Compromised Hearts Read Free Page B

state of undress and blushed. “Ifyou will give me but a moment’s privacy so that I might dress?”
    “Reckon so,” he drawled, but took his time turning around and returning to the campfire.
    After dressing and making a hasty trip to some nearby bushes, Emily tentatively approached the fire. She was not foolish enough to think herself safe simply because the man was not an Indian. From the time she had changed from a child into a woman she had known that even the most innocent-appearing of men could prove dangerous. Out here in the middle of nowhere, the danger was that much greater.
    “What’s your name?” he asked, ignoring her wariness as he served her coffee.
    “Emily,” she replied softly as she sat down next to Thornton.
    “Emily what?” he demanded.
    “Emily Cordelia Mason Brockinger,” she recited a little tartly. “And you, sir?”
    Biting back a grin, he replied, “Cloud Ryder.”
    She blinked. “I bee your pardon?”
    “Cloud Ryder. R-y-d-e-r. Just what are you doing out here?”
    “Besides walking?” she retorted dryly and saw his lips twitch. “We’re headed for the mountains.”
    “'The mountains’ is a little vague.”
    “The San Luis Valley.” She frowned when he laughed softly. “That’s funny?”
    “Actually, I was thinking of what Thorntonanswered when I asked him the same question. He said ‘Sandly’s.'” He felt a tremor low in his belly when he heard her soft, husky laugh. “You’re going the wrong way,” he said.
    “Nonsense,” she said in her best schoolmarm voice. “I am headed west.”
    “Fair enough, but the valley’s also south by several weeks’ ride.”
    Her heart sank. If it was several weeks’ ride, then it was many weeks’ walking. Somehow she had let herself believe that, if she reached the mountains, she would be fine. To hear that she would still have to travel many weeks southward was almost devastating. It was a struggle not to weep, but stiff Yankee pride kept her from showing any weakness before a stranger.
    Cloud covertly watched her struggle. The way she put her small chin up amused him even while he felt a twinge of admiration. He had seen how the news had devastated her, but she was not going to let it break her. She had a strength of character he could only approve of.
    “I see. So I am not even half the way there yet.”
    “Depends on where you started from.” “Boston originally, but I started walking two days ago.” “Why?”
    “The Indians attacked the wagon train I was with. They killed everyone.” He heard the touch of lingering horror inher voice and knew that was the incident that darkened her dreams. “Why not you or Thornton?”
    “I was away from the campsite. I’m not quite sure how Thornton survived. He hasn’t really said.”
    “Papa put me in a hole,” Thornton said suddenly. “He told me stay put ‘till all’s quiet and I did.”
    Emily barely checked her tears. The loss of so many friends was still too fresh. She thought of how eager the young Sears couple had been, how full of plans.
    “I’m sorry, ma’am,” Cloud said quietly. “How many were there?”
    “Nearly twenty.” She gazed at her hands, still blistered from the chore of burying so many.
    “So you picked up your boy and started walking west?” “Two days later, yes.” “Why’d you wait?”
    “The burying took me two whole days.”
    “You buried everyone?” he said softly.
    She read his reaction as one of surprise. “Well, I did not dig twenty graves. I didn’t think they would mind if I put a child in with his mother or father or put loved ones together.” She shivered at the memory.
    “That was a damned stupid thing to do,” he snapped, glaring at her.
    Emily decided that she preferred a lack of expression in his eyes to the hard, cold anger that now lit them. “It was the Christian thingto do, sir.”
    “Christian be damned. It was a fool thing to do.”
    “What was I to do?” she snapped, growing angry herself.