Moonlight on Water (15 page)

“This is one custom that's the same within the Community as outside it.” She closed her eyes as she whispered, “I told Merrill that Mr. Foley could call, but I promised nothing else.”

“But your brother expects more to come of this than one call.”

She smiled wryly and saw Wyatt's amazement. His face eased from his scowl when she said, “It's a compromise that keeps me from having to agree to a double wedding with Merrill and his third wife.”

“It sounds as if he has it all planned out.”

“Making plans are different from—”

“Making love?” His fingers coursed along the ribbons beneath her chin.

“That wasn't what I was going to say.” She closed her eyes and let the delight of his touch flow over her.

His laugh was hushed and as heated as the evening air. “I didn't think you were, honey.”

“Can we talk of something else?” She eased away from him while she could. Her feet protested, but she forced them to move her along the rail.

“Such as?”

“I don't know. The weather or politics or the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.”

He slipped his hand in hers as Kitty Cat had. “How about a stroll along the shore before you leave?”

“Now?” she asked. “It must be past nine o'clock.”

“Are you afraid of the dark?”

She laughed and forced her shoulders to relax. “Do you always need to make your invitations a challenge I can't resist?”

“You've resisted most of my invitations, honey. But let's go and get some fresh air before you and K. C. leave.”

Rachel knew she should say no, but as she looked from his hand to his smile she could not. Tomorrow night, Mr. Foley would be calling. She was unsure when she would be able to see Wyatt again, other than when he came to pick up the parts from the metal shop.

They crossed the gangplank, and her long skirt and petticoats became damp with the evening dew on the high grass, even though she held them up. Her other hand was on Wyatt's arm. His fingers over hers held it snugly in place. Did he think she wanted to pull it away? She needed to treasure every moment she could tonight.

As they strolled, she listened to his tales of life on the river. She laughed when he spoke of his and Horace's mishaps. She had never given thought to how the steamboats went up and down the falls near Louisville. After hearing his tales of impatient captains who would bypass the locks and take their boats down over the falls, sometimes with disastrous results for their poorly secured cargo, she found herself telling him about some of the problems she had had with people who hired River's Haven's services. She had never guessed she could feel so comfortable with Wyatt.

The shore became rocky, and Rachel paused, drawing her hand off his arm. “I don't think it would be wise to continue in this direction. I don't fancy another twisted ankle.”

“Nor do I.” He held out his hand. “I guess we should return to
The Ohio Star
.”

Rachel put her hand in his. When they turned, she stared at the distant lights on the steamboat. “I had no idea we'd walked so far.”

“I hope you aren't so tired that I have to offer to carry you back.”

“No, I'm not tired at all.” That was the truth. She was so exhilarated that she believed she could dance back to the boat.

When his warm fingers stroked her palm, his touch seared through her like a shock from a telegraph. His hand moved in a tender exploration along her neck to rest on her shoulder.

“I'm glad to hear that, honey.” He smiled.

“You really shouldn't get in the habit of calling me that,” she whispered as he bent to press his lips to her neck.

“I can't give up all my bad habits,” he murmured, then ran his tongue along the crescent of her ear. When she put her arms around his shoulders to keep him close, he added, “I'd like to help you discover some very good habits.”

“Good?” She moaned as his breath swirled into her ear while he kissed the soft skin behind it.

“Very good.”

Her own breath caught on the jagged edge of her craving when his finger toyed with the button that closed her collar. Gently he traced a path from the top button to the next lower one, and the next … and the next.

“Very good?” she whispered as she drew his mouth to hers.

“Very, very, very good.”

His lips claimed hers as his finger slowly climbed her breast. She clutched his shoulders, unable to do more as a powerful, mind-emptying frenzy whirled around her. In languid circles, as if he wanted to explore every bit, he let his finger rise to its tip.

When her knees sagged against him, he knelt, drawing her down with him as he continued to kiss her. Her arms around his shoulders brought him with her when he leaned her back in the thick grass.

She opened her eyes to see him regarding her with a hunger she understood so well. In the weak starlight, his strong face was shadowed, but she had re-created it so often in her dreams. His hard body pressed against her as his fingers roamed across her face. A single fingertip stroked her cheek before slipping along her neck.

“Rachel!” The cry in Kitty Cat's voice had a desperate edge.

Rachel sat as Wyatt came to his knees. She abruptly noticed the dew that had soaked her dress. Coming to her feet, she called, “I'll be right there, Kitty Cat!”

Wyatt stood and put his hands on her shoulders, drawing her back against him. “I assume you want to go and comfort her.”

“She sounds very upset.”

“If I called to you in that tone, would you come running to me?”

She closed her eyes as she put her arms atop the ones he wrapped around her. “Don't ask me questions I can't answer.”

“Can't or don't want to?”

“Both.” She pushed his arms aside as she heard Kitty Cat calling her name again. If someone from River's Haven happened to be nearby and heard as well … “Wyatt, I must go. I'm sure Kitty Cat is anxious to get back to River's Haven, so she can ask me to bring her to visit
The Ohio Star
again.”

“She's a smart little girl.”

“Smarter than we are.”

He nodded as he stepped to where he could face her. Putting his hands on either side of her face, he whispered, “You're right. I'd better take you back to the boat before I make love to you as I want to do.”

Stepping away again was the hardest thing she had ever done. “Wyatt, will you make one promise and keep it?”

“If I can.” As they walked back toward the boat, he did not take her hand. She wondered if he felt as alone as she did without that physical link.

“Will you stop allowing Kitty Cat aboard your boat? If you refuse to let her aboard, she may stop coming here.”

“Is that what you want? What you
really
want?”

“It's the best choice for Kitty Cat. She needs to make herself a real home at River's Haven.”

“Even if she wants to be free?”

“When she last was free, she nearly starved to death.” She paused, then asked, “Wyatt, have you thought what will happen when
The Ohio Star
is repaired and you leave Haven? She'll be despondent.”

He walked away from her. When she heard him curse under his breath, she knew his anger was focused on himself. He faced her again and said, “All right. I swear to you I'd never do anything that might hurt K. C.… or you. If she comes back here, I'll send her home to you.”

“There's no need for you to swear to anything. I trust you to keep your word.”

“And what about you? Are you going to stay away, too?”

“My life is in River's Haven. Yours is here.”

“Some parts of our lives are meant to be shared. Stay with me tonight.”

As he spoke, he walked to her. She welcomed his lips eagerly … for what must be the last time. For too many long hours last night, she had sat by the window in her room and stared out at the moonlight bleaching the ripples in the river. All her thoughts had been of him. He had become a precious dream that never could come true.

He drew back and frowned. “That tasted like a kiss goodbye.”

“It should be. Wyatt, it might be better if we ended this here and now.”

“You agreed to go to the Centennial social with me.”

“I should have told you no when you asked me.”

His voice grew hard. “So are you telling me no now? Without any other explanation? You're just going to hide behind the excuse that you'll upset everyone at River's Haven by spending an innocent evening with me.” He caught her face in his hands and forced it up so her eyes locked with his. “Or is there another reason? A reason that you don't want to say because you hate to lie?”

“There's no other reason.”

“Not even Foley?”

She shook her head. “Mr. Foley has nothing to do with this.”

“It sounds as if he soon will think he does.”

“What he thinks isn't the issue.” She clenched her hands, wishing she could speak the words coming from her heart. “Maybe it would have been better if you'd just kept on hating me as you did when I first stepped aboard your boat.”

“I never hated you, Rachel.” His arm slid around her waist. “I wanted you from the moment I saw you.”

“Until you realized where I was from.” She pushed away from him. “I'd be a fool to tangle my life with yours, so I won't. And you'd be a fool to entangle your life with mine now.”

“Because of your new suitor, Foley?”

“Partly, but mostly because of what you are and what I am.”

“I'm a man who is willing to take a chance, and you're a woman who is afraid of her own feelings.”

“It's not that.”

“Then what is it?”

Kitty Cat's voice rang along the shore again.

“I must go,” Rachel said.

He caught her arm, halting her. “Not until you give me an explanation. You owe me that much.”

“All right.” She raised her chin, not in defiance, but to keep tears from flooding from her eyes. “I want what you're offering me, Wyatt. I want it with every bit of my being.”

“Then—”

She put her fingers to his lips as he had to hers on the boat. “Let me finish. I want it. I want you, but for more than a single night.”

“It wouldn't have to be just one night. We'll be here in Haven for a while longer.”

“And then you'll leave Haven … and me.” Her voice broke as she whispered, “I don't want to be left alone again.”

“Again?”

She did not answer. Her heart was breaking with pain. She did not want to resurrect the sorrows of the past, the sorrows she had come to River's Haven to forget.

She left him standing there as she gathered up her skirts and ran. She might be able to escape his arms, but she feared she was leaving behind her heart. Maybe that was for the best, because then she would never have to suffer heartache again. She could be the sister Merrill wished her to be and marry the man he wished her to marry and live the life she should have at River's Haven.

And forget about this one chance for true happiness.

Ten

Rachel steadied Kitty Cat, who was lurching more on every step. When the little girl paused to yawn widely, Rachel took her by the hand.

“You're going to fall asleep while Miss Hanson reads you a story tomorrow, Kitty Cat,” she said as she took the doll before Kitty Cat could drop it again.

“Not if the story has a fish in it,” the little girl argued, but in a voice heavy with fatigue. “My fish tasted so good.”

“I bet it did.”

“Why didn't you stay and have a bite?”

She hated lying to the child, so she said, “Wyatt is probably very hungry after working on
The Ohio Star
all day. He can enjoy my share.”

“Horace says they're going to take the boat to Louisville as soon as the parts are ready. Can we go with them, Rachel? Horace says there's nothing like being on a boat when it's underway.”

“We'll see. It might be better if we don't talk about it.”

“Why?”

“We don't want to jinx the repairs, do we?”

She was uncertain if Kitty Cat understood the word “jinx,” but the little girl nodded solemnly. Kitty Cat put her finger to her lips and said, “Shh!”

Rachel winced. Her own lips were still warm from Wyatt's finger and his mouth. Even the most commonplace motion had been infused with memories of him. She winced again, for if he kept his promise, that would be all she had of him.

She was glad Kitty Cat was too tired to notice her reaction. She had gotten Wyatt's promise to send Kitty Cat home if she went to
The Ohio Star
again, and now it was time to get Kitty Cat's.

Quietly, she said, “Kitty Cat, you know I told you before that you shouldn't leave River's Haven without telling me.”

“I didn't. I left you a note.”

She glanced at the common house. Its silhouette blocked a large portion of the sky. Every window seemed to have a light shining through it, and she hoped nobody chanced to see her and Kitty Cat.

“I know you didn't leave without telling me, and I'm proud of you for letting me know.” Rachel smiled even though Kitty Cat could not see her expression in the dark. She hoped the smile would add a cheerful tone to what she had to say. “But now, I need you to promise that you won't leave River's Haven unless I'm with you.”

“Why?”

Opening the door to their cottage, Rachel said as she lit a lamp, “The repairs on
The Ohio Star
are delicate, and you shouldn't go there unless I go as well.”

Kitty Cat rubbed her eyes, which were filling with tears. “I thought Horace and Wyatt liked me.”

“They do.”

“Did Wyatt ask you to tell me this? Is that what you were talking about during your walk?” She yawned so hard that Rachel could see all her teeth.