To Win Her Heart (23 page)

“Why don’t you fasten the straps?” Eden suggested. “Pull them tight so the flowers dry completely flat. They’ll have to stay in the press for about two weeks before we can let any air hit them.”

Levi complied and buckled the first strap. As he tugged the second into position, the front door burst open and heavy footfalls stomped down the hall.

Sheriff Pratt strode into the room.

Eden jumped to her feet, but the man barely spared her a glance as his eyes locked on Levi.

“Been lookin’ for you, Grant.” His razor-sharp eyes cut from him to Eden and back again. “Shoulda known you’d be here.”

Levi finished latching the press before rising to greet the sheriff. “Morning, Pratt. What can I do for you?”

“Grab your hat is what you can do. You’re coming with me.”

Levi held his ground and his tongue, unwilling to give in to the sheriff’s bullying. Even if Pratt had somehow discovered the details of his past, he’d done nothing since his release to warrant being hauled off to jail.

“What is the meaning of this intrusion, Sheriff?” Eden marched up to the man, bristling like a wet hen. “You can’t just barge in here issuing orders.”

“I can when men’s lives are at stake.”

Eden glanced back at Levi, confusion lining her face. Levi raised his brows in response, as much in the dark as she. Circling the desk, he squared off with the sheriff. “Get to the point, Pratt. What do you want with me?”

The man sighed and pushed his hat back on his head. “There’s been an accident at the quarry. An explosion.”

A gasp echoed from the vicinity of the kitchen, but Levi kept his focus on Pratt.

“Doc’s headed out there now to tend the injured, but there’s a handful of men pinned under a slide of limestone rubble. The faster we get them out, the greater their chance of survival.” He stopped to clear his throat. “I ain’t had much use for you up till now, Grant, but you’ve got the strongest back in the county. Borrow a horse from Barnes and hightail it out to that quarry. I’ll meet you there after I round up a couple more men.” Not waiting for an answer, Pratt dragged his hat back down over his forehead and spun toward the doorway.

Levi stood paralyzed. The quarry? He’d sworn he’d never willingly enter the nightmare of such a place again.

The sound of the front door banging closed echoed through the room. And before Levi could do more than blink, Chloe rushed at him from the kitchen, tears coursing down her face.

“You gotta help them, Mr. Levi. You gotta.” A sob choked off her words as she flung herself into his arms, grasping his waist as if he were the only anchor in her life. Levi patted her awkwardly on the back as he swallowed the bile that rose in his throat. The girl didn’t know what she was asking. She couldn’t.

Chloe pulled away slightly and tilted her face up. Reddened eyes pleaded with him. “Duncan drills for the blasters at the quarry. You gotta get him out. I can’t explain it, but I
know
he’s one of the men trapped out there.”

Duncan—the Scotsman with the ready laugh and dancing feet. The kid was too young to have his life snuffed out. What about his dream of following in his father’s footsteps to become a stonecutter? And his plans to woo that bonny lass of his?

As Levi stared at the distraught girl in his arms, the truth hit him between the eyes. Chloe was Duncan’s bonny lass.

Levi clenched his jaw and hugged Chloe to his chest. He would go. Not just for Duncan, a man he liked and admired, but for Chloe, the girl he loved like a baby sister.

A soft touch on his arm drew Levi’s gaze around to Eden. Compassion glowed in her eyes—compassion and a healthy dose of determination.

“Chloe and I will gather bandages and whatever other medical supplies we can find and come after you. We’ll help Dr. Adams tend the wounded and support you however we can.”

The promise inherent in those last words gave him the strength to separate himself from the women. “I’ll get him out, Chloe. You have my word.”

She nodded and sniffed, then brushed at her tears with the back of her hand.

Levi strode from the room, his growing sense of purpose crowding out his dread. God had made Samson strong for a reason, and it hadn’t been to impress Delilah with his prowess. It had been to deliver his people. Levi had been blessed with strength, as well, and not for squandering on prizefights and selfish living. Perhaps he, too, had been given the gift to deliver people—people like Duncan McPherson and the other quarrymen trapped out in the pit.

Help me get them out, Lord. Whatever it takes.

Levi snatched his hat from its hook on the hall tree and turned for the door, nearly trampling Eden, who had come up behind him.

“God will help you, Levi. And so will I.” She rose on her tiptoes and placed a kiss to his cheek. The simple touch drove away the last of his reservations. “I’ll be there as soon as I can,” she promised.

Not wanting to waste time searching for nonlisping words to convey his gratitude, he circled an arm around her waist, clutched her to his chest, and brought his mouth down on hers. She started to melt against him, but tempted as he was to continue, he pulled away. The trapped men couldn’t afford a delay. The feel of her stayed with him, however, long after he left.

He stopped by the smithy to collect the largest of his sledgehammers, then hurried to the livery. The sheriff must have warned Claude to have a horse ready, for he stood in the yard holding the lead on a broad-chested sorrel gelding that was saddled and ready to ride.

It’d been years since he’d sat a horse, but some skills a man never forgot. Levi strapped the sledge to the back of the saddle, making sure it wouldn’t bounce around, and then shoved the toe of his shoe into the stirrup and hoisted himself up.

“Head west,” Claude said, pointing out of town. “When you get to the fork, turn north. It’ll run along the rail route and lead directly to Fieldman’s. You can’t miss it. I’ll head to the church and help Cranford rearrange the space for an infirmary.”

Levi nodded and pressed his heels to the horse’s flanks. As he rode, he tried to concentrate on Duncan and the others, but when the quarry came into view, his chest tightened. He could feel the whip cutting into his skin, hear the screams of grown men, taste the dust that hung heavy in the air. Past blurred with present, and nausea gripped Levi so fiercely it nearly bent him double.

Fighting for control, he closed his eyes for a moment and let the horse carry him to the base of the pit. When the animal slowed, Levi opened his eyes and took in the scene. The screams echoing in his mind dulled to a hum of concerned voices. Women clung to husbands who had avoided the blast, praising God for their safety. Others sat with the injured, holding a hand or cleaning a bloody face with a dampened handkerchief. The doctor, having just arrived, bustled from patient to patient, black bag in hand, assessing the damage.

Another group huddled near one of the cranes used for lowering blocks of limestone from the rim to the base of the pit. Recognizing the sheriff, Levi dismounted and led his horse to the corral that housed the draft animals used for transporting dressed stone to the waiting railcars. Levi looped his reins loosely around the tongue of an unused cart and gave his mount enough lead to reach the water trough. Then he unfastened his sledge from behind the cantle and headed toward the group of men arguing near the crane.

“We’ve got the manpower to move that rubble, Fieldman,” Pratt ranted, gesturing to the half-dozen men he’d brought with him from town. “Why are you refusing our help? Your men are dying in there!”

“I’m well aware of the condition of my men, Sheriff.” Fieldman enunciated each word as if he were flinging darts into a board. “I’m also aware that the stone is unstable. The explosion weakened several sections in the rock face above where the men are trapped. That stone is cracked and ready to throw down. Sending inexperienced men in there would be asking for more injuries. Besides, most of the fallen blocks are too large to remove. I’ve got a crew breaking them up now. It’s slow going, but it’s the safest procedure for all concerned.”

The stocky man with graying temples turned to go, no doubt eager to rejoin the rescue effort. He’d given Levi every excuse to leave his nightmare behind, but something stronger than fear pushed Levi forward.

“I can help.” Levi raised the sledge above his shoulder to catch the man’s attention and edged past the others gathered around the sheriff.

Fieldman glanced back, his eyes widening slightly as he took in Levi’s size. “Look, son,” the man said, shaking his head in regret. “I could use a pair of arms like those, but even so, I ain’t lettin’ you in. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you could cause more problems than I already got.”

Levi cleared his throat and took another step forward. “I broke rock at Granite Mountain. For more than a year and a half. I can help.”

“Granite Mountain?” Alex Carson, the saddler, murmured. “Isn’t that where the stone for the new capitol building came from?”

Levi could feel the sheriff’s hot gaze burning into the side of his neck, but he kept his attention locked on Fieldman.

“Yep,” Pratt said. “They used mostly convict labor, as I recall.” Questions laced that statement. Questions Levi would rather not answer, although his gut told him his secrets wouldn’t remain hidden much longer.

“What’ll it be, Fieldman?” Levi asked, eager to escape the sheriff’s scrutiny.

The owner waved him forward. “I ain’t one to turn away what the Lord’s providin’. I’ll grab a chisel. You can be my striker.”

Levi nodded, angling his shoulders to slide between Pratt and Carson in order to follow. Thankful to leave the townsmen and their probing glances behind, he stretched his stride to catch up to Fieldman.

“How many men you figure are trapped?”

The man’s solemn face told Levi more than he wanted to know. “We’re missin’ four, from what I can tell. Dalton, Jones, McPherson, and Collier.”

Duncan.
Levi’s heart sank. “You . . . think they got a chan—” He swallowed the end of the word and coughed to cover his inadequacy. The rising tide of emotion inside him was interfering with his ability to filter words. All he could think about was Chloe’s face when she’d begged him to help and her certainty that Duncan was in danger.

“Chances are slim, but there’s a hollow there on the right.” He pointed to an area of the rockslide where four pairs of men were working in tandem to split and remove slabs of the fallen limestone. “If they managed to get into that space before the worst of it hit, they might still be alive.”

Fieldman paused to grab a large chisel from where it leaned discarded against the rocks. He carefully picked his way atop the rubble, testing each section for stability before climbing farther. Levi followed precisely in his wake, stepping only where the other man had stepped. His fingers bit into the handle of his sledge as the sounds of quarry work drowned out all else. Iron clanged against iron as hammer met chisel or drill. Metal echoed against stone as the rock chipped away. A man shouted at a team of horses. Harness jangled and hooves thudded against the earth as the pair strained against the weight of the loosened limestone block their master had chained to them.

Lord, watch over Duncan and the other men. Help us get them out in time.

Levi’s prayers continued as he settled into the familiar rhythm of swing and strike—swing and strike. Fieldman anticipated each hit, adeptly positioning the chisel along the rock’s line of least resistance. With his expertise and Levi’s strength, they cleared twice the stone of the other pairs.

The sun traveled across the sky and beat down on Levi’s neck. His muscles screamed for rest, yet he couldn’t stop—not while Duncan lay buried somewhere beneath. So he continued on, swing after swing. Someone handed him a canteen. He lifted it to his lips and washed the dust from his throat, then grasped the handle of the sledge once again. Fieldman offered to switch positions with him, but Levi refused. He didn’t have the quarryman’s skill in finding the weak spots in the rock. It would hurt their efficiency to change places. No, he’d keep the sledge and trust God to provide endurance.

“One more swing ought to get ’er,” Fieldman said as he reset the chisel.

This slab was one of the largest they’d tackled so far, and the closest to the rock face. No one had verbalized the hope and dread they all held inside as they worked to clear away the stones. If the men had found a pocket of safety in the hollow, they should find evidence under this slab. If not? Levi clenched his jaw as he hoisted the sledge. Well, if not, they would probably find evidence of that, too.

The hammer came down on the head of the chisel, sending vibrations along Levi’s arms and back. The slab cracked and split.

“Get the horses!” Fieldman ordered.

Levi stepped aside as a wiry fellow scrambled up to them, chain in hand. Fieldman used his long chisel like a lever to aid the crewman in getting the chain under the block. Then with a wave, the man signaled the horse driver. With a loud “Yah!” and a slap to the lead animal’s hindquarters, the driver urged the horses forward.

As the team slowly dragged the oversized chunk of limestone away, Levi heard a faint sound. It wasn’t clear, but something about it seemed out of place. He cocked his head and listened, mentally filtering out the scraping of stone and jangle of harness. His pulse skittered. Could it be?

He dropped to his knees and laid his ear to the newly cleared section, heart pounding.

“Hold the horses!” Fieldman yelled. “Hammers down!” After issuing the order, he fell to the ground beside Levi.

A muted call carried through the crevice. “We’re here. We’re here.”

Levi looked up at Fieldman. Tears ran down the older man’s face, leaving tracks in the limestone dust that coated all of them.

“Thank God,” he whispered. Then all at once, he tore at the ground with his hands, pulling out the smaller rocks and debris.