How much time passed, she couldn’t have said. It felt like hours. Felt like darkness should have set outside, but it might be no later than midafternoon.
At last, Levi stirred beside her and spoke in a whisper. “I’m going to see where they are.”
She itched to stand and follow him, but two were morelikely to make noise than one. She settled for placing the cup with the other food supplies and checking his boots. Still damp. If they’d been able to keep the fire burning, the leather might be nearly dry by now. But letting it go out had been the wisest choice.
As the temperature dropped with darkness, Levi would need something to warm his feet. With the cold, neither these shoes nor stockings would be dry enough to help him.
A new thought slipped in. They had a blanket and a knife to cut with, and she’d brought needle and thread in case she needed to stitch his wound. With those supplies, stockings she made would be rough, but at least they would keep his feet warm and help him get around easier than when they were bundled in blankets.
She set to work, using his wet stockings as a pattern.
By the time she had the first piece cut and stitched halfway up, Levi still hadn’t returned. She tried to keep her attention on her sewing, but the thought of what might be happening outside stole her focus far too much.
At last, she set down her work and rose, creeping as quietly as she could toward the mouth of the cave. When she peered around the bend in the hall, the brightness outside made her squint. The light outlined Levi’s form as he knelt just inside the opening, peering out to the left.
She tiptoed forward, her feet only making an occasional whisper. Levi didn’t give a sign that he heard her until she’d nearly reached him.
He glanced back, and though the light cast a shadow on his features, his expression seemed animated. He touched a finger to his lips as a reminder for silence, then motioned her forward and shifted to make space for her on his left.
Sidling forward, she slipped in beside him. He pointed where he’d been looking, and she followed the line of his finger.
She nearly gasped as, less than a stone’s throw away and a bit farther down, a person appeared on the mountainside.
11
Leonard. Where had he come from?
When Audrey had first glanced that way, he’d not been there. Then he was, stepping from the stone itself. Maybe a bend in the rock gave the illusion.
“I think it’s another cave.” Levi’s breath warmed her ear as he kept his whisper soft enough to barely reach her. “They’ve all gone in and out at least once.”
His nearness sent a tingle all the way down her back, making it hard to focus on his words. But another cave? She’d never seen that particular one, though there were caves spread all through these mountains—some only small, shallow holes, and some much deeper and winding.
It seemed unusual to have two caverns so close together, and both with openings mostly hidden. The one she and Levi had taken refuge in was a bit higher up, and the cliff below made it appear as if nothing could reach this place. Not that anyone would see the opening with the juniper tree concealing it so well.
She’d never seen that other cave, yet the searchers had been diligent enough to find it. Would they also discoverthis one? Maybe that other cavern would be a distraction to them, keeping this opening hidden.
Let that be the case, Lord.
As they watched, two more men emerged, Philip and Evan. Then Brielle and Monsieur Rochette stepped out. The five gathered, and the latter spoke first, motioning back toward the cave, then in the direction of Audrey and Levi—though it appeared more of a general gesture, not a specific pointing.
Still, Audrey shrank back until she could barely see them.
Brielle responded to Monsieur Rochette, pointing several directions as she spoke. Probably giving orders. Where were the rest of the men from town? Brielle had been planning a large search party, but now there were only five.
Philip and Evan started toward the juniper tree hiding their cave, and Audrey’s chest tightened. Levi’s hand closed around her arm in a light touch, giving a tug to guide her backward.
She tiptoed behind him around the corner to their little campsite against the back wall. The fire no longer glowed, and no remnants of smoke wafted upward. The smoky scent did linger in the air, though. Would the searchers smell it outside?
She settled back into her seat beside the rock wall and took up her sewing. Levi sank down beside her, and the weight of his gaze watching her work made the skin on her arm tingle.
At last, she stretched out the stocking across her lap and whispered, “I thought these would help keep you warm until your shoes dry. I’m almost done with this one.” Just a few more stitches, then she could tie off the thread and work on the second one.
She sent a quick glance to check his expression. With brows lifted, he stared at the garment in her hands as though he was still trying to decipher her meaning. He finally lifted his gaze to meet hers. Even in a whisper, his “thank you” rang thick with earnestness.
She sent him a quick smile to acknowledge the words, then refocused on her stitching. Within a minute, she finished the first stocking and laid it out to measure for the second. Cutting the material with the knife blade was the hardest part of the project.
Levi held the soft leather in place as she wielded the blade. He kept his fingers well out of the way, but still, their hands brushed several times in the process. Each time, heat swept up her arm as though she’d been licked by a flame. Why was she so aware of this man? So affected by him?
