"You must tell Mr. Addison, miss," Abby implored as Caroline went to the kitchen to request tea and cakes be brought into the parlor. "You're a married woman. It wouldn't be fair to be leadin' him on."
"I have no intention of leading Thomas on, Abby. You know I have never given him the slightest reason to hope we shall wed."
"'Twasn't Mr. Addison I be talkin' about, miss. 'Twas Mr. Jesse."
"Jesse! Do my ears deceive me?"
"You have struck a bargain, miss, and it be only fittin' and proper that you live up to it."
"You're stepping out of line, Abigail."
"And I suppose you'd be firin' me now, with me the only one willin' to tell you when you're wrong?"
"I must say it is a tempting thought."
"No good comes of keeping secrets. Silver Spur is a small town. If you don't tell your husband about Mr. Addison, someone else will do it for you."
"Like our friend at the Golden Dragon?"
"She has much to gain."
Caroline rejoined Thomas in the parlor where he had found the one bottle of whiskey in the place.
"Care for one?" he asked.
She took her seat on the divan. "I thought that was the hostess's question."
"I took the liberty of pouring one for myself."
Her jaw tightened. "So I see. Correct me if I am wrong, Thomas, but it would seem as if this is not the first whiskey you have partaken of since leaving here this afternoon."
He winced. "You sound like my mother."
"If Emily has been telling you your whiskey consumption is most alarming, then it is no wonder." She was silent while Abby, eyes wide with curiosity, deposited the tray of tea and shortcake and slowly backed out of the room. "What is wrong, Thomas?" she asked as soon as the young girl was out of earshot. "Why are you doing this to yourself?"
Thomas dropped to one knee before her. "Why else, Caro? Why else would a man throw aside all he knows and head west. For love."
"Love! Dear God, Thomas, I have never encouraged you."
"I know how you feel, Caro. I have always known."
"You know nothing, Thomas!" Caroline leaped to her feet. "I have never given you reason to believe I harbor anything but friendship toward you."
"But I understand now why that was so. You are like your father—how could I have expected you to live a life of confinement in my mother's house?" He rose and joined her by the window. "Things are different now, Caro. I have thrown that life aside."
"You are mad, Thomas! How on earth could you have left your life behind? Boston is your home; it was never mine. You belong there with your family and your heritage."
"I have brought my heritage with me. I came into my trust fund last month." He clasped her hands and she tried in vain to pull them away. "Listen to me, Caro: anything you want is yours. New furnishings, new carpets. I will tear this building down and build you a palace, if you'll only say yes to marrying me."
"I cannot say yes." Please understand, Thomas. Don't force me to tell you...
"I am wealthy beyond your dreams, my love. I can give you your heart's desire."
"Please, Thomas, you don't understand..."
"I adore you, Caro, and I know you have feelings for me."
"You're my friend. I care for your welfare."
"It can be more than that. I'm not the man you knew. I've changed."
"I don't want you to change, Thomas. You're—"
"Marry me, Caro." He pulled her into his arms. "We're here together a thousand miles away from Boston. We can build a new life together."
She struggled to pull away from him but he held her fast. "Thomas, you must listen: I don't love you, not the way you deserve."
"You will in time, Caro. I know you will. Say you'll be mine."
"Oh, Thomas, it cannot be," she said as her eyes filled with tears. "I am already married."
Chapter 21
The minute Jade saw the man stumble off the stagecoach that afternoon she'd known he was an Easterner, same as Bennett and his yellow-haired daughter. He had that certain prideful arrogance she'd come to recognize and, more important, he had the look of money.
It had been real interesting watching him stroll along arm in arm with the Bennett bitch—and even more interesting to see him follow her into the Crazy Arrow. He hadn't stayed real long and Jade had just about put him out of her mind when she noticed him return to the Arrow after sunset.
Did the gal have herself a brother? They both had the same pale look about them and it wouldn't surprise Jade none to find the bitch with another male to champion her cause. Gals that didn't have nothing to fight about always seemed to find men to do battle for them.
But Jade wasn't one to dwell on things like that and she'd just about put him from her mind the second time when she noticed him sitting at a table in her very own Golden Dragon, looking about as forlorn as a man could look.
She poured two generous tumblers of scotch whiskey and sashayed over. "On the house," she said, sitting down next to him and offering him a glass. "Got me a real friendly policy when it comes to newcomers."
He mumbled his thanks and downed the whiskey in two shakes.
"Take it slow, boy," she said, laughing. "Night's young and I got plans for you."
He brightened at her words and she motioned for her bartender to bring him another round.
"Thank you, ma'am."
She extended her hand. "Name's Jade."
He took her hand and kissed it in a real gentlemanly fashion. "Thomas Wentworth Addison III. I am in your debt."
Exactly where she liked her men to be.
"What brings you to Silver Spur? Family business?"
"My family is back in Boston," he said, shaking his head. "Stupidity's the best explanation for this."
She took a sip of whiskey and rolled it around in her mouth for a moment, savoring its warmth. "Saw you go into the Crazy Arrow. Got friends in there?"
He looked up at her and to Jade's amazement tears welled up in his big eyes. Then, to her amazement he proceeded to tell her all about his one-sided romance with the Bennett gal.
"Well, don't give up, darlin'," Jade said, patting his hand. "You come on over here and have your fun. She'll come 'round soon enough and you can take her back to Boston."
He shook his head, dragging a hand through his thick hair. "You don't understand. She's not going anywhere. She's married."
A lump of ice formed in Jade's belly and her hands began to shake. "I ain't heard nothin' about her bein' married. Gal's a spinster far as I know, same as the rest of 'em in the Arrow."
"Not Caroline. She married some...some saloon owner on the Fourth of July."
Jade's fingernails dug into her palms. "Happen to know the gent's name?" Thomas downed another whiskey and his eyelids fluttered closed. Jade reached across the table and gave him a ruthless pinch.
"James...Jenkins...Jesse. That's it," Thomas said, rubbing his forearm. "Jesse Reardon."
Later on, Jade didn't remember how she got back to her suite of rooms. The only thing clear to her was young Thomas's face as he said the name Jesse Reardon. Each word he'd uttered had been a knife wound to her heart.
"Ain't possible," she said aloud as she paced the room. Jesse wasn't the marryin' kind, no matter how pretty the gal might be. Thomas had told her it was a marriage of convenience, meant to last only as long as their business in town lasted, but deep in her heart Jade knew better. No marriage of convenience would have kept Jesse from her bed for so long. Somehow that conniving yellow-haired bitch had gotten under Jesse's skin, casting a spell over him that could ruin everything Jade had been working toward.
Outside her window a steady rain fell. From the looks of it, the rain would keep Jesse out of the mine another day or two and give her time enough to formulate a plan. Maybe this young man from Boston was a gift from the gods. Already he had spilled his story to her for the cost of a bottle of whiskey and a half hour of her charms. If she played her cards right, Thomas Wentworth Addison I
II could be the perfect wedge to drive Caroline and Jesse apart.
Jesse couldn't love that gal. It just couldn't be. He wasn't a forever kind of man and that Bennett gal had home and family written all over her. How many times had Jesse told Jade she was the only woman he could trust because she was the only woman who wouldn't hurt him, who didn't want anything from him?
When he saw what Jade had done for him, the fortune she'd amassed for him, he would understand everything. Of that she was certain.
But still she needed one more week. The plans were all in place and she couldn't stop them now even if she wanted to for they stretched to the Nevada border and beyond. Six days from now the mail stage with the shipment of gold bullion from Carson City would be riding through.
On the seventh day she and Jesse would load their bounty into a wagon and head for Mexico and they'd never look back.
* * *
Caroline didn't tell Jesse about Thomas that night. He came back to the Crazy Arrow well after midnight and climbed into the big feather bed with her and her best intentions disappeared before his ardor.
In the morning he was gone before she awoke. The steady rain would keep him away from the mine but she knew he had a great deal of work to keep him busy at the King of Hearts. The day passed without incident except for a tale Sarah Wilder had heard from her beau, about a young man from Boston who'd gotten himself quite inebriated at the Golden Dragon and was currently sleeping it off back at The Last Stop. She had Abby deliver a pot of soup and home-baked bread for him but the room clerk said that the young Mr. Addison wouldn't feel much like eating—or anything else, for that matter—for at least another day.
And so Caroline did not tell Jesse that night, either.
Morning dawned grey but the rain had slowed to a steady mist and Jesse decided to ride out to the mine with Sam Markham and see how much flooding they'd had. Caroline watched him dress in the dim light and a deep sense of foreboding suddenly came over her.
"I wish you wouldn't go to the mine today, Jesse," she said, her voice husky with sleep. "I still hear thunder beyond the foothills. You know those supports are shaky enough as it is."
"You worry too much, darlin'," he said, stroking her cheek. "We're just goin' to assess the damage. Won't be in there more'n an hour."
"I just don't feel right about it. You're the one who told me how dangerous the thunder can be."
"If Sam and I don't see what has to be shored up, it ain't never going to be safe in there, storm or no."
"Be careful. I—" She stopped abruptly, face flaming, and kissed his palm.
But he knew. She saw it in the look in his midnight blue eyes and that look carried her through the morning. The rain may have upset the schedule at the mine but work on renovating the Crazy Arrow continued. Everywhere Caroline looked she saw progress and she moved through her chores with a feeling of optimism in her heart. If only Thomas would see the light and return home where he belonged, everything would be perfect.
Toward that end, she sent Abby to The Last Stop again that lunchtime with another offering and was pleased when the girl returned a little while later with a message from Thomas.
"Looked like the inside of a goat's mouth, he did, miss, all bristly and red-eyed."
"I shouldn't wonder," said Caroline, shaking her head. "I heard he drank a prodigious volume of whiskey before he passed out."
"He wants to speak with you."
"No apologies are necessary."
"He wouldn't be takin' no for an answer, miss. I think you owe him that much."
Of course that was true and Caroline sent Abby back to The Last Stop with a note asking Thomas to rent a trap and meet her on the ridge just beyond town. The one thing she didn't need was to bump into Jesse. She loved Thomas as a friend and would stand by him, no matter what he decided to do. This anxiety was simply Caroline's guilty conscience speaking—if only she had told Jesse that her friend from Boston was in town...
* * *
Thunder rattled through the mine and Jesse placed his hand against one of the rotting supports to gauge the severity of the vibrations.
"Sweet Jesus," Sam muttered next to him, ducking his head to avoid being hit by some falling rock. "Damn place is spooked."
"Damn place needs some work done," Jesse shot back.
"Well, I got me more brains than to stand here and wait for it to collapse on my head, boss. I'm goin' back to open the saloon."
Jesse cocked his head and listened to the sound of another clap of thunder. "Storm should be passin' soon."
Sam, however, was having none of it and he turned and disappeared through the tunnel to the main entrance on the east side of the hill where they'd tethered their horses.
Jesse lingered awhile, listening to the ominous creaks and shudders overhead and the steady drip of rain pooling at his feet. Sam was right, he thought as a rock slid to the ground somewhere deeper in the mine. This wasn't any place to be during a storm.
The rain had broken the back of the heat wave and, despite the grey sky and the steady drizzle, Jesse couldn't resist giving Diablo his head and they galloped over the hills until he pulled up on the reins near a small spring just beyond town. He'd brought Caroline there a few days ago and he smiled as he remembered the pleasure he'd found with her as they lay on a blanket and watched the sky.
While Diablo was drinking his fill of the cool clear water Jesse climbed up on a boulder and gazed down at the panorama below. Deer tracks were visible and a pair of cottontail rabbits grazed nearby and standing there beneath a Joshua Tree was his wife in the arms of another man.
* * *
Caroline couldn't find Jesse anywhere. The moment she got back into town she flew to the King of Hearts. Abby's beau, Sam Markham, looked at her kind of strangely but she believed him when he said his boss hadn't come back from the mine.
Today Thomas had proved himself a true friend, putting aside his own distress in order to let Caroline know that last night he had slipped and told Jade about the secret marriage. "I don't know what I can say to apologize," he'd said to her as they stood near the Joshua Tree, "but if it's any consolation, she didn't seem terribly interested."
But as the night wore on, Thomas told Caroline, one theme became prominent in Jade's conversation: the old Reardon mine. "I can't put my finger on it, Caro, but she seems to have strong feelings about keeping that mine closed."
She had to tell Jesse about Thomas immediately; and she had to tell Jesse about Thomas's suspicions, as well.
Caroline checked the dry goods store, the barber shop, and Aunt Sally's and she was almost desperate enough to barge right into the Golden Dragon but she decided she would stop back at the Crazy Arrow in case Jesse had come by.
Abby pounced on Caroline the moment she came through the door. "Mr. Jesse's here, miss, and if you don't mind me sayin' so, he seems mad as a hornet. Stormed up to the second floor, he did, with a bottle of whiskey in each hand."
Caroline thanked Abby and flew upstairs where she found him in their room, stretched out on the feather bed.
"Just in time, darlin'," he drawled. "I'm 'bout to start the second bottle. Why don't you pull up a chair and join me?"
Heart thudding painfully, she closed the door then sat down on the window seat. She drew back when he offered her a swig from the bottle. "You know I do not drink whiskey, Jesse."
He chuckled and took a long pull himself, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Thought I knew a lot of things about you, darlin'. Appears I been real mistaken."
Her breath caught in her throat. "You know, don't you?" she whispered.
"Don't know much of anything, Car-o-line. Why don't you tell me what's on your mind?"
His expression had closed in upon itself; his midnight eyes were hooded and wary. She lifted her chin and plunged in: "Thomas is a friend of mine from Boston. His mother took me in when Aaron set out for the West. The Addisons are a fine, upstanding family and I owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude for the generosity t
hey extended to me."
"A real purty story, darlin'. Maybe you should just write it up and sell it to the papers."
"You don't understand, Jesse. My father abandoned me...he left me with the Addisons and they were kind enough to open their home to me."
He took another swig of whiskey. "Suppose you're tellin' me this city gent don't mean more'n a hill of beans to you."
"Thomas means a great deal to me. He is a good and true friend who is trying to help us."
He muttered an oath as ugly as it was violent. "I saw how your good friend was tryin' to help you, darlin'. Did you open your mouth for him the way you do for me and wrap your legs—"
With a cry she moved to slap him but he was swift as a snake. He grabbed her wrist and the next instant her arm was twisted behind her back and she was sprawled under him on the feather bed with whiskey staining her skirt and fear filling her brain.
"You got no right to be so uppity, Car-o-line, not after what I saw today."
"What on earth could you have seen?" she cried, panic rising in her chest. "Have you sunk so low you cannot recognize human kindness when you see it? I have done nothing to be ashamed of."
His breath was hot against her cheek and she winced as his knee pushed between her thighs. "Depends what you call nothin'."
"We were talking, Jesse, that is all. We were—" She stopped as the image of Thomas opening his arms to her sprang to mind. "Oh, Jesse, that embrace was one of friendship, nothing more. Thomas was wishing me—he was wishing us well."
"Did he do this for you?" He cupped her face roughly between his hands and plundered her mouth with savage thrusts of his tongue. He reeked of anger and violence and she struggled against him in vain. He brought one hand down to her breasts and his hand slipped inside the bodice of her gown, fingers hot and demanding against her flesh. "Did you let him do this, darlin'?" His fingers sought the secret spot between her thighs. "Did you let him—"
She screamed and he covered her mouth with his own, absorbing the sound of her outrage. Twisting her head, she broke the mockery of a kiss. "Live in the gutter if you want to, Jesse, but understand that I shall not live there with you!" She placed her hands against his chest and somehow pushed him away. "I am sorry I told Thomas about our marriage."
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