by Jane Toombs
If everything went as well as the ceremony, perhaps this wouldn’t be the ordeal she’d feared it might be. With this in mind, she began to relax. Tomorrow, she thought, I’ll get on with my work among the mustangs.
The first clue Laura had that something was amiss was the number of cars parked near the ranch.
“Damn,” Shane muttered. “You and your big mouth, sis.”
“Whoa,” Sage said. “I didn’t know so many people were coming.”
“So many people?” Shane repeated ominously. “So you knew something was up.”
“Well, Donna’s mother thought you and Laura needed some kind of a wedding reception,” Sage admitted.
“Lot of horses in the corral,” Grandfather observed as they pulled into the yard. “Some of ’em rode over.”
“It’s all right,” Laura said, tamping down her rising apprehension at having to play a part in front of Shane’s friends. “I’m sure everyone is just being friendly.”
“That better be what they have in mind,” Shane growled.
What else could it be? Laura wondered.
No sooner had they parked and climbed out of the truck than, amidst wild whoops, men swarmed from the barn. Three of them grabbed Laura. She heard Shane cursing behind her as they bore her off toward the corral. Fear sent bile into her throat. What was happening? She was too scared to struggle.
The next she knew, one of the men mounted a horse and the other two slung her on the horse in back of him. As her captor pounded away from the ranch, she hung onto him for dear life, knowing she’d be thrown off if she didn’t.
Dear God, she was being kidnapped!
Again.
Terror numbed her, making her close her eyes and retreat as she had so many years ago, into a small and secret corner of her mind. She was only vaguely aware of the pounding of hooves, shouts and, finally, being jerked from the horse and held against a male body.
“Get the hell out of here!” the man who held her snarled.
“We were only—” the kidnapper said.
“Go!” her new captor growled. “Now!”
She heard the creak of a saddle as someone mounted, the sound of horses trotting away. She kept her eyes closed. To open them was to be smothered in fear. She tried to keep herself stiff, but her legs gave way, and she slumped against the man holding her.
She felt him sit down so that she was on his lap. “Laura,” he said softly, “it’s all right. You’re safe with me.”
He called her Laura. That was wrong. The bad man had never called her Laura, he called her Laurie.
His hand stroked her back, slow and gentle. “Open your eyes,” he murmured so low she could hardly hear him. “I promised never to hurt you, don’t you remember?” On and on his voice crooned soothing words at her, sometimes in a language she didn’t understand.
Bit by bit she began to recognize his voice. From the darkness a name flared like a beacon into her mind. Shane. She was with Shane. He was holding her. She wasn’t a child, she was a grown woman.
Laura opened her eyes.
In her dilated pupils, Shane saw the dregs of terror, and a muscle twitched in his jaw while he fought to keep his face impassive, his voice as low and gentle as if he were calming a frightened mare. He kept on lightly stroking her back.
“You’re safe,” he repeated. “You’re with me. The other guy is gone. We’ll stay here as long as you need to. No one is going to trouble or alarm you. Everything is all right.”
He watched the confusion and fear slowly clear from her face, noting the exact moment recognition seeped into her gaze, which had been fixed on him. “Sh-Shane?” she whispered.
He smiled. At no time had his hold on her been binding. Now he loosened his grip even more, so she had the choice of freeing herself easily. He stopped stroking her back.
She blinked and looked around, taking in their surroundings, mostly sagebrush, with his horse standing patiently a few feet away.
“They—those men—” she faltered.
“They didn’t mean to harm you,” he told her. “They had no idea they’d scare you.” Though he kept his voice even, inside he seethed with anger at the damage they’d unknowingly caused.
“But they—they grabbed me,” she quavered.
“If I’d known ahead of time, I’d have prevented this from happening. What they were doing is an old custom among my people—a fake capture of the bride, with the groom riding to the rescue. I tried to stop them, but I was too late.”
“Oh,” she said.
He knew her mind was clearing because he could tell she was thinking this information over. He wasn’t surprised when, a few moments later, she eased off his lap and got to her feet. He rose quickly, ready to steady her if she faltered, but was careful not to touch her.
“A Paiute custom,” she said.
“Not necessarily among all of our people, but here, yes. It was unfortunate word got out about the marriage.”
“We can’t blame Sage,” she said and began brushing dust and debris from her skirt.
Relieved she was recovering, he dusted himself off, then said, “We’ll have to ride together on Cloud. I’ll put you up first and then sit ahead of you.”
She glanced from him to the horse. “At least this time I’ll know who I’m holding onto.”
The tinge of asperity in her voice pleased him. Whatever past terror the false kidnapping had evoked in Laura, she was rapidly returning to her normal self. He’d figured she’d be scared, but nothing had prepared him for the way he’d found her when he caught up with that joker and rescued her.
It hadn’t taken him long to realize Laura had gone beyond panic into some kind of protective trance state. He’d been reminded of young mustang mares who sometimes went into a terror state called capture myopathy during roundups. Those mares often died. Laura had scared him damn near witless.
It might have been scary for her, he didn’t deny that, but she’d been far more frightened than he could have predicted. The reason for her panic must be buried in her past. Quite possibly from whatever it was that had fueled her determination never to marry.
He was grateful his instinctive actions, similar to those he used on panicked mustangs, had brought her back to herself, but he wondered if he’d ever learn the secret to the terror in her past. His new wife was not prone to confiding in her new husband.
“Up you go,” he said, boosting her into position on Cloud. He swung up himself, allowing her time to adjust her seating so he could settle into the saddle. “Hang on,” he told her as he turned Cloud, heading the gelding toward the ranch.
“I must look a mess,” she said, her words muffled by her speaking them more or less into his back as she clung to him. “I can’t possibly face all those people.”
He decided what she really meant was that she was worried that the men who’d abducted her would realize how panicked she’d been, and she didn’t want to face them.
“No one expects the bride to be picture perfect after such a wild ride,” he assured her. “Besides, they don’t know you, or why we married. They’re all dying of curiosity.”
He felt, rather than heard, her sigh. “I can’t.”
“Okay. No problem. I don’t blame you for feeling shaky.” It certainly wasn’t her fault.
Actually, she wasn’t nearly so shaken as she had been, Laura realized. Once Shane had gotten through to her and made her understand she wasn’t in danger and never had been, the darkness had vanished. Still, she really didn’t want to face a bunch of curious strangers.
Strangers who were Shane’s friends, she realized belatedly. Grandfather’s friends. Friends of Sage. She’d be letting down the entire Bearclaw family if she scuttled into her room and hid. She might not be a Bearclaw, but she’d married one, for whatever reason, and the least she could do was to be courteous enough to meet their friends. No matter how she’d felt about it, those men who’d grabbed her had meant no harm. They were merely following an old custom.
“Give me a few minutes in my room to put myself back together, and I’ll join you,” she told him. If she was to confront people who must wonder why on earth Shane had married her, she meant to look her best.
At the ranch, Shane surprised her by picking her up and carrying her across the threshold, then all the way to her bedroom, where he left her. Ruffled by this—surely not a Paiute custom—it took her a minute or two to realize her silk skirt, never intended for riding, had split up the back seam. His carrying her had saved her the embarrassment of showing her underwear to the guests.
Quickly she changed into a long, dark-blue skirt and matching lighter-blue shirt, brushed her hair, checked her makeup, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. She hadn’t quite gotten over her reaction to the fake abduction, but she’d learned over the years that inner quaking didn’t show.
To her pleased relief, she found Shane waiting for her in the hall. “Thought we’d present a united front,” he said, offering her his arm.
As she placed her hand on his arm, she wondered if he felt as reluctant to face the guests as she did. He’d be forced to play the part of the happy groom in front of his friends while she actually had the easier role because she was a stranger to those people out there. If she were quiet, they wouldn’t think it was because the wedding was a sham, but more than likely attribute her behavior to the surprise abduction.
As they joined the crowd in the living room, Sage reached them first to introduce her friend Donna. Donna’s mother Rhonda was close behind, and she hugged Laura. Shane nodded and left her with the woman.
“I told those men not to do that,” Rhonda said. “I bet you were scared half to death.”
“You’re right,” Laura told her.
“If Shane had told us ahead of time we could have taken you aside and warned you. But he always was one to keep secrets. Imagine him keeping you hidden all this time.”
Having no idea what Rhonda meant by “all this time,” Laura merely smiled.
“Anyway, we’re glad someone finally corralled that cagey old mustang,” Rhonda added. “He says you’re going to be pretty busy the next few weeks with your work, but when you have the time, we’ll get together. There’s a powwow coming up, and I know you’ll want to help with that—Sage is one of our best dancers.”
Whoa, Laura wanted to say, and not with the meaning Sage gave the word. Just a little minute here. But she couldn’t and still maintain the happy bride illusion. “I’ll do whatever Sage wants me to,” she temporized.
“Do you sew?” Rhonda asked.
Laura shook her head. “I embroider a bit. I’m afraid I’m rather rusty, though.”
“Great.” Rhonda turned to two women standing nearby. “Laura embroiders—we’ve got ourselves a live one.”
Wondering what she’d gotten herself into, Laura smiled through the introductions to those women, then to the others, not able to keep everyone straight.
Shane returned, balancing two plates of food, and inclined his head toward the couch, being vacated by another couple. Though not too sure she felt like eating, Laura followed him and discovered she was hungry.
Eventually everyone left. The three men who’d staged the abduction apologized to her before leaving. Laura stood on the front porch with Shane and watched them ride off.
Sage joined them, saying “I guess you’re mad at me.”
Laura put an arm around her. “Not me.”
They both looked up at Shane.
“I’d be a lot more annoyed if I didn’t know you meant well,” Shane told his sister.
“To make up for it, Grandfather’s taking me to a movie right now,” Sage said. “That’ll give you time to be alone, even if you aren’t going on a honeymoon.”
“But—” Laura began, then paused. She couldn’t tell Sage the last thing she wanted was to be alone with her new husband. Grandfather must know better, though.
“So—see you later,” Sage said, and scooted away.
Shane and Laura looked at each other. She decided the rueful expression on his face must match her own and, for some reason, that struck her funny. How often did both bride and groom dread being alone together? A giggle escaped her.
He began to chuckle and, moments later, both of them were laughing fit to kill.
When they quieted down, Shane said, “One of my friends brought champagne. The least we can do is drink a toast to what must be the most reluctant bride and groom in the state of Nevada.”
“Possibly in the entire country,” she said.
He waved toward the chairs on the porch. “I’ll bring it out here. Going to be an awesome sunset.”
Later, sipping her champagne, Laura watched the evening clouds gradually turn salmon pink as the sun lowered toward the mountains to the west. She actually felt relaxed and comfortable, which she’d never expected, given the strain of the wedding, and then the trauma of the abduction. Shane was an easy man to be with, one reason being he didn’t talk unless he had something that needed to be said.
“I don’t know when I last watched a sunset,” she murmured.
“Heals the spirit,” he told her.
She decided he was right.
Unexpectedly, he reached for her left hand. Because his movement was slow and easy, she didn’t jerk away. He held her hand lightly, his fingers touching the ring.
“The four stones on the left are you and me, plus Sage and Grandfather,” he said. “The ones on the right are the four mystic numbers of my people.”
“And the diamond?”
“That represents our union.”
A thrill shot through her. Denying it, she took her hand from his and said, “But it’s not a true union.”
“For whatever reason, we are joined, you and I.” His voice was low and soft. “I’ll honor my written agreement, but though our bodies and our spirits remain separate, we are bound together.”
His words eased inside her, lodging in her heart. She shivered—not from fear, more from the feeling that what she’d heard was a prophecy.
United. Bound together.
What had she done?
Chapter Five
The next morning, Laura and Shane packed their gear and rode out early. Despite her misgivings, Laura had slept soundly and, if she’d dreamed, she didn’t remember doing so.
They loped along in silence until she finally said, “I’m going to have to call my brother and let him know we’re married.”
“Your brother?” Shane echoed.
Only then did she realize she’d never even mentioned having a brother, much less one who lived in Nevada, not all that far away from the reservation.
“Nathan’s a doctor in Tourmaline,” she said. “I didn’t want to tell him ahead of time because, well—” she faltered.
Shane didn’t prompt her, he just waited.
“He’d have tried to talk me out of it, and I didn’t want to cope with that hassle along with everything else,” she admitted finally.
He slanted a look her way. “Could he have changed your mind?”
She shook her head. “Once my mind’s made up, I stick to my decisions. Getting this government grant was one of them. I was in a boring job that under-utilized my abilities, and I realized I had to do something else.”
“A safe job.” It wasn’t a question.
He was right. Safe but boring. Like her life—up until now.
“Is your brother married?” Shane asked.
“To Jade Adams.”
“She’s Adams Drilling, right?”
“Oh, do you know Jade?”
“Never met her. Heard about her. Pretty much everyone in the area knows who runs Adams Drilling. Her crew’s dug wells on the res.”
“I think maybe Jade might understand,” Laura said. “But not Nathan. He knows I planned never to marry and now to have rushed into it so suddenly…”
“Swept you off your feet.”
Seeing his wry grin, she said, “Literally, if not figuratively, courtesy of that mustang st
allion.”
“You’ll be telling him the truth?”
“He’s my brother.”
“That’s not an answer. What will you tell him?”
Laura chewed her lip. “I have to think about how I’m going to word it.”
“How about your parents? You’ve never mentioned them.”
“They travel a lot. I guess that comes from my father being an engineer before he retired. I want to talk to Nathan before I decide what to tell them. There’s no hurry since they’re in the Far East at the moment. My dad’s fascinated with that big dam the Chinese are building.”
Laura knew she was chattering, but couldn’t help herself. What was she going to tell her folks?
“I don’t usually act on impulse,” she added. “Applying for the government grant was the first time I can remember doing anything on the spur of the moment.”
“And I’m the second?”
“I’d put it a bit differently—helping you out in order to protect Sage might be called a spur-of-the-moment decision.”
“No might involved—it damn well was. I was surprised you followed through.”
“So was I.” Involuntarily she glanced down at her ring. “How did you know my ring size?” she asked abruptly.
“Carving’s given me a good eye for what will fit what. When do you plan to tell your brother?”
She could hardly say she’d like to put it off as long as possible. “Soon.”
“Any other relatives I should know about?”
“Nathan and Jade have an adopted son named Tim. They’re sort of accidental parents, but Tim’s a darling. And then Jade has two brothers. One’s a rancher in Carson Valley.”
She sighed, wondering what Zed Adams and his wife were going to make of her hasty wedding. There seemed to be no end to the explanations she was going to have to come up with.
Feeling much like Scarlet O’Hara in Gone With The Wind she decided she’d think about what to say to all her Nevada relatives tomorrow—or even later.
She deliberately changed the subject, asking, “Where do you think we might find mustangs today?”
“We’ll try one of the stud piles.”
“The what?”