Tales of Western Romance (33 page)

“
That’s right,” she said, grinning.
“See that you don’t forget it.”

The proprietor wrapped his new clothes up in
brown paper tied with string. Blue Hawk tucked the package under
his arm, held the door open for Lynnie, then followed her
outside.

They had only gone a short distance when a
young woman came hurrying toward them. “Lynnie!”

“
Hi, Audrey,” Lynnie said, smiling.
“How’s your grandmother doing?”

“
Oh, she’s fine. Old Doc Somerhalder
said it was just a bad sprain and she’d be as good as new in a week
or so. He told her she was getting too old to climb up in the loft
looking for eggs. As you can imagine, that didn’t sit very well
with grandma and she threw a vase at him.” Audrey laughed
merrily.

“
Serves him right,” Lynnie said,
sharing her friend’s laughter. “Imagine telling Grandma Hetty that
she’s old.” Of course, Grandma Hetty was over eighty, but
apparently Hetty didn’t consider that old.

Audrey nodded, her gaze moving over Blue Hawk
in a long, assessing glance. “Who’s your friend?”

“
Oh, I’m sorry. Audrey, this is Daniel.
Daniel, this is my best friend, Audrey Cach.”

“
Pleased to meet you, Miss Cach,” Blue
Hawk said politely.

“
The pleasure is all mine,” Audrey
replied archly. “Are you new in town?”

“
Yes, ma’am.”

Lynnie moved closer to Daniel and slipped her
arm through his. “Daniel’s taken, Audrey.”

Audrey took the hint with good grace. “Well,
it was nice to meet you, Daniel. Lynnie, we’ve got to get together
soon.” She gave Lynnie a hug, waved at Blue Hawk, and hurried down
the boardwalk.

“
Taken, am I?” Blue Hawk asked with a
wicked grin.

“
Only if you want to be,” she retorted
with a saucy toss of her head.

“
Honey, you can take me any time,” he
drawled. His words brought a flush to her cheeks.

“
Are you ready to go home?” she asked,
not meeting his gaze.

Home,
he thought, and wondered if he
would ever see his home in Bear Valley, or his parents and
siblings, again.

Chapter 12

The next few weeks were the happiest Lynnie
had ever known. The more she got to know Daniel, the more she came
to love him, until she couldn’t imagine her life without him. He
was kind and polite, sweet and funny. He treated her with respect,
always mindful of her feelings. He took his meals in the house with
her and although they sometimes made love, he never spent the night
with her, always returning to his place in the barn. Although she
would have liked him to spend his nights with her, he demurred and
she knew it was to keep her reputation intact.

Lynnie hurried through her chores in the
house each day so she could go outside and watch Daniel work the
rough string. Sometimes she was certain he had some sort of magic
touch. No matter how rank the bronc, or how distrustful the animal
was of people, Daniel always succeeded in gentling the horse and
winning its trust.

Jase never missed an opportunity to demean
Daniel, but there was little Jase could say against him. Daniel
worked hard and even though it was obvious he had no liking for
Jase, he gave Jase the respect he deserved as foreman. And no one
on the ranch could deny that Daniel was the best wrangler they’d
ever had.

She applauded him as he put one of the mares
through its paces, reining right and left, taking the mare around
the corral, first in one direction and then the other, the lead
changes as smooth as silk.

He brought the horse to a halt, backed her up
a few paces, then dismounted. He dropped the reins, then looked at
Lynnie. “Do you want to try her?”

With a nod, Lynnie slid off the corral fence
and approached the mare.

Daniel lifted Lynnie into the saddle. He knew
it wasn’t necessary; she’d been riding since before she could walk,
but it gave him an excuse to hold her, if only for a few
moments.

He leaned against the corral, arms folded
over his chest, while he watched her. She rode easily, her
movements in perfect rhythm with the mare’s. They made a beautiful
picture, the dark-haired lady and the long-legged chestnut
mare.

Lynnie drew rein in front of Daniel. “You’re
amazing,” she exclaimed. Leaning forward, she stroked the mare’s
neck. “If I didn’t know better, I’d never believe that this mare
had been as green as new grass just a few weeks ago.”

“
Like I said, I had a good
teacher.”

“
I wish I could meet your parents,”
Lynnie said. The longer she knew Daniel, the more curious she was
about the people who had raised him.

“
I wish I could arrange it. You’d love
my mom.”

Lynnie thought briefly of her own mother.
Except for a letter every now and then, she hadn’t seen Jeanette in
almost nine years.

Swinging out of the saddle, she handed the
reins to Daniel.

“
That’s the last of ‘em,” Blue Hawk
said. “They’re all prime.”

“
I can’t believe you got done so
quickly.” She blew a stray hair out of her eyes. “I know Sergeant
Nichols will be pleased with this bunch.” She smiled up at him.
“See you at dinner?”

“
Wouldn’t miss it,” he said with a
wink.

* * * * *

Blue Hawk sat back in his chair, feeling
utterly content as he sipped a second cup of coffee. He’d put in a
good day’s work and eaten a hearty meal with a beautiful woman.
Life didn’t get much better than that.

Adele was clearing the table when someone
knocked at the door.

“
I’ll get it,” Lynnie said, pushing
away from the table.

“
Probably that old man, Henry Russell,
coming to call again,” Adele muttered.

“
Who’s he?” Blue Hawk asked.

“
He owns the ranch just south of here,”
Adele said. “He’s been courting Lynnie for the last four or five
months.”

“
Really?” Blue Hawk grunted softly.
“She’s never mentioned him.”

“
She’s tried to discourage him every
way she knows without insulting him.”

“
Maybe I can help,” Blue Hawk said, and
tossing his napkin on the table, he strolled into the
parlor.

Russell was a tall, spare man with brown eyes
under bushy brows, a thin mustache and long sideburns touched with
gray. The man was forty, if he was a day.

“
Who’s this?” Russell asked, his voice
just shy of rude as he stared at Blue Hawk.

“
Henry, this is my new hand, Daniel
Blue Hawk. Daniel, this is my neighbor, Henry Russell. He was a
friend of my father’s.”

“
And yours, of course,” Russell said
with an oily smile.

Blue Hawk extended his hand. “Pleased to meet
you,” he said coolly.

Russell shook his hand briefly, then rubbed
his palms on the sides of his trousers, as if his hands were
suddenly dirty. “Indian, are you?”

“
Cheyenne.” Blue Hawk bit off the word,
his eyes narrowing angrily.

“
Please, gentlemen,” Lynnie said,
stressing the word, “won’t you sit down?”

“
I’m sure Mister Blue Hawk has
somewhere else to be,” Russell said. Sitting on the sofa, he waited
expectantly for Blue Hawk to leave the room.

“
Actually,” Blue Hawk said, taking a
place on the opposite couch, “I don’t.”

Lynnie glanced from one man to the other, and
then, murmuring, “Isn’t this nice?” she sat down next to Daniel,
hoping Henry would take the hint. He didn’t, of course.

“
The Fourth of July social is day after
tomorrow,” the rancher said, ignoring Daniel. “We talked about it
several weeks ago. What time shall I pick you up?”

“
You never actually invited me, Henry,
and I’m afraid I’ve already accepted Daniel’s invitation,” she
said, hoping Daniel would forgive her for involving him in her
deception.

A dark red flush stained Henry’s cheeks. “I
see,” he said stiffly. Rising, he sketched a bow in Lynnie’s
direction. “No need to see me out,” he said when she started to
rise.

A moment later, the front door slammed
shut.

“
That went well,” Blue Hawk
remarked.

“
I didn’t want to hurt his feelings,”
Lynnie said.

“
You hurt his pride. I don’t think
he’ll be back.” He stretched his arm along the back of the sofa,
his fingers delving into the hair at her nape. “A social,
huh?”

“
You don’t have to go, I just couldn’t
think of any other way to get out of going with Henry.”

“
Sounds like fun,” Blue Hawk
said.

“
Oh, it is!” Lynnie said
enthusiastically. “They have horse races and foot races and games
for the kids, and a pie eating contest, and later, there’s
dancing.” She slid a glance at him. “Do you dance?”

“
You bet.” He counted them off on his
fingers. “Rain dance. War dance. Scalp dance. Sweetheart’s Dance.
Matchmaking Dance. Round Dance. Slippery Dance. Galloping Buffalo
Bull Dance.”

She was laughing by the time he finished.
“Galloping Buffalo Bull Dance? You’re making that up!”

“
Nope. It starts in a circle. When the
drumming begins, three or four women dance toward the men. When
they’re close to them, the women turn their backs and begin dancing
bent over, backs up, like buffalo. If there are four women dancing,
four men get up and join them, also stooped over, like the women.
More women join the dance, and then more men. When everyone is
dancing, they form a long row, all stooped over, until the drummers
call for them to make a circle. Everyone sings while they dance.
It’s usually the last dance of the night.”

“
Hmm,” Lynnie said, looking serious.
“That doesn’t sound much like a waltz.”

“
No,” Blue Hawk agreed, laughing. “It
doesn’t.” Leaning forward, he kissed her cheek, then whispered, “I
guess it’s a good thing my mom taught me how to dance like a white
man.”

* * * * *

The Fourth of July bloomed bright and clear.
Lynnie and Adele spent the morning making potato salad and fried
chicken to go with the pies and cakes they had made the night
before.

As instructed, Blue Hawk had the wagon out
front by ten-thirty and after loading the wagon bed with blankets
and baskets of food, he helped Lynnie and Adele climb onto the
seat; then, after swinging up beside Lynnie, he took up the reins
and set out for town.

He heard the sounds of merry-making long
before they reached the site of the social, which was located in a
wide grassy area on the outskirts of town. Banners and bunting
decorated the store fronts. Tinny piano music blared from one of
the saloons. Blue Hawk recognized several Slash Bar R horses tied
up at the hitch rail in front of the Lady Jay.

Kids and dogs ran everywhere, horses shied as
fireworks went off intermittently.

Long tables had been set up in the shade; a
number of ladies in long dresses and bonnets were gathered around
tables decorated with red, white, and blue bunting.

Blue Hawk parked the wagon under a tree and
after tethering the team, he lifted Adele and Lynnie from the
wagon, then helped carry the blankets and baskets to a shady spot
near the bandstand.

“
We need to go help the minister’s wife
set the tables,” Lynnie said. “We won’t be long.”

Blue Hawk nodded. After spreading out one of
the blankets, he sat down, his back against a tree, one arm draped
over his bent knee, as he watched the activities around him.

A handful of boys were playing catch. A trio
of teenage girls stood on the bandstand, singing “Oh, Susannah,”
accompanied by fiddle and flute. Across the way, a number of men
were hooting and hollering while two stout young men engaged in a
wrestling contest. A pair of old men wearing overalls and battered
hats had turned a crate on its end and were playing chess. A
half-dozen other men stood watching them.

Blue Hawk turned his attention to Lynnie.
Clad in a white shirtwaist and a long green skirt, she was busy
helping the other women set out pies, cakes, and cookies on one of
the long tables. He felt his heart swell with warmth when she
turned to smile at him. He had it bad, he thought, smiling back.
Really bad, when all he wanted to do was carry her away to some
place private and make love to her. Until then, he was content to
watch her.

The afternoon passed pleasantly enough. He
ate lunch with Adele and Lynnie, laughed along with everyone else
during the pie-eating contest and the three-legged races.

As the sun began to set, he snagged Lynnie’s
hand and led her away from the crowd.

“
Where are we going?” she asked,
hurrying to keep up with him.

“
Someplace where we can be
alone.”

“
Oh? Oh...” She smiled as he pulled her
behind a tree and kissed her lightly, and then more deeply. She
leaned into him, loving the way his arm tightened around her waist,
the touch of his hand in her hair, the hard length of his thigh
against her own.

Lost in the sweetness of her kisses, Blue
Hawk groaned softly, and then went suddenly still as Fox Hunter’s
voice whispered a warning in the back of his mind.

The Great Spirit will tell you when it is
time to return. If you do not heed the call, the way will be closed
to you forever
.

He went cold all over with the realization
that the time Fox Hunter had spoken of would soon be upon him.