Swept Away (36 page)

She walked up to Vince’s big red gelding and swung up on its back, relishing the feel of a horse under her. She adjusted her skirts. They were wide enough for modesty, also wide enough to scare a skittish horse, apparently.

Looking at her children, they watched her with dead-earnest expressions. They always watched her. They were forever braced for trouble.

She was too, so she couldn’t blame them.

Nodding at them as Vince climbed up beside Jonas on the buckboard, Glynna turned to wave at Ruthy. “Thank you. It was a lovely day.”

“Come out again anytime. I’m planning a big Thanksgiving dinner. I want you here for that.”

“We’ll see.” Glynna truly did love Ruthy Stone. But that house . . . there wasn’t an inch of it that didn’t have terrible memories for her.

And now, as the heavily laden buckboard drew away, she was bringing some of those memories to her new home above her diner in Broken Wheel.

The buckboard was stacked so high she couldn’t see the children anymore once they sat down. They were surrounded by boxes and furniture and other leftovers from their miserable life with the late Flint Greer.

Her tension eased as they rode away. Dare guided his horse to her side, smiling. “You ride that horse like you were born in a saddle, Mrs. Greer.”

A twist of humiliation surprised her. “Can we not attach the name Greer to me ever again? Call me Glynna, please.”

“It ain’t exactly proper, but I don’t mind burying that sidewinder’s name along with him.” Dare’s smile was gone. Glynna was sorry she’d had a part in wiping it away. Dr. Dare Riker had killed Flint in a gun battle. The doctor wanted to heal, not kill, but Flint had given him no choice.

The buckboard creaked along. The weather had turned cool; even Texas had to let go of summer at some point. Vivid yellow cottonwood leaves still clung to the trees lining the road to town. A few fell and fluttered around them, dancing on the breeze.

The bluffs rose on the side of the road. The edges were striped red, strange pretty layers of stone in this rugged part of north Texas some called Palo Duro Canyon. Juniper, cottonwoods, and mesquite were strewn here and there among the big blue stem grass and star thistles. Some places the trees were tall and thick, other places they clung to patches of dirt over stone that didn’t look deep enough to support roots.

Glynna stared at the highlands, remembering the guards Flint had posted to keep Luke Stone out, and her in. The bluffs were studded with boulders of all sizes. Looking ahead at the trail, she saw many had rolled down and been tossed about. Soon the bluffs grew closer. A stretch not far ahead was almost a tunnel where the canyon walls nearly formed an arch over the road. It was a tight passage that ran about a hundred feet.

“Luke said he’s going to start an avalanche deliberately one of these days. A rock comes down now and then. He’d like to wipe them out at a time of his choosing.”

“He’ll end up blocking the whole road if he does that.” Glynna watched the buckboard enter the narrow gap and realized she was mentally pushing it. She didn’t like her children in there.

“If he does, Luke’ll just clear the rubble and that’s all. Not much backup in that boy.”

Laughing, Glynna took a break from her constant worry, a weakness she was working on with God’s help. “Boy? Luke Stone has to be your age.”

“He’s some younger.” Dare was smiling again. “The youngest of all of us.”

Glynna was glad she’d teased him. It helped to put thoughts of Flint behind them.

A sharp
crack
drew her attention forward and she realized the buckboard was almost through the passage. She and Dare had just entered it.

The crack, though . . . What had caused—?

“Ride!” Dare slapped her horse on the rump. “Avalanche!”

Her horse leaped forward as a rock struck the ground behind her. A low rumble pulled her eyes up to the bluff on the left side of the trail. Rocks rolled, crashing into others, knocking them loose. They bounced off the far side of the canyon, starting an avalanche on that side, as well.

Her horse made a wild surge forward, going from walking to a gallop in a single step. Glynna lost her grip on the reins and fell backward.

Dare caught her wrist and jerked her forward with a hard hand. “Stay with me!”

Clawing at the pommel, she leaned low over her charging horse’s neck to make a smaller target. Thundering rocks sped up. One the size of Flint’s fist hammered Glynna’s shoulder.

She lost her grip and went down between the racing horses. Crushing, iron-shod hooves thundered around her, then were gone as her borrowed horse rushed onward.

She scrambled to her feet. A powerful grip sank into the front of her calico dress and she was airborne. Dare yanked her up in front of him. He’d spun his horse around and come back for her. Now he wheeled his horse to chase down the buckboard.

Small stones pelted Glynna’s face, and then a boulder whizzed past her eyes, barely missing Dare’s horse running flat-out.

More stones poured onto the wagon. Jonas slapped the reins and shouted. Vince threw himself back, twisting his body, doing whatever he could to shelter the children.

Vince’s horse, the horse that had thrown her, sprinted past the wagon and cleared the narrow stretch. A heavy rain of dust and gravel cut off the world outside the deadly corridor.

“Hang on!” Dare yelled to be heard over the onslaught. Overhead, the rumble shifted to an earsplitting roar. He looked up as he spurred his horse on.

One minute they were galloping, the next Dare threw them off the horse and rolled with her toward the sheer rise of the bluff. Dare’s weight knocked the wind out of her as he landed on top, shielding her. “Keep your head down!” he shouted.

A boulder pounded into the ground only feet in front of her. Dare’s horse reared and staggered backward, saving the horse from being crushed. As the boulder slammed past, the horse leaped forward and disappeared into pouring stone and grit that followed the boulder.

If they hadn’t been hard against the bluff, it would have crushed them both.

The boulder, huge as it was, bounced. How could something so massive bounce? It hit the far side of the tunnel and ricocheted.

“Get up. Move!” Dare dragged her to her feet, but she didn’t need to be dragged. She saw the great chunk of granite careening toward them. They got by it as it crashed into the spot they’d just left.

Staggering forward, the raining pebbles cut into her face and neck. The dust choked and blinded them until it was nearly impossible to see the next boulder coming.

Dare picked up speed to a full sprint. He stumbled in the debris, went down, and she went with him. Instantly they were back up, moving again. Surely they had only a few more yards to go.

Then a jagged rock struck Dare in the back and knocked him to his knees. A few seconds later, a cascade of smaller stones knocked him sideways.

Glynna snagged a handful of Dare’s shirt and yanked him to his feet. She shouldn’t have been able to lift him, but desperation gave her the needed strength.

His knees wobbled. His head slumped forward, yet he wasn’t unconscious, just stunned. She wrapped an arm around his waist and pushed on into the raining rocks.

Out of the tumult Vince and Jonas appeared. Jonas caught her. Vince got his arm around Dare. They stumbled on together.

The blinding debris finally thinned, and she could see again. The roar was behind them. Somehow they’d made it through.

Dare pitched forward. Vince had a firm grip or Dare would’ve fallen on his face. Jonas had been hanging on to her, but he left and caught Dare to keep him from further injury.

The intensity of Vince and Jonas as they carried their friend brought tears to her eyes while she rushed behind
them. They’d run
into
a landslide. They’d risked death to save their friend.

Glynna hadn’t known men like that existed.

Her children shouted as they clambered down from the buckboard and hurled themselves at her.

“He’s hurt. A big rock hit his back.” Glynna stumbled and might have fallen, except her children ran into her, holding her up just by being there.

Jonas and Vince knelt at Dare’s side. Glynna saw the blood.

Too much blood.

His shirt had a huge tear right by his left shoulder blade. Jonas grabbed the frayed shirt and ripped it right off Dare’s back.

“Ma, your face is torn up.” Paul, his voice tight with fear, pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to her.

A crash shook the earth. Glynna looked back at the canyon pass. An immense red rock slab, taller than a horse, fell and crashed into smaller rocks, bounced and rolled straight for them, standing up on its side like a massive wheel.

“Run!” Glynna caught her children, saw Vince and Jonas drag Dare to his feet, one of them on each side, and they ran. How far would that slab of rock go?

Glynna heard an almost explosive thud and looked back. The boulder had picked up speed. The horses—those on the buckboard and the ones they’d ridden—were just ahead, and they’d be killed, too. The buckboard team, rearing and snorting, strained at the buckboard. But the brake was set.

“Glynna, get the children behind those trees!” Vince shouted with all the force of a commanding officer. “Jonas, get that team out of here!”

One glance told her he’d thrown Dare over his shoulder
and was charging for the trees, running at her side. Jonas sprinted for the horses. He shouted at the saddle horses Glynna and Dare had ridden, and they bolted away.

Jonas threw himself onto the wagon seat, jerked the brake loose. With a slap of leather to the horses’ backs, they broke into a run.

Glynna veered for the side of the canyon, hard on Vince’s heels. Her children needed no urging; they were outpacing her now, pulling her along.

As they reached the trees, Glynna glanced back to see the boulder coming straight for them.

They reached the shelter of a clump of undersized juniper trees and dashed behind it just as the huge rock hit. The slender trees bent, and for a few terrible moments they seemed about to snap and crush all of them in the process.

Janet flung herself against Glynna’s legs. Her brother Paul grabbed her too, coming from the other side.

The trees held. At last the boulder stopped its rolling, then tipped over to land flat on its side with a thud that shook the earth.

Vince ran out of the trees, still carrying Dare. He took a fierce look around at the avalanche and its aftermath. The pass was choked with dirt and gravel, and rocks still tumbled down with a grating racket. But the worst seemed to be over. Some of the tension left Vince’s shoulders.

“You think it’s done?”

Glynna emerged from behind the trees, the children still clinging to her. She inhaled silted air and coughed, then said, “I thought it was done before.”

“Yeah, me too.” Vince, his face coated in dirt, flashed his glowing white smile. “But this time I’m sure.”

His actions said he wasn’t being careless. He walked well away from the pass before he crouched and eased Dare off his shoulder to lay him down on a grassy stretch alongside the canyon road. Blood flowed from several scrapes on Dare’s face, and two big knots were rising on his forehead. Yet the ugliest wound was on his back.

Jonas left the buckboard again, shaking his head. “How much control you got over that horse of yours, Vince? We need the water in your canteen.”

Vince saw puffs of dust in the air where his horse had galloped away. He paused from examining Dare, lifted his fingers to his mouth and a deafening whistle blasted.

Dare flinched and his eyes flickered open, then quickly closed again.

Glynna wanted to go to his side with an urgency that surprised her. Her children held her back. She realized then that blood was dripping onto her dress and that she still clung to Paul’s kerchief.

Dabbing at the raw scratches on her cheek, she watched Vince and Jonas tend to Dare.

“Wh-what’s going on?” Dare slurred his words and tried to roll over.

Vince’s horse came trotting around the corner toward them. Glynna noticed its flank was bleeding. Then, far behind, she saw a second horse—Dare’s—coming much more slowly, acting skittish, and who could blame it?

A gasp of pain coming from Dare got her full attention. His shirt had been ripped away and so had a flap of skin on his back.

Kneeling beside Dare, Vince said, “He’s losing a lot of blood.”

Vince pressed a kerchief to the open wound. Dirt stuck to
it everywhere. Vince grabbed the remnants of Dare’s shirt, folded it roughly and pressed it against the vicious gash.

Dare groaned in pain and pulled both arms up so he wasn’t quite flat on the ground anymore. He propped himself on his bent arms, enough to lift his head.

Pounding footsteps from behind turned their heads. Luke Stone appeared at the other end of the canyon’s narrow neck, barely visible through the grit and dust still lingering in the air. “I heard the avalanche,” he called.

“Can you get through?” Vince yelled back.

“I think so, yeah.”

“Luke, make sure there aren’t any more rocks falling before you step in that gap.”

Luke paused and studied the hillside.

“Have you got water?”

“Nope. I just heard the crash and ran to see what happened. Do you need me right now?”

“No, go fetch some water first.” Vince twisted to look at his horse walking toward him, slow and nervous. “We’ve got a little water on our horses, but we might be a while rounding them up.”

“Hang on!” Luke took off running for the water as if his friend’s life depended on it.

Another decent man.

Glynna turned back to Dare and his wound. Vince did too. Quickly they went to work, doing all they could to stop the shocking flow of blood.