Bittner, Rosanne

by Wildest Dreams

  His life spilled into her, and he breathed deeply for a few minutes before buttoning his long johns and relaxing beside her. He pulled the blankets over them again. "Let's not get up just yet." He groaned, kissing her neck. "I just want to hold you, Lettie. I want to stay just like this."

  Lettie nestled into his shoulder, the sweet comfort of his strong arms bringing on a much-needed sleep. When she awoke, she was surprised to realize that Luke was gone from the bed. When she sat up she saw that Nathan, too, was gone. A pot of fresh coffee sat simmering on the stove, and although she couldn't see the light of day because of the barrier of wood and snow in front of the cabin's only window, she realized it must be morning.

  She quickly rose and washed, surprised that she had slept through Luke's activity. She felt wonderful, relaxed, more at ease than she had in weeks. It was amazing what one night of spilling one's feelings and making love could do for a person. She combed her hair and twisted it into a bun, put on a clean dress. Today, finishing the ironing didn't seem like such a terrible chore. She took down most of the clothes. It occurred to her that something was different, but she couldn't figure out just what it was.

  The door opened then, and Luke came inside carrying Nathan, who clung to his horse. "Well, Mommy is finally awake!" Luke exclaimed. He set Nathan down and the boy ran to her. Lettie picked him up and gave him a hug and a kiss.

  "Mommy, shine!" he told her, pointing toward the door.

  Lettie frowned. "Shine?"

  "Come on outside. Nathan and I have something to show you," Luke answered.

  "Don't you two want breakfast?"

  "It will only take a few minutes." Luke threw her heavy shawl to her and took Nathan back into his own arms.

  When Lettie had put on the shawl, she followed them both outside. She realized when they got into the tunnel of snow that above it was a clear, blue sky. "Sunshine!" she exclaimed.

  "That's what Nathan was trying to tell you," Luke answered. He climbed up a stairway of snow that he had dug from the tunnel so that a person could stand on top of it. He plunked Nathan on top, and the boy fell giggling into the snow. Luke took Lettie's hand and helped her up.

  Lettie smiled in startled pleasure, realizing they were standing as high as the roof of the cabin. Glorious sunshine lit up the land for miles around, snow-capped mountains, sprinkled with the deep green of pine trees. Everything sparkled, and there was actually some warmth to the sunshine. "Oh, Luke, isn't it beautiful!"

  "You see all that?" He waved his arm. "It's all going to be ours, Lettie. Someday I'll own this land for as far as you can see, and right down there in the valley is where our home will be, a big house, two, maybe three stories, lots of rooms for all the kids, lots of land for all the cattle. You've got to admit it's damn pretty."

  "Oh, Luke." She turned in all directions. "Why didn't we think of climbing up here to see everything before? We've stayed buried in the cabin, making our way through tunnels like moles, when we could have been climbing up top and enjoying this wonderful freedom."

  "This is the first nice day we've had since the snows started coming. And we've been so busy—" He put his arms around her from behind. "There's something else different. Do you realize what it is?"

  She shook her head, puzzled, remembering that she had sensed something different as soon as she awakened.

  "Listen, Lettie. Just listen."

  She stood still, listening for a sound, then realized there was no sound. The air was utterly still, so quiet it almost hurt her ears. "No wind!" she said softly. "There's no wind!" She walked through soft snow that glittered like a fairyland, her feet sinking in some places, so that finally she just sat down in the snow and listened... to nothing... a glorious, wonderful quiet that brought tears to her eyes.

  She looked back at Luke, her rock. He had remained calm through her fit of nerves last night, when he could have shouted right back at her. "Thank you, Luke." She threw her head back and breathed deeply. "For bringing me out here."

  "Spring is just around the corner, Lettie."

  She nodded. "Yes, it surely is."

  CHAPTER 7

  Lettie took another blanket from the clothesline Luke had strung up for her outside. Spring had come just as suddenly as winter had, rapidly melting the snow through the month of April, at least in these lower elevations and in the valley even farther below, which at the moment was so full of water that part of it had turned into a small lake. Not too far from the cabin water rushed down from a mountain above, fresh, cold water. One simply needed to walk to the rocks where the waterfall was and hold the bucket under it. Luke was afraid the plentiful water would disappear or at least dwindle to a trickle in summer, but for now it was a godsend. All winter they had gotten their water by melting snow, or by bashing through the ice of a distant stream, a stream which now was more like a river.

  It seemed Luke had spent most of his time through the winter hauling water and doing other chores to feed and protect the animals, as well as for his own family. Now the animals could be turned loose to graze, and they could drink all the water they wanted out of the stream. She could do her wash outside and hang her clothes in the fresh air; and they had stored more water in barrels left behind by whoever had lived here before them.

  She had ached for the warm sunshine, and now it was here.

  They had also been hit with two fierce and frightening thunderstorms. If their little shanty had been built a few yards to the left, it would have been completely washed away by the now-torrential creek; a few yards to the right, and it would have been enveloped and destroyed in an avalanche that had come roaring down from the mountains above only three weeks ago. The snow it had carried was mostly melted now, but from what they could tell when they inspected it, the swath of snow that had come down with it was several hundred feet wide. God had surely been with them, saving them from both flooding and from being buried alive.

  She felt the life kicking inside of her. Six months pregnant, she was still not terribly big, but big enough for her condition to be obvious. It embarrassed her for Luke to see her naked, but he insisted she was more beautiful than ever because it was his baby she carried, another son for Luke Fontaine, or so they both hoped. Her condition had not interrupted their lovemaking, and when she thought about how gentle the man she had married could be, she loved him all the more. That love only increased when she remembered Luke's promise that no matter how many children they had, Nathan would be loved just as much, treated the same as the others. Luke was a good father to him, a devoted husband; and he was slaving away to keep every promise he had made to her.

  She looked down the hill where he was working on the new cabin. He wanted it to be ready before the next winter. He was building it about two hundred yards below on a flat piece of land that was still higher than the valley. The spot would have a grand view of the foothills and mountains beyond the valley, and the area was big enough to build an even bigger home later. Luke had been careful to make sure it was an area unaffected by spring melt off, high enough that the floodwaters in the valley below could not reach it. It was a perfect site, and now Lettie was glad no one else had yet claimed this land.

  As soon as he felt the road was passable, Luke intended to bring in some help to dig a well and build a windmill, finish the cabin, and build a barn. Lettie was worried he would work himself to death, as well as spend every last dime he had brought with him, but he was determined that by next winter life would be a little easier. As soon as he could get someone to stay there with her so he could leave for a few days, he intended to ride out and determine the boundaries of land he wanted to claim. Just how much he could claim legally, she wasn't sure, but he intended to get his hands on as much as possible, one way or another. She had decided she would not question the how of it. Owning it meant everything to him, and he was working so hard to make life better for her that she didn't have the heart to argue with him over how he would lay claim to all that he wanted when the Homestead Act allowed a man to settl
e on only 160 acres. "No man can ranch on a little piece of land like that," he had complained. "Hell, there's more than one hundred sixty acres in the valley alone."

  She folded the blanket and put it in a basket, then smiled when Nathan came running to her with some little blue flowers in his fist. He held them up to her with a proud smile. "For Mommy," he told her.

  "Oh, thank you, Nathan," she told him, leaning down to take the flowers and kiss his cheek. She thanked God every day for his sweet nature. If he had not been such an easy child, she wasn't sure she could have survived the winter being cooped up in the tiny cabin, but the boy had seemed totally unaffected by the confinement. He was almost three now, his hair turning just a little bit darker blond, his eyes a pretty blue. She stuck the flowers into the bodice of her dress, between two buttons, then turned to take down a little more wash.

  It was then she saw them coming, several riders and a herd of horses. Her smile faded as alarm set in. Could they be the outlaws Will and others had warned them about? Luke was leading one of the mules toward a pile of logs he was cutting and gathering for the new cabin. She was sure he didn't see the riders' approach, and she called his name as loudly as she could. Luckily the wind was behind her, and it carried her voice. When he looked up, she pointed across the valley. As soon as he saw what she was pointing at, he grabbed his rifle and headed up the hill toward the cabin.

  "Get Nathan inside!" he yelled. She could barely make out the words. She picked up Nathan and ran into the cabin. Minutes later Luke got there, panting. He closed and bolted the door. "Get the other rifle down and make sure it's loaded!" he ordered. "Get the ammunition out here where it's handy, and get my handgun, too."

  Lettie obeyed without question, her heart pounding with fear. She ordered Nathan into a corner, telling him it was a game and it was very important that he stay there. "Do you think it's outlaws?" she asked Luke.

  "Who else would be heading here with a herd of horses?" He cocked the rifle. "Let's just hope they'll deal with us. I'm glad now that those bales of hay are still stacked around the cabin. They're still wet from the spring melt. They'll keep bullets from crashing through these thin cabin walls if those men out there decide to start shooting."

  Lettie almost laughed at the remark. She had been after Luke to get rid of the hay bales because they were starting to smell, but now she was glad they were still there. She cocked the second rifle and knelt at the small window, which was hinged. She pushed it open and pointed a rifle through it. The wood that had been stacked outside the window had been used up to the point that it was below the window now, so she had a good view of the front of the cabin. No one could approach from behind because the little building was set against the side of a hill, and there were no other windows.

  Luke strapped on his handgun, then checked to be sure his repeating rifle was fully loaded.

  "Hey, somebody's buildin' a cabin down there!" someone shouted in the distance. "Looks like somebody's been livin' here, Cade!"

  "Two riders are coming," Lettie told Luke. Her stomach tightened into a knot when Luke unbolted the door.

  "Be ready to bolt this again if something happens to me," he warned her. He stepped outside and closed the door as two men arrived at the front of the house. They drew up their horses, looking surprised. Neither of them was cleanshaven, nor were their clothes clean. They looked well armed. Lettie shivered at the realization of how outnumbered Luke was. She felt suddenly naked, exposed to the lawlessness of this land, where the only code was survival of the fittest... or maybe the meanest.

  "Well, well, what do we have here?" one of the men spoke up, a thin cigar between his teeth as he spoke. "Trespassers."

  "You're the ones trespassing," she heard Luke answer. "This is Fontaine property now, all legal under the Homestead Act."

  Lettie felt cold perspiration under her dress in spite of the warm afternoon. She gripped her own rifle tightly, watching both men carefully. She had never shot anyone in her life, never even imagined such a thing; but if they tried to hurt Luke, or Nathan...

  "Who the hell do you think you are, mister, takin' over another man's cabin?" the one with the cigar asked.

  "This place was deserted when we got here last fall, and I checked in Billings. Nobody had laid legal claim to this land, but now I have, so you boys can just ride on and take your stolen horses with you."

  The man with the cigar just grinned. "Who says they're stolen?"

  "I might be new out here, mister, but I'm no fool. Now get going, and I won't say anything about you having been here."

  Now the apparent spokesman for the rest of them laughed. "Who would you tell, anyway? Ain't no law out here, mister, which means we can blow you to hell and nobody would ever know the difference. If I was you, I'd be a bit more friendly to your hosts. Hell, you been usin' our cabin all this time, squattin' on our land."

  "I told you, it's not your land anymore; never was."

  Two more riders came up behind the first two men. Lettie hoped she wouldn't faint from terror. They were just as unkempt and dangerous looking as the others. She tried to remember how many she had seen coming. Six? Eight? How would they ever get out of this?

  "I mean business," Luke told the outlaw. "I'm giving you ten seconds to get off my property!"

  The man just shook his head, glancing over at the clothesline. He rubbed at his stubby chin, turned to look back at the other three men. "We got us an irate homesteader here, boys." They all laughed then, as though none believed Luke was brave enough to shoot at them.

  "I'm real scared, Cade," one of the others answered.

  The one called Cade looked back at Luke as he spoke. "I think he's got a woman in there, boys. Could be we could have us a real good time at the end of our journey here once we get rid of this bothersome varmint."

  Lettie felt sick at the remark. It was the first time in months that the memory of her rape was suddenly vivid. Never! She would never let that happen again, if she had to kill some of these men herself! Yes, she could do it, if it meant saving Luke and Nathan, and keeping these sorry examples of men from touching her!

  Luke in turn felt rage at the remark. Lettie was not going to suffer more horror at the hands of these men, even if he had to die to keep it from happening. "Your ten seconds are up," he told them, his voice cold. He knew instinctively there was no room here for compassion, nor for hesitation. It was just as Will and others had told him. Up here a man set his own laws, and his own punishment. He pulled the trigger of his repeater, and a hole opened up in Cade's chest. Before the other three could react, he fired again. A second man went down. At almost the same time he heard a gunshot from the window of the cabin. Lettie! A third man cried out and fell from his horse, wounded in the leg.

  The fourth man stared at Luke with eyes wide in surprise. "What the hell—" He went for his handgun, and Luke fired again. A bloody hole appeared in the man's shoulder, and he screamed with pain and dropped his gun. As he turned his horse and rode off, the man Lettie had wounded fired at Luke then, but missed. Luke turned on him and shot him in the face. He charged inside the cabin then, closing and bolting the door. "You all right?" he asked Lettie, a frantic tone to his voice.

  Their eyes held in mutual horror. "Yes," she said, the word coming out in a squeak.

  "I think there are three or four more. They'll probably come up here. We've got to be ready." He looked at her pregnant condition, aching at having to put her through this. "Try to stay calm. Let's not lose that baby over this."

  Lettie nodded, forcing herself not to collapse from fear, and from the knowledge that she had shot a man. She could hardly believe she had done it, but she'd had no choice. She heard the thundering hooves of several more horses then. "The rest are coming!" There was no time to wonder about the right and wrong of it now. There were loved ones to defend, and that was all there was to it.

  "Mommy," Nathan whimpered from the corner, shaking from the loud gunfire. He clung to his little horse, tears running down his cheek
s.

  "It's okay, Nathan," Luke assured him. "You stay right there." He leveled his rifle at the window as five more men appeared at the front of the house, one of them the one with the wounded shoulder. All of them had guns drawn. "I think this is all of them," Luke said quietly to Lettie. "No more warnings. There's no time for it. It's got to be done before they get around the sides of the house."

  Without a word he shot down two more of them before they could put forth any more arguments or threats. Horses reared and whinnied, and the other three hurriedly dismounted and clamored for cover, one behind a large boulder, the other two behind a wagon.

  For a brief moment there was nothing but silence. "What the hell is wrong with you, mister?" one of them shouted then. "We wouldn't have brought you no harm.

  Now come on out of there, or we'll just have to sit here till we starve you out!"

  Luke took careful aim, glad he had done a lot of practicing over the winter with his repeater. He caught sight of the leg of one man through the spokes of the wagon. It wasn't an easy shot, but if he aimed real carefully... He squeezed off a shot, and the man grabbed his knee and cried out with pain.

  "I'm gettin' the hell out of here!" another yelled. The one behind the rock held up his hands and slowly rose. It was the one with the wounded shoulder. "I'm leavin', mister. Let me go! I won't bring you no harm. Just let me go."