Lily's Secrets [Elk Creek 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (6 page)

“Let’s see what we’re dealing with here.” Lily ripped off a strip of cloth from the bottom of her dress with her teeth and hands then she balled up the material and pressed it against his wound to staunch the flow of blood.

Dakota panted at the pressure of her hands and watched as his blood quickly saturated the blue gingham material. He was sorry that she had ruined her dress for him, especially since her efforts were probably all a waste of time.

He felt himself slipping and knew that he would soon be with his ancestors in the great beyond. There was nothing more Lily or Wyatt could do for him. There was nothing anyone could do for him.

“What’s your name?” She put a hand on his face and the warmth of her skin shocked him back into awareness.

“I am called Dakota.”

“Dakota, I’m Lily.”

“Lilybelle,” he murmured and listened as her musical chuckle filled the air.

“It’s my name, yes, but Wyatt’s about the only one who calls me that.”

“Okay.” He closed his eyes again.

“Dakota? Dakota! Stay with me.” She lightly smacked his cheek and pushed moist hair away from his face. “What’s your last name, Dakota?”

He opened his eyes to peer at her and heard her slight intake of breath. “Cooper.”

“You have the most beautiful eyes, Dakota Cooper.” She covered her mouth with her hand as if she had not meant to say something so ill-advised and too late tried to keep the words from leaving her mouth. “I apologize for being so forward.”

He smiled at the irony. He wanted to tell her how beautiful
her
eyes were to him.

“I know you’re an Indian, but it’s obvious you’re not full-blooded.”

“My father was white.”

“Was?”

“He is no longer among the living.”

She took and squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry.”

“Do not be. It was a long time ago.” Not that he had ever gotten over the pain of his loss, especially the uselessness of the way his father had died. It had been so unnecessary.

“That half of you should be able to keep you safe and save you.”

“Save me from what?”

“Not really what, but whom. As you’ve probably noticed, my husband is not too fond of…your kind. He’d just as soon leave you here to die as not.”

“I noticed.”

“But I’m not going to let that happen.”

He caught her hand and squeezed. “Thank you, Lily.”

“You don’t have to…”

The sound of an approaching horse and wagon interrupted what she was about to say.

Lily grabbed her husband’s pistol with her free hand and aimed it toward the trees before Wyatt, steering a horse and wagon, burst through the woods.

He brought the wagon to a stop just several feet away from them.

Wyatt jumped down from the wagon and rushed to their sides. “C’mon. Let’s load him up and get him to the house. I’d like to get us all inside before dark.”

Lily stood as Wyatt squatted by his side, and the next thing Dakota knew the man was lifting him up to carry him over his shoulder.

Dakota bit back a gasp at the sudden movement.

“Not so rough, Wyatt.”

Wyatt grumbled something unintelligible, but took care in placing Dakota on several blankets heaped in the buckboard.

“What are you doing?” Wyatt demanded when Lily climbed up in the buckboard with Dakota instead of up front.

“I’m going to ride in back with him and make sure he’s comfortable.”

Wyatt shook his head and grumbled again but didn’t argue any further as he leaped down from the back of the wagon and walked around to climb up onto the front seat.

Dakota would have laughed at Wyatt’s reactions to his wife’s determination if he wasn’t in so much pain.

Maybe there is hope for them after all.

Where did that leave him?

* * * *

He sneered from his hiding place, crouching behind the copse. He couldn’t figure out with whom he was more upset—the half-breed for getting away from him, injured and all, or Lily for treating him as if he was a treasure she’d just found.

She should be treating
him
with such reverence and care, not the half-breed.
He
had earned it.
He
had softened her up enough to understand and accept what a real man had to offer her—white or Indian.

Had it just been Wyatt, he decided, he might have come out of hiding to finish what he’d started. He was sure Wyatt would support him after what Lily had endured among the savages.

He smiled thinking about Wyatt’s sweet wife, remembering the softness of her skin, the sweet lavender smell of her.

He didn’t know why Lily hadn’t said anything to anyone yet, and every day he lived on the edge waiting for her to tell her husband what happened to her at the homestead before she’d found refuge with the Kiowa tribe. However, she had been back closer to a year than not and so far to his knowledge she had said nothing. He was almost certain now that she wouldn’t after all this time. What would be the point?

That got him to thinking that maybe his Lily had ideas about him and her as well as he did. Maybe she kept everyone in the dark until she was ready to proclaim her feelings for him to the world, but more importantly, to her husband.

He wondered, however, why the half-breed had been lurking on Wyatt and Lily’s land. He wondered why he was on their near-isolated homestead in the first place. How long had the half-breed been spying on the husband and wife and why?

Was he here to finish the job that
he
had started several years ago, or did he have something else on his agenda altogether? Was he part of that Kiowa tribe Lily had found refuge with? Was the Indian the reason he had to thank for Lily’s survival?

He grinned from his hiding place behind the thicket, and anticipated finally eliminating his competition in Wyatt and now the meddlesome half-breed. He supposed he should be thankful to the half-breed for his part in Lily’s rescue, if he indeed was the one who had found her. If he hadn’t saved Lily, literally bringing her back from the dead, then
he
would not have had another opportunity to fully express his feelings for Lily. He would not be able to soak up her wild fighting spirit.

He got hard now just thinking about her, thinking about how it would feel when he finally got to have her.

He’d taught her a good lesson for defying him, one she’d never forget, but he regretted that he’d had to get so rough with her. He hadn’t meant to hurt her as badly as he had and had panicked when she didn’t respond after he’d hit her that last time.

When he thought about it now, he realized that he hadn’t thought out his plan thoroughly enough. Once he had seen Lily and known she was home alone—a rarity with a husband as protective and possessive as Wyatt—his mind had gone blank and he’d started running on pure instinct to take advantage of the opportunity that had been dropped in his lap.

Even after all this time and seeing her around town and back at the homestead, he yet found it difficult to believe that she was alive and well. He took it as a sign that someone above favored their union. Why else would he be given another chance to have her?

It was in the stars that he and Lily should be together.

Wyatt was an ignorant and jealous farmer-turned-cowboy-turned-farmer who didn’t know how to give a woman like Lily what she needed.

He
knew how to, though, and soon he would remove both her husband and her half-breed admirer from the equation.

Lily wondered if maybe Doctor Malloy was wrong and Dakota Cooper might still die.

True, his fever had broken and he wasn’t as pale as he’d been when they’d first brought him back to the house three days ago. Lily had even managed to get plenty of liquids in him as the doctor had instructed and a few servings of her homemade chicken soup for nourishment.

Doctor Malloy seemed confident that Dakota would be up and around in no time with very few ill effects remaining after his misadventure.

He’d removed the bullet, cleaned the wound, and stitched Dakota up with such efficiency and speed that Lily didn’t dare doubt him. There was just something so different, even awe-inspiring about Doctor Malloy than what she’d noticed of other doctors in the territory, especially old Doctor Hopwood, and Lily couldn’t help but trust his abilities and counsel.

She considered herself well read, and unlike some of her female counterparts, she insisted on keeping up with the latest in politics and science. She told herself she did it as much for her students as for herself, but the truth was she had an innately curious nature and liked to stay as informed as possible. She believed that no one ever got too old to learn something new. Lily, however, had never heard of some of the medicines and treatments that Doctor Malloy favored and regularly recommended to his patients for serious as well as run-of-the-mill ailments. She couldn’t argue with the results for those townspeople who followed his advice to the letter.

For instance, she had never seen Clay Cole’s wife, Olivia, so spry and healthy since she’d known her. Her gout flare-ups were few and far between, and when she did have them, they weren’t as severe. Lily knew that the woman’s robust health was due to Doctor Malloy’s treatment but especially his herbal and nutritional requirements.

Following his usual approach, he had left a couple of bottles from Sabrina and his wife’s notions and potions shop with Lily with instructions on when and how to give them to Dakota to ease his minor symptoms of pain and fever as well as fight off any infection. Lily had been giving the medicine to Dakota religiously since Doctor Malloy had prescribed it.

Still, Dakota didn’t look anywhere near ready to get up and about.

Lily wasn’t sure how she felt about this. She wanted him to get well, of course. She knew, however, that as soon as he was up and healthy enough, Wyatt would insist that he be out of their house and on his way, and this would only be right.

She found herself in no particular hurry to be without the Indian’s company, though. Even more unconscious than not, Dakota provided more company and emotional support to her than Wyatt had of late. She hated thinking so unkindly of her husband, but it was true.

Things she would never dream of saying to Wyatt, she said to Dakota while he slept and she nursed him back to health. She spoke about her hopes and dreams for the future, her fears about her and Wyatt’s marriage. She even cried, imparting her grief at the loss of her son.

Dakota couldn’t judge her while he slept, but she had a feeling he wouldn’t judge her even if he was awake and knew what had happened to her before the Kiowas had taken her in.

Feeling more free and easy in the sick and unconscious man’s company than she ever had before, Lily even found herself singing around the house as she went about her daily chores, something she hadn’t done since she’d returned. She used to sing often, for no reason at all except because her soul wanted to, and she sang in the church choir or at other official town functions when the occasions warranted.

Wyatt loved her voice. At least he’d always said he did. He said her singing soothed him, especially after a long, hard day of him tending the farm.

She’d loved singing to him as much as he’d loved hearing her sing. She enjoyed knowing that her husband appreciated the little-known things about her as well as the big, obvious things.

Lily supposed she could have used that as an excuse for her singing now, that she did it to soothe their ailing guest, but she knew it was more than that. She sang now because there was a song in her heart, and Lily knew exactly who had put it there.

She should have felt guilty about the lightness in her heart, a cheerfulness of which her husband was not the cause. She should not have been happy about being left alone with, for all intents and purposes, a total stranger, “an unpredictable savage,” while Wyatt was out and about ensuring they kept a roof over their heads.

Lily didn’t feel guilty, though. She was, in fact, close to being happy, at least as happy as she had been in a long while. She was at least as happy as she had been when she had her son upon whom to dote.

She also found that she was not uncomfortable being alone with Dakota. Unlike her husband, whom she’d had to convince to go to town and about his business without her, she did not fear for her safety, not even should Dakota wake.

She was in fact impatient for the moment when he would open his arresting blue eyes, look upon her face, and know that she was the one who had been taking care of him all this time. She was eager to hear his soft, eloquent voice frame words with his cultured tongue.

Lily paused from her knitting, holding her work in progress close to her breast and closing her eyes as a wave of desire suddenly swept over her.

Goodness, what kind of woman was she to feel such things about a stranger?

She was married, maybe not so happily, but she did love Wyatt and she wanted their marriage to succeed. She knew he loved her, too, so there was something there for them to work with. She just didn’t know where to begin.