Rebecca Hagan Lee (42 page)

“Mr. Craig?”

James opened his eyes to find Delia standing before him, holding Diamond in her arms. The carriage with Garnet and Emerald was parked nearby.

“Mr. Craig, the Treasures—I mean, Miss Garnet and Miss Emerald—are asleep and Miss Diamond needs a change of diapers and another bottle.” She rocked the baby in her arms to keep her from crying. “I thought I’d walk back to the cabin with the men if you don’t mind. I know you want the girls with you, sir. But they’re real tired and hungry and all, and it’s way past their bedtime.”

James buried his face in his hands. He did want the Treasures with him. But keeping them out all night wasn’t the answer. Just because he intended to keep vigil, just because he didn’t intend to leave the meadow without Ruby, didn’t mean that Delia and the other children had to keep vigil with him. “Take them back to the cabin, Delia. And get some rest. You’ve done a good job managing tonight. I’m proud of you.”

“Thank you, sir,” Delia answered. “I’ll go check on Miss Elizabeth, too. I know you said she was too distraught to come back out here and search, but I’d like to check on her if that’s okay with you. I know she’s worried sick about Miss Ruby. She nearly tore the meadow apart looking for her when I told her I’d lost her.”

James lifted his head. “
You
lost her?”

Delia shuddered beneath the look he gave her, but she stood her ground bravely. “Yes, sir. I was playing hide-and-seek
with Miss Ruby and Miss Garnet in the meadow and I lost sight of her. She hid real good and I couldn’t find her.”

“Where was Miss Elizabeth when this was happening?”

“She was sitting here on this quilt tending to the baby and to Miss Emerald.”

“Why weren’t you taking care of Emerald and the baby? Why wasn’t Miss Elizabeth watching the older girls?” James asked, though he was fairly sure he knew the reason.

“Because Miss Ruby won’t play if Miss Elizabeth watches her. She gets mad and pitches a fit and won’t do anything except sit on her bottom. So Miss Elizabeth always watches us from a safe distance so Miss Ruby doesn’t notice and lets me play with the older girls ’cause it’s important that they get their exercise.”

James squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose in anguish, remembering the scene in the park that he’d witnessed from his office window; remembering how Ruby refused to allow Elizabeth to participate and refused to do most of the things Elizabeth asked of her.
“Miss Elizabeth always watches us from a safe distance so Miss Ruby doesn’t notice.”
He remembered the ugly things he’d said to her at the office in front of all those witnesses.
“Delia does a better job of looking after them.”
And that was just part of the ugly accusations he’d flung at her.
Christ!
He’d been blaming Elizabeth for the crime Mei Ling had committed, confusing the two, believing that accidentally allowing a toddler to slip past her guard was the same as deliberately allowing a baby to be murdered. He turned his attention back to Delia. “Thank you for explaining everything to me,” he said at last. “I’d appreciate it very much if you’d take the Treasures back to the cabin and check on Miss Elizabeth for me before you go to bed. And, Delia, tell Miss Elizabeth …” James stopped, then shook his head. He wanted to say, “Tell Miss Elizabeth I love her,” but he knew those words should come from him. After everything that had happened between them, Elizabeth
deserved to hear those words spoken through his lips, not Delia’s.

“Sir?”

James looked up and realized Delia stood waiting expectantly for him to continue. “Never mind,” he answered softly. “I’ll tell her myself.”

ELIZABETH FOUND HIM
hours later where she knew she would—outside sitting on the quilt and leaning against the aspen tree, The fire had burned down to glowing embers that flared into flames occasionally and flickered out again, casting little light. She thought he must have fallen into an exhausted sleep and carefully lowered the wick on her lantern to keep from waking him as she set it on the ground. But it was too late. He’d heard her approach.

“You should be in bed, asleep,” he said.

“You think I can sleep after what happened? You think I can sleep knowing Ruby’s lost and that it’s my fault?” she asked. “My, how your opinion of me has fallen, James.”

“I didn’t mean what I said this afternoon,” he told her. “I confused what happened today with something that happened a long time ago.”

“You confused me with your wife, Mei Ling,” Elizabeth answered. “And you accused me of negligence. Maybe I am negligent,” she admitted. “But I didn’t deliberately allow Ruby to become lost. I didn’t deliberately rid myself of Ruby the way Mei Ling rid herself of Cory.”

James whirled around and faced her.

Elizabeth could see the look of surprise on his face, the shimmer of unshed tears in his eyes and the stains his previous tears had left behind.

“Will told me.”

James nodded. “Then you know everything.”

“Yes.”

“So, tell me, have I botched it, Elizabeth?” he asked. “Have I ruined what we have together?”

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly, coming to stand at the edge of the quilt, close enough to touch, but not touching. “It’s cold out,” she shivered, running her hands up and down her arms to dispel the chill. “You should be keeping warm in that quilt instead of sitting on it.”

“I can’t,” he said simply. “Ruby’s out there somewhere without a quilt. How can I wrap myself in a quilt knowing she doesn’t have one?”

“You can’t,” Elizabeth said. “Neither can I.”

James looked past her face and saw that she was wearing the same lightweight dress she’d had on that afternoon. James stared at the lantern. “I found my oldest daughter,” he said, at last. “Or rather, I found what was left of her.”

“I know.” Elizabeth knelt down and placed her hand on his shoulder. “That’s why I’m here. I knew you’d refuse to leave until Ruby’s found. And after Will told me what happened with Cory, I knew you’d be sitting here remembering and wondering if the fates could be so cruel to you a second time.”

James turned to her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and pulled her to him. “Sometimes I can’t sleep at night for remembering. Oh, God, Elizabeth, I can’t go through this another time. I can’t stand to think about what I may find.” He buried his face against her bodice, and Elizabeth held him while he wept.

And when he’d cried all his tears, she held him in a different way and showed him how much—how very much—she cared.

“I love you, James Cameron Craig,” she said as he lay spent in her arms. “I love you.”

He kissed her hungrily, then followed it with a kiss so tender it took her breath away. “I-I—” He faltered. “I want to say it, Elizabeth. I want to say the words. But I’m afraid. If we don’t find Ruby alive … If we don’t find Ruby …” He searched her face, begging for another dram of understanding. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to …”

“Forgive me?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“I couldn’t forgive Mei Ling,” he said. “Not even when she begged me with her dying breath.”

Elizabeth smiled at him and her eyes filled with tears. “Then I have my answer.”

“Elizabeth.” He reached for her again, but she rolled away and began to straighten her clothes. “I-I …”

She placed her fingers against his lips. “Don’t. Not now. Not until we have Ruby back in our arms safe and sound,” she told him.

“Stay,” he said when she got to her feet and started to leave. “Stay with me. Keep the ghosts at bay.”

“I can’t,” she said. “Diamond will be wanting her bottle soon.”

“Delia’s there. She can feed her,” James said.

Delia does a better job of looking after them.
James’s words echoed in her head. “No.” Elizabeth shook her head. “I need to feed her. I want to feed her. I may not—” She broke off abruptly, held her breath to keep from sobbing, then turned and hurried down the path before she had a chance to change her mind, before she allowed the look on James’s face to change her mind.

She was sobbing by the time she reached the cabin. “Go to him,” she begged when Will opened the door to let her in. “Go to him. Don’t let him stay out there alone.”

THE SOUNDS OF
men cheering awoke her from a fitful doze the following morning. Will burst into the cabin, made a beeline for Elizabeth, and lifted her out of the chair where she’d spent the night He swung her around in his arms. “They’ve found her!” he said. “Praise God, they’ve found her!”

“Is she … ?” Elizabeth asked when he set her on her feet.

“She’s alive. Cold, scared, and hungry, but she doesn’t seem to be hurt,” Will said.

“Where is she? When can I see her?” Elizabeth asked, pulling on her shawl and racing for the door.

“Well”—he cleared his throat—“that’s a problem. You see, they haven’t gotten her out yet.”

Elizabeth stopped in her tracks. “Out? Out of where?”

“A ventilation shaft of one of the old abandoned mines.”

“Ruby fell down a ventilation shaft? In the forest?”

Will shook his head. “In the meadow. There’s a group of boulders in the meadow covering the opening of one of the ventilation shafts”

Elizabeth put a hand to her throat. “But James said the meadow was safe.”

“He thought it was,” Will told her. “Jamie didn’t realize that one of the old shafts reached that far out of woods and into the meadow. None of us did.”

“But I searched the meadow,” Elizabeth protested. “I searched near the boulders.”

“You couldn’t have seen her,” Will said. “Apparently she crawled between two of the large boulders covering the opening and tumbled down the shaft when the ground gave way.”

“How did they find her?”

“Jamie heard her crying before dawn, and he crawled over the meadow, following the sound until he got to the boulders. Even then he couldn’t see where she was until the sun came up and he could see the hole between the rocks that he missed yesterday afternoon.”

“Where is he now?”

“He’s in the meadow. He sent me to get you.”

“What about Delia and the girls?” Elizabeth asked, knowing James would want the other girls with him when Ruby was rescued.

“I’ll come back for them. He needs you now. You’re the only one who can help. I’ll explain on me way.” He grabbed hold of Elizabeth’s hand. “Hurry!”

“
NO
!
NO
!
DADDY
! Daddy!” Ruby’s screams of terror and her plaintive cries for her father echoed up from the depths of the ventilation shaft as James lay flat on his belly on the ground in front of the opening, bracing himself and steadying the rope that held one of the few men small enough to go down the shaft and try to get her. But Ruby was fighting him, hampering his struggle to reach her. James cursed beneath his breath in frustration. “It’s all right, Button. The nice man is trying to help you,” he called down to her, trying to soothe her. But Ruby’s
screams grew more frantic and James could hear the chunks of dirt and debris raining down on top of them as Ruby’s struggles intensified.

James was too big. The shaft had filled with dirt and debris over the years and the opening had narrowed. He didn’t fit. He couldn’t get down the shaft and Ruby was frightened of the Chinese laborer who’d volunteered. James could hear him, now, speaking to her, attempting to soothe her in Cantonese, but Ruby didn’t understand Cantonese and the laborer didn’t speak English and James was very much afraid that Ruby’s fear stemmed from the fact that the last time she’d been so close to a Chinese man or heard Chinese spoken, she’d been abandoned on a pile of rocks in the ocean. He listened as the man tried again to soothe Ruby. And heard the scuffle and the screams. “No! No! Daddy!”

James couldn’t stand it any longer, nor could he risk having the walls of the shaft cave in around her. He called down to the laborer in Cantonese, then motioned for the men and the team of oxen to slowly pull him up.

“I’ve brought her, Jamie, she’s here.” Carefully avoiding the ground above the shaft, Will led Elizabeth forward, then knelt on the ground and touched James on the shoulder to get his attention as the laborer surfaced from the depths of the shaft.