Despite the fact that it was nearly midnight when Adam and Jessica rode into Sharpston, the town was still alive with sights and sounds. Piano music and laughter spilled into the street and lamplight flickered, making it seem like daylight. A gray-haired woman with a willow broom ran down the plank sidewalk chasing a pack of barking dogs. Two cowboys argued hotly on the barber's steps. A woman dressed in a pink satin petticoat and boned corset hung out an upstairs window calling to a drunken soldier below.
Jessica looked at Adam, a smirk on her face. "Some interesting towns you've got in these parts. Home in Tennessee we were all in bed by nine."
Adam laughed. "It's a certain kind of man or woman that comes west. They're different than people in the East. Some are looking for freedom from the mores of society, others just want peace and quiet."
"What about you?" She rode beside him. "What were you looking for when you came west? Pauline said you were from Philadelphia."
Adam stared at his horse's twitching ears. "Philadelphia, it seems like a million years ago, a million miles away."
"That's where you were raised?" she probed softly.
"I lived with my parents among the Ojibwa until I was twelve. When my parents died, I went to Philadelphia to live with my grandparents."
"You liked it there?"
"Once."
They came to a hotel and Jessica dismounted. "So why did you come west?"
Adam slid off the saddle, then leaned on it casually, watching her hitch the three horses. "To escape. To find some peace."
She stopped what she was doing and looked up at him. Those were the same reasons she and Mark had left Tennessee in the middle of the night. "Have you found it?"
He pushed her black felt hat playfully off her head. "I don't know," he answered softly. "I didn't think I had but—" He paused, bathing in her green-eyed gaze. Was what he searched for not a place, not a job, but a person. Was Jessica what he'd been searching for since he'd left Philadelphia? "The jury's still out on that, partner. I'll get back to you on it."
Jessica shook her head, watching Adam as he walked passed her and into the hotel. The man wasn't making any sense. But then he never did . . .
Inside Adam ordered two meals and a room. A girl ran into the back to summon the proprietor.
"One room?" Jessica lifted a haughty eyebrow. "Two kisses"—she whispered—"and you think I'm ready to share your cot?"
He grinned. He didn't know why he was in a good mood this evening, but he was. There was something about Jessica that lifted the gloom in his heart. "Are you?"
"Certainly not!"
He gave a sigh. "Too bad. But actually, I ordered one room because I think we need to stay together and stand shifts. Larry Caine knows who I am and he knows I'm looking for him. I wouldn't put it past him to hire someone to kill me. He's a nervous man, and I would imagine I've got him worried."
Jessica's cheeks reddened. Why didn't she think before she spoke? What made her think Adam wanted to bed her? How could she have said such a thing? And why was he grinning at her liked that, like he enjoyed her embarrassment.
The proprietor came through the curtain in the back. "Out," he stated flatly.
"What?" Jessica said.
"I said, out, redskin." He leaned over the wood counter. "This establishment is closed to Negroes and reds." He glanced at Jessica. "And their whores."
Adam shot his hand across the counter and grabbed the proprietor by his starched shirt collar. "What did you say?" he demanded.
The man struggled to catch his breath. "It's my right. My hotel. I said get out or I'll call the sheriff. You can go across the street to Maimie's. My place is respectable. I don't take dirt like the two of you."
Adam drew back his fist in a fury and Jessica caught it. "Adam. Let's go."
He held his fist in midair, glaring at the hotel proprietor.
"Adam! We haven't got time for this. We'll just go across the street."
Slowly he lowered his fist and loosened his grip on the man. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood tonight. You're lucky there's a lady present."
Jessica took Adam's hand. "Come on. Let's go. I'm hungry."
Adam released the proprietor and allowed Jessica to lead him out of the hotel. They said nothing as they crossed the street. Jessica had heard of the prejudice against Indians, but had never been witness to it. Her heart went out to Adam.
"It's just one man," she murmured, entering the lobby of Maimie's.
"Not one man," Adam answered, his anger barely checked. "An entire country. My country. Mine before it was theirs."
"You cool down." She let go of his hand. "I'll get the room. We both need sleep and a hot meal. We can ride out in the morning and be free of the likes of him."
Adam rested a hand on his hip. "Christ, Jess, you're such an innocent. I can tell you, there's no escape." His dark angry eyes fell on hers. "I ought to know. I've been running for years."
Jacob Dorchester lay back on a four-poster bed in the hotel room, watching a young sable-haired woman undress. "That's it, Jessica. Take it off. All of it."
"Didn't I tell you once, my name's Lacy, not Jessica. Now let's see your money. I don't come cheap. You want a cheap whore, you can go down the street to the whorehouse and stand in line like the rest of 'em."
Jacob dropped a coin on the table beside the bed. The whore laughed. "You got to be kiddin'. I named my price, now put your coin on the table or I take a walk."
Reluctantly, Jacob replaced the coin with a tendollar gold piece.
"That's more like it." Lacy picked up the coin and tucked it into a satin bag. "Now, we can do some business."
Jacob licked his dry lips, watching her strip down until she was nude. "That's it," he whispered. "But, but brush your hair forward. It's not right, Jessica."
She pulled a hand of hair forward. "That better?"
He smiled. "Oh, yes, Jessica. Perfect. Just perfect. Now come to Papa." He put out his arms.
Lacy sat down on the creaky bed, allowing him to embrace her. "Don't you want to get undressed?"
Jacob shook his head. His face was breaking out in pinpoints of perspiration. "Your voice isn't right. Don't talk. Just do what I say."
The whore rolled her eyes. "The richer the stranger," she muttered under her breath.
Jacob pushed her roughly onto her back. "I said, no talking, now shut up!"
Lacy lay back on the satin pillowcase, staring up at the handsome gray-haired gentleman. When her eyes met his, the smile fell from her face. There was something about this seemingly harmless man that frightened her. He twisted his fingers in her hair pulling it taut against her scalp.
"Ouch! That hurts!"
He straddled her, fully clothed. "I said shut up!" He drew back his hand and slapped her hard across the face.
"Oh, no." She tried to push him away. "I don't go for that, Mister, no matter what you pay. You've got yourself the wrong girl."
Jacob shoved her back and pinned her arms to the bed. "You can't deny me, Jessica. You're mine. You've always been mine. The papers were signed. It's legal."
Lacy trembled with fear. "Let me up or I'm going to scream," she told him, keeping her voice even. "I didn't agree to no rough stuff."
He yanked a white handkerchief out of his pocket and stuffed it into her mouth. Lacy tried to scream, but nothing came up but a muffled groan.
"Oh, Jessica." Jacob shook his head. "Why do you have to make it so hard on yourself. Why are you running from me? I just want to love you."
Lacy stared up at the man, terrified.
He grabbed her hands and pinned them with his knees so that she couldn't move. "You make me very angry when you behave like this. I've come a long way to get you."
Lacy bucked and kicked beneath him, but the weight of his body on hers was too great. She was trapped.
Jacob lowered his head to taste one of her large brown nipples. "Oh, Jessica. So sweet. We could be happy, you and I, if you'd just behave yourself. If you'd just do what I sa
id." He pulled a silver penknife from his vest pocket.
Lacy panicked. She shook her head wildly, calling out, praying someone would hear her muffled cries.
Jacob ignored her protests, turning his attention to the penknife. He flipped down the blade, then twisted it, watching the way the lamplight reflected off its sharpened edge.
Lacy's eyes went wild with terror and she began to fight in earnest again.
He grabbed a thick lock of her hair and leaned forward until his lips nearly touched hers. She froze, squeezing her eyes shut, knowing her life was coming to a bloody end.
With one swift movement Jacob hacked off the strand of hair and immediately slid off the bed, releasing Lacy.
The whore sprang up, yanking the handkerchief from her mouth. "You just get back," she warned. "Get away from that door!" Shaking with fear, she grabbed her dress and stepped into it, forgoing her undergarments. She then slipped into her shoes, grabbed up the pile of underclothing and her purse and started for the door. Jacob had moved to the window, seeming to have forgotten her presence. He stood there toying with the hair he'd cut from her head.
Noiselessly, Lacy slipped from the room.
Jessica stood at the window of the tiny room she and Adam shared. He was asleep, stretched out fully clothed on the single bed. It was her turn to stand watch first.
Adam's easy breathing filled the small, dark chamber. She smiled. All of the hate and anger she'd seen a short time ago was gone, washed away by sleep. He seemed so peaceful.
Annoyed by the feelings he stirred inside her, she glanced out the window at the hotel across the street. How could the proprietor have spoken like that to Adam? How could he have felt such hate for a man because of the color of his skin?
Suddenly Jessica's breath caught in her throat. She yanked aside the curtain and stared across the way. Only a moment before, there had been a man in the window. A man she thought she had recognized, though she knew she couldn't have. She shivered, turning away from the window. "Don't be silly," she said aloud. "I'm just tired. I'm seeing things. It couldn't be Jacob."
Chapter Ten
At Jessica's urging, Adam went to the general store at sunrise. He got Nelson out of bed and bought enough supplies to get them through the several weeks of traveling he anticipated. Rested, with his arm healing nicely, he was anxious to go after the infamous Larry Caine, but Jessica suddenly seemed driven. When he came out of the store she was waiting for him, dressed to ride.
"I thought we'd just go from here," she told him, accepting several items wrapped in brown paper.
"You don't want a hot breakfast first?" He arranged the supplies carefully in his saddlebag. They'd sold Shiner's horse, deciding against taking a pack horse to make better time. "This may be your last chance to get a decent hot breakfast for a while."
She glanced nervously up the deserted main street of town as she stuffed her supplies into her bags. Jacob Dorchester's face had haunted her dreams last night. She knew that man in the window couldn't have been him—Jacob was in Tennessee—but she felt uneasy just the same. "No. Let's head west. You said yourself that the sooner we're on their trail, the better chance we'll have of catching up with them."
Adam glanced over the saddle at her. She was pale this morning, her face drawn. "You all right?" The shock of being concerned for Jessica's welfare had passed. It was almost a comfortable feeling now. It had been a long time since he'd cared about anyone but himself.
"I'm fine." She tightened the strap on her saddlebag and shoved Shiner's Henry muzzle down into it so that it was easily accessible. She caught Hera's reins, smoothing the Appaloosa's warm neck.
"Didn't sleep well?"
She shrugged. "I slept fine. I'm just anxious to get out of this town."
Adam swung into his saddle. "A week from now I'll wager you'll be dying for the sight of a town, even one as pitiful as Sharpston."
She wheeled Hera around, headed out of town. As long as I'm out in the open, away from saloons and hotels, I won't have to be worrying about imagining every gray-haired man I see is Jacob, she thought.
Adam and Jessica rode north at a steady, grueling pace. "It will be like finding a needle in a haystack, finding Caine and his men," Adam told her as they rode along a mountain range at midmorning.
"You mean we won't find them?" Jessica had relaxed once they were a few miles out of Sharpston and now she was actually enjoying the ride north through the scenic mountains of northern Utah. The pace was slow and the land steep. Several times they had to dismount and lead the Appaloosas.
"No. I just mean it won't be easy. We'll need to keep hitting towns. Our Black Bandit likes cards and he likes his shave and bath. He won't stray too far from civilization . . . too inconvenient. I'm thinking we need to ride west out of the Wasatches. There's a little hole on Blue Creek up on the Idaho line that Shiner mentioned Caine's partial to."
"West it is then," Jessica agreed. She smiled at Adam. It was nice riding with him when they weren't arguing. He had an opinion on just about everything and was anxious to discuss those opinions, whether it was the annexation of a new state or the reason why the South fell some twenty-odd years ago. It was exciting for her to have someone to talk to again. After her father's death there had been no one. Mark was too young to be interested or knowledgeable in anything but guns and fishing and Jacob had considered it below himself to speak of anything of importance with a female.
The afternoon passed, and evening fell upon Jessica and Adam. They camped near a spring at the foothills of the mountains. By dawn they were riding again, back out on the flat, dry plateaus of Utah.
"Mormon land," Adam told her as they slowed to take a rationed sip of their water. "The Promised Land they called it." He laughed. "I don't know why the hell they settled here. Nothing but wasteland."
"I don't suppose it is a wasteland to them," Jessica mused. "When we rode the train in through the mountains down into the basin where Salt Lake City is we saw men and women tending crops. There were houses everywhere."
"I suppose Brigham Young figured no one would bother him and his people out here in the middle of nowhere. Who'd be fool enough to come this far west?"
Jessica wiped her forehead with the bandanna she wore tied around her neck. The sun was so hot that it drew out every drop of moisture in her body. "There's always a fool, isn't there?" she answered.
"You didn't tell me why you came."
Jessica shrugged. "Sure I did. Mark and I"—she drew a deep breath—"we were going to start that apple orchard."
"By why so far from Tennessee?"
"No reason to stay," she answered, treading carefully. "Our parents and grandparents were dead. We just thought we'd make a fresh start."
Adam studied her green eyes until she looked away. There was something in the tone of her voice that made Adam think she wasn't giving him the entire story. It was on the tip of his tongue to question her further, but Jessica picked up her reins and sunk her heels into Hera's sides.
"You coming?" she called over her shoulder as she galloped away.
Adam and Jessica reached Blue Creek just before sunset. "Water!" Jessica cried, flinging herself off Hera. She ran down the bank, flopped down, and began to scoop up handfuls of water and drink greedily.
Adam came to stand beside her, his long shadow casting over her shoulder. She looked up. He was pulling off his snakeskin boots.
"I don't think I've ever tasted anything quite so good," she told him as she splashed water on her face letting it run in rivulets down her shirt.
Adam laughed, unbuttoning his shirt. "A woman of simple pleasures; I like that."
Jessica sat up, the smile falling from her face. She had just realized that Adam was undressing. "W— what do you think you're doing?" she stammered.
"Going for a swim. Aren't you?"
She pulled her hat off her head. "That's not what I mean and you know it. You're taking off your clothes." She couldn't take her eyes off him as he shed his faded blue shirt t
o reveal a hard, muscular, suntanned chest. A narrow trail of inky black hair ran down the center, disappearing below the waistline of his dungarees. Jessica moistened her upper lip. "You can't take your clothes off here."
"What? You bathe in your clothes?" His hands fell to the waist of his pants and he unbuttoned the top button.
Jessica spun around, her hand clamped over her mouth. Adam was standing two feet from her stripping off his clothes!
"You wanted to ride with me, didn't you, Jess? Just one of the boys," he teased.
She could hear him stepping out of the denims. She could feel her sunburned cheeks reddening. Her mouth went dry. Against all reason she turned her head to look back at him.
Adam broke into laughter and leaped off the bank. Jessica caught sight of long bronze legs and bare muscular buttocks before he disappeared over the bank. He was still laughing when he surfaced.
"Christ, you're a fresh breath of air, Jess."
She stood, crossing her arms over her chest. He was laughing at her! "I fail to see the humor here," she answered icily.
"It's just that it's been a long time since I came across a modest woman." He ducked under the water and came up pushing his long black hair behind his head. "I think I kind of like it. Now come on in."
She shook her head. "I'll wait until you're through."
"Don't be silly, Jess. Enjoy the water while you have the chance. We can't sleep here tonight, not safe. Too many people pass by this spot. It's one of the few places on the creek where the water is deep enough to get wet."
Jessica ran a hand over her damp, tangled hair. The water looked so cool and inviting.
"I'm disappointed. I wouldn't think you'd let me keep you from a bath."
After a moment of hesitation, Jessica began to unbutton the back of her skirt. Of course she wasn't going to let him keep her out of the creek! What did she care if he was buck naked! She'd seen naked men before. She stepped out of her skirt and then the single white petticoat that had turned various shades of gray.
Adam burst into another fit of laughter at the sight of her standing on the bank in her camisole and purple and green bloomers.
In Close Pursuit Page 10