Romance: Luther's Property (66 page)

He took her hand.

“I expect we will need to get you a wedding ring of some
kind,” he said.

The man who said he was Sam Bishop made an excuse as to why
he had no ring for Shauna. She rationalized that with all the work she had to
do, she didn’t have a need for a ring. And she said so now.

“I am content without one,” she said. “I have too many
chores to concern myself with and jewelry would just get in the way.”

He gripped her firmly.
 
Not painfully but enough to get her attention.

“I want everyone to know you are spoken for,” he said. “I
want everyone to know we are married.”

His sentiment warmed her but the truth was they had not said
vows.
 
Not before God.
 
She had said them with another man who
claimed the same name.
 
If she were to
marry now, with a babe and all, the effect on their reputation, spare as their
social life was, would be devastating.

She must have had a look on her face.

“What is it, Mrs. Bishop?” he asked.

“It’s just that we haven’t said our vows,” she said in a
very quiet voice.

“Mm,” he said.
 
“I
reckon we ought to fix that.
 
Where
abouts did you marry before?” he asked.

“Fort Shaw,” she said.

“Well then I don’t imagine it would be too tough to get a
preacher somewheres else who won’t be apprised of the situation,” he said.
 
“Shall we take a little trip?”

Shauna could not help but smile at the prospect.
 
A real marriage.
 
It was almost too good to be true.
 
To not have to wake at the crack of dawn or
before, in the winter, with back breaking labor. A wonderfully attentive
husband.
 
Handsome.
 
So romantic.
 
In a matter of a day or so, her life had turned around and seemed so
complete.

Now that she had helped Sam move her into a room for them
together, she followed him outside.
 
She
would relieve Haya of the baby so that she could rest before putting him down
and getting to chores of her own.

“I best be finding Haya and little Sam,” she said.

Little Sam.
 
Her babe
would have a daddy.

Sam and Shauna stepped out on the porch.
 
The bright blue Montana sky so vividly
greeted them.
 
The sun was pure gold and
made it hard to focus on the scene in front of them.
 
When they did, they stopped cold.
 
A man held a shotgun on Haya and little
Sam.
 
They were waiting for Sam and
Shauna to appear.

“Morning,” he nodded. “I got your hand here and your baby
son.”

“What can we do for you?” asked Sam gently.
 

Shauna nearly buckled but she had to keep it together for
her little baby and her wonderful friend.
 
She was moderately assured by the steely look behind Sam’s pretend
cordiality.

“You Sam Bishop?” he asked.

“I might be,” he said.

“Well either you is or you ain’t?
 
I knowd why it’s a might confusin’ on account
of this lady
 
here married a man who said
he was Sam Bishop.
 
He’s what give her
this har baby,” said the man.

“You on the other hand,” he continued. “You the Sam Bishop
what owns this place.
 
I hear tell you
struck in rich over tharn in Deadwood. I knowd this because the Sam Bishop she married
done told me.
 
How he pretended to be
you. Was going to take this har place out from under you but then this little
lady came along and he just walked off with purty good tidy sum.
 
When we heard yall struck it rich he was
going to parlay his little ruse into taking your gold but then he had the bad
taste to up and die.”

“Nice story,” said Sam Bishop. “Get to the point.”

“Well I heard you all left town.
 
I figure you to come back to your place. I
got to thanking that what happened here did happen here.
 
You tuck up with this little lady. I also got
to thanking that it might be worth something to you to pay off a fellar with a
little bit of that gold to keep your secret.
 
You all living in sin,” he smiled a toothless smile.

“We are married,” he said. “You got nothing over us.”

“I got this har Sharps rifle mister.
 
That ain’t exackly nothing,” said the man.

Sam laughed. “You are right about that! Hey I am sorry for
laughing but that was funny.”

“Glad you think so,” said the man.

“How are we supposed to do this?” asked Sam.

Shauna assessed her immediate surroundings for makeshift
weapons.
 
Some of the tools Sam had been
using to repair the porch were still out. She trusted Sam was going to take
care of the situation but just in case, she wanted her own plan.

Haya stood as still as a statue with the baby who was good
as gold. Still Shauna believed he needed to be out of the sun which had to be
hot on him. If they lived, Shauna was going take this man’s head off for
holding a gun on her baby.

“I reckon you can tie these women up and I can I foller you
to get the gold,” he said.

“How do you know I got it here?” asked Sam.

“Now don’t play coy with me, now you hear? Otherwise, I’ll
just shoot you all and search the place myself.
 
In fact I may still.
 
If you asked
me questions like that I can’t work with you.
 
The nearest bank is fifty miles from here.
 
Neither you nor I would trust that amount of
gold to bank robbers.”



“Fella, I came in to some good fortune but I don’t know how
much you think I got with me.
 
Legend may
have stretched the facts somewhat,” said Sam. “If I was a rich man would I be
here?

“I am warning you,” said the man as he turned his rifle on
him.

Quick as a flash, Haya flung a knife at him. The man dropped
the rifle and grabbed his throat.
 
The
blade went right through his neck.
 
Down
he went.
 
The baby started bawling.
 
Shauna went right to him.
 
She wrapped her arms around both her friend
and her baby.

Sam said something to Haya in her language as he took hold
of the feet of the dead man.

“What did you say?” asked Shauna.

“I told her I am building her own house,” he said.
 
“Giving her land.”

“Tell her thank you, please?” Shauna asked.

Sam laughed. “I am also telling her we are teaching you to
two talk.
 
I never knowed two friends who
love each other as you do without barely saying a word.”

“Where are you taking him,” sniffled Shauna.

“I gotta bury him. I’ll be damn if I bury him near the
house.
 
I am taking him out a ways,” said
Sam.

He pulled a horse out of the barn and hooked up it to their
wagon.

Shauna panicked. “Don’t leave!”

“I am not going anywhere, Mrs. Bishop,” he assured.
 
“You’re safe.
 
You’re in very good hands with Haya here.”

Sam loaded the dead man on the wagon and took him out in the
field. When he returned it was time for dinner.
 
Shauna fed the baby and put him down to sleep.
 
She and Haya put the meal out and waited for
Sam.

He sauntered in through the front door, his tousled hair
backlit by the sun as he filled the doorway. He had the jug that he and Shauna shared
the night before.

“I realize it’s the middle of the day but if you don’t mind,
I am indulging,” he announced.

Haya took her cup from her place and held it out for him to
fill.

“Yes ma’am,” he smiled.
 
“Shauna?”

She hesitated.
 
She
looked at him with a slight scold.
 
She
felt bad being contrary for that in light of what they just went through.

“It’s the middle of the day,” she said in a whisper.

“It’s okay you can trust me. There are plenty of things that
can be done in the middle of the day and sometimes out in the open, like say by
a creek or what have you,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

Shauna giggled. Haya actually smiled. Which told Shauna that
she
knew.
Shauna blushed.
 
The
heat burned her cheeks.
 
Sam and Haya
burst out laughing. It was the first time Shauna had ever known Haya to
laugh.
 
Haya took the jug and filled her
cup.

The liquid was strangely delicious and calming.

“I could get used to this,” she remarked.
 
She licked her lips.

“Hey now,” he said.
 
“Just a little bit there.
 
My mother
said it’s good for mothers feeding babies.”

Shauna realized sitting at the table having a meal with her
husband and her best friend, she was having fun. Not just for the first time
she had been to Montana but maybe since she was grown.

“Do you reckon there will be others trying to get money from
you?” said Shauna.

“There may or there may not,” said Sam.

“I don’t want my foolishness to –“ she choked.
 

The full breadth of how she had been taken in was upon her
in the forms of tears she had to choke back.

“How have you been foolish?” he asked her.

“Well I married a man who –“ she stopped.

Haya nodded and left them alone.
 

“No wait,” Shauna said. “Finish your meal. Please. We have
no secrets between us.
 
I have a baby by
a man –“

“You were married to.
 
He widowed you. Now you’re remarried,” said
Sam. “I got nothing to be ashamed of.
 
Neither does anyone in this house.
 
That boy in there is my boy.
 
I’ll
be God damn if anyone takes him away or you. Just look what happened to the
last person who tried.”

He took hold of her tenderly.

“Now, the only foolishness is this right here.
 
As your husband I order you to knock it off,”
he said affectionately.

“I will,” she said.

“There’s a lot to get used to around here, is there not?
Let’s eat woman.”

After supper, Sam took Shauna aside.

“I am thinking you and I should take a ride and show Mrs.
Bishop the bridge on the property,” he said with lazy affection.
 

“Bridge?” asked Shauna confusedly.

“Yeah the bridge.
 
You
wanna ride with me, Mrs. Bishop?”

“I would Mr. Bishop,” she replied.
 
She could not help but smile.

Their fingers gently touched as he walked ahead of her, out
the house and down to the barn. He closed the door behind them.

“Do you need that opened so the horse can get through?” she
chuckled.

He took her into his arms. “No I don’t,” he replied and
kissed her slowly.

“What about the bridge?” she asked.

“I’ll show you a bridge,” he said seductively.

She didn’t know what the meant but she understood the way it
made her feel. And she liked it.
 
She
turned her head to invite him to another kiss. He bolted the barn door and then
climbed the loft ladder up to the loft.
 

She climb ahead of him, somewhat self-conscious that her
bottom was practically in his face. He didn’t seem to mind at all.
 
He stroked her and goose her, causing her to
squeal as she climbed.

Sam was very good at managing her clothes.
 
His boot snagged hers and he spread her legs.
His hand swept up her skirt, stroking her bare legs.
 
His fingers climbed, higher and higher until
he found the place that ached the most.

He made those sweet circles on her damp, petaled flesh,
every so often plunging his fingers into her.
 
He worked the fingers back and forth in little kicking movements as he
worked them in and out.

“You like that, don’t you?” he murmured.

She nodded.
 
As she
was so aroused by his touch she could hardly think.
 
A nod was the best she could do.
 
She clutched at his shirt. He helped her
along by peeling it off of his stunning body.
 
Shauna never saw anyone so masculine in all of her life.
 
He was so taut and rippled and she was so
soft and round.
 
He squeezed her large,
generous breasts in his powerful hand. His touch was firm and soft at the same
time.

She dared explore him.
 
She glided her hand across the mountain plains that was his body. He
looked so lovingly into her eyes.
 
He
took hold of her hand and kissed her palm before letting her continue with her
discovery.

The tips of her fingers found the soft tips of his
hardness.
 
She was surprised and
delighted at how soft his skin was there. He showed her how to grip him and to
move on him with her hand. He braced her arm firmly as she gave him pleasure.

Shauna felt powerful and like that she could please him so
easily.
 
It was a simple thing to do and
her feelings for him grew stronger.
 
He
urged her to straddle him. At first the thought of giving him a full view of
her body gave her pause.
 
She was a
full-bodied woman too, something that she had been teased about somewhat.
 

But she found that her weight assisted her balance.
 
When she sat astride him, her skirt belled
out, for she was naked to the waist.
 
She
could be naked and concealed at the same time and her stout, round frame could
lever up and down off of him.
 
She
impaled herself on him and worked up and down.

He was already very aroused from her experimentation.
 
It seemed she could do no wrong.
 
He reached up and toyed with her
breasts.
 
He cupped them, lifting them,
tweezing her hard nipples.
 
Each time he
gave her nipples a tweeze, cords of intense pleasure that twined to her
core.
 
Her belly was liquid with desire
for him.

This was the second time she lay with him and it was
different.
 
Some of the best parts from
the time before were happening again but it was now already better.
 
She loved the feel of him inside of her.
 
As well as moving to please him, Shauna found
a way to
 
move to delight herself.
 

She pumped up and down followed by a sway around in full
circle, grinding with wicked pleasure on his hardness.
 
The more opened that Shauna was with him, Sam
was bold himself, jutting into her in a sensual counter rhythm.

He gripped her hips, giving her a solitary thrust, followed
by a couple of slow lazy ones. Then he would thrust into her again, shaking her
up, shocking her with naughty pleasure. Each time he did that, her bodied
rushed and her nipples were hard again.

“Look at me,” he whispered.

He reached up and stroked a lock of hair that had fallen
from her bun.
 
His fingers found the pins
that held the rest of her hair and undid them.
 
Her chocolate, flowing hair fell to top of her rump and over the curves
of her breasts like Spanish moss.

“Oh my goodness,” he said.
 
“You are so beautiful.”

He toyed with her hair as she lazily rocked on him.
 
Without knowing when he was going to do so,
he thrust firmly into her, causing her body to clutch up around him.
 
Shauna shivered. She moaned.

“Mercy,” she said.

And without realizing she was doing so, she touched
herself.
 
She cupped her breasts as she
began to ride him more purposefully.
 
She
found a tantalizing position and kept at it, picking up her pace until she put
herself on the path to an orgasm.

“Come with me baby,” he said.

His voice was almost drunk.
 
His eyes were half lidded.
 
His
thrusts were unceasing, almost automatic.
 
He tipped her into a pile of loose hay and pumped her into
oblivion.
 
The shift seemed to do it for
her.
 
Everything shifted. Shauna was
coming.

She moaned helplessly with the sugared waved that over took
her.
 
Sam pumped her rapidly, chasing his
own pleasure.
 
Soon his whole body
stiffened as he cried out. He practically growled as rapture engulfed him.
 
The two them writhed, grinding into each
other until they could move no more.
 
They crumpled in the hay.

Sam toyed with the unfastened hems of her bodice.

“We need to get you some new clothes,” he said. “These are
likely to fall off of you.”

She smiled. “That is so thoughtful. Perhaps the next time we
get supplies I can pick up some fabric to make a dress.”

“We can buy one too,” he said rolling over her with the
promise of more loving. “Those legends the late mister stranger referred to
were true.
 
I am filthy rich.”

He looked her straight in the eye when he confessed that.

“That doesn’t make the least bit of difference to you, does
it?” he asked her.

“What is so important to me is my friend and my son and now
you,” she said. “I feel rich already.”

“I believe that,” he kissed her languidly.

Shauna helped Sam with the repairs even though he insisted
she not.
 
She was way more opened with
him than she thought she could ever be. She felt completely welcomed to love
this man.
 
She analyzed it a thousand
different ways but just accepted it.
 
She
had been a fool before trusting on face value but she decided if Sam hurt her,
the pleasure and happiness she felt now was worth it.
 
It was a chance of her lifetime.

The trim around the house was all nailed back into
place.
 
The fences were righted.
 
He and Shauna mounted up and decided to ride
around his land to see exactly what they had and what condition it was in.

It was a difficult task to complete because the pull between
them was so intense they made so little practice.
 
She would look at him or he would look at her
and they would both lull, doped on their desire for each other.

Sam had a lot of farmable land but Shauna and Haya farmed
only what they needed to grow their own food.
 
The plots were much smaller than they had been before.
 
Sam sidled up to her.
 
He had such a dramatic effect on her.
 
She felt giddy and wanton at the same time.
She leaned over to her and kissed her, with a delicious slowness.

 
From the corner of
her eye, Shauna spied movement. It was a black speck.
 
She opened her eyes. Wide.
 
It was another man.
 
A rider coming towards them.

“Sam,” she muttered.
 
“There’s a man. Riding towards us. Oh father in heaven, not again.”

“Stay calm, missy,” he said.

In a covert move, so as to not broadcast himself, his hand
slowly found his gun.
 

“Hello there,” the rider called.

When he was close enough, Sam drew on him but did not pull
the trigger.

“Hold,” ordered Sam.

Shauna thought Sam was so sweet and so amiable that it was
strange to hear him be so commanding but he was. It made her feel passion for
him.

“Don’t shoot mister,” trembled the fellow.
 

He was stopped on his horse. He had one hand on the rein and
one in the air.
 

“What brings you here?” demanded Sam.

“Just riding through. Got caught in the storm the day
before,” said the man.
 
“I need a place
to just water my horse.”

“Where passing through. I am taking over a parish in town,”
he said.

“Preacher?” said Sam.

Shauna saw his face widen with a bright idea.

“We’ll be happy to have you to supper before you’re on your
way or you can stay the night.
 
I have
just arrived back home to inform my foreman’s bride that he has passed.
 
I wish to marry to her.
 
Will you perform the ceremony?” asked Sam.

The preacher’s face brightened.
 
“I would be delighted.”

“Can you do it now?” asked Sam.

“Now?” asked the preacher. “On our horses?”

“I don’t see why not? Shauna?” Sam asked her.

Shauna smiled.
 
It was
not the wedding she had hoped for.
 
From
the first moment Sam mentioned wedding, she envisioned a wedding dress. Her
prior wedding was nothing more than a few words in front of a preacher, and a
couple of people from a saloon to witness.
 
But oh well, she thought.
 
She
certainly got the husband she hoped for.

“Of course,” said Shauna.

“Proceed preacher,” said Sam.

His smiled could not be any wider.
 
The preacher cleared his throat and gave
quick sermon followed by the prompting of their vows.
 
Within five minutes, Sam and Shauna were man
and wife.
 

“Preacher, you go on ahead.
 
You’ll find our place in a mile in that direction,” said Sam.

“Find it? Aren’t you coming?” asked the preacher with
surprise.

“We’ll be along directly,” said Sam. “I have to stay behind
and kiss my beautiful bride.”

Shauna watched the preacher ride towards her home.
 
She happily leaned into her husband and
kissed him with all the love in her heart.