A Soft Kiss in Winter

by Lily Graison

  They’d taken his clothes and guns, the pack he always carried when trekking over the mountain and every last fur and hide he’d painstakingly prepared for sale. If he ever found those two—

  “We found tracks.”

  He looked up. Marshal Lincoln stood in the bedroom doorway looking at him.

  “There’s not many but its enough.”

  “Which way?”

  “I want to say across the mountain but the tracks are all over the place. I don’t think they know where they’re going. Graham and Harvey are already following them. Grab what you can salvage and let’s get going.”

  There wasn’t anything worth keeping. Those two had destroyed his home. It would take weeks to clean it out and sweep up the broken glass and replace it, not to mention restocking the pantry and cellar and making sleds to drag more furniture up the mountain.

  He clenched his jaw and turned to follow the marshal outside to meet up with the others but stopped when something caught his eye. The sun was shining through the window, the rays catching on something lying near the upturned bed frame. He picked his way over the debris and stooped to see what it was. A hair comb he’d never seen lay amongst the rubble. It nearly filled his palm in width. Small pearls surrounded by blue stones and gold leaves decorated the top. It had to be Victoria’s. There hadn’t been another woman in the cabin since they’d brought Nora up the spring before—

  He shook the thought away. He didn’t have time to think about her at the moment. He pocketed the comb and left, catching up with marshal Lincoln outside. The sun-dappled trees grew dark as he started toward the creek. He looked up. Clouds were filling the sky. If they were lucky they’d find those two men and make it down before another storm hit.

  They followed the footprints in the snow and caught up with Graham and Harvey who were standing on the next rise.

  “The tracks end here,” Graham said. “They either covered them or the snow did.”

  They stood staring off in every direction and finally split up to search. Hopefully, they’d find those two by nightfall. He didn’t want to stay on this mountain one second more than he had to. For the first time in longer than he could remember, he had a reason to be home and he didn’t want to waste a minute of it. Victoria was waiting and he’d messed things up enough for them. It was time to set things right.

  She’d been alone all morning in the house and not once had it bothered her. Now, it did.

  The wind had picked up outside. It blew against the house and whistled past the windows, rattling the panes and on occasion, it sounded as if someone were moaning. It gave her chills but she tried to ignore it.

  Supper consisted of fried potatoes with onions. She didn’t have the appetite for much else and the meager meal wasn’t satisfying. She’d built a fire and other than the one lamp on the table, the house was dark. The need to fill the space with light was strong but wasting the lamp oil just so she wouldn’t feel so alone was silly. She’d been alone for close to a year now.

  She sighed. Leaving Chicago all those months ago had been a mistake. Thomas letting her take everything she owned when they left had puzzled her until they reached Fort Benton and he’d suggested they sell it all to pay for the wagon and supplies. She’d been heartbroken at the thought. That was the first time she’d seen another side of Thomas. He’d yelled at her in a street full of people and grabbed her arm so tightly she’d been bruised the next morning. In the end, she’d handed over everything she had. All her silk dresses, fancy Kid boots, her broaches and jeweled pins, her silver hand mirror and brush set, even the pearl earrings her father had given her the Christmas of her eighteenth birthday. The only thing she’d kept was her grandmother’s hair comb and that was only because she’d hidden it, loathe to part with it. She laughed bitterly. Somehow, she’d even managed to lose it somewhere in this whole ordeal. It had been the only thing she’d had left of her former life and now, if her parents didn’t offer to bring her home, she’d have nothing. She should have never left home.

  But if she hadn’t fallen for Thomas’s sweet lies and let him take her away from the only home she’d ever known, she would have never met Gideon. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t be sorry for that. Thomas’s cruelty, the fear she’d felt when he became ill and died, the terror when realizing she was being chased and the horror at the possibility of losing her life to those men who caught her on the old mountain trail—she’d do it all over again, just to have met Gideon. He may not want her forever, but she’d never be sorry for what they’d shared, brief as it had been. For one small moment in time, she’d felt loved and cherished and wanted.

  She laid a hand on her stomach and smiled. Every second she’d spent with Gideon replayed in her mind’s eye and most of it made her smile. Doc Tibbens didn’t think she’d conceived but it was too soon to tell, according to him. As complicated as it would make things, the thought of carrying Gideon’s baby caused her pulse to flutter. If he didn’t want her, she’d still have a small part of him to love.

  For all their difficulty now, the weeks they’d spent together were some of the happiest times of her life. She just wished it could continue. It was the not knowing that ate away at her. If Gideon would just come home so they could talk, even if things ended between them and she had to go home, she’d finally be able to sleep knowing where she stood.

  Finishing what she could of her meal, Victoria cleaned her mess and added another log to the fire. When she stood and brushed the wood dust off her hands, she thought she heard voices. Long moments passed and she began to think it was the wind again when she heard another voice, a short laugh and thump against the porch.

  Her heart leaped and a smile bloomed across her face. She raced to the window and peeked out the curtain. Seeing the two dark figures stepping up onto the porch caused the first bit of joy she’d had in days to nearly steal her breath. They were home.

  She tried to hold back her wide, beaming smile but failed miserably as she hurried to the door and swung it open. The smile fell away an instant later. The two men on the porch looking back at her weren’t Gideon or Graham. It was the two men from earlier in town, the ones she’d accidentally bumped in to. The portly fellow who made a lewd suggestion with his tongue did it again, then leered at her. They both snickered before the skinny fellow said, “Evening ma’am. Is your man at home?”

  The potatoes and onions she ate threatened to come up as she stood there staring up at them, her pulse racing. She swallowed to loosen the knot forming in her throat and said, “He’s out back and will be in any minute now.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Yes.” Lord, she hoped they bought her lie.

  The skinny one grinned. “She’s lying, Hank. I told ya I ain’t seen nobody in there but her.”

  Hank, as the smaller one called him, licked his chapped lips again and grinned. “That true pretty lady?”

  Something about these two seemed familiar but Victoria wasn’t sure why. The encounter in town wasn’t memorable enough to cause the feeling. Or was it? “He is here so I suggest you both leave now.”

  The skinny one laughed again. “Well, we can wait on him. Care if we come inside? It’s getting a might cold out here.”

  The skinny one brought his hands up, cupped them, and blew a breath of warm air on them. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet and the look in his eyes as he stared at her made that off feeling of familiarity stronger. The other once snickered. When he grinned, the day she’d been chased up the mountain came back in an instant. She suddenly couldn’t breathe. Her lungs weren’t expanding like they should be and her heart was thumping against her ribcage so hard, the entire world seemed to go silent. These were the men who’d attacked her. The men Gideon had chased off. The men who’d followed them and broke in on Gideon. And now they were here and knew she was alone.

  She slammed the door shut, turned, and ran. The door crashed open as she reached the back door and she screamed as she tried to get it open with little luck. Kicki
ng along the bottom with her foot jarred it loose. Once her feet touched the ground, she lifted her skirt to her knees and headed toward town screaming for help.

  It felt as if she were going in slow motion as she heard them behind her. Their laughter echoed in her head, and as they called out for her to stop, she was back in that wagon, terror stealing her breath while her own death played out in moving pictures inside her head. The sounds of their laughter, along with their words, causing a strong sense of deja vu. She ran harder, screaming as loud as her lungs allowed while still having wind enough to run.

  The world crashed into her when one of them grabbed her and they both went down. She gasped and tried to catch her breath as she hit the ground, her vision going in and out of focus as a loud ringing in her ears made her temporarily deaf. She was flipped over onto her back, Hank, the bigger of the two grinning down at her. When he reached for the bodice of her dress, her lungs expanded enough she was able to scream again as she reached up and clawed at his face. He slapped her. Rage she’d never felt heated her entire body and the scream she let out caused her head to throb. She clawed at his face, kicking her legs and swinging her arms and barely managed to move her head to avoid the blows he returned for her doing so.

  She had no concept of time. Had no idea how long she laid there struggling and screaming but one moment she was fighting, the next she was staring at a sky shining with what looked like twinkling jewels on black velvet. The ringing in her ears slowly gave way to angry voices and she turned her head to see two hairy, bare legs. She blinked.

  It took her long moments to process what she was seeing and her tears turned to harsh sobs as she saw Ewan Campbell standing next to her, his knobby knees braced shoulder length apart, his sword gripped in both hands as he yelled at the two who attacked her. She couldn’t make out what he said but as others started coming into view, she realized she’d been heard. The townsfolk of Silver Falls had come to her rescue and she couldn’t stop crying.

  She was helped up off the ground by a man she’d never seen before who grabbed her when her legs turned liquid and she wasn’t able to stand on her own. Her entire body started shaking, her tears blinding as she cried and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stop. She was shivering, choked by her own tears, and the people standing in the darkness with her all blended into one.

  The two men who attacked her were each grabbed and escorted away, kicking and fighting all the way. She was led toward town but she felt as if she were walking through fog. Nothing made sense, faces all melted into one until she finally recognized Rose who knelt down in front of her. She was smiling but it never reached her eyes.

  Victoria raised her hand to wipe her eyes and clear her vision but her hands were shaking violently. Rose was saying something but the ringing in her ears was back. Twice she’d been attacked and both times she’d been saved. What if next time no one was there?

  She closed her eyes and her mother and father’s smiling faces filled her mind’s eye. Her tears fell harder as she thought of them. She missed them. As much as she hated the way they’d coddled her, she would have given anything to have them there in that moment, holding her close and keeping her from harm and for the first time in weeks, she wanted nothing more than to go home.

  Gideon had never been so happy to see the house sitting out there alone on the outskirts of town then he did in that moment. Not once in the past six years had coming home left him feeling anything but remorse, guilt, and shame.

  But not today.

  Today, his pulse was racing at the thought of seeing Victoria. Today, he was going to undo all the wrong he’d done and tell her the truth about Nora. He’d tell her how much he loved her, too, and if she rejected him, well…

  He sighed. If Victoria rejected him, then he’d just have to learn to live with one more mistake that cost him everything.

  He and Graham said their goodbyes to Marshal Lincoln and the others and he had to restrain himself from running like a love-sick fool. Their short jaunt up the mountain to collect those two men they’d left unconscious on the floor of the cabin had turned into a four day ordeal that involved a lot of walking and a lot of sleeping in the snow as it fell so heavily it made the nights miserable and left them covered in a thin blanket of it by morning. He’d done nothing but worry about Victoria the entire time. Was she all right? Was anyone watching out for her? They were supposed to be gone one day! The fact they hadn’t found the two bastards made the entire trip an even more miserable waste of time.

  As he stared at the house, he let his anger slide away as he thought of Victoria. He wouldn’t let anything dampen his mood today, especially those worthless bums. He had other things to occupy his mind at the moment. As much as he hated to admit it, Graham was right. He would lose Victoria if he didn’t stop being so blasted stupid about things and he planned on fixing the mess he’d made of his and Victoria’s budding relationship if it was the last thing he did.

  They finally reached the house and he pushed his way past Graham and opened the door. It wasn’t any warmer inside than it was out. The fireplace held nothing but ash. “Victoria?” He laid his gear by the door and went to his room in search for her. She wasn’t there. The back door stuck when he tried to open it but when he did, he didn’t see her.

  “She’s probably in town,” Graham said as he shut the front door. “She’s been spending a bit of time in the mercantile. I think Ewan finally found someone to listen to his rambling so he’s been filling her head with those stories of his Highland ancestors. She talked about him more than anyone else after she’d go and come back.”

  Town. Gideon looked out the window, the row of buildings half in shadow as the setting sun was low enough the mountain cast the entire town in dark shades of gray. “How long does she usually stay? It’s near dark.”

  Graham shrugged. “Depends. Sometimes she’s there a few hours, others only a short time. I’m sure someone will walk her home.” His brother gave him a pointed look. “Or, you could go up there and bring her home yourself.”

  The thought caused his chest to tighten. He’d been to town once in six years. He wasn’t even sure he’d recognize anyone it’d been so long. They would know him, though. The few looks he got when he ran to fetch Doc Tibbens was enough to tell him that but then, he hadn’t stopped to talk to anyone. If he went in search of Victoria, he would have to.

  “If you plan on staying here with her, you’ll have to eventually go, Gideon. Just suck it up and get it over with.”

  He inhaled a deep breath and released it. Graham was right. He couldn’t keep Victoria up on the mountain with him forever. She would eventually grow tired of it and want to come down and he’d not let her stay here alone. He sucked in a large breath and headed for the door. He stopped at the edge of the porch, staring at the buildings in the distance. His heart was hammering in his chest when he stepped off into the grass and was halfway across the yard when he heard the front door of the house open and shut behind him. A glance back over his shoulder showed Graham headed his way.

  “Got some unfinished business with Rose,” his brother said. Gideon didn’t reply. There wasn’t a reason to. It was well known Graham and Rose despised the ground the other walked on. Always had. Always would. And nothing gave either of them more pleasure than torturing the other with their presence.

  More people than he wished were still in town. It was late in the day and he would have expected most of them to be home already but just his luck—they weren’t. He followed Graham into Campbell’s Mercantile and stopped inside the door. The store hadn’t changed much since the last time he’d been there. The only difference he saw was Mr. Campbell and his wife wasn’t there, but he didn’t suppose they would be. They’d died the same winter his folks did.

  Ewan Campbell was hard to miss. He was larger than life, both in stature and personality. He’d always been boisterous and loud and always had a story to tell. He was noisy and brash but was liked by everyone. The old man was talking as fas
t as he could, the thick accent making it hard to understand him at times and he was gesturing wildly with his hands. When he looked his way and spotted him, he stopped talking mid-sentence. “Bloody hell, lad. Where’ve ya been keepin’ yourself? I thought you was dead!”

  Gideon cleared his throat and shook his head. “I’ve been around,” he said, eyeing the other people who stopped to look at him. Graham saved him from having to say much else by asking, “Have you seen Victoria today?”

  Ewan looked toward the counter where his granddaughters were before turning his attention back to him. “You just now getting home?”

  Gideon nodded.

  “I see.” Ewan scratched his chin and heaved a heavy breath. “There was a bit of trouble while you was gone, lad. You shouldn’t have left the lass alone like that. Why that poor lassie—“

  His heart thumped. “Trouble?” he said, cutting him off. “What sort of trouble?” He looked around the store, anxiety causing blood to rush through his head. “Where’s Victoria?”

  “Keep your heid, lad. She’s safe.”

  Rose crossed to where they stood. He hadn’t seen her in years but he’d not mistake her. That red hair of hers gave her identity away clearly. She was the only Campbell girl who’d been stuck with it. She gave him a tight smile, glanced at Graham quickly, then sighed. “Two men broke in on her.”

  His heart stopped, his vision blurred and he didn’t hear a word Rose said as she kept talking. He blinked when Graham elbowed him long minutes later. “Where are they?”

  “Who?” Rose asked.

  “The men!”

  She jumped when he yelled, then scowled at him. “At the jail.”

  He was going to kill them. He turned for the door, his head pounding as thoughts of what he was going to do to them raced across his mind. He didn’t have to be told who they were. He knew. His stomach twisted at the thoughts of them touching her. They’d searched nearly half the mountain and never found them. Now he knew why. They weren’t up there!