McKettrick's Choice - Linda Lael Miller [140]
Another few inches to the right, and the wound might have been fatal.
And it could just as easily have been Holt who was hit, instead of Rafe.
Melina snorted, unaware of the upheaval inside Lorelei. “‘A little displeased’? I’ve never seen a man look like that—white around the mouth, and like his skin had been pulled tight—and I’ve seen plenty. If he didn’t have to worry about another Indian attack, and protecting all of us and the herd, he’d still be yelling at you.”
“He did not yell at me.” Lorelei straightened in the saddle. “He wouldn’t dare.”
Melina actually laughed. One would think, after they’d been set upon by Indians and Rafe and another man had been grievously injured, she would be in a more circumspect state of mind. “For a smart woman,” she said, “you sure can be stupid sometimes.”
Lorelei reddened. “Whose side are you on, anyway?” she sputtered. “I thought you were my friend!”
“I am your friend,” Melina replied. “When you crawled out from under that wagon, jumped on Seesaw and rode after the men, I was so scared I almost died. I figured those Indians would get you for sure.”
Lorelei looked sideways at Melina and saw a tear slip down her cheek.
And she said what she hadn’t been able to say to Holt.
“I’m sorry.”
Melina scrubbed at her face with the back of one grubby hand. “Maybe you are, and maybe you’re just saying that. Either way, I’m so mad I could snatch you bald-headed, and you’d better stay out of Heddy’s way for a while, too, because she’s likely to take a switch to you.”
“Heddy would have done the same thing I did if it had been John out there, set upon by Comanches. So would you, if it had been Gabe—”
“But it was Holt,” Melina pointed out, as Lorelei realized what she was saying and gulped back the rest of the sentence.
Lorelei kept her gaze turned forward, watching Holt. He was riding with Frank Corrales and the Captain now, and they all had their rifles out of the scabbards and ready to fire. As they reached the rocky place where the Indians had hidden, they readied themselves visibly for another fight, and they didn’t even try to avoid the bodies in the trail.
In another few minutes, the wagon and side riders would pass, and then the herd. Lorelei closed her eyes against the images that aroused, but they only rose up bloodier and more vivid than before.
They traveled between the great rocks, the herd breaking into streams behind them, but there was no new attack, not then, and not when they came out into the open again. Lorelei drew back on Seesaw’s reins, partly because she wanted to check on Rafe and the other man, and partly because she knew Melina would start up the earlier conversation again if she didn’t.
Rafe’s shirt was soaked with blood, but he’d raised himself partway up to sit with his back against the wagon box, his good hand supporting his wounded arm. The cowboy wasn’t faring as well; he grimaced at every bump, and his narrow, too-youthful face was pale behind the obligatory coating of trail dirt. Tillie had made a bed for the baby in an old tool crate, and she knelt next to the other wrangler, pushing Sorrowful away when he tried to lick the man’s hand.
Heddy turned in the wagon seat and skewered Lorelei with a look that said she’d have a few things to say, herself, when the opportunity presented itself.
Lorelei pulled her hat brim down over her eyes and concentrated on Rafe. “I suppose you’re furious with me, too,” she called, over the din, “just like everybody else.”
He grinned. “No, Miss Lorelei,” he shouted back. “I think you’re brave to the point of stupidity, but I kind of like that in a person.”
Lorelei laughed, something she’d never thought she’d do again after all that had happened that day. “You’ll have a spectacular story to tell once you get back to the Triple M,” she replied, and instantly felt sad, because when Rafe went back to the Arizona Territory and