“Take it off,” she gasped in a near whisper.
She didn’t have to tell him. He kept his mouth fixed on one nipple while his hands quickly loosed his buttons and sent his shirt flying to the floor beside the bed.
“Your uniform trousers too,” her throaty voice ordered him as if she was his commanding officer.
Not yet, he thought to himself. He jerked his finger once more into her to get her distracted, loving the way her nipple was getting thicker and rounder in his mouth. Her fingers brushed his hair immediately, dragging his head closer to her chest. Understanding what she desired, he closed his eyes and concentrated on the other nipple, nibbling it like his life depended on it.
As soon as his lips touched her second nipple, her palm flew into his trousers, immediately draping around his cock. She yanked at it mercilessly, getting it harder than it already was. Her other hand went to his balls, squeezing them tightly as if she hoped to squeeze it of all its juice.
“Bright …”
He didn’t have the strength to spill out her name. His thighs weakened at her touch while his chest echoed with the fast beating of his heart. Managing to move his body downwards, he jacked his cock out of her firm grip and placed his head between her thighs. She clutched her legs around his neck immediately, welcoming the penetration of his tongue.
“Oh Dutch … oh my love … I want …”
He couldn’t make out the rest of the words that escaped her lips, but he knew how she felt already. Her body shuddered violently as his tongue kept pushing deeper into her wet fold, tasting her walls. She arched her waist, hissing whenever a wave of satisfying pleasure washed over her.
My turn!
He ignored the long hiss that escaped her lips as he unlocked her legs around his neck and stopped back. It was only for a second, though, for his weight was back on top of her as soon as he got rid of his uniform pants. His shaft disappeared into her womanhood immediately, locking their bodies. Bright Feather sighed, moaning words in her Pai language that he was sure had to do with something about his huge cock. To prove her point, he withdrew and dived right back in with renewed energy.
“Dutch!”
A chuckle escaped his lips as he began to move, hammering the inside of her thighs. She rolled with him on the bed, turning sideways and raising one leg over his thighs to give him more room within her. He made sure none of the spaces went to waste, always ramming his dick into every available corner.
Their noses touched now and despite the dark room, he could see her deep brown eyes. He stared into them, realizing how much love he could perceive in them. She loved him and it would be a matter of time before she agreed to spend most of her life with him. He wanted that too and he would keep pouring out his entire soul into her if that was what it took.
Talking about pouring out, his balls tightened as she rolled over and sat on top of him. His cock jerked inside her place of desire, preparing for a long elbowing climax. He held on to her waist, guiding her fast pace with a thrust of his own. Her fingers dug into his chest at about the same time that his body embraced his release. Her body lumped forward towards his chest too as her body climaxed, her clit clasping tight around his cock.
They orgasmed at the same time, Dutch’s groan echoing in the room louder than her whimpering moans.
For a while, both laid there, gasping for breath and smiling at each other like love-struck teenagers. Eventually, Bright Feather smashed her lips against his, kissing him passionately before getting off him and retrieving her dress from the floor. She found his shirt and was about to throw it to him when a loud ringing sound reverberated through the entire walls of the house.
Dutch jolted to his feet immediately, jumping from the bed to the floor.
“It is coming from the side of the house,” Dutch said, rushing over to the window to glance at the field outside.
“The fire bell!” he shouted, turning around to find Bright Feather already covering her supple body with the buckskin dress.
Hell, he wished he had time to admire the entire inch of her shapely hips, but there wasn’t much time. Hurrying into his trousers, Dutch grabbed his shirt from her hands and didn’t bother to wear it properly before opening the door and hurrying out of the room with her.
A contented Bright Feather managed to fix the laces of her dress back in place before they got to the middle of the hall and hurried down the stairs.
A few feet behind them, Lijuan, stepping out of her room, grimaced and swore under her breath, noticing the carefree way they had rushed out of the room before hurrying down the hall behind them. Apparently, both had battled their own fire in the corners of a dark room before getting concerned about the one on Cedar Ledge.
*****
Miles away and minutes earlier, at the collapsed bridge, Catalina and Cassandra carefully navigated their way amid the unstable rocks of the ravine as they made their way to below the exact spot that the bridge had collapsed into in the ravine. Catalina immediately began to poke though the numerous rocks and bridge debris as soon as they got to the bottom, looking for their father’s pistol. Meanwhile, Cassandra scowled at two vultures that feasted on the corpse of their father’s horse. She brought out her gun and shot in the air, scaring the petty birds away.
Afterward she walked down to stare at the debris that used to be the bridge, intently searching the area with a frown. There were broken boards everywhere and she didn’t have to look too long before she knew that something wasn’t right.
“I found it!” Catalina yelped happily behind her. “That ought to make Honor Elizabeth happy.” She waved the dusty pistol in the air, halting when she noticed the frown on Cassandra’s face.
“What’s goin’ on, Cassandra?”
“Just giving thanks that the winds going crazy up there don’t carry down into this gorge, or I wouldn’t have been able to find this,” Cassandra replied, holding what seemed like sand in her opened palm.
“What is it?” Catalina asked, crossing over. She handed the gun to Cassandra and peered at the contents of her hand.
“Peppercorn, what does it look like?!” Cassandra, she said moving her hand closer.
“Please don’t call me that!”
“If it’s good enough for Pop, it’s good enough for me,” Cassandra insisted. She let the powder scatter from her palm to the earth back eventually, ignoring the pout on Catalina’s face. “Cattie, it’s SAWDUST! Come on. I want to have a closer look at these ruins!”
Cassandra began climbing over the pile of wood, scanning every piece with her eyes until she found what she was looking for—a piece of one the support beams. Catalina scrambled behind her, trailing Cassandra’s gaze as she examined the beam. Eventually, something caught her attention and she pulled Catalina towards her with a wave of her hand.
“I knew it! I knew something wasn’t right the minute I heard this bridge collapsed,” A look of triumph spread across her face as she spoke. “Pop built it rock solid. These supports have been sawed right in two!”
“They were?” Catalina asked, in stunned wonder.
“Whoever did this, I’m sure, probably thought the entire bridge would be so mangled it would hide any evidence on the odd chance anyone bothered to look like we are. After all, everyone was chocking it off as pop and old Gray going down in an accident. It’s not the case, though. There is no jagged break in this beam—sawed neat as can be, giving us the sawdust. Now, it’s just a question of who could have done it?” Cassandra asserted.
Catalina opened her mouth to ask how they would ever find out who was behind it, but something caught her attention among the rubble too. She bent down and retrieved a bandana from the debris.
“Maybe it was the no account that dropped this!” she shouted, holding out the piece of material. “Must have been dropped when he was sabotagin’ the bridge. Cassandra, it’s got a monogram on it!”
“Let me see that!” Cassandra said, crossing over to check the almost-vague initials on it. An italic X. J. was w
oven into the bandana. “Not too many people around, I imagine, with an X in their name,” she mused thoughtfully. Her mentor, Miss Ware had always said sometimes, even the best detective work was no match for a lucky break.
“I only know one rascal with an X in his name and a J too!” Catalina grunted, the despicable image of a man with brown hair and thin eyebrows finding its way into her head. “Xavier Johnson who works down at Toomes Livery! What’s more, this mornin’ I saw him watchin’ us when I met you at the stage in Alamieda! Well, that’s what I thought at first, but then I just kind of dismissed it. He does work just down the street, but now …”
“Why on earth would he want to be watching us? What do you know about this man besides where he works?” Cassandra asked, interrupting.
“You mean beside the fact he was strippin’ me naked with his eyes last week?”
“You had business down at Toomes Livery?”
“No, he was here! At Cedar Ledge!” Catalina reported.
“Why? Tell me everything!”
“Johnson and this sleazy gambling hall owner named Everett from Carter Creek was at the house trying to get Papa to sell him some piece of property we own along the Rock River,” Catalina went into narrating the details immediately. “We looked it up and it was one of the pieces Papa pre-deeded out to us kids. This particular piece belongs to Honor Elizabeth. Papa told them only she could sell it and she wouldn’t be home for months.”
“No, she wouldn’t, would she? … unless there was an emergency to draw her back here,” Cassandra said slowly, her analytical mind Alan Pinkerton had always praised her on, summing every up occurrence.
“Oh…my…God! Carumba!” Catalina exclaimed, putting the pieces together as well.
“Come on! Let’s get out of here Cattie!”
Cassandra hadn’t taken a step before a rattlesnake suddenly reared its head towards her from the rocks, preparing to strike. She swiftly shot at it with Whip’s gun and turned to Catalina.
“Time to dispense with a couple more snakes—the human kind,” she winked.
They climbed out of the ravine swiftly, Cassandra taking a moment to lie down and examine what little was left of the bridge’s support beams. Again, the evidence of a very competent saw job could be seen in the clean cuts. As she was doing her confirmation, Catalina was noticing the howling of the winds were becoming fiercer and very faintly, she heard something else over the winds.
“Do you hear that?”
“I can barely hear you over the wind, but wait, yes!” Cassandra yelled, also noticing that a distinct sound in the wind.
“It’s darn faint, but someone is ringin’ the fire bell!” Catalina gasped. “If there is a fire on the ranch, these winds could whip it into an inferno!”
“Those snakes will have to wait, then,” Cassandra called out, already turning towards the ranch. “We’ve got to get back and on the way, I want you to remember and tell me every single thing you can about their visit to the ranch!”
*****
“Wait, wait, wait! Slow down and tell me who you are again?”
Honor held up her hand to the stranger that had stepped into the room minutes ago, informing her about a man that could provide the best help to her ailing father. He looked sincere enough and was wearing a fine polished shirt tucked into brown pants that matched the color of his hair. He had introduced himself as Mr. Johnson earlier.
“As I said, I work for Mr. Everett,” Johnson said. “He and your pappy served together back in the Navy when he was just an ordinary seaman and the judge was an officer. He was on his way out here after just hearin’ about the judge’s accident, with an offer of aid, when the wheel broke on our buckboard out by Splendor Point. I was ridin’ along separately on my horse because we were goin’ our separate ways after we met with you. He sent me on ahead to come and fetch you.”
“What is he going to do for Daddy? Did he become a doctor after leaving the Navy?” Honor asked.
“No, ma’am,” Johnson shook his head. “But he is friends with the leadin’ doctor in all the thirty-seven states who has the most experience and success treatin’ a head injury like the one the judge has. Now, this doctor is in Houston, preparin’ to sail to South America. Mr. Everett is the only one that can stop him from goin’—some old debt or somethin’,” he hurriedly explained.
“This is wonderful! We must have this doctor immediately!” Honor cheered.
“Yes, of course, ma’am. Mr. Everett is only sorry he didn’t hear about this sooner. But Mr. Everett—he might need a little help from you with somethin’.”
“What do you mean?” Honor paused, staring at Johnson warily.
“Recently, he was out here negotiatin’ with your father to buy a tract of land along the Rock River,” Johnson shrugged. “Turns out, though, you are the rightful owner and the judge couldn’t sell it to him. The judge said he would contact you about it, but he must have had the accident before he could.”
“It must be as this is the first time I have heard about it. So, this Mr. Everett of yours will only help me get this doctor if I sell him this land? I thought he was a friend of my daddy. Seems like a friend would want to help out regardless,” Honor pointed out.
“Oh, no, ma’am. It’s not like that at all. It’s just important that Mr. Everett gets this land. It’s gonna be used to erect one of several watchtowers in the territory for fires just like the one you got going on here right now. The longer it takes to build these things, the more forest land could be lost and lives put in danger.”
Honor shook her head slightly contemptuously, glancing at an unconscious Whip on the bed. “I do not know what you are talking about in terms of fire towers or this Mr. Everett’s questionable morality, but I would sell heaven itself if it meant being able to get the help my daddy needs. I shall hitch up the coach,” she answered.
A relieved Johnson held out his hand, instead, nodding his head towards the door. “No time for that, ma’am. You can ride behind me on my horse. Every second could count in us getting a telegram out to the doctor. Once he’s gone to South America, he’ll be out of reach for months, far too late to help your pappy.”
“We must hurry, then!” Honor said, quickly leaning over to kiss Whip’s forehead before taking Johnson’s hand. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, Daddy. I’m going to do whatever it takes to help you,” she whispered.
She raced towards the door with Johnson, whirling it open just in time to bump into Blue River. He stared at both blankly for a moment, wondering what was going on.
“Oh, good, Blue River, you are here. Did they find where the fire is yet?” Honor asked.
“No, everyone is out looking for it, even the governor, but no sign of the smoke yet. We don’t know who sounded the alarm either,” Blue River shrugged.
“Well, I cannot worry about that right now. With the whole ranch on top of it, then the fire is as good as out. I need you to stay here and look after our daddy,” Honor instructed, already heading out the door.
“You are going somewhere? I did not think there would be anything that would make you leave the judge’s side.”
Honor paused for a while, aware that she as well thought that there really was nothing that could but things had changed. “I am leaving with this young man to help Daddy,” she explained. “Mr. Johnson is going to take me to a man at Splendor Point who is going to ensure that he has the finest doctor on the continent sent for, but time is short. Please look after him.”
She briefly kissed Blue River on the forehead and raced out with Johnson denying Blue River the opportunity to speak any more discouraging words. Her brother stared at their withdrawing backs, befuddled. He closed the door eventually, stepping into the room to meet a more welcome sight.
The judge was slowly opening his eyes.
“Honor … Honor Elizabeth, is that you?” his voice was weak and he writhed on the bed, stretching out his arm.
“Judge!!!” Blue River raced to his side, taking his hand. “Can y
ou hear me?!” he half shouted in joy.
“Yes. Yes, son, I can, and I thought I heard Honor Elizabeth,” Whip whispered.
“She was just here! She came all the way back from the East. The other girls too!” Blue River cried excitedly.
“Where are … they?” Whip asked wincing slightly with pain, failing to raise himself to a sitting position.
Blue River handing him two pillows to help him before rushing over to the window and throwing the shutters open.
“Honor! Honor, wait! It’s no use. She can’t hear me over that wind out there. She just rode off.”
By the time he turned to the judge, the bulky man had managed to raise his body slightly up, resting half of his back on the arranged pillows. As a proud man, Blue River knew his father would be upset if he realized how unkempt he looked, having been immobile on a sick bed for days.
“Son, son what happened to me?” Whip groaned, his grey eyebrows furrowing into a stern frown.
CHAPTER 9
* * *
“I can’t see a blasted sign of smoke anywhere and I’ve looked everywhere!”
Everyone gathered at the back of the house, frowning at the large turfs of Cedar Ledge that had become suddenly vague because of the violent weather. The wind blew dust everywhere, scattering a few heaps of hay along the fences of the ranch and making nearby voices sound like distant cries.
Dutch stared through a telescope he had lugged up to the roof with him, skeptical once more that there was indeed a fire. He had zoomed in on distant fields and the mountains beyond, yet nothing. The skies were clear of any sign of smoke rising from the surrounding reaches of the ranch.
Grunting under his breath, he shook his head at everyone on the field, which included, the governor and his wife, who had joined the confused party as soon as the bell was rung. Beside Connie, Lijuan was glaring up at Dutch with a concerned look, obviously displeased with his decision to scan the area by climbing on top of the roof.
The Wildes of the West 1_The Daughters of Half Breed Haven_Old west fiction of action adventure, romance & western family drama Page 19
