Blindly, Eleanor followed and stood by while he unhitched the gray. He handed her the reins and untied the bay from behind the trap, then they led the two animals across to the pasture.
Neither of them spoke. Could she possibly be dreaming? Was she going to wake up any minute now back on Devin’s Hill, or lying on a bed of crushed branches on the hard, rocky ground, in a filthy dress with her hair matted around her face?
How could any man love a woman after seeing her the way Jed had seen her these past few days? He’d have to be crazy, and she preferred to believe Jed was sane.
Chapter Twenty-Two
No sooner did they step inside the barn than Jed pulled her into his arms. His hands moved over her back, pressing her against him while he murmured words she was almost afraid to believe. He was completely, breathtakingly aroused. It was all Eleanor could do not to…wiggle herself against him.
“I missed you—God, how I missed you!” He kissed the top of her left ear. “I was afraid I’d dreamed you up.”
“I was afraid I was dreaming, too,” she confided, her voice muffled by the hard heat of his shoulder. The feel of his body, the sound of his voice, even the scent of him—sunshine, laundry soap and clean male sweat—coalesced to scatter her last rational thought.
He ran his fingers through her hair—soft now, not a tangle in sight—and held her face away. His eyes moved over her features, lingering on her mouth until she felt like screaming for him to do something. Anything!
“I had some words all planned out in my head, but I’ve forgotten what they are. All I know is, if I don’t kiss you right now I’m going to explode. It’s been building ever since that day by the pool when you—when we—”
“Then why don’t you hush up and kiss me?”
One kiss led to another and still another. Hungry kisses. Urgent kisses—kisses like nothing she could ever have imagined, until recently. By the time they managed to climb the ladder to the hayloft, Jed’s shirt was unbuttoned and Eleanor’s borrowed clothes were wildly askew. She would have some explaining to do, especially if she couldn’t find all the buttons to sew them back on before Lorly noticed they were missing.
They could hear the children laughing outside. Somewhere nearby, a horse whickered. They heard Lorly call the children in for dinner, and then, with feverish haste, they scrambled out of the rest of their clothes.
Jed said, “We can wait if you want to.”
Frantically, she shook her head. He was kneeling over her, his face flushed, his lips thinned almost as if he were in pain. Slowly, almost languorously, she held up her arms. “I’ve waited three days. Three days and twenty-seven years.”
He needed no second invitation. The urgency was too great. The moment he positioned himself between her thighs and touched her with his fingers, she imploded with a series of small, stunned gasps. Embarrassed, as if such indescribable pleasure were somehow sinful, she whispered an apology.
He shook his head and managed a brief strained smile. “That was just the beginning. There’s more.”
And there was more. A fast, breathless coupling in the slithery bed of hay from last year’s harvest, followed once they’d both recovered by a slow, leisurely exploration that culminated in the kind of experience most women only dreamed of all their lives.
Before Jed, Eleanor hadn’t even known enough to dream. Now a good portion of her life was gone and she was just learning how to live. “I don’t suppose we have time…?” she ventured.
He laughed. Rolled over onto his back on the hard, dusty floor of the loft and drew her with him so that she was lying half on him, half on her petticoat and half on…
Too many halves, she thought dreamily. And you, a schoolteacher. For shame!
“Pepper said he could stay long enough to do it. How long does it take to make a wedding dress?”
“Not very long if I wrap the cloth around me like the ladies in India and drape one end over my head like a veil so that it covers—” She touched what remained of her hair.
“Don’t dare cover your head.” Jed twisted a curl around his finger. “If I’d known it would look like this, I’d have taken a butcher knife to you first time you asked me to.”
She laughed. After a moment, he did, too. And although the feeling was still there—that warm, delicious tingling that could build into a raging wildfire that could be extinguished in only one way, Eleanor knew they would need to get back soon. Lorly would keep George and the children away as long as possible, but now there was another guest to accommodate. Pepper would have to share Zach’s room, which meant that Jed would probably sleep here in the barn. Perhaps…
And perhaps not. If they were going to be married within a few days, she could wait. It might kill her, but she could wait.
They’d barely had time to get dressed again before Zach and Reba burst into the barn and yelled for them. Zach looked in each of several stalls while Reba started climbing the ladder. “They’re up here, Zachy, I hear somebody moving!”
“Hey, can I ride your horse, Uncle Jed? Papa said I had to wait till you came back and ask you. I think he likes me. I already talked to him about it.”
“Talked to McGee?” Jed called down as he hurriedly buttoned his shirt.
“Talked to Papa.”
“Miss El’ner, can you make Mama cut my hair so it looks like yours? Then it wouldn’t never get tangled and Mama wouldn’t pull when she tries to comb it.” Reba’s hair was dark, thin and straight as a ruler.
Eleanor found her other slipper under the hay, pulled it on and hurried to the top of the ladder. “Move down, honey, so we can climb down. Let’s see if your mama will let me do you a French braid.”
And then she had to answer a dozen questions about that.
“What were you doing up there?” Zach looked curiously from one to the other. “Old cat’s not there no more, she stays in the house with her babies. I know how she made her babies, want me to tell you?”
By suppertime that evening, Eleanor was beginning to get used to her shorn head. Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror when she went to get clean sheets to make up a bed for the preacher, she touched a curl and thought that a younger sister, had she been lucky enough to have one, might have looked like this.
She still had trouble believing that Jed actually wanted to marry her. She wasn’t naive enough to believe that men married every woman they made love to, else the world would be filled with bigamists. Nor did it have anything to do with gold shares, real or imagined. Neither of them would ever go back to Devin’s Hill. She didn’t know where they would end up—here in Foggy Valley or somewhere else. Wherever it was, as long as they were together, to have and to hold—to share a bed, to make love every night, perhaps more than once—she would be content. She could build from there. Visits to George and Lorly and their children, bringing her own babies so that the cousins could grow up together…
Oh, my mercy. Her hands fell idle in the act of flapping a sheet over the bed and she sighed.
As soon as the children were bedded down, Jed lit the lamps in the front room. George went out for a last look at the small herd of mixed-breed beef cattle and to see that the horses were settled for the night. Eleanor set out cups and a plate of ginger cakes while the coffee percolated, and Lorly and the preacher talked about what was going on in President Cleveland’s Washington, about the state of the economy, which had little to do with the economy in Foggy Valley, North Carolina—and of all things, plumbing.
Then George came in and Eleanor poured the coffee and the talk turned to Sam Stanfield and the necessity of arranging a meeting as quickly as possible.
“I’ll ride over first thing and set it up,” offered Jed. “You want to meet here or at his place?”
George looked at his wife and shrugged. “Halfway between? Hell, I don’t care as long as we get it done. Where’s the money?”
“In your old saddlebags, hanging on the back porch.”
“The back porch! The devil with that, man�
��your pardon, preacher—but couldn’t you find a safer place to hide it than right out there in the open?”
“Reckon I could’ve buried it under the manure pile. I doubt if any of Stanfield’s men would’ve dug it up. On second thought…”
“What about bringing it in the house?”
“What’s to keep him from trying to burn you out again? You want to bet he doesn’t know where I went and why?”
“I won’t be sleeping tonight, I’ll be standing guard. What about the barn? Couldn’t you hide it there?”
“Stanfield doesn’t want a measly two thousand, he’s counting on—”
“Measly!” Lorly exclaimed. She had devoured four of the dozen cookies Eleanor had set out, one right after another.
“What he means, honey,” George explained, “is that Sam’s got his eye on a bigger prize. Railroad’s going to pay big money for land to extend their line farther to the southwest.”
Jed looked at George. George looked at Jed. Both men started grinning, and Pepper leaned forward and said, “What? What?” Having removed his necktie, his celluloid collar and his black coat, and with his wispy white hair awry, he looked far less like a preacher.
“You want to tell him?” George asked.
So Jed explained how he’d accidentally come by a tract of land on the other side of Notch Ridge that would serve the railroad’s plans even better than the valley, as they wouldn’t have to blast through thousands of tons of solid granite on either end, but instead could follow a more or less level route all the way to Asheville and beyond.
“He’s bound to know,” the Reverend Pepperdine said, although he was chuckling, too. “Man’s as smart as you say…”
“Agent swore me to silence so property owners in the area wouldn’t triple the price of their land. I made him promise not to record the deed until I wire him an all-clear, else I’d tell every property owner between Hickory and the Tennessee border. Stanfield’s got spies somewhere along the line, but we’ve got an edge for the time being. Once we pay off the loan, there’s not much the old bastard can do, beg pardon, Pepper.”
It was decided that Jed would ride over to the Stanfield Ranch early in the morning to arrange the meeting. “Halfway between his place and yours, that suit you, George? Personally, I’d as soon not set foot on Stanfield land again, but this time I’ll know better than to let him get the drop on me.”
“What if he refuses to take the money?”
“He’ll take it and sign off if I have to hold a gun on him.”
Pepper tsk-tsked, but behind his smudged spectacles his eyes were twinkling. “My, my, I feel like a character in one of those Wild West stories.”
“That what you’re reading nowadays?” Jed teased.
Pepper had been the one to find Jed the night after he’d been driven out of the valley.
Two people, Jed thought now, had seen him at his worst—a loser. A beaten man. Both had earned his everlasting gratitude. Both were in this room together.
It was almost scary, come to think about it. Not that he necessarily believed all those Bible stories he’d heard—although the one about the Good Samaritan definitely had the ring of truth.
“My back hurts, I’m going to bed,” said Lorly. “I’ve got a lot of sewing to do starting early tomorrow,” she added with a sly look at Eleanor.
George stood. “Preacher? Did Lorly show you where you’re sleeping? You and Jed can share Zach’s room, Eleanor’s in with Lorly, and Zach can bunk in with the girls.”
Well, that answered that. “What about you, George?” Eleanor asked.
“I won’t be able to sleep much tonight. I’ll just sit up and keep an ear out for anything…unusual.”
“I’ll spell you after a couple of hours,” Jed said quietly. He looked at Eleanor. Soon, his eyes promised. They still had a few things to do first, a few details to work out, but as long as she was where he could see her whenever he glanced up—where he could hold her when no one was looking—then he might be able to survive the wait.
The night passed quietly, with the two men talking in a way they never had before. Before, they’d been too young. George had always been serious; Jed, wild as a buck. They talked about old Loran and his first wife, George’s mother, and about Jed’s mother, Bess, whom both boys had loved unreservedly.
They talked about the farm and the fact that Loran had seen fit to leave it to George alone. Jed said, “Smartest thing he ever did, I guess. I’d have lost it, sure’s the world. Probably gambled it away. That is, if I’d lived long enough. Hadn’t been for Pepper…”
He let the words trail off. Both men recognized the truth; at the time, George had been ready to take on the responsibility whereas Jed had not. Loran might have loved his two sons equally, but he was too smart a man to risk losing what had been passed on to him by his own father and grandfather.
Jed set out early, as planned, taking time only for a quick breakfast. The sun hadn’t yet cleared the far ridge when the family gathered on the front porch to watch him ride out. All but Pepper, who was not an early riser now that he was retired.
Zach stood beside his father, feet and hands positioned in exactly the same way. He said, “He didn’t look mean to me.”
“He bites, though. He’ll kick when you aren’t expecting it, too,” said Eleanor, knowing the little boy had been begging to be allowed to ride his uncle Jed’s horse.
Once the dust had settled behind horse and rider, George said, “I think I’ll go bring those saddlebags inside the house. Wouldn’t want a twister to blow up all of a sudden and scatter the money all the way back to Asheville. Happens now and then this time of year.”
“Ha,” Lorly crowed. “I know you, you want to count it, see if it’s all there. Jed said there’s more than enough to pay the interest, even after he spent some of it buying himself a new saddle and some clothes and things.”
Eleanor said, “There was even more, but it was stolen along with McGee and his saddle. He got the horse back, but there was no way we could recover the rest. We told you all that, though, didn’t we?”
“No more’n a dozen times,” George told her, but he was grinning. They were all keyed up, waiting for the coming confrontation. All but the children, who started a game of hopscotch. Zach lifted his baby sister under the arms and swung her over the lines. Eleanor thought it was the sweetest thing she’d ever seen a child do.
Nine months, she promised herself. Nine months to the day after she was married, she would be in the same shape Lorly was in now, and that would be only the beginning. She could hardly wait!
They trooped back inside, but no one could concentrate on anything but the coming meeting. First one, then another would wonder aloud whether or not Jed had got there yet. Whether or not he’d met with Stanfield.
It was Eleanor who said, “What if he’s not there? Mr. Stanfield, I mean. Jed didn’t exactly have an appointment with him, did he?”
Which engendered yet another round of speculation.
Jed had been riding for perhaps three-quarters of an hour when he spotted someone headed his way. There was only one road down the center of the valley, leading from the Dulah farm past Scotts’, the Stanfields’ and on to the Gillikins’, all the land but the Dulahs’ now owned by Sam Stanfield. The Scott and Gillikin families had left the valley more than a year ago, according to George. Which meant that whoever was barreling this way in a two-wheeler had probably come from Stanfield’s place.
If it was Pete Marshall, Stanfield’s foreman, Jed had his own debt to pay. It wasn’t exactly the way he wanted to start off the day, beating the crap out of a man, but the opportunity might not come again.
It wasn’t Pete. Pete’s hair was the color of dry grass. Besides, he’d always worn a black, curl-brimmed Stetson. Drove standing up, too, not sitting on a bench seat.
Jed reined McGee to a walk and narrowed his eyes against the harsh morning sun. A woman?
Damned if it wasn’t. With her back to the sun, he couldn’
t see her face, but she was wearing a shiny blue dress, a flowered bonnet and yellow gloves.
He came to a halt and waited. Where the devil could she be going in such a hurry? To see Lorly? Might be a midwife…it was about that time. But George hadn’t said anything about expecting one.
“Vera?” he muttered as the distance closed. The face was the same…sort of. But—
“Jed? I heard you were back.”
He nodded slowly. “How do, Vera. You’re looking…fit.”
It was the best he could do, caught off guard. She’d put on some pounds since the last time he’d seen her. Squeezed up inside that shiny blue dress, she looked red-faced and fit to bust wide-open. The one thing she didn’t look was happy to see him.
“Did George tell you about me?” she demanded. Had her voice always been that shrill? Funny, he didn’t remember her voice at all.
“About you?” Move out of the way, lady, I’m in a hurry here. He thought it, but was too polite to say it. Marginally.
“About me marrying Pete Marshall. I reckon you wondered about that, seeing’s I wrote you. You did get my letter, didn’t you? I never heard back, but George said you were moving around a lot.”
“Yeah, I was.” What the devil was she up to? The Vera he remembered wouldn’t have gotten up this early if her bed was on fire. Stay out all night and sleep till noon, that was more her style.
“Yes, well…I had to.”
She had to. Had to what? Get up early this morning? “Were you on your way to see Lorly?”
She blew out her cheeks like a puff adder. “I told you, didn’t you hear me? Jed, can we go somewhere and talk? It’s warm out here in the sun and this bench is miserable. I told Daddy I wanted a padded seat, but you know Daddy.”
He did indeed. “Vera, this isn’t a good time for me. I’m on the way right now to see your father, and I’m already running late.”
“About the money,” she said, and his eyes narrowed further. “Oh, I know all about the money. Everybody’s heard how you went off and got filthy rich and now you’re back to lord it all over everybody in the valley. Jed, there’s something you don’t understand.”
Blackstone's Bride Page 24