Mystic Mountains

noticed.
    "I 'm wet, Mama," Tim grizzled.
    "We 're all wet, son," she said quietly.
    "Will Dougie come back one day, Mama? After he 's been asleep awhile?" he asked for the tenth time.
    "No, Tim. Our Dougie 's gone for good." Her voice cracked over the blunt statement.
    "Where 's he gone, Mama?"
    "I 've told you already Tim, he's gone to heaven."
    "But where 's that Mama, and when will I see him again?"
    "You 'll see him when you go there, Tim, but that won't be for years and years." Dear God, if she lost him too she would die of the grief. A part of her had died already.
    Tim complained when she tightened her grip on him. Would they ever grow accustomed to life in this godforsaken place? The dangers she 'd faced on the streets of Stepney paled into insignificance against the far greater dangers they faced here. Damn Tiger Carstairs for dragging her and the boys along with him. Dougie would still be alive if they hadn't left the security of the town. At that moment the feelings she harbored for the arrogant bastard bordered on hatred.
    "We 'll wait out the worst of this," she heard him order as he rode up alongside them. "'Tis easing ahead. We'll make camp and get the fires going, dry out as soon as it stops."
    "What about Gillie and the others?" Thelma asked.
    "They 'll carry on and wait for us at the foot of the mountain road."
    Isabella shivered. Her relief made her feel faint. Dougal was like a volcano waiting to erupt and she feared his anger. She couldn 't bear to see the reproach she knew would be in his eyes.
    "Get Thelma dry as soon as you can," Tiger said softly as he brought his horse alongside the wagon. "If she sits around in those wet clothes she 'll end up with a sickness in her chest. Her cough is already worse."
    Isabella turned a frosty glare on him. "And whose fault is that? If you hadn 't dragged us to this god-awful place I'd still have Dougie and Thelma wouldn't be coughing fit to burst."
    Tiger stared wordlessly at her, sorrow clear in his eyes, before riding off.
    Isabella felt momentarily ashamed of her outburst. Why did he always bring out the worst in her? Deep down she knew the same fate could have befallen Dougie back at the farm, and she shouldn't really be blaming Tiger.
    Thelma 's cough had worsened in the last couple of hours, seeming to tear at her chest. Jesus. If she lost Thelma too she'd likely go insane.
    Tiger ordered the men to rig a sheet of sacking above the fire using the branches of a wide reaching tree, crisscrossing it with strips of bark to keep off the worst of the rain.
    "Here, get this inside you," Isabella ordered Thelma, scooping a mugful of warmed-up mutton stew from the iron pot over the fire.
    Thelma gave her a wan smile. "Thanks, Bella. I feel a whole lot better now I've got some dry clothes on."
    "Aye, 'tis lucky we found some that hadn't been soaked. Tiger seems to think this will ease." Isabella eyed the grey laden sky with less optimism. "Best get between the blankets straight after eating and keep as warm as you can."
    The rain fell in torrents until just before dawn, seeping in underneath the tents and making them all shiver with misery. Isabella slept not a wink, but stared up at the roof of the tent with eyes that felt as if they were filled with dust. Tiger 's forecast wasn't far out, for the sun came up bright and blessedly warm.
    Giving Isabella a critical once over he suggested, "We 'll lie over for the day and dry everything out. The rest will do you good."
    "I doubt a rest will go anywhere near to helping me," sh e snapped, hating to admit she felt bone weary; so tired in fact that when she lay beneath a tree with Tim in her arms she slept for most of the morning.
    "Time heals," Thelma was saying when she opened her eyes to stare about.
    "Tim." Isabella looked about with frantic urgency when she couldn't see him anywhere.
    Tiger came to sit at her side, placing a hand on her shoulder when she made to scramble to her feet. "He 's helping Agnes, Lily, and the men collect the dried clothes from the lines they strung up," he said gently. "You can't watch him every minute of the day, Bella. The same thing won't happen to him that happened to Dougie."
    She shook his hand off, crying, "How do you know?" as she jumped up. "You 're not God. You think you have authority over everything that moves." She lashed out at him, thumping him about the shoulders and ears, wherever she could reach, while she sobbed out meaningless words.
    Tiger made no move to stop