Only 06 - Winter Fire

finished, she looked down at her handiwork.
    Lola is right , she decided in a distracted way. This is a prime piece of man .
    The idle thought surprised her. Since her harsh initiation into a wife’s duties in the marriage bed, men hadn’t appealed to her physically.
    Hastily she draped a clean cloth over Case, preserving at least the shreds of modesty.
    But she would be a long time forgetting what she had seen.
    He’s bigger than Hal was .
    All over .
    The thought made Sarah shudder. She had endured enough pain from her slightly built husband. Lying with teeth clenched while a man Case’s size rutted between her legs was unthinkable.
    â€œHere you be,” Ute said.
    â€œThank you.”
    She took the pan of hot water. Then she looked up into Ute’s narrow, black eyes.
    â€œUncle William,” she said quietly, “told me that a clean wound heals better than a dirty one, and any woman knows that hot water and soap cleans things better than cold water alone.”
    Ute’s nod was almost a bow.
    â€œI didn’t mean no belittling of you,” he said uncomfortably.
    She touched one of his blunt, scarred hands.
    â€œI know,” she said. “I just wanted you to understand, so if I get hurt someday you’ll know what to do.”
    â€œGod won’t never let you get hurt.”
    â€œGod is very busy.”
    â€œNot too busy for His angels.”
    With a sad kind of smile, Sarah turned back to Case. She had no illusions about holding a special place in anyone’s eyes, much less God’s.
    Gently, thoroughly, she cleaned wounds until she could see nothing but raw flesh and fresh blood. One of the leg wounds was high on the inside of his thigh. She probed delicately and felt no lump of lead. The bullet had simply taken out a furrow of flesh and gone on its way.
    The second leg wound was deeper, more serious. It bled steadily, but not with the spurting that her uncle had warned her often meant death.
    â€œStill carrying lead?” Lola asked.
    â€œYes,” Sarah said unhappily. “From the angle the bullet went in, it’s lodged in the back of his thigh, if it missed the bone…”
    Matter-of-factly Lola slid her hand beneath his thigh. She prodded intact skin and muscle with her fingertips, seeking the bullet. When Case groaned, she didn’t flinch.
    Sarah did.
    â€œLucky,” the older woman said. “Just got the meat.”
    â€œAre you sure?”
    â€œYep. Clean missed the bone. Ute, hand me over your knife. I’ll cut that there lead out quick as a snake licking its lips.”
    â€œWait!” Sarah said.
    Lola gave her an odd look. “Heals better without lead.”
    â€œI know. It’s just…”
    Sarah’s voice dried up. She didn’t know how to tell Lola that the thought of cutting into Case’s smooth, muscular flesh made her feel anxious and sad and angry at the same time.
    â€œYou all right, sis?” Conner asked. “You look kind of pale. Maybe you better leave this to us.”
    â€œI’m fine,” she said curtly. “Ute was shot up a lotworse than this when we found him. I cut and stitched him like a wedding quilt, remember?”
    â€œI remember that you threw up afterward,” her brother muttered.
    â€œSo?” Lola retorted before Sarah could. “She got the job done first, and that’s all that counts. You done your share of puking, boy, and don’t you be forgetting it.”
    Conner narrowed his green eyes and swallowed a word that he knew would get him a lecture from his older sister.
    â€œUte,” Sarah said quickly. “Roll Case onto his side. I’ll take the bullet out with a scalpel.”
    â€œI’ll turn him,” Conner said.
    She looked up, surprised. She kept thinking of him as a nine-year-old child sobbing at the graveside of his parents. But today her younger brother was a big, rawboned man-child, already taller than she was by a head and easily twice as strong.
    He’s growing up too fast , she realized with sudden fear.
    If I don’t find that Spanish treasure soon, it will be too late. Conner will ride out of here and vanish like any other drifter, wandering toward whatever dead end awaits him .
    He deserves better than that. He has a fine mind. He could be a doctor or a judge or a scholar like our father was .
    Case groaned again as Conner turned him.
    â€œCareful!” Sarah said