He had not shared this plan of escape with Lauralee knowing that she wouldn’t approve. She would say that it was risking his health by doing it.
In time, everything about the Cherokee would be understood by her, he thought warmly to himself. When she became as one with him as his wife she would by then know most of the customs of his people.
He would gladly teach her.
Something nagged at his consciousness that his father had said to him in the hereafter about marrying Lauralee. But no matter how hard he tried to remember it would not come to him. As each moment passed, things experienced in the afterworld were becoming vague to him.
But never would he forget the happiness of being with his family again.
Never would he forget how blessed he had been to have been granted such an experience.
Whenever he thought about his father no longer being alive, he would recall his father’s smile and his strong body as he stood with his family somewhere high above in the vast realm of the heavens. It made losing his father easier.
“I feel as though I’ve neglected Aunt Nancy,” Lauralee quickly blurted. She couldn’t tell him her true reason for being so quiet and pensive—that another man was on her mind.
She took one of his hands and gently held it. “Darling, would you understand if I went now and spent time with Aunt Nancy?” she murmured. “You see, I feel I owe her so much that I shall never be able to repay.”
Although she was going to spend some time with Nancy, it was not going to be now.
And, oh, how she hated lying to Dancing Cloud.
But this lie was necessary. It was being told to help further along their future, unhampered.
“Go,” Dancing Cloud said, leaning up on an elbow, reaching his lips to hers. “It has been a tiring day. This Cherokee needs some rest.”
Although he did need to rest, it wasn’t going to be at this very moment, he thought to himself. And, oh, how he hated lying to Lauralee.
But he felt that this lie was necessary. It was told to help further along their future, unhampered. The more quickly his body healed, the more quickly he could return to his people.
Lauralee did not know it yet, but he would insist on taking her with him this time when he left Mattoon. The altercation with McCloud had taught him that life could be way shorter than one plans.
“I feel that I should stay to feed you your supper,” Lauralee said, melting inside when he kissed her.
Fighting the need for her, Dancing Cloud eased away from her. “Did you not see me feed myself adequately enough today?” he said, still resting his weight on his one elbow. “I believe I can take care of myself well enough during the evening meal.”
Lauralee’s eyes widened. She couldn’t help but wonder why Dancing Cloud was trying to get rid of her, but she felt it was best not to question him about it. She had things to do. The longer she delayed, the harder it would be to tell Paul her true feelings.
“All right, if you truly feel you don’t need me, then I shall come shortly after supper,” she said, still questioning him with her eyes as she rose from the chair.
“You haven’t spent much time with Nancy, that’s for certain,” Dancing Cloud quickly interjected. “To make up for it, stay the entire evening with her. I will get my rest. Today has been tiring.”
“You truly don’t want me to return this evening?” she asked, stunned by his insistence to be alone.
“I always want you with me,” Dancing Cloud said softly. “But I must learn to share you with others. Tonight I share you with your aunt”
Still unsure about his willingness to be apart from her for the rest of the day, and evening, Lauralee stared down at him for a moment longer.
But knowing that this made her plans even more easier to carry out, she questioned him no further about it.
As she sat up from the chair, her silk dress wrapped provocatively around her legs, revealing their shape to Dancing Cloud. She could feel Dancing Cloud’s eyes raking over her. She was delighted with his response. She had dressed as beautifully as she could this morning just for him.
It worried her to realize that she would be seeing Paul Brown later and that he might think she was wearing her best clothes to encourage his attentions. This was an impression she didn’t want to convey at all.
“This Cherokee’s eyes cannot get enough of you today,” Dancing Cloud said, reaching to grab her hand. He drew her down onto the bed beside him. He moved his fingers over the swell of her breasts, wishing the barrier of silk was not there to impede the touch of her soft, sweet flesh against his fingertips.
Lauralee sucked in a quavering breath and closed her eyes as she leaned her breast into his hand. “I have so missed our private moments together,” she whispered, her body trembling with need of him. “Have you also missed me as badly?”
Dancing Cloud slid his hand upward and cupped her chin within its palm. He drew her mouth to his. “I hunger for you, always,” he whispered. He crushed his lips against hers, the flames of desire lapping at his loins.
Footsteps entering the room caused Lauralee’s heart to skip a beat. Fearing that it might be her uncle Abner, she yanked herself free of Dancing Cloud and rose shakily to her feet.
Her face hot with a blush, she turned slowly. She sighed with relief when she found herself gazing wide-eyed at Dr. Kemper instead of her uncle.
The doctor’s jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed as he looked from Lauralee, to Dancing Cloud, and then back at Lauralee.
“Lauralee, I’ve come to say that should he feel up to it, Dancing Cloud can leave the hospital as early as tomorrow morning,” he said, his voice drawn and tight. “That is, if Dancing Cloud has somewhere to go. He must not travel yet as far as his home in the mountains. The Petersons. Lauralee, do you think the Petersons will allow Dancing Cloud to stay at their house for the short time he needs for further recuperation?”
“Yes, I believe the Petersons will allow him to stay at their home until he is able to travel,” Lauralee said, yet truly not certain at all how her uncle would take this news. No one knew as much as Lauralee how her uncle felt about Dancing Cloud. His resentment seemed to lay way deeper than was even decent.
It was up to her to change all of this for Dancing Cloud. It was important that her aunt and uncle grow to like him as much as Lauralee loved him.
“Then that’s settled,” Dr. Kemper said, coming on into the room.
Lauralee stepped aside and stood breathlessly watching as Dr. Kemper slowly unwrapped the bandage from around Dancing Cloud’s chest and shoulder.
When the bullet wound was revealed to her, a sick feeling engulfed her. She hadn’t been aware of how much surgery had been required to remove the bullet. There was a wide, puckering scar across his right shoulder, reaching down across his chest.
Dancing Cloud winced and gritted his teeth as the doctor pressed and pushed on the skin around the wound. Dancing Cloud glanced down at it and saw it for the first time.
Hate swelled inside his heart against the one responsible for not only this infliction upon his body, but so much hurt inflicted inside his heart. He now knew, from the short time with his mother in the hereafter, that the very same Yankee who had ravaged his village and had killed many innocent Cherokee, had also shot Boyd!
He thanked the Good Spirit for allowing him to remember some of what had been said between himself and his loved ones amid that peaceful, swirling white light.
Dancing Cloud vowed again to himself that he would find Clint McCloud. He would end the Yankee’s days of murder and plundering.
Ii, yes, somehow their paths would cross again.
Dancing Cloud looked toward the window. When night fell in its cloak of black and the lawman was asleep outside the door in the corridor, Dancing Cloud would flee from this room and get the healing powers from the water.
So much depended on his total recovery . . . his people’s future, and his and Lauralee’s lifetime together.
“Joe Dancing Clou
d, I’m going to leave the bandage off now,” Dr. Kemper said, dropping the soiled bandage in a wastebasket. “Ofttimes the air can help the healing process better than leaving a wound covered. We’ll see how you do today. If I feel you should be bandaged again, I’ll do it tomorrow before you leave the hospital.”
Dr. Kemper gazed in silence down at his patient a moment longer, then turned to Lauralee. “He looks tired,” he said dryly. “I’d suggest you go home so that he can get some rest.”
“I was just leaving,” Lauralee said, smiling awkwardly at the doctor.
Dr. Kemper nodded, gave Dancing Cloud another glance over his shoulder, then left the room.
Lauralee knelt down beside the bed and gently stroked Dancing Cloud’s cheeks with her hands. “Darling, are you going to be all right?” she murmured. “If you insist that I stay, I shall.”
“You heard the doctor,” Dancing Cloud said, taking one her hands, kissing its palm. “It is best that you leave.”
“And you don’t want me to come again until tomorrow?” Lauralee asked, searching his eyes for the truth in his response.
“Ii, yes, that would be best,” Dancing Cloud said softly. “Then tomorrow I shall leave this place. We shall never be apart again.”
“You do understand, don’t you, that you won’t be able to leave Mattoon until you are truly better?”
“I would not rush into anything that might in the end harm my people. I will not plan my lengthy travel to the mountains until my body is strong and able.”
His eyes widened. He leaned quickly up on an elbow again. “My so-qui-li, horse,” he gasped. “My horse is lost to me!”
“No, darling,” Lauralee said, gently placing a hand on his cheek. “Don’t you remember me telling you? Noah Brown. The man who brought you to the hospital? He also rescued your horse.” She swallowed hard at the thought again of what lay ahead of her. Her meeting with Paul. “Your horse will be waiting for you at the Petersons’ whenever you have a need for it.”
Dancing Cloud eased back down on the bed. “My mind is not as clear and as alert as it normally is,” he said, sighing heavily. “This Noah Brown is a man of good heart. I owe him much. So very much.”
Lauralee nodded. When she realized that he had drifted off into a sound sleep, she tiptoed from the room.
As she stepped out into the corridor she glanced over at Nancy’s closed door. She was torn between needs.
A need to go and sit with Nancy.
And a need to go and end this thing with Paul Brown!
She went and placed her hand at the doorknob of Nancy’s room, to at least tell her that she loved her. She stopped when she heard Abner’s voice wafting from the room.
Realizing that Nancy had Abner for the moment to keep her company, Lauralee turned and fled down the corridor.
When she reached the front door and opened it she stood frozen in place when she found herself face to face with the very man of her many midnight nightmares.
The damn Yankee from the Civil War!
The man who raped and killed her mother!
The sight of him made Lauralee’s knees grow limp as a dizziness swept through her.
Clint stared disbelievingly back at her. He had come to Dr. Kemper’s to see if it was true that Sheriff Decker had actually placed a guard outside the Indian’s door to protect him. Never had he expected to come face to face with Abner Peterson’s niece! And he knew for certain this woman was Lauralee Johnston. He had stalked Dancing Cloud while she was still with him.
As she stood in a strange sort of trance, as though she knew him enough to be frightened of him, a plan came quickly to his mind. He would abduct Lauralee. This was one way to lure Dancing Cloud into his clutches. Then Clint would finally end this vengeance that gnawed at his insides like a sore.
And this time, Noah Brown wouldn’t get a chance to interfere! This would be between only Dancing Cloud and himself.
And to hell with Judge Peterson, Clint thought bitterly to himself. After hearing that the judge was in on actually protecting the life of a Rebel, Clint saw him as no better than a gray coat himself!
Another thing. Clint needed to get this damn thing over with. He had other pressing matters, both personal and business, that needed tended to in North Carolina. His wife should have had her baby by now. He was anxious to see if the baby resembled him, or her. If it took after her, he’d yank it from her arms and get rid of it so fast her head would swim.
But Clint sure as hell had to take care of Dancing Cloud before he left Mattoon. The opportunity might never be there again to kill the Cherokee.
Clint looked quickly around and made sure that no one was in the corridor or waiting room.
He glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one was coming up the steps.
Then when he realized that the coast was clear, he grabbed Lauralee around the waist.
This made Lauralee come quickly out of her stunned state. She slapped and kicked at Clint. She tried to scream, but he quickly clamped one of his hands over her mouth.
With his one arm anchoring her to him, her back against his left hip, Clint dragged Lauralee down the steps. The shadows of evening gave him the cover he needed to get her to his horse and make his escape.
“I hope to find out why you looked as though you saw a ghost when you saw me,” Clint grumbled as his eyes watched around him. “I’d say that was strange behavior for someone you’ve never laid eyes on before.”
Her eyes wide over his hand, Lauralee yanked and tugged at his arm, and then the hand that was held across her mouth.
But nothing could budge either his hand or his arm.
They seemed glued to her.
There was one thing in her favor. The man had a wooden leg. She could see that his movements down the steps were hampered by it. As he struggled to get her down the steps, the wooden leg dragged heavily behind him.
Lauralee’s eyes widened even more as she suddenly recalled Dancing Cloud saying that his assailant had a wooden leg.
Could this man be the one and the same?
Clint McCloud.
She remembered Dancing Cloud saying that his assailant’s name was Clint McCloud!
She was then aware of something else. Of the feel of a pistol grinding into her back as Clint walked her toward his horse.
The pistol.
It was in a holster.
It was so very, very temptingly close.
If she could just reach behind her . . .
When he finally got to his horse and began untying his reins, Lauralee gave his good leg a swift, backward kick.
Clint yelped with pain and loosened his grip on her enough for her to get a solid hold on the handle of his pistol.
As he reached for her, to force her onto his horse, she swung the pistol from his holster and aimed it at him. “You no good damn Yankee,” she hissed, holding a steady aim on him. “Now you’re going to pay for all of the evil you have done in your lifetime.”
Clint went pale. Not so much over Lauralee having for the moment got the best of him. He remembered another lady of his past and how she had drawn a pistol on him, her exact words—“You no good damn Yankee”—having haunted him through the years. It had been only moments later when one of his soldiers had disarmed her.
Clint had enjoyed raping and killing her for having humiliated him in front of his regiment of soldiers that day.
This woman standing before him today was an exact replica of that lady those many years ago, as though she had come back to life to haunt him.
His heart pounding, he fitted his good foot in the stirrup, and as he had been forced to learn long ago, he swung his wooden leg over the horse.
Quickly in the saddle, and taking the chance that this lady’s aim would not be accurate enough, he gave her one last stare, then snapped his reins and rode away.
“Stop!” Lauralee cried. Her hand trembled as she held her aim on him, yet knew the chances were good that he would escape.
She knew nothi
ng about firearms.
She even feared them.
When he did not stop, she closed her eyes, held her face sideways back from the pistol, and pulled the trigger. . . .
Chapter 16
Her eyes were deeper than the depth
of waters still’d at evening.
—DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI
Nothing came from the pistol but a noise hardly as loud as a firecracker. Lauralee stared down at the firearm, stunned. It had misfired. When she had finally been given the opportunity to avenge her mother’s death, the damn Yankee’s pistol hadn’t worked!
She looked quickly up and watched the man disappear around a street corner on his horse. She threw the pistol down and stamped a foot, then turned and ran back inside the hospital.
When she reached Nancy’s room she didn’t stop to knock. She ran on inside.
Her sudden noisy entrance caused Abner to rise quickly from his chair at Nancy’s bedside. He went to Lauralee and placed gentle hands on her arms and gazed down at her questioningly. She seemed desperate about something. She was breathless. She was flushed. Her eyes were wildly pleading up at him.
“Whatever has happened?” Abner said, searching her face. “Is it the Cherokee? Has he worsened?”
“No,” she blurted out. She pointed toward the door. “Uncle Abner. I saw him. I saw him.”
“You saw Dancing Cloud?” Abner said, arching an eyebrow.
“No,” Lauralee cried. “I saw the man . . . who . . . raped and killed my mother. I’m certain it was he. I’ve carried that man’s face around with me since I was five. Uncle Abner, he was here. He was entering the hospital. When he saw me it was as though he knew me. He grabbed me. He was abducting me.”
She had to stop to get her breath.
“Abduct you?” Abner said, dropping his hands to his sides. “Your mother was raped? The same man killed your mother? He’s here now?”
Afraid that she was going to upset Nancy, Lauralee looked past Abner and found Nancy’s soft, brown eyes on her.
But she had to place her worries about Nancy behind her. She had to get her uncle to go after the man. If he got away, Lauralee would never find him again.
Wild Abandon Page 15
