Episode Details

Abby rescues a Continental soldier.

In 15 parts, based on a post by Seethegood. Listen to the ► Podcast at Connected.

Just before dawn when the sun was trying to rise, her new companion awoke, retching and coughing beneath his hood. Shit! She'd forgotten about that in her hurry to leave! She quickly ripped the hood off and turned his head so he wouldn't choke to death on his vomit. She poured water from her canteen over his face and wiped him clean while he coughed and gagged until his breathing returned to normal. He turned his head to face her and she felt as if she'd been struck by lightning. Piercing grey eyes met her beautiful blue ones as she took in his beaten and bruised countenance. She'd never seen a more handsome man in her life! She couldn't stop her hand from brushing his dark curls from his face and she felt an overwhelming desire to kiss him.

"Hello, Angel," he said in a parched voice. "Water, please," he croaked. She quickly put a small hand under his head and raised him to drink. He drank deeply until she pulled away.

"Easy there. Not too much or you'll get sick again." He sighed and she laid his head back. She didn't know what to say to him, she was absolutely tongue tied, even covered in filth and vomit he stole the heart from her chest.

"What's your name, Angel?" he managed as he lay with his eyes closed.

"Abigail, my friends call me Abby," she stuttered awkwardly.

"I'm Alexander, my friends call me Alec. As my rescuer, you may call me anything you like," he quipped with a wry smile.

"I shall think on it, for now I shall call you Heavy, because you were extremely difficult to drag here," she said merrily, finally finding her voice. He groaned and painfully shifted his bulk.

"My arms are killing me, laying on them for so long is hard to do," he said painfully.

"I'm so sorry, we had to leave quickly and get away from the road. I haven't had time to attend to you," she apologized.

"Don't worry yourself. I'm just thankful my guardian angel rescued me," he said softly while looking up at her. She felt herself falling into his gorgeous eyes, then caught herself. She busied her hands by freeing him from the travois and sitting him up. His arms and hands were blue from bad circulation and his wrists torn and bloodied from the manacles. His thigh was caked with dried blood from his stab wound but appeared to have stopped bleeding. Bravely, she straddled his legs and sat in his lap to attend to his face. She swabbed it with a wet rag and gave him more to drink.

She noticed his eyes wandering down to her cleavage and she felt a trickle of desire, knowing that he was finding her attractive. When he was as clean as she could get him, she fed him some hardtack and dried meat along with plenty of water.

"I'm sorry, I have nothing to remove your manacles. If I can take you to my camp I have a hammer and chisel and I can get those things off of you," she volunteered.

"That would be wonderful, is it far from here?"

"If you can ride, a day. If I drag you, a couple days."

"I'll ride. Bouncing along on those boards was horrible."

"Can you try now? We really should be going. I apologize but it'll be a rough go f