Read Online The Diamond of the Rockies [03] The Tender Vine by Kristen Heitzmann - Free Book Online

quiescence had changed that, especially the day Quillan had spent silently with her. That had been special, though she hadn’t seen it at the time. How many things she missed until after, when she could look back on them.
    It had snowed two days after Quillan left, and she guessed he wouldn’t be back soon. The road would be impassable with fresh powdered snow. It was one thing to come from Leadville over snowpack, another altogether to take Mosquito Pass after a storm. She prayed he wouldn’t be impetuous enough to try. No, he knew that road too well and wouldn’t risk his team.
    She looked at the table where he’d sat only days ago engrossed in Cain’s Bible and writing in his journal. She wished he’d left it. With his words, she would have felt him close. But she almost felt him anyway. Though they couldn’t speak or see each other, she knew he was thinking of her as she thought of him almost incessantly. His shadowed face when they’d first met on the road. His mocking smile. His earnest smile. His eyes, gray orbs with charcoal rims. His hair worn long like his father’s had been, though Quillan had never known his father.
    The mystery of Wolf and Rose had drawn her, compelled her. In spite of Quillan’s fury, she’d delved into their story and learned oh so much more than she’d expected. Though she’d never laid eyes on Quillan’s parents, she loved them. And loved him better for it. Ah, Signore .
    A knock came at the door between her room and the hall to Mae’s kitchen.
    “Come in.” Carina smoothed the blankets over her knees. She had dressed that morning in a soft flannel dress of Èmie’s that did nothing for her figure but did not require a corset. She was just too glad to be out of her nightgown and sat atop the covers.
    Èmie peeked around the door, her long, plain face breaking into a smile. “Good, you’re awake still. I’ve brought someone.” She pushed the door wide.
    Carina cried, “Father Antoine!” Another friend whom she’d wondered if she would see again. The priest followed Èmie into the room, smiling. He seemed to have found a peace Carina had not seen him possess since his brother Henri’s death.
    “Where have you been? I’ve asked and asked. Èmie didn’t know or wasn’t saying, and I was ready to give up and believe you had abandoned us.”
    “I’ve been a hermit.”
    “Truly?”
    He nodded.
    “And you won’t get any more from him than that.” Èmie pulled a chair from the table and placed it near the bed for her uncle, then took the second for herself.
    “I may need the seclusion again someday, and I don’t want well-meaning people stomping up to find me.” He said it with a mischievous grin. He had lost weight, a substantial amount, though he had little extra to lose. Where his muscles before had been those of a vigorous man, he was now lean, almost gaunt. Yet he didn’t seem diminished in vigor.
    “Well, sit and tell me everything else.” Carina’s joy in seeing him washed away all of Dr. Felden’s advice. Besides, she’d slept enough these last days to make the very thought tedious.
    Father Antoine spread his hands. “What’s there to tell? I questioned my purpose, and God, in His mercy, restored my vision.”
    “How?”
    “Prayer and silence.”
    Had he said that a few days ago, she would have scoffed, but her own spirit had been quickened lately by those very things, though not to the degree he must have practiced. He’d been gone months alone somewhere with God. On the mountain, surely. He’d given that much away with his “stomping up” comment. His only appearance had been to perform Èmie and Robert’s wedding, and then he had vanished again. And that must prove Èmie knew where to find him. But Carina understood her silence.
    “And peace?” she asked softly. “Have you found peace about Henri?”
    His smile gentled. There was sadness, yes, but not despair. “I believe he is with God. Beyond that?” He shrugged. “Now tell me