up to him in sweet abandon. In moments like this he could bring out her most wanton desires without even having to remove their clothes. He massaged her bottom while he worked magic with his intercourse until she felt a sweet climax, after which he drove himself harder and faster to fulfill her every need. Dusk was settling, and somewhere nearby an owl hooted. Lettie could not help feeling a deep satisfaction at the look of desire in her husband's eyes. Taking her this way reminded her of that first time he had done this in the drafty little cabin they had lived in when they arrived here. They were both still dressed then, too. They had just needed to be one, to unite their bodies in a bond of love, like now, a quiet, deliberate, necessary thing.
"I love you, Lettie." His life spilled into her then, and he relaxed next to her. He looked around at the shrubbery. "Well, here's one we haven't tried before," he joked.
"Luke Fontaine, you're a crazy man. If my friends at the women's club knew the things I let you get away with—"
"They would all be jealous," he teased. "Besides, how do you know they and their husbands don't do some of the same things?"
She rolled her eyes. "Because some of them talk as though lying with their husbands for any reason but having children is some kind of chore." She faced him then, an almost wicked grin on her face. "I can't imagine why."
Luke laughed and handed her a handkerchief and her drawers. She quickly used the handkerchief to clean herself, then pulled on her drawers, and just in time.
"Pa! Pa, where are you?" It was Tyler calling.
"Damn!" Luke muttered. He quickly rolled away and buttoned his pants, and Lettie scrambled to hide the handkerchief under a bush and pull down her dress. She brushed herself off, hoping her hair wasn't too badly messed.
"Pa! Hurry up! Fire! Tex says the whole south section is burning!"
"Oh, my God, that's where the sheep are!" Lettie exclaimed. Luke was already running back toward the house. She quickly rose and brushed herself off, running to catch up. They all hurried around to the front of the house to see the billowing smoke in the distance, where Katie, Robbie, and Pearl were standing, staring at the sickening blaze.
"Dear God, the sheep!" Katie exclaimed. "And our new house!"
"It's too late for any of that now!" Luke said, running to saddle a horse. "Ty, get some men together! We've got to start digging a trench, try to save the house and outbuildings! That wind is coming right out of the south!" Men were running every which way, some of them with shovels.
"The sheep will run from it!" Brad yelled. "They should be all right, unless the wind picks it up too fast for them!"
Luke ordered some of the men to go herd what cattle they could farther north. "Robbie, you help Sven Hansen get as many horses as you can out of the barns and up to the top of the butte there beyond the creek behind the house!"
"Mama, it's coming so fast!" Katie exclaimed. She grasped her swollen stomach.
One of Luke's men came riding hard up the drive then. "Luke! There's fire up northeast of here, too! I just came back from taking that horse to Hank Kline that he wanted to buy, and his whole place is gone, house and all!"
"Heaven help us!" Lettie fretted. She put an arm around Katie. "Come back inside, Katie. You have to think about the baby. You only have one month to go. You don't want to do anything to risk losing it now."
"Brad, be careful!" Katie screamed as she watched her husband run off with a shovel. "Oh, Mama, what are we going to do?"
"We're going to pray," Lettie answered. She herded Katie and Pearl back into the house, and Robbie ran off to help Sven with the horses, while Tyler rode out to help herd some of the cattle farther north.
Luke tried to give orders everywhere at once, his chest hurting with the thought that in one night he could lose everything he had worked for and risked his life for over the past eighteen years. He glanced back at Lettie, who stood on the steps to the house watching in terror. Their gaze held for a moment, and he knew she was thinking the same thing he was. Moments ago they had shared a sweet, secret moment, so happy