Winter Love Part 19

Red Fox shook his head. "I had an affection for Rippling Waters. I had seen her grow up. She is gentle like her sister was, but unlike Bluebird she is very biddable. She bows always to my wishes." He grinned ruefully. "That doesn't put much excitement in our marriage, but it is a peaceful existence. There was never much peace in my wigwam married to Bluebird, as you know."

"What about... you know... in bed?"

"It is good," Red Fox answered, then added slyly, "I have trained her well."

Fletch recalled how he had guided Laura in the acts of lovemaking, how eagerly she had responded to him. He was lost in the memory of her soft body clinging to his, her long, slim legs wrapped around his waist, when Red Fox spoke.

"There is no truth to the rumor that you will marry the woman who has slept with so many men, is there?"

Fletch's face clouded indignantly. "I'm surprised you'd ask me such a question, Red Fox. Do you believe that I'd want such a woman to be the mother of my children? h.e.l.l, I don't even sleep with her anymore."

"It pleases me to hear that. You have been very lucky. She is the type of woman who would purposely get a baby in her belly with another man, then point the finger at you."

Fletcher's face showed the shock that Red Fox's words had given him. It was just such a stunt Milly was capable of doing. He looked at his longtime friend and demanded, "Why didn't you give me that advice when I was sleeping with her occasionally? As thickheaded as I am, that possibility never entered my mind."

"I can't teach you everything, Fletcher Thomas." The Indian's eyes gleamed with amus.e.m.e.nt. "A man must learn by his mistakes. Sadly, sometimes it's a hard lesson."

Fletcher knew that all too well. He'd made a big mistake with Laura, one he would pay for the rest of his life.

"My son, Little Fox, left the village this morning in search of his manhood," Red Fox said at the end of a long yawn. "I worry about him. Isle Roy ale is a rough place for a young teenager to spend a month on."

"Isle Royale?" Fletcher swore softly. "That island is downright dangerous for an untried teen. It's overrun with wolves and bears, I've heard."

"I know this," Red Fox said solemnly, "but for years that's where the thirteen-year-olds are sent to spend a month, to kill their first big game."

"I'm sure he'll be all right," Fletcher said, seeing the concern in the father's face. "I'm sure you've taught him well in the use of the bow and arrow, and to always be on the alert for danger."

"I have done my best," Red Fox said, "and now I must leave him in the hands of the Great Father."

He rose and added more wood to the fire; then he and Fletcher rolled up in their blankets, their rifles lying beside them. A distant pack of wolves had serenaded them as they sat around the fire.

Chapter Twenty.

Laura's fears of the night vanished with the rising of the sun. Its bright rays striking her face had awakened her. She leaned up on an elbow and looked down at her sleeping daughter, one dimpled fist tucked under her chin.

Wondering when in the night the rain had stopped, Laura rolled out of the blankets and almost tripped over the big dog that lay watching her, his tail thumping on the needle-strewn ground. He had faithfully watched over her and Jolie during the night.

She stepped out from under the tree and stood a moment looking out over the mistshrouded lake, then turned her back to it to gaze at a sunny meadow some hundred feet away. She had seen several such open s.p.a.ces as she rode along yesterday, scattered among the dense forest of pine and spruce, wildflowers blooming profusely.

Laura slowly stretched her back and arms, working out the knots from sleeping on the ground. As she made her way to the lake to wash her face and hands, she shaded her eyes against the rising sun and looked around to see if she could see Little Fox.

She saw him quite a distance away, standing on the sh.o.r.e, holding a pole and line in the water. Seeing him fishing for his breakfast reminded Laura to check on her snare.

When she had finished washing her hands and scooping water onto her face, Laura went to find out if she and Jolie would have fresh meat for breakfast. Her eyes lit up when she saw the fat rabbit caught in her snare. She cut the rabbit down and dressed it out the way Taylor had taught her when she was young.

Laura found Jolie still sleeping on her return, and after stirring up the fire and hanging the spitted rabbit carca.s.s over it, she went back to the lake to rinse out the baby's soiled underclothing.

This time she tied a rope to Brave's collar to keep him near Jolie. She couldn't chance his spotting his playmate and running off to him.

Laura found her daughter beginning to stir when she returned with her wet laundry. She tied the clothes to the saddle lying on the ground. They would dry as they rode along. The aroma of the roasting meat wafted to her enticingly.

While she waited for the rabbit to cook, she changed Jolie into dry clothing, then spent some time stretching her little arms and legs and gently ma.s.saging her neck and shoulders. She imagined that from lying in the cradle board for so many hours yesterday the baby would be stiff also.

After strapping Jolie back in her cradle board Laura checked the rabbit and found it ready to eat. The baby waved her legs in approval as her mother fed her tiny bits of the meat. The dog showed his appreciation of his breakfast by wagging his tail when he got his share of the rabbit.

Laura ate quickly and hurried to saddle the mare. She didn't want to lose sight of Little Fox. While she was letting Beauty drink her fill of the clear lake water, she saw the Indian lad's back disappearing among the trees. She hung the cradle board with Jolie on her back, mounted Beauty, and rode out, keeping well behind Little Fox's trotting figure.

Fletch, too, was awakened by the sun striking him in the face. He had dreamed about Laura last night. Not his usual erotic dreams but those that made him uneasy. In one he saw her in a thick fog astride the mare. He thought Jolie was with her but wasn't sure. However, he could make out the wolf dog run-rung alongside Beauty. His heart began to pound when he saw the gray shape of a wolf following her at a distance. He held his breath when the beast came closer and closer to her. He saw the animal stiffen, and he braced himself for when it would spring at her. He opened his mouth to call a warning to her, but no sound left his lips.

The wolf was at Laura's throat when Fletch awakened in a cold sweat. The dream had been so real his body was shaking, and it took him a long time to get back to sleep. And then only to dream of her again.

This time she sat before a campfire, again surrounded by a mist in the darkness of the forest. She was crying and he wanted to go to her, but his feet only moved by inches and she seemed to be moving farther and farther away from him. He called her name but she didn't look up.

Why couldn't she hear him? he cried out silently. Was it only her spirit that sat there, gazing sadly into the flames? Sometime in the early morning Laura ceased to haunt his sleep and he rested peacefully.

But now, as he and Red Fox set out for home walking at a fast clip, he relived his dream. He couldn't shake the feeling that all was not well at home, either.

The sun was setting when Fletch and the Indian came to the fork in the trail. Red Fox lifted his hand in farewell, and Fletch walked on toward the post.

He heard raised voices while still some distance from home. When he walked into the clearing, he found half the village men gathered around his father. He hastened his steps, calling out, "What's wrong, Pa?"

He received only a stony look from Taylor as he joined the men, and it was Daniel who answered, "Laura is gone. The men have been searching for her since yesterday."

For a moment Fletch couldn't breathe. He thought his heart had stopped. Finally he managed to say, "Gone? Gone where?" Daniel made a helpless gesture. "n.o.body knows. She left a note for Taylor but didn't say where she was going." A look at the men's grim faces told Fletch that they had found no trace of her.

Daniel gave an unhappy shrug of his shoulders. "I'm sorry, Fletch, they found nothing. The rain washed away any tracks she might have left. Taylor says she was riding her mare."

There was near panic in Fletch's voice when he asked, "Do you have any idea where she might have gone, Daniel? Maybe she said something to Maida."

"I'm sorry, friend. Maida is just as surprised as everyone else."

"I've got to find her, Daniel. You know I do."

"I do, Fletch, and me and the fellers are goin' out again tomorrow as soon as it's light."

"I'm going out myself I'll take Red Fox with me. He's the best when it comes to tracking."

"I'm gonna get back home now." Daniel squeezed Fletch's shoulder in silent sympathy. "I have to tell Maida that we didn't find her friend. She's beside herself with worry. I'm afraid she's gonna make herself sick, cryin' and carryin' on."

Daniel walked away, and when Fletch turned around he found that the other men had left also. Only he and his father remained standing in front of the post. He walked up to Taylor, started to ask if he knew why Laura had left, then quickly snapped his lips closed when he received a look of sheer ice from his father.

"Come on inside, Fletch," Taylor said, his voice matching the chill in his eyes. "I have something to say to you."

As soon as they stepped inside the store, Taylor wheeled and faced a confounded Fletch. "I've found out who Jolie's father is," he said, wasting no time in coming to what was on his mind.

"You did? Who? How?"

"Don't act the innocent with me, you d.a.m.n pup!" Taylor almost shouted. "You're Jolie's father!"

"What! Are you crazy?" Fletch looked at Taylor as though the older man had gone stark, raving mad.

Taylor limped across the room and stood behind the counter. "You're the crazy one for thinking you could get away with it," he shot out at Fletch. "Blood always tells in the end."

"I don't know what in the h.e.l.l you're talking about." Fletch's voice rose. "Hunter O'Hara is the baby's father."

"The h.e.l.l he is!" Taylor's voice rose too. "First you let people think that Adam Beltran fathered Jolie and now you blame Hunter. But you are the father! I'd never have expected it of you. I still don't want to believe it."

"Then don't believe it, for it isn't true." Fletch forced himself to calm down and lower his voice. "Tell me what makes you think the child is mine. Did Laura say that Jolie belongs to me?"

"No, she didn't. I discovered it on my own."

"How?"

Taylor looked at Fletch, trying to decide whether his son's behavior was sincere or if he was putting on an act. A tic appeared on Fletch's strong jaw. His next words would answer his question. "Jolie always reminded me of someone. The other night I realized who. Your mother. You probably don't remember, but Mavis was fair with blue eyes."

Fletch's legs grew so weak he had to sit down. His head in his hands, he said, "Pa, I swear to you that I had no idea. I truly believed what the neighbors were saying about Laura and Adam until one night Beltran came to me and convinced me that the people were wrong. Then Laura became real chummy with O'Hara, and I decided that he was the one."

He looked up at Taylor, a hopeless grief in his eyes. "Why do you suppose she left after so long a time?"

Taylor's whole body sagged with relief His son hadn't been pretending a lie. He wasn't a scoundrel, thank G.o.d. There was a softness in his gruff voice as he said, "She left because she could no longer bear the wagging tongues of the gossiping b.i.t.c.hes in this village." His big hands clenched into fists. "If anything happens to my daughter, every last one of them will pay."

Fletch stood up and went to stand in the doorway, staring out into the gathering wet darkness. The cry of a hunting wolf pack sent shivers down his spine as he remembered his dream. Were Laura and his daughter out there in the forest somewhere? Were those animals following them?

"Did Laura take the dog with her?"

"Yes, she did, and I take comfort from that. He'll be a big protection for them. She also took her rifle."

"Do you think she's trying to make her way to Detroit?"

"That thought crossed my mind," Taylor said. "I can't think of any other place she'd have in mind to go."

Fletch turned back into the room, his big frame shaking with the sobs he could no longer hold back. "G.o.d, Pa," he choked out, "what if she's been set upon by a pack of wolves? That dog of hers is a fighter, but he couldn't take on a whole pack."

Taylor swallowed the lump that rose in his throat. "I won't let myself think about that. I tell myself that everything is going to turn out all right, that she will come back to us."

"I'm not going to depend on her returning on her own," Fletch said, his lips firming determinedly. "After Red Fox and I comb the area tomorrow, I'll go to Detroit if I don't find her."

As Fletch started to leave, Taylor said, "You might as well move back into the cabin. It's gonna be lonesome there all by myself."

It was nearly dusk when Fletcher and Red Fox turned wearily toward home. They had covered a radius of 20 miles since starting out at first light.

They hadn't expected to find the mare's hoof-prints in the needle-strewn forest, but had hoped they might find a sc.r.a.p of cloth where a dress had caught on a brush, or a dropped handkerchief, or even horse droppings. But they had come up empty-handed.

"Will we search again tomorrow?" Red Fox asked when they came to where he would leave Fletch.

"I don't think there's any use," Fletch answered with drooping shoulders. "I'm heading out for Detroit tomorrow. I can't think of anywhere else to look."

"I guess it's logical she would think of going there so she could raise the fair-headed one."

Fletcher looked at his friend and said soberly, "The fair-headed one is my daughter, Red Fox."

The big Indian made no response for a moment, only looked at Fletcher with probing black eyes. When he did speak, there was a hint of reproach in his voice.

"Why is it you're not her mother's husband? Why are you not married to this woman you claim to love so much?"

"Because I'm a d.a.m.n fool, that's why," Fletcher answered, staring off into the forest. "When I went off with those men to Canada I foolishly thought I was doing the right thing by Laura. I was the first man to be with her and I wanted her to have time to think clearly about what had happened between us, to decide if she truly loved the man or what his body had made her feel. It didn't enter my mind that my seed had taken root inside her."

"So that is why Taylor married her," Red Fox mused. After a pause, he asked, "Does Taylor know that you're the father of the little one?"

"He didn't at first; then a couple of days ago he realized that Jolie looked like his first wife, my mother. Until then, he thought Jolie got her fairness from Adam Beltran, since he was the only real blond in the area."

"Hah!" Red Fox snorted. "That is an insult to Laura, suggesting she would have anything to do with that little weasel. She would only love a man of strong character like herself."

"I guess that lets me out," Fletcher said with a thin smile. "My character hasn't looked too strong lately."

"No, friend, you are an honorable man, you only acted foolishly where Laura was concerned," Red Fox said. "Do you want me to go with you to Detroit?"

"Thank you for offering, but I'll go alone. I may be gone for a long time, and your people need you."

"May your White Father be with you, then." Red Fox shook Fletcher's hand, then took the path leading to his village.

Chapter Twenty-One.