The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,164

water. She felt around and grabbed onto the undergarments she’d been washing and quickly wrung them out. It didn’t occur to her that the footsteps had come from the wrong side of the creek or that Eulis hadn’t called out. She was too busy trying to hide the fact that she’d been crying.

Before she could think what to say, a hand encircled her wrist and pulled her upright. Clutching the wet clothing against her breasts, she let herself be led, then stumbled once when she stepped on a sharp rock. Immediately, she felt him catch her and set her back on her feet.

“Thanks,” she said, and had yet to wonder about his silence. When she began to feel the brush of leaves and vines against her skin, she knew they were back in the trees.

“I still smell awful,” she said, stating the obvious.

All she got for her truth was a grunt. She shrugged it off, figuring Eulis was taking the high road by no comment at all.

A few moments more and she heard the snort of a horse. When the hand on her wrist moved from her arm to her shoulder and pushed, she took it as a sign to stop.

“Eulis, I need my clothes,” she said.

He didn’t answer, but she heard him walking through the brush then heard a low, steady murmur as he steadied the horse with a sound that resembled a low hum.

She frowned. That didn’t sound like something Eulis might do. Still, being sightless made everything seem frightening and strange, so she didn’t question her confusion.

“Come on, Eulis. I’m not claiming any large amount of modesty, but be fair. Please hand me some clothes.”

She stretched out her hand, expecting to feel fabric. Instead, she felt something like grass or leaves in her palm. She fingered it, then decided it was leaves and lifted them to her nose. They had a sharp, medicinal smell and when she crushed one, it left an odd, oily substance on her skin.

“What’s this?” she said.

He touched her eyes then put her hand on the leaves then touched her eyes again.

“You want me to put this on my eyes?” she asked, and took a leaf and held it near her face.

He moved her hand to her eyes then gently pushed until the crushed leaves were lying next to her skin.

Almost immediately, her burning eyelids felt a measure of relief.

“Oooh, that feels good,” she said, and reached back into her palm, took another pinch of the leaves, crushed them between her fingers and rubbed it on her other eye.

She felt him put more leaves in her hand then he touched her on the shoulder in what felt like a gesture of goodbye, which she found strange. Moments later, she heard the shuffle of feet and then the horse whinny as it accepted the man’s weight.

“Eulis?”

He didn’t answer. She curled her fingers around the precious stash of leaves and then reached out with her other hand, searching for his location while thinking, surely to God he isn’t going to run off and leave me.

She lunged forward, felt the familiar warmth of the horse’s shoulder and realized there was no saddle and that made no sense. On a good day, Eulis was not much of a rider. Bareback, he would have been laughable, and yet someone had mounted this horse.

She moved her hand again. Instead of Eulis’s long, bony leg, she felt a strong, muscular calf encased in wet buckskin.

This wasn’t Eulis.

“Oh. Oh, God,” she said softly and instinctively crossed her arms across her breasts, although to be honest it was way past the time for modesty. “Who are you?”

She heard what sounded like a sigh. When she frowned, she heard a soft chuckle. The sound was foreign to anything Eulis had ever done, but at the same time it was still very male. It frightened her and intrigued her. Whoever it was obviously meant her no harm or he would have already taken advantage of her state of undress.

Frustrated by her inability to see, she scrubbed angrily at her eyelids, rubbing even more of the medicinal properties of the oil into her skin and as she did, realized she was beginning to see daylight. It wasn’t much of an improvement, but it was the first sign she’d had that this too shall pass. Then she heard the horse moving and knew whoever was on it was backing away.

“Wait!”

She heard the horse stop. She stepped forward, holding her hand out before her as she felt