Harmony (Journey's End Book 3) Read online

  “Wait. You said you would spank me into next Sunday. I remember that now,” she huffed. “How dare you.”

  Matt laughed. “It’s a threat my ma always used. It kept us in line, and that’s a fact.”

  “Are you saying you will spank me if I don’t do what you ask?” Harmony fumed.

  “We are alone in the wilderness, Harmony. I can lead us out of it, but I’ll need your obedience to keep us alive. I can’t fight nature and you at the same time. So, yes, I will spank you, but I’d rather not. Do as I ask, and I won’t have to.”

  “All right, Matt. I’ll try,” Harmony said.

  “Days are short in the mountains. Let’s have a small supper and crawl under our blankets.” Matt opened one of the guard’s packs and handed Harmony some jerky, a pickle, and a small apple.

  Harmony lay down on the blankets, and Matt joined her. She turned to her side and wiggled her bottom into the nest of his legs.

  “Night, Matt,” she said.

  “Night, darlin’,” he replied.

  Her breathing soon became slow and even, and he knew Harmony slept. With her snuggled into his arms, his night stretched long and lonely ahead of him. His body wanted release. A release that would be denied for now.

  They struck out the following morning. Matt helped Harmony slide her arms through a pack and adjusted it on her back. He rolled the blankets and tied them with a rope. After he pulled on his own pack, he slid them between the straps and his body. Then he took a firm grip of the shotgun in his right hand and Harmony with his left.

  The train had rolled and slid a good way down the valley, so the day was more than half gone before they reached the tracks. They rested, ate, and took care of personal needs before beginning the trek down the tracks. They’d advanced a mile or two when purple twilight began to descend.

  “Look there, Harmony.” Matt pointed at a sheltered spot under an overhanging ledge. “It’s fairly dry and out of the wind.” He left the tracks and surveyed his spot. “Come on over, this will do.”

  She looked with suspicion at the small space, but Matt was already removing his pack.

  He laid one blanket on the driest ground before helping Harmony remove her pack. She sank into an exhausted pile.

  Matt arranged his body behind her so she was cocooned between his legs.

  “Here.” Matt handed her a few crackers and a handful of nuts. It wasn’t much of a supper. When they got out of here, he planned to eat an entire loaf of fresh bread and three big bowls of stew without stopping. He sighed.

  “I’m so tired,” Harmony said. “Did we go five miles?”

  “Yes, if you include the hike from the train,” he replied. He’d leave it at that. She was tired and cold. He didn’t need to add discouraged to the list.

  The next day was much the same. They trudged, unspeaking, through the high mountain air. Gasping for breath. Forcing every step. Matt again found them shelter and dry wood for a fire. They slept fitfully. He’d been rationing their supplies, and it wasn’t enough food to keep their strength up. At least exhaustion kept his manhood quiet. What did his ma always say? It’s an ill wind that blows no good. Yup, that was it. An ill wind.

  The third day began with the last of the hard-boiled eggs and a handful of crackers. Their heads were lowered. Their eyes fixed on their feet as they took one step, one step, one step at a time.

  They rounded a bend and there, across the meadow, a giant of a bear ambled. It lifted its nose and sniffed the air, swinging its massive head from side to side. The bear rose onto its hind legs and roared. The vibrations of that bellow reverberated across the snow and down his spine. Thick, shaggy brown fur covered its body, and Matt could see long, ferocious teeth. A second roar shook him to his toes.

  “Do not move,” Matt spat the words through gritted teeth.

  The bear watched them. They watched the bear. Two cubs trotted to the bear’s side and commenced to roll in the snow.

  Holy God, Matt thought. It’s a mama and her cubs. She would be twice as mean. Twice as determined to keep her babies safe.

  Matt repeated through unmoving lips, “Do not move. Do not move.”

  The bear dropped down to all fours and slapped at the cubs. Even Matt could see the message was to stay behind mama.

  Harmony jerked at the motion of the bear. Her eyes wide and wild.

  “Don’t move,” Matt repeated.

  Harmony let her pack slide to the ground and took off at a run down the track. The bear’s interest switched from her rambunctious offspring to the figure in flight. She gave another blood curdling roar and loped toward Harmony. The bear’s brown coat rippled and ruffled as she covered the ground between the frantic runner and her cubs. Snow flew beneath her mammoth paws as she gained speed.

  Matt lifted the shotgun to his shoulder and fired in front of the bear. She slowed and turned her massive head toward him. Matt waited for an endless second. He had one more shot before he’d have to reload. Thoughts raced through his mind faster than a bullet could travel. Should he shoot the bear? If it didn’t kill her, she’d be twice as angry. He didn’t want to kill the bear. Her cubs would starve, but he couldn’t let the bear reach Harmony. That was the most unspeakable of all.

  He walked toward the bear shouting and waving his arms. The bear was at a complete stop. She stared at the second intruder. Matt fired one more shot into the snow in front of the enormous animal. His fingers fumbled to reload.

  Harmony stopped running and stood bent over, panting and spent. The bear swiveled its giant head to first look at Harmony and swiveled back to look at him. Then she turned to her cubs who were rolling in the snow, unaware and unconcerned. Matt held his breath as the bear rambled back to her babies.

  “Stay still,” Matt’s whisper carried through the frozen air.

  When the bear with her cubs disappeared over the horizon, Matt relaxed his grip on the shotgun. Sweat dripped down his back in cold rivulets. He approached Harmony.

  “Come on. Let’s find a camp,” he said.

  She nodded and they trudged a bit further before Matt found a likely spot.

  After they had dropped their packs and sorted the blankets, Matt turned Harmony to face him.

  “What were you thinking?” he demanded.

  “What?” Her face scrunched in confusion.

  “I told you not to move,” Matt said. “Bears chase animals that run. It’s their nature. She had cubs to protect. If you had stayed still, chances are she would have ambled away. We are very lucky that one or both of us aren’t dead, mauled by a four-hundred-pound bear. I have no idea why she didn’t attack us, no idea at all. We can just thank our lucky stars.”

  Now that the danger had passed, his hands shook and his blood circulated in a hot, pulsing stream.

  Harmony’s voice was small. “Oh, I’m sorry.”

  “You will be sorry, and that’s a fact. I aim to spank your bottom, so that the next time I tell you to do or not to do something, you will listen to me and obey.”

  He could tell by the look on her dazed face she was still trying to sort this news out when he pulled her over his thighs. He lifted her skirt and was confronted with the backside of those oatmeal colored long johns and their two black buttons. He considered. Should he spank her over the darn things? Should he let the little flap down and have access to her bare skin?

  Before his mind conjured a clear conclusion, his fingers were busy at those pesky buttons. The rest of her legs would still be covered and warm. Only her little bottom would be exposed, and he planned to heat that up right quick. He pulled the flap open, and Harmony jerked alive.

  “Stop, Matt. I’m sorry,” she yelled.

  His hand hovered in the air for only a moment before it connected with her pale skin. He watched as his handprint appeared as if the result of a magic trick. Another spank on the other cheek had the same result. He’d never spanked a woman before, and it was turning out to be educational.

  Harmony attempted to wriggle off his legs. />
  “No, you don’t,” he said as he pulled her back into position. “We’ve just begun.”

  With that, he commenced to punish her bottom, her upper thighs and the little crease where thighs and bottom came together. Harmony howled and kicked, twisted and writhed, but it wasn’t until she lay sobbing and slumped over his legs that Matt felt she understood. She would obey or pay the price.

  He rubbed her flaming flesh for a bit before he buttoned the flaps of her hated long johns and lifted her to his lap. She snuggled into his chest, still weeping her distress. Matt patted her back and whispered sweet words until her panicked gulping subsided.

  “It was only a spanking, darlin’,” he said. “Nobody ever died from getting their bottom warmed.”

  “It hurt,” she whined.

  “Well, I guess I was doing it right,” he replied. “Will you listen to me after this?”

  She nuzzled further into his chest. “Yes.”

  “Can I kiss you, Harmony?” Matt asked.

  When she lifted her face, he took that for the answer he’d hoped for and sealed his mouth over hers. He let his tongue play across her lips.

  “Open for me, baby,” he whispered.

  Well, hell’s fire, she’d never been kissed good and proper by a man. He was more than happy to show her how it was done.

  Yes, sir, more than happy.

  Chapter 5

  Harmony rose through layers of sleep. Snowflakes, gentle and soft, swirled like ballet dancers through air the color of lead. She snuggled into Matt’s body seeking heat and encountered the hard rod he seemed to wake with every day. She didn’t believe he could walk with such a thing, but walk they did. For hours and miles and days, they walked.

  Last night’s kiss had been very nice, well, more than nice. Liquid, molten heat had radiated like the sun’s rays on the hottest day in a Chicago summer from between her legs and spread until her limbs felt heavy, and her will weak. She had a sudden understanding of Grandmama’s obsession with chaperones. If she’d known a kiss could feel like that, she would have tried one sooner. She knew Jerome’s kisses would never create that whirlwind of emotion. His lips, always slightly moist and pouting, had made her turn her head aside in a desperate avoidance he’d taken for modesty.

  She’d tried to get answers from Grandmama and her married friends about what, exactly, occurred between a man and his wife. Her friends had giggled like they belonged to a secret club to which she had no membership. Grandmama had told her that her husband would instruct her when the need arose. Both responses had left her angry and insulted.

  Her hand drifted to her bottom, and she rubbed at the remnants of her spanking. She was not angry at Matt. She did not resent him. His discipline made her want to cling to him, not withdraw. It was confusing.

  He was the first person to see her naked derriere since she’d needed a nanny, and the memory sent a stab of empty longing between her thighs. She wiggled closer until that stiffness lay snuggled between her bottom cheeks.

  Matt groaned and pressed his hard length against her body. His hand splayed on the flat of her abdomen felt like a brand. She pushed back.

  “Stop that, darlin’,” he muttered and pulled his hips away.

  Harmony moved her bottom to follow him, but he laid a small spank on her hip. The loss of his solid warmth stabbed her core like a knife.

  “We need to keep moving, Harmony.” Matt laid a kiss on the top of her head, squeezed her shoulder with his large hand, and rose from their makeshift bed. He opened their food bag and frowned at the contents before turning an even darker look at the sky.

  “What is it?” Harmony asked.

  “We’re running light on food,” he replied, “and, I don’t like the looks of those clouds. If it just keeps up with this light snow, we’ll be all right.” He squinted another long look at the clouds overhead.

  Matt bent to load their packs. His movements were steadfast and calm, but she sensed an urgency lay under the surface. She remembered the time Grandmama took her to the ocean and she’d been allowed to wade in to her knees. The water had rolled past her to the shore and returned in an unwavering pattern, but under the surface it sucked at her feet. The sand shifted and stung. The current pulsed and pulled. He was like that – calm on top, troubled below.

  Harmony rose from the pile of blankets. “I’ll be just over there,” she pointed at a spot behind a tree, “for a moment.” She pulled Nan’s too large boots on over two pair of heavy socks and strode away to take care of her personal business.

  Poor Matt. She glanced over her shoulder and saw he still stared at the sky with wary eyes. She would try not to give him extra reason to worry. She would march on and not complain.

  When she returned, Matt handed her a few soggy crackers and a pickle. Tears built behind her eyes, and she tried to blink them back, but a single one escaped and left a trail down her face.

  “I’m sorry, darlin’,” Matt looped one long arm around her shoulders and dragged her to his body.

  “It’s not your fault,” she whispered. “I’d just decided to put on a brave front, and not give you more to worry about.” She swiped at the tear. “I’m sorry.”

  Matt’s laugh was gruff and gravely. “Harmony, never pretend with me. I’d much rather have honesty between us. We’re in a tight spot, and a few tears might be called for.” He gripped her in a fierce hug. “But I still aim to get you through these mountains. I told Melody I’d bring you to her, and I’m a man of my word.”

  She stood content in the circle of his arms with her head lying against his chest. With every rhythmic thump of his heart, her fear ebbed.

  “First off, we need more food. We haven’t made as many miles a day as I hoped, and we can’t walk mile after mile in the cold with only a few crackers in our stomachs. I need to hunt, but I have to do it alone.”

  Harmony raised frightened eyes. “Matt, don’t leave me.”

  “What?” he spluttered. “Leave you? What nonsense. I don’t ever plan to leave you.” He drew a long breath. “I’ll just need to find a place for you to hide for a few hours. Animals are smart. The two of us together, stumbling along the track, probably scares every animal away for miles around.” He kissed the side of her cheek. “I need to go alone and hunt. I know how. I tracked plenty in Montana.”

  “Where will you leave me?” She tried to sound strong, but her voice quivered and broke halfway through the simple question.

  “Let’s start walking, and I’ll watch for a spot as we go.” He helped Harmony with her pack before slinging his own around broad shoulders.

  They trudged down the train track. The snow swirled around them, and Harmony pulled a scarf over her nose and mouth. She picked up her right foot, left, right, left. Her feet were heavy weights, and she could barely lift them high enough to stumble forward. She stopped and bent at the waist with hands on her thighs. She was tired, so tired.

  Matt draped an arm over her back and leaned down. “You’re about played out, darlin’,” he said into her ear. “Do you know how to shoot a gun?” he asked.

  “No,” she admitted. “That was not on the list of what a Chicago debutante needed to know. I can play the piano, embroider a sampler, set a fine table, make splendid conversation, and dance. None of those skills seem especially useful at the moment.” She managed a wan half-smile.

  Matt studied a stand of trees some distance from the tracks. “Harmony, I’ve got a plan,” he began. “I’m going to help you climb that tree yonder. You’ll be safe there. Bears, coyote, wolves can’t climb. Any squirrels or birds you might run into won’t hurt you. I can’t leave you in a cave if you don’t know how to shoot. Something wild might stumble in there. We can’t take the chance.” He studied her face like it was a long-lost map to buried treasure. “I’ll be gone an hour, two at the most. You must stay in the tree until I get back. Do not come down for any reason. Can you do that?”

  She gave a vigorous nod. “Yes, Matthew,” she declared.

  He st
udied her again before returning her nod. “All right. Let’s get you settled.”

  His hand was warm on her upper arm as he guided her toward a tall tree. One just like a million others they had seen on their trip, but this one would become her hide-out. They reached the base and Matt gazed up through the branches. “You need to do anything before I boost you up?’ he asked.

  “No, I’m all right,” she answered.

  “Put your foot in my hands, and I’ll boost you to that low branch.” He pointed at a limb hanging parallel to the ground. “Then I’ll come up behind you.”

  He locked his fingers together, and Harmony placed a muddy boot in the cup of his hands. “Put your hands on my shoulders, and up you go.” She flew upwards and landed on the limb. “Hold on to the tree, Harmony. Don’t fall.”

  She put one hand on the trunk and balanced with the other on the large limb. Matt jumped, grabbled hold, and swung himself up beside her.

  “I’m guessing tree climbing wasn’t part of that fancy Chicago education,” he said.

  She shook her head. “No, nothing useful.” She’d aimed for jovial, but her words emerged strangled and scared.

  “I’m here to teach you the basics,” he assured her. “Now, you’re going to stand, place your hands on the branch above you, and I’ll boost you up again.” Three more times he propelled her to a higher branch before nodding his approval. “You’re safe from animals now.” He pointed at a spot where two branches grew close together. “Try sitting there. I think you’ll be comfortable.”

  Harmony scooted to the trunk of the tree. She set her bottom down where Matt pointed and settled in. “Yes, this is fine. It feels like a cradle almost,” she said. She leaned back against the trunk and took a deep breath.

  Matt’s face glowed with pleasure. “Good girl. You just sit there nice and quiet until I get back. Don’t get down for any reason, and I’ll be as quick as I can. I have a hankering for roast rabbit. What do you think?”

  “Sitting nice and quiet. Now that was a skill I learned in Chicago,” she laughed.