The sleepy woman nestled in his arms curled her fingers around one of his hard, exposed nipples. Her drowsy voice was a silky purr. “Buck?”
Buck closed his eyes. A tear seeped out the corner and wended its way down his jaw. The touch of her skin, her warm hand, her soft, round breast snugged against his ribcage, served to bring to the surface his grief.
He missed Petra. He wanted her back, but she would never come back—his wife was dead. He had to live on. He had to. Making love with Adella felt right, felt natural, and damn it to hell, he’d had fun. It’d been a while since he could say he’d had fun.
He had a lot on his mind, with Jo and Birdie-Alice snatched right out from under his nose. Van and Gabe were out there doing what he should be doing—searching—instead of lollygagging in bed with a fine woman. But what could he do? It wouldn’t help for him to go haring off looking for those girls. He wouldn’t know where to start.
“Buck, honey, I know what you’re thinking,” Adella said. “You’re feeling guilty for lying here in bed while those girls are out there somewhere, probably frightened and cold. You’re thinking you should be out there with Van and Gabe, helping with the search.”
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in closer. Petra could read minds too. He hoped she would understand—he needed Adella—he needed this, the closeness. Adella temporarily filled the empty spaces, the dark, bleak, cold spaces Petra’s passing left fallow in his heart.
“I know my going out there wouldn’t do any good.”
He cocked his head. Someone opened the front door. Buck sensed a draft coming up the stairs. It floated in under the bedroom door. “Somebody’s in the kitchen. Listen, I heard a clink? They closed the cupboard door. When you close the door, it bumps the glasses.”
“Hmmm, probably Cornell. Remember? He’s leaving for Baker City.”
“Yeah, I suppose he’s raiding the pantry. Can’t blame him. But I heard voices. I should go down and see the boy off.”
Adella sighed and rolled out of his embrace, her hand gliding over his chest and sliding down to his abdomen. “I guess you have to. Will you come back?”
He held his breath, allowing the question to hang in the air. In truth, he didn’t want to leave her, leave his bed. He could get used to Adella in his bed. This bed, where he and Petra had made love in the mornings, at night, in the middle of the day.
Petra had given birth to Van and Jo in this bed. She’d died in this bed, in his arms, right where Adella lay. The history of this bed, this room held a treasure trove of memories, memories too dear to discard, leave behind.
He rolled onto his side. And looked into Adella’s lovely gray-green eyes. They weren’t Petra’s eyes, but he liked them. He liked Adella, adored her rosy cheeks and playfulness, her pragmatic positivity. He could safely admit that so far, there wasn’t a thing about her that he didn’t like. “I’ll be back. It’s still dark. How about I bring up some coffee? I’ll find something to go with it, maybe apple pie.”
“Pie? For breakfast?”
He slid to the edge of the bed and found his trousers. “Sure, pie’s excellent breakfast food. I worked up an appetite, lady. I didn’t eat much yesterday. I feel better this morning, thanks to you.”
Behind him, he heard her giggle. He liked the sound; for too long this room had echoed with emptiness. This morning the air didn’t seem so heavy in here. He could breathe deep this morning without feeling the usual ache in his chest.
He fell back to take her in his arms. “Don’t go away—ever—stay.” She giggled and kissed him on the lips. He knew she thought he was joking, but Buck suspected what he’d just said, what he’d asked, was the truth. And it scared the hell out of him.
He heard another thump and pushed himself away from her all-to-tempting embrace. When he opened the bedroom door, he met Rafe coming out of his room. Doreen stood right behind him, shrugging her shoulders into a dressing gown.
Doreen peered over her husband’s shoulder and said, “I heard a noise coming from the kitchen.”
“Yeah,” Buck said, “I’m guessing it’s Cornell helping himself to my larder. But I think Rafe and I should check.”
Behind him, Adella whispered, “Your shirt?” Her hand appeared in front of his face with his blue chambray shirt dangling from her finger.
“Adella?” Doreen said, her voice a squeak.
Buck groaned and stepped out into the hall with Adella hanging on to his arm, his shirt in her hand.
Adella said a chipper, “Good morning.” Her eyes flashed with mischief as she waggled her fingers at Doreen.
Rafe cleared his throat, said good morning without meeting Buck’s gaze and put on the shirt his wife handed him.
Buck lowered his head and finished dressing. Adella disappeared back into the room to fetch his boots. When he had them on, he grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her into his chest for a good sound kiss, and be damned the audience.
Her arms locked to her side, Adella giggled against his lips. Upon her release, she said, “I guess there’s not much point in keeping this a secret. We’re adults.”
Buck nodded. “We are, indeed.”
He wanted to say more, but right then he heard the front door close and felt the draft come up the stairwell. He started downstairs with Rafe on his heels, along with Doreen in her dressing gown and Adella wrapped up in the coverlet off the bed. They followed him out onto the porch.
In the twilight of predawn, a horse and buggy sped away from the hot spring through a swirl of dust, going toward the main road back into Baker City. The buggy had two passengers.
“Well, hell,” Buck heard Rafe say under his breath.
“I’ll hazard a guess and say Cornell is headed off for town to fetch his old man. He has a passenger. Don’t know who it could be.”
A silence hung heavy in the air. Doreen put her arm around Adella.
“Edditha? It had to be Edditha,” Adella said. She directed her question to Doreen. “You think it was Edditha? It had to be, no one else here but us four, Cornell and Edditha. But why? Where’s she going? Why?”
Doreen left her side and backed up, retreating into the dark kitchen. Buck put his arm around the now shivering Adella and ushered her inside. Doreen lit the lamp on the table. She stood there, holding a folded sheet of paper out to Adella. “This is for you. I suspect it will explain things.”
Notes left behind by runaway children never held good news, as far as Buck could recall. Whatever the note said, Adella wasn’t going to like it.
In Adella’s hand, the folded sheet of paper stayed folded. Buck pulled out a chair for her. She plopped down in the seat and heaved a heavy sigh.
“Coffee, we need coffee,” he said and headed for the pump in the kitchen.
Holding the paper out to the lamp, Adella clutched the quilt with one hand and held the paper between her fingers with the other hand. Buck filled the coffee pot with water and scooped some ground coffee into the pot.
He heard her utter two words, barely audible. “They’ve eloped.”
He set a match to the kindling in the cook stove.
“Eloped? No,” Doreen said, falling into the chair at the end of the table. Adella handed her the note and sat back in her chair, her shoulders slumped and her hands tightly holding the quilt about her.
“Dear Mother,” Doreen read aloud. “Please forgive us. Cornell and I feel that to stay and try to explain our choice would be difficult and too painful. Leaving really is the best explanation we can give.
“Please, don’t worry about me. Cornell has promised to take good care of me. We are going to honeymoon in San Francisco. After, we’ll take a ship, and travel for a while, see Europe, maybe go on safari in Africa. We’re going to have a wonderful life together, Mother. I know exactly what I’m doing. I know this is sudden. But what I feel is real.
“Gabriel, I think, will be relieved once the shock has worn off. Cornell has assured me Birdie-Alice will forgive him. I will keep you apprised of our location as we go on. With all my heart and respect, I remain your loving daughter, Edditha.”
Adella sat up straight in her chair, shoulders back and chin up. “My daughter did not write this note. She would not pull such a rash, utterly hair-brained stunt. Not my daughter.”
Shaking her head, she snatched the note out of Doreen’s fingers. “Edditha is not the least little bit spontaneous. She has never said a word to me about wanting to see Europe or travel. She hates trains. She’ll probably get seasick. Edditha, even as a child, wanted things planned out, scheduled. She examines everything, dissects if you will.”
Giving the note a good shake, as if she could rearrange the wording, she read it again. “No, I don’t believe this, I don’t.”
Buck poured her a cup of coffee. “Leave it to Cornell. He does have a way with the ladies, although he never did get very far with Birdie-Alice.” Head tipped to the side, he stared out the window. “I wonder why that was?” he asked, talking to himself.
“Well, this sure throws a cog in my plans,” said Rafe, accepting the cup of coffee Buck offered. “You can bet old man Norquist isn’t going to like this, not one little bit. He had plans for the boy. Cornell is the heir to Norquist’s little empire. He’s supposed to assume the mantle. And my daughter, she was promised the position of queen of the empire. I don’t know what this will mean as far as my partnership with Norquist.”
“Really, Rafe, how can you be so callous?” Doreen said, her voice as shrill as a fishwife. “Business, that’s all this is to you. Our Birdie has been humiliated. Cornell ran out on his promise to her.”
“Oh, bull,” Rafe said. Grumbling to himself, he pulled out a chair across from Adella at the table. “Birdie don’t give a snap for Cornell. She couldn’t stand him. She had a duty to do as she was told. And I think she could see the advantages of marrying Cornell—he’s gonna have a lot of clout around here. Heck, I can see him running for governor someday. He’s got enough money behind him.”
“How could you?” Doreen asked. “You knew how she felt, and yet you pushed and pushed her to accept his offer of marriage.”
“Yeah, and so did you.”
Buck shook his head at the pair. “Guess we better have breakfast. No use going back to bed now. Got sourdough here, I’ll make pancakes.” No one was listening to him. He knew that, but went ahead, talking to himself, voicing his thoughts aloud while he mixed up the batter. “Birdie-Alice held out longer than any female I ever saw against Cornell’s charms. Well, Birdie-Alice and my Jo. Jo never could take Cornell seriously, treated him like she would some poor half-wit, with kindness and forbearance, but never with any kind of regard.”
Adella put her hands to her face. “Gabriel? Oh dear…” She shoved her hands back to her lap, turned in her chair to face Buck, who was flipping flapjacks. “I’m embarrassed. I don’t know what to say, Buck. I feel awful. I pushed Edditha too. Once I found out who Gabriel was, I practically threw my daughter at his head. When Gabriel told me his mother passed away, I wanted to see you, Buck. I wanted to meet you again. I couldn’t get the notion out of my head. I didn’t pay any attention to how Edditha felt about Gabriel or the engagement. She gave the appearance of a young woman in love. She truly admires Gabriel. I know she does, she told me so, many times. I mistook it for love, but to run off with…with Cornell after only a three-day acquaintance, that is beyond the pale. No, I can’t comprehend Edditha doing such a thing.”
Buck removed the skillet from the stove, picked up the plate of flapjacks and scrambled eggs, and brought them to the table. He set the plate down in front of Adella and then leaned down and took her face in his hands. “I’m flattered and extremely glad you’re here. There is one thing I know for certain—we can’t live our children’s lives. We want the best for them, of course, but our best and their notion of best might not be the same. If mistakes are going to be made, then they have to take responsibility for them, just as we have had to do.
He straightened and said to one and all, “I think we should have some food. This might prove to be a long day. I’m hoping Gabe and Van have the girls by now and are on their way home. One way or the other, we’ll know by the end of the day. The boys will get word to us. We may or may not see Nils Norquist. If he doesn’t show up by tomorrow evening, I’ll go get him myself.”
Rafe took a plate and started to serve himself. “I’ll go with you. And we’ll find this other yahoo, the one who sent the Thurmans off to the other hot spring. We need to talk to him, too.”