“Well, that’s some kind of woman you’ve got there, Nathan. Writes books, does she?”
He looked up to find Micah lighting his pipe. He poured them both a cup of coffee and joined him by the fire once more. “There are many things that little lady can do. She nearly hogtied the town council into starting a school for all the town’s children.”
“She didn’t. Even old man Burnside and that battle-ax Henrietta Tate?”
Nathan laughed at the incredulous look on his friend’s face. “Even those two old buzzards. She talked them into it by explaining how it would make them even more upstanding citizens in the community, used their feud against them. Then she sweetened the pot by asking them to head the new school board together. By the time she got through with them, they were like kittens lapping cream from her hands.”
“She’s got guts too, escaping Washington without getting killed.”
Nathan shuddered then ran his hand over his face, two days’ worth of stubble scratching his palm. He stared into the fire, swallowing the raw emotion as her story ran through his mind. “I don’t want to think about it. I could’ve lost her before I ever knew she existed in this world.”
“Love her that much, do you?” his friend asked.
“She’s completely changed our lives, both mine and Rachel’s. I can’t see living my life without her.” Nathan stared into the fire remembering how his life had been a year ago.
By loving him and his daughter, Laura taught him to hope, trust and love again. The only thing that frustrated him these days was her inability to accept help and her belief that she wasn’t worthy of his love. She’d learn soon enough that she needed his help to keep her and their son safe. If it took him the next fifty years, he also intended to show her just how much she deserved to be loved.
“What do you suppose made her bolt up the mountain?”
Micah’s question brought him out of his reverie. “My guess is Blackwood’s somewhere in the vicinity.”
“You think he recognized her?’
Nathan shook his head. “Laura said he knew her name but never saw her the night of the murder. When she arrived in Doverton, she was already using my name. If he asks anyone about a Miss Melbourne no one in town will know who that is, except maybe Sarah. My guess is Laura recognized him.”
“Then the element of surprise is still on our side.”
“What are you thinking?” He studied Micah’s face for a moment.
Micah grinned at him. “I’m thinking soon as the weather breaks, you and I should go trapping for weasel.”
* * * * *
The soft mewling cries forewarning of the baby’s soon-to-be-angrier wails filled the cabin early the next morning.
“Shh, William. You’re okay. Mama’s gonna feed you right now.”
Laura’s hushed voice drifted across the cabin to where Micah lay stretched out on his bedroll. He listened as she comforted her son.
He hadn’t heard a mother talk so sweetly to her child since his mother reassured his baby sister.
Patrice.
He closed his eyes.
The air around him grew cold and damp. His mind wound through a long, dark tunnel, the edges of his vision blurred. A small light shone at the end of the tunnel. As if she materialized from the mist, she came into view gradually, huddled beneath the light, her blonde head bent.
Her fear ran though him, chilling him more. Her clothes, no more than tattered rags, hung about her thin shoulders. She lifted her head. Her gray-blue eyes, a match for his own, were rimmed with dark circles and filled with unshed tears of despair.
“Micah. Help me.”
“Patrice, where are you?”
“Micah?”
He shot up off the pallet, gasping in air, his heart pounding in his ears.
“I’m sorry. I heard you talking and thought you were awake,” Laura whispered as she tiptoed across the cabin floor, the baby in her arms. “I was trying not to wake Nathan. He’s so exhausted.”
Micah glanced past her to see his friend face down in the bed, snoring. He wiped the sweat from his brow and pushed himself from his spot on the floor, glad to have something to take his mind off the vision that had haunted him this past week. “Here, let me help you.”
She gave him a shy smile and handed him her son. He cradled the small bundle in one arm and grasped her by the elbow to assist her to the cabin’s only chair. A light blush crept into her cheeks as he handed her the baby and he turned his back to stir the fire’s embers while she set to feeding her son.
“Who is Patrice?” she asked a few minutes later.
He glanced over his shoulder to see she’d draped the quilt about her to conceal the nursing baby from his view. “Pardon me?”
“When I disturbed you, you called out the name Patrice. Is she your wife?”
He shook his head and turned to sit on the floor once more. “I’ve never been married. Patrice is my younger sister.”
“Where does she live?”
Although he was never one to talk about his family or his past with strangers, the kind interest in Laura’s eyes and the fact his friend trusted her so much made him want to talk about his sister.
“Patrice still lives on our family’s plantation back in Georgia.”
“When was the last time you saw her?”
“After the war, before Nathan and I headed west.” She’d been standing in the yard, tears streaming down her cheeks, holding their littlest stepbrother’s hand, both of them begging him to take them with him.
“You must miss your family.”
“At times I do.” He missed Patrice and Hank, but the rest of his family was a nest of vipers he’d be glad never to see again. “How about you? Did you leave family to come out west?”
“No. My parents died when I was eight. The relatives who raised me weren’t kind people. I’m not sorry to have left them.” Sadness filled her eyes and she stared into the fire.
Micah studied her in the early morning light. When he’d had the dream about Patrice a week ago, he’d already planned to come down the mountain to check on Nathan. He’d had a second dream, one of a woman with hair the color of a roan mare, standing in a pool of green satin. Over all the years he’d had the visions, he’d never dreamt of someone he’d yet to meet. At the time he assumed the woman must be Nathan’s new wife. He’d sensed that danger surrounded his friend and it involved his wife. After what Kirsten had done to Nathan, he wanted to see what this new wife was like.
That feeling hadn’t increased since he arrived at the cabin, and he’d determined that while she might aggravate his friend, Laura posed no real threat to his safety. She had a kind and loving aura about her. And Laura wasn’t the stranger he’d seen in his dream either.
No, the danger he’d felt didn’t come from her, but seemed to surround the pair as a couple. Now that he knew what that danger was, for the moment he could relax and find a way to help his friend make his family safe. Whatever had happened to Patrice had already happened, he was sure of it. Helping Nathan wouldn’t change that.
Once Nathan’s family was out of danger, he’d head East to find his sister and the woman in his dream.
Chapter Seventeen
Two days later, Nathan helped Micah load his supplies onto his horse to head down to Doverton.
“Remember, check with Frank first to see if he’s seen anyone strange in town recently.” He handed Micah his rifle. “Then check with Burnside to see if he’s willing to help us.”
With one fluid motion, Micah mounted his horse. He pulled his hat down over his brow to protect his eyes against the blowing wind. “Don’t worry. I know what needs doing. You just take care of your family. By the way, I set a few snares in the woods north of the cabin yesterday. With any luck you’ll get some fresh meat while I’m gone.”
They shook hands then Micah headed down the mountain. Once he’d disappeared into the trees, Nathan went to get more answers from his wife.
“Woman, what are you doi
ng?” he demanded as he entered the cabin and found her standing by the fire adding potatoes to the stew.
She had the audacity to roll her eyes at him. “Making dinner.”
“You’re supposed to be resting.” He hung his coat on a peg by the door, then strode across the cabin, grasped her by the elbow and gently moved her to sit at the table. “You sit. I’ll stir the stew.”
“Honestly, Nathan, it’s been three days since William’s birth. I feel fine.”
“For once just do as I ask.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and growled softly. “Sometimes you treat me like a child.”
He glared at her. “And sometimes you act without thinking.”
They stared at each other for several minutes, then Laura’s shoulders slumped. She appeared to be on the verge of tears and Nathan felt lower than a polecat. He shoved the stew to the side of the fire and went to sit beside her.
“I’m sorry, darlin’. I didn’t mean that.” He took her hand in his and kissed her knuckles.
“You’re right. I never stopped to think about having the baby out in the wilderness. I just panicked.”
Finally! Now she’d tell him what scared her. “What sent you running away from me?”
She shook her head. “I wasn’t running away from you. I was trying to protect you and Rachel.”
“From who?”
“From Nigel Blackwood. He was in the mercantile that day.”
“You’re sure it was him?”
She nodded. “He’d changed his appearance, but I’d heard his voice enough to recognize it.”
“You realize if you’d trusted me with this story months ago, we could’ve dealt with him before going halfway up a mountain in winter, don’t you?”
“I thought you’d hate me.”
“Because you innocently witnessed a murder?”
“No, because I’d kept a secret from you and brought danger to your and Rachel’s lives.”
He wrapped his arms tight about her. “You’ve brought so much more to our lives. I wouldn’t have been angry with you. I just wish you’d learn to trust me.”
“I do trust you, Nathan.”
“You have a funny way of showing it.”
“It’s just that everyone I’ve loved has been taken away from me. Then really horrible things happen.”
He stroked his hand over her hair. “What things, darlin’?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“I do want to know,” he murmured against her hair. “It’s time you told me everything, don’t you think?”
“I’ve told you everything that happened that night in the library.”
“No, I mean before that.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Tell me about Aunt Ellen and Clara. Tell me about what happened to you when you went to live with them.”
Laura leaned back in his arms and stared into his eyes. Awareness and compassion met her gaze. He knew. Somehow he knew what they’d done to her and yet he still wanted her to tell him. His eyes begged her to trust him. She’d trusted him with the story of the murder and he was still here for her. She’d trusted him with her body and he’d opened a world of passion she’d never known existed. She’d trusted him with her future and he’d given her two children. What would he do with her past?
She trusted him.
“It all started when my parents were both alive,” she began. “Uncle Harold and Aunt Ellen used to come to our house to visit. Mostly I remember Mama and Papa fighting whenever they came to visit. Mama, Papa and Uncle Harold all died in the measles epidemic. Since Uncle Harold was my only other blood relative, I went to live with Aunt Ellen and my cousin Clara.
“I remember arriving at their house wearing a pretty dark blue dress and matching coat, clutching the doll my parents had given me for Christmas. My aunt and cousin were very nice to me as long as Papa’s friend Mr. Lewis was there. Once he left, I was taken up to a bedroom to sleep. I must’ve been nearly numb with my own grief, because I don’t have any idea how I ended up in the cellar.”
“The cellar?” Nathan’s arm tightened about her.
She nodded. “All I know is when I woke up my nice clothes were gone and I was dressed in some baggy, scratchy dress. I was cold and hungry and very scared. I climbed the stairs and banged on the cellar door. I remember scratching on the wood frame. I regretted that, because I had splinters up under my nails and had to get them out by myself.” Laura paused and inhaled deeply.
“I don’t know how long I was down there. I remember someone coming in and telling me that I was going to die. It was pretty fuzzy, so I guess I must’ve been dizzy with hunger. Then I became cold and hot. I drifted in and out for what seemed an eternity. I remember someone hitting me. Sometimes it would be very painful, while other times the beatings weren’t as harsh. I think by that time I prayed to die. I remember crying for my mama and papa to come get me.”
“How long did this go on?” Nathan’s voice had a hard edge to it but his hands gently stroked her back, so she continued.
“I don’t know why, but all of a sudden I was back into a warm bedroom, cleaned and fed. Mr. Lewis came to call that day and I remember hearing angry voices shouting downstairs. After several days, I began to feel better, although I still had to wear coarse, baggy clothes. I wasn’t allowed to go to school like Clara.
“Aunt Ellen put me to work cleaning the boarding house. At first the jobs were too difficult for me to do adequately, for which I usually received a beating. I remember crying myself to sleep for quite a while. Then a nice tenant, Mr. Cosgrove arrived at our house. He was wonderful.” She smiled at Nathan, seeing him for the first time since she relived her torment.
“Why was that?”
“He gave me several books to read when Aunt Ellen would lock me in the cellar. Once I had somewhere to retreat in my mind, it was as if she had lost a little of her control over me. That’s when I started to make up stories and write them down. After a while Aunt Ellen discovered I could cook and had a way with the boarders. She started leaving the boarding house management to me. She and Clara became more active in the social world of Washington and that’s when I met Claudia. That’s really all there is to tell about my past, until the murder.”
“I can’t believe you had to live like that.”
She felt the anger in his tightly controlled body. Already regretting her confession, she tried to move away, only to have his grip on her tighten.
“Laura, I’m angry with those two witches who did this to you, not you. Lord, you were only a little girl like Rachel. None of this was your fault.”
“I know that now, at least in my mind I do, but in my heart—I’m not quite sure. The things they repeatedly said to me destroyed my trust in myself and anyone else. Look what it nearly did to us.”
“Darlin’, there’s something you’ve forgotten.”
“Oh? And what’s that?” His teasing tone eased her worries.
“Yourself. You may have hidden your trust, but deep down inside, that part of you that learned about love from your parents instinctively knew whom to trust when you needed to.”
“How do you know that?”
“When you were in trouble the night of the murder, you went straight to your friend. What was her name?”
“Claudia.”
“You knew she’d help you, while you knew your aunt and cousin would betray you. Then you trusted Neil. Here was this strange man asking you to come West and be a bride for his brother.”
“Your brother and his family were wonderful to me.”
“But that little girl part of you knew to trust them. Then there was me.”
“I wondered when you’d get to that part.”
“You trusted me,” he continued, ignoring her teasing, “despite my behavior upon your arrival. You may not have told me why you’d come West or why you ran up this mountain, but when I got here, you trusted me to take care of you and William.”
/> “Yes, I did.”
“You learned to love and trust at an early age. Now you have to take that silent instinctual trust and use it to allow Micah and me to trap this killer that is threatening you.”
“I couldn’t stand it if something happened to you.”
“With Micah helping me I’ll be in good hands.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Where is Micah?”
“He decided to travel down to the farm to see how things are there. I also asked him to check on Rachel for us.” He released her and walked over to the fireplace, gazing into the flames.
“You sent him to find Nigel, didn’t you?” she asked after a few minutes.
Nathan shrugged. “If he happens to run across some information about Blackwood while he’s there, we’ll be able to make plans to trap him.” Turning around, he took her hand in his. “While he’s gone, you and I are going to go over everything you know about the man. Do you know why he’d want to kill Senator Anderson?”
“I really don’t have any idea. The senator was always reading about foreign countries—what he called the latest political climate. Blackwood is the attaché to the British ambassador in Washington, so I suppose the senator might’ve been investigating them.”
He nodded. “I see how that’s possible. Do you know what the senator was working on at the time of his murder?”
She shook her head and thought for a moment. “He’d asked me earlier that week to gather all the import and export records in the newspapers, but exactly what he was trying to find out, I have no idea.”
“Let’s try something different,” he said as he started to pace in front of her. “What does Blackwood look like?”
“He’s tall and thin. He has black hair, which he wore short in Washington. When I saw him in town, he’d grown it out and had a beard. He usually dresses in formal attire, but in the mercantile he was dressed in a buckskin shirt similar to the one Micah wears.” She rubbed her fingers across her forehead in concentration. “I really don’t remember what color his eyes were, but they’re small with big, bushy eyebrows.”
“Good, now I have a working idea of what he looks like to take back to town in a few days to identify him.”
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