Hannah let out a shuddering breath, relieved to see a man meant to rescue instead of harm.
Her rescuer handed the horse’s reins to another man standing nearby. “Are you hurt?” he asked as he bent down.
Hannah shook her head. “He is,” she said as she rose to her knees, not moving her hand away from the shotgun messenger.
The dark-haired man gestured at someone else, and before Hannah knew it, he was lifting her hand away so they could examine the injured man.
Hannah stood and stepped back, still trembling from all that hadhappened. At least no one else appeared to be hurt. The girls were all safe, and the stagecoach driver was deep in conversation with another man who had a star pinned to his chest.
She retreated around the other side of the stagecoach, where Natalie stood alone off to the side, while Ada and Vivian consoled each other. There were six of them in total, and out of all the girls, Natalie was the one Hannah felt closest to. They were near the same age, and the two of them had grown up in the orphanage since before they could remember.
“Are you all right?” Hannah laid a hand on Natalie’s arm.
The other girl nodded, her blonde curls bobbing as they pulled loose from their pins. Hannah tucked an arm around Natalie. Despite the brave face her friend put on, it was clear from the way she bit her lip and blinked the dampness from her eyes that she’d been frightened.
They’d all had a fright, Hannah reminded herself. And despite the fact that she felt the need to act braver than all of them because this had been her idea didn’t mean the entire incident hadn’t scared her as well.
She only hoped this would be the end of it. They would get off this mountain, reach Perseverance, and meet the men they would marry. They would be good, upstanding men, and all would be well.
Hannah repeated this to herself as she watched the men who had come to rescue them. After a moment, the dark-haired man broke away from the rest and began to walk toward her and Natalie.
His eyes fixed on her, and Hannah swallowed, suddenly nervous to speak with him. Her head swam and she blinked to clear her vision.
Don’t be ridiculous, she told herself. She was soon to be a married woman. She needn’t be losing her head over any handsome stranger who looked her way.
But the odd feeling didn’t vanish. Instead, Hannah felt as if she were very far away from everyone standing nearby. She clutched Natalie tighter. The man across from her said something, but it was as ifhe were calling to her from across a busy street. Her ears buzzed the way they did when she stuck her head underwater in the bath.
And then everything went black.
Chapter Three
Rafehadstoppedinfront of the red-haired woman who had saved Joseph King’s life. She was holding onto another lady as if one of them might keel over at any moment.
And then she did exactly that.
The woman she’d been with let out a little shriek as her friend slipped to the ground in an ungraceful heap of blue fabric. Rafe blinked at the woman lying in the dirt, momentarily confused. He’d just been thinking about how she must have kept her head during the excitement that had overtaken the stagecoach with the way she’d had the sense to keep King from bleeding out into the dust and dirt.
“Hannah! Hannah, wake up, please.” Her friend was kneeling next to her now, tapping her pale cheek.
Rafe could feel the others clustering around them. He bent down, thinking he could be of good use, but he honestly didn’t know what to do. He hadn’t been around decent women much at all since he’d arrived in Perseverance, and he’d certainly never had one faint in his presence before.
The blonde woman looked up at him with pleading brown eyes, as if she expected him to do something miraculous. Rafe studied the face of the brave woman lying on the ground, hoping something would come to mind. Should he shake her? Attempt to lift her up? Or was it better to let her sleep? She looked awfully peaceful, lying there, as if sheneeded the rest. Her skin was paler than it was before, the little freckles that dotted her nose standing out more. She resembled an angel in a painting, even with her hat askew from the tumble she’d taken. Her eyelashes, he realized, were the same shade as her hair, a light red color. They blinked, once. Then twice.
And with relief sagging Rafe’s shoulders, she opened her eyes.
“Why are you all staring at me?” she asked.
“You fainted, silly,” one of the other girls crowding around them said.
“I did?” Soft blue eyes found Rafe. She lingered on him a moment, and Rafe felt his face going warm. It was discomfiting having a woman look at him like that, as if she were expecting him to give her answers or provide some kind of encouraging words.
None came to his mind at all, and she looked away toward theconcerned gazes of her friends.
“Why don’t we step back and give her some air?” Sheriff Henry Rodgers, better known as Hawk, said from behind Rafe.
Everyone shuffled back, and Rafe got to his feet, feeling more useless than a hat with a hole in it.
The redheaded woman’s friends helped her sit up. She pressed a hand to her head and winced.
