Hidden Truths (47 page)

"Rika." Amy squeezed past her father until she
stood beside Rika. "This is my father, Lucas Hamilton. Papa, this is Rika
— Hendrika Bruggeman."

The mention of Jo's last name made Rika squirm. She bit the
inside of her cheek and forced herself to stand still. The silvery gray eyes
studied her. She got the impression that they saw too much.

Rika curtsied, just a bit so that her trembling knees
wouldn't give out on her.

Amy's father lifted Rika's hand and indicated a kiss without
touching her skin with his lips. "Pleased to meet you." His eyes
twinkled.

Charming,
Rika thought. Amy had the same gentle way
of looking at her.

"I've heard so much about you," Mr. Hamilton said.
"Phin talked about you every step of the four hundred miles to Fort
Boise."

"And back," the ranch hand next to Mr. Hamilton
added.

Rika's gaze darted to the tall, blond man, who now stepped
into the house. Whatever Phineas had told his boss was about Jo, not about her.

At Amy's nudge, Phineas snatched off his hat and came
closer. "Hello."

"Hello," Rika said.

He took off his gloves and held Rika's hand in his. His
calluses felt like Amy's. He shifted from one foot to the other, as tongue-tied
as Rika.

Amy interrupted the awkward silence by shouldering past
them. "Let's go eat before supper gets cold."

*  *  *

The last bite of apple pie melted on Luke's tongue, and she
leaned back in her chair at the head of the table. She watched the people
around her, drinking them in. Her family.

She laid down her fork. Was it just her, or was something
different?

Instead of attacking their desserts as they usually did,
Nattie and Amy stabbed at their food without eating much. Once, Luke caught Amy
glaring at Phin.

What's the matter with her?
Did Amy think now that
Phin was back she'd lose her position of respect among the men?

Something was going on. Even Nora seemed quiet tonight.

The men made up for their silence with rambunctious
laughter. Jokes flew back and forth. The dangers along the way to Boise became
heroic adventures in Charlie's and Phin's recounting.

Luke met Nora's gaze. The familiar green eyes saw more than
Luke wanted to reveal in front of the girls. Nora knew there was more to the
stories than the men let on. She'd want the uncensored story later, and she'd
get it, just as Luke would get the truth about what had happened to their barn
and to Amy.

"Weren't you scared when that Indian pointed his bow
and arrow at you?" Nattie asked. Her fork hovered in front of her lips
while she stared at Phin.

"Scared?" Phin asked. "There was no time to
be afraid. We had to act before they got away with the best horse in our
herd."

Oh, yeah, sure.
Luke suppressed a smile. Of course
Phin had been afraid, but she said nothing. If he wanted to boast in front of
his new bride, so be it.

Not that the young lady seemed overly impressed. While
Nattie clung to Phin's words, Hendrika nodded in all the right places but
didn't fawn over him.

When Nora and the girls finally stood to carry the dirty
dishes into the kitchen, Hendrika stayed next to Amy instead of trying for a
more private conversation with her future husband.

Maybe she's just shy,
Luke thought.
She and Amy
know each other, but she and Phin are strangers — like Nora and I were when we
met.
Luke had married a stranger and then fallen in love with her wife. She
hoped it would turn out the same way for Phin. She would keep an eye out and
try to get to know the young woman better. After all, Phin was almost like a
son to her, so Hendrika Bruggeman was as close as Luke would ever get to having
a daughter-in-law.

*  *  *

An owl hooted somewhere above them. Was it the same one Rika
had heard so many nights when she lay next to Amy?

"Isaac," Phineas said, nodding skyward.

"What?"

"That's what Nattie calls the owl." Phineas took
measured steps so he wouldn't leave her behind on their romantic after-supper
stroll. "So, do you like living on a ranch?"

"Yes," Rika said, and not just because she wanted
to convince him she'd make a good wife. "It's a lot of work, but it's worth
it to own something like this." She indicated the corrals, the
outbuildings, and the barn with the horses.

Grass swayed around Rika's ankles.

It was getting long again, but Rika wouldn't be there for
the second cut of hay.

"If we start our own ranch, the first few years won't
be easy," Phineas said.

"I didn't expect them to be." Nothing in her life
had ever been easy, so why should this be any different? She would grit her
teeth and make it through the hard times, as she always had.

Phineas stopped under a large pine tree. "You're not at
all like I expected." His gaze raked over her, really studying her for the
first time.

Rika shuddered. Would he notice that she wasn't the woman
who had written to him? She lowered her head. "I hope you're not disappointed
with what you got."

"Not at all. You sounded like a romantic dreamer in
your letters."

A romantic dreamer. Jo had been exactly that.

"But now I think you're a woman who's got both feet
firmly on the ground." His eyes narrowed to slits. "And you don't look
anything like the woman in the tintype."

"I sent the picture of a friend," Rika blurted.
"I thought if I sent mine, no one would want to marry me with the way I
look."

His gaze softened. "You look just fine to me."

Heat blossomed in her cheeks. "Thank you," she
said. It was the best compliment she could ever hope to get. "You're not
upset?"

"Hm." Phineas rubbed the blond stubbles on his
chin. "I don't like being lied to, but I haven't been completely honest
with you either."

"No?" He seemed like an honest man, but maybe the
frozen blue of his eyes hid his own secrets.

"I can't write." He blushed beneath his beard.
"Miss Nattie's teaching me, but I can't write letters yet, so I asked Mrs.
Hamilton to help me with my letters to you."

Ah.
So the poetic words about Oregon were Nora's, not
Phineas's. Rika held back a giggle.
Seems Jo was swooning over a woman's
prose.

"So I guess we're even," Phineas said. "Let's
be honest with each other from now on." He paused and tilted his head,
clearly waiting for an agreement from Rika.

Rika couldn't hold his gaze. "All right." Her
stomach cramped, and she imagined the lies turning to stone in the pit of her
belly.

Phineas smiled. "So? Think you can stand spending the
rest of your life with me?"

A "no" formed in her throat, but what good reason
did she have for rejecting him?

The owl hooted again, maybe calling for its mate.

When silence fell, she whispered, "Yes."

*  *  *

Amy pressed her forehead against the windowpane. The cold
seeped into her skin and into her heart. It hurt to see Rika with Phin, but at
the same time, she couldn't look away.

Were they kissing out there, under the pine tree?

It was too dark to see, but the images in her mind tortured
Amy.

Footsteps stopped behind her, and Amy jerked away from the
window. She turned and met Nattie's eyes. "Should be good weather to check
on the foals tomorrow," she said, pretending to have watched the darkening
sky, not Rika and Phin.

But Nattie didn't fall for it. She didn't look at the sky.
Her gaze was fixed on the two people under the pine tree. "Do you think
they'll be happy with each other?"

As much as it hurt, Amy hoped they would be. "Phin's a
good man," she said. "And I think Rika is gonna make a good wife for
a rancher."

"Yes, but will they ever have that?" Nattie
pointed at the fireplace, where Mama and Papa sat, holding hands and talking
with their foreheads almost touching. Every now and then, they glanced at
Nattie and Amy, and whenever Papa looked as if he would come over to ask again
if they were all right, Amy turned away.

She looked at Nattie, really looked at her for the first
time in a long while. Her little sister was no longer so little. She was all
grown. Shadows of pain and doubt swirled in her eyes, making Amy wonder what
had put that expression into Nattie's eyes. Had she, too, given up on ever
finding the kind of love Mama and Papa had? "Are you all right?"

"Don't start being a mother hen too," Nattie said.
"Mama and Papa already asked me that twice tonight."

Everyone seemed to have a lot on his or her mind tonight.
Even Rika was strangely quiet instead of basking in Phin's attentions.

She sighed and wrapped her arm around Nattie's shoulder,
realizing with momentary irritation that she had to reach up. "I hope
they'll have that kind of love," she said. "And I hope you'll find it
too."

At least for Nattie, there was hope.

L
UKE
LEANED BACK in her armchair and ran her fingers through Nora's hair. Her
fingertips searched for any trace of injury. "Adam's damn lucky that he's
safely in prison for the rest of his life. Even if they end up hanging him,
that's better than what I would do to him if I got my hands on that
bastard." Her voice vibrated, and she forced down her anger, not wanting
her first night home to be tainted by hateful thoughts.

"Don't worry." Nora curled against Luke's side.
Now that everyone else had gone to bed and they had the parlor to themselves,
she was sitting almost on Luke's lap. "Frankie made sure he got what he
deserves."

"Where is she, by the way? I thought she and Tess would
still be here."

"They are staying in town for a while," Nora said.
"They said they need to work something out."

"You think they'll be fine in town?"

When Nora smoothed a finger along Luke's brow, Luke realized
she was frowning. "Why wouldn't they be fine?"

"The townsfolk are not exactly embracing women who
dress in men's clothes," Luke said, knowing Amy had earned a few haughty
comments for wearing pants when she worked with the horses.

"Tess has enough money to buy half the town, and you
know she can twist even the meanest people around her little finger. But just
in case, I think Frankie is wearing a dress today."

The ease with which Frankie switched back and forth still
astonished Luke. "Frankie is quite the character."

"At first I liked her because she reminded me of
you," Nora said.

"She's not like me at all." In a way, it was a
relief. Luke could be sure that Tess was with Frankie because she loved her,
not because Tess secretly longed for more than friendship with Luke.

The armchair creaked when Nora leaned over and kissed Luke's
cheek. "I know that now. She's a good person in her own right."

"Tess with a woman... did you see that coming?"
Heat rushed into Luke's cheeks. "I mean, I know she was with me,
but..."

"That was different, I know. Tess and I talked about
it."

Luke's fingers froze on another pass through the reddish
locks.

Nora laughed. "Don't look at me like that. Tess was
reassuring me."

That thought was even more unsettling. Why had Nora needed
reassurance? "After all these years, you still don't know that no one, not
even Tess, will ever compare to you?"

"I know that." Nora kissed her cheek again and
rubbed her nose beneath Luke's chin like a little kitten. "There was just
so much going on here, and I know it's stupid, but somehow, I halfway talked
myself into believing that your life would be easier if you had never met me
and —"

"Easier?" Luke sputtered. "Yeah, maybe it was
easier. Life's pretty uncomplicated if it's just you and your horse. But it's
also very lonely."

Nora nestled closer, her body pressed against Luke's.
"So Measles wasn't as good a kisser as I am?" Nora asked against her
lips.

"Ugh. I don't even want to think —"

Then she wasn't thinking at all. She was kissing Nora with every
bit of love and longing that she had.

Breathing heavily, Nora pulled away and reached for Luke's
hand. "Come on. Let's go upstairs."

Luke's heartbeat picked up as she climbed the stairs, her
hand still in Nora's.

The bedroom door closed behind them, and Luke stared at a
tub full of steaming water. "What's this?"

"If it's been so long that you don't remember what a
bath is, I'd say you really need one." Nora gave her a teasing grin, then
caressed Luke's fingers with hers. "I thought after you had to rush
through your ablutions for two months, I would surprise you with a nice,
private bath."

Speechless, Luke pulled Nora against her and kissed her.
"When did you have time to do that without me noticing?"

"The boys helped me when you were checking on Dancer,"
Nora said. "Should be just the right temperature now."

With a groan of anticipation, Luke locked the bedroom door
and lifted her hands to take off her clothes.

Nora stepped closer. "Let me do this." She pulled
the vest down Luke's arms and laid it on the trunk at the foot of their bed.
The shirt was next. Nora's eyes never left Luke's as she opened button after
button.

Luke held her breath in expectation.

The last button gave away, and Nora stripped Luke of her
shirt. She rubbed her fingers over the red flannel undershirt, then opened the
three tiny buttons. "Lift your arms."

Dazed, Luke complied. The timbre of Nora's voice cast a
powerful spell over her. She shivered as the fabric of the undershirt brushed
across her shoulders, then her arms, a harbinger of Nora's touch.

The undershirt sailed onto the trunk. Nora unbuttoned Luke's
pants, trailed her hand up Luke's stomach, and ran her nails across the
bandages binding Luke's breasts.