Cole lifted her up. She grabbed hold of his shirt and screamed, “I can’t find Caleb. You have to help me find him. He’s with Tilly … She was taking him outside while I searched for Grace. They were beside me upstairs. Where are they? I have to find them.”
She jerked away from him and tried to run back to the house, but Cole grabbed her from behind. She fought like a wildcat to get free, clawing at his arms and kicking at his legs.
“I’ll find him,” he promised. “Do you hear me, Jessie? I’ll find him. You stay with Grace. Can you do that?”
His calm voice cut through her hysteria. “Yes, yes, I’ll stay with Grace. Please hurry.”
“The old lady and the baby are still inside,” Cole shouted to Daniel. He jerked Jessica around to face him. “Where are their rooms?”
She pointed to the center window above the porch. “Tilly’s room is in the middle. Caleb and I are next to her … on the left side … by the tree.”
Daniel was already on the roof. He’d swung himself up from the overhang above the porch. He used the heel of his boot to break the glass in the center window and jumped back to avoid the flames and smoke that billowed out. Then he dove, headfirst, inside.
The roof above the porch collapsed a second later. Cole had run to the other side of the house to try to get in through one of the windows on the first floor, but he couldn’t get close enough, for the heat pouring out was too intense. His eyes burned and watered as he backtracked to the gnarled tree closest to the house. Thick branches hung down over the eaves, and he hoped he could get close enough to jump onto the roof.
He began to climb. Seconds later he swung out, hand over hand, and then dropped down to the roof. Daniel appeared at the window with Tilly wrapped in a blanket and draped over his shoulder. Before Cole could help him, Daniel jumped through the opening and sprinted toward the opposite side of the roof. The branches on that side of the house were lower and easy to grasp hold of.
“Caleb wasn’t with Tilly. Get out of here,” Daniel shouted. “The roof’s going to go.”
Ignoring the warning, Cole headed for the window Jessica had pointed out. Tongues of fire were hissing and spitting at him from the opening, but fear lent him strength. He was so damned scared he wouldn’t find the baby alive, he recklessly followed Daniel’s example and plunged headfirst inside.
He was surprised to find the floor was still there. He landed with a thud on his left shoulder, rolled, and stood up. A thick wall of black smoke knocked him backward to his knees. Ashes poured over his face and matted his eyelashes. His eyes burned so badly he couldn’t see where he was, he couldn’t breathe, and the heat inside the bedroom made his skin feel as though it were melting. He dropped down to the floor and took a deep breath of cool air. Then he began to crawl forward on his belly. There was almost a foot of clean air trapped between the floorboards and the dense, deadly smoke. Taking another deep breath, he shouted Caleb’s name.
The sound of his voice was lost in the crackling inferno. He slowly inched forward. He couldn’t see anything, but he hoped he would bump into a clothes closet. Every bedroom had one, and he knew that whenever his little sister had become afraid, she’d hidden there. He hoped to God, Caleb had done the same thing.
The bed was his second choice, but he found it first. He hit the side of the headboard, squeezed himself along the length, and reached underneath, sweeping his arm back and forth in a wide arc.
There wasn’t anything there.
Every second that passed was another second closer to the baby’s death. Cole was silently praying and begging for God’s help as he made one final sweep under the bed. He was just pulling back when Caleb grabbed hold of his hand.
The baby let go just as quickly. Cole rolled his shoulder under the frame, lifted up, and reached for him. Caleb had squeezed himself up against the headboard. Cole found a leg and gently pulled.
He could hear him whimpering and making loud, sucking sounds with his thumb in his mouth, and Cole thought those were the most beautiful noises he’d ever heard, for it meant that Caleb was unharmed.
He lifted the baby into his arms and rolled to his knees. Caleb threw himself backward and grabbed his baby doll off the floor. A forked flame of fire leapt up from between the floorboards as Cole pulled Caleb back.
“Let’s get out of here,” he whispered to the baby, his voice hoarse and raw from smoke.
He wanted to wrap Caleb in a blanket from the bed, but when he reached for it, he saw the embers raining down from the ceiling on top of it. The blanket ignited and rapidly burned. In desperation, Cole tucked Caleb’s head under his chin, wrapped his arms around him, and doubled over, his hope that his own body would shield the baby’s.
He figured he had only a couple of seconds left to get out. The bedroom was closing in on him. Flames where shooting up from the cracks in the floor and dropping down from the ceiling above.
And then the walls began to move as though they had suddenly come alive. They bulged forward, hovered; then, with an eerie swooshing sound, they slowly receded before throbbing forward once again. It was the spookiest damned thing he had ever seen. He could hear the heart of the fire beating behind those walls. It pulsated and throbbed as it sucked every breath of air it could find.
Cole knelt near the floor, took a deep breath, rose to his feet, and raced for the window. The monster chased him. He heard a snapping sound behind him, felt the floor shift under his feet, and leapt through the opening as the floor collapsed. The room’s walls exploded a heartbeat later. Shards of glass and fragments of burning embers blew out the window. The force of the explosion slammed Cole forward, but he turned in midair so he would land on his back and not crush the baby in his arms. The heat pouring out from the hot roof burned his skin, and he knew he had only seconds left before the whole house collapsed. Staggering to his feet, he turned in one direction and then the other, looking for a way down. Flames, like serpent heads, were creeping toward him from below and closing in on him from the eaves above. Fire cut off the route Daniel had taken with Tilly, and Cole knew he wouldn’t be able to go down the way he had come up on the opposite side, for the tree branches were too high for him to reach with a baby in his arms.
He was trapped.
He could hear the faint clanging of a fire bell in the distance. Then he heard a shrill whistle. He turned toward the sound just as Daniel whistled again. Squinting against the black smoke, Cole spotted him straddling the heavy branch.
It was too damned far away. Impossible to reach.
There wasn’t any other alternative. “Hang on, Caleb,” he whispered. Taking a deep breath, he let out a roar and leapt over the ring of fire directly in front of him. He could feel the wood cracking under his feet and hear the beams crashing behind him, but on he ran until he felt as though his lungs were going to explode.
Daniel watched Cole coming toward him. When Cole was halfway across the roof, Daniel flattened himself on one branch and braced his legs in a wedge of a lower branch. He wrapped his left arm around the limb holding him, then reached down as far as he could extend and put out his right hand.
It was a leap of faith. The distance from the edge of the roof to Daniel’s hand was considerable. Cole felt as though he were flying, and for a brief second, he did exactly that. He vaulted out into the night, reaching for Daniel.
Their hands connected. And held.
Cole closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief.
Daniel grunted from the weight but held tight. When Cole had stopped swaying and Daniel was sure he wasn’t going to drop him, he reached down with his other hand to get Caleb, and let go of Cole who dropped down to a lower branch. The baby was screaming as Daniel gently pulled him up in his arms. A few seconds later, they were all on the ground and running for safety.
Jessica ran to Daniel to take Caleb from him, but Cole intercepted her. Looping his arm around her waist, he lifted her up and carried her with him as he continued to run.
Just as they reached G
race and Tilly, the walls of the house and the roof caved in. The horde of townspeople who were running to and fro with buckets of water suddenly stopped to watch the dazzling display of fireworks. Sparks shot up as high as fifty feet and spiraled downward in a popping, cracking arc that was so impressive some of the townsmen actually oohed and aahed.
It was a night none of them would ever forget.
The reporter was rushing around trying to find someone he could interview, while John Cletchem, the photographer, set up his equipment so that he could capture the destruction before the flames stopped feeding.
Tilly was sitting on the grass, quietly weeping. Grace was still unconscious, but Tilly had lifted her up so that her head rested in the older woman’s lap. She was gently stroking Grace’s forehead while she cried. Daniel knelt down beside the two women. He awkwardly patted Tilly’s back in an attempt to comfort her, but his attention was centered on Grace. He was watching her breathe and thanking God every time she drew a breath.
She looked so young and innocent and vulnerable. Daniel shouted for someone to go and get the doctor. The sound of his voice jarred Grace, and she flinched in reaction. He’d almost had himself convinced that his heart was safe, then she opened her eyes and looked at him. His heart started pounding, and his own eyes stung with tears of relief.
What in God’s name was the matter with him? He couldn’t stop himself from reaching for her. He gently took her into his arms and stood up.
“Daniel? Your face is covered with dirt.”
“Yeah, I know. How are you feeling?”
“My head hurts,” she said. “I’m not sure why,” she added, a puzzled look on her face. She reached up and trailed her fingers down the side of his cheek. “How did you get so dirty?”
He turned around so she could see what was left of the house. She wasn’t looking anywhere but at him however, and so he explained. “There was a fire.”
She turned her head, grimacing from the pain the movement caused. Her eyes widened in disbelief, and she was suddenly clearheaded again. “Where’s Jessica and Caleb and Tilly?”
“They’re fine,” he assured her. “Everyone got out of the house in time. No one was hurt … except you. Do you remember what happened?”
She put her head down on his shoulder. “No, I don’t remember. Please put me down. I need to…”
“You need to see a doctor.” He looked over the crowd and was about to shout for the physician once again when the man suddenly appeared at the head of the townspeople watching the fire. Rebecca was dragging him toward Tilly and Grace.
“Daniel?” Grace whispered, drawing his attention once again. “How did I get out of the house?”
“Jessica pulled you out. If she hadn’t … Cole and I would never have found you in time.”
“She saved my life.”
“Yes.”
As Grace began to cry, Daniel tightened his hold and tried to comfort her.
Jessica was also crying. She had Caleb cuddled in her arms and was so relieved and thankful her baby was unharmed she kept kissing him and hugging him. Fully recovered from his adventure, Caleb squirmed and wanted to get down and play.
Rebecca found the two of them in the crowd. “My God, Jessica, you could have been killed,” she cried out as she lifted the baby. “Are you all right?”
Jessica forced herself to stop crying long enough to answer her friend. “Yes, I’m fine, but Grace is hurt. A beam must have fallen on her head,” she explained.
“The doctor’s looking at her now,” Rebecca said. “She doesn’t remember anything?”
“I don’t know,” Jessica answered. “Will you watch Caleb? Don’t let him out of your sight. I have to find someone.”
“Jessica, we need to cover you first. Where’s your robe?”
“It caught on fire,” Jessica said as she turned to search the crowd for Cole.
“I’ll find something for you to put on,” Rebecca promised.
Jessica didn’t hear her. She had finally spotted Cole and hurried toward him. He stood well away from the crowd and was watching the house being devoured by the fire. He looked exhausted and was covered from head to toe in soot.
She thought he was the most beautiful man she had ever seen. “Cole?”
She stopped and simply stared at him. Suddenly he seemed bigger than life to her. The fire blazing in the background enhanced the fantasy, for Cole was silhouetted in a hazy, burnished gold glow. It was as though God had blessed him because of the courage he had shown in the face of such danger.
“Did you want something?” he asked, puzzled by the look of joy and wonder on her face.
She hurried toward him once again with the intention of thanking him for saving Caleb’s life, but when she finally reached him, a simple thank-you didn’t seem sufficient. She threw herself into his arms.
He buckled under the impact and instinctively put his arms around her.
Leaning up on tiptoe, she embraced his neck, whispered, “Thank you,” and kissed him passionately.
It wasn’t a chaste kiss by any means, and Cole wasn’t about to let the opportunity slip past without taking full advantage. He would have kept right on kissing her if he hadn’t felt her tremble in his arms. He pulled back then and tried to move away, but she tightened her grip, and that was all the provocation he needed. He kissed her once again and held her close.
Her head dropped down to the crook of his neck, and she began to sob. All the pent-up emotion inside of her seemed to erupt then. His chin rested on top of her head as she whispered her thank-you again and again.
He gently kissed her forehead. “You’re welcome.” The moment would never be forgotten, for the photographer captured the couple embracing so passionately—he, covered in soot, and she, wearing only a thin nightgown.
The photograph was on the front page of the Rockford Falls Gazette the following morning.
Eighteen
Rebecca was sickened by the sight of Grace. The left side of her temple was severely swollen from the blow to her head. It was a miracle her friend had survived.
Daniel had placed her on a blanket one of the neighbors provided and knelt by her side while the doctor examined her. Rebecca wasn’t usually timid, but the seriousness of the injury took her breath away. Daniel thought she was going to faint and told her to sit down, but she was determined to speak to Grace first.
“How are you feeling, Grace?” she whispered, her voice shivering with fear.
Grace stared up at the woman towering over her. She couldn’t help but notice there wasn’t a hair out of place. Rebecca hadn’t come running to see the fire as everyone else had, dressed in robes and slippers. No, she was fully attired. The unadorned black dress fit the occasion, but her face was stark white in comparison.
“I’m feeling much better now,” Grace answered. “I’ll be all right, Rebecca. You mustn’t worry about me.”
Rebecca lifted the hem of her gown and knelt down next to Dr. Lawrence.
The physician patted Grace’s hand. “You’re going to be all right,” he promised. “You’re very lucky. I’m still not clear about how you got hit, but I’m guessing the ceiling caved in on you.”
The doctor awkwardly got to his feet. He addressed his next remark to Daniel. “She should have been killed, Marshal.”
Rebecca leaned over Grace. “Do you remember what happened?”
“No, I can’t seem to remember anything at all.” Rebecca nodded sympathetically. “It’s just as well you don’t remember. You would have horrible nightmares otherwise. Poor Jessica was right in the thick of the fire, but blessedly you slept through it.”
Grace became teary-eyed again. “She saved my life. If it weren’t for her, I would have died.”
Rebecca grasped Grace’s hand. “Please don’t cry,” she whispered. “It’s over now and everyone’s safe.”
“Where is Jessica?” Grace asked.
“She went to the wagon with Marshal Clayborne to fetch some clean clothes,” Dr. L
awrence said. “I should probably have a look at her.”
Grace struggled to sit up. Daniel put his arm behind her back and helped her. Her head was still throbbing so much she could barely concentrate. “Thank heavens we packed our clothes tonight. Everything we own is in the wagon except what we were going to wear tomorrow. The wagon didn’t catch fire, did it?”
“No, no, it didn’t,” Rebecca assured her.
The fire was still raging, but the street beyond was dark. Someone in the crowd lit a torch. Caleb was sitting on Tilly’s lap when the stranger started toward the yard with the fiery light. Terrified, Caleb began to scream for his mama. Rebecca immediately ran to him and lifted him into her arms, holding him tight as she tried to soothe him.
Daniel collared the man with the torch and told him to move back.
Grace tried to stand. She held on to the doctor’s arm so she wouldn’t fall, but, Lord, she was so dizzy the world was spinning around her.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Daniel muttered. “Sit down before you pass out again.”
“You’re as white as a sheet,” the doctor told her. “Do as the marshal says and sit back down. You need to rest.”
“I want to find Jessica. I must talk to her.”
“I’ll find her,” Daniel promised.
He headed for the field behind the house and saw Jessica coming toward him. She obviously had heard her son crying, for she’d dropped the clean clothes she’d only just gathered from the wagon and was running toward him. Cole was following behind. He noticed the ground was littered with trash and shouted to Jessica to watch where she was walking, as there were pieces of glass in the grass that could easily cut through her soft slippers.
Daniel shouted to Cole and then stopped near the edge of the lot. He stared down at two empty milk bottles. It had rained hard the past week, yet the bottles were clean. Curious, he picked one up. The smell of kerosene was still strong, and when he looked, he could see the residue in the bottom of the glass.