Touched by Fire

by Gwyneth Atlee

  “Is your leg broken?” Hannah asked him. Thankfully, she saw no other signs of injury.

  He shook his head. “I don’t think so. It’s just caught. Can you give me a hand?”

  “I’ll try, and there’s help coming. A farmer and his hired boy.” She went back to loop Tillie’s reins around a sturdy branch.

  “What the hell were you doing anywhere near Malcolm?” Daniel’s words accused her. “Did he hurt you again?”

  “Malcolm’s dead. He’s finished hurting people.”

  Daniel glared at her. “Damn your lies. You killed him, didn’t you? I came to stop you, Hannah.”

  “I didn’t kill him, Daniel. But I would have. He said he’d shot you.” She wrapped her arms around him, but he didn’t respond.

  “Horse first, hugs later,” Daniel grumbled. “I guess this means I’ll lose my deposit over at the livery.”

  Hannah’s back and injured shoulder throbbed as she threw her weight against the horse’s bulk. She groaned. “I can’t. I hurt myself falling off my house’s roof. Listen, here comes Mr. Woodson.”

  “Sounds like you and I have some things talk about.” His tone gave her cause to dread that talk.

  Hannah called out to the riders. Mr. Woodson and a half-grown black boy arrived quickly. A few hard shoves freed Daniel from the lifeless horse.

  Gingerly, he rubbed his right leg and tested it. “It’s kind of sore,” he said, “but I’m very much obliged.”

  He shook the man and boy’s hands, and they introduced themselves.

  “We were glad to come,” said Woodson, “when your wife stopped by the house.”

  Daniel glanced at Hannah, and she shrugged, vaguely embarrassed. He then took her in his arms.

  “You want the sheriff, Mister?” asked the farmer.

  “No, I don’t. I just want to get back to the hotel. Mrs. Aldman and I have a few things to sort out.” The squeeze he gave her arm wasn’t reassuring.

  “What about the carcass and your saddle?”

  “The horse was rented. I’d better let the liveryman know where to find him. I don’t think he’s going anywhere before tomorrow. Poor fellow.”

  Both Hannah and Daniel thanked Mr. Woodson and his hired help again. They assured the pair they could make it back to Hampton Falls together on the borrowed mare.

  When Woodson and the boy left, Hannah climbed onto the horse’s back behind Daniel. She sat stiffly, trying not to touch him, as the mare walked toward her home. “You should have stayed in Peshtigo,” Hannah told him. “You could have gotten yourself killed.”

  “Me? Hannah, after what I told you Sunday, after what we did, how could you imagine I’d let you come out here alone? Why couldn’t you trust me? Your time for lying’s past. It’s been past since you agreed to marry me.”

  “Most of what I wrote was true. Everything about you. I do love you, Daniel, but I had to do this. And I did have family business, an inheritance from an aunt in Hampton Falls.”

  “But you didn’t keep away from Malcolm. You lied about that, and he’s dead now. How am I supposed to believe anything you tell me?”

  “I’m not lying, Daniel. I didn’t come to kill him. I only wanted what was mine. I only wanted to get the copy of my father’s will.”

  “Did you?” Daniel challenged.

  “I found it. Now I’ll get the farm.”

  “Was it worth it?” Bitterness edged his every word.

  Hannah paused, considering. Somewhere, an owl hooted through the moonlight.

  “I don’t know.”

  “You’re staying here, aren’t you?” Hurt and disappointment strained his voice.

  “Malcolm killed my father for that farm. I’ll be damned if I let his family claim it. Stay with me?” Hannah’s words were part question, part plea.

  “I’ve got a daughter and a life in Peshtigo. You know what I have here? A woman who can’t trust me with the truth, who doesn’t think I’ve earned it. I’m going back tomorrow morning at eleven, with or without you.”

  “I was only trying to protect you. I knew if you came this close to Malcolm, you’d go after him.”

  “You always have good reasons, don’t you? Now, tell me what really happened. Tell me everything.”

  o0o

  When the knock came, Hannah couldn’t fathom the sunlight against the curtains. After all her tears, could it be possible she’d slept? Morning felt like a betrayal, a forced reminder Daniel would soon leave. She started to get up to grab her robe and groaned at her sore back and shoulder.

  The knock came louder this time. “Are you all right?”

  She recognized the voice of her attorney. “Coming, Mr. Bloom. Just give me half a minute.”

  She hoped, by now, his wife had forgiven her for worrying them all. Her lies had angered more than Daniel.

  As she pulled on the robe and ran a quick brush through her hair, she tried to convince herself she’d gotten exactly what she came for. She could reclaim the farm.

  Adam Bloom paced the narrow confines of the hall. “We need to talk,” he said the moment the door cracked open. “We need to talk right now.”

  “If it’s about yesterday, I’m sorry I was gone so long.”

  “Yesterday is over. It’s much more serious than that.” He turned and walked into his study.

  Hannah followed, her heart thumping with anticipation. Would he tell her about Malcolm? Had he learned about the death?

  In his office, he slipped into a chair without inviting her to sit. “Malcolm Shelton and his wife are dead.”

  “What?” Her shock was genuine. Melissa?

  Adam nodded. “She shot him, then herself. She left a note. She asked forgiveness, said he’d struck her and she killed him. She couldn’t live with that.”

  Hannah felt her vision gray; then she slid down, until she sat on the floor. She felt as if her spine had been ripped out.

  Melissa, dead. More blood soaking into the winter turf of the Lee farm. Her father’s, Malcolm’s, even hers, after a fashion. A memory of the stolen steer’s blood splashed across her mind.

  “I need to know you weren’t involved.”

  Hannah stared at Adam, barely comprehending. Was he accusing her? He didn’t move to help her from the floor.

  After a long pause, she found her voice. “I went to get the will. Melissa let me. I didn’t hurt either of them, Adam. I swear it.”

  Bloom sighed and left his chair. He reached down and pulled her to her feet. “I had to ask. I know I’m your attorney, but I couldn’t defend anything like that.”

  “Am I —” A hard knot, like an acorn, formed inside her throat. “Am I a suspect?”

  Bloom shook his head. “I don’t think so. From what I heard, she had a lot of bruises. And old bite marks, too. What kind of animal would do a thing like that? Poor woman. She got her licks in, though, last night.”

  Hannah’s arms locked around him, and she sobbed against his chest. “Melissa . . .” The frail young woman hadn’t been strong enough to live with the lie Hannah suggested.

  Yet another of her lies.

  “I’ve been so wrong,” she muttered. “So very wrong. What time is it?”

  He drew a silver watch out of his pocket. “Half past ten.”

  “Dear God, I have to speak with Daniel. I can’t just let him leave!”

  Bloom hesitated a bare moment. “I’ll saddle Tillie while you get ready. Just don’t keep us worrying this time.”

  By the time Adam prepared the mare, Hannah ran outside to fetch her. With neither a mounting block nor leg up, the brunette fairly flew into the saddle. The soreness of her back vanished from her consciousness. Her waist-long hair flapped behind her as the mare leapt to a gallop, for Hannah hadn’t taken time to trouble about style.

  Daniel. How could she have been so wrong with him? Hannah worried over how much time it had taken her to dress. She should have checked the clock again before she left.

  Unlike the rainy afternoon of her arrival, people walk
ed and rode the streets today. Behind her, she heard a man shout. “It’s the adulteress, Hannah Shelton!”

  She’d been a fool to think she could outlast that name. Now there would be new conjectures. Had she somehow been the cause of both the Sheltons’ deaths?

  She thought she could survive the ridicule and speculation, but she’d finally realized she could never bear to go back to the farm. Especially not without Daniel beside her, to love her and support her through each day. Without him, she could no more face the remnants of her life than Melissa Shelton.

  At the depot, she slid off the horse and lashed a rein around a hitching post. The eleven o’clock, for once on time, was pulling from the station in a cloud of steam.

  Hannah shrieked and raced after the train on foot, as if she had the power to stop those tons of steel. She peered at window after window as it gained speed and pulled away, seeking one more glimpse, one last moment of eye contact to express all that she felt.

  That moment was denied her. She never saw his face. Panting with the chase, she faded to a standstill, then sank, defeated, to her knees.

  She’d lost him now, forever. She would never see him, never hear his voice again. He would be as dead to her as Robert. On her left hand, the ruby sparkled like a crystal spot of blood. Set inside his mother’s ring, it would never symbolize their union. Her nose ran, like her eyes, but Hannah didn’t have the spirit to reach up to wipe them.

  How could she have won her farm, yet feel as if the heart had been torn from her?

  “I was wondering how long you’d take to get here.”

  At the sound of Daniel’s voice behind her, Hannah froze. She didn’t move, sure that if she turned, he’d vanish like some cruel mirage.

  His huge hand, settling on her shoulder, convinced her he was real.

  “I couldn’t leave without you,” he said. “If that farm means so much, I’ll bring Amelia here.”

  Gently, he helped her to her feet and cleaned her face with his handkerchief. Then he meshed his hand with hers and gazed at her so hard she felt as though he saw the core of her and judged it.

  “I couldn’t imagine life without you,” Daniel said. He sealed his words with a long kiss.

  Hannah tasted him, reawakening the tremendous hunger of her dreams. She closed her eyes, losing herself in their reunion. Recovering first, she finally pulled away.

  “I want to go back to Peshtigo with you. It’s home now. The farm —the farm is steeped in blood. I found out yesterday Malcolm bashed my father’s head in and then blamed a half-broke horse. I wanted my old home back because of the people I remember: Father, Mother, my grandma —even Malcolm, or the way I thought he was. But those people are all gone, and so many of my memories are ruined.” Hannah felt tears sliding between them, soaking the fabric of his woolen coat.

  He stroked her hair and whispered, “It’s all right now. It’s all right.”

  She squeezed him even tighter. “I found out this morning Melissa Shelton took her life. That’s when I finally realized that the farm is just a piece of land. The people on it were the ones who meant so much. And now all the people in my life live near Peshtigo, Wisconsin: you and Amelia, John and Bess, everyone who means so much to me. If you’ll still have me, I want to go back, as soon as possible. I want Adam Bloom to sell my farm. The only thing I want from it is Honor, father’s horse.”

  “Come with me. Help me move my bags back to my hotel room. I’m so glad I changed my mind. Then tell me all about your aunt. I need the distraction.”

  “Why? Is your leg hurting?”

  “No, but I’m considering some real boisterous behavior, and this isn’t the place.”

  o0o

  “Here it is,” grinned Daniel. “The finest room the Hotel Hampton has to offer.”

  The bed, the chamber set, and the small wardrobe had nothing to distinguish them. Nor did the decor, which consisted of a garish still life and a yellowing bedspread.

  “This is the finest?” Hannah asked him, smiling. Tiny Hampton Falls had only one such establishment. Even so, Daniel claimed he was the only boarder. The desk, too, had been deserted when they returned his bags upstairs.

  “How do you suppose they stay in business?” Hannah asked.

  Daniel locked the door. “At this moment, I couldn’t care less.”

  Before they left the station, Hannah sent a message to the Blooms saying she would be delayed. That obligation had been her last coherent thought. Every other fiber of her being had cried its need to be alone with Daniel, to hold him against her body, flesh to flesh and soul to soul.

  But as he crossed the room to meet her, a nervous flutter made her muscles tighten. “Maybe we should find one of those ministers you’re so fond of dragging into hotel rooms.”

  His body, pressed against hers, weakened whatever resolve she had forged. “I already claimed you, and you accepted. When that fellow, Woodson, said you’d called yourself my wife, that’s when I knew for sure, no matter how mad I was at you last night.”

  His dark gaze pinioned her, soothed away her misgivings. In some way far more basic than a spoken wedding vow, Daniel was right. They were bound and had been since last Sunday. There had never been a possibility that they could stay apart.

  “I love you, Hannah,” Daniel told her. “You belong to me now.”

  Hannah smiled. “I love you, too . . . and, this time, Amelia’s far away.”

  He touched her mouth with fire, coaxed it open with his lips and his warm tongue. Again and again, it plunged in deeply, tasting, testing, ravaging. Wet and fierce, the kiss made Hannah desperately aware of how long she had been empty. She wanted nothing more than to fill her aching void.

  His lips brushed her ear with whispered promises of how he would possess her, be possessed by her before they left this room. She shivered with them, not in fear but with anticipation. Unable to resist their promises, she ran her hands along his neck and the muscles of his shoulders.

  Gently, but insistently, he pushed her arms down to her sides. “This time, I’d like to see you. I don’t want you to move.”

  She stood, still trembling with need as he unlaced the bodice of her dress.

  “Why, Hannah Shelton, I don’t believe you’re wearing any petticoat, or any corset either.”

  She felt heat rise in her cheeks. “I was in a hurry to find you. Do you mind?”

  “I don’t think there’s another stitch of clothing underneath this dress. I do hope you were careful climbing on that horse.” The fabric began to slide down to where it gathered just above her hips. Slow and teasing, his voice made her long to touch him. “I think I like this sweet surprise, except your hair.”

  He ran his hands through her long locks.

  “I thought you liked it down.”

  “It’s more fun when I unpin it.” He wound it gently, then let it slide down to her waist. “There, now. That’s much better.”

  She tried to reach for him. Again, he gently fended off her advances.

  “Not yet.” He moved behind her.

  Anticipation made the fine hairs rise along the back of her neck. She sucked in a sharp breath when his fingertips reached round to make orbits of the hard tips of her breasts. His lips made a moist journey from her neck to shoulder.

  She moaned aloud and tried to turn toward him. But Daniel held her steady, tormenting her with light caresses along her breasts and sides.

  He did something to the dress, and it slid along her legs onto the floor. Daniel turned her toward him, surveyed every inch of her and smiled.

  “You’re perfect, Hannah. Perfect.” He removed her shoes, then scooped her up and took her to the bed. When he put her down, he finally succumbed to her embrace and let her ignite him with another long, moist kiss.

  She helped him remove his clothing with much more haste than he’d used for hers. Leaning forward, he surprised her by kissing and suckling her breasts, driving her back until her head fell on a pillow.

  She didn’t close her eyes
. She wanted to see his muscles work as he caressed her, wanted to watch the chiseled body she now claimed for all time.

  His hand traveled along her sides and belly, then between her legs to touch, to stroke until she nearly wept with need. Grasping his hips, she guided him above her, then embraced him with a welcome of her silky thighs.

  Their union brought from each a gasp of pleasure as he plunged into her and she rose to meet his thrust. They found their rhythm quickly, found it and exalted in it until both attained release in one joyful cataclysm far beyond any pleasure Hannah had experienced before.

  Sweating, panting, they embraced. Daniel kissed her and made promises about their life together. Hannah smiled, murmuring contentment that had long eluded her.

  EPILOGUE

  Although their first legal anniversary remained two weeks away, Daniel and Hannah Aldman would this evening celebrate a date they thought more sacred, the anniversary of the day their hearts were joined. Amelia was visiting her Uncle John and Aunt Bess in their new house, less than a half-mile away. Hannah finished putting up her hair, so later Daniel could take it down again.

  He appeared behind her in the mirror. With a laugh, Hannah smacked his roving hands from her hairpins.

  “Let’s not start that yet. I’m too hungry,” she told him. The delicious smells of roast pork and vegetables rose from the wood stove. Fresh bread cooled nearby, on a shelf.

  “Since you finally dragged yourself away from the barn to cook, I think I will eat.” Between their two plates he lit a candle and stared into the flame.

  Sheepishly, he smiled. “Ever since the big fire, every little candle seems kind of like a miracle to me.”

  Preparing their plates, Hannah paused to smile back. “I think about the fire a lot. With all that tragedy, some spark of it drove us toward each other.”

  “That was a miracle,” he laughed.

  She lit a second candle before she sat down at the table, for tonight she would speak of yet another miracle.

  Tonight she would tell Daniel she was going to bear his child.