Yesterday's Magic (21 page)

Attention that he’d have been more than happy
to give if Mrs. Bean hadn’t come in.

One thing was for sure. If there was suitor
at home, he was a fool. Because if he’d kissed her, even once, he
should have known better than to let her leave his side, let alone
the county and the state. Kissing Bella was like having a warm bed
on a cold night or a sweet treat after a big meal. It was something
to look forward to, something to savor.

Something he needed to forget. She was just
passing through. If he made a fool out of himself over her,
everybody in the town would have a good laugh at his expense when
she’d moved on.

Poor Jedidiah McNeil. Just like his old
man.

That’s what they’d be saying. He wasn’t going
to give them the chance. If he needed something to rub up against
him, he’d get a cat. If he needed something to make his cock hard
with need, he’d spend a couple days in Dodge City—there was always
a woman there that would spread her legs for the right price.

Jed drank the last sips of his lukewarm
coffee and set his cup down with a thud. He stood, put on his coat
and hat, and opened the door of the sheriff’s office. The town was
quiet but that didn’t mean he could get lazy.

The snow outside his office door came up past
the top of his boots. He figured they’d gotten at least five or six
inches. The buildings in town blocked the wind but he knew that
travel on the roads outside of town would be treacherous.

He walked through the town, stopping to check
the doors on several businesses. Everything was locked up tight. He
headed back toward his office. He was less than fifteen feet from
the door when he saw the horse.

There was no rider on it and no saddle. Jed
walked toward the animal but the falling snow obscured his vision
and it wasn’t until he got within twenty feet that he realized it
was Rain, Freida’s horse.

“Holy shit,” he said. “Where the hell did you
come from?”

The horse snorted loudly and the sound seemed
to carry across the quiet town. Jed took off running. If he was
right, then there was no time to waste.

Two minutes later, he was pounding on Bart’s
front door. After what seemed like an eternity, the door swung
open. Bart stood in the doorway, wearing nothing but his long
johns, and he had a gun pointed directly at Jed’s heart. “This
better be good,” he said.

“It’s not good. Freida’s horse just showed
up. I suspect that either Freida or Bella or both of them were on
their way to town in the wagon and something happened to cause one
of the horses to break away.”

For the first time, Bart seemed to notice the
cold and the biting wind. “Damn, Jed. Nobody could last long
outside in this.”

Jed felt the squeeze around his heart. “I
know. I’m going to get both of our horses saddled. How fast can you
get dressed?”

In less than five minutes, the two men were
riding out of town. The wind whipped the snow around them and with
every step the horse took, Jed could feel his anxiety grow.
What
would have possessed them to make a trip into town?

He should have stayed. But he’d let Bella
shove him out the door—had let his own pride get in the way of
doing what was right.

He and Bart pushed their mounts hard. By the
time they reached Freida’s cabin, the horses were panting. Jed
fairly jumped out of his saddle, reached Freida’s door in two long
strides, and knocked just once before opening the door.

The lantern next to Freida’s bed was lit,
allowing him to take in the cabin with one look. Freida lay in her
bed. Her eyes were closed, her coloring was pale, and he could see
her chest rising and lowering as she took shallow breaths.

He walked past the bed, opened the door of
the small bedroom, and felt his own breath come hard. It was empty.
Bella was gone.

“Freida,” he said, moving quickly to the
woman’s side. “Where’s Bella?”

He laid a hand on Freida’s forehead. The
woman was burning up with fever. “Freida,” he repeated. She opened
her eyes.

“Jedidiah,” she said, her voice hoarse.
“Don’t let Bella go out into the storm.”

He didn’t have the heart to tell her that it
was too late for that. “Sleep now, Freida.” He patted the woman’s
hand.

He backed away from the bed, coming to stand
near Bart. “I’m going to look for Bella,” he said. “Ride back into
town and get Doc Winder to see to Freida. While you’re there, get
as many men as you can and have them spread out. We need to find
Bella and we need to find her fast.”

“Jed,” Bart said, putting a hand on his arm.
“It may already be too late.”

“God damn it, Bart,” Jed said, opening the
door. “Don’t you think I already know that?”

Jed got on his horse and at the end of
Freida’s lane, turned his horse back toward town. He had to assume
that Bella had started off in the right direction and that she’d
lost her way somewhere between here and her destination. He pulled
his coat tighter around his neck and cursed the damn wind. Not only
did it make it seem colder than it probably was, but it made it
impossible to see any tracks—they were wiped away in a matter of
minutes.

He rode toward town for about ten minutes. He
stopped, looked up, located the North Star, and headed that
direction. Fifteen minutes later, he stopped riding. Nothing. He
turned back, altering his course a bit, trying to cover as much
ground as possible. When he was back where he started, he turned
his horse to the south.

He was running out of time.
She
was
running out of time. Something had happened or that horse would not
have wandered into town on its own. He was a practical man and
since he’d seen Freida’s horse, he’d been preparing himself for the
worst. But there’d been some hope in his heart—some hope that he
could find her before it was too late.

But his hope had faded and the growing sense
of despair made his bones ache and his chest feel tight. He pulled
up his horse and was just about to turn around, when he heard a
noise. It was faint but it sounded like something striking wood.
Thump. Thump. Thump.

The wind was blowing so fiercely that it was
hard to tell but he thought the noise was coming from a grove of
trees to his right. He edged his horse in that direction but didn’t
see any signs of a wagon. He stopped to listen again.
Thump.
Thump. Thump.

He urged his horse on, through the trees. The
bare branches scratched at him and he thought for sure he had been
mistaken. But then, he heard
thump, thump, thump
and he
pulled his horse sharply to the left. When he saw Freida’s rig, his
heart dropped to his stomach. The wagon was in a gully and it was
lying on its side. Sunshine stood ten feet away.

Jesus Christ. How the hell had they ended up
here? The road was a good two hundred yards away. “Bella,” he
yelled. He kicked his horse sharply in the ribs and the animal
bolted through snow that practically came up to its belly.

He slid out of the saddle and grabbed his
rifle. “Bella,” he yelled again.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
It was
coming from under the wagon.

He lunged forward, almost stumbling upon her.
She wasn’t under the wagon, just wedged up against the
undercarriage. She was curled up in a ball, in the small space
between the front and back wheels, with snow packed high around
her. At first he thought she might be dead. Her eyes were closed
and she had several blankets heaped upon her. But then suddenly,
without even opening her eyes, she reached out an arm. In her hand
she held a rolling pin which she thumped three times against the
bottom of the wagon.

It was a glorious sound.

Her arm fell back down and with an awkward
motion, she tucked it back under the blankets.

“Bella,” he said.

Her eyes opened.

“Bella,” he said again. “Everything is going
to be fine. I’ve got you now.”

She licked her lips. “Freida,” she whispered,
“needs help.”

“I know. I’ve seen her. Bart is on his way to
get the doctor now.”

Bella let out a deep breath and she seemed
even smaller, more frail. “Be careful,” she warned. “There’s a
bear,” she said. Then her eyes rolled back in her head and she
fainted dead away.

He jerked his head up and scanned the area.
It was snowing and blowing so damn hard that he couldn’t see more
than ten feet in any direction. If there was a bear, it would
practically be upon them before he’d be able to see it.

Christ. Jed’s heart was pounding in his
chest. He had to get Bella out of the cold. He pushed aside the
snow that she’d piled high around her and pulled her, blankets and
all, out of the small space that she’d burrowed into. He gathered
her up in his arms and stood. She blinked her eyes and he knew that
she was again with him. But he also knew that she was in no shape
to ride her own horse.

The wind blew the snow, which seemed more
like ice, toward his face. It cut into his raw skin. He shifted
Bella so that her face was pressed against his coat. He stepped up
onto the side of the wagon, walked to the very rear, and whistled
for his horse. Once the animal was close enough, Jed threw a leg
over the saddle and climbed on, all the while doing his best not to
jostle Bella.

“I’ve got you,” he said. “Don’t worry.”

The wind carried his words and he knew she
hadn’t heard him. It didn’t matter because he wasn’t so much
reassuring her as he was reassuring himself. His hands were full of
Bella and he used his knees to guide his horse. He passed by
Sunshine and whistled and thankfully the horse had the good sense
to follow him.

She was shivering so hard that he could feel
her shaking through the thick blankets. He kept one arm wrapped
around her and used his teeth to pull the glove off his other hand.
He shifted her just enough that he could press the palm of his hand
against her cheek. It alarmed him to feel how cold her skin
was.

She’d done her best to stay alive but time
was running out. He needed to get her warmed up. Fast.

Freida lived north of town. He lived south,
closer to where she’d somehow ended up.

He headed for home, praying he’d get there in
time.

It seemed like forever but it was probably
only another ten minutes before he reached his cabin. Once there,
he held her tight to his chest and slid off his horse. He braced
her body against the wall so that he could free one hand to fumble
with the door. Once he got it unlatched, he kicked it open the rest
of the way.

He carried her inside the dark cabin and laid
her as gently as possible on the rug in front of his fireplace.
Moving as fast as he could, he soon got a fire lit. He threw on a
couple extra pieces of wood, knowing that warmth was what her body
craved.

He stood up, reached for the lantern that
hung next to the fireplace, and lit it. Soft light flooded the room
and it confirmed what he’d suspected but hadn’t been able to see in
the darkness. The blankets were wet. Lying on the ground in the
blowing snow had taken its toll.

Now she lay flat on her back, shivering like
a wet cat. He quickly pulled away the blankets and her wet hat,
too. Her long hair clung to her head and he thought it was likely
from sweat. Digging out a place in the snow would have been hard
work.

He undid the front buttons of her wet cloak
and as gently as he could, he pulled her arms free. He tossed the
garment to the side.

She wore a big sweater over her dress. It
came to her knees and he was sure that he’d seen Freida wear the
garment. She’d been smart to wear extra clothes but right now, that
wasn’t helping her. The sweater plus the dress underneath it were
wet and they were stealing heat from her body.

“Bella,” he said. “Open your eyes,” he
ordered, his voice sharp.

She did.

“You need to out of those wet clothes. Can
you manage?”

It calmed him when she nodded and her hands
reached for the hem on her sweater. But calm vanished when he saw
that her motions were uncoordinated and her fingers could not grasp
the edge of the fabric.

He knew there was no time to waste. He’d seen
more than one man succumb to cold over the years and somewhere near
the end, they always lost their ability to move with any sense of
order.

With one arm, he propped her up into a
sitting position, grabbed the lower edge of the sweater with his
free hand, and with one good yank, pulled the wet sweater over her
head. He tossed it somewhere behind him.

Her dress needed to come off too and there
was no way she was going to be able to manage the buttons.

Oh, hell. He laid her back down and his own
hands started to shake. It had nothing to do with being cold.
“Bella, I’d close my eyes but you don’t have time for me to fumble
around.”

She didn’t act like she’d heard him but it
still made him feel better to say the words. He rolled her so that
she was lying face down on the rug. He gathered her long thick hair
in one hand and gently pulled it to the side. He looked at the tiny
buttons that started at her neck and ending just at the curve of
her bottom. He worked as quickly as he could but his own fingers
were cold and uncooperative.

Finally, he spread the wet, heavy material,
baring her back, then her shoulders. He stopped.

She was lovely. Absolutely lovely. Her skin
was honey-colored and smooth as silk. That was disconcerting enough
but then he saw her undergarment. It was the strangest thing he’d
ever seen, not at all like the corsets that he’d seen on other
women or that he’d seen drying on his sister’s clothesline. No. It
was much smaller, barely a couple inches wide. It stretched across
her back, hooking in the middle.

It was the brightest shade of pink he’d ever
seen.