Color of the Wind by Elizabeth Grayson

Author:Elizabeth Grayson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ePublishing Works!
Published: 2015-02-14T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Ardith looked up from where she was seated at the edge of her niece's bed when she heard the tread of boots across the porch.

"Do you think that's my papa?" China asked in a small, muffled voice, never raising her head from her tear-wet pillow.

Ardith stroked back a few tangled strands of the girl's damp hair. "I'll go see," she promised and climbed to her feet.

Baird was hanging his slicker on the coat rack when Ardith emerged from China's bedroom.

"Thank God you're here!" she whispered, hurrying toward him.

"Is China all right?" he asked and turned to her.

Ardith stopped and stared. "Are you?"

He was stoop-shouldered and haggard and soaking wet. His face was gray, and his eyes seemed as stark as the craters of the moon. Instinctively she reached for him.

He straightened as if every bone and sinew were protesting. "I'm fine."

Though she knew he was lying, she let it pass. She asked about Matt instead. "Lem said it was lightning that struck Matt down."

Baird nodded, but seemed too weary to form the words to tell her more.

She stepped closer to the man who just last night had been both her temptation and nemesis. Nearer to the man from whom she had sworn to keep her distance. She tightened her fingers around his arm, offering her strength, offering her comfort. Knowing full well that she must add to the burden he was carrying.

"China needs you."

Baird closed his eyes for a moment and nodded. "I knew she would. I wish I could have gotten here sooner, but I wanted to be the one to bring Matt home."

Grief burned in her throat. The tears Ardith had held inside for hours threatened to breach the rim of her lashes. "I'm glad you took such good care of him."

"My little girl loved him," he said simply. "It was the least I could do."

He looked toward the door to China's bed chamber. "Is she in there?"

Ardith inclined her head. "She's been waiting for you."

"As if I knew what to say to her."

His voice was as stark as his eyes, and she slid her arm around his waist, drawing him against her. She could feel the dampness of him through her clothes, sensed the marrow-deep weariness that made him bow his head over hers.

"She's your little girl," Ardith whispered. "Why don't you start out holding her?"

"Will that be enough?"

Ardith wasn't sure anything either of them could do would be enough. She had been patting and stroking and babbling platitudes for half the night, but China was inconsolable.

"You're her papa, Baird. She needs you with her."

She felt him nod against her hair. He straightened slowly. She could feel his fear and reticence in every movement, in the way he shifted back onto his heels, in the deliberate lift of his chest, in the way he relinquished the hand he'd lain against her back.

She saw the long, hard look he gave at the bottles of whiskey on the sideboard. She would hardly blame him if he took a good strong dose of whiskey to prepare himself for what lay ahead.

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