Page 41 of A Rugged Beauty
She abandoned the bucket and scrub brush and jumped to her feet to meet Abigail.
"You're alive!"
Abigail gave in to her friend's embrace, new tears stinging her eyes as Felicity's arms wrapped around her.
"I'm a muddy mess," Abigail tried to warn her.
But Felicity kept one arm around her. "We all are. Those storms last night nearly flooded our camp—we almost lost a little boy who'd wondered off."
Terror filled Abigail as she relived those moments of being pulled underwater by the current. A flash of Hollis’s strong arm clasping her waist, dragging her to the surface?—
She pushed the memory away. Focused instead on the woman nearby who had removed every item from her wagon and was standing inside it, beneath the empty slats, no cover, sweeping water out. Their canvas must've leaked.
Another family worked to dig out their wagon wheels from the soft, muddy ground.
“Is my wagon all right?” Abigail asked.
Felicity nodded. “Your oxen must’ve dragged it across the river. After you disappeared, some of the men found it on the banks, the oxen just waiting in their traces.”
Abigail's stomach chose that moment to growl and Felicity's eyes went wide. "Oh my goodness. You must be so hungry. Let me?—"
But Alice was already striding toward them, a tin plate in her hand. "I just saw Owen. He sent me over here."
She hugged Abigail's shoulders with one arm before handing her the plate. "I was so worried about you. What happened?"
It was a relief to give herself into the care of her friends. To sit on a crate they pushed her to, and let them warm up pails of water for her to get cleaned up.
She was embarrassed at how she ate. Head down, stuffing her mouth like some kind of animal, all to appease her roaring stomach.
Had someone made sure Hollis was eating?
She held the question inside, August's warning echoing in her mind.
Felicity and Alice listened wide-eyed as she told the story of the past few days in between bites. But she kept the tender moments with Hollis to herself.
"Abigail!" The cry, somewhere between a shriek and a wail, preceded a bundle of energy in the form of Ben flying in.
Abigail's blanket fell away as she braced and then caught the nine-year-old girl in her arms. Ben had come to the wagon train a few weeks ago, after her own company had been attacked by bandits and her family killed. Felicity and August had taken her in, but the girl had formed a special bond with Abigail.
Abigail hadn't realized how deeply she'd missed the girl and blinked back tears.
Ben drew back with a wrinkled nose. "You stink."
"Ben!" Felicity gasped. "Manners."
Abigail stifled a teary laugh. "I'm certain I do. I'm in terrible need of a bath."
Alice hefted one of the pails from the now-roaring fire. "We've got a washtub fixed up. Strung blankets between our two wagons for privacy."
There was a relief in allowing herself to lean on her friends. These past days, it had been Abigail and Hollis alone. No supplies, no food, no idea where they should go.
“How did you survive with only a grumpy Gus for company?” Felicity teased.
“We managed together,” Abigail murmured.
The stark fear she'd carried since she'd woken up without her memory had started to bleed away the moment August had ridden up to them out on the prairie. Even so, she was conscious of the words trapped behind her sternum. She wanted to tell Felicity everything. But the secrets of what she'd been through, what she and Hollis had shared, were hers alone.
Hunger sated, she allowed herself to be led to her bath. Alice continued talking, but the words faded behind the blankets as Abigail hesitated. Hollis sat near a low-burning fire, surrounded by his captains. And… Evangeline?
