Captured by Time by Carolyn Faulkner, Alta Hensley Read Free Book Online Page A

sounded all the more threatening for the lack of volume.
    Suddenly she was more aware than ever of the differences in their sizes. He towered over her in the small room, and even ignoring the firearm at his side, there was no question as to who was going to end up with the bag if it came to a fight.
    "I think you're mistaken," she said. "This is my bag. It's a doctor's bag, and I'm a doctor."
    He looked stunned at that revelation, which didn't help Cimmy's worries that he was telling her the absolute truth.
    With a sigh, she decided to compromise rather than extend a fight she was very likely to lose. "If I let go, will you show me what's in it?"
    In answer, he yanked it out of her hands. "No. It's my private property."
    "Please. Then don't show me. Just tell me what you see in there. Please."
    "It seems mighty important to you that I check inside. But, missy, I was the one who gave sweat, blood and tears to get the stuff that's in this bag, and I put it in there myself to give to Cherry for safe keeping."
    "Please," she asked again, unashamedly letting the tears that had been threatening to fall spill down her cheeks.
    "I can tell you without looking that there are a whole bunch of papers that pertain to me in there. Why? What did you think was in there?"
    "Look for me, please, and see if you're not mistaken—if there's not bandages and Band Aids and a stethoscope in there. Please, please look." She wasn't trying to take it away from him anymore, but had a hold of it still as she begged him to open it.
    With her hanging off him, Jude backed towards the bed and sat down. Cimmy sat right next to him, still clutching the bag desperately. She noticed that he'd carefully maneuvered it so that she was not on his gun side.
    "All right, I'll open it, but these are my private documents, and I don't want you to see them."
    Cimmy immediately wondered if it was porn—did they have porn back then? Then she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Besides, if they had any kind of porn back then, she would bet it was extremely hard to get hold of, and thus was unlikely to be in a small podunk town in the West.
    "So I want you to stand up and turn away from me. I'll tell you when you can turn back around."
    Feeling like a recalcitrant child who had been sent to the corner to consider her transgressions, Cimmy sighed heavily and got up to stand in the middle of the room, facing away from him. She could hear him fiddling with the bag and it seemed to take him forever just to look inside it.
    "My stuff would be easily visible. I know I had some Neosporin in there, and Benadryl, a digital ear thermometer, some alcohol swabs, bandages, Band Aids, and the stethoscope I already mentioned."
    "I'm taking all of my stuff out to see if there's anything down at the bottom."
    Cimmy's shoulders slumped. If it had been her bag, he would long since have found things he supposedly didn't recognize.
    "Don't bother." She sighed heavily. "My bag was full of stuff. You wouldn't have to hunt to find anything." She wasn't the kind to give in to despair, but, just for a moment, she let her hands cover her face and allowed the tears to come as they would. What the hell was going on? Had she lost her mind?
    Jude closed his bag and came to stand behind her, turning her around and into his arms. She felt amazingly good within them, warm and slight and womanly.
    "A woman doctor." He chuckled. "It couldn't have been easy for you to get your degree. I grew up in the east, and I can't imagine any of the schools there even allowing a woman to enroll, much less get a degree in something that's considered man's work."
    Cimmy didn't have any more energy to talk, to explain, to even reason with the wild thoughts going on in her mind. She didn't know where she was. She didn't know this man. She had no idea what would happen next. The only thing she did know was that his strong embrace helped ease the sobs shaking through her body. Something about Jude calmed her.
    He kept