had reached the Swan Lake flats, the grass and sage rising toward the Gallatin Range beyond. Four young elk trotted toward the placid waters, which reflected the vibrant blue of the sky.

  “There is peace here,” she said. “And a purpose.”

  “It’s not just Yellowstone,” he told her. “It’s you and Danny and the Geyser Gateway. It’s Alberta’s pie and the way she makes room for each of us at her table. It’s the camaraderie among you all. I never knew what home felt like until I came here.”

  Her gaze met his, sparkling silver. “Oh, Will, I’m so glad.”

  So was he, and never more so than this moment. “So, Kate, I have to ask. Will you allow me to court you?”

  He hadn’t planned to ask. Some part of him persisted in the notion that he hadn’t earned the right. Yet her kindness, her sympathy, had opened a window to the sun, and he wanted to bask in the light.

  She looked away, toward the pines above the lake, and he felt as if she’d slammed that window shut.

  “Are you sure that’s what you want?” she asked. “You told me before it wasn’t so simple. Is it any simpler now?”

  “Yes, now that you know the truth,” Will told her.

  She did not look convinced. “You’re an officer in the US Cavalry. One day, you’ll be assigned somewhere else. I won’t leave the park.”

  Captain Harris had warned him as much. He knew his answer. “I wouldn’t ask you to leave Yellowstone. I’d leave the Army.”

  Her brows shot up. “You’d do that, even after the Army gave you a second chance?”

  He drew a breath as they moved into the pines along the twisting turns of Obsidian Creek. “I’ve devoted the last eight years of my life to removing the stain of that day. I’m ready to resign. Next fall at the latest. I expect we’ll be in the park at least until spring. At worst, I would be assigned elsewhere for six months before I could return to you.”

  She didn’t argue, but she didn’t agree either. She faced the road ahead, as if the pines and creek held more secrets than he had shared. “And I might not have a home for you to return to. Captain Harris or the Department of the Interior may decline to renew my lease.”

  “You’ll get that lease,” he assured her. “They’d be stupid not to renew.”

  She snorted. “I’ve lived through three lackluster superintendents before Captain Harris. I’ve seen my share of stupid. But I suppose we won’t know until spring.”

  Did that mean she was giving him until then to court her? He was almost afraid to ask. They traveled companionably past Obsidian Cliff and up into the hills beyond. The sage was blooming, the yellow brightening the area. She remained quiet as they neared Roaring Mountain, where the snowy white soil of the pine-dotted hill smoked and sputtered, but Will couldn’t seem to get comfortable on the saddle. As they came up into the Norris Geyser Basin, he couldn’t let the matter lie.

  “You never answered my question,” he said as they trotted past the guard station. “May I have the honor of courting you?”

  She nodded to Rizzo, who was on patrol in the geyser field and had waved a hand to them. “We’re going to be spending at least five months in close proximity, Will. A courtship might get messy.”

  Disappointment pushed down on his shoulders. “Of course.”

  “So, I suppose you’d better get to it before the snow flies.” She put heels to Aster, and the mare broke into a canter. He spurred Bess to keep up, heart soaring.

  They reached the Geyser Gateway by late afternoon and turned the horses into the corral so Caleb could give them a good rubdown and a rest. Will couldn’t help admiring the swing in Kate’s step as she crossed the yard to the veranda. He rather thought he was sauntering a bit himself, although he still couldn’t quite believe she’d encouraged him to court her, especially after he’d shared his past. Perhaps he’d finally turned the corner.

  Mr. Boyne had arrived before them, and Will was pleased to see his men helping unload the supplies under Alberta’s watchful eye. Captain Harris might have protested the Army getting involved in civilian matters, but Kate wasn’t the only one who’d benefit from the food. The least the cavalry could do was see it safely stored.

  After hearing Lercher’s report, Will went into the inn. He found Kate and Danny in the salon, where Elijah was resting on the couch with Miss Pringle and Mrs. Pettijohn watching over him from chairs at either end.

  “Private Lercher tells me the Barksdales moved on,” Will said after greeting the older ladies, the driver, and Danny.

  Mrs. Pettijohn sniffed. “They lacked what is required to survive the wilderness.”

  “Now, dear,” Miss Pringle reminded her sister, “anyone might have been rattled by that terrible carriage accident. Look at our valiant driver here.” She beamed at Elijah.

  “But all is not lost,” Kate said. “Private Franklin was able to reattach the wheel and bring the stage back to the barn, I understand.”

  Elijah nodded. “Right side door’s caved in and the paint’s scraped bad, but she can be fixed.”

  “Praise the Lord,” Miss Pringle declared, clutching the Bible that had been resting in her lap.

  “And the US Cavalry,” Mrs. Pettijohn added. “I see your mission was a success as well, Lieutenant.”

  For a moment, he thought she meant courting, and he glanced at Kate, whose cheeks were turning pink. Then he realized she must mean the supplies.

  “Yes,” he said. “Quite successful.”

  “Maybe we could play baseball later,” Danny put in. “Ma, Alberta, Pansy, Miss Pringle, and Mrs. Pettijohn could play too.”

  “Ladies against gentlemen,” Kate suggested, twinkle in her eyes.

  “Not enough time before the rain,” Mrs. Pettijohn declared. “I can see that dark cloud on the horizon from here.”

  Will frowned, moving toward the window. “It was a clear day when we rode in.”

  Danny scrambled to join him. He must have reached the same conclusion as Will did, for his eyes widened even as Will’s stomach plummeted.

  “That’s not a cloud,” Danny cried, whirling to face his mother and the others. “That’s smoke. Ma, the forest’s on fire!”

  24

  Horror pushed Kate to her feet and propelled her to Will and Danny’s sides. Beyond Fountain Geyser and its little sisters, over the top of the pine-covered hill, ugly brown smoke billowed, flashes of red showing through. She could almost feel the unrelenting heat.

  She whirled to face Will. “If the prevailing winds hold true, the fire will head northeast.”

  Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Mrs. Pettijohn heave herself up. “That’s directly at the hotel!”

  “And it could cut off the road south,” Kate agreed. “Will, ask Mr. Boyne to take Danny, Elijah, and our guests up to the Fire Hole. They should be safe there. If not, they can continue to the guard station at Riverside.”

  “This is like the Confederates all over again,” Mrs. Pettijohn declared, double chin quivering in indignation. “My husband and I refused to run when they rode into town. I refuse to run from trouble now.”

  “Might we at least walk?” Miss Pringle suggested, rising as well.

  Elijah climbed unsteadily to his feet. “I’m not leaving, Mrs. Tremaine.”

  “Yes, you are,” she told them, striding away from the window. “You all are. I can convince you to do what’s needed,
but you can’t convince a fire.”

  Will followed her, Danny right behind. Her cavalryman stopped, head up and eyes stern.

  “As commander of the detachment protecting the Lower Geyser Basin, I order you to do as Mrs. Tremaine says.”

  Mrs. Pettijohn squared her shoulders, eyes narrowing, as if preparing herself for a fight.

  “Oh, good,” her sister said with a relieved sigh. “Come, dear. Let’s gather what we can.”

  “They may listen to you,” Elijah told Will as Mrs. Pettijohn gave in and followed her sister down the corridor. “But I don’t have to. Everything important to my business is right here. I’m not leaving.”

  Will’s jaw hardened, but Kate understood. She put a hand on Will’s arm. “See to your men. Elijah and I will be right behind you.”

  Will shook his head. “I want you and Danny on that wagon with the ladies.”

  “Can we, Ma?” Danny’s voice was small.

  Kate bent to pick him up and hug him close. Oh, so heavy now! “It’s all right, Danny,” she said against his hair. “You go with Mr. Boyne. We’ll send Alberta and Pansy too. I’ll bring you home when it’s safe.”

  “All right.” He sniffed bravely.

  Will held out his arms, and Kate transferred Danny to him, though something inside her begged her to hold on. Will started for the kitchen.

  “I’ll gather buckets and shovels from the barn,” Elijah said beside her.

  Kate touched his arm. “Are you sure you’re up to this?”

  His dark eyes glittered. “This is my home nearly as much as yours. I won’t give it up so easily.”

  With a nod and a squeeze of his arm, Kate released him, and he made for the front door.

  Even as the door banged shut, Miss Pringle hurried from the hallway, clutching a small case. Right behind her came Mrs. Pettijohn, head crowned with a black-feathered hat.

  “I took the liberty of calling on Mr. Jones,” she told Kate. “He was not in his room.”

  Mr. Jones! Once more, Kate rushed to the window, but the only thing moving on the geyser field was the steam flowing in the breeze.

  “Did he tell you where he was going today?” she asked her lady guests over her shoulder.

  “He did not,” Mrs. Pettijohn informed her, as if much put out by this dereliction of duty.

  “Perhaps he went fishing again,” Miss Pringle suggested, edging toward the kitchen. “It seemed to me he was headed toward that footbridge over the river.”

  If he had gone to the Firehole River to fish, he was likely out of the way of the fire or at least partly protected from it by the water. Kate could only send up a prayer for his safety as she escorted her ladies to the kitchen.

  The back door was open, and Kate could see Pansy already up in Mr. Boyne’s wagon. Caleb was busy helping the teamster put the horses in harness. Alberta was still in the kitchen, wrapping a pie in cloth.

  “We’ll need it for dinner,” she protested as Kate went to shoo her toward the door. “And what about the ham?”

  “You are more important than ham,” Kate insisted, making sure her cook descended the back steps. She didn’t have the heart to point out that there might not be a dinner, or a hotel, by the time the fire burned out. The very thought sent ice down her spine.

  Lord, help us! She felt the desperation in the prayer. The National Hotel had been so impressive, but it was nothing to this little piece of Wonderland. Don’t let me lose my home!

  Every moment it seemed harder to catch her breath, as if the smoke was crowding her lungs even now. Then, Will came in the door, steps brisk, head high. Just the sight of him draped a soft blanket around her, cocooning her against her fears. She drew in a breath, focused on the task at hand.

  “Smith is headed to the Fire Hole to telephone the other stations,” he reported. “Lercher is taking the horses to camp. Waxworth has agreed to stay and watch the stock and chickens. If the fire gets too close, he’ll set them free to escape.”

  Kate frowned. “What about Caleb? He’s devoted to the animals.”

  “He’s more devoted to you and the Geyser Gateway,” Will assured her. “He told me he wanted to fight the fire with us.”

  “He actually spoke to you?”

  Will shrugged. “Let’s just say he made his wishes known, and I wasn’t about to refuse help.”

  Kate nodded. “Your men fought a fire near Mammoth Hot Springs. The Army must have equipment—a water wagon, buckets.”

  He shook his head. “Congress in its great wisdom did not appropriate funds for firefighting equipment, even though Captain Harris requested it. Best we can do is build a firebreak between the flames and the hotel, allow the fire to burn itself out at the river. I wish you would reconsider and leave with the others.”

  She didn’t reconsider it a moment. “Do you know the best place to build a firebreak?” she countered. “Or the safest route to the fire from here?”

  “Caleb could tell us,” he insisted.

  Kate put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m impressed he was brave enough to speak to you and to come with us, but Caleb rarely sets foot off the hotel property. Face it, Will. You need me. Now, let’s collect Elijah, your remaining men, and what tools we can and head out before the fire gets any closer.”

  The blaze was gobbling up the forest between the Grand Prismatic Spring and Lower Basin Lake when Kate, Will, Elijah, Caleb, and Privates Franklin and O’Reilly climbed the hill to the southwest of the hotel a short while later. Will had her ax, Elijah held a hatchet, and Caleb clutched a hoe. The privates carried shovels, and Kate held the handle of a bucket in each fist. As far as firefighting equipment went, it wasn’t much, but it was the best they could do.

  The flames had already crested the hill on the other side of White Creek below them. Fanned by a fitful breeze, the fire jumped from tree to tree, soared up the pines, and raced across the needle-covered ground. It thundered with a voice that demanded more, always more.

  Not her hotel.

  “There,” Kate said, pointing to the thin ribbon of the creek in the draw between the two hills. “If we cut the brush back on either side, we might create enough of a break to stop the fire. Once it reaches this hill, the heat will push it up and over. We must prevent that.”

  “Agreed.” Will shifted the ax to his shoulder. “Franklin and O’Reilly, cross the creek and clear that side. Elijah and Caleb, with me on this side. Kate, stay high where you can watch the fire’s movement. Keep us apprised of any changes.”

  She didn’t like sending them any closer to the inferno, but he was right. The five of them stood a better chance of clearing the area than she did. Her riding skirt—truth be told, any of her dresses—made it nearly impossible to do the work they were about to do. She had to trust in him, in Elijah and Caleb, in Franklin and O’Reilly, to see this through. Once more her chest felt tight.

  “Be careful,” she said, and he nodded before heading down the hill. Franklin and O’Reilly each took one of her buckets and followed.

  It was humbling. Never before had her fate seemed so out of her hands. Fear had held her prisoner the night Toby had been killed, and she’d found a dozen ways to make herself feel more in control since then. This? These flames, this heat, the roar and the crackle—she could do nothing against them.

  Except watch and pray.

  So, she did both. Words trembling on her lips, she alternated between watching the flames speed closer and watching Will working. While Caleb pulled fallen timber away from the water’s edge, Will and Elijah cut down and removed a few pine saplings that had sprung up. Franklin and O’Reilly used their shovels to dig up saplings on the opposite bank. Slowly, a ten-foot swath grew along the creek even as the flames showed brighter behind Will and the others. The proximity to the warm water had kept the grass green even into autumn. Would it withstand the heat of the fire?

  On the far side, a pine fell, a blazing torch flashing through the smoke. Kate stiffened. Before she could cry out, Franklin and O’Reilly splas
hed through the creek to safety. But a billow of smoke veered toward her. She coughed as the acrid air surrounded her, then brought up her arm to cover her nose and mouth, waving the darkness away with her free hand.

  Through a break in the smoke, she sighted Will below her, hacking through the tree to prevent the fire from reaching his side of the break. Caleb tugged on the limbs as if he could drag it himself. Will’s men dumped buckets from the creek onto the pine, the bark hissing as if in protest.

  Batting away the rest of the smoke, Kate forced herself to focus on the fire. She followed its track along the creek in both directions. It swallowed downed limbs, the sun-bleached timber blazing up. The flames danced to their own breeze, waving arms of red-orange. But the firebreak seemed to be holding to the east. And toward the west . . .

  One last fallen log breeched the creek. The fire hopped up onto it, skipped along it, and jumped down to the grass.

  Cutting off Will, Elijah, and Caleb from the others.

  “Will!” she shouted in warning, but her cry was lost to the crash of another pine falling. The smoke swarmed up, hiding them all from view.

  Will’s arms protested, but he kept swinging Kate’s ax. Beside him, Elijah grunted as his hatchet bit into the trunk. Sweat beaded on Caleb’s forehead as he came in to yank back a limb. A few more yards, and they’d have flanked the fire. A crash on the other side told of another pine falling. Smoke swirled around him, clogging the air, clogging his lungs.

  He stopped swinging, so blind he was afraid he might hit Elijah or Caleb. He couldn’t hear anything other than the crackle of the fire. The heat pressed against him like a wall, shoving him away. He wiped his face with the back of his hand, smothering a cough.

  “Lieutenant!”

  At Elijah’s cry, he turned to find the fire behind them. At the moment, it struggled for purchase on the cleared area, but already it trickled toward the hill. And Kate.

  “Beat it out!” Will shouted, shoving the ax blade under the grass and tipping up the sod to smother the flame. Caleb hurried to help.

  Franklin and O’Reilly must have seen their predicament, for they materialized out of the smoke. First they toppled the fallen tree into the water of the creek, setting the fire to hissing as it went out. Then they took their buckets to the flames.