Lone Pine Bride (The Brides of Lone Pine #1)(28)

“I’ll steady you,” he said. “Is that alright?”

“Thank you.” He held her against him for a few minutes and she felt a bit as if she couldn’t breathe. Probably from the dust, she decided as she eventually drew away. He made his way towards the rocks.

“This will be a good time to go before the earth shakes again,” he said. “There seems to be a break between tremors.”

“Yes. Let’s go together. It will take too long if you go ahead and have to wait for me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

He aimed for a rock, she moved beside him and there were quite a few footholds where they climbed. It wasn’t too high, Seth was relieved to see, because he didn’t want Hannah to get hurt. They made their way across the top of the pile of rocks and the gully lay beyond them. Clear, it appeared, but it was a few hundred feet long.

He took her hand. “We need to get through quickly,” he said. “Are you good at running?”

“We’re about to find out.” They tore through the gully and had to let go of each other as she lifted her skirts to stop them hampering her. While they ran rocks fell from above and a couple of stones hit them. When they saw the end the earth shook again and they could hear what sounded like thunder behind them.

“Faster,” Seth yelled as they heard some rocks fall behind them.

“I’ll try.” She speeded up but couldn’t keep up with his long legs. He turned, lifted her over his shoulder and tore between the tall faces of cliff on either side of them. He had to get there. He just had to. For Hannah’s sake he had to. As they emerged onto the road beyond a larger stone hit Hannah on her arm.

“Put me down,” she shouted as they reached the end and she ran as fast as she could. They had gone a few hundred yards before Seth stopped.

“I think we’re safe now,” he said.

“Thank you for carrying me. I must have broken your back.”

“You’re no weight,” he replied. Rachel would have been lighter because Hannah was quite tall but tall was nice too. Except that he mustn’t think of that because it wasn’t right and already by being with her he was compromising his bride to be.

But that they needn’t tell Rachel though Sadie and Ronald had already seen Hannah and might say something. He would worry about that when the time came and all that mattered now was getting Hannah safely to his farm where he hoped his house was still standing.

He looked at her arm where it had begun to bleed below where her three quarter sleeve ended. “You’ve been hurt,” he said.

“A large piece of stone hit me. I’ll be alright.”

“We need one of your clean handkerchiefs.”

She took it out. “Now spit on it,” he said. She spat. “Again. Get it as wet as you can.”

“We could use the fruit juice and water,” she said.

“No. Your own spit is better.”

“Why?”

“Just spit.” She spat. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be sharp. I think your spit will be better, that’s all, because it’s yours. My mother told me a bit about Florence Nightingale and had an article on asepsis.”

Hannah spat again and wiped the area which had been cut. “Pardon?”

“Keeping wounds clean so you’re not hurt by any germs in them. Squeeze the blood out a bit more and wipe it again with more spit. That way you’ll squeeze out the germs. My mother always did that with us.”

Hannah squeezed, there was a bit more blood and she wiped it again, this time with one of her smaller handkerchiefs. “Now I’ll wrap your other big clean handkerchief round it,” Seth said. “I’ve got lots of hankies at home so we can keep it clean until it heals.”

“You definitely should be a doctor,” she said, taking out the handkerchief.

“Would you be a nurse and assist me?”

“I think maybe your wife should do that.”

His wife and he kept forgetting about her, which wasn’t very nice. But she seemed a bit distant at this moment, almost like a mirage. He carefully tied the handkerchief round Hannah’s arm.

“My mother used to kiss our wounds better,” he said. “Though not the actual wound, more above it. That guaranteed it getting better.” He grinned as Hannah looked at him. “Our family has healing powers.”

“So it seems.”

“Can I kiss yours better?”

“I think you definitely should.”

It was a nice kiss, she thought when he drew back. He began to walk on and his voice trailed back. “I didn’t mean to be familiar. I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t familiar. It was a nice thing to do.” She ran to catch him up as he strode along and a house and barn lay to the side of the road. “Who lives here?”

“Jamie and Pamela Johnson,” he replied. “They’ve only been married six months. She’s a mail order bride.”

“One of those,” Hannah said.

“The best ladies out, as you and my fiancé have proved.”

“You haven’t met her.”

“I’m in love with her.”

Seth frowned in concentration. In love? Was that possible without seeing someone? It was because quite a few people he knew had married without seeing each other first and all of them appeared to be happy. Maybe love could travel and, of course, descriptions always helped.