“I want to stay.” She read the doubt in his eyes before he turned his attention back to the frying pan.
“Why don’t you check on Dru, see if she’s ready to have a bite to eat?” Gavin suggested.
“She’s still in the bedroom.” He jerked his head toward the far end of the house. She continued to gaze at him for a moment, fighting the irrational tears that tried to well up in her eyes. Finally, she whispered, “All right.” She set the platter on the sideboard and crossed the large main room. She rapped lightly on the door before pushing it open.
“Dru?” she called softly.
“Are you awake?”
“Come in, Rachel.”
“Gavin’s prepared breakfast. Are you hungry?” Dru rolled her head from side to side on the pillow, her eyes still closed.
“Not right now.” She drew a deep breath, then looked at Rachel.
“Are the girls up yet?”
“I haven’t seen them.” Rachel crossed the room to stand beside the bed.
“We’re all a bit tired, I suppose,” Dru said with a sigh. She smiled weakly up at Rachel as she took hold of the younger woman’s hand.
“It’s a great comfort to me to have you here, Rachel.” Pangs of guilt and shame shot through her. Dru wouldn’t be so comforted if she knew the truth about her, Rachel thought as she forced a tremulous smile onto her lips. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife. The commandment surely covered thy neighbor’s husband as well. She quickly squeezed Dru’s hand, then pulled free.
“I’ll tell Gavin you want to wait a while to eat.” She turned toward the bedroom door.
“Have Gavin take you to town. There’s plenty of things we should stock up on before winter sets in.” She glanced back, a protest on her lips.
“I don’t…” she began. But Dru’s eyes were closed, and she appeared to be asleep. Quietly, Rachel left the room, closing the door behind her. With the completion in 1880 of the toll road from Challis into the mining district, people had poured into the area by the hundreds. Bonanza City and Custer became bustling towns complete with general merchandise stores, meat markets, livery and feed stables, restaurants, Chinese laundries, and hotels. Challis, located in a more bucolic section of the Idaho mountain country, thrived with them. Gavin, Stubs, and Charlie had first seen the land that would become the Lucky Strike Ranch nearly six years before. Tired of chasing color from one gold camp to another, Charlie and Gavin pooled their resources, bought themselves a herd of cattle, and settled in as permanent residents of the Salmon River country. They hadn’t become rich, by any means, but they hadn’t done too badly either. Although it was not an easy life, Gavin had always found it a satisfying one. As he drove the wagon toward town, Gavin ruminated on the early years. He and Stubs had finished the long cattle drive up from Texas that had reunited them. They’d collected their pay in Miles City, Montana, then headed west to find wealth in the gold-laden hills of Idaho Territory. Except they’d found, as did many others, that riches were more apt to come to those selling goods to the miners than to the miners themselves. It was in Idaho City they’d met the Porter family. Gavin wasn’t ever quite sure how it happened that Charlie and Dru and little Sabrina became such a part of his life. It just seemed to happen. Charlie felt like a long-lost brother, and their friendship became an unbreakable bond. But it was Dru who truly made them all into a family, Dru with her warm laughter and her enjoyment of life. When Petula was born in Bonanza City, Dru had asked Gavin to be the baby’s godfather. Even now, remembering, it created a warm spot in his heart. Gavin would have a hard time ever putting into words how he felt about Charlie and Dru and their children. He owed them more than he could ever repay.
“Oh!” As the wagon jerked out of the rut, the startled sound brought him abruptly back to the present. He glanced to the right and found Rachel gripping the wagon seat as the rear wheel fell into the same deep cut in the earth, then pulled out of it again.
“Sorry,” he mumbled. Her left hand rose to her black velvet hat with its fur-lined brim and cluster of ostrich tips. She pushed at its crown, as if to make sure it was still secure after the jostling it had been through. It didn’t seem to matter where she was or what she was doing or what she was wearing. Rachel Harris always managed to look beautiful. Even now, with wisps of hair spilling free from beneath that preposterous hat, he couldn’t remember when he’d seen anyone more beautiful. Wouldn’t she be even more beautiful without the hat, with her hair tumbling freely about her shoulders, with her face slightly flushed from… “Are we nearly there?” He nodded as he looked away, damning himself for his wayward thoughts. Did it take no more than a pretty face to make him forget the difference between right and wrong? Silently, he cursed himself for ever allowing Dru to talk him into that trip to Boise City. Shoot! He could’ve tutored the girls himself. He wouldn’t have been as good at it as Rachel was, but he could have managed. It would have been better for all of them without an outsider like Rachel Harris around. A small grunt escaped his companion as the wagon wheel dropped into another rut. He hid a grin, finding some perverse satisfaction in her discomfiture. It was easier to blame his inner turmoil on her than to face the truth of his feelings. Rachel let out a silent sigh of relief as the wagon rolled down the main street of Challis. The trip into town had seemed hours long.
Gavin hadn’t spoken more than a half dozen words the entire time, and the few he’d spoken had sounded distinctly churlish.
She straightened on the wagon seat and allowed herself a look around. In comparison with Washington or Philadelphia, the town would hardly have been considered civilized.
Even compared to Boise City—scarcely two decades old itself—it was small and rustic. Yet she felt strangely at ease as her gaze swept from a mercantile store, past a saloon, over a dry goods store, beyond the livery stable, and finally rested on a Chinese laundry. It was a little like coming home after a long trip abroad.
What a silly thought!
Rachel shook her head as the wagon drew to a halt in front of the Challis Mercantile. Gavin wrapped the reins around the brake handle, then hopped to the ground and walked around to the opposite side. Wordlessly, he held out his right hand to her.
She paused a moment before slipping her gloved fingers into his. Her insides seemed to jump at the moment of contact, but she managed to hide her inner pandemonium by averting her eyes, staring hard at the planks of wood that made up the sidewalk outside the mercantile. It wasn’t until he released her hand that she was able to draw another breath.
“Gavin! Sure and I’m glad to see you’re back.”
Rachel turned with Gavin toward the deep male voice with the soft Irish burr.
The man who stepped up onto the narrow boardwalk was well over six feet tall, with a massive chest and shoulders. He was wearing a stylish suit coat and trousers and shiny leather boots. Rachel hadn’t seen anything finer since she was back East. He looked strangely out of place in this remote mountain town. As he doffed his felt derby, revealing a shock of carrot-red hair, he flashed a grin in her direction.
“And I see you’ve brought a bit o’ beauty out o’ the basin with you.” His laughing green eyes never left her face.
“Sure if I’m not thinkin’ I should be summerin’ my cattle there too.”
“Hello, Patrick.”
“Faith and begorra!” He paused a few moments.
“Have you lost your manners? Introduce me to the young lady before I have to do it myself.” Rachel glanced quickly from the man called Patrick to Gavin and then back again. In comparison with the stranger’s friendly smile, Gavin’s look was dark and decidedly inhospitable.