“And When we’re done with this,” Jamie said, “I need to make and Miss. Stuart is go’ rag to do so, too. In the case deaths, the property is to be equally divided in between my two brothers, Cole Slater and and in case of their deaths, to their heirs.” smiled at Tess reassuringly.
“Oh, yeah, and Mr. I want you to make sure you talk about this. I the whole town to know that there’s just no way, no at all, the Stuart spread is ever going to be up for sale. understand me?” stayed silent for a long moment, then he be” You got it, Lieutenant Slater. Damn, but it! Oh, excuse me, Tess.
I plumb forgot you were there!” amusing,” Tess said with a stiff smile.
“They’ll know, all right, they’ll know … ” Mr. Barrymore was writing quickly.
“I must hand it to you, Lieutenant, you do seem to know what you’re doing with property and the law. Though it ain’t surprising, not one bit. You sure do know what you’re doing with those Colts of yours. Why, in all my life, I’ve never seen anything like the shootin’ you did in the saloon the other night” — “Shooting?” Tess interrupted, sitting straight. “Oh, my, yes, you should have seen him! Some of those hooligans of Mr. yon Heusen’s come in and they were giving Hardy a bad time, but the Lieutenant here, he stood right up to them.” Mr. Barrymore slapped his hand hard on his desk and hooted with laughter.
“It was a joy to these weary eyes, Tess, it was! Didn’t you tell Miss. Stuart about it, Lieutenant? Hell—heck, boy, if it had been me, I’d have told the whole damned—darned—world about it!”
“I didn’t seem to have the chance, Mr. Barrymore. When I got home, a few more of Mr. yon Heusen’s boys were at the ranch.
And someone needed to tell those fellows that it wasn’t a good thing to play with matches.”
“You shot yon Heusen’s men in the saloon?” Tess asked, staring at him.
“Sure,” Mr. Barrymore said cheerfully.
“Why, you would have heard about it if you’d gone into the paper, Tess. The lieutenant was sitting with Ed Clancy and Dec?” Tess stood and stared at Jamie.
“I think I’ll take a little walk over to the Wiltshire Sun right now. I’m sure, Lieutenant Slater, that you know exactly how you want everything worded. Then Mr. Barrymore can draw up the papers and I will come back and sign them. Excuse me, will you?”
Jamie and Mr. Barrymore both stood quickly, but Tess was already at the door.
She stormed out, feeling her face red, wondering if she should be furious with the man or if she should run back and kiss him. She wasn’t going to do 167 either—she was going to see Ed and find out exactly what had happened.
She walked into the Wiltshire Sun office as if she were a battleship.
Harry, the printer, looked up from his plates.
Edward, at work at his desk, also looked up. The naked joy in his eyes as he saw her made her first questions flee. He leaped up to hug her, nearly breaking ~ery bone in her body.
“I knew you were all right, Tess, because I saw Slater.
But, girl, it does an old body good to see you!”
” Thank you, Edward, thank you!” she told him.
Harry, toothless and shy, was standing behind him.
“And you, too, Harry, come here. Let me give you a big, sloppy kiss right on that jaw of yours!”
He flushed a bright red from his throat to his white, tufted hair, but he accepted a kiss and hugged her tightly in return.
“We just kept doing the paper, Miss. Tess. Even when they tried to tell us that you weren’t coming back, we just kept the Sun going out on schedule.
Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, we had a W~tltshire Sun out on the street!”
“And I’m so grateful and so proud of both of you I” Tess assured him.
Edward cleared his throat.
“Well, I didn’t exactly have the news of the nation going out,” he admitted.
“Ah, hell, I didn’t really have the balls to print too much. Von Heusen was breathing down my neck, and I” — “You kept it going,” Tess said.
“And I’m grateful.” She gloves and headed for her desk.
“Am I in time a story for the Tuesday edition?”
“Yes, yes, Miss. Stuart! I’ll clean out the presses, I’ll” — “I’ve just got one story,” Tess assured him.
“But it’s an one. I want it on the front page.” smiled at Edward and inserted paper into the new typewriter she had insisted they buy. She closed her pausing for a moment, smelling the ink on Harry’s Then she smiled and started to type. She described the small wagon train, then she described the attack. She described the attackers, who had looked like white men painted up to look like Comanche. She wrote about being saved by the cavalry, then she wrote about Chief Running River and how he had sworn his people had not had anything to do with the attack. Then she wrote that she knew she was an eyewitness. and a survivor. She ended the piece with a bold accusation.
“Certain tyrants in this town will stoop to any means to bring about their chosen results. This town has been mercilessly se’tzed upon. We’ve seen our friends and neighbors disappear. Some say it was the war, but the war has ended, and all good men are trying to repair broken fences and lend a helping hand. In this town, however, we have been met by evil. Yes, my friends, evil lives in man. The evil that killed a man like Joe Stuart. Joe Stuart’s death must not be in vain. We must band together and fight the evil. It does not come from the war. It comes from a man, and no matter how he threatens, we can beat him—if we stand together.” She left it at that. She hesitated for a moment, searching for better words, then shrugged. She had said what she wanted to say.
She pulled the sheet of paper from the machine and handed it to Edward.
“Read this over for me, will you, Ed?”
His eyes were already racing over the piece. He was a swift. proofreader, and he quickly came to her final paragraph.
His fingers trembled, and the paper wavered within them. “Tess” — “I want it out tomorrow,” she said.
“Tess, he’ll come after you lock, stock and barrel” — “He already left me for dead once,” she said.
“But, Tess” — “Print it, please. And now tell me—what happened at the saloon the other night?”
Edward stared, trying to change his train of thought quickly as she was changing the conversation.
“The 169 night? Why, Miss. Tess, I was just in a little need of companionship-”
“Not that, Clancy, not that! I want to hear about the lieutenant.”
“The lieutenant?”
“Slater, Edward Clancy! Jamie Slater and the yon Heusen men and the blazing guns.”
“Oh, it was something, Tess. Honest to God, but it was something!”
“Something? Fine. What? Tell me about it, please!”
“Why, he just-come into the bar, and we all kind of greeted him” — “Everyone in the place stared at him, wondering if he was : dangerous or not “
“Right, right. Doc and I were playing cards and we invited him over for a whiskey. He started asking questions right away, then yon Heusen’s guns came in. One of them had Hardy the bartender by the throat when Jamie Slater him to stop. The man laughed. Then they were all threatening to shoot up Slater, but that Slater, he had their number! Before you know it—one, two, three, four! All of were lying on the floor and choking and crying and on like babes. And Slater just stepped over them, as a cucumber, and walked over to the barber and got a shave and a bath.
“Well, of course, yon Heusen’s fellers, they were threat- right and left, but those boys lit out of town as as Doc patched them up, lit straight out of town, they Don’t know if they went back to yon Heusen or if they away for good. I ain’t seen a one of them since. Of one young feller, he ain’t gonna be ridin’ anywhere a while, he kind of took his shot in the posterior sec- if you know what I mean.” I think I know what you mean,” Tess said. She gave Ed kiss on the cheek.
“You take care now. I’ll be in tomorrow morning. You make
sure my piece goes on the front page.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Tess left the office and walked slowly down the street toward Mr. Barrymon~‘s office.
What had she gotten?
She’d wanted a hired gun. And she’d gotten one. She railed against Jamie for leaving the ranch when he’d been finding out what he could—and shooting it out with some of yon Heusen’s toughs at the same time.
And gaining quite a reputation as he did so. She shivered suddenly.
She’d seen him shoot the snake. She’d known that he was fast and good. She shouldn’t have been surprised to hear that he had knocked down four of yon Hensen’s men in a matter of seconds. Then he’d humiliated yon Heusen at the ranch. Von Heusen was going to be mad, and he was going to be thirsting for blood. Her blood.
But she’d known she had to fight him. And she had Jamie. She’d wanted the gun.
And she’d wanted the man.
And now she had both.
She tightened her fingers around the drawstring of her little purse and stopped walking to lean against a wooden wall as a fierce trembling swelled within her. hard and inhaled deeply as she remembered the previous night.
She couldn’t have been so brazen. Or so wanton. or so decadent. or so searingly intimate.
But she had been. He had warned her away. He had given her every opportunity. He had told her that she should be with a man who cared. He implied that he didn’t care. Surely that wasn’t true. He liked her. There were about her he loved.
But it didn’t mean anything. That was the rub. It mean anything at all.
She was just a woman, a warming body. Just like Eliza. She had thrown herself at him.
And one day he’d turn away from her, just as he had turned from Eliza.
She inhaled, exhaled, then forced herself to walk. She must not let it happen again. Even if it had been more than she had ever dreamed. She’d never imagined that making love could be so erotic, so wonderful. She’d never imagined that it was possible to feel so excited,- so cherished, so ~ explosive and so sated. She’d never imagined that a man’s hands could do what his had done, or that a man’s kiss could awaken everything in her body, or that a man could ‘join with a woman so completely and bring about such splendor.
It could quickly become addictive. But he didn’t intend to stay. Even if he bought her land and settled down, he had made it clear that he didn’t intend to stay with her.
She had taken care to sound independent, too. And now. Now she wanted to lie down beside him again. She wanted ~to laugh and feel his touch and explore his shoulders and his chest and his long, muscled legs and . everything. Even the parts of the body that she couldn’t quite bring herself to name aloud. She had wanted him. never deny that. But now she was afraid of the long that seemed to have escalated since she had known his touch.
Having him hadn’t quenched the desire at all.
It had set it all afire. She was in front of the lawyer’s office. She set her hand knob and twisted it and walked in. Mr. Barrymo~e finishing copying out a second set of papers. Jamie directed him as to what he should write. timing,” Jamie said, applauding her.
“We need ~ ” Shouldn’t I read the documents?”
“Be my guest.”
Tess took the papers from Mr. Barrymore, but she couldn’t quite manage to read. She pretended to, skimming the words. They all swam before her.
“We need a witness,” Mr. Barrymore said. “No problem,” Jamie told him.
He stepped outside. A moment later, he was back with Doe. He signed one set of papers, then Mr. Barrymore and Doe signed as witnesses. Then Tess signed, not having the least idea of what was really on the papers, and her signature was witnessed, too.
“That’s that, then!” Jamie said, pleased. He counted out gold coins to Mr. Barrymore, who seemed very pleased. So much was being done in paper currency lately. “Let’s go, Tess,” Jamie said.
“Good day, Mr. Barrymore, Doe. Thank you,” she told the lawyer. But Barrymore and Doe were hardly able to respond before Jamie had his hand on her elbow and was leading her out.
When they reached the wooden sidewalk, she wrenched her hand free.
“Jamie, I just might not be ready to head home.”
“We’re not heading home,” he told her.
“We’re going to talk.”
“What if I had something to do?” she demanded. “It would have to wait.”
“It wouldn’t!”
“Today, Tess,” he insisted, “it would.” The brim of his hat was pulled low over his eyes, hands were firmly on his hips.
“Now, listen” — “You listen,” he told her, wagging a finger beneath nose.
“I’m not going to live like this. We’re straighten out the relationship.”
“There is no” — “The hell there isn’t. Now get in the wagon, or I’ll put you in it.”
“You wouldn’t” — He took a step toward her. Before she knew it she was off her feet, then she was sitting in the wagon. She swung around, but he was beside her in an instant, and the reins were in his hands, and he was clucking to-the thoroughbred that pulled the small conveyance.
Tess crossed her arms over her chest, staring straight ahead.
“You are intolerable!” she told him.
“I just don’t like a bunch of bull, that’s all.”
“Bull” — “The way you’re acting.”
“I’m not acting” — “I hope to hell you are.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” They were already out of town. He was silent for a moment.
The horse picked up its gait and it seemed they were flying down the road.
Then, suddenly, Jamie reined in. The horse slowed and Jamie hooked the reins around the brake. He jumped down and came around the wagon for Tess.
“What?” she demanded, staring down at him. He reached up, placed his hands around her waist and lifted her down. When she was on the ground, his hands still her. His eyes were like smoke, and his jaw was She knew that he did, indeed, intend to have things She opened her mouth, wanting to protest again, want- to deny and denounce him and run away. But she was because that wasn’t what she wanted at all. She to trust him. She wanted to lean against him.
And, of all, she wanted to feel his lips upon hers again, as as the sun, as rich as the earth. But she didn’t want to him so badly. she didn’t want to make a fool of her- like Eliza.
Because, like Eliza, she was falling in love with him.
“Come on,” he told her.
“Where?” she protested.
“Down by the water.”
The road ran along the river. He held her hand and led her through the trees until they came to a little copse. They were alone with the sounds of the rippling waters, with the occasional call of a bird, the soft rustle of a tree. He drew her close, and when she stiffened, he drew her even closer.
“What is this?” he demanded.
She moistened her lips, staring at his eyes, then at his mouth.
“What is—what?” she asked.
“Miss. Stuart, I gave you a chance last night. Hell, I gave you several chances last night. You wanted to stay.”
“You wanted to make love.”
“I … yes,” she whispered.
“And now you’re running. Why?”
“I’m’ not!” she protested.
“It’s just that” — “I can’t do it, Tess. I can’t live with it if you think you can blow hot and cold in a matter of hours.”
“Then what?”
“I’m just trying to give you … space!”
She lowered her head. She desperately wanted to put her~ shoulder against his shirt. She breathed in, smelling clean male scent of him, and she felt a furious pulse flight at her throat, in her heart, in her veins. He slid fingers into her hair at the sides of her head and lifted face. He stared, and she tried to return his gaze tering. But then his hand came to her breast. She muted something softly, then she did l
ean against him. sky seemed dazzling, but not so dazzling as the man. “Tess, Tess!” he whispered to her, holding her close. frightening, it’s damned terrifying. You’re coming so much to me.”
His arms were around her. She parted her lips and moistened them with her tongue again. His parted and moved upon hers, and they melded and tasted until finally he drew his lips away. Then they sank down together upon a bed of leaves, with the river just beyond them. Their arms locked together and they kept kissing, tasting one another, and it ~ ~eemed that the sound of the rushing water grew louder and louder.
Tess found that she was pressed into the leaves. His hands were upon her.
She set her palms against his cheek, and desire took flight within her as she felt the planes and textures , of his face. She thought confusedly that she loved the way he looked with his smoke-dark eyes and sandy, disheveled hair, with the rough touch and the rugged angles and lines of his face, the twist of his jaw. She wrapped her arms around him, sliding her fingers through the hair at his nape, drawing him to her for another kiss. The earth beneath her began to heat. She ran her fingers over the opening of his ~ahirt. She felt the ripple of muscle with her fingertips. She teased at his buttons until his shirt opened, until she could reach her hands inside and slide her nails over his naked ~t~h and feel the trembling that she evoked. him groan and she felt his touch upon the tiny of her dress, then she felt herself being freed from Her slip and her chemise remained, but they were the feel of his searing kiss upon her body and Soon her slip was wound beneath her, and she felt earth with her bare flesh. His hard and driving man teased her for a split second, then drove within her a startling, shattering thrust that swept her breath The sun was above him. She heard curious cries, then re- they came from her and that she was clinging to arching, writhing. meeting him, welcoming him, him. She felt the slap of his body against hers, and earthy and real. She felt the sun upon his naked flesh, and that, too, was real. And she felt more. the certain heat, the glow of the sun, which heightened every swift pleasure, a touch of the blue, cloudy sky. She was damp, and so aware of him within her, and aware of the rising ecstasy inside her body. Coiling tighter and tighter until she was crying out again, then gasping in a soft shriek as something came upon her so strong and sweet and volatile that it rent the whole of her with shivers, while something like hot nectar seemed to swamp her body. She couldn’t move. She could scarcely breathe, and it seemed that the world went dark before the sun burst upon her again. And just as it did, he thrust hard within her and stayed and stared at her, the whole of his face tense and haunting and taut with passion. Then he exploded within her, and thrust and thrust again. and lay down beside her, wrapping her in his arms.
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