by Sarah Hegger
If she’d taken his offer all those years ago, the first one he’d made to buy her for a night, things might have been very different right now. Cole wasn’t the marrying kind, and she wasn’t the kind anyone married, but she wouldn’t have minded being Cole’s woman for however long it might have lasted. She definitely had the right sort of feelings for him, and it would have been a much better outcome than the one Jake had planned or being Isaac’s wife.
Then again, she’d never heard of Cole taking his own woman. Maybe all they would have had would have been one night, which still might have been better than her current future promised.
She was taking the bread out the oven when the cabin door opened, and Pa stood in the doorway, braced like he was expecting trouble. Behind him stood Isaac with his pick raised.
Summoning her best Sugar Ellie smile she waved them in. “Come on in. You’re in time to get washed up and ready to eat.”
Isaac gaped at her, his pick drooping. “What smells so good?”
“Well, I didn’t have much.” Ellie batted her lashes and simpered. “But I did the best I could with what I had. I hope y’all dig in now.”
Not as easily won over as Isaac, Pa scowled at her. “What are you about?”
“Well, it’s like my ma said, you can’t uncrack an egg.” If she remembered her mother, she might have said something similar. Pearl was as close as Ellie’d come to having a mother, and Pearl wasn’t one to calmly accept her lot in life, but she was one to plot her way out of a situation she didn’t like. Ellie lifted the heavy cast iron pot off the stove. “You must be hungry.” She beamed at Pa. “And that I can fix.”
Isaac hurried over and took the pot from her. “Let me take that, Miss.”
“Why thank you.” She dimpled at him.
Isaac blinked.
“Put that on the table before you spill it.” Pa yanked out a chair and sat. He jabbed his finger at her. “I’m watching you, missy.”
Ellie batted her lashes and dimpled. And she was watching him, and the minute he turned his back she was mist.
Chapter Fifteen
Pa was a stubborn old coot; Ellie would give him that. Two days later, and he still kept a hawk eye on her. At night, she would drop into bed exhausted with keeping up the pretense all day. Happy, cheery Ellie, buzzing around and making herself useful was like wearing a badly fitting corset, but one slip and Pa would be onto her. One question out of place, and he would pick up on it.
Tonight, she’d fed them rabbit Isaac had caught, some early corn and mashed potatoes she’d near wore her arm out pounding smooth.
Pa gobbled it all down without a word. Then he held his plate up for more, and Ellie twinkled and simpered and gave it to him.
She was making progress with Isaac, however.
After he’d finished eating, he stood and helped her clear the table. As Pa lit a fire and sat beside it, she washed the dishes and Isaac dried. After, he took the heavy pail outside and emptied it for her.
He was a sweet young man, and any girl would be lucky to have him. She was not that girl, however, and her conscience did twinge about the way she was leading him on. Isaac wasn’t the one who had abducted her, and he was bending every way to make her feel welcome and not threatened.
The oddly comforting smell of Pa’s pipe tobacco filled the cabin and Ellie finished putting the dishes and pots from dinner away and wiped the table. She gave the floor a quick sweep and got a basin of water to wash up before bed. If life had worked out differently, this might have been her life: a house of her own, a husband, and maybe his crotchety old father staying with them. It wouldn’t have been a bad life, just not the one she had.
Pa grunted. “Girl!”
“Yes.”
“You read?”
Ellie untied her apron. The damage to her dress was irrevocable, and if she didn’t escape soon, she might need to ask Pa to get her a new one. “Yes.”
“Get it.” He pointed to an old battered bible on the mantle. “Read us something.”
Isaac came back in. He’d filled the pail up for her again and put it by the door. He eyed the book in Ellie’s hands. “That’s my ma’s bible.”
“It looks well loved.” Ellie stroked the broken and cracked cover.
“And she’s gonna read us some.” Pa leaned back and puffed a cloud around his head. “Read.”
And she did until bedtime. Her captivity could have been a lot worse, but she was still being held against her will. She would only have to try to run out the door to remind herself of that.
Ellie sat at the table and read. She read until Pa started to nod off and then she put the bible away and went to bed.
As had been the way on previous mornings, she woke to an empty cabin. The men got up with the sun and went out to work.
Ellie got on with her chores. First, she prepared the bread to rise. Then she tidied and cleaned the cabin. After that, she collected eggs from the hens. She needed to ask Pa if they could be fenced in. As it was, they laid their eggs all over the yard. After that she milked the two cows and the goat and got lunch ready.
Once Pa and Isaac had gone back to work, she grabbed the pail of clothes and went to the creek to wash them.
She stopped in sight of Pa working in the field. Testing his vigilance, she moved slightly downstream to see how long it would take him to notice he couldn’t—
“Girl!”
She popped into his view again. “Yes?”
“What you doing?” He must have sprinted from the field to be close enough to yell at her.
Ellie smiled and held up her pail. “Washing.”
“Huh!” He backed off a few steps. “Just see that’s all you’re doing.”
As she washed the clothes, Ellie ventured a little further downstream. She’d count to ten, then twenty, then thirty, and come back into sight again. The coming back was the key. Eventually Pa would stop watching to see if she did, and then she would be gone.
After hanging the clothes on some bushes, she went back to the house to get supper ready. She’d been so young when her father had died, and the boys had expanded their backwoods still into a bar tent. They’d kept her out of sight, and she’d done the kinds of things she did now. There was a comfort in the old routine.
In a world where she could choose, she would have liked being somebody’s wife. She didn’t need a rich man, just a hard working one and a good one, a man to work side by side with her and raise a few children. Instead, she had been molded into Sugar Ellie, and she’d gotten used to it. Out here, however, doing the simple life things most women did, she felt more like herself than she had in a long time.
With nobody to talk to, she also had plenty of time to think. When she got away from Pa and Isaac, she would be truly on her own for the first time. Not that being alone scared her. This time she would be smart and become a widow. Nobody looked at widows, and they steered clear of them too. Like they had some dumb notion that the same thing that happened to her last husband would happen to her new one.
Sugar Ellie would die, and the respectable widow Pierce would rise in her stead. And what would widow Pierce do to keep the wolf from the door? The possibilities were endless and exciting, and for the first time in her life, Ellie could do what she wanted. She didn’t have to please anyone.
First, though, she had to get away, and Pa and Isaac were stamping the mud off their boots on the porch. There was dinner and bible reading to be got through before she could go to bed and keep planning.
As she was clearing the dinner dishes away, Pa cleared his throat. “Isaac.”
“Yes, sir.” Isaac put down his stack of dirty dishes.
“Nice night out.” Pa jabbed his pipe to the outside. “Take the girl out there and court her.”
Damn, but she almost pitied Isaac.
Blushing, he placed the dishes beside the washing tub and cleared his throat. “We could…” He jerked his head at the door. “Walk, or something.”
“We could do that.” Des
pite their situation, Isaac was a sweet man. He’d been shoehorned into this same as her. She took off her apron and laid it beside the washing tub.
Pa grunted and stretched his bare feet to the small fire. “Do it right, boy.”
Whatever that meant, Ellie followed Isaac into the night.
A full moon floated in a cloudless night sky, painting the trees and grass silver and blue. Pa was right about it being a beautiful night out.
Ellie drew the fresh, sharp air into her lungs. Maybe the rain they all needed so badly was on its way.
She followed Isaac off the porch and into the yard.
Jamming his hands in his pockets he rocked on his feet. “Where do you wanna walk?”
“Down by the creek?” With the moon so full she could see clearly.
Isaac grunted and ambled along beside her.
Ellie let Isaac lead as they strolled beside the creek.
He cleared his throat. “I’m not much for this woo—”
“Argh!” A figure leaped out from behind a tree. It slammed into Isaac and took him to the ground.
Ellie leaped back.
Cole had Isaac on the ground with his hand at Isaac’s throat.
For a moment she stood there and let it sink in that Cole had found her. And he was choking Isaac to death.
“Cole.” She tugged on his shoulder. “Stop! You’ll kill him.”
Cole glanced at her, back at Isaac and punched him.
Isaac’s head whipped to the side and he went limp.
Peering over Cole’s shoulder, Ellie didn’t like the look of Isaac. “Is he dead?”
“Do you care?” Cole put his fingers to Isaac’s neck. “And no, but he’s out cold.”
He climbed to his feet and stood before her. “Ellie.”
“Cole.” Her was there and real and the relief made her knees sag.
“I’m so glad—” Cole’s eyes widened, and he grunted. He gave a shout of pain and crumpled.
Knife raised to strike again, Pa stood behind Cole.
Cole was struggling to regain his feet.
Leaping forward, Ellie snatched Cole’s gun from his holster and stuck it in Pa’s face. “You touch him, and I’ll blow your brains across this yard.”
Pa gaped at her.
Cole gaped at her.
“Ellie?” Isaac moaned.
“Not one step closer.” Ellie’s finger itched on the trigger. Pa would pay in blood for every drop of Cole’s he’d spilled. “And you can drop that knife.”
“Now, Girl—”
Ellie cocked the gun.
Raising his hands, Pa dropped the knife and stepped away from it. “He was trying to kill my boy.”
“I was rescuing my…”
“Sister,” a woman said as she stepped out from the tree screen. “Cole was rescuing his sister.”
It must be the moonlight because the woman was a goddamn goddess. Ellie had never seen anyone like her. Not even close. Hair turned silvery in the moonlight framed a perfect face. Her skin looked like it glowed from within.
Isaac sat up, shook his head and gaped at the woman.
“Who are you?” Pa stared even more than Isaac.
The woman smiled and got even more beautiful. “I’m Bridget. I’m Cole’s niece.” Bridget shrugged. “From he and Ellie’s much older sister…Patty.”
“Ellie.” Cole tugged on her skirt. “I can explain, but first I need to stop bleeding.”
Pa had stabbed him. Rage quivered through Ellie and she raised the gun again. She’d shoot his dirty trapper head right off his shoulders.
“I dropped the knife,” Pa yelped and shoved his hands up again.
Ellie wasn’t feeling forgiving. “You stabbed my…Cole.”
“I didn’t know he was your brother,” Pa said.
To be fair, neither had she.
“Miss Bridget?” Isaac hadn’t moved his stare from Bridget. “Can I help you get your uncle into the cabin? So as you and she can tend to him.”
Bridget looked at Ellie as if asking permission.
“Of course.” Ellie motioned Isaac forward with the gun. “Let’s get him inside, but if he dies, I’m gonna shoot both of you and enjoy doing it.”
“As much as I appreciate the thought, Sugar”—Cole gave her his jaunty half smile, a little strained but still there—“I’d rather stay alive and avoid all the death.”
Ellie choked back a laugh that shifted into more sob than anything else. Cole was there, but he’d gotten hurt. “Get him inside.”
“You won’t be needing that.” Pa pointed at her gun.
Like she would take his word for anything. “Who says I won’t?”
“Me.” Pa jabbed his thumb at his chest. “I give you my word.”
“How do I know I can trust your word?” The man must be mad. He’d abducted her.
Pa sniffed. “I never lied to you yet.”
Ellie opened her mouth to argue, but he hadn’t. He’d knocked her out, slung her over the back of a mule and abducted her. He’d brought her to his backwoods cabin and given her to his son without a by your leave and had her cook and clean for them. He hadn’t, however, lied to her. Yet.
“If I put this gun down, how do I know you won’t crack me on the head again?”
Pa scoffed. “’Twas nothing but a small tap. Hardly even worth mentioning, and I thought you had no kin.”
“What difference does that make?” Dealing with Pa would drive her batty for sure.
“If you had kin, I wouldn’t have taken you.” Pa sniffed. “I thought you had nobody in the world, like me and Isaac. Didn’t seem no harm in all of us having nobody together.”
It made an odd sort of sense. Ellie motioned Pa to go first. “Let’s get him inside so I can see the damage. Then I’ll decide if I want to put the gun down or use it.”
Chapter Sixteen
Ellie had no clue who Bridget was or where Cole had come across her, but she thanked God for the distraction she provided.
Once they’d gotten Cole inside, she’d forced Pa and Isaac out of the cabin. Looking happy as a lark, Bridget had gone with them, which went a long way to making sure Ellie didn’t need to use the gun.
She bolted the cabin door behind them and hurried back to Cole.
Wincing, sweating and swearing, he was trying to get his coat off.
While helping him out of his coat, she still couldn’t quite believe he was there.
The sight of his blood-soaked shirt brought reality crashing down. Forcing back her fear, she kept her voice even. “Looks like he got you good.”
“Uh-huh.” Sweat poured down Cole’s face, and he’d gone alarmingly pale. “But I don’t think he hit anything vital.”
Ellie moved to the front of him and got to work on his shirt. “This is going to hurt to get off.”
“You’ll be fine.” He flashed her a parody of a smile.
“Wait here.” Ellie marched to the door and yanked it open.
Pa sat on a bench to the side of the door and looked up when she came out. “He dead?”
“No, and you better pray he doesn’t get that way.” Ellie patted the gun at her waist. “You got anything for doctoring?”
“Behind the dresser.” Pa jerked his head inside. “And you can use that liniment. Got it from that half-breed in town. Don’t know what’s in it but it works.”
Like Ellie had any choice. “You have any whisky or anything I can give him for the pain?”
“Nope.” Pa folded his arms. “Don’t believe in drinking.”
“Really.” The relief at not having to pretend made her slightly reckless. “But you’re good with kidnapping innocent women.”
“You ain’t innocent.” Pa snorted. “I heard what Hattie at the boarding house said to you. You’s a whore.”
“No. I am not.” Ellie relished saying so for the first time in her life. “Hattie had it wrong.” And speaking of innocent girls. “Where’s Bridget?”
“Down by the creek with Isaac.” Pa smirked
.
“He better not hurt her.” Ellie patted her gun again.
Pa shook his head. “He won’t hurt her. He’s a good boy. I raised him right.”
“Ellie?” Cole’s voice sounded weaker. “Can we get this bleeding stopped?”
After shutting and bolting the door, she hurried back to him. “Sorry, I was trying to get you something for the pain.”
Cole had managed to get his shirt off. From the front, he looked fine. He looked more than fine with the firelight gilding the dips and swells of his muscular torso and shoulders. Beneath his fine tailoring, Cole was built like a man who worked with his muscle for a living.
He turned and straddled a kitchen chair, presenting his back to her and all other thoughts fled.
Pa had put two holes in Cole, and Ellie’s hand shook as she put the gun on the table. She wanted to march out there and shoot the miserable bastard for touching Cole.
She got some hot water from the stove and poured it into a basin. She added some of Pa’s liniment to the water.
Standing behind Cole, her courage faltered. The bleeding had slowed to a trickle, but the wounds needed sewing. “This is going to hurt.”
“Do it.”
As she wiped away the blood, he tensed, the muscles in his back moving. She drew closer to a wound and he jerked.
“Sorry.” Ellie pressed as lightly as she could.
“Talk to me.” Cole sounded hoarse. “Distract me.”
“Okay.” She cleaned away all the excess blood. The wounds were not as bad as she’d initially thought. “I was real glad to see you.”
“Yeah?” He hissed in a breath as she cleaned his second wound. “Why did you run, Ellie?”
A question she’d asked herself only a million times. “You were mad after you found out what you found out.”
“That you were a virgin?” He looked over his shoulder at her. “And I was shocked, not mad.”
“Either way, it meant I’d broken our deal.” Ellie dropped a needle into the kettle and let it boil. “I didn’t want to cause you any trouble.” She located some rough thread and added that to the needle. She’d patched up her brothers a time or two and plenty of saloon brawlers. “I mean, cause you any more trouble. Jake could be looking for me.”