dolls, as still and pale as the marble headstone we placed on the grave. Six headstones all in a row.»
Jessica looked through Wolfe with wide, dilated eyes. «I did what I could to keep the wind from taking them and her. The wind took them anyway, and finally it took her. I heard their voices in every storm, yet I hear hers most of all. She’s calling to me, reminding me what horror awaits women in the marriage bed.»
Wolfe started to touch Jessica comfortingly, then stopped, not wanting to frighten her. He finally understood all too well how a man’s touch could horrify her.
A final, violent shudder went through Jessica’s body. When it passed, she focused on Wolfe for the first time since memories had claimed her. She could see little more of him than his outline against the golden glow of the candle. Hesitantly, she lifted her hands to his face, needing reassurance of his reality.
«You are so warm,» she breathed.
Slowly, she caressed Wolfe’s cheeks, enjoying the heat of life burning beneath his skin, warming herself as though he were a fire. The simple hunger for his warmth made Wolfe understand how cold she had felt. He tried to speak, but had no words to equal the mixture of emotions tangled within him.
«I didn’t mean to fight you,» Jessica whispered, struggling to keep her voice from breaking. «Not my own Wolfe.» Her arms went around Wolfe’s neck as she pressed her face against his chest. «Please don’t hate me. You’re the only one I’ve ever trusted.»
Wolfe felt the sudden heat of her tears against his neck and his own eyes burned. He made a low sound and touched her cheek with a hand that trembled.
«I don’t hate you, Jessi,» he said hoarsely. «Never that.»
She turned to press a kiss against his palm.
«Thank you,» she whispered.
«Don’t turn the knife,» he said, his voice fraying. «I should be the one asking you not to hate me. I thought you were just spoiled and stubborn. I didn’t know you were fighting for your life.»
Wolfe’s lips brushed repeatedly over Jessica’s eyelids and lashes, taking her tears. «Don’t cry, elf. Don’t cry. It tears out my heart. Please stop. I’ll never be cruel like that again.»
«I’m s-sorry. I know my tears d-disgust you, but I —»
Wolfe’s thumb pressed gently against Jessica’s lips, stilling her words. «Your tears don’t disgust me.»
«But you s-said —»
His thumb pressed against her lips once more. «Hush, little one. When I said that, I was furious because I thought my touch repulsed you.»
«Never,» Jessica said instantly, tightening her arms around Wolfe’s neck. «Nevernevernever! You were my talisman against the wind. I carried you inside my heart, but then you started hating me and there was nothing left but the wind.»
Wolfe’s throat closed as an agonizing combination of sorrow and self-contempt claimed him. His arms tightened, holding Jessica close enough to feel her breath against his skin.
«Where were you going when I stopped you a few minutes ago?» he asked finally.
«To the wind.»
When Wolfe tried to speak, he couldn’t. Then words came in a whispered rush, her name repeated with every breath as he brushed kisses over her eyelids and cheeks. He wanted to tell her how much he regretted hurting her, yet all he could think of was how he had failed to understand her.
When I’m with you, I don’t hear the wind.
Then he had turned on her and driven her toward the very thing that most terrified her.
«I’m sorry, Jessi,» Wolfe whispered finally. «If I had known, I never would have been so harsh. Can you believe that?»
Jessica nodded, her face pressed tightly against Wolfe’s neck.
«Can you forgive me?» he asked.
Again she nodded, and held him even more tightly.
He made an odd sound. «I don’t know how you can. I find I can’t forgive myself.»
Silently, Wolfe held Jessica until at last he felt the violent tension begin to ebb from her body. She still flinched if the wind shook the house, but she no longer trembled like an aspen leaf in a storm. Finally she let out a long, broken sigh and kissed the curve of Wolfe’s neck where her face had been pressed. The skin was warm and wet with her tears.
«I seem to have cried all over you.»
«I don’t mind.»
Jessica tilted her head back until she could see Wolfe’s eyes. «Truly?»
«Truly.»
She smiled with lips that still had a faint trembling. «Does that mean you’ve forgiven me?»
«I told you, Jessi. I didn’t mean what I said about your tears disgusting me.»
«No. I meant do you forgive me for trapping you into marriage?»
There was a heartbeat of silence before Wolfe sighed. «You believed you were fighting for your life. I can’t blame you for that.»
«I didn’t know how unfair it would be to you,» Jessica whispered as tears overflowed again. «I believed I would be a good wife for you, truly I did. I didn’t know how lacking I was in…everything.»
Wolfe’s thumb smoothed over her lips, stilling the words she would have spoken next. «Don’t belittle yourself, Jessi. It’s not your fault that I’m ahalfbreed bastard. You will make a fine wife for a lord.»
«Stop,» she said, pressing her fingers over his mouth.
Gently, he lifted her hand and continued speaking. «It’s the truth. You were born and raised to grace a lord’s castle.»
«The truth is you’re a man to turn every woman’s head, and her heart as well. Surely you know that, Wolfe.»
«I know that looks aren’t much of a recommendation in men, horses, dogs, or women,» he said dryly.
Jessica smiled despite the tears that fell slowly down her cheeks. «‘Tisnot just your looks, my Lord Wolfe, and well you know it. You are so very much a man.»
Wolfe bent and brushed his mouth over the silver trails of her tears. «Stay beneath the covers, Jessi. I’ll be right back.»
As Wolfe got out of bed, he pulled on the dark pants he had discarded earlier. When he stood, he sensed Jessica watching him. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the admiration in her eyes as she looked at his naked back. Desire coiled within him, but no anger followed. He finally understood that she wasn’t teasing him just to watch him squirm. Jessica didn’t realize what her look invited. She would have been frightened if she did know. Given what she had seen of sex, he expected nothing else.
When Wolfe returned, he was carrying a small glass of brandy in one hand and a pan of warm water in the other. He put the pan on the bedside table, sat on the bed, and warmed the glass in his hands. Soon the heady aroma of brandy curled upward.
«I want you to think of this as medicine,» Wolfe said. «It will ease the last of the coldness inside you.»
«How did you know I feel cold inside?»
He shrugged. «I’ve known the black ice of fear. It’s not something you forget.»
Startled, she watched him with wide aquamarine eyes. «You?»
Wolfe smiled at her look of disbelief. «Many times.»
«When?»
«One of the worst times was when I saw a bull buffalo thundering toward Lord Robert after his horse stepped in a prairie dog hole and went down. I was the length of the herd from him, riding bareback at a dead gallop. I had seen Cheyenne hunters killed by buffalo. I knew what would happen if I missed my shot.»
«You didn’t miss.»
«No, I didn’t. But sometimes I think it would have been better if I had.»
When Wolfe saw the shock in Jessica’s face, the corner of his mouth turned down. Silently, he encouraged her to take a drink of brandy. She swallowed, grimaced, and swallowed again.
«I didn’t mean I wished Lord Robert dead,» Wolfe said finally. «But if I hadn’t made such a spectacular shot, he would have left me with the Cheyenne. I was thirteen, just coming into the mysteries of being a warrior.»
Jessica watched Wolfe over the rim of the brandy glass, her eyes intent, reflecting the dance of
