“I guess we could all go,” Rafe said hesitantly, knowing it would cut seriously into the deadline he’d set with Helen. She glanced over at him as he spoke, and he saw that she realized the importance of the time element, too. “Maybe we could wait for two weeks. Then, Helen and I would continue on home from there.”
Hector’s wide eyes shot from one to the other of them, obviously wondering where he fit into all these plans.
Zeb patted the boy’s shoulders and said, “Nope, I gotta go tomorrow. Can’t take no chance of hittin’ the bad weather. Hector will come with me, and you two’ll stay here, ta hold down the fort, so ta speak.”
“NO!” Rafe and Helen responded at once, their eyes locking in dismay.
Alone! In a secluded cabin! With my testosterone already blinking a zillion kilowatts! No way!
Before they could voice further protests, Zeb went on. “It’s gotta be this way. They may still be lookin’ fer you as that Angel Bandit. And, if they take you away, Rafe — no, no, no, don’tcha be thinkin’ it ain’t possible — then Helen here would be at the mercy of a few hundred wimmen-hungry miners what thinks she can do the corkscrew.”
“What’s a corkscrew?” Hector asked.
Zeb’s chest rumbled with mirth. “A dance,” he lied.
“How long would you be gone?” Helen asked, biting her bottom lip with concern. Her eyes were wide with horror.
Zeb tapped his pipe stem against his teeth. “I figger four days going’ and four days comin’ back. Add an extry day or two fer unexpected delays, and I’d say ten days at the most.”
“Ten days!”
“It’s the best way, you’ll see, onct you think on it. This way, you two kin continue ta work the claim, and mebbe you’ll even hit a strike. It could happen.”
The only strike Rafe could imagine right now was a lightning bolt from heaven with a divine message from the Lord, via St. Augustine, delivered in a Bill Cosby voice out of the clouds, “Celibacy, celibacy, celibacy.”
“One more thing,” Zeb added. “This’ll give me one las’ chance before winter ta check fer you and see if Pablo showed up. I know Mary said she’d contact you if he come, and I know she promised ta send that harness and those tent things up here, but you’ll sleep easier knowin’ what’s happened so far, one way or another. An’ I can report back on the miners’ mood toward the two of you. Yep, it’s the best way.”
Rafe and Helen groaned with surrender.
“Besides,” Zeb concluded with a huge smile, “you two younguns ain’t had no time fer a proper honeymoon. Effie allus said a man and his woman needs the privacy ta frolic naked in the sunshine afore the cloudy days come.”
“Frolic?” Helen sputtered.
Naked? Rafe thought.
“Oh, Lord!” Helen exclaimed.
Oh, Lord! Rafe shuddered.
Rafe began to wonder if this whole time-travel adventure, and these upcoming ten days, were a divine test of some sort.
Yep! a voice in his head said.
Chapter Twenty
Just after dawn, Zeb and Hector prepared to leave. The old man gave them last-minute instructions. “You don’t need ta cut no more firewood, Rafe. I chopped more’n enough after Effie died, workin’ off my grief. We got wood ta last us two winters.”
Rafe nodded. “Should I continue to let the horses graze during the day and put them in the barn at night?”
“Yep, but you best steer that F. Lee away from the wild clover. He does work up a good case of wind.”
“Tell me about it.” Rafe grimaced.
“And iffen it was me. I’d jist keep on workin’ the same area of the stream. I have me a good feelin ’bout that spot. It’s got good color.”
Before Rafe could respond, Zeb turned to Helen. “There should be ‘nuf flour fer the two of you till I get back. Put out those fishin’ lines the way I showed you, an’ shur as shootin’ you’ll have trout ta fill in with the occasional salt pork. I went out early this mornin’ and got you a string of rabbits. They’s hanging in the root cellar.”