Yellowstone Romance Series - Bundle (# 2-5) (77 page)

Danica pushed her palms against the table, intent to rise, but one glance at Josh and his hard stare stopped her before his words did. “Sit,” he commanded.

“One other thing we need to agree on,” Danica said, and glared at him. “You need to stop acting so bossy.” It was much easier for her to talk to him this way. His display of tenderness a few moments ago had unnerved her, and she wasn’t used to letting her guard down. Admittedly, allowing another person, especially this man, to hold her up and unburden her from her troubles for an instant had been pure heaven, but she knew she couldn’t let herself get used to that kind of attention. It wasn’t meant to last. He had offered comfort when he saw her vulnerability. As unlikely as she had believed it to be, they shared something in common, and by consoling her, Josh probably believed he was consoling his mother.

She watched as his eyebrows rose. His lips parted as if he wanted to say something. Abruptly, he closed his mouth again and shook his head. Wordlessly, he turned to the workbench off to the right of the hearth, and began rummaging through tins and sacks stashed along the wall.

A short while later, Josh set a plate of steaming vegetables and biscuits in front of her, with pieces of dried meat that he’d soften in hot water.

“Probably not up to your cooking, but it’ll fill your belly,” he grumbled, and took a seat opposite her.

“Thanks,” she mumbled, and stabbed her fork into a piece of root vegetable. She’d eaten similar fare during her stay with the Shoshone. It tasted bland, but hunger overruled her taste buds, and she kept quiet and ate every last bite. Looking up for the first time when she forked the last piece of meat into her mouth, she caught Josh observing her intently from across the table. Her eyebrows rose in a silent question.

 ”How did you end up with the Shoshone, so far from Virginia City?” he asked without hesitation.

Danica took note that he didn’t directly ask her what she suspected he wanted to know, namely if she had know the man who attacked her. She set her fork down, and pushed the plate aside. She folded her hands on top of the table, and met his unwavering stare. She wasn’t ready to discuss her ordeal with him. She didn’t know if she’d ever be ready.

“They took me in when they found me wandering through the wilderness,” she said, weighing her words carefully.

Josh’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. Before he asked the obvious, Danica said, “I believe I am the lone survivor of an Indian raid that occurred last summer somewhere to the south of here. I was with my friend Maddie and her family, touring the park, when we were attacked.”

Josh’s eyes widened. “I know of that attack,” he said. “The army chased the Nez Perce through the Yellowstone. They were trying to reach the safety of Canada. We’d heard some of their warriors became rambunctious and started raiding some of the tourists.”

Danica scoffed. “Rambunctious is putting it mildly. They carried Maddie and me off. What happened to the rest of our group, I can only guess.”

Josh ran his hand through his hair. “Kyle and I scoured the area along the Firehole where the attack occurred. The army came along and told us they didn’t need our help. They were already in pursuit of the tribe, and warned us to stay out of it.”

Danica lowered her gaze. She studied her hands on the table, trying to keep them from trembling. She swallowed back the bile that rose to her throat. Would things have turned out different for her if Kyle and Josh hadn’t followed the army’s orders? She tried to wrap her mind around the very idea that Josh had been so close to her that day.

She cleared her throat. Unwilling to discuss this any further, she gripped the table and pulled herself out of her chair.

“Thank you for the food, Josh,” she said softly. She needed to get to her room, quickly, or the tears would flow again in front of him. “It’s been a long day. I need to get some sleep.” She didn’t dare look at him as she made her way to her bedroom on shaky legs. She heard a chair scrape against the wooded floor behind her, and held her breath.

“Dani,” Josh called. She squeezed her eyes shut, but kept walking. Only when she reached the bedroom door and had a firm hand on the handle, did she turn to look his way.

“Good night,” he said, when their eyes met. She sensed he wanted to say more. He held one palm flat on the table, the other clenched in a fist at his side.

“Good night, Josh,” she answered, then pushed the door open, scooting into the dim room. For the third time today, she allowed the tears to flow freely after closing the door behind her, and welcomed the darkness that swallowed her up.

Chapter 12

Josh stared up at the dark ceiling, listening to the wind howl outside the cabin. The rafters creaked and groaned in protest. The blizzard he’d been anticipating all day finally unleashed its full fury in the darkness of night.  By morning, he’d be lucky to step foot outside the cabin. He already knew the snow would be many feet deep.

He turned to his side, forcefully punched his pillow, and groaned. The more he willed his mind to go blank, the wider awake he became. He wished for sleep to take over so he could get the images of Dani out of his head. Visions of her struggling and fighting helplessly beneath some faceless man tormented him to no end.  Abruptly, he bolted upright in his bed and pulled the heavy fur covers off his sweat-soaked body. He threw his legs over the sides of the mattress, and leaned forward, running his hands over his face and through his hair.

“Dammit,” he cursed out loud. He’d been at the site of that raid less than a day after it occurred.  Dani was right that she was the sole survivor. She had mentioned her friend’s name, and he absently wondered what had happened to her. He surmised she must have perished somehow. Josh couldn’t get the thought out of his mind that the Nez Perce were a peaceful tribe. They’d been driven from their homelands in Idaho by the army, and escaped through the Yellowstone mountains in their flight toward Canada. Desperate for food and fresh horses, some of the younger warriors had begun to raid the tourists who frequented the area since it had been established as a national park five years ago. Most of the raids had ended peacefully.

Josh refused to believe that Dani’s attacker could have been one of those warriors. Doubt lingered in his mind. It had been uncharacteristic of them to kill all those people, too.  Would one of them have acted outside their code of honor, and defiled a woman in the worst possible way? The more he thought about it, the more jumbled his mind became.

If Dani carried a child of mixed blood, she couldn’t possibly hope to be accepted back into white society. For a white man to have fathered a half-breed was one thing, but a white woman with an Indian child? It was unthinkable. Her father must have had similar thoughts. Seeing his daughter for the first time after nearly a year, dressed in buckskins and heavy with child, knowing she had been abducted by Indians, he had drawn the logical conclusion. This shotgun wedding, and Lars Jensen’s animosity toward his daughter was finally beginning to make sense to him.

It took a woman of strong mind to decide to carry this child to term, considering the manner in which he was conceived. Among Josh’s mother’s people, all life was considered sacred. It was unthinkable for a woman to deliberately kill an unborn child. He had heard it done, especially among white prostitutes.

Josh hadn’t asked her what her feelings were toward this child, but she had acted protective of her baby since he met her. She hadn’t given any indication that she showed ill feelings toward him. Josh smiled. She was sure she carried a son. She had always referred to the child as a male, and now he caught himself doing the same. 

Even though she tried to present a strong front, she was scared to death. The way she’d trembled in his arms, and finally showed her vulnerable side had ignited his protective instincts to an all time high. He’d never experienced such a strong urge to keep another person safe. Her tough demeanor was only an act. She’d learned real well how to survive. Dani was an extraordinary woman. Josh’s admiration for her grew as he thought about these things, and a warm sensation wrapped itself around his heart like fur gloves on a winter day.

Would she feel comfortable enough to open up to him if he pressed her for more information? Did he want to push her? Once again, he couldn’t imagine anyone from the Nez Perce nation violating a woman. The thought crossed his mind that perhaps she had known her attacker.

Josh stood and paced the floor. Would it really be so bad to be married to Dani? He could provide for her and her child, and give her the protection of his name. The thought startled him. He liked living alone. He didn’t need a ready-made family. He shook his head and quickly dismissed the idea. He had a job to do, one that took him away from home for weeks on end sometimes. The poachers he’d been tracking suddenly entered his mind. There was no hope of picking up their trail now. The only consolation he had was that they wouldn’t be able to do more damage in this weather.

The weather. Josh pushed his hair out of his eyes. He took a deep breath. Even a few feet of snow would make travel near impossible for Dani. And by the sound of the blizzard raging outside, there would be more than just a few feet. There was no telling how much snow would fall where they had to go. The pass to Helena, even coming from a southern route, might be too difficult for Dani to traverse, even if she was adamant that she could do it.

If she lived amongst the Tukudeka, she would be making preparations by now for her stay in the maternity hut. After the birth of her child, she would remain in the hut for about a month, with only other women visiting her. Her husband would not be allowed access to her, nor get to see his newborn, although he would provide food and firewood. She would tend to her baby, and possibly give him a name if he smiled for the first time during that month.

With a sinking feeling, Josh realized that Dani’s child would probably be born right here in this cabin. Even if they remained here for only a few more days, her time was too close to risk traveling four more days to Helena. She would protest and argue with him, he had no doubt.  Birthing a child on the trail, however, would be even worse than having him born here. Josh’s heart rate increased with that thought.

What the hell was he going to do? He had experience birthing foals, but that was it. Dani could hardly be considered a mare. He smiled despite his feelings of apprehension. She would probably hit him over the head with the cast iron skillet that hung by the hearth if he compared her to a horse.

Josh sat back down at the edge of his bed. In the morning, he would make preparations.  There had to be supplies of some sort in Kyle’s cabin for a baby.  He groaned, and let himself fall back onto the furs. Wide-eyed, he once again stared at the darkened ceiling.

*****

Danica rolled onto her side, and sucked in a sharp breath. Pain radiated from her lower back down through her legs. She tried to stretch to alleviate the discomfort. When that didn’t bring any relief, she pushed her upper body off the mattress, and dragged her legs over the side. A cold blast of air hit her when the covers fell away from her.  Hastily, she pulled a blanket around herself. Josh’s cotton shirt didn’t offer much warmth. She rubbed at her back, and stood.

A quick glance at the frosted window indicated that it was morning. She shuffled toward the glass pane. Snowdrifts made it nearly impossible to see outside. She craned her neck, but only saw sheets of white. It didn’t look as if it still snowed, but the sky was gray, and the landscape outside was covered in white, the lodgepoles in the distance weighed down heavily with snow.

Danica’s heart sank with apprehension. How were they going to get to Helena now? It had been difficult enough for her to get from Virginia City to this valley. Josh had told her it might be a few days before they could leave. That meant it would be that much closer to the birth of her baby. Her hand rubbed absently at her aching back. The pain was different this morning than it had been the last few weeks. It wasn’t simply a stiff spine and sore muscles. The pain seemed to drag around to her belly, pulling and stretching her already tight skin and muscles.

She gasped suddenly, and her hand clutched at her stomach as the muscles stretched taunt.  The breath left her lungs, and a wave of fear washed over her. The child inside her kicked out forcefully. Danica bent forward and squeezed her eyes shut. This was far worse than the pain she had experienced that night in Virginia City after her heated argument with Josh. She wished he were here right now to rub the pain away.

Walking stooped over, Danica managed to reach the bed again, and slowly sank down on the mattress. She inhaled slow and deep, and willed her muscles to relax. Whatever she was doing seemed to work. Her stomach unclenched, and she breathed easier. She sat still, waiting for her racing heart to slow down. She couldn’t go into labor now. It was too soon.

“Please, God, no,” she whispered, and squeezed her eyes together. Fresh tears threatened to spill from her eyes. Hadn’t she done enough crying the night before?

“You can’t be born yet,” Danica spoke to her baby. “We have to get to Helena.” She rubbed at her stomach with slow circular motions, trying to reproduce what Josh had done that night. She conceded that he was much better at it. She couldn’t possibly go to him now, and ask him to perform the soothing ministrations that had worked to calm her muscle contractions before. He would surely not be happy if she told him she might be going into labor.

The minutes dragged on, and nothing else happened. The dull ache in her back remained, but her muscles didn’t contract again. Danica breathed a sigh of relief, and stood. As much as she enjoyed the comfort of Josh’s shirt, she had to get dressed. She couldn’t walk around the cabin wrapped in a blanket all day.

When she left the bedroom for the main room, warm air greeted her. The fire in the hearth had reduced most of the wood to charcoal, but the heat remained. Danica walked slowly toward the warmth. Carefully, she knelt and rekindled the fire, adding more wood from the box.

With a loud groan, she pushed herself off the ground, using the metal fire poker as a crutch. She glanced around the quiet room. Her eyes lingered on the closed door of the other bedroom. Surely Josh wasn’t still asleep. It had to be well past sunup, although it was difficult to judge by the gray skies outside. It didn’t look like it was snowing at present. Hopefully the storm had passed, and they could head out tomorrow.

Danica glanced around at the shelves and cupboards along the workbench. Her stomach growled. She might as well make herself useful and find some ingredients to fix breakfast. Besides, she needed something to do. She certainly didn’t relish the idea of being cooped up in this cabin. A full water bucket stood on the bench. She dipped a tin cup in it and held it to her lips.

Danica ignored the ache in her lower back that seemed to intensify as the minutes passed. She’d probably just slept on her back all night, causing the muscles and her spine to tighten. She was sure it would go away as the day wore on.

An hour later, she pulled a Dutch oven filled with fried potatoes and sliced venison from the fire. Groaning loudly, she lifted the heavy cast iron onto the workbench. A sudden sharp pain seared through her back and around to her stomach, traveling down the front of her thighs. She almost dropped the skillet on the ground, but she managed to deposit it onto the counter. Her hand shot out and she grabbed hold of the side of the workbench, and clenched her jaw.

“No,” she gasped. “Please, no.” This time there was no mistake in what the pain meant. Her baby wanted to come into the world. Danica breathed deeply as the wave of muscle contractions swept through her lower abdomen. Slowly, the pain subsided, and she inhaled normally again.

“Dear God, why is this happening now?” This child was going to be born early, whether she wanted him to or not. She thought back, counting the weeks and months she’d been stuck in the wilderness. Could she have been mistaken in estimating how long she’d been held captive? What about after, when . . . Danica gasped again, as warm liquid flowed down between her legs. She shuffled off in the direction of her room. Her leggings and the front of her dress were wet.

Anticipating another round of contractions, she hastily peeled the soiled leggings off, and awkwardly slipped the buckskin dress over her head. Shivering, she reached for Josh’s shirt that she had laid out on the bed. It was the only thing she had to wear now. Rolling the leggings up tightly, she shoved them between her legs to catch the fluid that continued to trickle uncontrollably down the insides of her thighs. She scrambled onto her bed, and scooted back against the headboard. Shivering from nerves and the cold, she pressed her lips together, and pulled a blanket over the lower half of her body.

Where was Josh? She was sure he wasn’t still in his room. The noise from her cooking surely would have woken him up. He was not the type of man who would sleep the day away. Perhaps he’d gone out to investigate the depth of the snow, to see if they could continue their journey. Danica emitted a short, desperate laugh.

“I’m not going anywhere right now,” she said softly.

Danica lay on her back, anticipating another contraction. How long would it be before the next wave of pain hit her? Tentatively, she glanced down between her legs. There was no blood, which was reassuring. The slow trickle of clear fluid continued, however.