Rue Allyn by One Night's Desire Page B

certain?” He could hear nothing, and the trees blocked his view of the sky.
    “Suit yourself and stay here. I’m heading for shelter.”
    It took him two seconds to realize that the silence was absolute. The very stillness of the air and the lack of birdsong forced him to believe her. He scrambled after her.
    They were picking their way down a steep incline when thunder boomed like canon fire.
    Ev’s heart leapt, and his gelding shied.
    Even Kat’s surefooted Indian pony sidled.
    “Geezus in a dress.” He leaned forward patting the horse’s neck as much to reassure himself as the horse.
    Kat signaled a halt and cocked her head. He sat there, aspens quaking around him in the rising wind as she listened to the thunder bounce and echo off the mountainsides.
    Pointing to the thin stream of run-off that wet the bottom of the incline where it met the next hillside, she turned to look at him. “We’ve got to get across that stream in the next two minutes. Flash flood’s coming.”
    She kicked her pony into a hazardous dead run down the slope.
    Ev followed suit. He hadn’t felt a drop of rain, but he’d seen enough to trust Kiera’s trail skills implicitly.
    The pliant aspens lashed at them like a thousand whips.
    The wind rose. The closer he and Kat got to the stream the more the ground shook. Twenty feet from the bottom a sound like an army in full charge came from upstream.
    Ev lifted his head to look.
    Rocks and uprooted trees boiled in a churning wall of water that covered both slopes to a height of nearly fifteen feet. They were going to drown.
    “Come on, Marshal, we can make it.” Her shout bellowed over the roar of the oncoming flood.
    He urged his horse for more speed.
    Kat’s pony was scrambling up the far slope as he hit the bottom, splashing through the stream that widened nearly as fast as his mount could run.
    He started up the next incline as, higher up, a flood-spun boulder crashed through the trees.
    “Duck,” he shouted at Kat, praying that she heard him.
    She bent low over her pony’s neck, but Ev saw the rock catch her a glancing blow. She slipped sideways and seemed about to fall off when she dragged herself back over her horse. Close to the top of the hillside, and out of immediate danger, her mount began to slow, but Kat weaved in the saddle. Ev held his gelding to a run, pulling to a halt beside the exhausted Indian pony just in time to leap to the ground and catch Kat as she tumbled unconscious from the saddle.

CHAPTER FIVE
    With a single boom of thunder the sky opened, and rain sheeted down, turning the ridge to mud. Ev had no choice but to leave Kat and scramble after the horses before they became so spooked they’d run. He managed to get them tethered to a couple of young lodgepole pines. As fast as possible he removed the saddles, bags, rifles, and other gear from both mounts.
    He lashed one corner each of the tarpaulin from his gear to two pines and anchored the other corners with rocks. He covered the muddy ground beneath the tarp with Kat’s buffalo robe and tossed a couple of blankets on top of that. Then slipping and sliding he made his way back to where she lay.
    She was drenched — her skin cold and clammy. Fear, greater than any he’d known or imagined, slammed into Ev’s belly. Swallowing down the gut-churning terror, he maneuvered Kat into his arms and fought his way against the wind and rain to the tarpaulin lean-to.
    He fell bone-weary onto the buffalo robe. Soaked to the skin, they were also covered in mud. He let her slide from his arms while he sucked in enough air to allow his muscles to move.
    While he lay there he watched the rise and fall of her chest. At least she was still breathing. He checked her for injuries and found only a slight bump on her head. All things considered she was okay. However, she wouldn’t be for long, if he let her stay in her frigid wet clothes. Ignoring his own shivers, he set about getting her warm and dry. He was determined not to