Montana Sky: Isaac (Kindle Worlds) (Letters of Fate Book 2)

by Paty Jager

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Isaac pulled the woman under his arm closer to his body. She wasn’t as soft and curvy as he remembered Olive being, but she was the only soiled dove he’d ever spent the night with. He shifted. Her bed was hard. He didn’t remember that.

  His mind shot awake, remembering he wasn’t in a soiled dove’s bed.

  He was on the floor of a cave.

  The only woman within miles was Allie. Tarnation! How had he moved to her side of the fire during the night? He opened his eyes. The pale yellow of dawn outside the cave met his gaze. He was turned to the entrance and there wasn’t a fire between him and the ledge, only a wiggling woman, pushing her back against him.

  Allie had come to him during the night. His heart started hammering against his ribs. She sought his company. He realized she had no idea what her body pressed to his was doing to him.

  Before she discovered his growing attraction for her, he lifted his arm and rolled, being careful not to land in the smoldering embers of the fire. The good news for him, they’d both gone to sleep fully clothed. If she’d been down to her union suit, the one with the gaping front, he’d have had a devil of a time keeping his hands to himself.

  The cold air moved him to add sticks to the fire and get it going. A cup of hot coffee would also get his body and mind moving.

  Allie moaned and rolled onto his bedroll. Her body wiggled as it had when she’d snuggled closer to him. She lay still for several moments. Her eyes slowly opened, her gaze drifting over the fire and up at him. She raised up onto an arm and smiled.

  “Good morning.” She pushed long brown strands of hair out of her face.

  His body’s reaction to her sleepy hello and bed tousled hair tied his tongue in knots.

  Her smile faded, and her gaze dropped to the fire. She rolled away from the fire and him, slowly standing.

  She’d slept next to him, greeted him with a warm welcome, and now it felt as if the air had gone much colder. What did I do? Isaac picked up the coffee pot and rose to dump yesterday’s grounds outside the cave.

  Allie didn’t glance behind her as she wandered out of the cave.

  Isaac hurried to the cave entrance. “Don’t go too far,” he said, heading the opposite direction to toss the coffee grounds.

  “Why would you care,” she muttered and disappeared into the bushes.

  Her comment whirled around in his head. Something he did made her think he didn’t care what happened to her. Tarnation, he’d nearly killed a man yesterday to protect her. What was going on in that head of hers?

  He returned to the cave, filled the coffee pot with water from a canteen, and placed the pot on the rock in the fire.

  Allie returned, her eyes blazed, but she didn’t say a thing as she rolled up her bedroll and then his, placing them near the packsaddle.

  When he didn’t move, she placed the cooking box on the opposite side of the fire and dug out biscuits and dried apples. She sat on the ground cross-legged, eating.

  Isaac didn’t know what he’d done, but he wanted to get to the bottom of it before they headed down the mountain to get their things. He moved to Allie’s side of the fire, but kept the cooking box between them as he fished inside for a biscuit.

  “What did I do that has you acting like a child that didn’t get their way?” he asked before biting into the biscuit.

  She sputtered and her eyes bore into him like spears. “I’m not acting like a child.”

  “You’re sulkin’. That’s what children or spoiled women do. You’re neither. What’s caught in your craw?” He’d learned with Allie to just speak his mind and she’d do the same.

  “You kissed me the other day.”

  He nodded. It had been a fine kiss and one he’d like to repeat but he wasn’t goin’ to put her reputation at risk when she walked away. He also couldn’t put his heart at risk.

  “And you saved me from that man.”

  He nodded again.

  Her eyes saddened. “Why did you do those two things when you’ve made it clear you don’t like to be near me?”

  Her statement tossed him. “What do you mean I’ve made it clear I don’t want to be near you?”

  “Last night you refused to sleep by me. This morning you were up and away from me and yet when I said good morning, you didn’t reply, just stared like I did something wrong.” She rocked forward, grabbing the rag and pulling the boiling coffee pot out of the fire.

  “I didn’t do those things because I don’t want to be near you.” He scratched the whisker stubble on his chin vying for time to figure out what to say. The truth or something that wouldn’t sound fake?

  He’d always been a person to tell the truth. “I’m keepin’ my distance because what I really want to do is kiss you.”

  Her brown eyes lit up. “Really?” Then her eyes narrowed. “If you want to kiss me, why are you pushing me away?”

  “I know how you feel about love, marriage, and men. I don’t want to be hurt again.” His voice cracked. He’d stayed moving and alone for a lot of years to keep from losing his heart and being hurt again. Allie walking into his life had changed his outlook. Now he wanted a wife, a family, and a place to call his own.

  “What do you mean hurt again?” Alamayda latched onto the later comment rather than the former. She didn’t know how to explain that he was making her a believer in love. The marriage and men she was still not a firm believer.

  Isaac shook his head. “I fell in love with a woman when I was young. She was beautiful, full of life, passionate.” His eyes darkened as his jaw twitched. “The day I asked her to marry me, she informed me she was already married and had only used me to entertain her while her husband was away.” His hands clenched. The biscuit in one hand crumbled to the ground.

  He stared at her. “I don’t want to love another woman and not have her return my love.”

  Alamayda reached a hand over the box.

  Isaac grasped her hand. His fingers clung to hers.

  She cleared her throat. Staring into his eyes, seeing how he wanted her to say she loved him, she couldn’t full out say it. She was feeling much the same as him. She didn’t want to lose her heart to him and have him walk away. “I can’t say I love you, but I can say you are changing my mind about being in love.”

  A grin stretched across his face. He raised her hand to his lips and kissed the back of her hand. Staring at her over their hands, his eyes twinkled.

  Her heart pattered in her chest and happiness took flight in her heart.

  Isaac released her hand. “Eat, we have a good hike ahead of us the next four days.”

  Alamayda nodded. It felt good to let him know she had growing feelings for him.

  They finished the biscuits and drank a cup of coffee before Isaac put the packsaddle on the mule along with their bedrolls and the cooking box. Those items would go back and forth with them until they had everything up in the cave.

  ***

  The hike down the mountain didn’t seem as daunting as the hike up. They were in camp by mid-afternoon. Alamayda helped Isaac sort through the items they could take back up the next day. They piled those in the corner of the tent and had more deer steaks for dinner.

  When she returned from cleaning up at the creek, her heart thumped a happy beat at the sight of their bedrolls side by side in the tent. Isaac wasn’t sleeping outside tonight. She smiled, sat on her bedroll, and removed her boots.

  Isaac returned a few minutes later. He winked at her and sat on his bedroll.

  “What made you decide to sleep in here?” she asked, hoping her question didn’t send him back outside.

  “I sleep better when I’m near you,” he said and turned off the lantern.

  She listened to the hissing of the lantern and a few moments later heard Isaac undressing. Her ears felt like they grew as she listened to each movement he made.

  Still sitting on her bedroll, she debated whether to take off her outer clothes as well. It made sleeping more comfortable. H
er heart raced as she reached up and unbuttoned her shirt. Her fingers grazed her skin reminding her the union suit was missing buttons. Not a good idea to take off the shirt. She re-buttoned the shirt and slid out of her trousers. Her stockings would keep her feet warm. She left those on and slipped into her bedroll.

  A heavy arm draped over her. “Good night, Allie.” Isaac’s warm breath tickled her ear.

  “Good night,” she said, happiness colliding inside her and sparking like fireworks on the Fourth of July.

  She fell asleep with his heavy, comforting arm over her.

  ***

  Alamayda swat at something nuzzling her ear. She wasn’t on the farm any more, it couldn’t be an animal. The thought froze her body. Was there a wild animal in the tent? A bear?

  “Wake up, sleepyhead. We have a long hike ahead of us.”

  Isaac’s voice filtered through her grogginess and she smiled. Rolling toward his voice, she opened her eyes. He lay on his side, watching her.

  “Good morning.” She’d spent so many mornings waking, getting dressed, and getting right to work, laying here, staring into his eyes was like a decadent folly. Alamayda had been put off by Isaac’s whisker stubble when she first met him, but now she thought it added a ruggedness to his already easy to look at face. She placed a hand on the side of his face. The whiskers pricked and scratched her palm. “Why don’t you shave every day?” she asked.

  “Do my whiskers bother you?”

  “No, not really. I was just curious. Most men shave.”

  “I don’t like to shave, so I made a deal with myself that I’d only do it once a week, on Saturday. That way if I go to church, I’d look civilized.” Isaac lowered her hand from his cheek and kissed her palm.

  The softness of his lips on skin that had been scratched sent shivers up her arm.

  His eyelids lowered as he held her palm against his lips.

  What was he thinking? Will he kiss me on the lips? Her heart raced imagining another kiss.

  Isaac drew her hand from his lips and opened his eyes. “Get up, we’ll have a harder trip today.” He rolled away from her and stood.

  Alamayda stared at his back as he pulled on his clothing. She felt deprived having the possibility of a kiss roll away. There was nothing to do but pull on her trousers and boots and get something rustled up for the morning meal.

  By the time she was dressed, Isaac had left the tent. She picked up the cook box and headed out to the fire ring. The ashes and embers still glowed. Shoving sticks in to get the fire going enough to cook a pan of biscuits and make coffee, she thought on the feeling they’d both expressed last night. He was holding back because of a past love, and she was holding back because she still didn’t believe a man would stick around after marriage.

  They made an interesting couple. She shook her head, clearing it of her thoughts and mixed up the biscuits. Once they were cooking and the coffee grounds added to the pot, she headed to the hole Isaac dug and took care of business before wandering to the creek to wash up.

  Last night she hadn’t taken time to re-braid her hair. Clumps of waves hung over her shoulders. She untied the ribbon on the end of her braid and ran her fingers through the strands, combing out the braid and snags. Pulling her hair over her shoulder it hung to her waist. She quickly braided her hair, leaving it hanging down the front, and returned to the fire to pull the biscuits out of the coals.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Isaac returned to the camp pre-occupied. He’d found tracks of shod horses near the creek behind the tent. Someone had been here while they were gone. He didn’t like the idea of putting everything on the mule, but he wanted to get all their belongings out of here today. The idea of the men coming along when Allie might be alone pushed him to make sure they were completely moved today. The trail they took up the mountain could be easily disguised to prevent the men from tracking them.

  He sat by the campfire contemplating the best way to make the load easier for the mule when Allie returned from the creek. His heart slammed against his ribs at the sight of her usually tightly pulled back hair, draping soft around her face and one long braid hanging over a shoulder. She appeared younger, more carefree than he’d witnessed since meeting her.

  “What has you so contemplative?” she asked, kneeling by the fire and pulling the bake oven out of the coals.

  Isaac had to swallow a couple times to get his voice under control. Each day as he knew her better and she let her guard down, he became more and more enamored with her.

  “We’re going to take everything with us today,” he said.

  She stared at him. “I thought it was too much for the mule?”

  “We’ll just have to go slower and stop more often.” He knew her mind was whirling the way her eyes stared at the pan in her hand.

  “Why do we need to take everything today?”

  “I saw tracks this morning. Someone has been here looking over the camp. Did you notice anything missing?” It was a possibility whoever was here took some supplies and wouldn’t be back. But the way his hackles shivered when he followed the tracks, he had a suspicion they weren’t looking for supplies.

  Allie’s eyebrows shot up and her eyes widened. “You think someone stole our supplies?” Anger darkened her skin and narrowed her eyes. “I thought people out here helped one another not stole when they had a chance.”

  “Is anything missing?” He wanted to laugh at the Allie he first met. She was all propriety and scorn for someone to have crossed her.

  “I didn’t take inventory, but I don’t think anything… I didn’t look in my valise.” She hurried into the tent and returned quickly. “Nothing is missing but someone did rummage around in it.”

  He stared at her. “How do you know someone was in it?”

  “I had everything neatly folded and stacked, it was the only way to get three dresses and my other belongings to fit in the valise. They are messed up, like someone dug around in it looking for something.”

  Rage that someone could have ran their hands through Allie’s unmentionables, heated his belly. “What about our money? You were holding it.” They could survive if they found gold, but he’d be damned if he’d lose it to thieves.

  Her lips tipped up into an angelic, yet devious smile and her eyes twinkled. “Our money is safe. It goes where I go.” She patted her legs. “I sewed pockets onto the union suit.”

  Isaac’s anger dissolved and he started laughing. “I should have known you’d keep something precious to you close at hand.”

  “It’s more than precious, it’s all I have until we find gold.” She plucked the lid off the bake oven and handed him a plate with three biscuits. “I can’t wait until we can eat something besides biscuits every day.” She sighed. “I never thought I’d complain about having the same food every day as long as I had food, but I’d love to have fresh vegetables from a garden.”

  “Dreamer grows a small garden. The next trip we make to the trading post we can buy some vegetables.” Isaac meant it. Giving Allie vegetables was an easy way to give her something she wanted.

  “That would be wonderful!” Allie bit into her biscuit.

  ***

  After the meal, Isaac started loading up the mule. When everything was loaded and the fire doused with water, he started up the mountain with the mule and Allie behind him. As he’d predicted, they stopped often to let the mule rest. Or rather, the mule dictated they stop by refusing to move. Once the mule was rested he would continue.

  “Are we halfway yet?” Allie asked when they stopped mid-day and snacked on a biscuit while the mule pulled supple new grass out by its roots and chomped.

  “No. We still have a good ways to go.” Isaac ate his biscuit in two bites. The slow pace was grating on him, and he didn’t know why. He believed the men who had rummaged through Allie’s bag were gone, having not found any money, but his sense that someone followed wouldn’t ease.

  Leading whoever followed to the cave wasn’t a good idea, but the mule wou
ld give up entirely if they took a long way back to the outcropping. He had thought about spending the night on the side of the mountain but that would only make them more vulnerable.

  Isaac had kept his Winchester in his hands since leaving camp. He reached up and pulled the shotgun out of the scabbard on the packsaddle. “Why don’t you carry this? It will lighten the mule’s load some.”

  Allie looked at him like he’d asked her to jump off the side of the mountain. “This isn’t going to lighten his load. Why are you handing me this?” She spun around, gazing back the way they’d traveled. “Is someone following us?”

  “I haven’t seen anyone,” Isaac said, picking up the lead rope and heading up the mountain, leading the mule.

  Bushes rustled behind him. Allie appeared beside him.

  “Do you think there is someone following us? The people who rummaged through my valise?” Her voice was filled with outrage.

  “I don’t know. I just have this feeling we’re being watched.” He tapped his rifle barrel against hers. “And I feel better knowing you have a weapon with you.”

  She nodded, but didn’t fall back behind the mule as she’d walked all morning.

  Did she walk beside him for his protection or hers? He grinned thinking she thought she could keep him safe. He liked her walking beside him. They could talk and make the hike seem to go faster.

  “You do much hiking in mountains before you came here?” he asked.

  “Never saw a mountain until I set out for Montana.” Allie waved the rifle. “I’ve never seen anything so majestic before. I never want to go back to the flat ground of Kansas.”

  That statement piqued his attention. “Where do you plan to live when you have the money?”

  Her gaze became dreamy. “A small cabin on a mountain, but within distance of a small community so I can walk there and back in one day for supplies.”

  “When did this become a dream since you hadn’t seen mountains until you came here?” Isaac found it interesting that the woman wished to remain a hermit.