The Bride Wore Feathers (47 page)

"You don't owe me any explanations, Stoltz. I mean that."

"And I thank you, but I want you to understand. I tried to convince Custer it would be foolish to go on ahead. I scouted for the general. I went into places no other could, and I told him how many warriors he faced. Jacob hung his head and sighed. "He would not believe me. He would not listen. That is why he is dead."

Uncomfortable, vaguely disturbed by some of Jacob's explanations, Barney changed the subject. "That's enough talk of Little Bighorn. It's a closed book as far as
I'm
concerned. What happened to you? Where've you been all this time?"

Jacob looked up at his friend, twinkles of mischief playing hopscotch in his deep blue eyes. "I have been camping with the Sioux."

"Oh, come on, now, Stoltz. Give me the truth."

"That is the truth, friend. After I escaped from you, I followed the general, but I did not arrive in time to save him. As I walked through the battlefield, a Cheyenne warrior saw me and emptied his rifle into my body. When I awakened from a long and terrifying sleep, I was being cared for by the very Indians the cavalry had sought to kill."

"Damnation," Barney breathed. "Why in hell would they do that?"

Jacob shrugged. "I cannot pretend to know what is in another man's mind, but I like to believe the Lakota are trying to learn and understand the whites. It may be time for us all to try to find a way to live in peace with one another."

"Sounds like a lot less bloody solution than we've tried so far." Barney stared at his friend for a long moment, then jumped to his feet as if slapped. "I don't know what's wrong with my manners. Here you been riding for days, I suppose, and I ain't even offered you a bite of food or a warm drink. How about some coffee? Hazel will be back soon, so I'll let her feed you. She's got something cooking that'll warm your innards."

Jacob nodded, inhaling the aroma of slowly roasting beef, the clear scent of a woman lingering throughout the house, and his mind returned to an earlier statement Barney had made and the main purpose of his journey. When the new captain returned carrying two cups of steaming coffee, Jacob accepted his, then said, "Thanks, friend. Please tell me about your Hazel. Did I hear you say you were married?"

"Yep. Right after I got back from the Little Bighorn. That sweet gal is the best damn thing that ever happened to me. Better than making captain any day."

Jacob nodded, smiling as he stared into the cup. "And Dominique?" he ventured softly. "Does Hazel keep in touch with her?"

"Keep in touch? Oh, Stoltz, I forgot about you and her."

Jacob's head snapped up and his brows slammed together. "What? What is it? Has some harm come to Dominique?"

"No, it ain't exactly that." Barney stumbled around, searching for a way to tell his friend, then shook his head and turned his palms up. "I told you once to forget her, to bury her. I don't suppose you took that advice."

"No," Jacob said, his expression stern. "And I'm not going to take it now. What's happened to Dominique? Where can I find her?"

"Aw, hell, Stoltz," he muttered. "Don't you remember that she was, you know, captured? I don't have to remind you of that, do I?"

"No, you do not."

"Well, she come back. Reno's bunch found her at the Little Bighorn, and she come back on the steamer with the wounded. I don't know how to put this, exactly, but she's not the same, if you know what I mean."

Losing patience, sudden concern driving him, Jacob said, "I don't know what you mean. Please tell me. Where is Dominique? What is wrong with her?"

His eyes shadowed, fearful, Barney chanced a look at his friend. "She's here, Stoltz. She didn't go home to Michigan with Mrs. Custer."

"Dominique? Here at Fort Lincoln?" Jacob leapt off the couch, spilling the hot coffee on his trousers. The burning sensation stinging his legs was no competition for his pounding heart, and he went on, oblivious to the discomfort, "Where is she, Barney? Take me to her at once."

"Easy now, Stoltz." Barney stood up, staring at the stains on his friend's pant legs, wondering how he'd been able to stand the pain, and said, "I got to tell you about her, explain that she just ain't the same gal."

Now Jacob's eyes narrowed, but the twinkle in them was no longer mischievous or good-natured. His voice low and dangerous, he said, "I wish to see Dominique and judge this for myself. Take me to her."

Barney's chest flattened as he saw Jacob's expression. "She'll be coming along with Hazel 'fore long. But you got to listen to me before they get here. You got to understand what I'm trying to say." Barney scratched his head, then fiddled with his mustache as he tried to find a delicate way to put it. "For God's sake, man, she was taken in by one of them warriors. Don't you get it? He kept her to himself, you know, like she was his own little toy."

The tension vanished from Jacob's body. He sucked in a breath of cool air, unaware he'd stopped breathing. "This doesn't bother me, Barney," he said quietly. "I just want to see her."

"That's right big of you, Stoltz. I'm sure Dominique will appreciate that much. As for the rest—"

Jacob raised his brow. "The rest?"

"I—" Barney stared at his friend, studied his big thick body, and sighed. Even though Jacob appeared gaunt and weaker than usual, he still looked to be strong enough to snap a man of his own build like a toothpick. Someone else would have to explain to the big German that the sweet gal he loved carried a half-breed baby in her womb, the child of a savage. But it would have to be someone he wouldn't want to hurt, a woman, perhaps. Feeling more than a little cowardly, but unable to do anything else, Barney said, "I believe I'd best let the missus explain the rest."

Outside the house, while Jacob tried to make sense of Barney's puzzle, a buggy rounded the corner and made its way to Officers' Row. Riding behind the driver on the bench seat, Dominique leaned in close to Hazel, trying to hear what she had to say.

"...getting too big for discretion. Besides, next month the snow will start falling, and you'll have to stop going up to the scouts' quarters anyway. Tsk, tsk, all this running around in your condition is highly improper."

"What?" Dominique asked. "I didn't hear everything you said." Straining against the sudden gusty wind, she cocked her head. That was when she noticed two strange horses tied at the rail.

"Looks as if you have company," she shouted to Hazel. "Come over to my place later, and we'll talk about this improper business." Dominique's words stuck in her throat and her heart seized up as she stared at the horses. "Peaches?" she said in a strangled whisper. "And... Sampi?"

"What?" Hazel shouted back. "What are you talking about?"

But Dominique focused only on the horses, heard only the sound of her own heartbeat hammering away in her throat. "Stop," she screamed at the driver. "Stop this instant."

The startled soldier reined in his team, but before the buggy came to a halt, one of his passengers leapt over the side of the rig and ran on ahead of him.

"Dominique," Hazel shrieked from the bench. "My Lord, what can you be thinking of in your condition? Dominique?"

But she was beyond the sound of Hazel's voice, past the point of considering her body or its limitations. Dominique flew to the mare's side and buried her fingers in the long black mane. "Oh, is you, my Peaches."
mon Dieu,"
she said in half-sob. "It

She glanced at the big stallion, swaying as a wave of dizziness swept over her, and choked out, "And Sampi, too. My God, it's really Sampi."
Jacob's here,
her mind whispered.
Jacob? But how? Where?

She clutched at her throat, unable to call out his name for fear the hope would evaporate. What if it was true? What if Jacob was waiting just inside the door?

"Jacob?" she cried in a muffled sob. "Oh, Jacob, please be in there." Then, forcing her stricken limbs to move, Dominique grabbed at the hem of her skirts and bounded up the stairs two at a time. Throwing her shoulder against the wood, she turned the knob and crashed through the door in the same instant.

The noise startled Barney and his guest. Turning toward the sound, both men gasped.

"Jacob,"
she managed in a constricted sob. "Oh, God, it is you."

"Dominique," he whispered.

Jacob covered the distance between them in two long strides. Then, faster than he could blink back an unexpected tear, he gathered her into his arms.

"Oh, Jacob," she cried against his neck, her own tears flowing like the Missouri in May. "You're alive. You're
alive!"

"Yes" was the best Jacob could manage as his warrior's armor began to crack and peel. Behind his eyes, something hot pulsated, demanding release, threatening to expose him as a man whose heart now ruled his head. Unable to stem the burning tide, unwilling to allow anyone to witness this ultimate lack of control, Jacob pushed Dominique's bonnet to the back of her head and buried his face in her hair.

They were entwined as one, their bodies fused so tightly it was difficult to tell where one started and the other left off, when Hazel burst into the room.

"Oh," she said with a gasp, stumbling onto the sight. "Oh, my, Barney. What's going on here?"

"Come here, sweetheart," he managed, his own tears at high tide.

Guessing at, but not believing the identity of the man holding Dominique, Hazel kept her gaze fastened on the pair as she slowly made her way to her husband. "Is that who I think it is?" she asked in a whisper as Barney put his arm around her shoulders.

"Yep." He nodded, still too choked up for intelligible speech.

"Oh, but, Barney, this is highly improper, terribly indiscreet. I must insist that you—"

"Hazel," he said, cutting her off, "just be quiet and give 'em a minute."

And because her husband rarely
told
her to do anything, Hazel glanced up at him, biting her lip, then looked back to the overt display of affection. Dominique and Jacob were swaying in each other's arms, whispering mindless words against a backdrop of happy sobs.

When Jacob finally felt in control again, became able to patch up the cracks in his armor, however temporary the repair work might be, he slid his hands up either side of Dominique's head and pushed her away from him. "Let me look at you,
wi witko,
" he whispered for her ears alone.

Swallowing a sob, Dominique wiped at her tears, but they continued to fall as he untied the ribbon at her throat and tossed her bonnet aside.

Struggling once again to chill that burning sensation behind his eyes, Jacob removed the pins from her hair, then drew his fingers through the burnished gold strands. Pointing to her damp cheeks, he grinned and scolded, "Stop that at once. You know I do not like it."

Laughing and crying all at once, Dominique let her tears fall even harder. "Oh, Jacob," she managed just before she collapsed against his chest again. "Oh, how I've missed you."

Glancing over the top of Dominique's head, Jacob saw that Barney's wife had joined him. He gave the couple a warm smile, then noticed the suspicious expression in Hazel's eyes, the knowing look of a highly perceptive woman. He released Dominique and urged her to step back.

Her tears more of a light spring rain now, Dominique looked up at Jacob and smiled. "Welcome home, Private. What took you so long?"

Keeping the Woodhouses in view, he smiled back. "It is a very long story. Do you really want to hear it all now?"

"I want to know everything, every tiny little detail." Dominique's vision finally cleared and she got her first good look at the man she loved. "Jacob. What's happened to you? You look as if... as if you've been—"

"Looks like hell, don't he?" Barney supplied.

"Thanks again," Jacob shot toward his friend. He glanced back at Dominique, at the concern in her moist brown eyes, and shrugged. "It is nothing. I fell off my horse."

"Oh, Jacob," she whispered, her eyes again filling with tears. But this time, when she moved back toward the comfort of his arms, he sidestepped her, taking her hand instead.

Aware of the tension and disapproval radiating from across the room, Jacob said, "Mrs. Woodhouse, hello. It's good to see you again."

"Jacob," she said, her mouth tight. "Nice to see you, too. Why don't we all take a seat and try to sort through this in a more comfortable fashion?"

Dominique glanced at Jacob, took a deep breath, then said, "I suppose she's right. Let me hang up my cloak first." As she slowly walked back to the entry, a slow, wicked grin spread across her face. Dominique whipped off her coat and hung it on the rack, exposing her shapeless gray silk and wool tattersall frock. Then, hiding her triumphant expression from Barney and Hazel, she turned sideways and draped her hands across her swollen belly.

"Dominique?" Jacob gasped, unable to believe his eyes. "You are with child?"

Still trying to hide her expression from Hazel, Dominique lowered her head in a suitably shameful posture and said, "Yes, I am, Jacob. The baby is due in four months."

"But how can that be?" he bellowed, crossing the room, no longer interested in anyone's opinion but his own. "Dominique," he said, gripping her shoulders. "How can this be?"

Caught off guard, frightened by what she saw in Jacob's eyes, hoping the message he sent was an act, a way to keep the others from knowing his true identity, Dominique was beyond speech.