Before the Dawn

  “You can rinse with the other,” he told her quietly. He then handed her a bar of scented soap and a cloth and she went to work.

  The soap smelled like violets. “Where’d you get this soap?” she asked as she rubbed a lather into the cloth.

  “Found it in town. Thought you might like it better than the plain soap I use.”

  “It smells wonderful. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  While she washed, he refilled the first cauldron and set it back on the fire so its water would be hot for his turn in the tub.

  Leah stood, ready to be rinsed. She was once again transformed into a nymph in a waterfall, then she stepped out gleaming and refreshed. He tossed her a towel, then took off his shirt. Leah paused in her drying to feast her eyes on his male beauty. As he tipped over the washtub to rid it of her water, she found herself fascinated by the play of his muscles. She’d never seen his rich brown skin in the full light of day nor the long faint scars traversing the skin of his lower arms. The cuts looked very old. “Did you get those tangling with a bear?”

  He looked down at his arms, then back at her. “No,” he responded quietly. “I gave these to myself with a knife—after Sand Creek.”

  Leah face reflected her confusion. “Why?”

  “Grief, anger. It was how we expressed our pain. The streams were red with blood that day…”

  Leah couldn’t imagine being filled with that much heartache, but then she’d never seen children butchered or had her way of life destroyed. “I didn’t mean to pry.”

  “You don’t have to apologize. To be with me, you need to know.” He then said, “Do me a favor and make sure I’m not burning up those beans.”

  She nodded and went inside to check.

  Leah ate her beans in the afternoon sun. Dressed in nothing but a clean, knee-length chemise far too thin to be worn anywhere but beneath her clothing, she sat beside the silent Ryder. “Did I open up old wounds?”

  He shook his head. “No, but sometimes I feel that wounds are all life’s ever given me.”

  He turned to face her and she saw the raw honesty in his eyes. She reached up and gently cupped his jaw. He took her hand in his and kissed her fingertips, saying, “And then you came into my life, tossing me into the air and defending Louis at every turn, no matter what I threw your way.”

  The quiet awe in his voice and eyes filled her heart. Leah responded, “You’re a very special man, Ryder Damien.”

  He smiled. “Be my heart, carinita…marry me…”

  The love Leah had for him surged over her dikes and flowed free. Tears filled her eyes.

  He grinned and traced her cheek. “Are you going to say yes, or not?”

  “Yes,” she whispered thickly.

  He pulled her into his arms and held her tight.

  “Yes,” she voiced again, happily. “Yes.”

  That night, Ryder made love to her on a quilt placed beneath the stars.

  He was up before dawn. After the rousing night they’d had she couldn’t imagine why he seemed intent upon making her wake up too.

  “Wake up, Morenita. We need to get moving.”

  Too sleepy to believe he was actually talking to her, she asked, “What time is it?”

  “Almost five.”

  “Five? Ryder, where could you possibly be going at this hour?” She pulled the sheets back over her head.

  “To find the King.”

  She groaned. “Can’t we wait until later? It’s still dark. He’s probably asleep.”

  He grinned. “I’m not leaving you here alone, so come on sleepyhead, get up.”

  Feeling like a recalcitrant child, Leah threw back the sheets. Naked as an angel, she lay there with her eyes closed, hoping he’d change his mind. “Why couldn’t I have fallen in love with a dentist? I bet they don’t go chasing around in the dark looking for elk.”

  He laughed. “I’m giving you ten minutes, then you’re coming, dressed or not.”

  Leah cracked with a smile. “You’d prefer the not part of that sentence, I’m betting.”

  “You’d win, now come on,” he said, whining like a little boy anxious to open a gift.

  Leah sat up. “I can’t wait to see what you’re like at Christmas time.”

  He grinned while she left the bed to get dressed.

  They’d ridden about an hour when Ryder turned to her with a finger across his lips, signaling silence. Leah stopped her mount.

  He then whispered. “There’s an elk up ahead.”

  Still partially asleep, Leah hid a yawn behind her hand.

  “I want you to dismount quietly.”

  Leah nodded and very slowly got out of the saddle. Standing beside her horse, she looked around. She didn’t see anything moving among the trees surrounding them, but she knew better than to doubt his claim. When she turned back she saw Ryder untying a big beaded bag from his saddle she must’ve been too sleepy to notice earlier because she didn’t remember seeing him add the thing to his gear. The bag appeared to be made out of soft pale leather and the intricate red-and-black beadwork adorning it must have taken many hours to complete. He set the large oblong bag upon the ground, and out of it came the biggest bow Leah had ever seen in life.

  “What’re you going to do with that?”

  “Guess.”

  Leah stared. “You’re going to shoot the elk?”

  “We need meat for the coming winter.”

  Leah had seen elk before. They were stately, regal creatures. The idea of eating such a beautiful animal did not sit well. “Can’t we eat something else?”

  “I like elk,” he responded easily.

  Leah watched as he withdrew a handful of arrows. The ends were decorated with a single feather. “Why the feathers?”

  “To tell your arrow from someone else’s.”

  She supposed that made sense, more sense than eating elk.

  “Let’s go,” he told her softly. “Quiet now and stay behind me.”

  Leah nodded, but felt no better about the event to come.

  As he dropped to the ground and began to shimmy up a small rise, she did the same. Leah could feel stones and twigs digging into her knees and the palms of her hands, but forced herself to ignore both them and the pain they caused. When he stopped so did she. When he slowly raised his head to see what lay ahead, she followed his example and saw the biggest, most magnificent elk she’d ever seen.

  “Is that the King?” she whispered.

  He nodded.

  The King stood many hands high, and the muscular development in his dark brown chest and legs spoke to his power. The rack atop his head was large and ornate. Leah knew that antlers that spectacular denoted a male in his prime.

  Beside her Ryder was rising silently to his feet all the while raising the bow. Leah looked at the elk standing there so regally in the soft morning light and without thinking jumped up and began yelling and flapping her arms. “Run King! Run!”

  The elk bounded away.

  A frozen Ryder stared at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. “What the hell did you do that for?”

  A guilty Leah looked down at the toes of her boots.

  “Do you know how long I’ve been after that elk?” He didn’t give her a chance to answer. “Eight years.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Ryder didn’t believe her for a minute. “Lightning’s going to strike you down, lying like that. You aren’t a bit sorry.”

  In reality she really wasn’t. “He was too beautiful.”

  “Be glad you are too. Let’s get back to the horses.”

  The ride back to the cabin was a silent one. When he hadn’t spoken a word to her by the end of the first half hour, Leah asked, “Are you ever going to speak to me again?”

  “No.”

  She smiled.

  He added. “You’d make a brave a terrible mate.”

  “I couldn’t let you shoot that magnificent animal.”

  “So what are you going to eat this winter
, tree bark?”

  She didn’t reply.

  “Where do you think the meat on your table comes from?” Ryder asked.

  “The butcher shop, where they have everyday meat, like chickens, fish, and pigs. Back home, we didn’t eat elk.”

  “You’ve never had venison of any kind?”

  “No,” she told him.

  “Well, here we eat it a lot.”

  Leah raised an eyebrow.

  “I’ll pass.”

  “You can’t pass.”

  “Sure I can.”

  He went silent again.

  She said, “I don’t think I should go with you next time.”

  “I don’t think I’m going to ask you to.”

  She peered over at him. “You really are mad, aren’t you?”

  “So mad, I want your drawers.”

  Leah snorted. “My what?”

  His eyes were twinkling, “You heard me.”

  “I’m not giving you my drawers.”

  “Sure you are. You rarely have them on when you’re with me anyway, so that’s your punishment. Hand them over.”

  Leah looked around at all the nature surrounding them. “Here?”

  “Now.”

  She was so amazed and amused she didn’t know what to do. She had cost him his elk, and she probably did owe restitution, but this punishment was both novel and provocative.

  “I’m waiting, carinita.”

  The lust in his eyes made her nipples harden and her thighs pulse. Leah dismounted. Their gazes locked. Lifting her black skirt she undid the strings and slipped them off.

  Eyes blazing, he held out his hand. She walked over and gave him his boon. He put them into his saddlebag.

  “Now—” he whispered. Reaching over he caught up the reins of her horse and tied them to his saddle. “You can ride with me…”

  The intense heat flaring between them made her body bloom with desire. He lifted her and placed her sideways on his mount’s back. As he looked down into her eyes and boldly undid the buttons on her blouse she thought she might dissolve. She did dissolve when he kissed her. When he finally kicked the horse into a trot, she couldn’t have recited her name.

  There was more restitution to be paid, she learned. He stopped more than once on their tree-shrouded journey to reacquaint himself with how well her nipples rose and hardened in response to his touch. At one point, passion had them in such a storm they dismounted. He tossed down a bedroll, and there in the sheltered silence he showed her erotically and explicitly why he preferred her without drawers. Her release made her scream his name.

  They stayed at the cabin for another two days, days filled with bliss, love, and happiness. On the ride back to Sunrise, she asked playfully, “You planning on taking all my drawers when we get back?”

  He swung around to face her. “Yep. Haven’t I proven to you yet that you don’t need them?”

  She shook her head with amusement. “So how long is this punishment going to last?”

  He looked toward the sky as if thinking. “Let’s see? I’ve been after the King for eight years.” He met her eyes again. “Eight years.”

  She guffawed. “You can’t have my drawers for eight years.”

  “Why not, they’re not promised to another man, are they?”

  She reached over and socked him in the arm. “No.”

  He shrugged. “Then they’re mine.”

  She couldn’t believe he hadn’t as of yet cracked a smile. The next thirty years were definitely going to be interesting. “Will you be this bold when you’re an old man?”

  “If you’re by my side, you can bet on it.”

  Dusk was settling in when they finally made it back to Sunrise. Thanks to the lusty brave holding the reins, her clothes were grass-stained and wrinkled, but by then she was properly buttoned up. Because the twin French braids knotted at her neck, her hair didn’t look as if she’d been well loved atop a bedroll on the ground. Although her lips might appear kiss-swollen, no one would know that the future Mrs. Ryder Damien had returned wearing no drawers.

  They found Sam and Mable out back grilling chickens. Smiles met smiles. Leah went over and gave Sam a hug, and then a big fat kiss on his cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  Sam hugged her back. “You’re welcome. Everything all straightened out?”

  “Yes.” Because of Sam’s loyalty and persistence, she would be happy and loved for the rest of her days.

  Leah then looked to the pleased Mable and declared, “Mable, if you ever decide you don’t want him, send him to me. I’ll take him.”

  Ryder looked wounded. “I thought you were going to marry me?”

  Before Leah could respond, Sam’s face brightened, and he yelled, “Hallelujah! Mable pack your bags. We’re getting married in the morning. This boy’s finally got himself a woman!”

  Mable simply shook her head. “Whatever you say, Samuel.”

  A short while later, they all sat down to dinner at the kitchen table. While they were eating, Sam asked, “Ryder, did you see the King up at the cabin?”

  Ryder looked over at Leah. She kept her eyes on her plate, hoping he couldn’t see her smile.

  He could. “Yes, I saw him. Had him in my sights until Miss—I-don’t-eat-elk here scared him off. Actually told him to run!”

  Sam burst out laughing.

  Leah offered up a chagrined smile.

  Ryder said, “It still isn’t funny.”

  A fairly howling Sam disagreed, “Oh, yes it is. You told the King to run, Leah? Oh, Lord. I think I’m going to hurt myself.”

  Leah had tears of mirth in her own eyes, mainly because of the thunderous look in Ryder’s as he observed Sam’s hysterics. She reached over and squeezed Ryder’s hand sympathetically. He raised her hand to his lips and kissed her fingertips. Leaning close, he whispered in her ear. “Eight years.”

  Leah smiled delightedly.

  Leah and Ryder were both so tired from the journey home that when they finally climbed the stairs to his room, they shared a shower, donned clean night clothes, and slid between the bed’s fresh, crisp sheets. He pulled her against him, kissed the back of her neck, and, moments later, they were both asleep.

  Chapter 12

  The next morning, Leah hitched a ride to town with Ryder. She wanted to let Eloise know that Ryder had proposed. She also needed to vacate the little cabin and get her trunks and things gathered up so they could be moved to Sunrise.

  “I’ll be back to pick you up later this afternoon,” Ryder told Leah, as she stood by the wagon in front of Eloise’s white picket gate.

  “Okay,” Leah said. She leaned up for a kiss, then stepped back.

  “Tell Eloise I’ll visit with her when I come and get you.”

  “I will,” Leah responded.

  He drove off and she headed up the flower-choked walk. The screened front door was unlocked as always so she went on in. “Eloise?” she called out cheerily.

  No answer.

  Figuring she was probably sequestered in the studio, Leah headed down the hall. “Eloise?”

  Silence.

  The studio door appeared to be closed, but as Leah knocked, it slowly swung open. Leah hesitated. She’d been warned by Eloise not to peek in, but a natural curiosity called temptingly. She looked back over her shoulder, guilty that she might be found out, then took a few hesitant steps in. Sunlight filled the room through the two large windows, but what it illuminated amazed her, shocked her, and froze her with a cold fear. Every inch of every wall held framed, twisted images of what appeared to be Louis Montague in his youth.

  One portrayed him as a red-horned Lucifer. The yellow eyes gleamed with an evil glee, and in the bloody, fang-filled mouth, lay the limp body of a lifeless child.

  Another showed Monty’s severed head, swimming in blood. The eyes in the decapitated head looked terrified, the mouth appeared to be uttering a scream.

  Trembling, Leah turned and saw a painting of woman who bore a great resemblance to Helene;
Bernice maybe? Leah wondered. The painting showed her as a gaunt corpse, her eyes, black unseeing holes, the skin of her face covered with leeches. Leah tasted bile in her throat. There were others on the walls depicting the same woman; all done with hate and skill.

  Heart beating fast, Leah scanned a painting of an Indian woman copulating with three drunken men. Ryder’s mother, Songbird? The scene was so raw and vile, she had to turn away, but her eyes spied something else that made her blood run cold. A partially finished painting of Cecil rested on one of the worktables. His lips were smiling, but his face, as bloated as a drowned corpse, had fat white maggots feasting upon it.

  Leah knew then that she had to get out of there, but when she turned to the door, there stood Eloise. She held a long-bladed hunting knife in her hand.

  “See what happens when you trespass? Now you know,” Eloise said casually. “Or at least you should.”

  Leah swallowed in a fear-dry throat. She didn’t want to believe the evidence she’d uncovered or the conclusion she’d come to, but there seemed to be no other explanation.

  Eloise readily admitted, “Yes, I killed them all. Had good reason to.”

  Leah wondered how she could get past Eloise to freedom.

  As if reading her mind, Eloise smiled and quietly pushed the door closed. She then threw the bolt on the inside. “Now, we won’t be disturbed.”

  Shakes claimed Leah, but she forced herself to take deep breaths so she could think.

  “Have a seat, dear,” Eloise invited politely, “I want to tell you a story.”

  Leah didn’t want to sit, but knew the longer Eloise talked, the longer she’d have to come up with a way to escape that knife. Leah sat on a nearby wooden bench.

  Eloise smiled. “Good. Now, let’s start at the beginning. Once, a very long time ago, my little Alice was a real girl.”

  Leah tried to hide her skepticism but failed.

  Eloise paused and then remarked, “You look doubtful.”

  “I admit I am.”

  “Well, she was. I was looking forward to buying her prams and lacy dresses, and living happily with her and her father.”