Betina Krahn (36 page)

“I think this is where it has to end,” she said quietly, giving his chest a final caressing stroke.

He nodded, cradling then releasing her chin. “For now.”

She collected her garments together and slid from the desk. He watched her sway toward the sleeping compartment and pause at the door to shoot him one last sultry look. When the door latch clicked behind her, his legs felt as if they had turned to rubber.

He reached for the decanter on the shelf and poured himself a large brandy.

“Damned kid.”

But by the time he finished the brandy, stretched out on one of the banquettes, and closed his eyes, he was smiling.

The next two days gave Diamond no time to explore or test the understanding begun in the heat of renewed passion between her and Bear. He spent every spare moment leading work crews and solving problems that kept cropping up … from a strange spoilage of flour in the kitchen to frequent brawls among the men. By the afternoon of the second day, a general tension gripped the camp and tempers flared like the gusty winds that came barreling out of the west, blowing storms across the plains.

Diamond stood on the platform of their private car, watching a line of forbidding clouds approaching and marveling that there could be enough of them to fill up that enormous expanse of sky. In the distance jagged, luminous flashes of white warned of lightning fast approaching. She
went looking for Robbie, whom Bear had put to work carrying water and messages and fetching tools. She found him with a crew of men being spelled by a sister crew. Just as she approached, a scuffle broke out between two men over a missing twist of “chew.”

“I saw you with it, Sikes—ye thievin’ bastard!” A smaller man was using a finger to drill that challenge into the chest of a larger, beefier fellow.

“Yeah? Prove it weren’t mine,” Sikes said with a sneer. Then he returned that finger jab to the chest … only with considerably more force.

Fists began to flail. Tools hit the ground as both crews flew to separate the two. There was snarling and shoving, and insults were flung from both sides. Bear appeared out of nowhere and lunged into the fray to do some shoving and shouting of his own. Confronted by his formidable frame and fists, the men halted, then slowly backed down. When things were sufficiently calm, Bear drew a deep breath, looked up at the sky, and growled orders to pack it in and stow the tools until after the storm passed. As the men complied, relieved to have an unexpected break, he turned toward the rear of the train and spotted her there, watching.

“It’s always something with that lot—they can’t go a day without coming to blows over some damned thing or other.”

“Maybe it’s in the air … the storm coming,” she said, glancing back over her shoulder, into the wind.

“Maybe,” Bear said grimly. Then he struck off down the track to make sure everything was secured before the storm hit. She stared after his snugly molded trousers with rueful longing. At this rate, she would probably see Billings before she saw him alone again.

The storm struck hard and fast, with winds that rocked the substantial Pullman car and made it feel as though the
wooden body might be torn from its carriage. Claps of thunder rattled the walls, windows, and floor violently, sending Robbie diving for Diamond’s arms. Then the rain came … in fierce, driving sheets that lashed the train and camp and soaked the ground at an astonishing speed. A small river formed along the track and flowed swiftly along the barrier of the raised track bed. Then, almost as quickly as it had come, the worst was past. The soft, lingering patter of raindrops against the window and on the metal-covered roof washed away the strain and tension the storm’s approach had produced. Suddenly the air was cooler and sweeter.

Diamond opened the door just as one of the men came lurching up the steps. He was wet to the skin and dripping water.

“The boss—” he panted out, wiping his face. “Where’s Mr. McQuaid?”

“He went forward to secure the crane … must have gotten caught there when the storm broke. What’s wrong?”

“Cook!” the fellow called over his shoulder, already headed for the front of the train. “He’s hurt!”

Ordering Robbie to stay put, she grabbed the tablecloth she used as a shawl and dashed out into the gentle rain, headed for the kitchen car. A knot of men was gathered on the ground below the open kitchen storage door. Pushing her way through the men, she found their German cook lying on the ground. One of his legs was bent at an odd angle and he was gritting his teeth in pain.

“Schultz!” She spread her makeshift shawl over him, to keep the rain off, and ordered two of the men to hold it while she knelt beside him. “What happened?”

“Danged if I know, mizzus.” He sucked air and groaned when she gently probed his injury. “I hear somezing bang an’ bang in de storeroom. I tho’t das door hass blown open
in de vind. I go to shut … an’ somezing vall and knock me out. Den a barrel come crashin’—
aghhh!
”

“We’ve got to get him inside.” She rose and looked up and down the cars trying to decide where would be the best place for him. “Bring him into our car.” She looked around. “And somebody go to town for a doctor.”

Bear arrived just as the men were fashioning a makeshift litter to carry Schultz to their private car. Everything stopped dead as the men told him what had happened and what Diamond had told them to do. They watched uneasily between their boss and his wife. Diamond also watched, remembering the last time she had taken it upon herself to make decisions and take action.

After a long, prickly moment, he turned to the men carrying the litter.

“What are you waiting for? Get him inside.” He glanced at the rest of those wet, slightly sullen faces. “Who’s going for the sawbones?”

Poor Schultz did have a broken leg. And the poor men had a miserable cold supper. Canned beef was cut and served between slabs of day-old bread and stale biscuits left from the morning’s baking. The coffee was abysmal, but everyone drank it anyway … especially when word got out that Diamond had pitched in and made it herself. Only Robbie was crass enough to complain aloud.

“This grub stinks.”

Diamond looked over at Bear and winced. “He’s right. It’s awful.”

Later, after they had cleared the trays and cups and set the kitchen into some semblance of order, Diamond went to look for Bear. He was in the equipment car, preparing the handcar for assembly and trying to locate some spare wheels that might fit it.

“I’ve been thinking,” she told him, knowing she was treading on unsettled ground but heartened by his restrained
response to her earlier action. “You have to do something about food. The men won’t stay if they don’t get better meals than they had this evening.” She caught his gaze with hers and held it. “I want to go into Great Falls tomorrow and find another cook.”

It was his territory, his railroad, his decision to make. But if he didn’t allow her to do this, there was probably little hope that he would ever allow her to be a part of his railroad. And if she couldn’t be a part of his railroad, what chance did she have of becoming a part of his life? When he spoke, after a small eternity, it sounded like every word was being strained through a sieve.

“I suppose … we have to have a cook.”

She released the breath she had been holding. “Then it’s settled. I’ll go into town at first light.” He glowered and inflated his chest as if preparing to object. She folded her arms with determined force. “Or I can be a good little wife and twiddle my thumbs, and let you and your men choke down jerky and dry biscuits for the next two months.” She raised her chin. “What’s it to be?”

Bear found once more that he couldn’t say no.

That same evening just at dusk, Halt came riding hell-for-leather into camp. He had been spending his time in the forward camp, helping Nigel Ellsworth with the roadbed construction. Both he and his horse were spattered and caked with mud and he collected a following of men as he pounced to the ground and roared through the camp looking for Bear.

Bear heard raised voices and hurried out onto the platform of the car.

“There’s a flood,” Halt panted out, steadying himself on the railing. “Th’ roadbed—all flooded! Ye got to come, lad!”

In a heartbeat, Bear was grabbing his hat off the rack by
the door and bounding down the steps. He saddled a horse from the picket line at the edge of the camp, then he and Halt mounted and rode off down the middle of the roadbed. Over two gradual rises and around a set of buttes that formed the edge of a ridge of hills, they glimpsed a river in the distance … one that hadn’t been there that morning.

Halt led him up onto an outcropping of rock. The scene below caused Bear to shut his eyes and draw a sharp breath. It was nothing short of a calamity. A muddy stream of water gushed along a broad depression that had been barely perceptible before the afternoon’s storm. There was water everywhere … including inside a tent that had been left behind when Halt, Ellsworth, and the workers scrambled for higher ground.

Bear stared at the swirling brown water, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. “Dammit, rivers don’t just happen. Where did all this water come from?”

“Everywhere,” Halt said, watching the water rolling over two days’ worth of track bed work. “After the storm, we saw a trickle gather an’ turn into a small, fast-movin’ stream. Then th’ stream widened an’ before we knew it … it was rushin’ down the roadbed, tearin’ up jack.”

There was a good bit more than just two days of bed work at stake here. From this vantage point, it was plain that the surveyed roadbed in the area followed the flow of the water with uncanny accuracy … almost as if it had been … planned. Bear felt his whole body go weak for a moment. How could Johnson have been so—

A wave of insight broke over him. This was no accident. And it was probably no accident that Johnson, their surveyor and engineer, had run off just as they reached construction of this section of the roadbed. The conclusion was inescapable. Johnson
knew
.

“We grabbed th’ tools, wagons, mules, an’ horses, struck
what tents we could, an’ headed for high ground.” Halt pointed to the bedraggled men and jumble of equipment sprawled over a rocky hillside, across the way. “Had to be sure th’ men an’ tools were accounted for before I could come for ye.”

Bear nodded and, with a grim set to his jaw, turned his horse and headed down the rocky slope to ford the river. Nigel Ellsworth met them waving a half-rolled map as they made their way up the other rise.

“There’s no mention of it here at all!” he declared furiously, pointing at the lines representing the survey of the surrounding land. “Not a word—not a hint. It’s worse than poor judgment—it’s outright fraudulence!”

“All right.” Bear swung down and reached for the map, bracing himself for bad news. “How bad is it?”

“It’s a dry riverbed—the signs were all there, but I—” Ellsworth looked down and reddened with chagrin. “I’m not used to— I mean, usually the survey has already been done—and back East we’d never run into anything quite so—I just accepted the survey and assumed everything was as represented in the charts. He couldn’t have missed this.” Ellsworth blushed. “I can’t believe
I
did.”

“Damnation.” Bear exhaled a chest full of frustration as he looked out over the rushing water. “So what do we do about it?”

Ellsworth came to stand beside him, grimacing at the way the water was pouring by. “Actually, the water is down a bit … better than it was an hour ago. I think it will drain off quick enough. But it’s washed out a fair amount of our roadbed.” He looked miserable to have to report: “And it will happen again, every time it storms like this.”

The truth was so weighty that for a minute it prevented coherent thought. Bear scrambled for solutions. “What about a bridge?”

Ellsworth glanced from Bear to Halt and back again.
“It’s usually dry, but it’s still a riverbed. Loose base. Sand and particulates. Not stable without pilings … and still likely to be weakened by flooding. The only real solution is to move the track.”

Bear rubbed his hands down his face, dreading the answer to his next question. “To where?”

Ellsworth looked around, consulted the map, and scrambled up the slope to fetch his transit and telescope. After a few minutes of sightings and some scribbled calculations, he pointed to a ridge of rock across the way that formed a plateau leading south and east, to the foothills of the Highwood Mountains.

“Given the track we’ve already laid and our general direction, I’d say that was our best route.”

Bear looked to Halt, who nodded, then gave Ellsworth a nod of approval. “As soon as it dries up enough to move the wagons and equipment, well take stock of the damage and get started. Dammit—this is going to put us even further behind.”

While Bear and Halt rallied the men to begin packing up and made an inventory of what had been damaged or lost, Ellsworth found a flat rock and spread out his maps. He pored over the various maps rendering the local terrain … until he came to one that caused his eyes to widen in horror. Checking his transit and position against the darkening evening sky, he confirmed the worst … and then took it to Bear and Halt.

“What do you mean, we don’t own it? We bought plenty of right-of-way.”

“Not over there, you didn’t.” Ellsworth pointed to the distant outcroppings, then produced the plat map of the area to prove his point.

“Heaven help us,” Halt said, staggering back and plopping down hard on a rock. “All that money … all that time …” He buried his head in his hands.

“The owner—who was it that sold us this parcel?” Bear asked.

“That’d be a fellow named A. J. Hickman,” Ellsworth said, reading from the tiny print along the side.

“We have to have a talk with Mr. Hickman. But for now, we need to find out who owns that ridge and the land beyond,” Bear declared, pointing to the engineer’s makeshift desk. “Check your maps … see if it’s listed.”

Bear hadn’t returned from the forward camp yet and wasn’t there to object the next morning when Diamond ordered Robbie into the wagon and set off for Great Falls with the reins in her own hands. It was early and as the sky brightened and streaked with color, she laid out for Robbie her plans for the morning. They would visit several eateries, sample the fare and find a sound cook—then take the fellow aside and make him an offer of employment.