'I cleaned my plate. Can I go join Pa?'
Kristin threw up her hands, and Tess felt some of the tension leave her
as she laughed.
'Go!' Kristin told her son.
He smiled, excused hun self politely to Tess and ran out of the house.
'We might as well pick up,' Shannon said. 'Might as well.'
Things went quickly with five of them to do the clearing, the scraping,
the washing and the drying. Shannon asked Tess what it had been like
with the Apache, and by the time she finished with her story about Jon
and Jamie appearing at just the fight time, they had finished the
dishes. Jane and Dolly kissed Tess again and went to bed. Shannon and
Kristin and Tess made tea and then sat around the kitchen table, staring
at one another.
'And then this Nalte let you go--just because Jamie asked for you? He
let you go to Jamie?' Kfistin said.
Tess felt herself flush, wondering how to avoid saying the very thing
the Indian chief had so clearly understood.
'He, uh, he ...'
'Oh, for God's sake, Kristin, they've been sleeping together and this
Nalte man knew it!' Shannon exclaimed.
'Shannon!' gris ting protested.
'Well, all right, I'm terribly sorry, but Ktistin and I both married
Slater men. I know. They're so easy to want to shoot, but at the same
time ...' Her voice trailed away and she was really beautiful as she
grinned.
'Well, they are easy to sleep with. Seductive.'
Tess knew she had to be a thousand shades of crimson. Kristin sighed.
'He's very much in love with you. I'm sure We'll see a wedding any day.'
'I'm not terribly sure about that.'
'He called us here. To protect your interests. He must love you.'
'I've turned over half the property to him. It's his own property he's
protecting.' 'Urn. Did he bargain for anything else?' Kristin asked her.
She didn't know why she was being so honest except that somehow she felt
she had known the two women all her life.
Maybe it was because they had all become involved with Slater men.
'Maybe they just don't marry easily,' Shannon suggested.
'But you're both married,' Tess began.
'Cole had to marry me,' gris ting said.
'Oh, the baby?'
'No!' gris ting 'laughed.
'There was a horrible, horrible man after me.
The war was going on and the only way he could count on some protection
from some old acquaintances was to be able to say that I was his wife.
He fell in love with me slowly; it took him a long time.' She smiled
sweetly at Shannon.
'And Malachi had to marry Shannon.'
'Well, he didn't have to,' Shannon protdsted. 'The twins?' Tess asked.
'No, a shotgun,' Shannon explained ruefully. They both laughed, and
Shannon took a deep breath and tried to explain that Kristin was her
sister, and that Kfistin had been in trouble.
