Rayne’s smile grew bigger when she saw the excitement and happiness in Lisbet’s eyes.
“Rayne! What’s all this? Did you get these for me?” she asked. Her voice held excitement along with a little fear.
Rayne laughed loudly at Lisbet’s question. “Do I look like the type to knit?”
Lisbet laughed as well. She ran and jumped, wrapping her arms around Rayne’s neck.
Rayne’s arms went around Lisbet as she caught her and held her in a close hug.
“Thank you, thank you, Rayne.”
A few seconds later, Rayne put Lisbet down. “Come on. Let’s finish putting all this stuff away.” Rayne watched with twinkling eyes in anticipation of Lisbet’s reaction to the material and sewing items she had bought for her. She didn’t have to wait long as the next package Lisbet reached for and opened contained the fabric, thread, and needles.
Lisbet again looked at Rayne with eyes that held surprise and wonderment, joy and happiness, her smile made Lisbet look even younger than she was. “I figured you’d say no to having Ellie make a couple of dresses for you. So, I thought since you said you like sewing that I’d buy the items you needed and well…you could make a dress.”
Tears appeared in Lisbet’s eyes. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
“Just seeing your smile is thanks enough,” Rayne replied. She continued un-wrapping the packages and placed the items in their proper place. “Think we should start supper? Wanna peel some potatoes while I cut up some more venison? I think stew sounds good.”
“That sounds wonderful.” Lisbet took the sewing and knitting materials into the living area and placed the items on the chair. She then walked into the kitchen to help with dinner.
Rayne walked in with the meat and saw Lisbet grab a few potatoes, carrots, onion, and begin peeling and slicing them. Rayne started cutting up the meat into chunks.
“Rayne, why does Dobson hate you so much? It can’t be simply because you prefer women to men,”
The question surprised Rayne. “Yeah, it can be that simple. I never done that man any wrong. I see him in the street, I even go out of my way to avoid him, so only thing I can assume is that,” Rayne answered.
“Well, he’s wrong. Person can’t help but love who they love and want who they want.”
“I suppose. I should have found this out sooner, but…you don’t have an issue with my…well, with the fact that Em and I were together like, you know, a real married couple, do you?”
“Not at all, I suppose that’s something you don’t hear very often, is it,”
“Nope, suppose it’s a question you don’t get asked a lot either,”
With a grin Lisbet cocked her head. “Well, no, it isn’t, and as far as my answer, you know I figure God made us the way we are and he loves us no matter who we love or what we are. I know my ma wasn’t any kind of mother to me but God loved her no matter what.”
After dinner, Rayne went to her chair, sat down, and started reading her bible.
Lisbet followed and sat in her rocker then watched Rayne for a minute before picking up the knitting needles and yarn. She started working the needles with the yarn for the first row…of what, she didn’t know.
Within a few minutes, the house fell into a comfortable silence and Lisbet relaxed. For the past couple of weeks they had fallen into the habit of eating supper then sitting in the rockers reading. Tonight was different, thanks to Rayne’s kindness. Looking at the yarn, she decided she could pay Rayne back for everything she’d done for her since she came to the live there by knitting her a blanket. “Would you like me to knit you a blanket you could use over your lap when you read on cold evenings?
Rayne looked up from her book and smiled at Lisbet. “Yes, I would like that very much as long as you knit a matching one for yourself.”
A warm feeling washed over Lisbet and she found herself lost in Rayne’s smile. “I should have enough yarn for a second one.”
When Rayne nodded and returned to her book, Lisbet smiled and began to knit.
Rayne watched Lisbet from over the top of her book, and decided as she turned the page she had read three times already, that she needed to let her know how glad she was that she came to live with her. She could still see some of Emma in Lisbet but that was fading and she began to think of her as who she was—a beautiful, warm, and loving woman.
Thinking about how to go about saying what she needed to, she heard Emma speaking softly in her ear. Just open your mouth and say it. Rayne turned swiftly swearing she felt a warm breath in her ear—yet no one was there.
God, I’m losing my mind.
No you aren’t, now just tell her, the voice said.
Rayne cleared her throat. “Um. Lisbet?”
Lisbet looked up and smiled. “Yes.”
“I don’t think I’ve properly told you that I am glad you are living here with me.”
“And I haven’t told you how grateful I am that it was your saddlebags I was pilfering” Lisbet smiled then looked away. “In all my life no one has ever treated me as kindly as you have, Rayne.”
“I was becoming a crotchety old woman who was drowning in my sorrow. You changed that and I am grateful that you are here, and on that note I think I’ll head to bed. It’s gonna be an early morning.”
†
Lisbet felt Rayne’s movement against her and brought her eyes open. A heavy arm was around her waist—she felt safe, secure, and warm. She snuggled into Rayne and felt the woman pull her closer. When Rayne moved as though she were waking, Lisbet knew she would be uncomfortable with her position and pretended to be asleep.
Slowly the awareness of a firm hard body against her worked its way into Rayne’s brain. The shock caused her eyes to fly open.
Oh, shit why did I do that? What will she think? I can’t believe I’m holding her like this…I have to admit it feels wonderful.
Rayne slowly moved her arm and swung her feet over the edge of the bed as carefully as she could—waking Lisbet was the last thing she wanted to do.
If I looked her in the eye, I know I’d blush, and then she’d start wondering why.
Lisbet, as if just waking up, stretched before she looked over at Rayne, who was sitting on the edge of the bed. “Good morning! Let me get you some breakfast and coffee before you leave, okay”?
“I’m sorry if I woke you, Lisbet. I was trying to be quiet.” She did not look around and concentrated on pulling her boots from under the bed.
“Don’t be silly. This is the time I usually get up. Didn’t you hear that rooster crowing? I’ll see to your breakfast.” Lisbet got up, slipped her dress on, and went out of the bedroom.
Rayne turned slightly and kept her eyes fixed on Lisbet’s back as she dressed and immediately looked away when she turned to leave the room. Feelings that she hadn’t experienced in five years flooded her mind. Unlike the girls at the saloon, Lisbet had found a way into Rayne’s heart and that both scared and thrilled her. She shook her head. “What’s come over me?”
I think you know that answer already, sweetheart.
“Emma, you came back.”
I’ve never left. Lisbet is just who you need in your heart, my love. You’ve let her into your heart and that means you are beginning to live again.”
“You mean live without you.”
I mean you need a new beginning and Lisbet is where you start.”
“But, Em…,” Rayne began only to realize that Emma was gone. She heard Lisbet humming in the kitchen and smiled.
A few minutes later, Rayne walked out of the bedroom and smiled as she saw Lisbet in the kitchen cooking breakfast. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. I’m going to go saddle Samson. Can you put the bacon on some biscuits so I can eat while I’m riding? The sooner, I leave, the sooner I will get back.”
“Yes, I can do that. I’ll have it ready when you get back in.”
“Thank you.” Rayne walked out the door to feed the animals and saddle her horse. When she slung the saddle over Samso
n, a warm feeling swept through her body when she remembered the feeling of Lisbet’s body close to hers.
She shook her head. “It sure felt good. Come on boy; let’s see what she has for me.”
She walked Samson to the front of the house and tethered him to the railing of the porch. She walked in to smell the coffee and the bacon and immediately her stomach growled.
Lisbet smiled and handed Rayne a biscuit to eat with her coffee.
“Take this with you. You have another two for breakfast, and I put four more for your lunch. Your canteen has coffee in it so be careful that you don’t burn yourself when you drink out of it. Make sure you wear your scarf too…it looks cold out there. Are you going to be warm enough?”
As Lisbet went on and on with all the questions and the orders, Rayne’s face held a growing smile. “Thank you, I will, I will, it is, and probably not, but nothing I can do about it, two pairs of long johns and my clothes, plus my heavy duster will have to keep me warm. But, I’m glad you’re here to make sure the home fire keeps burning so I’ll be warm when I do get home. The animals have been fed and I’ll get them again when I get home. Stay in the house. Here, it’s loaded so don’t point it unless you intend to use it. All you have to do is point, pull the hammer back, and pull the trigger. Okay?” Rayne handed Lisbet her one of her Colt .45 Peacekeepers.
“Rayne, I don’t know how to use that. And even if I did, I don’t like them.”
“I just told you how to use it. Just humor me please.”
“All right, but nothing is going to happen so that I’ll need it.” Lisbet took the heavy gun, holding it like it was a distasteful animal she had to hold by the tail.
Rayne smiled. “Thank you.” She opened the door and before she closed it she turned to look at Lisbet. “I won’t be a minute longer than I have to.”
She touched the brim of her hat and smiled. “Keep the door locked okay?”
After Lisbet nodded she closed the door and walk toward Samson. “Ya,” she cried as she and the horse took off in a fast gallop.
Chapter Eight
The late afternoon sun was hanging low when the figure on horseback road up to the house. Thinking it was Rayne, Lisbet gave no thought to what Rayne told her about staying in the house. After all, it was about the time she expected Rayne to arrive back at the ranch and she had spent the past hour looking and listening for Rayne’s return. She rushed to the door, flung it open, and was down the steps in a flash only to stop short when she saw the red-headed deputy.
“Well, hey there. Look at what we have here.”
Dobson spit tobacco juice out onto the white snow that covered the ground. “You alone here, missy? Yeah, you must be by the way you came running out of the house. Waiting for that bitch, were ya?”
Lisbet clutched her dress, knowing that she needed to think fast. “No. Rayne is out back and she’ll be here in a minute,” Lisbet said. “I thought you were the lawyer, Mark Benton, who said he’d stop by for supper.”
The deputy laughed. “No, you ain’t waitin’ for no one, especially since I saw him in town with his wife goin’ into Bessie’s place. Even if he were, you wouldn’t have come flyin’ outta there like the building was on fire. In fact, I seriously doubt she woulda let you come out at all. You was waitin’ for the cunt.” Dobson slid off his horse.
Lisbet took the opportunity to run to the step and was just about in the door when he caught her.
“Where ya goin’? You ain’t being very hospitable now, are ya? I think that maybe someone needs to teach you some manners. Teach you how to respect a man. Now see, I think that’s your entire problem. Ya ain’t got anyone to teach ya what a man expects. What do you get from that bitch anyways? Seems to me she is missin’ the proper equipment.”
Dobson laughed at his own crude joke. “Oh, hell, it don’t matter. I’m about to teach you all you need to know.”
He snickered as he pushed her into the house, then into the bedroom with his hand tight on her arm all the way. He pushed her toward the bed.
He stood at the bedroom door staring at her with a dark look and a sneer as his hands worked the buckle of his gun belt. He let it drop to the floor—the thud echoed throughout the house.
Lisbet stood frozen. Her mind screamed for her to run but her legs had turned to lead and her body wouldn’t obey.
He approached her with his hands on the buttons of his pants, undoing them one by one. When he got within a foot of her, she screamed and swung her hand at him. Her blow barely grazed his face. His slap however connected. She felt the back of his hand strike her right cheek and she fell back on to the bed.
†
Rayne stood near the creek rubbing the back of her neck while Samson drank from the cold water. Something didn’t feel right to her. It was nothing she could put her finger on, only a nagging gnawing in the pit of her stomach. Just relax. She tugged on the big bay and, put her left foot in the stirrup and swung her right leg over the saddle. “Tsk, come on, Samson, let’s go and check on that little bunch over there. Maybe we got some more babies, what do you think?” Samson started out at a trot toward the end of the canyon.
Rayne pulled Samson to a halt when she heard Emma’s voice. You need to get back to the house now, the cattle will be fine.
“I’m almost done and nothing is happening at the ranch that Lisbet can’t handle,”
Rayne, stop behaving as if you know everything, I’m telling you now, get back or it won’t be good.
Rayne was about to urge Samson on when she realized what Emma said. A sudden, all-consuming panic settled in and with a quick whistle, she turned Samson and kicked him into a solid run.
†
He descended on her in a flash, his hand pushing the hem of her dress up and pulling at her under garments. That’s as far as he got before he felt hands pulling him off Lisbet and throwing him across the room. For a minute, his fear was that that son of a bitch Kennedy had followed him or that the lame lawyer story was true. As soon as he was on his feet again and had turned around, his face grew red with hatred when he saw that the hands that threw him off the blonde belonged to another woman.
“Oh, good, I can teach ya both a lesson.” He swung at Rayne.
Rayne, worried about Lisbet, had her eyes on the woman lying on the bed. She didn’t see Dobson’s fist coming at her before it connected with her jaw sending her flying into the chair that Emma’s ghost had sat in and into the wall behind it.
The deputy dove for his gun belt. “You bitch, I’m gonna kill you then show the little blonde what a man can do. I’ll make her forget all about your filthy kind.” His mistake was talking when he should have been paying attention to the woman with the gun.
Rayne pulled her gun and fired as soon as she righted herself. The bullet hit Dobson on the left side of his chest, with enough force to make him fall where he stood. Rayne was on her feet and at Lisbet’s side in a heartbeat. Her arms went around the trembling woman, holding her close. “Shhh, it’s over. It’s okay. I gotcha, baby. You’re safe now, I promise you.”
Rayne helped Lisbet to her feet, her arms tightly around Lisbet, who was trembling and crying. As she picked her up, and walked out of the bedroom, she noticed that her eye was rapidly swelling shut. “Bastard.”
Lisbet buried her face in Rayne’s neck, closing her eyes as she stepped over the dead man.
Rayne felt Lisbet stiffen. “You’re safe,” she whispered.
Lisbet tightened her arms around Rayne’s neck.
Samson stood at the foot of the porch with reigns hanging loose to the ground. Rayne gently placed Lisbet on the massive animal before rushing back into the house for a coat and blanket with which to cover Lisbet. As soon as she had the coat and blanket around Lisbet’s shoulders, she jumped on Samson and spurred him to a run toward town.
†
“You seen Dobson?” the sheriff asked his other deputy, Sam Marshall.
Sam sat at the desk with his boots propped up, going over some wanted posters
that had arrived earlier in the day. “Nope, not for least an hour and a half. Last I seen, he was headed southeast, toward the Mathew’s place.”
“And you didn’t stop him?” Tom asked.
“No. Why should I?”
“Maybe because there’s some issue with Dobson and Rayne. Maybe, because Rayne dropped him to his knees in front of a full dining room yesterday?” The sheriff headed for the door.
“Aw, hell, I didn’t know that. I just got back about two hours ago from transporting McAllister to the marshal’s office. Remember? Had I known that, I woulda stopped him.” The deputy swung his feet off the desk, grabbed his coat, and was out the door following the sheriff.
Tom was just stepping into a stirrup of his horse when he heard galloping pounding the ground behind him. He turned to see Rayne, with Lisbet in her arms, pull her horse to a stop. He could see the cold as ice look in Rayne’s eyes and Lisbet, who she held close, didn’t look good at all.
“Oh, shit! Sam, get out to Rayne’s place now! I’ll be out soon as I can,” Tom yelled. He ran to Rayne’s horse and reached up to take Lisbet in his arms. Without a word he swiftly carried her to Doc Adam’s office.
“Doc, I need you,” Tom said as his boot connected with the partially closed door. The doctor came out from the back room and as soon as he saw Tom and the woman in his arms, he shouted for his nurse. “Annie, get out here.” He looked at Tom and motioned for him to follow him into the back room. “Come with me.”
Rayne followed close behind them.
“What happened, Rayne?” the doctor asked. “Put her down here, Sheriff.” He nodded to a table and began tending to Lisbet.
“Dobson happened. I walked in to find him….” Rayne paused and her fingers curled into a fist. “He was forcing himself on her.” Rayne looked at Tom with eyes as cold as he’d ever seen them.
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