fell silent when the door closed. Duncan listened, not sure Anna was still in the room. The old woman didn’t just hate the child, she hated Anna’s parents enough to punish them through Anna. Duncan knew he could never understand that kind of hate, and he doubted Anna would either, even though she would suffer from it.
He also guessed that Ramon had lied about hearing anything because the longer Duncan was out, the longer he needed a guard at the door. On a normal night locking Anna in would be enough, but with a ranger trapped inside, Toledo must have ordered a guard. It has to be an easy assignment, one a man like Ramon would like.
He felt the bed beside him give, and he knew Anna was near. He raised his arm, fighting back the anger at what he’d just heard. She reminded him of a frightened puppy as she curled into a ball beside him with her head on his chest. He made no move for fear of frightening her. Suddenly his problems didn’t seem so big. He knew, if it cost him his life, he wouldn’t leave without taking her.
Through the thin sheet, he felt her silent tears falling against his heart. After a long while, he matched his steady breathing with hers and they both slept.
She wasn’t afraid of him, and he guessed why. For them both, the nightmares began when they woke.
CHAPTER 21
LEWT FOUGHT THE URGE TO COVER EM’S EARS SO SHE wouldn’t wake, but it was too late. She was already scrambling to her feet.
“Stay here,” he ordered. “I’ll see who it is and then tell them I’ll go looking for you.” When he glanced back, he noticed that her hair had pulled free of the braid and was flying around her shoulders. “Try to tame that wild, beautiful hair of yours.”
Fighting down a smile, he headed for the door, thinking that when they were alone again he’d curl his fingers in the sunlight gold of her hair.
He couldn’t resist one last look. She was trying to find her boots and tuck in her shirt at the same time. There was little left of the hard woman who’d ordered him around for days.
He walked slowly to the door, making little effort to look like whoever was pounding hadn’t woke him.
“What is it?” he said as he opened the door. “No one must be up to answer the door in this place. I almost killed myself tumbling down the stairs.”
A tall, dust-covered ranger frowned at Lewt. “What are you doing here, Paterson?”
Lewt tried to see past the mud and hair. “Wyatt Platt? Is that you? Hell, you look like you lost a fight with a tornado.”
Wyatt pushed him aside and walked in. “I don’t have time to figure out why you’re opening the McMurray door. I need to speak to Teagen McMurray. It’s urgent. I’ve been traveling two days by train and horse to get here.”
“Teagen’s not here. Where’s Duncan? You rode out with him a week ago, didn’t you?” Lewt hadn’t spent a great deal of time talking to any of the other rangers, but he thought he remembered Wyatt being somewhere in the barn the last time he saw Duncan. The thin man had a way about him. He moved like he was made out of rawhide: easy, bendable, boneless. People didn’t seem to notice that Wyatt Platt was in the room until the fight started. Maybe because he was thin as a board, he had the ability to blend into the woodwork.
Wyatt looked as out of place in the big house as a toad at a banquet. Lewt’s words about Teagen not being home didn’t seem to sink in, because the ranger looked around. Finally he shouted, “I’ll talk to any McMurray. Travis or Tobin will do. I need help fast.”
Em’s slim frame walked from the kitchen, her hair now pulled back into one long thick braid. “I’m Emily McMurray; who are you?”
Wyatt straightened and introduced himself. The ranger actually looked nervous.
Lewt almost growled aloud. Em would probably get in big trouble for passing herself off as a McMurray, but somehow he couldn’t imagine poor injured Emily upstairs standing up to the ranger. For all he knew Emily McMurray had shoved Em out of the kitchen and told her to play like she was the family member at home.
To Lewt’s surprise, Wyatt removed his hat and shifted from foot to foot before he finally continued, “I come from the border hoping I