Captive Eden (7 page)

“I’ll go get more,” she said, rushing out of the lodge.

Feeling sick to her stomach, she hurried around to the other
side of the building. What if it wasn’t her uncle Emmet that was Brant’s
father?

“What is wrong, Eden?” Lucy said from behind. “Are you ill?”

Eden frantically wiped the tears from her cheeks as she
turned. “No, just tired. It’s been an overwhelming few days.”

“Charlie is better, so you will get rest now.”

Eden tried to think of a way to broach the subject of
Brant’s father. “Lucy, did you know my father, William Caruthers?”

“I had met him a long time ago, before you were born.”

“Did he… Was he…” There was no way to ask if Emmet was
Brant’s father and no reason to know why Lucy let her and Brant see each other
if she knew they were related. “Brant wants Charlie and me to return to Boston.
I told him I wouldn’t go, but I think it is best for everyone.”

Lucy’s eyes misted. “I will miss you and Charlie, but you
must do what you feel is right.”

No argument?
It was as if Lucy was answering her
unasked question.

“I have to go get Charlie’s food. He’s probably wondering
where I disappeared to.” Eden left Lucy and walked back around where she met
Brant coming out of the lodge.

“I got him something to eat. Where did you go?” he asked.

She put a hand on her midsection. “It’s my time of the
month,” she lied.

The statement stopped most men. Brant gave a nod and held
the flap of the door open. She looked inside and saw Charlie intently listening
to a story Sully was telling him.

With her back to Brant, she whispered to him, “We’ll go back
to Boston, so you can take us to the ranch first thing in the morning.”

“The wagon and horse will be gone.” He reminded her.

“Then you can leave me a horse. I need a couple of days to
pack some things since it will be the last time I’ll be there.”

“I will help you.”

“I know you’re in a hurry to get us out of your life, but
I’d prefer to spend some time alone with Charlie in the house I grew up in.
Tomorrow, just take us to the house and then you can go.” Without waiting to
hear what more he might want to say, she eased inside the lodge and sat next to
Charlie on the pallet of furs.

Brant used a blanket as a bed on the floor on the far side
of the lodge, leaving Charlie and Eden to sleep in his old place. He spent most
the night debating whether he was right in sending her away. Yet, with her
agreeing, how did he tell her he changed his mind and demand she remain there
in the village as his wife?

When sunrise finally sent a beam of light under the doorway
flap of his lodge, he got up and went outside anxious with a plan. Without
telling his mother and father of his decision, he went to them and made
arrangements. Then he paced the camp and waited for Eden to wake.

“We’ll be ready to go as soon as Charlie is awake.” She emerged
pushing her blond hair back and gathered it in one hand to tie a strip of
leather to hold it like a pony’s tail.

“We can go now,” he said taking her arm.

“I don’t want to wake Charlie yet. He’s still weak from the
fever and his leg is hurting him.”

“He is not going.”

“If you think you’re sending me away and keeping my son,
think again, Brant Sullette.”

“He will stay here to rest until you pack your things at the
ranch.”

“And I’m just supposed to believe you’ll bring him to me
after the way you came the other day and tried to snatch him away. No, thank
you, I am no fool.”

“I told you before I will help you pack. My father will
bring him to your house in three days,” he assured her.

“I don’t want your help.”

“You have no say.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her through
the village to the horses he had readied.

“Brant, I want to tell Charlie where I’m going.” She tried
to break the hold of his fingers on her arm.

“My mother will tell him.”

“He might worry.”

“Sully will see that he doesn’t.” He lifted her up on the
smaller horse.

“He’s a little boy. He’s been through a horrible ordeal.”

“And he will be looked after by my mother. Maybe in three
days you will see that you need to let him grow up.”

A low squeal of annoyance came with a flash of anger in
Eden’s eyes.

He mounted his horse and led hers behind him until they were
beyond the village. Then he brought her alongside and handed her the rope.

In the hour it took to ride to the old house, Eden didn’t
say anything. He sensed something strange about her mood from the moment she
had agreed to return to Boston.

Even though it was his idea for her to go, he never thought
she’d do it. And after a night thinking about it, he thought he had the
solution.

In the beginning, when he had come for them, she had suggested
that she and Charlie live in her house. If them, why not him as well?

When he and Eden arrived at the house, he dismounted and
walked back to help her down. She jumped from the saddle by herself and rushed
past him.

He watched her walk up to the door of the house and just
stare at it.

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

“I haven’t been inside in five years,” she sighed. “You took
us away before I got a chance the other day to see what had changed about the
place.”

“Do you want it to have changed?” He pushed the door lever
down and swung the door open.

“I don’t know.” She moved inside.

He rested his hands on her shoulders and she bolted from
them as if he had hit her.

“I will try to remember not to surprise you like that.”

“It doesn’t matter. In three days, I’ll be gone from here.”
She strolled around the room, running her fingers across the furniture.

He followed her from one room to another. When she stopped
in the doorway of her bedroom, she didn’t move.

“Are you not going in?”

“Can we go back and get Charlie today? I don’t want to take
anything from here. I want to go away and never think about this place again.”

“I do not want you to go.” Brant slid his arms around Eden
and tried pulling her back against him.

“Let me go,” she shrieked. “You can’t touch me like that
ever again.”

“Eden?”

“It’s not right. We should never have been together.” She
ran her hands over her head, a frantic expression wrinkling her face. “Oh God,
Brant, the feelings I had, I still have for you. I’m going to hell for the sins
between us.”

“Eden, calm down,” he grabbed her by the arms.

“They should have told you,” she cried. “How could your
mother let you be with me? What kind of morals do the Pawnee live by?”

“Eden, what are you talking about?”

“Your father.”

“Blue Wolf?” he asked confused.

“No, your real father.”

“My mother told you about what happened to her?” It was
unbelievable. His mother had been so reluctant to tell him for fear he’d leave
her.

“No, your father did. He told me all the sordid details.”

“Oh,” he said, knowing that Blue Wolf’s story was very
different from his mother’s. “You need to let me explain.”

“You know and you didn’t tell me! You made love to me
knowing I was your cousin or your sister.”

“Eden.” He dragged her forward and hugged her tight. “You
are neither. What my father told you isn’t the whole truth.”

“Why would he lie,” she sobbed.

“Because my mother lied to him.”

“She wasn’t kept captive by my uncle?”

“No.” He moved to sit on the edge of the bed with her.

“When the raiding party took her, she was not with child.
That happened at the hands of the Skidi Pawnee brave. He wanted her for a slave
to take the place of his dead wife.”

“You are sure?”

“Yes. My mother told me long ago when I told her I would one
day take you as my wife. She said Blue Wolf would oppose, but I should never
tell him the truth.”

“Oh Brant.” She hugged him around the neck. “I thought I was
going to die of sinful shame when he told me.”

“And now that you know the truth?”

She pushed him back on the dusty covers of the bed and
kissed him. “Don’t ever scare me again by telling me to leave you.”

Brant folded one arm under Eden’s and slid it around her
back. He maneuvered her beneath him, never breaking from her kiss. “Never.”

Lost in caressing and hugging, time passed without him
giving much thought to the plans he wanted to make with her. When he paused to
discuss the new arrangement he wanted, her fingers against his lips shushed him.

She wiggled out from beneath him and climbed off the bed. “I
used to lie where you are now and dream of the many ways you would touch me.”

She unfastened the ties of the doeskin dress at her
shoulders.

Rising from his propped position on his elbow, he sat and
watched the dress drop to the floor at her feet. While his peripheral vision
caught sight of her nakedness, he continued to gaze into the shimmering blue of
her eyes.

“At night, in the dark, I’d imagine your hands slipping over
my breasts.” Her arms moved, but he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the
seductive allure of her stare.

Brant rose to his feet. He walked toward her.

Eden shuffled back a few steps until the wall stopped her.

Brant unfastened his pants and kicked off his moccasins.

She bent down and kissed his abdomen. Her grip on him
tightened as she ventured lower. Entranced, he watched her mouth as it
enveloped him. A groan rumbled up his throat as she drank him in.

After his tense muscles relaxed, he pulled her up and ran
his fingers in her hair gripping the sides of her head.

They kissed and leisurely explored each other’s bodies. The re-acquainting
eventually hardened him again.

With a coaxing grip on her buttocks, he lifted her up and
slid into her wet sex.

She folded her legs around his hips, wrapped her arms around
his neck and stared into his eyes. “You’ve always fit me, Brant. My place is
with you.”

Brant pushed her up against the wall and rocked his hips
against her. “I know.”

Her watery eyes sparkled with hope. “You’ll take me back to
the village with you?”

“No.”

“You want me to stay here at the ranch?” A strange worry
furrowed her brow. “I don’t know if I can live here alone with Charlie.”

“You will be safe with me.” He kissed her.

“You’ll live here with us?” She let out a whimper as he
thrust quicker.

“Yes.”

Words eluded them as Eden released sounds of delight and he
concentrated on his own release.

When he finished, he carried her to the bed. He dropped down
with her, exhausted from the lack of sleep and the energy he expelled.

She rubbed her finger against the scar on his chest. “Blue
Wolf told me about this. I’m sorry.”

“It is the past.”

“Still, you risked your life for me.” She kissed his jaw.

“Something I would do again,” he said without hesitation.

“Brant, just for my peace of mind, will you tell me the
whole story about your mother.” She slid her hand over his chest in a slow,
circling motion.

“She was the wife of Emmet Caruthers and she was treated by
him in much the same way your father treated you.” He held her cradled in his
arms.

“Is that why she so readily accepted me, because she was
once my aunt?”

“In a way. Remember, this happened before you or I were
born. Though, I do think she said once that she knew your mother.” He lifted
her hand and kissed her fingers.

“She did? Oh that would be wonderful if she could tell me
about her. So why did Blue Wolf think my uncle was your father?”

“Because she felt she owed Blue Wolf a life for saving her.
She had only been a captive of the Skidi for a short time when my father Blue
Wolf was there to trade with the tribe. He saw the brave mistreating her and
asked why. One of the other braves said the white girl had been taken as
captive to be a sacrifice to make the ground fertile. The brave challenged the
tribe’s decision, claiming he had rights to the girl to replace his dead wife.
The tribe agreed, but they still needed a sacrifice and the brave’s daughter
was chosen. The brave blamed my mother and vowed to never make her forget it.”

“That’s horrible.”

“The Chawi Pawee stopped performing the morning star ritual
long before then. So when Blue Wolf heard the story, and saw the abuse, he felt
sorry for her. He offered the brave a horse for her. The brave said he would
not let her go for any price, but Blue Wolf would not be put off and in the
end, he got my mother for two horses and three wolf hides.”

“Was that a lot?” She looked at him.

“For a white woman, it is a very large sum.” He slid his
finger down her nose. “If it were you, I would have given more, everything I
owned.”

There was nothing he wouldn’t do to always have her smile at
him as she was now.

“Then why did he do it?” she asked. “Surely, not out of just
compassion.”

“I think he saw something in her the way I saw something in
you, an irresistible courage. He does not speak of his feelings, but he shows
them in little ways. Things no one else would notice unless they took the time
to look. I grew up looking for the signs and saw them.”

“Tell me.”

“A stroke of her arm to calm her when she was upset. An
offering of food before he ate. Things that only someone who cares might do.”
Brant fingered back a strand of hair from Eden’s face.

“Your father didn’t question you were born too early?”

“Are you still concerned we might be…” He lifted her face
with a hand under her chin and kissed her.

“No,” she answered, but he heard the hesitancy in her voice.

“She said he was away on a buffalo hunt when I was born.
They can last a long time, so he probably was not sure when I would come.
Besides, she was his slave, not his wife. He would not care about such things.”

“But then he made her his wife?” she asked.

“One of them, yes.”

“And he raised you as his son.” She kissed him.

“His other two wives never bore him a live child. I think I
was his last chance, so he overlooked that I was not of his blood.”

“Why didn’t your mother want him to know that the Skidi
brave was your father?”

“Because she was frightened that he would feel obligated to
give me back to the Skidi brave and as my mother, she would go too, placing her
back in the position to be mistreated.”

“That won’t happen now.” Eden yawned and snuggled against
him. “You’re a grown man and you can tell Blue Wolf the truth. He needs to know
that we are not living in sin.”

Brant stroked Eden’s arm, encouraging her to fall asleep. He
wasn’t ready to think of the changes in his relationship with Blue Wolf or how
to tell Eden that if the Chawi knew he was Skidi, he’d become an outcast.

At least living on the ranch would separate him from those
problems.

“Brant, do you love me as much as I love you?” Eden murmured
sleepily, as if she had read his troubled thoughts.

He squeezed her tight, letting the happiness he had finally
found again chase away the unforeseen problems of his future with the Pawnee.
Eden was the only future he needed.

“I love you more than all the stars in the sky and all the
grains of sand on the ground.” Brant kissed Eden’s forehead. “I have loved you
forever, and it will forever be so, my Eden.”

“You have always held my heart captive, Brant.” She rose up
and kissed him on the lips. “Make love to me again.”

“You are tired.”

“In three days, Charlie will be here and we’ll find less
time to be alone when we have a four year old underfoot.”

She sat up with a smile that lit a fire in him. Besides that
he could never deny her anything.