by Donna Dalton
Muffled thuds sounded behind him. He turned to discover a half-dozen Indians joining his troopers in the glade. It was Black Hawk and his scouting party. Hoggard must have convinced Major Allen of Finley’s involvement in the Seaton House and possibly all the other raids, and the commander had set the Indians free. Black Hawk had apparently come across the patrol’s tracks and trailed them here. Not that he could blame them. He’d want to investigate any incursion on his land too. Now that they were here, he could use their help in apprehending the real instigators of the attacks.
He pocketed the spyglass and started back. A lithe, gowned figure moved into view. He pulled up, heart bucking. What the hell was she doing here? She didn’t appear to have been taken against her will. She moved through the warriors with ease, her head twisting from side to side as if looking for someone.
He stole back through the trees until he reached the glade. His men stood waiting for instructions, but he only had one person he wanted to school. Pain sliced him at the thought that she didn’t trust him enough to bring Robbie back unharmed.
She spotted him and ran to his side. “Preston. Thank God, you’re safe.”
He steeled himself against the desire to pull her into his arms. She needed to know her disobedience was unacceptable. “What are you doing here, Meredith? I told you to stay at Mrs. Valder’s.”
The spark in her eyes dimmed. Perhaps he’d been too harsh, but dammit she should have obeyed his orders, should have trusted him to bring Robbie back safely. He didn’t want to think about the dangers she could have encountered on her foolish jaunt. Damn woman was going to be the death of him.
She thrust up her chin in that defiant little gesture he had come to adore. “I came because of you and Robbie.”
“I told you I would bring him back to you unharmed.”
“I know you did. But I had to come. I had to find you.”
“So you enlisted Black Hawk’s help?”
The warrior stepped forward. “We found lady riding on Creek land. Said she was looking for you. That you tracked Agent Finley to Sitting Rock because he took her boy.”
True, she had suggested the outlaw may have headed into the hills to hide, but she couldn’t have known the exact location. Not unless she had inside knowledge. Yet the notion of Meredith in cahoots with Finley made about as much sense as glasses on a blind man.
“How did you know Finley had holed up here, Meredith?”
Color drained from her face. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. What was she afraid of? Him? After what they had shared, certainly she knew she could trust him.
“You have nothing to fear from me, Meredith. You know that.”
“I know. I want to tell you. I truly do. But…” Her throat convulsed as if she’d swallowed a nasty dose of castor oil.
“Just tell me, Meredith. Spit it out.”
“I can’t. It’s not an easy tale to tell.”
Unease wormed into his gut. What could she have to say that was so difficult?
“Question lady later,” Black Hawk interrupted with an impatient slice of his hand. “We go after Agent Finley. Save boy.”
The warrior was right. Defanging a nest of rattlesnakes and rescuing Robbie took precedence over any damn secret she might be harboring.
“We’ll finish this conversation later. I need to brief Black Hawk on the situation.” He skimmed her face for one last clue and only seeing mistrust and dread, turned to speak with the warrior. “I did a quick reconnaissance of the area. Finley has at least five men with him. Two lookouts are posted on each side of the ridge just above the tree line. The rest are hiding in a cave farther up.”
“And the boy?”
“He may be with them inside the cave. I heard a child cry out.”
The soft intake of breath spiked into him. He couldn’t stop from looking at her, from wanting to ease her worry. “It’s all right, Meredith. I’ll make sure we get Robbie back to you unscathed.”
Her hand snaked out and shackled his wrist. “You can’t go up there, Preston. You’ll be shot.”
Just like at the creek when she thought the jailhouse had been on fire, her imagination went places it shouldn’t. “You’re merely upset by Robbie’s abduction. I’ll be fine, I promise.”
Her fingers pressed into his skin. “You’ll be killed. I saw it.”
“Saw what? What the devil are you talking about?”
“Please.” She inclined her head at nearby thicket. “Can we go over there where it’s more private?”
He couldn’t keep impatience from bruising his voice. “We don’t have a lot of time, Meredith. Finley hasn’t gotten wind of us yet, but he could at any minute.”
“Please, Preston. This is important. It won’t take long. I promise.”
The knot in his shoulders pulled hangman tight. Whatever she needed to tell him must be truly earth-shaking if she was willing to delay Robbie’s rescue for it. And based on the fear clouding those bright eyes, it wasn’t going to be good.
****
Preston’s hand on her arm should have put her at ease. But it didn’t. The contact only heightened her awareness of him, of how much he meant to her. She had no idea how he would he react to her news. Disbelief, pity, revulsion—none seemed to fit the man she’d come to love. But she’d been wrong about people in the past. Dead wrong.
He gently tugged her to a stop in the grove and turned her to face him. “What is it, Meredith? What is so important that you need to delay this mission?”
She took a calming breath, heartened by the tenderness and concern shimmering in his eyes. She could do this. His life depended on it. “I care about you, Preston. With all my heart. But there is more to me than you know.”
“What more is there to know?”
Enough to fill a lake—a very deep and murky lake. She scrubbed at her temple, searching for the right words. They were as elusive as a loose dollar bill on a windy day.
“Why all this fretting? You’re acting like someone with something to hide. Are you in some kind of trouble?”
If only it were that simple. “No, I’m not in any trouble.”
“Then what is going on? Tell me.”
His frustration plowed into her. She twined her fingers into a tight ball, working to hold herself together. “You deserve to know the real reason why I asked for more time to consider your proposal of marriage.”
“Yes, I know. Because of the children.”
“That’s part of it. But there’s more. Something that may very well turn you against me.”
Preston slid his hand down her arm in a slow caress that ended at her elbow in a gentle clasp. “There’s nothing you can say that will turn me against you. Nothing.”
She wanted to believe him. But uncertainty had its claws firmly clamped around her heart.
A hawk’s screech pierced the air. She envisioned the bird riding the air currents, searching for prey. If it were a scavenger, it would find her the perfect meal, raw and bleeding and dying inside.
“Once you learn the truth, I fear that confidence will crumble.”
His frown deepened. “Do you have so little faith in me that you think I would retreat at the least provocation?”
“I hope and pray with every fiber of my being that you won’t.”
“Then tell me. Let me show you how much I care.”
A second screech joined the first. The hawk’s mate. The pair hunted together, nested together, and raised their young together. The only thing that would separate them was death. If she couldn’t find the courage to do this, Preston could be ripped from her forever.
“I am not…what I seem,” she pushed out on a shaky breath. “I have a…a gift.”
“You are gifted…with a kind and loyal heart.”
“Not that kind of gift. It’s a talent of sorts. An ability that stretches far beyond the average person.” She fortified herself with another deep breath. No more dilly-dallying. It was time to bare all and let his judgment fall
where it may.
“I can see visions. Visions of things to come…things in the near future.”
There. The door was cracked. He didn’t say anything. Didn’t reject her announcement. Didn’t condemn her. Just stared at her, his expression puzzled but still attentive.
She pushed the door wide open. “The visions come to me when I touch very old trees. I see images of things that are about to happen. When we first met, I had just seen a vision of soldiers, and then there you were. That day at Dancer’s Creek, I saw a burning building and later realized it was Seaton House. The images are usually just fragments. Nothing specific that I can pinpoint or control.”
“Visions, you say?” His hand dropped from her arm. “Is that how you knew we tracked Finley to Sitting Rock?”
“Yes. I wanted to see where that horrid man had taken Robbie. I also saw you get shot.” She pointed to the ridge beyond the tree line. Her finger trembled like a twig in a storm, and she balled her hand into a fist. She wanted to be strong and convincing, wanted him to believe in her.
“You were up there sheltered behind a large, egg-shaped boulder. When you moved out into the open, a man I believe to be Finley shot you with a short-barreled pistol. You were…you died, Preston.” Just saying the words made her chest ache. Each heartbeat was a struggle—each breath forced.
“I’m not going to die. I promise.”
A promise he may not be able to keep. “You have to trust me on this, Preston. Before I came to Seaton House, I saw a vision of my stepbrother getting gored by a bull. I told my father and stepmother, but they didn’t believe me. I tried to push the tree for more details, but the elm wouldn’t cooperate. Six hours later, our stud bull cornered Charles in the pasture. My stepbrother died right there, just as my vision foretold.”
“Sounds like your stepbrother let his guard down and paid a heavy price for it. I plan to be extra vigilant. Always am.”
“But that may not be enough. My stepmother said I caused Charles’ death by having that vision. Maybe I did. Maybe I didn’t. I just don’t know for certain. This gift is so strange and uncontrollable.”
“I’ve seen men get up and walk away after taking two or three bullets. Seen a drowned man breathe again. Both can be explained by the drive of the human spirit to survive.” He shook his head. “But this vision thing…it’s not explainable or logical.”
“You can’t rationalize it. Believe me, I’ve tried.”
His lips collected into an impenetrable line, and he shifted his attention to the glade where the others were gathering. He was retreating from her, putting distance between him and her affliction. She felt as if she were standing in quicksand. Any moment, she would slip below the surface.
“You have to trust me, Preston. Let the others go after Finley.”
He looked back at her, his eyes dark and unreadable. “Whether this vision thing is real or not, you know I can’t shirk my duty. I won’t.”
“Please. You have to believe me.” She grasped his arm. “Don’t go up there.”
“If you care about me half as much as you claim, you know I have to do this.” He shrugged out of her grip and wheeled around.
She charged after him. “I can’t let you, Preston. I won’t.”
He turned, his face etched with hard lines. “There’s nothing you can do or say that will stop me from going. Stay here, Meredith. I don’t need you causing a distraction and endangering my men or Robbie.”
He gave her one last indecipherable look and stalked toward his waiting troopers.
Meredith sank to her knees, the will to go on leaking from her like blood from a fatal wound. He didn’t believe her. Didn’t trust her.
And now he was headed to his death.
Chapter Sixteen
She didn’t know how long she sat. It could have been minutes or even hours. Dampness from the wet pine needles had seeped into her skirt. Even the bugs were treating her as part of the landscape. She didn’t care. It was just as she feared, Preston had rejected her—didn’t want his career stained by her taint.
Her head reeled. A whirring sound reverberated in her ears, and her stomach knotted as if she’d just had a vision. Except this time, she couldn’t keep the sickness at bay. She leaned over and emptied her stomach, though there wasn’t much to bring up. The most she’d consumed that day had been a slice of bread at breakfast and a few sips of water from Private Greene’s canteen. Once Robbie went missing, food had been the last thing on her mind.
She swiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Only one trooper and the horses remained in the glade. Preston had gone with the others. She should have known his moral code wouldn’t allow him to put credence in anything inexplicable or illogical. And if he did somehow believe her, he would never put his own life before those of his men. That was who he was. That was the man she loved.
She hung her head. Tears spilled from her eyes and wet her cheeks. She might one day fully understand her gift, might even be able to control it. But she would never be able to control how people responded to the warnings. That decision was theirs to make. Not hers.
“Meredith.”
She lifted her head and blinked through a blur of tears right into familiar gray-brown eyes. Her heart lurched. “Preston…you came back.”
He held out a hand. “I couldn’t leave you like this, all sick with worry.”
“But your men…the mission.”
“The mission is proceeding as planned. Black Hawk and the others are moving into position as we speak. He and Sergeant Reese will lead everyone safely through the operation.”
“I pray with all my heart that they do.” She stretched out her arm and settled her hand in his. She wanted to believe all would be right between them, but the steely fingers chilling her skin said otherwise. “What made you change your mind, Preston?”
His grip on her hand tightened. “I won’t deny that I wrestled with what you told me. I still am. But I realize there are things in this world that are just not explainable.”
“You believe what I said? In what I can do?”
He drew her to her feet, his expression shuttered tighter than a window in a snowstorm. “After making sure everyone understood their assignments, I spoke with Black Hawk about Finley’s escape. He said the agent had a visitor this morning who must have slipped him a weapon. When the morning meal was brought in, Finley drew a short-barreled pistol on the guard.”
“Short-barreled. Just like from my vision.”
“Exactly. I can’t refute that or the fact that you knew I had tracked Finley here.” His armor cracked. Hurt and anger flooded into his face and graveled his voice. “What bothers me the most is that once we got close, once I opened up about my upbringing, you didn’t do the same. You kept your past, your gift, a secret. You didn’t trust me with the truth. That hurts more than any bullet, Meredith.”
Her deception had cut him—deeply. She wanted to kiss away his pain as she did with the children. But the hard draw to his mouth told her doing so would just toss salt into his wound. She could only hope his hurt would lessen once he understood her reasons.
“I was afraid to tell you, Preston. Afraid you would cast me off, just as my father did. After Charles died, my stepmother insisted I be sent away before my gift caused anyone else’s death. My father sided with her. He banished me from my home.” The dark memories yanked the steadiness from under her voice. “Th-That’s why I came here…to hide away with Aunt Mildred. That’s why I couldn’t tell you.”
Her mouth tasted sour and somehow scalded. Her hands sagged to her sides, even their paltry weight too much to hold. She closed her eyes and stood at the edge of collapse, feeling the shakes, and knowing she either found her footing or plunged into the gorge.
“Are you going to be ill again, Meredith? Do you need to sit?”
His concerned tone pulled her back from the brink. She drew in a deep breath and another and opened her eyes. She locked her knees. She wanted to be strong. For him. For herself. “No. I
don’t need to sit.”
“Very well. But if you start to feel poorly, let me know. As much as we need to have this conversation, I don’t want to put your health in jeopardy.”
He cared about her. That had to mean something. “I’m fine. Please go on.”
His gaze drilled into her. “I understand how hurtful a rejection like that can be, and I’m sorry your father did that to you. But what I want from you, what I need from the woman I love is honesty.”
Had she destroyed any chance at a life with him? It was hard to tell. He had wiped any trace of tenderness from his face. “I wanted to tell you so many times, but I couldn’t. Most people have never understood or accepted my gift. I’ve kept it hidden for so long; I just don’t know how to be open about it.”
“I don’t give a damn about your gift. You could turn rocks into gold for all I care. I just want us to be open and honest with each other.”
“I never intended to hurt you, Preston. Never. I’m so very sorry. I promise to share everything I possibly can with you from now on.”
“Everything you possibly can?” His irritation cut the air like a hatchet. “What kind of half-hearted pledge is that?”
She pressed a hand to her lower belly where a child could be growing—a daughter who would inherit the family misfortune. Preston deserved to know the full extent of her gift. Aunt Mildred would understand her need to reveal their secret.
“There are others with my ability.” She met his incredulous stare head-on. “Aunt Mildred. My mother, God rest her soul, and all my grandmothers as far back as we know. The gift of sight is passed down the female line of the family. It’s another reason I have been hesitant to marry. I don’t want to saddle a daughter with such a horrible curse.”
“It’s a little too late to worry about having a daughter.”
“Yes, it is. But I have no regrets about what we did. I love you, Preston, and I will love any child that results from our night together.”
“Were you ever going to tell me the truth?”
His gaze probed her face, evaluating, testing her. It nearly killed her to think he would never believe a word from her lips. “I told the truth when I said I needed time to consider your proposal. I wanted to ask Aunt Mildred if she had ever revealed her gift to her husband and if so, how she went about it.”