He had only ridden halfway down the street when a vendor selling roses caught his attention. Perhaps Selena would prefer flowers to jewels…On impulse, Kyle tossed a coin to the vendor and scooped up a bouquet, laying it across the saddle. Then he turned his horse toward Montrose and spurred the animal into a canter. He was anxious to be home. The hours without Selena had seemed like an eternity, and even though his discussions had proved worthwhile, he had begrudged every moment. Just like the endless nights he had spent away from her while he guarded Heaven’s Gate.
Never again, he vowed. He would take Selena with him when he traveled to Louisville to commission his new steamboats. Perhaps they would even make it into a wedding trip....
His mind was occupied with such pleasant thoughts when he reached Montrose that Kyle at first didn’t notice the commotion in the distance, beyond the line of cherry laurels. He was startled from his reverie when he recognized the powerfully muscled black man running toward the summerhouse, a coil of rope slung over each shoulder.
“Saul!” Kyle shouted as he spurred his horse to catch up. “What’s amiss?”
Saul was breathing hard as he grabbed the roan’s bridle, but he managed a reply. “Missy Whitfield, her boy fell from the bluff yonder.”
“Clay? It was Clay who fell?”
Saul nodded. “Zelda said he was dead, but I dunno.”
Every muscle in Kyle’s body went rigid.
“Your missus tole me to fetch some rope. She done gone with Missy Whitfield to the bluff.”
“Then come on, man!” Kyle exclaimed, reaching down to grasp Saul’s arm. Within him fear warred with cold urgency as he hauled Saul up behind him on the powerful roan. Frantically he dug in his heels, aiming the horse at the summerhouse. The bouquet of roses he’d been holding slid to the earth to be ground into the dust.
Was that movement she detected? Selena wondered as she craned her neck over the edge, trying to see through the tangle of pine and wild grapevines at the bluff’s side, peering at Clay’s small, white face. Then, unmistakably, his eyelids fluttered. She caught her breath as hope stirred inside her. “Danielle, he’s opening his eyes!”
“Thank God…”
Selena murmured her own grateful prayer as on her knees she inched closer to the edge.
The earth slide wasn’t really a bluff, nor was it very high as bluffs go, but it was a great distance to a two-year-old child. Clay had fallen about twenty feet, his descent only stopped by the exposed roots of a papaw tree. His small body appeared to be wedged in the roots, while below him there was a further twenty-foot drop into the dry bayou, which was strewn with branches and rocks.
“He moved his arm.”
“Please… Selena, do something.” The words were a sob.
“Yes, we’ll rescue him.”
One glance over her shoulder at the auburn-haired woman’s stricken face, though, told Selena she would have to take charge. Danielle was too debilitated by terror to be of any help. Worse, she appeared prepared to step off the bluff to her death in order to save her son. Forcibly Selena reached up to clutch Danielle by the arm and hold her back.
“Mama,” Clay suddenly wailed from below, trying to squirm free.
As Danielle gave a terrified sob, Selena’s grip tightened. “You can’t go down there!” she declared, her own voice shaking. “You’ll be killed. We have to wait for a rope.”
When the young child began to wail more loudly, Danielle gave Selena a look of frantic entreaty.
“Wait!” Selena urged as she climbed to her feet. She cast a desperate look around her, wishing fervently that someone would come with the rope she had called for.
Her heart leaped as she saw her husband gallop up with Saul clinging behind. “Kyle, thank God…Clay’s alive,” she told him as both men sprang down from the horse, “but he’s caught.”
“Please help him,” Danielle pleaded.
“Yes,” Kyle answered simply. He was instantly in command, Selena realized, watching as he moved swiftly to the edge of the bluff. It was the air of authority that had made him such an effective ship’s captain, the reason his men had been willing to follow him without question. Unhesitating, exuding confidence and skill… demanding and receiving instant obedience. Selena was infinitely glad to have him in charge.
Kyle took in the situation at a glance, deciding what Selena had already concluded: the limbs of the papaw tree would make rescue difficult.
“We can’t lower a rope to him,” Selena began. “Even if he could manage to put it a
round his waist, the tree—”
“I’ll have to go down for him.”
“Perhaps you could lower me…I’m lighter—”