Page 3 of Conveniently Wed
She followed the deep drawl up and up and up, taking in the giant bear of a man from those tree-sized legs to the broad shoulders to the unkempt blond beard and long hair beneath his cowboy hat.
Inappropriate and ill-timed as it was, when she met his sky blue eyes, she felt a shock of attraction, a lightning bolt through her nervous system like nothing she’d ever felt before.
For this mountain of a man?
“I need to find my sister.” Was that tentative whisper her voice? Perhaps she was more shaken from the crash than she’d thought.
“Let’s get you out of here first.”
“No—”
But the man didn’t even seem to hear her protest. He clasped her waist and lifted her toward the door where she could see a man in uniform waiting with arms outstretched.
She struggled, but it didn’t faze the huge man one bit. He shoved her into the conductor’s waiting arms, and she was unceremoniously deposited onto the side of the train car.
“Best slide down the top, missy,” the gray-mustached man said. “Less parts for you to get caught on.” He motioned toward one side of the derailed train car.
There was no way she was leaving without Emma, not after she’d overheard a man inquiring about them in Lincoln, Nebraska, the day before. Keeping Emma out of Mr. Underhill’s reach was imperative.
“I’ll wait on my sister. I want to make sure she wasn’t injured.” And to make sure she was safe. Fran had scoured the passenger car and not seen the man she’d seen briefly on the Lincoln train platform, but it was too much to hope that they’d outrun those who were searching for them.
“Then you’d better move aside. Got a lot of folks to get off this train.”
Fran moved a few yards down the side of the train and carefully perched above one of the windows. She wrapped her arms about her knees, worry making her tremble. What if Emma had been hurt?
Edgar had waved until his arm ached, but the conductor hadn’t been able to stop in time to avoid the broken tracks.
Watching helplessly wasn’t a thing he liked to do, but it had been all he could do to control his horse in the face of the awful accident. The steam engine and this passenger car lay prone ontheir sides, but had uncoupled from a second passenger car that tilted precariously over the broken tracks. He’d left the people on that car to figure out how to get themselves off and rushed to help the other car, meeting up with the badly shaken conductor. Although the conductor had heard stories of the boiler spilling hot coals in a crash like this, it appeared the machinery was stable for now, not at risk of catching fire.
Edgar worked like a dog to get the passengers off the downed train.
As he worked, Edgar could still hear the little spitfire he’d come across first questioning the uniformed man. Some of the passengers he lifted up to the conductor were injured, some not.
Even the murmur of her voice shook him.
He’d never had such a visceral reaction to a woman before, until this little slip of a thing with her big brown doe eyes.
For someone who made a practice of staying away from the opposite sex, it was gut-wrenching. He definitely needed to get off this train and back to the relative solitude of his pa’s ranch.
But he couldn’t leave the passengers behind, not when they needed help. Several had been injured by falling luggage or had been thrown around when the train derailed.
He was sweating and felt more exhausted than he did after a long day of branding.
He boosted a mother and her crying toddler, both of whom seemed to be blessedly uninjured, to the conductor.
The muscles in his arms shook.
A shadow moved in one of the windows above him. He looked up to see the young woman staring down into the car, peering through the windows.
Their eyes connected, and he felt like someone had taken a cinch to his chest.
Suddenly, the walls were closing in on him.
“I gotta take a breather,” he told the conductor. It had been at least an hour with no break. He was due.
The man nodded and moved back from the opening.
“What? No….” He could hear the girl begin to protest, even through the glass and metal. Her head appeared above the opening, partially blocking his way. “My sister….”
