Dreamkeepers (32 page)

During that day and the days that followed, Adam was kindness itself. He poured warm bath water for her and while she was bathing he changed her bed. He wrapped her in a blanket and laid her on the couch, tuned the radio for her, or fetched magazines. He cooked good meals and insisted she eat to gain her strength back. He never came back to her bed after she was up and around. At the end of the week Molly was well enough to take over her household chores and Adam went back to his work on her father’s files in the bedroom.

CHAPTER NINE

A
FTER A WEEK
of below-zero weather Adam was sure the ice on the lake was sufficient to support the ski plane. He needed to bring in a large amount of supplies and it was much easier to get them to the house from the lake than from the clearing where the helicopter had to land.

He called for the helicopter to come for him after making sure Tim-Two would be around to check on Molly.

“You’ll go my next trip. Dad is getting anxious to see you again. Pat will be coming out in a week or two so we’ll be needing extra supplies. Make a list. It will give you something to do while I’m gone.” He grinned at her. “And don’t take a notion to clean the house from top to bottom. You’re not strong enough yet.”

“I won’t,” she assured him. “I’ve got my knitting. I’ll sit by the fire like Mother Hubbard!”

He tugged at a strand of her hair, a crooked little grin on his face, and Molly felt her heart thudding. When they heard the plane overhead, he went out the door. She watched until he was out of sight beyond the timber.

Molly leaned her head back and gazed into the fire. She found herself obsessed with the memory of Adam’s face—the narrowed dark eyes that carried such varied emotions when they looked at her. She had seen those eyes in so many different moods. They had laughed, teased, smiled, grown fierce with anger. She found she could not bear to think of them looking into hers with icy coolness in their depths. She wondered if she would be able to bear the loneliness when he went away for good.
It’s lonely now, knowing he’s coming back,
she told herself,
but how will it be when I know he’ll never . . .
she shook herself. She didn’t want to think about it.

Adam’s voice came in on the radio, calling from the helicopter.

“How about it, Molly? Got a copy?”

She picked up the mike and pressed the button. Her heart was pounding.

“Ten-four, Adam,” she said breathlessly. “I have a good copy.”

“I’ll be back in a few hours with the ski plane. Stay tuned in and I’ll call as soon as I’m in range. Ten-four?”

“Ten-four, Adam. I’ll be listening.”

The day went rather fast. Molly had several calls on the radio from neighbors going over in their planes. She would chat easily with them until they were out of range. Tim-Two came in to check on the stoves. Later in the afternoon she became tired of knitting and made a chocolate cake. She decided to divide it this time and she iced one-half on two separate plates and sent a plate back with Tim-Two when he came again to check the stoves.

It was getting dusk when Adam’s voice boomed into the quiet house.

“Break, break, Molly. Do you have a copy?” He repeated the call anxiously before she could pick up the mike.

“I’m here, Adam. How far out are you?”

“So you finally answered.” He had a chill in his voice. Molly’s heart sank, then lurched when he added, “I was getting worried.” Her throat was so tight she could hardly answer.

“I just picked up your call. Do you have us in view?”

“I can see you down there.” Then with a teasing note in his voice, “Is my dinner ready?”

“Now I hear the plane,” Molly said. “And, no, I don’t have your dinner ready, I thought you were taking me out tonight.” There was a faint giggle in her voice.

“I’ll take you out all right. I’ll take you out to the woodshed.”

Then before she could answer he cleared off the channel.

Molly was happy. He was back again! He came into the house stamping fresh snow from his boots, his arms full of packages, his eyes sweeping the house as if he was glad to be back.

“Come, wife, and kiss me.”

Molly’s face reddened. She looked at his black eyes that were dancing merrily at her discomfort.

“Come,” he repeated, and she went to him and placed warm lips on his cold ones for a brief instant.

“Hum . . .” he said. “I got a better kiss from Dog when he came to meet me.”

Her eyes twinkled up at him. She took his packages and put them on the chair beside the door, so he could take off his coat.

“You’re getting snow all over,” she fussed to hide her happiness at having him home again.

“Did you miss me?” he persisted.

“Of course, it was nice and quiet all day!”

He hung up his coat, put away his boots, then in his stocking feet brought his bundles to the table. Opening one, he produced several bottles of liquor.

“If I’d had this the other night, I would have made you a hot toddy,” he said. “And in way of a celebration, I’ve brought home some barbequed ribs!”

Molly wondered if he realized he had said, “brought home.” Could a man like Adam ever consider this small cabin his home?

“I baked a chocolate cake!” she announced.

“. . . and I brought you a present.”

“You didn’t . . . ?”

“I did.”

He handed her the largest of his packages and stood with a grin on his face while she opened it.

Her hands were shaking and her fingers felt all thumbs, but she managed to tear away the paper and remove the lid from the box. She lifted out a soft, fluffy, violet-colored robe, and under the robe, were matching woolly slippers.

She looked up and met his eyes; her own were enormous in her flushed face. She couldn’t move or speak.

“I knew it,” he was saying. “I knew the minute I saw this robe it was the color of your eyes.” He took it from her and held it open. “Try it on.”

“Thank . . . you,” Molly stammered. “I . . . don’t know what to say.”

“Well, just don’t say: ‘oh, Adam, you shouldn’t!’” His voice was high and funny and she giggled.

“Well?” She turned so he could see her from all angles.

“Just fits,” he said. “I knew it would. I told the girl you came up to here on me.” He held his hand up to under his chin. “And I told her you were about this big around.” He made a small circle with his hands.

She grinned broadly, her eyes bright, her face radiant.

“I love it,” she told him.

It was a meal to remember. Adam heated the ribs in the hot oven and Molly made a salad. In the warm, cozy atmosphere of the kitchen they ate the ribs with their fingers before finishing off the cake. Afterward Adam helped with cleaning up, but told her he wasn’t making a habit of doing so. Later, they sat before the fireplace and planned next week’s trip to Anchorage.

“We should leave early,” Adam said, “and spend about four hours there.”

“How was your father?” Molly asked.

“Doing well, considering. He always asks about you.” He was sitting on the floor, his back to the couch. Dog had come to him and placed his head on his thigh to be petted. Adam scratched his big ears.

Molly bowed her head over the sweater she had started for Adam. She had bought the Australian wool last year on an impulse, not really knowing what she was going to make out of it. Just this afternoon it had occurred to her that the off-white color would go well with Adam’s dark good looks. She hadn’t told him what she was working on and he hadn’t asked.

Now that the weather had turned cold all the doors inside the cabin were left open because they needed the extra heat in the bedrooms. The bathroom doors were left open at night when the room wasn’t in use. Adam, being the last each night to use the room, opened both the door to Molly’s room and his own before he went to bed.

Molly, now, lay in her bed and listened to the sounds coming from the other bedroom. She thought of the two nights he had spent in her bed. How sweet and gentle he had been!
Would it be so wrong,
she thought,
to let him make love to me? We’re married! Could I bear for him to leave me after knowing what it feels like to be possessed by him?

She lay on her back, eyes closed, remembering how he had rubbed her back, caressed her, and folded her in his arms to keep her warm. She could feel the stubble on his chin that morning as he slept with it resting against her forehead. Her heart began to beat rapidly and a hunger for him like a pain went through her; through her lips, her breasts, and into her loins. The pain grew and the blood rushed to her face. Disgusted at her thoughts she flopped over on her stomach and buried her head in the pillow.
What’s the matter with me?
she thought.
I’m like a bitch in heat.
Of one thing she was almost sure: Adam would keep their relationship on the present level. If it should ever change, she would have to be the one to make the first move.

Molly kept herself busy during the days that followed. The weather was cold, always hovering around the zero mark. She spent an hour each day out of the house. Tim-Two brought out the sled and harness. She hitched up Dog, who loved every minute of pulling the sled. They went with Tim-Two on short runs to his trap lines. This wasn’t Molly’s favorite thing to do, and she was always relieved when they found them empty.

The moose were coming down out of the hills and into the timber now. Soon the hunting season would be here and Tim-Two would shoot one for the meat it would supply. Molly never stayed around to watch the slaughter or the butchering of the meat. When Tim-Two brought in the neatly wrapped packages from the woodshed, where they were frozen, she would pretend they had come from the meat market in town.

One afternoon she took the snowmobile out alone and enjoyed a ride down the path to the lake and through the timber to the clearing where the helicopter landed. Believing that she had been gone only an hour, she was surprised when she returned to find Adam preparing to go look for her.

“Where in the hell have you been?” he demanded, with the thundercloud look on his face.

“Only down through . . . the timber,” she stammered, surprised at his anger. “Why?”

“Why?” he repeated. “You’ve been gone an hour, that’s why!”

She couldn’t understand why he was so angry, and the questioning look in her violet eyes told him she didn’t understand.

“I saw fresh wolf tracks around the lake yesterday. You’re not to go out of sight of this house without me or Tim-Two. Is that understood?”

“This is the first time I’ve been out by myself.” Her eyes looked squarely into his.

“And it will be the last time, my girl!” he said firmly. “Tim-Two thinks there’s a wolverine about. He saw the sign in his trap lines.”

“But—” she started to explain she had lived here for five years and wasn’t exactly a greenhorn, but he wouldn’t let her say it.

“Don’t argue, Molly. I’ve told you what you cannot do and that’s the end of it.” He took off his parka. As far as he was concerned the matter was closed.

At first Molly was angry at his high-handed method of telling her about the danger, but after thinking about it she understood his concern. Although it was early winter and there was still plenty of small game for the wolves, they were a dangerous lot and not to be trusted. The unpredictable wolverine was another matter altogether. They attacked when and where they wanted, if they were hungry or not, just for the sheer pleasure of the kill. Molly had seen the results of a wolverine kill and it was not a pleasant sight.

The next day Molly hitched Dog to the sled for a ride around the yard. Adam came out to go with her and they headed for the frozen lake. She rode on the sled and Adam on the runners behind. Dog was in rare form. He had two playmates and for more than an hour they played like two children on the ice. When they came back to the house, they sat before the fire and drank hot cocoa. It felt as though they’d been together forever, there was such ease and companionship between them.

The day before the trip to Anchorage, Adam asked if there was any reason why they couldn’t stay overnight in the apartment. He would like to stay two nights, he said, as he had some business he should attend to. They were eating their evening meal at the trestle table and Molly looked across at him in her questioning way.

“It’s perfectly legal as far as the will is concerned, Molly. Charlie didn’t mean for us to spend every day here. And I’m sure your aunt would think twice before she tackled me and my father.”

“I wasn’t thinking of that,” she said. “I was thinking I wouldn’t go this time and you could take care of your business. I’ll go with you when you go again for the day.”

“No, for two reasons. First and foremost, I’ll not leave you here alone overnight, and second, I promised Dad I’d bring you the next time I came in.”

“Then it’s settled,” she conceded.

“I’ll take you out to dinner,” he promised. “We’ll do a night on the town.”

“No,” she said quickly, “that won’t be necessary. I’m not taking suitable evening clothes.” Not that she had suitable clothes to take, she thought dryly.

“That’s no problem. We’ll buy something.”

“No . . . no, I’d rather not.”

“Is that all you can say—‘no, no!’” He laughed at her. “Well, we’ll see.” He was in one of his teasing moods and Molly couldn’t help but laugh with him.

That night she looked over her simple wardrobe. She didn’t have much to choose from. Finally, she picked out two simple dresses to wear during the day, and a pair of wool slacks with matching sweater to wear to and from the city. She laid out toilet articles, a nightie, and the robe and slippers Adam had given her. As an afterthought she tucked in the diamond earrings, the gift from his father.

CHAPTER TEN

T
HEY WALKED DOWN
the snow-packed path to the plane. Adam tucked her in the seat and wrapped her with a blanket before fastening her seat belt. She never tired of watching him. He was so confident, so capable. She had dreaded the trip to town, but now that she was actually on her way, she felt a little thrill of excitement and looked forward to seeing Adam’s father and his Aunt Flo again. The one thing she was sure of was a welcome there. She felt none of the apprehension of the first visit.