"I bet you are, darlin'. Let's just hope he keeps that embarrassin' fact to himself."
She scooted to the edge of the bed and rose awkwardly, skirts tangled about her legs. "How I wish he had, but that problem belongs to you. I shall be most interested to discover how you explain our arrangement to your friend at the Golden Dragon."
"I ain't going to waste my energy tellin' nobody, gal, because once the mine is open, this marriage is as good as over."
"As you wish," said Caroline. "The end cannot come soon enough for me."
With that she glided from the room before her husband could see her cry.
* * *
Jesse listened to Caroline's footsteps retreat down the hall, the urge to go after her burning hot inside his chest.
"...that embrace was one of friendship..." Her words echoed inside his head. Those beautiful blue eyes of hers had brimmed with tears but his heart was turned against her.
He'd seen his wife in the arms of another man, a man who understood things Jesse never could. It didn't matter how much money he made or how much he spent making sure everybody knew he had it—he'd never have what that Boston boy had been born with.
The right to love a woman like Caroline.
For the first time in his life, Jesse was well and truly trapped by circumstances beyond his power and the feeling didn't set well with him.
Not well at all.
He downed the rest of the whiskey, staring at the silver brush on the dresser top. Just last night he'd lain in bed, watching her draw the brush through her long golden hair while she readied herself to join him.
"Son of a bitch!"
He picked up that silver brush and sent it crashing through the window in a spray of broken glass and broken dreams.
Then, with apologies to no one, he left to saddle Diablo and get the hell out of town before he killed somebody.
* * *
Jesse didn't return to the Crazy Arrow. Caroline waited in the parlor, ostensibly to work on her mending, but in truth she was waiting for the sound of his spurs jingling as he came through the front door.
Abby and the girls were terribly solicitous; not once did anyone mention the broken window in her bedroom or the silver hairbrush Abby had found in the rosebushes. They tiptoed through the house, offering her tea and apple muffins but wisely they kept their sympathy to themselves.
From the parlor she watched men traipse in and out of the Golden Dragon across the street and was dismayed to see Thomas, resplendent in his best navy suit, disappear behind that red lacquer door. Thomas was a grown man and entitled to do as he wanted, but she could not help wishing he would choose a better way to spend both his time and his money. Although she watched until well after midnight, she did not see him leave.
Thomas's defection was further proof of the faithless nature of man and she turned from the window in disgust.
The hall clock tolled three hours after midnight and still Jesse did not return. How could she have been such a witless, naive fool as to think their marriage could ever be anything but a cut-and-dried business deal? Just because two people were able to make the midnight stars explode was no reason to believe they could build a life together.
And just because a man whispered pretty words in the darkness was no reason for a woman to think he loved her.
A dizzying wave of fatigue washed over her. Sleep, Caroline thought, rising and heading toward the staircase. Perhaps after a few hours rest she would find a way to deal with the tangle her life had become. Jesse couldn't stay away forever. Marriage had bound their destinies together and—
"There she is, men! Get her!"
The front door to the Crazy Arrow was knocked clean off its hinges as a phalanx of men, drunk and angry, stormed into the foyer.
"How dare you!" Caroline pulled her silk wrapper more tightly about her body. "This is an establishment for women only!"
"Shut up, Mrs. Reardon!" yelled Three Toe Taylor. "Where's your husband?"
"He's not with you?" she countered.
"Don't get smart, little lady," Big Red Morgan warned. "We ain't in the mood for wise talk."
"How fortunate," she spat, "since you are most unlikely to find any in the establishments you habituate."
Silence fell over the gathering of men. "You know what in hell she's talkin' about?" one man in the back mumbled but no one seemed to have an answer.
"Get out!" she commanded, sounding more confident than she felt. Where were Abby and the girls? Hadn't they heard the door being forced or the men yelling in the hallway? "I have a good mind to call the authorities."
"You ain't callin' nobody." Luke Foster tossed her over his shoulder as if she were no more than a sack of grain. "You're comin' with us."
She started to scream but one of the men covered her nose with a sweet-smelling rag and before she could utter a sound, everything went black.
Chapter 22
"What's all that noise?" Thomas asked lazily from his spot in the middle of the red satin bed. "I never heard a commotion like that back in Boston."
Jade ran her hands over his belly and let her hair drift across his chest. "Ain't nothin' to worry about, boy. Menfolk are just havin' themselves some sport."
Thomas leaned toward the nightstand and cast a look at his pocket watch. "At three in the morning? Even Dodge City wasn't as exciting as this." He had come to the Golden Dragon at Jade's invitation, not knowing what to expect, simply looking for something besides whiskey to take his mind off Caroline's marriage to that barbarian, Jesse Reardon.
Jade had proved to be the perfect remedy.
She arched her back for him to admire her full round breasts, letting them sway enticingly just out of his reach. Truth to tell, he'd already had his fill three times over but his body was ready to have another go.
"I have me an idea, boy." Her exotic dark eyes glittered with excitement. "Don't know if you're game or not."
He let his hands trail over her waist and hips. "I should think I'd have proved my willingness by now." Already she'd showed him things beyond his wildest imaginings. What more could she possibly have in store for him?
"Get dressed," Jade ordered, walking naked to an armoire and pulling out trousers and a shirt that—to his amazement—apparently were for her. "I'll bring the trap around front in five minutes."
He climbed from the bed, blood pounding with excitement. "Where are we going?" he asked, although at that point he would willingly have followed her most anywhere.
She smiled and cupped her breasts. "Where we ain't going to be disturbed."
Thomas laughed out loud and went to fetch his clothes. All in all, he'd say he'd gotten his money's worth tonight.
* * *
Caroline regained consciousness to find Sam Markham looking down at her. Her head ached and her throat was scratchy and raw, but her vision was clear and she saw compassion in the bartender's broad face. "Where am I?" she managed, glancing around at her surroundings. Kegs of beer were stacked end to end and bottles of whiskey and rum lined the shelves built into the walls. "The King of Hearts?"
Sam shook his head then handed her a glass of water. "Can't tell you that, Miz Bennett."
The cool liquid slid easily down her ravaged throat and she sighed gratefully. "You know I'm not Miss Bennett, Sam. Isn't that what this whole thing was all about?"
Sam retreated to his chair alongside the wall. "I got me my doubts about that story. Don't seem real likely Jesse up and married. I'm just doin' what I think I should."
"Whose idea is this?"
He hesitated. "Don't rightly know. Seemed most of the League came up with it at once, best I can recollect."
"Why am I being punished? What on earth have I done to deserve such treatment?"
"Ain't you, miss," Sam said, lighting up a cigar as he stretched his legs out in front of him. "They're lookin' to get at Jesse and seems like, you bein' his wife and all, that you're the best way to do it."
"Ridiculous!" she snapped, once again the im
perious Caroline Bennett of Boston, Mass. "Release me this instant, Sam!"
He shook his head. "Can't do it, ma'am."
"I insist."
"Don't rightly make no difference one way or the other. I gotta do what the League asks."
"What about Jesse—" She paused for effect. "—your employer? Doesn't it matter what he thinks?"
"He's the one what put it to me that way months ago. We gotta keep the customers happy."
"At least you can tell me where I am." She willed tears to tremble on her long lashes. "To be kidnapped was frightening enough, Sam. It would help tremendously to know where it is I am being held. Am I miles away from Silver Spur?"
"Hell, no, ma'am. You're in the basement of the Golden Dragon, right across the road from home."
Her pulsebeat accelerated. The Golden Dragon. Jade. "Does Jade know about this?" Caroline asked.
"She's the one what told the League Jesse up and tied the knot."
Suddenly Thomas's words about the mine came back to Caroline in vivid detail. "I can't put my finger on it, Caro, but she seems to have strong feelings about keeping that mine closed."
"Where is Jade, Sam?"
He shrugged. "Don't rightly know. Saw her go off with that friend of yours just before you came to."
Thomas and Jade? In some ways her old friend was as innocent as a newborn babe. What on earth could Jade be leading him into?
"I must insist you release me, Sam. It is vitally important."
"Like I said, ma'am, I—"
"And what would you two be doin' here all cozy and hidden?"
Both Caroline and Sam Markham started at the sound of Abby's voice at the top of the basement stairs.
"Evenin', Miss Caroline," said Abby as she strolled down the steps. "Courtin' my beau—and you a married woman."
Caroline started to protest that with her hands tied behind her back she was scarcely the predatory female, but she saw the look of warning in the young maid's hazel eyes. "All's fair, Abigail. Sam's a handsome man. Is it any wonder?"
Sam's wide jaw sagged open in surprise.
"And what would you have to say for yourself, Sam Markham?" Abby demanded, facing him with her hands on her slender hips. "Is it sneakin' around you're doin'?"
Sam jumped to his feet. "It ain't what it seems, Abby. I'm just watchin' the missus for the League."
"I don't believe you, Sam."
He raised his hands palms-up. "I wouldn't lie to you, Abby. You know how I feel."
Abby stood behind Caroline's chair. "This would be a fine thank-you I'd be gettin' for carin' so much about you."
Her fingers began to work the knots of rope at Caroline's wrists.
"Tell her, Mrs. Caroline," Sam implored. "I ain't the kind to cozy up to my boss's wife."
The knot loosened and Abby began to work the end of the rope through. "Oh, and is that how it is then, Sam? No thought to me and my poor breakin' heart—only thoughts of Jesse Reardon?"
"You're all I think about, Abby girl. Mornin', noon and night I got you on my mind."
The rope dropped away and Caroline flexed her fingers to bring her blood back into circulation. Abby rested a hand on Caroline's shoulder and the slight pressure warned Caroline to stay put.
"I think you'll have to be showin' me, Sam." Abby walked toward him.
Sam glanced at Caroline, his broad face reddening with embarrassment. "Abby," he said in a loud whisper. "Later on."
Abby's fingers began undoing the buttons on the front of her bodice as Sam's face grew even redder. "I wouldn't be one for puttin' off 'til tomorrow what we could be doin' tonight..."
Caroline didn't know who was more embarrassed, she or Sam, but she did know opportunity when she saw it. While Sam watched in wonderment as his sweetheart shed her clothes, Caroline made her getaway.
* * *
It used to be enough for Jesse, saddling up Diablo and heading as far away from civilization as he could get. Years ago when he was riding for the Pony Express, the money came in a poor second to the sense of freedom he enjoyed tearing across the great open plains.
It wasn't enough any longer.
He'd spent a long night in a bedroll halfway up a low mountain in a rainstorm and all he'd ended up with was the realization that the worst had happened.
He needed somebody.
He needed Caroline.
How in hellfire had it happened? What had he been thinking of? Where had he been looking that this could have happened to him?
Only once had he even come close to this feeling that grabbed at his heart. He'd grown close to his brother Andrew and had felt a strong sense of protectiveness toward the boy. When Andrew died, a part of Jesse had died with him.
Yet no matter how deeply he'd cared for the boy, Jesse's heart remained solitary. Not for him the pain of loss. Not for him the agony of loving. He'd learned that early at the hands of his mother and it wasn't a lesson he'd intended to forget.
Women couldn't be trusted. They went to the highest bidder, loser be damned. The empty look in his father's eyes when his mother walked out the door would haunt Jesse until the day he drew his last breath.
But then Caroline Bennett came to town and suddenly Jesse found himself saying things and doing things that he could neither stop nor understand. He'd been hurt at the hands of a woman but he'd also found the greatest joy that a man could be blessed with.
He loved Caroline, loved her with a passion and intensity that scared hell out of him because it only pointed out that he was still the same scared kid who had been forced to scratch out a living while his mother spread her legs for a man who offered her everything but a home for her son.
Caroline loves you, his heart whispered. She wouldn't do you false. She was beautiful in form and spirit; her soul, more precious to him than gold or silver.
With Caroline by his side, he was taller and stronger and better than he'd ever had a mind to be and if he were any kind of man, he'd go back to the Crazy Arrow and tell his wife that he loved her, tell her he was ready to make their marriage a real one if she would just give him that chance.
* * *
Jade had always thought of herself as a student of human nature and watching the expression on Thomas Addison's face as he slowly realized he was about to be shot was quite an education. She almost felt sorry for the boy, with his pretty face and Eastern manners. Men like that had no business in a town like Silver Spur.
She'd picked the east entrance to the mine because that was the entrance Jesse and the miners would be using tomorrow. There was nothing like a dead body in a re-opened mine to put a halt to any plans. Miners were superstitious as all get-out; it would take at least three weeks before the uproar died down and by that time Jade and Jesse would be in Mexico.
Thunder rumbled overhead and she saw the sweat dripping down Addison's unlined forehead.
"Ain't nothin' personal," she said, shivering as the mine vibrated along with the thunder. "You just happen to be the one."
"Don't do it," he pleaded, blinking away the sweat. "I'll do anything you say—just don't pull the trigger. I'll be on the next stage...I'll take Caroline with me...I'll—"
"Sorry, my boy," Jade said as she cocked the pistol and took aim. "Some things just have to be..."
* * *
The sound of gunshot reverberated throughout the mine and Caroline headed in that general direction. Jade's gaudy carriage with the four perfectly matched horses was tethered at the east entrance and Caroline was certain Thomas was with the Oriental woman.
The ground was slippery and she clutched at the ladderway to keep from falling, only to have the wood practically crumble beneath her hand. Dear God, Jesse had warned her over and over again about the danger of a mine collapse; the stormy weather the past few days had even delayed the repair work for Jesse would not allow his workers into the mine when thunder shook the earth.
Another gunshot broke the eerie silence and bile rose to her throat. The passageway narrowed and twisted and then at i
ts darkest point it suddenly opened into a large cavern. Kerosene lamps were suspended from support beams casting light and shadow across the quiet chamber and she was about to breathe a sigh of relief when she saw him.
Thomas Wentworth Addison III was slumped against the wall, an angry red stain spreading across the front of his crisply starched white shirt.
A cry tore from her throat and she stumbled toward him. "Thomas! Dear God, Thomas!" Please, don't take him. He's so young...
His eyes fluttered open and her heart ached as she watched him struggle to focus in on her. "Caro?" His voice was thready, weak. The voice of a dying man. "You came, Caro."
She clutched his hands in hers. "Yes, I came for you, Thomas. You'll be alright. I'm here."
He drew in a deep breath and she saw blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. "Jade...watch her...hates you..."
"Don't speak, Thomas. Save your strength."
He motioned for her to lean closer and she did. The smells of fear and death were on him. "No point, Caro...Jade..."
"What, Thomas? What are you trying to say?"
But there were no more words. There would never be more words. Thomas Wentworth Addison III was dead and it was Caroline's foolhardiness, her greed that had killed him.
"Oh, Thomas," she cried, gently closing his eyes and pressing a kiss to his pale cheek, "you should have stayed in Boston where you belonged." He should be safe in his office at the bank, surrounded by the work he'd loved—not growing cold on the floor of an abandoned mine.
"Mighty touchin', gal."
Caroline's head shot up and suddenly her surroundings came into sharp focus: bars of gold and silver piled ten feet high glittered in the lamplight and there, right in front of her, stood Jade with a Smith & Wesson aimed directly at Caroline's heart.
* * *
The yellow-haired bitch was kneeling next to Addison, her hand resting on the dead man's shoulder. She looked up at Jade with those big blue eyes of hers swimming in tears and in that moment Jade knew she had never felt more the outcast in her entire life.
Midnight Lover Page 27