Read Online Emily's Cowboy by Donna Gallagher - Free Book Online

suffocating me. I’m straining to breathe through the material covering my mouth. Clean oxygen is long gone.
    Then I see them, see my Sierra standing in front of her colt, throwing her head from side to side as if she can’t make up her mind which way to run, her nostrils flaring. I think of how much the smoke must be hurting her, filling her lungs even before the fire has a chance to consume her. Her eyes are wide, fearful, crazy as she rears on her hind legs, looking as if she is trying to protect her foal, her baby, ready to fight the cruel tentacles reaching out with burning fury from the fire’s belly. I hear the loud screech of my whistle before I realise I have called to her, and her ears prick up. She hears me! She is leading her foal.
    Now I see the other two horses, but I don’t see the remaining foal. I scan the area, obscured by the billowing, dense smoke, but find no sign of the small, defenceless animal. But at least I have found these ones. I need to lead them out of the fire’s path—and quickly. The tremble of the forest floor is telling me there is not much time.
    I run, looking over my shoulder, making sure the horses are with me. I can just make out the tree line, where the giant eucalyptus and gum trees end and our paddocks and fields begin. The horses rush past me. I can still hear thunderous sounds behind me, but it is not horse hooves—it’s the fire’s approach. It’s chasing me, catching me. Sparks and embers are all around. The heat, the smoke, the smell of singed hair filling my burning nostrils… My eyes are running, my breathing laboured.
    Then there’s a loud crack, like a whip or a thunder clap, and I’m on the ground. The pain is intense—my face, my neck. I can hear screaming, the piercing human sound of horrendous distress, someone in pure agony, but I can’t find the source of the screams…
     
    “Emily. Emily … Wake up, baby. You’re having a nightmare. Come back to me.”
    Emily had relived this nightmare over and over. As she was pulled back to reality—awoken from her dream state to Gareth’s face hovering over her, filled with concern—she swore she could smell the burning bushland, hear the screaming —her screaming as the burning branch had crashed down on her, leaving behind the gruesome reminder of that time, branded into her skin. She could not stop the reflex action of moving her hand to her face, feeling the knotted, damaged flesh under her fingertips, reminding her constantly of her pain.
    It had been Gareth who had come for her, saved her, known she would be looking to the welfare of her horses first and foremost. She remembered the torturous, unrelenting agony of the burns, her flesh withered and dead from the flames. The treatment of the burns had been nearly worse than the injuries themselves, as her bandages had been repeatedly changed and rotten skin scraped away. After surviving the ordeal, she had been left with hideously disfigured skin. She was a freak. A monster.
    “Are you still dreaming of the fire, Em?” Gareth said in tender tones as he drew her into his arms.
    “Not so much these days, but I guess the stress has fired them up again.” She squirmed at her terrible choice of words, a pun that held no amusement.
    “Oh, Emily, I don’t know what to say. But, baby, you need to let go of it, let go of that awful time. The fire is still burning inside you, still causing you pain. Let me help you extinguish the fire, help you put it behind you.”
    “How can you expect me to put it behind me when I live with it every day? Just brushing my teeth or hair in front of a mirror brings it all rushing back. Look at my face, Gareth… Look at me .”
    Emily was screaming at him as she dragged his face closer, refusing to let him pull away from the sight of her. She needed to remind him of what she was. Remind him why they had no future. How could she expect him to live with looking at her every day? She couldn’t stand it.
    “Do you know what I