“True enough. But Li and I ruled her out as the cause of all the stoppages as well as the malicious act of injuring that horse and nearly killing that child. And why the—why would she burn the place down? It makes no sense. I know she gets a cut of what the doves make, and she has something put by, but it couldn’t be enough to rebuild the place on her own.”
Kell glanced up and saw the shudder Annie couldn’t hide. He murmured an apology for his blunt talk, but he was at his wits’ and to resolve this. Setting a guard on the site wasn’t helping, if he took into account the fact that the man had likely fallen asleep.
“Look, all I’m asking is that you keep an open mind and agree to help me.”
“That isn’t too much, dear, is it?”
Annie met her aunt’s steady gaze, her raisin-dark eyes so direct, that Annie gulped. Her aunt knew about last night! The absolute certainty filled her. Why her aunt was not raving and condemning either Kell or herself, she didn’t know. The pounding in her temples increased, and Annie rubbed them, closing her eyes. It wasn’t too much to ask for her to keep an open mind and admit there could be a slight, very slight possibility that one of the group hoping to make Loving decent was behind Kell’s problems. Her stomach churned from her taking this small step.
“Annie Charlotte?”
Bowing her head, suddenly exhausted by it all, she nodded. “All right, I will talk to each one of them. But after this morning, I don’t know if they will even receive me.”
“The women of our family do not know defeat, Annie Charlotte. Not one has gone after what she wanted and lost. Even if a few used a broom to get it.”
Annie shared a puzzled look with Kell. But she had to ask, “A broom? Why?”
“Sometimes, dear, a woman of spirit needed to chase her intended with a broom until she caught him.”
“Oh.”
Hortense’s smile of reminiscence made Kell stand and head for the door. He wasn’t about to get himself trapped. He had a feeling that Hortense told the truth about knowing everything that went on. For the first time, he felt very uncomfortable with the thought that marriage might be expected. Damn Li for ever putting that notion in his head.
Behind him, Annie sweetly asked, “Did the broom always work, Aunt?”
“Oh, my, yes. Any man worth being called one doesn’t want to get caught. Sometimes it’s necessary to use a broom to whack some sense into him. Men, dear, are all grown-up boys. Remember that. Let them think they’re running things, smile and say ’yes, dear.’ Then, go ’bout your business of keeping order in his life and your home. The women in our family, barring death, had long marriages. Happy ones, too.”
“I’ll need to remember that, Aunt,” Annie said loudly as Kell slipped out of the partially opened door. “A broom,” she added, smiling to herself.
But when Annie rushed from the room to catch up with Kell, she found him waiting just beyond the doors for her.
“You try chasing me with a broom and I’ll use it to—”
Impulse spurred Annie to lean close and on tiptoe press a light kiss on his lips. “Good morning.” She darted beneath his raised arm before he could hold her. A giggle made her look at the back parlor doors where Cammy and Charity were standing.
“Thank you all for your cooking lessons. The goose has been properly stuffed.” Annie rushed toward the dining room, only to stop and look back at Kell. “All I need to do,” she said, raising her voice, “is baste it well in a slow-burning oven.”
The realization that she was talking about him—about them—with a sassy voice and a look that challenged, sent Kell after her. But he had waited a minute too long, and Annie made good her escape.
He went into the back parlor and found Pockets seated at the piano with Ruby alongside him. Cammy, Blossom, and Daisy were grouped behind them. Kell’s furious demeanor kept them very, very quiet.
“Where’s Bronc?” Kell demanded.
“He left soon as you closed the doors,” Ruby answered.
“Likely he went looking for his little dressmaker,” Daisy added. “She didn’t come to service this morning.”
“Good enough.” Kell’s gaze took in the wide-eyed innocent looks each dove returned. “Just so you know and make no mistake, I’m no damned goose. The male is a gander. But either one, I’m not about to be trussed, stuffed, and carved by Annie Muldoon or any woman.”
Pockets shifted his unlit cigar from one side of his mouth to the other and played the opening bars of a slow, sedate wedding march. Kell snorted and left.
The moment the front door slammed they all burst out laughing.
Chapter 20
Kell was running scared. No one was going to make plans for his life. He didn’t want roots. Did he? Working at the building site he relished the hard labor, but it was doing little to keep his mind occupied and away from Annie. He should have listened to Li from the first and walked away. No, not walked—but run as hard and fast as he could.
Annie had him thinking that Loving would be a good place for him to settle down despite the series of disruptions that slowed his work. And he wanted Annie—had, he admitted, from the first. And now that he had her, the wanting was worse. Much worse. The woman was bound to drive him crazy. At least he had wrung from her an agreement to help him find out who was behind the fire and the stoppages. He just knew it was one of the women. All he had to do was prove it.
Climbing over the stacked lumber to reach the partially laid second floor, Kell glanced down and did a double take.
There was Annie, the object of his desire. She and Ruth McQuary talked for a few minutes more, then Annie crossed the street and headed for Emmaline’s. What was she up to now? he wondered, catching hold of the beam above his head.
To keep Annie in sight—Annie with that enticing hip-swinging walk that had already raised his temperature a few degrees—Kell leaned precariously out from the edge of the wood flooring, all his weight dragging on the overhead beam. A sultry breeze buffeted his body, already overheated so that sweat rolled down his back.
A rueful grin teased his lips. Here he was, like some green-behind-the-ears kid, love-starved for the sight of Annie. If he had any sense…
A splitting noise made him look up. The overhead beam, the only thing he held on to, was coming apart above him. The fact didn’t really register that the four-by-four couldn’t crack, couldn’t just split apart on its own. Nothing for a few moments made sense until he tried to catch his balance and pull back from the edge.
But Kell was leaning out too far. He couldn’t pull back. Couldn’t stop his body’s momentum. He could and did curse as he fell.
He twisted wildly to avoid the debris below, then tucked his body tight, steeling himself for the bruising jar.
The impact left Kell stunned. He couldn’t draw breath. Someone was screaming his name. Black lights danced behind his eyelids. Why was it dark? It shouldn’t be. It was the last thought he had.
Annie reached him first, calling his name as she gently lifted his head to her lap. His face was scraped, a bruise was forming over his left eye, but she couldn’t see any blood.
“Get back,” she yelled, feeling stifled by the press of bodies.
“Move aside,” Bronc ordered, shoving people aside to get to Kell. “What happened?”
“I don’t know, Bronc. He was up there,” Annie said, without looking, “then suddenly he was falling. Didn’t you see?”
“No. Emmaline, get some water.”
Annie glanced up to see her friend hovering behind Bronc. Her face was pale, and beads of sweat lined her upper lip, but it was the panicked look of her eyes that made Annie want to snarl at Emmaline.
“Did you see what happened?” Annie demanded of her.
“She couldn’t, Annie,” Bronc answered. “We were together.”
“Wasn’t no damn accident.”
They all looked up to where one of the carpenters stood on the same edge as Kell had, pointin
g up to the beam that had split.
“Beam’s sawed near through. Kell’s weight was all it took to crack it.”
Annie shuddered and held Kell tight. She refused to let Bronc move him, demanding that he get Li. He was the only one she trusted to touch Kell.
“Look at yourself, Annie,” Emmaline bent low to whisper. “You’re making a spectacle of yourself over that no-account.”
“Get away from me. Get away from Kell. I didn’t want to believe him. I couldn’t believe him. It took this,” she cried out, “to make me understand he was right all along. One of you,” she added, her gaze moving around the townspeople without really seeing them, “tried to kill him.”
Kell’s moan drew her attention and held it. “Don’t move, Kell,” she whispered to him. “Li’s coming. We’ll take you home.”
Annie led the way. She couldn’t help but think back to the morning after the fire, when she had stood in her room and watched Kellian York march toward her boardinghouse with a crowd behind him. Li had overridden her objections to let Bronc help him carry Kell. The doves formed a circle around the three men, followed by a curious crowd. Annie had no time for them.
She stood aside as the men entered, waited until Ruby, the last dove inside was out of the way, then firmly closed the door.
“One of you stand guard and don’t let anyone in,” she ordered, heading for the kitchen.
Fawn already had a basin with hot water and folded linen cloths on a tray. Annie added a small crock of salve and after making sure that the back door was locked, with Fawn keeping watch, she took the tray and went up to Kell’s room.
He had come to, groaning as Li examined his right arm.
“Is it broken?” Annie asked, setting down the tray. She went to kneel on the opposite side of the bed, catching hold of Kell’s good hand with both of hers. “I’ll never doubt you again. I’m only sorry you had to be hurt before I would believe you.”
“Annie, don’t,” Kell whispered, turning to face her. Careful as Li prodded, Kell couldn’t help the cold sweat beading his face or the wince of pain. “Damn it, Li, don’t settle any scores now.”
“As if I would. There is nothing broken. The shoulder is bruised. Let me get this shirt off you. Heat will help, then I will wrap it. I do not expect you to leave this bed for a while.”
Kell didn’t pay any attention to him. Annie was crying, softly, silently, but washing the hand she held with tears of remorse.
“Don’t, Annie. I’ve survived worse. This is—” Kell lost his breath when Li ripped the sleeve open, never realizing how tight he gripped Annie’s hands until she uttered a small cry. “Be careful, Li. Annie won’t take kindly to you hurting me.”
“No. No, I won’t, Li. I’ll never let anyone hurt him again.”
“Are we having confession time, Muldoon?”
Annie managed a forced smile. “My feelings have never been in doubt. It’s yours that worry me.” She leaned over to press a light kiss to his lips, needing to pour all the love in her heart into him.
“Annie.”
She drew back at the breathless way he said her name, startled by her own action when she saw him pale. Releasing his hand, she set briskly to work unbuttoning his shirt, then asked Li what he wanted her to do.
“Distract him.”
With one hand cupping his bruised cheek, Annie once more turned Kell’s face toward her. She scooted up closer so she could whisper in his ear.
“Kellian York, I love you.”
“Christ! Now you tell me.” He shot a glaring look at Li, who sent shafts of additional pain from his injured shoulder with every move, then turned back to Annie. With his free hand he drew her head closer to his.
“Do you know, Kell, I rather like you this way. Prone and biddable. A woman could get used to seeing her man this way.”
“Could she?”
“Oh, yes,” Annie said, with a genuine smile before she kissed him again and withdrew just as quickly.
“I don’t want roots. Only stayed because I owed my brother.” Kell closed his eyes, fighting off the waves of pain that were threatening to drag him under. Annie’s scent had him fighting yet another battle. A man could get used to having all that sweet concern just for himself. And that’s the kind of thinking that gets a man caught in a marriage trap, a small voice of caution whispered.
Li, finished with poking and prodding to his satisfaction, tried to be as gentle as he could as he wrapped Kell’s shoulder.
Kell opened his eyes and looked at Annie. “I never made you any promises. I never said I was staying,” he added, ignoring her attempt to hush him. “I like being free to come and go as I please. You are an ordering kind of woman, Muldoon. The kind that has to change a man. I’m real set in my ways.”
“So am I, but that’s enough. You’re hurting, Kell. Let Li finish. There will be plenty of time for us to talk. I just want you to know that I was wrong. So very wrong not to believe you. Watching you fall—” Her voice broke, and Annie bent her head to his pillow, taking comfort in laying her head next to his.
She squeezed her eyes closed. Seeing him in pain made the pain hers. The image of Kell falling replayed itself in her mind. He could have been killed. From one moment to the next he could have been taken from her forever. He would never have known that she loved him. The tears came, and Annie did nothing to stop them. She didn’t care if her nose ran or her eyes were red.
“Annie, it isn’t that bad. I’ve had worse happen. God’s earth, Li, give her some of that whiskey. She needs it more than I do.”
“W-whiskey?” Annie repeated. She scrubbed her face over the quilt in a most unladylike gesture, but at this point she didn’t care. Lifting her head, she wiped at the lingering wetness on her cheeks. “You can’t have whiskey in my house.”
Li was already helping Kell to sit up against the headboard. Annie eyed the bottle he held out to Kell. She managed to stand on unsteady legs.
“Don’t drink that, Kell. Now is a good time for you to stop. I’ll make you a tea that will ease the pain. You do not need spirits.”
“Not now, Annie,” Kell warned.
“Oh, yes. Now is the perfect time.” Annie glared at Li. “Hand it over.”
Li, to his credit, did look from her outstretched hand back to Kell’s glowering face.
When Annie saw his hesitation, she knew what she had to do. “Kell, look at me.” When she had his attention, she ignored her sniffles and said, “Let’s remember who held the cure for your—”
“Annie!”
“Kellian!” she returned. It took all her courage to hold his warning glare and not crumble back down to his side. “I do believe he had made his decision, Li. Give me that bottle.”
“Oh, give her that damn bottle, Li. Leave it to a woman to pick a time when a man is down, in pain, and—”
“In love with you, Kell.” Annie snatched the bottle and fled the room.
Bronc was pacing the hallway and stopped her flight. “I need to talk to him.”
“Li’s finished with him now. I’m not, but I’m sure you can go in.” Annie took a few steps, then turned back. “Wait. Bronc, you were with Emmaline when Kell—”
“I didn’t see it happen. I told you that.”
“Don’t get testy with me. I never believed Kell when he insisted that one of the women in our group would go to such lengths to stop him. I didn’t understand how anyone could risk injury or death. I admit I led the fight to close him down, but I hoped to accomplish it by reason.”
“I need to talk to Kell, Annie.”
She studied his face in the shadowed light, but it was a sense that he was hiding something and wouldn’t tell her that forced her to let him go. Thoughtfully, Annie headed down to the kitchen. There was no help for it; confrontation had begun her day, and she would finish with more than anyone could have imagined.
Finding Laine in the kitchen with her aunt sent a battle gleam into Annie’s eyes �
�And where were you all morning?” she demanded of the woman sitting at the table with a cup of coffee.
“Since when do I need to answer to you?”
“Since someone just tried killing Kell.”
“Annie Charlotte, tell me that isn’t so.”
“I’m afraid it is true, Aunt. Kell was working on his building and someone sawed a beam nearly through. He took a bad fall and injured his shoulder. But he could have just as easily died.”
“Is that why you’re holding a bottle of whiskey, dear.”
“This?” Annie had forgotten she held it. “I took this away from him. Kell needs a cup of medicinal tea. Would you see to it, Aunt? I want to hear what Laine has to say for herself.”
Annie caught the betraying tremor of Laine’s hands around the cup and the avoidance of her own gaze.
“You can’t think I had anything to do with it?”
“Why not, Laine? You have the most reason to want Kell out of the way. I know that Kyle promised the place to you. But when he died you found out that he’d left it all to Kell.”
“And Kell was content to let the arrangement I had with his brother stand. Wouldn’t put a dollar in my pocket to burn the place down.”
Distaste for Laine rose like bile in Annie’s throat. She managed to swallow it, barely, and paused to think over her questions. Kell needed her help. He had asked for it. She couldn’t let him down.
“You can’t deny that Kell never wanted the place to begin with. You could have set the fire, believing that Kell would cut his losses and leave Loving. I know you have money set aside, Laine.”
“And what if I do? You didn’t give it to me. No one ever gave anything to me.” Eyes snapping with anger, Laine stared directly at Annie until she made herself calm down. “Not that someone like you could understand, having family to protect you, but I worked damned hard for every dollar. But I didn’t set that fire. I didn’t try to kill him. If I’d wanted Kell dead, he would be.”
Darling Annie Page 25