Free Merline Lovelace by Countess In Buckskin Page B

Russian phrase, one Josh didn’t need translated.
    Frowning, Josh walked back to the pine bed and scooped up his fringed possibles pouch. He fumbled through the contents and extracted a small object wrapped in a piece of folded oilskin. He stood still for a moment, fingering the packet. He hadn’t unwrapped it in months. A year maybe. Just looking at it pained him too much. Now he had no choice.
    He returned to the furious woman. Holding the packet in the palm of one hand, he unfolded the oilskin and revealed a small painted portrait in a gilt frame.
    “This is Catherine.” His voice held a quiet reverence. “I wouldn’t betray her or shame you by making you keep to our bargain.”
    Distrust clouded the Russian’s eyes as she glanced from his face to his hand. Josh didn’t press her. Nor did he pass her the miniature. It hadn’t left his possession since Catherine handed it to him, the day of his graduation from West Point.
    After a moment, curiosity overcame her suspicion and anger. “Is she your wife, this Katerina?”
    “No. She died six years ago. A few months before we were to marry.”
    “How...how did she die?”
    Absorbed in his memories, Josh paid no attention to the hitch in her voice. “We went for a carriage ride and got caught in a spring rain shower.” His fingers closed over the portrait. “She took an inflammation to the lungs. She was dead within a week.”
    “Ahh.”
    The low exclamation brought Josh’s gaze from his tightly clenched fist. Tatiana slowly lifted her eyes to his.
    “I, too, have watched someone I once loved die, Josiah Jones. It causes the hurt to the heart, which never goes away.”
    The simple words pierced Josh’s absorption with his own past and shifted his attention to hers.
    “Your husband?” he guessed.
    She dipped her head in a nod so slight he almost missed it and stared beyond him into the darkness.
    “I think I did not love Aleksei as you loved your Katerina,” she whispered. “Nor did he so love me. But still it gives one pain to remember the dying.”
    Josh almost asked her how she’d lost her Aleksei, but stopped himself just in time. He’d revealed too much of the past already, more than he’d ever shared with anyone outside his family. Besides, there was still the matter of the immediate future to settle with this woman. Refolding the oilskin, he returned the portrait to the pouch and faced the Russian across the nest of pine boughs.
    “I won’t tell you that we shouldn’t share a blanket,” he said with blunt if overdue honesty. “We should do whatever we can to keep warm at night. When we climb higher, we’ll be grateful for any source of heat, even the pony’s. The choice is yours, though. If you don’t feel right, or safe, or comfortable bedding down beside me, I understand.”
    She lifted a hand and let it drop. Josh winced inwardly at the small, tired gesture. He’d pushed her hard today. Too hard.
    “I want only to get to Fort Ross. To complete this journey, I will sleep where and beside whom I must, whether you or the horse, it matters not.”
    That put him right where he belonged, Josh thought with a tight inner smile. Having finally set matters straight on one issue, he wanted to make sure she held no misunderstandings on another.
    “I can’t promise to take you all the way to Fort Ross. I told you before we started that my path goes north once we clear the mountains. But I’ll get you through the passes and arrange safe escort for you to the fort, if that’s what you wish.”
    “It is what I wish.”
    Josh rubbed the back of his neck. They’d settled what needed to be settled. Talked out this business of sharing a bed. Agreed that they’d go their separate ways when they cleared the passes. The only thing left to do now was to get on with it.
    “We’d better get some sleep. We have a hard climb ahead of us tomorrow.”
    “Da.”
    Assuming the tired murmur signaled acquiescence, Josh retrieved the blanket coat from where