Guide Me Home (16 page)

“It's all right, Reb. I wouldn't want a stranger spending hours in my personal quarters, either. It was presumptuous of me to ask. I'll simply lay the paper out on the bed and—”

She snorted. “You can't put paper on a bed and then draw on it. The mattress is too soft. Your pencil will go straight through.”

He smiled. “Actually, I draw with a pen and ink. But your statement about it piercing the page is accurate.” He shrugged. “I suppose that leaves me working in the dining room.”

She imagined him being interrupted by other diners, having to pick everything up and transport it back and forth between his cottage and the dining hall each day. Would she want to work under such conditions? She shook her head.

“Use the table in my cabin.”

His face lit. “Are you sure you don't mind?”

She didn't mind, but Tolly probably would. She shook her finger, warning herself as fervently as she warned him. “We'll always keep the door open so anybody can look in and see that you're working. And I'll stay far away from the table”—as far as the size of the cabin would allow—“so you can work without being distracted.”

Devlin released a huge sigh, his smile wide. “Reb Hardin, you're my hero.”

Warmth exploded in her face. She waved her hand. “As a worker here at the hotel, it's my beholden duty to be sure the guests have what they need. I'm just doing my job.”

Amusement twinkled in his eyes. He opened the door to his cottage. “Let me gather up my drawing materials and I'll follow you to your cabin now, all right?”

“All right.”

He let the door slap into the frame behind him. She leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes.
“I'm just doing my job,”
she'd said. She cringed. She hoped Tolly accepted that excuse.

Rebekah

A
s she'd feared, Tolly had plenty to say about her and Devlin being in her cabin together even with the door open. When he spotted Devlin trailing her to the staff cabins, he pulled her aside and said, “Takes a whole lifetime to build a reputation, an' it can be all tumbled over with jus' one foolish choice.” But after she explained her reason for opening her cabin to Devlin, Tolly offered a compromise both she and Devlin accepted. So they established a routine that gave him time to work on his map, protected Rebekah from supposition by other staff members, and set Tolly's concerns to rest.

While Devlin made use of the table in Rebekah's cabin, she accompanied Tolly to the kitchen to gather supplies—or “victuals,” as he called them—and then sat on the stoop of his cabin with him, crafting torches for the next day's hours in the cave. Each evening he reminded her he was only trying to guard her good name, and she told him she thought he was overprotective. He always laughed and finished the conversation with a wry “I know, I know, Reb, you'd rathuh be wit' a handsome young fella than wit' an ol' white-haired man like me. But that's too bad. You's stuck wit' me.”

On Friday evening as she and Tolly settled in to work on the torches, a drizzle began to fall. Tolly scowled at the sky. “God, couldn't You wait 'til we was done wit' these torches? They won't work if the bark gets wet.” The drizzle changed to fat raindrops. He sighed. “C'mon, Reb, gathuh up our things. Gonna hafta go inside an' work.”

She filled her arms. “In your cabin?”

“No. Folks'd be jus' as wonderin' about you an' me in there alone as they would wit' you an' Devlin all alone. We'll go to yo' cabin. Least then there's a chaperone—me fo' the two o' you, and him fo' the two o' us.”

Rebekah didn't quite follow his thinking, but she trotted across the patch of grass between their two cabins and darted inside. Tolly followed close behind.

Devlin looked up from the table, pen in one hand and a strange metal instrument in the other. “Is everything all right?”

“Sorry to bothuh you, but it's startin' to rain.”

Devlin looked out the window. Surprise registered on his face. “I was so intent on my map, I didn't even notice. I'll get out of here.” He started to roll the map.

“No, now, no need fo' that. Me an' Reb'll stay out o' yo' way an' let you work.” Tolly placed the pail of pitch and bundle of green wood staves on the floor near the door and aimed a curious look at the table. “But since we already interrupted, would you mind lettin' us take a peek at that map? Been wonderin' how it's comin' along.”

Rebekah turned a hopeful look on Devlin. She, too, had wanted to see the drawing, but she hadn't touched the rolled paper, no matter how much it beckoned her.

Devlin smiled and held out his hand in invitation. “Come on over.” He flattened the large sheet against the table and pulled the lamp closer. Tolly stepped up beside Devlin's right shoulder, and she scurried to his left. They both leaned in.

Devlin sat back with his arms crossed over his chest, his gaze roving from Tolly to Rebekah and then back to the map. “What do you think of it?”

Tolly scratched his cheek. “Hmm, to be truthful, I ain't sure.”

A wry grin lifted the corner of Devlin's lips. “What do you mean?”

Tolly chuckled. “What is it?”

Devlin's jaw dropped. He spun his astonished look on her. “Reb? You can see what it is, can't you?”

She pulled in her lower lip and bit down on it. If she told him what she thought—that the drawing resembled a gathering of earthworms—she would hurt his feelings. “I, um…”

“You two…” Devlin huffed and then burst out laughing. “In five days I spent forty hours underground and then another ten trying to re-create an accurate scale of the twenty miles we covered, and all you can say is ‘What is it' and ‘um'?”

Rebekah squinted at the lines, trying to make sense of them. “I'm sorry.”

Tolly shrugged. “Reckon a fella needs to be a cartographuh to read a map. I's just a guide.”

Devlin chuckled and set his pen aside. “I suppose I shall be grateful that my professors are less critical than the two of you. I might stand a chance of getting a passing grade on this project.”

Tolly plopped into the second chair and turned a puzzled look on Devlin. “Why you gotta draw a map o' the cave anyways? Seems to me there's already one been given ovuh to the district's clerk.”

Devlin shifted sideways in the chair, looping his arm over its back. Rebekah perched on the edge of the bed and observed the play of the lantern light on his chiseled face. They spent so many hours in the dark and then kept apart by Tolly, she'd almost forgotten how handsome he was. Almost.

“The map registered with the District of Kentucky was drawn in the 1840s by an uneducated slave.”

Tolly's white eyebrows formed a sharp V. “Somethin' wrong wit' that?”

“No, not for the time. And given that the map was drawn entirely by memory, without any of the tools we have today, it's an amazing accomplishment.” Devlin gestured as he spoke. His hand movements appeared graceful yet masculine, mesmerizing her. “But without a key to determine lengths and widths of the tunnels, one can't get an accurate picture of the majesty of the cave by looking at Bishop's drawing. Don't you think Mammoth Cave deserves a true depiction?”

Rebekah nodded even though neither of the men were looking her direction.

Tolly's gaze drifted back to the paper on the table. “I don't gotta tell you how I feel about the cave. Been goin' inside o' it since I was big enough to stay up on my own two feet, trailin' aftuh my pappy, who spent his life trailin' aftuh his pappy.”

He placed his hand over his chest and looked intently into Devlin's face. “That cave, it's become a part o' me jus' like it was a part o' my pappy an' grandpappy. Whatevuh you do wit' this drawin', I want you to honor the spirit o' the cave. Like you says jus' a bit ago, show its majesty.” He flapped his hand at the page. “By the time you's done, is there gonna be all the unduhground rivers an' the diff'rent levels an' the places where the walls are like ripplin' cloth showin' on the map?”

“That's my intention.”

For long seconds Tolly stared at the lines, his forehead bunched tight. Then he sighed and leaned away. “You gots a long way to go 'til then.”

Devlin laughed. “But I'll get there. With your help. And Reb's.” He swung his smile in her direction, and immediately her face heated. “I can't do it without the two of you.”

Tolly harrumphed. “Well, fo' now, me an' Reb need to get the to'ches ready fo' goin' in tomorruh.” He stood and reached for the pile of materials.

Devlin jolted. “Tomorrow's Saturday.”

“That's right.” Tolly sent him a wry look. “Satuhday follows Friday.”

Devlin shook his head. “I didn't plan to go into the cave tomorrow. I planned to…explore elsewhere.”

“Where?”

“Oh, around.”

Rebekah's scalp tingled. Why did he seem so secretive?

Tolly must have wondered the same thing because he scowled. “You mappin' somethin' besides the cave?”

Devlin's left shoulder rose and fell in an odd half shrug. “No.”

“But you ain't wantin' to go in tomorruh, that what you's sayin'?”

Devlin picked up his pen and fiddled with it. “If you aren't opposed to spending a day away from the cave, then yes, that's what I'm saying.” He dropped the pen and faced Tolly. “I'd like to spend the morning working on my map. I still have several tunnels to add. And then, in the afternoon, I'd like to borrow a horse from the stable and ride through the hills surrounding the cave estates. Would you two”—he shifted his gaze to include Rebekah—“accompany me?”

Tolly shook his head. “I don't like to ride horses. If I'm gonna ride, it'll be on a wagon seat. But wagons won't go through 'cept on the roads, an' if I'm unduhstandin' you rightly, you's wantin' to go off the roads.”

“Yes, I am.” Devlin shifted in the chair, jerking his attention from Tolly to Rebekah, the movement reminding her of a chicken looking out for foxes. “I'm curious about the people who live near the cave. I'd like to see their homes, determine their livelihoods, perhaps visit with some of them concerning their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their lives here.”

Rebekah didn't know much about cartography, but his request didn't seem related to drawing maps. “Is this part of your project?”

“Yes.” A strange, faraway look entered Devlin's eyes. “Yes, it is.”

Over the past days, his steady presence in the cave, his willingness to offer his hand when they stepped over deep crevices or climbed steep pathways, his ready words of appreciation had built her trust in him. But at that moment, something in his expression bothered her. She wasn't entirely sure he was telling the truth, and she didn't want him traipsing around the countryside on his own. Partly because a person who was unfamiliar with the area could find himself lost, and partly because she wanted somebody keeping watch over him.

She said, “I don't mind riding horses. I've been riding our family's mule since I was little.”

Delight broke across his features. “Are you offering to guide me tomorrow?”

Rebekah turned to Tolly. She wouldn't go if her boss said no. After all, she was supposed to work on Saturdays. Even if they didn't go to the cave, he might have things for her to do at the estate. “Tolly?”

He stared at her for several seconds with his brow puckered and his lips pooched out. He spun on Devlin. “I been watchin' you all week. 'Specially wit' Reb.”

Red streaks climbed Devlin's cheeks.

She shifted uneasily on the corner of the bed.

“An' you been nothin' but gentlemanly. That's the only reason I'd even think about lettin' her go off fo' the aftuhnoon wit' you.”

Devlin cleared his throat. “Thank you.”

“Since you's wantin' to draw in the mo'nin', Reb an' me'll work on the torches tomorruh instead o' tonight. Then, Reb, you pack what you need fo' stayin' at yo' folks' place. First spot you an' Devlin go to tomorruh when you set out is yo' house. If yo' daddy say it be all right fo' you to take Devlin on a look aroun' the countryside, then I won't get in the way. But it's goin' be his decision, not mine. Y'hear?”

Rebekah nodded.

Tolly shifted to Devlin. “Only a mile to Reb's house from the cave. Her family's one o' the closest o' them who live 'round here. Won't take but a five-minute ride on a good horse to reach her place. I'll be takin' note o' what time you two set out, an' I'll be checkin' wit' her daddy on what time you two get to her place. If there's any shenanuhgans along the way, I'll be figurin' it out, an' I promise to teach you some mannuhs if you do anythin' to sully this girl's name. Are you hearin' me clear, Devlin Bale?”

After listening to a threatening speech, would Devlin take his business away from Mammoth Cave? Would he turn Tolly in to the cave's directors for overstepping his position? Tolly only wanted to protect her, but he'd just moved onto dangerous ground. Some white people didn't take kindly to being given orders by those with dark-colored skin. Rebekah bit her lip and held her breath, waiting for Devlin's response.

Devlin stood, moving so slowly it seemed his joints had gone rusty while sitting in the chair. He took one step toward Tolly, then planted his feet wide. “Tolly…” He extended his hand. “I give you my word I won't do anything to sully Reb's name.”

Tolly stared hard into Devlin's face, as if trying to see all the way to his soul. When he reached out and grasped Devlin's hand, Rebekah nearly collapsed with relief.