Wild Roses (10 page)

He collected up his things and started back to camp, smiling faintly when he realized how eager he was to return to Ella. What troubled him about that eagerness was that it was not simply for the passion he knew he could find in her arms. He was also eager to look at her and talk with her. That hinted at a depth of feeling that he did not want to have.

As he hung his damp clothes over the branches of a gnarled tree, he glanced at Ella and felt his heart skip. She sat before the fire in her thin camisole and lacy pantaloons, slowly combing her long hair. He did not think he had ever seen a prettier sight. Bathed in the glow of the fire, its lights enhancing the red in her hair and the soft paleness of her skin, she looked almost ethereal, and he felt desire course through his veins with a heady speed.

He struggled to rein in his passion for her as he sat down next to her. She was still new to the game of love. Even if her body did not need much time to recover from its introduction to desire, he suspected her mind and heart needed a little time to adjust to the fact that she was no longer innocent, that she had accepted a lover. Harrigan did not want to frighten her with his eagerness and the heady strength of his desire for her. He told himself to go slowly, to wait for some sign from her that she was interested in tasting more of the pleasure they could share, and then prayed that he had the strength to abide by that decision.

Ella idly brushed her hair and listened halfheartedly to Harrigan murmur inconsequential nonsense about the weather. She covertly watched him, catching him glancing quickly at her from time to time with hunger in his eyes. He did not act upon that hunger, however, and she wondered why. It was a moment before she thought she had an answer. She had been an innocent. There was a very good chance that he was waiting for her to, if not ask outright, at least show some hint that she shared his need.

She tucked her brush back in her bag and turned to face him, a little smile touching her mouth when she saw how difficult it was for him to move his gaze up from the low neck of her camisole to look at her face. His caution was touching, stirring a gentle warmth in her heart that she knew had more to do with affection than desire. There was no way she could bring herself to bluntly ask the man to make love to her, but she felt sure she could make her interest clear enough. In fact, she mused, the idea of conveying her aching need for his lovemaking without words was an exciting one.

Slowly, she leaned closer to him and touched the whisper of a kiss to his mouth even as she trailed her fingers across the taut skin low on his belly. He trembled and enfolded her in his arms. He felt so good, so alive, beneath her fingers that she was sure she would be content to touch him for the rest of her life if given half the chance. She resisted his subtle attempts to pull her down onto the blankets. Once there she knew he would lead their intimate dance and, suddenly, she was intrigued with the chance of finding out just how daring she could be and how much she could stir his blood despite her lack of experience. When she was done with him, he would no longer have any doubts about whether she wanted to continue to be his lover.

As he kissed her, she moved her hands over his body, carefully exploring every inch of his broad back and muscular chest. She boldly battled with his tongue, occasionally invading his mouth and savoring his soft groan of approval. The moment he released her mouth she began to cover his strong throat with kisses. He tilted his head back. Ella took quick advantage of his passivity, caressing his smooth chest with her lips and her hands.

She moved her hands to his thighs, gently kneading them before she inched her hands up to the waist of his drawers. He trembled as she undid them and eased her hand inside. His whole body jerked when she curled her fingers around his erection. For one brief moment, Ella's passion dimmed as she feared she had been too bold, and she started to pull her hand away. Harrigan grabbed her by the wrist and held her hand in place.

Ella closed her eyes as she intimately stroked him, her passions heightened by the way he trembled beneath her touch and whispered heated flatteries and encouragements against her skin. When he unlaced her camisole, opened it wide, and tenderly caressed her breasts, she breathed her pleasure. She could feel his gaze on her and that only fed her desire. At the first touch of his mouth against the aching tip of her breast, she curled her free hand in his hair and held him close, inviting him to taste his fill.

A murmur of regret escaped her when he finally pulled her hand away. He grasped her by the hips and pulled her up on her knees. She curled both hands into his thick hair as he kissed and licked her midriff while he undid her pantaloons. Only for a minute did she worry about how much of her he was seeing as he urged her to her feet and tugged her pantaloons down, following the descent with tiny nibbling kisses. The sure knowledge that the sight of her was stirring his blood simply enhanced her own pleasure.

The moment she had stepped out of her pantaloons, she started to move toward their bed of blankets, but he held her in place. He smoothed his hands over the back of her legs as he covered the front of them with soft kisses. Ella was shaking so much by the time he reached the top of her thighs that she was surprised she was still standing. A cry of shock and pure delight escaped her when he suddenly moved his kisses from the inside of her thighs to the softness between them. She started to pull away, but he held her there, and with one slow stroke of his tongue had her captured. Ella clenched her hands in his hair, steadying herself even as she held him in place, opening to the intimacy of his kiss.

Too soon she could feel the rapid advance of her release and she called out to him, trying to pull away, but he held her firmly in place. She cried his name as the culmination of her passion tore through her body and he seemed to feed on it. He caught her as she sagged in his hold, and placed her on the blankets. Ella watched him as he shed his drawers, her body limp yet feeling almost painfully alive. She held her arms out for him, but he eluded her grasp. Before she had time to recover from her release, he set about reviving her passion. Ella closed her eyes as he stroked and kissed his way down her body and back again, from the hollow in her throat to the far too sensitive soles of her feet. This time, when he touched a kiss to the inside of her thigh, she opened to his touch, welcoming his intimate caresses, and he took full, greedy advantage of it. He left no part of her untouched or unkissed, and Ella did not care what he saw or what he did, so long as the feelings he stirred did not stop.

The tightening low in her belly began again, and, recognizing what that meant now, she called to him a little desperately, clutching at his broad shoulders and trying to pull him into her arms. He acquiesced, but slowly, hungrily, tasting every part of her he could reach as he eased into her arms. Even as he touched his mouth to hers, he joined their bodies, and Ella groaned with the sweet pleasure of it. She slid her hands down his back, clutched his taut backside, and, as she wrapped her slim legs tightly around him, pulled him as deep within her as she could. Harrigan cried out and finally lost all control, much to her delight.

 

 

Harrigan grimaced a little as, after washing them both off, he slid beneath the blanket at her side and watched a blushing Ella pull on her clothes. The lovemaking had been hot and wild, but now he feared he might have pushed her too far too fast. Even as she finished tying her camisole, he pulled her into his arms, inwardly sighing over the slight tension he could feel in her slim body.

“God, you are enough to drive a man mad,” he murmured as he lightly hugged her and brushed a kiss over her shoulder.

Ella blinked and chanced a peek at Harrigan. He was smiling and looked almost annoyingly smug, yet there was a hint of wariness in his expression as well. What she did not see was contempt or disgust. As soon as her passion had begun to cool, she had started to fear that she had done far too much and allowed him far too much freedom. She feared that she had behaved like some whore and that Harrigan would begin to see her as one. About all she could read in his face was pure satisfaction and a touch of wary concern. He was concerned that he had gone too far, she suddenly realized, and relief made her smile faintly.

Always, in the back of her mind, lurked the knowledge that her time with Harrigan was going to be short and that there would be no second chances whether Harold won or not. She liked the idea that she could be free in her passion. Although she did not know much, she realized that she was more than willing to explore every delightful aspect of lovemaking. Embarrassment and an innate modesty might pinch at her from time to time, but she now knew how quickly passion could eradicate such hesitation. If she was not so tired, she mused with a silent chuckle, she would begin her exploration of the art of lovemaking immediately.

“I have you courting madness, do I?” she asked, then hastily covered a yawn.

“In more ways than you know.” He tucked her up against his side, smiling faintly as she sleepily curled her body around his.

“I will admit that I don't know many ways. I was a little afraid, for just a moment, that I might have disgusted you with my greed to learn more.”

“Ah, that explains the silence.”

“Worried you, did it?”

“Some. Your passion is so free and so hot, I forget that it's still newly awakened. I was also a little afraid, afraid that I had demanded too much of you.”

“If I wasn't so tired I could ease those qualms.”

“Well, then you had best get a lot of rest. I intend to remind you of that remark when we camp tomorrow.”

He smiled when she gave a sleepy chuckle. As he combed his fingers through her soft, lightly tangled hair, he felt her breathing grow soft and even and her body grow lax. He sighed and stared up at the stars. Right beside the delight he had in her passion was the painful knowledge that he would not be able to savor it for long. With each kiss they shared he knew he was making it harder and harder to give that passion up. His desire for it was like a knife held to his throat, but he would never turn away from the pleasure they shared.

He touched a kiss to her forehead. The way she murmured his name in her sleep both thrilled and pained him. Harrigan briefly contemplated turning away from her before he sank any deeper under her spell, then grimaced. He would not and could not. She was a sweet, heady addiction and he knew he would keep coming back for more until they were face to face with Harold and he was forced to give her up.

“A town at last,” Ella said, shifting in the saddle and wondering how soon she could crawl into a hot, soothing bath.

For three long, torturous days they had ridden from dawn to dusk. They had only stopped briefly in one dusty little town. It had been crowded with cowhands on a spree. Harrigan had paused only long enough to replenish their supplies, then gotten her out of there. Although she had clearly seen the dangers there, as one day and then another had passed with no sign of a town big enough to have a hotel, inn, or boardinghouse, she had begun to heartily regret their hasty departure.

She glanced at the way Harrigan held the reins of her little mare and sighed. The moment they had drawn close to the railroad tracks again, she had lost her small sense of freedom. He had not even asked if she would promise not to try to escape. Ella decided that was probably a good thing. If he had dangled the carrots of a hot bath and a soft bed in front of her, she just might have promised to behave herself all the way to Philadelphia.

“Let's just hope that this dust bowl has a decent inn,” Harrigan said.

“I'd be happy to sleep in a lean-to as long as it had a tub and some way to heat up some bathwater,” Ella said, her voice exposing the weariness she could not deny any longer.

Harrigan laughed softly as he reined in before the stable. The hotel he could see up the road looked very new and very rough, just like so many of the others that were springing out of the ground all along the railroad tracks, but it would suffice. It would have the two things he wanted as badly as Ella did—a bath and a bed. Ella seemed to be no more than hot, tired, and dirty, just as he was, but he was worried about the toll such a hard journey could take on a woman as small and as delicate as Ella. He knew she was a lot stronger than she looked, but that did little to ease his growing concern for her welfare.

He dismounted, then helped Ella down, keeping a light hold on her arm as he talked to the owner of the stable. The total lack of resistance Ella revealed to his subtle but firm control of her every move troubled him a little. It was a clear sign of just how exhausted she was and he knew that could be dangerously unhealthy. She needed a few of the comforts they could not find on the trail in order to recoup her strength. Although he hated to miss any chance to make love to her, he decided she also needed a full night's sleep with no distractions.

The stable owner demanded almost a full night's keep for the horses before he would even take them. Finally, realizing that arguing was a waste a time, Harrigan paid the man, and started to lead Ella toward the hotel. After yet another concerned glance at the strangely silent Ella, he looked toward the hotel and his steps faltered. The small group of people he watched walk out of the hotel caused him to curse viciously. He could not believe that Louise and the others had stopped in the same place as he yet again.

For one brief moment he considered hiding out, then trying to sneak into the hotel, but he quickly realized that was a foolish idea. Louise would be keeping a close watch for him and, as soon as Ella knew her aunt was near at hand, she would do her utmost to alert the woman. The only real chance he had was to get back to the stables and ride out of town, hopefully before Louise or any of her compatriots spotted him.

Ella cried out in surprise and annoyance when he clapped a hand over her mouth, picked her up, and ducked down a dark, filthy alley between the saloon and the jail. She caught one brief glimpse of her aunt and cursed. Try as she might, she could not break free of Harrigan's grip. He carried her along like a rag doll as he crept back to the stable. It was not until he was inside the doorway of the stable, the man who was just beginning to unsaddle their horses staring at them in open-mouthed surprise, that he set her back on her feet. He still kept a tight grip on her arm, but cautiously took his hand away from her mouth, then hastily drew his gun.

“If you call out to any of them, I will shoot the first one who comes close enough,” he threatened.

The scream Ella had planned to make caught in her throat, but she scowled at him. “Like you were going to shoot my horse?” she asked, her voice weighted with scorn.

“Guessed that was a lie, did you?” He briefly looked toward the owner of the stable. “Saddle them back up. Do it fast enough and you can keep the money I gave you.” The man quickly did as he was asked.

“If you couldn't shoot my horse, you certainly can't shoot Louise or any of the others.”

“If you wound a horse, you have to kill it, and, you're right, I was lying then. I couldn't have killed your mare. One can, however, shoot a person without killing them and knowing that they will heal. No, I have no intention of shooting any of them dead in the streets, but I will cause them a great deal of pain if you push me to it.”

Ella cursed and, straining against his hold, peeked out of the stable, tensing a little when she realized her aunt was headed straight for them. “What will you do if they come in of their own accord?”

“I plan to be out of here by then.”

She could not fully repress a startled cry when he grabbed her around the waist and tossed her into her saddle, grabbing her reins and swiftly mounting his horse. Ella barely had time to grab hold tightly before he was urging the horses out of the stable. When she heard her aunt cry her name, she cursed, knowing that she had just lost another chance to escape. It was growing harder to ignore Harrigan's part in her fate. She loved him and desired him, but, as he galloped out of town, she decided that she could also hate him.

 

 

“Damn it,” Louise cried as she watched Harrigan ride away. “That man is too damned lucky.”

George moved to stand beside her. “I don't think he is feeling so very lucky at the moment. Harrigan prefers a more comfortable mode of travel to horses and campfires and you have managed to keep him out of town, out of hotels, off the train, and riding hard.”

“Our horses are on the train,” Joshua said. “Do you want us to get them off and chase him down?”

“No,” Louise replied. “By the time you get them off and saddled, he'll be too far ahead of you. You'll never catch up to him. I can't believe I was so stupid. I should have been more careful, stayed out of sight.”

“You couldn't have known he would be in this town.”

“One of the reasons we are riding the train and stopping in these towns is to try and catch him. I guess I just got too used to not seeing him. I wrongly assumed that this was going to be just another missed opportunity.” She shook her head and muttered a curse. “I should have just shot the bastard when I had the chance.”

“I am not sure your niece would approve of that plan,” George said quietly.

Louise sighed. “I know it. Ella's not as bloodthirsty as she sometimes sounds. I am also not a child. I know those two have now spent more time together, alone, than is wise, especially since Ella is a pretty little thing and she is far too aware of what a fine-looking man Harrigan is. Oh, hell, and I saw the way they looked that day we caught you, George. I'm no fool. I know what went on that night they were alone in that hotel and what's been going on since. I ought to blow his head off for that alone.”

Hearing the increasing anger in her husky voice, George reiterated, “Don't forget your niece's feelings in your anger. I am sure she is a woman who must feel some sentiment toward the lovers she takes.”

Joshua's softly laughed “
Oh, my God
” was not really necessary to tell George that he had made a serious error. Louise turned to face him fully and, when she took a step toward him, he warily retreated a step. He did not think he had ever seen a woman look so furious. As he squared his shoulders and prepared for the onslaught of her temper, he briefly thought that at least he had taken her mind off of killing Harrigan. All he had to do now was keep her from killing him.

 

 

“I think you can stop running now,” Ella yelled, desperate to be heard over the galloping horses.

She breathed a heavy sigh of relief as, a minute later, Harrigan began to slow the pace of the horses. As covertly as she could, she raised herself up in her saddle a little and rubbed her aching backside. At the moment, her discomfort bothered her more than the fact that, yet again, Harrigan had been one step ahead of her aunt. She was tired of riding, eating biscuits and beans, and sleeping on the ground. A small part of her resented her aunt for ruining her chance to spend a comfortable night in a hotel, to have a hot bath, eat a hearty meal, and sleep on a real mattress.

“It seems that we have to find a campsite again,” Harrigan said, annoyance roughening his voice.

“I suppose there is little chance of finding a feather mattress among the bushes,” she murmured.

“Some good fairy trots ahead of us scattering such largesse, does she?”

“What a pleasant thought. I was, however, just wishing that some settler tossed one off his wagon to lighten his load. I've heard that it is a common practice.”

“So have I. And, perhaps, along with some soft bedding, he discarded a tub and a slab of bacon.”

“The true necessities of life.”

Harrigan just smiled, relieved that she was not going to discuss Louise and yet another lost opportunity of escape. He briefly wondered if, now that they were lovers, her urge to flee had lessened, even disappeared entirely, then told himself firmly not to be a fool. There was no doubt in his mind concerning the depth of her passion. It was hot and strong, as strong as her desire never to see Philadelphia or her guardian again. The reason Ella was not talking about the lost chance to escape was because it could easily lead to a discussion about Harold and the man's plans for her. Ella was simply holding to her agreement not to discuss that any more.

He frowned as he reined up to what should have been a good source of water and dismounted. Still holding the reins of the horses that eagerly moved to drink, he walked down the riverbank to the narrow rivulet of water that still flowed down the middle of the riverbed. Harrigan crouched down and dabbled his fingers in the shallow water, then lightly splashed some on his face. When he heard Ella do the same, he turned to see her at his side looking as solemn as he was sure he did.

“Another low river,” he murmured.

“Yes.” She dampened her handkerchief and wiped her face as she looked up and down the river. “This should be three times this size.”

He hesitated to speak his thoughts aloud, then decided he would not be telling her anything she had not seen for herself. Ella had spent several years on a ranch. She probably knew more about seasons, rainfall, and the signs they were seeing than he did. The look on her face told him that she was already seriously concerned.

“There is less and less water the further east we ride.”

“Then perhaps we should ride west,” she suggested and shrugged at his brief look of disgust. “If there is no rain soon there will some very hard times in this area.”

“And I'm sorry for those who will suffer, but my main concern at the moment is us and these horses. If the water keeps diminishing at the rate it has been, it'll only be a day or two before there is none to be found.”

“We could stay close to the railroad tracks. Trains need water and keep a supply all along the tracks.”

“And your aunt will be riding the train on those same tracks. If that woman catches sight of us, I would not be surprised if she leaps out of a window or a door of the moving train.”

Ella vainly tried to bite back a laugh, then giggled when he caught her at it. “Sorry, you make my aunt sound so formidable.”

“She is.” He stood up, tethered the horses to the stunted brush on the riverbank, and started to unsaddle them. “You kept telling me so. I finally listened.”

“That is not exactly to my advantage.” She frowned out at the grassland that encircled them as he set their things down and started to make a fire. “I would make that fire very small and very carefully contained,” she said.

“I'm always careful with a fire,” he murmured, glancing up at her.

“I know. I just felt a need to ask you to be especially careful tonight. This is wildfire weather.”

“Wildfire?”

“I suppose they don't have that problem in Pennsylvania. Everything is dry, dangerously dry. We're sitting in the middle of a field of tinder. One stray spark and this will all catch alight and burn like an old barn full of dry hay.”

Harrigan shook his head. “I really didn't need something else to worry about.”

“Sorry,” she murmured as she took the blankets and spread them out. “I'm just nervous. This land we're crossing is clearly in the middle of a serious drought. That trickle of water that used to be a river is not enough to protect us from fire. And, although it pains me to admit to it, fire is one thing I have always been deeply afraid of.”

“Were you caught in one?” he asked as she sat down next to him while he prepared their meager supper.

“No, but I have seen a few and remember a little too clearly what a fire can do to animals, people, and property. I also recall how hard the fires were fought, yet the fire still won.”

She fell silent and Harrigan concentrated on fixing them a meal, not eager to break the solemn quiet. Despite how hard it made cooking, he kept the fire so low it barely reached the tops of the rocks he had encircled it with. He had fought a fire or two in his time and knew what she meant. When a fire reached full strength it roared over everything and everyone in its path. Glancing around, he realized she was right. They were sitting in the middle of miles of tinder with no place to escape a fire if one started. Although he intended to be very careful, Harrigan knew he would not be able to shake the fear she had unwittingly instilled in him. It was made worse by the knowledge that there were many other ways a fire could start besides carelessness with a campfire.