better with sanitation than the blue bellies.' He paused, and she thought that he, too, looked weary. 'He's a fine young man, your brother. You take care of him.'
'Thank you, Captain Turnbill,' said Kristin. He was about to turn away, but she stopped him with a hand set lightly upon his arm. 'Captain, are you sure these men are fit to travel?'
'The worst wounded are the Yankees we found in the bunkhouse and the barn, and they don't have to travel anywhere. My men have one broken arm, a broken leg, some shot in the shoulder and two concussions. They'll be all right.' He paused, looking at her unhappily. 'Mrs. Slater, they'll be a lot better off traveling now than they would be in a Yankee prison camp. I'm not a man to say that all Yanks are butchers, but there's not much good to be said about prison camps, whether they're Yankee camps or Confederate camps.'
The able-bodied men were walking past her, making ready to leave. Kristin couldn't see her husband anywhere.
Malachi came around behind her and squeezed her shoulders. He turned her around. 'Hope Cole won't mind,' he said, and he hugged her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. 'Hell, I don't care if Cole does mind!' he said, and he kissed her again. She didn't know there was a tear on her cheek until he wiped it away.
'Oh, Malachi…'
'It's all right. We won't be far away.'
'Not far away at all.'
It was Jamie who spoke. He was right behind Malachi, and he took her from his brother and kissed her cheek, too. 'You take care of yourself, little sister, you hear? Take good care of that nephew of mine, too.'
She nodded, unable to speak for a few seconds.
'Cole —'
'Cole is right here,' her husband said. Tears blurred her vision. He took her in his arms. 'Hey!' he whispered, his lips nuzzling her throat. 'Stop that! You can't send my brothers away with tears in your eyes.'
'Your brothers…'
She whirled around in his arms. Cole looked over her head. Malachi tipped his hat and grinned, and Cole grinned back. The two of them went out, and the house slowly fell silent. 'I'm not leaving tonight, Kristin.'
'What?' she whispered.
There was a bit of a commotion outside. Shannon was saying goodbye nicely to Jamie, and not so nicely to Malachi. Cole grinned, and Kristin grinned back, her eyes searching his. Then the door slammed, and Shannon whispered, 'Oh, excuse me!'
Neither of them turned around. They heard Shannon tiptoe into the parlor to stay with the Union injured.
He was beautiful, Kristin thought. He was the most beautiful man she had ever seen. He was leaner than he had been that first day she had seen him. Strands of gray were creeping into his hair and into his beard, but somehow they were beautiful, too. They went well with the silver light in his eyes, with the handsome, dignified planes of his face.
'Oh!' she whispered heatedly. 'You have to leave! Matthew says they consider you an outlaw —'
'They won't know I'm here, Kristin. My men are gone. They've taken my horse. They've learned how to disappear with the night. And for now I'm staying with my wife.'
'Oh!'
'If she'll have me.'
'Oh!' She touched his cheek, tenderly moving her fingertips over the coarse beard there. 'Oh, she will have you!' she breathed.
He caught her hand and kissed her fingertips. Silently he led her up the stairs and through the doorway to their bedroom. Then he leaned against the door, and she smiled as she watched him.
'I never thought I would be here with you now!' he whispered.
'But you are,' she said.
'Yes, I am.'
Kristin walked over to him. She lifted off his hat and tossed it on the floor, and she unbuckled his scabbard and his gun belt and cast his weapons aside. Studiously, she unbuttoned his frock coat and his uniform shirt, and when his shoulders and chest were bare she felt the sweet thrill of anticipation invade her. Her fingers grew awkward, and she found that she was trembling. She whispered his name, and she pressed her lips to his chest and to the pulse at the base of his throat. He caught her lips and kissed her hungrily, tasting and tasting her mouth, trembling with ever-greater ardor. She was breathless when he released her and turned her around to work at the tiny buttons of her dress. He was shaking as badly as she, but was more practiced, and more determined, and she was startled when the dress fell quickly away from her, and then her chemise, and then her petticoats. He lifted her up with her stockings and shoes still on and carried her quickly to the bed, pausing with a rueful laugh to check on Gabriel, who was sleeping sweetly in the little bed in the corner.
Then he tossed her on the bed and fell upon her, and she threaded her fingers joyously through his hair. He groaned and kissed her again, and then he kissed her breasts, staring at them, savoring them, easing his tongue over each nipple, then his teeth, then the fullness of his mouth.
'Oh, Cole!' Her head tossed from side to side, and lightning swept through her, embedding a
sweet, swirling heat at the apex of her thighs, a dizzying need for him. He filled it, touching her with a light and tender stroke and then with a demanding one, watching her eyes, watching her body, feeling the thunder of the desire that grew and grew within him.
He kissed her belly, and he stroked her thighs, and he played his touch over the golden triangle at their juncture, and then he delved within it. He made an incredibly sensual act of taking off her shoes, peeling away her garters and hose. Then he rose boldly above her. He drew a steady pattern with the searing tip of his tongue from her throat down the valley between her breasts to her navel and into the very heart of her fire. And she cried out for him, and he came to her.
Then he hovered, just above her, and she opened her eyes wide, waiting, pleading, wondering why he denied her. A great sound of agony escaped him, and he buried his head against her breasts.
'I do love you, Kristin. I do love you.'
'Oh, Cole!' she said, clinging to him. 'Please…'
He pushed away from her, and stared at her. 'Well?'
And then it dawned on her what he wanted, and she pressed hard against him, arching to meet his need. 'Cole, I have loved you for ages! I love you so very much. I could never admit it, I was so afraid, I knew you didn't love me.'
'I just didn't dare admit it,' he said softly.
'Say it again!' she demanded.
'I love you. I love you, Kristin McCahy Slater, and I swear that I will do so until the end of time.'
'Oh, Cole!' She buried her face against his chest. It was hot and sleek and damp with perspiration. And he chose that moment to plunge deep, deep within her, and even as he did he was whispering again, the sweet words over and over again.
He loved her.
Later that night — much later, for making love took on a sweet new dimension when the words were spoken, and they were tempted to explore that dimension again and again — Cole held her in his arms and told her everything. First he told her about the day the jayhawkers had come, and how they had burned down his home and killed his wife. She heard the agony in his voice, but she didn't stop him, because it was important that he say everything, that he lay his soul bare for her, as she had hers. He needed to trust her in that way, and, Kristin thought, he needed the healing power of words. His heart needed the cleansing.
She listened, and she was not afraid of the past, merely saddened. Then she listened as he told her what had happened in Kansas, how his old friend Kurt Taylor had been there and how he had purposely alerted Cole to the fact that Henry Fitz was in town with his jayhawkers.
'I killed him, Kristin. I knew what I was doing. I knew exactly what danger I was riding into, but I had to face him.' His arms tightened around her. 'If we were to have a future, I just had to do it. Can you understand that?'
She didn't really have to answer him. She planted little kisses over his chest, and he groaned, and his hands rode roughly over her hair, and then they were in one another's arms once again. They were still so desperate, so hungry, so determined to have all that they could of one another, to cherish, to hold, to keep always for their
