Mountain Rose (29 page)

Much to everyone's relief, she and Star took to each other right off. Raegan and Chase had had some reservations there. If the old woman snipped at Star, she would receive the same treatment. When the two got along like sugar and cream, Jamie laughingly remarked that it was obvious they were two of a kind, ornery little critters.

Granny had taken to the baby also. "Where did you get this skinny little papoose?" she asked, stroking the baby's cheek with a gentle, crooked finger.

An uneasy silence fell over the room. No one had remembered that they would have to explain the baby's presence. It was Star's agile mind that came up with an answer.

"He belongs to Jamie's cousin. There is sickness in their village, and the little one's father brought him to Jamie until it is safe to bring him home."

And while everyone held their breath, waiting to see if the shrewd old woman would believe the explanation, she studied the baby's face and remarked, "I can see the resemblance. He looks a lot like you, Jamie."

Everyone managed not to laugh out loud, but if Granny had looked at them, she would have

seen the suppressed mirth in their eyes.

"But I wish she'd stay out of my kitchen," Raegan muttered as she moved about her dying garden. She was so tired of hearing, "I think you need a pinch more salt on the meat. The stew tastes a little bland, why don't you add more onions? You make your corn bread too thick. I like to spread it thin in the pan. Are you sure them potatoes are cooked enough to mash?"

She bent over to cut the dried stem of a pumpkin, then carried it to the growing pile of the yellow vegetables. Later Chase and Jamie would carry them to the barn and buiy them in the hay up in the loft.
I know it's unchristian of me at such a time,
Raegan thought,
but I wish it were only Chase and I living together.
There was always someone under foot, and the cabin was beginning to bulge at the seams from so many of them. Already Jamie had been banished to the barn so that Granny could have his bed. Sometimes Raegan wished that she and Chase had taken over the hay. Granny had even put a damper over Chase's love-making. Because of the threat of the old woman's caustic tongue should she overhear them, he held back, taking away a lot of the pleasure the previous abandonment of his body used to bring her.

"Well," her inner voice pointed out, "there's nothing you can do about the situation now, so put it out of your mind. Think about something else."

She'd just do that, Raegan thought and let her gaze wander over the surrounding hills. Each day she fell more and more in love with them. Her eyes left the distant grandeur then and lighted on the back yard. Chase and Jamie had cut cord after cord of wood and stacked them between the trees that grew close to the cabin.

She smiled wryly. Much of their labor was already being put to use in the big fireplace. The nights were chilly now, for September was coming to an end, October only a week away. In the early mornings, frost shone on the grass, and Chase had predicted that before long the Platte would be skimmed with ice. "Winter will be upon us before we know it," he had added.

Let it come whenever it's ready, Raegan thought contentedly. The Donlins were ready. She smoothed a palm over her flat stomach. She was almost certain she was in the family way. She had missed her monthly, an unusual occurrence. She had always been regular, almost to the day.

She whispered a little prayer that it was so. For despite the strict orders she gave herself, she was becoming attached to Boy, the name they had all settled on until the father could name the little one himself. She gave a deep sigh and walked toward the cabin. Somehow, some day, the child must be taken across the river. And soon, before the snows came.

But how to get the little one to his father, she did not know. The Tillamooks still roamed the forest and were still a danger to one and all. Rafferty had returned with the news that he had been unable to find any trace of the fat man. "But I haven't given up on the bastard yet," he had growled, much put out that Roscoe had managed to elude him and that his perfect tracking record would have a strike against it. "I'm gonna pack myself some grub and search a different area."

Raegan prayed that the big man would be successful in finding his prey, for the young trappers could not be held back much longer. Trapping season was fast approaching, and they had no intention of giving up up their source of livelihood or having to watch their backs as they ran their lines. The evil Roscoe's ears must have rung with the threats made on his life, the dire things that would be visited on him before he died.

Raegan turned her head in the direction from which Star's laughter trilled from along the river. "Thank you, God, for small mercies," she murmured. Evidently the girl had gotten over her quarrel with Jamie.

Star had ignored Jamie as if he didn't exist ever since the four of them had gone to the Jones place day before yesterday to help Meg and young Johnny winterize their cabin. Sitting down on the porch, Raegan recalled that day.

She hadn't wanted to go, and had said so the night Chase remarked that he and Jamie had made plans to give their neighbor a hand tightening up their decrepit dwelling and that she and Star should come along too.

"Aw, come on, honey," he had coaxed. "It will do you good to get away from the cabin for a day. Granny can stay with Boy, and we'll leave Lobo with her. Between him and her sharp tongue, she'll come to no harm." When she had still demurred, he had pointed out, "You won't be able to go anywhere when the snows come." She

had finally given in only to please him.

The next morning, shortly after breakfast, the four of them had ridden off, Chase leading and Jamie bringing up the rear. Each man kept a hand on his thigh, only inches from Colt or rifle should the occasion arise where they had to reach a weapon in a hurry.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and Raegan wondered if there was a more beautiful spot in the world than this remote, sparsely settled wilderness. She left off her musing as, on the underside of a hill, the Jones home stood a short distance away. When they pulled reins in the debris-filled yard, Meg stepped out of the cabin and stood surveying them suspiciously. When Chase called a genial greeting, she merely nodded her head and muttered, "Howdy."

When they weren't invited to dismount, Raegan whispered, "We should leave. The woman doesn't want us here." She remembered how rude and unfriendly Meg had been to her and Star the day her husband had been buried. She had only talked to Chase and Jamie, and that mostly to refuse any help from them.

But Chase paid no attention to the woman's displeasure at their appearance. He swung to the ground and flipped the reins over an old hitching post that was ready to fall to the ground. With a no-nonsense look on his face, he said, "Meg, winter will be here soon, and Jamie and I have come over to give you a hand tighten' up the cabin and layin' in a supply of wood."

When Meg began gruffly denying that she and her family needed any help in that department,

Chase dismissed her words with a wave of his hand. "We all need help at some time in our lives. If one day I should come to you for assistance, would you turn me down?"

"Well, of course not." Meg frowned at him. "But I don't know how the likes of me could help Chase Donlin."

"You never know, Meg. There are many ways in which a person can help another. And so, you stubborn woman, deep down you know that one lone woman and a teenage boy need a helpin' hand occasionally. Why don't you be a friendly neighbor and let us help you?"

"He's right, Meg." Jamie swung to the ground and stood beside Chase, "why are you bein' so all fired stand-offish? I know that I take any help that comes along. I'm not proud."

"Well, I ain't proud either." Meg gave him a hard look. "I just think that me and the youngins' can handle it."

Young Johnny stepped out on the stoop, his two older sisters slouching along behind him. "We could use a little help, Maw," he said tentatively. "We've been so busy with the crops, everything else has piled up on us. I don't know as we've got time to fix up proper for the winter."

"And we dang near froze to death last winter," Fanny, the oldest daughter, added to Johnny's argument, her eyes hungry on Chase. "If you think back, you'll remember that the snow blowed through the cracks, coverin' the bed and floor."

"Hush up!" Meg turned on her daughter, her face beet-red from embarrassment. "Get back in the house and finish feedin' the youngins' their breakfast." Raegan realized suddenly that cantankerous Meg Jones was a proud woman and that her living conditions were cutting that pride to pieces. There had been a time, she suspected, when this woman had led an entirely different existence, a life where she had been carefree, loved, and protected by loving parents. Then, over the years, she had married two different brutal men who had turned her into a bitter, broken woman.

But a bit of spirit had lived on in her, Raegan's eyes saw as they moved over Meg's angular body. Her patched dress was clean, and her gray-streaked hair had been neatly brushed into a bun at her nape. No longer brow-beaten by Henry Jones, she was slowly pulling herself up out of the black pit of hopelessness he had dug for her.

"Well, Meg said crossly, "If you insist, I'm obliged."

Chase poked Jamie in the ribs, taking his grinning attention away from Fanny, who stared openly at his crotch. "Stop oglin' Fanny and let's get started."

Jamie, always ready to tease, gave Fanny one of his wicked winks before turning to follow Chase. As he walked past Star, still seated on her horse, she gave him a hard kick in the rear.

"What was that for?" he demanded, rubbing the spot where her foot had connected.

"Figure it out for yourself," Star retorted, and to Raegan's surprise and Jamie's disbelief, she leaned down and gave him such a swat on the

back of his head that his hat fell over his eyes.

"You little brat, I'm gonna whale the daylights out of you." Jamie reached to haul her out of the saddle, but Chase's roar brought his hands reluctantly to his sides.

"Can't you two be together for ten minutes without goin' for each other's throat?" Chase stamped over to them. Star dropped her head and Jamie stalked away after giving Star a look of retribution. Chase shook his head in disgust as he turned to Raegan. "I thought they'd been gettin' along better," he said.

"They have," Raegan answered. "Star started this fight because she's jealous. She didn't realize that Jamie was just having sport with Fanny. She believes he was flirting with her."

"Do you think the wild child is fallin' for Jamie?" he grinned as he lifted his arms to help Raegan to dismount.

"Shhh, I don't want her to hear, but yes, I think so."

Chase's grin turned into a wide, tickled smile. "Can you imagine those two married to each other? They'd make a perfect pair if they didn't kill each other with their hair-trigger tempers."

When Raegan was standing beside Chase, she said with a frown, "I don't know why Star and I are even here. There's nothing for us to do, and I know we aren't welcome."

"Don't let Meg's attitude fool you. She's as proud as she can be to have neighbor women callin' on her. It's probably the first time she's had a woman visit her since she's lived here. Give her a little time to get used to it."

And Chase had been proven right later on, as much activity went on for the next few hours. Chase put Nelly and Fanny to work, mixing clay and dried grass and water to a thick compound that would dry rock hard after being spread in the gaping cracks between the logs of the cabin. Then, while Jamie and Johnny pulled a cross-cut saw through good-sized logs that had at some time been dragged in from the forest, Chase set about with hammer and nails, tightening the sagging door and loose windowframes. And during all this bustling about, Meg shyly walked over to where Raegan and Star sat beneath a tree. She sat down beside them, and the smile that parted her lips was stiff, as if her mouth hadn't tilted upward for a long time.

"That Jamie, he's a nice young man," she said, watching Jamie, who energetically pulled and pushed his side of the saw. "He'll make some woman a fine husband once he settles down. He's kinda wild right now."

Raegan agreed to every sentiment Meg expressed, but Star only gave a grunt. Nellie had settled herself a few feet from the men, her eyes and body sending silent messages to Jamie. And the knowing smile Jamie sent back to the girl was meant to rile Star, to pay her back for having slapped him on the head. Raegan felt her little friend's slender body growing stiffer by the minute and hoped that she could control the anger Raegan was sure was seething inside her.

A short time later, however, Raegan's own ire began to build. Fanny was helping Chase cord the wood that Jamie and Johnny had cut. Every time Chase bent over to load his arms, Fanny was close beside him, doing the same, making sure her body touched his somewhere. But Raegan's irritated frown faded when her husband said impatiently, "I'll do this, Fanny. Why don't you go set down and visit with the women, or find something else to do."

"That's right." Johnny glowered at his sister. "Get inside and clean the cabin, make up the beds and wash the dishes." He raised his voice to get Nellie's attention. "Go help Fanny in the cabin."

"You just shut up, Johnny." Nellie began, "I don't have to listen—" She snapped her mouth shut when she caught her mother's eye.

Meg said but one word. "Get."

When Nellie and Fanny flounced into the cabin, Meg muttered, "I wish them two girls would find husbands." She rose to her feet and brushed off the back of her dress. "I expect I'd better go keep an eye on them. They shirk their share of the work whenever they get the chance."

"I wish that Roscoe could get hold of that Nellie," Star grated. "He'd cool her off."

"You don't mean that, Star," Raegan gently chastised the younger girl. "He's an awful man."

Star studied the toe of her moccasined feet. "I guess I don't really mean it," she muttered. "I wouldn't want her hurt like the Tillamook, but I think a few slaps would do her good."

"You mean like the one you gave Jamie's head?"

"Yes! And I'd like to wallop him one again."

Amusement twinkled in Raegan's eyes, but she said no more. Another hour passed, and the men stopped working to drink the coffee Nellie brought out.