Fire and Ice by Mary Connealy

Author:Mary Connealy [Connealy, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC042030, FIC042040, FIC027050, Ranchers—Fiction, Frontier and pioneer life—Fiction, Man-woman relationships—Fiction
ISBN: 9781441269553
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2015-08-26T04:00:00+00:00

17

The rest of the journey was slow, but there was no more trouble. Bailey’s tension finally eased as they rode out of the dense woods into the open space around Gage’s house. The moonlight made everything visible for the first time since the accident. And when her tension left, it stripped away the grit she’d used to get home.

Now the pain pulsed from her wounds. Her stomach swooped. She fumbled with the buttons of her coat and saw the front of her shirt was soaked in blood.

“Hang on tight. I’m going to get my men out here.” Gage drew his gun and fired into the air. The noise made her horse jump, and Bailey grabbed at the saddle horn to stay upright. Her head spun.

Armed men came boiling out of the bunkhouse.

Gage snapped orders. “Ike, see to my horse. He’s hurt.”

A skinny cowpoke Bailey vaguely remembered meeting came fast and reached them just as they got to the house. He caught the reins. “What happened, boss?”

“He went down on the trail. Someone put a big branch across the road. His foreleg is cut, and I’m not sure what else. Look him over careful.” Gage dismounted.

Several of his men had come close to listen.

“You’re bleedin’, boss.” An older man, the foreman named Rowdy, stepped closer. He raised his voice, “Manny, fetch a lantern out of the house.”

One of the men ran into the house and ran out with a lantern, which he lit and brought over to Gage.

The oldster took the lantern and lit up Gage’s face. The man said, “You all right, Gage?”

“I’m fine. I just took a hit to the head. Ike, you tend my chestnut, the rest of you, lend a hand with the baggage.”

The men split up, heading for the packhorses. Someone lit a second lantern and carried it onto the porch. All the men milling around worked on Bailey’s nerves. She could handle almost anything except large groups of men.

Rowdy stayed by Gage, and they talked quietly. Ike stripped a pile of supplies packed behind the stallion’s saddle, dropped them to the ground, and led the horse away.

Bailey dismounted, tied her horse to the hitching post, then headed straight for Ma, thinking it would help keep her from fretting to be with another woman. She helped Ma down.

“Let’s go on inside.” Bailey watched Ma abandon her and rush to Gage’s side. “Someone help my boy. He hurt himself when he fell off his horse.”

Gage froze in midsentence. In the moonlight, with the help of the lanterns, Bailey saw Gage’s face turn so red it nearly shined in the dark. No man liked to admit he’d fallen off his horse. A horse going down and taking the rider along was completely different.

His men, working over the packs, stopped to look at Ma, then turned back fast to unstrapping and hauling. Bailey thought she heard a few snickers.

Rowdy rubbed his hand over his mouth. Then with a somewhat unsteady voice, like he was fighting not to laugh, he said, “You get your ma and your wife settled, Gage.

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