The Patricia Potter Western Romance Collection Volume Two by Patricia Potter

Author:Patricia Potter
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504056991
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2018-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

18

Mary Jo spent the rest of the evening with Jeff, just watching him as he slept. Whatever Shavna had given him to rest worked.

A small fire flickered, casting a glow over his face, over the freckles that seemed more pronounced than ever. But his breathing was easy and only occasionally, when he moved, did a small moan escape his lips.

He was a man, but he was also a boy. And he looked so young and vulnerable with the poultice on his chest and the many bruises and cuts that ringed the flesh around it. She had been so lucky it wasn’t worse.

Only Shavna sat with her, her two children nestled in buffalo robes. The men sat outside, smoking pipes, talking. Mary Jo wasn’t sure whether Wade was with them, or whether he was roaming the valley, expelling demons. He would return tonight, because it would be a discourtesy not to. And she knew now that while courtesy had not been supreme in his relations with. her, it was with these people.

As she looked at Jeff, she wondered about the younger Wade, the boy he’d once been. He couldn’t be that much older than she, and her life had not been easy, yet he had obviously been marked by events she couldn’t even comprehend. The war? He would have been very young, but many boys fought in that war. She knew a few, including some who had later become Rangers. Their eyes had been haunted, their faces marked forever. Her own husband had missed it; his company was one that had stayed in Texas, and she used to thank God that it had.

She leaned down and brushed her lips against Jeff’s cheek, wanting to guard him against death and horror and hopelessness. She loved him with every ounce of her being, and the last two days had shown her that she too might give up if he were taken from her.

Was that why Wade appeared so alone, so lost? His son? His wife? Or was it more than that? How many references had he made to the past, a past he obviously abhorred, one he felt made him an outcast forever? She couldn’t imagine him doing anything dishonorable. She understood why he had gone after those three men he’d said he killed. She too would have gone after anyone who had killed her son.

So she just stared at Jeff’s face, still young, still innocent, wishing it could always be thus, knowing it wouldn’t. And then Manchez returned to the tepee, and she knew it was time to leave. She knew that Wade would join her soon, not because of desire, or want, but because he didn’t want to offend those who had helped her son.

She felt terribly unsure. She had been so frightened these last few days, she just wanted to be held. Comforted. Reassured.

Loved.

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