A Soldier's Christmas Read online

  He nodded. "More power to them, then."

  "That's what I say. And that's why I'm spending the holidays at the Tates'."

  "No wonder you want to be a gypsy. You must be dying of envy."

  "Sometimes." Then she laughed. "But I also hear my brothers complain about their travels. Never home, no time for dating, why rent an apartment when they're hardly there…that kind of thing."

  A sudden gust of wind rattled the windowpanes and stirred the curtains just a little.

  Maria couldn't repress a shiver. "I hope to God no one is out in this."

  As if in answer to her thoughts, the phones all over the house started shrilling. Someone picked it up on the second ring.

  Seth looked at the clock. It was 3:00 a.m.

  "This isn't good."

  * * *

  "I'M GOING WITH YOU," SETH INSISTED as Wendy and Yuma climbed into their cold-weather gear. "It's too dangerous for you two to go out there alone. Hell, you won't be able to land in this. I have plenty of experience rappelling in worse conditions."

  "I don't know," Wendy said. "You're not medical personnel."

  "I know plenty of first aid. Plus I know how to go down, get someone in a basket. Do you?"

  Wendy and Yuma exchanged glances. "We're trained for mountain rescue," Yuma said.

  "Yeah, but I bet you don't go out to do that with just the two of you."

  "He's right," said Wendy, looking at Yuma.

  "Okay, okay, but borrow my extra boots, man. You'll freeze your feet off."

  "I'm coming, too," Maria announced. She was descending the stairs in jeans and a sweater, and boots. "At least as far as the hangar. If you get stuck in a snowdrift, you're going to need help digging out."

  And that was how the four of them came to be sitting in Yuma and Wendy's Tahoe with the snowplow on the front.

  "Damn," said Yuma, "time's awasting." Lowering the plow, he hit the accelerator and roared down the driveway and onto the road, with only a small skid or two.

  Seth was convinced that the only reason they were going to get through this to the airstrip was because of the tire chains. He could feel the snow pushing back at them, reluctant to give way even before the plow. And when it did give way, it blew back at them, obscuring their view.

  And Yuma just kept going faster and faster, driving more by memory than by sight.

  It was going to be a hell of a trip.

  CHAPTER TEN

  THE MEDIVAC HELICOPTER WAS SAFELY tucked in its hangar. Yuma had to plow away enough snow to haul it out and bring it to the helipad.

  As he was pulling it out with a small tow truck, Wendy was inside with Maria and Seth, starting up the radio, telling Maria how to operate it. "We're probably going to have to take the patient to a hospital in Laramie," she told Maria. "But when we come back, we're going to need someplace to land. Do you think you can manage the plow?"

  "Of course," Maria said. "You can count on me."

  "Thanks." Then Wendy turned to Seth. "And thank you. Frankly, I don't think I could do this by myself."

  "That's what brothers are for."

  She smiled at him, a huge, warm smile. "I always wanted one just like you."

  Impulsively, Seth turned and hugged Maria, whose eyes were showing strain. "We'll be back before you know it. Honestly, Maria, for what we're going to do, these conditions aren't as bad as they look."

  She nodded, returned his hug as if she never wanted to let go. Then, with evident reluctance, she stepped back.

  The helicopter was on the pad now, and the rotors were beginning to turn as the engines whined. Seth and his sister ducked under them and climbed aboard the Huey. Old but well maintained, she was a great bird. Once the door closed behind them, the noise was dampened, but only a bit. Wendy handed Seth a headset.

  "Okay, can everyone hear me?"

  "Yo," answered Yuma.

  "Yo," replied Seth.

  "Seth, we're going out to a ranch about twenty miles from here. A woman called and said her husband had gone out to the barn to check on the livestock, and hasn't come back. We don't know exactly what we're going to find. The patient is young, maybe thirty-five, but with this cold…well, he might have had a heart attack. Or he might simply have grown hypothermic and be lying out there somewhere in the snow. If it's the latter, we have a good chance."

  She didn't give the odds on the former, but Seth could read between the lines. "The cold," he said after a moment. It would reduce his brain's need for oxygen. "Right now it might be his best friend."

  * * *

  THE TRIP WAS ROUGH; THE WIND WAS stronger at higher altitudes than it was on the ground. Still, Seth had taken far rougher helicopter rides, rides with serious danger at the other end. Seth spent the time checking the rappelling equipment and the retrieval basket.

  "Are you sure you want to do this?" Wendy asked over the headset. "I can do it."

  "I bet I've had a lot more experience with this than you…under far worse conditions."

  A staticky laugh reached him. "I don't doubt it."

  The flight was mercifully short. Even with the headwind they made good time, and after only ten minutes they were over the ranch.

  "I'm going to put you out between the house and barn," Yuma said, his voice crackling over the radio. "The wife said her husband had a safety rope running between the two buildings, so he shouldn't be too far from it. She may already be out looking for him herself."

  "Not good," Wendy remarked. "I told her to stay inside."

  "Well, if she didn't, we may have two victims out there. I'll get in touch with Maria and see if she can raise the wife on the phone. Meantime, Seth, I can't go too low or I'll blow up so much snow you won't know where you are."

  "Roger that," Seth said. "We have fifty feet of rope."

  "Winch and basket ready?" Yuma asked.

  "Yes," said Wendy. "All set back here."

  "Then it's all yours, Seth. Switch to mobile for comm check."

  Seth changed over to the lightweight radio headset that was attached to the transmitter in his pocket. The headset itself fit into his ear with a mike that reached to his mouth. He pulled a ski mask over his face.

  "Comm check," he said. "One, two, three…"

  "I've got you," Yuma answered.

  "Me, too," said Wendy.

  "Okay," Yuma said, "we're right over the spot. I don't see any movement, but the rotor wash is stirring the snow some. You've got ten minutes, Seth. Any longer and you'll be a casualty, too."

  "Roger. I'm going now."

  He pulled open the side door on the Huey, attached the rappelling gear to the rope, then eased himself backward out of the chopper.

  The drop was easier than a lot he'd made; it wasn't even the coldest. The stinging snow couldn't reach him through his ski mask, and he was on the ground and up to his knees in snow in only a few moments.

  "I'm down," he said. "Releasing rope now." He detached his gear, and an instant later Yuma pulled the chopper up and away, so the wash wouldn't kick up the snow more than it already was. Then the chopper turned and the floodlamps came on, illuminating a large swath of the area in question.

  Seth saw the safety rope between the house and the barn almost immediately. He slogged toward it, grabbed hold and began to make his way toward the barn. There was still evidence that someone had walked this way, a depressed path through the snow that was already starting to fill in.

  As he walked, he checked around him for any signs of another depression, one that might have been made by someone who fell. Nothing.

  Then he reached the barn.

  "I'm checking inside before I head back to the house."

  "Roger," Yuma replied.

  The rope led straight to a small door. Marks in the snow testified that it had recently been opened. Seth pulled at it, fighting the wind, then stepped into the relative warmth and the utter darkness of the building. The smell of hay and horses was strong. A nicker greeted his entry, and the stirring of hoofed feet.


  Pulling a flashlight off his belt, he switched it on and hunted for a light switch. When he found it, near the door, he flipped it on. Nothing happened. All he would have was the beam of his flashlight.

  "Oh, God," said a woman's voice from a few feet away. "I think he's dead."

  * * *

  THE HUSBAND DID INDEED SEEM DEAD as Seth dragged him outside and loaded him into the basket. "Go," he said, and the basket began its climb.

  But the wife was in little better condition. He knelt beside her while her husband was being pulled up, and felt her violent shivering. She'd dressed to come outside, but not well enough. Worry about her husband had caused her to rush and cut corners. She wore mittens, but they were frozen stiff from the moisture released by her body. She had pulled up the hood on her parka but hadn't zipped the snorkel all the way, probably for fear of not seeing him. Her head was tucked down into her chest, and all he could see of her by his flashlight was the top of a hood edged in fur.

  "I found him outside," she said, shivering so hard her voice kept breaking. "He was in the snow. I dragged him in here…."

  Two minutes later he sent her up on the basket, too. Five minutes after that he followed her.

  * * *

  Wendy put the rancher and his wife on bunks along one side of the Huey and covered them with blankets. They were going to the Community Hospital, she told Seth. The rancher was still alive, although his heartbeat was so slow it was hard to detect.

  Then she returned her attention to her patients and to radioing the emergency physician and the hospital. Out of the loop now, Seth pulled off his headset and settled into the bucket seat, watching his sister work.

  Even in the bouncing helicopter, her movements were swift and efficient, her touch always gentle. He admired her dedication to saving lives even under dangerous conditions.

  "Where's your baby?" Wendy asked the woman.

  "M-m-my s-s-sister's."

  Then he looked at the rancher's wife, still shivering as she lay in the top bunk, and wondered if the rancher knew what a lucky man he was to have a woman like her in his life. A woman who would go out into a deadly night to try to save him was pretty damn special. He finally caught a glimpse of her face as she turned toward Wendy.

  His heart stood still.

  The woman in the top bunk was Darlene.

  * * *

  "HOW'S THE PAD LOOK?" YUMA ASKED Maria over the radio.

  "Some snow has blown over it," she told him, peering out the windows. "But it doesn't look too bad."

  "Rotor wash is going to kick up a mess," he said, his voice crackling on the radio. "Okay, we'll be leaving the hospital in just a few minutes. There's a switch on the panel behind you as you face the radio. Yellow, and it reads Lights. I forgot to hit it before we left. Flip it, will you?"

  She did as asked, and through the swirling snow saw the landing pad light up. "On," she told Yuma. "The pad's lit."

  "Thanks, Maria. Be there in ten."

  She sat back in her chair, listening to dead air on the radio, waiting. It was a long wait. She'd been on the edge of her seat with fear earlier, knowing that Seth was rappelling down into the storm. She'd nearly jumped for joy when she heard he'd found the couple. She listened as they were raised to the chopper, and then as Seth followed them up. Relief had washed over her, leaving her weak.

  Then she'd listened as Wendy talked to the hospital about her patients. And she'd heard their names.

  Seth's ex-wife.

  She sat there, waiting for the chopper to return, wondering if her world was about to shatter around her.

  * * *

  WHEN THE CHOPPER LANDED, IT SWIRLED up so much snow that it nearly vanished in the whirlwind. But moments later, the rotors began to slow, and the snow began to yield again to the wind, blowing away.

  Seth and Yuma stayed outside to tow the chopper back into the hangar, but Wendy came directly into the office. She took one look at Maria's face and said, "You heard."

  "His ex-wife." Maria nodded, trying to look as if it didn't matter.

  "He's going back to the hospital to see her."

  "He probably should."

  "Yes." Wendy sat beside her and looked out the windows. "Look…"

  "Please," Maria said. "It's no big deal. But if you're taking him to the hospital, could you drop me at my place? It's on the way."

  She felt Wendy look at her, but she kept her gaze fixed elsewhere.

  "Of course," Wendy said finally. "But you'll come over again later today?"

  "Sure." Maria managed a bright smile. But she didn't mean it.

  The plows were out, working steadily to try to clear roads. The return trip was far quicker and easier than the outbound trip. The first stop was Maria's house. It was then that Seth spoke the only words he'd spoken in her presence since his return.

  "See you later," he said.

  "Sure," she answered, then climbed out.

  Yuma, ever safety conscious, waited until she was inside her front door before he drove off. The night was still cold enough to kill.

  Then she was alone inside her tiny house, alone with her thoughts, alone with her feelings. Alone with the realization that she had become far too involved with a man who had entered her life two short days ago.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  "SETH!" DARLENE'S EYES WIDENED as he entered her hospital room. "I thought I'd imagined you. You saved us."

  He brushed that aside. "Your husband's going to be okay."

  "Yes, they told me. He should be in that bed right there soon. It's nice that they put couples together now."

  "Yes." He stood awkwardly at the foot of her bed, looking at her familiar, yet somehow unfamiliar, face. Feeling the need to say something but not quite sure how to begin.

  "How are you doing?" she asked him. "You look a little thin."

  "I had some growing to do."

  "Oh." Her eyes shifted away from him, then came back. "I'm sorry I failed you. You warned me I wouldn't be able to handle it."

  He shook his head hard in denial. "You didn't…You didn't. I did."

  "No…"

  "Darlene, I didn't come here to argue. I don't want to upset you. I just want you to know…" He hesitated, seeking the words. "I was the one who failed. Because…because…I didn't ever let you into my life. I kept you on the outermost edge of it. And I'm ashamed to admit it took me all this time to figure it out."

  "Oh, Seth…" Her eyes filled with tears.

  "I'm sorry. I swore I wasn't going to upset you. But…You're the kind of woman who'll go out into a deadly blizzard to save her man. I wasn't good enough for you. I never appreciated just what a jewel you were. And I kept you away from me. I'm sorry."

  "Seth…"

  "I'm happy for your new life. I hope you've found all the things I couldn't give you. Godspeed."

  Then he turned and walked out, ramrod straight, feeling that finally, finally, he'd gotten his head and heart in order.

  Wendy and Yuma had waited for him. And when he asked them to drop him at Maria's house, they said not a word.

  Thus it happened that a half hour after they'd dropped Maria off, he was hammering on her door, not caring if he woke the entire neighborhood.

  * * *

  THE HAMMERING FRIGHTENED MARIA. She had just finished changing into her nightclothes, a somewhat less-fancy outfit than she'd taken with her to be a guest. She was wearing a knee-length T-shirt, fuzzy slippers and a warm flannel robe.

  And now someone was banging on her door as if the world were about to end.

  Concerned, she pulled back the curtain over the window in her front door and saw Seth standing out there in the cold. On the street behind him was Wendy and Yuma's truck.

  At once she opened the door, letting in a blast of cold and stinging ice crystals. "What's wrong?"

  "I need to talk to you."

  "Sure," she said, but not at all certain she should let him in. She stepped back, anyway, and he turned to wave the car away. Yuma and Wendy drove off int
o the night and Seth stepped into the warm quiet of her home. She closed the door behind him, shutting out the night.

  "What's wrong?" she asked again.

  He faced her and startled her with a smile. "Not a damn thing."

  He threw aside his jacket. It landed somewhere on the floor. Then he kicked off his boots and tossed his gloves in the same general direction.

  "Seth?"

  Then, oh, then, he took her into his arms and kissed her as if he were dying of thirst and she was the water of life.

  * * *

  HE FELT HER INSTANT OF RESISTANCE and almost pulled away, but then she melted into his arms as if she wanted to fill every crack and crevice between them with her body. Her mouth answered his kiss, just as hungry and needy, just as rough and passionate, as if she, too, had waited forever for this moment.

  Along with his rising, unstoppable passion he felt wonder and awe that she was welcoming him so readily. With his hands he sought to give her wild pleasure, stroking her back and hips over and over, pulling her closer and closer to his throbbing manhood.

  Her need suddenly seemed to meet his, for she arched against him, pressing her pelvis to his, causing him to groan with unbounded delight and need.

  His hands slipped within her robe and found thin cotton, sensuous in its softness. With his thumbs he traced her ribs gently as he held her close, as his mouth plundered hers and hers plundered his in return.

  All he could hear was the hammering of his heart and the gasps they both made. Finally one hand lifted, finding her breast and kneading.

  The touch electrified her. She arched her hips hard against his and groaned, a sound from deep within her. It was the most exciting sound he had ever heard.

  Her breast was firm, full, its nipple already hard and begging. Impatient now, he wrapped one arm around her waist to hold her, then bent her back until his mouth found that nipple through the fabric. He sucked, hard, then nibbled gently, feeling the tremors run through her, feeling her nails dig into his shoulders. Hearing her groans.