Only 06 - Winter Fire

again, depending on how often you spread your legs.”
    Sarah looked at the small bag and hoped that her cheeks weren’t as red as they felt.
    â€œNothin’ to be shamed over,” Lola said. “I’m told some women like it.”
    A shudder of distaste went through Sarah.
    â€œI didn’t,” she said, her voice flat.
    â€œNever much cared for it myself, until Ute. Liking a man makes it tolerable. More you like him, more tolerable it gets.”
    Blindly Sarah held the bag out.
    â€œTake it,” she said. “I won’t need it.”
    â€œThat’s what Conner said when you told him to wear a jacket a few weeks back. And what happened?”
    â€œHe didn’t take it,” Sarah retorted.
    â€œAnd then he come back home with his tail tucked between his legs, half-froze solid.”
    â€œI’m not Conner.”
    â€œHell, gal, course you ain’t. He can’t carry a kid in his belly.”
    Sarah grabbed Lola’s hand, slapped the small leather pouch into it, and let go.
    The older woman shrugged and tucked the small leather pouch into her pants.
    â€œYou change your mind, just holler,” she said.
    Sarah nodded, but as she did, she couldn’t help thinking that there were worse things than having Case’s baby.
    A lot worse.
    Â 
    â€œSarah, you awake?”
    Ute’s soft call brought her awake in a rush that left her heart pounding.
    â€œWhat is it?” she whispered. “Raiders?”
    â€œNo. It’s Case.”
    â€œWhat’s wrong?”
    â€œHe tossing and groaning in his sleep fit to wake the dead.”
    She thought quickly. She hadn’t seen Case since yesterday afternoon, when he had walked out of the cabin while the rest of them were admiring the ancient pottery.
    â€œIs he sick?” she asked.
    â€œNo, ma’am. Just real restless like. Calling out names and such.”
    Just like the fever dreams , she thought. Is he calling for his precious Emily again?
    â€œWake him up,” she said.
    â€œNo, ma’am,” Ute said emphatically.
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œLast time I woke a fighting man up when he was a tossing and a groaning, he durn near killed me ’fore he come to his senses. But Case wouldn’t harm nary a hair on your head, no matter what.”
    â€œAll right,” she said, throwing aside the covers. “Is Conner up on the rim?”
    â€œYes’m. That’s how I come to hear Case. I was passing his camp on my way back in.”
    â€œGo get some sleep. I’ll see to Case.”
    â€œUh, ma’am?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou might talk to him first, real quiet like, ’fore you go grabbing his shoulder.”
    â€œI’ve worked with wild animals before,” she said dryly.
    Ute’s laugh sounded like two handfuls of gravel being rubbed together.
    Sarah pulled on her clothes, grabbed a jacket, and hurried out into the night.
    Overhead the sky was an explosion of silver and black. The beauty of it held her spellbound for several heartbeats. Her breath came out in a wondering sigh that turnedto silver and rose toward the glittering vault of the night.
    Then the cold bit through her jacket, doeskin shirt, and doeskin pants. Shivering, she set off toward the clump of big sage where Case had set up his “camp.”
    Ute was right.
    Case was thrashing and turning and muttering words. The incoherent sounds were barely louder than the crackle and creak of the tarpaulin he slept on.
    Yet Sarah was certain that Emily’s name was the one most often spoken.
    Cautiously she approached him. She longed to gather him in her arms and soothe away whatever was causing his wild sleep. She had done the same thing many times for Conner in the years after the flood killed their family.
    But instead of touching Case, she sat on her heels just beyond his reach. He was a fighting man who had fallen asleep alone, outside the cabin. If anything grabbed him, he wouldn’t expect it to be a friend.
    â€œCase,” she said gently. “It’s Sarah. You’re all right. I’m here. You’re safe, Case. It’s all right.”
    She repeated the words many times, using her most soothing voice, the one Case had described as sunlight and honey.
    After a time he stopped twisting and turning in the covers. He was still restless, but he no longer twitched and jerked like a wild animal caught in a trap.
    â€œThat’s it,” she