Deborah Camp (28 page)

“Yessss,” he hissed.

“I satisfy you?” she asked, partly teasing.

“You inspire me.” He moved slowly, withdrawing, plunging, then repeating the motion until Elise was quivering and moaning his name.

Their desire culminated in soft cries of pleasure and soughing breaths that mingled and heated the air around them. Blade rested his head on her breasts and Elise idly twisted inky strands of his hair around her fingers as the night deepened and coyotes called for mates in the distance.

After a while, Blade stretched out on his back and guided Elise into his arms. She laid her head on his shoulder.

“I’ll rig up something tomorrow,” he murmured, sounding as if he were already half asleep. “Even if it’s nothing but a pad stuffed with hay.”

Elise smiled. He was talking about the bed.
Their
bed in
their
bedroom. She sniffed tentatively, but could smell no clove, no mint, only the musky perfume of their lovemaking.

She fell asleep, still smiling, and more in love with him than before.

W
alking across the big yard to the barn the next evening, Elise heard Blade and Penny before she spotted them. Their laughter floated on the warm breeze, enticing her to hurry inside the big structure. To her amazement, she found Blade holding Penny under her arms and turning in a circle. Penny grasped his elbows and laughed, delighted at being a human windmill.

“Faster … faster,” she ordered, barely able to get out the words, she was giggling so hard.

Blade’s feet moved quicker and he swung Penny until her small body was perpendicular to the hay-strewn ground. Blade reared back, his muscles straining, and his straw hat tilted and fell off. He paid it no heed. Only when he spied Elise did he slow and set Penny back on her feet.

“Hello, there,” he said, his face growing ruddy because he’d been caught acting like a kid. “You want something?”

“No.” Elise grinned, amused at his antics with her little sister. “I just wondered where you’d sneaked off to after supper.”

“We’re checking on the stock,” Penny said, slipping
a hand into one of Blade’s. His fingers curled around hers automatically.

Elise propped a fist on one jutted hip. “Is that what you call it?”

Penny giggled and looked up at Blade. “He was swinging me, that’s all. We’ve already seen to the animals.”

“How are Janie and Bob?”

“Full of oats,” Penny answered, grinning.

Elise smiled, recognizing Blade’s words coming out of Penny. Her younger sister’s growing affection for Blade pleased her. Penny was a loving child, but her swift devotion to Blade was something to behold. A lump formed in Elise’s throat and she thanked her lucky stars for guiding herself and Penny to Blade Lonewolf’s homestead. When she thought of all the other fates that could have been theirs, she shuddered.

For the first time since coming to Crossroads, Elise saw fewer clouds on her horizon. Sheer happiness bubbled inside her. She longed for the dark of the night when Penny would be fast asleep and she would be in Blade Lonewolf’s arms again.

“When you two get through roughhousing, you can come on back to the house. I’ve got hot fried pies on the kitchen table.”

“No fooling?” Penny jumped for joy. “Cocoa-and-sugar ones?”

Elise nodded. “And apple and raisin.”

“Let’s go!” Penny tugged at Blade’s hand.

“Hold up. I thought you were going to help me check over the harnesses for weak places.”

“Oh, that’s right. I did promise.”

“You go ahead and finish your chores. The pies will be on the table when you’re through.” Elise exchanged a smile with Blade—the kind that wives
give their husbands—then turned and walked slowly back to the house.

She didn’t hurry. The twilight was soothing. Lightning bugs glowed and crickets chirped. She thought of the straw-stuffed mattress Blade had fashioned that morning. He’d taken Penny to school and returned with a bed frame he’d paid Dixie bottom dollar for. The new bed awaited them. Did a new, happy life await them as well?

Elise drew in a deep breath, enjoying the perfume of honeysuckle and jasmine. An unpleasant odor threaded through nature’s sweet scents, and she snapped to attention. She scanned the area, knowing that someone was near—someone who hadn’t seen bathwater in a spell.

Just when she was about to run back to the barn for Blade, she caught sight of a thin, bony-shouldered figure standing in the pooled shadows of the porch.

“Who is it?” she asked, her voice calm and even. Whoever it was, she sensed no danger in him. “Please, who …”The words skidded and slipped on her intake of breath. “Adam? Adam, is that you?”

Elise hitched up her skirts and hurried forth, taking the porch steps by two. It had been several days since she’d seen him; he’d skipped school, and Elise had been reluctant to seek him out because of her new understanding of Blade’s circumstances. Guilt-ridden and heartsore, she stared at him, wondering if he’d come to ask her if she’d deserted him. Adam wiped his mouth and chin with the back of his hand.

“I went inside,” he said. “I ate two of those pies on the table.”

“You’re welcome to them.” Elise raked her fingers through his slick, dirty hair. “What in heaven’s
name … why, you are absolutely filthy, Adam St. John! Come in here. I want to see you in the light. I cannot believe the dirt caked on you!”

She clutched his shoulders and pushed him ahead of her. When she had him near the lit lantern, she turned him around to face her. Her eyes widened at the sorry sight of him.

His clothes were stiff with dirt and his hands, face and neck were gray with it. Beyond that, Elise didn’t like the expression on his face. He looked hard and bitter, older than his years. The boy she’d known was barely recognizable.

“Why are you running around like this? Doesn’t the judge have a bath in his house?”

“Yeah, but I don’t like to use it. It’s in the kitchen and the judge’s whore likes to sneak peeks when I’m naked.”

Elise’s fingertips flew to her lips in shock. “I never! The judge’s wh … who?”

“
Harriet
.”

He said the woman’s name on a sneer and his pitch rose to mock a female’s voice. Elise recalled that he always said Harriet’s name that way—as if he despised her.

“Harriet is his wife, as you well know, young man.”

“She’s nothing but a bought wh—”

Elise pressed her fingertips to his cracked lips. “No more of that name-calling in this house, Adam Jamison.” She sniffed and wrinkled her nose. “You stink. Take those clothes off while I heat some water for your bath.”

“Bath? I don’t have time for a bath.”

“You do now. I’ll wash those clothes and dry them by the stove. I sure don’t want you wearing them until they are laundered.” She shivered at the
sight of him. “I can’t believe you would allow yourself to get this dirty.”

Elise bustled to the stove and lifted the kettle. It felt half full. She began adding dipperfuls of water from a bucket into the cast-iron kettle.

“I’m leaving.”

“Not until you’ve bathed.”

“I’m leaving this place and I’m not coming back. I just wanted to say good-bye.”

Realizing what he meant, Elise whirled to confront him, but before she could say anything, Blade and Penny entered the house. Spotting Adam, Penny gave a whoop of joy and flung her arms around him. Blade’s gaze whipped up and down Adam’s thin, scraggly frame. He glanced at Elise, and she saw his concern and knew that he’d heard Adam’s announcement.

He removed his hat and hung it on a peg near the door. Raking his hand through his hair to lift it off his scalp, he nodded at Adam. “ ’Evening to you, Adam. Looks like you’ve been working hard in those clothes.”

“He needs a bath,” Elise acknowledged. “I’m heating water right now.”

“Did I hear you say something about leaving for good?”

Adam sliced a glance at Elise, then at Blade. He jutted his pointed chin. “Yeah, that’s right. And you can’t stop me.”

“I wasn’t meaning to,” Blade said with an easy smile. “I was just asking.”

“Blade, we can’t let him—” Elise snapped her mouth shut, numbed by Blade’s look of censure. Was he going to let Adam leave? She couldn’t believe he would allow such a thing.

“Where are you going, Adam?” Penny asked.

“I don’t know. Away from here.”

Penny’s lips trembled. “Can I go, too? Can me and Elise and Blade go, too?”

“No. You stay here.” Adam pushed Penny away. “Watch out. I’ll get you dirty.”

Elise stared at the platter of fried pies, her eyes filling with tears of helplessness and guilt. While she’d been reveling in her own happiness, her brother had become bitter, mistrustful.

Blade placed a hand over one of hers. His eyes shone with gentleness and understanding. “Elise, why don’t you and Penny take some pies and go outside to eat them while Adam has his bath?”

She glanced at Adam before nodding. “Yes. That’s a good idea.” Turning her back to her brother, she mouthed to her husband, “Talk to him.”

Blade chucked her under the chin. “Go on now. We men need our privacy.”

Elise selected two pies. “Come along, Pen. We’ll sit in the tree swing Blade made for us.”

“Adam, you won’t leave now, will you?” Penny asked.

Elise patted her sister’s back in a comforting and shooing gesture. “He’s not going anywhere but into the tub. Come along. We’ll visit with him after his bath.”

Penny let Elise take her by the hand and lead her outside.

Once they had gone, Blade moved to the stove and touched the pads of two fingers to the side of the teakettle. “Almost hot enough. You get those clothes off while I fill the tub.”

Elise had filled three buckets earlier, probably thinking he or Penny might need a bath before bed. While Adam undressed, Blade pulled the shallow
tub into the middle of the floor to fill it. He added a teakettle of the hot water and swished it around. “All ready.”

Blade gathered the discarded clothes and tossed them outside. He figured they were only good for burning. He sat at the table, his back to the tub.

“Soap, washcloth and towel are there on the floor,” he said, then helped himself to a pie. “Scrub hard. You’ve got rows of dirt circling your neck that I could plant potatoes in.”

The water sloshed in the tub as Adam eased his lanky body into it. Blade enjoyed the cocoa and sugar pie while the boy bathed.

“You hungry?”

“Yeah. Kinda.”

Blade pushed himself to his feet and went toward the stove. “We have some left-over ham here. I’ll heat up some of this hash for you.” He set the hash on the stove, then sliced off a generous wedge of Elise’s fresh bread for the boy. He arranged it on the table along with a glass of apple juice.

“Where are my clothes?” Adam asked, the water sloshing again as he stood in the tub.

Blade sat down again, his back to him. “If I know your sister, they’re burned or buried by now.”

“Huh? What am I supposed to wear?”

“I can find something for you, I reckon. Wear a towel for now and tuck yourself under this table.”

Adam came into view, the towel wrapped around his waist. “Don’t bother. I got a change of clothes in my bedroll,” he grumbled. He afforded Blade only a glance before attacking the plate of food.

The gray tinge had been washed away, revealing his pale skin and his tanned arms and face. Blade noticed that he’d missed a few places and was
about to point them out when he realized they wouldn’t wash off. A bolt of shock flashed through him. Bruises … around the boy’s upper arms, throat, left shoulder, the right side of his ribs. Anger built in Blade, but he knew that venting it in front of Adam, who was already mad at the world, would do more harm than good.

“Where’d you get those bruises, little brother?”

Adam hiked up one shoulder. “Where do you think?” His blue eyes glinted with hatred. “But he doesn’t hurt me. He tries to scare me. He cuffs me once in a while when I sass him.”

“Maybe you should curb your tongue.”

“Maybe you should try to live with him one day before you dole out advice,” Adam snapped.

Blade tamped down his own temper. “I can see that you sorely tempt the back of a man’s hand.”

Adam glared at him, but said nothing.

“So you’re heading out, are you?”

“That’s right.”

“You’re a boy. How do you think you’ll live, out on your own?”

“I can farm.”

Blade chewed on his lower lip to keep from laughing. Adam hadn’t even brought in a crop yet, but he considered himself worth wages. Well, he sure wasn’t short on pride.

“Don’t see how you’ll be better off. Farming is hard work, no matter where you do it.”

Adam ate heartily, abandoning talk until he was finished. He sat back with a sigh. His eyes glittered with something Blade didn’t like.

“Will you take me in, Lonewolf?”

Blade’s tongue felt like a flap of leather in his mouth. His mind whirled as he tried to find the
right answer to the question, but the boy withdrew it before he could.

“Never mind. I want to get far away from here. Can I have more juice?”

Blade nodded toward the pitcher on the table. “Help yourself.”

“I figure I can hop a train and get to another state,” Adam said as he filled his glass again.

“You think the judge won’t look for you?”

“I doubt it.”

“He adopted you. He won’t let you wander off without sending out a posse. Besides, your sisters would worry. You don’t want to make them sad, do you?”

“I’ve got to look after myself!” Adam thumped a fist on the table.

“Stay put a few more weeks and I might see clear to having you stay here with your sisters.”

An unpleasant smile drifted across Adam’s face. “What difference will a few weeks make? Nothing’s going to change.” He touched the discolored skin on his neck. “The judge has
you
by the throat, not me.”

Blade felt as if he’d been punched in the gut. He stared at the boy and saw not only disrespect but also a cockiness that made his blood boil.

“I know all about it,” Adam said. “The judge told me. He says you won’t be able to pay him back the money you borrowed and that he’ll be plowing your fields next spring. I thought you were a smart fellow, but I guess I was wrong. Only a fool would be owing a snake like Mott.”