to.â
Granger frowned, repeating the sounds in a furious whisper before his brow eased. âDonât let Draxley leave town.â The rest of it seemed a greater challenge. âHunt him down if we have to?â
Mike gave a quick nod. Once sounded out, without the distance and the interference, the words made perfect sense. Except for the fact they had no idea why Dunstan would want to hunt Draxley down.
âHe wonât go anywhere.â Granger took care to speak slow and loudâapparently not caring that everyone could hear. âDraxleyâs just outside the mines, head crushed by a boulder from up the ridge.â
Shaken from their hushed expectation, the men began murmuring to one another. Mike picked up on their shockâbut he noticed no one seemed broken up over the loss of the town telegraph operator. Added to Dunstanâs directive that they hunt him down if necessary, Mike pieced together an unflattering portrait of the manâas well as a few suspicions. A telegraph operator had no business lurking around the minesâon the very day Dunstan and Lacey decided to investigate. So what were the chances that this second cave-in was a coincidence?
Mike shook his head and kept his musings to himself. Who wanted to hear half-fledged theories from someone new in town? Nobody. If he turned out to be wrong, he looked insolent and self-aggrandizing. And if he turned out to be right ⦠well, in that case, Hope Falls had enough to worry about without adding in a know-it-all.
The strike of a shovel against a nearby rock demanded his attention. Everyone else was looking at Granger, waiting to be sure the conversation with their trapped townsmen had ended. Everyone, that is, except Naomi. It seemed as though Grangerâs pronouncement shook loose her fears. The people trapped inside the mountain could still be crushed. She gripped the shovel handle with gloves torn enough to show the blood beneath, working feverishly to break through the wall still separating her from her unfortunate friends.
Mike knew he should do the same, should attack the rocky barrier with equal enthusiasm and twice her strength. His hands tightened around the pickax heâd been using to dislodge larger rocks and lever them away. Beneath his leather work gloves, he felt the ridges of the handle where the new tool had yet to be worn smooth by hours of friction. Calloused as his own hands were, the rougher surface hadnât registered until he spotted Naomiâs gloves.
And now that heâd seen, Mike couldnât convince himself to turn away and get back to work. There was no way of knowing whether Naomi herself realized the damageâthe woman was obviously caught up in the rescue and not giving a thought to taking care of herself. Before they heard the answering call, how long had it been since sheâd paused for a breath? When was the last time she drank from her canteen? Mike didnât know, but he knew it had been too long.
Why hasnât anyone else noticed? Someone needs to look after the woman
. Common sense warred with a surge of protectiveness, cautioning that it wasnât Mikeâs place to step forward.
She only turned to you earlier out of shock and grief
. To take care of her now would signal an undue interest and arouse suspicion.
He couldnât afford to start off on the wrong foot with the residents of Hope Falls. It would jeopardize his chances of bringing Luke to the isolated safety of the town. And as much as it went against the grain to leave a woman hurting, Mike couldnât risk it.
Lord, Youâve answered many prayers from these parts today, and Iâm going to add one more to them. If You can give me an opportunity, any window to stop Naomi from shredding her hands without sacrificing my sonâs future, Iâll gladly make use of it
.
As he had many times before, Mike lamented that prayers werenât often answered immediately. Heâd never manage