M. Donice Byrd - The Warner Saga (17 page)

Blake went for a few supplies leaving her time to bathe and pack before they left. He had let her sleep late since they had not gotten much sleep during the night and were now getting off late.

Meredith closed the valise and took one last look around their rooms to make sure they hadn’t forgotten anything. Blake’s newly purchase top hat and frock coat
were the only things still there but he casually cast them aside when they wouldn’t fit in his thickly stuffed carpet bag. Meredith carried her valise down to the street where she found Blake tying a bag of supplies to the saddle of his horse.

A breathtaking smile graced his countenance when he saw her. “I would have brought that down,” he said as he took her suitcase from her hand. Meredith went up on her toes to kiss him but he moved away too rapidly. A fleeting spark in his eye told her she had just committed a miscalculation. It was gone as quickly as it flared but she knew immediately what it meant. He had voiced it aloud the first time they made love. No unspoken promises. Making love had changed nothing. He was setting the ground rules. She could be his bed partner but nothing else.

As she watched him tie the valise to the saddle, she wondered what made him that way. Instinctively, she knew he treated her no differently than any other woman in his life. The worst thing she could do was make demands on him. He would push her away the harder she tried to cling to him.

“What’s for breakfast,” she managed cheerfully though she detected a slight warble in her voice and hoped he hadn’t noticed. “I woke up starved this morning.”

The smile returned to his face. “Perhaps last night might have something to do with that,” he said with a wicked gleam. He reached in his pocket and handed her fifty cents. “Why don’t you go get us a couple of bacon and egg sandwiches to take with us? Take these too,” he added handing her two new canteens. “Fill them up and I’ll meet you back here in about fifteen minutes. I need to send a telegram and settle our hotel bill.”

Blake finished his errands first and waited patiently for her to return with the water and food. “I’m
ready to go if you are,” she said placing one of the canteens over his saddle horn.

“Not yet. I have a little present for you.”

“You do?” They stared at each other. “You don’t expect me to jump up and down and begged for it, do you?”

Blake chuckled. “I’m learning never to expect anything where you’re concerned. If I didn’t know better, I’d wonder if you were female,” he vexed. “Look in your saddlebag.”

“You bought me saddlebags?”

“I picked up several things you needed including the saddlebags and a chemise to go with your new gown. But those things aren’t the present. Go on. Look.”

She looped the second canteen over her saddle horn and handed their breakfast to him. With a half-wary/half-excited expression, she reached blindly into the saddlebag and removed a small porcelain kitten. The little blue-eyed, black furred kitten was posed in front of a bowl which presumably once contained cream and the kitten was licking the cream off its lip.

“Oh, Blake,” she breathed. “It’s so cute.” She resisted the urge to kiss him and gave him a one armed hug around his chest, holding the knickknack safely away from her body. “Thank you.”

“I kind of thought he might remind you of me after we’re divorced,” he said dismissively.

Meredith chuckled. “You do have the same coloring,” she said, hesitantly although Blake’s hair was just a shade lighter.

“And the same tongue,” he said giving her a wicked look. “I just love licking the taste of you off my lips after making love to you.”

Meredith turned scarlet red as she cast her eyes
about looking to make sure no one was close enough to hear him.

The roads they followed cut across the fertile farmland and vast prairies. The openness of the land surprised her and she tried to imagine what Minnesota would look like with the trees gone. The rolling hills had their own beauty. It was not like the myriad of greens when one looked at the Minnesota forests but a simpler, more unified grace as the grasses rippled in the breeze for as far as the eye could see and the land seemed to continue until it met the sky.

At night they made steamy, passionate love. During the day they were companionable but not affectionate. They argued, passion growing until late afternoon when he halted their travels for the day and they could find release in each other’s bodies.

Meredith sensed the change in him when they entered Missouri. He was alert to his surroundings, wary of others traveling the same roads. He explained that Missouri was a state divided.  The Union held the Northern areas but the fighting raged on for the rest of the state.

When they were still ten miles from
St. Joseph, Blake left the road behind to follow the railroad tracks. At the Platte River banks, he stopped, solemnly eyeing the burned-out trestle.

“Last fall bushwhackers burned out this bridge. One hundred and fifty innocent people plunged twenty feet to their deaths. It still gives me nightmares.”

“You were here?”

“I was in
St. Joseph. It happened late, about eleven o’clock. It took hours for help summoned from town to get here. You don’t think iron can twist like that,” he said and she knew he was seeing it all again in his mind. “And the screams… We prayed that they would stop and when they did, we prayed that they would start up again. The people we could get to were dead. The people who were still alive we couldn’t get to.”

He nudged his horse down the twenty foot embankment and Meredith followed suit wishing she knew something to say.

“The train carried supplies to the Union troops stationed in St. Joseph. They didn’t care that it also carried women and children.”

The horses walked through the shallow river and scrambled up the other bank with little difficulty. Meredith turned in her saddle as she took a parting glance at the remnants of the bridge and shivers shot up her spine.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taken you by here. Come on, my little treasure. It’s getting late and I don’t want to be out here after dark.”

15

The last streaks of daylight departed the sky leaving it inky and formidable by the time they arrived at the lighted streets of St. Joseph. Meredith felt a physical sense of relief that they no longer had to fear bushwhackers. Yet, there was also a sense of loneliness knowing they would now begin the divorce process.

Deep in thought, it took her a moment to realize they stopped and Blake was dismounting. The house before them was two storied, set back from the road on a
large lot. Meredith first thought it might be some sort of boarding house because of its size but she soon realized that the immaculate house and grounds spoke of wealth.

“We’re here,” Blake stated as he came around his horse to help her dismount. “You look tired.”

“I’m fine. But I wish you’d given me a little warning. I would’ve worn my diamonds.”

“It won’t matter to Donna in the slightest what you’re wearing. She’s not the kind of person who’s going to judge you based on your appearance.”

Meredith glanced at him sideways wondering what the woman would base her judgments on.

Eyeing the ornate woodwork trimming the house, she fell into step behind him. He led her halfway up the cobbled path then took her hand and pulled her around to the darkened side of the house. Meredith liked the way her hand fit in his. It felt natural and… right.

“Let’s go through the kitchen and surprise her. Watch the root,” he said as they passed a large tree making her realize he had probably snuck around to the back door many times before.

Light spilled out of the open back door from the kitchen where a woman washed dishes and a man dried and put them away. Blake knocked lightly on the door frame drawing their attention.

“Mr. Warner! Come in out of the night air before you catch your death,” the woman admonished with mock anger.

Blake held Meredith’s hand in his but maneuvered her behind him as if to shield her as he led her into the house. “Where is she?”

“In the study,” answered the man trying to look around Blake. “Do you want me to announce you and your friend?”

“No, thank you, Fulton.”
Blake towed her across the room then stop just before the door. “I suppose you should wait to find out if we’re staying before you get our luggage and put the horses in the carriage house.”

Fulton
nodded his head. “Yes, sir. Have you folks eaten?”

“Now that you mention it, we could use a bite if it’s not too much trouble.”

Meredith followed Blake down the corridor to the study. There, curled up in a leather wing chair, a blonde woman sat reading a book, her legs tucked under her. Catching the movement out of the corner of her eye, she looked up and upon seeing Blake, her face lit up with genuine pleasure. In a moment’s time, she unfurled herself and rushed into Blake’s open arms. After a brief embrace, he set her away, though to Meredith, it appeared the woman had not intended to break off so quickly.

Possessively, Meredith stepped closer drawing the beautiful woman’s attention for the first time.

“Oh!” The woman blushed with surprise. “Blake?”

Blake made brief introductions. Donna, whom Blake introduced as his dearest friend, seemed to be waiting for more explanation of who Meredith was and why they were there.

Feeling the awkwardness of the moment, Meredith asked to use the washroom. She didn’t want to be under Donna’s scrutiny while Blake explained how they came to be married.

Meredith moved into the hallway
in the direction that Donna she’d find the facilities but paused only a few feet down the hall hoping to find out exactly how Blake felt about her.

“Another stray?”
Donna asked, not unkindly.

“You know I don’t like that term.”

“Orphan, then.”

“I suppose you could say it started that way,” he said thoughtfully.

“Oh, Blake you’re not telling me you seduced that girl. She looks barely old enough to be out of the schoolroom.”

“It’s worse than you think….”

In the hallway, Meredith held her breath, her heart pounding.

“Is she breeding?” Donna asked bluntly.

“Would you stop jumping to conclusions and let me tell you what happened,” he said impatiently. “I was in Minnesota….”

“What were you doing there?”

“Does it matter?” He continued before she could answer. “To make a long story short, I found her parents by the side of the road, dead. Indian attack. She doesn’t know and it’s best to keep it that way. It was an unbelievably gruesome sight.”

A lump formed in Meredith’s throat and she held onto the hall table to steady herself. Momentarily, she felt betrayed knowing he had not been honest with her but she soon realized he had only been protecting her. The lieutenant had told her they were found by a government courier. Was Blake a government courier?

As she gripped the table with white-knuckled hands, she heard him continue.

“A trapper identified them and I went to find out if the children needed to be taken to relatives or placed in someone’s home.”

“So, you’re telling me, you didn’t sleep with her?”

“I didn’t use very good judgment,” he admitted.

“Oh, Blake.” For the first time her tone became disapproving. “I can’t believe you’d bring one of your light-o-loves here. I hope you aren’t expecting me to let you and your latest mistress-of-the-moment stay in my home. You know I don’t approve of the way you treat women.”

“Donna,” he said sternly. “I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t call her those names. It’s not like that. We’re married.”

In the hallway, Meredith held her breath as a strange silence engulfed her. Were unspoken words passing between Blake and his friend?

There was a moment of silence. “Married?” she echoed. She squealed with delight one moment then sobered the next. “What about Rebecca?”

“What of her?”

“Are you going to tell me again that you are only friends? Well, no woman I know would travel here, all the
way from Chicago, looking for a man who’s only a friend.”

“Rebecca was here?”

“Still is, I should imagine. She said you were supposed to be home weeks ago and she thought you might have come here. What would have been so important that she would travel here when a letter or a telegram would have sufficed? Not unless she was worried about the man she loved.”

Blake let out a long, exasperated sigh, knowing arguing with her would get him nowhere. “I need your help.”

“Indeed?”

“Are you and Hamilton acquainted with a judge and an attorney who will discreetly and expeditiously handle a divorce?”

“Oh, Blake, you can’t divorce her. Her reputation would be ruined.”

“Her name is Meredith. And it’s already decided, mutually, I might add. As for her reputation, no one ever needs to know she was divorced. She’ll tell people she’s widowed”

Meredith knew she’d been absent from the room longer than she should and steeled herself as she reentered the study.