by Norah Hess
Back at the edge of the forest, where Big Beaver sat watching Kane and D'lise, it looked to him as if D'lise was pushing Kane away in anger. He turned a stern look on Raven. "Get on down there. It's time you admit your lies to my friend and his wife. Don't forget that I'll be close enough to hear what you say and to see the expression on your face. You know the consequences if one word or look makes a mockery out of your apologies." He gave the pony a slap on the rump, and it broke into a startled run. Raven could only hang on and steer it toward D'lise and Kane and the two boys who had been watching and listening intently to what was going on between the two adults.
"What the hell!" Kane's arms tightened around D'lise protectively as Raven managed to pull the pony to a rearing halt beside them. Where in the hell was Big Beaver? He looked anxiously into the forest. When he didn't see his friend, his hand dropped to the butt of his gun. He'd shoot the bitch if he had to. No way was she going to hurt D'lise again in any manner.
But as Kane glared at the Indian woman, his hard, cold eyes warning her to make no wrong move, say no wrong word, he noted that, though sullenness gripped her features, there was no threat about her. Evidently, Big Beaver had managed to scare the hell out of her.
"What do you want, Raven?" His words were short and clipped.
For a moment hatred for him shone in the black eyes; then Raven was saying the words that would save her from a lifetime of slavery.
"I want to tell your woman that you did not know when I slipped into your bed that night, and that not once did you come out of your drunken stupor." She took a deep breath and continued, "I did it because I wanted to hurt you both. I am not carrying your child."
While D'lise looked on, remorse building in her because she hadn't believed her husband, had had no faith in him, Kane asked, "Whose child are you carryin', Raven?" His eyes bored into her. He wanted no lingering doubts left in D'lise's mind.
"I carry no one's," Raven muttered, avoiding the deep blue eyes that watched her intently. She looked at Kane instead. "I think that you know I can't have children. I think that Big Beaver has told you this."
"Is that true, Kane?" D'lise asked softly.
"Yes, it's true."
"But why didn't you tell me?"
"I only found out today. But I wouldn't have told you anyway, I don't think."
"I don't understand."
Kane's arms tightened around her. "I didn't want your love conditionally, D'lise. I wanted you to love me no matter what. That's how I love you, even when I thought Majors had taken my place in your heart and bed."
"Oh, Kane, I thought you knew that Samuel has been courting Ellen for months. They got married today. The boys and I have just come from their wedding."
Johnny, who had managed to keep quiet until now, burst out, "Yeah, and there's all kinds of eats at Ellen's house, but D'lise said we couldn't go, that we had to hurry home before dark. I peeked in the window, and there was all kinds of pies and cakes."
"I'll bake you a cake tomorrow," D'lise consoled the eight-year-old.
Johnny's face brightened. "A spice cake, D'lise? I can't wait for you to make supper tonight. Me and David can't cook worth spit, and Kane ain't much better. He makes awful biscuits. Even Hound won't eat them when he comes to visit."
"Thanks, you little tadpole," Kane laughed. "I'll remember that. And as for supper tonight, you're gonna have to get along with your own cookin'. D'lise and I are goin' to celebrate tonight, and we don't want any company. Do you get my drift?"
"But why not?" Johnny began. "Me and David have missed—" The rest of his sentence was jolted out of him as David gave his mount a swat with his hat and the old mule took off like a scared rabbit. He grinned at D'lise and Kane; then jabbing his own mount into action, he overtook the irate Johnny.
"Where's Raven?" D'lise looked around.
"She left five minutes ago," Kane said. "You won't be seein' her anymore."
"It wouldn't bother me if I saw her every day of the year for the rest of my life." D'lise snuggled up against Kane's broad chest. "I don't have to worry anymore whether or not you love me."
"And I've laid my jealousy to rest." Kane turned the stallion around and headed him toward home. "And I've learned that beauty isn't necessarily evil."
"Did you used to think that?" D'lise looked up at him in surprise. "Tell me about it."
As they rode through the thickening dusk of evening, Kane shifted about in the saddle to ease his growing arousal. "I'll tell you about it someday," he said. "There are some trails you hate goin' back over. Right now, all I want to think about is gettin' you home and makin' love to you until I can't move."
D'lise put her arms around his neck. "I think that is a wonderful idea, husband."
Epilogue
The May twilight air was soft and scented with early-blooming wildflowers as Kane sat sidewise in the doorway of the candlelit cabin.
His expression grew soft as he watched his wife nursing their two-month-old daughter. D'lise's face wore a glow of radiant beauty, and he asked himself if there could be anything more lovely than her giving nourishment to her child.
Mary Kate had given her mother a painful, difficult time while entering the world. D'lise had labored close to twenty hours delivering the small, red-faced infant. He and the boys had paced across the yard after Doctor Ashley had banished him from the bedroom, snapping, "I don't have the time or the patience to put up with bothersome expectant fathers."
He had been a bother, Kane knew now, demanding that Doctor Ashley do something to help D'lise, give her something for her pain.
There had never been a more welcome sound to him than that which came from the cabin a short time later—the angry cry of his child entering the world. He and the boys had looked at each other with relieved, happy eyes, then dashed up on the porch.
Again the doctor barred him from the bedroom. "I'm still tending to mother and daughter," he said, but in a kinder tone than he had used when ordering Kane out of the cabin. "You can come back in about ten or fifteen minutes."
"A little girl, Kane," David whispered almost in awe.
"I have a little sister." Johnny hugged himself, his eyes shining.
"She's not your sister, you lop-head." David poked the younger boy with his elbow, at the same time giving Kane a hopeful look.
Kane had caught the look of longing in the older boy's eyes and, putting an arm across each young shoulder, said quietly, "The little one is very lucky to have two big brothers to look after her."
Kane smiled to himself. He hadn't become father to one that March morning; he had become father to three. David and Johnny spent all their waking hours with him and D'lise, returning to the old cabin only to sleep. But next week he intended to get started on a two-room addition to the new cabin, and then the boys would be a complete part of the family.
The neighbor women had been so kind to D'lise. Kane's thoughts drifted back to that morning two months ago. He had spent less than half an hour with his new baby and her tired mother when they began to call. Each cheek, that probably he'd better not eat anything they had brought, soft laughter greeted his remark, along with a few pink blushes.
Old Tom had arrived at dusk, carefully holding a brown glazed jug. When he had looked at the baby and remarked to D'lise that she had done a pretty good job, considering it was her first time, he tapped the jug with a bent, arthritic finger and ordered, "Drink a glass of this liquid every day for a week. It will heal your insides real fast."
And whatever was in the old man's concoction, it had apparently done its job. Before the week was out, D'lise was up and about, almost her old self.
Kane's attention was caught by D'lise removing the sleeping baby from her breast. He watched her gently lay the little one on her knees, then rebutton her bodice. She had regained her slim, supple figure, and as he ran his gaze over it, desire tugged sharply at his loins. Doctor Ashley had said today that it was all right for him and D'lise to make love again.
He looked at y
oung Johnny sitting at D'lise's feet, then at David sitting on the raised hearth, absently scratching Hound's ears as he stared into the flames. He hated to send the boys off so early, but it had been four long months since he had made love to his wife, and he didn't think he could wait much longer.
Five minutes later he was undressing D'lise, his hands hungrily stroking her shoulders and breasts after he had tossed her camisole to the floor. "I'm sure the boys didn't understand your sending them off so early," D'lise said breathlessly as his hands moved down to her waist and began sliding her petticoat over her hips.
"They'll understand when they're a little older," Kane said, his voice hoarse with passion as he scooped her naked body into his arms and carried her to the big bed waiting for them.
Scrag and Hound listened to its soft, rhythmic creaking for a long time.
