Yellowstone Heart Song (Yellowstone Romance Series Book 1) (23 page)

“So this is it?” Brad asked tersely.

“There is no future between us, Brad. I meant it when I broke our engagement three mo . . . weeks ago,” she replied. “We are two different people who want different things in life. I’ll never be the wife you want me to be, and I need a partner who is open to the things I enjoy in life. And . . . I am not in love with you.”

“Stop acting so ridiculous and melodramatic,” Brad said angrily. “I proposed to you, and you accepted. What has gotten into you lately?”

“I woke up,” she said simply. “I started to realize that I am not your obedient little puppy, no matter how much you would like me to be. I’ve grown up, and I see things a lot different now than before. These things became even clearer to me while I was away.”

“You think you’ve grown up?” Brad spat at her. “You’re acting more childish than ever. You don’t know what it is you want, and it’s time for you snap out of it.”

She looked at him, dumbstruck. How could she ever have thought herself in love with this man?

“I met someone else, Brad,” she said quietly. “I love someone else.”

Brad stared, his jaw clenched. “So where is he?” he demanded.

“Back in Montana.” She glared at him. She was not about to show that her heart was shattered in pieces.

Brad sniggered. “So you had a quick fling with some – no doubt - backwoodsman from Montana, and you’re all caught up in your romantic notions. Well, honey, it’s time to come back to the real world. So, how’d he sucker you in? Does he have a cute little cabin in the woods? Did he go out hiking with you? Did you toast marshmallows over the campfire? I’m sure that must be quite romantic to you, but for all your little outdoor games you like to play, you’re still a city girl, and you’ll get bored real quick playing little house on the prairie. Apparently you already have gotten bored, since you’ve decided to come back. Or did he get bored with you?”

“Get out,” Aimee demanded, and thrust her arm in the direction of the front door. “Get out and leave me alone. You don’t have the first idea of what it is I want.”

“This isn’t over,” he finally said. “I’m not giving you up this easily.” Brad turned and slammed the door on his way out.

Aimee followed him through the living room on his way out the door, and fell on the couch with a deep sigh. She cradled her head in her hands, her elbows resting on her knees. Grinding her teeth, she willed herself not to cry again.

Finally, taking a deep breath, she said, “Tomorrow I’m going to the hospital to talk with my supervisor, and to see if I still have a job.”

Jana grinned brightly. “Thata girl! That’s just what you need to snap out of your funk. And there’s no way they’ll fire you. They are so short staffed, and you’re one hell of an ER nurse, they’d be crazy to get rid of you.”

Aimee smiled weakly.

“You can’t bring him back,” Jana said quietly.

“I know that,” Aimee snapped heatedly. She punched the pillow beside her, and threw it across the room. “Dammit, I know that.”

Chapter 21

Yellowstone Wilderness, 1810

Zach sat quietly and observed his son rake a frustrated hand through his hair. The look of despair in Daniel’s weary eyes tore at his heart. He had met up with Daniel two days after sending Aimee back to her time. Daniel had been searching for her near the falls of the Little Buffalo River. Zach had agreed to join him in the search, hoping Daniel would give up after a few more days. The anguish on his son’s face, the feeling of loss was something he knew all too well when his sweet Marie was taken from him. And that had all been his fault as well.

Only, Aimee Donovan wasn’t dead. He could make this right for Daniel and take the pain away in an instant. That, however, required him to come clean with the truth that he had kept from his son all his life.

He had never wanted to cause Daniel this pain. Thinking on it now as they sat camped along the
Roche Jaune
, he should have realized that something like this could have happened. Aimee Donovan was a beautiful young woman, full of life. He had recognized her thirst for adventure instantly when he met her during his last trip to the future to have his heart examined by the doctors with their superior knowledge of medicine. Perhaps he should have had his head examined instead for telling her he was a mountain man from the past, and had the means to travel through time. He had never told his secret to anyone. After his first experience with time travel twenty-five years ago, he had buried the snakehead device, and never wanted to use it again. Years later, his health began to fail him, and his heart was weak. He didn’t want to leave his young son without a father, although Daniel was doing just fine growing up amongst the Tukudeka clan that resided in the area.

Realizing that he had the means to get himself fixed up, he had used the device again to come to the future and seek medical care. He had learned to pose as a homeless vagrant in order to get care at the hospital emergency rooms. There were so many hospitals in the future, he never had to visit the same one twice. It had been strange and rather frightening the first few times, but as the years went on, he had become more comfortable with the ways of the future.  During his last trip, the doctors had told him they would need to cut him open to work on his heart in order to make him better. Medicine alone would no longer work. He had decided then and there that he would not allow that to happen. He had lived a full life, and his son was a grown man. Truth be told, Daniel had taken care of him more over the years than the other way around. He was ready to die and join his wife. He had also decided that the time travel device would die along with him.

That’s when he met nurse Aimee Donovan. She loved his stories, and enthusiastically told him that she enjoyed spending time in the wilderness. Apparently, that was something people in the future did for enjoyment. Something compelled him to tell her of his time travels, and he offered to send her to the past. He didn’t know what had put that crazy notion in his head, but she’d been so darn likable, and the way she had spoken about her abilities to survive in the wilds had him believing she could do it. 

He knew she didn’t believe him, but offered her the chance to go back in time to truly live in the wilds for a few months while he took care of his medical needs here in the future, and then attend to his business in St. Louis in this time. He had tried to prepare her as best as he could when he told her he could send her to the past. He figured if she could make it to his cabin, Daniel would keep her safe. He’d told her his story of how he came to be a time traveler, and of Daniel - the same story he would tell his son now.

The thought that Aimee would want to stay in 1810 permanently had never entered his mind, nor that his son would fall in love with her. It was unthinkable to let her stay. She would regret her decision after the adventure wore off. He had seen things in the future. Life was easy. There were no hardships, and once she came to that realization if he had allowed her to stay, she would have resented her choice.

With a heavy sigh, Zach glanced at his son. He cleared his throat. It was time to come clean with the truth. This way, Daniel could end his search, and they could get on with their lives.

Zach cleared his throat. “Daniel, I know where Aimee Donovan is.”

Daniel blinked and slowly raised his head from staring blankly at the dancing flames of their campfire. Seconds passed and his eyes narrowed.

“How do you know her name?” Daniel spoke barely above a whisper.

“What?” Zach asked, apprehension in his voice.

“Her name. I never mentioned her surname.” Daniel’s eyes blazed, the words grinding between his teeth. His body visibly tensed.

“Take it easy, son.” Zach held out a hand. “I’ll tell you everything you need to know.”

****

 An icy chill washed over Daniel. His father had never been secretive before. Was it too much of a coincidence that he had found Aimee shortly after Zach left for St. Louis, and now she was gone and his father had returned?

“Aimee Donovan is safely back in her time, where she belongs.” Zach met his son’s hard stare.

“What do you mean, her time?” Daniel shook his head. “Dammit, where the hell is she?” Daniel leapt to his feet, anger and frustration in his voice, and Zach involuntarily shrunk back.

“She’s returned to the future. To the year 2010.”

Daniel stared. His father’s words made no sense. Minutes passed in silence.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Daniel finally roared. His pulse throbbed at his temples. The sounds of the river and evening crickets around him ceased. Stars floated in front of his face as the world spiraled out of control. He clenched one hand into a tight fist, and raked the other through his hair.

“It’s as if she dropped out of the sky” . . . “There are things about me I can’t talk to you about.”

The clothing, her strange words, her unconventional behavior, her knowledge of healing people . . .  
“She’s returned to the future . . . 2010 . . . 2010 . . . 2010 . . .”

“For you to understand, I need to start at the beginning, son. Something I should have told you a long time ago. I hope you’ll find it in you to forgive me.” Daniel stared at him blankly, waiting for his father to elaborate.

“It begins in 1785, on the day of your birth.”  Zach shifted uncomfortably. Daniel settled himself, stone faced, back on the ground, and waited silently for his father to continue.

“It was winter, 1785. Your mother . . . my Marie, was in labor with you.”

Daniel nodded. He knew his mother had died in childbirth in the midst of a winter blizzard here in the mountains. His father had been unable to go for help from the nearby Tukudeka clan. How often had he heard his father blame himself over the years for his wife’s death, for taking her away from the safety of New Orleans and bringing her to the mountains?

His father cleared his throat again. Each word seemed to cause him pain to speak out loud. “What I didn’t tell you before, is that we had a visitor that night.”

“A visitor?” Daniel echoed.

“He was old. A Tukudeka elder. He got caught in the snowstorm and found the cabin. He was nearly frozen to death when he managed to pound on the cabin door.”

“Continue,” Daniel said slowly, when his father paused again.

“I tended to both your mother and the old man throughout the night. She was getting worse, and he was starting to thaw out. That’s when he offered me the chance to save your life.”

“My life?” Daniel’s eyes narrowed.

“He handed me this.” His father reached into the pouch around his neck and produced a shriveled up, dried snakehead with eerily unnatural gleaming red eyes. Daniel stared at the object, then back at his father.

“He told me a story of how his grandfather received this snake from some ancient people who came from the sky.”

“The Tukudeka legends are full of stories of the Sky People.” Daniel nodded.

“Yeah, well, he said he wanted me to have it for my kindness. He told me the snake had magical powers to send someone 200 years into the future. He explained it couldn’t be used to alter one’s past, only one’s future. It takes the holder 200 years forward in time to the last place the object has been. It can then bring you back to this time, to the same time and place as when you left.” Zach let his words sink in for a moment. Daniel said nothing, his expression set in stone.

 ”I didn’t believe him, of course, but I was getting desperate. Your mother was slipping away, and out of desperation I took the snake and followed the old man’s instructions. I held onto your mother and touched the right eye of the snake, and we were instantly transported to the year 1985. I was scared to death. The future is unimaginable from what we know here, Daniel.” His father’s eyes glazed with unshed tears, and he ran his hand over his face. He coughed to clear his throat, and took a long drink of water from his water bag.

“They have carriages that are made of metal and run by themselves without horses. One almost killed us when we arrived. A helpful man showed us the way to a hospital. The healing powers and knowledge of the people in the future is beyond anything you can imagine.”

I can save your friend . . .I have treated many wounds like this . . .  ‘This is what white healers do in the east?’  ‘Where I come from, we do.’

A little boy, drowning in a river. Aimee hovered over his lifeless body, breathing and pumping life back into him.

“I have seen Aimee use some of these powers,” Daniel said quietly, staring into the fire. He raised his head and met his father’s eyes. Zach nodded in understanding.

“Your mother went into fits in the hospital. There are words the doctors used to tell me what had happened to her, but I can’t remember them. They told me it was a condition that was brought on by being with child. It was too late to save her. If she had had proper care sooner, she would have lived. They were able to take you from her body before she . . . died.” Zach quickly wiped his eyes.

“So, you’re telling me I was born in the future?” Daniel asked incredulously. This was too much for him to think about.

“You wouldn’t have been born at all if not for the miracle of this device.” Zach answered, staring at the snakehead still in his hand. “I couldn’t stay in that strange and foreign place any longer. I took hold of Marie, and with you in my arms, while no one was looking, I touched the snake’s left eye, and it brought us back home, just like the old man said. He was dead in the cabin when I returned with you. The blizzard was over the next morning. We were gone no longer than a day. You were cryin’ your bloody head off, and I knew I’d lose you, too, if I didn’t find a wet nurse for you. I took you to the closest Tukudeka clan I could find. Gentle Sun had recently given birth to Elk Runner. She was more than happy to take you. I left you with her to tend to my grief. You know the rest of the story. You got to grow up amongst the Indians and with me. I tried my best to do right by you.”

After a lengthy silence, Daniel spoke. “You traveled to the future again. Why?”

“I didn’t for many years. I buried the snake. You were about seven years old when I got to realizing that my heart was giving me some trouble. It was another year later before I finally decided to get help. I had the snakehead. I could go to the future and they could help me. I was thinking of you, Daniel. I didn’t want to die and leave you. I know you had your Indian family and you were happy, but I wasn’t ready to go under yet.”

“Why did you keep this from me?” he asked solemnly.

“I never found the right time to tell you. I’m sorry, son. I know I should have told you. As time went by, I figured you were happy with your life the way it is, so why burden you with it? I kept the snake for selfish reasons. I don’t think it’s right to be meddling with things like living in different times. I’ve decided to destroy the snake. No more time travel. It just ain’t natural.”

Daniel quickly looked up at him. “What about Aimee? Does she have the ability to travel in time?”

Zach shook his head. “No. Aimee is a nurse at the last hospital I visited three months ago.” He continued to tell him how he had met her and ended up sending her to this time.