The Only Way Out - Book Two of the Western Girls Trilogy

Chapter 7

It had been nearly a week since her run-in with Conrad. Most of the men seemed to have accepted the fact that she had shot him trying to defend herself, but Grady was still holding onto a grudge. And she was still feeling the pain and stiffness caused by their altercation, although she could already tell it was slowly getting better.

It had been insufferably hot and dusty for several days before they came to a nice sized stream, and even though it was early afternoon, Monroe chose to stop and camp there for the night. They would water the herd, and the horses. After that, the men could wash up and get their fill of water and Cliff could fill the water barrel on the chuck wagon.

After supper, Morgan carried her extra change of clothes a ways upstream. It was getting dark and everyone else had already been down to the water and were now unpacking their gear and relaxing before they went to bed. Nobody seemed to have noticed that she'd wandered off and she took the opportunity to peel off the filthy, blood stained clothes she'd been wearing since April and she stepped out into the cool water.

The stream widened out a bit and was deep enough to swim. Thankfully the current was almost nonexistent there and she was able to wash up with the soap she'd purchased before leaving Abilene. She stepped out of the water and carefully wrapped herself with fresh strips of muslin. She pulled on a clean pair of pants and a new shirt and was just fastening the buttons when she heard voices. They seemed to be growing closer and suddenly she was surrounded by half a dozen men who'd also come in search of a swimming hole.

"Hey look! Russell found a pretty good spot!" Lewis hollered.

Morgan gasped and finished buttoning her shirt. Thankfully it was dark enough that no one seemed to notice her state of undress and if they had noticed the wraps, she figured she could blame it on bruised ribs from her altercation with Conrad. She grabbed her socks, boots and the wet clothes she'd done her best to scrub clean, and turned around to hurry back to camp, only to run straight into Grady.

"Watch it!" He snapped, pushing her out of his way as he walked to the edge of the water to check out the swimming hole.

She dodged around him and made it back to her gear where she sat down and caught her breath. That had been far too close, but it felt amazing to be clean after so long. She rested against her bedroll for a few minutes before pulling on a clean pair of socks and her boots.

"I thought you weren't a strong swimmer?" Monroe asked, dropping his hat on the ground beside her and sitting next to it.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Heard you were down at the swimming hole," he was trying not to smile. "I'm just surprised you found it, in the dark......since you hadn't been here before."

She groaned. No wonder the others had found it so easily. They probably had been there before. "I wasn't swimming," she said. "I was just rinsing off. And doing a bit of laundry. I was tired of wearing blood stained clothes."

"Yeah, you smell nice and clean now," he said, "But you do realize that by the end of tomorrow, you won't even be able to tell you took a bath."

"I'm sure that's true," she replied. "But for tonight, I can enjoy being clean and not smelling like a cow pie."

He smiled. "How's your neck?" He'd noticed how dark the bruises had become over the course of the past week and was surprised that she hadn't once complained about it. Most men he knew would have been whining all day over an injury that severe. The only time she even mentioned it was when someone else brought it up.

"It hurts," she said. "But, I'll survive."

"I'm sure you will." he said.

She untied her bedroll before tucking her holster underneath where she could grab it quickly if needed. She expected him to get up and walk off to his own camp near the front of the herd, but he appeared to be quite comfortable where he was.