A Wedding for Julia (47 page)

“We can’t fit everyone in this cabin, Caleb.”

“True. But once a clear path is worn from the barn to here, I’ll tie the rope to the next cabin. We have enough buildings still standing to shelter everyone. These cabins have woodstoves.”

She was too cold to argue. Caleb realized with a start that he couldn’t feel his own toes. What was the temperature? Zero? Below zero?

He’d made it halfway to the barn when he heard her call out to him. He turned back and saw that Brenda was waving her arms wildly and pointing toward the road.

Traveling slowly down it, with bright emergency lights on the front, was a snowmobile.

Caleb released the rope he’d been holding on to and ran toward the road, toward help, waving his arms and shouting. His feet sank into the snow and the wind tore at his face, but he kept running. At first he was sure whoever was driving, covered in snow gear and a helmet, wouldn’t hear him. But then the snowmobile slowed and turned into the parking area.

Caleb stopped running, bent over with his hands on his knees, and pulled in deep breaths. Each one felt like a knife carving into his lungs. The snowmobile pulled to a stop beside him. Jack Tate removed his helmet and goggles and dropped them in the snow.

“Are you okay, Caleb? Here, put on my coat.”

Before Caleb could stop him, the man had shrugged out of his coat and wrapped it around his shoulders. On second look, Jack had warmer clothes on under his coat than Caleb had been wearing.

Of all the people who could have shown up, Officer Tate was a true godsend. When Caleb had first arrived he’d heard the stories of how Jack understood and worked with the Amish community. He’d helped to find Grace, Gabe’s daughter, when she was lost in a blizzard. And he’d dealt compassionately with Jerry Beiler when he’d been caught breaking into Aaron’s cabins the year before. No doubt many emergency personnel had been sent out at first light, but Caleb breathed a prayer of thanksgiving that Jack Tate was the first face he’d seen.

He didn’t realize until that moment exactly how frightening the last eighteen hours had been. Looking into the eyes of someone he knew, someone who understood what Pebble Creek and its people meant, he allowed himself to voice those fears.

“Everyone’s…they’re in the barn. Aaron’s hurt, and Darby’s fever went up during the night. She’s young, and the doc says she’ll need to go to the hospital. We have to move them out, and I need…I need to get to Julia.” The last six words were ripped from his heart.

Jack held up his hand as he spoke into his phone. Why was his phone working? Come to think of it, the phone he was holding was slightly larger and bulkier than the others Caleb had seen. Clicking off, Jack replaced the phone on his utility belt and started explaining as they hurried toward the barn.

“It’s a satellite phone. They issued them to all the local police departments a few years ago. When the area cell towers are down, these still work. I called our location in to the dispatcher, who will pass it on to first responders. We’ve been out since first light—”

He stopped talking as Caleb entered the snow passage.

“Are you sure this won’t cave in on top of us?”

“I’m sure it’s the only way in, and we have to get everyone who’s in there out.” Knowing Jack would follow him, Caleb strode forward, pausing to bang twice on the bay doors. He would have tried to open it from the outside, but he doubted he had the strength. It was easier for Rupert and Eddie to push the door open from their side.

When the door had been opened only a few inches, Pumpkin dashed out and raced through the snow. Caleb knew the cat would seek the warmth of one of the cabins.

There was a lot of talk and commotion as the people he’d spent the last night with, surely the worst night of his life, realized they were rescued. Caleb wished he could share in their jubilation. He was relieved that Jack was here, and with his help the job of transferring everyone to the cabins was soon underway.

He stopped him once as they were moving the second group and snow had begun to fall again.

“My place. Do you know—”

Jack shook his head. “If I hear anything, I’ll come and tell you. They are checking each property, Caleb. Someone will be there soon. And the minute we finish with these transfers I’ll take you over myself.”

Three first responders drove up on snowmobiles as they were moving the last of the guests. One was a paramedic.

Brenda had hurried back to the barn, intent on seeing to the little girl’s transfer as well as Aaron’s.

“Her fever is still up.” The young man kneeling by Darby frowned as he relayed her information into his phone.

“Is she going to be okay?” Darby’s mom hovered close, keeping one hand on the child at all times.

“I irrigated the wound,” Brenda said. “She needs a tetanus shot and fluids, plus a round of antibiotics.”

The young man stopped speaking into his phone and glanced up.

“Dr. Stiles,” Brenda explained. “Neonatologist.”

“Otis Conklin, ma’am. I’ve ordered transport. Someone should be here within the hour.” Two other workers covered Darby with a blanket, loaded her on a makeshift stretcher, and carried her out of the barn.

Caleb breathed a sigh of relief, but even as he thanked
Gotte
for their rescue, his impatience grew.

It was all he could do to stand there.

He hadn’t seen Jack in several minutes, but once he saw to Aaron, he was leaving—if he had to, he would take one of the horses which had been moved to an outside shelter.

He needed to go home, even if the only way was to walk.

When Otis had finished working on Darby, he’d moved over to Aaron, who had insisted on being the last one looked at. They were the only four left in the barn. Suddenly the wind rattled the walls, the roof gave a groan as it shook, and snow trickled through.

“It’s not going to hold much more weight.” Aaron struggled to sit up straighter. “You can do whatever you’re going to do somewhere else. Let’s get out of here.”

Brenda stepped forward. “I don’t think you should try to—”

But she was interrupted by debris and snow coming through the roof.

“Caleb on the left. Otis, you get the right. I’ll try and make sure you have a clear path.”

They hurried outside. It couldn’t have been past seven in the morning, but Caleb felt as if he’d already done an entire day’s work.

Once they had cleared the structure, which continued to moan but somehow stood, he turned to Aaron and said, “I’ll help you to the cabin, and then I’m going to check on Julia.”

Aaron nodded, pain clouding his eyes. But he seemed focused on making it across the snow, and although Caleb saw him glance up once, maybe twice, and shake his head in disbelief, he didn’t think his friend fully comprehended the destruction he was seeing. No doubt shock had taken hold hours ago.

The good news was that smoke was now coming from the chimneys of the intact cabins, which meant folks were finally getting warm. Food had been brought from the half of the store that was still standing. Everyone was safe and dry. Truly, they had much to be thankful for.

And what of Julia? And Ada? And Sharon? Their names pulsed through Caleb’s mind and heart with each step. He wanted to rush Aaron, but he knew that would be cruel. He had the irrational urge to pick up the man and carry him.

They had made it past the office when Jack came rushing back toward them.

“A call just came in. Aaron, Lydia’s in labor.”

Aaron’s face blanched white, and Caleb thought he would pass out. “She’s fine. People are with her, but the baby’s nearly here so they’re not going to transfer her.”

“I have to go.”

“You can’t even walk.” Brenda shook her head and held up her hand, as if that could stop him.

Instead of speaking to her, Aaron turned to Caleb.

“It’s his first,” Caleb said. “If there’s any way—”

“He can’t ride with me on the snowmobile.” Jack ran a hand up and over the back of his neck. “Not with that leg.”

“He can ride in the ambulance.” Otis shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the parking lot, where an ambulance, complete with winter chains on its wheels had just pulled in. “Darby’s injuries aren’t life threatening. Where do you live?”

Aaron described the road.

“We’ll drive within two miles of that. I say it’s in the best interest of one of our patients to stop by there first. Should you…um…change your mind and decide you won’t continue on to the hospital, I can’t force you.”

Brenda almost laughed, but put a finger to her lips as if she needed to hold it in. “All right. All right. I can’t argue with three men. But if you’re going, I’m going too. I haven’t seen a newborn in almost a week. My hands are aching to hold one.”

They had moved Aaron to the ambulance when Jack tapped Caleb on the shoulder.

“Still want to go home?”

“I am going. I’ll walk if I have to. I caught sight of our property when we moved folks to the farthest cabin. All I could see was the spot where the bridge between our places had been. It’s gone. I couldn’t see the house from there, couldn’t see or tell anything. But I can walk around by the road. Even in this snow, I can make it in an hour, maybe a little more.”

He was so keyed up, he felt as if he could run all the way home through the drifts of snow. He stuck his hands in his pockets, or rather the pockets of Jack’s coat. “By the way, I still have your coat.”

“Keep it. I dressed in layers. And there’s no need to walk. I’ve been cleared to leave this site.” He nodded toward the snowmobile. “Want a ride?”

Caleb didn’t even have to think about it.

He climbed on the back and they took off at a very safe, very slow speed. Caleb was sure the contraption had the ability to move faster, but before he could lean forward and ask Jack to pick up the pace, he saw a figure walking down what might be the side of the road. It was hard to tell with the amount of snow they had received.

Dressed in an odd assortment of clothes—black leather jacket, Green Bay Packers hoodie, a woman’s scarf, and wearing vintage snowshoes, the man began waving his hands as soon as he spotted the snowmobile.

Caleb was off the vehicle before it had come to a complete stop.

“Tim! Our families…are they all right? And Julia. What about Julia?”

With snow matted around his eyebrows, ears, and nose, Tim looked more than half frozen, but he nodded his head up and down repeatedly and tried to form the words. He dropped his makeshift pack on the ground, and Caleb saw the extra pair of snowshoes. Jack had parked the snowmobile, pulled an emergency blanket out of his supply pack, and wrapped it around Tim’s shoulders.

“They’re okay.” He finally managed, but his speech was slurred and he seemed confused. Glancing left, right, and back down at his feet, he didn’t seem clear as to where he was or how he had arrived there.

“What happened?” Caleb moved directly in front of him, so that Tim had to look at him.

“Left at first light…” His teeth began chattering violently, and his arms shook so hard that Caleb had to hold the thin, silver blanket around his shoulders. He closed his eyes and pushed out one word after another. “Fell…into…”

He shook his head and pushed on. “Before I put snowshoes on.”

Caleb noticed then that Tim’s clothes were nearly frozen to him from the knees down.

As he had struggled to speak, Jack had pulled out his satellite phone and called one of the first responder teams back at the cabin. He clipped it to his belt and turned his attention back to them.

“You’re suffering from hypothermia, Tim.”

The man’s shivering became more pronounced as he began to warm up in the blanket.

Caleb heard “Fell. Sorry. They’re in…basement.” He heard, but he was too busy strapping the snowshoes on over his boots to focus on Tim’s words.

Basement. They had made it to the basement.

He stood and tested the shoes. They would hold. He’d used them as a child in Indiana. He’d once been quite fast on the snow.

The first responders pulled up behind them, and Caleb heard Tim’s last words “Julia…she’s hurt…needs you.”

Jack called after him, but he was already moving down the road—clumsy, sliding, nearly losing his balance, but moving forward, unable to wait.

They would stay and help his friend. He needed to be home. He needed to care for his family. He couldn’t delay even one moment longer.

Jack had his responsibilities as an officer of the law and couldn’t leave Tim until he’d passed him over properly to the group that had just arrived. Caleb understood that.

He understood it as he hurried through the falling snow, and his heart was gripped by a fear colder than any blizzard.

Chapter 39