by Sara Luck
“Oh, Mr. Malone,” Della had said as she reached out to put her hand on his arm and smiled flirtatiously. “This isn’t directed at you. I just think that Sam needs a woman’s influence in the home.”
Miss Peterson was probably right; Sam and Benji needed a woman’s influence, but not hers.
Yes, Jana would be good with his children. But was he being fair to her when he put consideration of the boys first? Or was he putting them first? Obviously, any relationship with a woman would have to take the children into account, but it wasn’t just the children that drew him to her.
Drew thought of the kisses he had shared with her out on the street. That was the first time he had kissed a woman since Addie had died. And it had been more than just a kiss; it was a kiss so intimate that it gave him an erection. He had pulled her against him, enjoying the pressure of her body against his.
Had she felt that?
How could she not have felt it?
He had enjoyed her company, he couldn’t deny that. But was she merely a diversion? He had decided he needed a wife, and so far, no woman had come close to attracting his attention.
Not until Jana Hartmann.
As he lay there, his mind pushing back sleep, he thought of the boys. He was using them as justification for finding a woman, but how would they react? Della Peterson was right about one thing: Sam was sensitive. Would he ever accept Jana, or would he always feel that she was an intrusion, usurping the place of his real mother?
And what about Benji? Sam was convinced that Benji couldn’t even remember their mother. Drew had to be damned certain before he entered into any kind of relationship because so many conditions had to be met.
Yet even as he thought about the effect such a relationship would have on the boys, he could not push aside the real, physical, attraction he felt for Jana. He and Addie had enjoyed a robust sex life—but not since her death had Drew enjoyed the pleasures of a woman. Though he missed the sex, he had always thought of it in a rather amorphous way, not attached to any particular woman, but now his body was reacting to imagined images of Jana naked and writhing with pleasure beneath him.
Pushing those thoughts away with difficulty, he finally fell into a fitful and not very restful sleep.
For the first few days after Thanksgiving, Drew did not pass by Watson’s window, at least not where he thought Jana could see him, and he didn’t stop by the Custer Hotel Saloon. He was purposely avoiding her, not because he didn’t want to see her again, but because he did.
One week after Thanksgiving, Drew was in his office handling some paperwork for a client when he looked up to see Charley Draper standing at his door.
“I’ve got a message for you,” Charley said with a long face.
“You look like you’re delivering bad news. What is it?”
“I’m afraid it’s awful bad,” Charley stepped into Drew’s office and handed him a telegram.
Drew opened the yellow envelope with trepidation. Had something happened to one of his parents? Or was it something at Rimfire? He hated getting bad news.
The telegram read: HOUSE FINISHED. SEND FURNITURE. DEVLIN.
“You rascal.” Drew looked toward Charley. “You had me thinking some catastrophe had happened, and here it’s great news.”
“It might be good news for you, but it won’t be for Bismarck.”
“Why do you say that?”
“We’ve grown rather used to you around here, but if you get out to the Badlands and you like where you’re stayin’, why, you might decide not to come back.” Then Charley smiled. “That is, unless the Watson woman stays here. Then you’ll be back.”
“The Watson woman?”
“You know the one I’m talking about, the one you brought to me lookin’ for a job. I hear she’s just about got you roped and branded.”
“That’s what you hear, is it?” Drew asked with a lazy smile.
“I shouldn’t tell you this, but after the firemen’s dance last week, some of the guys got up a pool to see who gets the closest to the day you marry that little ole girl.”
“What day did you pick?”
“I can’t tell you that. It wouldn’t be fittin’ ’cause then you might pick my day just so as how I could win, or if you had a mind to, you could pick some other date, just so’s I’d lose.”
“Has anyone consulted Miss Hartmann about this pool?”
“Oh, no. It’s like bettin’ on what day the ice breaks up on the Missouri. It’s just sportin’ talk. We don’t mean nothin’ by it, but mind my words, we all think it’s gonna happen.”
“Well, maybe I’d better call it quits here and go see if I can rouse up Miss Hartmann.”
“From the looks of the two of you Thanksgiving night, it don’t look like it takes much to get that woman roused up when you’re around.”
“Just what are you saying, Charley?” Drew asked, the tone of his voice changing slightly.
“Don’t you go gettin’ all riled now. It’s just that lots of folks walked home from the Sheridan. And they’ve all got eyes, so that’s when we set up the pool.”
“Get out of here.” Drew chuckled as he stood. “Wait. Send Devlin a telegram and tell him we’ll see him for Christmas.”
“I’ll do it.” Charley put on his hat and headed for the door.
After Charley left, Drew walked directly to Watson’s store. When he arrived, Jana wasn’t in the window, but a nearly completed drawing sat on an easel. She had begun to shade in the brown and white of the skewbald pony, and the drawing was so accurate it was obviously Tom McGowan’s horse. Drew stepped into the store, hoping Jana was still there. She would be just the one to help him furnish his house.
“Drew, it’s good to see you. How may I help you?” Walter Watson asked.
“I’m looking for Jana. I’m hoping you can spare her for a couple of hours so she can help me with a personal matter.”
“I suppose I could let her go, but I’d have to know that she wasn’t going to be doing something improper.”
“I want to drive her out in the country and ravish her, if that’s all right with you,” Drew said with obvious exasperation.
When Jana stepped out of the back storage room, she saw Drew, and her heart fluttered as she smiled broadly.
“I haven’t seen you for a while,” she said as she approached him and Walter. “I was beginning to think you had gone back to Rimfire.”
“Well, Rimfire is the reason I’m here. I got word today that the house is ready for furniture, and I’d like you to help me pick some out. Does that meet with your standard of decorum, Walter?”
Walter flushed with embarrassment at Drew’s chiding. “Of course. I can spare her for a couple of hours, if she wants to go.”
Jana wasn’t sure what had been said between Drew and Walter, but she did understand that she could be away from the store for a couple of hours.
“I would love to go with you. Let me get my cloak.”
When they stepped out of the store, Drew took Jana’s hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world for him to do.
“Where shall we go first?” he asked.
“You’re asking me? The only thing I know is that Watson’s Ladies’ Emporium doesn’t sell furniture,” Jana said, laughing easily.
“I suppose that was a dumb thing to say, but this will be my first time to look for furniture.”
“You didn’t help furnish your house?”
“Oh, no, everything that was put in our house had to have Rose Denton’s approval, so every stick of furniture was shipped from Chicago. Even Addie didn’t have much to say about it.”
“I take it Rose was your mother-in-law?”
“She was, and in her mind, she still is.” Drew rolled his eyes. “Come on. Let’s see if Jim Cady has anything we like.”
They entered a small store where several pieces of rustic furniture sat about, all made from the cottonwood trees that grew in the area. Jana saw several beds and chests as well as various chair
s where the bark had been stripped from the logs, which were sanded smooth. The grain was attractive, and she ran her hand over the wood.
“We’ll take that bed,” Drew said, indicating the oversize, four-poster bed. “That will be our first purchase.”
A beaming man stepped forward. “When do you want it, Drew?”
“Now.”
“No. I mean, is there a specific date when you’ll need it?”
Drew narrowed his eyes as he looked at the proprietor of the shop. “Jim Cady, are you in the pool?”
“I might be.” Jim cast his glance toward Jana.
“This is for my cabin at the ranch. Miss Hartmann is just helping me select the furniture.”
“Uh-huh, and the first thing you buy is a bed. I’m buyin’ another day.”
Drew laughed. “Don’t waste your money. But seriously, could you get this and four more beds on the evening train for Little Missouri? I guess I need some ticks to go on the beds, so send those, too.”
As Drew and Jim wandered around the shop selecting other pieces of furniture, Jana walked to the front of the store. She tried to decipher what the conversation between Jim Cady and Drew had meant.
“That’s a start,” Drew said when they left the store. “Now let’s go to Eisenbach’s. Sol will no doubt have more comfortable sofas and chairs than Jim had.”
“What were you two talking about?” Jana asked, realizing that the “cabin” might be a bit larger than she’d envisioned.
“We were just haggling over the price. Five bedsteads was quite a sale for him.”
“Not the beds—the pool. What was that about?”
“Oh, it was nothing.”
“I don’t believe you for one minute, Drew Malone. Why do I have the feeling that the pool has something to do with me? More specifically, something to do with us?”
The smile Drew gave her was absolutely dazzling. “I can’t tell you about it because you’d cheat if you knew all the details. Come on, we’ve got work to do.”
By the end of the day, Drew, with Jana’s input, had selected furnishings for what Jana learned was an eight-room house, hardly a “cabin” by her estimation. He had consulted her on various pieces and was acquiescent on her suggestions. A part of her wanted to think she was selecting furniture for a house—no, a home—for her and Drew and the boys. But she knew that was only the figment of an active imagination.
When they were back on Main Street, Drew turned in the opposite direction.
“I should get back to help Greta,” Jana said when she realized they were going away from the hotel.
“She can handle tonight’s soup without you, and besides, I want to confuse Hank a little bit. Let’s get a bite to eat at Le Bon Ton,” Drew said as he ushered her toward the restaurant.
“I can’t.”
“Please, Jana. I want to spend as much time as I can with you. Will you join me?”
Jana took a deep breath. “I will.”
The following morning, Jana was humming a little tune as she was selecting a dress from the new shipment that had arrived while she was out yesterday. Her thoughts were of Drew and the pleasant evening she had spent with him. Was it too much to hope that he enjoyed her company as much as she enjoyed his? She had never been happier in her life. When she stepped away, she was admiring the drape of the soft faille dress she had chosen to display on the mannequin when Hank Thompson and Carl Meunch came into the store.
“Why, hello, you two, what brings you here?” she asked with a broad smile. Then suddenly the smile was replaced by a look of concern. “Oh, no, has something happened to Greta?” she asked, her voice tinged with fear.
“No, she’s fine,” Hank said quickly, putting his hand out to calm her. “But she’s the reason we’re here.”
“Oh.” Jana sighed with relief. “You had me a little worried. What can I do for you?”
“We want to buy something,” Carl said, “but we don’t know what we want.”
“The boys ’n’ me,” Hank said, “that is, the boys who come to the Custer Saloon, well, we’ve took up a collection, and what we would like to do is buy Greta a dress. Not one to work in, but a dress she can wear at Sunday go to meetin’s and such. We want to give it to her for Christmas.”
“And we thought, bein’ as Greta is your sister, and bein’ as you work here and all, well, you’d be able to give us an idea on what she might like,” Carl added.
“My, what a wonderful thing you’re doing for her,” Jana said, genuinely touched by the gesture. “I’d be honored to help pick out a dress for Greta. Her favorite color is blue, so we can start there.”
“Since it’s for Christmas, don’t you think she would like something red?” Hank asked.
“That’s a good idea, Hank.” Jana went directly to a red chasseur jacket that was trimmed in black basket braid. “I think this would be useful if you paired it with a black cashmere skirt. What do you think?”
“I don’t know. We sort of wanted a dress,” Carl said.
Jana smiled. They were going to be more difficult than her usual customer. She pulled out stylish redingotes with pretty shoulder capes and suits of rough-finished English tweeds. They finally settled on a myrtle-green brocade dress with a mantle of brown velvet.
“This is the one,” Carl said. “How much is it?”
“That one is a little more expensive,” Jana said. “It’ll be six dollars and fifty cents.”
Both men began to smile broadly.
“We’ve got enough money for two outfits. We’ll take the skirt and the red jacket if you don’t think she’ll think it looks like a soldier,” Carl said.
“I think Greta will think it’s wonderful, and she will love you even more for thinking of her.”
The purchases made, the two men left with the dresses wrapped in a package. Jana took her place in the window, smiling as she thought of the pleasure her sister would take from the generosity of “her gentlemen.”
Jana had been drawing for a couple of hours when she heard a light tap on the window. She looked up to see Drew. She waved as he turned to enter the store.
“I want you to know, Miss Hartmann, you aren’t the only artist I know.” He handed her a sheet of paper. “Benji wanted me to give you this.” On the paper were two circles as heads with stick arms and legs. One was bigger with lines that indicated long hair, and the other was much smaller and standing alongside. The arms of the taller figure and the shorter figure were connected, as if holding hands.
“He says to ask you if you know who this is.”
“I can guess if he asked you to give it to me. I think this beautiful creature with the flowing hair is me, and this handsome young gentleman is Benji, and the best part is that we’re holding hands.”
Drew shook his head. “That’s right, but how did you know that?”
“When one is an artiste, one can recognize a fellow artiste,” Jana said in an affected French accent.
“Well, I have another request of the artiste. You’re invited for supper tonight, food to be prepared by the acclaimed French cook Elfrieda, and her two sous-chefs, Sam and Benji. May I escort madam to my home?”
“Drew, I ran out on Greta last night, and I can’t leave her two nights in a row.”
“Did she have a problem last night?
“No, she said Carl helped her.”
“And he probably enjoyed doing it. Please come, Jana. I think the boys are fixing a special dessert just for you, and they’ll be disappointed if you don’t come.”
Jana looked directly at Drew, pondering what had just happened. If she accepted his invitation, she was moving their relationship, if that was what it was, to another dimension. It was one thing to go to Drew’s home to help prepare a Thanksgiving dinner for prisoners in the local jail, but it was a completely different thing to go to his home to have a supper—a family supper, for no reason at all, other than to spend some time with him and his sons.
“If it will help you make up your mind, Jana,
I’ll throw in an evening at the Opera House. Colonel Lounsberry said the show that’s playing now is really funny. So now, will you consider it?”
Of course she would consider it.
But the picture of a little boy with a solemn face came into her mind. If she proceeded, she would have to win not only the hearts of Drew and Benji, but also convince Sam that she was not ever going to usurp his memory of and the love he felt for his mother.
Jana broke into a wide smile. “I’ll come, but you might be embarrassed. Do you know I’ve never been to an opera house?”
“Then it will be my pleasure to introduce you to vaudeville. I’ll come by the hotel at six, if that’s all right with you.”
“I’ll be ready.”
When Jana walked into the hotel, she apprehensively went into the saloon to tell Greta that, again tonight, she would not be around to help her.
“How was your day?” Greta asked as she brushed the fall of her hair away from her brow.
“It was busy,” Jana said. “People are beginning to buy Christmas presents already. I can’t believe this town has so much money.”
“You mean people are getting more than the candy and nuts we always got for Christmas?” Greta asked with a chuckle.
“Don’t forget, we got an orange, too. But it was the best Mama could do for us. I miss her, don’t you?”
“I think about her all the time. Do you think we could send her some Swiss chocolate for Christmas? Maybe we could find some like Dewey Gehrig’s cousin brought when he came from Zurich.”
“She’d like that. I’ll ask Drew if he knows where we could get some.”
“Drew? Aren’t we getting awfully familiar with Mr. Malone?”
Jana’s face turned crimson. “Greta, I’m so sorry.”
“Sorry? Why would you say that? I think it’s wonderful. You deserve all the happiness you can get.”
“I won’t be here tonight. He’s asked me to come to supper at his house, and . . .” Jana hesitated.
“And what?”
“And then I’m going to Whitney’s Opera House with him.”
Greta laughed at her sister’s apparent discomfort in telling her the plans for the evening, but then she got a serious look on her face.