Thief of My Heart (Watty Awards Finalist 2012)

Chapter 4

He'd hardly slept at all.  His mind was still churning and every noise he heard had him cocking his gun ready to shoot anything that moved.   And once, when he finally did manage to fall into a deep sleep he was awakened by Evangeline's cries for help.  She was only having a nightmare, but he'd sat beside her in the light of the camp fire until she'd fallen to sleep again.  She had grabbed his hand and had not relinquished her grip on it until sleep had reclaimed her. He didn't think she was even aware she had his hand in a death grip.   It was four o'clock in the morning before he'd laid back down on his own bedroll.   And now the breaking dawn was an assault on his senses.  The late September sun was blinding and already hot this early in the morning.  And the sound of chirping birds and the rushing stream waters seemed so very loud.  Maybe his senses were all just on high alert after yesterday's events.  One good thing though.  Neither the bright hot sun nor the sounds of the approaching new day were disturbing the girl.  It was best if she slept.  She was going to need the rest. They had some hard riding ahead of them.  He was already a half day behind schedule and he needed to make up time.  Besides, he really didn't want to stay in one spot too long and give anymore bandits out there the chance to finish what they'd started or take any revenge on him.   It was best if they moved on and soon.  Which meant he was going to have to wake her.  He knew that waking to face the reality of her situation was the last thing she was going to want to do.  But he was responsible for her now, at least until he got her to the sheriff's office in Red Rock, and he had to do what was best for her.  And what was best was moving on....now.

He got busy breaking camp.  Packing the gear, saddling his horse....making as much noise  as possible.  He thought that it would be better to "accidently" wake her.  It wasn't very gentlemanly to roust  a lady from her sleep.    Frequently glancing sideways from his chores,  he finally caught her movement out of the corner of his eye.  He turned towards her as she slowly sat up in her bed roll.  

"Oh, did I wake you?  I'm sorry.  Just as well though,  'cause we really need to be moving on."

She squinted her gray-blue eyes against the glaring sun to see the man standing beside his horse, securing his bed roll to the saddle. Did he say they had to be moving on?  Well he could go if he wanted to but she was staying here. All the memories of yesterday's events flooded her mind.  The last thing she remembered was crying herself to sleep in this man's arms.  As miserable and wretched as she felt,  she still felt oddly uncomfortable and a little embarrassed at having spent such an intimate moment with a stranger.  And a man at that. She couldn't face him or the day.  She fell back into the bed roll and turned away from him, closing her eyes to shut out the light of day.

"Oh, no you don't,"  he mumbled under his breath as he moved towards her. If she didn't get up and face her situation now he was afraid she might not ever get up and then they'd both be in trouble.

He squatted down beside her and touched her shoulder.  "Come on,  time to get up."

She shifted her shoulder to sever the contact.  

"Miss Webb, I know that the last thing you want to do is get up and face what's happened.  And believe me I don't blame you for wanting to just lay here and not face it, but the truth is I need to be moving out soon.  And I'm not going to leave you here by yourself.  My partner  is waiting for me in Red Rock and when I'm real late he gets nervous.  And when he gets nervous he does stupid things.  So to help me and my partner out I need you to get up now.  Come on.

 No response.

"And there's the man who's paying me to deliver some important documents to him.  I've got to get those to him soon or he'll be wondering where I'm at,"  he continued.

Still no response.

"You know the sooner we get started the sooner we can get you to a hotel room with a soft bed and a hot bath.  Doesn't that sound nice?  So, come on let's get going."