“Anytime, Yank.”
A light tapping sounded at the door and Adam stepped away a moment before Wes looked in. “Sorry to interrupt the exam.” Wes raised an eyebrow at Nichole’s open shirt. “But Bergette’s on her way as soon as she finishes yelling at Wolf for tracking in mud.”
Adam reached for his jacket, and Nichole did the same. She’d just buttoned the top button on her shirt, when Bergette stormed through the door. The tiny woman wore more lace and ribbons than Nichole had ever seen in one place before. She looked like an angel, but Nichole didn’t miss the devil in her eyes as she stared at the doctor.
“Adam, aren’t these people gone yet?” Bergette didn’t bother to look Nichole in the face. If she had, she wouldn’t have missed the red cheeks and slightly swollen lips.
“We were just leaving,” Nichole mumbled with her head low as she’d been taught to disguise her identity. “Thanks for seeing me, Doc.”
“You don’t have to leave.” Adam ignored Bergette. “Stay and have supper at least. You’ve come a long way.”
“What!” Ignoring Bergette was not a safe move. “I believe this is my house.”
Wes stepped from behind the little lady. With one swift movement, he lifted her off the floor and set her down out of Adam’s path. “She’s right. This is, and will probably always be ‘her’ house.” Wes smiled as he watched Bergette boil. “Ready to head home, little brother? May will have leftovers and guests have always been welcome in the McLain house.”
Adam nodded. Glancing at Nichole, he offered his arm. “Will you join me, Miss Hayward?”
Wes took the battle charge Bergette issued as Adam and Nichole left the room. Smooth as a dance move, Wes covered her pouty mouth as she took in breath to scream and pushed her behind the door. “I wouldn’t scream if I were you, dear Bergette. All the guests will come running and see Adam leaving with a woman dressed in a man’s clothing. Wouldn’t it be better to let him go and make his excuses?”
He could see her mind working, and he guessed she was already planning how her story would make Adam so busy with doctoring that she’d draw everyone’s sympathy. Poor girl, he’d even left her on his first evening home. Everyone would comfort Bergette.
“That’s better,” Wes whispered as he pulled his hand away and wiped it on his pant leg.
“I hate you!” She almost spit the words. “I’ll see you dead.”
Wes faked a hurt look. “Oh, Bergette! How can you say such a thing? I was just starting to welcome you into the family, dear sister.”
“I’m getting Adam away from the likes of you and that preacher brother of yours if it’s the last thing I do. The only time I’ll be with anyone in your family except Adam is in the family plot when we’re all dead.”
Wes raised an eyebrow. “Are you suggesting someday we’ll lie together, dear sister-in-law-to-be? A corpse of you would be little change from your warmth now.”
She slapped him so hard he felt his ears ring. In a tornado of satin, she stormed away before he could focus.
Wes rubbed his jaw. “Or maybe not,” he mumbled as he hurried to catch up with Adam and his dinner guests.
FIVE
THE FOUR RIDERS took to the night like bats, racing toward the McLain home in silent dare to an evening storm. Strong winds chased their backs and lightning flashed around them. The earth blinked bright as day for an instant, then black again.
Adam needed the pounding ride to challenge his body and ease the frustration he felt toward Bergette. He tried to tell himself that this was only his first day home, and she was under a great deal of stress. Give her time, he reasoned, but his gut feeling told him to ride faster-as far away from her as he could get. She was not the woman he’d dreamed of and planned a life with. All the beauty was still there, but her heart was missing.
When they reined in at the farmyard, splatters of rain smothered their dust. Adam glanced at Nichole. Her smile confirmed that she loved the speed as much as he did. The lightning hadn’t frightened her. He wondered what, if anything, would. She was as wild as a spring storm, and it was the wildness that attracted him, nothing more, he decided. The female reb was as far from his world as a woman could be.
But something in her green eyes challenged him to care. Something in her short midnight curls dared him to touch her.
Glancing away from Nichole, Adam realized the storm had followed them in, swirling excitement and rattling the air with summer thunder. He could hear the horses moving in the corral and the windmill speeding around as rain plopped in the already full tank.
Daniel yelled from the porch. “Thank God! You’re back.” He hurried toward them as fast as his stiff leg would allow.
“What is it?” Wes was off his mount first with Adam just behind.
“It’s May.” Daniel suddenly looked very young and near panic.
Adam grabbed his medical bag. “Has the labor started?”
“No.” Daniel shoved his wet hair from his face. “I can’t find her! She’s disappeared.”
His little brother fought to pull himself together enough to force words out. “She was in the kitchen when I left to bring in the horses, but now she’s gone.” Daniel struggled with each sentence. “I’ve called and called. She couldn’t have just vanished.”
Adam touched his brother’s shoulder and moved into the kitchen with the others following. For a moment everything looked in place, her sewing on the table, the fireplace bright, supper dishes in a pan by the pump. Touches of May were everywhere, but she was missing.
“We’ll split up.” Adam tried to make his voice calm and commanding. “Wes, you and Wolf check the barn. Nichole, start on the second floor and call May’s name in every room. Daniel, check the outhouse and chicken coops. When anyone finds her, yell loud. She can’t be far away.”
Everyone moved at once, for they were all used to following orders and knew by Adam’s voice there was no time to lose.
When they disappeared, Adam knelt by the table and touched the wet spot on the floor. He brought his fingers to his nose and frowned. The watery liquid was slippery to the touch and smelled of blood. “Her water broke,” he whispered to himself.
“Where are you, May?” Fear and frustration banked his sudden demand to an empty room.
Only silence.
He built up the fire and put on as much water to boil as he could find pots to hold it, then he darted to the only downstairs bedroom and stripped the sheets. He laid a soft deerskin pelt on the mattress, then covered it with a thick flannel sheet.
“What did you do that for?” Nichole asked from the doorway.
“It’ll catch the fluids.” Adam layered the bed with all the sheets he could find. “She wasn’t upstairs?”
“No.” Nichole helped him. “I can hear your younger brother calling for her in the rain. His voice is full of panic, almost madness.”
Adam didn’t look at her as he worked. “May’s not just his wife, she’s his world. They’ve been best friends since he started school. When Daniel was little, he never talked. My folks feared something was wrong with him until he found May. Seemed he’d saved up all he had to say to tell her. When he got old enough to enlist as a chaplain, they married before he left so she could go with him when he was stationed in a town. He got shot in the leg while visiting an outpost, but she was at his side. When she’s near, words come easy for Danny, but when she’s not, he dams up inside.”
“I’ve seen wives go through hard times to stay near their men,” Nichole whispered. She remembered seeing the small camps of women sometimes only a few miles behind the lines. Their fires and supplies were usually lower than that of the troops, but they didn’t complain of wanting to go home as the men did. They were where they had to be.