“Lay her down, son, let me see to her,” came the urgent command, Seth releasing Kari though he stayed close to her side.
Seth’s father! Kari watched wide-eyed as Dr. Charles Davis knelt on the ground to feel her limbs for any broken bones. He looked every bit a distinguished physician with his side whiskers and moustache, his expression intensely focused as he examined her. Only when he came to her right ankle did she gasp in pain.
“I fear you’ve suffered a sprain, Miss—”
“Kari Hagen, Pa,” Seth interjected. “Uncle Caleb’s daughter.”
Charles glanced from him to Kari, but his dark brown eyes held no surprise or censure, only concern. “We need to get you home, Miss Hagen. Not only a sprain, but a terrible fright, I’m sure. Thank God my son’s an expert marksman.”
As Charles rose to his feet, Seth gathered Kari into his arms and carried her to the phaeton, but carefully so as not to jostle her.
Walking behind him, Charles for the first time sounded shaken. “You gave me a scare, too, Seth. I had just turned onto the road from the Fletchers’ ranch when I heard the gunshot. That’s the biggest rattler I’ve seen in some time, a six-footer easy. Must have spooked those mares out of their wits.”
Seth didn’t say anything to correct his father’s impression of what had happened, but focused on lifting Kari onto the seat as gently as he possibly could. Even so, she winced in pain, which made him feel sick inside.Hewas to blame for her tumbling from the carriage, his sense of guilt nearly choking him.
She looked so pale, her dress all dusty and her shawl askew—and where the heck was her parasol?
Seth saw it then, lying in the road and broken from being trampled upon by the horses. Just as Kari could have been trampled if she’d pitched forward instead of to the side—blast it, why had he yanked up so hard on the reins when she’d asked him if he was courting her to spite his uncle? Just like she’d said, after everything she had heard today, it made perfect sense that she might be troubled.
“I’ll drive her to the ranch, Seth,” said his father, climbing into the phaeton. “Untie Henry and bring along my horse.”
Seth nodded, his disappointment acute that he would have to wait to assure Kari of his intentions.
She looked crestfallen, too, as the carriage rumbled away, leaving Seth to grab the reins of his father’s horse and to mount Henry for the ride back.
He still felt shaken by the tragedy so narrowly averted, a fresh wave of guilt overwhelming him when he glanced at the dead snake on the side of the road.
Kari’s query had struck a nerve and he couldn’t deny it. Why else had he overreacted like he did? He hadn’t consciously wanted to court her as some sort of retaliation, but he’d known all along that Uncle Caleb wouldn’t think him worthy of her.
Seth’s jaw tightened at the thought and he kicked Henry into a gallop to catch up with the carriage.
If the horses hadn’t bolted, how would he have answered her? A denial, most likely, even though he had to admit to himself, however much it sickened him, that deep down his motives might not have been so pure no matter his feelings for her.
“How are you going to face her now?” Seth said under his breath, falling back so he wouldn’t catch up with the phaeton after all. Clearly, Uncle Caleb was right. He didn’t deserve her!
* * *
“Is there anything else you need, Miss Walker?”
Kari shook her head and murmured, “Not right now, thank you,” as Sarah adjusted the pillows to better elevate her sprained ankle and then bustled from the room. In truth, she longed to see Seth, but she wasn’t going to reveal that to the housekeeper given the Irishwoman’s tendency to share with Caleb everything they discussed.
When Dr. Davis had turned the carriage into the ranch, Kari had been surprised to see Seth so far back along the road. Wouldn’t he want to ride closer to make sure she was all right?
A last glance over her shoulder as Seth’s father had carried her into the house, his raised voice bringing servants running, had shown Seth still a good distance away. Whatever had he been thinking? Only when Dr. Davis had handed her over to one of the menservants to carry her upstairs had he rushed back to the door, calling out for Seth to bring him his medical bag at once.
Yet it hadn’t been Seth to bring the black leather bag to her room, but Sarah, telling Dr. Davis that Seth had said he would wait for him downstairs. Kari had reasoned then that it wasn’t appropriate for him to come upstairs, but in such extreme circumstances, wouldn’t an exception have been made?
She had wanted to see him, needed to see him! If anything to assure him that she wasn’t too badly hurt even though her ankle by then had swelled to twice its normal size, her ribs aching from how hard she had hit the ground when she fell from the carriage.
Wouldn’t he want to hear about her condition from her own lips rather than a report from his father, who hadn’t left her side until her ankle had been thoroughly bandaged and instructions for her care given to Sarah and Maria? Yet that was hours ago already,hours ago!
Kari heaved a sigh, the day fading into a fiery sunset that bathed her west-facing bedroom in warm hues of orange and gold.
What could have happened to him? His mother had asked him to wait to speak to Caleb in the morning when she and Seth’s father came out together to the ranch, so perhaps Seth had thought it best not to talk to his uncle at all until then.
Yet surely Caleb would want a full accounting of events from Seth when he returned from town. Dr. Davis had said little to her during the ride back to the house, other than to inquire every so often how she was feeling and to reach down and gingerly check the swelling in her ankle. He’d told Sarah earlier that the horses had been spooked by a rattlesnake alongside the road and Kari had held her tongue, not wishing to embellish upon what was an entirely plausible story.
She had no idea what Caleb would think if he knew in reality that Seth had slowed the phaeton so abruptly that Kari had dropped her parasol, startling the horses into bolting—and she had no intention of sharing it with him.
