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"Is he—dead?" Joshua asked as Katherine hovered over the man.
"I don't think so." She bent and saw his chest rising. "No, we've got to get him on the bed though," she said, her hands going under the man's arms to lift him. He didn't reek like the others. Instead he smelled like fresh creek water.
"Leave him be, let him die," Joshua shouted coming toward her, his nostrils flaring.
"No Joshua, you don't understand, he was helping me. It was the soldiers. They tried—they,—" She couldn't finish.
"Its okay, sis. It's okay." Joshua's fury faded to shock as he came to squat beside her and helped her lift the wounded man. They practically drug him to her bed. The springs gave a loud whine as they laid him on the thin worn mattress.
"How come he helped you? I thought he was the prisoner?" Alarm shot through Josh's voice.
Hearing the censure in Joshua's voice made her realize Josh was already feeling guilty.
"He was. I don't know why he did it. But I have a suspicion he wasn't as guilty as they said he was. Otherwise he had good reason for what he did," Katherine explained as they scooted the man to the center of the bed. "They might be soldiers but they were not gentlemen."
Blood oozed from the fresh wound.
Without so much as a blink, Katherine went to the kitchen, pulled the tobacco from one of the dead men's mouth and then covered the prisoner's wound with it. The one called Hog had eaten and then pulled the plug out immediately, she remembered. She thought it strange for a man to just finish eating and then pull a plug. And it surprised her that she remembered it. It had become second nature to nurse now. The act didn't seem nasty, but necessary. A month or so ago she might have gagged at the action of doing such a thing, today it was commonplace. She wiped her hands on the hem of her skirt. She'd wash up later. Right now, the important thing was to help this man.
"Get me some water and a good knife," She directed her stunned brother.
"What are you gonna do?" Josh's face screwed up as he stared down at the man.
"I'm gonna save him if I can." Her voice grew steady, calmed. Strange as the sensation was, she knew she could save this man. He would not die.
"Maybe we ought to leave him be. He's a prisoner. They'll be comin' after him, won't they?" Joshua asked looking at her with wide eyes.
She glared at him with an unspoken reproach.
"I don't know. I've learned today that I know very little about life and people, Josh. But I won't let him bleed to death, and I won't have you a killer, Joshua Hightower. Now go get the water."
About to leave the room Joshua glanced over his shoulder. "Did they..."
"No, they didn't," Katherine answered not looking at her brother. She wouldn't think of that again.
He nodded.
She shuddered when Josh was out of sight, but only for a second. She wouldn't let him see her weaken. She couldn't afford to. She had to set the example now.
Quietly, Katherine tugged the buckskin jacket from the man, and removed the shirt. His flesh was smooth as silk, but tough as rawhide. Never in all her life had she seen such a man. His chest was hairless and his skin golden. He was...beautiful. It scared her to think of a man in this way, but for the life of her she couldn't find another way of describing him, to herself. She never thought of a man like this.
She gasped at the sight of him. He aroused her curiosity as something older than time passed through her, an awakening. Again her mind read the connection she shared with this stranger. The dream! He was the man in her dream; she knew it as sure as she knew her name.
Katherine wanted to ignore his all male beauty, but for a second she could do no less than stare at him. Her hands itched to trace the magnificent chest. What would it be like to be loved by a man such as this? But then she shook her head and wondered where such a thought came from.
This was neither the time nor the place for such thoughts.
It was a clean shot lodged in his side, she noticed as she cleaned away the blood. She felt his head quickly noting he wasn't feverish yet. His skin felt smooth and warm. The urge to caress his cheek became too much, and she gently stoked it with her fingertips. She held her own breath as she did so. It was like a calf's skin, soft.
Then Katherine noticed something disturbing. His skin and hers, it was the same color. She turned his arm over and laid hers up next to his. It was as brown as his. Her eyes widened. How could this be? How could her skin be as brown as an…Indian?
He sighed and she jumped.
She'd been outside a lot this summer she reckoned and that could be the answer. Of course, women who didn't wear their bonnet and didn't dress appropriately were browner, that's all. Too much sun exposure. That was the reason.
He'd lost consciousness and wasn't aware of her movements. She felt grateful for that.
It saved her from having to pour whiskey down his throat. She had never pulled a bullet from a man before, but the knowledge that she could took over.
