Chapter 26
Cassie declared war.
She spent the next three days ranting and raving at him as if he were a slave, and a slow, ignorant slave at that.
He served her perfectly good scrambled eggs and ham for every meal. She told him it was burned, and he was pretty sure, if he hadn’t moved quickly, she’d have thrown it at him.
She barked at him when he was slow. She snarled at him if things weren’t done to her specification. And if he ever dared to disagree with her, she cried.
Red just might be losing his mind. Cassie had given birth to more than a baby. She’d given birth to a shrewish temper.
The only time she was cheerful was when she held the baby in her arms, and the little one wasn’t cooperating there.
Susannah slept all the time, just waking up to demand food or when her diaper needed changing.
Red wished fervently she’d keep Cassie a little busier.
Rather surprisingly, it seemed changing diapers was his job.
But since it was the only time Cassie would let him touch his babe, he got to liking it.
He also gave Susannah her first real bath.
He sneaked her out of the bedroom late one afternoon when Cassie was napping and spent a cheerful hour washing Susannah in carefully warmed water by the fire and telling her all about the ranch.
Susannah went so far as to open her eyes just a slit on one occasion, and they were a light blue just like his.
He enjoyed that for a moment because Cassie’s eyes were a dark, shining brown, before he remembered that none of his blood flowed in little Susannah’s veins.
But if he wanted to think she looked one tiny bit like him, he’d just do it, and that was that.
He had Susannah back in her bed before Cassie woke up. Thankfully, he hadn’t gotten caught. He’d created a monster.
Cassie kept nagging him and finding fault with everything he did for her. When Red confessed about the bath, she had some choice comments about his handling of the situation, even though the little’un had obviously survived and was clean and sweet-smelling in Cassie’s arms.
Red kept telling himself that this might be part of those riotous emotions Seth had warned him about.
He wanted to talk to Seth about it. He wanted to talk to someone about it before the walls closed in around him.
At this very moment, he could almost hear the roof creaking under the weight of Cassie’s constant emotional turmoil.
Red willed the weather to clear. The sleet that had locked him and Cassie inside together while Susannah was born had changed over to snow. There was no snow like a Montana mountain snow, and this looked like a prime example of nature’s worst.
Red struggled out to check his cattle every day. He’d found most of them placidly waiting out the storm in a sheltered canyon just as he’d expected, but there were always a few idiots who wallowed their way into trouble, broke through the frozen creek, or hurt themselves slipping on ice.
He’d found one steer with a broken leg and one calf born out of season.
He was able to rescue the calf and reunite it with its frantic mother.
The steer couldn’t be saved, so Red shot it and dragged its carcass back to the house, wearing all the ginger out of old Buck in the process.
Then he’d had the steer to skin and butcher and the brown-and-white spotted hide to tan.
That, plus the barnyard chores, kept him busy because he was battling five-foot drifts and whipping winds every step of the way. Then he’d get inside as quickly as he could, even though he wanted to drag his heels, and there would be Cassie, ranting at him for abandoning her.
The blizzard lasted three days. When the snow stopped, the storm seemed to ease inside Cassie too. Red came inside from watering Rosie one afternoon about sunset and found Cassie dressed and at the fireplace cooking.
He shut the door quickly to keep the heat inside, and she whirled to greet him with a big smile on her face.
A striking smile. It wasn’t the beautiful, serene smile he’d come to expect from his demure little wife, and it sure as certain wasn’t the perpetual scowl that he’d learned she was capable of in the last three days. It was a smile full of joy and sass.
Cassie’s eyes snapped with pleasure at seeing him.
She hurried over to him and started unwrapping the strips of leather that held on his cowhide robe.
“You’d better plan on building some kind of entryway so the winter wind doesn’t come straight into the house.
It gets twenty degrees colder every time that door opens. ”
“Good idea.” Amazing, how much that would help. Why hadn’t he thought of it? “Should you be out of bed? I don’t want you to overdo it.”
She fussed at him, tugged at the frozen leather, and shooed him toward a chair facing the fire. “Sit down and let me help you with your boots. Your fingers are near frozen. Poor man to be out in such weather. The least I can do is help you warm up.”
She had his outer clothes off in a minute, then she studied his face for a long second. “You’re going to frostbite your nose if you’re not careful. Here, let me warm your face.” She laid her open hands over his cheeks.
His skin stinging, Red stirred under the warmth of her touch. “No sense both of us being cold, Cass. Let me sit by the fire. I’ll be fine in a few minutes.”
She ignored his protests and touched her thumbs to his nose. “Just sit still and let me help you.”
Red almost reached for her hands and pushed her aside, so alarmed was he at the chill she might be catching. But given the change in her from the China Doll to the shrew to whoever she was now, he’d just mind her for a bit.
It really did make Red’s face feel better to have Cassie’s hands on him, and on a sudden impulse, he pulled her onto his lap. “There, warm my face from there, darlin’.”
Cassie squeaked with surprise, but after a second of forgetting where her hands were as she flapped them at him, she returned them to his cheeks.
“This feels great, Cassie. Thank you. Are you sure it’s all right for you to be up?”
Cassie shrugged. “I woke up from my afternoon nap feeling restless, so I took it a step at a time and got up. I’ll quit if I get tired and dump everything right back on you.” She gave him an impudent grin and raised one hand to lay it on his forehead.
“I’m fine now. I’ve been thawing out single-handedly for years, you know.”
Cassie nodded. “I know.” She left her hands right where they were. “But you’ve got white spots on your cheeks. I noticed them yesterday too. I’ve never seen them before. It’s a terrible cold day, isn’t it?”
“As bad as it gets, I reckon.”
“And you’ve been out with the cattle even in this blizzard.”
“The worst is over. And all this snow will fill the creeks and ponds in the spring.”
Cassie bobbed her chin silently as she studied his face. She lifted her hands away. “It’s better, just red now. I’ve seen frostbite, Red. It’s nothing to fool around with.”
“It’s worst on fingers and toes, and I’m careful with them.”
Cassie smiled. “Good for you. Now let me up so I can get your supper finished.” She pressed her hands on his shoulders.
His hands, which had been resting lightly around her waist, tightened. He could have sworn they did it of their own accord because he didn’t remember thinking it through. And he definitely didn’t plan in advance to kiss her.
Red hadn’t done much kissing in his life.
But somehow, with Cassie, he found a surprising talent for the activity.
At least he thought so if Cassie’s response was any indication.
Her arms wrapped around his neck, and her head tilted just enough so their noses didn’t bump, and she settled herself firmly against him, or at least she didn’t object when he urged her close.
He wasn’t sure who was moving first because they were both going exactly the same way.
Maybe, just maybe, they were both the most talented smoochers who ever lived.
He’d have liked to study the question more thoroughly, but Susannah picked that moment to start hollering from the bedroom.
Cassie leaped off his lap as if a lightning bolt had struck her. She hustled from the room without a backward glance and went to fetch the baby. She came out with the squirming bundle in her arms and a smile big enough to light up a long Montana winter night on her face.
When she didn’t look at him, a pang of jealousy shot through him. But then, maybe she was not looking at him too thoroughly, and just maybe she was disconcerted by what had passed between them.
“Take this chair.” He stood. “I want you and Susannah to be warm while she eats. I’ll get supper, and tomorrow I’m gonna build you a rocking chair.”
“Oh, Red.” Cassie looked up at him, and the pink flush on her cheeks told him he was right about her embarrassment. She seemed to forget it now that he’d turned her attention. “You’re so busy. You don’t need to do another thing for me. I’ll get supper.”
“Sit, woman.” Red lifted the chair and set it back down with a firm crack.
Cassie smiled. “Yes, sir. If you insist. I was going to make one of the steaks you brought in from the steer.”
“I can do steaks,” Red said. “Were you going to use the spit in the fireplace?”
Cassie shook her head. “I’d planned to fry them.”
“Let me show you how we eat ’em on a cattle drive. It’s primitive but it’s good. Cattle drive cookin’ is about all I know besides eggs and ham.”
Cassie sat, dividing her attention between the baby and Red’s cooking efforts.
He had the sizzling steaks ready by the time Susannah was done and well burped.
Cassie changed the baby’s diaper while Red moved the crib out near the fire and debated with Cassie about how close it should be.
Then the two of them sat and ate with the baby lying nearby, kicking and making an occasional little noise.