“Fort Shaw,” she said.
“Well then I don’t imagine it would be too tough to get a preacher somewhere else who won’t be apprised of the situation,” he said. “Shall we take a little trip?”
Shauna could not help but smile at the prospect. A real marriage. It was almost too good to be true. To not have to wake at the crack of dawn or before, in the winter, with back breaking labor. A wonderfully attentive husband. Handsome. So romantic. In a matter of a day or so, her life had turned around and seemed so complete.
Now that she had helped Sam move her into a room for them together, she followed him outside. She would relieve Haya of the baby so that she could rest before putting him down and getting to chores of her own.
“I best be finding Haya and little Sam,” she said.
Little Sam. Her babe would have a daddy.
Chapter Eight
Sam and Shauna stepped out on the porch. The bright blue Montana sky so vividly greeted them. The sun was pure gold and made it hard to focus on the scene in front of them. When they did, they stopped cold. A man held a shotgun on Haya and little Sam. They were waiting for Sam and Shauna to appear.
“Morning,” he nodded. “I got your hand here and your baby son.”
“What can we do for you?” asked Sam gently.
Shauna nearly buckled but she had to keep it together for her little baby and her wonderful friend. She was moderately assured by the steely look behind Sam’s pretend cordiality.
“You Sam Bishop?” he asked.
“I might be,” he said.
“Well either you is or you ain’t? I knowd why it’s a might confusin’ on account of this lady here married a man who said he was Sam Bishop. He’s what give her this har baby,” said the man.
“You on the other hand,” he continued. “You the Sam Bishop what owns this place. I hear tell you struck in rich over tharn in Deadwood. I knowd this because the Sam Bishop she married done told me. How he pretended to be you. Was going to take this har place out from under you but then this little lady came along and he just walked off with purty good tidy sum. When we heard yall struck it rich he was going to parlay his little ruse into taking your gold but then he had the bad taste to up and die.”
“Nice story,” said Sam Bishop. “Get to the point.”
“Well I heard you all left town. I figure you to come back to your place. I got to thanking that what happened here did happen here. You tuck up with this little lady. I also got to thanking that it might be worth something to you to pay off a fellar with a little bit of that gold to keep your secret. You all living in sin,” he smiled a toothless smile.
“We are married,” he said. “You got nothing over us.”
“I got this har Sharps rifle mister. That ain’t exackly nothing,” said the man.
Sam laughed. “You are right about that! Hey I am sorry for laughing but that was funny.”
“Glad you think so,” said the man.
“How are we supposed to do this?” asked Sam.
Shauna assessed her immediate surroundings for makeshift weapons. Some of the tools Sam had been using to repair the porch were still out. She trusted Sam was going to take care of the situation but just in case, she wanted her own plan.
Haya stood as still as a statue with the baby who was good as gold. Still Shauna believed he needed to be out of the sun which had to be hot on him. If they lived, Shauna was going take this man’s head off for holding a gun on her baby.
“I reckon you can tie these women up and I can I foller you to get the gold,” he said.
“How do you know I got it here?” asked Sam.
“Now don’t play coy with me, now you hear? Otherwise, I’ll just shoot you all and search the place myself. In fact I may still. If you asked me questions like that I can’t work with you. The nearest bank is fifty miles from here. Neither you nor I would trust that amount of gold to bank robbers.”
“Fella, I came in to some good fortune but I don’t know how much you think I got with me. Legend may have stretched the facts somewhat,” said Sam. “If I was a rich man would I be here?
“I am warning you,” said the man as he turned his rifle on him.
Quick as a flash, Haya flung a knife at him. The man dropped the rifle and grabbed his throat. The blade went right through his neck. Down he went. The baby started bawling. Shauna went right to him. She wrapped her arms around both her friend and her baby.
Chapter Nine
Sam said something to Haya in her language as he took hold of the feet of the dead man.
“What did you say?” asked Shauna.
“I told her I am building her own house,” he said. “Giving her land.”
“Tell her thank you, please?” Shauna asked.
Sam laughed. “I am also telling her we are teaching you to two talk. I never know two friends who love each other as you do without barely saying a word.”
“Where are you taking him,” sniffled Shauna.
“I gotta bury him. I’ll be damn if I bury him near the house. I am taking him out a ways,” said Sam.
He pulled a horse out of the barn and hooked up it to their wagon.
Shauna panicked. “Don’t leave!”
“I am not going anywhere, Mrs. Bishop,” he assured. “You’re safe. You’re in very good hands with Haya here.”
Sam loaded the dead man on the wagon and took him out in the field. When he returned it was time for dinner. Shauna fed the baby and put him down to sleep. She and Haya put the meal out and waited for Sam.
He sauntered in through the front door, his tousled hair backlit by the sun as he filled the doorway. He had the jug that he and Shauna shared the night before.
“I realize it’s the middle of the day but if you don’t mind, I am indulging,” he announced.
Haya took her cup from her place and held it out for him to fill.
“Yes ma’am,” he smiled. “Shauna?”
She hesitated. She looked at him with a slight scold. She felt bad being contrary for that in light of what they just went through.
“It’s the middle of the day,” she said in a whisper.
“It’s okay you can trust me. There are plenty of things that can be done in the middle of the day and sometimes out in the open, like say by a creek or what have you,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.
Shauna giggled. Haya actually smiled. Which told Shauna that she knew. Shauna blushed. The heat burned her cheeks. Sam and Haya burst out laughing. It was the first time Shauna had ever known Haya to laugh. Haya took the jug and filled her cup.
The liquid was strangely delicious and calming.
“I could get used to this,” she remarked. She licked her lips.
“Hey now,” he said. “Just a little bit there. My mother said it’s good for mothers feeding babies.”
Shauna realized sitting at the table having a meal with her husband and her best friend, she was having fun. Not just for the first time she had been to Montana but maybe since she was grown.
“Do you reckon there will be others trying to get money from you?” said Shauna.
“There may or there may not,” said Sam.
“I don’t want my foolishness to –” she choked.
The full breadth of how she had been taken in was upon her in the forms of tears she had to choke back.
“How have you been foolish?” he asked her.
“Well I married a man who –” she stopped.
Haya nodded and left them alone.
“No wait,” Shauna said. “Finish your meal. Please. We have no secrets between us. I have a baby by a man –.”
“You were married to. He widowed you. Now you’re remarried,” said Sam. “I got nothing to be ashamed of. Neither does anyone in this house. That boy in there is my boy. I’ll be God damn if anyone takes him away or you. Just look what happened to the last person who tried.”
He took hold of her tenderly.
“Now, the only foolishness is this right here. As yo
ur husband I order you to knock it off,” he said affectionately.
“I will,” she said.
“There’s a lot to get used to around here, is there not? Let’s eat woman.”
Chapter Ten
After supper, Sam took Shauna aside.
“I am thinking you and I should take a ride and show Mrs. Bishop the bridge on the property,” he said with lazy affection.
“Bridge?” asked Shauna confusedly.
“Yeah the bridge. You wanna ride with me, Mrs. Bishop?”
“I would Mr. Bishop,” she replied. She could not help but smile.
Their fingers gently touched as he walked ahead of her, out the house and down to the barn. He closed the door behind them.
“Do you need that opened so the horse can get through?” she chuckled.
He took her into his arms. “No I don’t,” he replied and kissed her slowly.
“What about the bridge?” she asked.
“I’ll show you a bridge,” he said seductively.
She didn’t know what the meant but she understood the way it made her feel. And she liked it. She turned her head to invite him to another kiss. He bolted the barn door and then climbed the loft ladder up to the loft.
She climbed ahead of him, somewhat self-conscious that her bottom was practically in his face. He didn’t seem to mind at all. He stroked her and goose her, causing her to squeal as she climbed.
Sam was very good at managing her clothes. His boot snagged hers and he spread her legs. His hand swept up her skirt, stroking her bare legs. His fingers climbed, higher and higher until he found the place that ached the most.
He made those sweet circles on her damp, petaled flesh, every so often plunging his fingers into her. He worked the fingers back and forth in little kicking movements as he worked them in and out.
“You like that, don’t you?” he murmured.
She nodded. As she was so aroused by his touch she could hardly think. A nod was the best she could do. She clutched at his shirt. He helped her along by peeling it off of his stunning body. Shauna never saw anyone so masculine in all of her life. He was so taut and rippled and she was so soft and round. He squeezed her large, generous breasts in his powerful hand. His touch was firm and soft at the same time.
She dared explore him. She glided her hand across the mountain plains that was his body. He looked so lovingly into her eyes. He took hold of her hand and kissed her palm before letting her continue with her discovery.
The tips of her fingers found the soft tips of his hardness. She was surprised and delighted at how soft his skin was there. He showed her how to grip him and to move on him with her hand. He braced her arm firmly as she gave him pleasure.
Shauna felt powerful and like that she could please him so easily. It was a simple thing to do and her feelings for him grew stronger. He urged her to straddle him. At first the thought of giving him a full view of her body gave her pause. She was a full-bodied woman too, something that she had been teased about somewhat.
But she found that her weight assisted her balance. When she sat astride him, her skirt belled out, for she was naked to the waist. She could be naked and concealed at the same time and her stout, round frame could lever up and down off of him. She impaled herself on him and worked up and down.
He was already very aroused from her experimentation. It seemed she could do no wrong. He reached up and toyed with her breasts. He cupped them, lifting them, tweezing her hard nipples. Each time he gave her nipples a tweeze, cords of intense pleasure that twined to her core. Her belly was liquid with desire for him.
This was the second time she lay with him and it was different. Some of the best parts from the time before were happening again but it was now already better. She loved the feel of him inside of her. As well as moving to please him, Shauna found a way to move to delight herself.
She pumped up and down followed by a sway around in full circle, grinding with wicked pleasure on his hardness. The more opened that Shauna was with him, Sam was bold himself, jutting into her in a sensual counter rhythm.
He gripped her hips, giving her a solitary thrust, followed by a couple of slow lazy ones. Then he would thrust into her again, shaking her up, shocking her with naughty pleasure. Each time he did that, her bodied rushed and her nipples were hard again.
“Look at me,” he whispered.
He reached up and stroked a lock of hair that had fallen from her bun. His fingers found the pins that held the rest of her hair and undid them. Her chocolate, flowing hair fell to top of her rump and over the curves of her breasts like Spanish moss.
“Oh my goodness,” he said. “You are so beautiful.”
He toyed with her hair as she lazily rocked on him. Without knowing when he was going to do so, he thrust firmly into her, causing her body to clutch up around him. Shauna shivered. She moaned.
“Mercy,” she said.
And without realizing she was doing so, she touched herself. She cupped her breasts as she began to ride him more purposefully. She found a tantalizing position and kept at it, picking up her pace until she put herself on the path to an orgasm.
“Come with me baby,” he said.
His voice was almost drunk. His eyes were half lidded. His thrusts were unceasing, almost automatic. He tipped her into a pile of loose hay and pumped her into oblivion. The shift seemed to do it for her. Everything shifted. Shauna was coming.
She moaned helplessly with the sugared waved that over took her. Sam pumped her rapidly, chasing his own pleasure. Soon his whole body stiffened as he cried out. He practically growled as rapture engulfed him. The two them writhed, grinding into each other until they could move no more. They crumpled in the hay.
Sam toyed with the unfastened hems of her bodice.
“We need to get you some new clothes,” he said. “These are likely to fall off of you.”
She smiled. “That is so thoughtful. Perhaps the next time we get supplies I can pick up some fabric to make a dress.”
“We can buy one too,” he said rolling over her with the promise of more loving. “Those legends the late mister stranger referred to were true. I am filthy rich.”
He looked her straight in the eye when he confessed that.
“That doesn’t make the least bit of difference to you, does it?” he asked her.
“What is so important to me is my friend and my son and now you,” she said. “I feel rich already.”
“I believe that,” he kissed her languidly.
Shauna helped Sam with the repairs even though he insisted she not. She was way more opened with him than she thought she could ever be. She felt completely welcomed to love this man. She analyzed it a thousand different ways but just accepted it. She had been a fool before trusting on face value but she decided if Sam hurt her, the pleasure and happiness she felt now was worth it. It was a chance of her lifetime.
The trim around the house was all nailed back into place. The fences were righted. He and Shauna mounted up and decided to ride around his land to see exactly what they had and what condition it was in.
It was a difficult task to complete because the pull between them was so intense they made so little practice. She would look at him or he would look at her and they would both lull, doped on their desire for each other.
Sam had a lot of farmable land but Shauna and Haya farmed only what they needed to grow their own food. The plots were much smaller than they had been before. Sam sidled up to her. He had such a dramatic effect on her. She felt giddy and wanton at the same time. She leaned over to her and kissed her, with a delicious slowness.
From the corner of her eye, Shauna spied movement. It was a black speck. She opened her eyes. Wide. It was another man. A rider coming towards them.
“Sam,” she muttered. “There’s a man. Riding towards us. Oh father in heaven, not again.”
“Stay calm, missy,” he said.
In a covert move, so as to not broadcast himself, his hand slowly found his gun.
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“Hello there,” the rider called.
When he was close enough, Sam drew on him but did not pull the trigger.
“Hold,” ordered Sam.
Shauna thought Sam was so sweet and so amiable that it was strange to hear him be so commanding but he was. It made her feel passion for him.
“Don’t shoot mister,” trembled the fellow.
He was stopped on his horse. He had one hand on the rein and one in the air.
“What brings you here?” demanded Sam.
“Just riding through. Got caught in the storm the day before,” said the man. “I need a place to just water my horse.”
“Where passing through. I am taking over a parish in town,” he said.
“Preacher?” said Sam.
Shauna saw his face widen with a bright idea.
“We’ll be happy to have you to supper before you’re on your way or you can stay the night. I have just arrived back home to inform my foreman’s bride that he has passed. I wish to marry to her. Will you perform the ceremony?” asked Sam.
The preacher’s face brightened. “I would be delighted.”
“Can you do it now?” asked Sam.
“Now?” asked the preacher. “On our horses?”
“I don’t see why not? Shauna?” Sam asked her.
Shauna smiled. It was not the wedding she had hoped for. From the first moment Sam mentioned wedding, she envisioned a wedding dress. Her prior wedding was nothing more than a few words in front of a preacher, and a couple of people from a saloon to witness. But oh well, she thought. She certainly got the husband she hoped for.
“Of course,” said Shauna.
“Proceed preacher,” said Sam.
His smiled could not be any wider. The preacher cleared his throat and gave quick sermon followed by the prompting of their vows. Within five minutes, Sam and Shauna were man and wife.
“Preacher, you go on ahead. You’ll find our place in a mile in that direction,” said Sam.
“Find it? Aren’t you coming?” asked the preacher with surprise.
Romance: My Stepbrother's Plaything Page 39