"Molly and the other mothers are going door-to-door right now," Ned said as they walked quickly back into town.
Nathan squeezed Elizabeth's hand. "Take Sarah back to the livery, and ask Jed to unsaddle her. Then please ask him to come and join the search." He turned and looked up toward the row houses. "Allie is with Carla, can you let her know what I'm doing and ask if she can keep her a little longer?"
Elizabeth nodded. "After that," she said, "I'll check the schoolroom to see if Rosaleen might have gone back there."
Nathan tilted his head and looked for a long moment into Elizabeth's eyes. Again, they were sheltered between the two horses, and he reached up and smoothed her hair back from her face. "We have a lot to talk about."
Elizabeth turned her head and let her lips graze his hand. "We do." She smiled softly at him, and then he saw the shadow move across her eyes.
"We'll find her, Elizabeth. Don't worry," he said.
Just before he left, he let his thumb brush across her lips, lingering there.
Then, before she knew it, he was back up on Newton and turning him toward the houses just outside of town where many of the miners lived.
"Be safe," she said to him.
Nathan turned and nodded, and then he was off with Newton at a run.
After taking Sarah up to the livery, Elizabeth ran to see about Allie. Carla had already heard, and she said she would keep Allie for as long as Nathan needed her to. "Allie can stay the night," Carla said. "Just find Rosaleen." She set her mouth in a hard line. "Most Coal Valley kids can take care of themselves, Elizabeth, but Rosaleen is different."
"I know," Elizabeth said, feeling the tears start. "We'll find her."
Just as she was about to turn, Allie came up and took hold of her skirts. "For Rosaleen," she said, looking up at Elizabeth as she put something in her hand. "It's quiet too," Allie said, and then she went back to play with Jacob.
Elizabeth opened her hand and saw a beautifully carved wooden mouse.
Rosaleen wasn't in the schoolroom, but something else was. As Elizabeth turned to go, she saw a corner of Rosaleen's drawing on her desk, and she pulled the piece of paper out.
The mine. And in a flash, Elizabeth knew. It made perfect sense. The last time Rosaleen had felt like she was a part of the world, she was sitting next to her father outside of the mine. Somehow, Elizabeth knew if she went there, she would find Rosaleen on that bench.
Elizabeth looked out of the windows. It was already twilight and getting darker. She didn't think Tom would mind if she borrowed one of the lanterns he kept at the back door for getting supplies out of the shed. She grabbed it quickly and went out the front door of the saloon.
Ned was still in the Mercantile, acting as a sort of central information center for the search. Elizabeth was hoping to find some people to come with her to the mine, but Ned was alone.
"I think she may be at the mine, Ned," Elizabeth said. "I'm sure I'll run into people on the way, but if I don't, can you please tell Constable Grant that's where I'm going?"
"Sure thing, Elizabeth," Ned said. He looked outside and the darkening sky. "I hope they find her soon. It's going to get cold."
Elizabeth nodded and then she realized she didn't even have a coat on, and Rosaleen probably didn't either. She walked over to a shelf and found two blankets. "May I, Ned? I'll pay you later?"
Ned shook his head, "On the house, Elizabeth. Just find her."
Coal Valley looked like a ghost town as she walked through it, carrying one blanket under her arm and the other wrapped around her shoulders. She could hear distant voices in the meadow and by the pond, as everyone called out "Rosaleen!" and though Elizabeth kept thinking she would run into someone, she arrived at the short road out to the mine without seeing a soul. Ned knows where I am, she thought, holding out her lantern and forging ahead. She was so sure that she would find the little girl that she wanted to get there as fast as possible.
But when the bench came into sight, it was empty.
Elizabeth had never seen a mineshaft before, except for the quick view of it from a distance when she'd brought the children out the day the plank was found.
"Rosaleen?" She called out, hoping that she was somewhere near.
Right now, looking into the pitch blackness of the mine with only the light of a lantern, it looked positively terrifying. The thought of walking into that shaft stopped Elizabeth in her tracks and she considered going back and getting help.
But then she heard something.
It was a sound more faint than the voices out in the meadow had been, but it drew Elizabeth closer to the entrance of the mine. It sounded like a small high voice calling out for help and although alarms were going off in her head, Elizabeth continued to step closer, holding the lantern in front of her.
The light fell in a round pool, illuminating only the smallest circle just ahead, and as she stepped inside the rectangular entrance she could hear her own footsteps echoing into a distance she didn't even want to think about. She couldn't remember being more afraid.
"Rosaleen?" she called out, her voice sounding simultaneously tiny and loud as it bounced off the walls on either side of her.
Then she heard it again. It sounded like it might be a small child calling for help.
Now there was nothing that would stop Elizabeth. She picked up speed, swaying the lantern side to side so that she could see the walls and the floor as she walked. Her breath was coming in great gulps, from a combination of fear and the stale, close air that filled the dank mine.
"Rosaleen?" she called out, louder now, gathering strength from her purpose, which quickly became larger than her fear.
The voice came back, clear as day. A voice Elizabeth had never heard, but instinctively knew. Rosaleen's voice.
"M-Miss Thatcher?" She followed the sound, moving down the wrong shaft first and then finding the right one, calling out, over and over, and hearing Rosaleen answer.
Finally, Elizabeth heard her voice, but she was at what looked like a dead end. There were large pieces of wood, long beams, across the entrance to another shaft, and Elizabeth's heart sank as she realized that Rosaleen had gone through the entrance just before it had collapsed.
She held the lantern up to a space between the boards, and she could barely see her. Terrified, cold, with no light, in the depth of this long mineshaft, alone. A little girl only eight years old. Crying, lost.
"Oh, Rosaleen, I'm so glad I found you. Are you hurt?"
Rosaleen shook her head. She looked so afraid.
Elizabeth suddenly understood the stories she'd heard of the superhuman strength that took hold when a parent saw their child in danger. She was no longer frightened for herself. The only thing she had to do was to get past what was in front of her so that she could hold Rosaleen in her arms and tell her everything would be alright.
Elizabeth put down the lantern and tried to assess what she was seeing. There were smaller pieces of wood that had fallen across the shaft along with the large ones, and she moved those first. The whole time she worked she talked to Rosaleen.
"You're going to be fine, sweetheart. We're going to get you out of here and then we'll take you to your mother." Elizabeth moved a board and felt a shudder that stopped her. She watched in horror as dirt began to trickle from the ceiling of the shaft. She waited until it stopped and then continued, trying to undo the puzzle of wood she saw in front of her.
"Can you put your hand through, Rosaleen? I want to see where you are."
To her left and low, she saw a tiny hand come through one of the small openings she'd made, and she bent down with the lantern to see if she could shine some light into where Rosaleen was. Elizabeth held her little hand between her own, feeling how cold it was, and she remembered the blanket. Before getting up, she held Rosaleen's hand to her own cheek and kissed it. "Oh, sweetheart. I'm going to get you out of here. I promise." She could hear Rosaleen crying softly.
Elizabeth stood and found a spot toward the top of the jumble of wood and dirt that was large enough to push the blanket through. "Stand back a little, sweetheart, I'm putting a blanket through so you can keep warm." She heard the soft thud on the other side and said, "Did you get it? Put it around you, Rosaleen. It won't be so cold."
Now Elizabeth was on a mission. Little by little, she moved the wood, rocks and dirt away from a portion of the shaft entrance until she thought she could just barely climb through. She still had her own blanket over her shoulders and she pulled it tightly around her. Stepping through and bending down, she felt something scratch her leg and then her hair caught on a ragged piece of wood, but she kept moving, and before she knew it, she was almost completely in the shaft with Rosaleen.
But at the last second, the blanket caught on a nail, and her forward momentum dropped her on the other side with it still partially around her. As she looked up in horror, she could see that the piece of wood was pulling down the rest of the structure. She grabbed Rosaleen and went further into the shaft, and within moments she and Rosaleen were plunged into a dusty darkness that was so complete she had no idea which way was up. She held tightly to the little girl, sheltering her while she cried.
In horror, Elizabeth realized that the entrance was now completely blocked.
And she had left the lantern on the other side.
Nathan came back into town on Newton, exhausted after spending hours searching through the trees alongside the meadow. He was cold and needed a cup of coffee to warm up and stay awake, and then he would head back out.
All the men were still out looking, so the saloon was empty. Tom was behind the bar, keeping the coffee pot going.
"Thanks, Tom," Nathan said, standing at the bar. After being in the saddle for so long, it felt good to stretch out a little. He looked over at Elizabeth's desk and the blackboard, and just a small corner of his mouth rose into a tired smile.
Nathan had spent the last few hours with nothing to do but peer through the darkness and call out Rosaleen's name. It had given the rest of his brain enough time to go over what had happened today. Multiple times.
It still seemed somewhat surreal, in the best possible way. He couldn't stop thinking about how it felt to hold her, his lips on hers, feeling her respond to him…
Cat walked through the front door of the saloon and brought him back to the present.
"Coffee, please, Tom. We're just taking a break," She exhaled and said to Nathan, "Molly refuses to stop until we find her."
Nodding, Nathan said, "I'm on my way back out to the meadow. I'll see if I can talk her into a cup of coffee." Nathan swallowed the last of his own coffee and started for the front door. "I want to ask Elizabeth something. Rosaleen was drawing a picture…" he was almost to the door when Cat stopped him.
"Elizabeth isn't with us," she said, a frown forming between her brows. "I assumed she was with you, or she'd gone home."
Nathan turned sharply and looked at her. "When was the last time you saw her?" he asked, forcing his voice into control.
Cat shook her head. "Nathan, I don't think I've seen her all night."
Cat had felt there was something going on between Nathan and Elizabeth, and Nathan's look confirmed it. She went to him and touched his arm. "Go talk to Ned. He's been in the Mercantile since we started searching. He might know something."
Nathan nodded quickly and said, "Thank you." He stepped outside and Cat saw him take off running toward the Mercantile.
When he got there and asked about Elizabeth, Ned didn't hesitate. "Yes, she told me she was going to the mine..." he said, scratching his head. Before Ned even got his full sentence out, Nathan ran back through the door and Ned could see him jump onto Newton and ride like the wind out of town.