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Confused, she tried to force herself to calm down so she could make some sense of this, but she couldn’t. Watching him warily, she asked, “Where am I?” Her throat was dry as sand. She wanted water badly, but needed to solve the mystery of this first.
“Virginia City.”
“And this place is?”
“My bedroom.”
Her eyes went wide. “I need to go, I can’t stay here.”
“Maybe in a few days, but right now—”
Alarmed, she didn’t let him finish. She swung her legs over the side of the bed. Her mind was so foggy she wasn’t sure what was happening, but she knew she had to get away.
He stood and said urgently, “No! You’ll fall!”
He was right. The moment she stood, she was hit by a wave of weakness so strong, her legs folded as if they were made out of cards. She cried out involuntarily as she hit the floor.
He walked over to her. “As I said, maybe in a few days. Are you okay?”
Drawing away again, she looked up and recognized the face of the man from her dream. She stilled. Had it been a dream? “I’ll scream!”
He sighed. “If you feel that’s necessary, go right ahead, but I’m not going to hurt you—in any way. When you’re done, I can help you back into bed, or carry you to the facilities, whichever you’d prefer.”
Heated embarrassment burned her cheeks. Her needs were not something she talked about to a stranger, and especially not a White man stranger. “I can walk.”
“No, you can’t, but if you want to try, I’ll wait.”
At that moment she saw her bare legs sticking out from beneath the long-tailed shirt, and also realized she had on no underthings! No drawers. No shift. As quickly as her weakened state allowed, she reached up and pulled the blanket down. Ignoring him as best she could, she covered her bare legs. This was getting worse and worse.
“As I said, my name’s Rhine. And yours?”
“Eddy. Eddy Carmichael.”
“Pleased to meet you, MissCarmichael. You gave my partner Jim and I quite a scare out there in the desert, but I’m pleased to see you are recovering.”
Then her muddled brain remembered Nash’s perfidy and her walk across the desert, but nothing else. “How long have I been here?”
“Four or five hours.”
Lord, she was thirsty. “May I have some water please?” she croaked. She felt so weak. It was not a state she was accustomed to.
He poured her a glass from a pitcher on the nightstand and handed it to her. “Slowly,” he advised softly. “Just a little for now.”
She nodded and took a few short swallows. The water tasted so good and she was so thirsty she wanted to down the entire offering, but heeding his advice, she took only a few more slow pulls. Done, she handed the glass back and her parched throat savored the relief. “Why am I so weak?”
“Walking the Forty Mile Desert under a full sun takes its toll. So, MissEddy—facilities or back to bed?”
She hated to admit it but she really needed choice number one. Thoroughly scandalized, she confessed softly, “The facilities, but I can walk. Just point me in the right direction.” Looking around, she didn’t see a screen of any kind.
“It’s at the end of the hallway.”
“Oh,” she said disappointedly. Still bent on getting there under her own power, though, she wrestled with the blanket in an attempt to fashion it around her waist. Trying to get it out from under her hips and secured without treating him to another show of her legs was a struggle, however. He’d seen more of them than any man ever before.
“Do you want to go today?” he asked in a tone of muted amusement.
She shot him a glare. Reasonably certain the blanket was secured, she said, “Yes.” Now she just had to get up. No small task. The fullness of the blanket made it difficult to get her feet planted so she could stand. She decided she’d use the side of the bed to give her the leverage she needed. She scooted closer.
“You always this stubborn, MissCarmichael?”
