Caress by Bittner Rosanne

Author:Bittner, Rosanne
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: e9781682303344
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2016-03-27T04:00:00+00:00

Samantha felt the flames, saw them in front of her eyes. She reached out for Blake, but he was on the other side of the flames, himself engulfed in the inferno. “Blake!” she screamed, trying to get to him, but her legs would not move. She gasped from the acrid smoke and unbearable hot air.

“Sam, it’s all right,” someone was telling her. “You were just dreaming.”

She gasped, moving from dream to reality, opening her eyes. It took her a moment to remember where she was. The horse shed! Her father’s bay whinnied in the stall next to them. The fire! Last night was not a nightmare then. Why else would they be in this shed? She looked at Blake, her eyes wide with terror. “My parents!” She touched his chest, which was cool, and she realized he had stayed there with her all night without a shirt or any covering. “Blake, you must be so cold.”

She drew her hands back then because of the pain she felt when she touched him. By the light of early dawn she could see that part of her palms and forearms were a vivid red with burns.

“My God, Sam, I’ve got to get you some help,” Blake told her.

“We’ve got to find my parents first,” she pleaded.

“Not until I see that you’re taken care of. You and that baby come first. I’ll get you someplace warm and find myself some clothes. Then I’ll start searching.” He rose and helped her to her feet. “Can you walk?”

“It isn’t that,” she answered. “It’s just hard to hold this rough blanket with my hands hurting so. Pull it around and hook it over my arms on both sides like a shawl.”

He helped her with the blanket, then found another and put it around his shoulders. “Wait a minute,” he told her. “There’s no sense in you walking with those burned ankles. We’ll use your father’s bay.”

He hurried to take the horse out of its stall, then put a bit and bridle on it. He hoisted Samantha onto its back so that she sat sideways, and she managed to grasp the horse’s mane with her right hand, which was not as badly burned as the left, to help her keep her balance. Blake picked up his rifle and took hold of the reins, carefully opening the shed door and looking out first before exiting, then led the horse outside into the morning sunlight. “So,” Blake muttered, “they finally decided to teach Lawrence a lesson. I wish the President could see this.” Both of them felt the horror of the devastation before them.

“Blake, please just go over there between the parsonage and the church,” Samantha pleaded, her heart aching fiercely at the sight of the burned-out parsonage. It was obvious nothing was salvageable. “Mother and Father might be someplace near.”

“Knowing them, they’re probably in town helping anyone who needs it,” he told her, praying he was right but almost sure he was wrong. If the Walters were alive, they would be close by, looking for their daughter.

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