Page 75 of Swamp Kings 2

“We rescued them about a hundred miles back,” the Bishop man said. “They wereabducted by a group of thugs. Mothers and children that lost everything. Banned together after the shit show started.”

He glanced at the faces pressed against the window, pain and loss permanently etched in their expressions. “How’d you manage that?” Voss wondered.

“Is that her?” the wife wondered, angling her head behind them.

Voss turned, finding Mabel stalking toward them with that foolish fearlessness on her face. He made his way to her, the love he’d had for that strength nowhere in sight. “What are you doing?” he demanded.

“I’m coming to see what the hell is happening,” she shot out, angry. “I’m a nurse, I don’t hide in tents when threats arrive.” She glanced around him and he blocked her view.

“You need to turn around right now and go back,” he ordered.

She stared at him like he’d lost his mind then shoved past, marching on. “Hello,” she called out. “What’s this all about, now? Are you lost?”

“That’s her,” another woman said, staring at her.

“Are you sure?” the wife whispered.

“Very.”

Gideon stopped behind Mabel, wanting to strap her against his body with his arms. “I’m Mabel, I’m a nurse,” she announced, eyeing the bus now. “Are these people injured?” She looked up at him. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

“This is Mabel, as you’ve heard. Our nurse, as you’ve also heard.” He looked down, finding her staring with expectation.

“And?” she whispered loudly.

And? “And she’s very good at her job and is happy to help however she can.”

She turned completely around and put her hands on her hips. “Really!” she shot out. “I spend the night in your tent and share more than my wonderful mind and I’m just Mabel the nurse now?”

He stared at her, utterly blindsided by that. He looked around and did what he’d first wanted to do, pulling her against his body. “My apologies,” he said. “Mabel my wife.”

“Whoa!” she cried, turning around in his arms. “Bloody hell, that’s a bit of a sky-dive?”

“Is it?” he said, realizing she would force the issue, right there in public.

“It is!” she assured.

“Well, be whatever you want, woman, but to me, you’re my wife. And I’m your husband. There are no in-betweens in my world.”

The Seer man chuckled and said, “Pah-roll deen uhn frair du mah-reh, uhn vray?”

“Oui,” the Bishop said, getting Mabel’s ire aimed at him.

“What is that language,” she demanded. “French?” She looked back at Gideon then back at the offenders. “I don’t speak it, I speak English.”

The Bishop interpreted, “He said ‘spoken like a red-blooded swamp brother’. This is also our way and law where we come from.”

Mabel backed herself against Gideon and he returned to holding her against him. “Well, it’sverydifferent from our customs,” she assured, holding on to his arms. He pulled her tightly against him, needing to kiss her now. “Not that it isn’t romantic,” she added, glancing up at him. He stole aquick kiss from her bossy lips, needing the world to know exactly what she meant to him. At least the men inhisworld.

The Bishop’s wife was suddenly before them with her hand out. “I’m Beth.”

Mabel took her hand in both of hers. “I’m Mabel,” she all but cooed then sucked in her breath. “You’re expecting?”

“I am,” she beamed with a huge smile, eagerly waving the other girl over. “This is my sister, Maggie. Seer has visions and she draws them. It’s a gift she has. We’re here because he had a vision of us rescuing you.”

There it fucking was. The flip on their lives. No, not theirs. His.

“I don’t…understand,” Mabel said, looking up at Gideon then back at them as she gripped his arms tighter. “I don’t need rescuing. I’m here of my own choosing. I work here as a nurse.” She looked at the bus. “But…youdidrescue them, though,” she praised, seeming to feel bad they came for nothing.

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