“Not really. I think I’ll go sleep for a while. Didn’t get much chance when I came in off my ride today.”
“I’ll wake you for supper.”
He just nodded and walked out the door rubbing his forehead.
Brianna bit her lip. “Do you suppose he’s sick?”
Lucas looked up. “Could be. Did you hear about his last ride?”
“No, what happened?”
“Charlie was sick when Seth got to Platte River Bridge,” Ian said, “so sick he couldn’t even get out of bed. There wasn’t anybody else to ride so Seth wound up going all the way to Fort Laramie.”
“That’s over a hundred miles! He must have been exhausted.” Brianna looked upset. “Worn out like that, Seth probably caught whatever Charlie had. What was wrong with him?”
“Hard to say. He seemed to be over it by the time Seth got back to Platte River Bridge the next day.”
Brianna breathed a sigh of relief. “Just a twenty-four-hour bug, then.”
“Maybe you ought to give him some of that elixir of yours,” Lucas said.
“It might not be a bad idea. We’ll see what he feels like when he wakes up.”
Lucas finished his project and sat back to watch Brianna cut Ian’s hair. He was envious of the easy camaraderie that existed between the two. Their friendship seemed comfortable and satisfying for both of them. As they bantered back and forth, Lucas found himself wishing his relationship with Brianna was as uncomplicated. He wondered if it was as confusing to her as it was to him.
“There, you look almost human, Ian,” she said with satisfaction. “Your water’s ready, and there are clean clothes for you on my bed.”
“My head does feel lighter.” Ian stood up and shook the loose hair from his shirt.
“It will be even better after your shower. All right, Lucas, it’s your turn.”
“You don’t give any quarter, do you?”
“Nope.” She pointed to the chair and he ambled over, pretending to be dismayed by the prospect.
“I swear you’d think this was an electric chair the way you men act.”
Lucas raised an eyebrow. “Now that’s an intriguing thought. What exactly would an electric chair do?”
“Something unpleasant, I’m sure.” She ran the comb through his hair experimentally. “Good grief, Lucas when was the last time you had a haircut?”
“Just before I came out here last April.”
“April! No wonder it’s almost to your shoulders.”
He shrugged. “I haven’t been anywhere near a barber except the few times I’ve gone to Platte River Bridge, and I didn’t have time then.”
“I’ve never tackled a job quite this big before.” Brianna tisked as she combed the long black hair. “This may take a while.”
It wasn’t long before Lucas decided she could take as long as she wanted. Never had a haircut felt so good. The rhythmic movement of the comb was more relaxing than sensual until she started to run her fingers through his hair. He swallowed the sigh of pure pleasure that rose in his throat, closed his eyes and just enjoyed. The snip of the scissors and the splash of Ian’s shower were the only sounds in the room.
With Brianna’s good clean scent in his nose and her fingers in his hair, Lucas’s mind drifted in a pleasant haze of bliss. It was much like sharing his bunk with her. For the most part, it had been a delightful combination of sensations that he enjoyed to the fullest.
Of course, there were nights that weren’t quite so pleasant when she turned in her sleep and cuddled up to his warmth. Lucas would wake up with their bodies intertwined and Brianna making incredibly sexy little noises against his chest. The effect on him was always immediate and not particularly pleasant since there was nothing he could do about it.
“You know, Lucas, you might just have something with this shower,” Ian said, stepping out from behind the curtain. “It makes a lot more sense than sitting in a tub and letting the dirt float around you. I haven’t felt this clean in a long time.”
“You haven’t been clean in a long time,” Brianna reminded him. “Don’t forget to dump your water outside.”
As Ian went outside, Lucas closed his eyes again.
“Do you want me to refill the barrel for Lucas, Brianna?” Ian said a few minutes later when he came back in.
“No, not yet. The water will be cold by the time I’m done with him.”
“Looks like he’s about to go to sleep.”
“He is?” Brianna put her hands on Lucas’s shoulders and leaned forward to look. “Am I boring you?”
“I didn’t sleep well last night,” he lied, opening his eyes.
“I wondered why you were being so quiet. It’s not like you to pass up a chance to be obnoxious.” She straightened and went back to work. “Don’t worry. I should be finished before too long.”
“Take your time. I’m in no hurry.”
Brianna snorted. “If you think you’re going to get out of taking a bath by going to sleep, you’ve got another think coming.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“It’s a good thing,” Ian grinned. “She’ll probably throw water on you.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Brianna said thoughtfully.
“Don’t you have important business in the barn, Ian?” Lucas asked.
Ian chuckled. “I suppose I do at that. You sure I can’t get you a dipper of water before I go, Brianna?”
“You do and you’ll be the one wearing it,” Lucas said with a growl.
Ian laughed outright at that and left.
Within seconds Lucas was under Brianna’s spell again. It’s enough to make a man wish he could have a haircut every day of the week, he thought with a satisfied smile.
“How do you wear the front when it’s short?” Brianna asked a few minutes later as she brushed his hair off his forehead with her hand.
Lucas opened his eyes once more and found Brianna’s face less than six inches from his own as she focused on making the stubborn lock cooperate.
Several tendrils of hair had escaped the ever-present braid she wore and framed her face in a most appealing way. Even with her lips pursed and her brows knit in concentration she was beautiful. Almost without conscious thought, Lucas lifted his hand to the back of her neck and pulled her head down.
Astonished, Brianna sucked in her breath then let it go in a soft sigh when his lips captured hers. Her mouth opened in glad response to the pressure of his and her arms swept around his neck as he pulled her down on to his lap.
It was like taking the first sip of a potent summer wine, wonderfully sweet and incredibly intoxicating. Lucas was vaguely surprised by the sudden wave of longing that rose within him. There was desire and passion aplenty, but it was more than that. From deep inside came a primitive urge, almost a hunger, that had nothing to do with lust. He wanted to keep her there in his arms forever, to lay claim to her the way a wolf claims his mate, fiercely, permanently. The feeling was nearly irresistible and completely unexpected.
“Brianna, Lucas!” Ian’s voice came from outside, loud and panicky.
Lucas and Brianna broke apart and stared at each other in shocked dismay.
“Oh!” Brianna sprang up from his lap, her eyes wide and horrified.
“Brianna...” Lucas began but never got the chance to finish. Ian came through the door at a dead run.
“It’s Seth, Brianna. He’s really sick. I think you’d better come.”
The three of them hurried out to the barn, and found Seth on his bunk in the tack room. His eyes were closed, and a thin film of perspiration covered his forehead.
“Seth, what is it?” Brianna asked.
As if to answer her, he rolled over and threw up in the chamber pot that sat on the floor next to the bed. “I think it may be what Charlie had,” he said when he was finally able to.
Brianna felt his forehead worriedly. “You’re burning up. I have something that will help if you can keep it down. I hope it’s just a twenty-fou
r-hour flu.”
“If it isn’t, I’ll be dead by morning anyway,” Seth said fatalistically.
Brianna traded beds with Ian so she could stay with him most of the night. By noon, the worst of it seemed to have passed, and he fell into a deep, restful sleep. Even the worst of the weakness was gone by morning of the second day. Though Brianna was skeptical, Seth assured her he would be perfectly able to carry the mail when Billy came in the next day. His next trip back he’d be caring Lincoln’s inaugural address, and there was no way he was going to miss that.
Ian and Brianna both came down with the malady that night. Seth stayed with Ian while Lucas nursed Brianna through it.
“This can’t be much fun for you,” she mumbled after a particularly violent attack. “Why don’t you go to bed and leave me to my misery?”
Because I love you. The realization came with startling clarity. This was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, though it wasn’t exactly the moment to tell her. Lucas smoothed her hair back from her face. “You should only have a few more hours of it.”
She groaned. “That’s supposed to make me feel better? Why don’t you just let me die and get it over with?”
“You can’t die. I fully expect you to take care of me when I have it, that’s why.”
“If it’s tomorrow, you can forget it.”
He smiled slightly. “I promise I won’t get sick until you’re better.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
But Lucas didn’t succumb, not the next day or the next. By Thursday, Brianna and Ian were fully recovered. It looked as though the scourge was over. And none too soon, for Seth would be in the next night, a full day and a half early, and this time he’d be carrying Lincoln’s inaugural message.
Brianna was filled with apprehension. Though she didn’t know what Lincoln said in his speech, she did know what the end result was; war. She wondered if the news would come tomorrow as Seth passed the mochila on to Billy. Of Lucas’s kiss she tried not to think at all. He appeared to have forgotten all about it, and Brianna decided to do the same.
Everyone went to bed early, for Seth was expected to come about three in the morning. The moon was just coming up over the horizon when Brianna woke to Lucas stirring on the other side of the cabin. “What time is it?”
“It’s a little after midnight. You don’t need to get up.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Brianna said, swinging her legs out of bed.” The air seemed filled with a heady sense of anticipation. But Brianna hadn’t even finished dressing when Ian came in with bad news.
“We’re in trouble, Lucas,” he said. “Billy’s down at the barn puking his guts out.”
“Oh, Lord. Any chance he’ll be over it by the time Seth gets here?”
“No. It’s the same thing the rest of us had.”
“Oh, dear.” Brianna went to her trunk to get her bottles of aspirin water and diarrhea medication. Both supplies were seriously depleted.
“Damn.” Lucas slapped the table with the flat of his hand. “Why didn’t Bromley put an extra man on this run like he did the others?”
“Can’t someone else make the ride?” Brianna asked.
Ian shook his head. “Lucas and I are both too big. Even on the regular run our weight would slow the horses down. With the extra speed we could kill them.”
“Seth will never be able to keep going for the full hundred and fifty miles.” Lucas ran his fingers through his hair worriedly. “There’s got to be a solution.”
“There is,” Brianna said calmly. “All we need is another rider.”
Lucas gave a short laugh. “Another rider with the stamina to ride seventy miles at a dead run, change horses eight times, and who weighs less than one hundred and twenty-five pounds. Where are we going to find someone like that?”
Brianna smiled. “Me.”
CHAPTER 35
“No!” Lucas’s tone brooked no argument.
Brianna ignored it. “Oh, come on Lucas. Billy can’t even get out of bed. What other choice do we have?
“We doesn’t come into this. Ian and I will figure out something.”
“There’s no other way to figure it out. Somebody has got to be ready to ride when Seth gets here.”
“It won’t be you.”
“Who else is going to do it? You said yourself neither Ian or you can.”
“Seth will just have to go on.”
“He can’t, not with the extra speed they’re asking for. That’s why Bromley didn’t put an extra man on here. He didn’t figure he could improve the time. If Seth goes on, he’s sure to slow down.”
“Then we’ll just have to lose time.”
“That’s dumb. I’m perfectly capable of making the ride and you know it.”
“For God’s sake, woman, what will it take to get it through your head? You’re not going.”
Brianna put her hands on her hips. “Lucas, the whole future of the Pony Express rests on this ride. Are you going to let it go down because your male ego can’t stand the thought of a woman having a part in it?”
Lucas glanced at Ian. “You talk to her. Maybe she’ll listen to you.”
Ian shook his head. “To tell you the truth, Lucas, I’m afraid I agree with Brianna. She’s the only hope we’ve got.”
“You can’t be serious!” Lucas was incredulous. “What’s Billy going to say? He didn’t even want another Pony Express rider taking his place. He’ll never stand for a woman doing it.”
“Actually, Billy suggested it,” Ian said. “Look, Lucas, I don’t like it any better than you do, but as the lady said, we really don’t have much choice.”
Lucas looked back and forth between Ian’s apologetic expression and Brianna’s determined one. Finally, he threw his hands up in defeat. “All right, what can I say? I’m outnumbered. Come on, Ian we’ve got work to do.”
Ian cleared his throat. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
“What?”
“Billy pointed out she’ll have to take the oath to be an official rider.”
“She’s not going to be an official rider! This is her one and only ride.”
“But she’ll be carrying important government documents.”
“Oh for...all right.” He stalked over to his trunk and rummaged around inside it for a moment before pulling out a small book. It took a moment to find the page he wanted then he turned back to Brianna. “Raise your right hand and repeat after me. While I am an employee of Russell Majors & Waddell, I will....”
Brianna repeated the one-hundred-fifty-year-old oath with a prickly feeling. As far a she knew, no woman had ever ridden for the Pony Express. Was she changing history? “...I will drink no intoxicating liquors, I will not quarrel or fight with any employee of the firm...So help me God.”
Ian grinned. “Maybe this isn’t all bad, Lucas. In case you missed it, Brianna just took an oath not to argue with you anymore.”
“Ian, what are you thinking of? The poor man has just given up his favorite pastime. He can’t argue with me, either.”
“Usually, the rider is presented with a bible at this point, but I don’t have one to give you,” Lucas said ignoring them both. “If you’re going, you’d better get in there and let Billy brief you on the trail.”
Brianna didn’t need any further urging. She spent the next hour alternately holding Billy’s head as he threw up, dosing him with medicine, and pumping him for information. At one-thirty she went in to change clothes and get ready. She’d borrowed a vest and coat from Billy, and he insisted she take his holster for her gun. It was specially made to fit right over the mochila so it could be switched with ease. After stowing several pieces of jerky in her pocket, and her knife in her boot, she was back out to the barn with Billy.
By the time she heard the familiar call, “Rider coming in,” Brianna knew every landmark, every twist or turn in the trail and the quirks of coming into each station. “Wish me luck, Billy.”
“You�
��ll be fine. I just wish I could do it.”
She smiled ruefully. “Yeah, me too.”
Lucas was waiting with De Vinci as she hurried up to them. Ian and Lucas had decided not to chance passing the mochila on the run, so Ian had gone up the trail to warn Seth. Brianna hadn’t anticipated the reduced visibility; she’d never seen the switch at night. Seth was nearly there already.
She had barely reached Lucas when she heard Ian yell his message to the other rider as he thundered past. Before she even had time to wonder if Seth had understood, Lucas stuffed something into the watch pocket of her vest.
“For luck,” he said. Then he kissed her. It was hard, and fast; she felt branded by the heat. The next second he grabbed the mochila from Seth, threw it on De Vinci and boosted her into the saddle. “For God’s sake, be careful,” he yelled as he slapped the horse on the rump.
Brianna was off down the trail in the blink of an eye. The unfamiliar saddle felt strange, but DeVinci ran like a dream. She leaned forward as the horse lengthened her stride, and they fairly flew over the ground.
Lucas’s kiss had thrown Brianna for a loop. It was the last thing she’d expected, especially since he wasn’t exactly happy about what she was doing. Unsettling as it was, she didn’t have time to puzzle his motives out right now. There would be plenty of time for that when she got to the Green River station.
The sky was just beginning to lighten when she arrived at Three Crossing’s station. The stationmaster and stock tender gave her a startled look as she dismounted, pulled the mochila off and raced to the other horse. She didn’t know if they realized she was a woman or if they were merely surprised she wasn’t Billy.
Brianna didn’t even attempt the rear mount Billy and Seth used when they changed horses. In spite of that, she was rather proud of the way she stuck her foot in the stirrup and vaulted into the saddle. It couldn’t have taken much more than a minute before she was on her way once more.
The roan was bigger than De Vinci but fully as fast. Brianna was instantly in love as the prairie passed beneath them in a blur. She instinctively knew this was one of those animals that would allow his rider to run him to death; he put his whole heart into it.
A Window in Time Page 29
