Peri (Brides 0f Needful Texas Book 3)

by Danni Roan

  No matter how he fought it, he couldn’t deny an attraction to the young woman. She was smart, sassy, and had a sense of humor to boot. The fact that she hadn’t fallen to pieces the night he had carried her back to his cabin also spoke well of her courage and pluck.

  “If only she weren’t so judgmental, or quick to assume things about folks,” he mused shifting his long rifle in his hand and adjusting his coonskin cap on his head.

  Moving along the familiar track Bear scanned the forest for his last hidden trap. He was hoping to catch a rabbit, but he’d be happy with a pelt from a raccoon or coyote. The big man grinned as he found the rabbit in the snare he had set the night before, it would make a fine supper.

  Turning toward home with a light step the woodsman let his mind drift back to Miss Perkins. He liked her. He knew it down to his toes, but was he ready to consider love again?

  ***

  Bear pushed the prepared rabbit into the oven and settled at the table opening the dusty wooden box with a key. It had been a long time since he’d been able to open that lid, and he wondered if, like Pandora’s small cube it would unleash horrors.

  Lifting the picture carefully from the polished bottom of the cherry wood container, Bear swallowed gazing down at the likeness of his late wife and infant son, as a lump formed in his throat.

  The war had taken so much, everything. “I shouldn’t have gone,” the big man whispered as a tear slipped from his eye landing on the lid of the box and shimmering like a diamond on the polished wood. “You didn’t want me to go, but like the fool I was, I felt it was my duty. If I’d been there when the raiders had come, you’d still be here with me: you and little Barty both.”

  The old familiar pain he had been hiding from hit him in the chest as he looked at the small portrait. He had had it painted the year he left to join the boys in blue, and it was a bittersweet reminder of what he had lost. He had been so certain that Teresa and his boy would be safe in the big house in Virginia. He’d had everything. Wealth, prestige, a fine home, and a family he loved.

  The Cassidy’s were an old family in the farm-rich Shenandoah Valley. His ancestral home had been beautiful with tall columns and white trim around the doors, windows and accent pieces on the brick house.

  “I don’t know what to do,” he said to the photo. “What would you want me to do Teresa?” he whispered. “I don’t even know if I have the right to care for that girl after leaving you behind to die.”

  The raiders had swept through the valley attacking farms and homes with abandon. If anyone had tried to stop them, they killed them.

  When Bartholomew Cassidy had returned home, he had been told that Teresa had tried to scare the men off, but in a tussle, at the top of the sweeping staircase the raider had lost his footing, and they had fallen over the railing with little Barty between them.

  “God, I don’t deserve to love again,” the man called Bear said dropping his head in his hands. “I abandoned my family to destruction all for pride.”

  The scream of a panther in the fading light of the afternoon made Bear’s head snap up and he grabbed his rifle, dashing through the front door into a splash of crimson sunlight, his heart focused on the kill.

  The cry of the mountain lion drew Bear further into the woods. He’d become attuned to the woods in the area of Needful over long use. They weren’t extensive, but along the stream and in the lower valleys the trees grew thick and strong even in the heat of a Texas summer.

  A branch cracked to his left, and Bear looked that way crouching low to peer through the yellow foliage around him.

  The creak of a branch was the only warning he had, and he looked up as the panther sprang from a tree, its long body dropping toward him paws and razor-sharp claw extended.

  Bear dropped his rifle and grabbed for the knife on his hip as the weight of the wild creature pressed him to the ground. The beast's teeth clamped into his shoulder as he struggled to get free his left hand.

  Crying out in pain, as the panther’s claws raked his chest; Bear pulled the knife from its scabbard with a hard wrench of his wrist thrusting the knife deep into the panther’s side.

  Blood poured over his hand as he twisted the knife, even as blood began trickling down his neck as the animal slumped on top of him; dead.

  Bear lay on the cold ground for minutes, as his breathing steadied. His shoulder burned and the deep tears in his chest felt like they were on fire. Closing his eyes Bear took a deep breath then tried to heave the big cat from his chest, but his arm wasn’t working right and the weight of the animal pinned him to the ground.

  Shifting his shoulders with a pained grunt, the big man squirmed out from under the panther dragging ragged breaths into his lungs as he pushed himself up onto all fours.

  Bracing his knee below him, he tried to push himself upright, but his head swam, and he collapsed back to the earth with a groan.

  Digging his hands into the earth and looking in the direction of home Bear Cassidy began dragging himself toward the road to Needful. Perhaps someone would find him before he lost too much blood.

  Chapter 18

  “It’s only three weeks before Christmas, Prim,” Peri said as she walked with her sister toward the general store. “I want to find something nice for Mama or maybe make her a new dress. I’ll only be a few minutes and then I’ll ride hard to catch up with you and Anderson.”

  Prim smiled at her younger sister. She had been putting in long hours at the Hampton House and needed the outing. Having done the job herself for the past few months, she knew that any chance you had to do something special was a treat.

  “All right,” Prim said, “but don’t dawdle. It will be dark in less than an hour, and the days are getting shorter and shorter.”

  “I know,” Peri said rolling her eyes. “Stop fussing. I can see that Anderson is ready to go so go.”

  Prim nodded turning for the door and hurrying to the carriage where Anderson took her hand helping her into the warm seat.

  “It’s getting cold,” she said pulling her heavy shawl around her.

  “I think we’ll have frost tonight,” Anderson agreed. “Where’s Peri?”

  “She’ll be along in a few minutes. She promised to catch up,” Prim said with a smile. “She wants some time to do a bit of Christmas shopping.”

  “Are you sure we should leave her?” Anderson asked.

  “She’ll be fine. The weather is clear and she promised to hurry.”

  Anderson climbed up into the carriage pulling down the sides against the chill and slapped the reins to the horse’s rump as they started home.

  ***

  Peri walked along the shelves of dry goods in the Mercantile smiling at the fabrics spread out on a small table.

  “Oh hello Prim,” Mrs. Scripts said smiling. “I haven’t seen you here in a while. Do you need something for the Hampton House?”

  “No I’m looking for fabric,” Peri said running her hand across a piece of lovely purple cotton. “I think I’ll take some of this and the red and white calico for Mama,” she said peering through the window as the sun slipped closer to the horizon.

  “I’ll get it ready now,” Mrs. Scripts said pushing a bit of her dark hair from her face. The tiny woman had arrived in Needful with Daliah and the Hamptons and the rest of the wagon train from Smithfield to join her husband who was running a trading post here.

  Now the family ran a bustling general store and had become fast friends with the other members of the town.

  “Here you are dear,” Mrs. Scripts said. “You’d better hurry if you’re going home tonight,” she added.

  “I will,” Peri said paying for her purchases and heading out the door before walking to the Hampton House where a patient Sparrow stood waiting at the hitching post.

  “Time to go home,” Peri said stuffing her neatly wrapped packages in the saddlebags. “Now if only we had a seamstress in town,” she said swinging into the saddle and turning down the road. “Then I wouldn’t have to do t
he sewing,” she finished urging the horse into a fast trot out of town.

  Peri gazed around her at the now familiar road. She’d been riding it for two weeks and knew it well. Even after her bad spill that first night, she wasn’t frightened of the ride, and as the sun began to dip low, she wasn’t worried about making it home before dark.

  Urging Sparrow into a smooth canter Peri enjoyed the feel of the cold wind on her face and though the chill cut through her coat, she still reveled in it.

  A sharp snort and sideways jump from Sparrow almost unseated Peri and she clutched the saddle horn pulling the horse to a stop and gazing around her looking for a threat.

  “What is it Sparrow,” Peri spoke gazing into the gray light of dusk and listening as a shiver ran down her spine. She couldn’t see anything, but when she eased her grip on the reins of the pretty horse, Sparrow lowered her head and sniffed the ground taking tentative steps from the road toward the woods.

  Peri peered into the thick brown grass along the road then sprang from the saddle as Sparrow snorted and bulked. “Easy girl,” Peri said holding tight to the reins and drawing the horse closer to the spot where Bear Cassidy lay, bleeding on the ground.

  Sparrow snorted rolling her eyes, as she smelled blood and her fear instinct tried to override her training.

  “Easy girl,” Peri said leading the horse to a nearby tree and tying her fast, then rushing back to Mr. Cassidy.

  “Mr. Cassidy,” Peri called jostling his shoulder and crying out when her hand came away sticky and wet. “Mr. Cassidy!” Peri called again. “Wake up,” she practically screamed as her heart began to break.

  A low groan assured Peri that the man was still alive, and she sighed out a prayer for thanks and strength.

  “Mr. Cassidy, can you stand?” Peri asked tugging at his arm as the man struggled to rise. She wasn’t sure if he was even fully conscious, but Peri managed to get him to her horse and into the saddle somehow. “Maybe I should have left you and headed back to town,” she said untying Sparrow, “but what if a wild animal found you, or you froze out here before we could come back.”

  Keeping one hand on Mr. Cassidy who slumped over the skittish horse’s neck, Peri guided her mount toward the man’s cabin, the closest shelter she knew of. “Please don’t die Bear,” she pleaded as a tear pricked at her eyes. “I don’t think I could live if you died.”

  Chapter 19

  “I guess this is going to have to be a skirt and not a dress,” Peri said as she tore several strips from the yards of purple fabric she had purchased a short time earlier.

  “I hope you’re worth it,” she continued, grumbling as she fought the tears that threatened to overwhelm her. “I’ll get you patched up then send Sparrow home-like Jacks did,” she sniffed.

  Getting the big man from the saddle and into the house had been an ordeal to say the least, but pulling his ruined buckskin shirt over his head had been even worse. He had just started coming around when she pulled it from him, and his cry of pain tore through Peri’s heart like the claws of an animal even as it cast Bear back into oblivion.

  Peri had cleaned the wounds carefully with hot saltwater and now bandaged them with care. Wrapping the man’s thick chest was difficult, but what she truly worried about were the seeping puncture wounds in the thick cords of muscle along his shoulder.

  “Don’t die on me now,” Peri sassed as her voice broke and she hurried to the bookshelf to find paper and pencil, “I’m only going to Sparrow,” she added with another unladylike sniffle.

  Scrawling a quick note about what had happened on the paper; Peri thrust it into the mare’s saddlebags, buckled them tight then tied the reins around the saddle horn. “You go on home now Sparrow,” she said as the tears she had been resisting broke loose from their dam. “Go home,” she sobbed kissing the horse on the white snip that painted her nose.

  Turning the sweet horse toward the road, Peri gave her a hard slap on the rump. “Yaw, yaw!” Peri cried waving her arms as the little horse racing for the road and home.

  Turning back to the cabin, Peri picked up the detritus scattered across the entryway and closed the door on the evening chill. “Lord,” she prayed as she lifted the buckskin shirt turning it right side out again. “I don’t know what’s happening, but I’m praying that Bear will be alright.”

  The young woman turned to look at the unconscious man lying on the long wooden sofa by the fire. The furniture matched him so perfectly, as the woven branches of dark birch, and polished bench of white wood seemed the perfect combination of clashing colors for the big man.

  Peri walked to the fire adding another log to the fire then turned to check on the handsome man. He was woodsy and rough, yet his features spoke of quality and refinement. “You are such a puzzle,” Peri said. “And you’d better not die on me. Finding a blanket draped over one of the two rocking chairs in the space, Peri placed it over her ward, tucking it around him so it reached the rough padding of the cushion on the couch.

  Once certain that there was nothing more that she could do for Mr. Cassidy, Peri walked into the kitchen. She could smell something cooking and opened the oven on a nicely browned rabbit. Scooping water from the nearby bucket, she ladled water into the pan to create a nourishing broth, and then searched the polished shelves around the kitchen until she found the salt, before peering out the window in hopes of help.

  As the long minutes dragged on with no indication that anyone else was coming, Peri kept herself busy making a pot of hot tea then settled at the table gazing down at the beautiful wrought wooden box and the fine paintings on the table.

  Peri gazed at the beautiful black-haired woman who smiled at her from the image along with a baby on her knee. The portrait was small, no bigger than a man’s hand. Turning the painting in her hand Peri read the inscription on the back.

  Teresa Marie Cassidy and Bartholomew Alex Cassidy Junior.

  Below the name was a handwritten note, in an elegant scrawl.

  My beloved Bartholomew, I will miss you while you are gone. Be brave my love and return to me,

  Tera,

  Peri carefully laid the picture back on the table and turned to look at the man sprawled out on his handmade sofa. “Who are you?” Peri asked. “Who are you, Bear Cassidy?”

  ***

  Bear opened his eyes blinking in confusion as his own home came into view. He had no idea how he could possibly have made it home in his condition. Lifting his head Bear cringed looking down at the purple wrappings wound around his chest and shoulder.

  Pushing himself up as he clenched his jaw against an outcry of pain, he lifted his head, his eyes falling on Peri Perkins sitting at his table holding his picture in her hand.

  “Put that down,” he growled struggling to his feet. “What are you doing?” his voice was rough like sandpaper on new wood.

  Peri put down the painting and hurried to help the man, slipping under his bare shoulder to support him as he swayed on his feet.

  “That isn’t yours,” Bear said. “You shouldn’t be looking at it.”

  “I suppose I shouldn’t be here saving your miserable life then either,” Peri snapped guiding him to the chair she had just vacated and pushed him down on the hard seat.

  Bear swayed on his chair as his head spun and leaned his head against his hand, propping his elbows on the tired.

  “It would serve you right if you fell on your face,” Peri said moving to the stove and pulling the roasted rabbit from the stove that burned almost as hot as her temper.

  “I’m sorry,” Bear whispered from the table as he seemed to steady, lifting the portrait into the wooden box and closing the lid.

  Peri poured the hot juices from the rabbit into a mug, added a little water to cool it and placed it on the table in front of Mr. Cassidy her eyes flashing. “Here, drink that if you think you can,” she said scowling at the man.

  Bear lifted the cup sipping the salty brew in silence. He shouldn’t have snapped at Miss Peri. She was only trying to hel
p, and he had left the portrait on the table.

  “Did you bring me here yourself?” he asked sipping from the cup again and feeling the broth working wonders for him.

  “I found you along the road,” Peri said her voice still high with irritation. “You nearly got me thrown again if it matters to you,” she finished pulling the rabbit from the roaster and putting it on a plate along with the potatoes, carrots, and onions she had added to the meal.

  “How did you get me here?” Bear said watching the girl plate the rabbit, moving around his kitchen with a grace and efficiency that surprised him.

  “You were able to get on my horse with help,” Peri said her voice gentling. “I don’t think you were fully conscious, but you managed.”