"Don't try to climb it. Just hold on and I'll pull you up."
With all his might, Cole strained against the weight of the tree limb and the slender girl who clung to it.
Though the wind tore at him and the cold bit into him, he ignored his protesting muscles and never stopped until he saw Jessie's head inch above the ravine.
With renewed vigor he pulled her to safety.
Setting down the heavy burden, he ran to her and pulled her to her feet.
"Are you all right? Have you broken any bones?"
How dare she scare the hell out of him like that?
He wanted to shake her until her teeth raffled.
He wanted to strangle her by her pretty little throat.
He wanted to hold her.
He pulled her roughly into his arms and held her in a fierce embrace.
For long minutes Jessie's head swam, and she clung to him as though her very life depended on it.
"If it weren't for you..."
She couldn't go on.
Her voice died in her throat.
"Are you really all right?"
His tone was tender as his hands moved along her back.
He had a desperate need to reassure himself that she was truly safe.
"I'm fine."
She tried to laugh, but it came out as a sob.
"Fine?"
All the emotions he'd kept bottled up inside exploded.
"Do you realize you could have been killed? Why in hell did you wander so far from the cave? You knew what was blowing up out here.
Didn't you hear me tell everyone to get in out of the storm? How many times am I.supposed to save your hide before you learn some common sense?"
He hadn't meant to shout and swear.
But in his fear and frustration, the words tumbled out.
When he was finished with his tirade, Jessie stared at him with a look of pain and outrage, then pushed stiffly from his arms.
"How dare you scream such words at me."
As he reached I tIJ-Ifor her, she slapped at his hand and twisted free.
"Keep your hands off me, Cole Matthews. I can take care of myself."
His words were clipped.
"So I've noticed. Just don't fall off any more cliffs before you reach the cave, or [swear I'll leave you to freeze to death until this storm blows over."
She strode away.
He followed, watching as she struggled against the winds that threatened to blow both of them away.
By the time they reached the safety of the cave, they were numb with cold.
Inside a hollowed-out log Cole started a small flickering flame.
Forcing the horses to their knees, he hobbled them so · they couldn't stand and run.
"Why are you being so mean to the homes, Cole?"
Thad cried.
"Their only chance against the storm is to remain around the fire.
If they were to Spock and run, they would freeze in their tracks before we could find them."
He shot a meaningful glance at Jessie, who stood brooding beside the fire.
"Sometimes it's necessary to be cruel in order to save lives."
She turned away, refusing to meet his eyes.
Searching the saddlebags, he handed out all the food and clothing available.
"Put everything on that you can wear."
"Everything?"
Danny stared at him as if he were mad.
"You've never felt cold like this," Cole said simply.
"Stash the meat under your bodies."
"Meat under us? Are you serious?"
Again Cole shot Jessie an angry look before explaining, "Everything in this cave might freeze if the fire goes out. Unless you can keep the food from freezing, you could starve to death before the storm blows over. Now," he added, "press the saddles and saddlebags around you, to ward off the wind. Huddle close together for body heat."
He glanced at Jessie's face and wished now that there had been time to apologize for his angry outburst, to offer her a measure of comfort.
"Remember," he said with a low growl of command, "the only time you leave your blankets is to keep the fire going. And then, only if I can no longer do it for you."
Jessie's earlier anger suddenly disappeared.
She felt her heart contract.
Was he suggesting that some of them wouldn't survive?
That he might die before them?
"Cole."
Thad's tiny frightened voice could barely be heard above the fury of the wind.
"Yes."
"I'm afraid."
Jessie watched as Cole clenched his teeth against the bite of the wind.
He helped them into the common bedroll and climbed in beside them.
With unusual tenderness he drew the little boy against his chest.
"So am I, Half-pint. So am I."
The storm hit with a fury that was staggering.
The winds howled and raged, uprooting trees, sending boulders crashing down upon one another with the force of a freight train.
Inside the cave, huddled together, the four slept fitfully, then awoke to find their little space freezing.
Cole would stoke the fire, and in time they would drift once more into sleep.
It was impossible to tell day from night, but from the hours they lay shuddering in their bedrolls, Jessie thought that at least two days and nights had passed.
When hunger gnawed at them, they broke off hunks of raw meat and stale biscuits and chewed until their hunger was abated.
Jessie was grateful that Cole had had enough sense to think of the essentials before the storm had broken upon them in earnest.
The sky was so black, the only thing visible was the small flicker of flame as Cole continued to feed wood to the fire that was contained inside the hollowed-out log.
So many times, as the wind raged against their small cave, they watched the tiny flame flicker and almost die.
Their hearts would constrict in fear.
Without the warmth of the fire, they would surely freeze to death.
But each time the howling wind subsided, gathering force for the next assault, they would see the tiny flame leap back to life to fan and grow into precious warmth.
Cole added more wood to the fire and felt his fingers go stiff from the brief exposure to the frigid air.
He had never felt such cold.
It went deep into the bones, leaving a body numb.
As he climbed gratefully into the blankets, his hand encountered the softness of Jessie's body.
She had shifted Thad to the inside section of the blanket, where his small body could absorb the most warmth.
On the far side of Thad lay Danny, his back to the fire, his arms snugly around his little brother.
"You all right, Jessie?"
Cole's voice was barely a whisper.
She nodded and felt the sudden chill as his hand touched her shoulder.
She took his hands in hers to share the warmth.
"You're freezing."
At her touch he felt as if he'd just taken a blow to the midsection.
"Damn close to it. That's a wicked wind out there."
She marveled at the strength in his hands.
Such big powerful hands.
"How long can one of these storms last?"
She felt him shrug beside her.
It felt so good to be touching her he had to resist an almost overpowering urge to wrap his arms around her and draw her close against him.
He could think of a wonderful way to stay warm.
"A couple of days. A week, maybe."
"How are the horses?"
He didn't want to talk about horses.
Or about anything.
He just wanted to lie here with her and kiss her until she was weak and clinging to him.
"Surviving. I gave them enough prairie grass to keep them from starving. But there's nothing else I can do until the storm blows over."
He dr
ew closer to her, and she felt a shudder pass through him.
Sweet Heaven.
He was going mad with wanting her.
"We're lucky the horses had time to rest and grow fat while Morning Light was recovering. Without that extra fat, they wouldn't make it."
The winds pounded the cave until the very rocks beneath them shuddered and shifted.
Jessie's voice was low with fear.
"Have you ever been in one of these before?"
She felt the movement as he nodded his head.
"I was a boy no bigger than Thad," he said, remembering.
Without realizing it, he touched his hand to her cheek.
"My father had dug a small root cellar beneath one end of our sod shack. When the wind blew our house over, we crawled down into the root cellar and huddled together for five days. We existed on a few raw carrots and some seed potatoes."
Jessie felt warmth spread through her and couldn't decide if it was merely his touch, or the warm feelings his words had caused.
She was surprised to think of Cole being part of a family.
Until now, she had merely thought of him as a gunman.
A picture of a young boy with father and mother and maybe brothers and sisters was a sharp contrast to the man who lay beside her.
"Did everyone survive?"
She shivered as his warm breath fanned a strand of hair at her temple.
"My father said it would take more than a Texas norther to destroy the Matthews family."
"Your pa sounds like a proud man."
"He was."
Was.
Jessie heard the pain in that single word and felt a comradeship with Cole that she hadn't felt before.
He would understand her desperate heed to find her pa.
He would sense the agony of not knowing whether Pa was alive or.
Some day, when this storm was over, and they had all survived, she would ask him how his pa died.
But now with the wind keening through the rocks and raging against their tiny cave, she closed her eyes and held on to the knowledge that they were together in this.
Cole had survived a norther before; he would survive this one, as well.
They would all survive.
And when it was over, they would find Pa.
With his hand soft upon her cheek, she slept.
Jessie awoke to the eerie sounds of silence.
For long minutes she lay unmoving, waiting for the familiar sound of the wind outside their cave.
When at last it dawned on her that the storm was over, she reached over to share the good news with Cole, With a sting of disappointment, she discovered that his blanket was empty.
The covers were warm where they still bore the imprint of his body.
She climbed from her blankets and strode to the entrance of the cave, which was covered by a saddle blanket to keep out the cold.
Behind her, Thad and Danny sat up rubbing their eyes.
"Where's Cole?"
Danny asked.
Jessie shrugged.
"Outside, I guess."
The horses, she noted, were gone, but there were fresh droppings on the floor of the cave.
They had only been gone for a short time.
With Thad and Danny trailing her, she emerged from the cave to a spectacular sight.
The vast Texas Plains were now a frozen wasteland.
Sunlight glinted off ice-encrusted trees and rocks.
Waves of grass were frozen in motion, glittering under a layer of ice.
"Hellfire and damnation," Danny said, then, at Jessie's stern look, instantly regretted his imitation of Cole.
"Did you ever see anything like that, Jess?"
"Never."
She peered around, then took several tentative steps onto the icy trail.
"The sunlight hurts my eyes, Jessie."
She turned toward her little brother.
"I know, Tadpole. But isn't it beautiful?
The little boy shielded his eyes and stared around with a look of awe.
Never, Jessie thought, would Thad forget the blue norther that had struck with so much fury.
"When you're an old man, Tadpole, you'll be telling your grandchildren about this."
"I will?"
She nodded.
"And bragging about how wise you were. And how brave." ' i The three of them shared a laugh and turned to watch as Cole led the horses up the steep embankment. For one long moment his gaze held Jessie's, and she wondered if he was remembering the way she had fallen asleep practically in his arms.
"Looks like the animals will have to wait until the ice melts to fill their bellies," he said.
"All the grass is frozen under a layer of ice too thick to break."
"How will we travel?"
"That sun ought to melt everything by late afternoon. But I think we'd better stay here in the cave until morning. It'll give us a chance to feed the horses. Not to mention ourselves."
He grinned, and Jessie thought how wonderful his eyes looked when he smiled.
"I'm a little tired of raw meat. I think I'd like to try it cooked for a change."
Jessie nodded, feeling a lightness around her heart.
"If you get a good fire going, I'll make us a real supper for a change."
"That's fair."
Cole handed the reins of the horses to Danny and Thad.
"What do you boys think of our ice castle?"
They turned to study the cave.
At its highest point several rocks were welded together like turrets beneath a glittering dome of ice.
On either side of the cave were giant boulders glinting with an icy sheen.
In the blinding sunlight, the entire structure seemed to be carved from ice.
"It doesn't seem real," Jessie breathed.
"But none of this seems real.
I still can't believe we've survived a norther.
Cole's tone was grim.
"I've.heard cattlemen say it's the worst storm ever invented by nature."
"And we survived it," Thad said proudly.
"That's right, Half-pint."
Cole tousled the boy's haft and grinned.
"And that's practically a miracle."
"What's a miracle?"
Danny shot his sister a grin.
"Remember the Bible verse Jessie always reads?"
"You mean about walking on the water?"
Danny nodded.
"Yeah. Cole means that surviving the norther was like walking on the water."
"Do you, Cole?"
The little boy turned an innocent face to the gunman.
Cole touched a hand to the boy's shoulder and squeezed.
"I guess I do."
He found himself uneasy without knowing why.
"Now get busy with those horses."
When they walked away, Cole turned to study the girl who was heading toward the cave.
"Back off," he warned himself.
First she had him feeling guilty every time he swore in front of her or her brothers.
Now he'd discovered that she read to her brothers from the Bible.
She wasn't the kind of girl a man could have and then walk away from.
She was the kind of girl a man could easily begin to think about spending a lifetime with.
A girl like Jessie could never be anything but trouble to a man like him.
Chapter Thirteen
The day took on a festive air.
All the pent-up fears and emotions the four had experienced during the storm .
suddenly found release.
The sun rose hot and hazy.
By midday most of the ice had melted, leaving clumps of frozen, blackened grass.
To the starving horses, it was a feast.
Danny and Thad engaged in an ice battle, tossing clumps of slush at each other until they were soaked and weary from their play.
Afterward Jessie insisted that they wash their soggy clothes and lay them o
n low-hanging bushes to dry.
While their clothes dried, they splashed in the swollen creek like two frolicking pups.
When the cave had been cleaned and their bedrolls spread out for airing on nearby rocks, Jessie sat on shore, enjoying her brothers' antics.
The thing she and her brothers had always enjoyed most were moments of real playtime.
In their harsh environment, such moments had been rare.
Danny swam up behind his little brother.
"Better watch out. ' ' Catching him unawares, Danny pushed Thad under the water and laughed when the little boy came up sputtering."
No fair, Danny.
You're bigger'n me.
" " Size doesn't matter in the water.
"Is that tree?"
Thad called to his sister.
"I don't know. But there's one way to find out."
Jessie, unable to resist the challenge, pulled off her boots, then slipped off her shirt and britches.
Dressed only in a chemise that barely covered her from breasts to hips, she ran into the creek until the water was up to her shoulders.
With sure, even strokes she swam toward her brothers.
"You'll be sorry, Jess. I'm going to get you."
Danny swam toward her, meeting her in the deepest part of the creek.
When he reached out to grab her, she ducked and came up behind him, catching him by the shoulders.
Before he could twist free, she rose up out of the water and pressed th all her might.
Though he struggled, she managed to push him beneath the waves.
When she let go, he came up sputtering and laughing.
"See, Tadpole," she called to her giggling little brother, "even though he's taller, I was able to sink Danny with no trouble. It isn't who's bigger. It's who's quicker."
"Is that so?"
At the sound of Cole's deep laughter, the three of them turned.
He paddled leisurely a few feet away.
"Think you can sink me, Jessie? Or are you only quicker with someone younger than yourself?"
Cole saw the way her eyes lit with an inner fire.
He had known that she would be unable to resist his taunt.
"I can sink all three of you."
At her brothers' hoots of laughter she added, "Just so I get to take you on one at a time. No fair ganging up on me."
" You'll have to take me on first.
" Cole's voice was deep with challenge.
"I'll be on your side, Jessie," Thad called.
"AH right, Tadpole. Your job is to keep Danny away from me until I've managed to sink Cole."