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The bellowing of cattle in the distance made Melanie's eyes fly open and her heart skip a beat.
For a while she had let herself forget everything but Shane and the ecstasy of being with him.
But the cattle were a crude reminder of the real world and the chore that lay ahead of herthat of introducing a long-lost son to a dying father.
And how could she have forgotten Terrance? If he got to Josh first, it would not only be awkward for Shane, but perhaps deadly for Jared! If the telling weren't handled right, he could die from the shock.
Easing from Shane's arms, Melanie blushed as she realized her nudity for the first time since Shane had sent her mind out of the real world, into another realm. She reached for her dress and petticoat and held them against her body.
"What I have done is shameful," she said in a rush of words. "What must you think of me?"
"I think that you have proven to me that you are a woman," he said, picking up his blanket. He folded it and placed it and his deck of cards in one of his buckskin bags on his horse.
He went to Melanie and took her clothes from her arms. His gaze went slowly over her, setting his insides on fire with need, yet he looked away from her and slipped her petticoat over her head, and then her dress. "I wandered from my campsite last night," he said, turning her around so that her back was to him.
"I had the strong desire to get at least a glimpse of my father," he said, fastening her dress. "As I was on my way to his house, I saw you arrive there. I witnessed an embrace shared by you and my brother."
Melanie gasped and spun around to face him. "You were there?" she said, searching his face with her eyes. "You saw Josh embrace me?"
"Yes," he said thickly. "This I witnessed. Nothing else. I left. At that time I did not understand the embrace. But now I do."
Melanie combed her fingers through her hair, straightening it around her shoulders. "What do you mean?" she asked. "You understand now, but you didn't then?"
"I was so hurt and angry over seeing you in my brother's arms that I did not stop to look for the meaning behind the embrace," Shane said, smiling down at her. He ran the palm of his hand along the slender column of her neck. "Today, when you embraced me, I knew the difference. You embrace me with enthusiasm. You embraced my brother with no feelings. I was wrong to become disillusioned so quickly with you. I am sorry, Melanie. I almost left because of this."
He placed his hands to her waist and drew her against him, his eyes filled with warmth as he gazed down at her. "You are my woman," he said huskily. "You have proven that to me today. Nothing will cause me to leave you. Ever. We have much to share. Forever."
Melanie's insides were aglow with ecstasy. His words were so sweet, they caused tears to flood her eyes. But this was not the time for tears. She knew that too much time had been wasted. A man lay dying. Each heartbeat now brought him closer to death. Melanie felt selfish for having taken up even these last wonderful moments with Shane when
they should have belonged to his father.
"Shane, we do have forever," she murmured, placing a hand to his cheek. "But your father doesn't. Shane, how can I tell you?"
"Tell me what?" Shane asked, his eyes wavering.
"Before you go and see your father today, you must be told his condition," Melanie said, clearing her throat nervously. "Shane, I didn't tell you sooner because you weren't ready to see your father yet. But now that you are, you must know that he is a dying man. He doesn't have much longer."
She felt Shane tense within her arms. She hugged him tightly. "Shane, oh, Shane," she murmured. "He is not at all the man you remember. He has wasted away almost to nothing. He has consumption, Shane, a terrible disease of the lungs."
While clinging to Shane, her cheek pressed against his chest, Melanie could hear the rapid beat of his heart. "I'm sorry, Shane," she said softly. "But I had to tell you. If you had gone into your father's bedroom and had seen him without first being warned, it would not have been good for him. Your reaction could have killed him."
"It is hard for me to recall much of my childhood," Shane said. "But I do remember my father well. He was my idol. He was a strapping sort of man. He towered over me as tall as a tree. I enjoyed walking around and chasing his shadow. When I caught up with it, I would pretend it was me, a grown man already."
He eased away from Melanie. Downcast, he went to his horse and took the reins, stepped a foot into the stirrup, and swung himself into his saddle. He looked down at Melanie. "Now I am that grown man," he said dryly. "With a grown man's duty to perform." He gestured toward her horse with a hand. "Come along. We shall go and see my father together.''
Almost choked with emotion, Melanie looked up at Shane for a moment longer. It was quite obvious that he was hurting inside, yet on the outside he was a picture of courage. He had twenty-five years to catch up with, and he now knew that there was little time allowed for it.
So much in life wasn't fair!
Picking up her shawl, Melanie placed it around her shoulders and tied the ends together to secure it. Feeling anything but ladylike and unable to keep her dress from hiking up above her knees as she placed her foot into the stirrup, she hurried into the saddle.
Draping the reins around her hands, she sent her horse into a soft lope and followed Shane down the gentle slope, then across the pasture. They were leaving the palisades of pine trees behind them. Clouds of split-tail swallows were flying all around above them.
Melanie was hardly able to keep her eyes dry as she looked at Shane when her horse caught up with his beautiful white stallion. "You are going to make your father's last days so filled with happiness," she reassured him. "Shane, since I met your father he has talked of nothing but you and your
mother. That you are alive is a miracle, Shane. It's as though your father willed it, and that alone has made it so."
"You will be at my side when I see my father?" Shane asked, glancing over at Melanie.
