Texas Tiger TH3

by Patricia Rice

  "Just say, 'now, Max,' and he'll go into attack position if someone threatens you. Don't say 'attack' unless you have no other choice. He'll go for their throats. I don't think you'll have any trouble. There's no one around this time of night."

  Tucking money into her pocket, she brushed the unruly cowlick back from his face and dared a quick peck on his cheek. "You're the bravest, silliest man I've ever met," she whispered.

  Daniel grinned and let her go with Max and his instructions to guide her. Georgina Meredith was made of stronger stuff than he had first imagined.

  * * *

  Georgina nervously rinsed off the plates they would need to take back to the restaurant in the morning. Had she married Peter, a maid would have been carrying off the crystal and china they would have received as wedding gifts. But her thoughts weren't on their lack of proper wedding gifts. They centered on the man resting in the easy chair by the room's only table.

  Daniel had only sipped at his soup and coffee after attempting to chew a bite of sandwich and declaring it not worth the effort. She wished she had gone for the doctor.

  He needed to be in bed. Georgina threw a glance at the pallet still lying against the wall. That was where she had intended for him to sleep, in here with his machinery and his dog.

  But he looked so pale, she knew he was in pain. And the bed in the other room would be a hundred times more comfortable. She had moved all her clothes into that room, but she supposed she could carry some back here. It wouldn't hurt to sleep on a pallet for a few nights. She would feel much better when Daniel was back to normal, and that time would come sooner if he slept comfortably.

  Having made that decision, Georgina started for the door, meaning to fetch her night things and some clean clothing for the morning.

  Daniel opened his eyes and pushed himself from the chair. "Good idea. I don't think I can stay awake any longer."

  Georgina stared in horror as he followed behind her, carrying the lamp. Trying to calm herself, she said sensibly, "I'll just get a change of clothes before you go to bed."

  Daniel whistled at the dog and pointed to the presses, "Guard," he ordered. The dog whined and dropped obediently in front of the pressroom door, tongue hanging out and paws crossed. Daniel pressed his hand to Georgina's back. "He'll be fine. Come on. Let's test that new mattress."

  Obviously it was the flames of hell washing through her at the touch of Daniel's hand at the small of her back and the sound of his words in her ear. Georgina's face burned with heat that coursed through the rest of her body. This wasn't the way it was supposed to be. Even on a proper wedding night, the groom was supposed to leave the bride some privacy. She balked halfway across the hall.

  Daniel looked down at her quizzically. "Did you forget something?"

  "No, you have." Gathering the shattered remnants of her courage, Georgina tried to explain. "I'm not really your wife, remember? I can't share that bed with you. I'll get my things and sleep in the room with Max."

  "Don't be foolish. There's plenty of room in that bed for both of us. And I'm not in any shape to take advantage of you, if that's what you're worried about. You'd probably fracture the rest of my ribs if I tried." He pushed her toward the opposite door.

  And she went. It was madness, but she went. She was tired and scared and lonely, and she didn't really want to sleep alone on a pallet with a dog as company. She didn't think she really wanted to sleep with Daniel, either, but he wasn't giving her much choice. She opened the door into the room she had thought of as her own.

  Daniel surveyed it with a grim shake of his head. "It's not as if I was exactly prepared to bring a bride home, I suppose. We'll find a dressing screen on Monday. Shall I blow out the lamp?"

  Georgina nodded and hoped he would see. She wasn't certain she could make her tongue form a word.

  The lamp went out and the room plunged into darkness. The uncurtained windows formed pale rectangles against the walls, but provided little light. Georgina took a deep breath and wondered if it was necessary to undress at all. These clothes couldn't be any more ruined if she slept in them.

  There was a rustle behind her, and then Daniel's voice spoke over her shoulder. "Do you need some help?"

  Her one stroke of genius this day had been to wear a gown that buttoned down the front. Her hand protectively covered the buttons. "No. Go on to bed. I'll be there in a minute."

  He touched her shoulder anyway, skimming his hand along the bone, then up her throat to her chin. He held his finger there and turned her face slightly so he could place a kiss on her cheek. "It will work out, Merry. Smile, and everything will be fine."

  He turned away after that, and she could hear the bed springs creak as he sat and tried to use the bootjack on his boots. His words and touch had burned right through to the bone, and she was paralyzed. How would she ever go through with this?

  By smiling, as he said. This was an adventure. She had wanted a hero to rescue her from Peter, and now she had one. Perhaps Daniel wasn't the most romantic of heroes, but he was better than any other she had found. Unfastening the first buttons, she forced herself to smile. It was much better than bewailing the fates.

  When she slid in beside Daniel, Georgina was wearing only her chemise and drawers. She felt scandalously undressed, but not nearly as naked as she had been last night in that indecent nightgown. Daniel hadn't touched her then. She doubted that he would touch her now.

  "How did those other men look when you were finished with them?" she whispered.

  Daniel chuckled. "Their noses will never be the same again. And they may walk with permanent stoops. Don't worry. They won't be back. Go on to sleep." It was easy to reassure her, not so easy to reassure himself. They might not be back with the same kind of attack, but he could swear on a stack of Bibles that Artemis Mulloney wouldn't give up with one defeat. And there wasn't a doubt in his mind that it had been his father trying to bribe him to leave town.

  There was no point in worrying over it now. He had put on a clean shirt before supper, and out of politeness, he had left it on to come to bed. He was stifling in the folds of cloth, but having Georgina in bed beside him made all the day's troubles worth it. He folded her fingers into his.

  In a day or two he would think about doing more—after he'd had time to consider how much trouble he was going to cause his father by taking this particular woman to wife.

  * * *

  Fighting the sun in her eyes, Georgina tried to roll over and go back to sleep, but a heavy weight held her hair pinned against the pillow. She tried to wake enough to free herself, only to discover that a hand was resting boldly across her breasts. Blushing clear to her roots, she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to squirm away.

  The hand woke then. It formed a cup to cradle her breast. Even through her chemise she could feel the heat of the fingers wrapping around her. Her blush went deeper, burning somewhere inside her. When strong fingers began a stroking motion, she jerked away, trying to push herself into a sitting position. The weight on her hair held her down.

  "You feel good, Miss Merry," a masculine voice murmured in her ear.

  She nearly leapt from her skin. Lying on her side, she opened her eyes to confront the bruised and swollen face of her husband. It was not a reassuring sight. Even through the swelling, Daniel was grinning at her, and the light in his one open eye twinkled with mischief. His hand stroked her breast until it found the peak.

  Georgina squealed and tried to break free. "You promised, Daniel Mulloney! You promised. Now stop that, this instant. I want to get up."

  He sighed a deep sigh of regret. "You don't know what you're missing, Merry. But I suppose it's asking too much to have the princess kiss a beast like I must look this morning. Maybe I should go beat up Peter and you can compare us at our worst."

  He rolled away, freeing her hair, and Georgina escaped. Hands on hips, she glared down at him and prepared to deliver a tirade, until she realized he'd thrown off the covers. He was wearing nothing but his shirt.
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  Color blazed in her cheeks at the sight of Daniel's bare legs. They were covered in a soft dark down until they reached his long, bare feet. She gulped, and her gaze drifted back up again. His shirt moved oddly over his hips, and she swung around, keeping her back to him.

  "I'd thank you to leave until I can get dressed."

  With his arms crossed beneath his head, Daniel contemplated the slender back she presented him. The light from the window silhouetted her body beneath the thin chemise. She had a tiny wasp waist without the benefit of a corset. Her hips flared roundly to firm thighs and straight legs that peeked out from beneath her knee-length drawers. He contemplated her bare calves with longing, wondering how they would feel when they were wrapped around him. That thought made his loins surge dangerously. Daniel let his gaze drift upward again, wishing he could see the curve of her breasts from this angle.

  "I'm not sure that I can," he said lazily. "I ache all over. I may need you to massage me until I can move."

  Her back stiffened. "I'm not coming near you until you're dressed, Daniel Mulloney. This isn't funny."

  Glancing down at the rebellious part of his body pushing up his shirttails, Daniel agreed wryly, "No, it's not."

  Georgina rigidly kept her back to him as his feet hit the floor.

  "It's all right, you can look now," Daniel called after pulling on his trousers.

  She swirled around, her hair tumbling over her shoulders and down her back, and Daniel took a deep breath of admiration. Her shift was transparent in the revealing light. She was magnificent.

  Her hair shimmered in spun silver and gold over breasts that jutted wickedly against the thin cotton of her chemise. The prim buttons were fastened all the way to her throat, but a blue ribbon pulled the fabric into gathers beneath her breasts, revealing their grace and form to his eager gaze. He didn't think he'd ever had a woman like this one. He had always favored the tall, willowy types. Maybe it was time for a change.

  But her frozen expression warned now wasn't the time to test his theories. Brushing his hair out of his eyes, Daniel attempted a smile through cracked lips. "I have some work to do on the press. Let me know when you're ready and we'll go for a bite to eat."

  He walked out, closing the door behind him.

  It wasn't until then that Georgina allowed herself to breathe again. Daniel's admiring stare had twisted something loose in her insides, and it was fluttering wildly there now. He'd looked at her, really looked at her, and he'd liked what he'd seen. It came as a startling revelation.

  She was really a woman, and one a man could desire.

  It was a turning point in her life. Until now, she had been treated as a precocious child, patted on the head and admired and sent from the room, and she had thought of herself the same way.

  But Daniel saw her as a woman. The knowledge bore a terrible burden of responsibility Georgina wasn't certain she wanted to carry. For one dreadful moment she wanted to go back to being a little girl with a cowboy for a friend.

  But that little girl didn't exist anymore.

  Ignoring the odd feeling in her middle that thought disturbed, Georgina reached for her dress. She was not only a woman, but a married woman. She didn't know the full meaning of that yet, but she knew a small portion of it. Marriage was a partnership, and she meant to uphold her side—for as long as it lasted.

  Chapter 18

  "I think the best thing to do is start talking to the women over at your father's factory." Daniel paced the open space they now thought of as their front room. The pallet lay rolled up against the wall, unused since Saturday night. Two nights in bed together and his mind was already deteriorating into a shambles, he decided, shoving his hair back from his face.

  Georgina sat at the table, going over a page of print, checking for errors before the final product was turned out. She didn't look up from her work as she replied "Leave the factory out of this. I want the heads of every Mulloney on a pike."

  Daniel swung around and glared at her. "You're the one who has been telling me that your father's factory is the best place to start. I'm just agreeing with you. It's right there, across the street, easily accessible, and you said yourself that there's some connection to Mulloney's."

  Irritation edged his voice, but Georgina kept on with what she was doing. He had been pacing the office like a caged tiger all morning. He ought to be aching in every fool bone in his body and lying around groaning.Instead, he had set his type and written several pieces for the paper and still found time to pace.

  "That was before, when I thought Peter would end up owning it. Now it's part mine, and I'll take care of it. I think we ought to stay with an expose of ABC Rentals and the living conditions of their tenants."

  Daniel stopped in mid-stride. "What's part yours?"

  Georgina finally glanced up. "Hanover Industries. My grandmother left me forty percent of it."

  Daniel continued staring, waiting for an explanation.

  Georgina shrugged. "My father had to borrow the money from his family to buy the business. He gave them a forty-percent share in return. When my grandfather died, he left it to my grandmother. My grandmother left it to me. She probably meant it for some sort of dowry. I'm certain my father intended for Peter to take it over when we married. But as far as I know, it's legally mine when I turn twenty-one."

  "And when do you turn twenty-one?" he asked ominously, glowering through his swollen eye.

  Georgina dimpled sweetly. "July fourth."

  Daniel opened his mouth to speak, shut it again firmly, swung around, and strode to the window. "Then you'd better hire yourself a damned lawyer real soon. I'm going after Mulloney Enterprises, and if my hunch is correct, they own a piece of Hanover Industries. If so, it will come tumbling down with all the rest before I'm done."

  "I'll be there to pick up the pieces." Finishing her proofing, Georgina stood up and dusted herself off, then reached for her hat and gloves. "I'm going to see the Harrisons. I'll be back with lunch."

  Daniel swung around and glared at her as she calmly pulled on her short white gloves. "You'll do no such thing. You're not going out there alone."

  Georgina gestured for Max. "And who will stop me?" she asked, still smiling sweetly.

  And before he could offer argument or logic, she was gone.

  * * *

  "Betsy is looking much better today," Georgina commented as she took the seat to which the old lady showed her.

  Janice sent her visitor's gray dress a disparaging look. "You're not. Where's your fancy silks and lace? Isn't Daniel taking you on an expensive wedding trip like your other beau would? What are you even doing out of bed?"

  The pretty little girl sitting on the floor playing with a broken doll looked up at the harshness in her sister's voice. At Janice's expression, she turned worried eyes to their visitor.

  Georgina blushed, but kept her back straight. "Daniel has work to do, and I'm trying to help him. He was attacked Saturday, you know. I think that's a sign that he's causing people like Mulloney some sleepless nights. We're going to do more than cause them sleepless nights before this is over."

  "What is over? What do you think you can possibly do to a man who owns half the town? Peter or his father probably had Egan and his cronies beat up Daniel as a warning. What do you think he will do next?" Janice asked scornfully.

  Georgina hadn't thought about that. Peter had always been nice, if distant. She hadn't thought him capable of violence. But then he'd pulled that rifle trick, and she'd had to rethink her judgment. Perhaps it was time she began rethinking a lot of things. Would a prominent, wealthy businessman stoop to hiring thugs to beat up journalists? Especially if that journalist claimed to be his son or brother?

  Georgina cringed at the notion. This was definitely not the nice world she had thought. But it could be. The good people just had to band together against the bad ones.

  Relieved by that thought, she smoothed her gloves and stood up. "I've been reading about unions. I think that's what we n
eed here. If all the women working for Mulloney's Department Store got together and demanded raises and better hours, they could force Mr. Mulloney to do what they wanted. He couldn't sell a thing without them."

  Janice sent her a cynical look and picked up her piecework, "He would just fire them all and hire new ones. I read, too."

  Georgina shook her head and glanced at Audrey, who had been listening listlessly until the union had been mentioned. "Explain it to her, Audrey. Tell her how difficult it is to hire just the right sort of person for a place like Mulloney's."

  "She's never been inside Mulloney's. She won't believe me," Audrey whispered.

  "I never saw such a defeatist attitude," Georgina declared, glaring at both women. "Mulloney's is a public store. Anyone can go in at any time, but they've scared you into thinking otherwise. Audrey can look after Betsy, and Max can stay here. Come with me, and I'll show you what I mean."

  Janice looked down at her mended cotton gown and shook her head. "I'm not going in there to make a fool of myself just for your pleasure. They would throw me out if I tried."

  Georgina smiled brilliantly. "Oh no, they won't. I'm very good at creating scenes. If they so much as try, they'll have a scene the likes of which the town won't forget in a hundred years." She pulled off her gloves. "Here, if it will make you feel better, we'll dress you like a lady. Put these on."

  She unpinned her hat, studied Janice's loose chignon, found the best angle, and pinned it to her thick hair. "There, instant style. What do you think, Audrey?"

  The other girl studied her older sister. "It would be better if she had a parasol or a mantle or a rope of pearls." Her eyes brightened. "Mama's cameo! That will be perfect."