Mountain Rose (28 page)

Raegan's startled eyes jumped to Jamie's worried face. "No wonder the Tillamooks are so determined to find her."

Jamie gazed down at the mother and child. "And here we stand with that Chief's prince . .. and his dead wife," Jamie said, his face grim.

"Oh, Jamie, are you sure?" Raegan cried.

"I'm sure." He gently closed the staring eyes. "She died with her last breath telling you to take her son to Tillamook land." When tears surged to Raegan's eyes, he squeezed her shoulder in sympathy. "It's hellish, I know, but we've got to think of the baby now. He's got to be cleaned off and wrapped up in something. And fed as soon as possible. He's awfully weak and may not make it either."

Raegan jumped to her feet just as the door opened and Chase and Star entered the room. "We heard the baby cry and figured it was all over," Chase said.

"It's over for good as far as the woman is concerned. She bled to death," Jamie said tiredly.

Star let out a small cry, and Chase asked, "What about the baby? Is it gonna make it?"

"I don't know." Jamie stretched his stiff back. "He's awfully weak, but I'm hoping he's got the same determination to live that his mother had." He watched Raegan bathing the infant. "I don't know how in the hell we're gonna feed him, though."

Chase remembered old Daniel's story about how he had given nourishment to Star when she was a baby. "Try to spoon some weak sugar water into him until I get back," he said on his way to the door. "I'll return within the hour."

As Chase rode toward Chief Wise Owl's village, he wondered what excuse he could give the old chief for wanting a woman's false nipple. No one else must know about what had just happened in his cabin.

He couldn't believe his good fortune when, at the edge of the village of wigwams, Sampson almost trod on the young woman Chase had saved from the lusty preacher. She recognized him as he climbed out of the saddle. After asking after her health, he explained his reason for the late-night visit.

She listened somberly and nodded when he finished speaking. "I'll be right back," she said, and darted away.

Chase watched her disappear into a wigwam, then within minutes she was back, thrusting a small, soft object in his hand. "It belongs to my aunt," she whispered. "She'll not miss it. She has others. My poor relative never has enough milk for her babes."

"I deeply appreciate this," Chase said, "but I would ask another favor of you."

"And what is that, friend?"

"That you not tell of my visit tonight, that we will share another secret."

"The favor is given, Chase Donlin," the young woman said quietly and walked away from him.

Chase swung onto the stallion's back again, satisfied that none of tonight's events would ever pass the woman's lips. Seldom did an Indian break a promise, and never to a friend.

Twenty minutes later, Chase raced up to his cabin. He hurried inside the kitchen and smiled at the three people sitting around the table. "Ever see one of these?" he asked, tossing the doeskin nipple on the table before Jamie.

A slow grin spread across Jamie's face as he picked up the cone-shaped object. "Hell, yes," he said. "I don't know why I didn't think of it. Where did you get it?"

"From a friend," was all Chase said.

"What is it?" Raegan asked, looking curiously at what Jamie held in his hand.

"It's a make-believe woman's nipple," Star exclaimed. "Paw fed me my milk through one of them when I was a baby."

"Well then, wildcat, you know what to do with it, don't you?" Jamie teased.

Before Star could give him a rude rejoinder, Raegan said, "Well I don't know what to do with it."

Star explained its use and Jamie added, "Water the canned milk down some. If he gets diarrhea, he'll never make it."

As Raegan and Star prepared the milk in an empty whiskey bottle, much like the one that had held Star's goat milk, Jamie looked at Chase and said soberly, "We're in deep trouble, Chase. The father of the baby is a Tillamook chief."

"Are you sure?" Chase gaped at him. "It's not Roscoe's?"

"As sure as sure can be. The little fellow is pure Indian." And while Chase was digesting that piece of news, Jamie added, "The woman asked Raegan to take the baby to his father."

"Well, she sure as hell isn't going to," Chase said vehemently. "She'd never get away from that village alive."

Jamie dropped the subject, having the same sentiments. A short time later, Chase, Jamie, and Star watched Raegan put the leather nipple to the baby's mouth. Instinct and hunger parted the almost blue lips. Great sighs of relief left four throats as the small lips moved eagerly, drawing in the infant's first nourishment.

Raegan felt as though she was holding a bundle of rags, so light was the baby as she set the rocker into motion. Jamie had said he'd be surprised if the baby weighed four pounds. As Chase and Jamie discussed what to do with its mother, Raegan cuddled the little one to her breast, crooning to him softly.

"My grandmother once told me that the Tillamooks believe that the land of the dead is located somewhere to the west," Jamie said. "When a person died he was put into a plank box, then placed in a canoe. Then another canoe is inverted over the first, and they're wrapped together with wide strips of rawhide."

"I hate to give up our canoes." Chase frowned. "Mine is only a year old."

"Don't worry about it." Jamie grinned. "Old Wise Owl has them hidden all up and down the Platte. Later on tonight, I'll just help myself to a couple. He'll never miss them." After a brief pause, he asked, "Where will we take the body?"

As Chase looked thoughtful, gazing at the dead woman, Raegan said, "Somewhere pretty, Chase." She was remembering the ugly spot Meg Jones had chosen for her husband. "She deserves a peaceful place."

"Yes she does, and I've thought of the perfect place. There's a small valley about five miles due west past Chief Wise Owl's village. She can lie in peace there."

He rose and walked over to Raegan to look down on the sleeping baby. The small lips had lost their bluish tint and were now a pale pink. It looked as if the little one would make it. He touched the silky head, then smiled at Raegan. "You look real good with a baby in your arms, wife."

Raegan heard the yearning in his voice. She, too, would like to have a baby; she dreamed of it often and felt sure in her heart that some day she would conceive. And that was why, she told herself, she must be careful not to become too attached to the little mite in her arms. There was also the fact that the child was a full-blooded Tillamook and must somehow be handed over to his father.

Jamie approached her and Chase. "Raegan," he said, "Do you think you and Star could bathe the woman, maybe put a pair of Star's buckskins on her?"

"Yes of course, Jamie." Raegan stood up. "I'll put the little brave on our bed and get right to it."

"You'd better put Chase's slicker under him if you don't want to sleep on a wet bed tonight." Jamie grinned at her.

"That reminds me," Raegan said, "One of you will have to go to the village tomorrow and buy some white flannel yardage. Five yards should do it. I have to make this little fellow some clothes."

"I'll go," Chase said, "right after Jamie and I take the woman's body away."

Raegan and Star bathed the bruised and battered body of the Tillamook woman, tears running down their cheeks. As Star towel-dried the long black hair, she wondered out loud why some men were so cruel. What made them beat defenseless women?

"I don't know, Star." Raegan slid the buckskin trousers up over the thin hips. "That awful Roscoe is the first one of his kind I've ever encountered."

"I've never met any like him," Star said, relief in her voice. "I'm not sayin' that Paw's friends ain't rough. Some of them might get drunk and slap their woman if she nags him, but I've never heard of any treatin' their womenfolk like this one has been treated."

"Could be your grandfather never let you know about such men," Raegan pointed out. "I've a feeling he sheltered you from the harsher aspects of life."

"That could be," Star answered thoughtfully. "He's always very careful about who comes around me."

"There, now." Raegan straightened up from bending over the woman. "What do you think, Star?"

"I think she looks real nice, Raegan," Star answered.

"And peaceful," Raegan said. She laid her hand over the cold, crossed ones and whispered, "Somehow I'll see that your son gets to his father."

The near-dawn sky was overcast as Chase and Jamie rode away from the cabin, the canoes holding the Indian woman's remains resting on a travois. Jamie's roan dragged the contrivance behind him, for Sampson would have no part of the two poles that occasionally nudged at his heels.

As they moved deeper and deeper into the thick forest, moving around trees, both men cast nervous glances around them. Both were hopeful that the woman's relatives weren't up and around yet. It they should be caught with her body, there would be no escaping death. It would be painful to the extreme, and slow in coming.

"Let's step up our pace a little," Jamie said. "Daylight will be here in another hour."

After ascending and descending another hill, the men came upon a small, tree-studded valley.

It was beautiful and serene, the gray of approaching dawn emphasizing the green of pine, the pale brown of pine needles. As Chase and Jamie placed the canoe-coffin between two trees, hidden beneath the interwoven branches, the sun rose.

Chase laid a palm on the top canoe. "Rest in peace, Tillamook woman," he said softly, then climbed back onto his stallion.

Jamie mounted his roan, and as they rode away from the lonesome little valley, he said, "Shell rest in peace when Roscoe receives Indian justice."

The sun was a couple of hours high when, tired and bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, they rode up to the cabin. Star came running out to put the horses in the barn and tend to them, and Raegan had a pot of coffee waiting.

"Did everything go well?" she asked as they dropped into chairs and watched her fill their coffee cups.

Chase nodded. "I don't think anyone saw us. It was quiet in Wise Owl's village, and we didn't see any sign of Tillamooks." He yawned widely, then took a long swallow of his coffee. "I'm gonna catch a couple hours sleep, then I'm goin' over to Granny Pearson's cabin and bring her here to stay with us until this Indian scare is over."

"But you tried to talk her into that before, and she'd have none of it," Raegan reminded him. "She said there wasn't an Indian alive she couldn't handle."

"She's a stubborn old bit," Jamie said, affection for the fiesty old woman in his voice. "What makes you think she'll be willin' to come home with you now?"

"She won't be willin', but she'll come, even if I have to hog-tie her and throw her across that broken-down mule of hers. It's too dangerous for her be livin' alone away out there by herself."

Chase finished his coffee and stood up. He curved his hand around the back of Raegan's neck. "I'm gonna go to bed now," he said, then gave his wife a wicked look. "You gonna come tuck me in?"

Raegan blushed a deep red, sensing that Jamie and Star, who had just returned from the barn, were watching her with amusement. Blast Chase, he wasn't at all discreet about wanting to make love to her. She should be used to it by now. Avoiding the knowing looks from the two young people, she rose and walked ahead of her randy husband, leading the way to their bedroom.

When Chase closed the door behind them and pulled her into his arms, the scolding words on her lips died away. She said instead, "Are you sure you want me to go to bed with you? You must be awfully tired."

He bucked a full arousal against her pelvis. "Does that feel like it?" he whispered against the corner of her lips.

"Well, I don't know," she teased. "Seeing is believing, and I haven't seen anything yet."

With a rougish look in his eyes, Chase unlaced his buckskins and freed his rigid maleness. "There now, take a look."

"Oh yes, quite handsome." Raegan stroked a finger down the stiffness jutting out at her.

Chase shivered, then said in a husky voice, "Now that you've mentioned it, I am a little tired. If you don't mind, you can do all the work this time."

It took but a minute for them to get out of their clothes and fall into the yet unmade bed. They had already aroused each other to fever pitch with their touching and innuendos, and when Chase moved onto on his back, Raegan climbed astride his hips. His long shaft throbbed against her belly and she bent over, and taking its head in her mouth, she drew on it a minute before sliding it inside her hot moistness. She leaned forward then until her breasts hung over Chase's mouth. When, with a deep groan, he drew a nipple between his lips, she began to move on him, lifting and driving in rhythm with his drawing lips.

In the kitchen, Star and Jamie looked at each other when the tell-tale noises floated down the hall. And though their lips curved in an amused smile, there was a longing in their eyes. "Damn that Chase," Jamie said, a slight resentment in his voice, "In there gettin' pleasured by his woman while I have to go to bed, leavin' my woman sittin' in the kitchen."

He stood up and drew Star into his arms. "We'll go down by the river this afternoon," she soothed him when he released her lips from a long kiss.

True to his word, Chase brought Granny Pearson home with him. He hadn't had to hog-tie her, nor did she come kicking and screaming. But there had been a belligerent look in her bird-like eyes, and in the two weeks she'd been at the Donlin cabin that look hadn't quite left them. She let Chase know that there was a rift in their friendship by not talking to him unless she forgot for a moment that she was mad at him. With Jamie, she was her usual herself— affectionately cross.