Page 78 of Unforgiven

Tabitha nodded.

“Any reason why part of Leon is bright red?”

It took a moment for her to realize what Rose was talking about. “It’s cranberry dye,” she whispered.

The sheriff faced them after shoving Leon into the back seat of the cruiser. “Dye?”

“When Leon found me, I was dyeing wooden slats for my baskets. I pushed a metal container of hot dye water on him so I could run away.”

“Now ain’t that something?” Rose murmured. “That was mighty quick thinking, girl.”

“I had to do something. I promised myself I’d never be hurt by him again. Not without a fight, anyway.”

“Sounds like the Lord heard your promise and helped you out.”

Thinking of how heavy the metal container had been and how hard it usually was for her to empty it, she had to agree.

Sheriff Johnson returned to her side just as the sirens from the ambulance approached. “We’re going to get you loaded up and on your way to the hospital right now. I’ll stop by there later to see how you’re doing.”

He’d also no doubt ask her a lot of questions.

“I understand.”

“Who would you like me to contact for you?”

She supposed the best person would be her sister, but she didn’t want to involve Mary and Roy just yet. Besides, there was only one person who would truly understand how she felt. Only one person who she could trust to help her but not pester her with a dozen questions about the day’s events.

Oh, who was she kidding? While all that was true, the main thing was that there was only one person who she trusted with her heart . . . just like he trusted her with his. “Would you call Seth Zimmerman?”

“Seth?” He sounded surprised but then nodded. “I’ll call him now.”

An ambulance pulled up with a parade of flashing lights.

“Thank you. Oh, and Sheriff?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for everything.”

“Anytime. But don’t forget that you helped yourself today. You fought, ran, and called for help. You should be real proud.”

She was glad that was the last of their conversation. Her arm and shoulder really hurt and it was getting hard to see out of her one eye. She closed her eyes as the paramedics spoke to Sheriff Johnson.

“Tabitha, my name is Kurt. Can you hear me all right?”

She opened her one good eye. “Jah.”

Kurt had a kind look about him. His cheeks were full and looked as if he only needed to shave every couple of days. His blue eyes were bright and framed by light brown eyelashes. “Looks like you’ve got some bruising on your face. What else is hurting?”

“My shoulder and wrist.”

“Anything else?” he asked as he took her pulse.

“I don’t think so,” she said.

He shined a light into her pupils and then scanned the rest of her body. After immobilizing her arm, he said, “Okay. Billy and me are going to help you onto the stretcher and get you loaded in the ambulance.”

“All right.” She closed her eyes again as the two men spoke to each other and carefully lifted her onto the stretcher.

---