Darling Annie

by Raine Cantrell

  Annie turned her back. She was not that woman. She was a lady. Committed to fighting Kellian York and his damning ways.

  “Air. I need fresh air in here,” she muttered, rushing to open the windows. But no matter how deeply she breathed, a tear had been made in the shrouded lost hours, and her mind was set on recalling them.

  Needing the distraction, Annie swept the street below with a gaze that searched for Kellian York even as she denied it.

  Far from the quiet scene of a weekday, Saturday found the town crowded with ranchers and farmers come in for their weekly shopping. Wagons were drawn up along one side of the street, narrowing her view. Ruts were filled with water, faint rainbows shimmered on the muddy puddles, and walking across the street required a great deal of care. Near the harness shop, Otis Fenway and Noel Bower played their weekly checker game to the advice of the crowd around them.

  Two boys swept the wooden walk in front of the mercantile, keeping it clean of the mud that clung to every pair of shoes. Lucinda Lockwood couldn’t abide dirt in her store, no matter how it got there.

  Loud voices drew her attention to the far end of the street, where men labored to clear the area of the fire. A high-sided wagon was loaded with burned timbers, and two men raked the blackish area where the Silken Aces had stood.

  Annie shaded her eyes with her hand, making out several men in a line, passing along the debris to fill the wagon. She could see that another waited behind it, the seat empty and Li coming into view. He motioned to one group; she was too far to hear what he was saying, but despite his black braid gleaming in the sun, the men scrambled to move. The resemblance to an industrious ant colony came to mind, not only the men but also the women walking along with their market baskets.

  Nowhere did she see Kellian. Annie was about to turn away when a wagon departed and revealed a small group of women at the edge of the wooden sidewalk sheltered from the sun by the overhang in front of Emmaline’s dress store. Likely, the women were speculating about Kell’s plans to rebuild.

  “You,” she warned herself, “are not going to think about that man.”

  Annie dressed with undue haste, ignoring the way the crisp white linen collar and apron over her gray washday gown made her look like a Quaker. She attacked her hair until it lay smoothly coiled and pinned to the back of her head.

  She had dawdled enough. Knowing she had to leave her room for the last to be cleaned, Annie headed for the door.

  A piercing scream halted her. More screams and shouts sent her flying back to the windows.

  Chapter 12

  Annie stared with horror at the scene of confusion that reigned below. At the far end of the street, near Emmaline’s shop, a horse reared in its wagon traces, screaming as though in pain. The women had backed to the front of the store away from the animal while two men fought to hold the horse still.

  The maddened horse’s screams had other men scrambling to the line of wagons along the street as those teams of horses tried to bolt. There were shouts and yells until no sense could be made of them.

  A woman crossing the muddy street tugged on her child’s hand. The little one she carried held her neck in a death grip. Annie saw the woman slip, then free her hold on the little girl. The horse cried out again, its hoofs rising to slash, and one man went down as the horse bolted free.

  The child struggled to get back to the middle of the street. Bearing down on her was the runaway wagon team, the seat empty of a driver to control the frenzied horses.

  The child’s face was a frozen mask of terror as she stood holding a muddy rag doll.

  “Do something!” Annie screamed. The mother had shoved her other child into someone’s arms, but two women held her back when she tried to run into the street. With disbelief Annie saw the townspeople freeze.

  The child was going to be crushed beneath the horses. Annie heard a shout below her window just as she caught sight of Li racing parallel to the runaway team. Black braid flying behind him, he moved with incredible speed, his feet appearing not to touch the ground.

  Annie yelled for him to hurry just as Kell came into view. Li made a leap for the horses’ headstall. Kell dived into the muddy street, rolling the small body beneath his own. Without a second to spare he had them out of harm’s way, but Li’s lunge brought another scream from Annie and more shouts from the crowd. Li slipped in the mud, only one of his hands solidly gripping the headstall. He was being dragged and was too close to the hooves of the crazed horses.

  Stricken with terror, Annie couldn’t make a sound. Then Kell appeared in the wagon bed. She didn’t look at anyone else. He was struggling to climb over the seat. In moments the wagon was out of sight. Annie ran.

  There had been no time for Kell to think, only act. In the tense minutes before he managed to seat himself on one horse, he saw that Li had pulled himself up on the other. They held their voices to soothing murmurs and with reassuring touches they calmed the animals until they came to a shuddering standstill a little way outside of town.

  For long minutes after they dismounted, Kell struggled to regain his breath. Li had the same trouble. There was no backslapping, no shared laughter to relieve the tension, no joking about their mud-strewn appearance.

  Kell wiped his face, realizing too late that by doing so he smeared mud across his cheek. “Why did the horse suddenly bolt?” He stroked the quivering animal’s hide, working his way down the foreleg to make sure there was no injury to the horse.

  When no immediate answer was forthcoming, Kell saw that Li, with a thoughtful expression, was duplicating his motions on the other animal.

  “What the hell happened, Li?”

  “I do not know.” He straightened and went around the wagon to stand at Kell’s side. “I gave the order to move this empty wagon to the other side of the site. The driver was leading the horse and stopped near the group of women by the dressmaker’s shop.” Sweat mixed with the mud blotches on his face, making him itch. Li tried to find a clean spot on his shirt to wipe it away. There wasn’t any.

  Shaking his head, he recalled the moment someone had yelled his name. “I turned for a moment, then the horse bolted.”

  “Can’t understand it. From what I saw walking toward you, the animal wasn’t spooked.” Kell suggested they check the hoofs in case the horse had picked up a nail.

  When Annie arrived, breathless from running, she skidded to a stop at the way they both turned accusing looks on her. Her insides felt like churned buttermilk left in the sun and she had to swallow several times before she approached them, thankful that neither man was injured. Behind her came a murmuring crowd of townspeople.

  “What happened?” she asked, unable to stop herself from visually inspecting Kell. The only recognizable feature were his eyes; everything else was coated in thick mud.

  “We were trying to figure that out, Muldoon.”

  “I saw from my window. The horse took off as if a bee had stung him.”

  “Bee?” Kell repeated, glancing at Li.

  “I cannot remember if there were any.”

  Impulsively, Annie untied her apron and handed it to Li. “You can share it.” She accepted his murmured thanks with an absent nod, growing uncomfortable with the way Kell was staring at her.

  “Li,” Kell began, holding his gaze steady on Annie, “you said those women were near the wagon just before the horse bolted?”

  “That’s right.” Li flipped the apron over to the clean side and handed it to Kell. “Here, use it. You need this more.”

  Keeping her voice low, Annie stepped closer to Kell. “You can’t mean to accuse my friends of this? Those women are mothers. They would never do anything to endanger a child’s life. Whatever can you be thinking of, Mr. York?”

  “I’m thinking,” he answered, wincing at the pain spreading from his shoulder, “that I have someone who doesn’t want me here and will go to any lengths to prevent my staying.”

  There was dissent from the
men in the front of the crowd that half circled them. Annie turned, looking for support, but the mother and child were being ushered forward and all attention was focused on them.

  Annie recognized Clovis Littlewood. Her halting manner as she tried to thank Kell was touching. Her little girl, Mary, usually shy, stepped out from behind her mother’s skirt and held out her muddy rag doll to Kell.

  “She’s not hurt?” he asked, going down on one knee to bring himself level with the child. Dark brown eyes stared back at Kell. Someone had attempted to clean her face, but a few dirt streaks remained. He lifted his hand and touched one bruise on her forehead.

  “Mama says I … I…” Helplessly she turned to her mother.

  “Thank him, Mary.”

  “Oh, yes, and for Cora Mae, too.”

  More thanks were given him and Li, and Annie listened and watched as Kell merely nodded to acknowledge them, his concentration focused on the child. His smile for the little girl wasn’t one she had witnessed before. Gone was the wickedness. Even his tone was gentle as he listened seriously to how much the rag doll meant to Mary.

  She sensed rather than saw that the crowd was drifting back to town, and she turned to leave. Later, she promised herself, she would talk to him about his unfounded suspicions. Her friends would not deliberately have injured a horse. The man was reaching for straw in a mud puddle even to think such a thing.

  “Your apron,” Li said, coming alongside Annie. “It is in a sorry state.”

  “I can wash it. He’s wrong, Li. I just know that he’s wrong.”

  “Perhaps. He has reason to feel angry.”

  “Yes, I know. The fire.”

  “There is that, but more.” He glanced at her and smiled. “Would hot baths be too much trouble to ask for?”

  “No. I’ll tend to it.” She paused and knew the question would have to be asked. “Why else is Kell angry? You’ve been with him so long—”

  “It is not for me to tell you.”

  His voice was soft, but there was dismissal. Annie glanced back to where Kell now stood alone. “I don’t think he ever will. I shouldn’t have pried.”

  “Li.” Kell barely kept the impatience from his tone.

  “Kell calls me.”

  “I’ll see you back at the house,” Annie said, walking away, thoughtful and not looking back.

  “What did Muldoon want with you? More denials of her friends being involved?”

  “She is loyal. Loyalty is to be prized.”

  “She’s blind, and that is to be pitied. Anyway, I want to show you what I found.” Kell opened his palm. “Interesting?” Kell looked from Li to Annie’s retreating figure. “Even honeybees have stings.”

  “Stings! I said stings, Aunt Hortense. That’s the way the horse bolted. Like a bee stung him.” Annie huffed her way into Kellian’s room, despairing that in addition to being exhausted from cleaning up the mess that the leaks made, she had her aunt feeling spry and following her around.

  “Why would a bee sting a horse, Annie Charlotte?”

  “Ask me why the moon is round, why don’t you? I don’t know. It just looked that way to me.” Annie stripped the bed and tossed the damp sheets on the floor. She rolled the top thin feather tick and carefully felt along its underside to see if the water had penetrated. The one below felt dry, but she would have to take this one outside and hope the sun lasted.

  “If it doesn’t,” she muttered, struggling to roll the tick tight, “he’ll have to sleep on one.” Blowing the hair that escaped her coil out of her eyes, she spun around to find her aunt poking with her cane at Kell’s things on his dresser top.

  “Aunt Hortense! Stop that. You can’t poke in a boarder’s things.”

  “I haven’t broke anything. Did you know that your grandfather always said you could tell a lot about a man by the way he keeps his razor?”

  Bundling up the sheets and quilt, Annie shot her aunt a bewildered look. “No, I didn’t know. What’s more, I don’t care. The less I know about Mr. York, the better for me.”

  “A man who keeps his razor sharp keeps his mind the same way.” She met Annie’s gaze with a blank look. “There was more, but I seem to have forgotten what it was.”

  “Fine, dearest. Mr. York has a dull mind. Are you sure you wouldn’t be—”

  “No, no, Annie. His razor’s nice and sharp. And see,” she added, lifting the strop with her cane, “the leather is of good quality.”

  “Then I hope he cuts his throat,” she muttered, spreading a fresh sheet over the bed.

  “Now why would Mr. York want to cut a rope?”

  “Aunt, he can hang himself with one for all I care.”

  “That so, Muldoon?”

  “No. Oh, no,” Annie whispered to herself, tucking in the corner of the sheet. Why did he have to bathe so quickly? With a heartfelt sigh, she straightened and turned to see Kell come into the room carrying his muddy clothes.

  “Is this the laundry pile?”

  “You know it is.” Nothing could stop her from glaring at him. She knew he relished tossing his clothes on top of the pile that would have her washing for another two hours.

  “Aunt Hortense, it is a pleasure to see you up and about.”

  Hortense nodded, glanced from Kell to her scowling niece, then came forward. “You’re just in time to escort me downstairs. Your arm, young man.”

  “Aunt!”

  “Now, now, Annie Charlotte, you know I’m in your way.”

  “No, aunt. I…” Annie shook her head and bent to finish making the bed. It was a blessing that her aunt removed Kell from her sight. The less she had…

  “Muldoon.”

  The soft, caressing way he called her made Annie stand at rigid attention. “What now, Mr. York?”

  “About last night—”

  “Last night? Don’t you dare mention last night. If you attempt to touch me again—”

  “I did more than that, Muldoon. You were sailing four sheets to the wind.”

  “I was exhausted, Mr. York. And wipe that smirk off your lips. I do not want you to kiss me again. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Blazingly so. So tell me what you’ll do, if I steal another kiss.”

  “I’ll … I will evict you!”

  “Fightin’ words, darlin’. The whole town thinks I’m a hero. They wouldn’t be pleased to know you tossed me out.”

  “I am in charge of my own life, Mr. York. I know that thought must shock you right down to your, er, well, the thought is shocking. But I’ll do it.” Annie wouldn’t look directly at him. She pinned her gaze on his shoulder, trying not to notice how his damp hair curled over the white shirt. “Why did you come back here? To torment me?”

  “I forgot my string tie.” He proceeded to the dresser and opened the top drawer. Watching her in the mirror, Kell drew out the black tie and slid it beneath his flipped-up collar. Then his nimble fingers stilled. He suddenly knew how hard Annie was fighting herself. Her gaze locked with his—a moment, no more, but it was enough to reveal the budding desire he had awakened last night.

  “Why do you call it torment, Annie? It’s a basic fact that when a man is attracted to a woman and that feeling is mutual—”

  “It’s not!” With a rough shake of her head, Annie bent to the pile of laundry. She almost groaned when she saw Dewberry, his tail high, come prancing into the room and go directly to Kell.

  Remember, she told herself, that the man is kind to animals and children. He can’t be all bad. The wickedness is yours. And the sooner you remove yourself from his sight, the better off you will be.

  Dewberry’s loud purring as Kell crouched down to rub behind the cat’s ears had her peering over the bundle of sheets. A heated quiver ran up her spine and seemed to make her chest swell as if the air were suddenly gone. She didn’t want to think about those slender fingers stroking her last night. Or how they made her feel like imitating the cat. She was made of stern resolutions. The
Lord had sent Kellian York as a test of her beliefs.

  Head high, shoulders back, Annie left the room. She had been tested quite enough for one day.

  “There, cat, goes the bewitching backside of a prickly little hedgehog. What would it take to tame her?” Kell’s skin felt tight. Hot. That fast. He rose with the groan of a man in pain, ignoring Dewberry’s battering paw when he was no longer being petted.

  Why the challenge in her eyes aroused him, he didn’t know. But he could see the image of her eyes, dark blue with flecks of gold lighting the depths. The thought of Annie Muldoon looking up at him as he moved over her in bed sent heat flooding his body. His heart pounded hard and fast. Just the way he thought about taking her.

  Damn the woman!

  Trying to make that corset-wrapped spinster purr could be his undoing.

  Only a fool would try.

  But then, he’d be the only one to know.

  And Annie hadn’t been wearing a corset last night…

  “Keep her warm, cat. I’ve got work to do.”

  Annie nodded to Emmaline, who had substituted for her as accompanist this glorious Sunday morning, as the last of the hymn died away. She rose to take her place in front of the small group gathered in the parlors. The knowledge that Kell had opened for business last night outside of town weighed heavily on her mind. From the stern regard of those women and few men that made the congregation this morning, she knew she would be censured for giving those people shelter and thereby allowing the evils of drink, gambling, and whoring to continue.

  The motivation to build a proper church lent strength to her voice as she began:

  “We are like-minded Christians of the same convictions, using prayer and good living to further our vision of bringing civilized order to our town. We are being tested and found wanting by our lack of charity, lack of vigorous belief, and lack of courage. We have a strong vision of what we can accomplish together. We cannot falter in that vision by allowing doubts of our strength to sever us from our purpose.

  “I know the gentlemen here share the belief that women can now assume positions once thought to be inappropriate for females. When the Civil War came and hosts of men went forth to defend our homeland, women conducted the business in our cities and towns during this patriotic absence. From that time a mighty change took place favorable to female employment.