Chapter 37

They arrived at the farm in the wee hours of the morning. Jack hung back in the stable long enough to see Running Bull situated as comfortably as possible in the barn before he rejoined Nora and Hamilton inside the house.

“Everything all right with the horses, my love?” Nora asked, providing the reason for his disappearance for Hamilton.

Startling a bit at her endearment, Jack recovered quickly. “Yes, love,” he said. “They are fed and watered.”

“I was just about to show your lovely wife to your accommodations,” Hamilton announced, turning toward the stairwell. Speaking over his shoulder, he continued, “The room just at the top of the stairs should suffice. It is spacious and has a large bed.” When Hamilton reached the top of the flight, he turned to his right to enter the room that would be Jack and Nora’s. “I am down at the end of the hall.”

The house servant had already lit the room’s fireplace and left a lantern next to the bed. Surveying the room, Jack went still, the sight of the bed stopping him in his tracks. Of course, as a married couple, they would be expected to share a room and a bed.

Nora moved into the room, wrapped her cloak tight around her, and sat down on the single chair. Jack sighed, picked up the lamp, and moved to inspect the bed.

“You must be exhausted now. You should lie down. I shall keep watch,” he said, gesturing to the bed.

“Are you not going to sleep?” Nora asked, arching a brow.

“I can function quite competently on very little sleep,” Jack shrugged.

Instead of lying down, Nora stood up and paced. He had never been more aware of her than he was at that moment, in this small room with its one bed that seemed to take up the entire space. She was nervous. She had to know it was absurd and she had no reason to be, but all the same, her pacing made it obvi-ous.

“This is ridiculous,” she finally said, abruptly stopping her pacing and standing in the middle of the room.

“You’re correct, it is,” Jack agreed. “You could be sleeping right now in what looks to be a very comfortable bed.” Jack immediately regretted his words when Nora’s eyes widened. Not only did she look more concerned than before, but now he was envisioning them wrapped up together in that bed.

“As could you.”

“That would defeat the purpose of somebody keeping watch.” And he needed his distance from her. While it was true that they had slept next to each other many nights along the way, something about the bed made everything seem so intimate.

“Running Bull is outside.” Nora reminded him. “There are also servants and Mr. Hamilton. I believe us safe for this evening, so we should both get some sleep.”

“You take the bed.” Jack waved his hand in the direction of the object in debate. “I shall be fine on the floor. After sleeping in trees, the floor in a warm room will feel like heaven.”

“Why on earth would you sleep on the floor, Jack?” she demanded. “This bed is quite large.”

Had she taken complete leave of her senses? Why didn’t he want to sleep on the bed with her? Sleeping next to her on their travels was agony enough. Adding a plush mattress, warm covers, and her soft body to the mix was not going to help.

“We are friends, are we not?” Nora asked.

“I suppose,” Jack said, wary of where this conversation headed.

“And friends trust each other, do they not?”

“If you say so,” Jack shrugged, turning to the fire and picking up the poker.

“Do you not think there should be trust among friends?” He sensed her closing in on him. Over his shoulder he saw her standing with her hands on her hips. There was no way to end this conversation if he continued to be delicate.

“I have never had a friend other than Running Bull, and I have never trusted anyone else, so I truly cannot say.”

“You had no other friends with the Indians?” Nora asked.

He only had rivals who were jealous of his close association with the chief’s son. Though there were not many prejudices against him within the tribe because of the color of his skin, they were legion because of his position in the tribe.

“Not particularly.”

“Well, I have had friends,” Nora announced. “I can say with a certain authority that friends trust each other, and I trust you.”

“Good.”

“And you will trust me.”

“At this point, I do,” he said. “Mostly.”

“And we will sleep in that bed together.”

Jack dropped the poker, stood up, and spun around. “I beg your pardon?”

“This is silly. We both have to sleep. It’s very late. It’s not certain when we will get to sleep again, and we are avoiding that bed out of our sense of propriety. It has its place, obviously, but we are traveling as man and wife—we will always have but one bed between us. We will have to learn to share it.”

Stunned and gaping at her like a fish, Jack stared at Nora, who stood there looking quite proud of herself. “You think the reason I don’t want to sleep in the same bed as you is because I don’t trust you?”

“What other reason could there be?”

“How about what normally goes on between a husband and wife at night in their bed?”

Nora gaped now, her angelic face flushing scarlet. Quickly tearing her gaze from his, she searched for a spot in the room to focus on. He knew the feeling.

“Yes, well, I should not think that is an issue.”

Jack watched her for a moment before he stepped forward. He hooked his finger under her chin and raised her face up until she looked at him again. “Nora, you should know I have slept with many women who I did not like, I did not trust, and upon occasion, did not know their names. In the dark, it doesn’t matter.”

“It should,” she whispered.

“But it doesn’t,” he replied tersely.

Nora jerked her face away and stepped back. “That is your opinion, Jack. It does not change the fact that I trust you. I trust you to be a gentleman. There is honor in you. You will not hurt me—at least not physically.”

“Just what in hell does that mean?”

“Only that there is more than one kind of pain,” Nora shrugged. That, he could understand. To show she was serious, she walked to bed and climbed in. “I shall sleep under the blankets and you will sleep on top. You can use the blankets in our packs for cover.”

“Sleep on top...” Jack trailed off. She confused the hell out of him. How could she always be so logical? Did she think blankets were going to make her any less tempting? How could she have no reaction to what he’d just revealed?

“I will be fine,” Jack said.

“As you would have it then,” she shrugged. She rolled away from him up against the wall. With a groan of pure frustration, he lay down on the bed beside her and moved all the way to the edge, putting as much distance between them as possible. He had to admit the mattress was relatively comfortable and he pre-ferred it to the floor.

“Are you not going to take your boots off?” Nora whispered.

“No!” Jack snapped in return.

“Very well,” Nora said again with a squeak and clenched her eyes tight.

Unable to fall asleep, Jack lay there a few minutes. The longer he thought about it, the worse he felt for snapping at her the way he had. Finally, he rolled over. “Listen,” he said, but she was already asleep.