Chapter Nineteen
Jared approached the burning house from the rear with Tessa close behind him. The smoke was thick and acrid, but that didn’t stop him. He knew how deadly fires could be, and he wanted to make sure no one was trapped inside.
“This doesn’t look good,” he told Tessa after quickly surveying the scene.
Some of the people from town were already there, trying to get a bucket brigade going. Their efforts weren’t very organized, and there was no sign of the volunteer firefighters or the horse-drawn fire engine.
“We’d better get some buckets of our own and see if we can help them!” Tessa said, starting around to the front to join the others.
It was just then that Della Emerson appeared in an upstairs window, holding her youngest child, a toddler named Mark. She saw Jared and started to scream.
“Marshal Trent! Help me!” she cried. Smoke was billowing from behind her, choking her.
Jared and Tessa both looked up, and Jared immediately started toward the back door.
“Jared! No!” Tessa shouted at him, fearing for his life, knowing it was too dangerous for him to go inside the burning house. “Wait!”
He glanced back at her without pausing. “I have to go. I can’t wait!”
Across the distance, their gazes met. Time seemed suspended for a moment and then he turned away. He kicked in the locked back door. The fierce heat blasted him, but it didn’t stop him. He charged inside, determined to save the woman and her child.
“Jared!” Tessa called his name, but he had disappeared from sight.
“What is it?” Steve asked. He’d heard Tessa shouting and rushed to her side. “Where is Jared?”
“He just went inside!”
“Help!” Della cried again.
Steve looked up and saw the woman with the child. The smoke was about to overcome her, and the heat of the flames was threatening her. He knew she was in desperate circumstances.
Tessa gripped Steve’s arm. She looked at him, her expression terrified. “Jared’s trying to save her, but I don’t know if he can! The fire is out of control!”
They both began to choke as the wind shifted directions and smoke billowed over them. It was then that they heard a resounding crash as part of the flooring collapsed inside.
“Oh, God!” Tessa stared in horror as the flames seemed to leap even higher. “Jared!” she called, and started toward the house, frantic to go to him and help him.
Steve had to grab her forcefully to stop her. “No! I’ll do it! You wait here!”
Julie and her mother ran up just then, ready to help in any way they could.
“Here!” Steve said, putting Tessa into her care. “Watch her!”
Julie gave him a frightened look, wondering what he was planning to do. “Steve?”
Steve didn’t respond. Without a thought for his own safety, he entered the fiery hell of the burning house. Jared had gone in there trying to save the woman and child, and he might be in trouble. Steve knew he couldn’t stand by and do nothing.
Tessa, Julie, and Adele stood motionless, watching, waiting, terrified by what they feared was happening inside. The woman had disappeared from the window, but they didn’t know what that signified. Out in front of the house, they could hear the arrival of the horse-drawn fire engine, and they prayed the blaze would soon be under control.
Tessa felt almost numb, as if the world around her wasn’t real. She felt detached from reality. Everything around her seemed distant and otherworldly. All she could think about was that Jared had gone inside the inferno, and she didn’t know if he would come out alive. She held her breath, fearing something horrendous might have happened to him.
“Where are they, Julie? Why haven’t they come back out?” Tessa asked.
“I don’t know.” Julie had gone pale when Steve had rushed inside to try to help Jared. She told herself she didn’t care about Steve. She told herself he didn’t mean anything to her, but the fact that he had put himself in harm’s way to help others surprised her. He was a cowboy—probably a gunslinger—but he was also a man who saw danger and did not run from it, who saw someone in need and went to help. She offered up a prayer that he and Jared and the others trapped inside would be safe.
“I’ve got to do something!” Tessa declared. She started forward, meaning to follow the two men inside. She couldn’t wait any longer. She had to do something to help them.
“Tessa, no!” Julie called out. She chased her friend, grabbing her shoulder, trying to stop her. “You’ll be killed if you go in there. You have to wait. Steve and Jared will be back. I know they will.”
“But what if something’s happened to Jared?” she asked in torment.
“He’s fine. You’ll see!” she said, trying to encourage her friend even as she held her back. “You have to trust them!”
They stood in silence amid the smoke and heat. Each minute seemed an hour, and their tension grew with every passing moment. Tessa clutched at Julie’s hands, while their gazes were fixed on the gaping opening that had once been the back door. They could see no sign of movement. They heard no more cries for help. There was only the deadly crackling of the flames as they devoured all in their path.
More of the townsfolk gathered around them.
“Did Marshal Trent go in after Mrs. Emerson?” someone asked.
“Yes,” Julie answered, knowing that Tessa was incapable of responding at that particular moment.
“Ain’t that just like the man,” another said, proud of their lawman.
They all stood together, paralyzed by fear, haunted by what might be happening inside. They were tormented by nightmarish visions of what the men could be facing in their efforts to save the woman and child.
Jared had entered the house and had raced through the smoke and flames, heading for the stairs to the second floor. He had just started up them when a wall collapsed and part of the floor gave way in the hall. A beam struck him, knocking him backward down the steps and leaving him stunned.
It had been the sound of Della Emerson’s screams that had jarred him back to full awareness. The smoke was threatening to overwhelm him. He knew he had to get up and move or he was going to die. He lifted a hand to his forehead, and when he took it away his hand was covered with blood. Jared staggered to his feet and started up the steps again. Flames were all around him, but he knew he couldn’t retreat. He could not leave the woman and child alone to die.
Jared reached the landing at the top of the stairs and called out to her. The smoke was leaving him confused and disoriented. “Where are you?”
“Here! We’re here, Marshal Trent!” Della called back.
Jared started toward the sound of her voice, staying low, praying that he found her in time.
Steve had entered the house after him and reached the stairs just as Jared moved off toward the woman. Steve took the steps two at a time, taking care to avoid the flames that seemed to be leaping at him.
“Trent? Where did you go?”
“Here!” Jared called back. He had already reached Della’s side and was leading her toward the staircase.
Steve found them and took the child.
“Can we still make it down?” Jared asked, knowing how dangerously close the blaze was to the stairway.
“We have to hurry!”
“No! I can’t go that way! No!” Della cried, terrified of the searing intensity of the flames.
Jared grabbed her and held her close to him to shield her as best he could. He looked back toward the window, wondering if they could somehow lower her down that way, but flames had started eating at the walls there. “There’s no other way out. We have to try!”
She was screaming, but Jared didn’t think about anything except getting back out the door before the rest of the building started to collapse. He’d been lucky that he’d escaped the force of the falling wall without serious injury. He didn’t want to test his luck any further right now.
Jared charged down the stairs, making sure Steve and the boy were close behind them. Della never stopped screaming, but Jared didn’t pay any attention. He was too busy watching the leaping flames and trying to stay low so he could breathe and see better. He could hear Steve right behind him, and that gave him some measure of relief. Steve’s showing up had been a godsend. Jared didn’t know how he would have gotten both the woman and the child out of the house without his help.
“This way, Steve!” he shouted over his shoulder as he reached the downstairs hall.
He was forced to climb over the piles of debris from the collapsed wall, but he managed. He could make out the doorway ahead of them, and he headed for that light, knowing that outside was safety and fresh air and Tessa.
Jared and Steve came crashing out the back door, gasping for breath, stumbling to safety. Jared was half carrying Della as they staggered from the building. Steve was carrying Mark, who was clutching at him, knowing he was his savior.
“Thank God!” A cheer went up from the crowd.
Tessa and Julie raced forward to help. Tessa threw her arms around Jared and Della, guiding them away from the heat of the flames. Without thought, Julie went to Steve and, putting her arm around him, led him and the boy away from the inferno.
A roar of excitement and relief swept through those who had gathered to watch as the rescuers and victims were taken away to a quiet spot far from the danger.
“Mrs. Emerson? Are you all right?” Tessa asked as she helped the woman sit down upon the ground.
“Oh!” She coughed and choked as she tried to speak. “Oh, Marshal Trent, thank you! Thank you! What would I have done without you? Where is my baby? Where is Mark?”
“He’s right here,” Steve told her, coming to her side to hand over the toddler.
The boy went eagerly to his mother, secure in the circle of her arms, knowing that if she were holding him, no harm could come to him. He wrapped his little arms around her neck and hung on for dear life. “Mama!”
“Oh, darling, we’re safe! We’re safe!” Della said, crying as she held her son to her heart. “Has anybody seen Clara? Where’s my Clara?”
Della suddenly realized that her daughter was missing. Della started to get up, realizing that she couldn’t see her child anywhere. When she’d discovered that there was a fire in the parlor, she’d run back upstairs to get the baby, who’d been sleeping, while she’d sent her young daughter Clara outside to wait for her in safety. That was how she’d gotten trapped upstairs.
“Mama!” Clara came running to her mother’s side, crying. “I’m sorry, Mama! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to knock the lamp over!” She was sobbing hysterically. “I tried to pick it up but I couldn’t!”
“Oh, Clara.” Della then realized how the terrible fire had started. She was heartsick over all they had lost, but relieved that no one had been harmed. Things could be replaced. Lives were lost forever. “It’ll be all right. You and your brother are fine, and that’s all that matters.”
She held her two children to her bosom and rocked them as she let her own tears flow. Her face was stained and blackened, her hair and clothing singed, but she didn’t care. She had her two most precious possessions. She had her children.
Tessa looked over at Jared and saw for the first time the blood on his forehead. Her heart lurched at the knowledge that he had been injured.
“You’re hurt!” she said.
“It’s nothing.”
“Let me take a look at you,” Dr. Murray offered.
When the news of the fire had reached the good doctor at his office, he had rushed over to see if he could be of any help. It took him only a minute to examine the cut.
“It’s deep. Let’s go over to the office, and I’ll clean it up for you.”
Jared was still worried about the fire spreading. “But I need to—”
“Go, Jared,” Steve told him, coming to speak with him. “There are enough people here now to keep things under control.”
Jared looked Steve in the eye, taking measure of the man. He hadn’t expected him to help out the way he had. He was beginning to wonder if his original assessment of him had been wrong. He stuck out his hand to Steve in a gesture of friendship and trust.
“Thanks for your help.”
Steve knew it had cost the lawman to say that. He couldn’t prevent a half grin as he shook his hand. “You’re welcome.”
Jared looked up toward Tessa. She was standing by Della. As if sensing he was looking at her, she glanced up and met his gaze. She started toward him, meaning to accompany him to the doctor’s office, but Della spoke up.
“Miss Tessa, we got no place to go, no place to stay now. Do you have any room left at your place? Could you take us in?” Della asked, still in shock. She was holding her children to her breast, trying to make sense of all that had happened.
“I’m sure we can find somewhere for you and the children to stay,” Tessa told her.
She wanted to go with Jared and the doctor to make sure he was all right. Her terror had been real when she’d thought something had happened to him, but Della’s request stopped her. She knew the woman and her children needed her, and she couldn’t leave them. Della had no family of her own in town, and her husband worked for the railroad and was gone right now. She cast Jared a quick, apologetic look.
“You go on,” he urged her.
“I’ll see you later?”
He nodded and started to leave with the physician.
Della called out to him, “Thank you, Marshal Trent.”
Jared paused to look back. “I’m glad you’re all safe.”
“We are, thanks to you.”
When Jared and the doctor had gone, Tessa turned back to the newly homeless woman.
“Would you like to go to my house now? I don’t think there’s anything else we can do here.”
As they looked at the burning house, one charred wall suddenly fell inward with a roar that left Tessa shuddering. The thought that Jared and the others had been inside just moments before was unnerving.
“Looks like you got out of there just in time,” Tessa said, glancing over to where Steve was standing near Julie. She noticed that her friend looked decidedly pale. “Julie, are you feeling all right?”
“I’ve never watched a fire before. It’s very frightening,” she lied.
“And deadly,” Steve added.
“You didn’t get hurt, did you?” Julie found herself asking.
“No. I’m fine.” He started off, back toward the boardinghouse.
“I don’t know your name, mister,” Della called out, “but thank you for helping rescue us.”
Steve looked back and smiled at the beautiful sight of the mother and her children.
“My name’s Steve Madison,” he answered. “And I was glad to help.”
In the crowd that had gathered, several of the men heard him say his name, and they exchanged troubled looks.
“Let’s all walk over to the house together,” Tessa suggested to Della. “Steve is staying with us, too. He’s my new handyman.”
They moved off.
Julie started to go look for her mother, who was somewhere in the crowd, but found herself glancing back in the direction Steve had gone. For all that he was walking with Tessa, Della, and the children, there was something about the way he held himself that made him seem aloof and withdrawn—a solitary man. It puzzled her even as it intrigued her. He was a man with a lot of secrets.
Will had been so angry after he’d left Tessa that he’d headed straight for the mine that night. As he’d ridden mile after mile on the miserable roads, his mood had not improved. He’d made camp only when he’d been too exhausted to ride on, and then had slept only long enough to refresh himself. He’d headed out again, wanting to get back to Bob and Zeke as soon as possible.
Will’s mood had remained ugly through the entire ride. He had had his future planned out, but now it seemed little Miss Sinclair was not going to cooperate.
So she thought of him as only a friend, did she?
Will actually laughed out loud as he wondered what she would say if she ever learned that her brother hadn’t died in an accident—that he’d actually killed him. The thought pleased him now. He wanted Tessa to suffer for rejecting him, and he hoped that someday she would learn the truth about her brother’s death.
Will had another plan formulated by the time he was near the mine. It was a lucky coincidence that he’d learned from Lyle Stevens about the gold shipment leaving town soon. He intended to make that the gang’s last and most successful robbery. Once they’d stolen the gold, they would ride away from Durango and never look back.
And that would suit him just fine.