Snow Angel (17 page)

Elizabeth crawled up the banks of Lake Laberge, the bor rowed wet pants clinging to her legs. Her body ached with cold and sore muscles. She was chilled to the bone, soaking wet and hungry. The slicker Charlie had given her before they left had helped a little on top, but the pants were cold against her calves. They'd been on the water for two days and a night without stopping. She had never been on such a ride in all her life. They'd taken shifts sleeping, but Elizabeth didn't know why it mattered. The river took them where it would and there was little they could do about it until they reached the calm, glassy blue waters of Lake Laberge.

It was the first camp they'd made since the boat-building camp, and it felt good to be on land again. Hundreds of men were camped around them along the bank, busy with repairs. They were the same men she'd been traveling with since Dyea, but now their faces were sobered and exhausted. The hardness of the trail was sinking through their veneer of excitement. Still, they had hundreds of miles to go and they all were feeling a keen desire for better, watertight boats. Elizabeth stood and stretched her aching muscles, reaching to the sky.

“Hey, Elizabeth, how are you holding up?” Josh asked with his boyish grin.

Elizabeth turned and grimaced. “I've been better.” She smiled. “A fire and some hot food would do me more good than anything.”

“Yeah, me too. Ben and I will get the fire going if you can unpack. Maybe we'll get lucky and talk Skookum into cooking for us.”

Elizabeth frowned. “I'm not asking him.” After losing Charlie at the Chilkoot pass, he wanting to stay and earn money by packing other people's goods up and down, the group had undergone a power struggle. “Let's wait and see what he does.”

The twins agreed and wandered off to look for wood. Elizabeth looked around the camp for Skookum. She saw William Cleary heading in the direction of the camp's hospital. He always tried to be where his services might be welcomed and needed. She didn't think he was really here for the gold; he didn't even own a pan, his pack loaded with food, medicine, and books, a small Bible always handy in one of his deep overcoat pockets. Her gaze skimmed the shoreline. There, off in the distance, stood Skookum talking with someone … He moved slightly to one side and Elizabeth inhaled sharply.

It was Ross.

Ross was here and Skookum was talking to him. She glanced around the clearing frantically. In a panic, she turned and walked fast and hard toward the hospital tent.

It was dim in the tent. There were several rows of cots, mostly full. She found William Cleary and picked her way over
to him. He had his eyes closed and was mumbling. Elizabeth looked down at the person he was praying for. The sheet was drawn up over the face.

Elizabeth asked, “Who was he? Did you know him?”

William slowly pulled the sheet down to reveal Mary-Margaret's face.

Elizabeth gasped. “Oh, no … what happened?”

The preacher just shook his head. “A man brought her in. He said he tried to save her but she drowned in the rapids, fell overboard.”

“How terrible! Did you speak to her husband? A dark Frenchman?”

William shook his head. “A big fellow brought her in. He was looking for the husband. Did you know her?”

She stared down at the white face, her stomach rolling. She shook her head. “I met her … once. She was kind to me.” Looking up into the preacher's face Elizabeth said in a helpless and small voice, “She seemed so strong.”

Mr. Cleary put an arm around her shoulder as they stood staring at the dead woman's face. She started to reach out to touch her and then pulled her hand back. Mary-Margaret had been so full of life, so determined. It was hard to believe anything like this had happened to her. The reality of their circumstances was sobering.

William squeezed Elizabeth's arm reassuringly. “Come, there is nothing more we can do here.”

Elizabeth studied William Cleary out of the corner of her eyes as they walked. Her gut told her that here was a man who could be trusted, and she'd seen nothing to cause her to think otherwise since meeting him. She would have to risk it.
The twins would just make a mess of it. She lowered her voice. “I need to talk to you. It's important.”

His focus shifted to her face and sharpened. “All right,” he said softly, “let's take a walk.”

Elizabeth steered them away from the shore where she had seen Ross. Talking over the din of hammering and sawing, she explained. “I saw Skookum just a few minutes ago and he was talking to someone … someone I know.” She looked at the ground. “This man … I have reason to believe he isn't here for the gold. He's come for me.” She looked pleadingly into Mr. Cleary's eyes, hoping a man of God didn't have some special sense to know she was telling only part of the truth. “I can't stay here.” She rushed on in anxious agitation. “I have to go on to Dawson alone. But I need your help.”

“Elizabeth, have you done something that you need to ask forgiveness for?”

Her shoulders slumped. She needed some practical help, not a sermon. “Many things, I'm afraid. And I will, when this is all over.” She gave him a sad smile. “I'm afraid it's too early to ask for forgiveness.”

“It's never too early, Elizabeth. On your best day, that most perfect day when you think you've done everything right, it will be no better to Him than this day.”

Some part of her heard him, latched onto the hope he held out to her that God would love her no matter what she did, but another part was scrambling to save herself, making her grind her teeth. “First I must leave this place. Will you help me?”

He laid a hand on her shoulder, looking at her with assurance. “What can I do?”

“As soon as you can, gather my supplies together and take them to … behind the hospital tent. Stash them under a blanket there, and as soon as it's dusk, I'll retrieve them.”

William Cleary was frowning. “I can do that, but Elizabeth, you shouldn't go alone.” He was silent for a moment. “That fellow, the one who brought in Mary-Margaret, he said he would be leaving after he found his supplies and purchased a boat. He seemed in a hurry too. I think he would take you along if you take our raft. He was a good man. I'd trust him with you.” He looked at Elizabeth sternly. “Don't try to pass yourself off as a boy, though. It wouldn't take him long to figure it out, and he strikes me as the type who values honesty.”

Elizabeth shrugged. “All right, but what about you and the others? Skookum will be furious if you give me the raft. How will you go on without it?”

“Don't concern yourself with us. We'll find our way. I have extra funds, and many are turning back at every camp. There are always boats to be bought.” He gazed around. “Anyway, I feel needed in this place.” He shrugged. “It's a mystery how God's work unfolds for each of us, Elizabeth.”

* * *

A FEW HOURS later, Elizabeth met William Cleary behind the hospital tent. He handed her a handkerchief full of warm flapjacks. “I have the raft packed with your supplies. I haven't had any trouble thus far. The twins are somewhere playing a game of cards, and I haven't seen Skookum all afternoon. He may be fishing.”

“What about the man you told me about? Has he agreed to take me?”

William nodded, pointing toward the lake. “He is waiting with the raft beyond that stand of trees. I will take you to him.”

The raft was nestled among tall grasses, shielded from obvious view. She really didn't want to get on another boat. Just one night's sleep on solid ground would have been nice, but she had no choice. A dark shadow was hunting her, and she didn't know if its name was Ross or fear, but she would stay ahead of it for as long as she was able. Elizabeth strained her neck toward the water, across the grasses. A man was leaning down, roping something … his movements sure, causing a flicker of recognition in her. He stood and turned just as she reached the edge of the bank.

Noah … he had come for her.

Tears instantly sprang up in her eyes. Emotions rose so high that she felt she might choke on them. The world started to tilt, making her dizzy, then blackness began on the edges of her vision until it completely closed in. She forgot to put her head down between her knees in her shock. She forgot everything except that he'd come and what that must mean. She sank to the ground in a crumpled heap.

* * *

NOAH HAD HEARD a startled sound and witnessed the collapse. He scrambled up the shore. “What happened to him?”

William Cleary grimaced, looking up at Noah from his crouched position next to Elizabeth. “I didn't want to have to
be the one to tell you this, Mr. Wesley, but he is a she. And I believe she's fainted.”

Noah crouched down and looked into the woman's face. His hand reached out involuntarily as his heart started its heavy drumming. He wiped the smudged dirt from her face and whispered, emotion clogging his throat, “Elizabeth. No wonder I couldn't find you.”

“You know her?” William asked, alarmed.

Noah hung his head for a moment and then looked up at the preacher. “Yes, I know her. I've come for her. She's going to be my wife.”

“Your wife? Do you know about the trouble she's in?”

Noah's eyes narrowed. “I know a man named Ross is looking for her. I don't know why, but I aim to find out. What do you know about it?”

William Cleary stood, patted Noah on the shoulder. “Only that she needs someone like you. She'll come to soon enough, and if she is fighting you, it might be providential that she's fainted. Let's get her to the raft, quickly.”

Noah picked up Elizabeth and carried her to the raft, laying her on a blanket under the raft's shaded side. Turning, he said, “This is a good raft. It's yours, isn't it?”

“It was hers as well. She was a valuable member of our group.” He smiled. “She's the one that insisted we build the lean-to on the raft for cover. It was one of many things she brought to us.”

“Let me pay you for it.” Noah reached into a pouch under his coat.

William Cleary shook his head. “I have money if we should need to buy a boat. I think I'll have the twins build another one
and use the time to stall this Ross fellow. I believe God wants us to be here for a few days.”

Noah didn't question his words; he only nodded and shook hands with the man, feeling like he'd found a friend who understood. Taking a wood pole in his hand, he pushed off the bank while the preacher shoved. The raft floated out onto the glossy lake. Noah busied himself getting them quickly downstream. He couldn't seem to look at her again. It did something to him that he couldn't quite identify, so he concentrated on the raft and poling down the river into the long stretch called Thirty-Mile.

A bald eagle screeched from its perch atop a tree and spread its wings, one second cleaving and the next soaring, leaving in its wake a swaying branch and falling leaves from the force of its impetus. Noah watched the great bird until it was just a black spot in the sky as it gained the height of mountaintops. Here was magnificence, he thought, breathing in the awe of the grace, the majesty. “How great you are,” he whispered to the Creator.

Even though it was evening, the pale sunlight hung on. It was the time of year for light, the time for staying up and soaking the sun's rays deep into the skin, into one's bones in preparation for the inevitable long winter to come. In Alaska this was a magical time, when the sun rose and stayed just above the horizon, making an arc around them in the sky. It was a time for renewal, and they all—plants and animals and man—lingered with the light, not wanting to waste it on sleep, not able to completely forget the cold darkness to come. Noah would hunt and walk his property well past midnight this time of year when the land would see only a couple of hours of
darkness in the wee hours of the night. But not this year; this year he had another mission. He glanced back at her still asleep and wondered if he should wake her. But something told him not to, he needed to wait. And wait some more.

With a gentle, warming breeze and the soft current all around them, it was a leisurely ride. The only hindrance was the occasional boulder in the water or mound of earth to navigate around. Noah gazed at a part of the landscape he had never seen before, the beauty and immensity never ceasing to astound him. The calm water was soothing to his turbulent emotions.

He'd found her! A part of him rejoiced, and yet another part made him ask what had possessed him to chase a wisp of a woman into this land. He knew the answer, but he didn't know if it was the right one. All he knew was that when he quieted himself, all he could hear was the rejoicing of his heart.
I found
her … found her … found her.

“Noah, is it really you?”

The question was as soft as a whisper, but it hit him in the stomach like a swift kick. He turned from his vigil and stared at her. She was sitting half-up, rubbing her eyes with a small, pale hand. Her hat had fallen off to reveal her thick mass of wavy hair—the same hair that when she wore it down and loose made his stomach do a slow turn. Rising, she stood and moved toward him. She looked good—so good and sweet. It was all he could do not to reach for her.

“Where's your coat?” he asked.

Elizabeth looked around her. “I'm not cold,” she answered softly. “Noah, I can't believe it's you. Why are you here?”

She didn't sound particularly glad to see him. Maybe she had been glad to be rid of him. “Seems I just keep turning up
when you need me most.” It came out sarcastically and when she smiled at the truth of it, he growled inwardly.

“That's true. No one has ever saved me like you have.”

Her eyes were all softness, and he felt a tightening in his chest.

“I can't believe you came all this way. Did Cara put you up to it? How is she?”

She moved alongside him and grasped his upper arm, smiling happily into his eyes. He felt a heady rush of excitement.