Frontier Bride (Harlequin Historical)

by Ana Seymour

  “I’ve just been talking to Mrs. Trask,” Ethan continued. “She says Trask’s been disappearing for days at a time.”

  “The man’s a drunk,” Randolph said with a snort of disgust.

  “Maybe so. But drunks don’t need crates of muskets in order to go on a bender.”

  “Muskets!”

  “I just found a box of them hidden away in the corner of their cabin. I asked Mrs. Trask about them, but she didn’t want to tell me anything. I think she’s afraid I’m going to arrest her husband.”

  “Arrest him for what?”

  “For selling arms to the Indians. I suspect that he’s in partnership with a seedy, one-eyed character by the name of Silas Warren.”

  “I saw Trask with that man when we were at Fort Pitt,” Hannah said with dismay.

  “Could you tell what they were talking about?” Ethan asked her.

  “No. They…ah…they made some unwelcome comments and I got away as soon as I could.”

  Randolph turned to her with an expression of concern. “What kind of comments? You never told me about anything like that, Hannah.”

  Ethan waved his hand impatiently. “Never mind that now. The important thing is to find out if it’s true that Trask is dealing with the Indians. Colonel Bouquet should have that information.”

  “Could you really arrest Hugh?” Randolph asked.

  Ethan nodded. “I’m working for the army again temporarily. I’m supposed to be meeting with a group of Potawatomi right now, trying to convince them to abandon Pontiac’s alliance. But I told them at the fort that I wouldn’t go until I had you folks safely back there.”

  “That was good of you, Reed. We may all owe you our lives.” Randolph looked straight at Ethan, as if acknowledging that their current situation superseded any rivalry the two might have felt in the past.

  Ethan accepted the concession with a nod. “We’re not out of danger yet, and if Trask is handing out rifles to the hostiles as we’re sitting here, we may be in deeper trouble than we know.”

  Randolph considered for a moment, then stood. “I’ll go talk to Nancy and find out what information she has. She trusts me, and I think I can convince her to talk to me.”

  Ethan pushed back his stool. “Fine. Give it a try. She seems to be scared to death of me. I’ll just wait here until you get back.”

  Randolph looked from Ethan over to Hannah, who sat without moving. “I’ll be right back,” he said, then left the room.

  Hannah turned around on the bench and looked at the fire, but she could feel Ethan’s eyes on her. “Would you like some ale?” she asked after several moments.

  “No.”

  Surprised by the abrupt answer, she turned to face him.

  “I see Randolph has finally discovered your many charms,” he said. His smile was not quite normal.

  “He has asked me to be his wife, and I have accepted,” she said stiffly.

  “Ah.” Unlike the last time she had seen him, he was clean-shaven. His hair was tied back in a queue. His eyes lingered on her lips. “There’s a preacher at Fort Pitt. You can be married as soon as we get there.”

  Hannah’s heart had started to pound. She felt a chill in spite of the fire at her back. She stood up to put another log on the hearth. “We intend to wait until the end of Randolph’s year of mourning.”

  Ethan looked at her in disbelief. “Whose idea was that?”

  “Well, Randolph’s. But of course it’s…the civilized thing to do.”

  She stood with her back to the fire and warmed her hands behind her. Ethan kicked away his stool and came toward her. He walked like a real deer stalker, no children’s game this time.

  She couldn’t move backward as he approached or her skirt would catch in the fire. He stepped close to her and put his arms against the wooden mantel, trapping her. “So it’s to be a civilized marriage, is it?”

  Hannah tried to push through his arm on one side but it held like an iron door. “I’d rather not discuss my marriage with you, Captain. Could you please step aside?”

  There was a shaky plea in her voice, and part of him wanted to respond to it. He could step aside, leave her alone. They all had enough on their minds right now without adding problems. When he had told Bouquet that he would go himself for the Destiny River settlers, he had had no intention of interfering in the life Hannah was building for herself. He had thought that he could accomplish his mission and walk away from her, just as he had earlier in the summer. But the minute he had felt her against him tonight he had known that he’d been deceiving himself. There had not been a night through the long, sultry summer that he had not dreamed of having her in his arms again. He had spent four dreary weeks at Fort Pitt in strategy sessions with the British officers. And there had not been a minute of it that he had not wished to hear her laugh again. Polly had mocked him and called him love-sick. He had not denied it. He was in love with Hannah. It was a simple fact. The not-so-simple part was that he had absolutely no idea what he was going to do about it.

  “Please, Ethan,” she said again, drawing in a ragged breath.

  He moved his arm. Hannah slipped out and went to the other side of the room. He made no move toward her, but his expression made her insides churn. “There’d be nothing civilized about it if you were mine,” he said, his voice low. “It would be riotous and untamed and…magnificent.”

  “For how long? For a night? A week?”

  “For as long as we both wanted,” he answered simply.

  She had backed up against the rough wall of the cabin. She and Randolph had planned to smooth the logs with mud from the riverbank. Now there would not be time. She dashed a hand angrily across her eyes. She would not cry.

  Ethan finally turned his head away from her. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t come here to cause you pain. Randolph’s a good man, and I wish you both well.”

  Hannah nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

  “I’ll head back to the Trasks’ now and see if he’s been able to get her to talk.”

  Hannah kept herself flat against the wall as he crossed the room. At the door he stopped and looked back at her, but at her continued silence, he turned and walked out into the night.

  Chapter Sixteen

  A misty rain dimmed the vibrant fall colors, adding to the gloomy atmosphere around the settlement. Ethan had agreed to postpone the departure until the rest of the hogs could be butchered and hung in a makeshift smokehouse they had quickly thrown together. He looked as if he thought their efforts were futile—that there would be little if anything left of the settlement by the time they came back next spring. But he made no comment other than an offer of help. The women stayed in their respective homes, packing the few things they could take back, their doors shut against the dreadful cacophony of squeals and shrieks.

  Hannah, Peggy and Jacob had finished their bundles when Eliza appeared at the door, her face puffy from recent tears.

  Hannah walked over to her friend and slipped an arm around her. She took a quick look out the door. “The rain’s letting up. Do you children think you could start tying these on the horses?” she asked.

  They nodded and, grabbing up some packs, detoured around Eliza and Hannah, Peggy murmuring a polite “Morning, Miz Baker” over her shoulder.

  “It’s a sad day,” Hannah said, drawing her friend into the room.

  Eliza seemed older this morning, her walk more stooped. “The saddest day since my Johnny left us,” she said, her lip trembling.

  Hannah went to put an arm around her. “But we’ll come back next spring. Everything’s going to be all right.”

  Eliza shook her head. “No. Seth and I’ve been talking all night long. We’ve decided that we’re not coming back.”

  “Not coming back!”

  “In some ways, Hannah, it hasn’t been right from the beginning. We were trying to run away from Johnny’s death, and the truth is, it’s not something you can run away from.”

  “But…we’ve all wo
rked so hard to get this far….”

  “I know. And I do believe you’ll come back. Destiny River will be a thriving little settlement one of these days, but it will be built with younger hands and hearts than ours.”

  Hannah reached around to embrace her. “I can’t imagine it without you.”

  Eliza gave a sad smile and patted her on the back. “Yes, you can. You’ll do just fine. You’ve got exactly the kind of spirit a place like this needs.” She moved gently out of Hannah’s arms.

  “What will you do?”

  “We don’t know yet. Seth intends to contact Herr Gutmueller and see if he would be interested in a partnership. This colony will need lots of bricks if it keeps growing as it has been.”

  Hannah felt bereft. First they all had to leave their new homes, now Eliza and Seth were leaving for good. Giving up. And if it was true that Hugh Trask was trading illegally with the Indians, she supposed that Nancy and her children would be forced to move back East, too. That left them totally alone on a harsh frontier. The prospect didn’t daunt her, but she wondered if it all wouldn’t be enough to give Randolph second thoughts about the move west.

  “I want you and Randolph to have the things we’re leaving,” Eliza said calmly.

  “Oh. I suppose you won’t be able to take much with you. I…I should talk to Randolph and see if we could buy…”

  “You’ll do no such thing. We’ve all got enough to think about this morning. Don’t worry about it. Anything that’s left here when you come back is yours, and welcome to it.” She gave a little smile that had some of her usual spark. “Just consider it a wedding

  gift.”

  The children were back for another load, so Hannah and Eliza both helped them carry the rest of the bundles out to the horses. “You will be staying at the fort until spring, won’t you?” Hannah asked. “I want you and Seth to be my witnesses at the wedding.”

  “Ethan says that Colonel Bouquet won’t let us leave. Travel is still too dangerous. So we’d be honored. When is the wedding to be?”

  “Well…we haven’t actually discussed the wedding part of it. I just know that Randolph has been waiting until his year of mourning is over with.”

  “Pooh,” Eliza huffed. “Priscilla herself would be the first to tell him to forget about that nonsense. A man has to live in the present, not the past. I’m surprised at Randolph.”

  Her sentiments brought back Ethan’s words of the previous evening. Perhaps they both were right. Wouldn’t it be nice if her prospective bridegroom showed just the tiniest bit of impatience?

  They left the supplies with Jacob and Peggy and started wandering back toward Hannah’s cabin. The squeals from the butchering had stopped, which meant that the fat little creatures had all been dispatched. Hannah sighed.

  “You ladies planning on going somewheres?”

  Hannah whirled around at the sound of Hugh Trask’s raspy voice. He was standing at the edge of the clearing with another man. Each led a packhorse. “Where have you been?” Hannah asked. “We’re heading out of here today. You almost missed leaving with your wife and children.”

  “Now wouldn’t that have been a pity?” he said mockingly.

  “I told ye, ye should’ve bought that Injun gal you was beddin’ down so perty all last week,” the man next to Trask drawled.

  Hannah looked over at him. His buckskins were nearly black with soil and age, and his hair fell in greasy black clumps to below his shoulders. He was watching them with an oily grin. It was Silas Warren.

  Eliza gripped Hannah’s hand. “Just don’t say anything,” she advised.

  Trask walked toward them. “Where are Seth and Randolph? Have they left their women to do the work?” He came close to Hannah. “‘Cause you are Randolph’s woman, aren’t you, dearie?” He took a painful grasp on her chin. “Too good for the likes of me. You let a stinking trail guide put his hands all over you. Oh yeah, I saw you together in the woods, panting like two dogs in heat. Then you jump into Webster’s bed. But you’re too high-and-mighty for the likes of Hugh Trask, aren’t you?”

  He reeked of rum. Hannah twisted her head, trying to free herself from his brutal hold.

  “Let her go, Trask, or, I swear, I’ll blow you to kingdom come.” Randolph had come up the little path from the corral. He held his rifle loosely, pointed at the ground, and he spoke in a deadly voice that Hannah did not even recognize.

  Trask released Hannah. “Ah, there you are, Webster. We’ve been missing you, your little lady and I. Now why don’t you put down that gun before you blow your toe off?”

  Warren moved around in a circle to train his rifle on Randolph. “Should I plug him, Trask?” he asked.

  “Nah. What’s the need? He can’t shoot worth beans. And the other one’s an old man. I told you we won’t have any trouble here.”

  Warren looked around with a nervous little tic to his neck. His empty eye socket twitched. “Let’s get the rest of the rifles and get out of here.” he said.

  Randolph had not moved. “You’re not going anywhere with any rifles, Trask. In fact, I’d say the only place you’re going is a British prison,” he said coolly. He looked over at his children, who were standing behind Hannah, their eyes wide. “Peggy, Jacob—get into the cabin.”

  Peggy grabbed Jacob’s hand and pulled him in the direction of their home. When they were inside, Randolph slowly raised the barrel of his gun. “Now throw your guns on the ground,” he said to Trask and Warren.

  Hugh laughed. “Now I know I’m safe, Webster, ‘cause you’re aiming at me.”

  “I’m aiming at you, too, Trask.”

  “So am I.”

  Seth and Ethan stepped from behind two trees, their rifles trained on Trask.

  “You didn’t say Reed would be here,” Warren said in an angry, whiny voice.

  “Shut up!” Trask barked. He looked directly at Ethan. “If you don’t want these ladies to get hurt, you’d all better throw those guns over this way.” Before anyone could react, he took a quick step backward and grabbed Eliza by the arm. She gave a cry as he twisted it behind her back. Seth started toward him, but Warren, moving more quickly than his sluggish appearance would suggest, took three running strides over to Seth and, using both hands, smashed the barrel of his rifle against the side of Seth’s head. The older man crumpled to the ground.

  “Seth, dear God!” Eliza cried. Trask held her tightly, preventing her from going to her husband’s side.

  “Now, how about you other gents tossing over those rifles?” Trask said with a grin. “So’s Silas here don’t have to crack any more heads.”

  When nobody moved, Hugh reached into his belt for a hunting knife. He spit on it, then held it pressed against Eliza’s throat. “I said, throw the guns, gentlemen. Gently now, over this way.”

  This time Ethan and Randolph tossed their weapons toward Trask. Ethan’s slid to a stop directly in front of Hannah. She glanced from the weapon over to Trask, but she could see the sharp edge of his knife sinking into the wrinkly skin of Eliza’s neck, and she didn’t dare move.

  “Well, now we got ourselves a dilemma,” Trask said.

  “I told you we should’ve come for the guns in the middle of the night,” Warren complained.

  “I didn’t figure on Bouquet’s pet scout turning up here. If we let him go, he’ll have the British crawling all over these parts looking for us.”

  “So we shoot him,” Warren said matter-of-factly.

  Trask gave him an exasperated look. “In front of four witnesses?”

  “So we shoot ‘em all.” Warren gave a demented little giggle, and for the first time Hannah realized that the man was not quite sane. A chill ran down her back.

  Trask appeared to be considering. “I suppose we could make it look like the Indians had been here.”

  Drops of sweat were trickling down Eliza’s face. “They’ve thrown away their guns,” Hannah said. “You can let her loose now.”

  Trask pushed Eliza roughly toward Hannah and
the two women embraced. Then he sheathed his knife and raised his rifle to aim right at Ethan’s chest.

  Hannah saw Ethan’s eyes wandering over to where his gun lay just in front of her. She hoped he wouldn’t try to jump for it. She’d seen Trask shoot, and he wouldn’t miss at this range no matter how fast Ethan moved.

  “I guess I’d feel a mite better if this one were out of our hair, anyway,” Trask said, raising the rifle sight to his eye.

  “If you get to shoot him, I get to take his scalp,” Warren said with another giggle.

  Hannah braced herself to jump on top of Trask. At least she could push him and spoil his aim. But before she could move, there was a movement in the bushes, and Nancy stepped into the clearing, pointing Seth’s rifle at her husband.

  “Stop right there, Hugh.”

  Hugh lowered his gun, then made a grimace of impatience. “There’s no way you can fire that thing, you weak-kneed bitch. Now get out of my way, or I’ll kill you, too,” he said.

  It seemed that Hugh was probably correct in his estimate of his wife’s strength. Her arms were shaking from the effort of holding the heavy weapon, and the rifle barrel wobbled crazily. Suddenly there was tremendous blast as Nancy closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. The bullet ricocheted off a tree and into Warren’s shoulder. He fell to the ground with a yelp. Nancy was knocked down amid a huge ball of smoke. The minute the shot went off, Hannah dove for Ethan’s rifle. By the time the others had recovered from the surprise, she was standing to one side and slightly behind Hugh with the gun pointed at his head.

  “Your wife may need a little more target practice, Hugh,” she said, “but I hope you don’t have any doubt that I can send this lead spinning into your right ear and out the left.”

  Warren had grabbed his arm and was rolling from side to side screaming, “I’m shot!”

  Trask gave him barely a glance. He looked around for Eliza, who had slowly moved out of his way and was now too far for him to reach. “I could kill Reed before you pull the trigger,” he said.

  “But then you’d be dead, Hugh,” Hannah said calmly. “So what good would that do you?”