Would-Be Wilderness Wife

by Regina Scott

  Was this how Nathan felt when he heard the roar of the cannon, Lord? I hate being so helpless! There must be something I can do!

  “You know what might help?” James asked, pausing in his whistling. “Singing. You can sing, can’t you, Miss Stanway?”

  Catherine swallowed. At the moment she barely trusted herself to speak. “I’m not sure now is the time, Mr. Wallin.”

  “The best thing with a cougar,” John told her, glancing back over his shoulder, “is to act as if you are not prey. I must admit I’ve never known prey to sing.” He swung the ax and hacked off the top of a fern as if to prove to the big cat he meant business.

  Catherine couldn’t help glancing back again. There was no sign of the cougar, but she felt as if something was watching her, waiting for her to fall, to fail. She turned front and raised her head.

  “Do you know ‘Wait for the Wagon,’ Mr. Wallin?” she asked.

  “That I do,” James replied. His baritone burst out, strong and sure. “‘Will you come with me, my Catherine dear, to yon blue mountain free?’”

  “It’s Phillis, not Catherine,” Levi complained, but John’s voice joined his brother’s.

  “‘Where blossoms smell the sweetest, come rove along with me.’”

  Now Drew’s bass and Simon’s tenor chimed in, as well.

  “‘It’s ev’ry Sunday morning, when I am by your side. We’ll jump into the wagon, and all take a ride.’”

  Their confidence was contagious. Catherine found herself joining in the chorus, her higher voice melding with their deeper ones, the rain drumming a counterpoint.

  “‘Wait for the wagon, wait for the wagon, wait for the wagon, and we’ll all take a ride.’”

  They sang the song through three more times before she saw the brighter light of the clearing at Wallin Landing ahead through the trees. Beside her, Drew sucked in a breath. His hair was damp against his forehead, turning the gold to brown. She didn’t think it was just from the rain, for his face was darkening, as well.

  “Holler,” he said as if the song had taken the last of his strength.

  “You-halloo!” John obliged. “Beth, bring Pa’s rifle! Cougar!”

  The horses must have sensed the cat’s presence, because now Catherine could hear the frightened neighs coming from the field.

  Beth met them at the edge of the wood, cloak wrapped about her, hood surrounding her worried face. “What’s happened? Did it get Levi?”

  James answered for Drew. “Alas, no. He fell out of a tree. The cougar is stalking us.”

  Simon turned, cocked the gun and swept the path. “We’re ready. James, stay with me.”

  “Right.” With a nod to Catherine, James dropped back.

  John stepped closer to Drew. “Can I help?”

  “Just...steer...me...to the porch,” Drew said, panting. Catherine took one elbow and John the other, and together they managed to reach the broad boards with Beth hurrying along beside them. John helped Levi down, and he and Beth assisted the youth into the house. Drew bent a moment and gulped in air.

  Catherine put a hand on his damp back. “Are you all right?”

  He nodded, straightening. Catherine knew she should tend to Levi, but her concern at the moment was more for the man standing in front of her.

  “That was heroic,” she said. “You may well have saved your brother’s life.”

  Instead of smiling at the praise, he shuddered, the muscles rippling under her hand. “That’s one, at least. Do you need my help with him?”

  Catherine lowered her hand. “Beth can help me. You should rest. You’re in no condition to fight off a cougar.”

  He pushed away from the porch. “I’ll be fine. Watch over Levi.” He lifted the ax he’d left behind when they’d set out earlier and started after his brothers.

  * * *

  As the rain turned to mist, Drew followed James, John and Simon a little ways into the woods. His back ached and water ran down his face, but his breath grew stronger with every step. Once more thanksgiving raised his spirits and lifted his head.

  Thank You, Lord.

  “Any sign of it?” he asked when he caught up with his brothers.

  Simon nodded into the bush. “It came close enough to get the scent of the stock, then headed off toward the lake.”

  “No doubt it was our singing,” James said. “All we needed was Simon on his fiddle, and we could well have frightened it over the mountains to Walla Walla.”

  Simon shook his head.

  “We’re safe for the moment, at any rate,” Drew said with a warning look to his irrepressible brother. “With any luck, it will find easier prey along the water and forget about us. But just in case, we’ll leave someone at the Landing for a while to protect the stock.”

  “And our little Cat,” James agreed as they turned for home. “She seems to attract any number of predators.”

  “That’s enough,” Drew said.

  James danced out of reach as if he expected Drew to try to cuff him. “Are we a bit concerned for Miss Stanway? Methinks the gent is smitten.”

  What sane man wouldn’t be? If it had been Beth out in the woods, Drew would likely have had to carry her back, too. Even his mother had been known to freeze at the sight of a bear or a cougar. But Catherine had been all business, focusing on how to bring Levi home. She’d sung that song as if she’d been standing in service on a Sunday, best bonnet on her head, prayer book in her hands. Some men might quibble about her unflappable nature, but Drew could only be thankful for it.

  “Miss Stanway deserves our respect,” he said as they neared the house. “I won’t have her teased or bullied.”

  “Miss Stanway, eh?” James jumped up onto the porch ahead of Drew. “I was certain I heard you call her Catherine in the woods. No doubt it was the strain of the moment.”

  “No doubt,” Drew returned, hearing his voice deepen.

  John shook his head. “Now you went and made him mad, James.”

  “I’m not mad,” Drew growled.

  “Yes, you are,” Simon corrected him. “I wasn’t ten before I understood what that set face meant. The problem with having brothers is that we know you too well.”

  “The problem with having brothers,” Drew countered, “is that you all talk too much.”

  John didn’t follow him onto the porch. “I’ll take first watch, Drew. Send someone out to tell me how Levi’s doing.” He loped toward the barn.

  With a chuckle, James shouldered his way into the house.

  Simon caught Drew’s arm before he could follow. “A moment. You may not like talking, but I need an answer.”

  Drew nodded, pausing on the porch. Simon glanced in the door, then shut it carefully behind James. Drew felt his wet scalp tingle in foreboding. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” Simon leaned his rifle against the wall of the house. “I told you the other night that the best thing for this family would be for one of us to marry Miss Stanway. From what I can see, this episode only proves that.”

  Drew shook water off his face. “We had this conversation this morning. Why do you persist?”

  “Because we need her!” Simon’s eyes narrowed as his gaze bore down on Drew. “Why can’t you see that?” Though they had disagreed on any number of topics over the years, he generally deferred to Drew in the end. Not this time, Drew thought.

  He glanced in the window, watching as Catherine carefully unwrapped James’s prized waistcoat from Levi’s leg. “I can see it. But she isn’t a heifer needed to build the stock or a new plow to open more acreage. She’s a person, Simon. She has wishes and needs, too. She won’t be content to stay out here.”

  “Maybe she just hasn’t heard an offer she likes,” Simon countered. “So I’ll ask you straight out—are you going to court her?”


  Something leaped inside him at the thought. He could imagine walks along the lake, sitting on the porch holding hands under the stars, her head on his shoulder by the fire at night as he listened to her tell him all that was in her heart. He could build her a dispensary where she could treat any who came to her for care. He could see himself at the head of the table, her at the foot, and ranged between children with her beautiful hair and stunning smile.

  But those were crazy thoughts. If she stayed, there’d be more days like this, worse days, living in terror that something would yank her out of his arms, send her to the grave and leave him powerless, broken. That thought, more than any of the others, set his gut to churning. Catherine might praise his strength, and his brothers might rely on his arm to swing an ax, but when it came to losing someone he loved, he feared even his strength would fail.

  “No, I won’t court Miss Stanway,” Drew said to his brother. “I have enough to do around here without looking out for a wife.”

  Simon was watching him as if doubting his word. “Then you won’t mind if I give it a try.”

  His hands fisted, but he forced his fingers to relax. “You do what you must, Simon. You always have.”

  Simon shook his head. “You have an odd way of encouraging people, brother. But you’re right. I tend to look at the practical side of things. There are too many opportunities for us to get hurt or sick out here, and it takes too long to bring people to town for tending. We need a doctor or nurse. I doubt we can hire one, so I plan on marrying one, whether you like it or not.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  It was nearly dinner before Catherine had Levi settled. First she and the others had to dry themselves from the rain. Although she had toweled off her hair with a cloth Mrs. Wallin provided, the only way to dry her dress was to stand and turn in front of the hearth like a chicken on a spit, careful not to get too close lest a stray spark catch her skirts on fire.

  She used the time to direct James how to shave kindling to her specifications for Levi’s splint and to send Beth for the other supplies she’d need. Then she splinted the leg properly and added a stick at the end that could be twisted as needed to provide traction.

  Levi generally cooperated with few protests, and Beth peppered her with questions. But by far the most helpful was Drew. Once she had Levi positioned on one of the benches near the table, he sat at his brother’s head, hands braced on Levi’s shoulders as both a warning not to move and a deterrent when the youth had second thoughts.

  “You’d make a fine nurse,” Catherine commented at one point when she’d finished setting the bone.

  “I’ll leave that to the professional,” Drew answered, but his smile warmed her more than his words.

  When she finished, Levi gave the splinted leg a wiggle, then yelped at the pain the movement must have caused. “How long do I have to wear this?”

  “Weeks if you’re careful,” Catherine said, rising and shaking out her skirts. “Months if you’re not. Despite what your brother said about hobbling, limping for the rest of your life is best avoided if possible.”

  The boy grumbled, but his pallor told Catherine that some part of him would heed her warning.

  Mrs. Wallin had been sitting nearby. Now she shifted to be next to her youngest son. “You listen to Miss Stanway, Levi. And to your brothers, as well. What would you have done if they hadn’t come back for you?”

  “Died and rotted,” James said cheerfully, and Beth smacked him on the shoulder with one hand.

  Catherine drew back, watching as James and Beth teased Levi until the youth’s cheeks bloomed red. John had returned to the house a while ago, with Simon out spelling him on watch. He, too, joined in the fun.

  Catherine wished she could joke about it, but the entire time she’d been working on Levi, her family had kept intruding on her thoughts. What if someone had gone back for Nathan on the battlefield? Would he be alive today? Where were the men her father had tended when the medical tent had been shelled? Had none of them gone to see if he could be saved?

  Levi’s wounds weren’t as serious, and for that she was thankful. But something about his injuries nagged at her, and she wasn’t sure why.

  Drew rose and came to where she stood by the stairs.

  “I didn’t want to ask you in front of Levi,” he murmured, “but I need to know. How bad is it?”

  “It was a simple fracture,” Catherine assured him. “From the lack of swelling, I’d say nothing was damaged internally, and externally, as you saw, he’s fine.”

  Drew nodded, but she wasn’t sure he accepted her explanation.

  “I know from experience as well as education,” she told him. “I’ve seen someone fall out of a tree before.”

  His eyes widened.

  “Oh, he wasn’t up as high as Levi, I’m sure,” she said with a smile. “But my brother, Nathan, climbed a sycamore in our yard once, going after a wayward kite. He managed to free the kite, but he lost his balance on the way down and tumbled out.” She shook her head, remembering.

  “Did he break anything?” Drew asked, watching her as if the story had given him hope.

  “No, but you should have seen his face and hands. Scratches everywhere! One took stitching up. Oh!” She stared at Levi.

  Drew had stiffened at her explanation. “Forgive me. I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”

  “It’s not that.” Catherine shook her head to clear it as Levi ducked under James’s hand to avoid his brother’s teasing. “I’ve been trying to determine why your brother’s injuries trouble me, and I think I know why.” She turned to Drew. “There isn’t a scratch on him.”

  Drew frowned, glancing between her and Levi. “He looks pretty beat up to me.”

  “He is, but that’s my point. Falling through a tree, you don’t generally think to protect your face, and if you did, the backs of your hands would bear the brunt of the damage. Levi’s face and hands are clear.”

  “Perhaps he hit his chest instead. He coughed blood. Did he break a rib?”

  Catherine shook her head. “He isn’t any more sore there than anywhere else. And the blood in his mouth came from a split lip.”

  Drew cocked his head. “There’s that bruise around his eye.”

  “Indeed,” Catherine replied. She glanced at Drew. “Exactly as if someone had struck him.”

  Drew’s shoulders tightened, raising him higher above her. “You think someone beat him? Broke his leg?”

  She knew it sounded far-fetched. Why would anyone be so cruel? Besides, Levi had confessed to climbing the tree. Yet she also had had suspicions about Scout. Could the two have been fighting?

  “I don’t know,” Catherine admitted. “But I’d talk to him about the matter if I were you.”

  He growled something under his breath about that being his life’s work, and she thought it best not to ask him to repeat himself.

  Beth hopped up just then and hurried toward the back room and the stove. A moment later, she was in the doorway, beckoning John to help. Simon came in the door and set down his rifle before wandering over to Catherine and Drew. She thought he might ask about his brother’s situation, but instead he pulled a little leather-bound book from his coat pocket.

  “My father was partial to poetry, Miss Stanway,” he said, offering the book to her with a smile that didn’t quite light his green eyes. “I wonder, would you be willing to join me in a reading for the family tonight?”

  She glanced at the title, picked out in worn gold on the slim volume: The Courtship of Miles Standish. “My father was partial to Longfellow as well, Mr. Wallin. I’d be delighted to help.”

  “Please,” he said, eyes lighting at last, “call me Simon. It’s far too confusing to have all of us be Mr. Wallin.”

  Drew shifted beside her, calling her attention to the difference b
etween him and his brother. Though Simon was a match for him in height, Drew’s younger brother was more slender, a willow to Drew’s cedar.

  “Very well,” Catherine said. “Is there a particular part you’d like us to read tonight?”

  “Try page thirty-three,” Simon said. With a nod to Drew, he strolled back to Levi’s side.

  “Poetry,” Drew muttered under his breath, as if the very idea was ridiculous.

  Catherine frowned at him. “Do you have something against lyrical language, Mr. Wallin?”

  He shook himself. “Forgive me, Catherine. This argument is between Simon and me. We both have the same goal, to keep this family safe. We just disagree on how to go about it. If you’ll excuse me, I need to go check that the barn is closed up properly.”

  Catherine nodded, and he strode out the door without another look to his brother. She couldn’t help noticing, however, that Simon watched him go.

  Curious, she opened the book’s well-worn pages to the section Simon had indicated. The Pilgrim hero John Alden had just called upon the lovely Miss Priscilla Mullins on behalf of the colony leader, Miles Standish, and the young lady was protesting that if Mr. Standish was too busy to court her, he was likely too busy to be married to her. This was what Drew’s brother wanted her to read?

  “Excuse me, Miss Stanway.” She looked up to find that John had finished helping Beth and stood beside Catherine. She snapped the book shut and met his gaze.

  “Yes, Mr. Wallin? What did you need?”

  “Perhaps you could call me John,” he said with a soft smile. The closest in age to Levi, she could see that he resembled his mother the most, for his straight, thick, neatly cut hair was a reddish-gold, and his eyes were the greenest of all the brothers. “I merely wanted to thank you for your excellent work on Levi’s leg. I’ve always been fascinated by the human body’s ability to heal after great trauma. Is there some secret to how you treat a break like that?”

  He looked so earnest, eyes intent on her face, wiry body poised forward, that Catherine found herself prosing on about fractures and sutures and dressings. He asked probing questions, offered suggestions from things he’d read and praised her knowledge so much that she was in an uncommonly good mood when Beth called them all to dinner.