Free Elaine Barbieri by Miranda the Warrior Page A

torment and the pain in her feet was fading. A strange darkness was rapidly encroaching, taking her with it to a plane where she rose above discomfort—where she was no longer hungry or thirsty, and where the sun no longer burned her skin.
    Miranda smiled as the darkness abruptly embraced her.
    Shadow Walker paused when he reached the wooded copse at last. It was cool in the shadows, but he had no thought for the relief it afforded him. Instead, he thought of the girl trailing far behind him, who would soon feel its balm.
    He turned to scrutinize the terrain to his rear. He waited for the girl to come over the rise. His heart began a slow pounding as an eternity passed without her appearance. Unwilling to wait any longer, he unfastened the lead of the horse behind him and nudged his mount into motion.
    His concern increasing when he had ridden a distance without finding the girl, Shadow Walker kicked his mount into a gallop, then drew him to a sliding halt when he saw her lying motionless in the long grass.
    Beside her in a minute, Shadow Walker turned the girl over. Relief flooded his senses when he saw life throbbingvisibly in her temple. He did not hesitate to examine his actions when he swept her up into his arms and propped her astride his horse, then leaped onto the animal’s back behind her. He wasted not a moment when he slipped his arms around her and turned his mount back toward his intended camp.
    “I’m all right.” Miranda raised her chin with meager defiance as Shadow Walker stood over her, his expression somber. She had awakened in a glade beside a stream a few minutes earlier. Shielded from the rays of the setting sun, she felt immediate relief She touched her cheek. The burning temperature there had lessened and her skin was cool and damp—the tendrils at her hairline were cool and wet as well. She looked at the water pouch lying beside her, then up at Shadow Walker. No, that merciless Cheyenne could not have bathed her face to reduce her discomfort. He had not the heart.
    Unable to remember how she had gotten there and unwilling to ask, Miranda knew only that the stream a short distance away beckoned with an unrelenting appeal. She attempted to stand, but failed when her legs would not support her.
    Miranda did not protest when Shadow Walker swung her up into his arms and carried her with a few long strides to the stream. Her relief when he sat her on the bank and her swollen feet sank into the cool water robbed her ofspeech. When she looked at Shadow Walker at last, he was frowning.
    Miranda’s lips tightened. Did he really expect her to thank him, when he was the cause of her distress?
    Seeming to react to her thoughts as he had before, he crouched beside her unexpectedly. He waited until she turned toward him, then said, “I will leave you here to regain your strength.”
    Responding instinctively, she grated in a shaky voice that belied her words, “There was nothing wrong with me. I was just—”
    Shadow Walker raised his hand briefly, halting her denial as he said, “Refresh yourself. I will return when the hunting is done.”
    Miranda’s reaction was a sudden anxiety that choked her throat, to which Shadow Walker replied intuitively, “You need not fear. I will return.”
    “Fear?” Incensed that he had read her moment of weakness, Miranda spat, “I’m not afraid, not of you or anybody else!”
    Turning away from him, she refused to look back as Shadow Walker stood, then walked to the horses. She did not turn in the direction of the sound until the hoofbeats faded from her hearing—when she confirmed that he had taken both horses with him.
    Both
horses.
    Frustrated beyond measure, Miranda leaned forwardto splash the cool water on her legs, then on her face and hands. She stopped when she remembered that he had ordered her to refresh herself Realizing that she was again allowing rebellion to overwhelm common sense, she continued with her bath.
    Daylight had faded in the silent camp,