“And the horse? Is that yours?” Luke asked.
He nodded. “That’s Tinsel. She fell and knocked us all off,” he said quietly. The boy turned around and looked back at the struggling horse with a worried expression on his face, before turning back around, hugging himself. Luke noticed that the boy was shivering.
“It’s cold out here. We need to get you all inside. And you need to see a doctor!” he ordered toward the woman. “Are you able to walk, Miss?”
“I think so,” she supplied quietly.
Luke didn’t hesitate. He knew she was hurt. Luke stepped to her side, and in one swift motion, he lifted her and the young crying girl onto his arms.
The woman yelped in utter shock, but Luke didn’t acknowledge the outburst as he walked with long strides towards Chester, who was patiently waiting. Luke lifted her onto his saddle and made sure that she was secure and wouldn’t fall off.
Just as he turned around to the little boy, Caleb arrived.
He jumped off his black horse and rushed over to where they stood.
“What in the world was that? Who were they?” he exclaimed, clearly worked up about the shooting incident. Luke noticed his disheveled clothes underneath his open, thick bison coat. Caleb must have gotten dressed in a hurry as soon as he’d heard the gunshots echoing through the valley. As if to prove this point, Caleb quickly stuffed the front of his shirt into his trouserswhen he saw the young lady with the little girl sitting in Luke’s saddle.
“I have no idea. I couldn’t really get a good look at them. I was hoping you’d recognize one or two of them,” Luke said.
Caleb shook his head and exhaled a disappointed sigh. Then he looked up at the woman, before turning his head to look at the boy, who was still standing there wide-eyed and shivering. “Is everybody all right? Anybody injured?” he asked with immediate concern.
Luke nodded toward the woman. “She needs medical attention. Since it’s still so early, I was going to take them back to the ranch,” Luke said. “They need to get inside and warm up, am I right?”
Luke walked over to the young boy and kneeled down in front of him so he could speak to him at eye level. “I need to ask you a favor, little man.”
The young boy shuffled nervously with his feet and hugged himself even tighter.
“Would you mind riding with this handsome gentleman?” Luke asked gently.
The boy stared warily at Caleb as Luke pointed at him. “This is Mr. Caleb Whitfield. He is my deputy, and we are also family, so I promise you are safe with him.”
The boy looked back at the woman and small girl, and there was clearly yearning in his eyes. He obviously didn’t want to be separated from them by any means. But then he surprised Luke when he took one more look at Caleb, who gifted him with the brightest smile, and nodded hesitantly.
“Good choice!” Caleb cheered. “My horse is much faster than Luke’s anyway.”
Luke scoffed, but nodded gratefully at him when his comment elicited a small smile from the young child. Then he lifted the small boy onto his arms and carried him to Caleb’s black horse.
“I’ll tell Evelyn to come over so she can tend to the ladies and this young gentleman. She would love the company,” Caleb suggested, before turning to the young boy. “And she makes the best pancakes and cinnamon apples.”
For a moment, the boy’s face lit up, but then he turned his head and looked back over his shoulder. “We need to get Tinsel! She is hurt!”
Luke and Caleb both turned around to look at the injured horse. The mare had stopped struggling. She lay still, heavily breathing.
“I’ll get her as soon as we drop them off at your house,” Caleb said.
Luke nodded, walked over to Chester, and climbed on behind Madelaine, leaving her the comfort of the saddle. He steered the horse around and gently kicked Chester in his flanks to make him fall into a soft trot. At the same time, Caleb got up behind the boy as well. He wrapped his coat as best as he could around the shivering child and followed Luke. “You have to hold on tight, boy. His name is Lightning, and he really is lightning fast.”
They caught up easily, so the little group rode back side by side.
“Thank God nobody was too badly injured. Praise the Lord…” Caleb said after a while.
Luke scoffed at that. “God had nothing to do with this!” he interrupted him brusquely with a dismissive tone. “I saved them. Not God.”
Caleb fell silent. As they rode, none of them said a word. Even little Belle had stopped crying.
Luke was completely immersed in his thoughts, contemplating what to do. The sun hadn’t even peeked over the mountaintops yet, and already there’d been a chase, a shootout, an injured horse and woman, and now he was in the process of taking a small family back to his house. What else would this day bring?
Chapter Five
