Mystic Mountains

her or defend himself. When the sto rm passed and she began to weep, her head bent, he got up and wrapped her in his arms, touching his lips to her hair. Her bonnet had gone flying to the ground and her hair fell in a flaming tangle over her shoulders. That fool Dougal should be consoling her. But at this moment Tiger was glad the Scotsman was far away.
    "I 'm all right," she mumbled after a while, pushing away from him and scuffing a fist over her nose. With a sheepish glance at the others, who'd pretended they hadn't heard her outburst, she wiped at her eyes. "I'm sorry. No reason to hit out at you. It just seems so unfair. Why did it have to happen to my baby? All these wicked people in the colony and God saw fit to take my little boy."
    "I can 't answer that, Bella. None of us know why these things happen. 'Tis fate an' there's nothing we can do but accept it as the will of God, or whatever force guides us while we're in this world."
    He wasn 't sure if she'd heard a word he said. Helplessness wasn't something he was familiar with, but he was suffering a surfeit of it right now. As if all the stuffing had been taken out of her she suddenly crumpled to the ground, where she pulled her knees up, resting her face on them.
    Tiger fought the urge to smooth a hand over her bent head. "Tim," he called, looking about. When the boy came running, he patted his hair instead, ordering gently, "Look after your mama for me, eh?" Going down on his haunches he said, "Now I 'm relying on you to take care of her. Do you think you can do that for me?"
    Isabella glanced sideways at him as Tim nodded. "Yes, Tiger," he agreed. "I miss Dougie too."
    Tiger sighed. "Aye son, I know."
    "I 'm not your son, I'm Dad's son," Tim argued, squinting at him.
    Tiger shook his head. "I know, Tim. It was just a sort of name some people call boys, I didn 't mean anything by it." He ruffled his son's hair.
    Isabella met his eyes and for endless moments they stared at each other. Tiger touched a finger to her cheek, catching a teardrop. Then he rose and strode away, his back straight.
     
    * * *
     
    "It looks greater than any obstacle I 've ever seen," Johnny said with awe as they approached the start of the road over the mountains. "Do you think the boss knows what he's doing?"
    Isabella shrugged. "Tiger thinks he knows everything. If he says we 'll get over, then we will." Personally she would be rather glad if he decided he had taken on altogether too much and turned them around. The mountains with their ever-present haze of blue looked daunting and somehow eerie. She was scared, feeling as if she was about to fall off the edge of the world. About to step over a line into some strange, totally alien place.
    The hollow emptiness there constantly since Dougie's death was replaced by a sinking feeling in her stomach she recognized as fear.
    Tiger had told them that for forty-odd miles there would be no grass for the cattle; they 'd had to fetch corn. The sheep could manage. But the fact that there was not enough grass in the mountains seemed mighty peculiar.
    "Whoa!" The shout went up, dragging her from her reverie. The bullocks and horses were stopped, and the cavalcade came to a rumbling halt. Isabella 's wagon was at the rear, so she couldn't tell what the problem was.
    She soon found out. "The leading dray 's stuck in the sandy bottom of a stream," Tiger shouted as he pulled up alongside them. "We'll need all men to get behind and heave. You come with me, Johnny."
    It took an hour to extricate the dray. Then another hour to get all the others across, using ropes and chains to haul them. A quarter of a mile on they were at the foot of the first mountain.
    "Saints preserve us, " Johnny muttered as they and everyone in the party stared at the ascent they faced.
    As far as the eye could see were lofty trees and shrubs, most blooming with an abundance of brightly colored flowers.
    "This is Lapstone Hill," Tiger said as he watched the first wagon start upwards.
    "Why's it called that, Tiger?" Tim asked.
    Tiger shaded his eyes to look up at the monstrous hill ahead of them. "Seems the stones reminded the first men over of the cobblers ' lapstone, Tim."
    Isabella gave him a sour look. The man was as excited as a boy with a new toy. The track up the hill appeared to be solid rock with no earth covering, and great hollow places and jagged rocks protruding here and there. The horses managed it with little trouble, but the bullocks didn 't fare at all well,