“Never.He’s a mysterious fellow.But a good-hearted one, for all I can see.”Preacher paused and looked Caleb straight in the eye.“And I’ll tell you this.I got a strong feeling that gang will do anything to protect him.”
ChapterTwenty-Three
The trail had been descendingfor miles, and for quite some time now, Sheila had been following Wendell along a bluff overlooking the river.Dodger was somewhere behind them.The gushing, roaring torrent was often right beneath them, and Sheila gazed down at the water as it raced along in heaving swells before exploding in bursts of white spray over gleaming boulders and shattered remains of once-great trees.
Over the course of the past few hours, the forest had been changing.The endless expanses of fir had given way to alternating woodlands of spruce and aspen.Sheila was no expert when it came to the flora of Colorado, but she knew one tree from another.The spruces rose straight and rigid to almost delicate silver spear points.And in groves closer to the water’s edge, the round leaves of the aspen—which in summer would turn and tremble at the first hint of storm—were now mere buds on the naked, gray-green branches.
The sun was nearly overhead, and she guessed it was sometime around noon when they reached a thickly wooded ravine that opened out onto the river and extended far into the mountainous green hills to the west.The trail dropped once again until they were nearly at the level of the river itself, and the green forest closed around them.
A few minutes later, they reached a stream that appeared to flow out of the very heart of the ravine.Crystal-clear water tumbled over a small waterfall into a shimmering pool.She gazed at the reflected glints of sunlight coming through the trees as Wendell directed his horse toward some shallows where they could traverse the stream.
Sheila’s back ached, her legs were cramped, and her bottom was numb from the long hours in the saddle.About an hour ago, as they passed the collapsed entrance to an abandoned mine and the ruin of a tiny shack, Wendell had slowed just enough to hand her some dry biscuits and then his water flask.She ate and drank as he ordered, but now she wished she hadn’t.
He showed no sign of stopping, so Sheila urged her horse closer.He turned in his saddle to look at her.
“What do you want?”
“I need to stop.”
“Why?”
“I need to…to make water.”
“Hold it.”
“I can’t,” she whispered.“Please, Wendell.It’s urgent.”
He looked ahead, clearly annoyed, and his cheeks puffed out as he expelled a deep breath.“We ain’t maybe ten miles away from where we’re heading.You can wait that long.”
She couldn’t.“I can’t, I tell you.Just a quick stop.Please.”
The sound of hooves thundering up behind them caused the older man to roll his eyes and then glower at Sheila.
“What’s going on?”Dodger demanded, reining in beside her.“What’s she want?”
“None of your business,” she retorted.
The words came sharper than wisdom called for, but fear had burned down into something harder now.She was tired of being handled, threatened, and spoken of as if she were baggage tied to a saddle.
“How’d you like a good slap?That’d make it my business.Now, what do you want?”
“Ain’t nothing to do with her.”Wendell leaned forward in his saddle.“We’re stopping here to water the horses.”
He was going to let her relieve herself, but she knew it was more to assert himself over Dodger than it was for her.This was a good turn, but he was still an outlaw.And if she ever had the chance, she’d make sure he faced justice in a court of law for abducting her.
“I’ll ride back a ways.”Dodger told them, wheeling his horse.“Don’t want nobody sneaking up on us.”
As the blackguard started off, Wendell started to call after him but stopped and watched him go, a disgusted frown on his face.
With a glance at Sheila, he dismounted.
“Git now,” he said as he helped her get down.“And don’t go taking your time, neither.”
As soon as her boots touched the ground, her knees buckled slightly.She grabbed hold of the stirrup leather.For a moment she thought her legs wouldn’t hold her weight.She glanced up at Wendell and was surprised by the fleeting look of concern that crossed the hawkish features.
It was gone almost at once, but she had seen it.That unsettled her nearly as much as his threats had.Wendell was not kind.Yet neither was he empty of all feeling, and that made him harder to understand.
She leaned against her horse’s flank and extended her bound wrists toward him.“Would you?”
