by Sara Orwig
His mouth on hers stopped her from finishing as he kissed her and swung her down on the bed. Honor won the argument.
Late in the afternoon Honor sat up suddenly. “Luke, I forgot Dolorita—”
Luke grinned, placing his hands behind his head. “My stomach didn’t forget her.”
“Do you think she knows we’re here?”
“Of course she knows we’re home. Will would have told her before she ever set foot in the house. And she can tell someone’s been in her kitchen. We left a mess in there last night.”
Honor blushed, looking at Luke, whose eyes danced with merriment. She glanced at the door. “So she’ll leave us to ourselves, I suppose?”
“Would you interrupt us if you were someone else?” he drawled.
She felt her embarrassment grow as her gaze returned to him. “Luke—” Her thoughts vanished as he pulled her down into his arms.
It was late afternoon when Luke stepped out of bed. “Honor, if I don’t get some food, I’m going to faint.”
Honor wrapped a sheet around her. “When you go to the kitchen, will you put water on to heat for a bath, please?”
Luke grinned and turned to look at her, his hands on his hips, his lean, naked body well muscled and virile, and she wondered if they would get out of the bedroom today. Her mouth became dry, and she felt a longing and need for him that seemed to grow with every moment together. His brows arched. “What is it, Honor?” he asked quietly.
“I just need you more all the time, and I love you more,” she said quietly. “I’ve loved you since you came to the H Bar R, but what I feel keeps getting stronger. Sometimes I think maybe Heaven sent you because I was going to lose Pa. I need you badly, Luke.”
His expression changed and his jade eyes darkened as he crossed the room to hug her. “I feel the same, Honor. I tried to fight what I felt for so long. I knew your pa had high hopes that you would marry some man with more wealth and polish and education than I have—”
“Maybe, maybe not,” she said, leaning back to look up at him. “I don’t think he would have had us marry like this if he hadn’t approved of you. Do you think Pa really expected us to go through a marriage in name only for six years?”
Luke gazed down at her, tracing her chin with his finger. Then he looked over her head as if lost in memories of the night they married. “Maybe he didn’t.”
“He would have picked Dusty if he had really expected that to happen,” she said.
Luke’s gaze returned to her. She was right. She was her father’s child, and so much like Horace Roth that she might be exactly right. Horace Roth should have known neither Luke nor Honor could last six years bound in a loveless marriage.
“We’ll never know, Honor, but I hope you’re right, and I’d like to think you are. I’d like to think he wanted us to marry.”
“I know he did,” she said with utter confidence, and Luke grinned, thinking at moments how much she sounded like her father.
A few minutes later, Luke bathed in the cold bathwater they had used the night before. Honor soaped his back, and when she tried to move around to rub soap over the rest of him, he started to lift her into the tub.
“No! I’m waiting for a hot bath. You said you want to eat, and it’ll be embarrassing enough to face Dolorita in the middle of the afternoon to eat breakfast.”
Luke laughed as Honor moved away, and in minutes he rose with a splash. He dried himself and dressed then was gone.
When Honor entered the kitchen, her gaze went first to Luke, who stood up and came toward her as if he hadn’t left her less than an hour ago. He brushed her lips with a kiss, and she glanced around the empty kitchen “Where’s Dolorita?”
“She thought we might like to have the house to ourselves. She’s cooked all day. We have a banquet of baked hen, a beef roast, warm biscuits, yams, applesauce—”
Honor smiled and stood on tiptoe to kiss him while his strong arms held her. “I’m glad we’re alone, but I’ll be embarrassed when I see her tomorrow.”
“No, you won’t,” he said, his voice filled with such tenderness that Honor felt her pulse quicken. She thought how very long she had waited for Luke to hold her and kiss her and talk to her the way he had the past night and day. “She’s happy for you, Honor.”
Honor smiled, running her hand along Luke’s shoulder, her appetite suddenly gone because she didn’t want to leave his arms. He moved to the table and held her chair. As she sat down, she felt Luke’s hands brush across the back of her neck. He started around the table and then paused, moving to the door.
“Here comes Matt Tolliver,” Luke said. He opened the door and stepped outside, and Honor’s heart began to thud because Matthew Tolliver made her think about Luke’s returning to Missouri.
Twenty-five
Honor felt cold as she pushed away her chair and strode outside to a bright spring day. Sunshine spilled over the yard, and white clouds dotted a deep azure sky. The sweet scent of lilacs filled the air. Nonetheless a storm shadow loomed on Honor’s horizon, and she felt a chill as she watched the judge approach.
Looking every inch a person of importance in his black coat and broad-brimmed black hat and black pants, Matt waved as he rode up. Dismounting and tethering his horse to a hitching post, Matt strode up to shake hands with Luke and greet Honor.
“Afternoon, Honor. Luke.”
“Come in,” Luke said easily. “We have all kinds of food.”
“I was afraid you’d already started your cow drive and both of you would be gone,” he said, falling into step with Luke. Luke draped his arm across Honor’s shoulders as they walked to the house.
“The drive has started,” Luke said quietly, and Honor listened while he told Matt all that had happened.
“So Jed’s with the drive?”
“Yes, he is.”
“So I am too late! I was going to offer him a job this summer with me. He could stay with us. Mama said she’d like having a boy in the house again.”
Honor glanced at Luke, knowing Jed would like nothing better than to work for the judge all summer.
Luke held open the door, and Honor went ahead. Judge Tolliver followed her inside. He paused and looked at Luke’s plate of eggs and biscuits and gravy then glanced at both of them. Looking around the kitchen he asked, “Where’s Dolorita?”
“She cooked some things and left,” Luke said easily, pouring Matt a cup of steaming coffee.
“I’m intruding on your privacy,” he said. “I—”
“Sit down, Matt,” Luke said with laughter in his voice as he held Honor close against him. “My wife and I are glad to see you, and there’s enough food here for the county. Want some of Dolorita’s baked hen and noodles, or her roast?”
“I can’t pass that up,” Matt said, grinning and sitting down while Honor was glad to turn her back on the two men and get food for the judge.
“You know, Matt, Honor and I are going to catch up with the men. I can tell Jed about your offer and if it’s all right with Honor, it’s all right with me if he wants to come back to work for you,” Luke said, glancing at Honor, who nodded.
“It’s fine,” she replied. “And I’m sure it’s what he will want to do.”
“Good! I hate to take him from you if you want him to go, but that boy was meant for a law office.”
“I think we all agree with that thought.”
“I know his pa hoped differently, and with time he might change. Let him learn what he can now. He might get it out of his system, but he’s got a good mind for law.”
“It’s fine with us, and we know that’s what he wants.”
In minutes Honor served the judge and she sat down across from him, wondering if he had ridden out with the sole purpose of offering Jed a job. It wasn’t until he had finished Dolorita’s apple pie that he pushed back from the table. His expression became solemn, and suddenly everything in Honor seemed to still. Her heart felt as if it stopped beating and her breath caught in her throat as Matt Tollive
r’s blue eyes met her gaze. Then he looked at Luke.
“I didn’t come out here to talk about Jed.”
The words fell like blows to Honor’s heart. She wished she could stop Matthew Tolliver and send him back to town now. She couldn’t bear to lose Luke again, and she reached over to take his hand. His strong fingers locked around hers, and he gave her a squeeze.
Luke sat back in his chair. As he looked at Matt and waited, his expression remained unchanged, and Honor felt as if a sentence were about to be passed.
“After you came to see me and told me about your life in Missouri, I sent a telegram to a man who is a judge in Saint Louis,” Matt said. “He wired back the name of a man in Saint Joseph to contact. I sent him a telegram.” Matthew Tolliver reached into his pocket and withdrew a folded yellow piece of paper.
“I’m going to leave it with you two, and I’ll see myself out because you may want to talk things over,” he said solemnly. Honor felt numb, staring at the small scrap of paper as if it could take her future from her, feeling more threatened by it than she ever had by Rake Acheson.
Matt Tolliver stood up. “I’ll be off. Remember what my advice was, Luke, before you ever saw the telegram and I urged you to forget all about your past. In Texas, no one asks a man about yesterday.”
The judge dropped the paper on the table and pushed away his chair. “Tell Dolorita that meal was the best ever. Oh, I almost forgot. Mama would have a small fit—give this to Dolorita.” He withdrew a small bottle of perfume from his pocket and placed it on the table. Then he strode toward the door, where he removed his hat from a hook and placed it on his head.
As the door closed behind him, Luke reached for the telegram and motioned to Honor to come sit on his lap. She hurried around to him and closed her hand over his as she sat on his knees and looked at him. She gazed into his green eyes, thinking how much she needed and loved him, and suddenly she wound her arms around him to kiss him long and hard, terrified she would lose him again.
When she leaned away, she looked at him solemnly. “Luke, whatever it says, stay here. I love you, and I don’t want you to go back.”
He kissed her lightly. “I might do that, Honor, but it’s a hard thing. Let’s see what it says.”
Luke unfolded the telegram and Honor’s eyes scanned it swiftly, then looked at Luke, as joy and hope surged within her. “Luke, it says Luther Webster was killed in Tennessee in the assault on Nashville in December of 1864! There are no charges against him, and all the people involved are dead.”
“The records are wrong,” he said, staring at the telegram.
“Luke, there no longer is a Luther Webster,” she said, feeling as if a weight had lifted from her heart.
Luke turned to her, tightening his arms around her. “You’d rather be Mrs. Luke McCloud?”
“Much rather. It was Luke McCloud I fell in love with so long ago.”
“You talk as if it were a hundred years ago. You’re only seventeen, Honor.”
“It seems like I’ve waited for this a hundred years,” she said in a breathy voice, winding her slender arms around his neck again as joy bubbled within her and she leaned forward to kiss him. Luke’s arms tightened around her and the telegram drifted to the floor. In minutes he pushed back his chair and lifted Honor into his arms, stepping on the scrap of paper as he turned for the bedroom.
Honor clung to the strong man holding her, looking into his green eyes and wanting to laugh and cry for joy. “You’re mine now, Luke, mine forever,” she whispered. “Una nu kamakunu?”
“Honor, I’ll never understand that language. What are you saying?”
She gazed up at him. “Do you love me?”
“With all my heart and soul. Come here, my Comanche woman,” he said gruffly, then he bent his head to kiss her.
Afterword
Dear Reader:
I hope you enjoyed Honor Roth and Luke McCloud’s story. This story developed after visiting museums in the beautiful Hill Country of Texas and reading about the frontier and the early-day ranches and cattle drives. In 1866, Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving blazed a trail down through the Pecos and New Mexico to sell cattle to a northern market, establishing Texas and the cowboy in legend forever. It was only a little over a hundred years ago that the men and women in this area of the country were caught up in a terrible clash between cultures and races, and out of this history of cattle drives and the white encroachment upon the Comanche was born the story of Luke and Honor and their struggle for love.
I enjoy hearing from my readers. Please write Sara Orwig, P.O. Box 780258, Oklahoma City, OK 73178.
More from Sara Orwig
The Comanche Series
Comanche Temptation
Honor Roth has spent her life dreaming of only one man, a handsome cowboy named Luke McCloud. But her childish illusions become a harsh reality when, on her father’s deathbed, his final plea to save the family ranch means wedding his daughter to Luke. Honor finds herself trapped in a marriage that is nothing more than a bittersweet pretense, with a man who will only love her in her fantasies.
Luke McCloud is on the run for a crime he is innocent of, and wants nothing more than to pay his debt to Honor Roth’s father and be gone again. But first he must survive poachers and bounty hunters that are hot on his trail and the blazing yearning for Honor that is hot in his heart.
Comanche Eagle
When Travis Black Eagle loses his wife in childbirth, he storms the doctor’s home and demands justice. Crystal Spencer, the small town’s Justice of the Peace, knows she can’t be forced to marry Travis because of the doctor—her brother’s—mistake. But her own integrity won’t allow her to let an innocent child go motherless, nor can her heart deny the intense feelings she has for Travis.
What begins as a marriage of convenience soon grows into a consuming love and a tormenting conflict. Travis has seen far too many injustices to have faith in the law—the very law that is Crystal’s responsibility to uphold.
Comanche Passion
Savannah Ravenwood is traveling to Texas when she is captured by the handsome, dark-haired Red Hawk, a powerful, half-Comanche warrior. Red Hawk needs Savannah’s help to rescue his orphaned nephew, but as they set on the mission that can cost them their lives, they find themselves surrendering their hearts—to one another.
But Savannah knows a future with a man whose only desire is to return to his Comanche people would mean abandoning her own life. Not even true love can bridge the gap between their two very different worlds. But when tragedy strikes, they discover that the only future worth fighting for is their future together.
Sweet Desire
When Comanches threaten Caroline Brandon, a spirited young orphan fleeing the ruins of life post-Civil War, handsome army scout Sawyer Day agrees to accompany her to her uncle’s Texas ranch. But as they brave the dangers of the wilderness, an undeniable attraction tempts them both, and soon they find themselves surrendering to one another’s embrace.
Suddenly awakened to the heat of desire, they promise their hearts to each other. Even when Sawyer leaves to reclaim his stolen fortune, Caroline vows to wait. But can their love survive the test of time, or will it fade into the vast distance between them?
Texas Passion
Rachel Kearney expected a heartfelt reunion when her father returned home from the War Between the States, but instead, she was greeted by a man on the run from the law. Now, Rachel and her family must flee, leaving behind the only home they’ve ever known.
Dan Overton is pursuing an elusive killer when he stumbles upon the spirited beauty who calls herself the Widow Kearny. From the moment he sees her, he knows he will do anything in his power to protect her and her brood from the dangers of the rugged post-war frontier.
But something more than a shared passion connects them, and it may be the very thing that tears them apart.
Tides of Passion
She knew who he was. Captain Joshua Raven, rebel aristocrat and fierce pirate, ravag
ing his way through the Spanish main. But he had no way of knowing that the beautiful girl disguised as a maid was Lianna Melton, a high-born British damsel, fleeing a loveless marriage.
Desperate to return to her secret beloved, Lianna seeks passage aboard Joshua’s ship. But even amid the struggle and intrigue of the new world Joshua has introduced her to, Lianna cannot deny the pleasure she finds in his company.
Before long, she finds herself melting beneath the heat of his caress, and soon passion sweeps her away like the rising tide, toward the golden shores of love.
Warrior Moon
Vanessa’s father controls a railroad, and can summon the military with a single word, yet he cannot control his fierce and beautiful daughter. When Vanessa stumbles across a wounded Kiowa brave, she knows at first glance that this powerful warrior is a man she will fear, then heal, then love.
Lone Wolf’s land was ravished and his people were murdered by outsiders, leaving him with a searing hatred and insatiable appetite for revenge. But the moment he beholds Vanessa, he falls drawn to her captivating beauty and willful spirit. But is his love for her strong enough to snuff out the fire of loathing he harbors for her people?
The Southwestern Saga
San Antonio
Luke Dabney grew up in Texas, the land of peril and promise. It is there that the hardened lawman vows to exact revenge on Domingo Pietra, the man who destroyed Luke’s family.
Catalina is the beautiful daughter of the powerful and ruthless Domingo Pietra, but not even her father can control the desire that blazes inside her for Luke Dabney.
