Page 98 of A Forgotten Heart
Quade surrendered his weapon, and as the light got brighter, several bystanders gathered on the nearest corner of the platform.
Still breathing hard, pain pulsing in two different places on his shoulder, Nick sat up on the frozen ground.
“Nick!” Elsie was beside him in a billow of skirts.
The sound of her voice sent prickles over his skin.
His gaze swept over her, looking for any blood or signs of injury. “Did he hurt you?”
Tears tracked down her cheeks as she shook her head. “I’m fine.”
He closed his eyes as a wave of dizziness hit. He steadied himself with one hand on the ground. Elsie was unharmed.
Relief pulsed through him. He heard Quade’s voice and forced his eyes open. Quade was blabbering nonsense as he was dragged away by Chas O’Grady and another deputy. Jack remained behind, talking to one of the townspeople. Jack caught Nick’s eye and nodded.
It was over.
And suddenly Nick’s heart was pounding for another reason. Had Elsie agreed to marry her city-slicker beau?
Nick wanted to reach for her, fold her in his arms, but he wasn’t sure he had the right.
“You’re hurt.” Elsie’s teeth chattered as she knelt next to Nick in the cold mud.
He’d clamped one hand over his upper arm, and there was a trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth.
She felt the intensity of his gaze as she pulled his hand away. His upper sleeve was soaked in blood, and she pressed her hand there to staunch the flow. Nick hissed in pain.
Merritt ran up, carrying a lantern. Her expression tightened as she knelt at Nick’s other side. “How is he?”
In the improved light, Elsie could see the bruise blooming on his jaw, the set of his mouth that meant he was holding back. There had been three or four shots. Was he hit somewhere else?
“Bleeding everywhere,” she told Merritt tightly.
Merritt scanned the onlookers. “We need a doctor!”
Nick cupped Elsie’s elbow with his free hand. “The bullet only grazed me.”
He sounded calm and sure. Not confused and weak like before at the doctor’s office.
Merritt’s gaze took in Nick from the top of his head to the bottom of his boots. “Are you sure?”
“I can walk to the doctor on my own. Just give me a minute.” His eyes returned to Elsie.
The certainty in his words and Merritt’s nod—she believed him too—made everything Elsie was feeling from the last few minutes bubble over. Tears spilled over, and a tiny sob escaped.
Nick was already reaching for her when she did what she really wanted to do and pressed close, putting one arm around his neck.
Merritt faded back. “Jack is beckoning me. Probably wants to know what I saw. I’ll be right back.”
She’d come so close to losing him. Again.
Nick cupped the back of her head with one hand. “Oh, El, don’t cry.”
His words only made her cry harder. He pressed his jaw into the top of her hair.
He’d protected her, put himself in front of that bullet.For her.
The night could have gone very differently, and the realization weighed upon her like a heap of stones.
