by Marla Monroe
“Stop complaining and let’s get back to the fire. I’m cold,” she said.
The big man immediately wrapped an arm around her and led the way. Someone else walked out behind them carrying a lantern that he’d obviously had covered while he’d been hiding. Lyssa couldn’t help but wonder how they’d known that the three of them had been heading up the long drive. If they’d been closer to the house than they seemed to have been, she could see them hearing their voices and when they kicked a rock as they walked, but it was another five minutes of walking before they made it to the front grounds of what looked like a compound of some sort.
“Welcome to our home,” Celina said, looking back over her shoulder at them.
“Thanks, ma’am,” Wade said.
As they approached the overly large cabin, the door swung open and another man stood just in the doorway holding another rifle though it was pointing toward the ground. His intent to protect was obvious in his stance and the way he held his head. Lyssa had seen it often enough in the policemen who were always in and out of the emergency room where she’d worked back in Texas. Ex cop for sure.
“Abe?” the man asked.
“How did Celina get away from you?” Abe snarled at the other man.
“I’m laying all the blame on your partner for this one,” the man said with a chuckle.
“Russell. If you don’t learn to keep her in check even when she’s pregnant, you and I are going to have words,” Abe bellowed as he stomped up on the steps of the porch with Celina’s hand in his.
They followed the two of them into an open room that made her think lodge from the look of it. There was a high-vaulted ceiling and a massive stone fireplace on one end with several tables at the other end. A wide staircase led to the second story toward the back of the room. It all screamed rustic and homey to Lyssa. She liked it immediately and thought it would be easy to feel safe in a place that big when it was constructed out of huge logs like that.
“I’m going to help Destiny with coffee,” Celina said. “Have a seat and get warm. I promise they won’t dare shoot you in here. If they got blood on my floor, I’d have their hides for a rug this winter.”
Abe actually growled at her as Celina walked off. The man who’d been carrying the lantern chuckled and took a seat near the fireplace, still holding the rifle across his lap. Wade and Stanton settled her between them on the couch. Nothing was said for long seconds until the man Lyssa had decided had been a cop spoke up.
“I’m Marty and the big man is Abe,” he said. “That’s Russell next to the fire and McCall is upstairs. You’ve met Celina, she’s Abe and Russell’s wife. Destiny is McCall’s and mine’s wife. She’s in the kitchen. How about introducing yourselves and telling us how you found us,” Marty said, leaning back against the wall next to the fireplace.
“I’m Wade and this is Stanton,” he said before pulling Lyssa tighter between them. “This is our wife, Lyssa.”
Lyssa didn’t react to their claim that she was their wife. After nearly four weeks of sharing the same bed and their bodies, she guessed in today’s world, they were as good as married now, anyway.
“I’d been told by some scavengers that I trust who trade with people in this area that there were a few families who’d joined together to form a commune of sorts. Said it gave them a stronger defense against the animals and the bounty hunters as well as support through the winter. I tend to agree that the only way to survive now is through cooperation and banding together. We’ve had our run-ins with the supposed law trying to take Lyssa away from us and know that even with two of us, we don’t stand a chance living off somewhere on our own. We’re hoping you’ll let us join you,” Wade said.
“Do you have papers on her?” Abe asked.
Lyssa’s eyes flew wide as she sucked in a shaky breath.
Chapter Eleven
“We don’t own her. She’s a human being!” Stanton snapped, jumping to his feet.
“Easy there, hothead,” Abe said with a slight smile. “I was just asking because if you did, it tends to make things easier when they do show up.”
“Are you saying that you have ownership papers on your wives?” Lyssa asked, shaking in fear.
“Well, you could say that, but it would be a lie,” Russell said with a snort.
“I don’t understand,” she said, barely able to contain her shivers.
“We have papers on our wives,” Abe said. “But we don’t call them ownership papers. We call them insurance. It helps protect them while limiting the amount of bloodshed. The more people who travel this way and disappear, never to return to where they’d come from, the more attention we draw.”
“So we had papers drawn up to alleviate most of the questions. Ownership is never implied in our family,” Russell said with a smirk.
“Our wives would castrate us if we even attempted to play around about it,” Marty added.
“We value our equipment, gentlemen.” Russell cut his gaze over toward the door where Celina had disappeared earlier.
Lyssa could tell that they loved their women. Acting as if they were afraid of them was just that, an act. She had no doubt the men wore the pants in their families. A noise from upstairs captured her attention. It sounded like a baby crying. Then it stopped.
“Do you have children here?” she asked, excited at the aspect of being around them once again.
The three men exchanged glances before Abe sighed and nodded. “We do. I’ve got a daughter and a son and Marty and McCall have a son as well. McCall has them all upstairs since we didn’t know who was out on our land.”
“How old are they?” she asked, wishing she could see them.
“Bethany Ann is eighteen months old, Hunter is a little over six weeks old,” he said.
Marty smiled. “Our Cody is three weeks old.”
The crying sounded again but this time it was different. Lyssa frowned. She knew that sound. The baby had colic.
“That’s Hunter,” Russell said. “He’s been feeling bad for a few days now.”
“He’s got colic. Do you have anything to give him?” she asked.
“No.” Abe’s expression turned thunderous. “If you can’t handle it, then you need to leave.”
“Wait!” Wade said, jumping to his feet as Abe rose from the chair. “She’s a nurse practitioner. She’s not complaining, she just wants to help.”
Abe’s expression smoothed out. “Sorry. We haven’t been able to find anything that works. Little Bethany didn’t have much trouble like this.”
“If you have some of the herbs I use, I can mix up something to ease the pain he’s in,” Lyssa offered.
“Russell, take her to the kitchen where Celina is. They can see what she needs. I know the women have been trying to study up on herbal remedies and have a lot of herbs stored up.” Abe’s eyes followed her as she stood up and turned to follow the other man.
She gave one last glance at Wade and was encouraged by his smile and nod. Maybe they had found a way to convince them to let them stay. Having a doctor of sorts around was bound to be of some worth to anyone living in the wilds these days.
When Russell opened the kitchen door and stepped inside, Lyssa followed. Both women were standing next to the stove and looked up when they entered.
“Lyssa, this is Destiny, and you’ve already met Celina,” Russell said.
“It’s nice to meet you,” she told them.
“Lyssa is a nurse practitioner and said she can help with Hunter’s colic,” Russell told them.
Celina’s eyes widened. “Really? That would be wonderful. He’s been screaming off and on for several days now. What do you need?”
Lyssa smiled at the other woman as Russell left them alone in the kitchen. It was apparent that Celina was close to exhaustion now that she studied the other woman’s features. The dark circles under her eyes seemed more pronounced in the brighter light that multiple lanterns provided.
“I need some chamomile, fennel, vervain, licorice, a
nd lemon balm if you have it. I’m going to make a mild tea for him. You can give him a teaspoon three times a day to help ease the abdominal pain. Rubbing his belly in small circles will help as well.” She followed the two women as they each grabbed a lantern.
They led her to a pantry that held a door to their cellar. It took all of Lyssa’s courage to force herself to follow them down into the dark. Being inside her cell back in Barter Town had always given her a sense of safety, but when they left her entirely in the dark each night, she could hear all the creaks and groans of the building as well as the scurrying of rodents and insects that she couldn’t see. It terrified her.
Once below, the room wasn’t really very small at all. It stretched to encompass nearly the entire length and breadth of the lodge. There were several support poles spread out in the room and the walls were lined with shelves holding everything from canned foods to books to ammunition she assumed was for the various weapons housed in a large locked cage to one side of the stairs leading back up to the kitchen.
She wasn’t surprised to see that they had an entire living area set up down there as well. While cramped, it would easily accommodate eight or ten people. They were truly prepared for everything. Wade had been right that banding together with other light minded families was the safest way to live now. She just hoped they would accept them.
“Here we go. Destiny and I have been trying to read up on herbal medicine, but neither one of us is very confident about what we’ve managed to locate and grow on our own.” Celina showed her a small corner of the cellar where they had bundles of herbs and grasses hanging from the rafters, drying. There were also tins of dried flowers and stems as well lining a shelf beneath the drying herbs.
Destiny climbed up on a short stool and selected two of the bunches to take down. Her hair shone a rich brown in the light of the lantern as it swung just past her shoulders.
“I’m pretty sure this is lemon balm and fennel,” the pretty woman said, handing the dried herbs to Lyssa.
“It is. Let me see what else you have.” She took a step closer to the shelves and selected several of the jars and tins that were carefully labeled with the names of what they contained. She looked into each one before checking several other jars and making more selections.
“Here.” Destiny handed her a small basket to carry everything. “That will make it easier to carry them upstairs. I’ll take the fennel and lemon balm.”
“Great. I have everything I need. Let’s go make some colic tea for Hunter.” She followed the two women back up the steps and deposited her selections on the counter near the sink.
The three women worked together after Celina and Destiny carried coffee out to the men in the great room. She showed them how to harvest the parts of each herb they would need and told them about other things that particular herb was good for.
“The vervain is also called verbena. It’s great to help you relax when you’ve had a tough day. It’s that quality that works with the other herbs to cure the colic in a baby. It relaxes the intestines that are bunching up and cramping the little guy.” Lyssa showed them how to crush up the stems.
“What’s the lemon balm for? I thought it was a sedative too. Are we just sedating Hunter? I don’t like the idea that we have to do that every time he ends up with colic,” Celina said with a frown.
“It’s also called mint balm. It’s from the mint family. It does have a calming quality, but it isn’t a sedative by itself. It helps relax muscles like the vervain does but also works on soothing upset stomachs as well as colicky intestines. You crumble the dried leaves to make the tea.” She was impressed that they had done so well learning about natural medicine. Unfortunately, it was dangerous if you didn’t know what you were doing.
“Now this you have labeled as Black Cohosh, but it is really Blue Cohosh. It’s from the buttercup family. Blue Cohosh is too dangerous to use as far as I’m concerned, but Black Cohosh, if used carefully, is much safer. I think you should destroy this and I’ll help you find Blue Cohosh,” Lyssa said.
“What is the Black Cohosh used for? All we saw was that it was good for women,” Celina said.
“It’s used for severe menstrual cramps and for menopausal symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats. It has to be carefully measured though. You’ll have to show me the books you are using so I can see who wrote them. There are a number of reputable herbalists that you can trust, but there are just as many out there who don’t stress safety enough in my opinion.” Lyssa quickly prepared the herbs to make into tea, showing them how as she went. “Okay, we are ready to make it. Do you have a tea ball?”
Destiny opened a drawer and pulled out one of several. Celina poured water into a pot and set it on the stove. Lyssa was excited to see that they still had access to gas. From what she’d heard while confined, most of the gas supplies were drying up. There were still a few fields operating and one major refinery working, but access to the products was both expensive and spotty.
“Bring the water to a boil and drop the ball in. Then remove it from the flame and let the tea steep for a good fifteen to twenty minutes. The longer you leave it, the strong it gets, but it also is less palatable when it’s stronger. I prefer to limit it to twenty minutes. The tea itself is good for about twenty four hours. Then you have to make more. I would suggest you mix the herbs and label it for what it is to be used and keep it on hand. It’s potency like that will be good for at least twelve months,” she told them.
“So the dried herbs we have down there are only good for a year?” Celina asked with a frown.
“No. They are actually good for longer than that, but once you mix dried herbs, they leech off of each other and their potency changes and slowly goes away. That’s why you normally don’t mix up batches of remedies until you need them. Mixing a small amount to be ready for an outbreak of colic is smart though since you know you’re going to need it within a six-month period. The older the baby gets, the less you will need it.” She smiled at the other woman. “With two infants in the house, you’re going to use it more anyway. Even if Cody doesn’t end up with chronic colic, he will have days where his belly is upset and this will help ease him.”
“I can’t believe you’re a doctor and we just had our babies without one. We sure could have used you back then,” Celina said with a chuckle.
“I’m not a doctor, I’m a nurse…”
“You’re a doctor as far as we’re concerned. Out here, in this world, there is no distinction,” Destiny cut in. “I sure hope you will stay here with us. Having you around would go a long way to helping us relax some. The idea of raising our children without medical help anywhere around has scared me to death.”
“I’d love to stay, but I think it’s going to be up to your men as to whether we are welcome or not,” she said.
Celina and Destiny exchanged glances then both women smiled at her.
“Don’t you worry about that, Lyssa. Consider this a welcome to our home. Leave it to us. You’re here to stay,” Celina told her. “Our men will listen to us. Don’t worry.”
Lyssa smiled back at the two ladies. She had no doubt they would convince the men to allow her and her men to stay.
Her men. I hadn’t really thought about them like that before. They are though. They belong to me as much as I belong to them, and now we have a home.
* * * *
Wade watched the two women walk back into the kitchen after serving the coffee to them. He wondered what Lyssa was doing since she hadn’t been with them. More than likely she was busy making whatever concoction they needed to help the baby still crying upstairs. He sure hoped so. The poor thing sounded as if he was in a lot of pain.
“You know having a doctor around could come in handy,” Stanton suggested, shifting his weight on the other end of the couch.
“True. How long have you three been together?” Abe asked.
Wade had a feeling they weren’t a shoe-in yet. The other man was very protective of his family and, fro
m what little bit he’d been able to see of the place in the dark, very smart when it came to living in the outdoors. This was someone he wanted to have on his side, not against him. They probably couldn’t do much better than settling down with them—if they allowed it.
“About four weeks is all,” Wade told the man without elaborating any farther.
“How did you meet up?” He wasn’t going to leave it at that.
Wade debated on what to tell him, but in the end figured honesty was the best course of action with this man.
“I was in Barter Town for supplies and had stopped in for a beer when a fight broke out at one of the tables. I’d been watching the game since Stanton was effectively cleaning their clock out. Unfortunately for him, the guys he was playing with didn’t like having their money taken away and decided to beat it out of him. It was three against one and I like evening out the odds, so I stepped in to give him a hand.” Wade leaned back on the couch and crossed his ankle over one knee.
“I take it you weren’t cheating?” Abe asked Stanton.
“No. I don’t cheat. I was a stockbroker and estate planner on Wall Street before. I’m good with numbers. I guess if you consider being able to remember everything that was played as cheating, then maybe I was, but once I had enough to buy what I needed to get out of that hellhole I tried to stop playing. They didn’t like that,” he told him.
Russell started chuckling. “I imagine they didn’t. What were you doing in Barter Town anyway?”
“There wasn’t anything worth hanging around for back east. I kept moving farther south and then west trying to find a decent place to live. Take it from me, there’s nothing back there. It’s a cesspool of nothing but the dregs of humanity preying on the weak who have no way out of there.” Stanton muttered a curse under his breath, making Wade smile. The man rarely cursed.
“So you stepped in and helped him out,” Marty spoke up this time, directing the conversation back around to him.
