In Your Arms (Montana Romance) (15 page)

“I’ll make sure people back in town know not to disturb you,” Christian said, no happier than she was.

“Will they listen?”
Lily met and held his eyes.

No.
No they wouldn’t. Everyone in the room knew that, even some of the children.

“The blankets will be used,”
Snow In Her Hair said, crossing to take the bundle from Red Sun Boy, “but we have not had a good history of accepting blankets from your people.”

It was hard for Christian to tell if she was talking to Lily or him.
Lily hugged the boy clinging to her skirts, so rigid he swore he could see veins in her forehead.

“
That woman is insufferable!” she hissed.

Snow In Her Hair put the blankets down on top of the chest of boots with a sigh.
“She is typical. Some miners came by just last week. They said they were just stopping by and asked for water, but they spit on the rug. As long as we are here, we will have to endure their kind.”

She shot a pointed look to Sturdy Oak as she returned to her work in the kitchen.
Christian watched, impotent with fury. He strolled back to the fireplace to pick up his mug.

“
I’ll talk to Kent, see if I can get him to step up his search for the real thieves so we can put this to bed,” he grumbled.

“There is no need,”
Sturdy Oak said. He moved with the slowness of a man with a burden on his shoulders. “I must think on this.”

In the kitchen, Snow In Her Hair let out a breath and lowered her shoulders.
Lily watched her, then sought out Christian. He met her anxious glance with as much of a smile as he could manage. It wasn’t much. He had a bad feeling Alicia’s quiet invasion was only a warning shot.

The morning wore on into afternoon, and though Lily tried to keep her thoughts focused on the children, peace eluded her. Alicia Kuhn was unforgivable, but worse was the suspicion that Snow In Her Hair believed Lily was cut from the same cloth. She gave no indication of it, but Lily was certain that Snow In Her Hair’s repeated stares and considering nods were a silent condemnation. They were a sign that she didn’t belong.

Snow In Her Hair’s
scrutiny paled in comparison to the way Christian continued to watch her. Whatever his intent in visiting Sturdy Oak had been, it seemed his true purpose in being there was to watch her. No matter what he proceeded to do—whether it was talking to Sturdy Oak or his son as the noon meal was being prepared or helping set up tables for the communal meal—his eyes followed her. His constant, subtle attention spun her hopes down roads they had no business traveling when the rest of her was caught between the rock of Cold Springs suspicion and the hard place of Flathead pity.

Christian
made a point to sit by her side as all of Sturdy Oak’s people came to the house to eat. He even pressed his leg against hers on the bench when the table got crowded and tapped his foot against hers several times throughout the meal. It took all of her effort not to be provoked into a fit by his childish antics.

The problem was, she liked
them.

“I apologize for Mr. Avery’s behavior today,” she said to Snow In Her Hair and River Woman as they cleaned up from dinner.

“He is a handsome man.” Snow In Her Hair smiled.

Lily arched an eyebrow
as she rinsed plates under the pump in the sink. “He is far too casual at such a sensitive time.”

“
High spirits are a relief when other tensions mount.” River Woman said with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “And I agree. He is handsome.”

“He is like a buck in spring, showing off,” Snow In Her Hair
added.

Lily sighed loudly.
“He is a menace.”

Another look passed between
River Woman and Snow In Her Hair. Lily’s frustration blossomed.

“Why is everyone suddenly so full of coy smiles and implications that Christian Avery and I should be together?” she complained in a low voice.
“He is arrogant, demanding, full of himself, and behaves completely inappropriately toward me.” The memory of them tangled on the chaise in the hotel storeroom sprang to her mind, tangled shame and desire with it.

There was a heavy pause before River Woman said.
“So you return his interest?”

“I….”

Hot color flooded Lily’s face and neck. River Woman and Snow In Her Hair shook with swallowed laughter. Her gut clenched. Any minute now they would be laughing and wedging her out.

“He has a nice body,” River Woman said.
“Fit and strong.”

Lily’s eyes popped wide.
They should not be talking like this.

Yet, at the same time it was an opening.
This was how friends spoke to each other.

“I can’t sleep at night,” she confessed
, heart hammering more with the idea what these woman might not laugh at her than with the prospect of Christian’s body. “I think about him even though I don’t want to.”

She held her breath, waiting for
the inevitable.

“Men are like strong drink that way,” Snow In Her Hair
said, leaning closer.

“They make you forget necessary things and remember silly things,” River Woman agreed.

Lily blinked, letting out her breath. They hadn’t laughed. They included her in their knowing smiles. Hope flowered in her chest.

“
I see you with him and I am reminded of how I felt about the first boy I loved,” River Woman told Lily with a sage nod and a sigh.

“Did you feel distracted and irritated and stupid?” Lily
ventured.

“All the time.”
River Woman laughed. Snow In Her Hair laughed with her.

“What did you do
about it?” Lily asked, holding on to the improbable hope that River Woman would tell her.

“I
mooned about, bringing him cakes with sugar,” River Woman answered without hesitation.

Snow In Her Hair
nodded, her grin broad as if she remembered the story.

“It was when he kissed me that I knew I was in trouble,”
River Woman went on.

“He kissed you?”
Lily felt herself caught in Christian’s arms in her classroom, helpless under the pressure of his mouth against hers. She caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye, debating with Sturdy Oak and his son, still watching her. Prickles of heat spread across her skin.

“He kissed me very well,”
River Woman went on. “He was ardent and powerful. It was a good kiss.”

“What did you do then?” Lily asked, almost desperate to know what she could do to control the fire of Christian’s kiss
that still burned in her.

“
I snuck out of my tent that night,” River Woman said, “and crept across the village. I remember it was a cold night and I had to run across new snow, but it did not lessen the heat I felt at all.”

Lily nodded, imagining herself in
River Woman’s role far too easily, burning cheeks, cold feet.

“I found this boy’s tent and
slipped in under the side.”

Snow In Her Hair
chuckled, eyes dancing.

“Then I found this boy’s
bed, took off my clothes, and crawled in with him.” River Woman’s eyes were alight.

Lily gasped.
“What happened? Were you discovered?”

“I was discovered,” she nodded, smile wide.
“By the boy. He took off his clothes as well and we made love several times.”

Lily’s mouth hung open.
She had long since forgotten the dishes in her hand and the pump had run dry.

“But…
but….” She closed her mouth and swallowed. Her gaze slipped past River Woman to Christian across the room. He was watching her with undisguised interest. She turned so that only Snow In Her Hair and River Woman could see her face. “But weren’t there consequences? Weren’t you disgraced when you were caught?”

“Oh, there were consequences,”
River Woman laughed. “There were consequences because I kept sneaking back into his bed.”

“What happened?”

“Two Feathers, for one,” River Woman answered, sending her son a fond smile. “And some of the happiest years of my life, for another.” She finished her story with a wistful sigh.

Snow In Her Hair
reached out and squeezed River Woman’s arm. “He was a good man.”

River Woman
nodded. “He went off the reservation one day to hunt,” she explained to Lily. “He did not come back. The soldiers told me he abandoned us, but that is not what happened.” The steel in River Woman’s eyes suggested all to clearly what she thought had happened. Yet, there was no anger—not at the soldiers, who Lily assumed had harmed him, nor for River Woman’s lost love—only a deep, hopeless grief.

River Woman
drew in a breath and resumed her work cleaning up. “I am glad that I crawled into his bed that night, all those nights.”

That was it.
The end of the story. Lily dared another glance over her shoulder to Christian. He watched her with intense curiosity. She could feel it like the pressure of his arms around her.

She worked the pump in the sink, grateful for cool water rushing over her hands.

River Woman leaned closer to her and whispered, “I do not think Christian would mind if you slipped into his tent tonight.”

Lily’s straightened to blink incredulously at her.
“I couldn’t! I wouldn’t dare!”

Snow In Her Hair took the
clean plate from Lily’s hands. “I think you could.”

“It wouldn’t be right.”
Lily shook her head. “I could lose my position at the school if I was found out.”

“That is true.”
River Woman nodded, backing off. Her nod slipped into a deep chuckle. “
If
you were found out.”

“Nonsense,” Lily muttered, reaching for a dirty plate.
“Reckless nonsense. At a time like this.”

But even as her mind sought to dismiss the dangerous idea, her heart fluttered.
People stayed indoors in the winter. Christian lived in a small house behind the courthouse. Few people had any reason to venture that way, particularly at night. It was feasible that she could steal right up to his front door without a soul being the wiser.

“See, I told you she has the spark in her,” River Woman said.

Snow In Her Hair agreed with a nod on Lily’s other side. “She may have lost some of her people’s ways, but not all of them.”

The comment, delivered so easily, struck Lily like an arrow in the gut.
Swirls of hope and anxiety filled her. The dreams and nightmares of her childhood clashed in the space where she stood, between these two grinning, grounded women.

“I don’t know who my people are.
” The confession rushed out of her so fast that she sucked in a breath, as if to shut the door of a thousand other confessions behind them. She handed the plate she had washed to Snow In Her Hair and gripped the edge of the sink.

A hand rested on her shoulder.
For a moment she thought it was Christian, that he had walked across the room to touch her when she had been lost in other troubles. But no, it was River Woman.

She squeezed Lily’s shoulder.
“It is a good thing, then, that your people know who you are.”

A dam of emotion cracked in Lily’s chest.
Suddenly she couldn’t breathe. Her eyes stung with tears aching to be shed. Years of loneliness vanished to nothing faster than she could keep up.

“Lily, we’d better get started home now,” Christian’s deep voice broke through the wave that was about to crash.
“It’s starting to get dark and I don’t like the looks of the clouds out there.”

Lily sucked in a breath.
“Yes, yes, you’re right,” she said without turning to face him.

She raised her cold, wet hands to her face, wiping her cheeks and her eyes with a damp towel to hide what had almost happened.

“Thank you,” she said smiling as best she could at River Woman and Snow In Her Hair.

There was so much more she wanted to say, so many thank yous that needed to be said, but they were all beyond her.
She pushed away from the sink and started across the room, hugging every child she came across along the way. They were all there, ready and eager to take a turn clinging to her and accepting her kisses on their foreheads. Each one of them was a unique blessing.

Christian was waiting for her at the door, her coat held out.
Still he watched her, but now with a quiet look of approval that was as far from the arrogant man that she had been ready to thrash that morning. When he lifted her coat up over her shoulders and settled it in place, his arms lingered a heartbeat too long around her. She wished they would stay where they were, that she could stay in his arms.

“Want me to bring the wagon to the door so you don’t have to walk out there in the cold?” he asked her.