October skies

‘Momma’s sitting with Preston,’ said Sam quietly.

‘Yes, I left her with him earlier. Oh…’ Ben reached round and pulled something out of his leather satchel. ‘Here you are, Emily. Would you like to play with the doll?’

Her face lit up and she grasped it. ‘Thank you, Benjamin.’ She cast her eyes around the gathered group and, spotting McIntyre’s daughter, Anne-Marie, offered a shy wave to her across the fire.

Keats tapped the bowl of his pipe onto the snow at his feet. ‘Reckon we wanna keep a little more watchful at night, people. Though it ain’t likely we’ll see another bear any time soon, better we be ready for it if we do. Night watch should always have ’least two guns good to shoot from now on.’

‘That seems a sensible precaution,’ added Weyland. ‘And perhaps, ladies and gentlemen, we should consider doubling up on the watch?’

A discussion stirred to life over the matter — whether there were enough men to sustain that kind of rota indefinitely. There were several varying opinions chorused at the same time.

Ben settled back, uninterested in the exchange. ‘You all right there, Sam?’

The young lad nodded and smiled. ‘Yes. Emily and I like coming over here. Emily likes those children,’ Sam replied, nodding at McIntyre’s daughters.

‘What about the other children in your group?’

He shook his head. ‘Stolz’s won’t really play with anyone else. The others don’t really play at all. Poor Em only has me.’

‘I’m sorry not to have seen much of you these last few days.’

‘Momma says you’ve done a wonderful job caring for him.’

Ben hunched his shoulders. ‘I do what I can, which I’m afraid isn’t much. I’m sorry there was nothing more I could do for Mr Lock.’

Sam nodded, gazing at the crackling sparks from the fire lifting up into the ink-black sky. ‘I wish I were like you, Benjamin,’ he said presently.

‘Like me? Good grief, why?’

‘You got education. You know things like medicine and science.’

Ben pulled a face. ‘I don’t know enough. If I’d stayed on a few more years, I could have become a senior doctor. But instead, I’m just a travelling journeyman doctor, hoping one day that I’ll do better as a writer.’ Ben tossed a loose cone into the fire. ‘I wish I was a little more like Mr Preston.’

Sam looked up at him sharply, the good-natured smile wiped from his face. ‘Why?’

‘It takes courage to do what he did. He stood before that bear to save Mr Lock.’ Ben turned to Sam. ‘And me? Well, I was too damned frightened even to move.’

Sam shook his head. ‘It wasn’t courage.’

‘It was an incredibly brave thing to do.’

Sam didn’t reply for a long while, his gaze long and without focus.

‘I’m glad you’re not like Preston,’ he said eventually. ‘Or those others.’

Anne-Marie McIntyre came around the campfire and sat next to Emily. After a faltering, self-conscious start both girls were soon chattering together and passing the doll between them. Ben sat back, watching Sam. The boy seemed at ease, content, watching over his sister — her eternal guardian. He admired the young man’s relentless devotion to her.

Later on, Sam turned to him quietly and asked an awkward question.

‘When we leave these mountains, would you take Em and me with you?’

‘What? I couldn’t do that, Sam. I’m… your mother would-’

‘Momma will never leave Preston,’ muttered Sam, ‘not ever.’

Ben felt an overpowering sympathy for them both, destined to be locked into the isolated, small world that Preston was promising his people in God’s great wilderness, as they patiently awaited an end that would never come.

‘Sam, I couldn’t take Emily from her mother. You… you’re seventeen?’

‘And a half.’

‘Then you’re old enough to find your own way, Sam. But Emily is still just a small child — your mother’s child.’

Sam nodded sullenly. ‘I know.’

Ben placed a hand on his shoulder. ‘Come the spring, when the snow melts, who knows how your mother will feel? Hmm? Perhaps she’ll see things differently.’

Ben sincerely doubted that. But it was all he could think to say at that moment.

CHAPTER 26

Monday

Blue Valley, California

Aaron Pohenz looked at Rose quizzically for a moment then smiled. ‘Oh yes, Grace called and told me to expect a visit from you. You’re the English lady who’s making a movie?’

‘A documentary about local folklore, that’s right.’

He waved his hand. ‘Come on in.’

She stepped inside the motel. It smelled strongly of varnish and she wrinkled her nose.

‘Whilst it’s quiet season and I’m closed up I thought I’d work on the wooden banister up to the rooms. Needed tidying up,’ he offered by way of an explanation.

Rose looked around the entrance hall. It looked homey; old sepia portraits hung on the wall alongside a few hunting trophies, and a cheerful rug was spread across a wooden slat floor. In the corner, beside an open doorway that led into what looked like the kitchen, was a rocking chair made from a rich, dark wood.

‘It’s lovely,’ she said.

He batted the compliment away with a hand. ‘It’s what the summer season guests expect; a slice of traditional.’

She nodded. ‘You’ve got that all right.’