Jodi Thomas (25 page)

The rest of the morning she watched Carter as he taught. By the time breakfast was half over, everyone at the table was asking for certain foods in sign language and signing
thank you
in return. These people who spoke English with a thick accent were having no problem understanding Carter’s words. He’d teach one, who’d teach another, who’d teach another. By the end of the meal they were beginning to put words together to form simple sentences.

Piper watched for a long while until Rom signed
good morning
to her. She laughed and with Carter’s help joined in the game. She remembered words he’d long forgotten and showed the others when Carter couldn’t.

Samuel was the only one who showed little interest as he ate. He didn’t like to talk period and saw better uses for his hands. He was not a man to play games. He moved to the edge of the porch and began whittling a spoon for Bailee.

Finally, long after the meal should have been finished and cleaned away, Carter stood. “Thank you for helping my wife and Piper. You are welcome here.”

He said the words as he signed them, and Bailee couldn’t help but notice the hesitance was gone from his voice.

“Stay as long as you like and rest.” His eyes met hers, and she knew he meant what he said.

When Carter paused, the old man stood. “I am Farrow, the head of my small band. Everyone calls me Papa Farrow. We thank you. We do not wish to be any trouble, but it would be good to stop for a few days. My sons and I would like to help you with the guarding of your place and the work you do.”

Carter didn’t dishonor them by denying the request. “I would be grateful for any help. I’ve peaches to get to market as soon as possible even though trouble may come to call. You’re much needed.”

Everyone smiled and stood. The men kissed their wives good-bye. The old man assigned three of his sons to take the first shift as guards. The rest of the men must have already talked about what needed doing, for they collected boxes from the barn.

Carter stood behind Bailee. She didn’t have to turn around. She knew he was there, probably trying to figure out what to say.

“I’ll be fine,” she answered over her shoulder. “I’ll be safe. There is a gun on the bookshelf and a rifle by the front door. If I need you, I’ll fire one shot.”

He didn’t move.

“Lacy will help me take care of Piper. Don’t worry about the girl. Between us, we won’t let her out of our sight.”

He still didn’t step away. He stood so close the heat of his body warmed her back.

“I know you have to work the orchard.” She turned to face him and, as always, was startled by the blue of his eyes.

He was waiting, she realized, for her to kiss him good-bye.

Bailee almost laughed as she stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. The kiss hardly connected, but he turned and headed for the barn.

He was
waiting
—she grinned—
for my kiss.

A few minutes later she saw Carter and four of the men and older boys head toward the orchard. The old man pulled a chair to the shady side of the porch, obviously seeing his job as one of watching the work.

Rom and two of the other children tagged along after Samuel, offering to help him. Samuel growled and tried to sidestep them, but they followed like pups.

At noon all the men except Carter returned and sat at the long makeshift table in the yard. They talked of the trees heavy with fruit and the fine place they’d been planted so that they were sheltered from the wind and had plenty of water. One of the men had brought each of his children a peach. He handed it to them as if giving a grand gift. When the other children stared, the father cut the peaches in slices and shared his gift with all.

Bailee set the food out, thinking how easy the meal was to prepare with so many hands helping her. Most of the women had made use of her washtub, but one or more was always at Bailee’s side willing to help.

She’d cut a wide slice of beef taken from the smokehouse out back and baked it all morning with the last of the vegetables from the storage cellar beneath the floor of the kitchen. Vegetables would be coming in daily from the garden now, and she’d be able to refill the larder fast. Her first job after lunch, she’d decided, would be to clean the small storage cellar out and make room for all she planned to can and store.

Bailee watched the Gypsies fill their plates, and still Carter hadn’t returned. It was not like these people to eat until all were served. Could they have forgotten about Carter?

“My husband?” she asked one of the men she’d seen leave with him that morning.

The man stood and laid his napkin down before he spoke. “Mister, Sir said his wife will bring his meal out to the trees. He tell us all to come in and rest for a few hours while the day is hot. Then we will finish later.”

Bailee started to argue that she was far too busy to take Carter lunch, then realized Carter must still be working and knew she’d bring the food if truly needed. She quickly wrapped a meal and headed for the orchard.

Henry the Eighth trailed along behind her as far as the wet sand of the creek bed where he stopped for a nap. Bailee moved into the shadows of the trees. The air was rich with the smell of peaches and a dampness from the rain that still hung in the shady stillness.

She saw Carter standing by a wagon loaded with boxes full of fruit. He was on the far side of the wagon, close to where the tall pecan trees far outstretched the wide peach trees. He didn’t turn as she neared, but she knew he must hear her moving through the low branches.

“I brought your lunch,” she said when she was a few feet away.

He turned and thanked her for the meal, then set it down unopened on the wagon gate. Gently his hands surrounded her waist and lifted her onto the gate as well, putting her at eye level with him as he stood on the uneven ground beside the wagon.

Bailee took a deep breath, enjoying the stillness of this place. She liked the way the tall trees rustled slightly in the wind while the smaller branches swished in answer. Lacy would have thought the place enchanted if she were here. A place where fairies danced.

“There’s something I must tell you.” Carter broke into her daydreaming and leaned his arms on either side of her as if he feared she might bolt with the news. “I didn’t want Lacy to hear. You tell her if you feel the need.”

Bailee nodded and the peace she’d known for a moment vanished. “All right,” she whispered, already fearing what he had to say. She could always tell when his words were practiced, rehearsed.

“The man who threw me out Sheriff Smith’s window yesterday was huge, built like a buffalo and smelling much the same. Smith had tried to arrest him because he thought this fellow was the one shooting at us. He wore hides and had a beard that hid half his chest.” Carter paused as if giving her time to put the pieces together.

He leaned forward, allowing his leg to rest against her knee. Bailee didn’t move away.

“After the man shot Smith and got away from me, I took the sheriff over to a woman named Fat Alice so she could fix him up like she did Riley. By the time she finished with Smith, Riley was awake and asking questions. He seemed to think the huge man wasn’t shooting at Piper at all, but at you. He thinks the man was—”

“Zeb Whitaker,” Bailee finished the sentence. She pushed at Carter, pushing away the news.

He didn’t budge. His shoulder took the blow as if made of iron. He wasn’t holding her, only surrounding her.

“No.” She swung at Carter’s arms, hoping he would move aside and let her leave. “It can’t be. Zeb’s dead. I killed him myself.” She wanted to run as far away as she could and hide, but Carter wouldn’t let her down from the wagon. “The man at the station wasn’t shooting at me. He was shooting at Piper.”

Panic climbed her spine as she shoved again at Carter, angry that he wouldn’t let her go. “He couldn’t have been shooting at me. If he was, then Piper would have been hit because of me. We all could have been killed because of me.” Her last words cracked in the air like invisible crystal.

Carter folded her in his arms and held her tight.

“I have to leave,” she said between sobs. “I’ll take Lacy and we’ll disappear. If he’s alive, he won’t let anyone stop him. He’s capable of killing us all.”

“No,” Carter whispered against her ear. “You’re staying with me.”

Bailee held his head in her hands and stared into his eyes. “Don’t you see that I’m putting everyone in danger? Last time my father was only in danger of losing his job, and he made me leave, but now you all might lose your lives. Piper, the sheriffs, you. Zeb didn’t strike me as a forgiving man. We made him angry. He’ll come after Lacy, Sarah ... and me. I have to keep running.”

She knew she wasn’t making sense. Carter had no way of knowing she’d killed a man back home. The banker’s son, her father’s boss’s only child. If she hadn’t left, her father said she would be tried for murder, and he’d be out of a job. It hadn’t mattered that he’d lost a daughter; his job was more important. So he’d shipped her off forever rather than stand beside her when she told her side of the story.

“I have to go,” she said. “Zeb Whitaker is dangerous. Maybe the meanest man alive. If he wants to kill me, he won’t stop until he does.”

Carter held her so tightly she could hardly breathe. “No!” he answered. “You’re not leaving.”

Tears filled her eyes. She wasn’t being pushed away this time. He wanted to stand beside her. Not only wanted, he was determined to do so.

She wasn’t sure how it happened, if he kissed her first, or if she reached toward him, but all at once they were kissing with a hunger that bolted through them both.

Maybe it was needing to belong, needing to be wanted. Maybe it was knowing she was. But suddenly she couldn’t get enough of the taste of his mouth over hers.

She kissed him as if there would be no tomorrow, and he kissed her back as if he believed they’d be together forever.

H
ENRY THE EIGHTH’S BARK SOUNDED FROM DOWN BY the river, and Carter knew they were no longer alone. He forced himself to move back an inch from Bailee. Her rapid breathing blended with his own.

“I want to be with you,” she whispered, “like we will be when we’ve been married a month.”

Carter didn’t pretend he didn’t understand. “I want it, too,” he said the words low in her ear, surprised to feel her tremble as he spoke.

Someone tracked through the brush at the creek’s edge, and Carter knew they only had moments.

He slid his hands to her waist and slowly moved upward, feeling her body through her clothes as he parted her knees with his thigh and closed any distance left between them. “I want to feel your skin against mine. Soon.”

He said the last word so low she wasn’t sure if he’d said it or she’d thought it.

Bailee brushed her cheek against his. His daring statement made her blush, not from shyness but because he spoke her thought. “Hold me a little longer.” She pressed her body against the wall of his chest, wanting to be as close as she could to him. The terror of the train station and the storm had left them both raw with need.

His heart thundered against hers. His hands traveled along her to where her hips rested on the wagon, and he pulled her even closer to him as his mouth found hers once more, his kiss hungry with desire.

“Mister, sir?” Rom’s voice sounded from just beyond the clearing. “Mister, sir?”

Carter broke the kiss with a groan. “Over here,” he said as he moved away from Bailee. His hand lingered at her waist as though he couldn’t bear to break the connection completely.

The boy called Rom stepped into the clearing. “I am sorry to bother you at lunch, but three men, one saying he is the deputy from a town, named Wheeler, are at your gate. Samuel is holding them there with a rifle until you say it is all right to let them in.”

“It’s all right.” Carter didn’t take his eyes from Bailee. “Let them in and tell them I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Yes, Mister, sir.” Rom saluted and crashed back into the brush, Henry the Eighth dancing at his side.

Bailee tried to jump off the wagon, but Carter was still in her way. “We have to hurry. Maybe they have word from the sheriffs or Piper’s father.”

Carter didn’t move. If anything, he leaned closer blocking her path.

“They can wait,” he finally said. “I want it clear between us first.”

Bailee met his gaze as he leaned closer. “You want what clear?”

He moved his hand up the side of her leg, shoving her dress to her knee. The heat of his fingers burned a hunger through the layers of her skirt.

“You’ll not run,” he whispered as he leaned close, moving his cheek against her hair. “You’ll not leave me because you’re afraid of Zeb Whitaker?”

He wasn’t making a demand or giving an order. He was asking a question, and all at once Bailee saw the boy in the man. The frightened little boy who trusted no one. The orphan who must have sworn never to care for anyone cared for her.

“I’ll not leave,” she answered, wanting to prove to him that he could believe her. She saw the doubt in his eyes. The fear. The worry. Somehow, in the past few days they’d gone from being trapped in a marriage to caring about each other. She wasn’t sure how or when it happened : Maybe it was his little kindnesses, maybe all they’d been through, maybe just something as simple as the way he touched her.

He straightened, frowning, but he said nothing. His fingers moved slowly along her leg as though still afraid to step back and let her jump down from the wagon lest she run away from him forever.

Bailee tilted her head to one side, knowing what she had to do. Without hesitating further, she lifted shaking hands to the buttons at her collar. One by one the buttons gave to her touch.

Carter watched, a question wrinkling his brow.

She smiled as she moved down her blouse, freeing the material across her bustline. Cool air kissed her skin as she continued to her waist until all the buttons were undone.