Frontier Highlander Vow of Love (American Wilderness Series Romance Book 4)

by Dorothy Wiley

  He tugged up on Camel’s reins and walked the horses to a spot where they could drink and rest.

  He pulled out the wedge of lye soap he always kept in his saddle bag, stepped into the knee-high water, and started scrubbing his clothing. His buckskin shirt was ripped open along one side and torn in several places on each sleeve. And his black leather breeches revealed the pale skin of his legs in a few places. The stains might not come out, but at least he would get his clothing dirt-free. The tough buckskin and sturdy leather had helped to protect his flesh from the bear’s claws. If he’d worn a linen shirt and wool breeches, his injuries would have been far worse.

  When he finished, he took everything off and washed his entire body vigorously, except for the side with the gashes from the bear’s claw. That side he washed with a feather light touch, wincing when the lye soap burned the deep scratch there and the cuts on his arms and hands. The strong soap would help to keep the cuts from festering.

  The last thing he washed was his hair, taking great care around the puncture wound on his scalp. He scrubbed everywhere else vigorously, and made sure he got all the blood out of his hair. When he finished rinsing the soap out, he squeezed out as much water as he could.

  It took quite a while, but at last, he felt clean. Actually, he felt a lot better too. The cool water seemed to benefit his wounds. His cuts were still stinging but they weren’t as sore and tender to the touch. And he smelled a whole lot better too. He took a twig, chewed the end until it softened, and then used it to clean his teeth with the pumice he carried in his saddle bag. Too anxious to be on his way, he decided not to bother with shaving.

  He started up again and his heart beat faster with each pound of the horses’ hooves. He could think of nothing else but Artis. She had to be all right. She had to be getting better. She just had to.

  When he caught sight of the cabin, joy exploded through him. He raced Camel up to the porch, leapt from the saddle, and swiftly tied the two horses. He didn’t bother to knock and threw the door open.

  When he stepped in, a cry of relief broke from his mouth. “Artis!”

  “Bear!” Her face lit up with an enormous and glorious smile. She remained in bed, but she was sitting up and alert. Kelly’s blue shawl was draped around her shoulders. The color in her face had returned and her plaited hair hung in a long tidy braid down her front.

  “My love, yer better!” He rushed to her side and knelt to one knee. He took her hand in his. The feel of it nearly made him weep.

  “Aye, I am indeed.”

  “I’ve been so worried about ye.”

  “And we fretted over ye day and night. What took ye so long?”

  “That is a very long story, that I will gladly tell ye later. But right now, I just want to look at you.” He gazed into her eyes, sparkling now with her emotions. He did na think it possible, but his smile broadened even further.

  “May I kiss ye Artis?”

  “I was wonderin’ when ye would get around to that!”

  He stood and then lowered his lips to hers, kissing her with all the joy he felt to find her alive and well. He kissed her again with all the happiness she made him feel. And he kissed her once more with the love bursting from his heart.

  Kelly cleared her throat. “You can’t be wearing my patient out. Lord’s sake, I just got her well.”

  But Kelly was smiling when she said it, so he dared to kiss Artis one more time.

  He reluctantly released Artis’ lips when William burst in behind them.

  “You’re back! I saw the horses tied outside.” The warmth of William’s voice was echoed in his big smile. His brother strode over and hugged him firmly, clearly relieved to see he’d returned.

  Bear winced, but tried not to reveal his discomfort.

  McGuffin came in right behind William. “Another hour and William would have left to go find you. He was worrying me to death.”

  “Yer lookin’ recovered too Mister McGuffin,” Bear said, noticing that Kelly’s father appeared to be much better than the last time he saw him.

  “I’m well enough. But you look like you’ve had a rough time of it. Don’t keep us in suspense. Tell us what happened,” McGuffin insisted. “Did you find that madman Steller?”

  “Shall we sit? This may take a while,” Bear suggested. He poured himself a cup of coffee, drug a chair over to the bed, and took a seat next to Artis.

  It was then that Artis noticed his torn shirt and scratches. “Yer all cut up,” she said, sounding alarmed. Her brow creased with worry.

  Much to his vexation, everyone took a closer look at the claw marks and gashes on his side, arms, and scalp.

  “That must have hurt,” William said.

  His brother had a tendency to state the obvious.

  “What on earth did that?” Kelly asked. “Surely not Steller.”

  Bear’s eyes met McGuffin’s. The man’s knowing look told Bear he knew what had attacked him.

  He ran a palm over his stubble and sighed. “I’ll tell all of ye in a minute. Just let me have a sip of this coffee first.”

  “Kelly please put some of the doctor’s medicinal salve on his wounds,” Artis said.

  “Nay, I just cleaned them with lye soap,” he protested. “I’d rather ye gave me some food, Kelly. I’m starving.”

  “Ye’ll do as I say,” Artis vowed, setting her chin in a stubborn line. “The doctor’s salve helped my wound immensely and it will help yers as well. I will na have ye get ill from those wounds just when I finally got ye back!”

  Bear grinned, glad to see that Artis’ pluck had returned.

  While Kelly doctored the deeper scratches on his side and arms, Bear winced a time or two as he related the details of his search and how he finally spotted Steller.

  “Then what happened?” McGuffin asked.

  Bear described the questions he asked Steller and the lies the man told. “I quite enjoyed catchin’ him in his lies, particularly the question about habeas corpus.”

  “That was clever,” William said. “I didn’t realize you’d been paying attention all these years.”

  “Ye’d be surprised how closely I keep an eye on ye.”

  “Well, get on with it,” McGuffin urged.

  “I gave Steller a chance to tell the truth. But he didn’t. Instead he drew his knife.”

  Bear glanced over at William. He could almost see his brother wondering whether he’d shot Steller in cold blood.

  William was loyal to the letter of the law.

  Bear was loyal only to justice.

  Sometimes law and justice unite. Sometimes they are worlds apart.

  It made him wonder what he would have done if Steller had not resisted. What if the bears had not shown up? He might never know. He frowned and took a sip of coffee.

  He told them all of his own horrific battle with the male Bear, making it an elaborate and animated story—because, like all Scots, he loved telling stories.

  As he expounded, Artis cried out in dismay twice and Kelly’s eyes widened.

  Then the time finally came to reveal how Steller met his demise. He did not offer any explicit details because of the women present, but he did not hide what happened. “And so, the ghastly man’s grisly fate was decided by God,” Bear concluded.

  “Not by God,” Kelly corrected, “Steller earned what he got all by himself.”

  “Let he that commits evil expect it,” Bear said somberly.

  Artis had remained stone-faced as he described what happened to Steller. When she finally spoke, her voice was shaking. “He’s…dead?”

  “Aye, dead and buried.”

  “Ye saw him die?” she asked.

  “Aye, Artis, I wish I had na seen it, but I did. The man deserved to die, but it was a gruesome death, even for him.”

  “It’s a wonder you weren’t killed too,” McGuffin said. “I’ve encountered black bears in the woods when I was a trapper. They can be ferocious. Lucky for me, none ever attacked.”

  “Bears have
a keen sense of smell. I think they smelled the rabbits Steller was cookin’ and they were particularly hungry,” Bear said. “All the new settlers must be killin’ off the game they would normally feed on. And speakin’ of being hungry, could ye spare some food Kelly?”

  “Is that Steller’s horse tied outside?” William asked. “It’s an exceptional stallion.”

  “Aye, he’s a fine animal, but I suspect Steller stole him,” Bear said.

  Kelly sat a loaf of fresh bread and creamy butter in front of him. The hearty bread smelled wonderful. His mouth watered as he cut a huge slice, the crackling crust yielding to a spongy soft middle. He lavished butter all over it and took an enormous mouthful.

  “We’ll feed you a proper meal a little later Bear,” Kelly assured him.

  He swallowed the bite he was chewing. “That sounds grand.”

  “I canna believe Steller followed me here all the way from Scotland,” Artis said grimly. “How did he find me?”

  “I found a document on him releasin’ him from an indenture in Wilmington. Perhaps because of the murder of yer mother, he was banished and forced into indenture too. That’s why he was here in the colonies,” Bear explained. “My guess is that he blamed ye for his banishment, since ye reported yer mum’s murder to the Countess, and he spent seven years figurin’ out how to make ye pay for it. I suspect he found the record of yer indenture by telling the same lie he told here—that he was tryin’ to find his wife. They must have told him who bought yer indenture and what plantation ye were taken too.”

  “Then from Mister Roberts, he found out that I was given land near Boonesborough and came here.” Artis’ face suddenly looked panicked. “I pray he didn’t murder Roberts or hurt his family. They were good to me.” She tossed back the bed cover. “Help me out to the porch. I want to see that horse.”

  They all went outside. Leaning on Bear for support, she said, “That’s Mister Roberts’ prize stud. I used to take the stallion out for exercise and then groom him.”

  “Then I will write to Mister Roberts and tell him that his horse is here and that the man who stole him is dead,” William said. “He can come and claim him here if he’s willing to make the trip or send someone.”

  They went back inside and after they got Artis settled in bed again, Bear turned his attention back to her. “I am so relieved ye appear to be recoverin’ well.”

  “Thanks to Kelly’s nursin’ abilities and her father’s surgery skills,” Artis said.

  “Surgery skills?” he asked, looking at McGuffin and taking another big bite of bread.

  Everyone else turned his or her eyes on McGuffin too.

  “I guess my secret is out.” He seemed reluctant to proceed. His mouth was tight and grim. “During the Revolution, I was a surgeon for Washington’s army. Month after month, I treated every conceivable battle wound under the worst possible conditions. One day, like so many other days, they brought a badly wounded young man to me. His shattered leg needed to be removed. When I looked down at his dirty pain-hardened face to tell him, I recognized the only son of my brother—my nephew John.” McGuffin swallowed his emotions and then continued. “I did the best I could for the boy, but it wasn’t enough. He died later that day.” McGuffin paused and stared down at the floor for a moment.

  When McGuffin glanced up, the creases around his eyes had deepened. “I wrote the letter to my brother myself. My grief was so great, my tears smeared my words. That was the last surgery I performed. I took the boy’s belongings back to his parents. When I told them what happened, they blamed me for his death. I couldn’t fault them really. Maybe I could have done more for the boy. Only God knows.”

  Kelly stared blankly at her father with her mouth open.

  “I decided I needed a new profession and a new environment. A new life really. I asked my longtime sweetheart, Kelly’s mother, to marry me. No one was more surprised than I was when she said yes. I’d done a lot of trapping as a youth, so we moved to the base of the Shenandoah Mountains and I became a trapper. We ate the meat, and sold the skins and furs. When she grew old enough, Kelly learned how to help me clean and stretch them.”

  “Was the loss of the boy why you started drinking heavily?” William asked.

  Although McGuffin was no longer imbibing, in the past he had drunk to excess and treated Kelly poorly after her mother died. But he came to his senses and gave up the bottle when they almost lost Kelly forever to an abductor.

  “No, not really. I started drinking the same night Kelly’s mother died. I had been away trapping. By the time I got back, she was too far gone. I realized that I could have saved her had I been there. She had a simple case of wood poisoning. A large nasty cedar splinter had imbedded itself into her upper arm. I guess she got it chopping wood. Cedar can be highly poisonous. I could have operated and removed it, saving her from the toxins that took over her arm and then her body.”

  By now, tears were flowing down both McGuffin’s and Kelly’s faces. She wrapped her arms around her father’s shoulders and cried with him, while Bear and the others sat quietly.

  “Mister McGuffin,” Artis said.

  McGuffin and Kelly both looked over at Artis.

  “I owe ye my life. I also owe ye the life Bear and I will have together. And we owe ye the lives of the children we shall bear. I thank ye for all of that, and bless the Almighty for sendin’ such a fine man here to help me. Ye will always have my gratitude.”

  The smile in McGuffin’s eyes and on Kelly’s face warmed Bear’s own grateful heart.

  They spent the rest of the evening enjoying a celebratory dinner and toasting Bear’s return and Artis’ health with an excellent brandy. All except Mr. McGuffin who savored only Kelly’s good coffee.

  Artis soon tired and Bear knew he would have to tell her goodnight. He wished he could climb into that big bed with her and hold her, but knew it would not be proper, nor was she healed enough yet. If it killed him, he would wait until he was sure she was well.

  He dragged a chair up next to her. “When ye’ve recovered completely, we’ll have William marry us on yer land, under the stars, just like ye wanted.”

  “Our land,” she said, giving him an exasperated look. “How many times will I have to tell ye?”

  “Aye, our home.”

  “Kiss me goodnight, Bear.”

  And he did. Sweet dreams, my love.

  Chapter 33

  Within two weeks, Artis was up and about and feeling more like herself. Kelly wouldn’t let her climb the stairs to the loft yet, and so she still slept downstairs, dreaming of the day when she would have her own bed. And, of the night when she would first share it with Bear.

  The day after he’d returned, Bear went into Boonesborough to find a builder looking for work. He learned that a number of builders had moved to the settlement because they considered the fast-growing frontier as a land of opportunity. Bear had hired a housewright and craftsmen the very same day, bought some stakes, and on his way home, hammered them into the ground where the house would stand.

  For the last two weeks, Bear and the builder worked tirelessly creating the building materials that would become their home. The craftsmen started by felling and stacking timber. Then they split some of the logs in half to make clapboards, using a froe and maul, Bear had explained. The larger logs were kept whole and would be used for the outer walls.

  Every evening they would spend hours discussing their ideas and Bear would leave early the next morning to help the builder execute their plans. Artis soon learned a number of building terms and how the carpenters would make a window sash, join a mantle, dovetail corner joints, or frame a staircase. Bear said he had learned a lot helping McGuffin and the other men build Sam and Catherine’s spacious new home.

  The Governor had generously increased the reward when he learned the gold was recovered. William refused to accept any, saying he was just doing his job. So Bear was able to use the funds to pay the workers and buy supplies and manufactured articles such as squ
are nails, glass, hardware, and bricks. He even bartered for some of the worker’s services by hunting game for their families. Bear and McGuffin also contributed their labor to the project. Every evening, they would return, tired and famished. But a sense of urgency drove Bear to leave again before daylight. McGuffin would always follow a little later, bringing Bear the big breakfast that Kelly and Artis cooked for him.

  Artis desperately wanted to see the progress they were making. Even more, she wanted to marry Bear. But he insisted that they wait until their home was finished and they would have a proper place to consummate their union. They were making rapid progress, he told her, and it would also give her time to heal completely. She decided that he was concerned about hurting her and wanted to be certain she was entirely healed before he took her to bed.

  But she found the wait excruciating. Never in her life had she wanted something so much. Every time he smiled at her, his eyes contained a sensuous flame that warmed her to her core. And she often caught him staring at her with longing. When his beautiful blue-green eyes met hers, she felt her heart quiver. The prolonged anticipation was becoming unbearable. She decided that tonight she would at least get him alone for a while for a few of his soul reaching kisses.

  That afternoon, Kelly helped to fix her hair in a lovely upsweep and then Artis changed into her simple green gown that Kelly mended for her. Despite Kelly’s protests, she was determined to spend some time outside. She pinned on her luckenbooth and strapped the leather belt that held her dirk around her waist.

  “You should also take your pistol with you,” Kelly advised.

  Artis agreed, and Kelly went upstairs to retrieve the weapon along with the shoulder bag that held her powder and lead. She had only fired the weapon once, when she’d shot the mountain lion, but she was confident that eventually she could learn to shoot as well as any man. When she had enough funds, she would buy a long rifle as well, like the one Kelly owned.