Victoria Thompson: Texas Blonde

After what seemed only seconds, Felicity was surrounded. Three men knelt beside her. Gentle hands lifted her. Concerned faces looked into hers. "Are you all right?" Mr. Logan asked her.

Felicity felt a hysterical urge to laugh. He, who had just moments ago almost been swept away by a maelstrom, was asking if she was all right. Blinking away the water that was now running in rivulets down her face, she managed a small smile. She would be black and blue tomorrow, but what did that matter? "I'm a little wet," she admitted.

The three men stared at her in stunned silence for several seconds, the rain pouring unheeded over them. They were not quite able to believe their ears. Death had sent its hoary hounds snapping at their heels, they had escaped by a hair's breadth, and she was making jokes.

"I'll be damned," Josh murmured, sinking back on his heels.

"Me, too," Grady agreed, plopping down onto the muddy grass.

The two men exchanged a glance, and Josh felt his lips twitching. Grady gave him back a puzzled grin, and the next thing either of them knew, they were laughing uproariously as they experienced the almost overwhelming sense of relief that they had survived the disaster.

Felicity watched them, smiling in response to her own sense of relief, but when she turned to the boy Cody, she saw that he had not joined in the merriment.

Cody was just staring off into space. And then she noticed something else. "You're bleeding!"

Cody raised an unsteady hand to his forehead, where the girl was pointing, and touched the small cut. "It's nothing," he said, but his voice sounded unnaturally calm, and Felicity suspected that the shock was settling in on him.

"You'd better lie down flat," she advised, gently easing him back onto the oozing ground. None of them could have been any wetter or muddier, so it did not matter that she had no blanket to put under him.

Josh watched her minister to Cody with fascination, and for the first time he took a good, hard look at her. The golden hair was now plastered to her head, but that only served to accentuate the fine structure of her face-a face already smoothed into maturity-and the depth of her huge blue eyes. The rain had turned her dress into a sodden rag that could no longer conceal the woman's body underneath. Josh shook his head and looked again. No, he wasn't dreaming. How could he have made such a mistake?

"You'll be fine," she was crooning to Cody. "Just rest a minute." Then she turned back to Josh. "Do you have a handkerchief or something I can use on this cut?"

Josh didn't even hear her question. "How old are you?" he asked, his voice gruffer than he would have liked.

Felicity stared at him in surprise. What did that have to do with anything? "I'm eighteen." He stared right back as if he did not believe her, and this rankled. She should have been used to having people doubt her true age since it happened often enough, but for some reason, she didn't like the idea of Mr. Logan's thinking she was a child. "I'm almost nineteen," she added defensively. When he still did not respond, she sighed in defeat and returned to her original question. "Do you have a handkerchief?"

He fumbled in his vest pocket for a bandana, which he handed to her. She took it without so much as brushing his fingers with her own.

Dear Lord, she wasn't a young girl. She was a woman. Josh Logan was taking a woman to his ranch. Just wait until folks got wind of that. He'd never hear the end of it. And just wait until Candace saw what he was bringing her. At least Blanche was out of town. Maybe he could get rid of the girl before the Widow Delano got home. Yes, he'd have to get rid of her as soon as possible, for everyone's sake.

"We'd better get going," he said, rising to his feet. He was eager to get started. The sooner he got the girl to his ranch, the sooner he could get her off it.

The others stared at him in surprise for a moment but quickly recognized the wisdom of getting on with their journey. The open prairie provided no shelter, and the storm showed no signs of abating anytime soon.

Josh and Grady helped Cody to his feet. "I sure do thank you, Mr. Logan," Cody was saying. "I never would have made it____________________"

"I couldn't let one of my best hands get away, now could I?" Josh said with a smile that quickly stopped the flood of gratitude that threatened. "You'll have to ride with Grady. We'll take it slow. Come on, now." He led Cody over to Grady's horse and began to untie the slicker from behind the saddle.

"I'll do that," Grady offered. "You'd better see to your own passenger."

Josh gave Grady a wary glance, just enough to make certain that Grady had also noticed the curves the wet dress had revealed.

"Of course, if you want to ride with Cody…" Grady ventured, a wicked gleam in his eyes.

Josh pretended not to hear. Swiftly, he moved to his own horse, which was standing with its head bowed against the storm. "Come on, boy, we've got a lot of riding left to do today." With practiced hands, he removed the slicker from his own saddle. "Here, put this on," he told the girl, hardly daring to look at her lest he be caught staring.

Felicity tried to reach for the slicker, but her hands just did not want to cooperate. She was shaking again, just as she had shaken when she had been afraid of Mr. Logan. Except she was no longer afraid, or at least she didn't think she was. For some reason, she could not keep herself from watching the raging river that flowed below them, carrying with it the broken refuse of whatever got in its way. Branches and stones and drowned animals and even whole trees swept by. The rain beat down on her and the wind whipped around her, chilling her to the bone. She shivered uncontrollably, and her trembling hands dropped the slicker.

Josh swore under his breath as he stooped to pick it up and hand it back to her. Only then did he notice the way her teeth were chattering beneath her bluish lips. Christ, why hadn't he realized it before? For a minute there, when she had helped haul his horse over the crest of the hill like some tiny Amazon and then maternally wiped the blood from Cody's face and forced him to lie flat so he would not faint, Josh had forgotten her true condition. During the emergency, she had responded on pure nerve, but half-starved and exhausted, she now had no reserves of strength left on which to call.

He shook the grass from the slicker and slipped it quickly over her head, not bothering to put her arms into the sleeves, and buttoned it to her throat. Not that it would do much good since she was already soaked, he noted cynically. Without another word, he lifted her to the saddle and climbed up behind her, drawing her trembling body against his.

She was shaking in earnest now, bone-rattling shudders that frightened him. He knew that people could die from a chill like this, even when the weather was fairly mild, and the oilcloth slicker would do little to hold in her body heat. Had she been a man, or even the child he had originally taken her for, he would not have hesitated over doing what must be done to save her life. As it was, he only hesitated a moment. Reaching around her, he unbuttoned the slicker and then lifted the thing over his own head, too, so that he joined her in its billowing folds. Turning her slight body until she rested across his lap as she had before, he settled her comfortably and then nudged the Appaloosa into motion.

Felicity knew she should not be snuggled up to Mr. Logan so intimately, especially under the cover of the oilcloth. Even though he was an older man, propriety prohibited such things. Of course, survival dictated something else entirely, and drawn by his warmth, Felicity tightened her grip on him. Even in her distress, she noticed the hardness of his chest, the strength of the muscles under her hands, and his pleasant, masculine scent. Proper or not, she savored the security of his arms. After what seemed a long time, her shivering slowed and then, finally, ceased. Once again she fell into an exhausted sleep.