“Damn you, Leah, you’re supposed to feed us! It’s time to eat and ain’t nothin’ cooked. And what’re you doin’ layin’ in the sun? You’ll get burnt and then Revis won’t like you anymore.”
Leah didn’t move. Her eyes were open but she didn’t seem to see anything.
“Leah?” He knelt beside her. “You been hurt?” There was concern in his voice. “You gonna talk to me or you rather just lay around?”
Tentatively he touched her forehead. Her skin was hot, but she didn’t move at his touch. Frowning, he stood upright and gave a high-pitched whistle.
Quickly both Bud and Cal appeared from the forest.
“Look here at my sister,” Abe said indignantly. “Either of you know what’s wrong with her?”
Cal knelt by Leah, his big body shading her. Slowly he reached out a hand and touched her cheek. He looked up at his brother, seemed to get an answer to his silent question, and the next moment he lifted Leah into his arms.
“Hey!” Abe protested. “You can’t do that. You leave her here. I’ll take care of her.”
Cal started toward the forest with Leah.
“You hear me, you overgrown piece of dog crap?”
Bud planted himself in front of Abe.
“Here! Get out of the way,” Abe commanded. “You can’t take my sister off to who-knows-where. And that rich husband of hers ain’t gonna want her if she’s sick. She ain’t got nobody but me.”
For all Abe’s protesting, he stayed where he was when both brothers disappeared into the woods.
Wesley was outside the cabin, shirtless, walking around, flexing and unflexing his arms, trying to get strength back into his side. He halted when he heard the footsteps coming up the path. Usually Bud and Cal didn’t use the briar-covered path but came their own way through the underbrush.
Wesley slipped out of sight until he was sure his visitors were indeed the boys. When he saw Cal carrying Leah, he ran forward.
“Is she hurt?” he asked as he took her from the young men. “What happened to her? Did that Revis—? I thought you two were watching her.”
Leah lay limp in his arms, her eyes closed as if she were unconscious. He took her into the cabin and put her on the bed. He kept a bucket of water in the cabin and now he dipped a cloth in it, a cloth that had once been part of his bandages, and put the cool fabric on her forehead.
Leah groaned, turned to her side, drew her knees into her chest, and lay still.
“You two better start talking,” Wes said, his eyes narrowed. “And fast.”
Cal spoke first. “She told me she wanted privacy this morning and we gave it but after an hour we began to look for her.”
“We followed horse tracks down the mountain and at the bottom we heard shots,” Bud said.
“By the time we got there Revis had killed a man and shot a woman. He and Leah were riding fast back up the mountain. When we got to the cabin she was like that and Revis was gone.”
Wesley walked away from the cot. “I thought all this Revis did was rob people.”
“He kills people when he feels like it,” Bud said with a stiff jaw.
Wesley b
anged his fist against the wall. “What a fool I was! How could I have left her there? I should have taken her away immediately.”
“You would have bled to death,” Cal said flatly.
Wes was quiet for a moment as he turned to stare at Leah. “No doubt she witnessed the shootings and that’s what’s wrong with her.”
Suddenly he crossed the cabin in two strides, grabbed her shoulders hard, and lifted her to a sitting position. “Damn you, Leah!” he yelled in her face. “Why do you think you have to save the world? Why couldn’t you have told me the truth? Why did I have to be so stupid as to believe you? I thought you’d be all right and now look at you. Damn you! Damn you!”
Wesley began shaking her and kept it up until Cal put his hand on Wes’s shoulder. Abruptly, Wes stopped and saw there were tears in Leah’s eyes. He pulled her to him fiercely. “That’s it, sweetheart, cry all you want. You’re safe now.”