He didn’t speak for a long while. “I’m sorry for leaving you last night.”
His apology warmed her far more than did the quilt he’d wrapped around her. “It was John the Baptist,” she whispered. “Please believe me, Roman. It was John the Baptist.”
He understood instantly. She hadn’t betrayed him. Her parrot had.
The heavy burden of guilt pressed down on him. “I’m sorry,” he said again. “God, I was just so mad, Theodosia. I never took time to think that it might have been the bird and not you.”
“Anger has a way of relieving us of rational thought.”
Her intellectual statement assured him that she was calming down.
She blinked up at him. “Why did you come back?”
He moved a wet lock of her hair off her forehead, then watched rain slide down the windowpane. “The storm. Llewellyn didn’t know how scared you are of lightning. I hated thinking that, so I came back. The manager at the hotel told me you and Llewellyn had checked out and that Llewellyn had hired a few men to move your things to this cabin. I’d planned to keep you safe from the lightning. Instead, I found you at the hands of the Blanco y Negro Gang.”
She felt him kiss her bare shoulder and pondered what he’d told her. Still believing she’d spilled his secrets to Hammond, he’d ridden straight into a barrage of bullets for her. He’d killed four men for her.
He might have died for her.
Such profound feelings came over her that she lost her breath entirely.
A loud squawk tore through her thoughts and caused her to gasp in air. Shifting, she peered over Roman’s shoulder and saw John the Baptist waddle into the room.
“They must have turned his cage over when they ransacked the place,” Roman mused aloud. “At least they didn’t hurt him.”
“Ransacked? Who—”
“Didn’t you see the front room? Your things are thrown all over the place.”
“What?”
“Your gold is gone, Theodosia,” he said softly, hating to tell her but knowing he had no choice. “Your jewelry probably is, too, except for the heartstrings brooch that’s still pinned to what’s left of your gown. The gang was here before they found you in the meadow.”
Her tears trickled onto his hand, shining up at him like wet diamonds. Staring down at them, he discovered that the tears themselves brought him no dismal feelings.
But Theodosia’s sorrow tormented him.
“What shall I do now?” Theodosia squeaked. “Roman, without money, how shall I—”
He silenced her with a long and tender kiss. And then, his lips still caressing hers, he whispered words he never believed he’d tell to any woman.
“I’ll take care of you, Theodosia.”
She hadno idea whereRoman would take her. Drained as she was, she didn’t care. When he brought her wagon around to the front of the cabin and handed her into it, she took the reins and prepared to follow him wherever he led.
Starlight and moonbeams lit the way. The storm had died, and the rain had left a fresh scent in the night air. She concentrated on the sweet fragrance and the swing of Roman’s hair across his broad back.
Several hours later he stopped Secret beside a glade through which a creek bubbled. “We’ll sleep here,” he said, dismounting.
She climbed out of the wagon and began to make her bed. When she finished, she watched Roman tend to the fire, and felt a deep security over doing the things that had become so familiar to her since having met him.
“Hungry?” he asked.
She nodded.
He made her a raisin sandwich.
Accepting it, she smiled and held it as though it were the last and most precious food on earth.
