Ashes and Ice (36 page)
Rain pelted hard against his face as the storm intensified. The wind howled at them in protest, and the lake did its best to expel the boat from her unsettled body. Adrik’s arms burned from the intensity of fighting the water and the wind. They were making precious little progress, but at least there was some.
He looked to Crispin, who fought the same battle from the port side. Adrik couldn’t help but wonder what Crispin did for comfort in times like these. Adrik prayed and prayed hard. But Crispin had his own notions, and Adrik couldn’t imagine how they could ever sustain a man through trying times.
Another scream rent the air, and this time Adrik knew instinctively that something horrible had happened. He turned, pulling the oar from the water lest it be ripped from his grasp.
“What’s wrong?” The sound of his voice was swallowed up in the storm.
Karen and Jacob were pointing wildly at the stern. Karen shook her head and began to make her way to Adrik. At the same time, Crispin seemed to come out of his stupor and with great strides leaped over several of the crates to make his way to the back of the boat.
Karen fell against Adrik, her red hair plastered to her face, her lips blue from the cold. “Miranda!” she cried against the wind. “Miranda has fallen overboard!”
Adrik felt a sickening sensation settle in the pit of his stomach. There was no hope of finding the woman in this raging gale. But already Crispin had tied a rope around his waist, and before Adrik could stop him, he dove into the water.
“Stay here!” Adrik commanded Karen. He thrust the handle against her. “You’ll have to help me! Just help Jacob keep her headed to shore.”
Karen nodded, but Adrik could see the fear in her eyes. He positioned her where he’d stood, then lashed a rope around her waist. Fighting the pitching waves, he tied the other end to one of the tent rings secured in the deck.
“Don’t let her go broadside to the wind, or we’ll all be in the water!” he told her.
Then crossing the deck, he picked up the lifeline that connected Crispin to the scow. Pulling, Adrik fought to bring Crispin back to safety. He could barely see beyond the rope to the water. There was no sign of Crispin, but the weight at the end of the rope told Adrik the man was still fastened.
With superhuman strength, Adrik pulled on the line, all the while fighting to maintain his balance. Gradually the line yielded, and in a matter of moments, Adrik was pulling Crispin’s icy frame back onto the deck.
“I couldn’t find her!” Crispin called out.
Adrik shook his head. “We won’t find her in this. We have to get to shore. It’s our only hope to save the rest.”
Reluctantly, Crispin nodded. He struggled to his feet with Adrik’s help, then shielded his eyes from the rain trying to see where Miranda had gone.
“Come on,” Adrik commanded. “We’re nearly there.”
The men finished maneuvering the scow to shore just as the worst of the storm came upon them. They secured the boat as best they could, then began unloading the supplies just in case the lines didn’t hold. They could build another boat if necessary, Adrik reasoned. It would be difficult, but not impossible. But food, weapons, clothing . . . those things were much harder to come by.
The wind fairly howled around them as a deluge of icy rain tormented everything in its path. Everyone worked. Even Leah and Grace. The entire party seemed to understand Adrik’s insistence at completing the task at hand. There would be time for warming up and drying off after the storm had passed. For now, the best they could hope for was to secure the supplies, then seek shelter with their things.
Grace sat huddled under the canvas tarp in a state of complete shock. She’d become so numb from the cold she could barely feel her feet or hands. The baby moved within her. The movement comforted her.
As the worst of the storm passed, leaving only a light rain falling, the men left the women and went in search of firewood. Adrik promised a large bonfire, big enough to warm them all to the bone. Grace doubted she would ever feel warm again. The worst of it was the cold that washed over her in the knowledge that Miranda was gone.
Grace hadn’t even realized it until just moments after they’d pulled the tarp around them to hide from the storm. “Where’s Miranda?” she had asked, only to receive the painfilled expression of her companions.
“She just can’t be gone,” Grace murmured.
Karen patted her hand, and even Leah reached out to touch Grace reassuringly. “Maybe someone in one of the other boats will find her. We weren’t the only ones caught unaware,” Karen stated evenly.
“That’s right, Grace,” Leah added, “Miranda told me she was a strong swimmer. Maybe she even made it to shore.”
“The storm was too bad,” Grace replied. She looked to her longtime friend. “No one could swim in that weather. And the cold . . . oh, Karen . . . the temperature of the water was surely enough to . . .” She couldn’t say the words.
“Adrik said they’d go down the shore tomorrow and look for any signs of Miranda. There are Indian villages in the area, and she could very easily have been swept ashore.”
Grace buried her face in her hands. “Oh, what am I going to tell Mother Colton?”
The thought of having to break such news to her in-laws left Grace overwhelmed to the point of complete despair.
Oh,
God
, she prayed,
please let me wake up and find this nothing
more than a horrible dream. Please let Miranda come back to us
now, safe and unharmed
.
“Let’s wait until we know for sure that there’s something we need to tell her,” Karen suggested.
Grace looked up, tears blurring her vision. “It should have been me. It would have solved everything.”
“No!” Karen declared, reaching out to shake Grace’s shoulders. “You must not talk that way. You’re just feeling the effects of the shock and the cold. You must be strong, Grace. You must be strong for your baby.”
Grace felt the fluttering movement again. It seemed the child wanted to show his or her agreement with Karen’s statement. She wanted to take hope in the child—wanted to have a reason to live in the midst of this awful, suffocating despair. But she felt so weak. So inadequate to deal with something so monumental. Martin Paxton’s threats were nothing compared to the loss of her sister-in-law.
The men had a fire going in a short time, thanks to Adrik’s knowledge of the outdoors. The rain eventually abated, leaving everything damp and cold. Grace huddled with Leah at the edge of the flames. The warmth felt good but did little to relieve her sorrow. Crispin, too, looked completely devastated. He sat opposite Grace, and from time to time their gaze met across the flames.
He must have loved her,
Grace surmised.
His expression
speaks it.
The pain she saw there so clearly reflected her own heart. She tried not to think of Miranda as dead, but there was nothing else to consider. The weather had been too foul, the waves too high, the water too cold. No one could have survived such an accident.
The next day, after Adrik and Jacob made repairs to the scow, they floated the remaining distance to Hootalinqua. Grace faced their arrival at the little community with mixed emotions. The Northwest Mounted Police had a station here, and she would have to go and make a report on Miranda’s accident. It would be important to let the officials know what had happened in case her body washed ashore. Adrik had offered to do the deed, but Grace had insisted she be the one to take care of the matter. After all, she had stated, Miranda was family.
Adrik walked with her to the log building headquarters of the Canadian officials. “Are you sure you don’t want me to take care of this?” he asked.
Grace shook her head and looked up to see his compassionate expression. He was such a kind man. So gentle and caring. “I will be fine. You need to take care of the others.”
She turned away without another word and made her way inside the station. A young man in a red coat that seemed much too small for his broad-shouldered frame looked up in greeting.
“Good morning, ma’am. I’m Sergeant Cooper. What can I do for you?”
“My name is Mrs. Grace Colton. I have come north with a party of my friends.” Her hands began to tremble, and for a moment she felt light-headed.
The officer seemed to understand and quickly came to her side. “You should sit,” he commanded and led her to a chair.
“Thank you. I’ve had quite a shock.” She tried to steady her nerves, but visions of Peter and Amelia and Ephraim kept coming to mind. She saw them in their sorrow and knew the pain they would feel.
“Would you care for a cup of tea?”
She looked up at the man and shook her head. “I must be about my business. My party is anxious to move on.”
“Very well. Why don’t you begin?”
“We were on Lake Laberge yesterday when the storm came up. It was fierce, and our boat was barely able to handle such a storm. We made for shore, but before we arrived, my sister-in-law, Miranda Colton, fell overboard. We tried in vain to rescue her.”
The man took the news in a stoic fashion. “Were you able to recover her . . . well, that is to say . . . did you find her?”
Grace bit her lip to keep from crying. She forced herself to draw a deep breath. “No. We did not find her body.”
“I see. Let me take this down on paper.” He went to his desk and took up his pen. “The name is Colton, correct?”
Grace continued to answer his questions and waited for him to complete his task. When at last he finished writing, he put down the pen and looked up at Grace. “We’ve had some trouble with the telegraph, but as soon as the lines are repaired, I’ll get word of this down to Whitehorse. Should anyone find her, it would be on record for the purpose of identification.”
Grace knew it made sense, but her fear was that Miranda’s parents might learn the truth before she had a chance to write to them herself. “I would like to send a letter to her parents,” she finally said. “It would be unfair for them to receive word of this from strangers.”
“If you care to leave a letter with me, I’ll see to it that it goes out with the next post.”
“Thank you. I’d like that very much.”
The sergeant’s heart went out to the young woman. There were so many tales of loss among these stampeders. They came seeking their fortune and often lost their lives. He looked down at the report he’d just written. Such a waste.
Why, the woman was no older than he, and now, by all reasonable accounts, she was probably dead.
“Sergeant Cooper,” the voice of his superior called from outside the door.
Leaving his desk, Cooper made his way outside. “Sir?”
“I saw a young woman leave the office just now. What was her business?”
Cooper looked down the path to where the woman was making her way back to her party. “That was Mrs. Colton. She came to report the drowning death of her sister-in-law. Seems they were on Lake Laberge when they were caught in yesterday’s storm, and the young woman, a Miss Grace Colton, fell overboard. They were unable to recover her body.”
WITH A COLD OCTOBER WIND howling at his back, Peter Colton made his way to Martin Paxton’s store. He had to meet with the man, though it was the last thing in the world he wanted to do. Since deciding to follow Christ as his Savior, Peter had known he would have to make this trip. Nevertheless, it was hard. He needed Paxton to tell him where Grace had gone. He needed his adversary to be gracious—merciful.
“What can I do for you?” the clerk asked from behind the counter as Peter came through the door.
Struggling to close the door against the wind, Peter barely heard the question. With the door secured, Peter turned and pulled his scarf from around his face. “I need to see Mr. Paxton. I have business of a personal nature.”
The clerk recognized Peter and shook his head. “I doubt the boss wants to meet with you.”
“I don’t care what he wants,” Peter stated, working hard to keep his anger under control, “I need to see him nevertheless.”
The man stood his ground, staring hard at Peter. “And if I’m not of a mind to disturb him?”
“Then I’ll start tearing this store apart until you are of a mind,” Peter replied calmly.
The man weighed Peter’s words for a moment, then shrugged. “I’ll tell him you’re here, but that don’t mean he’ll see you.”
Peter waited until the man had moved from the front of the store to follow after him. He knew the way without an escort. He waited at the bottom of the stairs while the clerk announced him in the room above.
“Send him up,” Peter heard Paxton say.
The clerk turned and saw Peter standing at the bottom of the stairs. “The boss says he’ll see you.”
Peter took the stairs two at a time and had reached the top before the clerk had so much as attempted to descend. Bounding into the room, he was unprepared for the sight of the once fashionable room. The furniture stood as ghostly images, covered in white sheets. Paxton’s desk and chair were the only pieces not yet hidden away. To one side of the desk sat an open trunk. Paxton apparently had been packing even as Peter had come to call.
“Where are you going?” Peter asked.
“Not that it is any of your business, but I’m headed south. The winter promises to be severe, and I have little desire to find myself here when the snows grow heavy. One winter in Alaska was enough for me.”
“What of Grace?”
“What of her?”
“I want to know where she is,” Peter said firmly. “I don’t intend to leave until you tell me the truth.”
Paxton shook his head. “I have no reason to tell you anything.”
Just then a big burly man stormed into the room. Peter turned, certain the man had come to take him from the premises.
“Boss, I got something you need to see. Just came in on the train about an hour ago. Mayor thought you’d want to see it right away.”
Paxton slammed down the book he’d been holding. “Can’t you see I’m busy?”
“Yeah, but this is important.”
Paxton eyed the larger man for a moment, then held out his hand. “What is it?”
Peter watched in irritation as the man passed a folded piece of paper to Paxton. Paxton read the missive, then looked up in stunned silence. Peter thought perhaps the man might have been having some sort of spell as he moved around behind the desk and fell into his chair.
