by Norah Hess
"No, Fletch is fine. It's Pa. This morning he slipped in the snow and broke his leg."
"Ah, that is too bad," Red Fox said, then grinned in understanding. "It is Butterfly you want to see, and why you have come alone." Laura nodded, and he said, "Come with me. I will take you to her wigwam."
Laura didn't explain that she knew where Butterfly's home was. She didn't want this son of Chief Muga to know that she had sneaked along behind Pa all those years back, prying into something that was none of her business. She followed him silently on the shoveled path and stood behind him as he knocked on the door of the wigwam that stood several yards away from the rest of the village.
"Who is there?" Butterfly's soft voice asked.
"You have a visitor," Red Fox announced as he pushed the door open.
Butterfly's pretty face grew ashen when she saw Laura. She rose slowly from her seat of furs before the fire in the middle of the room. Her hands clasped together, she half whispered, "What has happened to Taylor?"
"Nothing bad, Butterfly." Laura hurried toward her. "Early this morning Pa slipped in the snow and broke his leg."
The blood flowed back into Butterfly's face and she breathed a deep sigh of relief Her man wasn't dead. "Come sit by the fire and tell me about it. How bad is the break and is he in pain?"
"It's a clean break and should heal nicely, according to Fletch's friend Daniel who set it," Laura said, unbuttoning her jacket, then sitting down on one of the furs that ringed the fire. "He does have some discomfort." She smiled at Taylor's lover. "He wishes that you could take care of him. He says that you would give him something for his pain."
Butterfly nodded solemnly. "That is my wish also. But I'm afraid it is impossible. I can, however, brew him a tea that will dull his pain. It would take a few hours, though, and you have a baby to get back to."
Laura slipped her hand into her jacket pocket.
"Tonight when the post is closed and the village sleeps, you could take it to him yourself" She opened her hand revealing a key lying in her palm.
Butterfly looked at her in disbelief "Is that a key to the fur post?"
"Yes, it is. You can visit Pa every night if you want to."
Butterfly took the key, her lips tilted, her white teeth flashing. "I shall go to him tonight when the post grows dark. Now, before your cold walk back to your village you must have a cup of my herb tea while you tell me how things are going in your life. Taylor told me his son has returned and that he is angry about your marriage to Taylor."
Laura gave a short, derisive laugh as she accepted a small steaming gourd cup from her host. "Angry is hardly the word to describe how Fletch feels about our marriage. Outraged is more like it. Especially toward me. He, like everyone else in Big Pine, is convinced that Adam Beltran fathered my child and that I used Pa to give Jolie a name."
Butterfly shook her head. "As if this Beltran wouldn't gladly marry you for any reason. Jealousy is keeping Taylor's son from thinking straight."
"Jealousy?" Laura looked at Butterfly as though the woman were dull-witted. "Of course, jealousy. Why else would he carry on so? He wants you for himself."
Laura's lips twisted into a crooked smile. "Pa is always telling me what a wise woman you are. But this time you are very mistaken. Fletch had his chance to marry me and he wasn't interested."
Butterfly studied her downcast face a moment, then said, "We shall see who is right."
"This tea is delicious." Laura changed the subject as she drained the last of the herb mixture. "I've got to get home now. Jolie will be waking up soon, hungry as a bear. She has a strong set of lungs."
"Red Fox will walk home with you," Butterfly said as she rose with Laura. "The wolves will be out in full force now."
"Won't it be dangerous for you to walk through the woods tonight?" Laura asked as she buttoned up her jacket. "I'll be safe enough. I'll take along two of our meanest dogs. There will be no danger for me." Red Fox was waiting for her when she stepped out of the wigwam. Very little was said between them as they crunched through the snow.
As Laura left the Indian village, Milly Howard was knocking on the door of the deserted cabin that Fletch and Daniel had taken over. She was there to make peace with Maida and Daniel, to apologize for her rudeness the last time she was there. She had not only angered them, but she was sure that Fletch was out of sorts with her also. He hadn't intimated that he would like to take up where they had left off when he went to Canada.
Milly still looked down on the plain-faced girl with the dowdy, unbecoming clothes, but since Fletch called them friends she'd pretend a liking for the pair out of the wilds of Canada.
Milly was disconcerted when Daniel opened the door and said coldly, "Fletch ain't here." He was about to close the door in her face when she hurried to say, "I'm not here to see Fletch. I came to see you and Maida."
Daniel's lips curled in a cynical smile. This one wasn't fooling him for a minute. She wanted to mend her broken fences so she could continue to come here to be with Fletch.
Avoiding his eyes, Milly said, "Actually, it's Maida I want to see, to talk to."
"Oh? Did you think up some insult you didn't hurl at her the other day?"
Milly looked uncomfortable a moment, then said as Daniel watched her closely, "I didn't mean to sound insulting, the words just came out wrong."
"They sure as hell did," Daniel growled. "I don't know if Maida will accept your apology."
"Maybe Fletch would want me to." Maida had walked up quietly to stand beside Daniel. "You will be welcome in our home."
When Daniel started to object, Milly rushed in to speak over him. "Thank you, Maida. I'll be over to visit tonight." She was off the porch and halfway down the path as she finished her sentence.
"Why did you say that?" Daniel frowned at Maida as they closed the door.
"It's possible that Fletch does want her to come here in the evenings. I'm sure they were lovers once, and maybe he wants to pick up with her again."
"I doubt it, but it's his home too, so it will be up to him if he wants to sleep with her again."
Fletch had no desire to sleep with Milly, but he did want it known that she spent a lot of time at his and Daniel's place. He wanted that to get back to Laura.
I'm afraid it wouldn't bother her though, he thought gloomily. Her interest lies in that fox-face Beltran.
He walked over to the basket and looked down on the sleeping Jolie and studied her small features. Thank God she didn't resemble her father except for the color of her hair and eyes. But who did the small one look like? Not her mother, although Jolie did have curly hair like Laura's. Jolie didn't look like anyone he knew.
He had just walked to the other end of the counter when Laura came hurrying through the door. "I'll just have a word with Pa and then I'll take Jolie off your hands," she said, walking toward the storage room.
"He's sleeping." Fletch stopped her.
"Oh, then I'll see him later when I bring him his supper." As she carefully pulled Jolie's blanket around her, then picked her up, Fletch's gaze went over her face, looking for signs that she had just made love.
There were no swollen lips, no flushed cheeks, nor any love bites on her throat.
Beltran can't be much of a lover, he thought with some satisfaction. If he had just spent an hour with her she would bear the marks of it.
With the baby clasped to her chest, Laura left the store without further words. Fletch stared at the door she had closed behind her, feeling empty inside.
Chapter Eight
Laura raised her attention from the round of dough she was kneading and gazed out the window toward the post. She saw the backs of two young women disappearing into the long, low building.
She gave the piece of raw sourdough an unnecessarily hard whack. That was the sixth simpering young miss she'd seen go in there since nine o'clock this morning. Ordinarily they wouldn't make more than one visit to the store in a week. And that would be when their mothers forced them to do so. Bu
t since Fletch was in charge of the store now, they came every day to buy such piddling things as a spool of thread, some rock candy, and even to request something that they knew the store didn't carry.
And they always came in pairs, giggling and blushing as they stood around, casting fast glances at Fletch. He had shaved off his beard and was again devilishly handsome. As far as she could tell, though, he paid them scant attention.
There was one female, however, who always came alone. Milly Howard. That one didn't want any competition hanging around when she was there. She always came in the afternoon after she knew the younger ones had made their daily trip.
"She sees him every night," Laura muttered as she shaped the dough into three loaves and placed them in long, narrow pans to rise again. "Why does she have to hang around the store every day?"
Her friend Justine had told her that Fletch and Milly were courting again, that every evening after the store was closed Milly went to the cabin that Fletch shared with Daniel and Maida, and that no one knew when she left.
Justine was busy with wedding plans these days. Tommy had put the roof on the cabin the day before the blizzard. At the moment it held a stove, a bed, a table, and two chairs that didn't match. But the two young people were so much in love they'd be willing to sleep on the floor, and Justine wouldn't mind cooking over a fire in the fireplace.
Justine's mother had donated the bed, table, and chairs, but Tommy's mother hadn't given the couple so much as bed linens, she was that upset that Tommy was marrying and leaving her to live alone.
A long sigh feathered through Laura's lips. Justine was insisting that Laura stand up with her when she and Tommy took their vows. Laura had warned her young friend that she might be ruining her wedding by having Laura Thomas stand up with her. She pointed out that some people might stay away because of the shameless woman who had borne Adam Beltran's baby, pretending that it belonged to poor Taylor Thomas.
Justine had laughingly remarked, "They'll be there, every last one of them. They'll watch your every move, gathering every little bit they can gossip about later."
And she's probably right, Laura thought. Everybody except Pa and Mrs. Weatherford and the whores… and Jolie. Jolie would be with Pa. He could manage her until Butterfly slipped in to visit him. She would be able to come early that night because Fletch was closing the store around seven so that he could attend the reception in the tavern part of the building. It was the only place in the village big enough to hold everyone.
Taylor's leg was healing rapidly, thanks to Butterfly's doctoring, he claimed. Everything had worked out very well for him and his lover.
Instead of seeing her once a week, he now got to see her every night. Laura glanced at the clock. Did she have time to work on the dress she was making for the wedding before she took Pa his lunch?
She decided she could work on it an hour or so, and walking over to her favorite rocker, she picked up the partially finished dress and ran a palm over the fabric. It was going to be one of the prettiest dresses she had ever owned.
The material was a pale blue brocade that Bertha Higgins, the madam, had ordered for her girls long before. It had taken the material a month to arrive, coming by boat down Lake Erie. Pa had been fighting mad when the redheaded Bertha had refused to take it, claiming it was too light a color for her girls. It had lain on a shelf in the store close to a year.
Laura held the half-finished garment up and ran her gaze over the bodice. That part of the dress was finished except for the wide ecru lace collar she would add later.
She had used the pattern from an old dress, and because her breasts were considerably larger since giving birth to Jolie, she would be showing more bosom than usual.
She had made the bodice to hug her rib cage, then come to a point a couple inches below her waist, which had returned to its trim size. A full gathered skirt would be added, and because of the material's weight it would fall in soft folds to her ankles.
Would Fletch look at her and think she was pretty? she wondered as the needle flashed, gathering the skirt to fit the waist. She shook her head at her foolish thought. In all likelihood he wouldn't even look at her. All his attention would be on Milly.
Laura tried to tell herself that she wouldn't care, but she knew better. She would care; she would care deeply. "More fool me," she muttered.
When the clock chimed the noon hour, all Laura had left to do to the dress was hem the skirt and attach the collar. She carefully folded it over a chair back, then went to check on her bread.
The dough had risen to twice its size, and she slid the three pans into the oven before bundling Jolie into a heavy blanket, then slipping into her jacket. She picked up Jolie and the cloth-wrapped ham sandwiches she had made and left the cabin.
When Laura entered the post, Fletch had only one customer. Daniel's Maida. The new wife greeted her with a friendly smile, then looked eagerly at the bundle in her arms.
"How's the little one taking to this cold weather?" she asked. "Daniel tells me she's the prettiest little thing he ever saw." Knowing that Maida was hinting to see Jolie, Laura folded back the blanket and the little one gave them her ready smile. "Oh, isn't she precious," Maida whispered in some awe. "She does look like a live doll." She wailed a finger down Jolie's smooth cheek and said with yearning in her voice, "I can't wait to have a baby of my own."
"Would you like to hold her?"
"Yes, I would," Maida answered eagerly.
"Let's go into the back room where you can sit down," Laura said and led the way.
Fletch's dark eyes bored into Laura's back. Not once had the little witch looked at him. She acted as though he were a part of the merchandise stacked on the shelves behind him. When Milly entered the store a few minutes later, he scowled at her instead of returning her smile.
Taylor was sitting up in bed playing a lonely game of solitaire when Laura and Maida entered his room. Laura had fixed the storage room up the best she could. She felt that if Taylor had to spend at least two months there he didn't have to lie amid boxes and crates and rubble that had accumulated over the years. He had even saved a sled she had used as a youngster. Someday Jolie would use it.
After she had swept out the room, she had hung a pair of heavy drapes over the small window. No one could look in now when Butterfly came visiting at night. The next day she had had Elisha bring a rocker and a small table from her attic room while she earned a couple of colorful rugs. She nodded her head in satisfaction every time she entered the room.
Taylor's face lit up with a wide smile. "My, my, two beautiful women coming to visit me at the same time," he said. "Or should I say three beautiful females. Let me see that little scutter, Jolie."
Laura gave Maida an apologetic look as she lifted her daughter out of the blanket and laid her in Taylor's lap. Jolie immediately began chortling, happy to see Taylor. As he gently chucked her under the chin, it was clear they shared a mutual love.
Laura had noticed that the little one was becoming attached to Fletch also, Which always brought a sour smile to her lips. Poor baby, she didn't know what a rotter her father was.
When Jolie sneezed suddenly, Taylor looked alarmed. "I'm going to miss seeing this little one, but I don't think it is wise for you to be bringing her out in the cold every day. From now on Fletch can pick up my meals. We surely don't want this one coming down with pneumonia."
Laura didn't want that to happen either, but she didn't like the idea of Fletch coming to the cabin while she was alone.
But what could she say? Pa and Fletch were back on their close footing, and certainly she didn't want to cause trouble between them again. Pa would be curious and wouldn't stop questioning her until he, God forbid, got the whole truth out of her.
So she nodded agreement and, taking Jolie from Taylor, gave her over to Maida. Taylor bit into his sandwich, and it grew silent except for Maida's soft talk to Jolie and Milly's gay chatter in the store and Fletch's occasional gruff answer to some question or other.
Taylor grinned over a mouthful of ham. "That one is in here every day, and I think Fletch is getting tired of her always hanging around."
"I'm not surprised." Maida lifted her head from looking at Jolie. "She comes to our cabin every night. When she's ready to go home she hints to Fletch to walk with her, but he never does."
Laura could believe that. Fletch was an uncaring brute. It was just like him to use a woman and then put her out of his mind. Hadn't he done the same thing to her?
Laura and Maida were preparing to leave when they heard Bertha, the madam, bustle into the store. "Whew," she exclaimed, "it's cold enough out there to freeze the bails off a wooden Indian." Fletch's laugh was the first real one Laura'd had heard from him since her return.
Fletch liked the loudmouthed madam, and her girls as well. A man always knew where he stood with them. All they expected was a fast romp and then good-bye. There was no clinging on, no hinting at marriage.
"What can I do for you, Bertha?" he asked with a wide smile.
"Well, you could come visit my girls. They're complainin' that you haven't been to the pleasure house since you returned home."
"I'm sorry about that." Fletch grinned. "But I've been pretty busy with the store and all."
Milly laid a proprietary hand on Fletch's arm and said to Bertha with a warning in her voice, "I guess you know what the 'and all' means." Bertha looked at the hand gripping Fletch's arm, then up to his frowning face. Her lips lifted in an amused smile. "If you say so, Miss Howard."
Fletch started to jerk his arm free, then saw Laura and Maida come from the back room. He not only let Milly's hand lie where it was, he covered it with his own hand, an action for Laura's benefit.
If Laura saw it, he wasn't aware of it. She was busy greeting Bertha with a friendly smile. "Bertha, meet Maida. She and her husband are newcomers to Big Pine." Bertha and Maida smiled at each other; then Laura asked, "How have you been? I haven't see you or your girls since the blizzard."
"I'm fine, honey, and so are those lazy girls of mine. I tried to get them to come over to the store but they won't budge from the stove."