A Thin Line (51 page)

“Well, what is it?”

“I’m sorry, I’m looking for my wife.
 
Mikala Hawke.”

“There’s no Mikala Hawke around here,” the woman paused and looked at him suspiciously.
 
“There is a Mikala that just moved into the old Miller place, but she said her name is Smith.”

“That must be her.
 
Mrs.,” Gabe paused for an answer.

“Fisher,” the woman said curtly.

“Mrs. Fisher.
 
My wife is in grave danger and if I found her, then the man looking for her will also be able to find her.
 
She came here thinking to protect me.
 
I have been recovering from an injury or would have been here sooner.
 
I have never done this in my life, but I am begging.
 
Please tell me how to find my wife.”

“My good woman, I am the director of the War Office and he speaks the truth,” Mack spoke up, taking pity on his brother.

The woman looked them up and down then proceeded to tell them how to get to the cottage. “She wouldn’t answer the door for my Nate this morning.
 
She spent time with the boys yesterday and they came home telling me they didn’t think she felt well.”
 

“Thank you, ma’am.”
 
He gave her several coins that had her mouth dropping open in astonishment.
 
Gabe mounted his horse and turned him in the direction she had indicated.
 
Mack followed.

About fifteen minutes later they came to a little cottage in the clearing.
 
It seemed like the cottage of fairytales.
 
There were plants growing around it making it look picturesque.
 
His heart picked up speed and his palms began to sweat at just the thought of seeing Kala.
 
He had almost been without her touch, her voice, her scent for over a week.
 
Never again did he want to be separated that long.
 
The first thing he would do is tell her he loved her.
 
Because sometime between their fights and their shared passion, he realized he truly did love her.
 
She had allowed him to be human again and to enjoy life, and somewhere along the way he discovered he could not live without her.

“Let me go in by myself first.”

“Of course.”
 

Gabe dismounted and handed his reins to Mack before striding up the cobblestone walk to the door and knocked loudly.
 
He waited for a few minutes, nothing.
 
Gabe knocked once more, louder.
 
He heard a faint noise now coming from the other side.
 
The bolt on the door slid open and he heard a cry on the other side of the door.
 
Not waiting a moment longer, he pushed open the door and saw his beautiful wife on her knees, clutching her stomach and moaning.
 
He rushed to her and pulled her up to see a crimson stain spreading across the lower half of her nightgown.

“Gabe,” she whispered before collapsing into his arms.

Chapter 37

“Mikala, Oh God, Mikala.”
 
His shaking hand pushed back her sweat-matted hair.

“I will be back with help.” He barely registered Mack’s words as he swung his wife into his arms, not feeling the pull of his healing wound.
 
He took nothing in of the small cottage, except to find a place to lay Mikala down.
 
Gabe found the room with the two small beds she had been occupying.
 
He gently laid her down and stood watching her for a few minutes.
 
Gabriel watched as her face began to scrunch up, and then she moaned rolling onto her side.
 
She brought up her knees, hugging them close. One of her hands fisted tightly in the sheets and he watched as more blood spread over the nightgown.
 

“Kala, talk to me.
 
Tell me what’s wrong,” he pleaded as he knelt beside her and took her hand in his.

“Gabe?”

“Yes.” She squeezed his hand tightly, and he was surprised at the strength behind it.
 
“Kala, you have to tell me what’s wrong.”
 
He watched as tears and pain flooded her eyes.
 
She bit her lip but couldn’t bite back the moan.
 
Gabe waited until the pain had passed and she could think coherently.

“Baby.
 
My fault,” she sobbed shakily.

“What are you talking about?
 
What baby?”

“I think she’s losing a babe,” a breathless feminine voice said from the doorway.
 

“What?” he asked, dazed.

“The other man is out in the kitchen,” Mrs. Fisher said matter-of-factly.
 
“Get him to help you.
 
We need lots of boiled water.
 
There’s a brook out back and start a good fire in the other bedroom.
 
We’ll move her over there afterwards.
 
She’ll need to stay warm, she’ll be in shock.”

“I’m not leaving her, I promised myself I would never leave her again.”
 
Kala moaned again, curling into an even tighter ball.
 
Gabe brushed her hair back gently.

“Mr. Hawke, I know you want to be with her, but this is worse than childbirth.
 
At least at the end of the suffering you have a babe to hold in your arms.
 
When this is over, she’s going to have nothing.
 
Let me help her through the pain, I know what to do.
 
You help her with the afterwards.”

Gabe looked hard at the woman, but relented.
 
“Please don’t let anything happen to her.
 
I couldn’t bear it if I lost her,” then he bent over Kala.
 
She must have been in the middle of another pain, because her eyes were slightly glazed.
 
“Don’t leave me, you hear?” He whispered in her ear.
 
“I love you, sweetheart.”
 

“No, hate me.
 
Especially now.”
 

“Mrs. Fisher, please give me a moment.”

“Fine.
 
I will let the other man know what needs to be done.”

“Mikala, listen to me, look at me.”
 
He waited until she did both.
 
“I can’t lose you, do you understand?
 
You have to be strong, as you always are.”
 
Gabe kissed her lips lightly before pulling away.
 
She looked at him closely.

“I’m sorry.
 
You will hate me,” she predicted

“You must stay with me, do you understand, Pest?” He couldn’t stop the desperation leaking into his voice.

She nodded before a hoarse scream erupted from her.
 
Mrs. Fisher rushed back into the room and pushed him out, closing the door behind him.

When he walked into the kitchen, two boys had joined Mack.

“Mrs. Fisher’s boys.
 
Friends with Mikala.
 
I’ll start the fire in the bedroom.”

The oldest had a worried look on his face.
 
The younger one had tears rolling down his face.

“Is Miss Kala going to be all right?” The younger one asked, then sniffed and wiped his sleeve across his eyes.

Gabe dropped down to one knee needing the contact with another person and took the younger boy in his arms.
 
The older one remained stiff, but the younger one went willingly into the arms of the stranger.
 
“I hope so, son.
 
God, I hope so,” he whispered, choking out the words.

Mack had the boys carrying in the water while he started the fires.
 
Gabe stood across from the door, wanting to remain as close to her as possible.
 
Every cry and moan cut straight through him.
 
Hadn’t she suffered enough?
 
Now she was losing their baby.
 
He had not even known.
 
Had she when she left him?

“Is the water boiling?” Mrs. Fisher’s voice cut through his thoughts.
 
He nodded mutely, left and brought it to her.

“Is she all right?”
 

“It passed and the pains are easing.
 
I’m going to help her clean up and change and then you can carry her to the other room.”
 
Gabe nodded and took to waiting once more.
 
Finally, the door opened and the woman beckoned him inside.
 
The room smelled of blood and Gabe couldn’t wait to remove Kala from there.

She stood, holding onto the footboard of the bed.
 
She weaved, and just before her knees gave way, he walked over and scooped her up in his arms.
 
Kala wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her cheek on his chest.
 
She couldn’t stop the tears that rolled down her cheeks.
 
Vaguely, she heard Mrs. Fisher talking to someone else with a deep voice.

Gabe put her on the bed, making sure the covers were tucked up around her and then left the room.
 
She heard a door close and then nothing.
 
Finally a door closed again and then she saw Gabe enter the bedroom.
 
He had a chair from the kitchen table with him and set it beside the bed before sitting.
 
She closed her eyes afraid of the look she would see on his face.
 
Kala felt her smaller hand clasped in his big ones and then wetness on one of her fingers.

She opened her eyes and saw a shimmer to his eyes.
 
Before she could ask or say anything, he simply started talking.

“You left me.
 
I know you thought you were protecting me, but you left me, and I didn’t know where you were.
 
Then that damn brother of mine found your solicitor.
 
I didn’t know what to say to you when I found you, or do for that matter.
 
Part of me thought you deserved to be spanked thoroughly and soundly.
 
Another part of me wanted to kiss you senseless.
 
Dammit Kala, you left me.”

“I know.
 
I’m sorry, so sorry about everything.”

“You left, and you were carrying our child.”

“I know.”
 
Her body still ached, reminding her of what she had just been through.

“How long?”

“I’ve suspected since Christmas.”

“And yet you still left me.”

“For your protection.”

“Bloody hell, Mikala.
 
I’m a grown man.
 
I can take care of myself.”

“You were shot because of me.
 
I had to leave before someone else became injured or died.”

“Then when I finally found you, all that blood.
 
My nightmares were coming true.
 
I have never been more scared in my life.
 
Not even when the explosion took your sight, because in my dreams you always died.
 
I thought I had lost you.”
   

“I had been having pains for days, but didn’t know what they were,” she said, moving restlessly as she felt one of the lingering pains Mrs. Fisher had warned her of.

“Why didn’t you rest?
 
Take care of yourself?”

“Because, then I thought of you!
 
Every hour, every minute, every second that passed I thought of you and worried about you.
 
So I went to the gorge with the Fisher boys.
 
They had been talking about it when they brought me my meals.
 
I begged them to let me go.
 
They finally relented.
 
I pulled all the weeds from the plants, and with that done, I didn’t know what else to do.
 
Going on an exploration sounded like fun.”

“You are not in the school room anymore.”

Kala withdrew her hand from his.
 
She could feel herself withdrawing into herself.
 
Too much had happened for her to deal with this, too.
 
With his reprimands.
 
“I’m tired,” she rolled over, wincing at the movement.
 

“Are you all right?”

“Sore and tired.
 
Mrs. Fisher said I would feel pains still for a day or so.
 
Please, can we talk about this later?”

No dammit
, he screamed inside,
I want to talk about it now.
 
I want to yell at you, beg your forgiveness, cry over what we both lost.
 
But most of all I want to tell you I love you, and I’ll never let you go.
 
“Yes,” he said quietly, leaning back in the chair.
 
He watched as her breathing went from shallow to deep and even.
 
Standing, he stretched his tense muscles.
 
He stirred the fire and left the room.
 
Gabe and Mack conferred quietly for several minutes.