“Come,” Black Hawk said. “We will not disturb your mate for now. She must rest for the babe. We will share a cool drink in my lodge.”
He led the way to his wigwam. “Your sister Jane,” he asked, “how is she?” He turned to see concern cross Daniel’s face.
“She would not come. She is not happy. The kidnapping and her life with the Sioux have changed her.”
“She will grow stronger. These bad memories will pass,” Black Hawk said.
“It’s been well over a year!” Daniel exclaimed.
Black Hawk’s voice was quiet as he answered, “She has over four years of bad memories to forget. It will take time.”
“I curse that scoundrel husband of hers!”
The brave nodded. Daniel’s brother-in-law had been a mean bastard. A captain in the U.S. Army, he had used his authority to cause trouble for the Indians. He had organized a group of white men to attack white settlers, making it look as though Indians had done the nasty deed. He was a madman who hated the Ojibwa people, hated all the Indian people. Richard Milton had had his men raid his own cabin. Jane had been kidnapped, but his daughter Susie had managed to escape by hiding under her mother’s bed. Later, Milton had held a group of them prisoner, including Amelia as well as Susie, Daniel, and Black Hawk himself.
Since the authorities had taken Richard Milton off to prison, they’d neither seen nor heard from him again. Susie, Amelia, and the rest of Milton’s prisoners had gotten over the incident, but Daniel’s sister Jane was having a hard time forgetting the experience.
Black Hawk paused outside his wigwam and raised the door flap. “You have broken your fast?” he asked his friend while waving Daniel inside.
“No, actually I haven’t.”
“Then I shall have Spring Blossom prepare a meal for us,” Black Hawk said.
“You have no woman of your own yet?” Daniel teased.
The brave shook his head, his expression solemn. “I am war chief for the Ojibwa. Until I find the Sioux who killed my father, there is no room in my heart for a wife.”
“You haven’t met the right one,” Daniel said, as he entered the wigwam. “A man cannot help but love when the right woman steps into his path.”
Black Hawk shrugged. “Perhaps my path has too many obstacles for any woman to walk it.”
Rupert, Miranda, and Rachel got their first glimpse of civilization after traveling several days through the wilderness. The small settlement had a trading post, a blacksmith shop, a newly constructed inn, and a few private residences.
Rachel was never so glad to see a small hotel in her life. It had been several days since she’d last slept in a bed, and she needed to bathe and wash her garments.
The settlement was smaller than she’d hoped, but she was overjoyed at the sight of the trading post.
“How much farther is it to the mission?” she asked Rupert Clark as they headed toward the store.
“Under an hour,” Rupert replied.
“Less than an hour!” Rachel exclaimed. “Why are we stopping here then?”
“For supplies,” he said. “No sense going on, only to have to turn back tomorrow and head this way.”
He stepped aside to allow Miranda and Rachel to precede him into the store. A bell jingled as Rupert closed the door behind them.
A man came out from the back room. “Why, hello!” He was an attractive fellow with jet-black hair and brown eyes. “What brings you to Keller’s—why, Rupert Clark, you old goat, is that you?”
“In the flesh, Jack.” Rupert grinned as they shook hands.
“What’s brought you back to this neck of the woods?”
“Why, this little lady here, Jack.” He smiled at Rachel. “Rachel, this is Jack Keller. He owns this sorry sight of a trading post. Jack, this is Rachel Dempsey. She’s to be reunited with her kin.”
Jack’s eyes widened. “Dempsey? You’re related to John Dempsey?”
Rachel nodded coolly. Jack Keller was a handsome man. Since Jordan’s betrayal, she’d had no tolerance for attractive men. “He’s my father.”
“Then Amelia’s your sister?” Jack asked.
“Apparently,” she said with a touch of frost.
“Rachel!” Miranda gasped at her rudeness.
Contrite, Rachel blushed. “I’m sorry, Mr.—ah—Keller. I’m afraid I’m a bit tired from our journey.” She managed to smile at him. “You know my father and sister?”
“Your sister’s married to my best friend. They live in the house across the road. Daniel, her husband, is our resident blacksmith.”
“You must be joking,” Rachel said, shocked. “Amelia’s not married. She neither wants nor needs a husband.”
“Then, she must have changed her mind, ’cause she’s now married to Daniel Trahern.”
Rachel felt the blood drain from her face. “I don’t believe it. She never wrote to tell me.”
Miranda placed her hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Perhaps she did, and you just didn’t receive her letter.”
“My father,” Rachel said, “where is he?”
Jack Keller eyed her with concern. “He resides at the Whitely mission not far from here.”
“Then it’s true,” she whispered. Amelia was married. How could she up and marry? Rachel felt betrayed again. A burning started in her stomach and spiraled outward. She was disappointed. She had convinced herself that she didn’t need a man because Amelia didn’t. But apparently she was wrong about her sister.
Oh, Amelia, how could you marry without telling me?
Rupert and Keller began to gather Rupert’s list of requested supplies. Rachel turned away to stare at the wall, not seeing. She was suddenly besieged by doubts. She’d hoped that the three of them—Father, Amelia, and she—could live together happily in her father’s house at the mission. But Amelia didn’t need her, and Amelia had always been the one to help her father whenever he needed an assistant. Did Amelia still help her father? Or could Rachel ask to take Amelia’s place?
Amelia was married! Rachel was flabbergasted. How could you, Amelia! How could you!
Amelia must have changed a great deal in the last two years. Rachel tried to imagine the type of man that her sister had married, and the image was a poor one.
A blacksmith, she thought with a shudder. She pictured the man covered with sweat and soot and smelling of horses.
Suddenly, she was nervous about seeing her family, wondering just how much they had changed since coming to live in this wilderness.
“Rachel?”
She turned at the touch on her arm. Miranda was studying her with concern. “Are you all right?” her friend asked.
Rachel bobbed her head. “Fine, fine.”
“You’re lying, Rachel Dempsey. I can tell when you lie. You get the strangest look on your face.”
Rachel scowled. “I don’t know what you mean, I’m not lying, and I most certainly don’t have a strange look on my face!”
The bell on the shop door tinkled, and Rachel glanced back, wondering if she’d recognize her sister if she saw her.
Rachel knew at first glance that this wasn’t Amelia. Her sister had brown hair and a shapely figure. The woman who entered had blond hair and a small, thin frame. Her blue eyes wore a haunted look.
“Jane,” she heard Jack Keller say, “is something wrong?”
“Has Daniel come back yet?”
Jack shook his head. “He’s due back at anytime. Is there something I can do for you?”
“No. No, I’m fine. Thank you for asking.” Jane turned to leave with nothing more to say.
Rachel had watched the exchange with curiosity. “Who is she?”
Jack looked embarrassed. “Jane! Come back. There are people I’d like you to meet.” He addressed Rachel quietly. “She’s your brother-in-law’s sister.”
Looking reluctant to be introduced, Jane approached.
“Jane, this young lady is Rachel Dempsey. She’s Amelia’s sister.”
Astonishment came an
d flickered in her eyes. “You’re Amelia’s sister?” she said as if it couldn’t possibly be true.
“Yes, I am.” Rachel tried to smile. “I’m sorry, but I’m a bit taken aback about all this. I had no idea that Amelia had even married.” She looked away as tears filled her eyes.
She felt overwhelmed by the events that had recently changed her life. She wanted nothing more than to be alone to deal with this new, unwelcome news. “Is there somewhere we can bathe and rest?” she asked Jack Keller.
“There’s the hotel next door. Rebb Colfax’s daughter from back East just opened her,” Jack said.
Rachel blinked. Of course, the inn! How could she have forgotten? Because she’d been shaken by the news of Amelia’s marriage, she thought. “Thank you. I’m going to get a room,” she told Miranda.
“I’ll go with you,” Miranda said.
Rachel nodded at Jack. “Mr. Keller.” She managed another smile for Jane. “Jane.”
The compassion in the young woman’s blue eyes surprised her. “There is no reason for you to stay at the hotel,” Jane said quietly. “You’re family. You can stay at Daniel’s. He’s not home, but—”
“No!” Rachel said, dismayed by the idea. Her tone was sharper than she’d intended; she softened it. “Really, the hotel is fine. I appreciate the offer, but I’d rather wait to see Amelia later after I’ve rested.” She smiled tiredly. “They’re not expecting me. There’s been enough sudden surprises for today.”
Jane murmured that she understood.
Rachel turned to Miranda’s uncle. She’d grown quite fond of him during these past few weeks. “Thank you for bringing me, Uncle Rupert.”
Rupert regarded her fondly. “I’ll see you at the hotel later.”
Rachel inclined her head, then left without saying good-bye. Miranda followed her.
Jack Keller narrowed his gaze as Amelia’s sister left the trading post. “She’s not like her sister, is she,” he said with a frown.
Jane looked at him with surprise. “You don’t like her?”
“She certainly wasn’t friendly.”
“She’s tired,” Rupert explained.
“She’s hurting,” Jane said. “Why do you think a woman like that would come all the way out here to live?” she added when Jack frowned.
He shrugged. “To be with her family?”
Rupert nodded. “She does want to be with her family.” He went to a side window and watched as Rachel and Miranda entered the building several yards away. “She’s a good girl. Don’t judge her too harshly.”
“Amelia’s mentioned her sister a few times,” Jane said. “I wonder if she’ll be glad to see her.”
“I suppose you’ll find out soon enough. If I’m not mistaken, that man and woman going into the house across the road is your brother and his wife.”
Jane hurried toward the window. “It’s them! They’re back!” She spun from the opening, her face reflecting her joy.
Jack felt something soften inside him as Jane gasped out her good-byes and ran to the door.
He went to the window and watched as Jane’s daughter, Susie, looked over and saw her mother.
“Momma!” she cried, running to Jane with open arms.
“Susie!” Jane hugged her daughter tightly. As mother and child pulled away from each other, they both babbled in their excitement at being reunited.
Rupert stood silently beside Jack, watching the scene. “There’s a woman and a little girl who love each other something fierce.” He turned to Jack as the trading post owner moved away from the window. “How come she didn’t go with them?”
Something kicked in Jack’s gut. “Daniel and Amelia went to the village of an Ojibwa friend.” The realization that it had been a long time since Rupert’s last visit made him explain. “Jane’s still suffering from her captivity with the Sioux.”
“But there’s more,” Rupert said perceptively.
Anger burned at the back of Jack’s throat as he thought of the cruel man Jane had married. “Oh, yes, there is more, but it’s been a while now, and I’d hoped ...”
“You’re in love with her.”
Jack stiffened. “I am not.”
But Rupert only smiled. “Suit yourself.” He gestured to the counter and the growing pile of supplies they had gathered for his purchase. “Let’s finish up here. I’m kind of tired myself and anxious to sleep on one of those fancy bed mattresses.”
“Well, then you’re in luck, Clark,” Jack said teasingly, “ ’cause Rebb’s little girl Maeve received a new shipment of fancy bedding for that hotel of hers just last week.”
Chapter 3
The second-story room of the hotel was surprisingly pleasant. Rachel hadn’t expected such cheerful, comfortable accommodations in the back of beyond. A large four-poster feather bed sat against one wall, a cherry washstand with white porcelain ewer and basin against another. There was a large chest of drawers with a mirror near the wall by the door.
The proprietress of the hotel, Maeve Treehorn, was a pleasant young woman with a welcoming smile. She had her husband bring up Rachel’s things, then arranged for Rachel to have a bath.
Exhausted, Rachel undressed and slipped into the bathtub. It was large and an unexpected luxury. She enjoyed a long soak in the heated water, then scrubbed herself from head to toe with a delicately scented soap. When she was done, she toweled herself dry, then climbed naked between the quilts covering the feather mattress.
Her thoughts were in a whirl as she lay, staring up at the ceiling of her hotel room. Amelia is married. She blinked against a mist of tears. If not for Jordan’s vile betrayal, she would have been married, too.
Oh, Jordan, how could you have done this to me? To us?
She shouldn’t have come. But where else could I have gone? She had no other known relatives. She didn’t know her mother’s people. Her father and her aunt had been secretive whenever she or her sister had asked any questions about the relatives on her mother’s side.
“It’s best you know little of them,” Aunt Bess said once after the girls had asked about that branch of the family several times. “They disowned your mother for marrying your father. Are they anyone you’d like to meet?”
For days after that conversation, Rachel and Amelia had whispered their suspicions to each other late at night while everyone else in the house slept. The sisters had told each other romantic tales of their young physician father being summoned to some rich household, where he’d fallen in love with his female patient, their mother, Marianna Farrell. John Dempsey, they decided, had saved Marianna’s life; then the two young people, smitten with each other, had eloped. They’d known that Marianna’s family wouldn’t approve of Marianna’s marriage to a lowly doctor.
Rachel sighed and closed her eyes. What would her mother’s family say if she—Marianna’s daughter—sud—denly appeared at their front door? That is, if she knew where her grandparents lived.
No, she’d been right to come here. She would just have to accept the fact that Amelia had married. Perhaps her father would be glad of Rachel’s assistance ... surely Amelia’s marriage had changed her working relationship with Father.
It was quiet in the hotel. She was conscious of the absence of forest sounds. It was a warm, late afternoon, and the windows were shut. The only other guests at the hotel, apparently, were her friends, Miranda and Rupert Clark.
The dinner hour was fast approaching. Rachel thought that a brief nap would be just what she needed to help her face her family. She closed her eyes. She’d rest for only a few moments, until she felt well enough to go downstairs ...
She saw the figure standing in the forest several yards away from where she sat on a fallen tree trunk. She caught her breath as it stepped from the shadows. It was the Indian. Her Indian.
He stopped within a few feet, a prime specimen of a male. Her heart began to beat faster as Rachel saw the way he studied her. She scrambled to her feet as he smiled and held out his hand.
She hesita
ted. She wanted nothing more than to go to him, but she was nervous and afraid She had no knowledge of dealing with savages, and there was something in this man’s eyes that frightened her, even as it mesmerized her.
“Come with me, white woman, ” he said in a deep, accented voice. “Come and see my village.”
Rachel felt breathless. “I don’t know you.”
“Yes, you do. ” He smiled. “We have seen each other before, in the forest, when you were with your friends.”
She looked around and saw that she was alone with him. She felt a flutter inside her chest. “You shouldn’t be here,” she said, sensing that it was dangerous for him.
“I have come for you. We are destined for each other.” He stepped closer. “You have seen it. I have seen it. It is simply meant to be.”
The back of her neck tingled. “Who are you?” she whispered “Why do you follow me?”
“The way is clear,” he said. “We share the same life path.”
“I walk alone now, ” she insisted, thinking of Jordan.
Rachel’s heart skittered as the brave lifted his hand and caressed her cheek. His touch was light, tender. “Your journey is a lonely one,” he murmured.
Shaken by the feelings he evoked, she shook her head. “I need no one to accompany me. ”
“It matters not, ” he said. “It is destined to be.”
She bit her lip. “I am dreaming. You are not real.”
“I am real. You hear my voice.” He lifted his hand, held it out to her. “Feel my flesh.”
She shook her head.
“You are afraid, ” he said.
“I don’t know you.
“Know this, ” he whispered.
She froze as he reached out and caught her shoulders. Her heart thumped as he drew her closer. She knew she should be fighting him, but she was curious. She felt no danger, only a longing for something of which she had no current knowledge.
Rachel felt the male heat of him as he pressed her against his length, felt the controlled power of his muscular form. She was scared, yet fascinated by him. When he lowered his head and his mouth captured hers, she was powerless to resist him. Heat warmed her blood and quickened her pulse. His lips were warm, firm, and incited her pleasure. She gasped as desire tightened her abdomen and trickled along her spine. He trailed his lips across her cheek to her ear and back again. She arched her head back, allowing him access to her throat and neck. She moaned softly, enjoying his power over her, as his lips wrecked havoc on her skin.
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