Read Online Dorothy Garlock - [Colorado Wind 03] by Wind of Promise - Free Book Online Page B

could happen to us out here and there’s nobody to help.”
    “We’ve got Mr. Wisner and Mary Ben. And you’ve got me.” It bewildered Henry to see his mother so worried.
    “Yes. I’ve got you and Vanessa. The two of you are my life, and I’m so afraid for you.”
    They had been on the trail about an hour when they met a group of horsemen headed for Dodge City. Ellie drew in a frightened breath as they approached and gripped the side of the wagon seat. Vanessa placed the shotgun across her lap and watched them carefully. The men eyed the women curiously, tipped their hats and rode on. Ellie kept looking back as if she expected them to turn and follow. Just before they reached the Cimarron cutoff, they met a wagon filled with hides. The driver snatched his hat from his head when he saw Ellie and pulled his team to the side of the trail so they could pass.
    There was no sign of Kain DeBolt.
    At noon they stopped to eat, watered the teams and let them graze for an hour, then hitched up and went on. Four horsemen overtook them in the middle of the afternoon. They swung wide of the wagons. Vanessa thought one of them could have been the young bully she had hit with the shovel back in Dodge City. They were dirty, tough looking men. She was relieved when they went on ahead and soon became a dancing speck on the horizon.
    By evening Vanessa was sure it had been the most miserable day they’d spent since leaving Springfield. Most of the time Henry had ridden beside the Wisner wagon. He was enjoying the novelty of having someone new to visit with. Ellie, awash in guilt for being instrumental in bringing Vanessa and Henry into this lawless country, was wrapped in her own thoughts. Vanessa realized how close to death they had all been this morning and wondered if they should turn back or keep going.
    Kain DeBolt had been in and out of her thoughts all day. They had exchanged only a few words, yet his face stayed in her thoughts with the memory of his voice. No man had ever disturbed her like that before, and she was irritated by it, fighting the feeling. She understood herself very well, and she was perfectly aware that something had happened that day in Dodge City when she had looked at him. Just what it was she didn’t know, but a connection had been forged between them. Even now, just thinking about it, she was conscious of a strange sensation tingling along her nerves. He had made no effort that day to mask the look of interest in his eyes. It was the look a man gave to a woman he wanted. She had seen that look in the eyes of men before but it had never affected her like the look Kain had given her.
    He was different, the kind of man who in the proper clothing would fit in anywhere. There was something that went beyond the handsome darkness of his face, his tawny eyes, his lean strength or the hard, strong maleness of him. The scar across his cheekbone only added to the mystique that surrounded him. He was a doing man, as they said back in Missouri. He had taken an enormous personal risk to get their mules back for them. She wondered if she would ever get the chance to thank him.
     
    *  *  *
     
    Kain drove the horses a good five miles back down the trail, then stung each one of them on the rump with the whip and sent them galloping off in different directions. He was sure of one thing: it would be many days before the breed and the kid rode those horses.
    He was sick. He sagged in the saddle and closed his eyes against the agonizing, gut wrenching pains turning his stomach inside out. The pain hadn’t bothered him much, except for a little gnawing now and then, since he’d left Dodge City, and he had come to believe that whatever had ailed him had passed. Early that morning he had eaten a can of peaches, not wanting to take the time to cook breakfast. The damn peaches could have been tainted, he thought. They sure were not sitting right in his stomach.
    He turned his horse to the river and at the end of an animal