Twin of Fire

by Jude Deveraux

  Leander was grinning at her. “I thank you for the compliment.” He leaned across the couch and began to toy with the curls that were escaping the neat chignon that Houston had fixed that morning, and, slowly, he began to remove the pins from her hair. “Opposites always seem to attract. Look at you and me. Here I am a fine surgeon, and you’re going to be a fine wife and mother and put all my socks in their proper place, and you’ll see to the house so it’s a comfortable place for a man to come home to and—.”

  Blair nearly choked on the champagne. “Are you saying that you expect me to give up medicine to wait on you?” she sputtered. “Of all the misinformed, stupid ideas I have ever heard, that one is the worst.” With a great deal of anger, she slammed her glass down on a side table and stood. “I always tried to tell Houston that you were like Gates, but she wouldn’t listen. She said you weren’t at all like him. I’ll tell you one thing, Leander Westfield, if you married me thinking that I’d give up medicine, we might as well call this whole thing off now.”

  Leander sat on the couch as she stood over him raging, then, halfway through her speech, he slowly rose to stand in front of her. And when she began to wind down, he smiled at her. “I think you have a great deal to learn about me yet. I’m not sure why you’re so ready to believe the worst about me, but I hope to prove to you that I’m not what you think. And I plan to spend the rest of my life teaching you. But lessons don’t start until tomorrow,” he said, as he put his arms around her and pulled her to him.

  Blair clung to him, and when his lips touched hers, she felt as if she never wanted to let go. She knew that she knew nothing about him. She didn’t know why he’d wanted to marry her, whether he had merely tolerated her working with him so that he could win the competition as Alan had said, or if he had enjoyed that time together as much as she had.

  But right now, she didn’t care. All she thought about was his arms around her, his body near hers, the heat he was producing that was making her feel wonderful.

  “I’ve waited a long time for this to happen again,” he said, wrapping her hair about his wrist, his other hand caressing her neck and cheek. “Go upstairs and get ready. I’m going to be a gentleman tonight, but I’ll never be one again, so you might as well take advantage of this once. Stop looking at me like that and go. I’m sure your sister bought you some outrageous—but proper—nightgown for tonight, so go get it on. You have about ten minutes. Maybe.”

  Blair didn’t want to leave him, but she did and she went upstairs, around the narrow, curving stairs and into the bedroom. There were three bedrooms upstairs: the master bedroom, one for guests and one a tiny nursery. Her clothes were hung in the closet, all her shoes beside Leander’s, and for a moment she thought she’d never seen anything as intimate as those shoes next to each other.

  On the bed was indeed a beautiful robe of white chiffon with swan’s-down about the hem and sleeves, a gown of white satin to go under it. Blair shook her head at the extravagance of the things, but the next moment she was dying to get into them. Sometimes, she was frustrated by Houston’s seemingly useless life, but this wedding made her admire her sister as nothing else had. The wedding itself had required the planning of a military general and no detail had seemed too small to attract Houston’s attention. She’d even remembered to have her sister’s clothes moved to her new house during the wedding, so they’d be here when she returned with Leander.

  Blair was only half into the robe when Lee came up the stairs and, by the look in his eyes, he didn’t seem to care that it was hanging off her shoulder in a very unkempt way. He bounded across the room and had her in his arms in seconds. In fact, his enthusiasm was so great that Blair took a step backward, tripped on the hem of the robe, and fell back onto the bed. Lee went with her and they fell into the feather bed, bits of swan’s-down from the robe floating around them.

  They started to laugh, and Lee rolled over, his arms still about her, pulling her with him, kissing her, tickling her, making Blair squeal with delight. The lovely robe came off and she was in the thin satin gown, and he was nibbling at her shoulders and growling like a bear, making her laugh harder. His hands went up and down her thighs while she made halfhearted protests about nothing in particular.

  The telephone downstairs began to ring before their play turned serious.

  “What’s that?” Blair asked, lifting her head.

  “I don’t hear anything,” Leander murmured, his face buried in her neck and travelling lower.

  “It’s the telephone. Lee, you have to answer it. Someone may be ill and need you.”

  “Anyone who’d disturb a man on his wedding night deserves what he gets.”

  Blair pushed away from him. “Lee, you don’t mean that. When you became a doctor, you did so because you wanted to help people.”

  “But not tonight, not now.” He tried to pull her back into his arms, but she resisted and the damn telephone kept ringing. “Why did I have to marry a doctor?” he mumbled, as he stood and adjusted his clothes while giving Blair looks that made her giggle and look away. “Don’t you go away. I’ll be right back,” he said before he went down the stairs. “Right after I kill whoever it is on the telephone.”

  As soon as he picked up the receiver, the operator began to talk. “I hate to disturb you tonight of all nights,” she began, “but it’s your father, and he says it’s urgent.”

  “It’d better be,” Lee said. Then she put Reed on the line.

  “Lee, I hate to bother you, but it’s an emergency. Elijah Smith is about to die of a heart attack if you don’t come right away.”

  Leander drew in his breath. Elijah Smith was their code name for trouble at the mine. Reed often reported to Lee over the telephone while Lee was at the hospital, and they’d worked out a series of messages. Poor Mr. Smith got everything from poison ivy to smallpox, but a heart attack was what they’d agreed to use to signal the worst that could happen: a riot.

  Lee rolled his eyes toward the ceiling, toward the room where his bride waited. “How much time do I have?”

  “They needed you an hour ago. Lee, don’t go; someone else can take the case.”

  “Yeah, like who?” Lee spat, taking his anger out on his father. There was no one outside the mines who knew what was going on inside them. And Lee felt responsible for any rioting, since he was the man who brought the unionists in. “I’ll be there as fast as I can,” Lee said before he hung up the telephone.

  As he went up the stairs, feeling as if the worst thing in his life had just happened, he suddenly realized that he had to give Blair a reason for leaving. He was no longer a bachelor who answered to no one. He now had a wife who deserved an explanation as to where he was going. At the moment, he was feeling so miserable that he couldn’t think of a lie—and heaven forbid that he should tell her the truth! With Blair’s total lack of a self-preservation instinct, she’d no doubt insist on going with him. And if he didn’t have enough to worry about, he couldn’t have her in danger, too.

  The best way was to do it quickly and get out of the house.

  He had never moved faster in his life, and considering that there were what seemed to be tears fogging his eyes as he looked at Blair lying there in that thin little piece of cloth, every nook and cranny of her delicious body showing, he should have been given an award. He didn’t say much at all, except that he had to go and he’d be back as soon as possible. He ran down the stairs and was out the door before Blair could even move.

  At his father’s house, he was still feeling miserable and thinking that the miners could riot all night as far as he was concerned.

  Reed told Lee that an informer had let the guards know about the unionist, and that the stupid man had gone back into the camp without Lee. He’d sneaked down the back side of the mountain and was being very bold when the guards heard about him. Now, the armed guards were searching each house and making threats against innocent people.

  Leander would be able to get into the camp, and if he could find the u
nionist before the guards did, he might be able to save the man’s life—and the lives of the miners who were being falsely accused of bringing the man in.

  Lee knew that he was the only one who could do this, and he set to readying his carriage.

  “If Blair comes to you, don’t even hint at where I’ve gone. If you tell her I’m on a case, she’ll want to know where it is, and she’ll want to help. Make up something, but, whatever you do, don’t tell her the truth. Anything would be better than the truth because she’d tear into the middle of the riot and I’d have to save both her and the unionist.”

  Before Reed could ask what sort of story his son had in mind, Lee was off with a cloud of dust and rocks spewing behind him.

  Chapter 19

  Blair’s mouth didn’t close for several minutes after Leander left their house. She couldn’t believe that one minute he was there, and the next he was gone.

  Her first reaction was anger, but then she smiled. It must have been a serious case that would take Lee away on his wedding night, something that was life and death—and something that was dangerous, she thought, sitting upright. If it weren’t serious, no doubt with guns blazing or outlaws terrorizing people, Lee would have taken her with him.

  Blair tossed the covers aside and hurriedly dressed in her medical uniform. Leander was going into something dangerous, and he’d need her help.

  Downstairs, she picked up the telephone. Mary Catherine was on the switchboard at this time of night. “Mary, where did Lee go?”

  “I don’t know, Blair-Houston,” the young woman answered. “His father called him, and the next thing Leander said was that he was on his way. Not that I listened in, of course. I’d never do that.”

  “But if you did happen to hear a few words, what would they have been? And don’t forget the time I didn’t tell Jimmy Talbot’s mother who broke her best cut-glass pitcher.”

  There was a pause before Mary Catherine answered. “Mr. Westfield said that some man I’ve never met was having a heart attack. That poor man. It seems that every time Mr. Westfield and Leander talk on the telephone, it’s about this Mr. Smith who has one ailment after another. Last month he had at least three diseases and Caroline—she’s on the day shift—said that Mr. Smith was ill twice. I don’t think he’s going to live very long, but then he seems to heal quickly between illnesses. He must be awfully important for Leander to leave you on your wedding night. You must,” Mary Catherine paused to let a rude little giggle escape, “miss him very much.”

  Blair wanted to tell the woman what she thought of her constant eavesdropping, but she merely whispered, “Thank you,” and put the receiver down, vowing to never again say anything private on the telephone.

  In the stable behind the house, Lee’s carriage was gone, and the only horse there was a big, mean-looking stallion that Blair had no intention of trying to ride. The only way to get to her father-in-law’s house was to walk. The cool mountain air gave her energy, and she half ran up and down Chandler’s steep streets to the Westfield house.

  She had to pound on the door to wake up the household and a sleepy, sullen housekeeper came to the door, Reed just behind her.

  “Come into the library,” Reed said, his face a strange ashen color. He was fully dressed but looking old and tired. Blair was sure that he was up because he was worried about Leander. What in the world had her husband gotten himself into now?

  “Where is he?” Blair asked as soon as they were alone in the well-lit library that was filled with the smoke from too many pipes.

  Reed just stood there, his face taking on more of a resemblance to a bulldog.

  “He’s in danger, isn’t he?” Blair asked. “I knew he was. If it were an ordinary case, he’d take me with him, but something’s wrong with this one.” Still, Reed didn’t say anything. “The telephone operator said that he often goes to look after a Mr. Smith. I would imagine that I could find out where the man lives, and I can go from house to house and ask if anyone’s seen Leander tonight. If I know him, he left in his usual flurry, and I’m sure several people saw him.” Blair’s face began to have the same look as Reed’s—of complete determination. “My husband is going into something dangerous, as he did that day when he knowingly went into a range war, and he’s walking into it alone. I believe that I can help. There may be others wounded, and if Lee were hurt,” she stumbled over her words, “he would need attention. If you won’t help me, I’ll find someone who will.” She turned away from him to leave.

  Reed was bewildered for a moment. She might not be able to find Lee, but she’d certainly manage to stir up a great deal of trouble, and she’d make people aware that something was important enough to take him away on his wedding night. And, of course, people would hear about the riot in the mine, and all that had to happen was for one person to put two and two together and connect Leander and the mine riot. He had to tell Blair something that would stop her here and now, something so awful that she’d go home and not wake the town searching for Leander. Damn, but why hadn’t Lee married Houston? She’d never have questioned her husband’s whereabouts.

  “There’s another woman,” Reed blurted before he thought about what he was doing. His own wife wouldn’t have let anything stop her except the thought of his love going to someone else. Why didn’t women ever feel secure that they were loved? Blair should certainly know, since Lee had done so much to prove to her just how much he loved her.

  “Woman?” Blair asked, turning back to him. “Why would he go to another woman? Was she ill? Who is Mr. Smith and why is he always ill? Where is my husband?”

  “The ah…woman tried to kill herself because of Lee’s marriage,” Reed said and knew that now his relationship with his son was over, because Lee would never forgive him as long as either of them lived.

  Blair sat, or rather fell, into a chair. “That kind of woman,” she whispered.

  At least, he had gotten her off Mr. Smith, Reed thought, and at the same time cursed all telephone operators everywhere.

  “But what about Houston? He was engaged to her. How could he be in love with someone else?”

  “Lee…ah, thought this woman was dead.” On the table before Reed was a newspaper, and on the front page was an article about a gang of robbers that had been in the Denver area, but were now beginning to move south. The leader of the band was a Frenchwoman. “He met her in Paris, and she was the great love of his life, but he thought she’d been killed. I guess she wasn’t, because she came to Chandler to find him.”

  “When?”

  “When what?”

  “When did this woman come to Chandler?”

  “Oh, months ago,” Reed said offhandedly. “I think maybe you’d better let Lee finish this story. I think I’ve said enough already.”

  “But if she came months ago, why did Leander continue his engagement to my sister?”

  Reed rolled his eyes skyward, and again the newspaper caught his eye. “She, this woman he loved, was…involved in something Lee didn’t approve of. He had to do something to distract himself.”

  “And my sister was that distraction, and then later I was.” She took a deep breath. “So, he was in love with this woman and thought she’d been killed, so he returned to Chandler and asked Houston to marry him. And then I came along, and one twin was as good as another, and of course his honor made him feel he was obligated to me. That explains why he’d consider marrying a woman he didn’t really love. Is that it?”

  Reed ran his finger around the inside of his collar, which suddenly felt as if it were choking him. “I guess that’ll do as well as any explanation,” he said aloud and then muttered, “Now, I have to explain myself to my son.”

  Blair felt very heavy as she left the house and began to walk home. Reed had sent for his stableboy to drive her home, but Blair had dismissed him. This was her wedding night and supposedly one of the happiest times of her life, and if she couldn’t spend it with her husband, she certainly didn’t want to spend it with another man. But
her happiness had turned into a nightmare.

  How Leander must have laughed at her when she told him that she hoped to make their marriage work. He hadn’t cared whom he married. Houston was pretty and would make a good doctor’s wife, so he asked her to marry him, but then Houston was cool to him, so when Blair jumped into bed with him on their first night out, he decided to marry her instead. Whatever did it matter, when his heart was already given to another woman?

  “There she is!” came a man’s voice from behind Blair.

  It was just growing light, and she saw a small man on horseback and he was pointing toward her. For a moment, Blair felt a little pride that she was already being recognized in the streets as a doctor. She stopped and looked up at the man and the three men behind him.

  “Is someone hurt?” she asked. “I don’t have my medical kit with me, but if you’ll give me a ride to my house, I’ll get it and I can go with you.”

  The cowboy looked shocked for a moment.

  “If you’d rather have my husband, I don’t know where he is,” she said with some bitterness. “I think you’ll have to make do with me.”

  “What’s she talkin’ about, Cal?” one of the men in the back asked.

  Cal put up his hand. “No, I don’t want your husband. You’ll do just fine. You wanta ride with me?”

  Blair took the hand he offered and let him pull her up to mount in front of him. “My house is—,” she said, pointing, but he didn’t let her finish.

  “I know where your house is Miss High and Mighty Chandler. Or I guess it’s Miz Taggert now.”

  “What is this?” Blair said, startled. “I’m not—.” But the cowboy put his hand over her mouth and she could say no more.

  Leander put a hand to the small of his back and tried to ease it against the jolting of the hard wagon seat. He had to admit that he had an awful case of feeling sorry for himself. Last night should have been spent in the arms of his new wife, in a soft bed, making love to her, laughing together, getting to know each other. But instead, he’d been climbing down the side of a mountain and then back up it again with a semiconscious man slung over his shoulder.