Читать книгу Cougar of Spirit Lake - Linnette MDiv Eller - Страница 11

The Ferrall's were enjoying the potluck dinner. It was a much needed break from the routine of the wagon train for all of the weary travelers. Everyone was in high spirits and outbreaks of laughter could be heard amongst the various groups of people. Tommy and Jacob had eaten so much that Jessica thought for sure they would both end up sick. Papa had told her to leave them be, there was nothing out of the ordinary about growing boys eating such amounts.

Jessica was enjoying watching Tommy. He was talking to Welthy Carolina, the little blonde girl from a few wagons up the train from them. She knew that he had a secret crush on the girl and that made watching his actions in Welthy's presence even more amusing. He was red in the face, his face never leaving the toes of his boots and kicking at the ground with the toe of those boots. Oh, he was so obvious and she thought he was really sweet too. She was very proud of Tommy. He was going to become a man to be proud of and she was already proud of the boy. He reminded her so very much of Mama and she wished Mama could be here to see her oldest son, and enjoy his progress into manhood. Ah, well, best not be thinking of those things now, this was not a time for melancholy this was a night to enjoy one’s self and she was going to do just that.

“Papa do you want a piece of cobbler?”

“Lord no, Jessica, if I eat one more bite I'll burst my britches for sure!”

“I think I will go and get some, since unlike some people I know I haven't made a pig of myself...yet!”

Jessica walked over to the tables and finally located the cobbler she had been admiring earlier. Just as she reached for it, her hand collided with a large brown one causing her to drop the spoon.

“Oh, goodness, I am so sorry! That was terribly clumsy of me!” She sputtered in embarrassment then she looked at the front of the shirt of her victim and found a large splat of cobbler where the spoon had flipped it.

“Oh, no! Look what I have done...splattered it all over your shirt too.”

She grabbed the cloth lying on the table to hand to him and stopped in mid motion when she finally looked up and into the greenest eyes she had ever seen and in a face so handsome, that it fairly took her breath away.

Timothy had been beside Cougar watching this and thinking to himself, 'See I told you so' about the impact that Cougar had on the ladies. He looked at the girl and sucked in his breath, God, what a beauty! Then his attention was drawn by his friend and something he had never witnessed in all the time he had known Cougar. A woman, girl really, was flustering Cougar! Oh, now this could become interesting!

When the splat had hit his shirt, Cougar looked down at it in amusement, but when he looked into the green eyes of the girl standing across the table from him he was so stunned that he did something extraordinary for him. He dropped his plate causing a great many more splat's to hit his shirt. But if he was aware of this he sure didn't show it. He was spellbound, absolutely mesmerized. He was seeing with his own eyes what for sometime he had been seeing through the eyes of the Great Cat. She was the girl of his visions. His skin tingled with the charged atmosphere. He could not seem to gather a coherent thought or regain his usual control. Instead he could only keep repeating over and over in his mind, it is her. It is her. The dream girl....it is really her.

Finally, Tim poking him none too gently in the ribs and saying something to him brought him out of his trance. He snapped his head around to look at his friend, still disoriented.

“Cougar, I said, don't you remember your manners? The little lady was apologizing to you while you are just standing there like a bump on a log.”

Cougar looked back to the girl, still standing across the table holding the towel out to him, in his visions she had been pretty, but in person she was unbelievable! He realized finally that he was holding his breath, staring and in general behaving like a total clod.

“No, Miss, the apologies are all mine and I do beg your pardon.” He almost groaned as the words left his lips. Mentally calling himself every kind of fool he accepted the towel from her. Damn! He must have sounded like a bumbling ass! Is that the best thing he could come up with to say? After all this time he had finally met this dream creature and behaved like he had never met a woman before in his life. What had come over him? As he handed her the towel back he looked at her once more and could not help himself…he grinned.

Now, as his friend Tim had told him earlier that is all he really had to do. When Jessica looked up into that smile, she completely lost her heart to the man. His aura of maleness, strength and energy combined with that smile fully disarmed her. For no explainable reason they both burst into laughter at the same instant. When they had both regained their composure Cougar looked into her green eyes once more. The thought that a man could spend a life time lost in those eyes drifted across his mind. Had he been his usual self he might have realized that he was sharing this same thought with her as it flowed gently across her mind, in unison with his own.

Suddenly Cougar sensed the most overwhelming feeling of malevolence he had ever encountered in his life. His head jerked up from the face of the girl in time to see a large blond man walk up behind her and clamp a huge hand down on her shoulder. Cougar felt instant rage at this, as though he himself had been invaded. When he looked into the eyes of the man, there was no doubting that his sensed feelings were emanating from this man. He was looking evil such as he had never imagined, directly in the eye. He felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end as he forced himself to remain perfectly still and his face to show nothing, nothing at all.

“Well, here you are honey! I have been looking all over the place for you.” Thomas said as he eyed the large man across the table from her. He didn't like the looks of this one, not one bit. What had been going on here between this man and Jessi? He hadn't ever heard her laugh like that before. What was the matter with her anyway, acting like some easy piece with this stranger? Why didn't John take a hand with his daughter and keep her in her seat where she belonged?

“You gentlemen will have to find some other little lady to wait on you. It's time for my little fiancé to be waiting on her future husband. Now come along Jessica.” Thomas said as he prodded Jessica away from the table.

Cougar's eyes seldom missed anything and they certainly had not missed her stiffening when the man had placed his hand on her shoulder. He saw too, the look she shot this blonde giant and he had the distinct impression that all that was missing was a hiss from the little cat. Something was very wrong here. The man had said he was to be her husband but her feelings were far different than what a man should inspire in his future wife, he couldn't stand the sight of the man and he knew without knowing that he represented a danger to the girl. The girl he had called Jessica. The name that had so often frequented his Mother’s dreams.

Tim was still observing his friend closely and now was certainly convinced that this was going to be very interesting. He saw Cougar unconsciously crush the tin cup that he had been holding in one hand as the blonde man led the girl away. He was still watching when the girl shot a quick glance over her shoulder and smiled at Cougar before the big man hurried her away. He had been very aware of Cougar's sharp intake of breath when the girl smiled at him too. Oh yes, this was going to be worth watching. He had been suffering from boredom for ever so long now, but he knew that his boredom was now at an end.

“Cougar...Cougar? Cougar are you ignoring me or do I need to check your ears while you are here?”