Li clutched Emmett’s arm and whispered, “We should just go.”
She sounded as though she was well in control of her emotions. He drew satisfaction from that small fact. She was a strong woman—a woman of noble character—and he was glad Nan had the chance to see that. He snatched a glance at Li. Her eyes told him she was holding together just fine.
“Just a moment, Li,” he said.
Returning his gaze to his brother’s widow, he said, “I’d like you to behave like the thoroughbred woman I know you are, Nan. I’d like you to apologize to Li and welcome her to your home.”
Nan’s nose wrinkled. “There’s good reason why decent folk are offended when a white man goes playing at husband and wife with a yellow woman—it’s just not proper. So, no, I will not apologize…nor will I welcome her into my home.”
Emmett nodded. “I had hoped for better, Nan.”
She turned a shoulder toward him. “Frankly, so had I, Emmett.”
“I suppose we just differ on what ‘better’ is.”
Nan shrugged.
“Well, we’ll not keep you any longer, then,” Emmett said. “But before I go, I thought you might like to know that justice was served to Eli’s murderer.”
Never before had Nan’s eyes looked so cold. After a silent moment, she said, “Is he dead? Or did you manage to let some judge merely lock him away for a few months?”
“He’s dead, Nan. We couldn’t have made him any deader.”
She gave a curt nod. “Well, thank you for doing at least one thing to maintain the honor of this family.”
Emmett felt the bitterness of Nan’s glare. “I know the way to the door,” he said. “We’ll be going now.”
As Emmett began to lead his wife toward the foyer, Nan crossed her arms and remained firmly planted where she was.
Li gave Emmett’s arm a slight tug. She paused in the parlor doorway and said, “I wish things could have begun more amicably between us, Mrs. Strong. Perhaps we’ll have the chance to start over again someday.”
When Nan raised her chin, refusing to reply, Emmett led Li on out of the parlor, and without so much as a glance back, out the front door of the stately house on Dignowity Hill.
Fifteen minutes later, Travis Morrison arrived at home and made his way directly to the parlor to pour himself a brandy. He was surprised and disturbed to find Nan alone in the room, seated on a burgundy settee, apparently lost in thought, tears on her lashes.
“My dear,” he said, “what’s got you so upset? Weren’t you to meet with Eli’s brother today? Did he not come after all?”
Nan looked down before meeting her father’s gaze. When she spoke, her voice was filled with indignation. “You’ll never believe it, Papa—not if I gave you a hundred guesses.”
Morrison sat beside his daughter, placed a hand on her shoulder, and cocked his head. “Why don’t you go ahead and tell me then?”
“Oh, Emmett Strong came a-calling, all right.” She wiped her eye with the back of her curled finger. “But he wasn’t alone.”
“Another woman?” While Morrison felt a note of sympathy for his daughter’s aching heart, he was very much aware that the world was full of attractive women. He deemed his own daughter a rose among dandelions and a genuine loss to Emmett Strong should the ranger have in fact chosen to court the favors of another. But he did understand.
“Papa, it wasn’t just any other woman.”
“Someone you know?”
Nan shook her head. “Quite the contrary. Emmett Strong has gone and taken up with a Chinese girl. Not a Mexican like before. Not even some Indian woman. But this…this Chinese.”
“Sam Hill! Has the man lost his mind?” Morrison rose and crossed to the sidebar for his brandy.
“It would appear so.”
“What can he be thinking?”
“My question precisely.”
Morrison poured, not only for himself but also for Nan. He hadn’t reached the settee again before he began calculating meeting with Emmett for a persuasive little conversation. The more he thought about it, the more the matter galled him. Emmett Strong had snubbed his daughter—in favor of a Chinese girl. A damn Chinese girl. He wouldn’t sit quiet for this insult. Besides, in a sense, Emmett Strong was family. People would talk. Strong’s poor judgment could have a negative effect on Nan’s social standing—perhaps even on the family’s standing.
Handing his daughter a snifter, he sat beside her again. After she’d taken a sip, he said, “Don’t take this too seriously, Nan. I intend to have a talk with Mr. Strong.”
“But Papa, according to him, they’re not simply courting. They’re married.”
Morrison scoffed. Married? He wondered who would have so blatantly violated the law, giving a white man and a Chinese woman a marriage certificate. “Never you worry, Nan.” He looked his daughter in the eye. “Such things can be annulled. I assure you, Emmett Strong will come to his senses once I’ve had a few choice words with him.”
And if words weren’t enough, why, he’d damn well make sure Strong and his little China girl were finished in San Antonio.
CHAPTER NINE
In the center of town, Emmett and Li made their way on foot, looking for the building Juanito and Sikes were considering for the new business they intended to open. The Bowlegged Buffalo Saloon, as it would be dubbed, was to be a nice place—no girls of the line, just quality beverages and quality music.
Li walked close alongside Emmett. “Maybe it would be simpler if I did pose as your servant. When we’re out in public, anyway,” she said.
Emmett frowned at her. “Absolutely not.” His frown softened. “I want better than that for you, Li—nice restaurants, Fourth of July picnics, plays. I want us to live life to the fullest together.”
“That’s sweet of you, Emmett, but I’m happy just being with you at home and—”
“We can’t live isolated from society in a city like San Antonio,” he said. “We shouldn’t have to. They say San Antonio is the most international city between New Orleans and San Francisco.”
She met his gaze. “We can always visit with Juanito and Sikes and Geneve at the saloon.”
Emmett shook his head. “Now wouldn’t that give folks something to gossip and stare and make rude comments about—not that they won’t be gossiping and yammerin’ on anyway. A saloon’s no place for a lady—any lady.”
“What about Geneve, then?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Geneve’s still working through some things that none of us—except maybe Sikes—knows about.”
The couple turned the corner onto Fourth Street, and Emmett paused. “Let’s put all this serious talk behind us for a little while. I believe that’s the place Juanito and Sikes are looking at.” He pointed to a two-story clapboard building with a false front. The faded lettering on the second story wall read mettenberg & sons drugstore. The windows across the front were dusty. “A good cleaning and a little paint, and this place could be ace-high.”
They crossed the street and stepped up onto the duckboard sidewalk.
“Do you plan to take me with you inside this fine establishment?” Li asked with a playful smile. “After all, a saloon is no place for a lady.”
“It’s not a saloon yet.” He pointed upward. “The sign clearly—OK, maybe not so clearly—says it’s a drugstore.”
“Then I guess I’ll go in with you after all.” She bit her lip and clutched his arm.
Just before they reached the door, three rough types clomped up onto the boardwalk.
“She’s too dang light to be an Injun, ain’t she?” The one that said it had a stain that looked as if it could have been from vomit down the front of his faded red shirt.
None of the three seemed to be the least bit bothered about staring hard at Emmett and Li.
“Don’t look Mexican either,” another one
said.
Emmett stopped short and guided Li behind him. “Why don’t you three quit your gawking?” he said. “It’s impolite.”
The third yokel snickered. “It’s a free country. We can look where we want to. These’re our eyeballs.”
“Yeah, well, if you wanna keep those eyeballs…” Emmett said.
The troublemakers drew up side by side. The tallest of the trio—a fellow wearing a worn-out bowler—wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “Sounds like you’re threatening, Mister.”
A scene from five years earlier flashed before Emmett’s eyes. A tragic scene. One that ended with his young wife lying dead on the boardwalk.
Emmett stared hard at the men. “My apologies,” he said, chiding himself for having said anything to begin with, recognizing that it was his own dang fault he was having to eat crow.
Before matters could deteriorate any further, he opened the door to the empty drugstore and ushered Li inside.
Through the window glass, he could see and hear the three jackasses outside laughing. Their smirks taunted him.
“Got him some kinda foreign squaw,” the squatty one with the stained shirt said with a snort.
The tall one in the bowler waved boldly. “See ya later, squaw man. See ya later, little squaw.”
Emmett’s stomach was roiling. He wanted to lay into the three, but the image of his deceased wife, Gabriela, wouldn’t disappear from his mind.
“Emmett,” Li said, clutching his arm.
His thoughts began to return to where he actually was and to what he was doing there. He heard footsteps approaching on the wood-plank floors.
“What’s the matter, hermano?” It was Juanito. “Trouble outside?”
Emmett didn’t answer. Instead he turned to Li, hoping his eyes adequately communicated to her how sorry he was, both for the ugly situation and for his poor handling of it.
The trio must’ve seen not only Juanito but also Sikes through the glass. With the odds evened, they began to shuffle on. But their cackles and laughter continued, along with their still-audible crudities.
Li glanced at Juanito and Sikes. “Hello,” she said. “Can you give Emmett and me just a minute, please?”
Juanito and Sikes mumbled simultaneous assent and returned to their assessment of the building they were considering buying.
Now facing Emmett directly, she said to him, “Don’t worry. Please. I’m not upset. Back in Virginia City, you warned me that people would be like this toward us. It’s OK. I can handle it. We’ll learn how to just ignore people like that.”
He forced a grim smile. “I love that you’re such a strong woman, Li. Strong and fascinating and irresistible all at the same time.”
She smiled broadly.
“I just had a very disturbing recollection out there,” he said. “And quite frankly, I’m afraid.”
Her smile faded. “Afraid of what?”
“Afraid that some day when somebody else is taunting you, I might not catch myself in time. Might say something that gets you hurt. Or worse.”
Li put a finger to his lips then embraced him tightly. “Shhh. We’ll work through these things together. Nobody will get hurt.”
Desperately hoping she was right, he kissed her forehead. “Let’s put this aside for now,” he whispered. “Take a look at Juanito’s and Sikes’s place here.”
With a twinkle in her eye, she turned and said, “So this is the famous Bowlegged Buffalo Saloon, the talk of the town in San Antonio.”
Sikes turned to her and beamed. “Tell me what you see, Mrs. Strong.”
Juanito leaned against the old drugstore service counter.
“Well,” Li said, “Juanito is obviously a wealthy citizen of this fair city, a regular who wouldn’t think of stopping by any other saloon on his way home from work each day.”
Juanito winked at her.
“He’s leaning against a beautiful bar, polished to a gleam you can actually see yourself in,” she said. “Oh, and what’s that I hear? It’s only the finest guitarist anywhere in the Southwest.”
Emmett’s heart warmed as he noted how quickly his bride put Nan’s rudeness and the incident on the boardwalk behind her. He turned to Juanito. “He’s playing a paso doble, brother-in-law. Do you know what that is?”
“Quieto, hermano.” Juanito grinned. “You’re interrupting the music. Besides, the lady is talking.”
Li pivoted in the middle of the empty room and pointed here and there as though counting. “And how many tables do I see? Eighteen? No, twenty fine tables. And every seat is filled.”
“And they’re all saying, ‘What amazing beer you serve here,’” Sikes piped in. “‘And it’s served at room temperature like it’s supposed to be—not frigid like the swill the inferior saloons serve.’”
“Don’t you dare let him do that, Juanito.” Emmett pointed a threatening finger at his brother-in-law. “If you go to serving warm beer, you know I’ll never pass through the doors of this place.”
Juanito waved dismissively. “Don’t you worry, hermano. It’ll never happen. The only good beer is a cold beer.”
Just then, Geneve emerged from a back room. “There’ll be no warm beer here, Emmett—not if Sikes ever wants me to reconsider the proposal he made back in El Paso.” She put one hand on her hip, tilted her head, and stared at the Englishman from the corners of her eyes.
Sikes laughed. “All right, all right. You win. Cold beer it’ll be, you bunch of Philistines.” He limped behind the counter. “Come on over to the bar, and I’ll pour you a cold one now, on the house.”
Emmett and Li strolled to what might soon be the bar.
“It looks very promising, gents,” Emmett said. “Very promising indeed.”
He followed Li’s gaze to the ornate tin-plated ceiling.
“I think we can do well here,” Juanito said.
Emmett met his brother-in-law’s gaze. After a silent moment, he said, “So when will you be turning in your badge?”
Juanito pressed his lips into a line and exhaled. “Already did.”
“Well, muchas gracias for the advance notice, pardner.”
Juanito looked down and brushed dust from the countertop.
“When were you going to let me know?”
“You’re on your honeymoon, hermano. I didn’t want to talk business till you were ready.”
“What if I’d been called out? I’d have been counting on you riding with me.”
“You know what they always told us,” Juanito said. “One shoot-out, one ranger.”
Suddenly Emmett felt as if he’d been pitched clean out of the saddle. All this change. Had an era just passed, right before his eyes, never again to return?
“To tell the truth,” Juanito said, “I thought you might be thinking about turning in your own badge.” He nodded toward Li. “Now that you have such a young and pretty wife, why would you still want to be out weeks on end, running down long riders?”
Li clutched Emmett’s arm. “I didn’t put him up to this,” she whispered.
“Didn’t figure you had,” he said to her. Then, turning to Juanito again, he said, “Just thought you and I might have talked things through, maybe resigned at the same time, just like we signed on at the same time.”
Juanito shrugged sheepishly. “Sorry, hermano.”
Emmett stared hard for a long moment. “Oh, well.” He slapped the counter. “Why don’t you gimme that cold beer you offered a minute ago? Maybe after I’ve wet my whistle I’ll go turn in my badge, too.”
Juanito mimed filling an imaginary glass from an imaginary tap. “There you go, sir.” He hesitated a moment. “As cold as you like it?”
Emmett eyed Sikes. “Yep. Ice cold. Just the way it oughta be.”
Sikes shook his head and sighed. “Anyway, like Juanito said, you don’t need
to be out tracking outlaws when you’ve got a lovely wife like Li back home.”
“Truth be told,” Emmett said, “I’ve been ruminating over the idea of maybe going back to work for Juanito’s pa over at the mercantile.” He looked for a response from Li.
She tilted her head, her eyes questioning.
“Papi offer you a job, Emmett?” Juanito asked.
“Nope. Just a notion I had.” Actually, the thought had only just now come to him. His mind had been so full of traveling from Nevada back to Texas and getting married and introducing Li to Nan…he realized that somewhere beneath all that, the matter of whether or not to remain a Texas Ranger had been gnawing at him—like the rat you suspected might be pilfering from the feed bin. Only, until now, you hadn’t yet caught it out in the light of day. He and Li really did need to talk.
“Speaking of Papi,” Li said, “I don’t know how to thank him and Mama Galvez enough for letting us stay with them while we decide what to do, Juanito.”
Juanito grinned warmly. “They’ve got a big place. They love having guests.”
“They’re hospitable folks, for a fact.” Geneve squeezed her way between Juanito and Sikes and rested her elbows on the bar and her chin in her palms.
“Don’t wanna wear out our welcome, though,” Emmett said, glancing at Li. “There or here. I think my bride and I will leave you good folks to your planning. There are things the two of us need to talk over.”
Over protestations that they stay and visit awhile longer, the couple excused themselves and made their way to the door.
Just outside of the old drugstore, Li said, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Emmett said. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”
“For all the changes you’ve had to face in the short time since your brother’s death. And maybe for more big changes to come.”
“The biggest thing right now, Mrs. Strong, is for us to find a way to settle into a normal, quiet life as husband and wife.”
“Is that possible—for us?”
Strong Suspicions (Emmett Strong Westerns Book 2) Page 5