That did nothing to calm her down. Her eyes widened, she blinked, swallowed. As soon as Cole released her, Kate threw back the quilt and jumped up, all nervous energy and stuttering insecurity. For his part, Cole stayed where he was and watched her—in Kate’s estimation, much like a cat watching a mouse it intends to pounce upon. “Um, before the kids awaken and want their breakfast,” she finally came up with, “I’ll go to the creek and wash up. I believe we need more water for coffee and oatmeal—”
“There’s plenty of water. I got it last night.” Then he became all business. “Besides, I’m not so sure you should go traipsing off by yourself, since we don’t know who might be around.” His pointed expression told her he meant the Talmidges.
“I see,” Kate said, forcing herself to quit wadding her skirt in her hands. She just wanted to be away from him for a few moments, just long enough to collect herself. “Well then, I, um, at least have to go…” Her face heated up alarmingly, telling her it was probably beet-red at this moment. “Um, I have to tend to my personal business. In the women’s area. I don’t suppose you feel a need to accompany me for that … do you?”
Cole chuckled and blessedly shook his head. “No. Go on. I’ll stay here with the kids, in case they wake up. I’m sure you’ll be in good company at the creek bottom.” Then he sobered and added, “You understand why I don’t want you going off alone otherwise?”
Kate nodded. “I do. And I thank you for that. For caring.”
His expression warmed. “I do care. Probably a whole hell of a lot more than I should. Certainly more than is good for either of us, Kate.”
Kate didn’t know what to say to that … despite her heart’s soaring response. Staring at him, and fearing she had a silly grin on her face, Kate put a hand to her bosom, as if to settle her heart down. But to no avail. It insisted on thumping wildly … and was sure to betray her, given half a chance. “Then I’ll”—she forgot what she’d been about to say, finally remembered it—“I’ll just be a minute.” With that, she turned, intending to make a hasty departure.
“Hold on.”
Kate did, turning back to see Cole rolling easily to his feet. Her breath caught as he raised his hands to run them through his black hair. “Maybe you ought to take Kitty with you.”
Kate frowned. “You really think that they’re here, don’t you?”
Cole shrugged. “I don’t know. They could be. There’s just no sense in our taking a chance we don’t have to. If they are, they’ll be looking for you as carefully as you are for them. And if they’re not, then it doesn’t hurt to be careful, anyway.”
Fear shivered over Kate’s body, raising the hair on her arms. She rubbed at it as she said, “I suppose you’re right.” Then she decided to tell him what else was worrying her. “You know, Cole, this—and I mean the Talmidges, my baby, and how they want it—won’t be over today or tomorrow. Or even next year. They told me if I ran, then they’d kill me … and my baby. They won’t stop until they do.”
Cole stiffened, his expression hardened. “You think they’d kill you now, Kate? Or do they just intend to get you back to New York and keep you hidden away until the baby’s born?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. They did set you after me. And you know what your orders are.”
He had the decency to look down a moment, as if a twinge of guilt assailed him. “Yeah, I know. But I’ve been trying to figure out why they’d show up now themselves, if they think I’m on the job. I’ve never—well, not been successful. They’d have no reason to think I wouldn’t be this time, either.”
Kate realized he was right, and tried to forget they were so casually talking about her life being ended—and that Cole was the man to do that. “Then I don’t know. Maybe they changed their minds about wanting me dead. Maybe, like you said, they want me alive until after the baby’s bom. After all, Mrs. Talmidge told everybody she was expecting, once they knew I was.”
Cole’s eyes narrowed in disgust. “Son of a bitch. That’s sick. We’re dealing with some dangerous people here, Kate. But that could work to our advantage, her having told everyone she’s with child. To me, that means they need you alive. But still, I’d think they’d be looking for me, as well as you, to head me off before I carry out my orders.”
“Well, we don’t know they aren’t looking for you, do we?”
Cole considered her a moment, as if he were weighing her words. “No, I don’t guess we do. But still, I’d think I would have heard if they were looking for me. Actually, though, you’d be easier to spot since they know what you look like.”
His words stung her. Kate looked down. “Yes … they do. They know all too well what I look like.”
“Oh, hell. Why did I say that? Kate, I’m sorry.” It took Cole only three steps to reach her and enfold her in his arms. He kissed the top of her head, then bent down to kiss her forehead and her eyelids. “I’m so sorry, baby. I didn’t mean it like that.”
Kate felt silly for the tears that threatened to spill over. She turned her face up to his, intending to tell him that, but he surprised her by gently cupping her jaw with a hand and lowering his mouth to hers, smothering her words. His kiss thrilled her. It danced along her nerve endings and had her clinging to him, wanting more. A whimper escaped her, found its way into his mouth … He pulled back, stared into her eyes, apparently saw what he needed to see and again lowered his lips to hers. But just before he took her mouth, he whispered, “I love you, Kate Youngblood.”
Kate gasped, stiffened, and then weakened, leaning into his chest as his arms stole around her back. Pressed against him as she was, all Kate could do was cling to his shirt sleeves and offer herself up, let him know she wanted him, too, that she returned his feelings for her. She stiffened. She returned his affection? She loved him?
The moment Kate stiffened, Cole’s embrace softened, his kiss ended. He pulled back, his arms still around her, his mouth still wet with her kiss. His black eyes bored down into hers, looking right through her, to her soul. “Did I do something wrong, Kate?”
She shook her head, felt distracted, too hot, unnerved. “No. No, you didn’t.” She stepped out of the circle of his arms and brushed at the hair by her temple … and looked everywhere but at him. “I liked it. I did. I wanted you to kiss me. It’s just that…”
“I understand, Kate. It’s okay. I shouldn’t have rushed you like that.” Then, as if her silence unsettled him, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, ran a hand through his hair, looking everywhere but directly at her.
“Cole?” she suddenly said, feeling she owed him an explanation. When he finally settled his gaze on her, Kate said, “I feel I ought to tell you that … I liked your kiss”—her face heated up, but she rushed on—“and I have feelings for you, too. I do.”
His chin came up a prideful notch. “But…?”
Kate frowned her bewilderment. “There’s no ‘but.’ I just wanted to say that I don’t worry so much … with you on my side.”
His eyebrows rose a notch but his expression smoothed out and a calm seemed to come over him. “I’m glad to hear you say that. And just remember—the Talmidges don’t know that I’m on your side now. Even better, they don’t know what I look like, either.”
“That’s right. I didn’t think of that last night. You’ve never met them. And yet you were getting ready to charge up that hill after them. How would you have found them?”
Cole shrugged. “A few well-placed inquiries would’ve located them.”
“I suppose.” And then she just stood there, feeling her hope for this new place, this new beginning, fade some. The Talmidges … here. It just wasn’t fair. This was her corner of the world. Not theirs. How dare they violate it?
“Kate?”
She snapped to, realized she’d been lost in thought. “Yes?”
Cole’s expression, along with his smile, warmed. “It will be okay. I promise you. Just let me get Kitty out of the wagon and you can be on your way, all right?”
>
Kate nodded, too overcome with emotion in the face of Cole’s tender handling of her to say anything. In only a moment, Kate had torn a strip of calico from an old dress of Lydia’s, one that had no more wear in it, and tied her long and heavy hair up off her neck, the better to bend over the water and wash herself without ending up with wet hair all day. In the next moment, Cole had fished the dog out of the covered wagon and the hound had stretched and yawned and gathered himself enough to pad over to Kate’s side when she called him. Together they traipsed off toward the women’s area.
Chapter Fourteen
Despite all the other women ranged up and down the creek’s pebbly shore and gathered in this one place to attend to themselves away from male eyes, Kate still felt alone. It was strange, really. All around her the women chattered, talking of tomorrow’s land run, of their babies, their husbands, and their hopes for the future. Kate had even walked down here with two young women, strangers to her, one of whom had a baby girl perched on her hip. They’d talked of themselves, and Kate had shared a few friendly but neutral comments of her own. She couldn’t afford to get too friendly. Because there was really nothing much she could say without divulging the awful details of her life to them … unless she wanted to lie to them. Which she didn’t.
But it was true that, like them, she had a husband … one who’d just told her he loved her. Kate’s tummy jumped with the giddiness as she thought of that revelation, but still she shied away from reflecting on what exactly his words and feelings might mean for her future. He could love her all he wanted, but would he stay around forever? She didn’t think so and became aware that she was shaking her head, as if to push aside such thoughts. But she’d have to think later about Cole’s loving her. Right now Kate preferred to concentrate on her similarities with these other women. Like them, she had children dependent on her. And a baby on the way. And high hopes for the run and the future.
But not quite like these other women. Well, most likely not. She figured if she talked long enough with any of them, she’d hear some pretty bad things about their lives, too. Still, while she might share some of the same dreams they had, she didn’t really have anything in common with them.
And so, she made an excuse and moved down to a less crowded edge of the creek, toward the very same oaks where last night she’d run from Cole. Having already attended to her most pressing personal business, Kate now wiped at her face and neck with a clean piece of rag she’d found in that big chest in the schooner and had dampened with the stream’s cold waters. She kept waiting for the morning sickness to hit her. But so far, it hadn’t. She thought maybe that was good. Hoped it was, at least.
At first, she’d hated even knowing it was coming. But then, after she’d nearly lost her baby, it had comforted her. Kate chuckled. Right now she was just relieved that she wasn’t sick. Then it struck her that she should have awakened Lydia and brought the child with her. Because now, once the little girl woke up, Kate would have to make the trip right back down here again. And there was still so much to do today in preparation for the run—
Kitty startled Kate by coming to his feet and growling low in his throat, his head lowered, his ears flattened, as he backed into her legs. A jet of fear coursed through Kate. What—or whom—had he seen? Kate immediately thought of the fancy lady the boys had described yesterday. Kate anxiously searched the direction the hound dog faced … to her right, toward the oaks.
Only sun-dappled darkness met her gaze, as the sunlight spilled between the high, thick branches to pour itself onto the forested ground. But she detected no distinct movement there to alert her. Raising a hand to shade her eyes from the bright sunlight beating down, she looked to her left, feeling her tied-back hair swinging over her shoulder with her movement. In this direction, she saw only the other women attending to themselves or visiting as they washed protesting small children. Still, Kate’s heartbeat picked up and her pulse jumped as she turned back to the yellow-furred dog.
“What is it, Kitty?” She squatted down next to the hound, petting his big, square head as she again searched the edge of the oaks, just as he was doing. “What do you see? What’s bothering you?” Then she had a thought that instantly relieved her of misgivings. She tugged the dog’s head toward her and looked into his soulful black eyes. “Is it breakfast? A rabbit, maybe? Is that what you see?”
Kitty startled her again by twisting and jerking free of her—with enough force to knock Kate back onto her bottom. Instantly, without even looking back at her, the dog shot away, baying for all he was worth—right toward the darkened glade of the gnarled trees. Almost the moment the dog disappeared into the trees, Kate heard him snarling and growling. She heard tree limbs snapping, leaves rustling. Was someone running away? Or heading for Kitty?
Whatever it was, the dog was about to fight, that much was plain. And judging by the sounds coming from the thicket of trees, it wasn’t a rabbit. No, it was something much bigger—and something Kitty didn’t like at all. Kate realized that behind her, the women closest to her had quieted. No doubt the dog’s baying and snarling had also caught their attention. She pivoted in their direction, whipping her face with the heavy ponytail of her black hair. From the distance, a thin blond woman called out, asking Kate if she was okay.
Kate quickly scrambled to her feet and called back, “No! It’s not okay!” She pointed to the trees. “My dog! Go up the hill there to the two wagons parked in a vee and get my husband, Cole Youngblood”—she saw several of the women exchange glances—“and tell him to hurry. I’ve got to go see what’s got after my dog.”
Immediately two of the women—Kate saw it was the same two young mothers she’d walked down here with—separated themselves from the group and ran back up the hilly slope away from the creek. Relief coursed through Kate. They knew exactly where her and Cole’s wagons were. She then turned toward the woods—
“Wait a minute! Kate, is that you? Kate Chandler?”
Kate whipped back around, again punishing herself with her heavy hair. She didn’t know anybody out here, did she? She shaded her eyes and really stared at the woman who’d called out to her a moment ago and who now was waving frantically at her. She was so far away, it was hard to see—then Kate gasped in recognition. “Is that you, Mrs. Jacobs?” The nice lady from the train ride out here, the one who’d wanted her to stay with her family. The lady with four children, two of which were holding on to her skirt. “Yes! It’s me—Kate!”
“Well, hold on, honey.” She pulled the little girls away from her, shook a finger at them—no doubt telling them to stay put—spoke to another woman close to her, and started toward Kate. Her loud voice carried through the air as she called out, “Don’t you go in there after that dog. It could be a bear is what’s after him. You wait for me.” She reached into a pocket of her skirt. “I got me a gun right here, and I’ll help you.”
“Oh, thank you—and hurry, please.” Kate had no more than gotten the words out and pivoted back around to stare at the thicket of trees before she heard Kitty yelp horribly. A deep, soul-wrenching sound that left her gasping.
And then … all was quiet.
Kate froze, her eyes widened. “Kitty,” she breathed. “Oh, no.” No longer thinking of herself, of getting Cole, or of waiting for Mrs. Jacobs, Kate hiked her skirt up out of her way and, saying a prayer for her unborn child, gave chase.
* * *
I should have known better, was all Cole could think as he hurriedly strapped on his Colt and settled his Stetson on his head. Facing him and jabbering away were two young women, one with a baby riding her hip, and full of a tale of Kate and Kitty and a fight in the trees down by the creek. The women hadn’t seen anything, had only heard the dog yelp and had seen Kate running toward the sound. Hadn’t he heard it? they wanted to know. The fuss had been so loud. But they thought Kate was okay. She hadn’t been in the fight. Just the dog.
Every time they said something about the dog being in a fight Lydia screamed that much louder. S
o did Joey and Willy. His teeth gritted, his jaw set, Cole struggled for control. First he turned to the kids, huddled behind him. “Now, you kids hush up. I’ll go see about Kitty. You just stay here. I’ll be right back.”
“Is her dead, Uncle Cole?” Lydia wanted to know between sniffles.
“Kitty’s a boy dog, Lydia,” Willy sobbed as he put an arm around his baby sister.
“You heard Uncle Cole,” Joey bleated, trying hard to sound grown-up. “Kitty’s just fine. And so’s Miss Kate.” The boy turned his tear-stained face up to Cole and the two young women flanking him. “Ain’t they, Uncle Cole?”
Cole exhaled sharply. “Yes, Joey, I’m sure they are.” But he wasn’t sure at all. Needing to be on his way, he turned to the women and focused on the plump and pretty brunette one. “I need you to watch these kids until I get back,” he told her.
Her eyes widened. Cole hadn’t meant to sound so abrupt, but he didn’t have time for niceties right now. “Of course, Mr. Youngblood. I’ll get their breakfast for them. You go on. My wagon is over yonder”—she pointed to the next encampment over—“and that’s where we’ll be.”
Cole nodded. “Thank you, ma’am. I’m beholden to you.”
She all but curtsied. No doubt, Cole reflected, she knew his reputation. Then he turned to the kids. “You mind this lady, you hear?”
Three dark little heads nodded that they would. Then Lydia tore herself away from her brothers and ran to Cole, wrapping her pudgy baby arms around his legs. The tiny little girl broke his heart every time she cried. It was a wonder she hadn’t wrapped him around her finger by now. Cole leaned over and picked her up, giving her a fierce hug. “You stay here and be my brave little girl, okay?”
With her tear-dampened face nestled against his neck, Lydia nodded and mumbled out, “I don’t want them to die, Uncle Cole. I love them.”
Cole swallowed, patting the little girl’s back. “So do I, baby. So do I.” Only belatedly did he hear his own words.
Prairie Song Page 24