by Caroline Lee
Cam was impressed, despite himself. Sure, it wasn’t a particularly hard shot—he could’ve easily make it from over twice the distance—but the fact that the dandy had made it was pretty remarkable. He urged his horse after Carderock’s, and thought that maybe he was going to have to re-evaluate his opinion of the man. He dressed like a citified dude, sure, but Cam was beginning to suspect there was more to him than that. He had an impressive handshake, and was pretty good with a rifle, which was surprising in such a refined gentleman. And while Carderock obviously wasn’t completely at home on a horse’s back, he hadn’t fallen off or been thrown or made any of the hundreds of dumb mistakes beginners usually made.
Yeah, Sebastian Carderock just might make it out here in Wyoming Territory, after all. And as much as he hated to admit it, Cam had lied when he said he didn’t care if the other man broke his fool neck. Sebastian Carderock wasn’t anything like the ranchers Cam knew; he was urbane and sophisticated, educated and wealthy. But it would take all kinds to make Wyoming into a state, and maybe they needed people like him too.
Both men heard the creek—rushing fiercely from all the rain they’d had in the past week—before they saw it. But the horses pulled up short, snorting and pawing the ground nervously. Carderock swung down, and taking the reins, stepped forward a few paces. Cam heard him curse and drop to one knee, so he followed.
They were on a steep embankment overlooking Crow Creek. It wasn’t so far from the fairgrounds and bonfire that someone—particularly a frantic young woman—couldn’t have run the distance. And if she’d stood here and saw the swiftly flowing water, and realized how easy it’d be for a little kid to tumble down and be pulled under, Cam could imagine that she wouldn’t be paying particular attention to where she put her feet.
Which was the problem. Because about a foot in front of Carderock’s knee, the embankment sheared off suddenly, a great ugly scar in the dirt. They could both see the mud piled below, and knew what it meant. Recently—very recently—someone had stood here, putting too much weight on the fragile knit of land. The bank had given away and dropped her into the swift water below.
Both men peered downstream, searching in vain for anything to indicate that she was safe. But they saw nothing. Cam glanced down, and caught the unabashed anguish and fear on Carderock’s face. For the first time since losing the auction, Cam was suddenly at peace with the outcome. Serena wasn’t the woman for him, as much as he’d hoped she would be. But this man… This man really loved her, and not in the superficial way Cam had always felt about her. Sebastian Carderock had plunged unthinkingly into unfamiliar territory on an unfamiliar animal, because there was a chance Serena had come this way. Yeah, he loved her alright.
So Cam put out his hand for the other man to grasp, and pulled him to his feet. Cam squeezed his hand, not in rivalry like the day before, but in comfort.
“We’ll find her, Carderock. We’ll find her.”
The other man’s face was shadowed, but Cam felt dark eyes studying him. “Under the circumstances, just make it ‘Sebastian’.”
Cam nodded, one corner of his mouth turning up. “Sebastian, then. Call me ‘Cam’.”
Sebastian nodded, and shook his hand once more. “Do you think this river’s shallow enough to ford?”
“This thing’s just a creek, but I’ll admit it’s running faster than usual. Still, it shouldn’t be a problem for a horse this tall.” He eyeballed Sebastian’s fine suit, but in the interest of not upsetting their fragile alliance, he didn’t question the man’s riding ability. “I’ll cross. We can each take one bank, and head downstream.”
“I’ll take the opposite side. No need for you to ruin good boots over my impetuousness.” Cam almost laughed at that; his boots had seen much better days, and were used to all sorts of abuse out on the range. But Sebastian mounted up and urged his horse down the fallen embankment and into Crow Creek. Cam watched as he competently forded the deepest part of the creek, and man and horse emerged dripping to scramble up the opposite bank. Sebastian raised his hand to Cam, to let him know that he was fine, and then turned downstream. He didn’t say anything, and Cam wondered if he was already thinking ahead to what they might find.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Serena flopped onto her back, struggling to breathe in the tight bodice. She’d lost her heavy outer skirt already, but it still felt like she’d never be able to take a full breath again.
While she was lying there, staring up at the stars, sure that she was dying, she decided to take the time to berate herself for her stupidity. Oh, not about leaving the safety of civilization in a desperate attempt to find Noah; she knew that while it was unlikely he’d gotten lost out in the wilderness, even the slight chance he was needed to be investigated. And every second he was out here meant more danger to a tiny child. So when she’d heard he was missing, she immediately turned to look for him in the most threatening direction. She knew there was a creek south of the city, and knew that it’d be rushing after all the rain, and wanted to make sure that he didn’t make it that far. Luckily, she’d seen no trace of him during her frantic search, and was relieved to be able to turn back towards the bonfire, after checking the banks one more time.
No, what she was scolding herself for was her willful disregard of years of lessons learned from living in the Wyoming wilderness. She knew those banks were dangerous, with the water constantly eroding dirt and supports. She knew that she was at least a mile from anyone who’d hear her call, without a horse or any protection. And yet she’d stood there on that high ridge, and called Noah’s name one last time, hoping she wouldn’t see any sign of him.
And then she’d felt the earth move, had bruised her forehead on her tumble down the hill, and had just enough time to utter a very unladylike word before the water closed over her head. It felt like hours that she fought to reach the surface, being tumbled every which way. The bump on the head hadn’t helped; she was disoriented, and most of the time not even sure which way was up. The water wasn’t that deep, but when she was able to touch the bottom, the current swept her off her feet again. In one terrifying instance, her foot got stuck under a large rock while the water pushed her head under, and she was sure she was going to drown before she struggled free again.
Realizing that her heavy skirts were the reason she couldn’t make any headway against the current—not that she had any idea how to swim—she’d managed to thrash her way towards a partially submerged tree. The branches scratched her face and neck, but she held on tightly with one hand, and freed herself from her skirt and bustle with the other. The sunny dress had always been one of her favorites, but she was desperate. She was just breathing a sigh of relief when her hand slipped and she went downstream once more.
But this time it was easier to scrabble towards the bank without the extra deadweight of the heavy material. Luckily, the creek widened and the water slowed sufficiently for her to claw and lurch her way towards the muddy bank. And now she lay there, filthy and exhausted and disoriented, not sure how far she’d come, or how far she was from Cheyenne, but knowing that she was on the wrong side of the creek. If she wanted to have any hope of getting back home, she was going to have to cross that hateful stream again.
That’s why she was berating herself; had she not been foolish enough to stand on that edge, she wouldn’t now be half-dead, miles from civilization, hours from daylight, amid untold dangers. And she still couldn’t breathe!
Tears started to gather, and she tried to will them away, but they blurred out the stars anyhow. She gasped, thinking that crying was the last thing she needed right now. Right now, she needed to be strong, to think analytically; but she could feel what little control she’d regained slipping away. She wanted to be home in her bed, or back at the barbecue. She wanted to be in Sebastian’s arms again. She wanted to feel his strength, his presence, his lips. She wanted him here with her, which was a stupid wish, because then he’d be in this mess too.
Apparently she was also delirious,
or had hit her head harder than she’d thought, because after a while of lying there, trying to talk herself into at least moving her legs out of the water, she swore she heard a voice. And not just any voice: his voice. And he was calling her name, which was frankly, ridiculous. Couldn’t she have more reasonable hallucinations? Oh dear, maybe she had a concussion.
But the voice didn’t go away; in fact, it got closer. It was someone calling her name, and it did sound like Sebastian. Serena decided to stay right where she was, certain that any movement would jar her already-unstable perception of the world, and send her into another spell of disorientation.
It was a dark night, and the stars were particularly bright. She watched them twinkle, and thought about the way Sebastian had immediately offered to help look for Noah. He was a good man, an honorable man, and was it any wonder she was in love with him? She should have mentioned where she was going before she slipped away; then someone would at least know where to look for her. Instead she was lying here, half in the water, arms splayed, on some muddy bank far from home, listening to a hallucination call her name. Oh, and she was half-naked.
All-in-all, a lousy ending to a beautiful evening.
Then she heard a noise from the bank above her, the bank she’d earlier determined was too high for her to climb in her present state. She tilted her head back so that she could look up to the ridge, and heard an animal snort. Suddenly, a horrible apparition appeared; it was long and skinny, with hair sticking out everywhere. She opened her mouth to scream, but only a little squeak came out. The thing said “Serena? Serena!” in Sebastian’s voice, and split in half. Right before she surrendered to blessed darkness, she realized that she’d been looking—upside down—at a man sitting on a horse, and that Sebastian had come to rescue her.
“Hey, Cam! I found her!” Sebastian could barely get the words past his huge smile, and he hoped his companion heard him. The other man was still a ways behind, having stopped to investigate a partially submerged tree, a likely looking spot for a half-drowned woman to cling to. Hopefully he would be catching up soon, because there was no telling how much help Sebastian would need with Serena. She was alive—that frightened squeak had confirmed it—but she’d gone limp and unmoving.
Sebastian swung down from the horse, and looped the reins around a bush to keep the animal from wandering off. Serena had washed up on a muddy beach below a four-foot drop-off; Sebastian was careful to make sure it was more stable than the original embankment, the one that’d caused so much trouble. Deciding that the danger the little cliff offered was minimal, Sebastian easily jumped down, and squatted beside her in the mud.
She was soaking wet, with a large lump on her temple. Yes, she was bedraggled and pitiful-looking, and he didn’t think he’d ever seen anything more beautiful in his life. The reflected starlight seemed to make her pale skin and hair glow silver, and caused the bruise to stand out. But thank God, Serena was alive and breathing, and when he touched her cheek, she gave a little moan. Sebastian scooped her up in his arms, careful to tuck her face into the crook of his neck. She weighed so little, but was so important.
He wasn’t able to climb the embankment while holding her, and he couldn’t make himself put her down. He sloshed through the shallows until he came to a more moderate slope, and climbed it with minimal difficulty. At the top, he took the time to study her, to ensure that she was still safe. Her bodice seemed rather tight, so he loosened it as best as he could, smiling smugly at the way her pale skin pimpled when his knuckles brushed against it. Yes, her clothing was all ripped up, but she was breathing fine, and seemed quite comfortable in his arms… which was nice, because he was immeasurably comfortable with her right where she was.
He heard his name being called, and turned to see Cam reining in on the opposite bank. He hadn’t wanted to yell, to disturb her, but he had no other choice. “I’ve got her. I’m going to start a fire or something.”
She moaned again—probably at his shout—and he forgot all about the other man. Sebastian moved further away from the creek, and found a patch of grass on which to lay her. He wished the moon was brighter, so he could check her for other wounds, but a fire would have to do. Luckily, firewood was plentiful along the banks of the creek, and he was able to collect a pile without moving too far away from her.
He heard her thrash about, and dropped his second armful of sticks to go to her. Her moans were louder, and she seemed to be anxious to protect her head. He was holding her, stroking her hair and whispering comforting nonsense words, when Cam rode his horse up and out of the creek, just as wet as Sebastian had been. He swung down, and asked “How bad is she?”
“Not too bad, I don’t think. She’s got a knot on her head, but she was awake when I found her.”
“Then what’s wrong with her?”
Sebastian couldn’t help his smile. “She fainted when she saw me.”
“Well,” Cam shrugged, “who could blame her?”
Eyes narrowed, Sebastian asked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Cam was busy arranging the kindling, and starting a fire, but Sebastian could hear the grin in his voice when he replied, “You don’t exactly look like Prince Charming anymore, Carderock. You lost your hat.”
Sebastian burst into laughter, and didn’t even bother quieting when Serena started to squirm from the noise. He just laughed louder, relieved to be able to release some of the tension from the last few hours. He was so happy that she was safe, and in his arms, that he couldn’t seem to help himself. Imagine, if his mother could see him now! Wet, muddy, bedraggled, and holding a half-dressed woman in the middle of nowhere… Cam was right; he was no longer the man who wooed Serena so devoutly. But he didn’t care; she was his, and he loved her, and he’d move Heaven and Earth again to keep her safe.
Cam was squatting beside the now-roaring fire, watching him bemusedly. “If you’re done cackling, want me to check on her?”
“Absolutely not.” Sebastian grinned, but there was no way he’d let another man—especially this other man—touch her in her current state. He made himself relax his arms, to draw her away from his chest, and was surprised to see her staring up at him, those lovely violet eyes hooded in the darkness.
“I love your laugh, Sebastian.” Her voice was the merest whisper, and he forgot all about asking after her health. Her first words after her ordeal were about loving him? He dropped a kiss to her forehead, and then another on her lips. It was chaste and over quickly, but just as warm as the first.
As he pulled away, he felt her arching to keep the contact, and grinned against her lips. He softened his refusal with another gentle peck on her nose. “There will be more, my love, but later.” He felt, more than saw, her blush.
“Who were you talking to?” He liked the fact that she hadn’t tried to squirm out of his arms to see for herself. Sebastian lifted her a bit so that she could turn her head.
Cam pulled his hat off, and balanced it on one knee. “Howdy, Miss Serena.”
“Oh, Cam!” She struggled to sit up by herself, then, using one shaking hand to brush a lock of silver out of her eyes. She seemed flustered, and Sebastian wondered if she’d be equally uncomfortable had it been someone beside Cam who’d accompanied him on his wild dash.
So, keeping one hand behind her back to support her in case she was still weak, he explained. “Cam found Noah, on the far side of the celebration.” He felt, more than heard, her sigh of relief. “When he brought the boy back, we realized you were gone. I wasn’t exactly thinking straight—” the understatement of the year, “but I grabbed a horse and tore out here after you. Cam must have thought to save me from my own folly, because he caught up with me, and we found the place where you fell in Crow Creek. He’s been searching just as diligently as I have.”
Her hand had found his in the dark, and she clutched it now. Still, she nodded to Cam. “Thank you. Thank you both for coming to find me. It was foolish of me to be so careless, but I was so worried about Noah, and afraid he
might have fallen in accidentally. But to stand there, when I knew the dangers…!” She shook her head, as if disgusted with herself, but quickly gasped and fingered the lump on her forehead. The rest of her self-recrimination was muffled. “Well, it was stupid of me.”
Sebastian gently moved her fingers away from her head, and turned her face towards the fire. “Tell us?” he murmured while he examined the bruise, and determined that there was little they could do that the water hadn’t already done for her. If the bump hadn’t been enough to knock her unconscious, then it probably wasn’t that bad.
Meanwhile, she told them of falling into the water, of knocking her head, of her disorientation. It sounded like she fought the water for a long time, before catching up on a downed tree—maybe the one Cam had been examining?—to remove her skirts. Sebastian had noticed, of course, that she wasn’t wearing anything over her bloomers, and assumed something similar had happened. She was decently covered, even without the skirts, but he couldn’t help but admire her trim ankles and calves. He helped her remove her stockings, to hang them near the fire on sticks, and loosen her bodice even more. He liked that she didn’t seem to mind him touching her so intimately.
Cam was feeding the fire, listening to her story, and trying to dry off as best as he could. “Sounds like you must’ve gotten washed around pretty good. We’ve been looking for almost two hours. It’s after midnight.”
“I don’t know. I guess so. My head certainly hurt, and it seemed like it lasted forever. But I think maybe I was just floating for a while.” Sebastian wrapped his arm around her, and gently kissed the small lump on her head. She snuggled closer to him, and he hid his smile. Cam looked away. “Is it really that late? I’m so sorry to have caused you both this trouble, to keep you from the celebrations. It’s too late now to go back to Cheyenne.”