by Nancy Bush
“It’s all right, Mary. I just decided to get away for a little while.”
“I’m ever so sorry! You do what’s most comfortable. We’re all powerful sorry about your ma. She was a high-class lady. Real nice, too.”
Harrison didn’t answer, and Miracle’s heart turned over in pain. She wanted to offer comfort but sensed that the less said the better.
He glanced her way, and she smiled. Just seeing him again made her blood fairly sing through her veins, and she couldn’t help feeling uplifted that he’d thought her company. With very little effort she could disbelieve that he was engaged to Kelsey Garrett.
They sat at a corner table, and Miracle, who had always handled herself with fierce independence and pride, was unusually tongue-tied — then was annoyed and angry that this should be so.
“How’s your – injury?” she asked.
He smiled, and she thought no man alive had a right to be so damnably good-looking. “Nearly healed. My family wanted to know how it happened and who did it. Mrs. Mead was certain you had.”
“What did you tell them?” Her face turned red.
“I said it was an accident. Then Mother got sicker, so the subject was forgotten.”
She stared at him, her heart so full it ached. She’d known he was handsome and charming. Hadn’t she given him all of herself based on just such flimsy qualifications? But she hadn’t known he was this handsome, this charming. His eyes were the most brilliant green she’d ever seen, his teeth white and straight. There wasn’t a soft line on his face, yet when he grinned at her, like he was doing right now, there was something so appealing, so indefinable and attractive, that Miracle responded in spite of herself.
Little fool, she warned herself sternly.
“So you’re setting up shop, huh? No more traveling shaman?”
“I am not a shaman,” she corrected. “Though Uncle Horace likes to spin that yarn if he thinks it’ll get him a sale.”
“Then you’re a humbug quack? Like Belinda?”
The insult was said without malice, but Miracle was justly irritated. “Your brother Tremaine didn’t seem to think so! He asked me to help your mother.”
Harrison’s gaze fell on the plate of scones that had been set in front of him. “Nothing could help her,” he said matter-of-factly. “She caught diphtheria and died.”
Miracle felt terrible.
Harrison face was suddenly wiped clean of all expression. “So what made you decide to stay?”
“I’m looking for my father,” Miracle told him, anxious to change the subject. “Uncle Horace decided we might as well set up shop as long as we’re here.”
“Your father lives in Rock Springs?” Harrison asked in surprise.
“Or, maybe he did once.” Sketchily, Miracle explained a bit of her history to him. “I’ve asked around,” she finished, “but no one seems to know anyone who made regular trips up the Columbia to Clatsop twenty years ago.”
“Twenty years ago,” Harrison murmured reflectively. “Rock Springs wasn’t much of a town then.” A wry smile crossed his lips. “I was only about eight.”
Miracle tried to picture Harrison as a boy and failed. The memory of his virility was still too fresh. She cleared her throat. “He may have lived in Malone and just spent time in Rock Springs.”
“Or maybe he wasn’t from here at all. You might have misinterpreted what the old woman meant.”
Miracle shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
The rest of their meal was delivered – flaky chicken pie and sliced apples swimming in cinnamon sauce. Miracle, who’d nibbled sparingly at the restaurant in hopes of keeping her bill down, now stared at the food with real hunger. She hadn’t eaten this well in ages.
Her mouth watered, and she attacked her food with fervor. Harrison, however, played with his chicken pie, finally pushing back his plate. He watched Miracle eat, and when she was nearly done he said briskly, “Let’s get out of here.”
After wiping her mouth quickly as he paid the bill, Miracle followed him outside. The streets were nearly empty. Lights from the Half Moon Saloon and the upper stories of several of the businesses, where the townspeople lived, spilled squares of pale yellow illumination onto the rain-splashed puddles below. Harrison drew a long breath, then said, “I brought the buggy to town. Would you care to go for a ride?”
“I’ll have to tell Uncle Horace,” Miracle murmured, not certain she should accept. God’s truth, she was weak when she was with him. Too weak. But he was in a vulnerable state right now, too. He needed comfort and companionship.
Miracle couldn’t help thinking about herself and Harrison together – until she reached the wagon and encountered the cold reality of Uncle Horace.
“You’re askin’ for trouble, Miracle. I’m sorry now that I told you to go with him. He’ll break your heart if you let him. I think it’s best if you stop this now.”
“I’m perfectly aware of what I’m doing,” she declared, angry because she knew he was right.
“Like you were the night you and him was together?”
“That’s not fair!” Miracle cried, stung by his cold tone. “I’ve made decisions for myself for nineteen years. I know what I’m doing!”
“We have work to do,” he said, choosing another tack. “The shelves are only half-filled.”
“I’ll do it later.”
“You want to find your pa, don’tcha? We’ve got to keep askin’ questions until we learn somethin’. And when we find him, we’ll ask for what’s rightfully yours. Then we can decide if’n we want to stay here longer.”
Miracle had been in the process of shaking the rain from her crocheted shawl, but now she stopped short. “What do you mean, ‘what’s rightfully yours’?”
“A tin box of money ain’t enough. A missin’ tin box at that,” he added with a grimace. “He owes you your birthright, Miracle. Jones is my name, not yours.”
“I have no intention of demanding anything from him when I find him!”
“You can bet Blue would,” Uncle Horace pointed out.
“I’m not Blue, and I’m not my mother,” Miracle said in a barely controlled voice. She thrust open the back doors, tossing a glance of fury and exasperation over her shoulder at him as she jumped down to the ground. She waved to Harrison, who was turning the Danner buggy around in the street. “Don’t worry about me,” she added in an undertone to Uncle Horace as she closed the doors.
“I do worry, Miracle, my girl. I can’t help myself.”
With his quiet words ringing in her ears, Miracle dashed across the street to where Harrison stood beside a sleek black buggy. A docile chestnut mare turned her head and pushed her nose against his shoulder until Harrison slipped a sugar cube between her lips.
“Where we going?” Miracle asked as Harrison helped her into the seat.
“Do you care?”
“As long as this isn’t an abduction, no.”
He half smiled. Good. She’d taken his mind off his pain for a bit.
Without further explanation Harrison drove the buggy away from Rock Springs and toward the Danner property. Miracle half expected to be taken back to his parents’ farmhouse, but instead he circled that property and kept traveling along a track that was little more than twin rows of wet, flattened grass which headed farther east.
It was nearly dark by the time he stopped the buggy at the edge of a verdant, rolling hill. Rain dripped steadily off the roof and onto the floorboards. Miracle slid a glance at Harrison, her gaze skating down his strong profile and broad shoulders. She shivered.
“Are you cold?” Harrison asked.
Miracle shook her head. God’s truth, she was much too hot. The evening was warm despite the rain, and being next to Harrison made her thoughts scatter in all kinds of directions which brought heat surging through her skin.
Since he didn’t explain why they’d come, she asked, “Where are we?”
“This is my place. I come here a lot to think.”
Miracle felt pain stab her heart. “Is this where you and your bride are planning to build?”
“So you know about Kelsey. I’m not surprised.”
Miracle drew up her shoulders. “Your standing her up at the altar is the talk of the town.”
He swore softly beneath his breath, then humor rescued him. “If I hadn’t been stabbed I would have made that wedding and I would be married now.”
“I’m sure you’ll rectify things as soon as possible.”
Harrison turned to her, exasperated. “Maybe you did me a favor.”
“What do you mean?” Miracle asked suspiciously.
He didn’t know what he meant. He’d made a mistake bringing her here. All he could think about was the impression of her legs beneath her black skirt. He wanted to crush her to him.
“Do you love her?” Miracle asked, switching tactics. Hellfire, she might as well take her medicine straight.
“No.”
“You’re marrying her to make your family happy?”
“Partly.”
“Why are you marrying her?”
“I don’t know the hell why! Right now, I don’t think I will marry her.”
Miracle swept him a look out of the corner of her eye. His face was grim. Was he serious?
“Right now, I just want to be with you.”
Now she saw the smoldering desire in his green eyes. She suddenly understood. He wanted her, Miracle, but not because he truly cared. He wanted to expunge his grief, or forget for a while, but he didn’t want Miracle.
“I told you before, I won’t be any man’s mistress. Certainly not any white man’s.”
Her haughty tone amused and infuriated him. To hell with it. He was tired of talking. “Come here.” He simply reached out and pulled her into his arms, kissing her in a way that fired her blood.
Miracle clamped her lips together. Hellfire! She wasn’t used to such forcefulness.
“We’ve been together. I know it,” he breathed in her ear of moment later. His heart beat heavily against hers. “Tell me the truth and I’ll leave you alone. I promise.”
“There’s nothing to tell.”
He held her away from him, staring down at her. Beneath her white shirtwaist, which seemed to glow in the deepening shadows, he saw her breasts rise and fall, trembling a little. “Something happened when we were together. I want to know what.”
“Nothing happened.”
“I’m not letting you leave until you tell me.”
This time, when he reached for her, she was ready. She jumped away, glaring at him, but he yanked her half onto his lap. Miracle wriggled, and he started laughing. That stopped her short, until he pulled her up by her shoulders, pressing her mouth to his.
“I want you,” he murmured. “Now.”
“No!”
His hand was caressing her back. Miracle closed her eyes and groaned. He would seduce her. She was fated to be just like her mother!
He lifted up her skirts, his hand caressing her buttocks. “Tell me,” he urged thickly.
“We made love!” she hissed. “You forced yourself on me! Just like now!”
She was slammed against the seat back so violently the breath whooshed from her lungs. She couldn’t speak, but she could see the disbelief and fury in his eyes. “Forced myself on you?”
“Yes!” The lie nearly choked her.
“Are you saying I raped you? When I was unconscious?”
“No, it was…”
“What?”
Now Miracle blushed, because she wasn’t telling the truth, but she couldn’t reveal her own willingness either. “It was Uncle Horace’s special elixir,” she admitted in a small voice. “It relieves pain, but causes hallucinations and sexual desire. That’s the only reason you wanted me.”
“You gave me this elixir,” he said slowly. “And I forced myself on you?”
Miracle nodded.
“And that’s the only reason I wanted you?”
She couldn’t tell if he were angry or not. His expression was unreadable. “I’m a half-breed.”
“For Chrissake, Miracle,” he growled. “I haven’t drunk any now, and look at me.”
Her gaze drifted over him, and she could clearly see the bulge in his pants. “It’s all because of the elixir, and now you feel –”
“Don’t tell me how I feel.” He released her and flung himself back in the seat, gathering up the reins. “No damn elixir is responsible for how I feel. But God, I can’t believe I would force any woman –” He cut himself off. “Were you a virgin?”
Miracle didn’t answer. “I – didn’t – fight you off as much as –”
“You were.” His tone was bitter with self-recrimination.
“Harrison, please.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll marry you as soon as I straighten out things with Kelsey.”
“No, you will not!” Miracle was enraged. “I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man on earth!”
Harrison closed his eyes. He couldn’t believe any of this. But he didn’t blame her for not wanting him. God Almighty, how could he have let his lust rule him like that?
Miracle sat beside him, still and stiff as they drove back to Rock Springs. He’d offered to marry her out of guilt. A silly part of her had hoped he would try to force her to accept, but he’d given up too easily. Though she’d salvaged something of her pride by turning him down, Miracle felt like a loser, and she wondered bitterly if this was why her mother had become a white man’s mistress.
She was a fool to think she could have him. She was never, never going to see him again!
Chapter Eleven
“I haven’t seen Harrison around here lately,” Emerald said in her sweetened-vinegar voice. “What’s he been doing?”
“His mother just died,” Kelsey answered testily.
Her sister-in-law sat in the Garrett parlor, her skirts artfully arranged around her. She looked like a queen holding court, but the way she cast remarks out like spears made her seem almost pagan.
Kelsey had suffered through just these same kinds of barbs for days. Emerald seemed to delight in making sure everyone knew that Harrison had shown woefully little attention to her. Apart from some bruised pride, however, Kelsey didn’t really much care. She’d come to the conclusion that she and Harrison could never make each other happy. She understood Harrison’s need to be with his family, and, if she were honest with herself, as much she enjoyed his company, she didn’t feel like she would die if their marriage didn’t come to be.
“Well, he’s been spending time with Jace talking about that murder!” Emerald exclaimed with a shudder. “Sheriff Raynor’s got them both working for him.”
“Working with him in their spare time,” Kelsey corrected. “Harrison’s still got a business with Lexie, and Jace is involved in dozens of ventures.”
“Poor Kelsey.” She fluttered her lashes in mock despair. “It looks like he doesn’t have much time for you.”
“I see him enough,” Kelsey muttered, striding boldly out of the room without so much as a by-your-leave. Her smoldering temper ignited, and she had to fight back a barb of her own. Grabbing up her black cape from the hall tree, she slammed out the front door. Her rifle was in the gun closet by the back stairs, and if she had the key she would have snatched it up on her way out, too. However, Jace had seen fit to lock the door and hide the key, making certain his “wild little sister” couldn’t get her hands on her rifle anymore.
Kelsey was furious. She was tired of being ruled by her brother and mean-minded sister-in-law. Marrying Harrison would have gotten her out of this trap. Now what should she do?
She inwardly sighed. It wasn’t Harrison she loved. It was Jesse. And though he’d been gone for nearly ten years she’d never forgotten how he made her feel – even though she’d been such a skinny-legged little kid he’d hardly noticed her.
He’d noticed every other female within ten yards, though, she reminded herself wryly. His reputation in Rock Springs was
notorious. Still, it hadn’t stopped Kelsey’s foolish young heart from being won.
She expected to get over him. It was a childhood infatuation, a fantasy, nothing more. She thought she was over him when she became attracted to Harrison. But now she saw that she’d been trying to believe Harrison was Jesse, and though they were alike in many ways, Harrison was more stable, more responsible, than his renegade younger brother. He was, in fact, better husband material. But even knowing that, Kelsey couldn’t make herself love him the same way.
Closing her eyes, Kelsey made a mental list of all the reasons she should love Harrison more. Harrison possessed a dry wit; Jesse was explosive. Harrison saw what he wanted and went after it; Jesse took whatever was available. Harrison’s sense of loyalty was deep; Jesse got by on shallow charm.
“Expecting Prince Charming to come along?” Emerald said behind her.
Kelsey jumped at the sound of the screen door banging shut. Emerald had sneaked up on her. Turning, Kelsey gave her a withering look. “Looks like I’ll have to settle for a frog.”
Emerald’s pale features turned an ugly purple red. “Was that insult meant for me?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact.”
“Why – you – you – bitch! Just because Harrison Danner has made you the laughingstock of Rock Springs is no need to display your vicious tongue!”
“Harrison has not made me the laughingstock of Rock Springs.”
“Oh, no?” Emerald demanded triumphantly. “I heard he’s found himself an Injun whore who takes care of him just fine. He doesn’t need a wife for what he can have for free.”
“If you’re talking about Miracle Jones, you’d better watch your words,” Kelsey shot back furiously. “She saved Harrison’s life, and people are talking about her herbal remedies. Besides, I’d venture she’s more popular with folks than you are.”
“As if I care what the citizens of Rock Springs think! You’d better find a way to haul him into the church soon, Kelsey, or he might find he likes breeds better than whites!”