Son of the Hawk (27 page)

Feeling his face slightly flushed, Trace said, “I reckon I can do that. Anything else?”

“Nope. When it’s over, you get to escort Grace Turner out the door. That’s all.”

At that moment, Grace Turner entered the store, followed by Rose Thomas. “All right,” Rose announced cheerfully, “the bride’s here.” Grace walked down to stand before the counter while the chaplain went around behind and prepared to receive the happy couple. Luke took Trace by the elbow and guided him over in front of the counter beside him. When Annie appeared in the doorway, the gathering parted to form an aisle and an enlisted man attempted to force the wedding march through a protesting squeezebox.

Trace glanced across at Ned Turner’s widow. He had never met the lady. Meeting his gaze, she returned a pleasant smile, and he immediately looked away. Grace Turner looked to be about the same age as Annie, maybe a year or two older. She was comely enough—not really a pretty woman—but attractive in
a homespun way. Trace decided that she probably had a good heart. When he stole a second glance, she was looking back at the bride. Trace turned his head to watch Annie as well.

Smiling graciously, Annie nodded to the few people on both sides as she walked slowly toward the counter where Luke waited.

Trace was almost startled. This was the first time he had seen the young lady in anything but an ill-fitting army uniform. Walking gracefully now on the arm of Lamar Thomas, she was a vision of innocence and beauty. When she made eye contact with Trace, her smile became wider and she beamed up at him. Trace was suddenly overcome with thoughts of regret. He glanced at Luke, the young bridegroom obviously joyfully enamored. Then he dropped his gaze to his crude buckskins, wishing he had not come. Feeling pitifully out of place, he realized that this kind of happiness that Luke possessed was never to be in his own life—a life of his own choosing, so there was no blame to be assigned. It might have been, he told himself. Maybe he was a damn fool for not finding Blue Water years ago. But he was so young at the time, and inexperienced. He believed that she had left because she did not want him to follow.
Well
he thought,
you passed up that chance for happiness with a woman.
And that was most likely the best chance he would ever have, because Blue Water’s lifestyle was his lifestyle. His thoughts skipped for a moment to Jamie Thrash. At least she told him that there was no future for them. He knew it, anyway. He was never meant to be a farmer.
I wish to hell I hadn’t agreed to do this
, he thought as the chaplain began the ceremony.

It was a brief ceremony, delayed only when Luke had to nudge Trace with his elbow in order to get the wedding ring. At last over, Luke and Annie kissed
and turned to receive congratulations from the few friends gathered there. Grace smiled up at Trace and reached for his arm. Holding it out stiffly for her to hold onto, he walked her to the front door.

“Well, I reckon that’s that,” Trace sighed and tried to retrieve his arm from Grace Turner.

“You can’t go yet, Mr. McCall. Rose and Annie, and I have been cooking all morning. Somebody’s going to have to eat the food we prepared after we slaved over it.”

“That’s mighty nice of you, ma’am, but I don’t think . . .”

“Oh no you don’t,” Grace interrupted. “You have to be there. What kind of best man doesn’t even go to the wedding banquet?” He was about to tell her that nobody told him where to go, when she said, “Please,” so sweetly that he couldn’t bring himself to be abrupt with her.

“Mrs. Turner . . .”

“Grace,” she interrupted.

“Grace,” he began, “I like a big feed as well as the next man. It’s just that I feel kinda out of place, what with all you folks dressed up in your fine clothes. These buckskins are all I’ve got. It was bad enough having to go to the wedding.”

“Is that what’s bothering you? My, my. And Lieutenant Austen said you were the most fearless man he had ever met. Surely you can face a few dinner guests,” she teased. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll stay right beside you to protect you. We can even eat outside the house if it makes you feel more comfortable.”

Feeling completely cowed and a little foolish, Trace gave in. The lady might as well have grabbed him by the ears and slipped a halter over his head. Trace frankly did not know what to make of it. After making him promise not to move from that spot, Grace left
him for a few moments while she talked to Rose Thomas. When she returned, it was to say that she had told Rose to go on to the house without her, she planned to walk over with Trace.

“Where’s the house?”

“About a mile away, by the creek,” Grace answered.

“A mile?” Trace replied as Lamar Thomas’s wagon pulled away from the store. He looked at the wagon, then back at Grace in her church dress, and scratched his head thoughtfully. “You can ride my horse and I’ll lead him, if you don’t mind straddling him. He’s kinda particular who climbs on him, but he’ll be all right as long as I’m leading him.”

Grace laughed. “Oh, I could straddle him if I was of a mind, but I’d prefer to walk with you.”

So they walked, their feet crunching along a dirty brown layer of snow where wagon tracks and horses’ hooves had churned the white powder in with the mud. Grace stepped carefully along the wagon track, avoiding as much of the mud as possible, all the while rejecting Trace’s repeated offers to put her on his horse.

About halfway to the cabin, the track dipped slightly where a branch crossed it and covered the trail with about three inches of water. It was no more than two feet wide and certainly no problem to step across, but Grace paused.

“I’m afraid that’s too wide for me to step across in this dress. I know I’ll ruin these shoes.” She looked up at Trace expectantly, but the mountain man was too dense to be courtly, and her obvious hints were left lying at his feet. Rather than irritate her, his manner seemed to delight her. With a teasing lilt in her voice, she prompted him. “Mr. McCall, do you suppose you
could assist me?” She held out her arms, indicating that she wanted to be carried across.

“Oh,” he blurted, and before he knew it, she was pressing against him.

When he still made no move to respond, she chided, “You have to pick me up. I can’t jump that high.” Then she laughed, delighted by the sudden flush of red on his suntanned cheeks. She was not a frail girl, but he lifted her as easily as if picking up a child. As she was swept up from the muddy trace, she could feel the strength of his arms and the solid muscle of his chest. She instinctively locked her arms around his neck and laid her head in the crook of his shoulder.

Trace found himself in unfamiliar territory. At first, he was confused by suddenly finding this woman—a complete stranger short hours before—in his arms. Then he became acutely aware of the softness of her body, and the subtle hint of perfume in her hair—and he knew that he wanted to hold her longer. Lost in the warmth the sensation of her body generated inside him, he didn’t realize until she spoke that the narrow branch of water was some twenty yards behind him.

“I think I’m safely across now,” she said softly. There was a twinkle in her eye as she smiled up at him.

Flushing with embarrassment, Trace quickly set her feet back on the ground, and started to stammer an apology. She stopped him before he could get the first word out, and with a giggle, grabbed his elbow with both her hands, and strode merrily on to the cabin. Trace, still uncertain as to what was happening, let himself be led.

Grace released his arm and went inside the cabin while Trace tied his horse. As he looped the reins around a corner post of the porch, he paused to examine
the moments just past. Had Grace Turner been flirting with him? A rough mountain man like himself? It wasn’t likely, he decided. She was probably just teasing him, having a little fun at his expense. The only woman who had ever wanted him was Blue Water, and that was long ago. The thought of the Shoshoni maiden tore his mind from the joyous occasion of this day, and he felt a moment of melancholy when reminded of the mission he had set for himself.

Bowing his head to clear the door frame, Trace stepped inside the cabin. He was immediately hailed by Luke Austen, who along with Annie, motioned for him to join them. Before he could seat himself at the table, Annie stepped up and kissed him on the cheek, whispering, “Thank you for bringing Luke back safely to me.” Trace was too flustered to reply, blushing for the second time in the last hour. He was ready to leave right then, feeling an overpowering desire to be back outside and away from the cabinful of people. But Rose Thomas set upon him with a plate of food and threatened to brain him with a skillet if he didn’t finish it all.

While he ate, he was careful to mind his manners, feeling a dozen eyeballs watching his every mouthful.
I guess they expect me to eat with my hands
, he thought, as he chased some corn pudding around his plate with his fork. Occasionally, he glanced over toward the opposite corner of the room where Grace Turner was involved in a spirited conversation with Lamar Thomas and a young lieutenant. She had not given him so much as a casual glance since he came in the door—a fact that made him feel all the more foolish for some of the thoughts that had crossed his mind before.

As soon as he finished eating, he thanked Mrs. Thomas for the fine meal, wished Luke and Annie a
long and happy marriage, then begged to be excused, saying he had some things to take care of before dark. Luke reminded him that he would be going out on a patrol the next morning, and Trace acknowledged with a nod of his head. As he made his way to the door, he glanced around, looking for Grace, but she was nowhere to be seen. Missing also, he noticed, was the young lieutenant.

Once outside, he breathed in a great lungful of air to clean out the close, smoky atmosphere of the crowded cabin. There had been too many folks in a confined space to suit him. Untying the paint, he stroked the pony affectionately on his face—snow white down to the muzzle—and prepared to step up in the saddle.

“Trying to sneak away from the party? Some best man you are.”

Startled, he turned to find Grace Turner directly behind him, the same impish grin on her face that she had teased him with before. “I expect I’d better be going,” he offered in defense.

Ignoring his remark, she said, “Come on. I’ll show you where the groom proposed to Annie.” With that, she promptly turned and started walking toward the creek. Dumbfounded, he stood there. After taking a few steps, she stopped, turned back to him and scolded, “Well, come on,” turned again, and strode toward the cottonwood trees by the creek. He shrugged his shoulders and followed, leading his horse.

“This used to be Annie’s secret place,” Grace said as she stepped across a frozen rivulet and stood beside a large log near the edge of the creek. “Only it wasn’t so secret,” she added with a laugh. “Rose and I both knew she was meeting Luke down here.”

Trace wondered why she was telling him all this. He really had no interest in Luke and Annie’s
courtship. When it appeared that Grace intended to walk no farther, he dropped the paint’s reins to the ground, knowing the horse would not wander.

“It really is a lovely spot, don’t you think?”

He glanced around as if judging for himself, but he didn’t answer before she started brushing the snow from the log, clearing a space for them to sit. “You’ll get your dress wet,” he offered in his practical manner, not being a man of impetuous nature.

“It’ll dry,” she tossed back lightly. “Come sit by me.”

“Wait,” he said, and unrolled a buffalo robe that had been tied behind his saddle. He laid it across the log, and they sat down together.

“Now, I’ve heard nothing but tales about you,” she said, “some wild and some downright hard to believe. So, Mr. Trace McCall, I want to know the real you. Are you really as wild as an Indian?”

The question was so ridiculous that he couldn’t help but laugh. “No, ma’am, I’m not wild. I’m just the same as any other man. There isn’t anything to tell.”

She was insistent upon knowing all about his past, but all she found out was that he was an extremely private man who was reluctant to talk about himself. Encountering a stone wall with him, she instead began to talk about herself, her marriage to Ned Turner, their hopes and dreams—in short, more than he cared to know. Still she talked, and as the afternoon wore on, bringing a chill in the air, she moved closer to him in an effort to keep warm.

“We’d best get back now,” he said. “You’ll catch a chill with no more clothes than you got on.”

“No, let’s not go back yet,” she said, moving even closer. Then, with that mischievous glint in her eye that he had seen earlier, she whispered, “I bet I could
stay as warm as can be if I was wrapped up in this heavy robe—even with no clothes on.”

He looked at her for a long moment, puzzled by her remark. “I suppose you could. I’ll get up so you can wrap it around you.”

Throwing up her hands in exasperation, she stood up and faced him. “I swear, Trace McCall, you are the thickheadedest man I believe I’ve ever met. Am I that unattractive? I meant wrap the robe around me and you.” That said, she reached up and pulled his head down to her and kissed him hard on the lips.

Too startled to think straight at first, he almost jerked free of her embrace. Then realizing that she had planned on this encounter from the beginning, he dropped all the reservations he had harbored and let it happen, returning her kiss. After a long moment, they parted, but only long enough to pull the buffalo robe from the log and spread it on the ground.

It had been a long time for both of them, and the need was overwhelming, creating a mating that was feverish in its urgency. They came to each other with animal-like passion, frantic to know the release each needed so desperately. It had happened so fast that there had been no time for words of love or gentle caresses. And when it was over, there had been ecstasy—wild, violent release even—but no fulfillment or complete satisfaction. Grace lay in his arms then, thinking of the years she had been married to Ned, and how much she missed the intimacy they had shared. She wanted that back in her life. But even in this starburst of ecstasy, she knew there would be no future with Trace McCall for her. She had purposely selected him to fill a physical need that had been growing within her. He did not disappoint, and she had been left with the feeling that she had mated with a wild stallion.