turned, the two men made a fire. There was cold chicken to eat and water
from canteens, but they wouldn't untie Tess's hands, and the effort to
eat suddenly seemed too great. She left the food, sipped some water and
lay down in the dirt.
She tried to tell herself that Jamie was alive. Any minute now he would
come rushing out from the bushes and kill the two men and take her away.
But he did not come. She closed her eyes in misery and tried to forget
the nightmare visions of the day.
Jeremiah came over and tossed a blanket around her shoulders and shoved
a pack beneath her head for a pillow.
'Don't think about going nowhere,' he warned her. David obviously didn't
think the warning was enough. He stood and walked to the piles by the
packhorse and came back with a good length of rope. She tried to inch
away from him, but he tied one end of the rope around her ankle.
Pinching her cheek, he spoke directly into her face.
'If you move, I'll feel it. If you run, I'll make you pay for it.' He
walked away with the other end of the rope in his hand.
It didn't really matter. If she had been threatened by evexy demon in
hell, she couldn't have run that night. She was too weary. Tears stung
her eyes.
When she closed them, she saw Jamie again, fighting, then falling. And
she heard his whisper.
I think I'm falling in love with you. It hurt to close her eyes; it hurt
to open them. She prayed for sleep against the nightmare images. She
tried to tell herself that he was still alive. But he would have come
for her if he was alive. He would have come.
And if he was not alive, well, then, she didn't want to live, either.
Jamie was alive, if only just barely.
Jori found him around midnight, when the moon was full and high. The
wagon had come home without Jamie or Tess, but very late. Jon had to try
and track them from town in the darkness, and even when he had found
signs that the wagon had stopped and the two of them had walked toward
the river, it still took him time to find Jamie's still, crumpled body.
He drew off his buckskin jacket and wrapped it around his friend. He
touched the wound at Jamie's temple where the blood had dried. Carefully
moving his fingers over the skull, he decided that it was not cracked or
crushed. He took his kerchief to the river and soaked it and brought it
back to Jamie, cleansing the bloo~way. Jamie's body was icy cold.
He needed warmth, and quickly.
Jon rose carefully and lifted his friend's body into his arms. He called
to his pinto and the animal obediently trotted over to him. Bracing
Jamie's weight with his hand upon the pommel, he managed to somehow
swing up with Jamie in his arms. Then he made a clucking sound and the
animal took off at a smooth lope.
At the ranch, Dolly, Hank and Jane were waiting with anxious concern.
When Jori burst in with Jamie's half naked body, Jane gasped and turned
white.
'Don't you dare faint on me, young lady!' Dolly ordered her.
'Bring him right to the sofa, Jori. Jane, you run upstairs and get
blankets, lots of them. And you, Hank, I'm going to need a sewing kit
