Sally burst into the room then, tugging at her ruffled skirts as she tried to navigate between the tables. “Drat all these petticoats! Mr. Durham, the guests are starting to come in. And, oh, they are a sight! Silks and satins and jewels and furs! My, oh, my, just wait until you see!”
“I’ll be right there,” Case said, scarcely turning from Katlyn to respond. “It looks like you’re going to get your wish tonight, songbird. And if we’re a success, it will be because of you.”
“No, Case, I don’t deserve that.”
“You deserve so much more. I’ve been unfair to you.”
Katlyn stared at him in disbelief. “Unfair? How can you say that?”
“I didn’t believe you when you told me about Luck Connor. I half expected you to tell me you were going back to St. Louis with him.”
“I’m never going back,” Katlyn said quietly. It hurt to know he hadn’t trusted her. But she couldn’t be angry at him for it because she didn’t deserve his trust.
“Katlyn.” Case slid his hand under her chin and lifted her face to his. “All of it is in the past. I believe you, I’ve seen how much all of this means to you. You could never deceive me about that.”
“I don’t want to ever deceive you,” Katlyn said, the words spilling out of her heart before she could stop them. “I wish I could—”
She stopped suddenly. I wish I could tell you the truth. I wish there were no lies between us.
“I know,” Case said softly and for a moment, Katlyn wondered if he truly did.
Then he kissed her cheek and drew back smiling. “Nothing else matters now, my songbird. We’re going forward, ready or not. It’s show time.”
Chapter Thirteen
Still buzzing with pride and satisfaction from the previous nights’ dinner show successes, Sally and the rest of the staff plunged into their morning chores with zeal.
“You’ll come, won’t you, Katlyn? And get Mr. Durham to bring Emily?”
Katlyn looked up from the pile of napkins she was helping Becky to sort and fold. “Come where?”
“The rodeo, of course,” Becky said, giggling at Katlyn’s blank expression. “You’ve been here all morning, but I don’t think you’ve heard a word anyone has said.”
“I’m sorry, I—I’ve got a lot to think about, with the new show and—and everything.” Everything meaning Case, the thought of him enough to start a familiar warmth coiling inside her. She fixed her attention back on the napkins, hoping her face didn’t look as flushed as it felt.
Sally eyed her for a moment then said, “Yes, I’m sure you do. We were talking about the rodeo out at the Amos’s ranch on Saturday. They’ve been having it every year there for as long as I can remember.”
“Everyone goes,” Becky put in. “You just can’t miss it.”
“My boys talk about it weeks ahead,” Sally said. “I know Emily would love it, too. It would be so good for her, she hardly ever leaves the hotel. If you say you’re going, I’m sure Mr. Durham would agree to bring Emily.”
Before Katlyn could protest she hardly had that much influence over Case, Becky blurted in excitedly, “Of course he would! He really likes you, anyone with eyes can see that. You’ll ask him won’t you, please?”
Ten minutes later Katlyn hesitated at the doors to the saloon where Case was working, wondering how she had so easily let Sally and Becky maneuver her into tackling Case about the rodeo.
She’d agreed partly out of self-defense, wanting to escape Sally’s knowing look that implied several things, all of them unsettling.
But more than that, she had decided to talk to Case for Emily’s sake. Too well, she knew what it was like to grow up in a hotel or on a riverboat, with little opportunity to befriend others her own age and enjoy childish play. Emily needed to get away from the hotel for a while, especially now, after all the days of chaos and frantic rebuilding.
Determined now, she started into the saloon just as Case came out.
He stopped short, then smiled, a warm, intimate gesture that turned Katlyn inside out. “Were you looking for me?”
“Oh, yes,” she said, in the next instant blushing furiously. “I mean, I wanted to talk to you, to ask you something.”
“This sounds interesting.” Case led her to the couch in the foyer and sat beside her. “I’m all yours.”
I wish, Katlyn thought. She banished the enticing images the idea conjured and hurried out her request about the rodeo. “I know Emily would love to go, and it would be so good for her to get out.”
She expected him to hesitate and even argue with her. Instead, he seemed to mull over the idea before nodding in agreement. “It would be good for us, too,” he said finally.
“‘Us’?”
Case smiled at her startled expression. “Mmm…we can show people we want to be upstanding members of this community. That last fracas we had here didn’t exactly help our reputation, but the first few dinner shows have been such a success, we could be on our way to making this place respectable.”
“Are you saying people might expect me to show up in low-cut lace and satin garters?” She tapped her chin and appeared to consider the idea seriously. “Of course there could be advantages to an act like that.”
“I can think of several.”
“Why, Mr. Durham, I thought you wanted to be respectable.”
“Respectable isn’t the way you make me feel, Miss McLain,” he said, reaching out to brush an errant curl back from her cheek. Touching her, he was suddenly intent again, his expression sober. “I need respectable, though, if I’m going to get the money I need to keep this hotel afloat. The rodeo might be a good place to court investors, or to at least broach the idea of a loan.”
“Investors? You’ve never said that before. Are things that bad?” Katlyn asked quietly.
Case stood and paced to the windows and back. “If I can’t find some way of raising money, I won’t be able to pay the staff past next month no matter what promises I’ve made, to say nothing of supplies.”
“But you can’t give up! The hotel means everything to you.”
He moved over to her and gently lifted her chin with one finger, bringing her eyes up to meet his. “Not everything, Miss McLain.” He paused, let his meaning sink in, then added, “I’m not giving up. But there’s a big distance between a dream and the hard truth. And the truth is, right now I need those investors or there will be no more dream.”
“Then we’ll get them.”
Katlyn put her hand on his arm in a gesture of support and Case recognized the determined light in her eyes.
It had been there all along, almost from the first moment she’d arrived at his hotel, and it nurtured his faith in his ability to beat the odds and succeed despite his setbacks. Only Katlyn could do that for him and he was beginning to wonder if he could ever live without it. Without her.
“I’ll also use this chance to coax people into coming to our dinners,” she was saying. “Although, I warn you, I won’t resort to lace and garters. Well—maybe a little lace.”
“A pity. I have an image of you in midnight blue…” He punctuated his words with the slide of his fingertip down her cheek to the hollow of her throat.
Katlyn found it hard to think of anything but the seductive promise of his touch. She tried for his sake, though, to keep her mind on business. “We’ll be a success without them, I promise you.”
“I know we will,” Case said. “I have my song-bird, don’t I? What else do I need?”
The horses and riders came thundering past them in a whirl of dust and Emily clapped her hands in delight as the spotted Appaloosa she’d picked to win nosed out a victory over a big bay stallion.
She tugged on Katlyn’s sleeve, pointing. “Did you see? He did win! I knew he would because he has spots.”
“Well, I should have listened to you. My gray one came in last,” Katlyn said, laughing. “I suppose this means I owe you another ribbon.”
“A pink one this time.”
&nb
sp; “Pink it is. But if I don’t stop making bets with you, I’m going to have to buy you every ribbon in the shebang.”
“Teaching my daughter to gamble, are you?”
Katlyn started at Case’s deep voice in her ear. Distracted by watching the race with Emily, she hadn’t seen him approach. Now as he scooped Emily into his arms and listened to her happy description of the race, Katlyn couldn’t help but notice the air of satisfaction around him. He looked relaxed, pleased with himself and his work today.
And well he should, she thought. Since they’d arrived this morning, Katlyn had watched Case moving among the ranchers, businessmen, and mine owners here, as charming and compelling as she had ever seen him. He commanded attention, yet was so adept at persuasion he managed to leave people convinced it was their idea to invest in the St. Martin.
“From that smile of yours, I’m guessing we’re still in business and Monday you’ll be working us all off our feet again,” she said, smiling at him.
“Any objections?” Case asked.
“I can’t think of anything I’d like to do more.”
And she couldn’t. As Katlyn looked around at the people milling around them, waiting for the next race, talking, laughing, their children playing around them, she thought of the life she might have had if she’d stayed in St. Louis. Standing in her mother’s shadow and keeping men like Jack at arm’s length, she mused, smiling a little to herself as she saw him flash that wicked smile of his at two young women, making them giggle and blush.
Watching other women and their families, Katlyn felt a little pang of envy. She realized suddenly how much she loved working at the hotel and singing and the feeling she was helping Case build something of value. But these women had what she could never have: they had something that would last.
All too soon, she would have to leave Cimarron—and Case. And when she did, Katlyn knew she would never be this happy again.
Case saw the wistful look on Katlyn’s face and wondered what had put it there. She had seemed happy enough today, charming everyone with her laughter and wit, and genuinely pleased to share his good news about the investors. Since Luck Connor had left, he’d been watching her for any signs she was sorry for not taking Connor’s offer to return to St. Louis. But she only acted relieved at his leaving.
“Katlyn,” he said softly. He shifted Emily to one arm and put his hand lightly on her waist, drawing her slightly closer into his family circle. “Is something wrong?”
“Oh, no.” She hurriedly put on a smile. “No, of course not. It’s been a wonderful day. I was just thinking—” she said, with a wink at Emily. “We’ve been here for hours and Emily and I have yet to see the famed Amos pigs. Sally’s boys say they’re the biggest in the world, but Emily and I want to judge for ourselves.”
“We don’t believe those boys,” Emily said with a touch of scorn.
“Then by all means, let’s go and see for ourselves,” Case agreed, rewarded by his daughter’s delighted smile and by Katlyn taking his arm and leaning into him a little to share Emily’s happiness.
Caught up in the sweet warmth of being together, Case set aside his concerns about Katlyn. But as they walked side by side to the barns, he vowed to find a way to banish those shadows that haunted her eyes as well as any doubts she had about belonging here in Cimarron with him.
A cool whisper of breeze rustled through the ponderosa pines that ran along the edge of the pasture used for the rodeo grounds, forming a barrier to the woods beyond. The light wind stroked Katlyn’s cheeks, turning them pink. She pulled her woolen shawl closer around her shoulders, and glanced at the deepening twilight.
“It’s getting late. We should take Emily back to the hotel soon.”
Case snapped a twig and rolled it idly between his thumb and forefinger as they strolled together along a path that wound through the pine forest back to the backyard where most of the families now gathered for dinner. “I know. But she’s had so much fun today being with other children, I hate to see it end. I’ll never forget the look on her face when that huge pig snorted at her.”
Katlyn laughed, recalling Emily’s almost comic expression of horror. “She climbed up you like a cat with its tail afire.”
“I’m glad you invited us. She’ll never forget this day.” He tossed the twig aside and turned to her. “And neither will I.”
She looked up at the genuine appreciation in his eyes and it pricked at her conscience. “Well, actually, the whole staff wanted you to come,” she admitted, ducking beneath a low-hanging branch. “They just nominated me to do the asking.”
“Ah, I see the plan now. They knew I couldn’t refuse you.”
“But, Mr. Durham, you’re always saying no to my requests.”
“Since when, Miss McLain? It seems to me you’ve been having your way with me from the day you walked into my hotel.”
“I haven’t heard you object,” she teased. “Well, maybe once or twice.”
“Only when you tried to wallpaper the kitchen.”
“I could have made that work.”
“Knowing you, I believe you could have,” Case said, thinking how true it was.
From almost the start, Katlyn had brought something to the St. Martin he, for all his experience and business prowess, could never have created alone. Everyone at the hotel willingly worked hard for him, but Katlyn’s spirit, her unflagging optimism, spurred them to believe in themselves and what they could accomplish together.
She’d given so much of herself to all of them, so much more than he ever expected. How could he doubt her commitment to him?
He thought of the letter and was glad he’d hadn’t received any answer. Maybe he never would. He should never have written the damned thing to begin with, and wouldn’t have, if he hadn’t been poisoned by memories of Silver Springs.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked softly, tentatively, as if she feared intruding on his privacy.
“You,” Case answered truthfully. “How glad I am you came to the St. Martin.”
Katlyn sharply drew in a breath, glanced away from him, and let it go slowly. “You don’t know how much it’s meant to me, being here.”
“You sound as if it’s over. Are you planning on leaving me?”
“Not until I convince you to wallpaper the kitchen,” Katlyn said lightly. She pretended to focus on the expanse of deepening sky overhead, shaded from blue to nearly black and just beginning to show glints of starlight. The forest’s shadows lengthened all around, enveloping them in the mysteries of the magic hour, the last glimmer of light before night’s cloak ends the day.
Case followed her gaze and they paused for a moment to share the view. “Then it looks like you’re going to be here forever.”
Forever. Oh, how she wished that were true.
She had never been so satisfied and content in a place in all her life. Always, she’d felt like an outsider, never fitting in. Penelope had her singing, her admirers, her lovers; Katlyn’s sister, her family, her work, her patients.
But Case made her feel she belonged at the St. Martin, that without her, the hotel would be lacking a vital spirit.
Except it was a lie. She would never belong here because her place was at her mother’s side, wherever that might lead. And it would never lead her to stay in Cimarron.
This was only a temporary haven. It could never be a permanent home.
Lost in her own thoughts, Katlyn didn’t realize at first Case had stopped walking. “Are you leaving me behind?” he asked.
“What?” Katlyn turned to find him sitting on a fallen log, watching her, an amused smile playing at the edges of his mouth. She walked back to him, easing down beside him. “I’m sorry, I was lost in my own thoughts, I guess.”
“From your expression, I wouldn’t call them happy ones. What’s troubling you?”
“Nothing. I was just thinking about everything we have yet to do, how important it all is…” She shifted her shoulders and fixed her gaze on a spot of moss
clinging to the pine bark, worrying it with her fingertip.
“Katlyn—” Case reached over and took her hands, warming them between his palms. “You’re chilled. Come here.” Pulling her close, he wrapped her in his arms.
Katlyn didn’t think of resisting. Instead she leaned into him, taking comfort in the warmth of him, the strength of his arms enfolding her.
When he touched her cheek, she tilted her head back to look at him and saw the smolder of desire in his eyes he made no attempt to hide.
“Katlyn, you’ve come to mean so much to me,” he said, his voice low and rough with emotion. “I never believed I’d find a woman like you, so caring and giving and honest.”
Honest. “Oh, Case…” Katlyn couldn’t bear to hold his straightforward gaze. “Please. Don’t say that. You don’t know…there are things about me—”
“There’s nothing you could say that would change my mind about you. Not now, when I’ve seen the woman you really are.”
If only that were true, Katlyn thought, and then she had no time for thoughts or worries when Case took her face gently in his hands and touched his mouth to hers.
Her lips parted in response to his, inviting the moment to last forever, casting aside for one sweet interlude her guilt and the lies she knew would soon destroy them. She kissed him deeply, and he returned her kiss with growing passion.
He held her in a sweet embrace, his lips sampling the delicacies of her cheeks, her eyes, her nose, her neck. She moaned with the need he roused in her, every new touch of his lips on her skin kindling a warmth that threatened to become fire.
She met him kiss for kiss, returning every caress with one of her own design. Her response threatened his restraint, and Case pulled her up hard against him.
It would be easy to have her now, here in the secret shadows of the wood. Her response told him that, as clearly as if she’d begged him to make love to her.
But surrendering to temptation would mean everyone in Cimarron would know she was his lover by tomorrow morning. He knew better than most how being at the center of gossip and speculation could ruin all their diligent efforts toward gaining respectability.
Cimarron Rose Page 15