Chapter 14
The cave was cold and damp. Neither thing endeared the place to Emily. It felt as though the temperature had dropped significantly in the last hour or so. She couldn’t be sure of time in this place as the light coming in through the opening was somewhat obscured by bushes that covered the entrance.
“This is not how I pictured this afternoon going,” she muttered.
She wanted to shift her position, but it was very difficult with her hands tied behind her back and her feet tied together. The rope went from her feet to a rock pillar, and it kept her quite secure. She wasn’t going anywhere without help.
Looking over to her left, she saw that Lizzy was still unconscious.
She was tied up in a similar fashion, but since she had been violent with Stevens, trying to fight him, he had hit her in the head.
Knowing how that felt and not wanting her mind scrambled for another three days, Emily had cooperated.
She thought if she did, she might be able to do something to get them out of the dratted cave and save them.
So far that hadn’t been possible. All she’d done was sit there and stare at the entrance, which wasn’t helpful at all.
The day was wearing on, and the light outside the opening was dimming quickly. Had her sense of time been so badly warped by the shock and fear? She didn’t think it could have. She couldn’t have spent the day in the cave already. That made no sense. Perhaps the weather was changing.
They had a lantern in the interior of the cave, but how long would it last if time had really flown by so swiftly?
Emily needed to work out how long she had sat like that in the flickering light.
Lizzy had been hit on the head, but if she had been unconscious for a full day, then the damage might be extensive.
Please, God, let her be all right, she prayed fervently.
All right, how long had she been there? Emily tried to think back.
It had been a while. An hour, maybe two.
Or could it be three? It certainly was long enough for her back, neck, shoulders, and legs to ache.
She supposed the real question she was laboriously working her way to was how long it would be before someone realized that she and Lizzy were missing. That was the important question.
If it was school time, then the children would have realized she was missing, but it was the holidays, and so there was no hope there.
What about Michael? He would know she was missing, wouldn’t he?
If she wasn’t there to bump into him several times a day in camp, he would notice.
Wouldn’t he? She couldn’t say for sure. He might notice and then be dragged into some emergency, and she would be pushed from his mind while he dealt with one of the many small crises the mine had on a daily basis.
It would only be once he realized that he hadn’t seen her all day that he would become worried enough to push everything else aside. Then he would start looking.
It was getting dreadfully cold in the cave. Perhaps it was raining outside. That would account for the chill.
Emily wished she had dressed warmer.
How Stevens had ever found this little place, Emily had no idea.
Perhaps he’d fallen in. She couldn’t think how else anyone would ever know it was here.
The entrance was covered by bushes, and even as Stevens pushed her into the hole, she hadn’t known it was there until she tumbled through into the cave.
Emily realized she had to find some courage and work out how to alert people that she and Lizzy were there. Perhaps she could do something with the lantern.
There was a scrabbling noise outside the cave just then, and a voice drifted in.
“Come here, you little …” It swore. “Fine! I hope a hawk eats you, you ungrateful bandit rat!”
Hang on. She knew that voice!
“Felix!” she yelled. “Felix! Is that you?”
Silence. Then there was the crunch of footsteps on pebbles and loose stone.
“Felix! I’m here!” Emily’s heart beat faster. Was her uncle really standing outside the cave? Of all the unlikely heroes in the world.
Silence.
“Emily? Please tell me it’s you, and I’m not hallucinating.” Felix called, his voice growing both louder and softer as though he was turning in a circle. “Maybe I’m succumbing to the cold. You know, it’s freezing out here. I wouldn’t even be out here if I wasn’t helping Tim look for?—”
“Felix, I’m here! You’re not hallucinating!” Emily yelled.
“Hey, Emily! Where are you? I can’t see you!” Felix called back. “Oh heavens, you’re not a ghost, are you?”
His voice was loud and clear now. He had to be right on top of the cave mouth.
“Felix, I’m down in a cave!”
“You’re in a grave?” Felix asked, sounding both shocked and horrified. “Don’t joke. That’s not funny.”
Emily rolled her eyes. Honestly, of all the people who could have come stumbling along, it would have to be Felix.
“Not a grave, a CAVE!” she snapped.
“Oh, sorry,” Felix said with a nervous chuckle. “A cave. Right, well, how did you get in there?”
“It’s a long story. Can you follow the sound of my voice and see if you can help me and Lizzy out of here?” she asked. Perhaps it was better to sound confident and brave with Felix. If she lost her nerve and started shouting at him, who knew what he would do?
“Of course I can,” Felix said, adopting a similar tone with her. “Just keep talking and I’ll find you.”
Emily spent most of her days talking about all sorts of things to her students.
Now though, she couldn’t think of a thing to say, so she chattered on and on about her day.
She told Felix how she’d come to the forest to pick pine cones with Lizzy.
She told him about the plans to turn the pine cones into decorations.
She mentioned that none of her plans included being ambushed by Stevens and stuck in a cave.
That caused a series of vehement curses from the old man, vowing to take revenge on Stevens for hurting his niece.
It was endearing, albeit not helpful in the moment.
Finally, Felix came staggering in through the cave entrance.
“Watch out!” Emily shouted.
The ground sloped down almost right at the entrance, and Felix only just managed to stop before he slid down the wall as she had done.
Of course, she’d been pushed.
Felix halted. He looked around and then spotted her. “What are you doing all tied up?”
“It’s common practice when someone kidnaps you,” she snapped.
“You were kidnapped? Is that what you meant by—you mean—Stevens—did he—that no good louse!” Felix cried as he made his tentative way down the slope to her. “Are you all right? Did he hurt you?”
The concern in his voice was as surprising as it was touching.
Emily shook her head. “He didn’t hurt me,” she said. “He hit Lizzy in the head though.” She looked over at the woman’s still body.
“Oh dear,” Felix said, following her gaze. “Well, let’s get you untied and then get her some help.” He set to work on her hands. “Who took you? Do you know?”
“It was Stevens,” she repeated yet again, trying to be patient. “We stumbled on him selling something to some rather unsavory people, and he must have panicked and decided we needed to be silenced.”
“There are better ways to silence people than a damp cave,” Felix muttered, sounding as fierce as she’d ever heard him. “Thank the Good Lord he didn’t choose one of those avenues. I’m so glad you’re all right, Emily!”
Her hands came free, and Felix began to saw through the rope holding her feet in place.
A rush of gratitude washed through Emily for her uncle. Despite everything that he had done to her over the years, when she needed someone to help her the most, here he was.
“I’ve been dreadfully unfair to you,” she said, her eyes welling up. “I’ve blamed you for so many things that went wrong in my life.”
Felix turned to her, her legs now free. “Well, I haven’t been the best uncle, have I?
Most of the terrible things that happened in your life, the loss and the tough times, those were my fault.
When your folks died and they left you to me, well, I didn’t know what to do.
As a confirmed old bachelor, I had no idea about raising a young lady.
” He sighed. “I’m afraid I did a dreadful job of being there for you.
It would be easy to say that the gambling was to blame, and on some level it was, but the truth is that I was always just a little afraid of being your guardian.
It was more responsibility than I was used to, and I panicked. I’m sorry.”
Emily’s heart broke.
“If only we’d told each other how we were feeling,” she said. “Perhaps we could have built a better relationship.”
He smiled and patted her hand. “Perhaps we still can.”
Before she really knew what she was doing, Emily threw her arms around her uncle’s neck and hugged him even though he was covered in snow and soaking wet. “I’m really, really sorry for all the horrible things I said to you.”
“It’s all right,” he said, wrapping his arms around her and holding her to him a little awkwardly. “There, there. It’s all fine, really. But we’d better get going, don’t you think? The weather is most likely not getting any better, and we still have to find a way to get Lizzy back to camp.”
While Felix untied Lizzy, Emily worked some life back into her limbs and then climbed up the slope and out of the cave.
It felt good to have daylight on her skin again, but it was muted, and it was so cold.
The wind was like a knife made of ice, and it cut through her clothing as though she wasn’t wearing any.
Looking around, she saw some snowy branches on the ground that she might be able to turn into a stretcher to carry Lizzy on.
“Where is it?” a voice suddenly demanded.
“It’s just up here!” Stevens said.
Emily panicked. Oh no!
“Felix! We might have a problem,” Emily called, turning back to the cave mouth.
She hadn’t even taken a step inside when a familiar voice called her name. “Emily!”
“Michael?” She turned back around and saw the man she loved emerging from the snowy forest, accompanied by Troy and Steven. She rushed to Michael, threw her arms around him, and hugged him ferociously. “Oh, Michael. Thank goodness!”
Michael held her tight, whispering tender words into her hair. And it didn’t matter that he was cold and wet and that Emily was slowly freezing.
When they finally let go of each other, Emily took in the others standing there.
“How did you get free?” Stevens asked, looking annoyed and perplexed. His hands were tied behind his back. Troy was holding him by the arm.
“Where is Lizzy?” Troy demanded.
“She’s inside the cave,” Emily said, pointing behind her. “Felix is there, trying to revive her. She took a nasty blow to the head.” She glared at him.
Troy shoved Stevens at Michael and rushed into the cave.
“I was afraid this idiot had let something horrific happen to you,” Michael told her, giving Stevens a rather vicious shake.
“I’m fine,” Emily said, shivering from a combination of belated fear and cold. “Really, I’m fine now. Surprisingly, Lizzy was right all along … Uncle Felix saved the day, if you can believe it!”
Troy emerged with Felix at his side and Lizzy cradled limply in his arms. His face was grim. “We need to get her to Julie immediately.”
Just then a furry creature emerged from the snow and launched itself at Uncle Felix, landing on his coat and clinging.
Critter chattered away frantically, and Felix tucked his scarf around the cold little animal.
“What?” he muttered, seeing the looks people gave him.
“If he hadn’t run off into the storm and Tim hadn’t asked me to help find him, we’d never have found Emily and Lizzy.
It’s God’s doing, so he must be one of God’s creatures, even if he is just a rat. ”
As they started back to camp, Emily realized she couldn’t disagree. God did have His mysterious ways.