Outlaw for Christmas (9781101573020) Read Online Free PDF Page B

gone dark.
    She’d stayed much longer than she’d intended, and Mr. Woodcock had gone home. Muttering to herself, Ruth descended the platform steps and made her way through the alley between the train station and the hostelry to the south.
    The moon had vanished beneath the snow clouds, and the alley was darker than dark. Her skirt swirled between her ankles, nearly tripping her as she hurried along. She had that odd sense of being watched again and at one point could have sworn she heard someone breathing heavily in the shadows.
    Ruth burst from the alley and onto the street. Kelly Creek was deserted, everyone at home with their families, as she should be. Her horse snorted a welcome and pawed impatiently.
    â€œSorry, Annabelle.” Ruth patted the mare’s soft nose. “You’re a good girl to wait for silly old me.”
    â€œRuth.”
    Her name whispered out of the alley. Annabelle nickered and shied. Ruth wanted to do the same.
    She
couldn’t
have heard her name rasp from that gaping darkness. She’d just walked out of there, and if someone was in there. . . . She shook off that thought and hurried to her wagon.
    The odd shuffling noise came again. Louder and nearer this time. She spun about as a large, man-shaped figure lurched out of the alley.
    Ruth drew in a breath to scream, and the moon chose that moment to drift from behind the clouds, casting silver rays across the street, across her, across him. The scream died unvoiced.
    â€œNoah,” she whispered.
    He stumbled, and she caught him, but he was larger than before, and she wasn’t much bigger. His weight drove her to her knees, and he landed on the ground unconscious.
    Ruth stared at her hands. The bright, shiny light of the moon turned the blood to black.
    ***
    Pain and fever did strange things to Noah’s mind. In the midst of dying, he found again the only thing worth living for.
    Maybe he was already dead. Because alive he’d never see Ruth, never hear her voice call his name, never feel her small, gentle hands flit over his face. So dead he must be.
    He’d never figured dead could hurt so damned much.
    â€œYou have to get up, Noah. Get in the wagon and I’ll take you to the doctor.”
    That brought him awake in a hurry. “No!” He lurched upward and nearly passed out again from the pain. When the black dots stopped singing and his gut stopped dancing, he opened his eyes, then shut them tight once more.
    Idiot!
He
had
come to Ruth. He must have been more feverish, more delirious, than he’d thought.
    â€œNoah.” Her voice wavered and broke.
    Noah cursed himself some more. She wasn’t used to having half-dead men paw her in the street. He’d frightened her, and he hated himself for it.
    â€œYou’re hurt,” she continued, and her voice was stronger. “I can get the doctor, but it’ll take twice as long.”
    â€œNo doctor,” he ground out. “Just give me a minute and I’ll be on my way.”
    â€œNo!”
    The word was so loud, Noah’s eyes snapped open, and he glanced furtively around. But the town was as dead as he soon would be if he didn’t get this bullet out of his belly.
    â€œY-you just got here. You can’t leave. Especially not like this.”
    He hadn’t just gotten here. He’d been here quite a while, hiding in the alley, waiting for the night. Then, when he’d heard her footsteps, he’d crept forward. He hadn’t been able to help himself.
    He’d watched her and the sheriff. Though he hadn’t been able to hear
what
they said, he could see that they were fond of each other. Although the chaste peck on the cheek the man had given Ruth told Noah fond was all they were. The happiness that had gone through him at that realization was out of proportion to the reason he was here—to make certain Ruth was all right before he crept off to die.
    But instead of seeing her and leaving,