A Yellowstone Promise: Yellowstone Romance Series Novella Read online

  A Yellowstone Promise

  (Yellowstone Romance Series Novella)

  by Peggy L Henderson

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination, or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the author.

  Copyright © 2014 by Peggy Henderson

  All rights reserved

  To my readers:

  ***Events in Yellowstone Promise take place after Yellowstone Redemption (Book 2 in the Yellowstone Romance Series), but also after Yellowstone Deception (Book 5 in the Yellowstone Romance Series). For better understanding and enjoyment of this novella, it is recommended that you read the books in the following order: Yellowstone Heart Song, Yellowstone Redemption, Yellowstone Deception, A Yellowstone Promise.

  To what lengths will a father go?

  Chase Russell has done a lot of growing up since he was thrown two hundred years into the past to the Yellowstone wilderness. No longer the reckless delinquent he used to be, he has made many life-altering decisions. Providing for his new family has become his number one priority.

  Faced with the unthinkable, he’ll do whatever it takes to save the ones he loves, even if it means crossing the boundaries of time. When a strange elder reveals a shocking secret and demands a promise in exchange for his help, Chase doesn’t hesitate to meet the old man’s request.

  Thrown back into a world where he no longer belongs, Chase confronts old demons and faces new challenges. Will the lessons he’s learned in the past be enough to save his family in the future?

  Chapter One

  Madison Valley on the Yellowstone Plateau April 21, 1836

  “Push, Sarah. Now.”

  Sarah Russell squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth. Her fingers dug into the skin of the arms that supported her from behind. Pressure built in her head as she bore down, the pulse beating fiercely at her temples. Pain as she’d never imagined ripped through her, and she cried out when the baby slowly made its way through the birth canal. She’d attended dozens of births, even acted as midwife for some, but not until now had she fully understood the effort required to bring forth a new life.

  “Again, Sarah. Push again. The baby’s almost out,” her mother called in encouragement. Sarah glanced up, sucked in several quick gasps of air, and met her mother’s eyes. A wide smile spread across the older woman’s face, but there was also a hint of pain that clouded her gaze, as if she felt Sarah’s agony.

  Her mother nodded, shot a quick glance past Sarah’s shoulders, then smiled again.

  “You’re doing great, Angel,” a low, deep voice whispered in her ear. With renewed resolve, encouraged by her husband’s words, Sarah inhaled another quick breath and pushed again, bracing her back against Chase’s chest. He squeezed her hand, and her fingers dug even deeper into him. He seemed not to notice, and wiped a damp cloth across her sweat-soaked forehead, then kissed the top of her head.

  “Almost done, Sarah. I love you. Our baby’s almost here.” There was a distinct crack in Chase’s usual overly-confident voice.

  With one final drawn-out grunt, Sarah pushed her baby into the world. When the pain and pressure subsided, she expelled a breath of relief, and slumped against Chase. He held her to him, murmuring soft words of love and praise against her cheek.

  “It’s a girl! A beautiful baby girl,” Sarah’s mother called.

  Sarah raised her weary head away from her husband’s chest, her bent knees trembling. She smiled weakly as joy, relief, and exhaustion swept over her. Behind her, Chase gave a quick laugh. She glanced up to stare into the face of the man she loved. He looked as tired as she felt, but he grinned broadly, his eyes sparkling with pride and . . . awe? He was a father now - the father of their baby.

  “Did you hear that, Angel? We have a girl.” His grin lit up his face, and he swiped the cool cloth across her forehead again, brushing strands of hair from her face. Sarah held his gaze, and they both laughed softly. Despite the pain she had just endured to bring their child into the world, this was surely one of the happiest days of her life. Chase leaned forward and kissed her squarely on the mouth.

  “A girl,” Sarah echoed weakly, and raised herself up for a better view of the baby her mother lifted in her hands. Chase stirred behind her, and supported her to sit up straighter. The infant wailed loudly at that moment.

  “Do you want to cut the cord, Chase?” Sarah’s mother asked, smiling brightly at the big man.

  He hadn’t left her side all night and into the morning since her labor had started, doing whatever she needed to make her comfortable throughout the long ordeal. Time had all but ceased to exist.

  Would she have been able to endure the pain if Chase hadn’t been there to hold her and speak words of love and encouragement through each agonizing contraction? It was unheard of for a husband to be present during the birth of his child among her Tukudeka relatives. Chase had asked to be present, and her mother had confirmed that it was common practice where he came from that a husband supported his wife during the birth of their child.

  He’d tried to conceal his looks of anguish whenever she rode through another wave of labor pains. Never before had her husband appeared more serious or distraught. While she’d wished for the ordeal to end, it all seemed like a lifetime ago now, the pain all but forgotten already.

  “You did real good, Angel,” Chase murmured in her ear. His voice was laced deep with emotion. His calloused hand stroked her cheek, and he kissed her again, then stirred from his place on the bed behind her.

  Raising himself gently away from Sarah, Chase scooted off the bed. He pushed several pillows behind her back, and slowly moved toward the smiling woman holding the screaming and quivering infant. She motioned to a knife placed on a clean cloth on the small table at the foot of the bed.

  “Tie the cord off with two strings of sinew, a few inches from her belly and an inch apart, then take the knife and cut between where you tied it off,” Aimee Osborne said, motioning with her chin to where she’d already laid out sinew on the table. With trembling hands, he did as instructed. His eyes met Sarah’s when he reached for the knife. She smiled weakly and nodded. With one swift stroke, he severed the cord that separated their child from her body.

  “Pick up that blanket there, Chase.” Sarah’s mother motioned with her chin to the corner of the bed, where she’d spread out the infant blanket Sarah had sewn months ago in anticipation of the birth. Her mother placed the infant in Chase’s hands and bundled her up. The tiny baby’s wails grew quiet. Sarah nearly laughed at the shocked expression on her husband’s face. He looked as if he was afraid of his little daughter.

  He glanced in wonder at the baby, then at Sarah. His eyes glistened, and tears rolled down Sarah’s face at the sight of him. Slowly, he turned toward her. A day’s growth of whiskers covered his jaw, and a sheen of perspiration shone on his forehead and above his upper lip, but he radiated love and joy in his eyes. He took a step to the bed, and slowly, gently, placed the quiet baby in Sarah’s arms.

  A jolt of love that brought an ache to her chest shot through Sarah when she held her daughter for the first time. The baby squirmed and cried, and Sarah held her close. She kissed the infant on the forehead, and the tiny body stilled and settled into Sarah’s arms. The small amount of hair on the baby’s head would be a sandy color when she was all cleaned and dry, the color of her father’s ha
ir.

  “Meet our daughter.” Even though he whispered the words, Chase’s voice cracked slightly. He eased himself onto the bed next to her, and wrapped one arm around Sarah’s shoulder. Together, they gazed down at the baby. Sarah leaned against Chase’s broad chest and lifted her head to smile up at him.

  “I told you we’d have a girl,” she murmured.

  Chase leaned forward and kissed her. “Guess there’s nothing wrong with teaching a girl how to throw a football,” he replied, a wide grin forming on his face. “Or a tomahawk, so she can fend off all those boys that are gonna come knocking on our door. She’s gonna be as gorgeous as you are, Angel.”

  Sarah’s mother pulled a blanket over Sarah’s legs, then appeared next to her beside the bed. She gazed lovingly at the baby.

  “I’ll bring in some warm water for you, Sarah, and to wash the baby. I just hope your father remembered to put the kettle on like I told him. He’s probably paced a hole in the floor out in the other room by now.” She directed her smile at Chase. “I think he was more anxious than you when Sarah went into labor last night.”

  Chase cleared his throat. “Yeah, well, I got this handled, no sweat.” He ran a hand across his weary face and shot a wide grin toward Sarah. Her eyes narrowed. He hadn’t been so cocky and collected twelve hours ago when she’d told him that she thought the baby was on its way not five minutes after they had gone to bed.

  Chase had tossed the covers aside and sprung to his feet. He’d fumbled in the dark to light a lantern, which he’d promptly knocked off the table. The glass had shattered all over the dirt floor of their small one-room cabin. After a string of curses, he’d hastily pulled on his britches before lifting her from the bed so she wouldn’t cut her feet on the glass.

  “I can walk, Chase,” Sarah had protested, but he hadn’t listened, and had carried her all the way to her parents’ cabin a short distance away. After pounding on the door as if a horde of Blackfoot were on the attack, Sarah’s father had appeared with a loaded flintlock in his hand and a murderous glare on his face for the late-night disturbance.

  “The baby’s coming,” Chase had blurted. Her father’s normally composed face had turned ashen, as if Chase had just announced Sarah’s death. He’d ushered her and Chase into the cabin and called for her mother.

  Chase held out his finger to lightly touch his daughter’s hand. Her tiny fingers instantly wrapped around it. Chase beamed. “She’s got a strong grip already.”

  “She’s perfect,” Sarah whispered. Chase didn’t seem to be too upset that his first child was a girl. They’d often teased each other over the months regarding the baby’s gender, and he had remained adamant that the child would be a boy.

  “I guess Kyle’s not a good name for a girl, is it? We’ll have to save it for the next one.” Chase shot her a mischievous smile.

  “How about Emily, after your mother?” Sarah asked softly. She met Chase’s gaze. His face sobered, and he nodded.

  Chase had often spoken fondly of his mother, and naming their daughter after her was one way to honor her memory. He’d told Sarah of all the sacrifices his mother had made for him while growing up without a father. How a woman could raise a child completely on her own was beyond Sarah’s understanding, but then again, Chase had grown up in a much different time and place than she had known; a place and time too fantastic for Sarah to even begin to comprehend.

  Things were different in his time, two hundred years in the future. He’d made a choice to live in his past, in a wilderness so remote, very few white men ventured this far from the east, even though he could have returned to the life he knew. Chase had come here from the future just like her mother had, but he hadn’t known anything about time travel when he accidentally touched the ancient device that made such a thing possible. He hadn’t even known the most basic of survival skills, and had been dropped at her door, nearly dead.

  Sarah gazed from her husband to the baby that had been created from their love. She never doubted his feelings for her. He had made immense sacrifices to prove himself to her, struggled to learn how to survive here, and in less than a year had made a name for himself among white trappers and Indians alike, that he was a man to be reckoned with. He had stayed with her, even when he could have returned home, knowing that he’d never see his mother, or anyone or anything else that was familiar to him, again. If the people he’d left behind could see him now, they would be proud of the man he had become.

  “Emily Joy,” Chase whispered. “Joy, because she’s going to be a bundle of joy. I can tell already.”

  Sarah smiled, and nodded. “Emily Joy,” she repeated.

  Chapter Two

  Two months later

  “What are you saying, Mama?” Sarah’s eyes welled up with tears, and she patted Emily’s back, holding the baby against her shoulder. Chase stood behind her. He cursed under his breath, and the grip of his hands on her upper arms tightened. Her knees had gone weak, and her heart pounded in her chest with dread and anguish. “Emily’s going to die?”

  Sarah shook her head. The images of her mother and father standing before her turned blurry. Papa stood behind her mother, a somber look on his face. Emily squirmed, and her head lifted briefly, then nestled back against her shoulder. Sarah patted the baby’s back. Her hands and arms had gone numb, and she tightened her hold on her daughter for fear that she might drop her. Emily squirmed more, and began to cry.

  “Let me take her, Sarah,” Chase said, his voice lifeless. He let go of her arms, and took the baby. Nestled against her father’s chest, their daughter looked even smaller than she already was.

  Sarah sniffed, and ran a trembling hand over her eyes. “She’s just a small baby. Why would you think there is something wrong with her?” Sarah’s voice rose in desperation. She glared at her mother. Deep down, she’d sensed it too, that something wasn’t right with her precious baby.

  Her mother had voiced her suspicions weeks ago, saying that Emily might have a problem with her heart, a condition she was born with, and time would tell if it would resolve on its own. Now that the baby was two months old, Aimee seemed more worried than ever.

  “You said she has a hole in her heart?” Chase asked. Sarah’s eyes darted to her husband. If anyone could understand her mother’s words, it was Chase. They both came from the future.

  Her mother turned to him. “In simplest terms, yes, that’s what I think is wrong with her.” She glanced toward Sarah, then gave her full attention to Chase. “It’s called a septal defect. It’s a hole between the right and left chambers of the heart. A lot of babies are born with it, and don’t have any problems. The hole might be very small, and close on its own over time.” She wiped at the tears in her eyes. Sarah’s father stroked her mother’s back, a grave expression on his face.

  “So, Emily’s heart could be fine,” Sarah said quickly. “It’ll close up.”

  Her mother shook her head. “She’s not improving. She’s got all the symptoms of congestive heart failure in an infant, and without the proper medication to treat it . . .” Her mother’s voice trailed off. She closed the distance between herself and Sarah, and wrapped her arms around her. “You’ve seen how rapid her breathing is, especially when she tries to nurse, and how difficult it is for her. You’ve commented yourself that her heart beats very quickly. She’s very small and not gaining weight.” Her mother hugged her tightly, her own body shuddering. “All the signs are there, Sarah. We have to be prepared for the worst.” She expelled a shuddering breath. “I’m so sorry.”

  Sarah pulled out of her embrace. “No,” she said loudly, her eyes darting from her mother to Chase. “I won’t let my daughter die. There has to be something that you can do. You’re a healer from the future. You have to help her.”

  Aimee Osborne shook her head. “There’s nothing I can do for her. Even in my own time, I was a nurse, not a doctor. She needs surgery to repair the hole. That’s impossible to do here, even if I had the skill to do it. All we can do is make her as c
omfortable as possible.”

  “Then I’ll take her to the future,” Sarah blurted. She shot frantic glances from her mother, to Chase, and to her father.

  “We cannot go to the future, bai’de,” her father said firmly, running his hand through his hair. “The time travel device has been disposed of where no one will ever retrieve it again. It is lost to us forever. We were all in agreement that it would never be used again.”

  “Your father is right, Sarah.” Her mother placed a hand on Sarah’s arm, a look of anguish on her face. Sarah jerked away.

  “We can’t live our lives like this, no matter how much it hurts sometimes. Either we live in this time, or in the future, and accept everything about the times, but we can’t keep going from one time to the other to suit us as the need arises. We were all in agreement on that. Besides, that time travel device is gone for good now. We have to go on as if it never existed.”

  Sarah glanced toward her husband, blinking away the tears in her eyes. Her chest tightened, and she could scarcely inhale a deep enough breath. Chase met her gaze, a somber look in his eyes. His jaw muscles clenched, and his expression was unreadable.

  “Chase,” she said, a crack in her voice. Her throat hurt so much she could barely produce a sound. “Tell them, Chase. We have to do something to save Emily.”

  Chase pulled his eyes from her and looked directly at her father. The two men stared at each other like two wolves, the younger one challenging the alpha, and neither conceding an inch of territory. After what seemed like an eternity, Chase backed off, and lowered his gaze. Sarah’s heart sank. Chase held a deep respect for her father, and it appeared he would not challenge him on this, even though his daughter’s life was at stake.