Rainy Day Dreams: 2 by Virginia Smith, Lori Copeland

intended for you to turn around and go home immediately.”
    She was still trying to come up with a persuasive argument when the door opened yet again. This time it burst inward and slammed into the wall with a loud crack. A man rushed into the restaurant, his eyes wild and his breath coming in ragged gulps. His head whipped back and forth as he searched the room.
    Noah, who had been standing near one of the tables talking with the men while they ate, straightened. “What is it, Lawson? Is something wrong?”
    Laying eyes on him, Lawson ran across the room and grabbed Noah by the arm. “It’s the Indians! They’re attacking!”
    Chair legs scraped on wood as half the occupants in the room leaped to their feet. Kathryn joined them, her heart thudding in her throat. An Indian attack?
    The room began to whirl and her vision darkened. A last thought shouted in her mind before she collapsed. Here was yet another item to add to the list of complaints for Papa. If, of course, she lived to present them.

Three
     
    J ason lurched sideways in time to catch Kathryn as she crumpled. He scooped up her still form, her weight no more than a satchel full of feathers.
    “She’s fainted,” shouted a deep voice.
    “Quick, get some smelling salts,” instructed someone else.
    A few men rushed toward him, pressing close to stare at the drooping figure in his arms while the man who’d rushed into the room collected his own audience near the door. Someone pulled out a chair and he collapsed into it, panting heavily.
    Jason shifted his weight from one boot to the other. What in the world was he to do with a fainting woman? Stand there and hold her until she came to? Lay her out on the table? The floor? He was just about to deposit her into the arms of the big man who hovered anxiously over him when Mrs. Hughes’s voice cut through the worried chatter.
    “Get back, everyone. Give her room.” She shoved her way between two men as if they were tall stalks of river grass, pulling the stopper from a bottle. “Here. It’s just vinegar, but it ought to do the trick.”
    Actually, Kathryn’s eyelids were already fluttering. When Mrs.Hughes held the bottle beneath her nose, her head jerked away and her skull cracked against his chin.
    “Ow!” He couldn’t even rub his stinging jaw.
    “She’s awake,” announced the proprietress, and a collective sigh sounded around the room. She laid a hand across Kathryn’s forehead. “Kathryn, dear, are you all right?”
    “Yes, I—I’m fine.” Her voice trembled on the last word, but otherwise sounded strong enough. When she looked into his face, her eyes went wide and her body stiffened in his arms. “Please put me down immediately.”
    “Here.” Evie scooted out a chair, and Jason wasted no time in depositing Kathryn in it. He whirled on his heel and pushed his way through the hovering men to join those circled around the messenger, watching him gulp down a cup of water. She was in capable hands, many pairs of them.

     
    “That’s right, drink it all and catch your breath.” Noah spoke through a clenched jaw, tension obvious in the cords standing out on his neck.
    “Hurry up,” urged one of the men watching. “Tell us what’s happened.”
    Lawson drained the water and lowered the cup, his chest heaving. “There’s been another attack, up near Holmes Harbor. Fella from over in Alki disappeared, and a posse set out to track him. Didn’t find him, but they was attacked by a group of Indians. Killed a couple, and one of them was killed too. Shot clean through.”
    Alki Point. Jason knew the place. The Fair Lady had passed the settlement on the way here, on the exposed side of the Sound. Word had it that was the place where the founders of Seattle landed firstbefore coming here in search of a site with shelter from the harsh seas during rough weather.
    While Lawson talked, the men surrounding Kathryn had joined them, and now they mumbled to one another. Their voices contained equal