Warmed by the compliment, Kari returned Molly’s hug and then Seth led her out of the house and back to the phaeton.
Henry whinnied to see them again and the two harnessed mares pricked up their ears, which made Kari smile, glad for something to lighten the pall that seemed to hang over their departure. Even Molly’s wave goodbye seemed subdued, Seth’s mother retrieving the cobbler and going back inside before they had driven away.
A question burned in Kari’s mind, but Seth appeared as if his thoughts were miles away as he steered the carriage out of town. Thankfully they headed in the opposite direction than the Red Dog Saloon, and she opened her parasol again to protect her from the afternoon sun. How would she ever adjust to such heat?
“Wait until summer,” Seth said with a laugh, Kari astonished that once again, he’d read her thoughts. Yet not all of them, the same question troubling her as Walker Creek receded into the distance.
Determined to know the answer before their courtship progressed any further, Kari decided it was best just to have it out.
“Seth, do you hate Caleb?”
No ready answer came, Kari feeling Seth stiffen beside her. He clucked his tongue to the mares and seemed to be mulling his reply, and then he shrugged and glanced at her.
“I don’t hate him…but I don’t like him, either. Why do you ask?”
Kari drew a deep breath and plunged ahead. “If you don’t like him, I don’t understand why you work for him. Surely there are other ranches that would hire you as foreman.”
“As a ranch hand, maybe, but not foreman. He’s not the only rancher with a grudge against Indians. Lots of folks have seen their homes burned to the ground in the past and lost loved ones to raids. That hatred runs deep.”
“But you said yourself that your blue eyes have always stumped him, so you have no idea if you’re part Comanche or not.”
“Doesn’t matter. Perception is a hard thing to change, and my uncle’s the one who first voiced his suspicion a year or so after he returned from the war. Like Ma said, he became a different man when he got that letter from Lara telling him that she was married. Hard, cruel even, and my mother’s the only one who’s been able to temper it. He’d already been gone a year when I was abandoned and I was three when he came home, but I remember him playing piggyback with me and laughing—always laughing. Then the laughter stopped.”
Seth’s expression grown grim, a tic working along his jaw, Kari didn’t know if she should press him further, but she had to ask. She had to!
“Seth, are you courting me to spite him somehow? After everything you’ve told me, it would make sense—oh!”
He’d pulled up on the reins so sharply to slow the carriage that Kari almost lost her seat. She dropped the parasol, though, the pointy end striking the closest mare in the rump and causing her to rear in the harness and whinny in fright.
The other mare whinnied, too, the two of them bolting so suddenly that Kari did lose her seat. She cried out as she tumbled to the hard ground and landed on her stomach, the wind knocked out of her.
A dazed glance to her left told her that Seth had managed to bring the startled horses under control, the carriage rolling to a stop some thirty feet away. Kari heard it, then, a dull-sounding rattle not far off to her right. Fear sluiced through her as she turned her head and came face-to-face with a coiled snake ready to strike.
“Don’t move, Kari, don’t move!”
She didn’t blink, didn’t breathe, the report from a revolver deafening as the snake flew into the air, its head shot from its body.
Only to plop down right in front of her, the sightless eyes staring at her, its bloodied mouth gaping open to reveal poisonous fangs.
Kari nearly vomited, choking down bile as she felt herself pulled backward by her legs until she was several feet away from the still-lethal head. Seth dropped to his knees beside her and pulled her into his arms, hugging her fiercely even as she flung her arms around his neck.
“Oh, God, Kari.” Over and over he whispered the words against her ear, his voice choked, his embrace only tightening while she held onto him for dear life.
She couldn’t say how long they remained there together, holding each other close, until Seth lifted his head to stare at her. His eyes had darkened to a stormy blue, his face stricken.
“God help me, Kari, if I’d been any farther away…” His hoarse voice faltered again as if he couldn’t bear to finish the thought, his trembling fingers tenderly wiping loose strands of hair from her face.
She reached up to touch his face, too, and found his cheek wet, Seth staring into her eyes as if he couldn’t believe how narrowly she had escaped death. His gaze dropped to her mouth. Her lips parted as she fought still to steady her breathing, Kari staring at his mouth as he lowered his head to kiss her—
“Good gracious, Seth, is everything all right? What’s happened here?”
Chapter 7
Kari gasped and Seth stiffened, both of them looking up as an older man dismounted from his horse and came running toward them.
“Lord help me, were either of you bitten?”
“We’re fine, Pa, at least I hope we are. Kari took a hard fall from the carriage, but I don’t think anything’s broken.”
