Page 70 of A Dangerous Heart
The dark beauty she and Isaac had met in town, Clare thought. The woman with the fear in her eyes.
“Right,” Drew said. Clare watched him open the rotating cylinder of the revolver she had taken from Isaac. He slid a bullet in the chamber. “That leaves, what? A dozen or so men?”
“Quade lost a few when that foreman hired on.” Ed threw the oil-soaked rag down on the table. “Telling, isn’t it? There are some men that even Quade’s long-standing hires aren’t willing to tolerate.”
Clare’s vision blurred, and the brothers’ voices faded. She inched her hand into her skirt pocket and fingered the blasting cap she’d found weeks ago. The stairs creaked with Kaitlyn’s careful steps. She appeared at the landing, her face tight and drawn, worry lines around her eyes. Clare hadn’t even realized she’d gone upstairs. Had she drifted off? She couldn’t afford to sleep.
Drew pushed his chair back, rose, and met Kaitlyn at the landing. He took her hand and pulled her to the living room, but Clare heard their whispered conversation in the desperate quiet.
“Tillie is finally asleep again. The girl is terrified. I have to be honest. I am too.”
Drew’s arms engulfed Kaitlyn in a protective embrace. One that made Clare long for Isaac. She remembered how it felt to be held close by him, the safety she felt with his beating heart against hers. She wanted what Drew and Kaitlyn had.
She’d gone and fallen in love. Thought that she could overcome her past. But as soon as Victor had shown his face, Isaac had realized she was still a Barlow. That had to be the reason he’d left. There’d been no sign of him since.
Clare turned her gaze away from the loving couple, remembering the coldness that had come over Isaac when Victor had told his lies. Tears smarted her eyes.
“Don’t worry.” Ed glanced up from the table. “We’ll get Eli back.”
He looked confident and reassuring. She knew he thought she was afraid for Eli, for herself.
She cared deeply for this good, honest, and hard-working family. She didn’t deserve their protection or care. She was a Barlow.
Blood will tell.
Clare pressed her palms into her eyes, then dragged her hands down her face. Isaac was right, they were going to get themselves killed. She hadn’t wanted to admit it before, but watching Drew’s tenderness toward Kaitlyn and Ed’s careful counting and re-counting of their ammunition, she saw it clear as day. They were no match for Victor’s gang.
And Isaac was already deeply wounded. He couldn’t lose one of his brothers. Clare would never forgive herself if she let that happen.
“I think I’ll try and get some sleep.” She stood, her legs trembling. “I’d like to bed down in the room with Ben, if you don’t mind. I can be right there if he needs anything.”
No one protested. A soft chorus of “goodnight” followed her into the bedroom.
Ben slept peacefully in the small room. She stepped close to the bed, watching his chest rise and fall. Long, thick lashes rested against pink cheeks. He’d been inconsolable earlier upon hearing Eli had been captured. Oh, how she loved him. She leaned over and brushed a light kiss on his forehead. She wouldn’t let Victor steal his happiness. He was safe with the McGraws for now. She knew what she had to do. It was dangerous, even foolhardy, but it might work.
She lay on the pallet in the thick darkness, fully dressed, and waited an hour or so until she was sure everyone had turned in for the night.
Time to move.
Clare rose from the pallet on the floor, careful not to rouse Ben. Moving with the stealth ingrained in her, she slid the window open, climbed out, and closed it. She raced to the barn and quickly saddled one of the horses. She was already in the saddle when her eyes went to the tools hanging on the wall. There. A small pair of wire cutters, perfect for the job. She snagged them off the hook and rode out into the starry night.
She had one chance to save Eli.
Chapter 18
“Just one more,” Clare whispered. She worked by feel in the last moments of dark, racing against the dawn. Her fingers shook as she pulled the fuse and blasting cap from the top of the dynamite stick and cut the fuse in tiny pieces.
She guessed an hour had passed since she’d crossed the river onto Quade’s land. Cold had seeped into her bones. She slipped a lone blasting cap into her pocket. Shivers racked her body as she buried the rest of the caps and the remaining powder in the crumbly soil near the bank. She hadn’t thought to bring a shovel, and her nails were cracked and bleeding by the time she was finished.
She covered the spot with several large rocks to camouflage the work she’d done.
With dawn painting the horizon pink and orange, she could see that more digging had been done since Ben’s accident. Quade’s men had widened the river so that a long, flat pond had pooled. Water still flowed toward the McGraws’ homesteads, but when the last barrier was broken, it would send the water to a new man-made river carved out in Quade’s land.
Her heart sank.
Clare pictured Isaac’s cabin and heard the rushing of the cool water. She remembered splashing in the river and Isaac’s laughter and his steady hand clasping hers. If Quade’s and Victor’s plans succeeded, the river near the cabin would become a trickling creek, eventually a dry bed.
She’d done all she knew to do to stop the dynamite blast. Now she needed to find Eli. That was the only thing that mattered.
