Ashes in the Wind

by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

  It was only a few moments later when a wagonload of men came careening around the road from the barn. At Braegar’s bidding, they lifted Cole into the bed of the wagon, taking care not to unduly jostle his leg. Even so, the effort cost Cole his grip on consciousness, and he fell into the black void of oblivion.

  “It’s just as well,” Braegar stated. “Let’s get him to the house before this frigid clime takes a further toll on his health.”

  Braegar and Alaina rode with Cole, while Olie and Saul simultaneously took to the wagon seat and the other hands returned on foot to the barn. When the wagon reached the house, the three men carried Cole to the upstairs bedroom. Miles fetched Braegar’s black bag with its full complement of ominous instruments, and while Annie set kettles of water boiling on the cookstove, Mrs. Garth collected several bottles of brandy and, as bade, left them beside the bed.

  Firmly, Braegar set Alaina from the room, bidding Saul to stay, for as the black had more of a knowledge of healing and medicinal cures than the others, the Irishman chose to enlist his aid.

  Alaina waited in her old bedroom, restlessly pacing the floor and anxiously twisting her hands as the moments dragged into an hour and an hour into an enternity. Dusk had begun to settle over the land before the bathing chamber door creaked open and Braegar came in with a piece of cloth folded in his hands.

  “It was a clean break and not difficult to set,” he stated.

  “But what took so long?” she questioned anxiously.

  Braegar turned the cloth in his hand and gave her a considered grin. “It just might be the best break that muleheaded ape has had since he married you.” He carefully unfolded the cloth and showed her a jagged, slightly curved strip of metal of a spotty blackish hue. “I took the initiative and found this after a bit of digging around. It was loosened by the break, and though I fear Cole will miss it, he’s probably better off without it.”

  “But will he be all right?” she pressed.

  Braegar pursed his lips and slowly nodded. “If he doesn’t take on an infection, the leg should be better than before.” He lifted a small brown vial from his bag and laid it in her hand. “This is laudanum. Just a small spoonful should do when the pain gets bad, or when he needs to sleep. I know he hates the stuff, but it will help him rest, and his leg needs that.”

  Alaina followed him down the stairs. “Will you come back tomorrow?”

  Braegar nodded again as he donned his hat and coat. “Of course. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. At last I have that skinny oaf just where I want him.”

  He noticed her puckered brow and laughed heartily. “He can’t kick me out, and he can’t get away. This time I’m going to have it out with him once and for all and find out just what is bothering him.”

  Alaina opened her mouth to warn him of the seriousness of Cole’s beliefs, but as Miles waited beside the door to let the doctor out, she refrained, not wishing to air personal matters before the servants, though she had great doubts whether too much escaped them.

  Alaina had no more than dozed off when a light stirring in the master bedroom brought her to full alertness. She slipped out of the bed in her old room and donned a pair of slippers against the chill of the cold floor before she made her way through the bathing chamber. Cole lay still in the bed, though the light of the flickering fire betrayed the fact that his eyes were open. She passed the bed and laid a fresh log on the fire, completely unaware in a fresh naive way of the figure she made as the firelight cast shadows through the light fabric of her gown. Even the pain in Cole’s leg could not quench the sudden rush of blood to his loins or the trip-hammer pounding in his chest.

  Fascinated with the way the gown puckered tauntingly over the cold tightened peaks of her bosom, he watched her in silence as she moved about the room. She paused beside the bed for a moment, soft sympathy shining in her eyes, then a shiver shook her body as the inescapable chill of the house crept through the gown. Cole reached out his arm and turned down the covers beside him, and Alaina gladly accepted the invitation. When she was snuggled closely against his side, she lay her head back against his arm to better observe his face. Her hand rested on his furry chest, and she was boldly aware of the deliberate thudding of his heart beneath it.

  “I love you,” she whispered and sighed. “Though I would have been the last to admit it, I think I loved you even before that night you took my virginity.”

  Cole raised his brows in amazement, silently questioning.

  “When you left New Orleans, I went dead inside,” she timidly admitted. “I thought I would never see you again.”

  “We shared the same loneliness then,” he murmured huskily.

  “You needn’t be afraid of Braegar, you know. I’ve never been interested in anyone but you.”

  His hand slid down the warm, smooth curve of her back. “I suppose you want me to thank him for mending my leg.”

  “It wouldn’t hurt.” She reached behind her to the table and, holding the piece of metal up in the firelight, displayed it for his benefit. “He thought you could do without this. He said the break loosened it, and he took it upon himself to remove it from your leg.”

  “He’s always had a mind of his own,” Cole commented laconically.

  “Strange, but he said much the same about you.” Alaina ran her fingers through the crisp mat of hair covering his chest. “Aren’t you glad that he removed it?”

  “I’ll be glad if nothing worse comes of it.”

  “And you will tell him you’re grateful?” she gently urged.

  “Perhaps.”

  “And you will tell him why you’re angry with him?”

  “I cannot do them both in the same day, madam. The one tweaks my pride and the other my ire.”

  “Try.” She kissed his lips lingeringly, flattening her breasts tightly against him until Cole’s thoughts could not move beyond the awareness of her taut, little nipples boring holes in his skin even through the cloth of her gown. He could only groan at this torture and kiss her fiercely, forgetting everything else, even the burning pain in his thigh.

  The sight of his wife moving about the bedroom in the lamp-lit predawn darkness as she renewed the fire, dressed, and combed her hair, which by now was long enough to reach well down her back, forming a rich, dark flowing mantle over her shoulders, was for Cole such a pleasurable experience that it left him both lusting and content. Before she went downstairs to set the house astir, Alaina bent to brush a kiss upon his lips, and Cole had only just begun to miss her cheery presence when she returned, bearing a tray laden with his breakfast. Once the tray was in place across his lap, she perched cross-legged on the bed beside him and helped herself to samples of his meal. Her dancing eyes and quick smile made his morning sublime.

  After she removed the tray, Alaina was gone for some time, while Cole pored over a long ignored stack of medical publications. He was engrossed in acquainting himself with new techniques when, from the corner of his eye, he caught a movement at the door and raised his gaze to find Alaina framed in the portal, her hands folded and an odd look of barely contained expectation on her face. She spoke no word, but stood aside to let another enter.

  “Good morning, Doctor Latimer!” Braegar Darvey’s booming voice suddenly filled the room.

  “It was good for a little while anyway,” Cole muttered only half under his breath. and caught Alaina’s quick, sidelong glance. He hauled himself upright as much as the cumbersome splint would permit and accepted his wife’s assistance as she tucked several pillows behind his back.

  Braegar seemed unusually lighthearted as he strolled across the room. Leaving his black bag in a chair, he stepped before the fireplace to warm his front side, then turned to give the other side a fair share of the heat. Hunching his shoulders, he peered at Cole. Lifting his coattails, he asked cheerfully, “And how is my distinguished patient this bright morn?”

  “I fear that my temper has taken a decided turn for the worse,” Cole mumbled, avoiding his wife’s gaze.

/>   “Aye, lad, and there lies the root of it.” Braegar made a show of swinging a chair to face his patient, well out of reach of course, and placing a footstool in front of it before settling himself within it. “It sets heavily on my mind that I have been the one to bring the brumes upon ye much of late. It seems only right to me, since the good Lord has seen fit to remove the aggravatin’ steel from your leg, that I should do my best to remove the aggravation that stands between us.”

  “And that’s to be the way of it then?” Cole ground out.

  Braegar nodded and, pulling out a pipe, began to tamp tobacco into the generous bowl. He was apparently waiting for his host to begin.

  Cole caught Alaina’s hand. “My love, will you have Annie send us up some coffee and perhaps a bit of brandy to add to it.” If he lost his temper with the man again, he didn’t want her witness to it.

  “I’ve already told Mrs. Garth to bring up coffee and cakes, and there’s brandy here beside the bed,” she answered sweetly.

  “Then perhaps you have something which would better occupy your time,” he urged. “This will probably be nothing more than a long, dry discussion.”

  “I have nothing at all pressing,” she assured him in a most charming guise of innocence. “And I’d much rather stay here with you.”

  Braegar chuckled past his pipe. “Well, doctor, you may as well set your mind on having it out since you cannot leave and neither of us is likely to.”

  Cole folded his arms and leaned back with a stubborn frown growing on his face. “Then I choose to maintain my silence.”

  “I came here to have this out once and for all,” Braegar insisted. “We may discuss whatever you wish, but unless I am satisfied, I will be here tomorrow, and the day after, and however long it takes for you to get to the point.”

  “Dammit, man!” Cole’s ire rose again. “Do you expect me to discuss the details of your reputation in mixed company?”

  “My reputation, as you well know, Cole, is much a matter of gossip and wishful dreaming.” Braegar relit his pipe, and wreaths of fragrant smoke billowed about his head as he pulled on it.

  “It’s not as much a matter of reputation as it is of pure ethics. I can forgive you for betraying my friendship and having an affair with Roberta, but sending her to a sleazy midwife when she came with child, it was a cheap thing for you to do.”

  Braegar strangled and coughed into his pipe, then had to hastily wipe at the shower of sparks that descended on his trousers. When the danger was past, his attention returned to Cole, and his surprise was blatant in his expression. “Roberta?” he managed to choke out. “And me?”

  “She said as much,” Cole stated. “On her deathbed she swore you were the father.”

  “A bloody lie!” Braegar protested adamantly. “Roberta did make advances toward me, probably because she wanted to hurt you, but I swear, Cole, that I had no time for the woman, and I made no secret of the fact. I put her out of my office on two occasions and earned her everlasting hatred for it.” He set the pipe aside and leaned his elbows on his knees. “She could hardly have come to me for the care you suggest, for she knew I would have no part of it, even if the child had been mine.”

  “Cole,” Alaina’s voice was soft and pleading. “I believe him. You know yourself that Roberta was capable of lying—even on her deathbed. If she found my photograph in the cottage, she might have used this form of revenge.”

  “Vengeance is a cruel, driving master,” Braegar commented wryly.

  Cole’s anger was gone. “You’re right about Roberta. She never gave herself unless she had a purpose. As much as I have been blind to the fact until now, she never seemed greatly tolerant of Braegar—or of me, for that matter.”

  “But if neither of you were the father,” Alaina mused aloud, “then who might it have been?”

  “There you have a complete freedom of choice, my love,” Cole responded. “I have not a ken as to the man’s name and will probably never know now.”

  “It doesn’t really matter anyway now that you know Braegar wasn’t the one.” Alaina caressed her husband’s arm and gazed down at him expectantly. “Wasn’t there something else you wanted to discuss with Braegar, my love?”

  Cole crinkled his brows at her, realizing how effortlessly she was maneuvering him. The fact that he didn’t mind and was more interested in the memory of her breasts pressed warmly against his chest was a sure sign he was mellowing. He frowned in mock anger, not willing to let her see just how deftly she could handle him.

  “Alaina informs me that I should be indebted to you for taking the piece of metal from my leg.”

  Braegar shrugged. “I was curious. Saul told me that the metal had been embedded in the bone of your thigh and couldn’t be gotten out. But whenever I touched it, there was enough movement that I was sure it had been loosened. I took the chance of losing your friendship completely and made the small incision to see if I could remove it.”

  “You have a skillful hand, Doctor Darvey,” Cole remarked with sincerity. “I am barely conscious of any pain from the surgery. My own father could not have done better.”

  The Irishman blushed deeply with pleasure. It was no light compliment for Cole to make such a comparison, for he had held his father in great esteem.

  “The community could use another doctor if you’re of a mind to take up your practice again, Cole.”

  Eager to convince him of the need, Braegar entered into a vivid account of recent ailments and abnormalities, wounds and infections, asking Cole’s advice and soliciting his help. Both men were soon caught up in the discussion, and Alaina noticed the intent interest that came into her husband’s face. Braegar was much too descriptive for her tender ears and queazy constitution. The men hardly noticed as she slipped from the room, yet in the cool air of the hallway, she smiled to herself, confident that Cole would soon return to the occupation he loved the most.

  Gift giving began very early Christmas morn at the Latimer residence. Dawn had not fully lightened the heavens when Cole, fondly watching his wife sleep, leaned over her to wake her with a soft, tender kiss.

  “Merry Christmas, my love,” he breathed.

  Languidly she stretched and purred in contentment, snuggling close as he laid an arm around her. “And Merry Christmas to you, my darling,” she sighed sleepily.

  “I have a surprise for you. Would you like to guess what it might be?”

  “What more could I want when I have you and your baby growing inside me?” She nuzzled her nose against his throat. “What else could a woman possibly need?”

  Cole reached beneath his pillows and withdrew a packet of papers, which he handed her. Puzzled, Alaina searched his face with wide, questioning eyes.

  “How about a deed to Briar Hill?”

  Alaina gasped and scrambled to her knees in a fit of excitement, fumbling with the string that held the papers secure like a child tearing through the gay wrappings of a gift. At last she unfolded the parchments and eagerly read the words that claimed Alaina Latimer sole owner of the property.

  “Oh, Cole!” she sobbed with happy tears flowing unchecked down her cheeks. She flung her arms about his neck and embraced him fiercely, weeping with joy. “I thought it was lost to me forever. Thank you, my darling.”

  The never ending white of the northern land became drab as the bitter cold of late January continued. The dry brittle air parched the throat and drew the skin taut, and after a few minutes outside, fingers and toes ached and lips grew stiff. Thus, when on the evening of the fourth day of the second month, Cole announced that he would be leaving the next morning for the Prochavski’s farm up north, Alaina’s fears were not easily put to rest.

  “It is within a week of Gretchen’s time,” Cole explained, “and she’ll be less anxious about the birth if a doctor is with her. With any luck I should be back in less than a fortnight.”

  Alaina’s unanswering silence dragged on while her imagination formed a dozen or more visions of Cole caught in a blizzard with
a frosty mantling about his head. All the warnings he had issued in the cottage about the folly of journeying out in this wintry clime came back to haunt her.

  “I have left instructions as to your care, and either Olie or Saul will sleep in the house so you won’t be frightened again.”

  Cole halted as he took note of a vague look of rebellion that appeared in those brilliant gray eyes.

  “And who will look after, you, milord Yankee? If you’ve cared to notice, it’s a bit crisp outside. I think I shall not let you go without me.”

  A smile twitched Cole’s lips despite his effort to control it. “My love, I swear you will be more comfortable here, and safer, too. And you must have a care for your condition.”

  Her pert nose lifted in a manner of prim confidence. “I have every faith in your ability to take care of me.”

  “But there would just be the two of us alone together in the wilderness for nearly two days going and two days coming back.”

  “Then you will need the companionship, and Gretchen will no doubt appreciate my womanly understanding with all those lumber-whatever-you-call-’em around.”

  Cole recognized the stubborn thrust of her lovely jaw and the glint of determination in her eye. “I see you have no intention of relenting.”

  “Quite right, sir. It’s much like you said. I lost you once. I do not want to lose you again. Besides, we’ve always proven able to take better care of each other than ourselves. That should be enough to convince you that we’re not meant to be separated.”

  He raised a brow in amusement. “You have artfully set aside all my arguments, madam. I can do nothing more than give in to your demands.”

  A soft expression of warmth and gentleness shining on her face, Alaina rose from her chair and went to where he half sat on the rolled arm of the settee, slipping her arms about his neck as he brought her within the circle of his embrace.

  “I shall try not to be too much of a burden, Cole,” she murmured sweetly. “It’s just that if I stayed here, I would do naught but worry about you.”

  “I must admit the thought of getting you alone and all to myself in the middle of nowhere is truly a captivating notion,” he smiled.