The Bride Series (Omnibus Edition)

by Bittner, Rosanne

  He pushed hard and deep, and again, as she had experienced for the first time the night before, she felt the wonderful explosion while he was inside of her that she had first felt when he made magic with his fingers. It made her gasp his name and push harder. As he grasped at her hips and drew her to him, their bodies moved in perfect rhythm, and she felt on fire as his eyes drank in her naked beauty in the morning light. Danny gurgled “Mama” again, but Mama was occupied with his new Papa, praying that soon there would be another baby, one of Josh Rivers’ seed. She felt his life spilling into her, and he came down close, drawing her to him and kissing her several times over.

  “You satisfied now that I was telling you the truth?”

  She laughed lightly and kissed him back. “Yes.” She sobered. “Oh, Josh, I love you so. What would I do now if anything happened to you?”

  “Nothing is going to happen to me. I told you this was all meant to be. Now you go wash and I’ll change Danny and entertain him until you’re ready to feed him.” He sat up. “And be ready for some teasing from our friends today. We’ll both get plenty of that.”

  “I don’t mind, as long as the MacKinders don’t come around and make trouble.”

  “They know better.” He got up, reluctantly, and she watched his firm thighs and bottom as he picked up his longjohns and walked to the wash room. She heard him pour some water into a wash pan. “I’ll be out in a minute. And quit worrying about the MacKinders. Our bigger worry is Indians. There has been some trouble, which is why the government is anxious to get a treaty signed. With the dangers there are out there for a man or a wagon alone, even the MacKinders aren’t stupid enough to risk losing the safety of traveling in numbers.”

  “I suppose you’re right.” Marybeth could not forget the hate in John’s eyes, or his threats to kill Josh. What would she do now without Josh Rivers in her life? “Is the wagon train in a lot of danger, Josh?”

  “Oh, I don’t think so—not with as many wagons as we have. Besides, Devon’s pretty good at parleying with them; and Cap and Trapper and I have had some experience dealing with them. As long as everybody obeys orders and no one does anything stupid, we should be all right. You have to be real careful dealing with Indians.”

  He came back into the main room, wearing his longjohns. He leaned over and took Danny from the wagon, and Marybeth wondered if anyone could love someone as much as she loved Joshua Rivers. She sat up and picked up her gown, holding it over herself as she walked to the other room to wash. She brushed out her hair and scrubbed her teeth with baking soda and walked back into the main room wearing the nightgown. She sat down on the bed. Josh handed Danny to her and she pulled down one shoulder of the gown to expose her breast. Danny latched onto his food hungrily, and Josh grinned, sitting down beside her.

  “I think I’m jealous,” he told her.

  She laughed lightly, meeting his eyes. “I must look terrible.”

  “You look prettier than I’ve seen you yet.”

  She studied the kind, brown eyes. “Are you happy, Josh? Truly? Are you really pleased?”

  He kissed her mouth gently. “Don’t ever ask me that again. Not ever. Right now I feel like the luckiest man in the world. We’re going to make it to Oregon, Marybeth, and life is going to be good to us from now on. We both have things from the past that we have to forget now. We’re starting a whole new life.”

  “We are, aren’t we? And it’s going to be a good life, a wonderful life, with a big ranch and lots of babies.”

  “Now you’re talking.” He kissed her once more and left her side, going to a window and parting the curtains to look outside. It was a bright, sunny morning. He prayed inwardly he was right about not too much danger ahead, that he was right everything would be good for them from here on. He didn’t want her to worry so much about things. In the distance he noticed the MacKinders walking toward the supply store. John still used a cane. The man stopped for a moment, glancing over at the cabin.

  Contrary to what Marybeth thought, Josh had not underestimated John MacKinder’s threats. He had no fear of the man now, but he did not trust him, not for a minute. The man would take some watching. He turned to Marybeth, putting on a smile. “Our first full day as Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Rivers is going to be sunny and beautiful. When you’re through with Danny we’ll get dressed and go join Delores and Aaron for breakfast, if it isn’t too late. I don’t even know what time it is.”

  She smiled. “Right now time seems to mean nothing. I wish we could stay right here forever.”

  “Well, I’d like that, too, but it wouldn’t be too practical. In a couple of months there will be more Indians swarming around here than either one of us could hope to see in a lifetime. If any place is going to be dangerous to live, it’s right here in the thick of things. We’re better off getting ourselves to Oregon.” He leaned over and kissed her. “Home.”

  She met his eyes. “Home. It has a nice sound to it.”

  He gave her a smile and began pulling on his clothes. Let’s just hope we get there with no trouble, he thought, keeping the smile on his face for Marybeth. Joshua Rivers had seen a lot of death and loss in his own life. He was as ready for security and happiness as Marybeth was, and he would fight to his dying breath to get it for her.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Cap held the wagon train at Laramie for an extra day, giving animals and humans a much-needed rest, and giving Josh and Marybeth another night alone in the cabin.

  Marybeth still wondered when she would wake up from the lovely dream she was living. Josh had kept every promise, and she relished the love and attention he gave her, lapping it up like a starving animal. She was a loving, generous person herself, who had been too long deprived of support and affection. Her happiness knew no bounds as she helped set up the little “home on wheels” she would be sharing with Josh until they reached Oregon.

  The commander of the fort gave the Gentrys a wagon that had been abandoned there, and once again Sam and Florence set up their own wagon, with the supplies others had donated, and more supplies purchased at the fort. Marybeth admired their courage and fortitude in continuing on, determined to make it to Oregon in spite of their horrendous losses, traveling now with their only remaining child.

  When Marybeth thought about Sam and Florence, her own earlier predicament seemed less painful, and now she felt almost guilty for being so happy, but there was no need for the guilt. Others were happy for them both, and all knew that disaster could strike any one of them, at any time, in the form of disease or Indians, hunger or accidents. The journey had taught them all to be grateful for the good times and happy moments, never knowing who would be the victim of random misfortune that might lie ahead.

  On their second morning in the cabin, Marybeth turned tear-filled eyes to Josh, nestling into his shoulder. “I hate to leave here,” she told him. “It’s been like our own special heaven. I’ll never forget these past two days.” She kissed his neck. “And nights.”

  He turned on his side and drew her into his arms. “I won’t either. But this is just the beginning, Marybeth. We’re going to make it.” He kissed her eyes, her lips. “And right now we’d better take advantage of this last little bit of privacy.”

  He moved on top of her. “Will we be able to do this after we leave?” she asked.

  “You know how it is on that trail,” he told her. He nibbled at her lips. “We’ll find a way. We’ll just have to be more quiet about it.”

  She smiled, returning his kiss and opening herself to him in sweet abandon. He took her slowly, quietly, each of them deliberately drinking in every movement and touch, giving and sharing and taking with a building intensity brought on by the anxieties of what might lie ahead. This was their special moment, and they must remember it; they must burn this magic moment into their minds and hearts and souls, and treasure it.

  By the time they were through, Danny was awake and the eastern sky was red with a rising sun. Josh kissed her gently. “We’d better get going.”
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  A tear ran out of one eye and down her face, then another and another, as she studied her handsome new husband. She reached up and hugged him tightly. “I love you, Josh. I love you so much sometimes it scares me.”

  “Everything will be all right,” he assured her. He kissed at her tears. “Come on. Cap will be wanting to head out pretty quick. At least we have our own wagon now.”

  “Yes.” She wiped at her tears. “I am sorry. I just…I get so frightened something will happen to spoil it all. I never thought I could feel this way, and I don’t ever want it to end.”

  He gave her one last kiss and stood up. “It won’t. No more tears now, Marybeth. Let’s get ourselves to Oregon so we can have a nice solid home under our feet. I promise you one thing. It will be bigger than this little room.”

  She rose to wash. “I don’t care how small it is, as long as we’re safely in Oregon and still together.”

  They dressed and gathered their things. It was decided she would feed Danny when they got to the wagon, in case Cap was ready to leave. They walked out of their little honeymoon cabin. Marybeth looked at the closed door with tear-filled eyes and Josh put an arm around her, giving her a light hug. “Let’s go, Mrs. Rivers.”

  The land turned into a rolling, yellow-green sea of buffalo grass, broken by rock-studded plateaus, the distant hills looking like a velvet patchwork quilt. The wagon train again crossed the North Platte, which meandered into the Sweetwater, heading almost directly west. Here the land was higher, the arid atmosphere making the nights cooler; but Josh and Marybeth had no trouble keeping warm inside the wagon. Weariness and danger and aching muscles did not deter them from quiet lovemaking deep in the night. They lay together on a feather mattress, and Josh would take her with slow thrusts, both of them kissing wildly to keep from crying out. Their love was too new and exciting to let the physical aspects of it be detered by hardship or lack of privacy. They simply closed up the canvas and forced themselves to be as quiet as possible. But sometimes Josh would whisper teasing remarks afterward that would make it impossible for Marybeth not to break into soft laughter that she could not control, and Aaron enjoyed embarrassing her the next morning by asking what she was laughing about in the middle of the night. Josh would make things worse by frowning and shrugging, saying he slept hard and didn’t hear a thing.

  “My Delores, she sometimes laughs in the night, too. I do not understand these women.” The first time he made the remark, Delores chided her husband; both men laughed until Josh had tears in his eyes by the time he rode out of camp to hunt.

  Cap positioned Josh and Marybeth’s wagon directly ahead of Delores and Aaron, and behind Sam and Florence so that when Josh rode out to hunt, Marybeth would always be near people who could keep an eye on her. Josh paid Ben Harper, an eighteen-year-old young man who was strong and able, to guide the oxen while he hunted. Ben had lost his mother and two of four siblings to cholera, and he enjoyed the diversion of helping the newlyweds on what had for him so far been a boring and tragic journey.

  Marybeth dreaded every morning that Josh rode out, fearing that something would prevent him from ever coming back. Whenever she heard a gunshot, she shivered with the dread it could be an Indian shooting at Josh, or perhaps some kind of outlaw. Cap had told them that from here on the wild land was peppered with men who for one reason or another had never made it to California during the gold rush, some of them men who had made it but never found their dream. They survived by robbing emigrants of horses and supplies.

  Every evening when Josh rode back to the wagons, Marybeth thanked God. Evenings were often shared with the Gentrys and the Svenssons, and the three women helped each other with the endless chores of cooking, washing, unpacking at night and repacking in the mornings. Florence was a tremendous help with Danny, since the lonely woman had grown more attached to the baby, and at night Marybeth prayed over her rosary beads that one day Florence would conceive again and have a baby to help replace the terrible losses of Melinda and Toby. There were still nights when they could hear her sobbing quietly, mourning the fact that she would never even be able to visit her children’s graves.

  Marybeth could not help wondering how many of the women along, especially those with children, had secretly hated and dreaded the idea of the trip, but had said nothing because their men had a dream. She realized now that she would have done the same for Josh, and her love for him helped her realize why a woman would be so willing to submit herself to the deprivations of trail life, leaving behind fine homes and relatives. It had been different when she traveled with the MacKinders. She had resented and hated them, coming along only because she had no choice. Perhaps most of these women also had no choice, but at least they had the one supporting incentive that kept them going—a love for the men they followed west.

  Still, for some it was a nightmare, and it was obvious more than a few harbored a deep resentment, some from the beginning, most after several weeks or months of agonizing hardships. But it was not like that for her and Josh because she had met him on the way, not followed him. And she loved him so much she could not imagine anything he could do ever affecting that love. She could never hold a gun to his head the way Wilma Sleiter had done to poor Cedrick.

  She thought of them now, as she lay inside the wagon unable to sleep. She turned to Josh, needing his nearness at the memory of the horror of the Sleiter murder and suicide.

  “What’s wrong,” he asked quietly, petting her hair.

  “You awake, too?”

  He sighed deeply. “I came across the camp of some shifty looking characters today. They didn’t see me, but I saw them. Cap’s got Devon and Trapper taking turns keeping guard, but I can’t help worrying a little. I’m also upset that there isn’t more game around here. The damn Forty-niners did a good job of killing everything for miles over the last couple of years. No wonder the Indians are so hostile. They need food to survive too.” He stretched. “We should be able to stock up at Fort Bridger, but that’s about three weeks away.”

  “We’ll manage somehow. I’m being careful with the food.”

  He rubbed at her arm. “You didn’t tell me what’s keeping you awake.”

  She listened to a wolf’s howl, a new sound she was learning not to fear. The foothills of this place Cap called Wyoming seemed to be full of new sights and sounds, plant life she had never seen before, like layered rocks lined with something Cap called lichen, and scraggly bushes with feathery growths on the ends that Cap called buck brush. “The deer love it,” he had said.

  “I was just thinking about the Sieiters,” she said aloud to Josh, “wondering how two people can first love each other and end up hating so much that one of them kills the other. I never even loved Dan, and sometimes I regretfully wished bad things for him. I still feel guilty over being unable to truly mourn his death. Yet even though I never loved him in the beginning, and cruel as he was to me, I never could have killed him. How does it happen to someone who must have started out loving?”

  “You don’t know that they did. Besides, you’re a much stronger person than Mrs. Sleiter was. Some people break easily, but not you.”

  “Or you. You watched those horrible Comancheros murder your brother, and they almost killed you.” She put an arm across his chest. “Oh, how glad I am that they didn’t. And I can’t imagine anything that could ever change how much I love you.”

  He turned and pulled her closer, meeting her lips in a long, sweet kiss. Suddenly he stiffened, pulling away and putting fingers to her lips. “Don’t move,” he whispered.

  She watched with alarm as he sat up and quietly took his pistol from its holster. It was then she thought she heard something just outside the wagon. They both waited a moment, suddenly noticing a light outside. It came close to the wagon, then got brighter as if someone was holding a burning brand against the canvas. In that instant the canvas caught fire. Marybeth screamed and began beating at it, and Joshua jumped out of the wagon.

  “Hold it,” she heard him
order. A shot rang out and someone cried out. “Don’t let him get away, Devon,” Josh yelled. “Marybeth, get Danny and get out of there.” Someone threw water against the side of the wagon, some of it coming through the hole and splashing onto Marybeth as she turned to grab up Danny. In the next instant Josh was at the back of the wagon. “Marybeth!” Danny wiggled awake and began to whimper as she handed the baby out to him and climbed down, too shaken to worry that she wore only her flannel gown and Josh wore only his longjohns.

  Already people were shouting and asking what was going on as they climbed out of wagons. Devon was herding someone toward the central campfire that was almost burned out. Cap came hurrying over, holding up a lamp. Cowering next to Devon was John MacKinder. He held the shoulder of his broken arm, and blood seeped from a deep flesh wound.

  “You sonofabitch!” Josh reached for the man, but Aaron and Cap held him back, while Devon kept a pistol steadied on John.

  “Can’t a man take a night stroll without being shot at?” John whined.

  “You tried to set fire to our wagon! If we had been sleeping hard you could have caused your own nephew a horrible death!”

  “And you are a liar, Rivers!”

  “You’ve been caught red-handed! I heard you outside the wagon, saw someone hold a light up against it. When I looked out, you were running.”

  “He was running,” Devon confirmed to Cap. “It was no nighttime stroll that I saw. It is Josh’s bullet that cut his shoulder.”

  “Here’s the lantern,” Sam spoke up, coming from beside the wagon. “The wick’s turned all the way up.”

  All eyes turned to John MacKinder in disgust and anger, even those who had previously determined to stay out of MacKinder affairs. Mac and Bill came hurrying to the scene, Ella following behind, wrapped in a shawl. Danny started to whimper and Marybeth put him against her shoulder, patting his bottom. “I know you hate me and Josh,” she hissed at John. “But how could you stoop so low as to risk Danny being burned alive!”