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.”“She had nothing to do with it.I cut him down, you dumb sonofabitch.I ought to horsewhip you for what you did to him.” Cooper felt an almost uncontrollable rage rising within.“He works for me and if you, or any of the horseshit that works for that old man, even looks cross-eyed at him, you’ll answer to me.Is that understood?”Dunbar got to his feet.“That’s a tall order fer one man to be agivin’,” he said cockily, trying to salvage his pride.“Is there something you want to do about it, Dunbar?”“I ain’t in no shape to be adoin’ anythin’ about it… now.But there’ll be a time—”“Any time is fine with me.”“I ain’t afergettin’ that woman sunk a knife in me.”“You’d better forget it, if you want to live.”Dunbar felt those blue eyes stabbing into him and he realized how dangerous Cooper Parnell could be.Fear touched him.“C’mon,” Fisher urged.“Let’s get outta here.If’n ya mess with him that ol’ man’ll have yore ass in a sling.Ya know what he done told ya ’bout that.”Dunbar took the handkerchief from around his neck and gave it to Fisher.“Shut up and tie up my arm.” When they were mounted and ready to ride out, he called, “Ya ain’t heard the last of this, Parnell.”“I hope not.” Cooper watched them ride away, then went to where Lorna was trying to get Griffin to his feet.“Here, let me do that.”“Let’s get him inside so I can tend to him.He’s bleeding badly.” She spoke calmly, breathing hard from her exertions.Cooper picked Griffin up in his arms.“I can still navigate by myself,” Griffin protested weakly as Cooper carried him into the cabin.Bonnie was half-sitting, half-leaning against the wall.Weak tears streaked her face.“Is he dead?”“Hell, no, I ain’t dead!” Griffin tried to cover his embarrassment with bluster.“I’m just arestin’ while I bleed to death.”Cooper eased him down on the pallet and Lorna knelt beside him, cutting away his shirt with her knife.With a competence born of long practice, she dabbed at the bloody wound with a cloth, studied it, then laid several thicknesses of the cloth over it.“The bullet went through, but there’s a bit of your shirt in there, Griff.I’ll have to get it out.”“Yes, ma’am.I’m obliged for what yo’re adoin’ ’n to ya for what ya done.I sure do hate it that I brought my trouble down on ya.They was dead set to hang me—”“It was my fault, Griff.I went to sleep and let them sneak up on us.”“You sure as shootin’ bluffed ole Dunbar.”“It was no bluff,” Lorna said quietly.“I was set to kill him if he raised the gun.”“Ya’d… a done it?” Griffin asked in a breathy whisper.“Yes.I would’ve killed him before I let him shoot you down.” She said it with no inflection at all.“We’re beholden to Mr.Parnell.I was sure of Dunbar, but I didn’t know about the other two.” She stood and looked up at him.“How did you know I was calling you?”“I knew.”Their eyes met and held.She nodded, gripped by a sudden shyness.The eyes looking so intently into hers were the bright blue of summer skies.For a moment they were enclosed in a timeless world, seeming to come close to each other, spirit moving effortlessly toward spirit.“I’m beholden to you, too, for keeping Dunbar from shooting me,” Cooper said.A smile crinkled the corners of his eyes and brightened a face that needed a shave and was streaked with dirt and sweat.Suddenly, to Lorna, it was a dear, familiar face, and she longed to place her palms on his cheeks and lean against his strength.Her answering smile lighted her brilliant, violet-blue eyes until they shone like stars.“It was what I was supposed to do,” she murmured for his ears alone.He nodded, and she thought how strange it was that they understood each other.It was as if they spoke a language other people didn’t know.“You’re the spunkiest woman I ever met.You’ll have to teach me how to throw a knife.”“I will, if you’ll lend me yours.I’ll need it to get the cloth out of Griffin’s wounds.”Cooper handed her the knife, then watched as she carefully wiped it on a clean cloth and placed it, alongside hers, on a stone beside the fire so that the tip was in the flame.She allowed the blades to heat for several minutes and then removed them and waved them in the air so that they cooled quickly.She fascinated Cooper as no human being had ever done before.He saw her tighten her lips grimly; she didn’t relish her task, but went at it, confidently picking the fragments of cloth from the wound by pinching them between the tips of the two blades.From her bent position beside Griffin, Lorna asked, “Cooper, will you bring the pan of hot water?”Cooper.It was the first time she had spoken his name.A strong, unidentifiable emotion set his hands trembling as he poured water from the teakettle into the pan.He set it on the floor beside her.He felt so right being with her, working with her.Then a thought struck him like a blow between the eyes.He was acting like a lovesick fool! He didn’t know anything about this woman, and even if he did, there was no room for a woman in his life right now.Hell, he was almost a hundred miles from home.Home was a horse ranch where he had all he could do to scratch out a living for himself and his mother.This woman who so completely dominated his thoughts had a family somewhere in these mountains.She might even have a husband, he reasoned, but he was sure she didn’t.Lorna had had no man.He heard a gasp of agony come from the young nester, and Lorna’s soothing words.The sounds reached him through the heavy fog of his troubled thoughts.He looked down to see Bonnie reach for Griffin’s hand and grip it hard.With tightly closed eyes, and jaws clenched in pain, he grasped her hand as if it were a lifeline in a storm.Her eyes looked like two burnt holes in a blanket and her face was filled with compassion.Even in her miserable condition she felt pity for his suffering.A disturbing realization hit Cooper—regardless of who and what you were, everyone needed someone.Lorna spent the afternoon caring for the two who lay in the cabin on the straw pallet.Cooper dressed the meat and roasted it over a fire he built behind the cabin.Watchfulness was a habit of a lifetime, so periodically he circled the cabin and scanned the area.He didn’t think Dunbar would be so foolish as to come back, but the man had suffered a blow to his pride and sooner or later he’d seek revenge [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]