Fields of Gold

by Jennifer Conner

  “If he was dead, the doctor would have come out. “

  “I guess you got a point.” Worry knit his brow.

  When the door opened and the doctor stepped out, they jumped to their feet in unison.

  The doctor wiped a hand over his brow making his grey hair stick up to spikes along his forehead. “I think he’ll live. If my diagnosis is correct, he has Typhoid Fever. There’s not much we can do until his fever breaks.” He plunked his worn leather bag on the table, shuffled through to remove his glasses, and pulled the strap closed.

  “But, he’s not well enough to travel?” Rose asked.

  “Oh no, Miss. Won’t be for quite awhile. I’d say three weeks to a month if he survives. That is what I have seen with others who had similar fevers.”

  “Do Rose and I have it?” Theo asked. It was a reasonable question. Rose would have asked it if he hadn’t.

  “Can’t be sure. Do you feel sick?” The doctor put his hand on their foreheads and had them stick out their tongues. “I’d go about your business. If you’re not sick yet, maybe you won’t be. The pastor’s in good hands here. Will you be somewhere I can get in touch with you?”

  “We’ll get in touch with his church,” Theo said. “In a few days they can send someone to care for him.”

  When the doctor left, Rose turned to him. “What should we do?”

  He walked over to the window and glanced out to the street. “The way I see it, there is only one thing we can do. Both of our families are relying on us to bring the supplies back to the stores. You heard the doctor, there’s nothing we can do for the pastor until his fever breaks.”

  “It’s seems wrong to just leave him.”

  “It worse to let our families down when we’re needed home.”

  She moved alongside him. The bustling street outside was filled with horses and wagons. “Leaving makes sense, but, without the pastor, we won’t have a chaperone.”

  He slid on his hat and pushed it back. “Now Miss Rose, why in the world do you think you need a chaperone. I am completely honorable.” This was the first time Theo smiled in hours, dimples curved the sides of his cheeks. At that moment he looked many things. Adorable and sinful, maybe. Innocent and honorable… no. “I bet your daddy is more worried that I will be alone with his goods, than if I’m with his daughter. I might steal something, you know.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

  “He’d fret over both.”

  “Then I guess you are in quite a quandary.”

  “It’s a quandary I can’t win at either way.”

  “We can have our wagon packed in the next hour and leave. The faster we get home to Seattle, the faster we can also send help. If we travel through the night like we planned, we’ll be back by morning. The moon’s full, there shouldn’t be a problem. Your daddy will be so happy to see his supplies, so he’ll plum forget about all the rest.” Theo offered his arm. “You’ll be safe in my hands. You needn’t worry.”

  The sun sat low in the sky by the time Theo and the other men threw the last of the flour and rice into the wagon. Theo secured the cover and straps over the supplies, and then came around to the front to offer the horses carrots. “They work harder than I do.”

  Rose was pleasantly surprised by his kind gesture. He swung up to join her and they headed out of town. With the gentle sway of the wagon, her eyes felt heavy and she yawned. She woke to find her head on Theo’s shoulder.

  With reins in his left hand, he reached in the back and lifted his jacket to cover her shoulders. “We’re close to the water. I bet the winds can really pick up.”

  “Daddy says the closer to the ocean, the easier the weather changes on a dime.”

  “I’m not liking the way the clouds have changed. Back in Missouri, I’d be worried a tornado could be blowing through. Those clouds are black as the night, and they are going to be over us sooner than we think.” His brows pulled low as he glanced over his shoulder and down the road back to town. “Maybe we should turn around.”

  “It’ll be fine. You better get used to the rain if you are going to live in Seattle. We’ll just get wet.” Rose straightened the coat over her shoulders when the first splat of moisture hit her forehead.

  In fifteen minutes it was an outright squall. Rose tried to tuck her hair under her bonnet, but the more she tucked the more it seemed to whip free. It was only rain, but it felt like tiny icy needles embedding her skin. .

  “Whoa,” Theo tried to calm the horses as they jittered and stomped. The wagon teetered dangerously to the left. Theo swore under his breath and handed her the reins. “Whatever you do, don’t let go.” He jumped off the side onto the ground

  The horses whinnied and huffed. Silver puffs escaped their flared nostrils.

  “Looks like a wheel’s stick in a rut,” Theo shouted to be heard over the wind. “If I find a branch, I’ll try and lever it out.”

  He came back a few minutes later, wedged the wood under the wheel and pushed. The wagon didn’t move, he struggled, but still nothing. Rose lashed the reins to the seat and jumped down.

  “Let me help.”

  He eyed her dubiously. “No. You could be hurt.”

  “So could you. Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I’ll break. I lift heavy bags all day long at the store. I can lift more than men twice my size. I suggest you pick another time to tell me you think I’m a helpless girl.”

  “I am full well aware of the fact you are a girl, and not for a second did I ever think you were helpless. You’re not that kind… thank the Lord.”

  “I’m not sure to take that as a compliment, or not.” She put a hand on her hip. “Are you going to tell me what to do, or are we going to stand out here in the pouring rain all night?”

  “Fine.” Theo grumbled. “Get up on your toes and pull down as hard as you can on the branch while I work the wheel.”

  Rain fell hard, she could barely see him in front of her. Her hands kept slipping on the bark of the wet branch. She focused all her concentration to hold it steady. Theo put his back against the wagon and pushed while she yanked down. They repeated the actions over and over.

  Finally, there was a groan and the wagon popped up and out of the rut. Theo grabbed for the reins and swung back in the seat. He pulled her up beside him.

  “W…we. Did. It.” She tried to smile but her teeth were chattering too much.

  He looked up at the sky. Rain pelted off his dark lashes and down his face. “Hell, does it always rain like this in Seattle?”

  “There are a few days in August when it’s dry.”

  As they came around the bend in the road, a dark silhouette of a farm loomed.

  “We have to stop,” Theo stated. “We can’t travel in this. If thunder starts, who knows what the horses will do, and if the rain doesn’t stop, it might ruin the grain… if it hasn’t already.”

  As they drew closer, it was obvious the house was badly damaged from fire. The caved roof crushed down the beams of the porch. “Looks like we won’t be staying here tonight.” He pulled the wagon into what was left of a small barn. The door hung at angle and creaked in protest from the wind. The barn was in ill repair but at least the roof still stood. It would provide some shelter from the weather.

  He unhooked the horse’s harnesses and walked them into the stalls. “I know you’re as cold as I am, but I need to get the horses some food and water.” He disappeared deep in the barn.

  Theo returned a short time later with an arm full of hay and a bucket of water. He threw the hay on the floor and added the water to the shallow trough on the floor.

  He jumped into the wagon and dug through the tightly wrapped bundles of supplies.

  “Wh…what are you doing?” Rose asked.

  “I saw on the supply sheet there are blankets and kerosene lanterns.”

  “But they belong to other customers. We can’t use
them.”

  “We very well can’t deliver them to the stores if we freeze to death.” He triumphantly pulled three red wool blankets out of the pile. “Ha! There they are.”

  He handed her the lamp and the oil. When he jumped down, he lit the lamp and held it high to survey the surroundings. A warm golden glow reached the dark spaces.

  “Come on.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the back of the barn. There were holes ripped in the roof and rain dripped from the cracks, but at the back there were a few lone bales of dry hay.

  “Not many choices. It’s better here than the rest of the place. We’re both going to have to have to get out of these clothes. We…”

  She cut him off, “I can’t remember being this cold. Bone deep cold’ my mama called it. If you told me I needed to strip naked and cover myself in pig slop I probably would if it meant warmth.”

  “I don’t think you have to go that far.” A smile tugged his mouth. “I’ll hold up a blanket. You can leave on… well, whatever girl things you got under that dress.”

  Theo held the blanket high while Rose clenched and unclenched her hands. She couldn’t feel the tips of her fingers, and she struggled to undo the first button.

  “Are you done?” he asked.

  “I… I can’t get my finger to work…too cold…I…”

  “Oh, for Lordy sake.” He dropped the blanket and reached for the top button. He had them undone in half-a-minute. He slid off her dress and asked, “Would you step out.” When she had, he flipped the dress over an open railing. “I hope it dries some before morning.” Retrieving the blanket off the floor he wrapped it securely around Rose’s shoulders.

  He quickly stripped down to his underwear and reached for the second blanket. “Why couldn’t there have been a dam stove of some kind.”

  “If there was, they probably took it with them… af…after the fire.” Rose still couldn’t seem to keep her teeth from snapping together.

  Theo kicked the bales of hay to spread them over the floor, and then sat. He opened the blanket for her to join him, when she did, the warmth of his body felt like heaven.

  “This is a mess. There are no more blankets in the wagon. Your skin is like an ice cold mountain stream.” He roughly rubbed hands up and down her bare arms. Little by little the friction leached heat into her arms.

  Lifting a hand, she touched the muscle of his bicep. He jumped. “You’re as cold as I am!”

  “No, I’m not. I…I’m fine.” He clenched his chattering jaw tighter.

  “You don’t need to put on a show for me. It’s just the two of us here.” She could tell he started to protest, but then was silent as she began to rub circulation back into his arms. His arms were a darker shade below where his shirt sleeves ended. She traced the division of color.

  “You can be as stubborn as a mule when someone says no,” he grumbled.

  “And prickly as a thorn rose, remember? I thought you have a ‘sweet tooth’ for a girl like me.”

  When he leaned forward for the other blanket, the one around them slipped from his shoulders. In the dip of his undershirt, angry red scars marred his back. She pulled in a quick breath.

  “I suppose you are going to ask me where the marks came from. I’m gonna tell you, so you don’t think I got them while breaking the law.” He settled her against him and stared into the dark recesses of the barn. “After ma and pa drown, my brother and I found our aunt and uncle. She was fine woman, but my uncle was a mean SOB when he drank. That was all of the time. One night he said I’d forgotten to feed the livestock.”

  “He beat you?”

  “I hadn’t forgot, but I guess that wasn’t the point. He beat me with a strap. When Sam came back and found me, we left for good. Blood supports blood, but that doesn’t mean they have the right to beat you. Sam and I lived off the land for awhile. He took it harder than I did. Being the big brother, he felt responsible and blamed himself for what happened.

  When he heard about the gold rush, there wasn’t enough money for both of us to travel so I had to stay behind. He was good for his word and I’ll be damned if he didn’t hit it big in the Alaska and sent the money within a few months. You only have so much control over your life, and you have to put up with the rest of it. I know I had no control over all the things that happened today, but I’m really sorry about all this, Rose.”

  “Would you stop saying that? None of this is your fault. I’m happy I’m here… with you.”

  “You are?”

  She laughed seeing the puzzled expression on his face. “Well, maybe not in this freezing cold barn. But yes, I’m happy I’m here with you.” Restless, the horses stamped and snorted in the stalls as the wind whistled outside the barn. She couldn’t help but ask what she was thinking, “What if we have the fever?”

  “We don’t.”

  She pushed away and sat on her knees. “But what if we do? What if we both wake up sick and die before we can reach Seattle?”

  “You can’t think like that.” He grasped her arms as if to shake her “I can deal with a lot of things, but not you dyi… being sick.”

  “There are so many things I haven’t done. When you kissed me in the alley, it was the first time I ever kissed by a boy. I don’t want to die alone and I don’t want that kiss to have been my only one.” Her nerves were wound tight. She felt a tear skitter down her cheek and hoped he hadn’t noticed in the dark.

  Theo sat up and brushed a finger down her cheek where the tear had been. “It was my first kiss, too.”

  Rose let out a short laugh and sniffed. “I don’t believe you.”

  “My first real kiss. You can believe what you want. It’s the truth.” He picked up a piece of hay and slid it through his fingers.

  She brought his hand to her lips and kissed his knuckles. “So you’ve never lain with a woman?”

  “I just said you were the first girl I’d full-on kissed, so I guess you can pretty much guess I haven’t done anything else. There was Ruth May behind the school house, but I don’t think that counts toward anything. When I asked if I could touch her breast, she slapped me so hard I thought I’d lost a few teeth.” A high blush stained his cheeks.

  “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to die before I know how making love feels.”

  “No one’s going to die.”

  “You can’t promise that. You heard the doctor.”

  She knew he had no answer, he only watched her through eyes she struggled to read.

  Rose brought his hand down her neck and placed it over her breast. His breath inhaled as she let the blanket drop from her shoulders. With his heated gaze, she was no longer chilled.

  “You don’t know what you’re saying.” His thumb moved to stroke the soft mound of exposed flesh above the lace of her petticoat. She shivered, making her nipples peak. “What if we don’t die?”

  “Daddy will think the worst no matter what we do.”

  “We need to think about this.”

  Leaning forward, she stopped inches from his lips and whispered, “I might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.”

  He watched her for a long moment. His resistance crumbled as he cupped a hand behind her head and pulled her the last few inches to join their lips. Nothing about the kiss was hurried, but the heat was instant. She angled her body to deepen the kiss and braced her hand on his chest. His heart pounded beneath her palm.

  “We shouldn’t do this,” there was a tremor in his voice.

  “There are no rules tonight. Tomorrow, if there is a tomorrow, I will accept the consequences of what I’m asking.” Rose slipped the pins from her hair and let it tumble over her shoulders. He ran his hands through it, over and over, sifting it like fine silk threads. Flipping the blanket to cover the ground, he pressed her back into the hay.

  Theo reached for the tie on her petticoat and tugged.
He stared down, and quietly said, “You’re so beautiful.” Finally, when she thought she might die from anticipation, he stroked a thumb over one exposed breast. He kissed each pink tip before returning to her mouth.

  He stood and stripped out of his undergarments. The golden glow from the lantern accentuated the sculptured lines of his body. Naked, he stood before her gorgeous and utterly male. Broad shoulders and a chest sprinkled with dark hair. No man should look this good. His erection curved towards his stomach. Her mouth went dry from the sight.

  Rose shuffled out of her petticoat and drawers, then tossed them to the side. He was over her again. His teeth latched onto her bottom lip and sucked it into his mouth, then laved it with his tongue. Every cell of her body was on fire as his hands stoked up and down her skin.

  He stilled. “I take responsibilities for my actions, too. Rose, I’m not looking for an instant. I’ve lost too many people I care about in an instant. I’m looking for a lifetime. You don’t need to worry.”

  “Will it hurt?”

  Kissing her jaw, her cheek, she felt utterly loved. “I don’t know. Do you want me to stop?”

  “No.”

  She was slick and ready, as the tip of him slid into her and pressed against her barrier. She gasped from the momentary prick of pain and he stilled.

  “Don’t stop,” she whispered.

  He plunged deep, his possession filled her completely.

  At that moment, her heart was the only thing she cared about losing.

  Chapter 4

  Morning sunlight streaked across Theo’s closed eyelids. Coming fully awake, he rolled on to his side and touched warm flesh. Rose’s mouth was partially open as she breathed deep, and let out a snuffling little snore. He smiled.

  He ran the tips of his fingers over her cold bare shoulder, and pulled the blanket higher. They’d made love three…no four times. Each time was better than the last, as they learned and explored each other’s bodies. Everything looked different in daylight. Would she feel different? He’d dreamed in the past of making love to a woman, and he’d had his big brother Sam to fill in the missing details of what you should do with what… where.