Page 31 of Wagon Train Melody
“Everything?”
“Helping us during the storm, finding the canvas and putting it back on, getting dry wood, singing a song to comfort and encourage us…” She could go on and on but stopped there. “I know it is costing you, making it more probable that man might overtake you.” Alarmed at the risk he took to help them, she pressed her hand to his forearm. “Rudy, I don’t want to be responsible for putting you in danger. Feel free to ride away.”
“I prefer to be free to get you to safety.” His gaze caught and held hers.
She read something in them that confused her. It sounded as if he wanted to be with them. And she welcomed his help. But what did it mean? She had no room in her life for complications or distractions. Rudy was definitely both.
“Don’t look so worried.” His voice broke into her thoughts.
“How do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Read my mind.” Evelyn had had the ability but no one else.
“I told you. Your eyes give you away.”
“So you said.” She turned her attention to the sunset so he couldn’t see and read her eyes. Somehow, knowing he was similar to Evelyn in this way made her heart open like a flower to the sun. She shook her head. Evelyn would say she was getting fanciful. “You were gone a long time.” She hoped to turn the conversation and her feelings back to ordinary things, though her chest tightened as she remembered how she thought he might not return.
“I found the canvas in some bushes. King warned me that there was a rider nearby.”
She gasped. “He found you?” She didn’t dare ask what happened.
“I thought so at first, but I watched three other riders join him and they rode north without even pausing.”
She released a gust of air from her worried lungs. “I’m glad you’re safe.”
“Me too.”
She’d said what she wanted to say, but still, neither of them made any move toward returning to the wagon. Until…
“Auntie!” At Sissy’s shrill, panic-laced voice Alice lifted her skirt and raced back.
CHAPTER 7
Rudy outran Alice and reached the camp, first. Sissy sat at the end of the wagon, tears streaming down her face, her shoulders shaking with her sad sobs.
He didn’t wait for Alice but scooped the child into his arms and held her tight. “What’s wrong?”
“I thought you were gone. Like Mama and Papa.”
He stroked her hair and patted her back. “We’re right here.”
Alice panted to his side and reached for Sissy. She shook her head and clung to Rudy. “Auntie says you’re gonna leave. Why? Why can’t you stay?”
Her question clawed through his insides. How did he explain to this suffering little one that he’d never stayed in one place before? Had never wanted to. And was at a loss to know if this feeling of wishing he could this time was real or passing.
“I’ll stay with you until we reach the fort, then your Uncle Clint will be there to give you a home.”
“I don’t want Uncle Clint. I want you.”
“Why? You hardly know me.”
She leaned back and patted his cheek. “I know you. I prayed for you to come.”
He stared at the child. How could she have possibly prayed for him? He glanced to Alice for an explanation.
She looked every bit as stunned as he was. “Honey, how could you ask for him to come? You didn’t know him.”
