Moonlight on Water (32 page)

“Rachel?”

As his breath brushed her hair, she raised her head. Silvery heat blazed in his eyes when he drew her closer. She forgot the music, the other dancers, everyone else in the hall while she stared up into his eyes.

“Yes?” she whispered.

“Come back with me to
The Ohio Star
tonight. You know that you want to be with me as much as I want to be with you.”

“Kitty Cat—”

“She can come to the boat with us. You know she'll love to spend the night there.”

“No.”

He halted in midstep. As the others danced around them, he said, “Rachel—”

“Listen to me.” She glanced around, then took his hand and drew him toward the raised platform at the back of the hall. “Wyatt, this is where I first saw Kitty Cat. Right here. Tonight is the last night I'm going to have her all to myself. Don't ask me to give that up, although heaven knows how much I want to be with you.”

His smile was a gentle one that thrilled her heart. “I understand why you want to spend time with her tonight, honey.” He sighed. “What I don't understand is how you can let her go.”

“I don't know if I can.”

Shock sharpened his voice. “What?”

“I don't know if I can.” She looked toward where Kitty Cat was spinning about on her tiptoes. “I stand here, and I think of the day the orphan train arrived. There were so many children here, but I saw only one. Kitty Cat might as well have been the only child here.”

“If you don't give her up, you won't be able to stay at River's Haven.”

“I know.”

“Then what will you do?”

She took a deep breath before saying, “I honestly don't know.”

“Honey, can we talk about this somewhere else?”

“
The Ohio Star
?”

“Yes.”

“But if we go there, I don't want to talk.” She ran her fingers up his chest. “I want you to hold me and kiss me.”

“I thought you didn't want to stay on the boat tonight.”

“Maybe a short visit will be all right.” She smiled. “Then I'll take Kitty Cat back to River's Haven and hold her all night.”

Wyatt nodded and remained where he was as she went to get the little girl. He understood. Rachel could not bear to say goodbye to both him and K. C. the same night. If they had even a single hour on the boat, they could pretend that he would not be leaving soon. Rachel was usually so honest with him and herself, but this was one falsehood he must afford her.

When they reached the boat, K. C. was happy to curl up in one of the rocking chairs. She mumbled something about not having her doll with her and her throat still hurting, but was asleep almost before Rachel pulled a blanket up over her. Then Rachel slipped her hand in his.

“I do need to talk with you,” she said quietly.

As they walked out of the saloon, he waved to Horace, who was sitting at the front of the boat, smoking his pipe. They turned toward his quarters. He was surprised to find a lamp glowing there, then guessed Horace had lit it.

He paused in the doorway. Looking into Rachel's dark eyes, he wondered if she knew how that soft warmth could shred every bit of his self-control.

“Rachel—”

“Please, Wyatt. I need to talk to someone.” She closed her eyes. “Wyatt, I need to talk to
you
.”

He closed the door behind him. Holding out her fingers, she brought him to sit beside her on his bed. Here she was where he had wanted her to be since the first time he had seen her. In his quarters, on his bed aboard
The Ohio Star
. Slowly he slid his hand along her left arm. The fine material of her dress hid little of the texture of her skin from his questing fingers.

“Talk, Rachel?” he asked as he fought the enchantment of her sweet seductiveness. “Talk about what?”

“I thought I wanted to talk about what I'm going to do when both you and Kitty Cat are out of my life.” Her eyes revealed the pain in her heart as she whispered, “I was wrong. I don't need to talk. I need
you
, Wyatt.”

He swept her to him. Her hungry lips thrust him into a maelstrom of pleasure. Through her thin dress, her curves were so feminine, so enticing. Her fingers boldly loosened his shirt and slipped up along his chest. Every inch of him reacted to her touch.

When he leaned her back against the pillow, her arms drew him over her. He rolled onto his back, pulling her over him. He captured her lips. He wanted to taste all of her. She arched her neck to give him free rein to pleasure.

He quivered at the very first touch of her tongue against his ear. She was welcoming him again into that netherworld where only the ecstasy he created and his mouth against her skin were real.

“Oh,” she breathed against his ear, “you make me feel so wonderful.”

“Do I, honey?” he whispered as his fingers curved up her back, pressing her closer.

“Yes. When you hold me, I can forget everything but how splendid this feels.”

“Then forget everything now except how much I want you.”

He claimed her lips again as he impatiently loosened the hooks along her gown. He pulled her clothes from her and tossed them to the deck. When she was as eager, he helped her rid him of his clothes and leave them atop hers.

With an amused chuckle, he pinned her against the pillows. He gave her no time to say anything as he tasted her skin again. Inside him grew a compulsion to find satiation for this craving that seemed to know no bounds.

He shivered with the uncontrollable sensation of his skin against hers. As her fingers drifted along him, maddening him with this blinding desire, he sought his own fantasies by letting his lips explore her beguiling curves. The essence of her skin and the silken texture of it against his mouth immersed him in a flood of craving.

When she breathed his name and drew his mouth back to hers, he lifted her over him. Her skin brushed against him, and he knew he could not wait much longer to be inside her. Framing her face, he stared into her eyes. They were glazed with her yearning. Slowly he guided her lips to his as her hands slid along him, firing his skin with their lustrous heat. He grasped her hips as his tongue probed deep into her mouth at the very moment he delved deep within her body.

She gasped as they were melded together by the craving racing around and through them. As she moved over him, the lightning-hot yearning became a desperate need, the ecstasy became torment. It whirled through him, exploding as she quivered against him, lost in the tumult that swirled within them and beyond the bed where they could pretend that they would have this forever.

Twenty-two

Rachel lifted Kitty Cat into her arms and cradled the child against her as she stepped around a puddle in the road between Haven and the River's Haven Community. Bright moonlight sparkled on the wet grass and trees even as a miasma of fog was once again crawling up from the river.

“Do you want me to carry her?” Wyatt asked.

“I have her.” She would have gladly handed Kitty Cat to him because they still were almost a mile from River's Haven, but the little girl clung to her and coughed. She hoped Kitty Cat was not sickening with a summer cold. “You didn't have to walk all the way out here with us tonight, Wyatt. I heard Horace saying how early he planned to get to work in the morning.”

“I'm like K. C. I don't want this day to end.” He mussed the little girl's hair as she gave him a smile.

“My birthday and the country's,” murmured Kitty Cat. “Isn't it wonderful that the country has its birthday on mine?”

Rachel laughed softly. “It's just perfect.”

“Will they have a party for both of us again next year?”

“Every year, from what Mr. Sawyer told us.”

“Good. Next year, I want—”

“Hush!” Wyatt put his hand on Rachel's arm.

Rachel stiffened. “What is it?”

“We aren't the only ones here.”

She strained her ears, but she could not hear what he had. Stepping nearer to him, she silenced Kitty Cat as the little girl started to ask a question. The moonlight no longer washed over the countryside, but instead seemed to conceal too much in its sharp shadows.

She never did see where the ambush came from. Suddenly hands were grabbing at her. She kicked at someone and heard Kitty Cat shriek. She tried to hold on to the child, but Kitty Cat was ripped from her arms. She leaped toward the shadowed man who was holding the little girl.

“Run, Rachel!” Wyatt shouted. He groaned, and she heard a fist strike him.

“Wyatt!” she screamed.

If he answered her, she never heard his voice beyond the thump of something against her skull. The moonlight vanished, and the shadows washed out from beneath the trees to sweep over her like a flood.

Water splashed on Rachel's face, then someone slapped her cheek. Not too hard, but enough to make her aching head spin. She heard someone crying. Kitty Cat!

That thought brought her eyes open. She looked around in amazement. She must be lying on the floor of a small chamber off the Community room in the River's Haven's common house.

“If she's awake,” came a strident female voice, “get her on her feet, and let's be done with this.”

Rachel recognized that voice, too. It belonged to Miss Stokes, the sole woman on the Assembly of Elders.

Hands grasped her arms and pulled her up. Her head spun worse. When Kitty Cat rushed to hug her, Rachel backpedaled, almost falling. The wall behind her kept her from collapsing.

“I'm fine,” she whispered, wanting to calm the hysterical child. She wondered what Kitty Cat had witnessed after Rachel was knocked senseless. Her head jerked up. Where was Wyatt?

Other than her and Kitty Cat, the Assembly of Elders were the only ones in the huge room.

“Where's Wyatt?” Rachel asked. “What have you done to him?”

Miss Stokes motioned to someone who must have been outside the room.

Rachel gasped when Miss Hanson came in, the gray-haired woman's gaze focused on the floor in front of her feet.

Miss Hanson shuffled over to Rachel and said in a whisper, “I warned you, Miss Browning, that you were bringing trouble on yourself.”

“Do you know where Wyatt is?”

“Don't ask me anything. I'm just here for the child.” She held out her hand and raised her voice. “Come with me, Katherine. I'll show you where you're going to live now that you're a big girl of seven.”

Kitty Cat would not be fooled, Rachel realized, when the little girl spat, “I live with Rachel.”

“You're seven now,” Miss Stokes intoned. “You'll live with the other children. Miss Hanson, if you please.”

Miss Hanson pulled Kitty Cat away from Rachel. When Rachel reached out for Kitty Cat, her arms were grasped, keeping her from helping the child.

Kitty Cat screamed and tried to escape. Something hit the floor as she was dragged to the door. The tiny steamboat! Kitty Cat cried out again when Miss Hanson lifted her and went out, closing the door behind her.

Rachel yanked her arms out of Mr. Foley's. She took one step toward the door, but Mr. Carpenter's sharp voice ordered her to stop. She ignored it.

Her shoulders were grasped again. She was whirled to face Mr. Foley. Her hand struck his face before she had a chance to halt it.

He cursed, but did not release her as he pulled her back toward where the others waited. When her skirt brushed Kitty Cat's steamboat, sending it skittering a short distance away, he raised his foot and, with a smile, crushed the toy beneath it.

Rachel raised her chin. If he thought he could squash her will as he had the steamboat, he had something to learn. She pushed past him and walked to the other Elders.

Miss Stokes pointed to a spot directly in front of her. Rachel recognized it as an order, and she went to stand before the Elder in the exact spot Miss Stokes indicated.

“We are very disappointed in you, Miss Browning,” Mr. Johnson said, startling Rachel, for she had never heard him speak while with the other Elders.

“Why are you disappointed in
me
? I wasn't the one who arranged an ambush on three innocent people.” She frowned at Mr. Foley, whose left cheek bore the bright pink imprint left by her hand. “Where's Wyatt Colton?”

“You know our laws, and we believed you to be willing to follow them.”

She did not answer. Anything she said would be used to prove how far she had strayed from the Community's tenets.

Miss Stokes said, “It's time for you to do what you must for the benefit of the Community.”

“I'll be glad to listen to what you have to say if you will tell me what has happened to Wyatt.”

“Mr. Colton needn't concern you any longer,” Miss Stokes replied. “As the wife of Mr. Foley—”

“I won't marry Mr. Foley!” She planted her hands on her hips and scowled.

“And whom will you marry? Colton?”

“If he and I wish. Tell me, someone, please. Where's Wyatt?”

The door opened, and Rachel looked over her shoulder. Her brother strode into the room. He said nothing as he came to stand beside Mr. Foley.

Mr. Carpenter stepped forward, his eyes as sad as a parent dealing with a naughty child. “Miss Browning, since your arrival, you've faithfully followed the ways of our Community. Until now. Do you want to destroy what we have?”

“I'm not destroying anything.” She looked to her brother, then quickly away. Merrill was even more furious than Mr. Foley. “I'll be honest with you as I always have been. River's Haven is my home, and I wouldn't do anything to cause trouble. But you're asking me to marry a man I don't love. No one else has been asked to do that.”

“You're wrong,” Mr. Carpenter said in his hushed voice. “You aren't the first, nor will you be the last. Miss Browning, you are a great asset to this Community. You've proven your intelligence with your work and have built financial security for River's Haven. That intelligence is something we wish for our future generations.” He looked past her. “Mr. Foley also is very smart. Your child will be another asset to the Community.”