Did he even
He didn’t put up a bit of a fight when she lifted her face to his and pressed her lips against his mouth, either.
He had the Winchester in his right hand. His left arm came up and went around her waist. He wasn’t thinking now. It was an instinctive reaction when he pulled her closer to him. She came eagerly, her body molding to his.
In the cool mountain air that surrounded them, the heat of her kiss seemed searing to Frank.
He didn’t have one. Other than the ones he had already stated, he didn’t have a single good reason not to give Meg what she so obviously wanted.
Then he heard something besides the thudding of his own heart.
The clink of bit chains, followed by a man’s voice.
With the arm that was already around her waist, Frank picked up Meg, drawing a started gasp from her, and hustled her away from the creek, deeper into the shadows underneath the thickening trees.
“Quiet,” he told her in an urgent whisper. “There’s somebody out here.”
Chapter 10
Frank listened intently, but the sounds didn’t grow louder. In fact, he heard voices only a couple more times, and then they faded away. Wherever and whoever those pilgrims were, they weren’t coming closer to Frank and Meg.
“Who was it?” Meg whispered to him.
Frank shook his head. “No idea. Sounded like several horses and men, though.”
“Do you think it was Palmer?”
That was an interesting possibility. As far as they knew, Palmer had been alone when he fled from Powderkeg Bay. He could have run into some other outlaws and joined up with them, though.
“I don’t know, but I intend to find out,” Frank told Meg. “Come on. Let’s get you to camp. We need to tell Salty about this so he’ll be on his guard, too.”
With Frank setting the pace, they moved quickly but quietly through the trees, heading back to the spot where they had left Salty. Frank hoped that nothing had happened to the old-timer while they were gone.
As they neared the camp, he heard snoring and knew that Salty was all right. A feeling of relief went through Frank. They emerged into the clearing and saw him slumped against the rock where he had been sitting earlier.
Frank nudged Salty’s foot with a booted toe. That caused the old man to come awake sputtering and thrashing. Salty’s hand moved toward the butt of his gun before Frank said, “Take it easy. It’s just us.”
Salty took his hat off and ran his fingers through the tangled thatch of white hair.
“Dadblast it,” he complained. “You come mighty near givin’ me a heart attack, Frank. You hadn’t ought to Injun up on a fella like that.”
“We heard men and horses moving around somewhere near here.”
That made Salty glance up, his complaints forgotten.
“You get a look at ‘em?” he asked.
“No, we just heard them.”
“Frank heard them,” Meg put in. “I didn’t really hear anything myself, so they must not have been too close.”
Salty climbed to his feet and put his hat back on. “Noises are funny things in these mountains. They can bounce around so they seem like they’re right close, but there ain’t really no tellin’ where they’re comin’ from.”
“I know,” Frank said with a nod. “That’s why we have to be careful. Hold off on building a fire, keep the horses and the mules quiet, and be on your guard.”
“From the way you’re talkin’, it sounds like you ain’t gonna be here.”
“I’m not,” Frank said.
With a worried frown, Meg asked, “Where are you going?”
“To find those hombres and see who they are. Chances are, they’re just some trappers or prospectors and don’t have anything to do with us.”
“But you have to find out for sure, don’t you?”
He nodded. “It’s the best way to stay alive.”
“I could come with you,” Meg offered.
Frank shook his head. “I’d rather have both of you here keeping an eye on the animals and our supplies. If anything happened to them, we’d be in mighty bad trouble.”
She looked as if she wanted to argue some more, but then she nodded and said in resignation, “I’ll do whatever you think is best, Frank.”
