This Time for Keeps

by Maureen Child

  “What do you mean, dear?”

  His voice, calm and concerned, soothed her. Really. Harry was much easier to get along with than Tom.

  "Where do I start?" she thought. "I'm living with two men who hate each other's guts, I'm destined to never have sex again and on top of that, you three plopped me down with a guy who's been killing me for centuries!" She shot a nasty look at Seth's back.

  Harry laughed and Nora just managed to keep from shouting aloud at him.

  "My dear," he said. "You're upset over nothing."

  "Are you trying to tell me that it's not Seth I'm dreaming about every night?"

  "Well, no."

  “Then I'm right.”

  "To a point."

  "Which point?" she screamed mentally.

  "There is no need to shout. I assure you."

  “Sorry.”

  "As you may have noticed," he went on, "in all of your previous lives, you have been linked romantically with one man.”

  "I get it,” she thought.

  "But he hasn't really murdered you."

  "I died."

  “Accidentally.”

  "Dead is dead," she pointed out with what she thought of as a great show of patience.

  “But you're in no danger this time, child."

  "Really? And why is that?”

  "In your previous existences, you were, shall we say, betrothed to the man in question. Has a similar situation occurred between you and this man?"

  "Good Lord, no."

  "Do you love him?"

  Nora glanced at Seth. Sitting straight and proud in the saddle, his sharp profile was turned to her and she studied his features for a long, breathless minute. Love him? Well, she certainly felt something for him. Lust. Fury. Frustration. Lust some more. But no, she had already promised herself that there wouldn't be any love this time around.

  "Then you have nothing to worry about,” Harry said, obviously reading her thoughts effortlessly.

  “What about Seth and Richard?" she asked silently. “Why are the two of them like ancient enemies in a bad movie?”

  "I'm sorry dear," Harry said in a broken, staccato tone. “The connection seems to be fading.”

  Nora spoke quickly before he could get away. "I still live my ninety-five years, right?"

  Before he could answer, a sudden gust of wind shot through the canyon, snatching Nora's hat. So caught up in her conversation with Harry, she had completely forgotten exactly where she was. Standing in the stirrups, she made a grab for the hat and felt something beneath her rip.

  Sadie leaped forward and landed badly, one hoof edging off the path.

  The saddle tore loose, sliding across the mare's back, tipping Nora toward the canyon. Fear strangled her. Scrambling wildly, she reached out, grabbing, searching for something stable to hold onto.

  But there was nothing.

  She hit the edge with a jarring thud. Pain stabbed at her back and she screamed as she slid down the rocky ravine.

  #

  The terrified scream ripped through his soul. Seth turned around and felt his heart stop.

  Nora was gone.

  "No!" he howled and the sound echoed in the air around him.

  Seth stared as the mare, saddle-less and hopelessly unbalanced, frantically searched for purchase on the lip of the path. Hooves flailing, the animal fought desperately to right itself. As he watched, helpless, Sadie lost her battle and slid backward down into the canyon. The mare's frightened cries repeated over and over in the stillness.

  Fear choking him like a heavy noose, Seth was caught. There was no room on the path to turn his horse around. And on a ledge that narrow, backing up just wasn't an option. Recklessly driven by a terror that felt oddly familiar, he charged his gelding along the last few feet of the trail. Once clear of the drop off, Seth hopped down, tore off his hat, grabbed his rope, and hurried back.

  "Nora!" he shouted, praying desperately that she would answer him. That she could answer him.

  All he heard, though, was the thundering beat of his own heart in his ears.

  He called her name over and over again. He heard the frantic tone of his voice and the echo that floated back to him. Desperately, he tried to calm himself so he could think. He needed to think. He had to find her. He had to save her. The coiled rope biting into his gloved palm, he moved down the trail until he was at the spot where Nora and Sadie had gone over.

  Laying down, he stretched out on his stomach, leaned over the edge, and raked the incline with a slow, careful gaze. Seth winced when he spotted Sadie, lying on her side at the bottom of the canyon. He watched helplessly as the mare repeatedly tried and failed to stand up.

  Broken leg probably, he thought, vowing to get down there as soon as he'd found Nora.

  "Dammit, Nora," he called, wincing at the fear in his voice. “Answer me.”

  "Here." A small voice, breathy but alive.

  “Where?” he shouted, sweeping his gaze across the rocks and brush. “Are you all right?”

  “I'm here," she said again, stronger this time.

  He turned to follow the sound of her voice and finally spotted her halfway down the slope, caught in the gnarled branches of a twisted pine, her scratched, dirty face turned up toward him. He had never seen such a pretty sight.

  "Hang on," he shouted.

  "No shit," she snapped.

  He laughed aloud until his chest hurt. “That's my girl," he said when the anxious laughter had faded away.

  "Spare me the sweet talk, Murdoch," she said. "Just get me out of here, okay?"

  "Yes ma'am," he said and immediately turned to glance over his surroundings. His rope was long enough to reach her, but he needed something to tie it to. His gaze landed on a stunted pine. Making his way to it quickly, he wrapped the rope around the twisted trunk and secured it with several knots. He tugged at it a few times to make sure the knots would hold, then tossed the free end of the rope over the lip of the canyon.

  Grabbing hold of it, he made his way down the incline slowly, hand over hand. Pebbles and stones skittered out from beneath his boots, rolling downhill. "Duck your head," he called back. “Keep your eyes closed.”

  He didn't pause to see if she listened to him or not. All he could think of was getting to her. Touching her. Holding her. Seeing for himself that she was alive.

  Seth felt her hand on his right boot and grinned foolishly. In another second, he was braced against the tree that had saved her, pulling her into his arms.

  "Thank God," he murmured as he tucked her head beneath his chin. His hands moved up and down her spine, more to reassure himself than to check her for injuries. She clutched at him, her fingers digging into the small of his back and he welcomed the pain.

  "You scared the life out of me, Nora," he said softly, tilting her head back until he could look into her eyes.

  "Scared me too," she admitted, blinking back tears.

  "Jesus, when I looked back and saw you were gone," he shook his head, his thumbs tracing gently across her cheekbones. A fine dusting of dirt covered her hair and there were a few scratches on her cheeks and neck. She looked wonderful.

  The old tree beneath them creaked ominously. Worry slithered down his spine. If this tree gave, they would both go down the remaining fifty feet or so to the canyon floor. He wasn't willing to take the chance that she would survive another fall.

  Seth released her and caught hold of the rope again. “Are you all right?" he asked hurriedly. "Nothing broken?"

  "I don't think so."

  "All right then," he said. "Grab hold of this rope, Nora."

  "What?"

  "We've got to crawl back up."

  "I can't," she countered. “I’m not strong enough. I always flunked P.E."

  "There's no time to argue," he pointed out as he felt the tree beneath them shift. "This old pine isn't going to hold both of us much longer.”

  "Wouldn't it be easier to climb down, than up?"

  He wanted to say yes, anything to ea
se the fear and worry from her expression. But there was no way to the Shale Basin from the bottom of that canyon.

  "No. Now come on, you go first. I'll be right behind you.”

  "I'll fall."

  "No, you won't." he said quickly. "I won't let you fall. I swear it.”

  She looked at him long and hard, then turned to stare up the length of the rope to the cliff's edge. "It's so far.”

  "We can do it," he said, knowing that if he had to, he would throw her across his shoulders and drag himself up by his teeth. Anything to get her to safety again.

  Slowly, Nora nodded and took hold of the rope.

  "Just go hand over hand," he said. “Find footholds with the toes of your boots and walk right on up."

  She inhaled sharply, then exhaled quickly. "Yeah. Right."

  Nodding again, she started up. Talking to her every step of the way, Seth stayed just a breath behind her. He gave her a push when she stalled and praised her when she did well. After what seemed an hour, they reached the top.

  Exhausted, frightened, and pretty banged up from her fall, Nora walked quietly beside him to where he had left the gelding. Once he had her wrapped in his bedroll to combat the shakes rippling through her, he said. “I have to go see to Sadie. I'll be back."

  Nora turned her dirty face up to his. "How will you get her back up the hill?"

  He swallowed heavily. "I won't."

  "What are you going to do?" she asked, though from the tone of her voice, he guessed that she already knew what he had to do.

  "Her leg's broken," he said shortly. “I'm going to put her down."

  "Kill her," Nora said.

  "I don't want to," Seth told her tightly. "There's just no other way. I can't leave her in pain. And there's wolves in these mountains.”

  Nora shuddered, pulling the edges of the blanket tighter around her. "I understand."

  She didn't look at him again and Seth figured it was just as well. It was hard enough leaving her so soon after nearly losing her. If he'd had to stare into her eyes and walk away, he wasn't sure he could have done it.

  Bracing himself for the long climb, he grabbed hold of the rope again. When he came to the end of its reach, he let himself slide to the bottom hoping to hell he'd be able to climb back up.

  Battered, bruised, and tired right down to his bones, Seth made his way to Sadie. The mare, her right foreleg snapped, lay on her side, still trying to stand.

  Kneeling beside her head, Seth stroked the horse's neck and wide forehead, whispering in a soothing hush. The animal seemed to understand that he was trying to help. She quieted down and finally gave up on righting herself. But her breathing was labored and her eyes were wild with pain.

  After a long moment or two, Seth stood up. "Damn, girl," he said. "You're a fine horse. You deserve better than this." A breeze rippled past him and he caught the scent of rain on the wind. Perfect. Just what they needed. A storm coming.

  Pulling his pistol from its holster, he drew back the hammer, took careful aim on Sadie's forehead and fired.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  A lingering sense of the fear that had so recently gripped him settled in the pit of his stomach as he climbed back up the incline. At the top, Seth glanced back down at the dead horse and his mind furnished him with a clear image of Nora, lying broken and dead alongside it.

  Breathing hard, he gathered up the rope and re-coiled it.

  He wasn't a big believer in miracles. Hell, he hadn't even been inside a church or said a prayer in years. But damn it, something like this was almost enough to shake a man badly enough to find religion.

  He walked carefully along the ledge, suppressing a shudder as he listened to pebbles skittering out from underfoot to hop and bounce down the cliff face.

  At the edge of the trail, Nora sat where he had left her, still huddled beneath a blanket. As he neared, she turned and lifted her head to look at him.

  A sheen of water filmed her eyes and as he watched, a solitary tear rolled along her scratched, dirty cheek. An invisible fist closed around his lungs, cutting off his air and creating an ache in his chest that throbbed with each beat of his heart.

  He'd never seen her cry.

  The old Nora had never seemed strong enough to manage tears. Not even at her father's funeral had she given in to her obvious grief. And this new Nora, the woman who haunted him waking and sleeping, had always been so strong, so unbreakable that the sight of her tears rocked him to his soul. Gritting his teeth against the helpless feeling curling through him, he went down on one knee in front of her.

  "Sadie's dead, isn't she?"

  He nodded. “Her right foreleg was snapped. There was nothing else to do."

  She inhaled slowly, almost experimentally, as if unsure her lungs would work. "I know,” she said, looking deeply into his eyes. Her bottom lip quivered as she added, "It's just that…”

  "Yeah." He reached for her, more concerned now for her injuries than for Sadie.

  "I'm all right," she protested with a sniff. Wiping her face with her fingertips, she said. “Nothing's broken. I'm just sore, is all."

  "It won't hurt to be sure." Quickly, efficiently, he ran his hands up and down both of her legs and arms. He tried not to think about what might have happened to her. He tried desperately to fight down the memory of the image his brain had created of Nora lying motionless at the bottom of the ravine.

  He pulled her forward into his arms and tugged the edge of the blanket down far enough to check her back. Her white shirt was filthy. Several small tears in the fabric were tinged with faint streaks of blood. Seth squeezed his eyes tightly shut and told himself that the cuts weren't serious and that she was damned lucky to have come out of such a fall with nothing more serious than scrapes and bruises to show for it.

  "Do I pass inspection?" she asked.

  "Yeah," he said. "There're some small cuts and scratches on your back, but nothin' serious."

  "I guess I wasn't paying attention,” she said, more to herself than to him. "I should have noticed that something was wrong with the saddle. I should have stopped. Told you.” She shook her head, clearly trying to puzzle out just what had gone wrong.

  He didn't like the almost wistful tone in her voice. Over the last couple of weeks, he'd grown accustomed to her temper. Her strength.

  "It wasn't your fault," he said, smoothing her hair back from her face. His thumb traced gently over one of the scratches on her cheek as he told her, “I should have checked that saddle better. I should have noticed that the cinch strap was worn so bad.”

  He could have lost her. It didn't bear imagining. He let his gaze caress her poor, battered features. Driven by a desperate need to do something, he stood up, walked to his horse, and unhooked the canteen strap from the saddle horn. Going back to her, he yanked his red bandana from his back pocket, unscrewed the lid of the canteen, and dampened the cloth. Kneeling down in front of her again, he dabbed at the cuts and scratches marring her flesh.

  "Ow!" She winced and drew her head back.

  "Sit still," he told her.

  A few minutes passed silently as he worked, trying to clean up the evidence of her brush with disaster. But it was no good. It would take a few days for the scratches to heal. Besides, there wasn't enough water in the world to wash away his memory of her battered, frightened features.

  He capped the canteen again and sat back on his haunches.

  "Finished?” she asked and lifted one hand to finger comb her dirty, tangled hair.

  "Not nearly," he admitted. "But you'll need a dunk in a creek to get the rest of you cleaned up.”

  "Seth," she said, shifting her gaze to look out over the valley that stretched out below them.

  "What?" he whispered.

  "I've never been that scared in my life." She cocked her head to look at him.

  He stared into brown eyes still shimmering with a vulnerability that shook him to his toes.

  "Me neither," he said.

  "I thought they lied
to me," she whispered, more to herself than to him. "All that stuff about ninety-five years."

  Had she slammed her head into a rock on her way down the ravine?

  "What are you talking about?"

  "Doesn't matter," she said and shook her head, wincing at the accompanying pain. "Not now. I'm alive."

  "Yeah, you're alive." Thank you, Jesus, he added silently.

  "And if you think you can ride, we’d better get going."

  "Hmm? Oh, sure. Okay."

  He stood up, offered her a hand, and curled his fingers around hers as he pulled her to her feet. She shrugged out from under the blanket and folded it in half before rolling it up tightly.

  He took the blanket, laid her bedroll on top of it, and tied both of them down behind his saddle. Hefting her saddle bags onto a more comfortable spot on his shoulder, he led her toward his horse and helped her up.

  "We won't be able to travel as fast with both of us on one horse, but we should still beat the others to the Basin." She glanced down at him from her perch in the saddle.

  “Thanks,” she said softly and he stopped, caught by the tone in her voice.

  "For what?"

  Nora gave him a small smile. "For climbing down that cliff to get me."

  Nothing could have kept him from her. Nothing. Not even the Devil himself. But all he said was, "You're welcome."

  Seth stepped into the stirrup, swung aboard the gelding, and seated himself behind Nora. Her back to his front, he felt her warmth and instinctively wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. At the moment, he needed the reassurance of her nearness to hold the last traces of his fears at bay. She scooted around, trying to get comfortable, and Seth bit back a groan as her backside settled in against his groin. Disgusted with himself, Seth's jaw tightened. What kind of man was he? Only moments ago, the woman had narrowly escaped death— and all he could think about was burying himself deep inside her. He wanted to become a part of her. So that nothing could ever happen to her again without it happening to him too.

  #