Romance: Luther's Property (64 page)

Shauna ran for the door.
 
His words fueled strength in her and she had the clarity to bolt.
 

“Wow there,” he said.
 
“I mean you no harm.
 
And if you
want to go back to the house, I’ll get you there.
 
But I think we should stay in here for the
duration.
 
Till the storm hits.”

“I am not staying out here with you and I –“ Shauna stopped
cold.

She was not about to reveal she had a baby in the
house.
 
Not when this man, as welcomed in
ways she should be ashamed of for, was obviously dangerous.

“I can prove who I say I am. I can prove this is my house,
my barn, my land.
 
I left like I said to
Deadwood on a lark and I left this place in the hands of my foreman,” said Sam.

Shauna trembled when she asked.
 
“A fellow, height somewhere between yours and
mine, black curly hair, kind of a wide-set eyes?”

“That would be him, ma’am,” he said softly, touching her arm
so gently.
 
“I got news for you too.
 
He turned up dead in a ditch, strung out on
dope.
 
When I learned he was in Deadwood
with me, I turned back to check on my place.”

Shauna touched her forehead to the barn door unable to move
as she tried so hard to make sense of everything that had transpired.
 
She had money left.
 
Not much but enough.
 
She would go back home.
 
To Annapolis.
 
To her awful father.

“How long have you been managing my farm?” he asked.

She could only estimate how long it had been.
 
The baby was three months now, born a full
term from that first week.
 
She guessed
it to be year, with Haya’s help.

“About a year now,” she replied quietly.

“I’d like to pay you for that then,” he said. “You’ve done a
fine job.”

“I have to get back to the house,” she said.

“I advise against it.
  
We probably ought to get down to the cellar even,” he said. “We don’t
get many storms here but when we do they’re terrible,” he said.

Now Shauna was panicked.
 
She knew that Haya would know what to do.
 
She lived in the wild practically but the
baby.
 
Shauna was not going to be
separated from him during the storm if it was going to be as bad as Sam said it
was going to be.

Sam.
 
How unnerving to
use the name of her husband for the man standing before her.
 
Especially when she had named her son for
him.
 
She named the baby for the father
so thinking it would help him as he grew up.

Shauna insisted.
 
“I
will take my chances.
 
I am sure I am not
likely to blow away.”

Sam reached above her and braced the barn door.

“Better tell me Missy what you got in that house that you’re
so all fired up to get to,” he said softly. “Is it because you’re unsettled by
me?”

It was a great reason to want to go into the house.
 
She was unsettled by him but not in the way
he thought.
 
Not in a way she had ever
been unsettled by the man who was her husband.
 
But she was a lousy liar and she was not at all convincing.

“Yes,” she said weakly.

“Okay let’s go,” he said.

He wrapped his arms around her shoulder and forced her to
huddle into his hard frame. They ran against the wind up the stairs of the
front porch and in through the front door.
 
Haya was settled down next to the baby who was asleep, oblivious to the
drama.
 
Haya was silent but her eyes were
leery as they rested on the cowboy.

“Haya, this here is –“ Shauna stopped.
 
She couldn’t say his name.

“Sam Bishop, ma’am,” he said. “And who might this be?”
 
He asked of the baby.

Shauna clenched her eyes.
 
“Samuel Fuller Bishop, Jr.”

“I think we need to all be down in the cellar.
 
Grab what you think we’ll need.
 
We have about ten minutes before it
hits.
 
Come on,” he said.

Haya understood every word perfectly and gathered up the
baby. Shauna was immobile.

“I promise you,” he said. “It’s the safest place to be.
 
I promise you.
 
The storm is going to blow over and we’ll all
be upstairs in no time.”

Shauna followed Haya.
 
Sam sauntered ahead of them out the door to the side of the house and
heaved opened the doors to the cellar.
 
The winds kicked up with a powerful fierceness.
 
There was nothing like this that had ever hit
the farm before while Shauna had been there and nothing like this every struck
in Annapolis.
 
She was actually feeling a
relief that he had been there after all.

Sam let the women pass him, down the stairs and he followed
after.
 
He struck a match and lit a
lantern perched on a built-in space. They had light.
 
He drew some crates for the women to sit
on.
 
The baby was howling.
 
Shauna pressed her lips to his head to soothe
him.
 
Haya glared at Sam.

“Is he okay?” asked Sam.

“Fine,” said Shauna. “We just woke him up.”

There was a set of shelves that partitioned the cellar into
two.
 
Shauna went to the other side of
the shelves for privacy.

“I am going to feed him.
 
Comfort him.
 
Stay where you are,”
said Shauna.

Shauna unbuttoned a flap in her dress to give her little son
access.
 
He latched on and quieted down
instantly. She loved her baby boy.
 
She
held him as the storm rumbled.
 
It was
not upon them yet but any moment.
 
Baby
Samuel fell asleep.
 
He went from
hollering to snoring just like that.
 
Shauna supposed he just needed her.

She fastened up and carried the sleeping babe back to the
other side of the shelves to join the others.
 
The cowboy’s eyes fixed on her as she sat next to Haya.
 
Shauna never saw a man look at her that way
before.
 
It sort of matched how she
felt.
 

She was weary and afraid most of the time.
 
She had longed so hard for someone to be
there.
 
Haya was a Godsend but she did
not offer the same kind of comfort that Shauna craved.
 

Sam’s touch on her shoulder when she was at the barn stirred
her cravings.
 
The beautiful cowboy was
so near and yet so out of reach.
 
The
impossibility of the situation made Shauna’s thoughts so wrong.

The cellar doors rattled.
 
It sounded like a herd of cattle were stampeding outside. Shauna knew
they were safe, that the baby was safe, but still she started.

“You are safe,” Sam assured her.

Their eyes connected.
 
Even in the shadowy light of the lamp-lit cellar Shauna made out the
color of his eyes. Hazel color of both grey and green. His features were a
sight for sore eyes.
 

She had not thought the man she married was much to look at
but she told herself she could get used to him.
 
That week he was with her, he was civil.
 
He certainly made use of her body.
 
There were parts of their being together she liked and some she did not.
She figured if she was going to be with him for a lifetime, those things would
definitely improve.
 
She made an
agreement with herself to not be frightened.
 
She gave herself permission to enjoy herself as much as possible given
that her husband was not in any way abusive in bed.
 
He was definitely there to enjoy himself as
well.

But there had been no spark. It was very mechanical and she
suspected there should be more to it.
 
Whatever was lacking for her, anyway, she would have figured out a way
to make up for it.
 
He definitely seem to
get his.

But then he was gone.
 
And the baby came.
 
And little Sam
took up all her time when she wasn’t tending to the farm. Of course it hadn’t
been for Haya showing her some things about farming, they would have
starved.
 
As it was she had no time to
think of the things she and her husband shared until now.
 
Until the cowboy showed up.

Sitting in the cellar with nothing to do but stare at each
other, those thoughts came back with power.
 
He didn’t even have to touch her at all to stir her.
 
And he did stir her a lot.

Sam had taken off his holster to sit down with them.
 
Shauna heard that familiar “Chk chchckk”
Without thinking, she grabbed his gun and shot the prairie rattler that had
been bunking in her cellar and that had been disturbed by their presence.

“Jesus,” Sam declared. His eyes glared insanely.

“Don’t swear,” admonished Shauna.

Haya was not even moved.
 
The baby slumbered.

“You’re mighty sure of your shot there, missy,” he said.

“I’m a good one,” said Shauna.
 
“It’s the one thing I did with my father. He
didn’t much care for me but I guess he figured I would do when he needed
company practicing his gun shooting.”

“Well I appreciate it, all things considered,” Sam replied.

He took the lantern and looked around.

“Looking for more?” asked Shauna.

“No but I can tell you ladies that the storm has
passed.
 
We can go upstairs.
 
Here allow me,” he said.

He drew the latch and pushed.
 

“I’ll be a bit,” he said.

“What are you looking for?” she asked.

Her curiosity made her forget herself and she was talking to
him casually.

“You’ll see,” he said with a smile in his tone.

She carefully took the steps up to ground level.
 
She handed off the baby to Haya. She was very
surprised the amount of destruction such a quick burst of storm could
cause.
 
The sound of Sam’s coming up the
cellar to join them caused a happiness in her.
 
She realized she liked that he was with them.
 
She regarded him.
 
He had a jug on his finger.

He scanned.
 

“Someone has their work cut out for them,” he remarked.

Shauna broke down.
 
He
was right.
 
The house and the barn were
frayed but sound.
 
But the storm cut a
straight line of destruction through fences and coops.
 
The storm set her back. If he would even let
her stay.
 
She let go a whimper.

“Hey,” said Sam quickly.
 
“I meant me.
 
And the men I am going
to hire.
 
Not you.
 
Your working days at least as a farm hand are
done.
 
Through.”

Shauna was horrified. “Are you asking us to leave?”

“No, missy.
  
I am
not,” he calmly assured.
 
“Promise.
 
Now let me go ahead here in the house and
make sure it’s safe.”

Will had the women stand back as he ripped a loose board
that dangled from the overhang of the porch.
 
Haya, Shauna and the baby waited as he went in and inspected.
 
He appeared at the door way and invited them
in.

“All clear,” he announced.
 

She hesitated again. Clarity struck her hard. “Wait,” she
said sharply.

“What?” he asked tenderly.

“How do I know you are who you say you are? And that the
other feller wasn’t just a coward who ran off?” she asked.

He sniffed and thought.
 
“I will think on how I can prove that to you. There’s a daguerreotype of
me in this house somewhere.
 
In one of
the drawers.
 
Of me and my --” he
stopped.
 
“I put it away for a period of
mourning.
 
If I can find it, I’ll offer
it to you.
 
For now, I reckon you’ll have
to trust me.
 
Can you find it in yourself
to do that?”

Shauna and Haya quietly moved again.
 
The rail of the porch was loose.
 
Shauna did not rely on it.
 
She had to rely on balance alone climbing the
stairs with the baby in her arm.
 
Sam
swooped in and took the baby in one arm and offered her a hand.
 
Then he offered Haya a hand until everyone
was securely in the house.
 
Shauna took
the baby back from him.
 
Her hands grazed
his hard, muscled form.
  
Their eyes met
and a force flowed between them.

Haya took little Sam and set him down in his bed which was
in a bedroom that Shauna and Haya shared.
 
The house had two bedrooms.
  
Shauna moved the bed out of the one so there were two beds in the one
room along with the baby’s bed.
 
The baby
fussed as he went back to bed.
 
Shauna
tended to him.
 
She fed him and changed
him and rocked him to sleep.

She was entranced by the rhythm of the rocker and the sweet
weight of her little son as he finally went to sleep when she realized in the
next room, there was a conversation going on.
 
The cowboy was talking to Haya in her language.
  
In almost a year, it was the first time she
had heard the voice of the human being who basically saved her life and her son’s
life.

Emotion rushed Shauna’s chest. She put her slumbering son
down in his crib and joined the other two out in the front room.

“You speak her language,” Shauna noted.

“Yes,” he said

“Please tell her thank you.
 
Thank you for everything,” said Shauna

Sam translated.
 
Haya
nodded.
 
She rose and without another
word disappeared into her room.
 

“What did you tell her?” asked Shauna.

“I said thank you,” shrugged Sam.

“Are you sure?” she asked.
 
“How do you say good night my friend?”

Sam told her.
 
Shauna
practiced it a couple of times before going into say it to Haya.
 
Haya replied.

“What did she say?” asked Shauna.

Sam chuckled softly. “Did you hear her?
 
She said exactly what you said.
 
Only a little better.”

Shauna smiled at his teasing.

They were finally alone together.
 
No drama. No distractions, if the chemistry
that flowed between them didn’t count.

The cowboy and she stared each other down until they caved
to their attraction.
 
He took her mouth
and swept it with his hot wet tongue.
 
He
kissed her for a good long time before he broke from her.

“I am in need of a bath.
 
Will you walk with me to the stream?
 
I have a proposal I would like to put before you,” he said.