Chapter 24
“I may be.”
“You are not.”
“You cannot order that.”
“I can order whatever I please. You have been doing it for months.”
His hand remained on her sleeve. “Then order me alive.”
She opened her eyes.
Calvin’s face was exhausted, bloodless, and raw with cold. Yet he was watching her with a steadiness she had never received from him in their cabin, never at the table she kept, never over the books she corrected, never even when she had thanked him for striking Silas.
“Stay alive,” she said.
His fingers tightened once. “Yes, ma’am.”
A voice came through the trees.
“BROOKS!”
Henrietta’s head snapped up.
For half a second she believed the mountain had produced the sound out of mercy.
Then it came again.
“CALVIN!”
Calvin inhaled sharply. “Mercer.”
Henrietta tried to shout, but her throat was too dry. The first sound emerged as a rasp.
Calvin drew breath. “HERE!”
Nothing answered.
Henrietta’s heart hammered. “Again.”
“HERE!”
A horse whinnied below. Moments later a dark rider appeared between the pines, moving carefully along the broken edge of the slope.
Dr. Elias Mercer looked less like salvation than like an elderly scarecrow wrapped in buffalo hide. Frost whitened his beard. Snow crusted the brim of his hat. A leather medical bag hung across his chest, and his expression, when he saw Calvin and Henrietta huddled behind the rocks, became furious.
“There you are,” he roared. “You witless son of a—”
His horse stumbled, forcing him to seize the saddle horn.
Henrietta almost laughed from relief.
Dr. Mercer dismounted stiffly and trudged toward them, carrying the bag. He reached Calvin first, took one look at the ruined boot and swollen leg, and said, “Of course.”
Calvin blinked. “Of course what?”
“Of course you broke something too inconvenient for me to fix easily.”
“You came all this way to complain?”
“I came all this way because your wife possesses twice your judgment and left a trail a half-blind badger could follow.”
Henrietta frowned. “My trail disappeared.”
“Near the ravine, yes. Before that you dragged a rope from the ranch road for nearly half a mile.”
She looked down at the coil around her waist.
Dr. Mercer’s brows rose. “Providence occasionally makes use of carelessness.”
Calvin leaned back against the rock. “Good to see you too, Elias.”
“Save your charm.” Dr. Mercer knelt and put a hand against Calvin’s cheek. His humor vanished instantly. “How long have those toes been numb?”