go, Mama. I’ll stay with him.”
“I’m not sure that’s the best idea.”
“I am.” She was far more comfortable with firearms than her ma. Thanks to her cousins’ patient instruction, she’d learned to protect herself. “I can handle this.”
The stranger dwarfed the bed, his body rigid atop the mattress, his head deep in the pillow and his teeth gritted. Images of Lee, wounded and dying on the barn floor, bombarded her. The boots hit the floor with a clatter.
He flinched.
“Jessica.” Her ma was looking at her with a knowing, sympathetic expression that she’d grown to loathe this past year, one that made her feel as if she was five years old again. “You don’t have to prove anything to me.”
Sinking onto the mattress edge, she gently dislodged her ma’s hand. “I’m not trying to prove anything. I’m armed. You’re not. When was the last time you shot a gun, anyway?”
“Too long.” With a shake of her head, Alice began untying her apron strings. Wisps of her silver-streaked brown hair had escaped her loose bun to dance about her hairline. “Are you certain you don’t mind? I know how you get around this sort of thing.”
“I’m certain.”
“I’ll hurry.”
“Be careful. And don’t worry about me.”
“That’s like telling a robin not to fly,” she said wryly.
Her mother left her with the mystery man, the swish of the clock’s pendulum punctuating the bed’s creaking beneath their combined weight. Long lashes fanned against his cheeks. He possessed handsome, open features that made it hard to guess his age. Jessica figured him to be in his midtwenties.
His forehead screwed up. “Think I’m gonna be sick.”
Seizing the patterned washbowl, she struggled to maintain pressure on his injury as he tipped over the side of the bed. Unwanted sympathy welled in her chest. He collapsed against the pillow minutes later, perspiration dotting his brow.
Blond strands stuck to his forehead, and the impulse to smooth them back surprised her.
“False alarm, I guess,” he murmured.
“Hold the towel in position. I’ll be right back.”
Jessica darted into her room across the hall and retrieved the tin of homemade ginger candies from her bedside cabinet.
“Try one.” Resuming her spot, she held one out to him. “They’re good at relieving an upset stomach.”
When he’d complied, he glanced out the single window situated square in the middle of the log wall. Jane’s old room faced the rear of their property. There wasn’t much behind the cabin besides the well and outhouse. Beyond the small clearing, a thick deciduous forest dominated their property.
“Where are we?”
“In my home.”
“No, I mean what part of the country?”
“Tennessee. The eastern section. Gatlinburg, to be exact. About a day and a half’s ride from Knoxville.”
A worried crease pulled his eyebrows together. “I don’t know why I’m here.”
An air of uncertainty shrouded him. Was there a legitimate reason her earlier questions had gone unanswered?
“Have you hit your head?”
He sank his fingers into the short blond locks. He grimaced as he tentatively probed a place behind his ear. “Something did. There’s a knot here.”
“Can you tell me your name?”
“Of course. It’s...” Uncertainty flashed in his blue, blue eyes. “It’s, ah...” He blanched. “I—I don’t know. I can’t remember. I can’t remember anything.”
Jessica studied him. Either he was a seasoned con man, or the blow had scattered his memories.
* * *
Hands fisting in the mattress ticking, he fought the panic rippling through him.
His head felt as if it had been crushed beneath a loaded wagon wheel. The flesh where he’d been gutted like a fish burned hot, and the redhead’s shifting weight as she stemmed the blood flow only served to inflame it further. The ache in his busted ankle was bearable by comparison.
Shoving all that aside, he tried to sort out the facts of his life. He’d woken facedown in the woods not far from this cabin, with no idea how he’d gotten there. A blank, black void prevented him from remembering. Faces scrolled through his mind, vaguely familiar and yet not. One clear memory replayed itself—a young boy calling to him, beckoning him to come and climb a tree.
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
The ginger candy dissolved on his tongue. His stomach had calmed as she’d said it would.
“Waking up on your property.” Hurt. Disoriented. “Before that, I recall patches of information. People whose identities and how they relate to me I can’t grasp.”
Disbelief shimmered in eyes the color of forest moss. She had expressive eyes, almond-shaped and rimmed with cinnamon-hued lashes and topped with bold, slashing eyebrows. High cheekbones were offset by a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. Her expressive mouth twisted in open irritation.
“I don’t blame you for not trusting me,” he said. “I wouldn’t believe me, either.”
Her gaze dropped to his wound for a second before skittering to the window draped with lacy white curtains. Beyond the glass, the cloudless sky was a brilliant blue. He realized he didn’t even know what month it was. Or the year.
The panic pounced, constricting his lungs until he thought he’d suffocate.
Focus on the here and now. Maintain control.
“Your name is Jessica, right?”
Seated close, her chocolate-hued skirts spread over the ticking, she had to lean across him to reach his injury. Her long hair, restrained by a shiny brown ribbon, spilled over her ivory blouse like deep red silk. “Is it just you and your ma living here?”
“Why do you ask?” She visibly bristled.
“No reason.” He gestured to indicate the space decorated in bold hues of red, white and blue. The handmade quilt folded over the footboard had repeating diamond shapes, and a flag design dominated the hooked rug beside the bed. Maps of various sizes had been pinned to the wall. A stack of books joined a dusty jewelry box atop the dresser. “I hope I haven’t taken over your room.”
“This used to be my sister’s. She’s married now.”
Her reticence wasn’t surprising. Why wouldn’t she be concerned for her safety? She couldn’t know his intentions, whether or not he
