Sweetbriar Read online

  Phetna smiled at him. “Seems like there’s been some times when she ain’t said some of the things she should of.” She looked pointedly at Miranda.

  Linnet was embarrassed and changed the subject. “Devon, when are you going to make the doll head for Miranda? You seem to have enough strength now.”

  He gave her a look that made her hurriedly look down at her apron full of string beans. “Soon’s you take me to get a piece of wood.”

  “You’ll have to tell me what to get, and I’ll find something for you.”

  “Huh! You’d probably bring back a chunk of oak or a piece of dried hickory.”

  Linnet didn’t understand what would be wrong with either item and her consternation showed.

  “See,” he said to Phetna, then turned back to Linnet. “I’m so sick of bein’ inside, I’m gonna start carvin’ the walls—with my teeth! Why don’t we go outside for a while?”

  “Now? But we can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Your feet, they’re still raw, and I have to cook and—”

  “You two just go on,” Phetna said. “Me and Miranda’ll take care of what needs doin’ here.”

  Linnet opened her mouth to protest.

  “Why, Lynna, you look like you’re scared to be alone with me,” Devon said, a smirk in his voice. “What can I do when I’m so helpless?”

  Linnet refused to blush again. “Of course we can go. I’m not afraid of you in the least, Devon Macalister.”

  They walked together, Devon slowly and painfully to the front porch, where he picked up the little hand saw. He paused and touched the hair at her temple. “Nor am I afraid of you, Linnet…Macalister.”

  She walked past him but she smiled when her back was to him.

  “Wait a minute,” he said. “I can’t go so fast.”

  She turned and saw the pain on his face as he tried to walk on his burned feet. She took his arm, and he used her for support. “Devon, you shouldn’t have come outside, shouldn’t have tried to walk yet.”

  He smiled down at her, a bit crookedly but a smile just the same. “A spring day spent outside with the pretty woman I love will help me more than anythin’ else. You wouldn’t begrudge me that pleasure, would you?”

  She touched his shoulder with the top of her head. “No, Devon, I can’t deny you anything.”

  “Oh, no! This may prove to be a very pleasant day.”

  “Stop it right now or I’ll push you down onto your sore back.”

  “My back? I remember a night I spent on my back while a little English girl—”

  “Devon!”

  He laughed but said no more. When they finally reached the patch of clover, Devon sat down gratefully, and Linnet removed his moccasins and saw that his feet had cracked and bled in several places. The sight brought tears to her eyes.

  “Come here, you silly girl and stop lookin’ like that. Now go over to that poplar tree and saw me off a branch.”

  It was not easy getting a piece of wood to Devon’s exact specifications, and she began to see the artist side of him and the amount of time and thought he put into one of his carvings.

  “Mind you, this is gonna be pretty crude since I don’t have my carvin’ tools here.”

  She lifted her eyebrows but said nothing as she sat down beside him. It was good just to see him well and moving about.

  When the wood was in his hands, he took out his knife and began to carve and talk. “I had a long time to think while I was layin’ there, Lynna, and I thought about all the things you said to me the mornin’ of the fire.”

  “Devon, I—”

  “Don’t stop me. You had your say, and now I get mine. In my whole life I never treated nobody like I treated you, and I’m sorry, for more reasons’n one. I guess I’ve always had strong feelin’s for you, else I wouldn’ta taken on Spotted Wolf. I just knew I couldn’t let somebody die who worried about other people like you done when your own life was about to end. I can’t say I was in love with you but I sure felt somethin’. Then when you washed up so pretty, I guess I felt like you betrayed me. Maybe I felt kinda noble rescuin’ that ugly little thing, but then when you wasn’t ugly, I felt like you’d laughed at me. I guess I can’t say what I feel so good.”

  “Your Thomas Jefferson couldn’t do so well.”

  Devon gave her a puzzled blink, having never heard of Jefferson. “Well, I guess that means you understand me. I’m…real sorry for what I done to you. I know it can’t help matters much now, not after you sayin’ you could never have any feelin’ for me again, but I want you to know I am sorry, and I want you to be real happy with your Squire.”

  “My—!” she began, then stopped and started again, her voice sad. “I’m sure I will be, since he is a fighter.”

  “A fighter!” Devon stopped carving. “He wouldn’t know how to fight a four-year-old. He’s lived soft all his life.”

  “And you haven’t? Haven’t you always had everything you’ve ever wanted in your life?”

  “Damn you! How can you say that when the woman I want more than anythin’ else wants somebody else?”

  “Of course you’ve never asked her to marry you, have you? You may have said you’d marry her when you found out she had borne your child, but you’ve not asked her since she’s had time to think and realize that she can’t seem to stop herself from loving you.”

  Linnet’s eyes twinkled as she watched Devon. At first he stared unbelievingly, and then when he began to understand her words, he relaxed and gave her a slow smile. “Then you think maybe if I asked her now, she might consider marryin’ me?”

  “I dare say she would consider the proposal seriously.”

  He smiled wider at her. “Then where are my moccasins?”

  She frowned in puzzlement. “They’re behind you, but you don’t need them now.”

  “I sure do,” he said as he turned and picked one up. “I got to go ask Phetna to marry me. I never dreamed that she’d accept, but now that you’ve opened my eyes, I—”

  “Phetna,” Linnet exclaimed. “Phetna!” She was incredulous but before she could say another word, Devon lunged at her and pulled her to him, crushing her against his chest. “Devon,” she managed to gasp.

  He loosened his hold on her, but not much. “Lynna, will you marry me and live with me and spend every night with me?”

  She pushed away from him and looked up into his happy, sparkling blue eyes. “What kind of proposal is this? Spend every night with you? No gentleman would ever mention such a thing as…as night time activities to a lady.”

  He was very serious and slightly puzzled. “I ain’t no gentleman and it’s been a long time.”

  She laughed, her face against his smooth, bare chest. “I would rather have your honesty than all the sweet-smelling, lace-attired gentlemen in the world. I hope you always desire me, Devon.”

  He pulled her head back, tired of talk, and kissed her sweet, eager mouth, both of them totally unaware of the two men who watched them from the woods.

  It took Linnet a while to make Devon understand that she wanted her wedding night to be more than a quick tumble in some clover, and although he did point out they’d already had one wedding night, nevertheless, he did let her win the argument. It was two very happy, laughing people who returned to Linnet’s cabin, but the sights and sounds inside the cabin broke their joyous mood.

  Chapter Twenty

  MIRANDA WAS SCREAMING, HER LITTLE BODY covered in great globs of mud, and when she saw her mother, she kicked against Nettie to be released and ran to Linnet. Linnet soothed her and began trembling herself when she felt her child’s fear.

  “What’s been goin’ on here?” Devon demanded angrily.

  “They started,” Nettie said. “Them young’uns threw mud at Phetna and the baby, callin’ ’em witches.” She leaned over and dabbed at the blood that ran down Phetna’s face from a gash on the side of her forehead.

  Devon went to kneel by the woman and took the cloth from Nettie. “