Tame a Wild Wind by Cynthia Woolf Page A

turned down the bed and gotten the pillows out of the kids rooms and stacked them so Sam would be sitting up in bed.
    The men, one on either side, helped him to the bed.
    “Don’t sit down yet.   I’m going to wrap your ribs.   Drink this.   It’ll help.”
    “What is it?”
    “Laudanum.   Just enough to take the edge off your pain.   I don’t want you going to sleep until after the doctor has seen you.   If he was in his office he should be here in a couple of hours.
    “Let’s get your ribs wrapped.   It’ll help stabilize them and should help with the pain.   Doc will probably unwrap them but for now it’s going to do the most good in helping with the pain.”
    “Fine.   Just do it.”   Cassie unbuttoned Sam’s shirt and slid it down his shoulders and off.   She checked for abrasions and bruising on his chest and back lightly running her fingers over him.  
    “Now’s not a good time for foreplay, Darlin’,” whispered Sam.   He tried to smile but it came out a grimace.
    Cassie sighed.   That was Sam.   Making jokes at a time like this!   “Okay.   Can you lift your arms?”
    “Oww.   Hell.” He’d tried to lift his left arm.
    “Damn.   This is going to hurt.”   Cassie started the bandage in the center of his chest.   “Bring your right hand up and hold this end tight,” she instructed Sam.   She walked around him binding him as she went with the sheets Bridget had torn into long strips.
    “There.”   She tied off the bandage with the first end that Sam had been holding.   “Feel any better?”
    “Yeah.   I think so.”   He sat on the bed and then leaned back against the pillows.
    She thought his breathing was easier.   He didn’t seem to be in so much pain.   “I’m going to get you some tea with sugar and give you some more laudanum. It will taste better with the tea.   Then I’ll sit with you until Doc Wright gets here.”   She started to walk out then turned back.   “When I get back I’m going to give you what for, but now,” she went to the bed leaned down and kissed him.   “I’m just glad you’re alive.”
    When she got to the kitchen she had to sit.   The adrenaline was wearing off and the reality of what had just happened was setting in.   She took several deep breaths and then put her head between her knees.   It was too close.   Too close.
    Bridget set a cup of tea on the table in front of her.   Cassie’s hands shook so violently, the tea splashed into the saucer when she picked it up.   She quickly set it back down.
    “Damn. Damn. Damn.   What was he thinking?”
    Bridget rubbed Cassie’s shoulders.   Soothing her.   “He wasn’t thinking, honey, about anything but getting that contract filled.   He didn’t think about getting hurt or how you would feel if something happened to him.”
    Cassie looked up at the little woman who now seemed to tower over her.   “How…?”
    “Do you think I’m blind?   I’ve watched you two since the day he came.   There was an attraction between you even then.   I’ve watched it grow.   You’re falling in love with him…if you haven’t already.   That’s why you’re sitting here shaking like a leaf.   You didn’t react this way when Pete got thrown and broke his leg.   So you tell me, Cassie girl, what’s the difference?”
    “It’s Sam.   He…I…oh, Bridget.   What am I going to do?   He wants to court me.”
    “So, what’s the problem, Lass?”
    “Michael hasn’t even been gone three years.   I don’t want to be disloyal to his memory.”
    “No one is asking you to forget.   Cassie,” Bridget paused and sat down next to Cassie.   “No one misses my Michael more than I do.   I raised him from a baby.   He was more a son to me than to the woman who gave him life.   But he would not want you to be alone forever.   If you can find love again it would be the most wonderful blessing.”
    “Then why do I feel like I’m doing something