Wildest Dreams - By Rosanne Bittner Page 0,23

be his family now. Nathan. Lettie. The children they would have together. This was all he needed, this and the land. He sighed deeply, kissed Lettie's eyes, studied them when she looked up at him. "You all right?" To his delight, she smiled.

"I feel wonderful."

Luke grinned. "It gets much better than this. I want to show you how much better."

She drew in her breath at the thought. "Then we'd better heat up this place and make it livable, and we'd better make up another bed so we can get up off this floor next time."

A rat skittered by several feet away, and Lettie cringed against him. Luke kissed her hair. "I've got poison for them. We'll be rid of them in no time. You'll see." He kissed her once more. "Thank you, Lettie, for marrying me, for staying here with me. It would be so lonely without you."

She traced a finger over one of his dark brows. "I'd have been lonely, too, even with other people around." Her soft smile faded. "And thank you, for loving me, for taking away the ugliness. I really am just yours now, aren't I?"

He moved a big hand over her breast, on up to stroke at her temple. "Just mine. In your heart I've been your first man. The rest is forgotten."

The bobcat growled again, this time sounding closer. Outside Red whinnied, and a couple of mules began to bray. "I'd better get out there," Luke said. Reluctantly, he moved away from her, stood up and buttoned his pants.

Lettie pulled her skirts down. "I'll get some wood and get that stove going so you can wash," Luke told her as she reached for her drawers. Now she felt a little embarrassed, glad when he turned away and went outside. She quickly cleaned herself as best she could for the moment with a handkerchief, throwing it in a corner and pulling on her drawers. Yes, she would be glad to wash. She wanted to clean up good before the next time they made love, wanted to be soft and powdered. She looked around the sorry little room, envisioning where to put another bed, where to hang blankets for privacy when she needed to bathe herself. There wasn't much room, but then as cold as the Montana winters got, maybe it was better this way. One little room was a lot easier to heat than a bigger house. Poor Luke would probably have little time for anything but cutting wood for the next month or so.

She tied her hat back on and went outside to help carry in supplies. Luke brought in some wood left stacked on the porch and got a fire going, then went back outside to unhitch the animals and see about putting them up in a lean-to several feet from the cabin. Lettie quickly washed herself as best she could. Amid all the bustle, Nathan finally awoke, rubbing his eyes in confusion. He scooted off the bed and stared around the room. Lettie turned from the sack of potatoes she was opening and picked him up. "It's about time, you little devil. You sleep as hard as you play when you're awake. I hope you'll sleep that well tonight."

"Pee, Mommy."

Lettie smiled and carried the boy to an outhouse behind the cabin, helping him undo himself. He was very proud of the fact that he'd learned to "pee" the way Luke had shown him. In the distance the bobcat squealed again, and Lettie felt a stab of anxiety. Luke had said he might have to hunt the thing down and get rid of it. What if he was attacked while he was out there working alone in the woods? There would be no one to help them.

As she and Nathan returned to the cabin, she gazed at the magnificent beauty of the surrounding country, the wide valley below the cabin, the purple mountains that rimmed the entire horizon. This was a treacherous beauty, a deceitful land, one that lured with its beauty and its promises of riches. She could only pray the land would not devour her husband, kill them all with its harsh climate and dangerous wildlife.

She spent the next few hours making the cabin as homey as possible for their first night. She hung a blanket in one corner of the room. Behind it she set a washstand and laid out one of the feather mattresses for her and Luke to sleep on. She put the other feather mattress on the