Melody scrambled to secure the space between her father and Van in the sleigh. Van had the reins, of course, as he knew the way. Her father tried to place her in the back seat with Ryder and Jo, but in the end, her small size decided the front bench arrangement.
And besides, Cleantha hated sleighs, declaring they brought forth old, unpleasant, and terrifying memories. She preferred to ride in the back seat, secure and in the center, which left Jo and Ryder on either side of her. Jo assured everyone the arrangement suited her, she had more leg room, and her view was better on the outside. Ryder preferred the outside, of course, again giving him more room to move his legs.
Gabe and Birdie-Alice would greet the remaining guests who were expected to arrive on tomorrow’s train. They, and Rafe Bollo and his wife Doreen, would provide transport to the hot spring in a couple of days.
The day, bright, crisp and cold, made the perfect backdrop for the Wallowa Mountains to the north, dressed in a coat of white against a sky of pure blue. The sleigh glided through almost a foot of fresh powder on the road. They had a small luncheon of cold ham, deviled eggs, and crusty bread a little before midday. To wash down their meal, Birdie had provided a jug of her delicious apple and pear cider.
They pushed on, and Van stopped the sleigh in the afternoon to allow those who wanted, or needed, to stretch their legs and make use of the convenient boulders for cover if one had to relieve themselves.
On the road again, with daylight fast fading, Van said, “In another mile or two we’ll be coming to the canyon.”
“I’ll be dark soon,” Royce said, glancing around his daughter to address Van.
“We’ll have a little daylight left, but yeah, it’ll be full dark before we reach the hot spring. The canyon is a special place for the Buxton family. You might have read about it in the brochure. Buck included a little history. Petra Yurvasi gave birth to my half-brother Gabe behind a granite boulder in the canyon. Buck found her there and brought her to the hot spring.
“That’s the condensed, abridged version. The longer story is Buck, my father, at one time ran a brothel at the hot spring. He brought the whores out here from Baker City in April and returned them in October. He was returning from Baker City on that October day and heard a woman’s wail of despair. It was my mother.
“Petra was on the run from two sadistic, evil brothers, Kurt and Beau Laski. They wanted her dead. She’d seen and heard too much, and they needed to silence her, but they also wanted her child, Kurt’s child.
“As the days went by, Buck and Petra became lovers and Petra confessed all she knew about the Laski brothers. Realizing they would never find peace, Buck and Petra returned to town to give Petra the opportunity to tell her side of the story at Beau Laski’s trial. The brothers had bamboozled a lot of people, murdered people, even convinced folks Kurt Laski was dead and Beau Laski was paralyzed from the waist down. At the trial, it all came down to Petra’s word against Beau’s.”
Jo bounced forward, eager to tell the rest of the story. She leaned forward a little, the better to see her husband’s face. “Petra knew the brothers had a huge fear of rats. They’d traveled as boys in the cargo hold of a ship to escape the law from their homeland in Poland. Buck used rats during the trial to extract a confession from the brothers. They were hanged for their crimes.”
“Petra and Buck and her infant son Gabriel retreated to the hot spring. They converted the once upon a time brothel into a holiday spa with cabins. They improved the bathing pool over the years. Added to the main house, corrals, and barn. It has become a modest success.
“Petra, our mother, passed away three years ago. You’ll see evidence of her love for her home in the hooked rugs and furnishings in the cabins. My father remarried last summer. Idella’s breathed new life into the place. We love her, don’t we, Van?”
He nodded his agreement, urging the team of dray horses to veer off the main road and onto a narrow track to the north. “It was this time of day Buck entered the canyon,” Van said. “Little did Buck realize Petra had lost her hearing in a mine explosion caused by the Laski brothers. They’d kept her presence in the mine shaft a secret from everyone, claiming she’d gone home to her family when in actuality they’d kidnapped her and caged her in the mine. In the blast, her cage tipped over, and she managed to escape in the back of a freight wagon headed down the mountain to Baker City. She walked, barefoot, heavy with child, all the way from Baker City and stumbled into the canyon seeking shelter. Remember it was October, cold and beginning to snow.”
The sleigh moved down between the canyon walls. The shoosh of the sled rails gliding through nearly a foot of powdery snow and the jangle of harness echoed and bounced off the walls on either side of them.
“Buck heard her screams,” Van said continuing his story. “His horse shied and stopped down there on the right, that boulder up there. The screams were coming from there. Petra had squatted down to deliver her son, fully expecting he would die and she would die. Buck carried her down off the side of the cliff. He covered her and the baby with a blanket and carried her home.
“Her hearing returned, but it was never perfect. The Buxtons love this canyon. We look upon the boulder as a monument to remind us of Petra’s bravery and courage. Most of the traffic uses the main road north of the hot spring. It leads to Halfway and Hells Canyon Snake River country.”
∙•∙
Imagining Petra’s desperate flight, her pain and despair, Melody shivered. Ahead of them, at the base of the canyon lay a wide open, rolling plain of grazing land. She caught a whiff of sulfur in the air.
“Smell that?” Van asked them. “That’s the hot spring. The wind comes up the canyon most days. We don’t get that smell down at the house very often. When we do, take cover, there’s a storm coming. We’ve made a small pool for bathing. The larger pool on the other side of the road is a favorite spot for all kinds of waterfowl during the winter. We have elk, cougar, deer, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, wolves, coyotes, fox, you name it, they visit the hot spring looking for water and something to eat. The grass and rushes grow all year round around the lowlands close to the spring. Snow doesn’t stick. A herd of wild horses come down off the mesas now and then, usually to wait out a blizzard.”
Something happened to Melody right then, an aching tug at her heart. The warmth and knowledge of it spread throughout her chest and filled her eyes with tears. Emotions, too many to identify, swept over her, but one thing, one significant realization, made her want to cry out in joy. She was home. Paradise lay before her. She’d come home, no more would she wander the land looking for the elusive something to give her an identity, bring her fulfillment; she would find everything she would ever need or want right here.
In the purple dusk before full darkness, the sleigh shooshed past Petra’s boulder. At the mouth of the canyon, the view opened up. Held in one wide beam of golden light stood a yellow, two-story farmhouse with a wide, wraparound porch. Two barns and three outbuildings, all painted red, glowed in the light. Patches of green rushes and golden grass dotted the landscape surrounding two pools of deep blue. The scene, outlined in a layer of snow, lay like a grand painting on canvas. Huge trees at the base of the canyon, branches bare, guarded the pools on both sides of the road.
Melody threaded her hand through Van’s arm and laid it on his thigh. She leaned her head against his shoulder and sighed, tears winding down her frozen cheeks. “Beautiful,” she said. It was all she could manage to say at the moment.
Van slowed the horses as they passed the bathing pool. Torches lit up the interior of the shelter and highlighted the sloping gravel beach and the deck that extended a few yards over the steaming pond. “We’ve added two special chairs for those unable to walk to reach the pool. We’ll provide them upon request. In the cabins, you’ll find information on the medical studies done on the benefits of bathing in mineral waters.”
“Well, I’m ready,” said Cleantha. She’d hardly spoken at all the whole long day, so her declaration took them all by surprise. They all laughed, happy to have the end of their journey in sight. “After sitting all day, a nice soak in hot water sounds like heaven. How warm is the water?”
“It fluctuates,” Van said, “between eighty-six and ninety-two degrees. In the shallow water the temperature is cooler.”
Jo waved. “Look! There’s Daddy and Idella.” The sleigh tipped slightly, and Cleantha grabbed Jo’s arm and squeaked. “Sorry,” Jo said. “Almost there.”
“We usually have extra hands, and household help,” Van said, “but Juana and her family left a few days ago to be with relatives in Halfway for a few weeks. Feel free to wander, make use of the kitchen. If you can’t find something, ask, and we’ll try to find it for you. There are plenty of towels in the cabins. We ask you to hang them up after use to dry.”
Van dropped the reins and hopped down. Giggling, Melody put her hands on his shoulders, and he swung her to the ground. Buck and Idella rushed forward, greeting and welcoming everyone. Van offered Melody’s mother his aid, but Royce pushed him aside. He shrugged his shoulders, and not wanting to stand around like a big useless lummox, decided to take the horses to the barn.
Her hand on the harness, Melody winked at him, smiling at him from around a horse’s head. “I don’t think we’ll be missed for a little while,” she said.
“No, I don’t s’pose. But you’re a guest, you should go inside, get acquainted, warm yourself. I can do this.”
“Oh, I know, but I want to. You said we could make ourselves at home. I’m your guest, this is what I want to do.”
Silently, they worked. Van chopped the ice from the water troughs. Melody located the chamois cloths and tossed one to Van. They rubbed the horses down and threw horse blankets over their strong backs to settle them in for the night.
Melody hung up a length of rein and draped her cloth over a nail and brushed her hands together. “There now.”
Van gathered her into his arms. “You were right, we make a good team.”
She came up on her toes and gave him a kiss. “I think I smell something really delicious coming from the house. I’m famished. I need to freshen up. I’ll see you in the house.”
Van didn’t know what to say, or what was happening to him. He suspected her of intentionally throwing him off his stride, but to what end? To play with him, get him all worked up into a lather, so she could discard him at the end of her stay, claim a conquest? Or maybe she thought to ensnare him, bring about his downfall somehow. Pay him back for running away.
∙•∙
Smiling, satisfied with herself, Melody left the barn. It was all she could do to keep from skipping across the yard.
“Your father and mother went to their cabin,” Jo said from the porch. “It’s this one closest to the house. They wondered where you’d gone. I told them I took you round to show you where to find the privy.”
Guilt stopped Melody in her tracks. She put her head up, but unable to come up with anything witty to say she settled for, “Thank you.”
“Your folks wanted to warm themselves and freshen up. I imagine you need to do the same.”
“I wanted to help Van with the horses. It’s a cold night.”
“Uh, huh,” said Jo, her arms folded over her chest, resting on her big belly. “And you wanted some time alone with my brother before you faced everyone inside.”
Melody smiled up at her. “We rubbed the horses down. Van chopped the ice off the water trough. I poured some feed in their buckets.”
“And you snuggled, stole a kiss or two.”
Melody giggled. “We do work well together,” she said on her way to the cabin next to the house.