15

Evangeline smiled as she handed the last of the washed dishes to her female companion to dry. She really needed to figure out the young woman’s name. She’d intended to quiz her in private while she combed the tangles from her hair after the bath, but the girl just stared at her lap while Evangeline worked out the knots, making no response to any of Evangeline’s queries. Then Seth’s asthma attack hit, and priorities shifted.

The girl wasn’t a stranger to hard work. In fact, she’d jumped up to help before Evangeline could do more than tie her apron strings. She knew her way around a stove, too. The pan gravy she’d made had saved the pot roast and corn bread from being far too dry. The roast had overcooked after the broth evaporated, and the corn bread had sat too long in the warming oven. Not that anyone complained. Seth breathing normally again was worth tough beef and overbrowned potatoes any day.

That attack had been a bad one. The first one he’d had in months, and the most severe in over a year. Usually Seth took every possible precaution to avoid anything that could seize his lungs, but he must have been distracted by their extra guests. Thank heavens Logan had been around to yell for Zach and help Seth into the house.

Of course, Seth probably wouldn’t have been outside in the first place if he hadn’t seen it as his responsibility to harass Logan. But that wasn’t Logan’s fault. Boneheaded brothers tended to fall prey to overprotective urges. There was no controlling it.

“I think it’s time for a family discussion,” Zach announced the instant the last dry dish left the girl’s hand to clink softly atop the stack of clean plates.

Evangeline swallowed her sigh. Speaking of overprotective urges. . . . She was going to have to do some fancy talking to get Zach to agree to let her new friend stay here.

The girl beside her didn’t react to Zach’s announcement, but then, she didn’t know Zach. Which was probably good. He could be rather intimidating.

Logan piped up next. “I think I’ll hang around for that.” He pushed his kitchen chair slightly away from the table and stretched out his long legs, getting comfortable. Apparently Zach’s intimidation didn’t work on Logan.

Case in point: when Zach scowled at him, Logan just grinned and took another swig of his coffee.

“You ain’t family, Logan.”

He shrugged. “Neither is the girl. But I figure she’ll be staying, since she doesn’t have anywhere else to go. Besides, the meeting’s going to be about her situation, right?” He crossed his arms. “I pulled her from the river. Gives me a right to have a say in her welfare.”

A muscle twitched in Zach’s jaw.

Evangeline touched the girl’s arm and led her back to the table, glaring at Zach as she went. Keeping her voice low—as if that would make a difference—she settled in the chair next to Logan and reached over to touch her brother’s elbow. “Someone tried to kill her, Zach. The more people we have looking out for her, the better.”

“Someone tried to kill her?” Zach slammed his palms on the table and came half out of his seat. His voice rose to a near shout. So much for delicacy. “All you said was that Logan fished her from the river. You didn’t say anything about someone trying to kill her.”

The girl shrank back, leaning as far away from Zach as she could. Seth gently took her hand. Her head swiveled toward him, and she started to jerk her hand away, but then she met his gaze and something changed. She calmed.

“Easy, Zach,” Seth warned. “You’re scaring her.”

Zach blew out a breath and lowered himself back into his chair at the head of the table. He ran his hand through his hair and visibly worked to control his temper.

Her eldest brother had always been quick to pull the trigger when danger threatened his family, but he could also be a meticulous, thoughtful planner. He’d been her rock for years. Solid. Reliable. She had faith in him to do the right thing. Shoot, just figuring out what the right thing was in this crazy situation would be a significant accomplishment.

Finally, Zach glanced toward her and Logan. “Start at the beginning.”

Evangeline shared a look with Logan on her left. He nodded. Then she glanced to her right to smile encouragingly at her new friend before turning back to Zach.

“Logan and I spotted a wagon down by the river as we were walking home. A man was struggling to carry something rolled in a large blanket. I feared he intended to dispose of an animal of some kind.” Why was her mouth suddenly going dry and her voice quavering? These were her brothers; she could tell them anything. Yet she felt ridiculously close to tears all of a sudden.

All the terror and outrage she’d experienced when she’d first realized what had happened seemed to rise again to torment her. And what must the young woman next to her be feeling? To hear her near death described in a dry recitation of events.

Logan must have sensed her unease, for he shifted in his seat and stretched his right arm across the top of her chair back. He didn’t actually touch her, yet his show of support and increased closeness infused her with a much needed dose of fortitude.

“I couldn’t let that man hurt one of God’s creatures without trying to stop him,” she continued, steadier now, “so Logan took me up on his horse, and we raced down to the river, shouting at him to stop.”

Zach’s gaze flicked over to the second female at the table, then returned to rest on Evangeline. “I take it he didn’t have a dog wrapped in that blanket.”

Evangeline shook her head.

Bracing his right elbow on the edge of the table, Zach leaned forward. “Did you recognize him?”

“No. He drove off in his wagon before we got close enough to see any facial features. And by then, I was too focused on saving whatever he had shoved into the river to pay him much heed.”

“Not too tall,” Logan broke in. “Maybe five foot ten. Bulky build, but judging by his difficulty with the load he carried, I’d say the bulk was from something other than muscle. Dark hair. Tanned skin. Gray hat with a black band. Blue shirt. Brown trousers. Buckboard had a spring-mounted seat. Weathered wood. No paint or trim. Team consisted of one gray about fourteen hands, speckled haunches, dark mane and tail; and a black, closer to fifteen hands with white socks on both hind legs.”

Evangeline stared at Logan as he rattled off his list of observations. He had the catalog skills of a scientist! How had he seen so much? All she remembered was the gray hat. Yet Logan had absorbed details like wet paint grabbing dust from the air, sucking them in until they solidified in his brain. Amazing.

And incredibly attractive.

She couldn’t help but lean a little closer to him. Handsome. Heroic. Handy in a crisis. And brilliant to boot. Her heart was in serious danger.

But that danger was nothing compared to what the young lady beside her had faced.

Zach nodded a grudging thanks to Logan, then turned his attention to their other guest. He kept his voice gentle and calm, like he had when he’d helped Seth with his breathing. “Who tried to hurt you, miss?”

She immediately ducked her head and shook it from side to side.

“You don’t know, or you don’t want to tell me?”

She made no response. Not even a shrug. Almost as if . . .

Evangeline pondered a moment, then slowly rose from the table. Logan’s hand slid away from its resting place on her chair as he turned to watch her. He raised a brow in question, but she gave him a quick smile of reassurance and continued on. She moved behind the table to the stove, where the large, metal roasting pan sat, filled midway with soapy water to soak the baked-on grit.

As Seth rubbed the girl’s hand and promised protection, Evangeline carried the pan to the dry sink and poured the dirty water into the empty washtub. Zach asked the girl a second time about the man who had dumped her in the river, and again she made no response.

Evangeline walked back to the stove, then a few steps past. Zach and Seth paid her no mind, their attention focused on the girl. Logan, on the other hand, caught her eye, his intrigued expression posing more questions.

He’d have his answers soon enough. And so would she.

When Evangeline was in position, directly behind the young woman, she lifted the roasting pan shoulder high and dropped it.

The crash was so loud when it hit the floor that all three men jumped. Even Logan. The girl startled, too, but a hair slower than the rest.

“For pity’s sake, Evie!” Zach yelled.

She was pretty sure he was glaring at her, but she didn’t look his way to confirm. She kept her gaze locked on the woman who was turning in her chair to see what had happened.

Evangeline bent to retrieve the pan, then mouthed an apology to the woman. I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t scare you too badly. She gave the words no actual voice, but it didn’t matter. Her new friend somehow read them in the shape of her lips. The girl smiled and shook her head as if to say everything was fine.

“You can’t hear me, can you?” Evangeline asked.

The girl’s eyes widened in horror, and she jumped from her seat, knocking her chair sideways in the process.

“It’s all right.” Worried that the girl would try to bolt, Evangeline dropped the roasting pan again and held up her empty hands in a placating manner. “I’m still your friend.” She slowed her words down and spoke in a louder voice. Then, realizing how silly speaking louder was, she grinned at herself and resumed her normal tone. She added a few hand motions, thinking they might aid communication. “You must be so smart,” she said, pointing to her head. “To figure out what people are saying without being able to hear.” She tapped her ear then pressed her palms to her own chest. “I’m so impressed.”

Tears glistened in the girl’s eyes. “I’m broken,” she said, her voice a little muddy, the ends of her words indistinct, yet Evangeline understood them. Understood but didn’t accept. She couldn’t allow this amazing woman to believe herself inferior.

Pointing one finger to her blue eye, then moving it to her brown one, Evangeline said, “So am I.” Then she gestured to the others in the room. “We all are.”

The young woman turned to look at each person around the table. First to Seth—no doubt remembering his asthma attack—then to Zach, and finally to Logan. Each of the men nodded as she glanced his way, confirming that they, too, recognized their own imperfections and flaws.

Logan nodded to the girl, but he also raised his eyes and speared Evangeline with a piercing look, as if he were trying to communicate a message. Something important. Something about flaws and imperfections, perhaps? She longed to delve and explore, yet even as her pulse sped at the lure of unraveling a piece of the mystery surrounding her new neighbor, she forced down the desire. Logan’s secrets would have to wait. She had more pressing matters at hand.

Drawing the girl’s attention back to herself by stepping close and touching her shoulder, Evangeline spoke the words on her heart. “People might try to hide their broken places and pretend to be whole, but the truth is that we all have failings. That is why we need each other.” She gestured to Seth and Zach. “My brothers make me stronger. They shore up my broken places with their love and support. And I do the same for them.” She reached for the girl’s hands and clasped them firmly. “Let us do the same for you. Please. We can help you. We can be your family.”

The girl’s arms trembled. Her chin quivered. Her focus darted to each occupant of the room, uncertainty and hope vying for supremacy in her eyes. Then she turned back to Evangeline, straightened her spine, and with a nod of her head, chose hope.