Hours later, soaked to the bone, Catherine admitted to herself the cowboy was right.
There had been no sign of Pop. They’d started their searching in the woods near home and made increasingly larger circles with the soddy and barn in the center.
The cowboy had gone silent, though he had stayed with her. Every now and then, his hand came beneath her elbow as she traversed a treacherous patch or she slipped on the damp, leaf-strewn ground.
As the crow flies, they weren’t far from home, but she hated to turn back. Her feeling that something was wrong with Pop had only intensified as they’d continued on without seeing a trace of him.
The birds that usually chirped and made plenty of racket were silent. The only sounds were of their movement as they hiked through the difficult terrain, and even that was muted.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d done wrong when she’d asked him if he was awake in the night. They hadn’t spoken openly about his worsening nightmares or whatever condition it was that made him faint and short of breath.
And she had thought to spare him additional stress by not telling him of the Chestertons’ threats. Had that been the wrong decision?
“It’ll be coming on dark soon,” the cowboy said, startling her out of her increasingly morose thoughts. “And your Pop might’ve turned back and be snug and warm in the soddy, wondering where we are.”
She picked her way carefully on the rocky, leaf-covered ground. Trees and woods were at their back and right side, but to their left, the ground sloped away in a hill that had become steep. “Or he might be lying injured, cold and wet.”
The cowboy started to say something else, but she couldn’t listen. She turned on him. “If you’re tired of hiking in wet socks, why don’t you go back to the dugout? You’re the injured one, after all, and I don’t need your help.”
Her inattention to her footing had been a mistake. Her boot slipped on a slick rock face, and she lost her balance. She struggled to right herself, reaching out for anything to grab on to, but there was nothing.
She tumbled down the hill, end over end. Views of green then gray sky swirled through her head. Water splattered her face.
“Catherine!”
She heard the cowboy’s cry from a distance, but couldn’t speak when a hard landing on her back knocked the breath from her lungs. She kept rolling, knocking her shoulder against a rock.
She scrabbled for a handhold, but the wet grasses provided nothing to hold on to.
And then finally she came to rest on a flat bed of grass. She gasped once, twice, trying to draw in a breath.
Lying on her back, her head was turned toward the hill she’d just tumbled down and without moving she saw the cowboy scrambling down the hill, sliding on his hind end at times, his face a study in concentration.
He was upset. At her words?
I don’t need your help.
It was ironic that she lay prostrate unable to even stir herself to get up, when she’d spoken such nonsense just moments ago.
Her body’s natural instinct took over, and she was able to draw a deep breath at the same time that he skidded to a stop and knelt at her side. She’d lost her hat somewhere along the way and soft raindrops washed her face.
“Catherine,” he breathed. What was that expression crossing his face? His brows were drawn and his eyes intense as he reached for her. He didn’t help her sit. Instead, his hands came to cup both sides of her jaw.
He was trembling.
“Are you—can you feel your extremities?” Even his voice shook.
She inhaled and exhaled once more. “You mean the bruises I’ll have come tomorrow?”
He didn’t smile. His hands moved from her face to her shoulders. “Does anything in particular pain you?”
The breathless concern in his voice pinched her stomach, and she pushed up with her hands on the wet grass, sitting upright. “Just my pride.”
His hands fell away, but he didn’t move back as she expected. He was close enough that if she turned just so, their shoulders would bump. Close enough that water dripped off his hat and onto her muddy hand, lying in her lap.
His closeness discomfited her. “I’m fine,” she said through stiff lips. Except now she needed a bath, and she was still shaken from the fall.
“I’ve been trying to show you that you don’t always have to be.” His voice was hoarse, and his hand returned to cup her cheek.
What was he—?
He leaned forward, and his lips brushed hers. The kiss only lasted seconds, and she was so stunned that she sat frozen as he pulled back several inches. Still close enough that she could see the fine stubble that had grown back where she’d shaved him last night.
His hand remained cupping her jaw while his lips spread in a slow smile.
Heat boiled in her belly and flamed in her face, but for once she had no idea what to do. She didn’t want to pull away.
He’d kissed her.
She was shaking now for a different reason, her heart in her throat. She couldn’t keep her thoughts from the mad whirl they’d gone on.
What did it mean? Where did they go from here now?
She had to focus. Pop was still missing. He could be hurt.
“We—we need to go. Pop—”
Matty’s eyes remained steady on her face, but he seemed to understand that she needed time to think as he helped her up with a hand beneath her elbow.
Matty had seen the flare of panic cross Catherine’s face as he’d pulled back from the kiss.
Even now, as he helped her stand up and watched her stretch both legs out, checking for injuries, a knot of worry lodged behind his breastbone. His heartbeat still hadn’t slowed after seeing her tumble down the hill. She could’ve broken a bone or even hit her head on a rock and been killed.
And as he’d slipped and slid his way down the hill after her, the realization had shocked him to his core. He cared about her. He was falling for her.
He hadn’t been able to stop the kiss. He was just glad she hadn’t pushed away from him or slugged him. He still half expected it, but the sidelong glance she gave him was more filled with confusion than anything else.
“You sure you don’t want to go back to the dugout and dry off a little, get some rest?”
Her expression clouded, her brows drawing together. “I can’t shake a feeling that something isn’t right. I want to keep looking for him.”
The day had worn on. Darkness would fall soon, and what then? If she insisted on continuing her search, he’d follow her. She hadn’t brought a weapon, and he wore one at his waist.
More rain seeped between his hat brim and collar. There were no parts of him that remained dry.
And even with his socks squelching in his boots, he wouldn’t leave her out here alone.
“I’m wishing I had my horse,” he said. Riding horseback would hasten their search, allow them to cover more ground more quickly.
“Do you think you could ride now without pain?” Her question was laced with curiosity.
“I…don’t know.” His collarbone still tweaked occasionally, but the overall ache had dulled these past few days. He could probably manage riding without pain, as long as his mount was calm and he didn’t try any daring movements.
Which meant that when his brothers came for him, he’d have no excuse not to go with them.
Even though a part of his heart would remain here with Catherine.
Twilight had fallen, everything growing darker in hues of blue and gray. The rain hadn’t stopped, and Catherine slogged forward even though her moccasins felt as if they each weighed several pounds.
“We should stop,” Matty said again. She knew he believed it was ridiculous to continue searching for Pop in this weather, but her dread had continued to mount as the day wore on.
Tears clogged her throat, though she cleared it so she could speak. “I don’t want to stop.”
But she drew to a pause in the shelter of a tall birch. Beneath the canopy of its branches, the relentless rain was more of an occasional drip.
“We won’t be able to see anything in the dark,” he said. “We could walk right by Pop and miss him.”
“What about a lantern?” She ran a damp hand down her face. Exhaustion weighed her down, but the feeling that something was terribly wrong with Pop persisted.
She hadn’t brought a lantern in the rucksack she’d packed. “Or a torch,” she added belatedly.
“Doubt you’d find any stick of wood dry enough to light,” he said.
Her stomach rumbled. They’d consumed the biscuits and handful of jerky she’d packed earlier in the afternoon.
But she couldn’t just give up, not when Pop could be injured.
Matty’s hand closed over her elbow. “What if we go back and get a few hours' sleep?”
It was a good idea.
After a slight hesitation, he went on, “And I was thinking I might ride to Elliott’s place and ask if he could spare his hands. If they’re willing to help us search, we could cover more ground.”
Her head jerked up. She searched his face, but beneath the shadow of the tree and the rapidly-darkening sky, she couldn’t make out his expression.
As if he sensed her uncertainty, he reached out and clasped her hand.
“How can you be sure… Can we trust them?”
He squeezed her hand. “If it was any of my pa’s neighbors, I would say an unconditional yes. But if something has really happened to Pop, we may have to chance it.”
He believed her that Pop wouldn’t have just run off, not in this weather. He believed her that something was wrong.
Silly tears burned her eyes and one overflowed, rolling down her cheek. She used her wrist to brush it away, breaking the connection between them.
She didn’t know what to think since this afternoon. Since that kiss. Did he really see her that way…? Could he possibly be sweet on her?
Her? Homemade happy Cathy?
“I thought…you wouldn’t want to go searching with me again. That you’d think I was foolish.”
She started away from the tree, back out into the relentless rain. Though she remained upset and uneasy about not finding Pop, it would be a relief to be inside and out of the elements.
Matty followed, as faithful as ever. They were maybe three-fourths of a mile from home. A hike that would normally take less than an hour.
He didn’t speak until they’d climbed the top of the hill she’d fallen down earlier. “When I was nine, when the sickness came over my family… It was the winter after you’d come to school… I don’t like to talk about my parents’ deaths but maybe there’s a lesson to be learned here.”
He who was usually so jovial, never lacking for words, seemed unable to find them now.
“I’d succumbed to the fever first. When I finally came out of it, came back to an awareness of myself, it was so quiet.”
She skirted a cedar, brushing against a lower branch and the motion sending a shower of raindrops falling to the ground.
“There was no fire burning in the stove. No sound of my ma’s knitting needles clicking. My pa wasn’t a quiet man. He was always talking. Always.”
Perhaps Matty had inherited that trait from his father, then.
“And I realized I didn’t hear his voice or his laugh. I was lying in my bed, quilt soaked with sweat, and I was scared.”
She stopped. His voice… The emotion underlying his tone told her how serious he was, telling her this, that maybe he still felt scared thinking back to that time.
“I was weak as a newborn foal, but I made myself get outta bed. I found their bodies, and I knew. No one was coming for me.”
She didn’t think, she just reached out for him. Where his hand had closed over hers earlier, offering her comfort, she now repeated the action, taking his larger hand in hers.
He didn’t pull her closer, didn’t pull away. Just accepted the comfort she offered.
When he spoke again, his voice was coarse with emotion. “I think your Pop is real blessed to have you to come after him.”
She had to swallow the lump in her throat before she could form any answer for him. “I’m real glad someone did come along and find you.”
He squeezed her hand, the same way he had earlier.
And it was nice to have someone to hold on to. To know that she wasn’t alone. She didn’t know if it could last past the next few days, but for this very moment, she couldn’t let go.
Complete darkness had fallen now. It was going to be difficult to find their way back, even though she could recognize the familiar landscape.
She didn’t let go of Matty’s hand as she carefully picked her way through the woods, knowing they would have to be careful crossing the creek when they came upon it. It would be swollen from today’s rains, and in the dark…
An unnatural noise startled her.