“Can’t ya undress in the dark?”
“I do it all the time.”
“What ya been doin’?”
“Talking. Did you know that out here they put bridegrooms in the horse tank to cool them off?”
“Who tole ya that?”
“Logan.”
“Ya liked ’em, didn’t ya?”
“Yes. They’re nice, like Kain is nice. They never laughed when I asked them something.” He dropped a boot on the floor. “I can’t believe the time has finally come, can you, Mary Ben?” Another boot dropped into the silence. “How long have you been up here?”
“Not long. Yore ma kissed me, ’n told me not to be scared, that you’d never, never, be mean to me. I told her I already knew that.”
There was a long silence.
“Don’t go to sleep now.” Plunk! Something dropped and rolled across the wood floor. “Oh, shoot!”
“What was that? What dropped, Henry?”
“It was . . . something out of my pocket. Something Kain told me about.” The words were muffled through the shirt he pulled off over his head.
“What?”
“Well, I told him that you were so little, and that sometimes I got awful big with wanting you. I said I was afraid that—”
“That what?”
“That I’d not . . . that I’d hurt you.”
“Why’d ya have to tell him that for?”
“Cause I wanted to know what to do.”
“Ya could’ve asked me.”
“You’ve not done it before. How would you know?”
“I told ya not to worry ’bout it.”
“I know that, but I did anyhow. Then Kain told me about the salve.”
“Salve? You mean that . . . gooey stuff your ma put on his bandage to keep it from stickin’?”
“Kain said to use it on my—”
“I don’t want to hear any more of what Kain said,” she said quickly. “We’ll figger out what to do all by our ownselves.”
“But, honey girl.” Henry edged his way down the side of the bed until he felt the pillow. He got carefully into the bed, and reached out to Mary Ben lying on the far side. He pulled her to him gently, as if she would break. He didn’t speak until she lay fully against him, but she could feel the wild excitement begin to build in him. “You feel so warm and soft.” His lips snuggled in her hair. “What’ve you got on?”
“A nightdress. Your ma give it to me. It’s . . . white, ’n I put the pink ribbon ya give me on it.” She groped for his hand and brought it to the neck of her nightdress. “Here. Can you feel it?”
“I feel it. You’re so . . . little without your clothes on, and soft, like a kitten. You smell good, too. You put on the toilet water, didn’t you?”
“Uh . . . huh . . .”
His lips moved down her cheek until they found her lips and kissed her until he began to tremble. “I don’t have to stop, now, do I?”
“Not if ya don’t want to.”
“I sure don’t want to.”
“Why didn’t ya take off yore underpants?”
“I didn’t know if I was suppose to.”
“Silly.”
When he turned back to her she had pulled up the nightdress and the long, throbbing hardness that lay against his bare belly was pressed tightly between them. His breath came in quick gasps and his heart thundered against her breast. The naked hunger that caught him was both sweet and violent. Every part of him that touched her carried a fiery message to the depth of his masculinity.
“My sweet . . . my own honey girl . . .”
His hands on her hips pulled her tightly to him. Her arms were around him, her lips nibbling at his. He quivered violently and unknowingly moved his hips so that the aroused part of him rubbed up and down against her soft belly. When the pressure became unbearable, he grabbed frantically at her hips, gave a little strangled cry and exploded with a pain-pleasure so intense that he spun off into a mindless void. The first fantastic sensation was closely followed by another and then another. When he emerged from the long, unbelievable release he realized what had happened and groaned.
“Oh, sweetheart! Oh, damnit! Look what I’ve done. I’ve made you all . . . messy. I was supposed to wait, but I just couldn’t—”
“It’s all right. Ya ain’t to worry ’bout it, hear?”
“But I ruined it—”
“No, ya didn’t,” she crooned and kissed every part of his face her lips could reach. “Ya didn’t ruin nothin’. We can do it lots more times. It ain’t like ya was goin’ to wear it out.”
“Then it’s all right?”
She laughed softly at the breathless, rather ridiculous question. “Course it is, my sweet man.”
“I love you, Mary Ben. There’s not a girl in the whole world like you. I’m so glad I got you!” There was raw emotion in his voice. He held her to him fiercely. “I’m so glad.”
“I’m glad I got ya, too. Sometimes I’m jist so proud I can’t hardly stand it.” She whispered words of comfort and kissed away the moistness on his face.
* * *
In the bedroom downstairs, Vanessa lay close to Kain’s side, her head on his shoulder. His hand moved down to her bottom and then to her thigh and pulled it up so it rested across his. His hand returned to caress the soft, rounded flesh of her hips.
“Are you sorry you didn’t save yourself for your wedding night?”
“No! It gets better every time.” Relaxed and dreamy, she listened to the steady beat of his heart beneath her cheek and marveled that his hard muscles and angled frame could provide such a comfortable resting place.
She tilted her head to look at him, and he caught her lips. They shared a deep hungry kiss. She felt his heartbeat soar. The kiss ended and they lay quietly, her hand stroking his chest.
“I’m glad everyone could come. I think Aunt Ellie feels better about things now.”
“Cooper’s mother hadn’t been here any time at all before she and Ellie were acting as if they’d known each other forever.”
Vanessa turned her face to kiss his bare chest. “I don’t think Lorna ever meets a stranger. Rosalee is harder to get to know.”
“She had a hard time before she married Logan and a hard time since. Folks have this idea that because Logan is a breed she somehow sinned against God when she married him. They have a few friends but not many. If Logan were all white folks would think he was grand.”
“I knew a woman back home who was part Indian. She married a haberdasher and no one thought anything of it.”
“There are two sets of standards out here in the West, sweetheart—one for men and one for women. A lot of men have taken Indian women, but if a white woman takes an Indian for a husband she’s ostracized.”
“It doesn’t seem fair.”
“Many things in life are not fair,” he said with a deep sigh. “I imagine that a few generations from now there will be men with Indian blood in high government positions. It will take time. You know, honey, we white people have been terribly cruel to the Indians. We’ve treated them as if they were less than human. Rosalee is one of the few women I know who had the courage to flout the taboos.”
“She must love him very much.”
“They love each other. There’s no doubt about that. He’s gone through obstacles that would have stopped an ordinary man in his tracks. Sometime I’ll tell you how they met.”
“When we met in Dodge, I never dreamed that someday we’d be married.”
“You were beautiful today, sweetheart. And now you’re all mine.”
“I was yours before. Now I’m Vanessa DeBolt. I’ve not said it aloud before. Vanessa DeBolt, Mrs. Kain DeBolt. If we have a baby I’m going to name it Kain, no matter if it’s a boy or a girl.” Her voice broke on the last word. He felt a tear drop on his shoulder.
A low growl of protest came from his throat. “Sweetheart! Please . . . no tears! Oh, precious love,” he muttered thickly. He turned her on her back, leaned over he
r and kissed teary eyes.
“I’m sorry. I know I promised, but sometimes it’s so hard.”
“I know, darling.” His lips traced the rivulets to her temples.
“I keep hoping, praying something will happen and you’ll not have to . . . leave me. Can’t we tell Cooper and Logan and Griff? Maybe they can help.”
“I’ve told them about Tass.”
“But about the . . . other?” she pleaded.
“It wouldn’t do any good. Darling, I keep hoping that you’re never sorry you gave yourself to me. I hope the happiness is worth the pain.”
“I’ll never be sorry! These past few weeks have been the happiest and the most painful time of my life.”
“Mine, too. Go to sleep now, sweetheart. If you keep kissing me, I’ll have to make love to you again.”
“I’d not mind it at all if you did.” Her caressing hands moved down his back to his buttocks. Her fingers dipped and squeezed.
“I’d not mind it either! Absolutely, positively . . . not mind it,” he whispered just before his mouth covered hers.
* * *
Much to the relief of everyone, no one showed up to shivaree the newlyweds.
The wedding guests stayed over another day, which delighted Henry. His admiration for his new brothers grew daily. He spent as much time with them as he could. Whenever the men gathered in the yard to visit, he squatted beside them, listening intently to every word they said. They treated him with the fondness and patience they would give a younger brother. They teased him, gave advice when he asked it, and listened when he talked. He showed them the tools he used when working on leather, and gave each of them a quirt and a whip. He gave Lorna a fourteen-foot bullwhip, and she showed him how she could snap a leaf from a tree and slice in half a potato that Cooper held in his hand.
Henry said repeatedly that this was the happiest time of his life. He had Mary Ben and now he had brothers. Both Cooper and Logan made him promise to come visit and bring his bride and his mother.
Both men offered to stay until the matter with Tass was settled, but Kain knew they each had work waiting at home and declined the offer, saying it could be weeks or months before Tass made his move.
Griff and Bonnie stayed two extra days. Kain and Griff spent one afternoon looking for a sign that Tass might have been lurking around the homestead, and the next afternoon they went into town and inquired about him there. He had not been seen since the day he was in McCloud’s store. Kain left word in town that Tass was dangerous and that if the man were sighted he’d appreciate it if someone rode out to tell him.
That evening Kain had a long visit with his friend, and told him that life was uncertain when he was being stalked by a man like Tass, and if something did happen to him, he would appreciate it if Griff would see that no harm came to Vanessa.
“Ya didn’t have to ask. Ya know I’d do it. If’n I get my sights on Tass he’ll not get a chance at ya. Ya know, Kain, ya don’t stand round ’n wait fer a snake to strike. Ya kill it afore it lets its poison go.”
They all stood on the porch and waved when Bonnie and Griff rode out. Mary Ben and Bonnie had become good friends, and Mary Ben had promised that she and Henry would go see the Griffins. Griff felt the need to get home. His men were breaking a herd of horses for the army, but he promised to return as soon as they were delivered.
After they left, the house settled into a routine. Always on the lookout for Primer Tass, Jeb and Clay snaked logs down from the hills, John spent his odd hours working on an old buggy that had been left in the barn, and Henry and Kain reset posts for a pole corral.
One afternoon Kain had vicious pains and headed for the barn where he vomited violently. When he saw blood mingled with the vomit panic surged through him. It had been over a week since he’d felt the hot agony in his stomach. It took several minutes before the pounding of his heart slowed down and he realized he’d released only a small amount of blood, not the great gush the Arizona sheriff had thrown up at the last. He walked out of the barn and sat down on a stump to wait for the weakness to pass.
Living with death, he had come to a new appreciation of all that was about him—the warmth of the sun, the eagle soaring in the sky, a cold drink of water after a long thirst. He remembered things, felt things more deeply, now that they soon would be taken from him. Vanessa, his wife, his love—Everything about her was precious to him. She was soft and yielding in bed, lovely and proud across the table, beautiful and tempting in a faded dress with her arms buried deep in soapsuds. She would never know what being with her had meant to him. Should he tell her that he was dying? She was already carrying the burden of knowing he would be leaving her one day soon. No. He couldn’t bear to see the misery that would fill her magnificent eyes. He would write her a letter and leave it with Ellie. In it he would tell her how much he loved her and that he wanted her to live her life to the fullest. And if she should meet a man she could be happy with, she was to remarry and not feel guilty. Kain’s heart swelled and he struggled to keep a sob from breaking loose at the thought of his wife in the arms of another man.
He had already begun to make his arrangements. Logan had taken with him, along with Ellie’s papers, a newly written will to send down to Randolph in Denver. There was no way Della could get her hands on this place now unless Vanessa sold it to her. Vanessa and the Hills would be able to make a living here with the help of John and the Hookers. Logan and Cooper would keep an eye on them.
The other thing he had to do was kill Primer Tass. He did not doubt that Tass was stalking him. But he would not attempt a shot until reasonably sure of a kill. It could be a duel of wits that could last for weeks, and he didn’t have time for that. If Tass didn’t make a move soon he would go looking for him. There was the chance Tass would kill him. If so, he would have John and the Hookers to contend with. Kain knew with a certainty that if Tass got him Griffin wouldn’t rest until he tracked him down. He also knew that if Griff got to Tass first he would kill him. Griff played by no rules of fair play; he didn’t believe in letting a man who needed killing have the first shot. Life in Yuma prison had made the young rancher hard, and he had become even harder since his struggle to get his horse ranch going. Adam Clayhill had not made it easy for him to keep his range.
Vanessa came out of the house. She had a shawl wrapped about her shoulders and a worried look on her face. He watched her come across the yard toward him.
“My sweet, adorable little red bird,” he sighed, and held out his hand to her.
“Henry said you were sick.”
“It was nothing. I must have eaten something that didn’t sit well in my stomach.” He drew her to him and pulled her down on his knee.
“How could beef stew not sit right in your stomach? Have you been eating that spiced meat the Hookers cooked?”
“As a matter of fact, I did,” he lied. “Stop worrying, sweetheart. I’ve even gained weight lately. It’s all that milk Ellie makes me drink.”
“If you throw up anymore, you’ll see a doctor. Rosalee said one set up practice in Junction City about a month ago. She said he’s young; but his father was a doctor, and she thinks he’s good.”
“I’m glad of that. Civilization has come to Junction City. I don’t think there’s been a doctor here before. The first thing we know there will be a town sheriff, a chamber of commerce and prayer meeting night—”
“Stop trying to change the subject. If you’re sick again you’re going to see that doctor.” She wrapped her arms about his neck. “I love you.”
“You shouldn’t have said that. Those are dangerous words to say out here in broad daylight. I might have to take you to the barn or to our room.” He laughed softly at the shocked, exasperated expression on her face.
“You’re a glutton, is what you are, Kain DeBolt. We’ve been married for five days, and every night of those five days we’ve—”
“If you’re counting days, love. Let’s be correct and go back to before we were married.”
<
br /> “You’re no gentleman either! It’s mean of you to bring that up.” Her brilliant blue eyes regarded him with insolent appraisal. She cocked an eyebrow and pressed her lips together in order to keep a stern face.
He laughed and his arms tightened about her waist. “Lovely Vanessa—my own.” His teasing had shifted to a low, husky murmur.
“That’s better.” She sighed. “Darling, do you think it’s decent for us to be kissing out here in broad daylight?”
Chapter Twenty
Adam Clayhill sat in the big chair in his office. His legs were stretched out in front of him, his hands clenched together over his stomach, his eyes on his stockinged feet. He was in one of his quiet moods. Since the chance meeting with Ellie Hill he had alternated between these quiet spells and fits of rage. When the rage was on him he paced the floor, cursed, threw things, bellowed unreasonable orders, and cuffed the servants until the only ones left were Joseph and Cecilia. The laundress left after he slapped her, and the cook and the kitchen girl slipped away quietly at night after he had thrown a bowl of hot soup at them saying it wasn’t fit to use for slop.
Della walked the floor in her room and fumed. For the first time in her life she had been unable to get Adam to tell her what was bothering him. She knew it had to be more than the fact that another bastard had showed up and he was not as bright as Adam would expect a Clayhill to be. She had done everything she knew to try and pull him out of his depression. She had offered sex, and he wasn’t interested. That led her to believe he was both mentally and physically ill.
Della stood gazing out the window thinking that she’d never seen Adam so unkempt. His hair was uncombed and he hadn’t bathed. Until today he hadn’t even shaved. She had taken the soap and razor to the den and shaved him herself. He had sat there, indifferent to her coaxing, refusing to talk to her, staring straight ahead, lighting one cigar after the other, letting the ashes fall on the floor.
The dammed old fool! She wished she knew for sure if he had made out a new will. At one time he was going to leave everything to her and Kain. Later, when Kain sided with Cooper Parnell and the rancher, Griffin, he told her Kain wouldn’t get a dime of his money or a foot of his land.
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