Mountain Magic

by Simmons, Trana Mae

  "I haven't had any desire...," Caitlyn repeated. "Huh. Sounds funny, like you talk."

  "There's nothing wrong with the way I speak, Caitlyn. Almost everyone where I come from uses proper English. And not everyone out here talks like you and Silas. Proper speech is a sign that people have had at least some education."

  "Huh," Caitlyn said again. "Don't know's I want to get educated, it's gonna make me sound like you." But then her eyes fell on the books beside the pack and Caitlyn regretted her words.

  "Why don't you try it and see?" Jon asked, admitting to himself that he would appreciate having a small part in transforming Caitlyn's butchered English into words more properly suited to the melodious tone of her voice. "You can choose your own style of speech after that."

  Caitlyn nodded in agreement, glad he hadn't revoked his offer to teach her to read. Her movement swayed a tendril of hair around the comb just as the fiddle from the next camp began a new song.

  "Oops," Jon said with a laugh. "Turn your head a little so I can get the comb free again."

  Caitlyn bowed her head instead, pulling the comb from Jon's fingers. He reached for the comb and heard a short sob escape Caitlyn's lips.

  "Caitlyn, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pull your hair. You moved your head before I could let go of the comb."

  With an effort, Caitlyn raised her head, swiping at the tear tracking down her cheek. "You didn't hurt me none," she managed to say around the tightness in her throat.

  "Then, what's wrong?" Jon gripped her shoulders and tried to turn her toward him, surprised at the strength in the small body when she resisted him. "Caitlyn?"

  "It weren't you," Caitlyn said. "It's 'Greensleeves.'"

  "'Greensleeves?'" Jon instinctively glanced down at his buckskin-clad arms before he realized what she meant. "Oh, you mean the song he's playing."

  Caitlyn nodded her head and swiped the heels of her palms beneath her eyes. "It...it was Paw's favorite."

  "Do you want me to ask him to stop?" Jon loosened his grip on her arms, his fingers stroking them as he sought to comfort her.

  "No." Caitlyn gave a soft sigh and leaned back against him. The music lost its mournfulness all of a sudden and she could almost imagine that Paw could hear it, too. She had sat like this lots of times, at least when she was smaller, Paw's arms cuddling her until she drifted off to sleep.

  Jon untangled the comb with one hand, dropping it beside him on the ground when Caitlyn turned her head slightly and burrowed under his chin. She started singing under her breath, and the sound went through him like a lanquid breeze on a summer day.

  "Greensleeves was all my joy....

  Greensleeves was my delight.

  Greensleeves was my heart of gold

  And who but my Lady Greensleeves...."

  "Uh...Caitlyn."

  "Hum? Sleepy. So darned sleepy."

  She cuddled closer to him and Jon shifted his arm to her waist.

  "Silas will be back with the food any minute," Jon said in a distracted voice. "Aren't you hungry?"

  "Huh uh. S...sleepy."

  Caitlyn's arm settled across his chest and a soft cheek cuddled against the open vee in Jon's shirt. Faint breath feathered on his skin. A long eyelash quivered once among his chest hairs, then was still. Her body relaxed and curled against his side, and Jon frantically stared into the darkness beyond the camp, hoping Silas would appear. Then hoping not.

  Jon's own eyes grew heavy with strain and he blinked them, forcing them back open. A gruff but pleasant male voice joined the strains of the fiddle, singing the words Caitlyn had sung a moment before.

  "And who but my Lady Greensleeves...."

  Jon's head nodded and he jerked it back up.

  "Ummmm," Caitlyn murmured in a disgruntled tone. She flung one leg over Jon's thigh and nestled even closer, her breasts sending a shiver of pleasure down Jon's body.

  Jon groaned under his breath and closed his eyes. His own cheek rested against the top of Caitlyn's head and he yawned, struggling to retain consciousness. It wouldn't do for Silas to find them like....

  Silas broke off his merry whistle abruptly as he entered camp, his moccasined feet making not a sound to break the quiet stillness. Jon really shouldn't be sleeping, but Silas had studied Jon's eyes when he woke up after Caitlyn poured that whiskey on his head. He hadn't seen any of the signs the Sioux medicine man had told him to watch for.

  Silas carefully set the bucket of stew by the fire. And he wasn't about to go over there and wake the two of them up — listen to them spit and spat at each other.

  Hes settled against a log by the fire and pulled the cork from the new jug. More for him, and Jon could have some tomorrow, if there was any left. The stew would keep — the night was cool. They could heat it up for breakfast.

  "Looks like you and Cat finally found some common ground," he said with a soft chuckle. He lifted the jug and waved it in a short salute toward the two figures curled together on the other side of the fire before he lifted it to his mouth.

  ****

  Chapter 5

  "Greensleeves, hum, hum, hum hummmm." Caitlyn's own voice woke her, and she sleepily reached for the warmth she had cuddled against earlier. Her fingers encountered the water bucket instead, and she blinked her eyes open, staring at the bucket with a frown on her face. Where had Paw gone?

  No, not Paw. Caitlyn gasped and pulled the buffalo robe around her, peering over the edge to see if anyone else was awake yet.

  "Morning," Jon said from his seat on an upturned log by the fire. "Coffee's ready, if you want some. The stew's heating, too, but I was thinking about going over to see if any of the food tents were open yet. Thought I smelled bacon on the breeze a second ago."

  Caitlyn scooted up, drawing the buffalo hide beneath her chin. "I...you...we...didn't...."

  "Sleep together?" Jon said with a chuckle. "Well, not all night. Silas woke me up sometime after midnight, singing along with the fiddle. He wasn't in any shape to help carry you over to the lean-to, and my head was still making me a little dizzy. I was afraid I'd drop you."

  "Where...where'd you sleep then?"

  "Sure as hell not in that lean-to. Silas's breath was enough to curl a person's hair." Jon nodded at a pile of blankets beside him. "Brought my own stuff out here."

  "Oh."

  "Do you want some stew, or would you rather go with me to one of the tents? Everyone's probably still passed out from last night, so we shouldn't have any trouble. Or maybe I could bring you back something."

  Caitlyn blew a curl away from her face and scowled at him. "I don't see why you and Silas want to keep me penned up in this here camp! Every time I even mention steppin' a foot outside it without one of you hoverin' over me like an old hound that's just found its lost pup, you act like I'm gonna run off. Ain't got nowhere else to go, 'cept back to Tall Man, and that ain't a possibility in my book. You both know that!"

  Jon's face lost its complacent look and he returned her scowl. "You will have one of us with you at all times," he ordered. "You are not to go wandering around by yourself, do you understand?"

  "Not really. Understand, I mean. Ain't like I don't know what's going on out there. Paw and me spent four summers at rendezvous before he died."

  "And did your father ever let you go off by yourself?"

  "Well, no," Caitlyn admitted. "He made me stay with Sky Woman if he didn't want me taggin' along after him. Mostly that was in the evenin's, though. Paw, he liked his likker at times, just like Silas. But I'm older now — a woman growed."

  Yeah, don't I know it. Jon kept his thoughts to himself and got to his feet. He threw the dregs from his coffee cup into the fire, and the flames sputtered and flared. "Come on then, if you want to go along. We didn't have anything to eat last night, remember? You'll stay right beside me every second, though, or I'll march you back here so fast your feet won't touch the ground!"

  Caitlyn rolled her eyes, then tossed the buffalo robe back and scrambled to her feet. She shivered slightly i
n the cool air and brushed her hair back over her shoulders.

  "Well, you're gonna have to wait a minute. And there's one place even Paw always had to let me go alone!"

  Jon nodded his head curtly, acknowledging the fact that she probably had to relieve herself. Some things just had to be discussed that weren't proper drawing room conversations, he admitted to himself.

  "Silas and I fixed a place behind that big oak where the trail to the pond starts. Shouldn't take you more than two minutes to get there and back. If not, I'll come looking for you."

  "Two minutes? Good grief. Man might be able to do it that quick. All he's gotta do is pull aside his...."

  "Get going!" Jon roared. "You've already wasted ten seconds!"

  Caitlyn faced him defiantly before she reached down to snatch up the comb by her feet. Almost strolling, she slowly walked out of the camp.

  "You get tired of waitin', I'll catch up to you later on," she called over her shoulder in that sticky-sweet voice Jon was beginning to despise.

  Jon groaned and dropped back down on the log. Burying his face in his hands, he shook his head, wincing when a stab of pain shot through him. He raised his head again, eyes trained on the spot where Caitlyn had disappeared.

  This wasn't going to work. Not by a long shot. She knew as well as he did that he wasn't about to go stomping up that path and risk finding her half-clothed in the brush. She was so damned matter-of-fact and open about everything — her feelings, her bodily needs. She didn't seem to have even an ounce of contrivance or game-playing in her, none of the womanly wiles he had assured himself he would be on the lookout for in women from now on.

  And he'd lied when he told Caitlyn he slept in his blankets last night. Hell, what man in his right mind could sleep with that little ball of sweet-smelling femininity curled up almost within arm's reach? Especially knowing full well how that undeniably womanly shape fit just exactly right against the side of his body!

  Jon dragged a hand across his face, then stared at the fur bundles beside the lean-to, where a sudden loud snore from Silas split the air. Silas had told Jon no one would bother the furs while they looked around yesterday. It would be more than a man's life was worth, getting caught with furs carrying another man's mark on them — or no marks at all, if a man tried to get rid of them.

  He wondered how many furs those women Silas had told him about charged. He'd almost tried to find out for himself last night, when he could no longer stand the ache in his groin. Passing out like he had earlier had scared him a little bit, though, and he didn't fancy waking up somewhere stripped of his essentials.

  But something had to give. He wasn't about to spend another year without losing himself a time or two in a warm, willing female, even if he did have to pay for the pleasure — something he'd only done a time or two before in his life. Man's hand got mighty cold in the winter.

  "You tryin' to burn a hole in them furs with your eyeballs, or you gonna pick out enough of them to pay for our breakfast?"

  Jon jerked his head around to see Caitlyn standing beside the buffalo robe, her hair neatly braided, although whisps curled around her face. The one, long braid hung down her back. Even twisted together, it reached nearly to her knees. His fingers twitched when he recalled the feel of it, and he clamped his hands into fists.

  "Uh...." Jon cleared his throat and began again. "How many will we need?"

  "Depends on what kind you take. If it's beaver, probably two apiece for a meal. Mink, one each'll do. You and Silas keep track of what you spend on me, and I'll pay you back this winter."

  "Reckon I can afford to buy you breakfast," Jon muttered as he walked over to the fur bundles. "After all, you doctored my head last night."

  "How is it this morning?" Caitlyn asked in concern. "'Member what I said. Person's body needs...."

  "I'm damned well aware of what my body needs! And right now, it's food!" Jon split open a bundle of furs and ignored the other need crowding his mind.

  "These two'll do."

  Caitlyn's hand came over Jon's shoulder and he jumped away from the close contact of her body behind him. Sprawling on his rear in the dirt, Jon shot her an angry glance.

  "Jeez," Caitlyn said. "You sure are jumpy this morning. I was only tryin' to show you which was mink and which was beaver."

  Jon closed his eyes for a second and let out a huge sigh. "I at least learned that much over the winter," he said as he got to his feet and swiped two mink furs from the top of the pile. "Even before that. It might surprise you, but we've got pictures of animals in books back east. I knew a little bit about tanning before I came out here, too, from working on deer hides."

  Caitlyn's shorter legs stretched as she hurried after Jon when he strode away. "I ain't entirely ignorant," she informed him with a haughty look when she caught up to him. "Paw told me stories about what it's like back there. And he said a person can't even walk down one of them streets without bumping elbows with everyone else."

  "'Not' entirely ignorant," Jon reminded her. "Not 'ain't'."

  Just beyond the trees where Silas and Jon had set up camp, they topped a small rise and both of them stopped in unison to stare at the sight spread out before them.

  Dozens — no, hundreds — of smoke plumes from smoldering campfires curled up through the early morning light. A brilliant sunrise streaked the sky to the east, colors so pure they could never be captured on canvas. White, brown and darker shades of wigwams stretched as far as they could see ahead and to the left and right. Scattered here and there were the traders' larger tents, with hastily thrown together counters built from raw wood out front.

  "Sure is somethin', ain't...isn't it?" Caitlyn breathed. "Person don't realize just how full this country's gettin', 'til he sees all them folks gathered in one place. It's gonna fill up out here, too, we're not careful."

  "You could set this entire rendezvous down in the middle of Richmond and never find it," Jon told her as he started down the rise. "Of course, you'd always be able to distinguish the people from one another."

  A bearded man rose from a nearby bedroll and burped loudly, then scratched his stomach. His hand wandered downward and groped at the buckskin loincloth between his legs. Opening his eyes, the man caught sight of Caitlyn and his fingers froze in their quest. Another burp rumbled from his throat and he dropped one eyelid in a wink.

  Jon grabbed Caitlyn and shoved her to his other side, casting a warning glance at the man before he could remove his hand from his loincloth.

  "She gits ta be too much for you, sonny boy," the man called after them, "I got somethin' here to hep' you out!"

  Jon gritted his teeth. "See why I always want someone with you?" he growled.

  "I can't walk around with my eyes closed. Paw taught me just to ignore them's got no manners. And the sights are just as bad on this side of you."

  Jon glanced over Caitlyn's head to see a bare-chested man sprawled on his back, one naked leg flung out and a blanket barely covering his privates. The man's arm was clasped around an Indian woman as naked as the man appeared to be under the blanket.

  "That does it! From now on, you're eating in camp," Jon said with a groan as he wrapped an arm around Caitlyn and pulled her close to his side.

  "Done told you what I think about bein' penned up. Ain't nothin' here I ain't...haven't seen before. You try to cage me up like some dancing bear, I'll take you up on that there offer to trade what you won off of Tall Man for a spot in another crew. I'm not...I ain't gonna be tethered like a dog bein' fattened up for supper!"

  Caitlyn's loud voice disturbed the naked man behind them and he blearily opened one eye. He shot up into a sitting position, slapping at the Indian woman when she muttered and tried to pull him back beside her. His face narrowed in concentration as he watched the two figures walk away.

  "Make up your mind," Jon said with a small chuckle. "You want me to treat you like a dancing bear or a dog?"

  "Neither, I just said! I...."

  "Easy, Caitlyn," Jon said, ke
eping a firm grip on her when she tried to jerk away. "I apologize. You're right, I guess. You remind me more of an eagle, soaring on the wind drafts over the mountains. It's just that I can't get used to the idea of allowing a woman to look at sights like those back there. But it wouldn't be right to try to keep an eagle caged."

  "Do I really?" Caitlyn asked with a shy glance at Jon's face.

  "Really what?"

  "Make you think of an eagle? They was mine and Paw's favorite animal. Even the Indians don't kill eagles. They just trap them and pull out a few tail feathers for their war bonnets. Turn them loose, and I 'spect the eagles grow new feathers afterwards."

  "An eagle, definitely," Jon agreed. "Wild and free and unspoiled. But an eagle's a bird, not an animal."

  "Same thing, ai...isn't it?"

  "Not hardly. I'll tell you what the difference is while we do our studying. Right now, isn't that bacon he's frying in that skillet?"

  "It is!" Caitlyn agreed, eyes wide with wonder and her delicate nostrils quivering. "And what's them there round things in that bowl on the counter?"

  "Oranges, Caitlyn. Haven't you ever had an orange?"

  "Don't think so. Never seen nothing that color before, shaped like that."

  "Well, you can bet your bonnet he's going to want more than just a mink fur for one of them, after carrying them all the way out here. But don't worry. I'll come back later and get you one."

  Caitlyn glanced at Jon, this time in gratitude. She climbed over the bench and sat beside him, eagerly sniffing the aromas trapped beneath the covering canvas. She never once noticed the strange man, who had hastily pulled on his clothing and followed them, settling on the far end of the bench.

  "Caitlyn," Jon said almost an hour later as they walked away from the food tent. "We need to go back and check on Silas."

  "Please," Caitlyn begged. "Just for a little while longer. Silas'll probably sleep 'til noon, and everyone's up around here now. We won't stumble across any more naked bodies."