The Edge of Misery: The Mitchel Brothers Series Book Two

8

Wren nodded, unable to speak past the lump in her throat, watching Emmaline walk to the big house before slowly turning to face the old cabin. Her stomach twisted into a thousand knots, and she clenched her hands into tight fists as she took a steadying breath.

"Want me to go with you?" Declan quietly asked, standing beside her.

'Yes,' her heart cried out because she didn't think she could do this alone. But, keeping her eyes focused on the cabin door, she swallowed twice, shook her head, and then rasped, "I'll be all right."

He looked at her, and his brow creased in a frown. Then, without warning, he took her hand in his left and began walking with her to the old cabin. "I need to have Uncle Em tend my arm anyway. Wooly can go get your daddy."

Wren's lower lip trembled, and tears stung her eyes, but by sheer force of will, she managed to keep her emotions reined in as they walked inside and approached her baby brother on the cot in the front room without shedding a single tear.

"I almost got m'leg blow'd off, Wren," Eldon chirped, his tone full of shock and boyish excitement, his eyes wide as saucers. "That mean I'm gonna limp like Declan?"

"You might," Emerson murmured, settling a compassionate gaze on Wren over his left shoulder before facing Eldon and adding, "I need you to hold still just a little bit longer while I finish bandaging you up; you think you can do that for me?"

Eldon nodded and laid flat, "Then you's gonna patch up Mama?"

Wren's stomach knotted and lurched, bile burned the back of her throat, and her lungs refused to work. She couldn't tell him—not without falling apart herself.

"Was Mama mad at me for playin' outside, Wren?" Eldon lifted his head and asked, "'Cause she said me and Luella could."

Luella lifted her head from her paws where she lay on her bed, her tail thumping happily, but Declan softly said, "Lay down, girl. Stay," and she obeyed, watching them with keen eyes.

Wren shook her head, jostling tears free of their perch in her lashes, unable to choke out an answer past the lump wedged in her throat.

Eldon frowned and laid back down. "How come she was yellin' then?" His head sprang back up, "Was the house on fire or was—"

"There was a stampede," Declan huskily answered, giving Wren's right hand a comforting squeeze. "They were heading for the house; she was trying to save you."

"That why she was layin' real still?" Eldon whispered. "She was foolin' them cows, huh, Wren? 'Cause that's why me and Luella weren't movin' none."

A strangled whimper escaped Wren, and she shook her head, but before she could rasp a reply, Declan gently said, "I wish that were the reason, Eldon, but I'm afraid it's not. You see, your mama... she...."

Wren left Declan's side, knowing she needed to be the one to tell him what had happened—even if it took her a few minutes to find the right words—and sat on the cot near her brother's shoulder, her back to Emerson.

"Why're you cryin', Wren," Eldon whispered, a worried frown marring his brow.

"'Cause I'm sad," she tearfully whispered back, confident that three-lettered word failed to express the depth of her sorrow as she paused to collect her thoughts. "Remember what I told you about how heartbroken Mama and Papa were after losin' Miriam and Albert?"

Eldon nodded, his frown smoothing, replaced by a small smile as he said, "Till they had me."

"That's right," Wren croaked, holding Eldon's hand. "So when Mama saw them cattle stampedin' toward you this mornin', she didn't think twice about runnin' out to save you—even if it meant she'd get hurt tryin'."