Chase the Wind (58 page)

“Son of a bitch,” Jason gasped as he saw the deep cuts over her heart. Jamie blinked back tears as Jason pulled the quilt up. Jamie pulled her close and sobbed into her hair. “Cat, see if you can find her clothes. We’ve got to get her cleaned up and get out of here. I
don’t want to have to explain this to the local sheriff if I can help it. Ty, see if you can do anything with Chase.” They scattered to
do Jason’s commands, and he went to fetch a pail of water and a towel. He stopped at the window, startled to see Zane retching in
the side yard. Jason put it down to seeing too much death and reminded himself to have a talk with the boy on the way home. Cat returned with Jenny’s clothes, torn but pretty much wearable except for the shirt. Zane came up the back steps, his face pale, his mouth green around the edges, but they didn’t notice as they sent him out to get another shirt for Jenny to wear from the spares they had all brought.

Jamie held Jenny in his arms as Cat gently wiped her skin under the quilt, trying to preserve her dignity, at least. Even in her unconscious state, Jenny flinched as Cat wiped the dried blood from between her legs; she moaned when they pulled a sock over her swollen ankle. Jason pressed a wet towel to her eyes and she came around, blinking and startled, but relieved when she saw the faces of people who cared for her, when she realized that Jamie’s arms were supporting her instead of holding her down, as Mason did.

She couldn’t walk, so Jamie wrapped the quilt around her and picked her up, carrying her through the sitting room and out on the porch. Chase was there in the yard, on his horse, waiting. Jenny buried her head under Jamie’s chin when she saw him. “No,” she whispered into his neck.

“This is one argument you are not going to win,” Jamie said and handed her over the rail into Chase’s waiting arms. Her dislocated shoulder had been wrapped tightly against her body, and it now rested against Chase’s chest as he adjusted her over his legs, her head falling into place on his shoulder, her nose tucked up under his chin, her cheek lying against the silky hair that fell over his shoulders. His arms trembled as he resisted the urge to squeeze her to him, to never let her go. Instead, he just held her, his arms loose and relaxed until he felt her body ease against him. The others were waiting. They were all mounted except Jamie, who still stood on the porch.

Cat let out a gasp as she turned her horse towards the fence.

“Don’t look,” Ty said, but it was too late. Ty reached out and grabbed Cat’s rein and led her towards the drive, Zane and Jake following with Jenny’s horse, which they had found in the barn.

“My God,” Jason said and turned to look back at Chase, who had his head down over Jenny’s, and at Jamie, whose face showed no emotion at all. Jason followed the others.

Jamie and Chase looked at each other, their faces in complete agreement. Chase turned his horse and directed it towards the fence where Randolph Mason was tied, his body slumped against
his restraints, his pants down around his ankles, and nothing but
a bloody mess left between his legs. The part of him that had been
removed lay in the dirt before him.

“Look at him, Jenny. He can’t hurt you or your family anymore,”
Chase said gently.

Mason raised his head and saw her eyes on him beneath the
shadow of Chase’s chin.

“Is this what you want?” His words were slurred. “A half-breed? Is this the man whose name you called?” Mason tried to laugh, but
all that came out was a gurgling sound as his lungs filled with blood. “Just remember one thing, half-breed.” He was dying and
he knew it, but he could still hurt them. “When she closes her eyes,
it will be my face she sees, not yours.”

Jenny trembled at the words, and Chase felt it.

“But you’ll be dead,” Chase said simply. Jenny turned her face into the steel cords of Chase’s neck, and he reined the horse away. Behind him, Mason’s head lolled to the side as his last breath was
drowned in blood. Chase rode to where the others were waiting
and he felt his heart leap in his chest as he felt Jenny’s hand, be
neath the quilt, make its way between the buttons of his shirt,
coming to rest against his pounding heart.

While the others waited at the curve in the drive, Jamie went
back into the house and returned with a lamp. He carefully lit the
wick and watched as the flame jumped to life. Jamie stepped off the porch and stood with the lamp in his hand, looking up at the broken window in the loft, turning his head to look down the
stream and up to the other side where his mother had grown flowers along the porch. He took another step back and flung the lantern against the front wall, where it shattered. The oil inside ran
down the planks of the wall, the flames giving chase and soon
licking up the door frame. The wood was dry and the flames were strong; he took another step back as the fire roared to life. Jamie’s horse danced nervously as the fire grew, and the heat drove Jamie
into the saddle. He looked at the barn, turned the horse in a slow
circle as his mind’s eye saw what had once been, and then he joined
the group that was waiting at the curve in the drive. He didn’t look
back.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Chase felt as if the pounding of his heart would dislodge the frail
hold that Jenny had on his chest. He felt the weak touch of her hand, held in place by the strength of the buttons on his shirt
instead of any desire that might have been there at one time. She had not spoken a word since Jamie had laid her in his arms, just
softly cried out in pain whenever he adjusted her into a more comfortable position. She was sleeping restlessly, the movement of the horse occasionally penetrating into her unhappy dreams. He barely
felt her breath against his neck, and actually had a few moments
of panic when he thought that she had ceased breathing altogether.
But then she would stir against him, not having the strength to do
much else, and his heart would resume pounding in his chest.

Chase fought to control the anger that threatened to boil up from within. He had been like a madman since the night Jamie had come
barreling into camp and kicked him awake, his face white, his voice
grim, the words “Jenny’s being held prisoner” like a knife in his
heart. Jason had asked all the questions while Chase went to saddle
his horse, not speaking a word, afraid that if he opened his mouth
his very soul would pour out in a painful wail. The ride to find
her had been agony, his mind going over every possible alternative
from finding her alive and well to finding her dead and gone, and he planned, in great detail, the painful deaths that would come to those who had harmed her.

The battle was over, Randolph Mason was dead, his multitude of sins sending his spirit to the worst kind of hell for the pain he had inflicted upon the Duncans, but still Chase was angry. He had heard Jenny’s weak pleas when he had come into the house. He did not have to look beneath the quilt to know that her body was bruised and damaged, her face gave enough evidence of that. It was her spirit he was afraid for, afraid that this time her spirit would not be able to recover from the blows that life had dealt her. Chase looked over at Jamie, who was riding next to him, his head bobbing in exhaustion. The only sleep he had gotten in the past few days had come on the back of a horse. His face was streaked with dirt, soot and blood, so that the only way you could tell he was scarred was by the uneven texture of skin between the eye and hairline. Chase mused to himself, Jamie’s
scars are on the outside, Jenny’s on the inside.
He felt a soft sigh against his neck. He wondered which were worse.

Jason called a halt to the weary group’s travel when the sun was setting. Jamie was ready to fall from his saddle, Jason wasn’t sure if Jenny was up to traveling with her injuries, and the rest of the group seemed in a state of shock over what they had seen Chase to be capable of. Jake was the only one who seemed to treat Mason’s fate as a normal state of affairs. To his mind, justice had been served, and that was the end of it.

While Chase held Jenny in his arms, Cat and Jamie made a pallet for her on the ground, making her as comfortable as possible under the conditions. When Jamie saw that she was settled, he spread his blanket next to her and fell asleep instantly, not even bothering to wash off the grime. The rest of the group made an attempt to eat, except for Chase, who disappeared into the darkness, much to the relief of everyone else. They were still in shock over his actions, although when they thought about it, they couldn’t really blame him.

Cat finally excused herself and disappeared into the darkness, where they soon heard the sounds of muffled sobs. Ty and Jason exchanged looks, then Ty got up to go after her, wrapping his arms around her in the darkness and pulling her onto his lap as he sat down with his back against a tree, whispering words of comfort into her ear.

Zane and Jake took to their blankets, Zane for once speechless, and left Jason to tend the fire until the others made their way back. Cat and Ty soon appeared, and Cat sat next to her father, leaning heavily against him when he put his arm around her.

“Is she going to be okay?” Cat asked as they watched the slight rise and fall of Jenny’s chest.

“I don’t know. Physically, I think she’ll heal, but we don’t know about the rest.”

“You mean her mind?”

“I mean her spirit. She’s been through a lot in her lifetime, and up till now managed to cope pretty well, but we just can’t know about this.”

“But this time she has people around her who love her.”

“You’re right.” Jason squeezed his daughter to him just as Chase materialized without a sound into the ring of light around the fire. His hair was wet, his face and hands cleaned, and he resembled again the man they had known and worked with for the past few years. When he sat down at the fire, Cat and Ty excused themselves and spread their blankets next to each other. They lay down, their hands touching in between.

“I feel like you need to talk to me about today,” Chase said as the fire crackled before him and Jason. The firelight cast an eerie reflection in his dark eyes as he raised them to look at Jason.

“I really don’t know what to say.”

“I know you think what I did today was savage, brutal, but it was the way I was raised, and my honor would not permit anything else. If you want me to leave, I will, just as soon as Jenny is well enough to go with me.”

“Chase, I am not going to judge you for anything you did today. You did what you had to do to protect the woman you love, and I can’t say I would have done anything differently if it had been me. I never had a chance to.” Chase looked at Jason, curiosity evident on his face. “Many years ago, I loved a woman. I loved her with every fiber of my being, but I lost her.”

“What happened?”

“My parents did not approve of her. They thought I was marrying beneath my station. They thought she was a phase I would outgrow, a foolish whim, so they arranged to have me drugged and
placed on a ship to England. By the time I got back, she was gone, married to another man a month after I had left, moved off to God knows where, and I had no way to find her because her family had
all been killed in a flood.” Jason shook his head as the memory
filled his mind. “Her name was Jenny also, and the funny thing is,
your Jenny reminds me of her. The first time I saw her, I thought I had seen a ghost, but it was just my mind playing tricks.” The
fire crackled and popped between them. “If I had the chance to do
it over, nothing on earth would have kept me from her, and I would
have killed anyone who tried. I should have just taken her and
eloped instead of hoping everything would work out with my fam
ily. After I found she was gone, I left home, came west. I never saw
my family again.” Jenny shifted in her sleep, a slight groan coming weakly from her split lips. “We might need to see if we can get her
to eat something. Not that this trail food will do her much good, but we need to get her strength up. It’s a long way to home.”

Chase knelt beside the pallet and laid his hand on Jenny’s cheek. Her eyelids fluttered open, the sapphire-blue eyes full of fear before
they focused on Chase. “Am I dreaming?” she asked hesitantly.

“No, you’re safe.” The words sounded real, but she had heard
them before and then had realized they were lies when she saw the gentle, regal face of Chase dissolve into the harsh countenance of
Mason as he pounded and pawed her body until she had wished desperately for death to take her away. Maybe if she slipped back into sleep, she would once again be held tightly in Chase’s arms,
her hand feeling the pounding of his heart beneath the smooth
skin of his chest. She closed her eyes, willing the bliss to overcome
her again. “Jenny.” The voice was insistent but soft. “Jenny, you
need to eat something.”

Stay in your dreams where it’s safe,
the voice inside her said, and
she obeyed.

It was the quiet that finally woke her. The peaceful stillness of the night had settled over the campsite, giving all who were in their
bedrolls around the fire the rest they needed. Jenny’s eyes flew
open, her brain trying desperately to orient itself. She became con
scious of a wall to her left, but her arm was strapped down to her chest so she could not reach out and touch it. She shifted her head and saw that the wall was Jamie, lying on his side, facing her. Her eyes had become accustomed to the soft glow of the fire, and she
realized that his face was covered with grime and soot, with a bit of blood mixed in. She wondered briefly where the blood had come from, he didn’t seem to be wounded anywhere. A slight movement caught her attention, and she turned the other way to find Chase facing her, his body lying between her and the fire. His face was a sharp contrast of light and dark, his high cheekbones catching the firelight. She was safe, she realized, away from the ranch and the horror that it had held for her. “Thank you, God,” she repeated over and over, grateful that she was alive. She tried to remember what had happened. She remembered the shots being fired, the look on Cat’s face, then Jamie’s when they found her. She looked at Chase, remembering his agonized calls as he was held away from her. “I couldn’t stand to see the look in your eyes,” she whispered.