“Help me,” she said, and his relief turned to alarm.
He’d heard her pain and distress and assessed the situation, his eyes accustomed to the dark now. At least half the ladder rungs had crumbled to dust, and she held one arm tucked painfully at her side.
“Stop,” he ordered. “Good God, Sorrow. What are you doing? You’re going to kill yourself. ”
He eased over the ledge as far as he could go, stretching his arm out to her, but it was no good. She was just out of his reach.
He ran his hand down along the ladder rails. Between him and where Sorrow had managed to climb, there were only a couple of nubs where rungs should be. “Looks like you can’t go any higher. Can you ease yourself back down?”
She gave a tight shake to her head. “A bunch of rungs snapped when I stepped on them. ”
And she was too high up to jump back down. Her arm was broken, and God knew what else. He couldn’t risk further injury, which meant the only way for her to go was up.
He looked around frantically. The fragments of an old pulley system hung overhead, but the ropes had rotted decades ago. Why didn’t he keep rope in the car? When they got out of there, he was going to do some serious reassessing of the safety gear he kept in the SUV.
Bear’s scuffling footsteps announced his arrival. “You sure ran off half cocked,” the old man said.
“Dad?” Sorrow’s voice broke on the word.
“I’m here, girl. We’re getting you out. ” Bear came and stood at the edge of the shaft, sucking on his teeth, deep in thought. “We’ll need something for this. ”
“I could ease down the side maybe, if it weren’t so tight. ” Billy considered the drop. He didn’t care that he might break a leg—his concern was hitting her on the way down. He peered up at Bear. “Any ideas?”
“Be right back” was all the man said in reply.
Sorrow made a tiny whimpering sound, and as much as he wanted to soothe her, he knew the only way to handle it was to get her mind on other things. “Hold on,” he said in a firm voice. “Talk to me, Sorrow. ”
She made a sound that was half laugh, half sniffle. “Talk to you?”
“Yeah, babe. You can start by telling me how you managed to get halfway up a mineshaft with a broken arm, using nothing but a decaying ladder. ”
She was silent for a moment, her breath echoing in the narrow passage. “A lot of shimmying,” she said finally, her voice wavering with emotion.
She was trying, so he’d try, too. He kept his voice light as he said, “I’d like to see that sometime. ”
But rather than playing along, when she spoke again her voice was fragile, cracking as a child’s might. “My dad really came?” But then she was quick to brush it off with a weak laugh. “I bet he’s just worried I won’t get the roast in the oven in time to feed the early birds. ”
Her doubt in her own lovability broke his heart. “Aw, hell, babe. Of course he came. He loves you.
We all do. ”
The words had rolled off his tongue without thought, but he felt Sorrow hold her breath. She looked up at him, and her face glowed in the shadows, pale, beautiful, and dirt-smudged. “You do?”
“You know it,” he said, his voice strong. “I do, Sorrow. I love you. And the moment we get you out of here, I’m going to show you just how much. ”
“Cool your jets,” Bear grumbled from behind him. “Son of a gun, Sheriff, can’t you control yourself for two minutes?”
Billy felt like slugging the guy. Until he turned and saw the giant branch Bear had dragged in behind him. His eyes goggled. “Where the hell’d you get that?”
“From a tree. ” Bear grumbled under his breath, “Fool city boys. ”
He rolled his eyes. “A tree, he says. I figured that, old man. But…how?”
“Just used my belt to pull it down. ” Bear tried to look nonchalant, but Billy read the pride in his eyes. “Back in my timber days, we called it tree fishing. Best way to clear the deadwood. We used rope, but a belt works just fine. ”
He gave the man an admiring look. “Apparently. ”
Bear went to the ledge and shouted down to his daughter, “Got to get you back for the early birds. They think you’re making pot roast. ”