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He spit a mouthful of blood onto the walkway. “Uncle Charlie tried to help by leaping onto Ike’s back, but Ike sent a right to his jaw that laid him out flat.”
Uncle Charlie still lay unmoving an arm’s length from Thad. Teddy bent over him, brushing his hand along the Chinese man’s rounded shoulder. “He’s breathin’ okay,” the boy reported.
Leah mopped at the blood pouring from Thad’s scalp with her petticoat hem, then felt him all over. “Does it hurt here?” She pressed on his rib cage. “Here?”
He jerked when she touched his collarbone. “Hell, Leah, stop poking at me. I hurt everywhere.” But it sure felt good when she patted her small hand over his body.
She scooted to Uncle Charlie’s prone figure and spoke near his ear. “Uncle, can you hear me? Are you hurt?”
“Hear fine,” he replied in a trembly tenor voice. “Hurt maybe on head.”
Leah inspected a puffy-looking lump on Charlie’s forehead. “This looks like you ran into the bakery door.”
“He didn’t, neither!” Teddy yelled. “Uncle Charlie jumped on that big man’s back while he was hittin’ Pa. He was real brave!”
Thad forced his bruised body into a sitting position and focused on Leah. He didn’t like the fiery look that came into her eyes. He half expected her to march into the mercantile and lay Carl Ness out behind his counter.
“Leah,” he croaked. She twisted back to him and he got his right hand up high enough to lay it in her lap. “Can you get me home?”
Charlie sat up, then got to his feet and walked unsteadily back toward his bakery. “Uncle?” Leah called. “Do you need help?”
“I fine, Niece Leah. I eat cookies, then feel better.” The snapping black eyes studied Thad. “You take care of husband. Very brave man.”
“Teddy, can you tie your father’s horse to yours and lead it home? Your father can ride double with me.”
Teddy gave her a tentative smile. “Sure I can, Leah. I’m almost growed up.”
Thad started to chuckle but caught at his chest instead. The question was, he thought with that clarity that always came when he was hurt, could he even mount a horse? Maybe she should bring the farm wagon?
Naw. That would take too long, and heaven help him, he wanted to be home in his own house so he could nurse his hurts in private. He’d mount the damn horse if it killed him.
Somehow Leah jockeyed him into the saddle, then hiked up her skirt, climbed up behind him and clasped her arms around his waist.
“Honey, honey, not so tight.”
“I don’t want you to fall off. Hold on to the reins, Thad.”
Teddy was waiting on the porch by the time Lady and her double load stumbled to a stop next to the bottom step. Thad tipped himself out of the saddle, but his knees buckled and he hit the ground and rolled. Dammit, his ribs hurt! His back muscles were screaming, and his tongue was beginning to feel mushy.
With Teddy’s help, he crawled up the steps. “Son, you remember that liniment I used when Leah hurt her back?”
“Yeah. It’s in the barn.”
“Get it.”
His son raced for the barn. Teddy was a good kid. Guess he should tell him that more often.
And Leah…Hell, he’d tried hard to keep his mind—and his hands—off her. It scared him spitless to even think about losing her.
He closed his eyes with a half-swallowed groan. Sometimes he wondered when she’d become so important to him. It had started long before they’d made love the first—and last—time. And now…
Dammit to hell, he loved her. Leah was stubborn, courageous, sensible, funny and devoted to him and his son. The joy that had flooded him when he’d made love to her that night was just…frosting.
Half supporting him, Leah maneuvered him into the bedroom. With her free hand she flipped back the quilt on the bed and he settled his bashed-up body on the cool, smooth sheet.
Teddy tramped in, the bottle of dark liniment clutched in his hand. “I put some water to boil, ’n case you wanna, uh, clean him up some.”
Leah expelled a long breath. “Thad, do you have any spirits hidden away somewhere?”
“Yeah. In the pantry, behind the sack of sugar.”
Teddy raced to get the bottle, and while Leah got a basin of hot water ready to wash him, his son helped him pour out and swallow two good slugs of whiskey. Hell, Thad thought, he’d better make it three, and he gulped down another.
Leah shooed Teddy out to tend the horses, then dropped a soft towel into the basin and began to remove Thad’s blood-streaked clothes.
Oh, may the Lord have mercy on his soul. He was hard before she got to his belt buckle, and when she slid his drawers down over his naked backside, he was swollen and aching. As long as he stayed facedown on the bed, his manhood hidden, he might be able to handle it.
