Sweet Mountain Magic by Rosanne Bittner

Author:Rosanne Bittner [Bittner, Rosanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781682303399
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2016-04-16T23:00:00+00:00

Sage awoke to a small but direct beam of sunlight that shot through the little window of the cabin. In his sleepy state its brightness and warmth reminded him of spring, and he could almost hear birds singing. But then he sat bolt upright, realizing that sometime during the night he had finally dozed off from the emotional exhaustion of his ordeal with Mary.

He rubbed his eyes, leaning over her and putting fingers on her throat to feel for a pulse. He had done all he could the night before, cleaning her up and repacking her, falling asleep with a prayer on his lips that she would not die. He felt her pulse, which seemed stronger, and her violet eyes fluttered open for a moment, then closed again.

“Thirsty,” she whispered.

Sage breathed a sigh of relief that she was alive. He quickly checked and found that the bleeding was not nearly as bad as it had been hours earlier. “I’ll get you some water,” he told her, getting up and going to dip some out for her. He came back and held the ladle to her lips, supporting her head for her. She sipped some of the water, then looked up at him with the beautiful eyes he had learned to love. Now they were sunken, and full of sorrow.

“I lost it, didn’t I?”

He nodded, setting the ladle aside and moving his legs under her so he could cradle her head in his lap. “I heard an old Indian woman say once that losing a baby is just nature’s way of sparing the mother heartache—that there was probably something wrong with the baby.”

She closed her eyes and swallowed back a lump in her throat. “There was. It was the seed of one of those evil men.”

“No. You can believe that all you want, Mary, but I know better. I touched it and I know it was mine, and I’ll never believe otherwise. That’s a piece of us buried out there, and he or she will always be a reminder of our love up here in this cabin.”

His voice became choked, and she couldn’t bear to look at him, couldn’t bear his own suffering. Now that she knew all of it, how could they stay together? All of the wonderful joy and love they had found together was ruined.

“I must be…quite a disappointment,” she said, her voice a near whisper. “Losing your baby…used by all those…men.”

He pressed his hands to each side of her face. “You listen to me, Mary. I love you—same as I did before, maybe more. I had a pretty good idea of what you had been through before you remembered any of it, and I didn’t care. As far as the baby, it’s like I said. There was probably something wrong. It was for the best. Now we’ve got to go on with living, and we’ve got to talk about what we’re gonna do now. But first you rest, three, four days—however long it takes for you to feel stronger.

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