Lord of Misrule Page 6

  "What was wrong? I thought you and Buffalo were best friends."

  "We came to be, later. When we didn't have to depend on each other so much. When we had others around us to talk to. When we had a chance to go off and be alone, or with other folks."

  "But Luke and I were around other folks. On the train, and in Bear River City."

  "It's not the same. Even then you were dependin' on one another, because you were in danger. What would you have done if he'd headed down to the saloon to play cards?"

  She felt her eyes go round. "Ohhhh!" The word came out barely louder than a breath. Just thinking about Luke leaving her in a shabby hotel room in the middle of a town on the verge of riot scared her, even now. "But even so, once we got married, we weren't depending on each other like that. There wasn't any danger."

  Pa leaned back in his chair and looked at her. The sort of look he'd given her when she was little. The one that said he was really, really disappointed in her. "Have you looked at your livestock? At your husband? In your mirror? Gaunt and tired, the bunch of you. Great God! You just finished a journey that many a strong man would think twice about, and you say you weren't depending on each other?"

  "We had plenty of money and there were stage stations--"

  "And good weather. Tarnation, girl, I didn't have a good night's sleep from the time I left you two in Evanston 'til I saw your stock in the barn." Once again he caught her hand. "Daughter, it's a good thing you've got Luke to watch over you now. If I had to, I'd be old before my time."

  Katie wanted to tell him she could take care of herself, but hesitated. There had been too many times in the past couple of months when she'd been extremely happy to have Luke around to take care of her. She bit her lip.

  "Well, I won't say any more. But I want you to make up with Luke. He's probably feeling like a fish out of water, surrounded as he is by your kin. He needs to know there's somebody here on his side, someone not a stranger."

  Why didn't I remember? Of course he is. I saw him getting more and more uneasy as we go close to home. No wonder he's on the cranky side. "I will, Pa. I promise."

  After that she watched him. He seemed comfortable with Ma, but everyone was. Ma had a knack of making folks feel at home. But he didn't talk much, as far as she could see.

  He didn't eat much either. That worried her, because now that she looked at him, really looked, he was gaunt. There were hollows in his cheeks, and the lines beside his mouth were deep. Faint lavender smudges sat under each eye, too, but they could be from his not sleeping well last night.

  Neither of them had.

  When dinner was over, Katie and the girls put away the food while the younger boys cleared the table. Hattie tried to help, but again Katie pushed her towards the parlor. "You've got daughters. Go relax with the men." Since most of the pots and pans had been washed before dinner, it took them less than an hour to do the dishes. By the time they joined the men and boys, Katie had to admit she was ready to sit. Lulu and Regina, though, seemed tireless. They ducked into the sewing room, telling Katie they'd be along in a minute.

  Once again a chair sat empty next to Luke. She hesitated, still unsure of what to say to him. He was laughing with Gabe and Tony and hadn't seen her standing there.

  "Sit down, Katie," Ma told her. "There are more surprises."

  She had no choice. She sat by her husband.

  The girls came in carrying a wicker basket full of small packages, all wrapped in bright scraps of calico and tied with yarn. "One each," Regina directed, offering the basket to Gabe, who sat just left of the entrance. "But you can't open it until everybody has one."

  Under cover of the laughter and teasing comments, Katie said, "I forgot to tell you. Your trunk came. It's up in our... our room."

  "My trunk? I didn't send for it."

  "Didn't your friend in Chicago know where you were going? He probably thought you might need what's in it."

  "There's not much. Just some clothes and--" He broke off when Regina held out the basket to him. There were only a few packages left, but he still made a fuss over deciding which one to choose. "I don't trust you not to give me a mousetrap or a bottle of castor oil," he teased.

  Katie was surprised. He seemed so uneasy with everyone else.

  As if in answer, he said, "She reminds me of Melanie." His voice held sadness.

  Katie reached into the basket and took the first package she touched. To her surprise, it was soft, rounded. She squeezed lightly and it gave. Looking back at Luke, she said, "Your sister. You must miss her."

  The look in his eyes answered her, even though all he said was "It's been a long time."

  "Now you can open them," Regina announced when Tony had pulled out the last package. She and Lulu giggled together.

  Katie held her package and watched Luke open his. He carefully untied the yarn and laid it across his leg. Then he peeled the calico back. "What?" he said, but not loudly enough for anyone else to hear.

  "Fruitcake?" Silas, who sat beyond Luke, said. "Fruitcake? Oh, how delicious." His tone said that he would just as soon eat rat poison.

  "Wait!" Lulu cried over the noise. "Don't eat them yet!" She clapped her hands and gradually the hullabaloo calmed. "Be careful when you eat your cake. There's a surprise inside, and if you bite it too hard, you could break a tooth. The surprise will tell you what your future will bring, and if you bend it, there's no telling what might happen." She sat on the floor at Flower's feet and began opening her own package.

  "Do we have to eat this stuff?" Silas called, sounding completely disgusted.

  "If you want to have good fortune in 1869 you do, Uncle Silas."

  "Eat," Soomey said from across the room. "Good fortune is always welcome."

  "Have you ever eaten fruitcake?" Silas asked her.

  "I like fruitcake," Luke said, taking a small, careful bite. He chewed, thoughtfully. "This is good. Different from what my ma made, but good."

  Soon folks were exclaiming over the small silver charms from their cakes. Katie bit into hers and discovered her surprise immediately. She pulled it from her mouth and wiped away the sticky crumbs. "A flower? I wonder what that means."

  "I got a stupid shovel," Rhys said.

  "Mine's a needle." Iris held it up. "Ugh! I hate to sew!"

  "Wait!" cried Regina. "These are lucky charms. They tell you something about your future. Rhys, yours means there's a treasure somewhere for you to find. Iris, the needle says you'll create something of great beauty."

  "Oh, look what Aunt Soomey got," Lulu said, hardly able to speak for her giggles. "A thimble. She's going to live a thrifty life."

  Everyone laughed at that. Soomey loved to give gifts, and many of them were fabulously expensive.

  "What does Luke's horseshoe mean?" Katie said when the laughter had died down. "And my flower?"

  "Let's see." Regina looked at a slip of paper she pulled from her pocket. "Here it is. The flower means 'Love will flower,' and the horseshoe indicates a lucky life."

  Katie looked at Luke, who was turning the tiny horseshoe over and over in his fingers. What was he thinking? His dream was to have a place of his own, where he could raise horses and mules. Was that also part of his fortune? She hoped so.

  She wished the evening were over and they were alone. If her future held a flowering love, she wanted it to be with him.

  Chapter Eight

  Sometime during the evening Luke started to enjoy himself. He wasn't sure what did it, but by the time the youngest children began to whine, he realized that he felt at home.

  If he were to close his eyes, to shut out the sight of velvet drapes and polished hardwood floors, to eliminate the view of sparkling crystal drops on the chandelier and ruby glass sconces on the wall, he could almost believe he was in the log cabin where Katie had grown up. Somehow this family didn't seem like the rich folks he'd met. None of them would have set the stableman at the family table for Christmas dinner.

  Or welcomed an out-of-work cowman with empt
y pockets as a son-in-law.

  And he did feel welcome. Little Iris had shyly told him she was glad he was her new brother, Regina had treated him with the same lack of respect she gave her brothers and the King boys, and Rhys had begged him to tell about the cattle drives he'd been on and the gunfights he'd been in. The youngest Lachlan, his mother had sighed, was unfortunately an avid reader of penny dreadfuls and believed everything they printed was true.

  Best of all was that Mr. Lachlan had set him about the chores the same as the other young men, as if he was part of the family. Being told--not asked!--to muck out the stalls had somehow felt like a welcome home.

  A shrill whistle silenced everyone just in time for them to hear the big grandfather clock in the hall strike ten. As if they all knew what was coming, the children, from Iris all the way up to Gabe, gathered in a half-circle on the floor, around the elder Lachlans. Flower brought Emmet a book.

  He opened it and began to read. "'Twas the night before Christmas...'"

  Somewhere around the middle of the poem, Katie's hand stole into his. Luke held on as if to a lifeline.

  The children echoed the last line, "'Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!'" Iris's high, sweet voice rang out over the ensuing laughter with "'And God bless us, every one!'"

  Luke swallowed around the lump in his throat.

  Getting everyone off to bed took another hour. "Mind, no one's to come down before eight o'clock," Mr. Lachlan said as the children trooped upstairs. "Remember the year Saint Nick got lost."

  In answer to Luke's curious look, Katie said, "One year we had a horrendous blizzard on Christmas Eve. We were supposed to go to the Kings' for dinner, but Pa could hardly make it to the barn. He and William had made us all sleds. They were stored in a shed, clear out at the farthest end of the valley, because we'd have snooped and found them anywhere else." She fell silent as Regina came to them.

  "Don't forget to wear your crown in the morning, Luke. Remember, you've got to make sure everybody does one silly thing." She hugged him and turned her face up for a kiss.

  Unable to resist, Luke kissed her cheek. It was warm and smelled of peppermint and rose petals. "I'll wear it," he promised, although he'd already made up his mind to do no such thing.

  Once all the children had gone upstairs, Katie went on. "Anyhow, we couldn't go anywhere that morning. Some of the drifts were as high as the roof. So we had soup for supper and pretended we didn't care that the only presents we got were the shillings and the oranges and peppermint sticks in our stockings. The second day William showed up on snowshoes and he and Pa took off somewhere." Her smile was soft and sweet, and if she were reliving the past.

  "How long were you snowed in?" He remembered winters in Kansas, with snow piling up against every fence and barn. The wind picked up anything loose and blew it clear to the next county, what it didn't bury in drifts. One year they'd been snowed in for nearly two weeks.

  "Oh, only three days. Once William and Pa brought back the sleds, they couldn't keep us indoors anyhow, so we all went up to Kings'. Pa carried the baby--" She frowned. "That must have been Regina, because I couldn't have been more than nine or ten. I remember how I kept getting in snow so deep I couldn't walk and Ellen had to lift me out. Buff pulled Ma behind him on his sled and carried Merlin on his back most of the way. Land sakes! That was a journey. Only about three miles, but it must have taken us two hours or more."

  Silas and Soomey stopped to say good night and Katie hugged them both. When they'd gone upstairs, Luke and Katie were alone in the parlor. "Well," she said, "I guess--"

  "Maybe we'd better--" he said at the same time.

  Both stopped. They looked at each other. Luke cleared his throat. "I reckon I should sleep in our room. I wouldn't want to cause any questions."

  "I guess you should. After all, we are married."

  "You go on up, then. I'll be along soon."

  "Yes...I'll go." She hesitated, as if she wanted to say something more, but then shook her head. "I'll leave the lamp burning. Don't be long."

  Luke stood in the parlor entrance, watching her as she went up the wide staircase. Her summer-grass-gold dress seemed to shine in the light from the lamps at top and bottom. She moved gracefully, almost floating, like the women at the grand ball he'd attended when he'd delivered dispatches to Washington. Yet he knew she could walk all day, in bitter cold, over mountainous terrain. And smile at the end of it.

  What an incredible woman!

  Katie paused at the top of the stairs and looked down at Luke. He was framed in the parlor doorway, silhouetted against the soft glow from the dying fire and a single lamp. Although he seemed to be watching her, she couldn't be sure, for the light was dim and his face was in deep shadow. She turned and went to her bedroom.

  She'd have rather run down the stairs and into his arms.

  What difference does it make that he was hired to guard me? she asked herself as she stretched and twisted to reach the tiny buttons up the back of her dress. Oh, he could have told her, when she asked him to do the same thing, but all that would have done was make her furious. Her besetting sin was that she didn't like to be told what to do. There was nothing more likely to make her do exactly the opposite. I'd have done my best to avoid him. Then I'd have been a sitting duck for Whitney.

  "Darn it all, anyhow!" She tried again, but the two buttons right in the middle of her back refused to turn loose. If Luke didn't come up, she'd have to sleep in her dress. Fuming, she plopped herself in the chair and glared at the door. Hurry up, she told him. Just hurry up. I want to go to bed.

  After a minute or two, she stood up again. She'd brush her teeth and get rid of her petticoats anyhow. Then when Luke got here...

  He took his own sweet time about it. The big clock downstairs had chimed eleven when he tapped lightly on the door before opening it. When he saw her sitting on the chair, he started to close it again. "Sorry," he muttered.

  "Come in, please. I need you to unbutton me." She turned her back. "I can't reach those last two."

  The door latch clicked. Slow footsteps approached. Katie held her breath.

  Then his fingers were cold against her skin as he freed the two buttons. "There you go," he said, and his breath stirred the hair at the back of her neck.

  Katie turned and looked up at him. "Luke, I--"

  "Katie, I--"

  Then she was in his arms and he in hers. "I'm sorry, Luke. I don't know what came over me. I didn't mean all those awful things I said."

  "Even when I knew you were trouble, I couldn't take my eyes off you. You were so pretty. Like a dream come true, so rich and sweet. I wanted to taste you, to hold you." He buried his mouth in her hair, so she felt his words as she heard them. "I don't know what got into us, Katie, but let's not ever come so close to...to--"

  "Never," she vowed, catching his face between her two hands. She stretched up onto tiptoe and pulled him down to meet her. When their lips met, she knew this was where she belonged. In his arms. By his side. For all of their lives long.

  When the dress slid from her shoulders, she shivered, but from need, not from the cold. Once it was puddled around her feet, she kicked it aside, not caring what dust it picked up from the floor. Clad only in her corset and drawers, she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and lifted her feet to wrap her legs around his middle. Now she could look him straight in the eye.

  "Luke, Ma said something today that we need to pay attention to. She asked me if we want the pattern of our lives to be one fight after another." His hand cupped her bottom, sending waves of heat through her. "Stop that and listen to me! I'm trying to say something important here."

  "I'm listening." But he wasn't. He strode to the bed with her and knelt on its edge. "I'm listening, Katie girl, but right now I need something more than talk." His teeth nipped at her earlobe.

  "Luke!" She pushed him away. Or tried to, but somehow she ended up pulling him down on top of her instead. "Oh, Luke, I love you."

  "Some
days, sweetheart, that was all that kept me goin'. Knowing you loved me and needed me." He laid a hand over her mouth when she would have protested. "Yeah, I know, you don't need any man. You can take care of yourself. But the way I see it, we depended on each other a lot. I'd have died in that blizzard, if you hadn't come out in the cold and dragged me inside. You'd have been hauled off to God knows where by the Breedloves if I hadn't got those fellas in Bear River City to help us out. And we'd probably both be dead if we hadn't had each other to lean on when we were lost and looking for the railroad.

  "You asked me if I loved you, that day we got married," he said cupping her cheek in one warm, hard hand, "and I told you I did. But I can't remember ever saying the words to you. So I'll say them now. I love you. I love you so much I want to weep with the pain and the joy of it." He lowered his head and kissed her.

  Katie could have wept too, for she heard more than three simple words. She heard a pledge for the rest of their lives.

  His hands were those of a man used to hard work, roughened from hours of exposure to cold and wind and rain, callused from handling pitchfork and rope, rifle and skinning knife. Wherever they touched, her skin tingled and glowed. And he touched her everywhere. Light brushes of fingertips against a turgid nipple or the tender flesh of inner thigh, strong clasps of long fingers around wrist or ankle, a flat palm skimmed across her quivering belly.

  He worshipped her with his hands, with his mouth. Sharp teeth nipped along the cords of her throat as she arched her head back in invitation. Firm lips closed around her little finger, kissed a fiery line across her palm, suckled at her breast. When she felt his breath on her belly, she arched her back, moaning her need. And when he tasted her, she screamed silently into her fist, not forgetting the sisters sleeping nearby.