Read Online Into the Whirlwind by Elizabeth Camden - Free Book Online Page B

her building when the train returned. Earlier this evening, he had wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled and those ridiculous braids came tumbling down, but it was hard to resent a woman who held up so valiantly as her world burned to ashes around her.
    “Could someone help us?” a voice shouted. Zack sprang down from the boxcar. At the neighboring car, two men were struggling to lift a piano. Zack vaulted over to prop his shoulder beneath the heavy back end of the piano. Two mighty heaves and they hoisted the piano into place. Behind him, three more upright pianos waited to be lifted aboard. It took less than five minutes to load all three inside.
    The railroad yardmaster walked along the lines, sliding the heavy doors closed with a loud, clattering rasp. “That’s it, then,” he called out.
    A man came running down the platform, waving his hat. “Have you got any more space?” He was breathing so hard he doubled over, but managed to keep speaking. “I’ve got two dozen oriental rugs less than a mile away. I can get them here in ten minutes. Please. Please .”
    The worker shook his head. “Can’t wait any longer. We just heard that Michigan Avenue is on fire. I’ve got to get this train out before the fire hits the tracks. Maybe you can catch a train on the north side of the city.”

    The man shook his head. “No good. The State Street Bridge is on fire. No way out.” Zack didn’t think the news could get worse, but it did. The rug merchant breathlessly recounted how a paint factory had caught fire, spilling barrels of oily waste into the river. “It is a complete disaster,” the rug merchant said. “The river is on fire and the bridge is about to go under. The fire has jumped the river to the north side.”
    Zack looked down at Mollie, her face blanched with shock. “Then it is headed for my home,” she whispered.
    His heart lurched as he watched the color drain from her face. His west side townhouse was still safe, but Mollie’s north side home was not going to be spared. “Come back home with me,” he said. “It is the only place that will be safe for you.”
    She swallowed hard and straightened. “I’m going north.” Picking up her skirts, she started dashing up the street before he could stop her.
    “Miss Knox!” Such formalities sounded ridiculous. “Mollie! Mollie, don’t be a fool!” he yelled after her, but if she heard him, she made no indication as she ran faster. Her skirts were hiked around her knees as she bolted forward, and he watched until she was swallowed by the crowd heading north.
    A group of men clustered around the rug merchant, who had a better idea of where the fire was going. The heat and wind were whipping up firestorms that careered down narrow alleys, creating columns of fire that looked like tornados, picking up burning timbers and hurling them through the air. The timbers landed on wooden roofs, igniting building after building. The fire had already leapt north of the river in two places, where the roof of a turpentine plant had caught fire. If the roof caved in, there would be another huge explosion.
    And Mollie was headed straight into the center of it. Did she even realize how bad it was on the other side of the river?

    He didn’t stop to think, he just ran after her.
    The farther north he traveled, the worse the congestion. The street was littered with sofas, highboys, and abandoned stoves. The owners put them outside and fled, assuming things left in the middle of the street would be safer than in the wood-framed buildings. The abandoned property slowed the crowds and added to the panic. His foot caught on a bedframe, but he regained his balance and kept pushing farther north.
    “Mollie!” he shouted, looking in vain. Cinders flying on the wind felt like burning pinpricks on his face. He swiped his face and squinted to see through the smoke, looking for a brave, foolhardy young woman wearing a light blue dress. He shouldered forward, past a woman