A glance at the muscles clenched in his jaw, and the frown on his face was enough to convince her he regretted the impulsive kiss. “It didn’t mean anything,” she said softly.
He looked startled. “What?”
“It’s natural for people to react that way in life-threatening situations. I think it has something to do with the instinct for survival; you know like Mother Nature’s way of perpetuating the species. That’s why so many babies are born nine months after any natural disaster.”
Lucas smiled reluctantly. “You have the damnedest way of looking at things. Just instinct, huh?”
“Something like that. Notice we’ve never even been tempted before.” Maybe that wasn’t completely true where Brianna was concerned, but she told herself it was just an overwhelming physical attraction to the man. Nothing more. “I doubt it will happen again.”
“No, probably not.”
“So, we’ll just forget it ever happened at all.”
“Right.”
Brianna resisted the urge to touch her lips where the imprint of his kiss still burned. Forget it? Ha, not in this lifetime, or her own either for that matter!
The last colors of a spectacular sunset were fading as they made their way back down to the river. The stampede had lasted less than half an hour, but the devastation was complete. The prairie looked like a plowed field with the grass and sagebrush little more than a memory. The willows along the river had disappeared, stomped into the mud by the thousands of sharp hooves that had cut back the banks and transformed the pool into a muddy mess. The dirty water swirled and eddied around the bodies of three buffalo that had died where they’d fallen, trampled by their comrades.
Brianna made a face. “The environmentalists would have a fit if they could see this.”
“Who?”
“They’re people who get shook up about this kind of thing.”
“Everybody gets ‘shook up’ as you call it when they’re part of a stampede.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Brianna knew they weren’t talking about the same thing, but it would be useless to try to explain. Lucas wasn’t even aware there was an environment.
“I don’t know how clean we’ll get,” Lucas said, eyeing the muddy water. “But it’s better than nothing.”
Brianna felt a surge of sadness as she stepped into the water. Her beautiful refuge was gone. The water would run clear again, but the river would never be the same.
It only took a few minutes to wash away the worst of the grime, but Lucas was already walking up and down the bank when she limped out. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“Looking for our clothes.”
“Find anything?”
“Just this.” He handed her what was left of her right sneaker. So much for her hundred and twenty-dollar walking shoes.
“No sign of anything else, not even my boots.”
“That’s strange. Where do you suppose—”
The sudden sound of a rifle shot stopped her in mid-sentence. She and Lucas stared at each other in shocked surprise.
“That came from the station,” Brianna said.
With two strides Lucas was at her side. “Let’s go,” he said, putting his arm around her waist and lifting her injured foot off the ground.
The trail had been obliterated, but they hardly noticed as they hurried toward the station. They were clear to the corral before they saw the light in the cabin. Billy came out of the barn carrying a rope. He stopped in surprise when he saw them, then gave out a whoop. “Ian, I found Lucas and Brianna! They’re all right.” Brianna pretended not to notice as he turned bright red and averted his eyes from her state of undress.
Ian stuck his head out of the door of the cabin. “Where—never mind, I can see.” His face broke into a grin. “You two sure picked a good time to go swimming.”
“Actually, I was forced into it as I have already pointed out to Brianna.”
“He couldn’t wait to say I told you so.”
Ian’s grin broadened. “Looks like you may have to eat your words, Lucas.”
“Why?”
“Take a look.” He stepped aside so they could see inside the cabin. “We’re not real certain how he got in or how the door got shut behind him, but he sure made a mess.”
A buffalo carcass lay across the splintered remains of Lucas’s bunk with its head hanging out the window. The Condition of the cabin gave mute testimony to the animal’s determination to leave the trap it had found itself in. The table was upended, two of the chairs smashed, and the side of Brianna’s trunk crushed. Very little inside the cabin had escaped some sort of destruction.
“We heard the ruckus clear down at the barn,” Billy said, his eyes twinkling merrily. “Thought you two were having a fight until he let out a beller.”
“Yep,” Ian agreed. “We knew even Lucas couldn’t yell that loud, so we came to investigate. He must have knocked the shutters open somehow and thought the window was a way out.
We didn’t have any choice but to shoot him. The wall was starting to give under the strain.”
Brianna barely heard the conversation around her as she stared at what was left of Lucas’s bunk. If she hadn’t been here to tease him into going swimming, Lucas would most likely have been in it, crushed to death beneath the huge buffalo bull. Anna would be a widow—all alone except for Ian—kind, gentle, red-haired Ian. Brianna thought she might be sick.
CHAPTER 20
“Do you think you can handle it here for a few days, Ian?” Lucas asked, pushing back from the supper table.
“Sure, why?”
“I’m going to catch the stage and go to Platte River Bridge Station tomorrow. I need to buy some clothes.”
“Good,” Brianna said. “I’m going with you.”
“No.” Lucas didn’t even have to think about it. A trip like this with Brianna was out of the question. Five days hadn’t dimmed his memory of that kiss one bit.
“Why not? I’ve got to get some shoes. These boots of Billy’s don’t fit worth beans, not to mention how stupid they look with a dress.”
“I’ll be happy to pick up some shoes for you.”
“Oh, come on, Lucas, don’t be such a party pooper. I haven’t been anywhere since I got here.”
“Party pooper, is that like a chauvinist?”
“Not usually, but in your case, they probably mean the same thing.” She gave him a shrewd look. “It’s not going to work, Lucas. I won’t be distracted. I’m going with you and that’s that.”
Ian glanced back and forth between them then scooted back his chair. “Uh...I think it’s time I turned in for the evening. How about you, Seth?”
“Sounds like a good idea.” Seth jumped to his feet. “I have to ride tomorrow anyway.”
Lucas barely spared them a glance. “You’re not going with me, Brianna.”
“You can’t stop me.”
“Only employees of the company can ride the stage for free.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Brianna shrugged and gathered the dishes. “No matter, I’ll just buy a ticket.”
“I won’t sell you one.”
“Whoever is driving the stage will.”
“I’m riding back the next day on a company horse.”
“I’ll take my riding clothes.”
“You can’t ride company...”
“...horses. I know. So what? I’ll rent one from somebody else.”
“It’s a fort, and the army doesn’t rent horses.”
“Fine, I’ll just stay there until the stage comes back through next week.”
“You can’t stay there.” Lucas was clearly horrified by the idea. “It’s completely full of men.”
“So is this place, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“That’s different. You know us. The men at the Platte River Station are strangers.”
“By the time you leave to come home, Seth will be there to protect me.”
“He’ll leave three days before you do.”
Brianna shrugged. “So what? By that time, I’ll surely know somebody else.”
Lucas slammed his hand down on the table. “You’re not going with me and that’s final.”
“You can’t intimidate me, Lucas, and you can’t stop me. I’m going.”
“I don’t want you there.”
Brianna just shrugged and finished clearing the table. “So, what else is new, Lucas? You haven’t wanted me around since the day I got here. I’m not going along to bug you. I just need a new pair of shoes.”
Something twisted inside as Lucas watched her carry the dishes to the wash pan. She sounded so sad, so defeated, and he could swear there was a sheen of tears in her eyes.
The day after the buffalo stampede Brianna appeared barefoot, accepting the loss of her shoes philosophically, saying she really didn’t like to wear shoes around the house anyway. It hadn’t bothered her until she realized how scandalized they all were by her naked toes. She’d been wearing Billy’s extra boots ever since. Even on the dirt floor they clomped noisily.
“I guess they don’t go with a dress very well do they?”
Brianna looked down at her feet. “No, not especially. They wouldn’t be bad with pants, but mine don’t fit any more. If they get any tighter I’m going to have to give up riding Ian’s horse all together.” She sighed. “I’ve got to stop putting on so much weight.”
“It looks good.”
“What does?”
“The weight. You’ve filled out.”
“Gotten fat, you mean.”
Lucas blinked in surprise. “You’re a long way from fat. In fact, you could use another twenty pounds or so.”
Brianna smiled in spite of herself. Talk about a fantasy come to life. Here’s this gorgeous man telling me to put on weight. Bring on the hot fudge sundaes!
“All right, you can come with me,” he said abruptly.
“I can? Oh, Lucas, thank you. I promise you won’t regret it.”
“I already do.”
“Are we going swimming tonight?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Always. I keep telling you I don’t need a baby-sitter.”
“Whatever that is.” Lucas sighed and shook his head. “All right, we’ll go. How is it you always seem to get your way?”
Brianna just smiled.
The next morning, Brianna was as excited as a schoolgirl when Lucas helped her onto the stage. She had made over a hundred dollars selling refreshments to stage passengers, and she’d brought it all with her. One thing Brianna loved to do was shop. Of course, going to the sutler’s store at the fort wouldn’t be quite the same as a trip to the mall, but she was looking forward to it all the same.
The other passengers consisted of a middle-aged woman and her husband. Lucas and Brianna had barely settled themselves when the stage started with a jerk, and they were off. Brianna knew they couldn’t be going more than thirty or forty miles an hour, but in the top-heavy stage it felt entirely too fast. It swayed and jolted over the road alarmingly. For the first time in her life, Brianna had an inkling of what her cousin who was afraid to fly went through. Her nervousness must have communicated itself to Lucas, for he reached over and squeezed her hand comfortingly.
“Carriage sickness?” the lady asked sympathetically.
“Uh...I don’t think so. I never have been before.”
“I never was either unless I was in the family way. Could be that’s your problem.”
Brianna felt herself blush. “No...I...”
“Don’t mind Martha,” the woman’s husband put in. “She has a habit of talking and then thinking.”
“That’s true. I’m sorry if I embarrassed you.” She eyed the boots peeking out from under the hem of Brianna’s blue dress but managed to refrain from asking about the odd footwear. “Where are you folks headed?”
“We’re only going as far as the Platte River Bridge,” Lucas said.
“Goodness, the middle of nowhere. What in heaven’s name are you going there for?”
Brianna looked out the window and listened with half an ear while Lucas fielded the woman’s questions. Pregnant. If the kiss under the outcropping had ended differently she could very well be carrying Lucas’s baby. Her own great grandfather had been Lucas and Anna Daniels first child. Had he been conceived under an outcropping during a buffalo stampede? Was her Lucas his father?
If Lucas had died that night, Ian would have undoubtedly comforted the widow. Had something started that they couldn’t control? If they’d gotten carried away and created a child, would Ian have taken Lucas’s name to protect it? It seemed unlikely, yet the possibility was there. Had she completely changed history because she’d coaxed Lucas out of the house and saved his life? The more she thought about it the more complicated it became.
Brianna focused on the passing countryside instead. When her parents had come to visit, she’d taken them from Riverton to Casper along the highway that followed the Oregon Trail. She had indulged her mother by stopping at all the historical markers and points of interest along the way. It was essentially the same trip they were taking today.
The land looked very different. It wasn’t just the missing highway, fences and buildings; even the vegetation had changed. In her time the grass was sparse, and sagebrush reigned supreme. Now the grass covered the land in a lush blanket with only an occasional sagebrush sticking above here and there.
Brianna was glad to see familiar landmarks in the foreign environment. The Sweetwater River still flowed through a huge cleft in the rock called Devil’s Gate, and Independence Rock loomed above the prairie, the same gargantuan mound of weathered granite. The sameness of the landmarks only served to emphasize how much the land would change in the next one hundred and sixty years.
When they stopped to change horses at the Independence Rock station, Brianna hiked over to the historic landmark for a closer look. The names that had been so weathered they were nearly impossible to read the last time she’d been here, were freshly scratched into the granite. They covered a vast amount of the rock’s surface, a helter-skelter register of the people who had passed.
Brianna was reverently running her fingers over one of the names when Lucas joined her.
“Can’t figure out why everybody wants to put their name on this hunk of rock.”
She looked at him in surprise. “Why, to leave a record they were here, of course. A hundred years from now people will be thrilled to death to see Independence Rock.”
“They’ll probably wonder why their ancestors felt compelled to deface it. We’ll be leaving shortly, so don’t wander too far.”
Brianna stared after him in amazement. Graffiti? She looked back at the rock and realized he was right. How strange. In the future, tourists would come from all over the world to— Suddenly Brianna paused in mid-thought. If she ever made it home again she was going to want proof of her journey.
She glanced over her shoulder and saw they had just begun the process of changing the horses. Good, she still had a while. Grabbing a sharp chunk of rock, Brianna hurried around the far side scanning the surface looking for the right spot. Then she saw it, a small cave-like depression about halfway up the face of the rock. It only took a few moments to pull off her boots and scramble up to it. If she remembered correctly there were no fences here in the future to keep the curious away.
Carving the hard rock was more difficult than she had anticipated. She knew she’d never have time to finish her name. What could she leave here that would prove it had been written by someone from the future? Suddenly, she had it. With a satisfied grin on her face, she quickly scratched a figure into the surface, shoved a protective rock into the opening, and then headed back down. If it was ever found it would drive the archaeologists crazy. How would they explain a hundred and fifty-year old smiley face with 1860 carved on its forehead?
As she arrived back at the station, she was surprised to see everyone was standing around even though the stage appeared ready to go
. At first, she thought they were waiting for her but realized that was not the case when the other woman grabbed Brianna’s arm and pointed. “It’s a Pony Express Rider,” she said excitedly. “Look!”
Apparently oblivious to the crowd of onlookers, Seth galloped into the yard and hit the ground running before his horse had fully stopped. He dashed the short distance to his other mount, placed his hands on the rump of the horse and vaulted over its back into the saddle. They were galloping out of the yard before Brianna could blink an eye.
“My goodness,” said her companion breathlessly. “I’ve never seen anything quite like that.”
Brianna smiled proudly. “And you probably never will again. It’s pretty amazing isn’t it?”
“Congratulations,” Lucas said in her ear. “You just got another name to add to your list of lucky people who get to see the Pony Express in action.”
Brianna tried to think of a snappy comeback for his sarcastic remark but got distracted by his hand against the small of her back as he guided her toward the stage. The warmth of his touch burned through the material of her dress and branded her skin. Life would be much easier if she weren’t so affected by him. Keeping her distance was like a piece of iron trying to keep away from a magnet.
The rest of the trip passed uneventfully, and they reached the Platte River Bridge shortly after dark. Seth had already eaten and gone to bed but the stationmaster, a big Frenchman named Pierre Jeveraux, welcomed them with open arms. He seemed quite taken with Brianna, greeting her by kissing her hand and saying Seth talked about her so much he felt they were old friends. His bluff good humor instantly met with Brianna’s approval, and she thoroughly enjoyed his attentiveness at supper. It wasn’t until they’d finished the hearty stew and corn bread that Brianna realized the men were waiting for her to leave to discuss what they considered the really important topics.
Trying not to be miffed, and failing, Brianna took herself off to the bunk that had been assigned to her and Lucas. When Seth told him Lucas and his wife were on the way, Jeveraux had cordoned it off with a blanket. Brianna had worried how they were going to manage without giving away their secret, but suddenly it didn’t matter if Lucas was embarrassed in front of his friend. He could sleep in the barn with Seth for all she cared!
A Window in Time Page 17