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She could only estimate how long it had been. The baby was three months now, born a full term from that first week. She guessed it to be year, with Haya’s help.
“About a year now,” she replied quietly.
“I’d like to pay you for that then,” he said. “You’ve done a fine job.”
“I have to get back to the house,” she said.
“I advise against it. We probably ought to get down to the cellar even,” he said. “We don’t get many storms here but when we do they’re terrible,” he said.
Now Shauna was panicked. She knew that Haya would know what to do. She lived in the wild practically but the baby. Shauna was not going to be separated from him during the storm if it was going to be as bad as Sam said it was going to be.
Sam. How unnerving to use the name of her husband for the man standing before her. Especially when she had named her son for him. She named the baby for the father so thinking it would help him as he grew up.
Shauna insisted. “I will take my chances. I am sure I am not likely to blow away.”
Sam reached above her and braced the barn door.
“Better tell me Missy what you got in that house that you’re so all fired up to get to,” he said softly. “Is it because you’re unsettled by me?”
It was a great reason to want to go into the house. She was unsettled by him but not in the way he thought. Not in a way she had ever been unsettled by the man who was her husband. But she was a lousy liar and she was not at all convincing.
“Yes,” she said weakly.
“Okay let’s go,” he said.
He wrapped his arms around her shoulder and forced her to huddle into his hard frame. They ran against the wind up the stairs of the front porch and in through the front door. Haya was settled down next to the baby who was asleep, oblivious to the drama. Haya was silent but her eyes were leery as they rested on the cowboy.
“Haya, this here is -,” Shauna stopped. She couldn’t say his name.
“Sam Bishop, ma’am,” he said. “And who might this be?” He asked of the baby.
Shauna clenched her eyes. “Samuel Fuller Bishop, Jr.”
“I think we need to all be down in the cellar. Grab what you think we’ll need. We have about ten minutes before it hits. Come on,” he said.
Haya understood every word perfectly and gathered up the baby. Shauna was immobile.
“I promise you,” he said. “It’s the safest place to be. I promise you. The storm is going to blow over and we’ll all be upstairs in no time.”
Shauna followed Haya. Sam sauntered ahead of them out the door to the side of the house and heaved opened the doors to the cellar. The winds kicked up with a powerful fierceness. There was nothing like this that had ever hit the farm before while Shauna had been there and nothing like this every struck in Annapolis. She was actually feeling a relief that he had been there after all.
Sam let the women pass him, down the stairs and he followed after. He struck a match and lit a lantern perched on a built-in space. They had light. He drew some crates for the women to sit on. The baby was howling. Shauna pressed her lips to his head to soothe him. Haya glared at Sam.
“Is he okay?” asked Sam.
“Fine,” said Shauna. “We just woke him up.”
There was a set of shelves that partitioned the cellar into two. Shauna went to the other side of the shelves for privacy.
“I am going to feed him. Comfort him. Stay where you are,” said Shauna.
Shauna unbuttoned a flap in her dress to give her little son access. He latched on and quieted down instantly. She loved her baby boy. She held him as the storm rumbled. It was not upon them yet but any moment. Baby Samuel fell asleep. He went from hollering to snoring just like that. Shauna supposed he just needed her.
She fastened up and carried the sleeping babe back to the other side of the shelves to join the others. The cowboy’s eyes fixed on her as she sat next to Haya. Shauna never saw a man look at her that way before. It sort of matched how she felt.
She was weary and afraid most of the time. She had longed so hard for someone to be there. Haya was a Godsend but she did not offer the same kind of comfort that Shauna craved.
Sam’s touch on her shoulder when she was at the barn stirred her cravings. The beautiful cowboy was so near and yet so out of reach. The impossibility of the situation made Shauna’s thoughts so wrong.
