Page 78 of Inventions of the Heart

CHAPTER

TWENTY-FIVE

MICHELLE’S EYES FLUTTERED OPENas she felt the world tilt around. She looked up to see she was being held in the arms of Marshal Irving.

“Howdy, ma’am,” Irving said. “You’re back with us, I see.”

Zane was there, taking her into his own arms. She saw his horse behind him, and the town around them. Back in Dorada Rio. Right now, she didn’t like this town very much.

“You’re awake!” Zane kissed her so gently she feared for how badly she was hurt. “I’m taking you in to the doctor.”

Michelle didn’t like being afraid, so she launched herself at Zane. Wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him. Everything hurt, but her arms worked.

“Michelle, you’re going to be all right.” Zane staggered under the assault, tightened his grip on her, kissed her neck, then kept walking.

Irving opened the door. A bell tinkled overhead.

Zane swept inside. “I need a doctor! Now!”

Honestly, all the urgency seemed dire. “Am I badly hurt? Do I have broken bones and a cracked skull?”

She hurt in every muscle and joint. Head to toe. Head especially.

Then someone else was there. A man she’d never seen before wearing a black vest and a white shirt. Gold wire-rimmed glasses framed kind brown eyes. Well, Zane had hollered for a doctor. She made an assumption.

“What’s happened here?” the doctor asked.

Zane explained, and it all made more sense. She didn’t remember falling off the horse. Probably landed headfirst. “That vicious scoundrel Jarvis Benteen punched me.”

It gave her some faint satisfaction to know she’d bit him hard enough to make him holler. “Doctor, can you let me leave for just a while so I can punch Jarvis in the face?”

“Maybe in a little while.”

She turned to Zane. “Can you please hold Jarvis while I pay him back for this pain?”

“I might make you stand in line.” Zane’s concern felt like soothing balm to her wounded pride. Her wounded body, unfortunately, kept hurting. “But you can definitely have a turn, and it would be my pleasure to hold him down while you stomp him good.”

She reached to touch her face and felt a swollen cheek, a fat lip.

For a second, Michelle furrowed her brow, which, to her surprise, hurt terribly. She relaxed her brow just to make the pain stop.

She squeezed Zane’s hand. “You got to me in time.”

The sheriff came in. “I have Jarvis locked up. How are you, Mrs. Hart? I’m sorry that low-down coward got to you.”

She turned to Zane. “I stayed at the general store just like you asked.”

“You did.” He took her left hand with his right. “Like the worst kind of yellow-bellied villain, he ran while his two men shot it out with us. I don’t think he was coming for you. He knew there’d be horses outside the general store. When he saw you, he—he—” Zane shook his head, his jaw so tight words seemed to be beyond him.

“He said he was taking me for his father.”

Zane kissed her cheek, as gentle as a warm summer rain.

“Let me see to her now, Zane. Ease back a bit.” The doctor worked over her awhile.

It all hurt.

“Am I going to have a black eye?”