Silver Nights With You (Love in the Sierras Book 1) (17 page)

Lila had only seen her father once in the past two days. He was busy seeing to other patients throughout the town. Several mines had collapsed, causing investors and mine owners to pour into town, calling all engineers and mineralogists to sort out what had stopped the production of their wealth. It came to light that the miners had tapped into an underground water source, the same source that fed scores of hot mineral pools throughout the area.

At the depth they were digging, the water was beyond boiling and had begun to flood the shafts at the same time as the cave-in. Several men were scorched during their escapes. One man slipped on the shaky ground to land fully submerged in the rapidly-rising pool of boiling water. When the day was done, two dozen men lost their lives with scores more injured, and the town became silent and mournful. Churches and hotels turned into hospitals, and saloons and restaurants offered soup and whiskey for free.

When Morgan had collapsed in her arms, Lila’s heart almost gave out, but Argyle said the damage looked worse that it was. He'd suffered a dozen gashes of various sizes around his head, neck and shoulders. Some needed stitching, but all would heal. A deep blue-black bruise the width of a railroad tie angled across his back. He would be sore, but could heal completely if there wasn’t internal damage. They just needed him to wake up so Argyle could examine his range of motion, but for two days Morgan remained motionless in slumber.

Her father gave instructions to continue care for Val, Morgan and another mildly injured miner sleeping in her bed, and she hadn’t seen him again. David had been by to visit on the first day, but had disappeared since.

Once Val came to, he refused to leave Morgan’s side. He told her that when the ceiling began to collapse they were near the end of the tunnel. Another ten steps and they would have been safe. When it became clear that they weren’t going to make it, Morgan jumped on top of Val, covering his body from the hail of rock. A wooden tress from overhead fell across Morgan’s back, wedging itself in such a way that it created a small pocket for the boys to huddle beneath. A large chunk of rock had found Val and caused the gash in the side of his head. He blacked out immediately.

Witnesses described finding Morgan inching his brother’s body forward in tiny measures. It had taken him almost an hour to move the space of ten steps. By the time rescuers reached them, Morgan’s hand could be seen through the wall, pushing and pulling rocks out of the way to make a large enough gap for their bodies. When rescuers cleared the rest of the way, Morgan wouldn’t let anyone else touch Val.

She was as moved by the tale as Val, and he watched over his brother for as long as his own pain would allow. When Lila finally convinced him to get some rest, it had taken half a whiskey bottle for him to do it. Every day, she waited for Morgan to wake, changing his bandages, cleaning his lacerations and applying a salve to the inflamed edges of his stitching. Scars were unavoidable across his upper back and shoulders, but she saw nothing but beauty and heroism when she looked at him. She had begun to worry, in spite of her father’s assurances, until he awoke on the third day. He drank three steaming bowls of broth, but wouldn’t eat anything substantial before falling back asleep. Still, she saw it as progress.

She hadn’t slept in a bed since the night before the cave in. The first two nights, both Val and Morgan needed looking after. The following three nights Val urged her to return to her room for a full night of sleep, but she declined. There was no way she was going to leave Morgan's side until she knew he was well.

Her back began to ache, but she took one look at his back and knew she had no business thinking of a few tweaked muscles. She slept off and on in her seat beside the bed and flew through Morgan’s copy of Turgenev during the day. She was just about to finish the last few pages when Morgan woke again. It was the movement of his head that caught her eye as he gingerly lifted it from the pillow. It was the first time he'd been able to lift anything besides his eyelids.

“Hello, there,” she said, happy to see him looking alert and not as groggy as he had the day before.

“Hello."

“How do you feel?” she asked. “Can I get you anything?”

“I’d be grateful for a sip of water.”

She looked to a steaming bowl of chicken soup that sat on the bedside stand. It was brought for Val, but he had gone down to bathe.

“How about some broth from this soup?" she asked, nodding toward the bowl. "Can you sit up at all?”

He propped himself up onto his elbows. The weakness in his limbs was noticeable, but she hoped it was from lack of nourishment and not damage. He winced and shut his eyes through a few strained breaths, as if his back had bundled into one big twinge. She winced for him. This was the part she feared the most, learning the extent of the damage when he awoke.

“Can you feel your legs?” she whispered.

“Yeah,” he panted. “They feel like they’re being sliced open with a hot knife.”

“Good,” she said happily, and he turned a confused look on her. “It’s better than not being able to feel them at all, isn’t it?”

“I reckon you’re right,” he said with a slight nod.

“Here,” Lila offered, kneeling beside the bed. “Try to swing your legs over the side.”

She reached under the cover and wrapped her hands around the back side of a knee. The soft warmth of her palm on his bare flesh made him flinch, and it was then that he realized he was completely naked beneath the sheet. The look on his face made her chuckle.

“Don’t worry,” she soothed. “I’ve already seen all of you.”

His brow creased slightly. “All?” he asked hoarsely. Her smile was shy, knowing to which part he referred. She glanced away from him and cleared her throat when she answered.

“All.”

Indeed, she had. Once he’d been brought to the room and left in her care, she tended his wounds until the bleeding stopped. Ellie said she would bring fresh linens when he was cleaned. So, while Val slept quietly in the land of unconsciousness, she had removed Morgan’s clothes and began bathing his perfect body, grateful that the brothers slept through the ordeal. She was sure her skin was a red so deep it bordered purple. Just remembering it made a fresh blush spring to her cheeks.

She had never seen a man’s naked body before, and it was full of fascinating parts. After she covered his wounds with fresh poultices, she leaned him onto the side and propped him against the wall while she ran the wash cloth over his front. She should have been ashamed of how acutely she studied his form. Her eyes had followed the path of her hands as she took in every inch of his flesh.

The more decent portion of her mind told her that she was doing nothing more than nursing a sick man back to health, but a deeper side, a side that he awoke in her, shamelessly took advantage of the situation to acquaint her eyes and hands with such forbidden fruit.

As Morgan pulled a leg up and over the bed to rest it on the floor, he used a hand to clutch the sheet to his groin. His other leg followed and before long he was sitting upright, if hunched over, heaving from the effort it took. He looked down his bare chest and stomach and saw that he was clean. Turning his hands over to assess the palms he noticed a good scrubbing there as well.

“You bathed me?” he asked. Lila pulled her chair closer so that when she sat before him their knees touched. She grabbed the soup bowl and held it between them.

“Mm hmm,” she assented casually.

“Humph,” he said with a sly smile. “I’m sorry I missed it.”

She chuckled shyly as her cheeks flamed. “Oh, hush. I thought about trying to shave you, but I’ve never done it before and I thought you’d lost enough blood already.” Her smile twitched teasingly, and he absently rubbed his palm over his stubble as he studied the soft curve of her lips.

“Here,” she said. “Drink some broth.” She lifted a spoonful to feed him, and he raised an eyebrow at the utensil.

“I’m awake now. You don’t have to feed me.” He took the bowl in one hand and took a deep swallow, taking in much more than just the broth. “How long was I out?”

“This is the fourth day since the collapse,” she answered, and he choked on his next swallow, sputtering a few coughs as his eyes went wide.

“Four days!”

She nodded. “Well, you were really only out for the first two. You woke up several times yesterday, but never for very long and never fully.”

He shook his head, grimacing slightly. “No wonder I feel so rested.”

“So, your injuries are not troubling you overmuch?”

“It feels like someone took a sledgehammer to my back,” he said casually. He rolled his shoulders to test the tightness of his stitches. “Other than that I feel fine.”

“Other than that,” she mocked.

He glanced back at her. “Have you been here this whole time?”

She nodded. “Father had to stay up at the church and tend the wounded there. I gave my room to a man with a broken leg. So, there was really nowhere else for me to go and you needed looking after. Besides, I wanted to be here when you woke up.”

“Where did you sleep?” he asked.

“Right here,” she motioned to her chair with a smile.

“That couldn’t have been too comfortable. You must be exhausted.”

“I’m fine,” she reassured. “Besides, it allowed me to catch up on some reading.”

She held up the book for him to see, and he smiled softly.

“How do you like it?”

"It was an excellent recommendation."

He nodded once, and then his smiled faded as he glanced over to the empty bed across the room.

"Val is fine, Morgan," she soothed. "He's taking a bath right now, but he's completely healed."

"Thanks to your father." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "If not for him, Val might…" He couldn't finish his sentence, and she went to the bed beside him.

His eyes were pinched so tightly that the lids quivered, and she saw the slightest sheen of moisture squeezing from the outside corners. She reached around his head to gently pull his temple to her lips. She kissed away the tear as it slid down.

"Shhh," she whispered against his skin. "He survived. It's over. You're both safe."

He reached up and rubbed his fingertips over his eyes, clearing away the wetness as he took a deep breath. “How many died?”

She told him all that had passed while he slept. His face turned dour and thoughtful as he chewed on the inside of his cheek. His gaze strayed to the floor but his mind was focused inward, churning thoughts over and over.

“We need maps of the underground,” he said just as Val pushed the door open and entered. 

The brothers locked eyes and a flood of relief fell so heavily into Val’s eyes that his shoulders sagged beneath the weight of it. Morgan nodded in response. Lila watched the concern and love flow between them, and she praised God that they were both alive to share such a moment.

“Glad to see you up,” Val said finally.

“You, too.”

Val cleared his throat. “What were you saying about maps?”

“I was saying that we need maps of the underground. There are too many shafts going in every direction. You can’t hollow out a mountain and expect it to stay upright. If we know where those holes go we can figure out the best way to rig ‘em.”

“I thought you might want to get in on the fix,” Val said with a knowing grin. “All those years in Germany ought to come in handy somewhere.”

“Germany?” Lila asked with surprise. “You’ve been to Germany?”

He nodded, but Val answered. “He studied engineering there.”

“You’re an engineer?” she asked, the incredulity raising her voice.

“No,” he replied calmly. “That was a long time ago. I’m a cattleman.”

Val laughed. “Yesterday, you were a miner. Tomorrow, you may be a cattleman. But today, you’re an engineer. And they need your brain up in St. Mary’s in Virginia City in about three hours. That’s where everyone is meeting about this. Apparently, parts of the Ophir Mines and the Mexican Mines collapsed, too. Do you think you'll be up for going?”

“I just need some clothes.”

Lila shot Morgan an uneasy look. “Are you sure you’re ready to be up so soon? You’ve barely woken.”

“I feel sore and stiff, but nowhere near as bad as I expected to feel. Besides, lying abed was never something I enjoyed,” he answered before fixing her with a hot stare. “At least not on my own.”

Her chest tightened at the promise in his words. She tried to avert her gaze from his face but the only other thing to look at was his torso. God knows she had indulged her eyes often enough in the past four days without a care, but now that he was awake and sitting so close to her, she trembled. Though his body was beautiful, the power and magnetism came from the man himself. Now that she knew what a solid and sinewy form he clothed every day, the memory of their kisses shivered through her with more potency, and it was almost too exciting to bear.

"Val can grab me some clothes and help me into them," Morgan nodded toward his brother, before turning back to Lila. "Unless you'd prefer to do it?"

Red hot flames pooled in her cheeks as she came to a stand. "I'll leave you and Val, then,” she stammered, backing away from his overwhelming presence. “Can I get you anything before you go?”