Dorothy Garlock - [Wabash River] (30 page)

The beautiful, dark-haired woman the Scot had taken from Bull was the one Perry wanted brought to him. Antoine had not given her a thought since he saw the Scot drag her out from behind the barrel where she had been hiding and propel her down the road. But he had thought plenty about the tall girl in buckskins with the golden skin and daring spirit. Just thinking about her strong, slender body and flashing amber eyes excited him. He had known the moment she sprang to defend the Scot’s back that she was the mate he had yearned for. At first he had thought she was the Scot’s woman, and then he had seen the way the angry Scot had treated the black-haired beauty. There was affection in the rough way he handled her. Well, Antoine mused, that was the Scot’s misfortune. He would not have her long.

Amy Deverell. Antoine said the name over and over in his mind. Hammond Perry had not been aware of the importance of the information he had given him when he told him the names of the group with Rain Tallman. Antoine had dreamed of having just such a woman as Amy Deverell beside him as he paddled down uncharted rivers, trekked across mountains, and explored the vast area beyond the river. There would be nights of passion with her strong, smooth body beneath him and a blanket of stars overhead.

“Ahh . . .
amour.
”

Antoine dragged his thoughts from Amy and concentrated on the man he would have to best if he was to get either of the women. Rain Tallman was known for doing whatever task he took on. He would not give up easily. The man was already a legend west of the river. Zack Taylor had said he was the best shot, the best tracker, the best all-around scout west of the Allegheny Mountains. The only man known to be better was old Daniel Boone. Past eighty by now, he was still hunting and trapping up near Booneville. No doubt, Antoine thought sadly, he would have to kill Rain Tallman.

Rain knelt beside a branch of the White River and dressed the deer, throwing the offal far out in the water so the current would carry it away from the campsite. As he worked he was aware, as always, of what was going on around him. Tally Perkins had watered the mules, rubbed them down and staked them out to graze. With Gavin’s help he had raised and blocked the back of the wagon, and now he was greasing the wheels.

The supper fire was sending up a thin spiral of smoke. Gavin had whittled a sharp point on a stick and run it through the bodies of six birds. With the spit supported at either end by forked sticks, the birds were roasting over the flames, sending up a delicious odor.

Rain pondered the question of why Bull and his bunch had been sent to get Eleanor. Somehow Perry had found out he was escorting Will Bradford’s bride. It was the reason he had sent the kid, Mike Hartman, to kill him, and the reason he had sent Bull to keep them from crossing the river. Could a man’s craving for revenge go that far? Rain wondered. If that were the case, Perry wouldn’t give up until they reached Belle Point.

Uppermost in Rain’s mind was the danger to Amy and Eleanor. One thing was sure: They would have to leave the comfort of the wagon and the wagon trails and cut across the mountains on horseback. Amy would make out, but how would Eleanor stand such a rigorous journey? There had been a great change in the woman since Gavin had taken her in hand. She was doing her share of the work, and she was civil to Amy and Gavin. Rain watched the women walking together, going upstream for privacy. Amy carried her rifle as if it were a part of her.

Rain leaned his elbow on his knee and watched Amy swinging along beside the shorter woman. He wondered how he could have been so stupid all those years as to stay away from her. She was a magnificent woman; strong and brave, honest and loving. She had been kind to Mrs. Badker, sensing the woman’s loneliness. Would she be lonely in their high valley? He doubted it. He hoped that they would have many children of their own to keep them company, and they would be less than a day’s journey from where Farr planned to set up his post on the river.

Amy had defied his authority today. Stubborn little baggage! The desire he felt for her was a deep pain gnawing at him even when he was most irritated with her. Tonight she would sleep in his blankets. He wanted the others to know that they were mated. No vows they could exchange in the presence of a minister or magistrate could be more sacred or binding than the vows they made today in the cool, dim forest.

Rain realized he must be grinning. He bent his head and continued his work. He was a fool, he told himself, to be so damn happy. The most dangerous part of their journey lay ahead.

*   *   *

“Have you and Rain made up?” Eleanor asked after she had dipped her washcloth in the clear water and lathered it with a small cake of soap.

“Yes.” Amy shivered because the water she was washing in was so cold.

“You’re lucky you’ve got someone who loves you,” Eleanor said wistfully.

Amy looked up from where she squatted beside the stream and caught the forlorn look on Eleanor’s face. She had been helpful and pleasant today and Amy was beginning to like her, something she had thought she would never do.

“There must be people who love you, Eleanor. You’re so pretty.”

“Ah, yes,” Eleanor sighed. “There have been men who admired my face, but no one who loved or admired
me,
the person behind the face. Not even Aunt Gilda. She used my looks to draw men to play cards with her. There, I’ve said it. But that’s all over now,” she added gayly. “Oh, Amy, you don’t know how glad I am to be rid of that corset and all those petticoats.” She rose on her toes and did a few dance steps. “I feel light as a feather.”

“Why did you wear them?”

“I don’t know. I’ve worn five petticoats since I was ten years old and a corset since age twelve. I just never knew how grand and free I’d feel without them.”

“You were sure mad when Rain took them off you.”

“Yes, I was.” Eleanor giggled. “Now I’m glad he did.”

Amy stood up and slipped her shirt back over her head. “It was so funny to see Rain looking at your corset. He asked what it was. Gavin tried to explain that it was a garment ladies of high standing wore to make their waists small. Rain said, ‘Fashion be damned! Get it off her.’” Amy did a good imitation of Rain’s voice and laughter bubbled from both girls.

“I’m glad I swooned. I’d have died of embarrassment.”

“It was a job getting the corset off you. Rain had to cut the laces.”

“What did you do with it and the others? I was going to put one on just to defy him and I couldn’t find them.”

“Gavin said you would. Rain told me to get them out of your trunk. I didn’t want to, but Gavin agreed with Rain, so I did. Rain threw them up in a cedar tree.”

“He what?” Eleanor gasped.

“He threw them all up . . . in the . . . tree,” Amy said between gasps of laughter. “It was so funny to see them dangling there. I said, ‘Someone will get the surprise of his life when he comes along here and a corset falls out of a tree and hits him!’”

“I wish I could have seen it. Aunt Gilda would have had a fit. She paid a fortune for those corsets. What did Gavin say?”

“He said you were so stubborn that you’d put one on just for spite.”

“Is that all?” Eleanor turned and bent over to adjust her stockings and Amy couldn’t see her face.

“That’s all. We’d better get back and see about the birds. The men will forget about them and let them burn.”

They walked slowly back to camp. Amy wanted to ask Eleanor why she had taken the risk of going into Kaskaskia to find a boat to take her to New Orleans and why had she changed her mind about going on to Will Bradford, but their friendship was too new for Amy to ask personal questions. But it was strange, she thought, mighty strange. Of course, it wouldn’t make any difference to Rain if Eleanor changed her mind about marrying Will. Rain’s job was to take her to Belle Point, and he would do that regardless of how Eleanor felt about it.

The Badker family arrived with a pail of milk, a berry cobbler and a fiddle. The women kept up a lively chatter while they laid out the food. Amy was surprised and pleased at the way Eleanor treated Vonnie. Vonnie was hungry for news and Eleanor told her about the steamboats that were bringing passengers downriver from Pittsburgh and about the new glass jars they were using to preserve food.

“Why, I can’t believe it,” Vonnie exclaimed.

“It’s true. A Frenchman discovered that you could put the food in the jars and seal them with metal caps lined with a glass. After you boil the jars, food and all, in water, the food keeps for months, maybe even a year.”

“I’ll have to tell Bud about that. Maybe we can get some the next time we go to Saint Genevieve.”

Amy’s eyes went often to Rain. He visited with Badker, but ever alert, his eyes and ears saw and heard everything that was going on around him. He had finished dressing the deer and after cutting off a haunch for them to cook and take with them, he had wrapped the remainder in the hide for the Badkers to take home. Gavin sat quietly smoking his pipe and Tally sat apart, his elbows on his knees, his big hands clasped while his thumbs twirled around each other.

After the meal, Bud Badker got out the fiddle and began to play. He played a lively tune and jigged. Vonnie and the boys clapped their hands in time with the music. To everyone’s surprise, Tally got up and asked Vonnie to dance. She jumped up, put her hand in his and they began a wild gallop around the camp, staying within the circle of light made by the campfire.

“Sing, boys,” Bud shouted.

The two small boys, their shyness forgotten, began to sing.

“Come join hand in hand, brave Americans all,

And rouse your bold hearts at fair Liberty’s call;

No tyrannous acts shall suppress your just claim,

Or stain with dishonor America’s name.”

After the boys sang several verses of the song, their father asked, “How about ‘Yankee Doodle,’ boys?”

The small freckled faces broke into wide grins. The boys joined hands and swung them between them, a foot going up and down in time with the music. Their childish voices were surprisingly good.

“Should a haughty foe expect

to give our boys a caning,

We guess they’ll find the lads have larnt

a little bit of training.

Yankee Doodle fa, sol, la,

trumpet, drum and fiddle.”

Amy watched Rain’s face. He was smiling one of his rare smiles as he watched the boys. As if sensing Amy was watching him, his eyes turned to hers, snared them and held. A message passed between them that they both understood.
They would have boys someday.
He would be like Farr was with Daniel and Zack, Amy thought, and he would be gentle with the girls. She felt a wild, heated longing stab her body and race through her veins with the speed of lightning.

When Vonnie sank down beside Amy, she had to tear her thoughts away from Rain.

“Whoeeee! I haven’t danced with anyone but the boys for so long I’m out of breath.”

“Your boys dance too?”

“Oh my, yes. Bud has taught them to clog and cut the pigeon wing. It’s what we do when we get lonesome. He’s teaching them to fiddle. Heavens! It’s hard on the ears at times.”

Tally stood in front of Eleanor. “Ma’am?”

Eleanor smiled brightly, stood and put her hand in his. “I don’t know how.”

“I’ll show you. Put your hand on my shoulder. Now . . . first one foot and then the other.”

In a matter of minutes Eleanor had the hang of it. Laughter sweeter than the fiddle music broke from her lips. Gavin moved back into the darkness so he could watch her openly without her seeing him. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Why, he asked himself, did this woman pull at his heartstrings? Why her? It was more than her pretty face; it was something deeper. At times he thought he saw a yearning in her violet eyes, a yearning to belong to someone. He knew the feeling well. He’d had it all his life. Yet she wasn’t for him. There was as much distance between them as there was between a great laird and the peasants who tilled his fields.

Gavin turned and walked into the woods. One nagging question had stayed with him all day. Why had Eleanor tried to leave them? It was more than her anger at Rain for taking off her corsets and petticoats. She had said that her money was gone and now she would
have
to go on to Will. Did that mean the lass no longer wanted to marry Major Bradford? No matter, he thought. She would be taken to Belle Point and given the chance to tell the major if she didn’t want to be his wife. A shudder of longing worked its way down the length of his body. Gavin walked deeper into the woods until he could no longer hear Eleanor’s merry laughter.

Amy was relieved when Badker put down the fiddle. She would have danced with Tally if he had asked her and she wasn’t sure how Rain would have felt about it. And at that point she didn’t want to do anything to put a strain on their newly forged relationship. At times it had seemed as if the evening would never be over. Now the Badker family was getting ready to go back to their home in the side of the hill.

“I’ll help pack the meat back up to the house, Bud,” Rain said. “Take the birds, too. We’ll not be able to use them.”

“I’ll cook some of the birds overnight in my wall oven, Amy,” Vonnie said. “Stop by in the morning. You’ll have meat to last for several days. Let me at least do that,” she hastened to say when Amy started to protest that it would be too much trouble. “It’s been such a treat to visit with you ’n Eleanor. If yo’re ever this way again, our door is always open.”

“My sister will be through here in a few weeks. Her name is Liberty Quill. Tell her we are fine and are looking forward to seeing her and Farr.”

“I’ll do that, I surely will.”

Gavin returned while the good-byes were being said.

“I’ll take the early morning watch,” Rain told him. “I’m not expecting trouble, but you never can tell who’ll come along.”

“That be true,” Badker said. “Lots a folks is movin’ in, ’n lots a toughs drift down from that settlement below Saint Genevieve. I don’t leave the woman ’n kids alone for long anymore.”