Read Online A Restless Wind by Siara Brandt - Free Book Online Page B

sweat glistened on his face and on his chest. 
         It sickened Hetty.  It seemed they would never find the bullet.  And she was worried about the bleeding.  But finally, there was a palpable sense of relief among everyone in the room at the sound of lead dropping into the basin.
         Jesse stood back, wiping his hands on a clean cloth while the three women bathed the wound and dressed it with herbs.  A clean bandage was tied tightly into place while prayers were said that the bleeding would soon stop.
         Rachel pulled a quilt over her husband while Jesse cleaned up the old bandages and picked up the basin filled with bloody water and took it outside.  Hetty left the room, too.  For a moment she leaned against the hallway wall and closed her eyes.  Only then did she realize that she was trembling.  What a terrible night it had been.  A very long night.  When she opened her eyes again, she saw that Lieta was watching her from the kitchen.
         Lieta drew her dress aside as Hetty walked into the room.  She was staring at the blood and at Hetty’s hair barely contained by the ribbon she had hastily tied around it.  Apparently Lieta knew about the shooting.
         “Will he be all right?”  Lieta asked.
         “I don’t know,”  Hetty replied.  “We’re doing everything we can.”
         Delia entered the kitchen.  “Hetty,”  she said.  “I’ve had some hot water taken up to your room so that you can wash.”
         “Thank you,”  Hetty replied gratefully.  Right now all she wanted to do was to change into some very necessary clean clothing.  Looking up, she also saw something in Lieta’s eyes that reminded her that she was not wearing a corset.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter 7
     
         By the time Hetty had come back downstairs in a fresh blue calico dress with all the proper underpinnings, Delia already had breakfast well under way.  Delicious smells had reached her room upstairs while she had dressed and she had found that, in spite of all that had happened, she was as hungry as a ranch hand. 
         She was tired, it was true.  But although she had been up all night, she didn’t feel as tired as she ought to.  Nervous energy, she supposed, kept her going.  No doubt it would all catch up with her later.
         Beyond the parlor window the blackness of night was giving way to the pale lavender of dawn.  The first birds were voicing their presence in the trees outside the ranch house.  A rooster crowed.  And then another.
         “You ca n’t leave without breakfast,”  she heard Delia’s voice in the kitchen.  “There’s no sense in going away hungry.”
         “I reckon I could do with something to eat,”  Jesse’s voice replied.  “To be honest, it smells too good to turn down.”
         Uncle Zeb walked into the parlor.  “And now, Hetty,”  he said.  “Do you want to tell me what you were doing last night?  You about gave me a fit when I found that mare prancing around outside the corral and your bed unslept in.”
         “The mare?”  Hetty asked.  “Is she alright?”
         He nodded.  “She’s fine.”
         Hetty told him about the ride she had taken, and about being thrown by the horse and how she had made her way to the cabin after hearing the child’s cry.  She did not, however, tell him everything about her encounter with Jesse McLaren in the cabin.  Those details she kept to herself.
         Across the hallway in the kitchen, Lieta was busy setting the table   She did not look up, but Hetty saw the woman’s dark eyes flash with something beyond mere speculation and one dark brow arched when her uncle said,  “I’m glad you’re back safe and sound.  You did the right thing bringing them here.  Come and have some breakfast.”
         “Fidelia,”  Zebadiah said when he entered the kitchen.