Chapter 10
The bandits were another problem that Andrew didn’t need. He seemed annoyed for the next few days, as though the bandits had attacked Arnie and Esther’s farm on purpose, just to annoy him. Troy tried to talk to him about it, but Andrew was unreachable.
“Don’t worry,” Michael assured Troy after Andrew had been particularly snippy with him, “Things are okay. Andy just needs time to work out what we should do.”
“We should be arming ourselves,” Troy said. “If they come here, our whole camp could go up in smoke in seconds.”
“You’re right,” Michael said. “Can you and Lizzy work on something so that if a fire breaks out, we can pull a rope or something and put it out?”
Troy sighed. “I don’t think that’s possible. Not without tempting every boy in the place to pull on the ropes, thereby dousing everyone and their tents routinely just for entertainment. The temptation would be too great. But maybe we can work out some quick responses to different calamities.”
“We could do the same thing if a fire ever breaks out.”
“Right,” Troy said. He smiled. “That’s a good plan.” Sitting at the campfire, Troy noticed the coffeepot was finally starting to belch steam and so he took it off its stone and poured a mug of coffee for himself and for Michael. “Maybe we can set up sand buckets as well, just to have on hand.
Michael nodded. “Yes.” He took out his notebook and wrote in it with a pencil stub. “And we could set up watchtowers.”
“Watchtowers?” Troy asked. “That seems like a lot of work. Maybe we can put platforms in the trees.”
Michael mulled that over. “I think we need to be able to see over a distance. With the elevator shaft gone, we’ve lost that advantage.”
It was true. The elevator framework had been excellent for getting a good look at the surrounding area. It rose up higher than most of the surrounding trees. Troy bit his lip.
“That’s going to take a lot of work to get back up and running again,” he said. “Lizzy and I will be on that project as soon as we can get to it. This town seems to need a lot more than one engineer and one farrier.”
“Yes,” Michael said. “But we all thought you enjoyed being the only ones tinkering with things.”
Troy gave him a look. “You’re welcome to pitch in.”
Michael smiled. “Okay, I’ll see what I can do. I’m sure we can get some fellows on the watchtowers.”
“Won’t help a great deal if we don’t have enough guns,” Troy pointed out. “We brought a few, and Lizzy’s people had a couple, but not enough to defend this place against a raiding party that’s more than ten strong.”
“Do you think we’ll see that many at once?” Michael asked.
Troy nodded. “Lizzy does. She thinks we might have made the bandits angrier,” he said, recalling her words. She had not been happy about the farmers who thought they could deal with everything on their own.
“Angrier? You think they’re still smarting about that little tussle we had a while back?” Michael asked.
Troy nodded again. “Yes, Lizzy does. I’m just worried that she’s right.”
“Guns don’t grow on trees,” Michael said.
Getting more would require money and time. A trip to San Antonio as well. And as trips went, that was considered a bit of a risky one. There was a lot of empty space between them and the city. A lot of space where things could go wrong, and people could get hurt.
Troy went looking for Lizzy. She was at her forge, working hard, the sweat dripping down her face as she hammered metal into shape. In her expert hands, the lanterns and the cover for the fuse were taking shape.
“Oh good,” she said when she saw him. “Just let me finish up this one, and we can go and test it.”
“What?” Troy asked, taken by surprise. He hadn’t expected her to have it ready this soon.
“What?” she asked. “We need to get this job done so that we can move on to the others. We need to test our idea. So … here goes.”
She had set a prototype up on the ground by her forge. She lit the fuse, and a few seconds later, the lantern lit up like it was magic.
“Well done!” Troy exclaimed in delight. “Maybe we can install it in the mine today and then light it in the morning.”
“Good idea; then we can get on with all the other things we have to do,” Lizzy said. She picked up a notebook that had been on a tabletop and sighed as she flipped through the pages. “There’s so much all of a sudden.”
“I know,” Troy said. He took her hands in his. “We’ll get through it.”
“Hopefully before the bandits come here,” Lizzy said, looking up at him worriedly as though she expected them to come riding into town at any moment.
Troy understood. She’d been driven from her home, pursued at a merciless pace until she’d almost died, and now her former tormentors were in the area again.
Troy drew her into a hug, resting a cheek against her soft hair. It was a liberty to take with someone he wasn’t courting officially yet, but it didn’t seem like she minded. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll find a way to beat them, to get them arrested or something.”
“We don’t have enough guns, Troy,” she whispered into his shirt.
“I know. Michael and I were talking about that. I’ll speak to Andrew,” Troy said. “He won’t want the mine to fall into the bandits’ hands.”
“I was thinking that we should do the same sort of thing as you did when you caught Tim. You know, when he was stealing chickens.” Lizzy pressed a little closer and he automatically smoothed a hand down her back, feeling her relax and enjoying knowing she felt safe with him.
“You mean set booby traps?”
She nodded. “They won’t be expecting that, and if we can set them so that we can only activate them when we want to, we could stand a chance.
Maybe if we make it too difficult for them to come after us, they’ll leave us alone.
” Her voice broke and Troy’s heart sank.
He’d never heard her sound so scared before.
She was the strongest woman he’d ever met, and her fear undid him.
“It’ll be okay, Lizzy,” he whispered, drawing slow circles on her back. “I promise. We’ll figure it out together. No one is going to hurt you or your people ever again.”
Her arms slowly circled him and he breathed in her hair, which always smelled like a fire and roses mingled. He loved that smell. By now, Troy knew he loved her. If only it was the right time to tell her.
Lizzy eventually drew back and wiped her eyes, looking sheepish. “Thank you, Troy. I’m sorry about falling to pieces.”
On impulse, he kissed her damp cheek very softly. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. After everything you went through, it makes sense that you’re scared.”
He threaded his fingers through hers and pressed warmly before they headed up to the mine and installed a test version of the lantern in the lower caverns.
When that was done, Lizzy and Troy went to speak to Andrew about setting booby traps around the camp.
“There are a lot more people here now,” Andrew said a little uncertainly. They were in his tent, and it was hot and stuffy even with the flap open. “It was easy to avoid them when it was just a few of us. I’m not sure that folks will be able to do that now.”
“We can try,” Lizzy said. “We can rig things so they’re only set up when we need them. It might mean taking a few extra minutes to get things ready each night before bed, but at least we wouldn’t be snuck up on.”
“Let me think about it,” Andrew said. “I might be more inclined to booby trap the area around the camp than inside the camp itself.”
“Okay,” Troy said. “But we’ll need to buy some supplies either way. Can Lizzy and I make the next trip to San Antonio? We need to buy the materials. As it is, we’ll be needing more of the fuse line for the lanterns if the test tomorrow morning goes well.”
“It’s all set up?” Andrew asked.
Troy nodded. “Ready to go.”
Andrew sighed. “Okay, you can go to San Antonio, but first make sure those light things are working.”
When they’d walked a good distance away, Lizzy unexpectedly kissed Troy on the cheek as he’d done with her earlier.
“You’re a good man, Troy. I may not ever say this again, so you listen good.
Everything you’ve done for me … my brother …
my people. Everything you’ve done for everyone without ever expecting so much as a thanks.
I’m saying thank you now. You’re my hero. ”
Troy’s heart filled with happiness. He was Lizzy’s hero. If that was the most he ever accomplished in life, he’d go to the grave a very happy man.
Slowly, he leaned in, only to hear a dry chuckle and someone clearing their throat nearby.
Troy almost gnashed his teeth with frustration and saw the same emotion in Lizzy’s eyes as they turned to find Kyle standing nearby, twirling a metal latch in his fingertips.
“Sorry to interrupt you lovebirds,” he drawled. “But that strong wind we had last night really messed up my chicken coop. I was hoping you might be able to fix this latch that got torn clean off.”
“Well, maybe we can trade,” Troy said, taking the broken latch and examining it. “I’ll fix your chicken coop, and you help me and Lizzy come up with booby traps to set around the camp. We need a warning system to let us know if those bandits are anywhere nearby.”
At the word booby traps, Kyle’s face lit up like a child’s at Christmas.
“You got yourself a deal!”
By dinnertime, Kyle had drawn up plans for a whole lot of traps and given them to Andrew, Jeff, and Michael to look over. Lizzy and Troy had fixed up the chicken coop so it was far stronger than before, and now they sat by the campfire, having dinner and discussing plans for tomorrow.
“I’m nervous,” Lizzy said. “What if the lantern doesn’t do what we hope it will?”
“Of course it will,” Troy said. “Why wouldn’t it? Firedamp burns.”
“Yes, but it also explodes. We don’t need another explosion,” Lizzy said.
Troy had been worrying about that too. He shrugged. “We’ll just have to hope for the best.”
They put their dishes down and he walked her to her tent, holding her hand. Tim was in there asleep already, and they spoke in low voices, standing close together at the entrance. The pull to hold her and kiss her was so strong that he didn’t even think to resist this time.
Troy hesitantly reached out an arm. “Lizzy, I?—”
She threw her arms around him and met him halfway, her lips as soft and warm as he’d ever dreamed. The moment was magical, standing in the moonlight with the woman he loved, lost in the tenderness of her kiss and the sweet, whispered nothings they exchanged.
“You know I can hear you,” Tim’s voice said from inside the tent, sounding utterly annoyed. “Would you mind going away from the door to do that? It’s gross.”
Lizzy pulled back, and Troy instantly missed her warmth. She giggled.
“Sorry, Tim.”
Her brother grunted, and there was the sound of him rolling over in his cot.
“We’d better get some sleep,” Lizzy said, looking up at him, still starry-eyed.
“I suppose we should,” he sighed, leaning in for a more chaste kiss this time and almost getting lost in her once more before she stepped away.
“Good night,” she said softly, pressing his hands before slipping into her tent.
Head in the clouds, Troy strolled back to the campfire, feeling like he’d touched the sky.
Emily was there, sipping a mug of something. She smiled, and Troy felt a moment of uncertainty about what he should do.
“I don’t bite,” she said. “Have some tea with me. You look flushed. Are you feeling okay?”
Troy was feeling far more than okay. He took a seat and accepted a mug.
“It seems like you and Lizzy … have something,” Emily said, her tone careful.
“Yes,” Troy said, not about to deny it. “We do, and we have had for a while now. Look, I’m really sorry about how things worked out.
I didn’t think it would go this way. I mean, when I placed the advertisement in the paper, I hadn’t met Lizzy yet.
Then I did, and she was … well … Lizzy, and there’s just no?—”
“No other woman on this earth for you,” Emily said, smiling.
“No, it’s fine, really. I understand. I shouldn’t have been in such a hurry to come here, but I couldn’t live with my uncle anymore.
This whole mess was really my fault. You didn’t ask me to come out here, and when I felt your letters growing more distant, I thought you would stop writing …
I thought I would be stuck back home in a terrible situation.
So, I took matters into my own hands. I’m sorry. ”
Troy shrugged. “Michael is happy you came.”
Emily chuckled. “Yes, he does seem that way. Surprisingly, I’m also happy I got on that train, even though absolutely nothing has worked out the way I thought it would.”
“God and his plans.” Troy shook his head and grinned. He held out his mug to her. “Friends?”
She smiled. “Friends.”
He smiled, and they clinked their mugs.