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He stood up and she realized was asking her a question. “You don’t remember what happened, do you kid?”
Frowning, she tried to bring an image to mind, but in the end had to shake her head.
Wade nodded in understanding, reaching up to remove the filthy handkerchief tied around his neck. “I thought as much. It explains your reaction to a lot of things.”
Anna was still in a state of shock and confusion and did not notice him beginning to unbutton his shirt. “Do you recall your name? Who you are?”
She nodded.
“That’s a good start,” he said. “What about your family?”
Again, she nodded.
“Do you know where you came from?”
A sharp, unexpected pain pierced her chest. Closing her eyes, she slowly nodded.
“The village?” he asked quietly. “Was that home?”
With her eyes shut tightly, she wasn’t sure if she was trying to block out the image of the village or to recapture it. She gave Wade another nod.
There was a moment of silence before he gently told her, “I’m sorry, but you should know. There were no survivors.”
Her eyes remained closed as she felt the force of his words. There was no pain, only sorrow. It was something she had known in her heart all along. Whatever had happened in the mountain had completely wiped itself from her memory, however no amount of erasing could remove the feeling of loss. She had prolonged confronting those feelings, but deep inside she had known her family was gone. Her eyes burned with unshed tears.
“Are you all right?”
Wade’s gentle question brought her dry but anguished eyes up to look at him. He was kneeling directly in front of her and a warmth raced through her body and eased slightly the pain in her heart.
“You’re safe here, boy.”
His voice was low but tender and for the first time since this horrible incident occurred, Anna felt safe. With him.
She nodded and he offered a comforting smile before getting to his feet and shrugging out of his shirt. Her breath caught in her throat as he stood in the room naked from the waist up. Never before had she seen a naked man out
side her family. Never before had she seen anything so beautiful. He was far broader and stronger than she would have imagined beneath his loose cotton shirts. The thick growth of dark hair over his chest had her looking away before he could catch her examining him.
Her brother and father had both gone shirtless many times during the hot summer weather, but they had never looked anything like this. This man was the most perfect male species she had ever seen. A new spasm of quivers racked her body.
“Hey.” Wade mistook her convulsions and rushed back to her side. “It’s going to be all right.”
Automatically, Anna withdrew from his close proximity, not having been that close to a naked man before. He touched her arm only slightly, but her body gave a jolt. He frowned and Anna felt a flood of fear, praying her stupid female urges hadn’t betrayed her and threatened to expose her true identity. She held her breath.
“I’m not going to hurt you, boy.” Concern lit his eyes. Eyes that before she had never noticed were as blue as a glacier lake. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. I promise.”
The sincerity in his eyes held her spellbound. As she sat there drowning in those blue depths, a spark lit deep inside. It was a small spark, but it had a huge impact. She felt the force of it knock the breath from her lungs.
He must have realized she was staring at him far too long to be considered proper for he got to his feet and said, “I’m going to go and wash off this soot and grime. You just stay here and finish your drink and warm yourself by the fire.”
She nodded vaguely, wishing he wouldn’t go. Giving a friendly nod himself, he turned and left the room. Anna had an overwhelming urge to follow him.
The man was huge and burly and could scare the soul from a grizzly, but he was also tender and kind and Anna would only be too happy to follow him to the end of the earth.
Her eyes felt suddenly weary reminding her how truly exhausted she was. Though she hadn’t done anything physically strenuous, emotionally she was drained. The large chair she sat on was plush and inviting. She thought about heading back to the bunkhouse but somehow knew Joe would only put her to work.
Sleep had not been an option the night before. Not only did the day’s trauma keep her awake, but also was the fact she had never slept in the same quarters with a strange man. Least of all nine of them. The result was she had lied and listened to every creek, every snore and every small sound that entered the night.
* * *
