Mackinnons #02 For All the Right Reasons (43 page)

“And it’s going to be getting colder for us too.” He glanced at the sky. “It’ll be getting dark in a few hours. We’d better start back down.”

She walked to the edge of the trail and looked out one last time. Below, everything spread out like autumn’s green and gold tapestry, aloof and distant from human intrusion. She hugged her arms around her waist, lifting her face into the first sharp stirring of wind. “This is what I needed to see,” she said softly. “This, more than anything helps me understand what I’m doing here.” He came to stand beside her but she didn’t look at him. “I would love to go there sometime, to see what it’s like just over that big mountain there. But just seeing it makes me understand just how lucky we really are. Do you realize how few people have ever looked at anything so beautiful?”

He didn’t answer because he knew she didn’t expect him to. The view was spectacular with the afternoon mist already cloaking the distant peaks. But his eyes were drawn from nature’s beauty to one of human form. From his place beside her he watched her lose herself in the wonder of what she was seeing, and in a way, he was doing the same, for his thoughts were spinning backwards to a lazy summer afternoon on the banks of Tehuacana Creek when he’d taught her to fish with blood bait.

He shook his head, wondering why he reflected on times they had spent together in the past. “We’d better be going,” he said, hating as much as she to break the magic of the time they had shared.

She turned away, pulling her cloak around her. “I would love to come back up here in the spring, just to see it when everything is brand new.”

“Maybe we could sneak away for a few days.”

“Oh, could we, Alex? Could we?” Her voice was high and trilled and he couldn’t help smiling at the face turned up to his. Without thinking, his hand came up and he touched her nose with his finger. “I think we could.” Then he grinned. “We might find a nice river and I could teach you how to fish.”

“And we could cook them over an open fire. I’ve heard that fish cooked over a campfire is some of the best eating around.”

He laughed, finding he was enjoying her immensely. “It’s not as glamorous as it sounds. You get burned fingers and cinders in your eyes, and your hair smells like smoke.”

“I wouldn’t care,” she said.

And somehow he felt she really wouldn’t.

They walked back down the trail toward the horses. “Do you think Old Bitch will be rested enough to give you trouble when we get back?”

The sound of his laughter rocked out across the mountain-tops, and as she had always done, she thought it was the most beautiful sound she had ever heard. She stopped, her cheeks rosier than they had been a moment ago, her hands going to her hips as she glared at him. “You told me that was her name.”

“It is.”

“Then what’s so funny?”

“It’s just that I never expected you to belt it out like that.” He stepped closer, his hands coming out to take her arms. “There are times when I find you utterly adorable. You know that?”

“Is this one of those times?”

“Yes,” he said. “I believe it must be because I’m having a hard time convincing myself that we need to hurry down this mountain.”

“Why?”

“Because I keep wondering what it would be like to kiss you,” he said quietly, “just kiss you and keep on kissing you and see where that led.”

She wasn’t sure how to take his teasing, for he had caught her off guard with that one. She tried to laugh, but did it weakly. “You’d find that rather shocking, I’m afraid. My lips are cold.”

He drew her closer. “We could warm them up a little.” He lowered his head, his lips brushing lightly across hers, his breath and the pattern of his lips warming her with their imprint. She was looking at him in much the same manner she had gazed out at the view only minutes before, a sort of wide-eyed look of wonder, her mouth slightly parted.

“Let’s try that again.”

An incredibly sweet sensation washed over her and she felt herself lean against him just as he kissed her. At first the touch of his lips was no more than the brush of a butterfly wing. He kissed her slowly, his mouth learning the shape and texture of her own, his breath learning to pace itself to her own. Slowly and with infinite patience he kissed her until she pulled back and placed her chilled fingers over his lips. “I think they’re warm now,” she said.

“But we can make them warmer.” His body tensed, his arms tightening to draw her hard against him, the pressure of his chest like a warm caress against her breasts. “You feel so good,” he said against her hair. “Maybe we can wait a while to go back down.”

“I don’t think that would be a good idea, Alex. I think we’d better go right now.”

“Why? Aren’t you enjoying yourself?”

“I was.”

“I see,” he said stiffly. “What’s the matter? Can’t you stand for me to get close to you?”

“It’s not you I mind getting close, Alex. But I think that’s a bear.”

He pulled back, seeing her eyes were locked on something behind him and he whirled around, putting her behind him.

A dark shape was coming down the trail, still too far away to tell what it was exactly. “I think you may be right. Come on.”

He grabbed her hand and hurried down the trail, pulling her with him. After a few minutes, they paused and turned, looking back up the trail. It was obvious it was a bear now, for it stood on its hind legs, its head in the air.

“It’s picked up our scent,” she said.

“Yes.”

“It’s not as big as the other bear.”

“This one is a black bear, but they’re not much fun to tangle with either.”

The bear was still standing on its hind legs sniffing the air when they turned and hurried on down the trail. When they reached the horses, Alex helped Katherine mount. “You go on ahead.”

Katherine urged One Speed forward, praying Old Bitch would behave herself, or at least wait until they had put more distance between themselves and the bear before she decided to misbehave. A moment later she heard Alex coming up behind her. “You can slow down now.”

Katherine turned and looked at him. “I am slowed down. That’s the only gait this horse knows.”

He grinned, kicking Old Bitch to ease around her. “She’ll probably move a little faster if she’s following and not in the lead. We stayed longer than we should have. It may be dark before we get back.”

“Can you find your way in the dark?”

“The horses can. We’ll just give them their head.”

Alex had been right. It was dark when they reached the logging camp. Adrian was just sitting down to dinner when they came in. “Glad you’re back,” he said. “I hate eating alone.”

“Go ahead and eat,” Alex said. “We need to clean up.”

“That’s all right. I don’t mind waiting,” said Adrian, smiling slowly when Alex shot him a hard look.

Katherine said, “Wong, I think I’ll have dinner in my room. And put some water on to heat, will you? I’ve been dreaming of a nice hot bath for the past two hours.”

Alex sat down at the table and watched her go, a frown on his face.

A wide grin split Adrian’s face. “Well, here I thought it was just me you reserved those looks for, but I see it isn’t. Did you have a nice outing, brother?”

“Adrian,” Alex said harshly, “sometimes you don’t know when to shut up.” He rested his forehead in his palms, his elbows braced on the table.

Shut up. Adrian knew that was what Alex wanted him to do, but he also knew how much his brother needed a good shove now and then, just to get him off dead center. He sat in the chair across from Alex and waited him out, not speaking until Alex looked up. When Alex raised his head, Adrian went on speaking to Alex as he often did after dinner, bringing up the same topics of discussion they covered almost daily: about constructing a skid road to enable them to move more logs faster and from greater distances, or if it was a good idea to buy another gang saw, inefficient though they might be. Yet, even in discussing their routine subjects, Alex’s mind seemed to switch around.

“Well? What do you think? Should we go for it?”

“Go for what?”

“Constructing a skid road… Alex, aren’t you paying attention to anything I’m saying?”

“I’m listening.”

“You may be listening, but your mind isn’t on skid roads and gang saws, or even lumbering, for that matter.”

“How would you know?”

“Because you haven’t had a worthwhile idea since we went to San Francisco.”

Alex slammed his hands down against the table so hard the lid on the sugar bowl rattled. “All right! So I haven’t had a decent idea since San Francisco. So I don’t have my mind on business. So what are you going to do about it? Give me another ultimatum? Don’t think you can get away with threatening me as easily as you did before. I did what you wanted. I married her. Now, you can stay the hell out of my business.”

With a rage that matched his brother’s, Adrian said, “And what have you decided to do? Let her sit here for the rest of her life wondering why you married her if you never intended to make her your wife? Do you realize you spend more time talking to Wong than you do to her? Is it your plan to ignore her until she does what any normal woman would do and takes a lover?”

“And we both know who that would be, don’t we?” Alex said.

“That’s it, Alex. You continue to elude the problem by throwing obstacles in the road. Is that what you want to do? Discuss my sins? Katherine is your wife. Why don’t we talk about yours? Why haven’t you taken her to bed?”

A chill penetrated the room that had nothing to do with the weather. When Alex spoke at last, each word was isolated and frozen, thrown with the sharpness of an icicle. “That is none of your business.”

“You’re a fool. The real tragedy in this situation isn’t the fact that you married a woman you didn’t love. It’s in your refusal to love the woman you married.”

“You think it’s easy, don’t you? All I have to do is say I love her, and it happens.”

“It doesn’t happen because you won’t let it. Don’t examine your feelings too closely, or you may find you care more for her than you thought. And now that I’ve gone this far, I might as well go one step more and tell you the reason Katherine is still here isn’t because she’s too big a fool to see what you’re doing, it’s because you keep her waiting by giving her little insignificant doses of hope. You don’t want to be married to her, but you care enough to keep her tied to you. You can’t go on like this anymore, Alex. It’s time to fish, or cut bait.”

“You don’t know what in the hell you’re talking about.”

“Don’t I?” Adrian leaned back in his chair. “You don’t want her to leave because you want her. Even when you were lusting after Karin in Texas, I saw it. Back then, you covered a lot with a blanket called friendship. Now you don’t even bother to do that. Every time you look at her your body stiffens harder than a railroad spike. You’ve got it bad, like a sickness. You look at her with enough heat in your eyes it’s a wonder you don’t turn to ash. But she’s Karin’s sister and not Karin, and somehow you can’t forgive her for that, no matter how much you really might care. You could have at least taken her to bed
once
after you married her, except it was more important to punish her than it was to see if there might be some feeling there. So many times I’ve called you a bastard. But I see I was wrong. You’re worse than a bastard. A bastard would have at least consummated the marriage before he let it grow cold.”

“A bastard would have told her the truth and never married her in the first place. It’s time you remembered something. The reason we have a problem here, dear brother, is because you intervened and tried to play God.”

Adrian looked suddenly tired. “You don’t know how many times I’ve told myself that. And if I could undo it, I would.” He stood, pushing his chair in. “I guess there’s only one thing to do.”

“And what is that.”

“I’ll tell her the truth. I’ll tell her it’s all my fault. I’ll take her to San Francisco and get her a lawyer so she can get the marriage annulled. And then I’ll put her on a ship and send her back to Texas.”

Alex was around the table so fast, Adrian didn’t even see him move. His hand uncoiled like a striking snake to grab Adrian’s shirt and shove him back against the wall. “
If
and when Katherine is told the truth, it will be me who does the telling. Don’t think I don’t see through your righteous offer. Katherine is
my
wife. I mean to keep it that way.”

Adrian began to laugh, his arm coming around Alex’s neck as he wrestled him playfully across the room. “Damn me for a fool, Alex. I thought you’d never see the light and say so.”

“I ought to beat you raw as a piece of liver.”

They scuffled for a minute or two, then Adrian said, “I’m too tired for any more of this. Let’s go have a drink.”

“You go ahead. I’ll join you in a minute.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’ve got to put the horses up.”

“You aren’t going off to sulk, are you?”

“I’m a little old for that, don’t you think?”

Up went Adrian’s hands in surrender. “Please don’t make me answer that.”

“Get out of here,” Alex said, picking up a biscuit and throwing it at him.

Adrian darted through the door into the great room just as the biscuit passed him.

Upstairs, Katherine had just finished her meal and bath. Once she was out of the tub, she realized just how cold her room was. She would have to go downstairs and sit in front of the fire to dry her hair, but that didn’t bother her. The thought of sitting on one of the thick rugs and brushing her hair dry in front of a crackling fire sounded like the perfect way to end a perfect day. She wrapped a towel around her head, then put on her gown and wrapper.

The great room was empty when she went down, and she had no more than settled herself—none too comfortably, since she’d been on a horse all day—on the rug in front of the fire when Adrian walked in. He went to a long table that stood along the wall and poured two drinks out of the decanter. Crossing the room, he offered one to her.

“No thank you.”

“Take it. It’ll warm you and relax your muscles. I imagine you’re going to be pretty sore tomorrow.”