by Micki Miller
“We’d gone into town for some supplies, just the two of us. I was thirteen. A couple of half-drunk saddle tramps were harassing a young woman walking by herself. She was scared, intimidated by their size and brazenness. He told me to wait in the wagon, so I did. He walked over, real casual. I guess he was thinking just the presence of a man who would stand up to them would be enough. Men like that are generally cowards. My father said, in an easy tone, ‘I think the lady just wants to pass, fellows.’ I remember him saying that, kind of friendly-like.”
Garrett stared into the crackling fire, seeing it all as clearly as if it was happening right in front of him all over again. “One of the men said, ‘Supposin’ we don’t want to let her pass?’ My father ignored that. I guess he realized there was no reasoning with them. He told the woman he’d walk her to her destination. She said something to him I couldn’t hear and then pointed to a shop across the road. At first, it looked like those men were going to let it go. I remember relaxing back in the seat of the wagon. My father and the woman had walked about ten feet when one of the men drew his gun and shot him in the back. He died right there in the street.”
“You saw your father murdered, too,” she whispered. “Oh Garrett, I’m so sorry.” Penny placed her hand atop his. “Being at the bank that day, it must have reminded you of what happened to your own father.”
“Murders always do.” He turned to look at her then, the empathy on her face lit clear by the orange light of the fire. Not many people could truly understand the way he felt about that day, the helplessness, the devastation, anger, immeasurable sorrow. Penny could, though.
“That was the day I decided I didn’t want to be a farmer,” he continued. “I knew I wanted to be a lawman.”
“It’s a terrible thing for us to have in common.”
“Yes, it is. For me it was a long time ago.” He turned his hand over and gave hers a squeeze. He liked the way her hand felt in his. Small, but there was strength running through her, sent to him in the return grip meant to give as much as receive.
“It gets easier, Penny. You don’t ever forget, but it gets easier to live with.” She lifted their clasped hands and rested her face against the back of his in a loving gesture that flowed deep in his chest. The fire warmed her face and the skin along her jaw was so soft Garrett wanted to turn his hand and touch it with his fingers. He didn’t, though. He wouldn’t take advantage of the kindness she was showing him.
“Thank you for sharing your story with me,” she said. “I know it was hard.”
For a moment, they sat unmoving, holding hands beside the crackling fire. The darkness around them could have stretched into forever. However, in their small circle of campfire light, with the glow of the moon silvering the creek beneath a blanket of glittering stars, comfort wrapped itself around the two wounded souls.
****
After a too brief moment, propriety separated them. Penny turned a shy smile to Garrett. He returned it with a grin and a wink before picking up his plate. A pleasant shiver washed over her. When the wave receded, it revealed a new burden.
Penny studied Garrett as he finished his meal. Now, on top of finding him physically attractive, on top of the respect he showed her, she learned they shared a common bond. That bothered her. She didn’t want to feel any more drawn to him than she already was, not now. The timing was all wrong.
She turned away from him to stare into the fire. For the first time in her life, Penny was finding her own legs, and she feared that if she let herself get too attracted to this man, and if Garrett shared that attraction, she’d be surrendering those legs. She couldn’t allow such a thing to happen. Especially now with her eye on new paths, down which she fully intended to make use of said legs.
Penny picked up her fork and toyed with it for a moment, then raised her chin to Garrett and asked, “Are you familiar with Susan B. Anthony?”
With a slight nod he said, “The Women’s Suffrage Movement, of course.”
She’d heard enough talk from the men around town who thought a woman voting was nothing short of ridiculous. Penny braced herself for a misogynistic answer, hoped for it, actually. She did not want to feel drawn to this man. An asinine comment from him on this matter would put her attraction to rest and she could better channel her thoughts where they needed to be at this time of her life.
When he just continued to eat, she said, “Well?”
He inspected the stewed tomato on the end of his fork. “Well what?” he asked before stuffing the tomato into his mouth.
She leaned toward him and said in a voice filling with frustration, “Women’s rights.”
He chewed. He swallowed. And then he simply replied, “Yes.”
Yes. Yes, he agreed with them or yes, he heard her? She couldn’t tell if he was being deliberately obtuse or teasing. Whichever the case, he had her worked up to a mood that bore little patience for either. He popped the last of his biscuit into his mouth, and Penny could swear she saw him smile while he chewed.
Irritated more than she should be, Penny said, “I plan on joining the movement, and I was just curious about your opinion. What do you think about women having the right to vote?”
“If the fate of our leaders was decided by people like my mother and sister,” he said around a mouthful of biscuit.” He swallowed, licked his lips before saying, “The country would be a better place.”
Her mouth dropped open just enough to draw in a gasp. Garrett supported a woman’s right to vote. Her pulse picked up speed. Her heart swelled. He was handsome and brave and capable, and in support of women’s suffrage. She was doomed.
With dinner finished, Garrett collected their plates and silverware and took them to the creek to wash. Penny focused on other tasks, carefully rewrapping the jars and putting them back into the sack, stuffing towels in between for extra padding. After folding the tablecloth, she took out some fine blankets and a pillow and made up her bed near the fire. Garrett brought back the dishes. Penny dried them and then, with the same amount of care, wrapped those, too.
Garrett was untying his bedroll when Penny said, “I’m going to the creek to bathe before I go to sleep.”
Night had settled in, but the moon was full, giving them good light. “I wouldn’t mind washing off some of this road dust myself,” Garrett said. “You go first.”
Penny gathered the things she needed. With a bundle in her arms, she turned to him. “I’m going to walk around that bend to have my bath. I won’t be long.”
“No.”
“No?”
“Right here is fine.”
“But sir…”
“Garrett.”
“Garrett. It’s…well…I would feel more comfortable if I was a little further away.”
“I’m sure you would. Right here is fine.” She opened her mouth to speak and he said, “That was the deal, if you remember right. You’re to do exactly as I say.”
“Yes, but…”
“But nothing. If you have trouble, I don’t want to have to go looking for you. If you want a bath, you’ll have it here.” He moved then, turning his back to the creek. He slanted a sideways look her way with a grin that bordered on a smirk. “Call out if you need me.”
Penny’s spine stiffened, and she pursed her lips together for a good long moment before saying, “Very well” in her best clipped voice.
****
Garrett didn’t know why, but ruffling her feathers like that made him smile from the inside out. Probably payback for all the trouble she’d caused. She spun around on those fancy little shoes of hers, and he turned back to face the fire. He heard her take two steps before stopping. Garrett knew she was glaring back at him because he felt it just as sure as if he could see it. Damn if he wasn’t smiling again.
“Garrett.”
After replacing his grin with a bland expression, he slowly turned his head around. Yes, she was glaring daggers at him all right. The corner of his mouth twitched upward.
“Give me your
word,” she said.
“My word?”
“Yes, that you won’t peek.”
For a moment, they just stared at each other. Then she raised one of her finely arched brows halfway up her forehead. The woman must have grown an inch stiffening her spine that way. Garrett had to press his lips together to keep from laughing outright. She sure was a prim little thing.
“You have my word. I won’t peek while you’re bathing.” He then turned his back to her, picking up a twig to poke at the fire. Not more than a minute later, he was cursing his torturous honor. It may well have been more decent to just turn and look than to see the erotic visions his mind was showing. Try as he might, he couldn’t help it. His mind stubbornly refused to see anything else.
Above the bubbling of the slow running creek, came the sound of her fussing with the bundle she carried to the water with her. There was a light thud. It had to be her old hat landing on the rocks. He wondered how long her hair was, if she was taking out the pins so she could wash it. Then he listened to the rustling of clothing as she stripped down for her bath. Garrett didn’t move a muscle.
The last of her clothing must be off because those sounds stopped. She was naked only a few yards behind him. Garrett’s body tightened and he tried harder to think about something else, anything else. He searched his head for another topic, but could think of absolutely nothing. He couldn’t even think on the ridiculousness of that. All his mind could wonder at was what her breasts looked like, if they were as nice in the flesh as they were in his mind.
There was a small sound of displaced water as she stepped into the creek. Right after, she gasped.
“Everything all right?” he called out.
“Yes, I’m fine,” she called right back. “The water is just cold. Stay where you are, please.”
He smiled again, and then had to shift his position as he pictured what the cold water was doing to those fine breasts that had taken up residence in his mind. Garrett blinked at the discomfort in his hand. The stick he’d been using to poke at the fire had itself gone aflame. The fire had almost consumed the stick and wasn’t more than an inch or two from his fingers. Before the thing could burn him, he tossed it in the fire.
Garrett sat there listening to her little splashes. He remembered her saying she’d brought soap. The sudsy images that conjured caused him to scoot back from the fire. She’d built the damned thing too hot. Garrett tugged at his collar, feeling like he was about to go up in flames himself.
Finally, water dispersed as she stepped from the creek. That image stretched the boundaries of his sanity as he pictured her emerging from the dark water, her naked body glistening in the silvery light of a full moon. He had to scoot back from the fire some more. At this rate, in another minute or so he’d be sitting in the creek.
A few minutes later, Penny stood by the fire. Garret looked up and nearly choked on his own breath. Her hair was soaked, but she was doing her best to dry it with a nice, fluffy towel. It was long, he finally saw, almost touching her waist. Even dripping wet at night the color was as bright as sunshine. He was surprised he could take note of that at all, as his eyes were stuck on what she was wearing.
A nightgown, she was actually wearing a nightgown. A snowy white, somewhat wrinkled, lace at the wrists, white ribbon tied at her throat, nightgown! In all his born days, he’d never seen such a thing on the road. Of course, he’d never been on the road with a woman before. And, as he could see all too well, Penny was indeed a woman.
The garment was a bit on the thin side. He guessed that in her haste to be warm and covered she didn’t realize there was enough dampness on her to make that nightgown cling to parts of her skin.
“If you go in the water by that big rock its smooth sand and won’t hurt your feet,” she told him, oblivious to what she was doing to his poor brain and body.
She faced him and leaned sideways toward the fire, rubbing her hair in an effort to dry it. In the flickering orange light, Garrett got an eyeful. Well, at least he now knew her breasts were as lovely as he’d imagined. Better, actually, from all he could see. Nature had been generous to her, more so than what he’d thought, considering she was a relatively small woman. He could see their dark peaks pressing against the white fabric of her nightgown, full and ripe in the cool night air. His mouth turned dry as the desert in August and Garrett could swear the blood rushed from his brain down to his more essential parts.
He should look away, he told himself. Like hell! He said he wouldn’t peek while she bathed, and he hadn’t. What was he supposed to do now, not look at what good fortune had put right in front of him? He was a man, not a saint. And she…she was a goddess.
Below her lovely breasts her waist curved inward and she had well-proportioned hips with just the right amount of flare. She turned her back to the fire, then, and crouched down to rummage through one of her bags. Garrett’s hands ached to cup her nicely rounded bottom. In fact, it wasn’t just his hands. He was aching all over.
****
“There it is,” Penny said, sliding out her hairbrush. She turned around and sat down on her blankets to face the fire, sweeping her hair over a shoulder as she worked out the tangles. She hoped to get it at least close to dry before going to sleep so it wouldn’t get her pillow all wet. Working from the bottom up, she took her time, savoring the warmth of the fire after her dip in that freezing creek water.
After a moment, Penny paused and looked at Garrett who was staring at her in the oddest way. “Aren’t you going to bathe now?”
Garrett figured that was a real good idea. Of course, he’d have to spend half the night in that creek before he’d cool down. “Yes,” he answered in a strangled voice, and then coughed to clear his throat.
As he walked away, Penny said, “Don’t worry. I won’t peek either.”
Garrett laughed, but it was a painful mirth. He’d been right about something else, too. It took a good long soak in the cold water before he felt himself again.
She fell asleep before he did. It was a strange thing, sleeping so close to a woman with whom he hadn’t had sex. It was a first for him. Frankly, he didn’t much care for it. It was damned frustrating. He tipped his head back to have another look at her. She had curled up on her side, wrapped in nice thick blankets with her head on an actual pillow. She couldn’t possibly be cold. He sat up anyway, and tossed some more wood on the fire, just in case.
At some point, Garrett finally fell asleep. The last thought he had before he drifted off was that he was going to have to forbid her from bathing until they found a town and could stay at a proper hotel, in separate rooms, at the opposite ends of the hall. He chuckled then, even as his thoughts were sliding into dreams. If that woman was determined enough to have a bath, she would have it. Maybe he’d get lucky and the trail would take them away from the creek.
Chapter 7
“Let’s ride,” Garrett said, not that it needed saying. Penny was set to go before he was.
They’d both come fully awake before the first touch of sunlight had spread across the land. Penny slipped into the woods near the creek with a bundle in her arms and returned dressed and ready for the day in a matter of minutes. Breakfast was fast, biscuits eaten while they gathered their things. Garrett then secured her sacks to her second horse and checked once more to be sure the fire was out. He helped Penny mount her horse before climbing on his own. They were on the road before the sun cleared the trees on the horizon.
The air was cool, but the day showed promise. A cloudless sky helped the sun warm the land and signs of spring were beginning to show. Small, green buds appeared on the bare branches of oaks and elms, and wildflowers peeked from the tops of skinny stems, as if expressing a timid interest in showing their petals.
It was indeed a time for a fresh start. Penny tipped her head back, eyes closed, feeling the rising sun’s warmth on her face. Her heart still felt shattered. She supposed it always would whenever she thought of her father. Maybe Garrett was right. Maybe time m
ade it easier to live with. She could only hope.
She couldn’t even begin to wish for such peace, until she saw the man who’d murdered her father brought to justice. Penny straightened her head, her hat once again shielding her face, and looked at the long road before them. How far ahead was Zeke Cotter? She wondered. And how long to find him? At their traveling speed, it was going to take quite a while.
They’d been on the road not more than fifteen or twenty minutes when Penny turned to look at Garrett who was riding right beside her. “Aren’t we going too slowly?”
He nodded, though he kept his eyes on the road ahead, as well as the woods that thickened around them. Maybe that was her imagination. Maybe not. “We are. Can you hang on to that horse at a faster pace?”
“Of course I can. I told you, it was part of my education.”
He smiled at that. “Ah, yes, The Boston Academy for Young Ladies.”
“That’s right.”
****
Sliding a glance over Penny, Garrett took note of how well she held her seat. “I always thought those places taught young ladies to ride side saddle.”
He was sure he saw a slight blush beneath the drooping brim of her hat. It galled him that he thought it was cute. He still wasn’t ready to stop being mad at her.
“Well, yes, that’s true.” She gave a slight shrug of one slender shoulder. “But my friend Elena and I snuck away regularly and practiced riding astride.”
Looking at her all decked out in boy’s clothing, not to mention having firsthand knowledge of her recklessness, it wasn’t hard to imagine Little Miss Refined indulging in an occasional fit of rebellion. For some reason that made him smile. Almost immediately, he forced it down.
“If I start to lose you, I’ll slow down,” Garrett said.
“I’ve kept up with you so far, haven’t I?”
Garrett grinned, and let it be. He certainly couldn’t deny her ability to keep up. However, he did have a hard time verbally conceding that fact. He picked up their pace a little. Penny kept up so well he picked it up some more.