Deborah Camp (45 page)

He almost lost his grip and then the mare gave a great, shuddering groan and the foal slithered into view—legs, shoulders, nose. The head was big. Too big. He watched helplessly as the mare’s tender, stretched skin tore and blood oozed. Courage screamed and thrashed. Tucker grabbed the foal’s head and pulled with all his might. The foal came out in a great, gushing rush, falling into Tucker’s arms and knocking him off balance. He fell backward and the slimy newborn sprawled across his chest and stomach. Tucker found himself staring into huge, unfocused, icy blue eyes.

“You stubborn little mule,” he said, gasping. “You can’t be worth all this pain and trouble.”

The foal’s limbs quivered and one bumped against Tucker’s chin. He rolled sideways and pushed the foal off him and into the hay. Sitting up, he reached for the bucket of water and rags. Copper sat with Courage’s head in her lap. She was sobbing softly.

“She’s not dead, sugar,” Tucker said, wiping up the mess and then pouring the water over the horse’s heaving sides.

“She’s bleeding, isn’t she? She might not make it.”

“She will if you doctor her. Where’s your bag of herbs and potions?”

“They don’t work anymore. My medicine is gone. I couldn’t save Floating Flower’s baby.”

“Are you going to abandon this horse? I won’t allow it! Now go get your medicine bag while I see to this foal.” He made his voice hard and rapping; the one he’d often used as a commanding officer. It worked on Copper as it had on new recruits. She sprang up and raced to the cabin.

By the time she returned Courage was breathing easier and the foal was standing on quivering, stick-like legs. As Copper dabbed medicine on Courage’s wounds, she glanced from time to time at the colt, which Tucker was trying to rub dry since Courage was too weak to perform the duty. The colt shivered and bobbed his big head. There was no doubt it was Ranger’s doing. It’s chunky body and long legs were gotten through Courage’s bloodline, but it’s icy eyes, black and brown and white spotted coat, and big, angular head were all Ranger. The colt sported four white socks and a blazed face. Its mane and tail were snow white. Its spots were big and irregular, more like splotches. Incredibly, the wobbly colt tried to kick Tucker with its back legs. Its tail flew up like a flag and it broke wind in Tucker’s face.

“Why, you little devil!” Tucker bellowed, then blushed furiously when Copper began to laugh. “Did you see what he did? Hasn’t even been around for a good hour yet and he’s letting off steam, fouling the air.”

“Maybe we should name him Windy,” Copper said, still laughing.

Tucker stood back to look him over. “You scamp,” he said, chuckling as the colt tried to run before he could walk. “You’re lucky I’ve got a good grip and a strong back or you would have never been born.” He looked at Courage, who was sitting up. “How’s she doing?”

“I’ve stopped the bleeding.”

“I knew you would,” he said, grinning. “Whew! I’m dog tired.” He sat down and propped his arms on his bent knees. “Seems like that mare’s been trying to have this colt for days upon days.” He raised his head with effort to look at her. “You must feel like you’ve been through the mill sideways.”

“I got some sleep. You didn’t.” She forced herself to her feet. “Let’s leave these two to get acquainted. There’s nothing we can do for them right now.” She motioned for him. “Come on. I’ll lean on you and you can lean on me. Together, we should be able to make it to the cabin.”

He smiled weakly and pushed to his feet again. Hooking an arm around each other’s waists, they trudged to the cabin stained with dawn’s pearly light.

“I think I’ll call him Lucky,” Copper announced as they crossed the threshold.

“The colt?”

“Yes. You said he was lucky he had you around and I agree.” She drifted toward Valor’s bed and patted Sentry’s head. “Go on, good dog.” The small shepherd wagged his tail and loped outside to join Patrol. Copper turned the sleeping baby
onto her back to change her wet nappy. Valor whimpered, but didn’t awaken. “If you want to see tired, you ought to look at this baby. She’s been sleeping ever since we got back and she’s not wanting to wake up yet.”

Tucker came up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. As she changed the baby’s napkin, her thoughts returned to Floating Flower and the other baby now buried in a small plot behind the Moss homestead. Harlon hadn’t wanted a funeral pyre in the Indian tradition, and Floating Flower had been too distraught to care. When Copper had left, Harlon had been carving “Baby Boy Sartain” into a wooden cross for the grave.

“Was it a stillbirth?” Tucker asked, following the trail of her thoughts.

“No.” She turned Valor onto her stomach again and covered her with a light blanket. “But he had trouble breathing. His lungs rattled like they were full of water. I tried everything I knew, but he didn’t get any better. He lived ten hours before he took his last breath.” She gathered in a bubble of sound and air as she remembered the withered, blue body. “He was very small. No more than three pounds, I’d say. He came too early.”

Tucker wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back against him. “Well, it just wasn’t his time, sugar. You did your best. Flower’s been through so much lately …” He let the thought fade as he turned her to face him. “Let’s get some sleep before Valor wakes up.”

He unlaced the front of her dress and helped her out of it. Wordlessly, he led her to the bunk and spread the covers over her before he undressed himself and climbed in beside her. He held her close and rocked her to sleep before he surrendered to it himself.

*  *  *

Valor sucked hungrily at Copper’s breast, pulling so mightily that it almost hurt. Copper stroked the baby’s dark, slightly curling hair, but her gaze remained steadfast on the man sleeping in her bed as she wrestled with a hunger of her own.

She’d awakened to Valor’s soft whimpers and had extricated herself from the tangle of Tucker’s limbs to remove Valor from the baby bed before her whimpers became cries which would awaken Tucker. He needed his rest and she meant for him to have it. She had taken Valor outside in the sunshine to check on the new colt. Courage was on her feet and letting the colt nurse. Copper had set Valor in a heap of clean straw while she’d mucked the stall and fed and watered the horses.

Midafternoon she’d returned to the cabin to feed Valor oatmeal and boiled apples she had canned last summer. Still, Tucker slept. He snored loud enough to rattle the walls. She stopped worrying about being quiet so as not to wake him. She doubted he’d rouse up if a locomotive chugged through the cabin.

Her body ached for him to awaken. A raw hunger churned in her feminine core. It had been days since she’d lost herself in him and let him bury himself in her. She smiled ruefully, recalling a time not so long ago when she would have sworn to heaven above that she would
never
crave a man’s touch or yearn for sexual release. But that was before this man; this man who carried the key to open her up like a locked treasure chest, spilling out her moods and wants and needs and pleasures like so many bright and shiny jewels.

The pull on her breast diminished. Valor’s eyes were at half-mast. Copper stood and placed the baby in the baby bed, then patted her back until she drifted to sleep. She went to stand beside the bunk and gaze lovingly at the man there. His gingery hair lay against his neck, having not known the slice of her knife lately. His lashes were long
and curled at the tips. His jaw was shadowed by his prickly whiskers, but she’d endure even those to quench her thirst for him.

She removed her dress and looked down at her naked body. The bruises were fading and the burned spots were healing, no longer so tender she couldn’t stand for her clothing to rub against them. The scratches and cuts crisscrossing her legs and arms and stomach weren’t an angry red anymore. Copper flipped back the covers to expose Tucker’s long, lean, tough body. She indulged in a visual feast of muscles and taut, tanned skin enhanced by sparse sable hair that thickened over his chest and groin. A white bandage dressed one knee.

Sliding into bed beside him, she sandwiched one of his flat nipples between her lips and bathed it with her tongue. His member stirred to life before the rest of him followed. He groaned. She slid one hand down his chest and flat stomach. Her fingertips delved in the tight curls and then danced along rigid, hot skin to the glistening, round tip. His hips bucked and his eyes flew open.

“Copper? Oh … oh, God. Copper, you’re killing me, sugar.”

She flung one leg over him and kissed him with a deep, rich savagery. He buried his hands in her long, flowing hair and tilted her head to spear her mouth with his stiff, filling tongue. His tongue thrusts were quick and stabbing. Copper lifted her hips and impaled herself on him. He tore his mouth from hers to swallow air that was charged with sexuality.

“Deeper … deeper … so deep.” He closed his eyes and gripped her waist to guide her into a natural rhythm that brought them both a speedy cure to their mutual deprivation.

Copper crumbled on top of him, but kept him
inside her. She pressed kisses against his throat and along his rough jaw. She tasted him, salty and spicy. She loved him with her soft mouth, her damp tongue.

“I missed this,” she whispered in his ear.

“Me, too.” His eyes were closed, his breathing still irregular.

“You think I’m too bold? You wish I had waited until you reached for me first?”

He trapped laughter in his chest. “Darlin’, how can you ask that when I’m lying here still inside you and getting hard again?” He kissed her thoroughly. “Any time you want me, you come after me. I’m always ready for your loving.”

She smiled against his lips. Shifting, she wiggled onto her back and he positioned himself between her open thighs. Holding her gaze, he drove deep inside her, lifting her hips off the bed. She grabbed his shoulders and dug her fingernails into his solid flesh. As he thrust again, she released a gurgling, moaning sound of completion. She wrapped her legs around him and went on the journey. Lights exploded against her eyelids and pressure built in her chest. When he spent himself inside her, she climaxed again and again in sweet spasms of joy.

Amid the sounds of their noisy breathing, Valor’s cries emerged.

“I’ll get her,” Tucker said, slipping from her to gather Valor into his arms. He lay beside Copper again and they cradled Valor between them. Tucker blew on the baby’s tummy, making her squeal and giggle. “I love you, sweetcheeks,” he said, kissing her button nose.

Copper turned her head quickly to hide the sudden rush of her tears from him. He had never professed love to her, but it was a sweet, sweet reward to hear him say he loved her baby—her halfbreed, fatherless Valor. The pad of his finger
flicked a tear from her lashes and she realized that she hadn’t hidden anything from him.

“What’s this? Are you thinking about Floating Flower’s loss?”

“I’m thinking how wonderful you are to say such a nice thing to my baby.”

“That I love her? Well, why wouldn’t I?”

“She’s no relation to you.”

“I was the first one to see her, touch her, hold her. She’ll always be my special miracle. My sweetcheeks. Of course, I love her.”

“Of course, you love her.” She smiled and new tears formed in her eyes. How to tell him what filled her heart? Did he know what a rarity he was; a man who loved a baby got by another man? Of course, he loved her baby. Never a doubt. At least not with Tucker Jones. He had the biggest, most loving heart of any man she’d ever known.

He bent his uninjured leg at the knee and sat Valor on his stomach, letting her lean against his thigh. “We need to plant a garden and raise vegetables for this baby. She’ll soon be eating peas and green beans and corn. We could borrow Harlon’s plow, or maybe I could make one.”

Copper examined his face for any trace of insincerity. If he wanted to plant in the spring, would he want to harvest in the summer? Was this his way of telling her he was staying? Suddenly, her tears were back in force and she had to turn her face away from him again.

“Copper, what’s wrong?” he demanded, hearing her sniffles. “What set you on this crying jag?”

“You … no, me. I’m as–shamed.”

“Of what? Because you reached out to me first? Sugar, you can love on me any time you want. It sure won’t hurt my feelings any.”

“No, no.” She shook her head and rammed a fist into the bedding. “I’m ashamed because I … I haven’t kept my part of our trade. I told you I’d
take you to town or the f–fort, but I c–can’t bring myself to let you g–go.” She sniffed and tipped up her chin. “But I must. I’ll take you, Tucker. You don’t have to stay here if y–you don’t want to. You shouldn’t think of me and Valor as your burdens to b–bear—”

“What kind of silly talk is this?” He sat Valor between them and shifted onto his side to glare at Copper. “Burdens? You and Valor, burdens? When have I ever given you that idea?”

“You have a life somewhere else. I know you want to go back to Illinois now that the war is behind you.”

He looked at Valor. “You hearing this, sweetcheeks? Your mama is trying to shed me like a wintercoat.”

“No, I’m not!”

His gaze slipped to hers. “You want me to stay, Copper?”

“I. … only if you want to.” She felt her lips tremble. “Yes, I want you to stay, Tucker, but I don’t have the right to ask it of you.”

“And I don’t have the right to make myself at home here. As a guest, I do believe I’ve overstayed my welcome. You see, I couldn’t stay unless I was living here with my family.”

“Family?” The word came out almost like a squeak, pushed out by sheer happiness. “Are you saying you’d want to m–mar–mar—?”

“Marry. That’s the word you’re tripping over. Marry.” He leaned close until his nose touched hers. “Will you marry me, Copper Headed Woman, and make me your lawful husband? Will you bear my children and put up with all my bad behavior?”

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” She flung an arm around his neck and kissed his smiling mouth. “You want to marry me? Really? You’d be willing to live here?” Concern erased her smile. “I couldn’t live anywhere
but in these mountains, Tucker. I won’t go to town.”