Forever Angels Read online

  "What's your name?" she quickly amended.

  "Rain told you his sister's name. Didn't he tell you mine?"

  "Oh. Yes, yes, he did. It's Stone, right? Stone Chisum."

  "What's yours?" Flower asked. She moved over and squatted beside Tess, holding out her hand in an offer of friendship.

  "Tess." Tess gripped the smaller hand and gave it a slight shake. "Tess Foster."

  "That's pretty," Flower said. "Tess," she repeated.

  "Before you ask, it's not short for anything," Tess said with a laugh. "It's just plain old Tess."

  "How old are you?" Flower asked.

  "Thirty," Tess admitted wryly.

  "Gee, you're almost as old as Pa, but you sure don't look that old. Are you married?"

  "No. Not even engaged." Any more, her mind continued.

  "You sure don't look like a spinster," Flower said as she rose to her feet. "One of the books I read said anyone who isn't married by the time she's twenty gets called a spinster. But I always imagined a spinster would be all dried up and ugly. You're awfully pretty, like your name."

  Tess stared at her in dismay. How in the world could she answer that comment? Luckily, Stone intervened.

  "You'll have plenty of time to ask Miss Foster all the questions you want after we get her down to the cabin and make her more comfortable, Flower. Where did you say that horse of yours went, Miss Foster?"

  "I...I've no idea," Tess replied. She wasn't lying. Sateen was back in a stall — somewhere back there.

  "Hey, Pa! Am I glad you're here. You can give me a hand lifting the deer on Smoky."

  "Sure, son," Stone called toward Rain, who was trudging in their direction. "Just let me get Miss Foster taken care of first. It's mighty hot to just leave her sitting there."

  "Her foot's hurt pretty bad, Pa," Rain said, glancing down at Tess with a smile of concern as he halted beside his father. "She must have hurt it before she got here."

  "Before she got here? What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Stone said with a frown.

  Tess took the only recourse she had when he glared at her. She screwed her face up in pain, and even managed to squeeze out a tear to trickle down her cheek.

  Rubbing her leg, she said with a sob, "Please. Can't we talk after we do something for my ankle? I've been lying here over half an hour, and I don't think I can stand the pain much longer."

  Angela chuckled softly to herself and clapped her hands as the man named Stone dissolved into helpless confusion. He reached toward Tess's face, then jerked his hand back and grabbed his handkerchief from his back pocket instead. Thrusting the handkerchief into Tess's free hand, he somewhat gruffly ordered Flower to bring her horse closer.

  Gently, ever so gently, Stone bent and lifted Tess into his arms, carefully shifting her against his chest as she wrapped her arm around his neck.

  "I'll try not to hurt you," he muttered distractedly. "Please. Don't cry any more. We'll get you down to the cabin. I think I've got some laudanum there. If not, there's some whiskey."

  "Pa, what about the deer?" Rain asked.

  "We'll get the damned deer in a little while, Rain," Stone said, trying to soften the harsh tone of his voice and ignore the unbound fullness crushing against the pectorals on his own chest. Wildflower scent surrounded him, drifting up from the head nestled against his shoulder.

  Those emerald eyes were closed now, her lower lip caught between her teeth, perhaps in pain. If his arms hadn't been so full, he could have stroked her slender back and maybe eased the pain somewhat. Funny, though, how she seemed to fit that empty space in his arms just exactly so.

  Good thing his arms were full. Otherwise, he might just try to stroke that pretty mouth with his thumb — ease it from its clenched tightness, so he could enjoy looking at those full lips again. 'Course, his own mouth was free — maybe he could nibble....

  Tess opened her eyes when she felt a feathery hint of breath on her face. Sweet heaven, he was going to kiss her. She gave a languid sigh and closed her eyes again, barely parting her lips. Her free arm started a path up his chest to caress that corded neck.

  "Uh...Pa," Flower said, clearing her throat to get his attention. "Here's the horse."

  Their gasps of astonishment sounded in unison and Tess buried her face on Stone's shoulder to hide her blush. What in the world was she doing? No matter how much raw sexuality this Marlboro Man exuded, she had no business allowing him to kiss her five minutes after she met him. Allow him? Hell, she had offered it to him!

  He even smelled deliciously masculine. A faint hint of soap and sweat — Tess took a tentative breath — a little horse odor....

  "Think you could help me out here a bit, Miss Foster?" Stone asked in a gruff voice.

  Tess jerked her head back, her neck popping with the strain. Tearing her eyes away from his face, she glanced at the horse standing beside them.

  "Sure. S...sorry," she sputtered.

  Bracing herself on Stone's shoulder, she threw one leg over the saddle and reached for the saddlehorn. A very capable pair of broad hands cupped her rear and steadied her, pushing her upward. She almost went off the other side of the horse before she caught herself.

  "Thought you said you could ride," Stone said as he unconsciously rubbed his hands against his denim-clad legs.

  "I can," she almost snarled at him. To prove her point, she neck-reined the horse around and started down the trail.

  "Damn it! Wait for Flower!" Stone shouted.

  Tess pulled the gelding up, but refused to turn the horse around. Extremely aware of every movement Stone made, despite keeping her eyes resolutely forward, she waited until Stone hefted Flower up behind the saddle.

  She lifted the reins, but Stone caught the horse's bridle before it could move.

  "Wait for Rain and me, too. You'll need some help getting in the cabin," Stone said, his eyes sliding away from her brief, downward glance.

  "But, Pa! Like you just said, it's awful hot," Rain said in an peevish voice. "I don't want that deer meat to spoil."

  "Flower and I can make it alone," Tess assured Stone. "I've been riding all my life, and Flower can get me something to lean on, so I can make it into your cabin."

  "Well, if you're sure. Flower was counting on that meat for dinner tomorrow."

  "We'll be fine. Really."

  To emphasize her words, Tess picked up the reins again and quirked a questioning glance at Stone's hand on the bridle.

  Stone held the bridle strap a moment longer. "Is there someone around here we ought to notify about you getting hurt? Your family will probably wonder where you are, when you don't show up."

  "No," Tess denied, then frantically tried to think how to explain that to him — or at least divert the new questions she saw forming on that craggy face. "I...oh, my ankle hurts." She blinked her eyes a time or two, as though fighting tears of pain, which wasn't too far from the truth. The ankle was beginning to throb again as it hung down beside the stirrup.

  Stone quickly dropped his hand and stepped back. Darn, that woman's tears did something to him!

  Tess kneed the horse forward. She paused at the bend in the trail where Stone had first appeared only long enough to wave a nonchalant hand back, to indicate that she was having no problem at all with the horse. No, she told herself as the horse moved out again, she did not want to see if the Marlboro Man was watching her — seeing how well she handled the strange horse.

  As soon as the horse disappeared, Stone knelt and put his hands on Rain's shoulders. "Now, what the heck is going on here, son? Where did Miss Foster come from? What did you mean about her being hurt before she got here?"

  Angela clapped her hands again. So Tess's attempt to divert Stone's questions hadn't worked. It had only delayed them. Not a dumb man, was this one!

  "What? You think we men can't see through all those wiles you women use, just because we let you get your way most of the time?"

  "Michael! Welcome back," Angela said. "Shhhh. Let's listen. I really want t
o know what's going to happen next."

  "Well, fill me in on what's happened so far. All I saw was that poor man getting flustered because Tess blinked those big green eyes at him like she was going to cry."

  "Not now, Michael. You should have been watching all along, if you wanted to know the story. You'll have to wait for a commercial."

  "A commercial! Dash nab it, Angela, we're not watching television!"

  "Shhhh."

  "...and I really don't know where she came from, Pa. Like I said, one minute there was a wild turkey there and next thing I knew the turkey was hightailing it over the top of the hill, gobbling like I'd shot it in the rear with buckshot. Then, there she was."

  And the spirit lady, too, but he couldn't even tell his pa about that. Perhaps when Grandfather visited, they could fast and....

  Stone felt Rain's forehead. "Did you bring a canteen with you? I've told you not to hunt in the summer heat without taking water with you."

  "I'm not sick. Gee, you don't think I'm lying, do you? I've never told you a lie."

  "No," Stone hastily assured his son. "But, Rain, sometimes we see things that aren't really there. Or maybe overlook things at first. You were concentrating on the turkey. You just didn't notice Miss Foster."

  "Uh uh, Pa. She wasn't there when I first aimed my gun. How could I have missed seeing someone that pretty lying right where the turkey was standing? Especially with that red shirt she's got on. And, look, you can see the turkey's tracks. It was standing right here — right beside where Miss Foster was laying."

  Stone shook his head. Rain couldn't have — but he had to have....

  "And I was aiming my rifle, like I said! Do you think I would have pointed my rifle at a turkey that had a person laying right beside it? I know better than that. I'm a pretty good shot, but there's always a chance....I wouldn't ever try to make a shot like that, unless I had to save someone's life."

  "Rain, people can't just appear and disappear into thin air."

  "They sure can't, can they? I don't know then, Pa," Rain said with a shrug. "Where did she come from? She's real, not a spirit."

  "She's real all right," Stone said, rubbing two fingers across the slight hump on his chest, where the feeling of that unbound fullness still lingered.

  "She smells pretty, too, doesn't she? Kind of like the wildflowers in the spring."

  Stone rose to his feet, nodding his head in agreement. The pack lying near his feet caught his eye. He didn't dare. That belonged to her, and he had no business invading her privacy — going through her things.

  Besides, they better get that deer, or it wouldn't be worth hauling home. He'd take the pack with him on the horse, after they loaded the deer. He'd give it back to her. Probably she had her extra clothing in there and all those feminine necessities women seemed to need.

  He'd give it straight back to her.

  "Come on, Rain. Let's get the deer."

  "Boy, is he going to be surprised when he goes through that pack," Michael said with a wry chuckle.

  "He wouldn't," Angela denied. "You can read his thoughts as well as I can. He's decided he'll give it back to her without looking in it."

  Michael shifted his cigar stub to the other side of his mouth and grinned at her.

  ***

  Chapter 5

  Gingerly, Tess shifted in the saddle and glanced at the ground as Flower dismounted. It had never looked that far away when she had two good legs to climb out of the saddle with. Would Flower's horse prove as stoic as the mountain ponies she had learned to ride almost before she could walk? Those ponies allowed mounting or dismounting from either side, but most horses tolerated it only on the left — the side they had been trained on. No way would her left ankle support her in that stirrup.

  Tess tentatively leaned her weight into the right stirrup. The horse tossed its head and shied a step away from the hitching rail.

  "Wait, Miss Foster. Let me hold him."

  Flower grabbed the bridle and stroked the horse's muzzle soothingly. She nodded at Tess, and Tess eased her left leg over the horse's rump, then laid her stomach on the saddle and slid to the ground. Reaching for the hitching rail, she hopped a step, making sure her injured ankle didn't touch the ground.

  "I'm going to need something to help support me in order to make it into the house," she reminded Flower.

  Flower dropped the reins to ground tie the horse. "Do you think you could lean against me?"

  "You probably couldn't hold me if I started to fall, honey. How about getting a kitchen chair?"

  "We've only got benches around the table," Flower said with a frown. "I know. There's a stool I use when I churn."

  Flower lightly ran up the steps, and Tess settled her bottom more comfortably on the hitching rail to wait. Taking a deep breath of the pure air, Tess wandered her eyes around the yard.

  It was really a beautiful place. The valley stretched out on either side of the small log cabin. The heat didn't seem quite as stifling down here, since a slight breeze wafted along the valley floor. Tess lifted her hair from the back of her neck and allowed the breeze to play across the dampness.

  A small barn sat off to the right, surrounded on three sides by a much larger corral. She had noticed a mare and a half-grown colt in the corral as they rode into the yard.

  In the eastern end of the valley, she thought she could make out some reddish shapes against the dark, velvet green. Probably some cattle, she realized.

  Tess took another deep breath of the air. How untainted and clean it smelled. Sometimes, even on the mountain tops where she backpacked, she could still smell the faint odor of civilization. And how many times had she found signs of other, less ecologically conscious hikers in the remote, pristine wilderness she loved? An empty candy wrapper skittering along the trail in a breeze — a crumpled aluminum can.

  Once, with Freddy's assistance, she had even rescued a loon in a mountain lake. The poor thing had become entangled in a plastic six-pack holder someone had negligently tossed into the water. Probably the loon had been diving for food, Freddy had told her. Tess unconsciously rubbed the small scar on the back of her hand, the remaining souvenier of how sharp a frightened bird's beak could be.

  "Here we go, Miss Foster."

  Tess murmured her thanks to Flower. Somewhat awkwardly, she managed the two steps up to the porch, silently blessing the fact that her jogging and hiking kept her legs in good shape. She hobbled into the cabin when Flower held the door open and gratefully sank onto one of the benches beside the wooden table.

  "I took a minute and stoked up the stove, Miss Foster," Flower said as she reached for a tin basin on the sink. "Soon as the water in the tea kettle gets hot, you can soak your ankle."

  "Ice might be better, Flower — so we can get some of this swelling down and try to decide how bad my ankle's hurt."

  "Oh, I don't think there's any left," Flower said in an apologetic voice. "Would you rather have some cold well water?"

  How stupid, Tess told herself. Of course there wouldn't be any ice. She hadn't seen any power lines stretching across the valley.

  "That'll be fine, Flower."

  "Sometimes we have ice up into the spring," Flower started to explain. "If we have a real cold winter, Pa cuts the ice from one of the lakes and stores it in sawdust in our root cellar. But there was only a pile of sawdust there the other day. Our well's real deep, though, and the water's nice and cold."

  "Can you manage by yourself?"

  "Oh, sure. I carry water in all the time. I'll be right back."

  Tess stared around the kitchen after Flower left. The cabin must be larger than it appeared from the outside, since the kitchen was fairly spacious. Here and there she noted little touches that had to have come from Flower — a vase of almost wilted Black Eyed Susans — a pair of curtains with wobbly seams over the dry sink. She couldn't imagine either Stone or Rain caring much about curtains or flowers.

  The table and stove were sparkling clean. But overhead in the rafters,
where strings of peppers and corn — popcorn, maybe — hung, she saw a few dust-covered spider webs. And the corners of the pine flooring could stand a good scrubbing.

  "Pa and Rain are coming," Flower said as she hurried into the kitchen and set the wooden bucket in the sink. She released the rope handle and rubbed at the small of her back.

  "Heavens, Flower," Tess asked. "How many times do you have to carry water in here every day?"

  "Oh, dozens," Flower admitted. "But I'm used to it."

  "Your back's never going to get used to it. You'll wreck it before you're twenty. Why doesn't your father at least install a hand pump in here for you?"

  "Pa's busy," Flower defended. "He said he'll do it some day."

  Tess shook her head as Flower dipped water into the basin and carried it over to her.

  Hesitating, Flower glanced at the door, then back at Tess. "Maybe you better move into my bedroom. Pa and Rain will need the table."

  "Whatever for?" Tess asked.

  "Well, they'll skin the deer outside, but they'll probably bring it in here to cut it up."

  "They'll what!? Flower, they can just as easily butcher that deer outside and put it in...in your root cellar, or wherever you keep your meat!"

  "The smokehouse. But they always...."

  "And who cleans up the mess after they're done?"

  "I do. But...."

  "And how many buckets of water do you have to carry to do that?"

  Flower set the basin on the table and cocked her head a little. "A bunch," she admitted. "Then the oil cloth has to be washed. And they usually manage to leave bits of tallow and hair all over the floor."

  Flower picked up the basin again and knelt by Tess's foot. "Do you want me to help you take the bandage off?" She slipped Tess a wink. "You can have a good long soak while you sit here."

  They joined each other in a conspiratorial giggle as Stone came through the door.

  "Where's the oil cloth, Flower? Rain will need it in a minute."

  Flower rose to her feet without answering Stone as Tess finished unwrapping the bandage and stuffed it into her back pocket. Tess gave a deep sigh and slid her foot into the cool water.