It took her eyes a moment to focus on the patterned material enough to see what he did.
Then her breath froze.
A face.
Or rather...apersonlay under that blanket.
One side of the face showed a closed eye fanned by wrinkles in the tanned skin. A few long, gray hairs peeked out from the blanket. A woman.
Naomi pressed her hand to her mouth.
Had this poor being frozen to death that morning? It couldn't have happened more than a few hours ago, for embers still glowed in the fire .
"Is...is she dead?" Sean's young voice sounded worried, and Naomi wrapped her arm around him again. She needed to check.
Before she could, though, the stranger's eyelids flickered.
She was alive?
Naomi released Sean and crouched beside the figure. "Hello. Are you all right?" She spoke a bit louder than usual, hoping her words would stir the strangers.
The lashes on her eyelid wiggled. She reached out to touch the crepey cheek, but with her gloves on, she couldn’t tell if her body was warm. She tugged it off and brushed her fingers over the woman’s skin.
She couldn't be certain, but it felt like the body might still be warm. She needed to feel for a pulse. And if this poor person was still alive, Naomi needed to do everything she could to bring warmth back into her. Right away.
Every second mattered.
The ride back to the village felt so much shorter when the sun was warm. Eric lifted his face to soak in the heat—well, relative heat, anyway—as his horse meandered the familiar trail. Mary Ellen had been all smiles that morning, eager to play and be entertained, and he was more than happy to oblige.
He'd even managed a moment alone with Naomi at the end, when Sean and Lillian went to saddle their horses, and he’d grabbed at the chance for a kiss. Not long, but a wonderful taste and a reminder that he'd not always need to travel two hours each direction to see her. To soak in her beautiful smile. To wrap his arms around her. And savor more of her kisses.
So much he’d missed these long months. He still couldn’t fathom how their letters and his telegrams could have all gone astray. The Postal Service wasn’t known for complete reliability, but so many letters couldn’t have been lost. And the wires. The telegraph had a much better reputation for accuracy than the mail.
Hadn’t Naomi said his letters were returned unopened? That hadn’t been the case with the ones he’d sent. Could the culprit be someone in their house in Washington? Had his father or mother disliked Naomi and interfered with their correspondence, or had one of the servants do so? They’d never shown signs of disregard. And his mother made no secret of the factshe’d like to see him happily settled. Besides, that wouldn’t explain the telegrams he’d sent directly from the telegraph office.
Could Naomi be right about Harvey? What motivation could his cousin possibly have to interfere in their courtship?
A flicker of movement just off the trail caught his eyes.
A deer?
He focused on the spot. It had been larger than a squirrel or a bird.
But when the figure moved again, a human form emerged from the shifting light and shadows.
A person dashed among the trees with youthful agility.
Gil's words from a couple days ago slipped back in. Someone had camped on ranch property.
Did Eric just see the son of whoever had built the abandoned campfire they'd seen? This child couldn't be here by himself. He’d looked to be about Sean's age, maybe even a little smaller.
Eric opened his mouth to call out to him, to let him know there was no danger, but the lad took that moment to dart away, sprinting off through the snow and trees like deer running from a cougar.
Eric pushed his horse forward, but with the first step off the trail, the animal plunged into a snowdrift, the icy white rising to its neck and above the top of Eric's boots. The frozen crust on the snow must have melted with today's warmth. This would be slow going on horseback, and the boy had already disappeared up the wooded slope. Should Eric go back and alert one of the Coulter men?
Probably.
Seemed a better idea than trying to follow. Who knew where the boy might lead him, and Gil had asked him to keep his eyes out for the strangers.
