Chapter 16.

*With that settled, Deke pushed up from the fire and walked slowly toward Laura's pallet. She shrank against the leather wall behind her, regarding his advance with the same wariness as she might have that of a sidewinder. He couldn't help but wonder what she expected him to do to her. Considering all she had suffered at Tristan's hands, there was probably no telling.

Hunkering at the edge of the fur, Deke settled a speculative gaze on her, knowing as he did that she would be furious if she knew the thoughts going through his head. For all Tristan's browbeating, she still had a goodly measure of tattered pride, and she wouldn't appreciate being compared to a horsenot one damned bit.

Deke meant no slight. Since early boyhood, he had been catching, breaking, and training wild horses, most of them terrified from the get go. Now approaching thirty-two, he had been at it for well over twenty years and had perfected his handling of the difficult animals until it was almost an art. Since it went without saying that he had captured and tamed very few frightened womennone, to be exacthe had no knowledge of them at all. When faced with a problem, it seemed only smart for a man to draw on his own experience, and his was with horses.

More years back than Deke cared to count, he had come into possession of a pretty little mare that had been "rough broke" by a rancher with more rowels on his spurs than he had good sense. While questioning the rancher, Deke learned that in an attempt to cure the mare of spooking when she saw a blanket, he and his men had snubbed her down and flapped one in her face, the result being that she nearly broke her neck rearing, finally snapped the rope, and seriously injured one of the hired hands.

That had been all Deke needed to hear. He saved the mare from being put down by purchasing her, then spent the next five months slowly and gently taming her, slowly and gently being the key words.

The irony was that, just as the rancher and his men had done, Deke flapped a blanket at the mare, but he started in an adjoining corral where she could see the blanket and get a little nervous, but not feel immediately threatened. After a few days, Deke moved a hair closer, and a few days after that, closer still, until eventually he could flap the blanket right under the mare's nose without spooking her.

Though he knew it would make her mad as blazes if he told her so, Laura reminded Deke a lot of that little mare. From what he had gathered from Laura's ramblings during her delirium, her father and Tristan had given her more than enough reason to fear men and to go a little loco if she felt threatened by one. To Deke's way of thinking, there wasn't a hell of a lot of difference between a snubbed horse being lashed with a quirt and a defenseless woman being laid out by a man's fist. The mare had been locked in a stall and tormented, Laura had been trapped in a nightmarish marriage. At Tristan's hands, Laura had learned to be afraid, and anything that had been taught to her could sure as hell be untaught.

Since it was Deke's feeling that folks and horses reacted to things a lot the same and responded well to similar treatment, he couldn't see the harm in gentling Laura much the same way as he had the frightened mare. Whatever worked, that was his motto. As long as Laura never drew a comparisonwhich she wouldn't unless she saw him working with horsesshe wouldn't realize the insult.

He would have to be constantly on his guard, keep his mind focused and his temper defused until she began to play out and settle down, which might take days or even weeks.

As Laura saw it, he was the frightening element, and if he meant to confront her fears and prove them groundless, he had to take things slowly and close in on her gradually, blanket flapping with every step.

What she needed right now was some gentle handling. Not too much. Only enough to let her know more was yet to come and that there was nothing to dread. Very gently, Deke framed her face between his hands. At his touch, she jerked and then shuddered. "Easy, darlin'. I ain't about to hurt you."

Her eyes sought his, and her soft mouth quivered as Deke feathered his thumbs along the contours of her cheekbones. He continued the light strokes until he felt some of the tension ease out of her. It was enough, and he released her to drape his arms loosely over his upraised knee.

Striving for just the right pitch to his voice, he said, "I won't ever be heavy-handed with you, Laura. You've got my promise on that."

It was on the tip of Deke's tongue to say more, his aim being to reassure her if he could, but a sound to his left cut him off. He turned on the balls of his feet to see the lodge flap lifting. An instant later, Star peeked inside. Her timing wasn't the best, but it could have been worse. It might do Laura a world of good to see her baby. It couldn't hurt for her to get a taste of the sweetness she might find inside the trap he had sprung around her. It couldn't hurt at all.

He was pleased to note that Star's lovely features were composed and no longer puffy from crying. Giving up the baby now that she had come to love him was no easy thing for her to do. Deke wished he knew of a way to make it easier, but Laura being Laura, he couldn't even promise they'd bring the child back frequently for visits, not that Black Stone, in his present mood, would encourage them to.

Thinking of his brother, Deke looked over Star's shoulder, hoping against hope to see Black Stone behind her. But, no, damn the man's stubborn red hide. He was still sulking and keeping his face hidden from Deke, determined not to relent and accept a white woman into his heart. Eventually he would give in, Deke knew, and probably with grand gesture, but he would do it in his own sweet time, when he was damned good and ready.

Sugar Girl's pretty little face beamed at Deke over Star's slender shoulder. She waved and grinned, then cast a nervous glance toward Laura, wrinkling her nose. Hostilities being at such a peak between the whites and Cheyenne, Deke could only hope he didn't end up with three females lashing out with their rear hooves inside his mother's lodge.

He nudged Laura. "Look who's here."

Her arms carefully holding a fur-wrapped cradleboard, Star stepped inside. "Me come," she said in English.

Laura's head snapped around and her body went rigid. Smiling at her incredulous expression, Deke moved back to give her a little room. She shot to her knees and held out shaking arms. "My baby! Oh, my baby! Praise God."

Star bobbed her head, blushing with shyness as she came across the lodge. Sugar Girl followed at a safe distance, clearly a little frightened of Laura because she was white and wore such strange-looking clothing. Kneeling on the edge of the furs, Star clung to the cradleboard for a moment before surrendering it.

"Me ain't mother, but got big heart for baby, yep?"

Laura didn't even seem to hear. She snatched the cradleboard from Star's grasp, clutched it to her chest, and started to sob. Star's face fell, and the pain reflected in her big brown eyes nearly broke Deke's heart. She had wanted so badly for Laura to recognize that she had come to love the child and therefore had some claim to him, however slight.

Deke knew Laura didn't mean to be cruel; she was just beside herself. Not that he could blame her. Her baby had been stolen from his cradle, and Laura had suffered through what had probably seemed an endless hell ever since, waiting for this moment.

In a frenzy that was almost frightening, she started tearing at the fur wrapping. Her breath came in animal-like little pants. Her hands shook violently. When at last she got the infant uncovered, a wail erupted from her. Star watched with tears in her eyes as Laura plucked her squirming, kicking child from the confines of the cradleboard, moss trailing, and clamped him to her breasts.

"Oh, God. My Jonathan! It's really you!"

With that, Laura buried her face against sweet infant flesh, began to pitch violently back and forth in a wild parody of rocking, and started to weep. A horrible, chest-tearing sound came from her. Deke was afraid she might collapse and unintentionally harm the child, so he rose on his knees behind her to encircle her heaving shoulders with a supporting arm.

Jonathan didn't share in his mother's joy. He screeched and started to wiggle. Laura laughed, albeit a bit hysterically, and brought her head back to feast tear-filled eyes on his red, wrinkled little face. Catching her breath and swallowing a wet sob, she said, "Oh, isn't he the most beautiful baby you've ever seen?"

Truthfully, Deke was used to pretty brown babies with sturdier bodies and thought Jonathan looked sort of pitiful. His tiny face looked like an apple that had shriveled in the sun. Spider veins of a deeper scarlet etched his droopy eyelids and cheeks. His nose was as swollen and red as a town drunk's with funny-looking white spots all over it. His dark hair was thin and stuck straight up in a dull rooster comb over his soft spot. All and all, the best Deke could think of to say was that the baby would probably outgrow it ... it being a sad case of the uglies that no man with eyes could fail to note.

"He's somethin', all right." That much wasn't a lie.

"He's perfect. Just look at him!"

Laura proceeded to do just that, cradling the squalling baby in one arm while she checked him over, counting skinny fingers and toes, touching his mottled skin, cupping his head against her palm and smoothing the shock of hair on top, which promptly sprang back up. Deke thought the poor little guy looked as if he had just gotten the sand scared out of him.

"He's absolutely perfect!" she crooned. "Aren't you, precious boy? Yes, you are."

"I hope he fills out some," Deke said, sincerely concerned now that he was seeing the infant unwrapped. The poor little fellow was made like a frog, all belly, every rib showing, with twig-sized arms and bowed legs. "He's just a shade on the scrawny side, ain't he?"

Accusing amber eyes flashed at Deke.

Instantly realizing his mistake, Deke quickly added, "Of course, he's had a rough haul, ain't he? Poor little thing's been drug from pillar to post. I reckon I'd probably look like I'd been shoved through a small knothole myself. A few more days of feedin' him up should set him right and put some paddin' on his bones."

Now Star and Laura both fixed Deke with accusing gazes. Star proclaimed hotly, "He grow! Big and tall like Flint Eyes."

"He isn't scrawny!" Laura cried.

Deke looked up at Sugar Girl, who lifted her hands in a little shrug. She clearly agreed with Deke that the only promising feature the baby had was his noisemaker, which emitted a screech that would put a Cheyenne warrior's battle cry to shame. Deke also read a warning in Sugar Girl's eyes that if they wanted to keep the peace, neither of them should say as much.

Deke was afraid his comments of a few moments ago might have hurt Laura's feelings. He decided this was one time when a white lie was justifiable. "I didn't mean scrawny, exactly," he amended. "Spindly might've been a better word, and hell, he'll outgrow that soon enough. Otherwise, darlin', that is one fine-lookin' boy."

Glancing back up at Sugar Girl, Deke said, "You wanna sit? We got plenty of room here."

He bodily shifted Laura over a hair to provide space. Star followed Laura and the baby as though she were attached to them by invisible string, her hands hovering. When Deke turned back, he found both women still glaring at him. Apparently this was one parley between white and Indian where common ground had been found rather quickly.

Deke's funny bone got tickled at their indignant expressions. "All I said was that he's a little scrawny. I didn't mean nothin' by it. The kid got took from his mama and hauled on horseback for two days, for Christ's sake. He'll fatten up."

Star clucked and shooed Deke away with her hands. Sputtering for a moment because English didn't come easily to her, she finally said, "You shut fuck up, stupid man. Talk bad, you go!" She pointed to the lodge flap. "Go! Me ain't got ears for you."

Laura's whiskey-colored eyes went huge with incredulity at the word Star had used. After a moment, she turned a sparking gaze on Deke. "How could you?"

Deke swallowed. "How could I what?"

She sniffed haughtily. "You taught her that vile word. Don't tell me you didn't."

"I can explain that, though."

"Oh, I'm sure. I'd lie to save face, too, if I were you."

A wise man knew when to retreat. Deke curled a finger under Jonathan's little chin. "Ain't he somethin'? Hey, look, Laura. He's got your dimple. He is without a doubt one handsome boy."

Mollified, she cooed softly and traced loving fingertips over the baby's face. Disturbed from his snooze, Chief lumbered over to see what all the commotion was about. His red, furred jowls hanging in loose folds beneath his bleary eyes, the dog stared with open disgust at the squalling infant. After a moment, he yawned, returned to his napping spot, and flopped back down. Everyone laughed at the canine's woebegone expression.

Star pressed closer to curl a hand over Jonathan's puny chest, taking care not to disturb the shriveled birth cord that protruded from his navel. "He be such pretty baby. Yep."

"You cut that cord a hair short," Deke noted.

Laura and Star both sent him another glare.

"But not that short," he quickly added.

The two women went back to admiring the baby while Deke and Sugar Girl watched.

"He pretty boy."

"He's absolutely perfect. Just look at him."

It went on and on until Deke chuckled. Both women glared at him again. He was starting to feel like he couldn't say shit without getting a mouthful.

"He's hardly lost any weight," Laura gushed. "And here I was so worried!"

Star patted her chest. "Me feed. Baby get fat. Me good mama, yep?"

It finally seemed to dawn on Laura just how much she owed to Star. She stared at the other woman, her eyes filling with tears again. Then she freed a slender arm to hook it around Star's shoulders. "You saved my baby's life. I'll never forget that. Never. Not as long as I live. How shall I ever repay you?"

Star returned the hug, her face aglow. "You, me, be big friends, yep. Me be big friend to baby?"

"Oh, yes," Laura cried. "The best of friends, forever!"

Parting with Jonathan again nearly killed Laura, but she truly wasn't strong enough yet to care for him properly, and according to Deke, his mother warned against her nursing the baby for at least another few days for fear poisons might yet linger in her body, The last thing Laura wanted was to risk making her baby sick.

As she watched Star bundle Jonathan back into the cradleboard, Laura scolded herself for wanting to cry. She was so lucky that someone like Star was caring for her child. Every expression on the pretty little squaw's face conveyed her love for Jonathan, and Laura noted that Star's leather dress had no filthy teeth stitched onto it, only pretty beads. She also looked and smelled clean, her long, shiny black hair neatly bound into plaits, her fingernails short and neatly trimmed, the tips half-mooned with white.

"Hey," Deke said softly as the women left with the baby, "you'll see him again come mornin'. And before you know it, you'll have him with you all the time."

Laura managed a nod. "I know," she said tightly. "It's just difficult."

She felt Deke's hand curl warmly over her shoulder, which jerked her from thoughts of her baby back to contemplating her earlier predicament. He clearly hadn't abandoned his plans to get cozy. A suffocating sensation crawled up her throat as she contemplated what that might mean. If he was bent on asserting his husbandly rights tonight, there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop him, and the ordeal would probably cause her irreparable internal injury.

"Mr. Sheridan?" Her voice came out in a thin squeak that made her want to kick herself.

"Deke," he corrected.

"Deke." Laura glanced over her shoulder to find his silvery gaze was trailing over her hair. Oh, God, what was she going to do? His eyes were as warm as a heated blade, and it didn't take a genius to know what that meant. "I, um, think we need to discuss a few things," she managed to say in a firmer voice.

He lifted his hand from her shoulder to smooth a tendril at her temple with the backs of his knuckles. "Do you now?"

His voice flowed over her as smoothly as hot honey, so why did it raise gooseflesh on her skin? "I feel I must point out that I recently had a child."

His mouth slanted into a lazy grin. "I'll bear that in mind."

Laura's heart skittered. "Yes, well, as a general rule, women do not engage in ... in certain, um, intimacies for several weeks after."

"Four, according to my mother," he corrected, "and we've already scratched off one, so you've only got twenty days to go."

He was already counting? Laura gulped and, unable to tear her gaze from his, did some quick calculations of her own. A week to regain her strength, two days to reach Denver. That was a total of nine days, which left her an eleven-day grace period in case something went wrong. She relaxed slightly. That gave her plenty of time to get away from this village, where Deke Sheridan's authority over her was absolute. The instant she got her baby safely into Denver, she would extricate herself from this impossible situation.

He trailed his knuckle along the hollow of her cheek. Though her skin shrank from the contact, Laura held herself in check. Until she could get away from this man, she had to play him along. She could do that. He had just agreed to twenty days of abstinence, after all. No harm could come from his touching her face and looking at her.

Except that his gaze was smoldering ... Laura felt seared by it.

He caught her chin on the edge of his hand. "Honey, I'm not gonna hurt you. Hell, I just spent the better part of a week tryin' to get you mended."

Her pulse slowed slightly. What he said made sense, and she was probably being foolish. It was justLaura had seen that look in men's eyes before, and it usually boded ill. In addition to that, Deke's eyes gleamed with possessiveness. He truly considered these heathen customs to be binding and felt she belonged to him now. The thought was unsettling, to say the least. Granted, he had treated her kindly thus far, but it was Laura's experience that what went before a marriage seldom followed it. Deke Sheridan had been raised by the Cheyenne, and his attitudes toward white women had most assuredly been molded by them.

Laura tried to moisten her lips, only to find her tongue had gone powder dry. "Then you ... I can rest assured you have nothing intimate in mind?"

His dark lashes swept low over his eyes. "Nothin' that'll hurt you."

That wasn't what Laura wanted to hear. She wanted a promise that he wouldn't touch her. Not that a man's word could be trusted. "Mr. Sheridan, I scarcely know you."

"Actually, darlin', I was leanin' real heavy toward usin' this next twenty days to get acquainted." His teeth gleamed at her in another slow smile. "You can get that worried look off your face."

"I can?"

He drew his hand from her cheek and sat back against the wall, his shoulders touching the leather at a much higher mark than her own had a little earlier. He patted the expanse of fur in front of him.

"You're lookin' weary, darlin'," he said softly. "Come sit with me and watch the fire for a bit. Since there's no chairs, you can rest against me." His eyes twinkled warmly into hers. "I make a real fine leanin' post."

Laura threw a panicked look at the spot he was indicating she should sitbetween his denim-clad legs. Legs that suddenly looked a mile long and thick with muscle at the thigh. She slid her gaze to the empty place beside him. "I, um... Actually, the lack of chairs doesn't bother me. I'm perfectly comfortable using the wall."

That was a bald-faced lie. Having to sit erect when she felt so weak was exhausting.

"Laura." His voice held a note of indulgent amusement. "I'll make a bargain with you. Try sittin' here for five minutes, and if you hate it, you can move."

A lot could happen in five minutes, and Laura was no fool. "Thank you for offering, but I"