Just One Kiss
By
Rita Hestand
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2011 by: Rita Hestand
Edited by: Joshua R. Shinn
Cover Design by: Laura Shinn
Formatted by: Laura Shinn
Digital ISBN:
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be copied or reproduced in any manner without express written permission of the author. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy or copies. If you did not purchase this book or it was not purchased for your use, please go to Smashwords.com to purchase your personal copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Just One Kiss is a work of fiction. Though some of the cities and towns actually exist they are used in a fictitious manner for purposes of this work. All characters are works of fiction and any names or characteristics similar to any person past, present or future are coincidental.
Other books available by this author:
Love Rules
Beyond the Dream Catcher
Better Off Without Her
Always Remember
Strictly Business
Wandering Heart
Jodi’s Journey
*Chief Cook and Bottle Washer
*Hannah’s Man
*Courting Abby
*Along Came Love
Suspicions of the Heart
Pretend Mom
Runaway Bride
Nick’s Baby
Heart of the Wild
Sweeter Than Wine
The Far Side of Lonesome
Fast Forward Love
Halloween Witness
*Series
{Also available by this author are children’s books at Smashwords.com}
Dedication:
I'd like to dedicate this book to Laura Shinn who
continually is available for assistance and comes up
with the most beautiful covers. Without people like Laura,
our jobs as writers wouldn't get done. Thanks and God Bless.
To view more of Rita Hestand’s work,
visit: http://www.ritaphestand.com
Prologue
Somewhere in northern Arkansas
1858
“Get out of the way kid, unless you want to be filled with lead,” Lee hollered as the boy jumped down from the tree tops, the branches creaking as it swung away from him.
The bullet whizzed through the air like a locomotive gone wild, acrid smoke blazed the nostrils as the bullet blew the rope in two. Lee holstered his gun and the rope broke. The thud of the body hitting the ground seemed to startle the little boy kneeling, with crocodile tears rolling down his cheeks. Not more than five or six, with clothes too big for him, and a flop hat that covered his face from view, as he laid his head against the stillness of the body on the ground.
Silence sliced the air.
“Who is he?” Lee knew his voice was gravelly but in the pouring rain it didn’t seem to matter.
The boy barely moved, then glanced slowly over his shoulder at him, his frown set deep into his face.
“He’s my Pa, but why ask? You ain’t interested. You’re just a stranger passin’ by, a white man,” the boy cried, wiping his eyes. He rose and cast Lee an inquisitive look.
Lee’s jaw clenched and he doused his anger at the boy’s somber words. He stared silently as the boy stood gawking at him awkwardly. “I’m sorry, kid.” Lee said lowly. “Where’s the rest of your folks?”
Lee dismounted and stood over the boy.
“They’s all dead, I reckon. So…you gonna kill me?” The boy seemed to square his feet on the ground, ready for the inevitable.
“What?” Lee wasn’t sure he heard the boy right. Was the ungrateful boy trying to be rude?
“You heard me, are you gonna kill me?” The little boy faced him now bravely.
“What gave you that fool notion? I told you to move out the way, didn’t I? If I was gonna kill ya, do you think I would have warned you?” Lee grunted, angry that the boy would assume the worst of him. Considering the circumstances quickly, Lee took a different tack. But the boy interrupted his thoughts.
“You’re white; white men don’t like black men.”
“Who the hell told you that?” Lee grumbled as he bent to check the body. The man had been dead for several hours it seemed; his body was stiff and cold.
“Don’t matter, it’s the truth,” the boy cried then looked back at his pa.
Lee shook his head slowly and a slight smile lit his lips. The boy was scared stiff; he was silently shaking, but didn’t seem to realize it. “Well, in the first place you ain’t a man, and in the second…where’d you get a fool notion like that?”
“From my Pa…” he gestured to the body on the ground. “And it ain’t a fool notion, it’s the truth. And besides, they shot my brothers and hung my pa. I reckon I am the man of my family now.”
Lee silently studied the area, the tracks, the broken tree branch, and the boy’s clothes all added up to being here too long. He noted the silence of the wind and the drumming of the rain with impatience. “I reckon you are at that.”
The boy looked startled for a moment.
“Your Pa was wrong though about one thing. In the first place, you’re a little too young to qualify bein’ a man, even though you been orphaned. And in the second, I don’t care what color you are…you’re just a kid to me.” Lee shrugged.
The boy stared but didn’t say anything for a long moment, then threw back his shoulders. “You ain’t that much older than me.”
“Maybe, but I’m a man. So tell me…who did this?” Lee asked, seeing the pain register in the boy’s hooded glance.
“I don’t know. Some men rode up to our house down yonder, in the middle of the night. They drug my Pa out, pulled him up the hill and hung him.”
“What about your Ma?” Lee frowned down into the somber face.
“They took her with them…”
“Anything you can remember about them, anything at all?” Lee asked.
The boy looked at him again and stared as if thinking about the question. “…spurs…one had fancy silver spurs, won’t be forgettin’ that one. They jingled when he got off his horse.”
Lee nodded. “How many in your family? Got any…brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles…”
“I think they’s all dead, I didn’t hang around to find out. When they shot my two brothers in the back for tryin’ to run away, I decided I wasn’t gonna go down there. I followed them up here though, thinkin’ I could cut my Pa loose when they were through and he’d be alright…but he wasn’t,” the boy cried, as though remembering it. Silent tears streamed down his plump cheeks. “My knife was too dull, it wouldn’t cut the rope. I tried…I really did.” The boy burst into fresh tears. “Pa always told me to keep it sharp.”
Lee nodded once more. “He was right, but don’t fret so, boy, when it’s your time there ain’t nothing you can do to change it. How come they didn’t kill you?” Lee asked, his voice almost hoarse now.
“‘Cause I was hid out, down by the creek, fishin’ when they came…they never saw me…”
Lee sized the situation up in his mind and nodded.
He looked at the body on the ground, then up at the tree where they had hung him. “How long you been here boy?” Lee asked when he stared down at the body.
“Since last night I guess…”
“We best be diggin’ a grave then…?” Lee’s voice trailed off, not waiting to see if there would be more tears.
The boy nodded, wiping at his eyes
. Lee ignored the sorrow buried deep in his own heart for the boy. It wouldn’t do the boy any good to see how he felt about it, so he squashed his own emotions. At times like these, it was best to be firm. The best thing he could do was take care of the boy. He cleared his throat and glanced at the body once more.
He took the shovel from off the back of his horse and while it poured rain, he dug a grave, and put the dead man in it. The ground was soft as it had rained steady for a couple of days. Satisfied he’d done right by the boy’s pa, he piled rocks on top of the grave in a fashion and nodded.
“It ain’t the best grave I’ve ever dug, but it will do. Lord, we give him unto you…” Lee said looking up at the darkened sky.
“You believe in God?” the boy asked, his face screwed up in puzzlement.
“‘Course I do, I’m no heathen. Don’t you?”
The boy studied him long and hard. “Dunno, I prayed they wouldn’t kill him, but they did.”
Lee nodded. “It was his time, boy, nothin’ you could do about that.”
“You ain’t like what my Pa said white men were like…”
“I sure ain’t like the ones that did this…” Lee remarked under his breath.
The constant rain made a lonely sound, and Lee felt that familiar lonely feeling in his heart every time he looked at the sad little boy. He wished there was something he could say or do for the kid, but there simply was nothing to make him more comfortable.
The boy stood there staring at the grave for a long while as Lee put his shovel up and mounted once more. His saddle creaked and the boy looked up at him again.
“Well, I reckon you better come with me, then, boy.”
“Come with you?” the boy looked surprised, shocked even.
“Lest you want to starve and die out here by yourself.” Lee leaned forward in the saddle and held out his arm for the boy to climb up.
“You gonna kill me?” the boy looked at him with a mixture of shock and fright.
“Now why would I want to kill you?” Lee smiled sadly. “Just waste of a good bullet.”
“Don’t know…but ‘spect you will.” The kid dried his eyes and stood squaring himself off against Lee.
“Well, you ‘spected wrong. Now, come on, boy, let’s get out of this weather,” Lee directed. “We’ll make camp down in the valley and head out for a town in the morning. It’s rainin’ too hard to make much time in this weather.”
He held out his hand once more to the kid. The kid stared at it for a moment, then grabbed it and lifted himself behind him on the horse. “What’s your name, kid?”
“Folks called me Samuel, friends call me Sam. Sam Tanner,” he mumbled.
“Well, Sam Tanner, pleased to meet ya,” Lee said and was about to move away when he heard a noise coming from the bushes. He whirled his horse about. There in the bushes were two eyes staring out at him.
“Who’s in there? Come out now. Don’t have time for this,” Lee fussed gruffly.
The bushes made a swishing sound and out came a Negro girl. She couldn’t have been over fourteen or fifteen. She was barefoot, and her dress looked a size or two too big for her as it drooped in places where the rain had plastered it against her bronze skin. In fact, her whole body was silhouetted in the rain. His practiced male glance did a long slow slide up and down her, assessing.
The fragile pain mirrored in her gaze as their eyes met for the first time, sent a spear straight for Lee’s heart. Lee stared so long she blushed and moved out of the brush.
Lee couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Who are you?”
He didn’t mean to snap at her nor stare so long, but the shocking awareness awkwardly passing between them had him off guard.
It was that excuse for a dress she was wearing for one thing. Her dress plastered against her in the rain, making Lee gasp as he quickly noticed how she was just bursting into womanhood; her body mirrored a silent perfection. Her hips rounded just a tad, her young breasts peeked hard against the dress, but her expression held him spellbound for a moment; provocative, the toss of her head, the turn of her nose, and the peak of a smile on her beautiful full lips tempted Lee to react like a man.
Never had anyone so young turned his head.
“I’m Sam’s sister,” she explained hotly, hostility rising in her answer.
Lee grumbled under his breath. Just what he needed. Not only a little snot nosed kid, but a girl…now what was he supposed to do?
“Hattie,” Sam cried, seeing her clearly now as he peaked around Lee. Without thought he jumped down and rushed to her side, hugging her. The girl curled her arms around Sam tightly.
“I thought you was dead.” He hugged her closely.
“I almost was…but I escaped them on the trail. They got Mama,” she whispered as she put her arm protectively around her brother and studied Lee.
“How about Doris and Mabelle?” Sam cried, looking into her face.
“They are…they’re dead.” She glanced down at her brother, a hint of sadness crossing her young features. “After what them men did to them, I knew I had to get out of there, so while they were payin’ me no mind, I run off.”
Sam hung his head and squeezed her hand. “Is Mama…still alive?”
“So far.” She stood lifeless staring at the man as Lee continued to watch her every move. “I think they are takin’ her with them. I think they want her to cook for them.”
“Then maybe they won’t kill her.” Sam smiled. “Ma’s a good cook.”
“That’s a big maybe, Sam…” Hattie whispered.
“You think we could find her?” Sam asked, squeezing her hand.
“I doubt it. They are long gone now, left a trail of death and destruction. Headed for the north country.”
Lee stared at the girl. She was probably right, but it didn’t help her brother none to tell him so.
Lee firmed his lips and tried to ignore her. But there was something about her that made him keep looking. The arrogant way she tossed her head, the untrusting glances she sent his way.
Problem was, she was to the point of beautiful, he noted then scolded himself silently for thinking it. She had a round, sweet looking face. Her lips were full, her nose flaring, but it was obvious that she was just as aware of him as he was of her. She didn’t hide the fact that she looked him up and down.
She was older than Sam and close to leaving childhood behind her, but as far as he was concerned, she was a kid and a Negro and he had no right going there. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Negroes. The truth be known, he did, but it wasn’t healthy to let others know that, not where he came from at least. Still these two were just kids and he needed to find someone to care for them.
“Hattie, is that your name?” he asked gruffly.
“Yes sir,” she answered after giving Sam a hug and smile. The smile transformed her death-like features into radiance and again Lee had to caution himself from responding. Made him realize her youth. What was it about her that had him thinking of her as a woman? She was a kid, that’s all. Still the gentle sway of her hips as she moved about told him she was also aware of her age. No little girl walked with that kind of sway.
“Is there any more of you?” Lee asked in a low whisper.
“No sir, I reckon me and Sam is all.” She stood majestically proud and erect, unaware that her breasts puckered against her dress.
“I see, well then, you get behind Sam and hang on. I’ll take you into town tomorrow,” Lee ordered, trying to pry his glance from hers.
“What for?” she asked suspiciously, her voice full of mistrust as she frowned up into his face, coming closer.
“Well, see’n as how you have no folks, to find someone to take care of you.” Lee heard the exasperation in his own voice.
“We cain’t stay here, they burned the house down.” Sam looked at her.
“How do we know we can trust this man? He’s white too.” She shot Lee a quick glance.
Lee saw the girl eye him and thought it good that sh
e was skeptical. However, there was something more in her eyes than mistrust. She challenged him with every glance.
“He buried Pa!” Sam pointed to the grave. “And said some words over him, and he’s God fearin’.”
“I seen that, anybody could do that,” she protested, as though she had some choice in the matter.
“Either get up or stay here, it’s your choice,” Lee admonished her. He had no time to play games. He told himself he didn’t care whether she came or not, but secretly he hoped she would if for no other reason than her brother.
“How old are you?” she asked as she followed Sam and jumped up behind him on the horse.
“Twenty. How old are you?”
“Sixteen,” she mumbled.
“You look like fourteen…” he mumbled to himself.
“I’m sixteen, I jest hadn’t come of age yet. Mama said I’d get breasts soon.” She put her hands on her hips and stared mutinously around Sam at him.
Lee stopped the horse, and turned sideways to look at her, a frown lining his face. “Look here, don’t talk like that.”
“Why not? It’s the truth,” she fussed.
“He’s tryin’ to tell ya it ain’t lady-like.” Sam snickered.
Her eyes rounded on them both now. “The men…they took my sisters.”
Lee’s expression changed to one of sorrow, wishing he could block it all out for her.
“That’s why I was determined to run off from them, I didn’t want them doing the same to me as they did my sisters.”
Lee’s eyes met hers in the darkness, another stab of awareness shot through him. “You were wise to run.”
“I know…” she whispered.
“We’ll make camp when we find some shelter for the night, then head for a town in the morning,” Lee said as though he needed them to understand his intentions.
They rode slowly for another five miles ‘til they came to a hull of a shed. There was no homestead left, but the shed would shelter them for the night. Lee pointed for them to go inside while he bedded his horse and looked about.
Just One Kiss (The Dream Catcher Series-Book Two) Page 1