Give My Soul to Carol (To be read after Give My Heart To Kaitlyn)

Chapter Five

Carol's body was still sore and the hot water of her bath had stung terribly on her cuts and scrapes. She wrapped her blanket tight around herself and she stood before the fire. She had asked the women who had brought her the bath water to find her some clean clothes to put on but they hadn't shown up with them yet.

Carol walked to the full length mirror in the corner and stared at her reflection. She had scrapes across her cheek and she pulled the blanket back enough to see the bruise and deep gash on her collarbone. Her entire body looked this way. Bruises covered her stomach and cuts lined her legs.

She had very nearly died today and if not for Duke she would have. But she had lost the baby… She hugged herself tight and wiped away a tear. It was not the first time this had happened to her. As a matter of fact she had lost every child she had ever carried. Ten- eleven now- she had lost before her stomach had even had time to begin to round and three she had lost after they'd been born.

Two had died as babies but her tiny Olivia had lived to be five before the fever had taken her. Yes Carol Brown knew a thing or two about loss. Somehow though this loss hurt in a new way than the other losses of her unborn children had. Perhaps it was because this child had been created out of love… God knew she loved that rugged outlaw.

She crossed the room slowly on her sore legs and pulled her angel figurine from the pocket of her dress.

Tears filled her eyes as her heart broke in half when she realized that the wings had been snapped off… No doubt they had broken when she had fallen over the ledge. She let out a loud wail of pain and anger. Anger that this was happening to her. She had lost her baby and now she had lost the one reminder she had of her dead daughter.

The door flew open and she gasped when Duke barged in with his gun drawn.

"What are you doing?" she gasped as she grabbed at her heart in hopes of slowing it down.

"I heard you cry out… I thought someone was hurting you." he replied awkwardly as he slid his gun back into his leather holster. Carol shook her head.

"It's just my heart…" she replied sadly. "It's broken." She looked away from him and down at the broken angel in her hands as she moved to the bed and sat down on the edge of the feather tick mattress.

"Yeah well I was just coming to…."

"I've had this angel for a long time." Carol said interrupting him. Duke felt an urge to go to her when he heard the sadness in her voice but he fought it. He was leaving after all. "It was a gift from my daughter when she was five."

"I didn't' know you had a daughter." Duke replied, finding that his voice had a mind of its own.

"I don't." she said as she stared down at the wingless angel in her hands and wiped away a tear. "She died when she was five, only a few months after she gave me this. In total I have lost fourteen children… Fourteen! Of course eleven of them were never born and the other three I just didn't get to keep very long."

Duke lost all control of his body as he moved across the room and took a seat beside her. He wrapped his arm around her and she laid her head on his shoulder.

"Aren't angels supposed to have wings?" he whispered and she nodded as she sniffed.

"It broke when I fell today…"

"I'm sorry." Duke mumbled though the words shocked him. He had never uttered them before in his life.

"Sorry for what?"

"For having you on that ledge… Carol if I had known I never would have had you out there…" he laid his hand over her stomach while fighting to swallow around the emotion clogging his throat.