Felicia Andrews Read online

She smiled knowingly at him, having already guessed that there was more to Carla's purchase of half Daniels's concern than whatever money she may have offered him.

  "Well," he said, "gots to get on with it, missus. I tell Cook to bring you somet'in' from de kitchen . "

  "Thanks, Josh," she said. ''I'd appreciate that."

  She moved quickly down the rest of the flight and walked slowly into the lobby. The old men, she could see through the tall curtained windows, were still in their places-and would be until sunset-and at one of the secretaries was a middle-aged woman dressed as though she were on her way to one of Reverend Campbell's church meetings. She saw Amanda and turned away quickly, shock on her lined, powdered face. Amanda knew then she was from out of town, not used to seeing a part-Indian woman in a man's clothes striding confidently toward an easy chair as though she owned the place. It almost made her laugh.

  But she was too nervous to do more than take her seat and wait for whatever Cook would send her.

  Trevor, she thought, barely refraining from hugging her knees. My God, Trevor is actually here!

  SIXTEEN

  The afternoon went so rapidly that Amanda suspected the sun of trying to cheat her of what happiness she had found. Yet she knew, too, it was largely her own fault; she wanted Trevor to see everything there was to see in town, and around it, and was delighted when he agreed on the whirlwind tour.

  As such, then, they walked the streets while she described the businesses they passed, who ran them, what their likes and dislikes were, how high or low their status was in the community's pecking order. As she spoke, however, she began to wonder how he managed to keep from yawning with ultimate boredom; after all, how interesting could one small Wyoming town be to a man who regularly traveled the largest cities in the country?

  Trevor, on the other hand, appeared determined not to miss anything. He asked questions, he chatted brightly and informatively with those to whom he had been introduced, and he wondered aloud several times why this building or that alley had been left the way it was when it would have made much more sense to have been done in still another way. It was as though, she thought, he were planning the complete reorganization of Coreville with an eye to making it one of the major commercial hubs of the territory.

  It puzzled her, and it delighted her. For all his cosmopolitan ways he was obviously working to assure her of his interest in what interested her.

  They ate an early dinner at Lon Daniels's, and though Amanda was relieved that Carla was nowhere in sight, she could not help wondering if she were with Douglas.

  And once outside, she was shocked to see how far the sun had westered.

  "I don't know where the day's gone," she said as they strolled unhurriedly along the boardwalk. Most of the pedestrian traffic was gone now as the regular supper hour approached, and a peaceful cloak had fallen over the streets.

  The sky was slowly deepening toward twilight indigo, and the lances of the sun gave the air a peculiar golden tint that washed from the buildings all signs of needed repairs, heightening whatever fresh paint there was and softening the shadows that crawled languidly over the street.

  Trevor noticed the change as soon as she had.

  "Put a few more trees here and there, " he said, "and you really wouldn't be able to tell this town from many of those in the East or the Midwest. " He took off his hat and slapped it lightly against his leg. "And it seems just as lazy as any I've been to on the Mississippi, that's for sure . "

  A small black and white dog darted out o f an alley and raced yelping toward the railroad tracks. Fleeces of cloud with crimson and bronze edges drifted over the mountains. A wind had kicked up, but not enough to stir the dust into choking swarms, just cool enough to take the last of the day's heat and bury it until dawn. A woman's voice singing a plaintive melody floated from the Silver Palace; two old men stood in front of the stables arguing quietly with weary gestures and half-mocking grins; somewhere in the near distance someone practiced on an out-of-tune violin; and in front of the sheriffs office lanky Phil Latham was sitting on a low chair tipped back against the wall, a mouth organ cupped lovingly in his right hand while his left beat time in the air to the tune he was playing.

  "A man , " Trevor said as they stopped ten yards away to listen, "could easily get used to a place like this. "

  Amanda smiled broadly. "It isn't always this peaceful," she said. "And later, when the saloons get going, it won't be. "

  He shrugged. "It can't b e that bad, can it? No worse than the cacaphony that San Francisco calls its night life . " He brushed a hand unconsciously over his chest and straightened his lapels. "No, I really think a man could get to like it here."

  "You should stay, then, " she said, and turned away abruptly when she realized the implication. She swallowed hard, hoping he would not think she had offered him a proposal, wondering at the same time if some part of her mind had not been thinking she should do precisely that.

  "I can't," he said regretfully. "I do have a living to make, and what needs to be done to survive in this part of the country . . . " He shrugged, his smile rueful. ''I'm too used to my comforts, Amanda. I'm spoiled myself. Besides, " he said with a mischievous grin, "Lu Chang would have my scalp if I left her alone for too long. As she keeps telling me, she has many distant relatives spread across the country, and sooner or later one of them would come after me. "

  "Does she love you?"

  "In her way, I suppose. A mother would be more like it."

  Amanda wanted to hug him then, for no reason at all save her arms were beginning to ache from the lack of it. But the feeling had assaulted her many times during the afternoon, and each time she had successfully forestalled it. And it bothered her. Not because she had suddenly become concerned with what the town thought of her, but because she was still unable to drive off those momentary skirmishes of doubt that had arisen with her assessment of his smile.

  He was here. To see her. But he had spent more time roaming the streets and poking into alleys than he had looking at her. He had spoken more with AI Ryan and Nate Kurtz than with her. He had fussed over several children and their gaudy hoops, played the gallant with several young and old women, even helped a gangly, adolescent girl down from the stage as though she were a cripple in need of constant support. But he had not touched her once, except in passing.

  A thought caught her by surprise: she was jealous of Coreville! And why not? She had waited to see him long enough, and had not the slightest intention of sharing him with a bunch of strangers and buildings and cute little children.

  And she realized that she was behaving just as her daughter Bess had when she was much younger, fighting for her mother's attention whenever Amanda spent time with Alex or Sam or with the horses in the corral. There was no question, even in fantasy, of desertion, but Bess did not know that and thus demanded all her time.

  Lord, she thought . . . and had no time to think further.

  At that moment Latham suddenly stopped playing and jumped to his feet, jamming the mouth organ into his hip pocket.

  Amanda could not turn Trevor around in time.

  Doug walked out of the office, struggling into a lightweight dustcoat that reached almost to the tips of his boots. One side had hooked itself around his gun, and he yanked at it impatiently, snarling something at his deputy as he stepped back onto the coat's hem and nearly was pitched back into the office. Only grabbing the doorframe saved him, but his hat tumbled into the street, was caught by the wind and tossed several yards before Latham could retrieve it.

  Eagleton did the worst thing imaginable: he laughed.

  Amanda closed her eyes and wished a hawk would come along and drop her in the mountains' deepest, darkest canyon.

  "Damn," she muttered and sighed with a martyr's resignation, then opened her eyes.

  Doug was standing in the middle of the walk, hat in one hand, head tilted quizzically. Eagleton did not wait for Amanda to recover; he strode forward with hand outstretched and introduce
d himself as soon as the two joined grips. Doug's face was markedly unexpressive, but the fierce animosity in his eyes when his gaze flicked to and away from Amanda was too stark to go unnoticed.

  "On a visit?" the sheriff asked him, flatly, as though he were asking him of his intentions toward the bank safe.

  Eagleton nodded eagerly, turned and-Amanda could not choke back a helpless gasp--slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her to his side. "Mrs. Munroe invited me, " he said almost too loudly. "Came out from Denver on the noon train. It's a lovely little place you have here, Mr. Mitchell. "

  Doug nodded. "It does all right. "

  "Are you Sioux?" Trevor's smile was wide and friendly, his curiosity evidently without malice.

  "Shawnee," he answered. "The only Sioux around here is on Four Aces. "

  Trevor raised his eyebrows in silent question, and Amanda told him quickly she would explain that later. Then, her smile feeling as though it would crack her face in half, she asked Trevor nervously if he wouldn't like to get back to his hotel.

  "You staying long?" Doug asked before anyone could turn.

  "No," Trevor said. "Just a couple of days, and then it's back to work. " He grinned down at Amanda, who had stopped trying to wriggle out of his grasp. "I expect to be back here in the fall, however. Failing that, sometime next spring. "

  "Business?"

  Amanda prayed he would not kiss her, nearly sagged when he did not.

  "Purely pleasure, Mr. Mitchell. Amanda and I got to be very good friends in San Francisco, and I'm not about to let mere distance take any of that away. Besides," he said expansively, his arm suddenly slipping away, so quickly that Amanda fell against his side before she was able to right herself, "I am completely taken by this part of the country. It's . . . well, I can't really explain it, but there's something about this land out here that is incredibly compelling. Don't you think so, Mr. Mitchell?''

  Doug nodded once, his eyes narrowing slightly.

  "Mr. Mitchell," he said then, taking Doug's hand for a final hard grasp, "it's been a real pleasure, and I hope you won't mind if I drop around your office again before I leave, just for a quick visit. But I've had a miserable train ride, and I am not quite ready to sample the . . . night life of Coreville without first having a good night's sleep. " He nodded, with a two-fingered salute to the brim of his hat, then nodded to Phil who was standing dumbfounded by his chair, and took hold of Amanda's arm.

  ''I'll see you, Doug, " she said, her voice lifting to make it a question.

  "You do that," he told her, and he walked swiftly down the street before she could respond.

  Carla Menoz stood at the window of the restaurant, her cheek pressed against the pane. She had watched the silent conversation between Eagleton and Mitchell from its beginning, and now she was following Eagleton's track across the street, his hold on Amanda so strong that she was practically dragged along in his wake.

  Lon Daniels came up behind her and slipped his hands around her waist. She squirmed, but he did not see the fleeting mask of disgust momentarily drop over her face.

  "In a minute, cara," she said.

  A sour puff of his breath wrinkled her nose.

  She did not move away from the window until Eagleton had vanished into the hotel. Then she yanked on the reed shade and dropped it to the sill.

  "Carla?''

  "The receipts first, Lon," she said, patting his parchment cheek. "First the receipts. "

  The door closed just short of a slam, and Amanda pushed Eagleton away when he tried to scoop her into a quick embrace. He frowned, though his expression was one of moderate bemusement, and he waited for an explanation. Amanda's problem was that she did not really know if she had one. On the one hand she had been deliberately steering Trevor away from the sheriffs office all afternoon, just to avoid a confrontation during which she thought Doug's temper might explode into violence. Yet when he had stepped out of his office and had been ambushed by wind, coat, and hat, she could not help feeling more than a little sorry for him.

  The sudden thought had occurred to her that the two men might even become reluctant friends.

  Trevor, however, had squashed even that feeble hope with his cheerful, innocent, and smooth manner that resulted in her believing that he was somehow, in some cruel and unfathomable way, making sport of Doug by denigrating Coreville.

  Eagleton backed off and shed his coat. "Are you mad because I put my arm around you?"

  Again the innocence, and the slight quivering confusion in his voice that worked to stoke the fires of her guilt.

  "For someone who acted as though I had some ugly disease all afternoon, " she said, "it was hardly expected. And I don't think it was the right time. "

  He watched her closely, but she did not flinch under his gaze. Rather she returned it as coldly as she dared without angering him, her arms stiff at her sides and her feet set firmly apart.

  "I see," he said thoughtfully, moving to the low table in front of the divan and pouring himself a dollop of whiskey from the bottle Eleanor had brought him. "This Mitchell, he's someone who expects to be linked romantically with you?"

  "There was a time," she admitted. "But that's past. "

  He toasted her silently. "Is it, now?"

  "It is. "

  He emptied the glass and held out his arms; the smile was back, and the enticement flashing from his sharply blue eyes.

  Do not give him the satisfaction, she told herself; he's acting as if he already owns you.

  She tried to stall.

  "You said . . . you told Doug you were only staying fur a few days. "

  "That's right," h e said, not lowering his arms an inch.

  She knew she should have known it from the size of his bag, but the fact of his saying it made her feel somewhat lost.

  "Come on, Amanda," he said softly.

  "And you won't be back until spring?"

  He shrugged, and his hands dropped into his lap. "Most likely. "

  "That doesn't say much for me, does it?"

  The smile faded and was replaced by a slight frown. "Amanda, I don't know what impression I gave you about the state of my monetary affairs, but I can assure you that I cannot easily take time off for larks such as this. "

  Larks? she thought.

  "In fact, most of my work is done during the winter months, when I have to travel through New Orleans, Mobile, and other points in the South. Then there are interminable meetings in New York and Philadelphia, another swing through the South to be sure my first trip was profitable, and then-and only then, Amanda--can I really slow down and let myself breathe a little. "

  "You never did explain just what you do."

  He propped his boots on the table and crossed his legs at the ankles. He stretched, undid the top three buttons of his shirt, and ran his fingers through his hair. "I did not come here to talk shop, " he told her sternly. "I came here to see if you and I . . . well, if you and I were still part of an attraction. "

  She relented. She hurried to sit beside him and accept the stretch of his arm around her shoulder, the free hand resting lightly and provocatively at the juncture of neck and chest.

  They kissed for what seemed like hours, but that was as far as he permitted his intimacy to go.

  "I wish you could spend the evening with me," he said when they finally separated and lay their heads back.

  "I can, " she said. Then, quickly, she shook her head. "No . " She sighed. "No, I guess I can't. "

  He cupped his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling. "Today is Thursday," he said as though he were talking to himself. "I do not leave until Sunday morning. There will, I suppose, be afternoons . . ."

  "If you want to leave here alive, " she answered grinning.

  "And Mr. Mitchell will not cause you any trouble?"

  She sat up and folded her hands over her knees. "I don't think so, no. For God's sake, Trevor, Doug and I aren't married, you know. I don't have to account to him for everything I do and every ma
n I'm seen with. "

  "Wonderful. But I don't think he knows that. "

  They sat in comfortable silence for several minutes.

  ''I'll have someone come in tomorrow," she said, "to bring you out to the ranch. "

  He nodded. "I think, " he said then, ''I'd better get myself that sleep. Otherwise I'll be no use to you at all . "

  She grinned, reached over, an d kissed him soundly o n the point of his chin. "Don't bet on it," she whispered, but his eyes were closed and his mouth only twitched a quick smile.

  She kissed him a second time and rose. She asked him if he wanted her to put a match to the lights, but he only grunted and she could see his chest beginning a rhythmic rise and fall that marked his slow and unstruggling descent into sleep. In repose, then, he was all that she remembered him to be . . .and more. As she made her way out of the room and closed the door softly behind her, she wondered if all her worries, her constructions of problems about his sincerity and perhaps even his motives were simply speculations created because of her fear that the reality would not live up to the dream.