In retrospect, it occurred to Freddy that Joe’s partiality to Les was understandable, though she hadn’t recognized this until recently. Alex had run off to the East and was gone. Freddy had shamed Joe by leaving with the acting troupe. Until Lola arrived, Joe would have seen Les as his housekeeper and the companion of his declining years. Until Les brought Ward Hamm to the house, she had given Joe no reason for disappointment.
Ashamed of the jealousy she had felt, Freddy rubbed her forehead. There was more to Les than she had ever suspected. Until this drive she hadn’t imagined that Les could be persistent or determined, or courageous. She had never considered Les good at anything except looking to others to solve her problems.
But now she was developing a secret but growing admiration for her sister. Les moaned and groaned, complained and let every new challenge terrify her, then she quietly buckled down and mastered whatever she had to learn.
Finally, she and James crossed the Colorado, ran their small herd onto the bedding grounds, and Freddy was free to find out what had happened. She cantered directly to Dal, who sat on his buckskin, scowling at the herd.
She rode close enough to grip his sleeve, feeling his muscles tighten and swell beneath her touch. “How is she?”
“Drifting in an ocean of laudanum,” he said as she dropped her hand. “Alex put twenty-six stitches in her thigh. She lost a lot of blood, and she’s weak, but she’ll recover.”
The light was fading fast but still strong enough that she could see the strain etching his face. She gave her hand an unconscious shake, hoping to cast off the hot tingle that touching him had caused. “How many did we lose?”
“Forty-six at last count,” he said before he turned the buckskin toward camp.
For Freddy, it had always been a man’s eyes that caught her attention, and that’s what she’d first noticed about Dal. Blue, blue eyes that could be cool or hot, penetrating or soft. She’d seen strength and character in his eyes, and emotion. He could control his expression and usually did, but his eyes gave him away. Studying him now, she saw simmering rage and beneath it the heat that flickered in the depths of his gaze when he looked at her, heat that licked out at her and dried her mouth and made her stomach suddenly roll and tighten.
Swallowing hard, she brought her horse up beside him. As always, when she saw the campfire glowing ahead of her at the beginning of evening, she started to feel the aches and pains of a long workday. Her forehead, nose, and cheeks felt tight and hot from the day’s dose of burning sunshine. Her thighs ached from endless hours in the saddle. Her arms felt like stone weights hanging from her shoulders. This was the lonely time of day.
Keeping her gaze on the campfire, she asked quietly. “Is it true that Jack Caldwell mired the wagon that caused all the trouble?”
“Yes.”
Pressing her lips in a line, she nodded shortly and added Les to her list of grievances. If Jack hadn’t been careless, Les wouldn’t have gotten hurt.
“What happens now?” In the shadowy darkness his profile looked as if it were cast in stone. “Is Les off the drive? That wouldn’t be fair, Dal. Les has worked hard, she’s learned what she had to learn, done everything you’ve asked from her. I can handle the drag until she’s well enough to work again. I swear I can.”
“Luther’s checking to see if Joe provided for a situation like this.”
“But you’ll have a say in it,” she guessed. Reaching, she touched him again, letting her fingers linger. Not to persuade, but to comfort herself. That surprised her. “Please don’t punish Les for something that wasn’t her fault.”
It sounded like habit, like she was trying to solve another problem for Les. But that wasn’t how it felt. There was no long-simmering resentment beneath her plea, no sense of trying to help Les because Les wouldn’t or couldn’t help herself.
“Is this another practice scene, Freddy?” The darkness was now deep enough that she couldn’t see his expression. “Please, Mr. Villain, don’t tie my sister to the railroad tracks?”
She jerked her hand away as if the iron muscles beneath her fingertips had scorched her. “I lied to you that night,” she said in a low voice, her cheeks suddenly hot. “I wasn’t acting, I just…” Her chin lifted and she bit off the words. She didn’t want him to know how often she relived his kisses and the touch of his callused hands moving on her skin, driving her wild with desire. “I’m asking you to give Les a chance because she deserves it.”
Les understood that she was lying inside a tent. Alex or Freddy had mentioned that rain was moving in from the south and they’d set up tents for everyone. She also knew that she’d been badly injured. Bandages wrapped her left thigh and she was aware of pain surging like a hidden current beneath the warm sea in which she floated. But she didn’t remember the actual injury or crossing the river or Alex stitching her. All of the drovers had poked their heads past the tent flap and had spoken to her, but she couldn’t recall what they had said, remembered only bits and pieces of what her sisters had talked about when they had crawled inside her tent and held her hands.