Tempting Prudence: The Bride Train Read Online Free Page B

slumped onto the pillow. So soft, it had to be down. “Goose feathers,” she murmured.
    He patted her shoulder. “ Horsefeathers , you mean. Yep, it is awful frustrating when you can’t sit up without the room whirling. But you got to rest. Give yourself a chance to heal. That cut bled like the dickens, took five stitches.”
    “Cut? Stitches?” This explained the roaring headache.
    “You don’t remember?” Sitting back in the chair, he rested his hands on his knees. His knuckles bore numerous white scars and the tip of the little finger on his right hand was missing. In addition to that bump on the bridge of his nose, a thin white scar slashed through his right eyebrow making it appeared raised. He looked as battered as the old tomcat that had lived in the barn. Even his unruly hair reminded her of the cat’s reddish fur.
    Thank heavens he’d donned a shirt. Though the memory of his muscular chest was tattooed on her brain. How was it she could recall the patch of brown hair over his breastbone and his hard pectoral muscles when she couldn’t remember striking her head?
    She lifted her hand to assess the damage to her forehead.
    He caught her wrist. “Don’t pull off the bandage. It took me two tries to get it wrapped right.”
    “What happened?”
    “My brothers brought you here.”
    She shuddered. “I remember that part.”
    He leaned forward, seeming to search her eyes. “Do you recall me telling you it was all a big mistake? I tried to get you to sit down and rest, but you ran off, down the path to the creek. Tripped on a root, hit your head and cracked it open… I had to doctor you through a fever. You talked crazy for a couple days. Your fever broke last night.”
    His voice hinted at weariness and the signs of strain were visible around his mouth and eyes. Maybe he’d thought she would die and he would be blamed for it. Or he might’ve dreaded having to find a place to dispose of her body. Although, if he wanted her dead, or simply wanted to use her for sport, he wouldn’t have brought her into his home and tended her.
    At a troubling thought, she slipped her hand beneath the covers. She wore nothing but her thin shift. He’d even removed her drawers. Horrified, she pulled the quilt to her chin. “You…you undressed me.”
    No leer or smirk crossed his face. “Had to,” he said, matter-of-fact. “You were bleeding all over your clothes, and I couldn’t bathe you down fully dressed.”
    The thought of him removing her clothes, those large, scarred hands on her body, did strange things to her insides. Her skin heated as if the fever had returned. She didn’t dare mention it. He might try to bathe her again.
    “You feelin’ poorly?” He leaned forward, reached out to feel her forehead. The faded blue cambric shirt pulled across his shoulders and bunched up around the suspenders.
    She stared, mesmerized, unable to forget what he looked like without the shirt. His virile body stirred hungers she never knew she had.
    A warm, calloused palm made contact with her cheek and the quivers intensified; spread like wildfire across her body, making her skin prickle and her breasts peak. His touch should appall her. She shouldn’t feel all hot and shivery, and heaven forbid, excited.
    Prudence screwed her eyes shut, praying he couldn’t see how his touch affected her. This had to be some odd reaction that came about as a result of his intimate care when she was senseless. She couldn’t be attracted to the heathen. His evil brothers had abducted her. Then he’d balked when she asked him to be returned. She couldn’t imagine what he intended to do with her, but she wasn’t staying around to find out.
    Somehow, she had to get away. How would she manage when she couldn’t lift her head more than a few inches off the pillow, much less stand without toppling over?
    She heard sloshing water and then a damp cloth covered her forehead and eyes. The coolness absorbed some of the heat on her face and eased