Authors: Sylvia McDaniel
“How did you meet Mr. Ketchum?” Mary asked innocently.
Rachel told her the unfortunate details of the attack on the wagon train, her father’s slaying and Wade’s rescue of them. Telling the story always reminded her of her loss.
“You were fortunate Mr. Ketchum came along and rescued you.”
“Where are you and Ethan heading?”
“Oregon City. Ethan is going to settle down and teach. And preach when he has a chance,” Mary replied softly. “How about you? Where are you and Wade going?”
Rachel frowned. Their final destination would also bring about Wade’s departure. A sense of uneasiness crept through her at the thought of parting, leaving her perplexed.
“We’re going to The Dalles. My father intended to help a young man named Ben Marshall with his church. “
“Oh, well, now you have your husband.”
For a moment, Rachel was stunned. Mary had only seen Wade handing out Bibles. The side of him Rachel had found in that saloon back in Fort Laramie was hidden, safely tucked away until the next time the gambling fever took him away.
The baby started to cry, and Mary glanced at Rachel. “Would you mind if I picked him up?”
“Go ahead. It’s his bedtime and he’s starting to get fussy.”
The longer she spoke with Mary, the more she liked the woman. Yet she couldn’t help wonder why it didn’t bother her that Mary and Ethan were together. Ethan looked the same, yet she didn’t feel that spark of attraction she’d once felt. It seemed his image had been replaced by a tall, dark-headed man with emerald eyes, whose laugh was deep and throaty.
It wasn’t long before Ethan returned for his wife, a somber Wade at his side. Becky trailed behind them, a pout upon her rosy lips.
“I think I’ll turn in for the night,” Becky said, retreating to the tent.
“Good night, Becky,” Ethan called to her his deep baritone voice warm and pleasant. “I’m glad we found each other again.”
Becky turned around, a frown gracing her pretty face. She hesitated, staring at Ethan as if she wanted to say something, before she turned and walked away.
Ethan took a seat beside Mary and draped his arm casually around his wife.
Mary cleared her throat. “Ethan told me you almost married him, Rachel.”
A loud choking noise erupted from Wade, as he’d chosen that moment to take a sip of coffee. Apparently, Mary’s news startled him, and Rachel almost laughed. Served the man right.
“We were just kids. Too young to know what we wanted.”
Ethan spoke up, “Papa Cooke was very protective of his daughters. He sent me packing.”
Mary glanced at Rachel, “Why did your father object?”
“My mother had recently passed away and Papa was determined to take care of us. He didn’t rate suitors too highly.”
“Isn’t it strange how life works? My father was not happy that I married Ethan, either. But he couldn’t stop me.”
Ethan squeezed Mary to him. “She loved me enough to leave her family behind.”
Wade stood up and threw the rest of his coffee into the fire. The liquid made a hissing sound as it hit the flames. “I hate to leave such interesting company, but I have to go check on the stock.”
His boots crunched on the dry earth as he walked away.
“It is getting late and we have to be up early,” Ethan declared. Standing, he pulled Mary up beside him.
She laid her hand on Rachel’s arm. “I’m so glad we joined up with this train and I met you. The trip has been lonely not having a woman friend. It’s going to be nice to have someone to gossip with.”
Rachel was surprised at her easy acceptance of Mary as Ethan’s wife. But she genuinely liked the young woman, and was pleased Ethan was happy.
Ethan hugged Rachel. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”
He took Mary’s arm, and they strolled toward their wagon. Rachel watched as they disappeared from sight.
Life was odd. As Rachel watched him go, she couldn’t remember why she’d been so attracted to the preacher.
* * *
Shadowy with moonlight, Wade climbed inside the wagon, trying not to wake Rachel. She was close enough to touch, yet out of reach for a man like himself.
Quietly, Wade shucked his pants. He crawled into the pallet and pulled the quilt over his body. The night air was chilly. Chilly enough that he wanted someone to snuggle up against. Anything besides a damn board.
The thought of throwing the board out and curling up next to Rachel left him hotter than a warm summer day. He couldn’t keep thinking of her this way. They lived in different worlds, traveled in different circles; and now her precious Ethan had returned, though he was married to another woman.
With a punch to his pillow, Wade rolled onto his side.
“Are you awake?” Rachel asked softly.
The sound of her voice, in the dark, sent shivers down Wade’s spine.
“Yes,” he replied through gritted teeth.
The bedclothes rustled from the movements of her body as she turned over, sending Wade’s blood rushing. “What you did today, with the Bibles…”
“Yes?” he challenged, certain she was going to berate him.
“I’m grateful for what you did. This way they will all reach Oregon.” Silence filled the wagon. “Thank you for not leaving them to rot,” she whispered in the darkness.
“You’re welcome. Does this mean you’re not angry at me anymore?” Wade tried to tease, but his tone emerged serious.
“Let’s just say you made the best of a bad situation.”
Wade turned over, facing the board. On the other side of the wood lay the flesh-and-blood woman he found all too attractive. A woman he thought of all day long on the trail. And the nights…were worse.
“Wade?”
“Yes?”
“Do you like Ethan?”
“Quite frankly, no,” Wade replied. “And you don’t want to hear my reasons why.”
Stillness filled the wagon. Rachel shifted and Wade wanted to moan. Every time she moved he imaged her nightgown inching up to reveal her hips, leaving her long legs exposed.
“Yes, I do, Wade. Tell me.”
The assertion stunned him. “You won’t like it.”
“Probably not.”
“There’s something that’s not completely honest about him. I think he’s a man who uses his profession to get women.”
Rachel laughed, her voice filling the small wagon. “You couldn’t be further from the truth. Ethan is completely devoted to God and his word. The only reason women flocked to him was because he was single.”
“That and his kissing, which I know you took part in,” Wade growled.
“I was only eighteen,” Rachel whispered in the darkness. “He left when Papa sent him away.”
“Did he tell you that he loved you? Did he promise never to leave you?” Wade asked.
“Yes.”
“Your father must have been intimidating as hell to scare him off, or he didn’t love you enough to stay.” Wade paused. “Which one was it, Rachel?”
“I don’t know why you think this is any of your business.”
“It’s not. But you asked. And you moaned his name that night around the campfire. The night I almost made love to you.”
A sharp intake of breath filled the wagon. “We did not almost make love. You tricked me.”
Wade raised up and leaned over the bundling board. “I don’t have to trick women into kissing me or making love to me.”
“Well, I didn’t do it voluntarily.”
Something in Wade snapped. He knocked the board down. The hunger of the last few weeks, the yearning to taste her again, overwhelmed him and he rolled over the wall to slake his desire.
In the darkness, his lips searched hers. His arms clasped her to him, and he felt her breasts pressing into his chest through the cotton of her nightgown. His hands stroked her face, while his lips devoured hers like a man starved.
This was what he’d thought about all day. This was what he’d dreamed about at night.
She brought her hands between them and tried to push him away. He kept kissing her until her gentle shoves changed to a tentative embrace. She grasped his undershirt and pulled him closer, moaning deep in the back of her throat. Her tongue gently found its way into his mouth and teased him with a timid touch. Feeling the satin of her skin, he rubbed his hands up her arms, across her shoulders to the buttons on her lace trimmed nightgown. His fingers fumbled at the silk tie of her nightdress, while his lips never left hers.
Succeeding at last, he pushed her nightgown down past her shoulders, past her bosom. His mouth trailed the soft cloth, descending as he kissed his way down her throat, down her silky shoulders, to the sweet nubs of her breasts.
She sighed with pleasure as his lips found the soft tip of her nipple and he gently teased the nub until it firmed against his mouth. Unable to resist the promise of sweetness, his lips suckled her breast.
“Wade,” she murmured, the sound intoxicating to his ears.
He was past the point of no return, past the point of apprehension or second thoughts. He wanted only to feel himself deep inside Rachel, filling her with his need.
For a moment, his brain failed to register the loud scream that tore through his passion. But suddenly he knew something was dreadfully wrong.
“Damn,” he cursed as he jumped away from Rachel and tugged on his pants. Grabbing his gun, he crawled out of the wagon. The screams came from the tent where the children slept, rending the still night air.
Wade reached the tent and tore open the flap. A lantern illuminated the inside where Becky was ranting. Her eyes were wide with anger, her breathing shallow. She raised a hand to strike Grace.
“You brat! I’ll teach you to put a frog in my blankets.”
Wade reacted without thought. He grabbed a startled Becky, pulling her arm behind her. “Don’t you dare hit that child,” he said, his voice a menacing growl.
Becky’s body shook with anger. “Just look at my pallet. That frog wet my blankets.”
Four green frogs hopped over Becky’s covers, anxious to escape the overcrowded tent. Toby held Daniel, who was crying with fright at the noise and commotion. Wade tried to suppress his smile as the toads sprang about the bedding.
Rachel jerked open the flap of the tent, her wrapper covering her nightgown, her face flushed from his kisses.
She glanced at Wade, then Becky. “What happened? Who’s hurt?”
“Just a few startled frogs.” Unable to contain his laugher any longer, Wade threw back his head and howled.
Rachel looked puzzled, her hazel eyes encountering his in a nervous glance. “Frogs?”
Becky jerked her arm free of Wade, and gave him a despicable glare. “Yes, that brat put them in my pallet. I refuse to let her sleep in here anymore.”
Grace stood aside, her head bowed. “I didn’t mean to. They crawled out of my pocket.”
“This little minx has hated me from the day you made me sleep here,” Becky said with a pout.
Squatting down next to Grace, Wade asked the child. “Are there any more frogs missing, Grace?”
“Nope. I only had four. I lost two others yesterday.”
Rising, Wade ran a hand through his hair. Never before had his ardor been cooled by frogs on the loose. “It’s late. Why don’t you sleep with Rachel and me tonight, Grace?”
“Thank you!” she exclaimed. She grabbed her doll, hooked it under her arm and headed out the tent without a backward glance.
Wade gazed at Rachel. Grace’s timing couldn’t have been any worse. Then again, maybe it couldn’t have been better. After all, he knew the natural conclusion to their kisses and caresses. But Rachel…
Suddenly her anxious expression was gone. “I’ll go make space in the wagon.”
“Okay, the excitement’s over. Everyone back to bed,” Wade declared.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to sleep in the dark again without feeling those things crawling on me,” Becky raged.
“Help Toby get Daniel settled,” Wade commanded. “That will make you forget.”
While Wade collected Grace’s escaped frogs, Rachel readied the wagon. He put the frogs in a bucket for safekeeping, then lifted Grace up in the wagon and crawled in after her.
For a moment, he was stunned. The bundling board had been tucked away. The pallet, still small, would barely encompass three people. They would be crowded, forced to sleep side by side, hip to hip, shoulder to shoulder, sandwiched together. Just what his overactive imagination needed, to be curled up to a woman who was untouchable, yet left him hotter than the longest day in the desert.
* * *
The next morning, neither she nor Wade spoke of the ridiculous fact that four green frogs had saved her virginity. But the feelings Wade aroused had lingered long after they’d separated. Her breasts and mouth were tender from his kisses, her heart bruised with the realization that he’d proven his point. She’d enjoyed every minute.
When she awoke, only the indention of his body on the pallet reminded her that Wade had slept beside her. But Rachel knew he’d left an indention on her heart as well.
She craved his touch, relished his kisses, hungered for his smell. Shamefully, this morning her only regret was that their lovemaking had been interrupted by Becky’s screams.