Mountain Laurel

  About five years ago her parents, along with Thomas and Bailey and Linq, had visited her in Paris, and she’d been embarrassed that she wasn’t using the name her father had given her. It was as though she were ashamed of it. Her father had laughed at her and said that a name was just a word, that she was his daughter no matter what she called herself.

  She told ’Ring about that visit to Paris, how Thomas and Linq as well as her father had been restless and wanted to get back home. “But my father did look handsome in evening clothes.” Bailey, however, had loved Paris, and two times her father and Thomas had had to bail him out of jail, where he’d been put for lewd conduct. Her father refused to tell her exactly what Bailey had done.

  It began to rain again, and it was cold, so they snuggled together by the fire and ate turkey and rabbit (which they were getting sick of) and Maddie talked more and more about her parents, telling ’Ring about her mother’s paintings that were already being acclaimed as having documented a time that never would be again.

  It was at night when it was so cold that to keep warm they had to lay together, wrapped in each other’s arms, that she began to feel her confusion. Never before had she been so aware of the fact that she was such a misfit. She belonged to the silken world of opera, but she also belonged to the wild world of Jefferson Worth. And where did this man fit into her life?

  She put her face up to his to be kissed, but he lifted his chin away from her.

  “Why?” she whispered. “Why do you say you love me then turn away from me? Why do you look at me so…so lustily yet touch me as little as you can? Really touch me, I mean.”

  “Ah, sweetheart, don’t you know how many people are watching us?”

  “Watching us?”

  “There’s three of them out there. They’ve been near you from the first. They follow you, only now I think one of them is following me rather than you. Pardon my fastidiousness, but I don’t care for performing for an audience.”

  “Who are the other two?” She knew about Hears Good, and now she knew why he hadn’t come to her the night she’d whistled to him. He’d known that ’Ring was near. She couldn’t help smiling. If Hears Good had left her in the care of ’Ring, it meant that the Indian approved of him. That was high praise indeed.

  “One is the man who took my horse.”

  “You mean the gambler?”

  “Gambler?” He pulled away a bit to look at her.

  “That’s what he looks like: a slick riverboat gambler. He should wear a gold brocade vest and a white panama hat. I wonder if he can sing.”

  “He can’t,” ’Ring said quickly.

  “Mmmm, I wonder. Who else is following us?”

  “One of the men you meet,” he said, and there was derision in his voice. He picked up the hand that was wearing Laurel’s ring. “The man who gave you the ring.”

  She snatched her hand away from him and hid it between them. “Is that why you don’t touch me?” she whispered.

  “Other than the fact that I promised, you mean?”

  She laughed. “Some promise. You said that our bodies fit together perfectly and that you’d like to put my fingers in your mouth one by one and suck on them and that you’d like to—”

  “Shut up,” he snapped.

  Maddie looked at him and saw that he was under a great strain. “Wasn’t there some mention of my shoulders and the inside of my elbow?”

  “Maddie, stop talking.” There was sweat breaking out on his forehead.

  “What else?” She squirmed against him just a bit, as though she were looking for a comfortable place. “Something about my feet, wasn’t there? You’d like to kiss my feet. Was that something you’ve learned? No man has ever kissed my feet before.”

  “No man has kissed any of you before,” he said in a gruff voice that sounded as though he were in pain.

  “Ha! That’s what you think. I’ve had men drink champagne from my slippers. A man once offered me a ruby necklace to go to bed with him. Men have offered me everything to be their mistress. But it is true that no man has ever said that he wanted to make love to my foot before. Shoulders, yes, but feet, no.”

  At that ’Ring put his hand on her jaw and turned her head so that he could kiss her. And Maddie lost herself in that kiss. She didn’t care who was watching them, all that mattered was this man and this moment.

  “ ’Ring,” she whispered, and her free arm went around him. “My ’Ring.”

  He was the one who pulled away from her. “We can’t, Maddie. No, I won’t. I’ll not perform for an audience. There are too many people watching us.”

  She turned away and snuggled her back against his front, and between them was such a tension that Maddie knew her body was vibrating with her desire. Her hands were trembling and images kept forming in her mind: When she’d pulled the thorns from him and had run her hands over his legs; the day he’d helped push the coach from the water and he’d removed his shirt; the night he’d come to her wearing nothing but a loincloth.

  “Maddie…” he said, and there was warning in his voice. “Think of something else.”

  “How do you know what I’m thinking?”

  He held out his hand toward the fire, and when he did so she could see that it was shaking, just as hers was.

  “Why did you tell me no the day I took the thorns from you?”

  “Because then I was Captain Montgomery to you. I was a good-looking, well-built man and we were alone and you are one passionate woman.”

  She snorted at that. “Even your sister says you’re ugly.”

  “Ugly in my family is relative.”

  She groaned. “Spare me. I knew from the moment I met you that you were vain, but I had no idea of the depth of your vanity.”

  “Who has the best voice in the world?”

  She smiled in the darkness. “I get your point. So, now you think it’s different? Now you think I see you as anything besides a good-looking man?”

  “What do you think?”

  She held his hand in hers and looked at it. He had long, thin fingers and beautifully shaped nails. What did she think of him? At this moment she couldn’t imagine being without him. From the first he seemed to know her better than anyone had ever known her. He was right that at first she hadn’t paid much attention to him except as a beautiful man, but now…Now she remembered the times he’d risked his life to protect her, how he’d climbed up a cliff to be with her, how he’d come for her after she’d sung Carmen. She thought of all the wounds on his body that he’d suffered because of her. She thought of the times she’d drugged him and tricked him, yet he was still here with her, still trying to help her.

  “General Yovington has been helping me,” she said softly. “Some men took my little sister Laurel, and if I’m to get her back, I have to sing in six camps, and at each place I am to meet a man and exchange letters with him. They promised I would see Laurel this time, but they lied to me.” She held up her hand. “The man gave me the ring I sent Laurel as proof that they have her. He said…he said that they would kill you if you didn’t stop interfering in this.”

  She choked back tears. “They say that they’ll give me back Laurel at the last town, but I’m afraid. I’m beginning to think they won’t do it. I’m afraid they’ll kill her because of the stupid war they want to start.” She couldn’t stop the tears. “And now I’m afraid they’re going to hurt you too.”

  He turned her toward him and held her tightly. He even put his leg over hers as though to protect her completely. “I know, sweetheart. I know.”

  She cried for some time. “How can you know? You don’t know how dangerous these men are. He said—”

  “You don’t have to tell me, I heard it all.”

  “Heard it all?” She sniffed and he offered her a wet, soiled handkerchief. “What did you hear?”

  “Everything the man said to you. You’re safe now, so why don’t you go to sleep? We’ll talk about this in the morning.”

  She pulled away from him
. “I want to know what you know. What you heard.” There was some anger in her voice.

  “All right, I’ll tell you. You didn’t think that I’d let you drug me a second time, did you? You and Edith were so obvious that a blind man could have seen what you were doing. While you were taking so long in the outhouse, I had Toby replace some of your drugged figs with something else. From the taste of them, I think he used horse manure, but at least I wasn’t put to sleep that time. I also found out that you cared enough about me to keep me from eating a lethal dose. You and Edith should stop playing around with that stuff until you learn how to use it.”

  “You tricked me. You pretended to fall asleep. You flailed about that tent as though you were a dying clown. When I think of how…You make me furious!”

  “I make you furious? What was I supposed to do? Tell you that I hadn’t eaten poisoned figs? You were so eager to get out of there that I was afraid you’d shoot me if I didn’t let you go.”

  She started struggling to get away from him. “So you followed me, didn’t you? You knew I wanted to go by myself and yet you followed me.”

  He gave her a look of astonishment. “Your fine Crow warrior friend is following you and you’re grateful to him, but I follow you and you’re angry with me. That doesn’t make sense.”

  “Hears Good is protecting me.”

  “And what do you think I’m doing? You think I want to sneak around among cactus and scrub oak and scratch myself, not to mention my horse? Is that what you think I want to do?”

  She started to move away from him, but the chain was holding them together, and since he wasn’t moving, she couldn’t go very far. “I don’t like being spied on.”

  “I don’t like having the woman I love doing things that need spying on, so we’re even.” He softened his voice. “Maddie, I was just trying to protect you. Is that so bad?”

  “It is if I don’t want you to protect me. I can take care of myself.”

  “Ha! If Hears Good hadn’t sent that arrow flying, that man would have—” He broke off, remembering that man starting to touch her, then he pulled her back into his arms, holding her full length against his body.

  “Maddie, let’s not fight. I’ve done what I felt I had to in order to protect you and to find out what was going on in your life. I’ve never meant to offend you in any way.”

  Maddie put her hands over her face and started crying again. He held her close as he stroked her back. “Don’t cry, baby, there’s nothing to cry about. All lovers have quarrels.”

  With her arms pinned between them, she couldn’t hit him, so she settled for kicking him in the shins.

  He gave a grunt of pain. “What was that for?”

  “I have more important things to cry about than quarrels with you. And besides that, we’re not lovers. We’re—”

  “Yes,” he said softly, “what are we?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore. Six months ago I knew exactly who I was and what I wanted in life, but now everything seems different. I can’t seem to figure out anything.”

  “That’s the best news I’ve heard. Maybe the best news I’ve ever heard in my life.”

  Maybe how she felt was good news to him, but it wasn’t to her. She put her face in the hollow of his shoulder and inhaled of him.

  “Does it bother you that we aren’t lovers?” he asked.

  “No, of course not. A lady should wait until she’s married. A lady—” She stopped because ’Ring kissed her, and as he did so, he slipped his hand up inside her loose blouse and touched the bare skin of her stomach.

  “ ’Ring, I don’t think…”

  “Shhh, sweetheart, be still.”

  She was quiet as his hand moved up to her breast, cupping it, holding her flesh in his big, warm palm. His thumb touched the peak of her breast. Her breath stopped in her throat. Her eyes closed and she leaned her head back as his lips touched her neck.

  “Don’t you have any idea what I’d like to do to you?” There was pain in his voice. “Are you so innocent that you don’t know how much I want you, how long I’ve wanted you?”

  “No, I…”

  “I didn’t think so. I want you so much that Toby laughs at me. I want to touch you, your skin, your hair. I want to feel the inside of your body. I want to know you, Maddie, know you as well and as completely as any man can know a woman.”

  He moved his head so that he could touch her ear with his tongue. His teeth made little nibbling bites and the hairs on Maddie’s body began to stand up straight.

  “ ’Ring,” she whispered.

  “Yes, baby, I’m here. I’m always here, always near you, always wanting you.”

  He was kissing her neck now, but not just kissing it, touching her skin with his tongue. She began to tremble, and when she did, he stopped.

  For a moment she lay still in the circle of his arms. She didn’t care if the whole US Army was watching them; she didn’t want him to stop. She put her hand up to his face and tried to pull him down to her.

  “No,” he said. “I can’t. I mean, baby, that I’m not made of steel. Although for the last few days parts of me have felt as though they are. I can’t go on. You just be still and go to sleep. Tomorrow we’ll go down the mountain and we’ll have time for privacy.”

  Maddie lay still in his arms, and after a moment her trembling stopped and her mind began to function again. She remembered his saying that for a very long time he’d wanted her. If he wanted her so much, how could he stop? Why wasn’t he trembling too?

  She lifted her free hand and slowly unbuttoned the top button of his shirt.

  “Maddie, what are you doing? You can’t—”

  She put her lips on the warm brown skin of his chest, rubbed her face in the hair on his chest, and as she was doing so, she unfastened another button.

  “Maddie, please don’t. We can’t…”

  She moved her lips lower. He was warmer than she was and his body was very hard, with no fat on it, just warm, hard skin over muscle. Her hand slid inside his shirt to touch his ribs, her fingers moving over them to feel the strength of him. He wasn’t talking now as her mouth moved lower to his belly as she kissed and then very gently bit his skin.

  When she reached the top of his belt buckle she stopped, and for a moment she rested her face against his hard stomach. There was sweat breaking out on her body and her breath seemed to come from deep, deep inside her. “ ’Ring,” she whispered, but he said nothing.

  She pulled away from him enough so that she could see his face. She’d never seen such a look on a human before, except maybe on some of the Renaissance statues in Florence. It was a look of pain and longing and suffering and ecstasy. Everything combined in one look that, for a moment, as seen on this beautiful man, made her heart stop. The look on his face was as beautiful as the best aria ever written. The look on his face was as beautiful as the voice God had given her.

  “ ’Ring,” she whispered, and moved back up into his arms.

  “I love you, Maddie,” he said at last. “I have been looking for you. I left my home and the family that I love, the family that needs me, to find you. You are part of me.”

  “Yes,” she answered. “I think perhaps that I am.”

  She settled into his arms and let him hold her, not saying anything, just lying there together, her body trembling and alive, but she was content to just be near him now.

  Chapter 13

  In the morning they started down the mountain, breakfasting on another rabbit, and Maddie laughed at ’Ring when he complained about more rabbit.

  “This is the man who ate hardtack rather than my vegetables and fresh bread?” she teased. “My father could live on nothing but rabbit and I doubt that he’d complain.”

  “Your father,” he said under his breath. “That old man?”

  “Old? How can you say that? Why, you…” She began to chase him, and he ran in front of her, staying very close to her but as far away as the chain would allow, and when she c
ame close to stumbling, he was there to keep her from falling.

  Maddie didn’t think that she’d ever had such a carefree day in her life. For this one day she wouldn’t allow any problems to cloud her mind.

  They laughed and teased each other all the way down the mountain. Maddie soon realized that she had as much power over him as he had over her. When she started to fall and he came close to catch her, she touched him in the most unusual places, sometimes at the inside of his thigh, sometimes her breasts hit his body.

  He laughed and caught her in his arms and twirled her around in a circle and then they went rolling down the mountain, his big body protecting her from the thorns and sharp rocks.

  “My pompous captain,” she said, laughing with him, rolling with him.

  Maddie heard the horse, but since ’Ring was kissing her neck, she didn’t pay any attention to it.

  “Shhh,” he said, lifting his head to listen.

  “What is it?”

  “My horse.”

  “Mmmm,” Maddie said without much interest. “You know, it’s rather private here.” It took her a moment to regain her senses, but she pushed away to look at him. “What do you mean, your horse?”

  He had his hand inside her blouse. “Buttercup.”

  It took a moment longer to clear her mind. Between his hands and his mouth, she couldn’t think very clearly. “ ’Ring, listen to me. If that’s your horse, then that means that robber is near us. Are you sure you can recognize the sound of your horse?”

  “Perfect pitch, remember,” he said, and put his mouth to her neck again.

  She had to push at him three times before she could move him, and then she had to use her knees to make any impression on him. “ ’Ring, listen to me. We have to do something.”

  “I plan to do something. I’m going to go get my horse. I have a score to settle with that man who robbed us.”

  Maddie’s eyes widened. “I meant that we have to get out of here. The horse isn’t that important. Let’s go down the mountain. I’ll buy you another horse, or—you’re rich, you can buy your own horse.”