Free Rocky Mountain Man (Historical) by Jillian Hart

cracked into pieces and the sun burned into the greatest darkness. She felt as if her will had helped him through the night. She had made a difference, even a little, and she didn’t want to let him go. Didn’t want to stop hoping.
    â€œJoshua, please, I have to stay.”
    But he whisked her onto the porch and the well-built log walls stood between her and Duncan. She tried to push out of her brother’s arms, but it was as if she’d used up all her strength like kerosene in a lamp and it was gone. Tears blistered her eyes and she couldn’t see as he laid her in the back seat of the family’s surrey.
    Joshua covered her with a wool blanket and kindly told her to rest, this was for the best, to trust him, but she felt betrayed.
    How could her family do this to her?
    The surrey jolted as the family horses leaped into a brisk trot, and on the leather-springed seat, she bounced and bumped and watched the cabin grow smaller. Her cheeks were wet and she felt as if she’d been the one clawed apart by a bear. It was wrong to leave him like that. When she’d promised him, she’d promised him, that she’d stay by his side.
    Inside where Duncan Hennessey still fought to live. He’d made it to a new day and surprised the doctor, but he was too weak to lift his head from the pillow. Far too wounded to care for himself. Granny was magic—her home remedies legendary, and Betsy trusted her with all of her heart.
    But I should be there, too. A vow was a vow, and when she made one, she kept it. Duncan needed her. It had been so long since someone had truly needed her. She knew Granny would go about tending him. Gently cleaning off the poultice Betsy had boiled up in the night, and the doctor had applied over the red swollen gashes of flesh held together by her hurried stitches.
    Granny would bathe him while she steeped her special willow-bark tea and simmered chicken broth and herbs on the battered potbellied stove. She’d do her best to care for him with the same loving warmth she gave everyone. Duncan couldn’t be in better hands.
    But she wanted to be the one to hold the cup to his lips. To sit by his side and comfort him, so he would not be alone. She knew, without knowing how she knew, that had she been injured instead, he would have moved heaven and earth to take care of her.
    Mama perched on the front seat beside Joshua, whowas driving the team through the eerily dusky woods where the shafts of the rising sun did not seem to penetrate. The dry grasses rasped. The limbs overhead groaned. Remembering, Betsy closed her eyes. She’d give anything to have Duncan as he was when she’d first arrived yesterday, growling and caustic and hostile. His horrid demeanor was starting to seem less beastly to her.
    â€œGood, she’s asleep.” Mama’s voice cut fearlessly through the shadows. “We got her out of there just in time. No one knows she was alone with him.”
    â€œThe doc does. And the mountain man, of course.”
    â€œThey can be managed. What matters is our dear Betsy. She’s a fine girl, but you know how people are. They can be cruel, if they have the slightest reason, and I won’t have Betsy hurt.”
    â€œI won’t allow it, Ma. You know that.” Joshua sounded fierce. “Since Pa’s passing, I’m the head of the household and I will protect my sister with everything in me. There will be no damage done. I’ll see to it.”
    As if a person’s reputation—simply what other people thought—could be weighed against a man’s life. Betsy was too weary to argue and she knew the pointlessness of it. When Mama made up her mind, it would take an army more formidable than any on this earth to sway her from her course. She wanted to be angry with them, but how could she? They were acting out of love for her. Misguided, yes, but goodness, they loved her. She knew that. Her parents and her brothers had always