Page 19 of Fairest of Heart

“Come on, fellas. Let’s give the lady some privacy.” Like a sheepdog herding two-legged woolly creatures, Mr. Kingsley spread his arms wide and ushered his aged companions away from the tree.

Doing her best to avoid stepping on acorns and twigs, she picked her way around the tree to a low-hanging branch. After taking a quick peek to ensure no male eyes were aimed her direction, she unwrapped her blanket and hung it up on the branch as if it were a clothesline. The cool morning air brought chill bumps out on her arms and urged her to hurry. She tended to some pressing private business, then slipped the Ranger’s shirt over her head.

Warmth immediately engulfed her. His warmth. She wrapped her arms around herself and held on for a long minute, giving the heat a chance to penetrate her skin. Strange how slipping on his shirt not only made her feel warm but safe.

8

What do you think happened to her?” Ike asked the question in a hushed tone as the group moseyed over to the outlying stand of trees.

Titus braced a hand on the nearest tree trunk and leaned his weight against it. “Can’t know for sure unless she tells me.”

It bothered him that she hadn’t. Did embarrassment keep her silent? Misplaced loyalty to the perpetrator? Or was she involved in something larger, something she felt compelled to hide from a man of the law?

Or maybe she was just a scared young woman who’d survived a terrible ordeal and didn’t feel like talking to a gaggle of strange men. Couldn’t really blame her for that.

“Best I can figure, someone dragged her out here and tied her to that tree,” Dusty said as he reached for a handkerchief and raised it to his nose to catch the coming sneeze.

Titus couldn’t argue with the obvious, so he nodded, but he kept the rest of his thoughts to himself. Who would do such a thing to a young woman? And why had they brought her out here in nothing but her underclothes? Her eyes didn’t have the soul-shattered look he’d encountered in women who’d suffered defilement, so it was unlikely she’d been violated, thank God. Yet that made her situation all the more curious. And disturbing.

“I found some hoofprints.” Jeb hobbled up to where Coy, Angus, Ike, and Titus had gathered. “You gonna track down the varmint that done this?” He flicked the end of his walking stick against the outer edge of Titus’s boot.

Titus straightened away from the tree. “Not today. Right now, my duty is to the girl. We’ll get her back to the Diamond D, let Doc tend to those cuts and scrapes she mentioned, then get her a warm bath and some clean clothes. Can’t do much else at the moment. Without a description of her attacker, I have no way of identifying him.” He scratched his chin. “Unless there’s something distinctive in those markings you found.”

Jeb scowled. “Nope. Just a direction.” He raised his walking stick and pointed the end southeast. “That way.”

Made sense. When Titus had run into her yesterday, it had been south of here. She’d been so lively and joyful when they’d crossed paths. What had happened to cause such a drastic turn in her circumstances?

“The snake that done this oughta be horsewhipped. You don’t treat womenfolk this way. I don’t care what they done. And this one don’t look like she’d hurt a fly. Even with that man-sized knife she’s got tucked away.”

Man-sized knife. Jeb might be a grumpy old goat, but his observation skills were on point. The knife the girl had brandished had been too large and unwieldy for a woman. Add to that she clearly had no experience with such weaponry, and the only logical conclusion was that it belonged to someone else. Her attacker? But if she’d had his knife, why hadn’t she used it to fend him off? Had she really been tied up, or was this some elaborate ruse?

Titus mentally rolled his eyes. His cynicism was getting out of hand. What could she possibly have to gain from pretending to be tied up in the middle of nowhere? There was no one to blackmail or extort. If Rowdy hadn’t wandered this direction—a happenstance impossible to predict since the fellow’s strolls were notoriously erratic—no one would have even found her. Still, the knife was a clue. The rope had been sliced by someone. He’d seen the sheared edges. Titus would have to try to take a closer look at the knife later, see if he could learn anything about the man who’d owned it.

Finding the scoundrel who’d lashed this young woman to a tree and left her to die would be basically impossible without her cooperation, but a good Ranger gathered all available clues. Even ones with no immediate significance. Criminals rarely committed only one crime, so even if he couldn’t tie the man to this assault, he might be able to tie him to other misdeeds if the evidence came together in the right way at the right time.

“What’s Rowdy doin’?” Jeb jerked his chin toward a bent-over figure a couple of trees away.

Ike glanced behind him, then smiled. “Adding to his collection, I suppose.”

Apparently, delivering help to the girl he’d found had ended Rowdy’s interest in the matter. Ignoring the others, he ambled around the base of the trees, kicking at items until he found something that intrigued him. He’d stoop for a closer look, then hunker down if he liked what he saw. He tossed most of the debris aside, but every once in a while, a shiny rock or a particularly well-rounded acorn would catch his attention. He’d stuff the treasure in his pocket, then continue his search. Titus had no idea what made one rock a treasure and another trash, but the system made sense to Rowdy. He’d been known to walk off with buttons, pocket watches, pen nibs, and coins. He even absconded with a glass lens from Doc’s spectacles one time. The shinier the object, the more likely it was to be collected. The rest of the men had taken to keeping their valuables close at hand, for once Rowdy “collected” something, it was never seen again.

“Uh, Titus?” Angus jabbed his chin in the direction of the girl’s tree.

Titus pivoted slowly.

All coherent thought fled his brain save one unmistakable observation—his shirt had never looked that good when he was the one wearing it. The collar loosely circled her neck while the tail hung well past her waist, leaving the white ruffles of her petticoat to billow out in a bell shape from above her knees down to her ankles. The sleeves hung past her fingertips yet she looked far from childlike. The places where the fabric pulled snug made it impossible to mistake her for anything other than a woman.

Do something besides stare at her, you dolt.

Seeing the blanket draped over her right arm, Titus hurried forward to collect it from her.

“Thank you for the shirt,” she said softly as she handed over her previous covering. A rosy glow touched her cheeks as her dark lashes lowered. When they lifted and allowed her eyes to meet his, something shifted in Titus’s chest. Something he very much feared was his immunity to beautiful women unmooring and floating away.

“Glad to help.”

What was wrong with him? She was covered in dirt and leaves, for Pete’s sake. Not exactly the belle of the ball. Yet a man would have to be blind not to see the inherent loveliness beneath the grimy debris. Titus was the opposite of blind. The Rangers had trained him to observe everything, making it impossible to miss the way the fabric of his shirt tugged tightly across her chest and hips. Or the fact that she’d removed all the pins from her hair. The black tresses were still a mess, but instead of sitting lopsided atop her head like a nest built by a drunken mockingbird, her hair fell over her shoulders in an untamed cascade.

Her stomach let out a growl that broke him out of his trance. She pressed a hand to her belly as the pink in her cheeks deepened to apple red.