Lonestar's Lady by Deborah Camp

Author:Deborah Camp [Camp, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-12-15T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Moving the curtain of her hair away from the side of her neck, he kissed her there slowly, letting his lips taste and caress her until she trembled.

“Don’t be afraid,” he whispered against her skin.

She closed her eyes and the tightness in her chest subsided. Believing him, believing in him, corralled her misgivings. Just as she was thinking she might fall back into the bed and give herself completely over to him, he straightened away from her with a jerk. Her eyes flew open. Golden light flickered across his face before he sprang up.

“Fire,” he rasped, stomping out of the bedroom toward the side window of the house. “It’s the barn! Get your shoes on and grab some blankets and a bucket!” And then he was gone.

Spurred by stark fear, Gussie sprang up and shoved her feet into her boots as she snatched at the folded blankets she’d placed on top of the cedar chest. She could smell the smoke before she burst out of the back door, toting the blankets and a bucket and headed for the cistern beside the well. She dunked in the bucket as she stared, wild-eyed, at the barn where flames and black smoke shot out the back window. The cat and her kittens sat huddled together on the porch while Buster ran frantically about, barking furiously at the snapping fire.

With the full bucket in one hand and the blankets clutched against her with her free arm, she ran as fast as she could to the barn. The goats and pigs ran out of the barn and Gussie knew that Lonestar had released them from their pens inside. Stumbling into the barn, she blinked against the acrid smoke, which immediately stung her eyes and parched her throat. Fire licked up the back wall of the barn where Lonestar stood, a big horse blanket in his hands, flapping it to smother the flames. She hurried to him, dumping the blankets at his feet and handing over the bucket to him. He flung the water at the base of the wall, snuffing out some of the fire.

“More,” he ordered. “Get it from the horse trough! Open the stalls and let the horses and mules into the corral!” He coughed and picked up the blankets.

Gussie flung open stall doors as she ran toward the front of the barn where a trough stood, full of water. She filled the bucket as she looked toward the corral gate to be sure it was still closed. Thankfully, it was, and she edged around the nervous, nickering horses and mules to get back into the barn.

This time she didn’t give the bucket to Lonestar. Instead, she mirrored his earlier action and doused flame at the base of the wall. Lonestar continued to use the blankets to smother flames, stomping on them with his shoes. She dashed back to the trough. How many trips she made, she couldn’t count. Her legs trembled and her shoulder and arm muscles cramped as she toted another bucket full of water into the smoke-filled, hot as blazes barn.

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