Would-Be Wilderness Wife by Regina Scott

youth enter the drinking water.
    Drew had pulled up one of the buckets and was untying it from the rope. “No other way I know,” he said, tugging on the line as if testing its strength. “We could wave around a lantern, but if that smell’s caused by firedamp, we’ll only cause an explosion.”
    â€œAn explosion!” Catherine cried, hands pressed to her chest.
    Levi turned white. “You can’t put me in there, Drew. I won’t go.”
    Drew shrugged, coming around the wall toward his brother. “You’re the logical choice. You’re light enough to brace easily and strong enough to take care of yourself. Besides, you’ll know what you’re looking for.”
    Levi shook his curls off his forehead and pointed at Catherine. “She’s light. Make her go.”
    Catherine felt a moment of panic, but Drew waved away the suggestion with one hand. “You can’t send a woman in a dress into a pool that deep. The weight of her skirts would pull her down, and you’d never get her out. The idea is to fix the spring, not plug it up.”
    Catherine nearly choked.
That
was his reason for not putting her in the pool?
    Levi wavered a moment longer, then stalked up to Drew and held up his arms. “Fine. I’ll go. But you owe me.”
    â€œIs this safe?” Catherine asked as Drew knotted the rope around Levi’s waist. “How deep is that pool?”
    â€œAbout six feet,” he told her. “He’s not the best swimmer in the family, it’s true, but if the rope fails and he can’t reach the side easily, it will only take me an hour or so to locate Simon to help get him out.”
    Levi stared at him. “An hour!”
    Catherine frowned at Drew. For someone so careful of his mother, he seemed to have little regard for his brother’s well-being. But as Levi slung his leg over the edge of the wall, Drew winked at Catherine. What was he up to?
    He braced his feet on the stones and nodded to his brother. Levi leaned back against the rope and slowly edged into the pool. Drew played out the rope, and his brother shuddered as the cool water inched up his legs, then his torso. Catherine watched, fingers clasped, until only his curly blond head showed above the top.
    â€œWe’ve never had an issue with firedamp,” she heard Drew murmur beside her. “I’ll only keep him in a moment, but maybe he’ll think before jumping into things in the future.”
    Catherine managed a breath and nodded. It seemed Drew Wallin knew his brother better than she’d thought.
    â€œReport,” he called to Levi.
    â€œMoss,” Levi replied, twisting in the water. The eddies around him told Catherine that Levi was moving his arms and legs to stay afloat. “And something darker over there.” He bobbed toward the far side of the pool, closer to the trees.
    The rope tightened beside her. Catherine glanced up and caught her breath. Drew stood, arms stiff, shoulders hard. Surely King Arthur must have looked like that when he’d pulled the sword from the stone.
    â€œGet me out!” Levi shouted, and Drew hauled, muscles bunching. Catherine shook herself and held out her hands to grab Levi’s arms and help him up onto the wall. His hands were covered in something black. At first she thought it was mud, but Levi thrust a finger under her nose, and she recoiled at the potent smell.
    â€œManure,” he said, shaking off his hands and shaking his head at the same time. “Just a little. If there was more, it probably flushed out by now. Someone must have dumped it into the pool by mistake.”
    Catherine felt ill. “Surely everyone knows that isn’t healthy.”
    â€œEveryone knows.” Drew’s words were no less forceful for their quiet. He dropped the rope and tugged his brother upright. “No one in my family would do this, mistake or otherwise. Someone tried to poison the spring. I