Heart of the Rockies Collection

by Kathleen Morgan

  The bear jerked convulsively, then jerked again as Sarah’s bullet ripped through him. The animal fell, burying Nick beneath it.

  “Nick!”

  The rifle still clasped in her hand, she ran to the bear. It lay there, its massive body completely hiding Nick from view. She threw the weapon aside and began frantically to tug at the grizzly.

  The animal was fearsomely heavy, but Sarah’s determination fueled her strength. She’d managed to pull the bear half off the unconscious man when the sound of an approaching horse made her pause. She threw a quick glance over her shoulder.

  It was Cord, his buckskin sliding to a halt even as he shoved his rifle into its scabbard. He leapt down and ran to her.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Y-yes,” she managed to stammer, then renewed her tugging at the bear. “H-help me. Nick’s hurt.”

  He moved her aside and quickly had his brother free. Nick lay there, his face and shirt bloodied. Cord knelt beside him, but Sarah was swifter.

  “Oh, Nick,” she cried as she sank down across from Cord and tenderly stroked his brother’s cheek. “Nick . . .”

  The tears, held in abeyance until now, flowed freely. She kept her head, however, and motioned to the canteen lying nearby.

  “Give me some water on a napkin so I can sponge his face,” she said, looking up at Cord. “We can’t know the extent of his injuries until he wakens, and we dare not move him until then.”

  He was watching her with a scowl, and Sarah momentarily faltered. Whatever’s the matter with him? She took the napkin he had dampened with the canteen water and forced herself to gently wipe Nick’s forehead.

  “Here,” Cord growled of a sudden. “Let me pour this canteen on him. Your dabbing at his face isn’t going to wake him.”

  Before she could protest, the full contents splashed over Nick’s head. It had its desired effect. With a groan, Nick moved. He opened his eyes and looked straight up into hers.

  “S-Sarah? A-are you all right?”

  She smiled through her tears. “Yes. I’m fine. How are you?”

  He moved, then grimaced. “My right arm. I think it’s broken.”

  Sarah quickly examined it and found the deformity. “Lie still. We’ll have it splinted in no time.” She turned to Cord. “I need two straight sticks a little longer than his lower arm.”

  “I’ll get them.”

  He rose and strode off toward the trees, while Sarah busied herself tearing strips from her petticoat.

  “Are you sure you’re all right, Angel?”

  “I’m fine, Nick.” She managed a wan smile. “Really, I am. I only wish I could’ve gotten to that rifle a little sooner.”

  His blue eyes clouded in confusion. “Didn’t you kill the bear?”

  “No, Cord shot it first. I think the bear was dead before I could even fire.”

  Nick smiled. “That’s my little brother for you. Always shows up when you need him most.”

  “Yes, I suppose so . . .” Sarah’s words faded as she noted Cord’s approach. Nick was okay, so why was he so tense and angry looking?

  He squatted beside her. “Will these sticks do?”

  Sarah nodded. With his help, Nick’s arm was soon splinted.

  Almost as if the completion of the task released the pent-up tension, Cord turned on Sarah. “What were you two doing out here with a grizzly running wild? Of all the lamebrained—”

  “Hey, hold on now,” Nick interjected. “Why are you getting on Sarah like that? It was my idea for a picnic, not hers.”

  “Then why did you drag everyone all the way out here?” Cord snarled, now riveting his fury on his brother. “This cozy little get-together almost cost you your life. From here on out, I suggest keeping your romantic interludes closer to home.”

  “R-romantic interludes!” Sarah sputtered. “Talk about lamebrained—”

  Nick held up his hand to silence her, a devilish glint burning in his eyes as he locked gazes with Cord. “But how could I be romantic with all the people around at the ranch? You know as well as I how difficult that can be, and with an angel like Sarah, I knew I had to move fast.”

  Sarah glanced from Nick to Cord, then back to Nick. “Whatever are you two talking about? This was a picnic, pure and simple, and that’s all it was!”

  “Nick, you’re a dad-blasted fool,” Cord said, ignoring her as he slid his hands beneath his brother’s shoulders, “and that’s all I have to say on the subject. Your little picnic’s over. It’s time to get you home.”

  As she watched Cord drag his brother back to his wheelchair, confusion warred with righteous indignation. She wanted to tell him he was being completely unfair, but caution warned her not to interfere just now between the two men. The extent of Cord’s anger was inappropriate but, as Sarah thought more on it, whenever she was concerned he always seemed to react this way.

  Her glance scanned him as he helped Nick up into the wheelchair. To accuse her and Nick of a ‘romantic interlude’! Would she ever begin to understand him?

  “Sarah! Mr. Nick!” From the top of the hill, Danny’s voice carried down to them. “What happened?”

  Cord frowned when he saw the two boys.

  “Sorry to spoil your illusion about our romantic interlude,” Sarah said, unable to resist the small dig. “As you see, we’ve been well chaperoned almost the entire time.”

  He shot her a frigid look. “I really don’t care what you do, just as long as you don’t endanger my brother in the process. Do I make myself clear?”

  At the stinging slap of his words, Sarah stiffened. She climbed to her feet. “Quite clear, Mr. Wainwright.”

  “That was uncalled for,” Nick mildly observed as Cord turned the wheelchair around and began pushing it toward the carriage. “As I said before, this picnic was entirely my idea.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it!”

  “Have it your way then,” Nick said with a shrug, even as a smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. “Have it your way, because it’s not going to last for long.”

  Cord watched as Sarah placed Nick’s lunch tray on the table beside him, then moved to uncover his food and carefully cut his meat into bite-sized pieces. From his vantage standing beside the window, he had an unobstructed view as she concentrated on his brother sitting calmly in his wheelchair, his right arm swathed in a sling. It was a rare opportunity, and Cord took advantage of it with the hunger of a man long-starved.

  She wore a green and white gingham dress, another altered castoff of Emma’s. The checkered print, combined with the long braid of pale gold hair hanging down her back, gave her a fresh, girlish appearance. The cotton cloth clung to her slim form, accentuating every delightful, feminine curve.

  How he wanted Sarah! That realization he’d long since ceased to deny. Yet in spite of the admission, she seemed further from him now than ever before. Seeing the tender smile she gave Nick as she answered some question of his only stirred anew the possessive surge of anger—and pain.

  He knew Nick wanted her as well. That certainty had hit him square between the eyes ever since that disastrous picnic a week ago. Knew that he’d lost her before the fight had even begun. And yet, if it’d been any man but his brother . . .

  Sarah straightened just then. “Is there anything else I can do for you, Nick?”

  “No, Angel.” He patted her hand. “I’m fine for now. But will you come back and visit later?”

  Her glance strayed to Cord. “Yes . . . of course I will.”

  He met her gaze, hiding his seething emotions behind a flat, inscrutable expression.

  She pulled her hand from Nick’s. “I-I must be going.”

  Nick’s glance followed her as she hurried from the room. Then he turned back to Cord.

  “I think it’s time we had a little talk about Sarah.”

  Cord straightened. “Oh, and why’s that?”

  “Well, for starters, you’ve been treating her abysmally this past week. And, secondly, why were you so
angry at us for going on a picnic?” As Cord opened his mouth to reply, Nick raised a hand. “And don’t tell me it was just because of the bear. I know you better than that, little brother.”

  As he struggled with his surging frustration, Cord could feel hot blood suffuse his face. He desperately wanted to talk to someone about his confused feelings for Sarah, but if he told Nick, he feared his brother might step aside from his own quest for her hand. And Cord would never stand in the way of Nick’s happiness, even if it cost him someone as wonderful as Sarah.

  He shook his head. “You’ve got this all wrong. The issue here isn’t me, but you and Sarah.” He paused, then forced the words past a strangely dry throat. “I think she’s in love with you.”

  Nick stared at him for a long moment, then burst out laughing. “Talk about love not only making you blind but stupid too!” At the dark look Cord sent him, he finally managed to control his mirth. “Now, tell me, how in the world did you come up with that crazy idea?”

  “Anyone with eyes can see how upset she was when you got hurt,” Cord replied, barely containing his rising irritation. “Not to mention all the time she spends visiting you every day. What else would you call it?”

  “Sisterly affection?”

  “Ha! Fat chance!”

  “Come on.” Nick motioned to a nearby chair. “Sit down. We need to talk.”

  He waited until Cord had settled into the chair. “Listen, I know Sarah cares for me, but only as a sister for a brother. Her feelings for you, however, are an entirely different matter.”

  At the incredulous look his brother sent him, Nick expelled a big sigh. “You’d have seen it by now, if you hadn’t gone so far out of your way to keep her at arm’s length the past few weeks. And you’d also, by now, have recognized your feelings for her.”

  Vehemently, Cord shook his head. “No. You’re wrong. She barely tolerates my presence.”

  “Well, if you didn’t always act like such a boor . . .”

  Cord ran a hand raggedly through his hair. “I have my reasons.”

  “Yes,” Nick agreed, “and we both know they stem from a fear of opening yourself to further pain and rejection. When are you going to unlock that iron cage around your heart, Cord? Father may have helped you build it, but only you can tear it down.”

  You make it sound so simple, Cord thought. Like all I have to do is surrender to my feelings, trust my heart, and everything will be better. But it isn’t that simple, or easy. Life isn’t that simple or easy.

  “It wouldn’t work, Nick,” he replied instead, glancing out the window. “Be realistic. Sarah and I have nothing in common. Our personalities clash at every turn. And, atop everything else, there’s no place in my life right now for a woman or commitments. You know better than anyone how determined I am to head back to New York just as soon as I get our money problems solved.”

  “What a bunch of hogwash!” Nick leaned forward in his wheelchair, his expression intense. “You know something? In your own way, you’re more crippled than I am. But at least my handicap is only of the body. Yours is of the soul, and that’s a far greater tragedy than I’ll ever have to endure. Your insides are so twisted with all the years of cruelty Father heaped on you that it’s made you afraid to embrace life. And if you let it go on much longer, all the progress you made when you went away will be for nothing.”

  A fierce light gleamed in Nick’s eyes. “You think you’ve beaten Father, but if you can never allow yourself to love, what have you won? Your life will turn out just as empty as his.”

  A dry smile touched Cord’s mouth. “Calm down, big brother. Aren’t you overdramatizing this a bit? It’s not as if I’ve never had a relationship with a woman all these years I’ve been away.”

  “No more than you’re being intentionally thickheaded. We’re not talking about the casual relationships, a beautiful woman on your arm when you attended the opera or went to an elegant, high society party. But just tell me. Did any of them really matter to you? Did you let any of them get close?”

  Cord’s jaw tightened. Even if Nick was his brother and closest confidante, this was starting to get too personal.

  “Look, I don’t need a lecture. I get enough of those from Father to last me a lifetime.”

  His brother leaned back in his wheelchair. “I’m sorry. It’s just I get so frustrated seeing you and Sarah always going in opposite directions, when you’re so right for each other. She’d be good for you, Cord.”

  “No, Nick,” he choked out the words. “She’d be good for you.”

  “Always ready to sacrifice for your poor, crippled brother, is that it?” The query was uttered in a voice of bitter calm. “Well, let me tell you one thing. I don’t want or need your charity. You’ve spent your whole life trying to make up for what happened that night. And do you know how that makes me feel? Not only do I have to deal with my own problems, but I’ve got to bear the guilt of ruining your life too. When are you going to let go, live your own life, and let me get on with living mine?”

  Cord rose and walked to the window, his emotions chaotic, agonized. “I can’t help it, Nick,” he finally said, his voice husky. “It breaks my heart to see you like this, to know you’ll never be able to experience even half the things I have. At least with Sarah you’d be able to have a little of what any man should have. Don’t you want that?”

  “Yes . . . I do. And, the Lord willing, maybe someday I shall. But not with Sarah. She’s already given her heart to you.”

  His brother’s assurance plucked at Cord’s heart. Sarah . . . in love with him? With a supreme effort, he rejected such a possibility.

  “I don’t know if I believe that.”

  “Then why don’t you find out, instead of putting up walls? What do you have to lose? Don’t be a fool like Father and throw away a chance for happiness. His life didn’t have to end when Mother died. Martha was a good woman, and I think in time she actually fell in love with Father.” Nick expelled a sorrowful breath. “For all the good it did her.”

  “He didn’t deserve her,” Cord muttered. “And to think she went to the grave never receiving what she wanted most from him.”

  “I wonder if any man truly deserves the woman who loves him. A good wife is a blessing from God.”

  “Maybe so.” Just then, Sarah walked toward the clothesline with a basket of laundry on her hip. Longing swelled in Cord’s chest.

  He turned from the window. “I just don’t know, Nick. I’m not sure I’m capable of giving my heart to a woman. Father’s love for Mother has nearly destroyed him. I don’t know if I’ve got the courage to risk that. I want Sarah, but . . .”

  Nick gripped the chair with his good hand, his voice softening as he spoke. “Do you really want to go through life lonely and miserable? Isn’t that a far greater tragedy? It helps to join hearts, to share the journey. Hatred and mistrust can only darken your life, Cord. Why not let someone bring a little light into it? Someone like . . . Sarah.”

  “Nick?”

  The voice was hesitant but belovedly familiar. He turned, a soft smile on his face. “Yes, Emma?”

  She stood there in his doorway, uncertain and flushed. Nick instantly knew she’d been party to his and Cord’s conversation. He calmly returned her gaze. “How much did you hear?”

  “Most all of it, I reckon. I passed Sarah in the hall.” She extended the sugar bowl. “I . . . I forgot to put this on your lunch tray, and I know how you love sugar in your tea.”

  Nick shrugged. “No matter. You’re aware of everything that goes on in the house anyway, and I’ve never known you to gossip.”

  “Well, I do try hard to keep gossiping to a minimum.” Emma walked in and shut the door. “I don’t know if you did the right thing, Nicholas.”

  “Oh, and how so?”

  “You accused Cord of always sacrificing for you, but you’re just as bad.” She eyed him briefly, then forged on. “Don’t deny it. You’re in love with her too.”

  His eyes narrowed. “It
doesn’t matter how I feel. When it comes to the heart, to that special bond between a man and a woman, Sarah doesn’t know I exist. She’s in love with Cord as much as he is with her. And their marriage could set into motion a lot of healing between the two families.”

  She shook her head. “Well, I don’t know about that. Edmund and Jacob’s hatred still runs pretty deep.”

  “All the same,” Nick firmly persisted, “it doesn’t change what’s between Cord and Sarah. I’m not going to muck that up. I’m just trying to move things in the right direction.”

  Emma sighed. “I suppose that’s for the best.” She walked over and placed the sugar bowl on his tray. “Eat your lunch before it gets cold.”

  She turned toward the door, only to be halted by Nick’s deep voice. “Emma, one thing more.”

  A questioning gaze met his. “Yes?”

  “My feelings for Sarah. Neither of them is ever to know.”

  “Yes, Nicholas.” Emma blinked back tears. “If that’s what you want. Neither of them will ever know.”

  A cool wind blew down from the mountains, ruffling the bright yellow aspens clinging to the foothills, driving the fall-dried meadow grasses before it. As Sarah finished pinning the last of the laundry on the line, the clean sheets snapped in the breeze. She stepped back, releasing a contented sigh.

  What a glorious day, she thought as her glance scanned the intensely bright blue sky. Overhead, fluffy clouds scudded along. The first frost was imminent any day now, yet Sarah welcomed it as the frigid herald of a pleasant Indian summer so typical in this part of the Rockies. Yes, if they were lucky, winter might still be a good two months away.

  As she slowly made her way to the back porch, an impulse to go for a walk swept through her. And why not? All the day’s chores were done, Danny was occupied in lassoing lessons with Cal, and preparations for supper weren’t necessary for at least another hour.

  Sarah deposited the basket inside the door and hurried back down the steps. The small brook that ran through the far pasture would be a beautiful spot to visit.