Fated Memories (44 page)

Without a word he grabbed both her hands in one of his and, withdrawing a strip of rawhide from his belt, tied them.

“
Let me go!” She tried to hit him with her bound hands.

Without a word he gagged her, then throwing her over his broad shoulder, strolled from the lodge. At the sight of Maggie tied right outside, Jessie could feel her anger rising even more.

Yellow Owl walked towards them. “I know the power of Eathen Thornton. I do not want the bloodshed he can bring to my people. Take the girl and go. I will see to the securing of Two Spirits. When I think the time is right, I will release him.”

After putting Jessie on her horse, Wolfer stepped into the saddle. “Now might be a good time to take care of that. I had to knock him out. You might have your medicine man take a look at him.”

Yellow Owl turned at once toward Two Spirits’ lodge.

As they rode out of camp, Wolfer stared straight ahead, leading an angry Jessie beside him.

All that day and part of the night they continued to ride. Although he had removed her gag and unbound her hands, he refused to talk to her. Each time Jessie asked to stop, he ignored her. Finally she had no choice.

“
You can yell all you want, but I have to stop,” she told him, reining in her horse and dismounting before he could stop her.

“
You better make it quick. And don’t do anything stupid, ‘cause I’d hate like hell to have to come after you.”

Walking a short distance from where he sat his horse, she kept watching to make sure he couldn’t see her. Stepping behind some trees, she allowed her body the release it needed.

When he spied her walking towards him, he pointed to a small clearing a short distance ahead of them. “We’ll pitch camp there for the rest of the night. I hope for your sake you can fall asleep fast. I figure we gotta few hours before daylight.”

“
Wolfer, I can’t continue like this.” She remounted. “I need more than a few hours of rest.”

“
Then you better get all you can, while you can.” He slapped his horse with the reins. “We move out at first light.”

Later, inside the small tent Wolfer had erected for them, she tried her best to fall asleep, but the cold winter winds blowing down from the mountains reached inside the thin walls to chill her with their icy touch. Edging closer towards the firepit, she moaned with discomfort.

“
I wouldn’t get too close to that fire.” He rolled over facing her. “That Tamarack pops a lot. A spark catches that blanket, you’re gonna think you’re in hell.”

“
I have to get warm. It’s so cold, I can’t sleep.”

“
Oh hell,” he lifted his blanket, his voice slurred with sleep, “roll over here and we’ll share our body heat.”

Jessie threw off her blanket to scramble to her feet. “Don’t you even think of puttin’ your hands on me.”

“
What the hell you talkin’ ‘bout, girl?” Wolfer sat up in his bedroll to stare at her.

“
You heard me!” She inched her way towards the door of the tent. “You try anything, I’ll tell my father!”

“
I got news for you, little girl,” he snarled, kicking his blankets out straight, “all I offered is warmth. Truth is, I wouldn’t straddle you if you owned the last piece of ass in Montana! Now lay down beside that fire and go to sleep, goddamnit! ‘Fore I tie you up, and throw your ass outside!”

For a long while, she remained standing by the door, and then she walked back to take her place beside the fire, making sure to stay far enough back to be safe. Curling her body into a tight ball, she stared over at him, waiting for him to make a move. When at last she heard his even breathing telling her he slept, she finally allowed herself to relax.

It seemed like moments before he shook her awake.

“
Come on.” He nudged her with the toe of his boot. “Time to get movin’.”

“
I just got to sleep.” Jessie rolled herself tighter in her blankets.

He reached down, grabbed one side of her blanket, and with a quick yank, unrolled her across the small tent.

The cold air hit her, making her shiver. Wrapping the blanket around her shaking body, she glared at the man watching her as she began pulling on her boots.

Before walking out of the tent, he dropped some jerky into her lap then, without a backward glance, continued on his way outside.

“
I guess I better hurry if I don’t want the tent falling down around me.” She quickened her movements.

As they rode, she peered over at him. “I apologize for misunderstandin ’ your motives last night.”

He gave her a brief glance for her answer.

“
Are we gonna ride without talkin’ the whole way?”

“
What is it you wanna talk about?”

“
I’d like to know why you’re doin’ this for my father. You say he ain’t payin’ you anything. So why are you doin’ it?”

“
I already told you.” Wolfer relaxed his hold on the reins as the large paint he rode threw up his head with a loud snort. “If I didn’t come after you, Eathen would. Where do you think Two Spirits’d be right now if your father rode beside you ‘stead of me?”

Her stomach tightened at the thought. “My father’s not a killer, Wolfer. He’ll be angry, of course. But he won’t harm Two Spirits.”

“
If believin’ that makes you feel better then, by all means, go on deludin’ yourself.”

“
You can’t be serious!” Her breath rushed from her lungs. “My father wouldn’t lower himself to commit murder! I mean…for someone to do somethin’ like that…” she stammered, at a loss for words, “they’d have to be deranged. I’ll have you know my father’s not crazy!”

“
When a man’s daughter’s been defiled, there ain’t no tellin’ what he might be capable of. You’ve lived in a sheltered world, Jessie. Now you’re gonna get a glimpse of the real world.”

Something in his voice convinced her he told the truth. “Oh God! We can’t let that happen, Wolfer! We just can’t!”

“
I’ve done all I can do to try’n talk him out of it. I came out here on my own to give Two Spirits a chance for his life. If he’s smart he’ll take it. If he ain’t,” he shrugged his massive shoulders, “his life’s as good as gone.”

“
I’m sorry for almost shootin’ you,” Jessie told him, a slight niggling of guilt gnawing at her. “I thought you wanted to take me away because of my father. I see now you’re tryin’ to help us.”

“
I’m glad you missed.” He smiled over at her for the first time. “Yeah, you’re Eathen’s daughter all right. Just like him, you don’t bluff.”

“
Wolfer, do you think Two Spirits’ll come after me?”

“
Yep!”

“
I’m so afraid for him. I love him with all my heart, but if it means he could lose his life over our love,” she shuddered at the thought, “then I hope I never lay eyes on him again.”

“
I believe you do love him, Jessie.” The horse shied off to the side of the trail as a rabbit bounded across their path. “I didn’t at first. But I believe all this has made you grow up a little.” Wolfer gave the horse a gentle slap on the side of his neck to calm him. “It’s a sorry mess. No gettin’ ‘round that.” He breathed deep against the raw feelings forcing him to admit he felt something for these two.

“
If Daddy killed Two Spirits,” Jessie’s stomach churned with fear, “what’d happen to him?”

“
With Eathen’s money and the power he holds in the state of Montana? Not a damn thing!” With one hand, he flipped up the collar of his heavy wool coat, adjusting the thick neck scarf more evenly around his throat. “There ain’t a judge in the state who’d convict him over killin’ an Indian. And for damn sure not one who put his hands on a white girl.”

Jessie felt her face grow hot with embarrassment. “Even if he didn’t touch her against her will?”

“
Wouldn’t even enter into it.” Wolfer’s wide mouth tightened in disgust. “Tell you the truth, Jessie, I doubt anyone’ll know about you and Two Spirits. That’s the last thing Eathen wants to happen.”

“
Won’t he even care about how I feel?” She felt as if they talked about two different men.

“
Nope.” Wolfer refused to soften the truth. “In his eyes you’re still a little girl. To him, ain’t none of this your fault.”

“
But, Wolfer, it is my fault!” Jessie saw herself as she behaved in the tack shed the morning of the storm. How she had ground her hips against Two Spirits, refusing to let go of him no matter how hard he tried to push her away. “Two Spirits tried to keep us apart. I’m the one who refused to stay away from him.”

“
I kinda figured that’s the way it played out. Two Spirits is young, but he ain’t stupid. He didn’t grow up sheltered like you. He knew what’d happen if he touched you.”

“
If you knew how many times he tried to walk away from me. I wouldn’t let him.” The tears fell unheeded down her face. “I kept throwin’ myself at him until he stopped walkin’ away.”

Her voice sounded so sad, he looked over at her. For the first time, some of the anger he had harbored for this girl pouring out her heart to him disappeared.

“
Wolfer,” she reined in her horse, “why can’t you let us go? Please let us be together,” she pleaded with him. “You can tell my father you couldn’t find us.”

“
I wish I could do that, Jessie,” he told her with all sincerity, pulling up on his horse’s reins. “But in the long run, I know it’d still turn out the same. Your father won’t rest until he finds you and brings you home. When you see him again, you’ll understand why I can’t let you go.”

“
Are you tellin’ me my father’s ill?” Her blue eyes widened in alarm.

“
Not physically, no. He’s filled with anger until it’s all but consumed him. Until he has you back safe, there’ll be no livin’ with him. I really don’t think you want to put your mother through that. Do you?”

“
Do you want the truth?”

His eyes narrowed as he nodded.

“
Right now, the one I’m worried about’s Two Spirits. My mother’s a strong lady. Always has been. They’ll both come through this one too.”

“
I think you’re wrong this time, Jessie. The pain they’re sufferin’ over this could just tear them apart. Would you want that on your conscience?”

“
No,” she brushed a long strand of hair out of her face, “but I don’t want Two Spirits on my conscience either.”

“
The way I see it, you’re gonna find for the first time in your life what’s most important to you.”

“
I don’t understand why it has to be this way.” She blinked against the hot tears threatening to fall again. “I’m a grown woman with a baby on the way. Why can’t they see that?”

“
They can’t see it, Jessie, ‘cause the only child they’re concerned with right now is the one they brought into this world sixteen years ago.” He slapped the reins against the horse’s side, cursing Eathen beneath his breath as he saw her fall in beside him.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“
Miz Charlotte! Mist’ Eathen! She’s home!” Hattie called out, dropping the kitchen curtain back into place.

Throwing the dust cloth down on the large buffet, Charlotte ran to the front door, to find Eathen there ahead of her. “Eathen,” she cried, taking hold of his arm, “don’t go out there like a ragin’ bull. Let her come to us,” she tried to reason with him.

“
Get outta my way, Charlotte.” Eathen jerked away from her.

“
Eathen!” She grabbed the back of his shirt as he tried to open the door. “You’re gonna make things worse!”

“
Goddamnit, woman!” He whirled on her. “If you don’t turn loose of me, I swear I’m gonna knock you on your ass!”

“
All right then!” she yelled, releasing her hold on him. “Go ahead! Let her see what a deranged idiot her father’s turned into.”

Jessie had just stepped from the saddle when she looked up to see her father striding towards her.

Wolfer stepped in front of her and, holding up his hands, tried to reason with the out of control Eathen Thornton. “Now, calm down, Eathen. I didn’t bring her back so you could act like this.”

“
Get the hell outta my way, Wolfer!” he growled, trying to push his way around the man standing his ground against him. “Jessie’s my daughter! Your business in this is finished!”

“
Not if this is the way you’re gonna act, it ain’t.” Wolfer shifted his body sideways into Eathen’s way.

“
Goddamnit!” Eathen yelled, his fist catching Wolfer in the side of his head. “I said get the hell outta my way!”

Dazed, Wolfer felt his legs buckle beneath him just before he hit the ground.

“
Mama! Do something!” Jessie screamed, running towards the house. Eathen reached out, grabbing her by her hair to jerk her backwards.

“
You ain’t goin’ no where, little girl!” he snarled.

“
Daddy,” she whimpered, “you’re hurtin’ me!”

“
Not half as much as you’ve hurt me, goddamnit! Layin’ up with a fuckin’ Indian!” Eathen roared, tightening his hold on her. “Where the hell’s your brains, girl?”

Without warning, Eathen felt himself pulled backwards. Turning loose of Jessie and shrugging the hand from his shoulder, he spun around in time to see Wolfer’s fist barreling towards his face. As his head snapped back, he heard Wolfer growl.