Free DC03 - Though Mountains Fall by Dale Cramer Page A

churchyard while Caleb drove away without looking back.
    Rachel couldn’t bear it. She hid her face, but even above the rattle of harness and the rumble of wheels she could hear the faint groan and creak of that rope, the sounds of a man dying.

    Domingo and his nephews finally managed to round up the carriages and horses, and the wedding party regrouped behind the church. The troops took over the church building exactly as Captain Soto had promised.
    Father Noceda limped up to the party as they were helping Uncle Paco into the carriage.
    “Is everyone all right?” he asked.
    Miriam stared at the trickle of blood working its way down the priest’s forehead.
    “Sí,” she said. “Uncle Paco is wounded, but he will survive. What will you do, now that you have no church?”
    Two soldiers pulled up next to the rectory in a mule-drawn wagon full of boxes and started carrying supplies inside.
    “He has no home , either,” Domingo said, laying a hand onFather Noceda’s shoulder. “Come with us, Father. We will find you a place to stay.”
    “But it’s your wedding day,” Noceda protested.
    “Not anymore,” Miriam said, glancing around at the carnage.
    Domingo put an arm around her and smiled. “Miriam, this is our day, and I will not let El Pantera steal it from us. He has taken enough.”
    She looked at herself, tugged at the sides of her wedding dress. “But there is blood on my dress—”
    He lifted her chin with a finger. “You would have changed it anyway as soon as the party started. I hate to spoil Kyra’s surprise, but there are two more dresses you must wear on this day. Beautiful new dresses.”
    “But look around, Domingo. Men have died here today.”
    “Then we will light a candle for the souls of the dead. But life must go on, and what better way to put all this behind us? The house is already decorated, the feast prepared. I have waited all my life for this day, Cualnezqui, and so have you. In our new home we will find peace, and the joy of sharing our new life with our family.”
    She stared at him for a moment until she felt herself melting under his astonishing strength.
    “Sí,” she said softly, and then remembered the priest. “Will you come with us, por favor ?”
    The priest gazed longingly over his shoulder for a second. There were soldiers wandering in and out of his rectory, laughing, smoking, cursing.
    “Sí, I might as well. I have nothing left here,” he said, and climbed into the carriage.
    ———
    Domingo drove the lead carriage himself, since Paco was wounded. Miriam sat up front beside her husband on the driver’s seat.
    As soon as they got under way Domingo leaned close and muttered, “Lo siento, Cualnezqui. I would have done anything to keep this darkness from your wedding day.”
    She smiled, tightening her grip on his arm. “We are together. I am content.”
    They rode along for a little ways before she asked, “Domingo, what will we do with Father Noceda? Your house is too crowded already. I wasn’t even sure where we would sleep, and now there is another.”
    He grinned. “I was going to save the surprise for later, but now I think it is best to go ahead and tell you. Over the winter my nephews made bricks, and in the evenings I built you a house. It is only two rooms, but big enough . . . for now.”
    Warmth flushed through her and she blushed, knowing what he meant.
    “I know how to make bricks, too,” she said. “When the time comes that we need to add on, we will do it together. Together, we can do anything.”

    Shocked speechless by all she had witnessed, Rachel didn’t say a word all the way home. Her father pulled up to the corral, stopped, and just sat there for a minute, watching smoke rise from the ruins of Levi’s barn a quarter mile to the west.
    “Harvey, leave the wagon hitched and wait here. You and me will be going to Levi’s shortly.” He set the brake and climbed down from the wagon. “Rachel, come with me.”
    She followed her