Chapter Fifteen

 

Her dress got stuck. Try as she might she couldn’t get her arms in the sleeves and her head through the collar opening. She was about to rip the gown to shreds when it lifted.

“Did you hear me?” he asked. “I’m not marrying Tiffany.”

Loralei couldn’t do much. Her legs had become less trustworthy than a wild cat. His eyes were solemn, serious.

“You’re not?” she barely mustered up a whisper.

He wore nothing more than his britches. Water dripped from the ends of his dark hair. “No.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want to.”

“But your nieces—”

“Will be fine.” He flipped her dress over the top of the screen and took her shoulders with both hands. “Why did you want to know if I liked virgins?”

Embarrassment flamed her face. His hands began to move, caressing her shoulders with easy, gentle strokes. She braced herself with a deep breath. “Because the trappers said no one likes virgins.”

His brows drew down. “What? When?”

“Before you arrived. They said—“

“Did they hurt you?”

“No. They didn’t touch me.”

He pulled her forward and folded his arms around her back. His hold was tight, crushing even, but she didn’t mind for it was the most wonderful place on earth. She pressed her face into his skin, inhaling deeply.

Sam’s hands roamed over her back, pressing her body deeply into his. Then they skirted upwards, over her shoulders to cup her cheeks. He tugged her face up.

“I love you, Loralei, and I want to marry you.”

Her knees buckled. She tightened her hold on his waist to stay upright. “Y-you do?”

He nodded. “I do. I promise to do everything I can to make all your dreams come true. I promise to help you find Maggie, to find your necklace, to plant fields of cucumbers so you can eat pickles every day for the rest of your life, to—”

“What about your dreams, Sam?”

He leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose. “You are my dream. There’s nothing more I want.”

“What about raising horses? What about being an attorney?”

“I can do those things anywhere. But they weren’t really my dreams. They were someone else’s. My father’s. My grandfather’s. You’re the only thing I’ve ever really wanted.” His hands gently squeezed her face. “Will you marry me, Loralei?”

An explosion of sorts happened inside her, and when the sparks settled, Loralei knew nothing else on earth mattered. Thrilled, excited, and happy beyond belief, she nodded. “Yes, Sam, I’ll marry you.” His lips descended onto hers, as they touched, she added, “As soon as we get to Silver City.”

He kissed her long and hard, until her head spun and she saw nothing but stars. It was a moment or more after the kiss ended that he stepped back. “As soon as we get to Silver City?”

“Yes,” she whispered, stepping back into his arms. “As soon as we get to Silver City.”

“Why can’t we get married, here, in Boise?”

She ran her fingers up his chest, over his wide, muscled shoulders. “Because,” she kissed the sweet skin below his chin. “We don’t have time. The train will leave at sun up.”

“We don’t have to go with them. We traveled alone before.”

“I promised Emily and Alice that I’d go the rest of the way with them.” She nibbled on his chin. “Besides, it really doesn’t matter. They all think we’re married.”

“Yes, but thinking and being are two different things.”

“To whom?” she asked, pressing her lips to his. When they parted again, she pushed him backwards, towards the door. “Take me to our room. To our bed.”

“We aren’t married, Loralei.”

“In my eyes and my heart, we’ve been married for a very long time.” She ran her tongue over his bottom lip. “I love you, Sam.”

To her delight, Sam didn’t waste the time to gather their clothes. Instead, he swept her in his arms and carried her across the hall.

“Are you sure?” he asked, kicking the door closed.

“Very,” she assured. Her body hummed and the thrill racing in her veins made her quiver. When Sam lowered her onto the bed, his touch was so gentle and caring, tears pricked her eyes.

He kissed her lids. “Are you scared?”

“No, I’m not scared.” Her palms absorbed the heat of his skin as her hands roamed his shoulders. “I’m so happy I can barely breathe. I’ve wanted this to happen for a very long time.”

“Me, too.” He settled on the bed, kissing the side of her face. “If anything frightens you, just tell me and I’ll stop.”

He ran a hand over her stomach. The skin beneath her shift leaped into life, begging for more.

“No, Sam,” she whispered. “Please don’t stop. If I get scared, just kiss me until my fear dissolves.”

Several times over the next few hours, he asked if she was afraid, hungry, cold, or tired. Her answer was always the same. No. She hadn’t imagined sharing her body would be so wonderful. She’d never need anything again, for as long as she lived, if he was at her side. In that hotel room in Boise, she discovered a binding love she’d treasure the rest of her life. Not even the telegram he’d carelessly tossed aside, the one now in her skirt pocket, could take that from her.

Their wayward clothing was neatly folded outside their door the next morning, and before they joined the wagon train, Sam purchased a tent to stake a short distance away from the train each night. Loralei left Boise a different person. Not only was she loved, she was content—something she hadn’t experienced since the Indian attack.

To Sam, the trail to Silver City flew by. Life was good, and having Loralei at his side day and night left a smile on his face as wide as the Mississippi. Even Mrs. Wilson’s disposition seemed sweeter.

The train rolled into Silver City on an afternoon filled with sunshine and bright blue skies. To Sam, it was a good omen, one that said his new life was bound to be filled with happiness and love. As soon as the travelers separated, each going in the direction of their final destination with promises to see one another soon, he led Loralei to the Idaho Hotel.

The streets buzzed with activity, and Sam wrapped an arm around Loralei’s shoulders as men gazed her way with appreciative eyes.

“Need a room?” the hotel proprietor asked as they walked through the open doorway.

“Yes,” Sam answered.

“You’re lucky. The stage just left and since the next one hasn’t arrived yet, we got a couple rooms to let.”

Sam went through the routine of checking in, which included the explanation Ruth would stay in the room with them. The man was amicable about the dog, didn’t even charge any extra for her.

“Would you like to take a bath before we go searching?” Sam asked after opening the door to their room on the second floor.

“Searching?” Loralei looked at him like he’d lost his mind.

“Yes, for Maggie, your sister?”

“Oh, my.” She let out a tiny giggle and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I forgot.”

“You forgot?”

“Yes. My mind has been on other things lately.”

“What things?” He pulled her close, sighing at the temptation heating his loins.

“You.” She looped her arms around his neck. “You have the most amazing way of making me forget everything except…” Her lips latched onto his.

He had a hard time pulling out of the kiss. The bed was right behind her, but he couldn’t, well shouldn’t—even though it would be fun. Loralei embraced their deeper relationship as passionately as she did everything else. He kissed the tip of her nose and set her an arm’s length away. “You traveled halfway across the country to find your sister. Let’s go see if she picked up your letters.”

The tiny pout on her mouth disappeared. “All right. But on one condition.”

“What’s that?” It wouldn’t take more than a head nod for him to strip her naked and have his way with her sweet, welcoming body.

She pulled a slip of paper from her pocket. “That you respond to this.”

The crinkled telegram from Boise sat on her palm. “You kept that?”

“Yes. Don’t you want to read it?”

He turned around. “No.”

She slipped her arms around his waist from behind. “Why not?”

“Why?”

“Because it’s from your family.” When he didn’t answer, she continued, “If there’s one thing I know, it’s how hard not knowing is. Not knowing if someone you love is hurt, sick, or even dead.”

He twisted and wrapped his arms around her. “We’ll find her.”

“I’m not talking about Maggie. I’m talking about you. You have to respond. If it’s just to say you’re alive and well.”

“Honey, my family isn’t like yours. They don’t want to know I’m alive. They want—”

Her finger on his lip stopped his explanation. “I haven’t had a family in a very long time.” Tears glistened in her eyes. “But now I do. You and Ruth and Raindrop and King. And it’s a wonderful family. The best.” She kissed his neck. “You can just say you haven’t found Bancroft yet.”

“I’m done looking for Bancroft.”

“You are?”

He took the hands that fell to her sides. “We can continue to look for him, to see if he has your necklace, but I won’t take him back to New Orleans.”

“But your family…his grandmother.”

“Can find someone else to search for him.” His hands inched up her arms, and then cupped her cheeks. “I don’t have anything to prove to my father. I never did. I just had to figure that out, and because of you, I did.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I blamed my father for ruling my life, when it reality, I was letting him rule my life. You showed me what a person can do when they set their mind to it.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you.” He kissed her forehead. “You set out alone, to travel across the nation on a ten year old promise and nothing more. That’s belief, Loralei. Belief in oneself that I’d never witnessed before. You made me look at so many aspects of my life.You made me want. I’d never wanted before I met you.”

Her frown deepened.

“I had everything. There was nothing for me to want. Or maybe I was taught not to want. Until I met you. Now, I know I want a life full of the love and happiness I’ve discovered.” He took the note from her clutched fingers. “I’ll respond to this, for you. I’ll tell them I’ve met and married—we are getting married here in Silver City—the most amazing woman on earth, and that we’re going on an extended honeymoon.”

The past week had been dreamlike, sharing days and nights with Sam and loving him wholeheartedly. Even thoughts of Maggie had vanished. No, Loralei concluded, it hadn’t been just this past week. Ever since meeting Sam, thoughts of Maggie, the longing and the loss, had gradually lessened.

His gaze was intense and full of love. A soft wave rolled over her. Her heart swelled three times its size. His love had made her whole, and she’d do anything to make his life just as full.

Smiling, she rested a hand on his cheek. “Where are we going on this extended honeymoon?”

His kiss made her swoon with want of lying down on the bed together and forgetting the rest of the world existed. When Sam did break their embrace, it was to lead her to the door. “We can go anywhere you want. Do anything you want.”

Loralei glanced over her shoulder. Ruth opened an eye, but didn’t lift her head from the rug.

“She’s tired,” Sam said. “Let her stay here.”

“We’ll be back soon,” Loralei assured the dog, walking out the door. As she and Sam walked down the stairs, she asked, “Where are we going?”

He took her elbow. “We could go to the west coast and catch a ship sailing around the cape or—”

She giggled. “No, I mean right now.”

“Oh, well, you said you mailed letters to Maggie at general delivery in Silver City.”

She nodded.

“Then let’s go see if those letters have been picked up.”

A multitude of emotions rippled through Loralei. She mulled them as they walked across the lobby and out into the street. Her life was so different now, even if Maggie was here, Sam was her family now. Meeting up with her sister would be wonderful, but life with him would be amazing. It already was.

“If she hasn’t picked them up, we can go to Oregon and look for her there,” he said.

Back at the hotel, he’d said she taught him how to want—funny thing, because he taught her how not to want. She looped her arm through his elbow, hugging his arm.

He winked. “Or, we can stay here, and wait for her to arrive.”

“How do you know she will?”

“Because she’s your sister. If she’s anything like you, nothing will stop her from eventually arriving in Silver City.” He opened the door and nodded for her to enter.

Five years of letters addressed to Miss Magdalena Holmes were in the bottom of a canvas bag behind a counter that held a U.S. Post sign in Water’s General Store. Disappointed, Sam wrapped his arm around Loralei. “We’ll find her, sweetheart. I promise.”

She nodded, running her fingers over the letters.

“Do you want to take them or leave them here?” he asked.

Stuffing them back into the bag, Loralei handed it to the woman on the other side of the counter. “I’ll leave them.” She smiled up at him. “You’re right. She’ll eventually arrive.”

He turned her about. “Come on. Every bride needs a new dress.”

By the time they left the store and headed back to the hotel, Sam didn’t know which of them was more elated. He waited in the room with Ruth while Loralei used the bathing chamber downstairs. When she returned to the room, he took a moment to admire how lovely she looked in the ivory dress before he snatched his pinstriped suit and rushed down the stairs for his bath.

The stage had arrived while they were shopping, and the lobby hummed with newcomers. A man briefly caught his attention as Sam—clean and dressed—hurried back up the stairs. Dull recognition hung in the back of his head, until he opened the door to their room. A more beautiful bride had never existed.

Sam proudly escorted Loralei down the stairs and out the door. They strolled along the boardwalk, Ruth of course followed, to the long set of steps that led to the church nestled high on the hill at the edge of town. Another couple climbed the steps near the top. “The cleaning woman at the hotel said the Pastor is always at the church.”

“And if he’s not?” Loralei held the hem of her dress high above the ground.

“We’ll wait.”

She laughed and Ruth barked.

“You know, we could always buy a chunk of land here. You could plant your cucumber patch,” he said. “We could call it Loralei’s Pickle Ranch. Before long people will travel for miles just for a bottle of your famous pickles.”

She giggled. “I’ve never heard of a pickle ranch. I think we should raise horses and call it McDonald’s Stallions. I bet the president himself will come to Idaho to buy one of your horses.”

They shared a laugh, still climbing the unending row of steps. “We could always return to your land in Colorado.”

“I don’t have any land in Colorado.”

“Yes, you do. Baumgartner’s land, as well as his mining claim.”

“That’s not mine.”

“Yes, it is. You were the only family they had. You earned it, and while you were saying good-bye to Mert, I made it legally yours. It was a simple matter of processing the papers.”

“You did?”

The stairs were never ending. They still had several to climb before reaching the top. Stopping he grasped her elbow and turned her about, slipping both arms around her waist. “Yes. I did. And it truly doesn’t matter what we do, or where we live. As long as it’s together.”

Loralei wrapped her arms around his waist. “I agree. As long as we’re together, nothing else matters. I love you Sam McDonald. And I always, always will.”

“And I love you, Loralei.” Not caring that they stood in the middle of the steps, Sam kissed her long and hard, just like he would forever.