Unbroken Hearts (26 page)

     
"Sweetheart, I will make this
good."

    
She smiled. "I know." She wanted
to say far more powerful words but didn't know how.
Please mate your body
with mine; plant the seed of your child in my womb.

 
   
A man could only stand so
much sweet agony. Sarah's welcoming words spun Cal out of control. He tried to
enter her slowly, but his mind had abandoned him, leaving his body to command
with throbbing need. She was hot and tight, and he pushed straight on into
her.
 
He felt resistance, and as he
pushed through she cried out in pain.

    
He hadn't expected that. Cal brushed soft
kisses on her cheek, and stilled himself inside her, fighting against nature to
give her time to become accustomed to him.
 

   
Sarah also quieted, the pain subsided, and she looked into Cal's eyes,
full of wonder and ease, and she gave in to the full of her desire.

    
Cal withdrew and slowly pushed inside her
once more. Then he moved against her in an urgent rhythm that sent bolts of
pleasure rocketing into the core of her being. She cried out in delight.
 

    
He shouted her name to the sky with his
release.

    
Her cry met his and their voices were
suspended in the night air like the howl of the lone coyote in the distance.

    
For long minutes they held each other,
dazed and stunned as they recovered from the intensity of their lovemaking.

    
Cal waved a hand in the air above the
blankets. "Sarah, it was like we were two lonely gusts of wind that were
sweeping along and searching. Searching for each other.
 
And finally we meet on this
prairie." He kissed her brow. "Now we hold close and ride each other
higher and faster to the sun," he murmured, accenting his words with
tender kisses along the swell of her breasts.
 

   
 
The intimacy was so much
more than Sarah had experienced in her dreams about Cal, where she had imagined
a kind of union that felt warm and comfortable. But this was fire -- hot,
raging, and uncontrollable.

    
He felt her pulse slowing his as he held
her. After she'd quieted Cal rose from the bed and walked over to his wash
table. He poured water into the bowl, grabbed a towel, and wiped himself. Then
he took a damp washcloth back to the bed. "Did I hurt you?"

    
"Not too much." She flushed.

    
"Hush". He put a finger to her
lips

    
Tears sprang to her eyes and rolled down
her cheeks. Cal was gently soothing the place between her legs with the cool,
wet cloth. Then he spread his hand over her abdomen and drew lazy circles with
his fingers, thinking about how someday his child would grow there inside her.

    
A few minutes later he was working his way
back to an excruciating state of arousal when Sarah bolted upright in the
bed.
 

    
"Mama!" She gasped. "I need
to check on her. Emily sleeps too soundly."

    
She leapt from the bed before he could
stop her, and her naked form came skidding to an abrupt halt at the door.
 

    
"I'm unshucked." She looked
glumly back at him.

    
Cal sighed. He knew he couldn't hold her.
"Take my robe."

    
He slipped out of bed to find it for her.
"I was hoping you'd stay, sleep with me the whole night." He briskly
crossed the room.

    
She looked at him curiously, trying to
focus on his face. "Oh. Maybe next time." Then she shrugged and
averted her eyes to shield him from her disappointment. Sarah well knew this
marked a beginning and an ending; there likely wouldn't be another time.
 

    
Now she had to take care of Mama, and what
would Emily think if she woke up and Sarah wasn't there? If Emily were to
discover she'd slept in Cal's room, Roy would know it, too. She wasn't ashamed
of what they'd done, because she loved Cal, but they weren't married, and that
made it sinful by most other folks reckoning.

    
Cal yanked his robe from a nail near the
door. He wrapped the thick warmth around her and pulled her close to steal one
last kiss. More tears rolled down her cheeks as she pulled away.

    
"Honest, I never thought . . . never
thought I'd know a fine man," she choked. Then she hurried out the door,
skipping down to the large room she shared with Mama and Emily.

    
Cal watched her disappear down the stairs,
a lovely, slim softness floating through the darkness. His heart swelled. She
was his, and this night had been a wonderful beginning. She was so beautiful,
he thought, with her dark hair splayed across the pillow, flushed cheeks, soft
skin that responded to his touch so freely, so innocently. He unabashedly
admitted that he loved just about everything about her.

    
Now he'd ache to have her in his bed every
night. Sarah deserved and needed the respectability of marriage, and he wanted
desperately to give it to her. If Crane didn't show up soon he'd have to go
looking for the cretin. His need for Sarah left him no other choice.

Chapter 24

    
Sarah was scraping eggs onto a plate when
Cal sauntered into the kitchen. She turned to greet him and instantly fell into
his intoxicating smile and warm embrace. Her face burned as she remembered the
intimacy they'd enjoyed together the previous night.

 
   
"Morning, beautiful.
You sore?" he murmured into her ear.

    
"A little," she whispered.
"Good morning. Your mother is right behind us," she gently reminded.

    
He spun around and hailed Mama with a
smile that lit his face more brightly than usual.
 

    
"Somehow I've worked up an
appetite." Cal lifted the plate from the stove, along with another piled
high with slices of toast. He sidled over to the table.
 

    
Sarah had fed Mama a thin porridge, and
now she sat down to eat her own breakfast. Roy ambled in to join them. He cast
an admiring glance at Sarah. Then he grinned like an idiot at Cal.

    
"Well, it was a fine social."

    
Cal nodded agreement as his hand headed
for the butter. "Surely was."

    
Any hopes Sarah entertained for a quiet breakfast
vanished when Emily appeared, sat down next to Roy, and launched
enthusiastically into telling her account of the social to Mama. The girl had
an amazing capacity for remembering details, right down to the color and
placement of bric-a-brac on each woman's dress. After a couple minutes of
chatter, Emily paused with her spoon midway between plate and mouth. She looked
up at Sarah.

    
"I must have been asleep when you
came in. How'd you get out of the fancy dress with all those buttons down the
back?"

    
Roy sputtered and made a grab for his tin
coffee cup. Cal smiled broadly.

    
A blush crept up Sarah's neck. "I,
uh, managed."
   

    
Her flush deepened as she realized Roy
must have heard them the previous night. After all, his room was right next to
Cal's.
 

    
Cal stretched his arms high above his head
and sighed. Sarah tried to kick him under the table, but instead she ended up
kicking Roy, who couldn't contain his laughter any longer.
 

    
Sarah wailed. "Don't you men have
work to do?"

 
   
Cal beamed and gently
drawled. "Dang there's so many other things I'd rather be doing." He
loved the fetching way she flushed and twisted her arms together at her waist,
as if she couldn't decide whether to chastise him or haul him back upstairs.

    
The men took an agonizingly sweet time
finishing their coffee.
 

    
When they rose from the table Roy was
pleased to note a spring in Cal's step and litheness in his body, new energy
that wasn't there the day before. Following Cal out the back door he headed for
the corral, where some of the hands were rough breaking new horses brought in
from the range.

                                       
*
     
*
     
*

    
Emily and Sarah passed the time after
breakfast talking to Mama about the social. After Emily's well ran dry she
excused herself to go feed Patches. Sarah continued to chat, spinning a list of
all who were in attendance the previous evening. When she got around to
mentioning Jack Dullen, her voice tightened. Mama blinked.

    
What happened?

   
 
"The man was
ill-mannered." Sarah waved her hand dismissively. "But I don't put
any stock in it. He wasn't about to ruin my evening." She carried the
coffeepot to the stove, where she set it to warm.

    
As she turned back she caught Mama's rapid
blinks. Sarah grabbed up paper and pencil to write the letters.

    
He killed my husband.

    
Sarah's eyes flew wide in disbelief.
"Wh--?" Suddenly her knees were weak and somehow she knew it was
true. She drifted down into a chair and stared, dumbfounded, at Mama.

    
Mama couldn't blink fast enough for
Sarah's shaking hands as she spun out the story.

    
They said it was accident. Rockslide at
Lazca. My John owned half the mine. Dullen wanted him gone to take it all. But my
John was smart. He had a will and lawyer, left his stake to Cal and Roy. Dullen
had to buy the boys share and I made them take the money. Didn't want them near
that snake.

    
Sarah moaned and doubled over in her chair
as she wrote out the words. "Oh no, oh no," she repeated over and
over, sobs catching in her throat.
 

    
Mama finished her blinking, and
heartbreaking silence filled the hollow between them. Sarah swallowed hard,
twisted the pencil in her tight fingers, and rocked back in her seat. Nothing
she could say would ease Mama's heartache, so she did the only things she
could. She took Mama's hand and gently kissed her cheek.
 

    
The two victims of past evils sat quietly
together for a long time, to the muted sounds of men yelling as they tried to
bridle rough horses out at the corral.

    
Now Sarah knew the horror that lay between
Jack Dullen and the Eastons. When she spoke she chose her words carefully.
"Don't you worry, Mama. Cal and Roy are the strongest and bravest men I've
ever known. They'll take care of things." She gazed into Mama's worried
eyes and hoped she was right.

                                        
*
     
*
     
*

 
The sun
was high in the sky when two men on horseback galloped into the yard.

    
Ned snapped to his feet, instantly
recognizing them as the duo Cal had hired and stationed at the Copper Strike
saloon. They swung down and strode purposefully toward him.

    
"Something up?" Ned drawled.

     
The older man, Benton, hired for
Mineral Creek just the previous week, tipped back his hat and spat in the
dirt.
 

    
"Yup. A man calling hisself
"Crane" come into the Copper Strike a couple hours ago. Looked like a
goat in a flock of sheep, and asking about Miss Sarah Anders." Benton cleared
his throat and spat again.

     
"What'd you tell him?" Ned
narrowed his eyes and a muscle along his jaw line tensed.

    
"Only that we heard she's somewhere
hereabouts, don't know for sure."

    
Ned nodded. "Good. Who's keeping a
lookout on him?"

    
"We put Whiskey Liz on it."
Benton cleared his throat. "She'll entertain him upstairs a couple
hours." The man rubbed the back of his hand across his chin and smiled.
"Hope he can stay busy that long."

    
Ned sat back down on the
porch step to rest his leg. "Good, good," he muttered.

    
After Lola's place burned, Whiskey Liz had
moved on down to a room over the Copper Strike, and she'd earned her new name and
reputation by plying men with amber liquid.

    
"Now what?" Benton shifted
restlessly.

    
"Cal told me to call them in,"
replied Ned as he mentally ran through his list of instructions. He moved
across the porch and rang the bell.

    
Faster than lightning Sarah and Emily came
running out the door. The pair stood at attention like two soldiers falling out
for marching drills.

    
"Ned, what's wrong?" Emily was
breathless. They both stared, wide eyed, at the strange men standing next to
Ned, waiting for explanation.

    
Ned bought time to think by rising slowly
from his seated position.
 

    
"Oh . . . these here men need help
straight away. They found fifty Mineral Creek head trapped in a canyon a few
miles west of here. Those cattle are mighty weak. Yep," he nodded, "
those cattle are in trouble and the boys have to go round them up."

    
The two men nodded politely to lend
credibility to Ned's story.

    
"Oh." Sarah relaxed visibly.
"Well, you might have told us before you rang the bell! You gave us quite
a scare."

    
"Sorry, miss. I expect I wasn't
thinking." Ned sheepishly doffed his hat with the apology and, in his most
gentlemanly way, he introduced the hired men.

    
Within minutes Roy and Cal were seen
speeding toward the house amid a cloud of gray dust. They reined their horses
to a stop in front of the group assembled near the porch.

   
Because Emily and Sarah were still standing there Ned was forced to
repeat his story about the missing cattle, which Cal and Roy instantly knew to
be a lie, because there weren't any canyons a few miles west of the ranch.
Canyons didn't exist within fifty miles of it. Cal looked at Sarah.

    
"Who's minding Mama?" he barked,
knowing full well it would light a fire under her feet.

    
"Oh! We left her in the kitchen
alone. Oh my!" Both girls went flying back into the house.

    
Cal's eyes narrowed and his gaze moved to
Benton. "Where is the bastard?"

    
"At the Copper Strike. Whiskey Liz
has him on his back."

    
Cal nodded thoughtfully and shifted in his
saddle.

    
"OK, he's a gambling man so why don't
we set up a game? Let's give the man a reason to draw on the cheating
Eastons." Cal winked at Roy.

    
Roy wore an eager schoolboy expression as
he swaggered into the house to find his deck of cards. Cal waved to a hand,
ordered him to saddle fresh horses, including an extra one so Ned could ride
along. It was a long time since he'd played at cards, but it was a lot like
roping steers. Once you had some practice, you never really forgot how to do
it.