Read Online Love's Rescue by Tammy Barley - Free Book Online Page A

light. Jess lay in a small room constructed of thick pine logs. The walls to both sides were angled, the slanting, timbered ceiling only a few feet above her head where the roofline sloped down. Across the room rose a high log wall, its uppermost tiers nearly lost in shadows. In the far corner to her right was a door, and to her left was a window. No curtains covered it, and Jess was able to see that the sky outside was a deep gray—the hour was either after dusk or approaching dawn. She surmised that she was on the second floor, for the sky was all she could see.
    Where she was, she couldn’t guess. This was a place she had never been before, and, like the Indian man, this woman was a stranger.
    Reluctant to continue lying as though helpless, Jess rolled on one side and braced her hand against the mattress to sit up. She gasped as a sudden burning sensation raked her right arm.
    “Please, you must keep still,” the woman urged her. “The burns will hurt more if you use your arm. If you wish to sit,” she offered, “I will help.”
    Dazed, Jess allowed the kind woman to help her sit up. She took great care with Jess’s stinging arm, then placed a folded Indian blanket at her back for support.
    “I am called Red Deer,” the woman said, dipping a ladle in the water basin. “The one who brought you is my husband, Lone Wolf. Here, drink.”
    Jess complied eagerly, then thanked the woman. Finally, her mind was beginning to clear. With considerably slower movements, Jess took in her soot-blackened hands and the wide blotches of angry red skin along her arm. The burning sensation extended up her right arm and halfway across her chest. She was clothed in her linen chemise, which was good, she decided—she wouldn’t want to ruin a borrowed garment with greasy salves.
    With a sigh, Jess carefully shook back her long, tangled hair. She felt neither the weight nor the motion of her mother’s earrings. Her hand flew to her throat. The necklace was gone, too. Her jewelry! Jess scanned the dark room. To her right, her damaged cloak and gown hung on wall pegs. Her corset, petticoats, and pantalettes were folded neatly atop a dressing table. Beside them, twinkling in the pale lamplight, lay her rose and vine inlaid comb, her mother’s emerald and diamond earrings, and the emerald pendant Ambrose had given her. They were all she had left of the family she loved. From her garments drifted the bitter smell of smoke.
    Red Deer caught her gaze. “I will wash your clothing,” she assured Jess, “but I will tend to you first.” With a kind smile, Red Deer wrung a cloth soaked in water and handed it to her. Little shells that fringed her doeskin dress made gentle clinking sounds. “Do you know where you are?”
    Jess frowned as she carefully applied the cloth to her face and hands. “No, I don’t. I remember a long journey…sleeping on the ground.” The murmuring. “Men’s voices.”
    “The voices were those of the cattlemen who helped to bring you. This is the house of Jake Bennett—his ranch.”
    Jess narrowed her eyes sharply. Jake had waved his arm to someone—he must have been signaling Red Deer’s husband, Lone Wolf, to take her away. The last she’d seen Jake, he’d been standing before the blazing façade of her home, or what was left of it—right after he had let her father perish.
    “Is Bennett here?” she asked coldly.
    Red Deer frowned in confusion. “The ranchmen said he will not return for many days, but you need not worry. He will let you stay.”
    “Forgive me, Red Deer,” she countered, “but I don’t intend to stay.”
    Jake had let her family die. He should have allowed her father to try to get to her mother and Emma. He should have helped him. Instead, he held him back when they yet had a chance, and then, when it was too late to save them, he let her father die. He let them all die.
    The feelings of friendship she’d had for Jake had vanished as smoke. All she felt for him now was hatred.