River Song

by Sharon Ihle

  Suddenly jerking her gaze up to meet his, Sunny thought of the party escalating inside, the fun she was missing out on. She would not allow any more talk or thoughts of this kind. Not on this day. And not until she'd really taken the time to think things through.

  "This discussion has strayed, my bone-headed brother. I have more important things to do than debate which of us lives in a world of dreams." She picked up her skirts and turned her back to him. "Do what you will with the message I have brought to you. I must return to the barn. Cole is waiting for me."

  With that, she flounced off towards the door, and immediately caught the heel of her shoe in a gopher hole and turned her ankle. Muttering curses under her breath, she lamented the birth of the idiot who'd designed the tiny shoes her toes were squeezed into and limped inside the cool barn. As she waited for her eyes to adjust to the dim lighting, she heard the mellow cords of a violin as the fiddler called the guests to the floor for the first polka of the day.

  Sunny glanced through the crowd, searching for Cole's black Stetson hat. When she spotted it, she took a few steps towards him, but froze as she noticed he was not alone on the dance floor.

  A beautiful young woman dressed in shiny emerald green taffeta smiled up at him, her adoration complete. Standing very still, Sunny studied the laughing couple, feeling a dull ache spread throughout her breast, increasing the pressure of her corset until she was sure it would burst. They knew each other well, this woman and the man Sunny loved. That much was apparent from the way the woman clung to Cole, the intimate way she moved against his body.

  An introduction to the gold-haired woman would be unnecessary, Sunny thought with a heavy heart. No third party was needed to tell her that Cole held Elizabeth Scott in his strong arms.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  " Sean, I’m over here."

  Eileen's voice was a faint rustle in the breeze. Following the sound, Sean rounded the base of an old cottonwood tree and nearly bumped into her.

  She was a stunning sight, a free and wild apparition with that glorious mane of sun drenched hair bouncing across her shoulders.

  Suddenly feeling boyish and awkward, Sean sidestepped, then removed his hat. "Nice to see you again. My sister said you wanted to talk to me."

  "Oh, well, yes." His very presence rendered her incapable of putting a sentence together, and the thought of soliciting his help actually silenced her. What if her request drew his laughter? His ridicule? Or worse, his anger? Mortified, Eileen averted her gaze and brought her hands to her cheeks in an effort to cool them.

  Thinking she was about to faint, Sean dropped his hat and slipped his arms around her waist. "Eileen? Are you all right? Maybe if I get some water."

  "No." Her voice returned, yet still, her thought processes trailed behind. "I'm fine, really." Unsure what her next move should be, but unwilling to draw away, she rested her head against his chest and draped her hand over his shoulder as she tried to clear her mind. Why was it that every time he was near she turned into a bowl of mush? She was no silly swooning female, and yet here she was, behaving as if she were. Sean must think her mad.

  She stepped away and turned her back toward him, afraid to expose her vulnerability. "Thank you for coming. I wanted to see you to express my gratitude again for saving my life." Eileen let the sentence, the excuse, fade. Now was her chance, maybe the only chance she'd ever have. How could she waste it with small talk and half-truths?

  Eileen whirled around, her loose hair following the movement like a scarlet whip, reminding her of her immodest appearance. She wavered slightly, but managed to form the words she knew she would have to say if she hoped to persuade him. "I think maybe I just wanted to see you again. I hoped you wanted to see me, too." There. She'd said the words, but she still wasn't able to look into his eyes. What if he thought her unattractive and cheap, or even wanton?

  Sean's expression darkened as he said, "I'm going to assume you don't know what you've just said." Even if she did know, he didn't want to hear it, couldn't bear to hear it. He forced his goodbye through a tense jaw. "If that's all, Miss Hobbs, I'd better get back to the barn."

  "No, please don’t go." The thought of his leaving before she'd had a chance to explain her plan spurred her on. "Please, stay and hear me out."

  "I'm sure it would be better if I didn't."

  "But don't you remember what you said to me just before you left our ranch?" she persisted.

  Scanning the trees and shrubs for unexpected visitors, Sean satisfied his sense of caution that they were undetected. Then he thought back to his departure from the Hobbs ranch, but couldn't figure what she could be referring to. "I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about."

  Eileen swallowed the hurt, the sense of rejection, and resumed in a smaller, less confident voice. "You said, 'some other time, some other place.' You said that," she pressed a fingertip against her lips, and finally looked into his eyes, "right after you kissed me."

  Her vulnerable, beaten expression sent a jolt through him. Sean's arms ached to surround her, to crush her to his chest and murmur words of comfort in her delicate pink ear. Yet merely to continue this conversation, with no thoughts of anything more than speaking to her, would compromise his very life, leave him open for all manner of punishment, including death. But to end it now would deprive him of the joy of looking into her crystal-blue eyes, of hearing her sweet voice call his name, of drifting in her soft wholesome scent.

  A tremendous lump formed in Sean's throat. Forcing a scowl, he tried to dissuade her with a frosty gaze. "That kiss was a mistake. It meant nothing. Go back to your family.”

  Eileen trembled, flinching at the anger in his voice, the chill in his eyes. But she held her ground. "No. I want to be with you."

  Troubled and frustrated, Sean reached out and gripped her shoulders as he searched for a way to end this madness. "Why me, Eileen? Are you another of those curious white females who seek forbidden pleasure with any savage who'll have them?" The words were meant to hurt and anger her, to give her the freedom of choosing to leave him standing alone. But her reaction puzzled and alarmed him. She turned pale, nearly translucent as his fingers dug into her flesh. Rather than the expected anger, her expression was one of fright, of sheer terror.

  His voice gentler, concerned, Sean eased his grip and said, "This can go no further between us, you must realize that. You will be shunned by your family and their friends, and I, well, I will be dealt with sternly." With instinct guiding him, Sean relaxed his hold and slid his hands around her tiny waist. "Please understand," he pleaded in a low whisper.

  Calmer now, Eileen slowly moved her hand along Sean's shoulder, tried to ignore the way the hard ridges and valleys of his muscles felt beneath her fingertips, but still couldn't look in his eyes. Did he mean what he'd said? Was her father right all along when he'd said no man would ever look at her and see a proper lady? What she was about to suggest certainly wouldn't help her cause. But she had no other choice.

  Using every ounce of her courage, Eileen forced her chin up and willed herself to examine Sean's handsome features, the truth in his eyes. She saw nothing of her father's prophecy. Clinging to one last hope, she took a deep breath and squared her shoulders.

  "You are the one who must understand," she said softly. "Since you saved me from the flood, I've felt we're tied together somehow, that you're destined to save me from my life as well. Will you please help me?"

  She was talking gibberish. Either that, or her nearness, that soft and desirable body pressed against his, had dulled his mind past the point of comprehension. Against his better judgement, he cupped her trusting face with his big hands and murmured, "What kind of help could you possibly need that I can provide?"

  After a moment's hesitation, Eileen gathered all the strength in her bruised body and finally voiced her plan. "I want you to take me away from here when you leave."

  Stunned, Sean choked out a feeble, "What?"

  "I don't care where you are going," Eileen
went on, dismissing his distress, "or how you plan to get there, as long as you take me with you. Will you do that for me, please?"

  "I can't," he protested. Then, remembering their surroundings, he looked around making sure there were no intruders, and finished in a whisper, "You know I can't, and you know why. I can't believe you'd even ask such a thing of me."

  "I know what I'm asking, and I've chosen you because I trust you. You're a good man, Sean. You wouldn't hurt me unless I had it coming."

  "I wouldn't hurt you for any reason." He shook his head, unable to understand. "You're not making any sense. You've got a family and with your looks you must have suitors lining up to court you. Why would you jeopardize your future to run off with a half-breed?"

  "All I'd be jeopardizing," she bit off, "is a life of hell. Surely running off with you couldn't be worse than that."

  Sean's hands dropped to his sides as he saw the fire in her eyes flare to match the color of her hair. It was the first real flash of anger, of backbone, he'd seen in her. He wasn't sure what to make of it. "Maybe you'd better start at the beginning. Explain this life of hell, because you won't know what hell is until you go on the run with the likes of me."

  "No?" Eileen took his hand and slid his fingers into her hair. "Remember the bruise you found on my forehead the day you saved me? You thought it was from falling off the horse, but I said I got it at home. Well, I got these there, too, and in the same way." She directed his fingertips to a large lump on the side of her head and one on the back. "Pa gets kinda upset if his coffee isn't real hot or I don't get his boots soft enough."

  "Your pa raised those knots on your head?" Sean said, appalled. How could anyone, much less a full grown man, hit a fragile young woman like Eileen? She looked as if she were made of fine porcelain. If what she said was true, why hadn't she shattered?

  "Pa did all this and more you can't see," she explained further. "And sometimes, he—" Eileen wasn't quite sure how to explain something she didn't understand herself, but she gave it a try. "I don't know what you'd call it, but he looks at me sort of, well, funny."

  His mind was unable to picture a father even thinking about the kind of look Eileen might be describing, so Sean brushed it off. "I'm sure your father must love you a lot. Maybe you've misinterpreted some of his feelings for you."

  Eileen cocked, then shook her head. "I doubt it, but it really doesn't matter right now. All I know is, if I don't get married to some rich rancher real soon, I'm afraid of what he'll do. He might even kill me. Compared to that, I don't think running off with you is such a bad idea."

  Sean blew out a heavy sigh, wondering how much of what she'd said might be true. He couldn't believe the girl's own father would actually kill her, but the fact that she thought he would disturbed him a great deal. She'd given him a lot to think about, told him things he had trouble imagining. How could the man beat his daughter so brutally, make her hate him so much she'd run off with a near stranger? Did he have a right to save her from this torment? Or perhaps, an obligation?

  "Sean?" Eileen drew his gaze, interrupting his thoughts. "I don't mean to be trouble for you, and I'll understand if you just plain don't want me, but at least think about it. I'll do anything you want. I can clean and cook game as good as anyone, and I know I can learn how to make you happy in other ways."

  "Stop it," he ordered in a whisper. "There's no need for you to grovel to any man, especially to me. I'm just thinking over all you told me, trying to figure a way out. You say your pa just wants you out of the house?"

  "Not just out. He wants me to marry someone with money so he can have a share of it." She looked over her shoulder, making sure they weren't observed, and said with an amused sigh, "I'm supposed to be inside right now making eyes at Cole Fremont. Pa has it in his head I should spin a web around him and convince him to marry me."

  Sean barked a short laugh. "Now there's an idea that would get you killed for sure." He answered the puzzled look in Eileen's eyes with another laugh, then added, "Sunny has a bit of a temper. If you so much as lay one of your delicate fingers on Cole, I'm afraid she'd pluck you like a chicken and make a hearth rug out of your beautiful hair."

  "Your sister and Cole?"

  Sean's eyebrows lifted, then fell, and he shrugged. "Yeah. Sometimes, neither of us Callahans are too bright."

  "Oh, I wasn't trying to say that. It's just that I didn't know." Did Elizabeth Scott? And what about the rest of the Fremont family? She'd heard they were as anti-Indian as her own father, maybe more. How did the thought of their only son courting a half-breed set with them?

  "It could be they don't want anyone to know just yet." Although he didn't like the idea of Cole Fremont keeping his sister on the sidelines as it were, he could see the reasons for secrecy, and understood why Eileen and others were unaware of their relationship. "Maybe you ought to keep that information to yourself."

  "Of course."

  Her nerves keeping track of the minutes, Eileen glanced towards the barn and saw a group of men milling around in the yard. Her time with Sean had to be cut short before they were discovered. "I'd better get back to the party soon or Pa's going to start wondering where I am." She laid a tentative hand on his forearm. "Will you at least think over my idea and give it a chance to work? I swear I can't take much more at home."

  The best he could give her was a short nod and an answer that skirted the truth. "I'll give your problem some thought."

  But Eileen hadn't put her reputation on the line, opened a part of herself no one had ever seen, just to be pacified with an ambiguous statement. "Please understand how serious I am. If I have to, I'll run off by myself."

  And then he finally understood. This was no irrational, spur of the moment flight of fancy. Eileen meant to leave her home one way or another. And she'd chosen him as her guide. Suddenly, Sean was as pleased as he was concerned. "Do you realize if I agree to help you, you will be rejected by your kind wherever we go?"

  "I'm rejected by my own family here. How can others hurt me worse than that?"

  Sean curled up his fist and impulsively wrapped his arm around her. Pulling her close, he voiced his anger. "I simply cannot understand how your father can be so cruel. If you were mine, I would give thanks every day for such an honor, praise God for the beautiful person he has placed on this earth."

  "Ohhh." Her breath rushed out and tears sprang into Eileen's eyes.

  No man had ever spoken of her in such terms, or with such sincerity. Completely convinced she'd made the correct choice in entrusting Sean with her problems and future, Eileen pondered her next move. She must do something to encourage him to take her along, something to interest him enough to take the risk, but what? She was unschooled in the art of flirtation, and Sean was becoming impatient, nervous. She had to move quickly.

  Her fingers trembling, her resolve wavering, she leaned closer to the bronzed half-breed and stroked his cheek. To her surprise, the contact was more pleasurable than repulsive, invoked curiosity rather than aversion. Eileen marveled at the diverse textures, the coarse stubble of a too-fertile crop of whiskers banked by a surprisingly soft patch of burnished skin. Overwhelmed with wonder as she let her fingers drift to his hairline, Eileen shuddered with each increasing sensation.

  Sean's tight stomach unfurled at her touch, blossomed and spread hot spurts of desire throughout him as she trembled against him. Sean forgot who he was, where he was, as he gave into a wave of urgency to taste her, to feel her. Not giving his mind a chance to question, to consider the consequences, his mouth quickly claimed hers.

  She guessed he was thinking of kissing her, and had a moment of panic wondering if she should turn and run or accept what he so boldly offered. But then he was upon her. Eileen was stunned by the force of his embrace, the depth of his kiss. This wasn't the brief gesture of goodbye he'd bestowed on her a few days ago. This was something new, something exhilarating, and something frightening. Sean's fingers tangled in her hair as he drew her closer, and she could feel the
warm moisture of his breath against her skin as he grasped her tighter and tighter. Her first reaction was alarm, a feeling akin to desperation, but Sean coaxed her, urged her to accept him and his explorations.

  Eager to please him, Eileen forced herself to relax, to allow his tongue to part her lips, caress the tips of her teeth, then finally slide between them on a shocking journey to the inside of her mouth. She stiffened her body at the first onslaught of sensation, but Sean kept a firm hold on the back of her head, and soon his gentle probing pushed surprise and panic aside and introduced a curious new world of pleasure.

  Sean knew he should stop, for his sake as well as Eileen's. But he was drowning in her, lost in her exquisite taste, her supreme softness. Sean muted his inner voices, and opened himself to her in a way reserved for the closest of lovers. When she tensed, pulled back as he deepened the kiss, he thought of releasing her, of apologizing for his lusty behavior and sending her back to the barn. But then she yielded, encouraged his caresses, and followed his guidance until he thought he'd go mad from her naive duplication of his movements.

  The sudden cackle of nearby laughter brought them to their senses. As if each had heard the crack of a bull whip and felt the sting of its leather, Eileen and Sean twisted away from one another and dropped to the ground.

  Sean peered through the shrubbery and spotted two male guests walking towards the stand of trees. Keeping his eyes trained on the approaching men, Sean whispered low and urgently, "Back down to the edge of the grove, then slowly come out on the south side. I'll stay here awhile." When he heard the rustle of her petticoats, he quickly added, "I'll have Sunny contact you and let you know my decision about your problem later."

  Eileen hesitated as she worked her way out of the tangle of cottonwood trees, but decided against risking a reply. She would thank him later when she hoped she'd have even more to be grateful for.

  After she was gone, Sean quickly rolled onto his back and covered his face with his hat. Feigning slumber, he forced his breathing to become slow and methodical, then jerked forward as one of the guests tapped his foot with the toe of a boot.