Whispering Hills of Love (American Wilderness Series Romance Book 3) Page 5

  William stepped closer, and gazed down at her. For a moment, he studied her intently. Still wearing his best clothes, resolve seemed to heat his handsome face. In the light reflecting from the fire, his profile was sharp and spoke of determination. What was he suddenly so sure of?

  She searched anxiously for the meaning behind his look. She sniffled and swallowed the lump that filled her throat.

  He handed her a handkerchief and knelt down beside her. His eyes were startlingly beautiful against his tanned skin and light hair. Just looking into his eyes made her chest heat inside her and made her feel a little better. A lock of blonde hair fell onto his forehead and she reached up to push it out of his eyes. Surprised that her hand didn’t shake or hesitate, she moved the hairs away from his eye, amazed at the thrill it gave her.

  She heard him suck in a breath, but his gleaming eyes never left her face.

  Behind William, a tall, dark figure stepped from the dark shadows of the forest.

  Ice spread through her heart and her body stiffened.

  Then a terrifying realization made her insides shrivel.

  Kelly looked away from him and her expression suddenly darkened. William saw uncertainty and an inexplicable look of withdrawal spread over her face.

  The flame of hope in his chest quickly extinguished.

  Then her eyes filled with fear and uncertainty.

  He swallowed his disappointment. He had been so close to reaching her, to giving her his heart. A mere moment away from letting her know his true feelings. He studied her face with concern, wondering where the Kelly he’d seen just a moment before went. He’d seen desire in her eyes, he was sure of it. But not now. Now all he perceived was fear. It was almost as though she vanished and another woman now sat before him.

  A woman silent and defeated.

  Then he heard something behind him. He quickly stood, drawing his pistol at the same time, and turned.

  A tall man stood near the tree line, feet spread and arms crossed. The man’s dark eyes stared at Kelly instead of him. “Hello Kelly,” the stranger said. His voice echoed ominously through the forest and darkness beyond.

  “Papa,” Kelly replied, her voice weak and breaking slightly. She remained seated.

  Kelly’s father appeared middle-aged, but still robust, although a bit underweight. He was unshaven, but not bearded. His eyes appeared a bit bleary, his face sun dried, and his hands leathery. The man continued to glare at Kelly.

  The tension between the father and daughter was immediate and increasing with frightening intensity.

  “Sir, I am Sheriff Wyllie,” William said extending his hand and taking a few steps forward.

  The man didn’t move at all and William lowered his hand, but increased his wariness.

  Finally, her father’s eyes moved away from Kelly and focused on William with a look of suspicion.

  “You stole my daughter. I’ll have you hung for that!” the man swore.

  William heard Kelly gasp.

  “Mister McGuffin, you are mistaken. My brother and I rescued your daughter and killed the men who attacked her,” William said, his voice harsher than he intended, but this man’s attitude was beyond belief. Her father should be grateful instead of accusatory.

  Kelly finally stood, and William sensed the apprehension coursing through her.

  A flash of protectiveness suddenly filled him. She was afraid of her own father. William wanted to beat the whoreson to a bloody pulp. A child should never have to fear their father. That just wasn’t right. He clenched his jaw and fists in an effort to control his rising ire.

  “Kelly, gather you things, you’ll be coming home with me,” McGuffin ordered.

  Kelly didn’t move, but William did. Incensed, he advanced to stand directly before the man, just inches from his face. “Whether or not Kelly leaves will be her decision—not yours. She’s a full grown woman now and can decide for herself where she wants to live.”

  “Get away from me, you pompous peacock,” McGuffin yelled. He put a hand on William’s chest and shoved.

  “You can shove me but one time. And if you ever lay another hand on her, I’ll see that you hang,” William spat.

  “She’s my daughter and I’ll decide her fate.” His voice hardened ruthlessly. “And she’ll learn not to run away again.”

  “She didn’t run away,” William insisted, “we invited her to join us for her own protection. What kind of a father would leave a young woman alone in the woods to fend for herself for weeks at a time? You’re a worthless excuse for a father.”

  McGuffin’s right fist hit William’s jaw before he could dodge away. The blow shook his head, but he still stood firm and erect, ready to return the blow. His lips pursed in anger and he glared at the man. “I don’t want to fight you Mister McGuffin. But I won’t let you take her either.”

  “Won’t let me?” McGuffin mocked. “Now who is telling her what she has to do?” The man scowled at him, leaned forward, and with narrowed eyes warned, “Don’t ever pick a fight with an old man. If he’s too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.”

  “Stop!” Kelly screamed. She shot up and marched to her father. “Leave him alone. I owe my life to him.”

  William was sure she’d yelled it loud enough for Sam and Bear to hear. They would come running back shortly.

  “I don’t abide a man taking my daughter. Since you’re apparently the sheriff here, there’s little I can do but punish you myself.” McGuffin grabbed Kelly by the wrist and shoved her behind him as he yanked out his skinning knife and glared maliciously at William.

  “I don’t abide giving men who beat their daughters a chance to take them back,” he retorted. “Release her. Now!”

  “Or maybe I’ll just let everyone know their new sheriff is a kidnapper of young women. What will a charge like that do to your reputation Sheriff Wyllie?”

  “I’m not worried about my reputation. I’m worried about Kelly,” William snapped.

  “Who the hell are you anyway?” McGuffin asked. “And who told you I beat her?”

  “I’m justice in these parts, you son of a bitch?”

  McGuffin seemed to yield a little to William’s authoritative tone. “You say you rescued my daughter. Who did the killing?”

  “I did, along with my brother.”

  “How many of them were there?”

  “Two. Both atrocious men. They had already murdered the husband of one of our friends,” William begrudgingly explained. He wanted to beat this man, not talk to him.

  McGuffin turned his attention to Kelly. “These attackers, what did they do to you?” he asked, his tone expressing more blame than concern.

  Kelly just stared at her father, her face bleak, looking like she was holding back tears with great effort. She put the handkerchief to her nose and looked down.

  William’s heart ached for her. Would she tell her father the truth? She’d already dealt with a lot today and now this. She was actually trembling now, but she took a deep breath, swallowed hard and boldly met her father’s reproachful eyes. “Papa, I….”

  Without making a sound beforehand, Sam leapt from the trees, and headed straight for McGuffin’s back, while Bear charged in from another direction and swept Kelly up in his enormous arms.

  Bear stood there, a protective giant, baring his teeth and growling at McGuffin. “Ye’re safe now lass. This man will not harm ye.”

  After relieving the man of his knife, and pinning an arm behind his back, Sam held his own long knife against the whiskers on McGuffin’s throat. “What does this mangy fellow want, William?” Sam asked, his tone challenging, as he twisted the arm a little more.

  “He wants to take Kelly back to their home in Virginia.” William answered. “Although he doesn’t deserve the name, this is her father.” He spit the word out between his teeth. His eyes met Kelly’s intense gaze.

  Her eyes clung to his for a moment, then shifted from one person to another, before she said, “Bear, please put me down.”

>   Bear seemed reluctant. “Are ye sure lass?”

  Kelly dropped her eyes before saying, “Yes,” in a voice that seemed to come from a long way off.

  Bear eased her down, but stood within inches of her, a hand on his axe, looking like a real Bear ready to protect its cub.

  “Captain Wyllie, release my father.”

  CHAPTER 6

  Sam slowly released McGuffin’s arm, but kept the scowl on his face menacing and the grip on his long knife firm.

  William studied Kelly’s father speculatively. The man’s intelligent eyes gleamed, dark and insolent as he glared at Sam. A muscle flicked angrily at his jaw while he rubbed his sore elbow. McGuffin’s scruffy appearance matched his surly demeanor.

  Would he leave and let his daughter be? Or would the man continue to insist on taking her? One thing he was sure of. He would not let McGuffin take Kelly against her will.

  Her father strode up to Kelly and, looking down his long nose, scrutinized her for several uncomfortable moments. Then, with an almost imperceptible note of pleading in his voice, he said, “Gather your things Kelly, it’s time to go home.”

  Suddenly filled with possessiveness, William declared, “Boonesborough is her home.”

  Kelly took a long deep breath and seemed to force her emotions into order. Without looking at William, she moved toward her bag, still sitting where she’d left it. When she reached for it, he thought his heart might stop.

  His anxiety increasing with each second, William gave her a sidelong glance of utter disbelief. “Kelly, surely you don’t intend to go with him?”

  Her bearing was stiff and proud, but a tremor moved across her lips before she replied. “Yes, I do. It’s my home and I have no home and no family here. And now I have no job. Boonesborough is your home, not mine.”

  “Kelly…” William, Sam, and Bear all started at once.

  “Captain, Bear, and William,” she said, looking like she was struggling to keep her emotions under tight restraint, “this is my choice. No one else’s. I’ll thank you to let me go in peace with my father. I appreciate all that your family has done for me.”

  Her father smirked at them but showed no surprise or gladness that she would leave with him.

  “No,” William insisted, “he’ll mistreat you.”

  Lips pursed, Kelly faced him. Something flickered far back in her eyes. “Is that why you think I should stay?”

  In dazed exasperation, he simply said, “Yes.”

  Kelly fought to control the mixed feelings surging through her. Masking her inner turmoil with calmness, she peered up at William, unable to turn away. Of all the reasons William could have given her for staying, that was all he had to say? After a moment of silence, she realized she was not going to draw another response from him.

  Under his steady scrutiny, she turned away from him and grabbed the reins to her mare.

  “Follow me,” McGuffin ordered. “My mount is tied nearby.”

  Her heart clenched and her stomach turned sour as she took her first reluctant step back to her old life. Was this actually happening? She could feel William’s eyes boring into her back. Yet he said nothing.

  Biting her lip, she refused to look back.

  Her father trudged into the forest and she fell in behind him. Her initial shock at seeing him again had evaporated. Now she only felt extreme unhappiness. Her insides were weeping even if her eyes were not. She would not let her father see how this pained her.

  She had lost control of her life. Again.

  After they mounted, her father said, “We’ll camp once we’re further down the trail towards the Gap. There’s enough moon tonight to see by so we can ride for a while. Then we’ll get an early start in the morning.”

  He sounded almost pleasant, kind even. Had she misjudged him? Then she remembered. He only beat her when he was drinking, and then he turned into another man entirely. A cruel revolting man. Her father’s evil twin.

  Had he brought alcohol with him? She prayed that he hadn’t.

  Her father had started drinking in excess right after her mother died. That same night he had gotten so drunk he had slept on the porch, where he had passed out. Kelly had borne her own intense grief all alone, crying herself to sleep for several nights.

  That was four years ago. Four long years of extreme loneliness and fending for herself while her father left to tend his traps in the Shenandoah Mountains.

  During that time, her animals were her only company and she had insisted on bringing them to Boonesborough with her when she left with William and Stephen. Now she didn’t even have those. Wolfe had refused to keep her cow, chickens and mule and she had been forced to give them to Stephen and Jane before accepting her position in his household. Jane’s girls needed the milk and eggs more than she did anyway.

  At least she had her memory of William. She could think of him when things with her father got unpleasant. And she would use her remembrance of him to fight the harsh realities of loneliness. She would imagine him performing his duties as sheriff and then returning to his new home. There, he might play his fiddle on the front porch, or enjoy the lovely rolling hills as they whispered to him in the evenings. How she wished she had heard the hills whisper just once.

  And oh, how she wished William could have whispered words of love to her.

  But clearly, he didn’t love her. If he had, he would have said so. That would have been his reason for wanting her to stay.

  No, he would want someone far more beautiful than she was. Someone as gorgeous and refined as he was. That wasn’t her and she knew it. She was just a simple girl from the mountains. That’s where she belonged. It was madness to think she would fit in anywhere else.

  She would miss him. Her heart ached for him already and terrible regrets assailed her. She’d almost found a new life. So close.

  If she hadn’t lost her job, she might have stayed. And maybe, given enough time, William could have grown fond of her. But now, with no source of income and no place to stay, what choice did she have but to return to her home? And she had to admit, she was a little homesick. She missed their cozy little dugout, tucked into the side of a rocky rise and her frequent walks higher in the hills, where she found cascading waterfalls, spectacular vistas, and quiet wooded hollows. Boonesborough was noisy, dirty, and often crowded. She did not enjoy living in town.

  “It will be good to have you home again,” her father said, “it’s been too lonely without you.”

  She gave a choked, despairing laugh.

  “I canna believe ye let her go,” Bear said accusingly, his ruddy complexion turning a deeper red.

  “Let her? She’s a grown woman. I can’t force her to stay,” William protested. He knew it was a feeble excuse. He should have found a way to make her see reason.

  “Can’t never could do anything!” Bear declared.

  William felt a wretchedness he’d never known before. As if someone just stole a part of him, while he stood by and watched, like some sort of bloody fool.

  Sam just stood there glowering. His oldest brother was undoubtedly disappointed in him too. Well it wouldn’t be the first time.

  He felt guilty and helpless. He rubbed the sore spot on his jaw where McGuffin’s fist had landed. The man threw a mean punch. Would he use those beefy hands to hurt Kelly? The thought made him frantic with worry. Unease twisted his gut and the dull ache of foreboding filled his chest.

  Why did she leave? Disappointment ripped through him. Despite her nervousness, he had felt an eager affection coming from her all day. Every time her gaze met his, an undeniable sensuous attraction linked him to her. And sometimes, he caught her staring at him with longing. But she would always quickly avert her eyes when his gaze met hers or move away from him. Something was holding her back. It was almost as though she were held against her will, and unable to respond as she wanted.

  Not wanting to scare her, he had deliberately held his own affections in check. He’d made it clear, he hoped, that he was fond of
her, but he purposely kept his behavior subtle, even when they were alone in his cabin. Now he wished he hadn’t been quite so restrained. Perhaps if she’d known how he felt, she would have decided to stay. He’d been a fool to keep his feelings for her hidden. In his endeavor to not scare her, he went too far.

  “I vowed to help her. And when she needed me the most, I failed,” he admitted. His promise to help her weighed upon him. “Lately, her ordeal has manifested itself in disturbing ways—rubbing her wrists continuously, unsteady hands, and acting wary, especially of men, even me. And terrible nightmares. Thinking it might do her good to get away from the town for a while, I took her to see my new cabin earlier. We talked for a while and for the first time since her attack, she broke down crying.”

  “That’s a good thing. I wondered when she would finally let go of some of her hurt,” Sam said.

  “I promised to help her! I told her that we would make today the beginning of her healing. Now it won’t be. Bloody hell!”

  Sam’s large forehead wrinkled and Bear’s bushy red brows drew together with concern.

  “Right after I got her back to Wolfe’s home, his mother came out and summarily dismissed her as though she were a worthless animal she was shooing off her property. The woman was just cruel. And now this! That brut of a father intimidated her. That’s why she left.”

  “William,” Sam began, a note of censure in his tone, “you told her not to go because her father would abuse her. Then she asked you to give her a reason to stay. But you didn’t.”

  “She did?” He thought back to her exact words. “Oh God, she did! I wasn’t thinking clearly,” William groaned.

  “Settle yerself man. The lass needs ye to think clearly now,” Bear said sharply.

  “Think clearly? How can I when…” He stopped himself before he could say what he was thinking—the woman he loved had just left. He did love her! He realized that now by how much the possibility of never seeing her again hurt him. If he were honest, love had wrapped around his heart so tightly he was surprised it didn’t stop beating. “I’m going after her!” he declared.