Dangerous? Oh, yes. He was handsome and confident and a complete stranger. There would be time later to ask who he was and where he was from. Right now someone might be in trouble. She scanned the field. “Where did you see the horse?”
“There.” He gestured toward the far rise as lightning singed the air around them.
Julie could barely make out the bay pony in the downpour. “I know that horse. That horse wouldn’t run off and leave his rider.”
She took off at a run as the rain turned to hard balls of hail. Ice struck her like boxer’s gloves as she raced across the field and over a knoll to the creek below rapidly swelling with runoff. The bay wheeled with fear as lightning and thunder resounded across the sky.
“Hailey!” Julie called, snaring hold of the gelding’s reins. She couldn’t make out anything in the gray and white storm.
“There.” He spotted the child first, a small dark shadow on the other side of the creek. “That water’s rising fast.”
“We can cross it.” Julie saw the gelding was in good shape and uninjured, but too panicked to ride through the fast-moving current. She tied him quickly to a willow branch, so he wouldn’t injure himself further. He’d be safe, for now.
“Be careful,” she shouted. “The water’s rising and it’s more dangerous than it looks.”
The stranger was already at the steep bank. “Stay here where it’s safe. I’m going in.”
“No, wait!” Julie called, running full out, but the effects of her earlier fall held her back. She wasn’t up to one hundred percent. “The current’s fast—”
As if he didn’t hear her or understand the danger, he plunged off the bank and disappeared beneath the muddy water coursing dark and deep.
Chapter Three
Knowing the flooded creek was powerful enough to knock a man down and keep him there, Julie grabbed the rope from the saddle and ran. She could feel her lungs straining—they were still tight—and air gasped in and out of her throat, but she pushed harder.
She wasn’t about to let him drown.
The water pulled at her shoes as she secured the rope to a fence post. Her fingers felt clumsy as she tested the knot, but it held. The creek licked at the rope, sucking it out of her hands. She wrestled it back, held tight and leaped into the rising creek.
The shock of the water turned her skin to ice. Lightning flared so close she could feel the crackle in the air. Thunder crashed, rattling her very bones. Above the hammering hail, she heard the thin wail of a frightened child.
“It’s okay, Hailey,” she called to the little girl, but the wind snatched her words and tore them apart.
“Where is he?” The current pushed like a bulldozer at her ankles, then her knees. He’d fallen in right here. Where was he? What if she couldn’t find him? What if the current had swept him downstream? Lord, please help me find him….
“Toss me the rope!” a deep voice boomed above the roaring storm. “I can get across, I know it.”
Julie stumbled. Thank God! There he was, climbing out of the water onto a snagged stump in the middle of the creek. The powerful current buckled around him. He looked muddy, soaking wet and blood oozed from a cut on his forehead, but from where she stood, he looked invincible.
Since she wasn’t a blue-ribbon roper for nothing, she tossed the line, watching it uncoil as it sailed through the air and into the man’s outstretched hand.
“Good throw!” he shouted. “Stay there where it’s safe.”
One thing about this stranger was really starting to annoy her. He was bossy, and she wasn’t staying anywhere. “If Hailey’s hurt, you’ll need my help.”
He glanced over his shoulder at her. Through the driving wind and thick hail, she could see surprise flash in his dark eyes.
Handsome guy. She didn’t get the chance to think on that any further because the current knocked her feet out from under her. The rope held her as she kicked her way across the swollen creek. She surfaced just in time to see the big man kneel on the ground beside the fallen child.
“Are you all right, little girl?” His voice was kind, and it was amazing to watch how calm he was, how steady. “I’m Noah. What’s your name?”
“H-Hailey,” the child sobbed.
Julie secured the rope and dropped to the girl’s other side. “Hi, there, cutie. What are you doing out here in the storm?”
“Miss Renton!” Hailey flew off the ground, burrowing into Julie’s middle. “I wasn’t supposed to be riding Bandit, but I didn’t know it was gonna storm. Honest. He fell real hard. Is he hurt?”
“He looks perfectly fine to me.” Julie soothed the little girl who’d been in her kindergarten class two years ago.
“Are you hurt anywhere, Hailey?” The man— Noah—leaned close, dripping mud and creek water on Julie’s sleeve. “Tell me what hurts.”
She cried. “My arm.”
“Sounds like it’s pretty bad.” He leaned close, and even though he’d been at the bottom of a creek, he smelled wonderful—like an expensive aftershave, spice and molasses rich. “Let me take a look.”
“Are you a doctor?” Hailey sniffled.
“No, but I broke my wrist once, so I consider myself an authority.” Noah gently cradled Hailey’s thin forearm and pushed her sleeve up over her elbow.
“Ow,” she cried again.
“That could be a break. Look at the swelling.” Noah’s eyes met Julie’s and there was concern in them. “It would be best if we can stabilize it.”
“Just what I was going to say. We can use small branches from one of the cottonwoods.” Julie cradled the girl in her lap, protecting her from the wind and hail. “Do you hurt anywhere else, Hailey?”
“Nope.” She snuggled closer, whining a little in pain.
“Good. We’ll get you home soon, I promise.”
“Here.” Noah reappeared with two fairly straight branches, stout-looking enough to stabilize Hailey’s arm.
They worked together, as the wind strengthened and the temperature dipped. The hail turned to ice. Freezing wherever it fell, it turned the landscape to a white wintry world.
“Here, give her to me.” Noah took the child in his arms as easily as if she were a doll, and tucked her beneath his jacket. Snug against his chest, at least Hailey would be as warm as possible.
The creek had risen to a dangerous level. There was no way to go around, so they went straight through. Noah held on to the rope, and Julie helped him keep Hailey out of the water. Julie fell once and Noah slipped, but the taut line kept them both upright. Exhausted, they made it to the opposite bank.
“Is there a hospital nearby?” Noah shouted to be heard over the fierce storm. “She’s cold. Too cold.”
“Her grandmother lives just up the road. We’ll take her there.” Julie slipped and slid through the icy field until the pavement was safely under their feet.
She took one look at the sedan off to the side of the road, taillights flashing eerily through the thick white curtain of snow. “Let’s get her into my truck. I’ve got four-wheel drive.”
“Something tells me we might need it.” Noah cradled the child out of the wind.
Julie yanked open the door, threw the seat back to grab a couple blankets stashed there.
“You get the truck started.” He