Reilley figured that his prospects of beating a hired gun to the draw or having an empty jail on a Saturday night were likely better than his chances of matching the dreams of a nice girl from Boston who knew nothing about what men and women did together. He’d better shave again before bed, he thought, rubbing his hand across his jaw. At least she wouldn’t feel like she was being kissed by sandpaper—
A dainty, booted foot descended. A froth of pink flowered skirts appeared after the boots. Reilley’s mouth went dry. “Do you like pink? I’ll wear a pink dress if you fancy the color. Then you’ll know that it’s me.”
But he’d have known in any case, no matter what she had been wearing, because after the boots, and the skirts, and the white kid gloves, and the ruffled bodice, he saw a slim, graceful neck, a small, heart-shaped face, and eager, curious eyes gazing out on the platform, looking for him but searching, as she did so, for everything that she could see. Then she spied him, taller than anyone in the waiting crowd, watching the train as if his fate were bound and tied in what emerged.
She smiled. No one in Gerrit Reilley’s 30 years had ever smiled at him like that. She smiled as if she were happy to see him, and as if he was the only man in the world she wanted to see. How could a woman so petite convey so much promise in those soft, pink lips that curved like a bow against her smooth, creamy white skin? Her eyes met his; he’d heard songs about females with dancing eyes, but he’d never seen one in the flesh until now.
“Gerrit Reilley,” said a lilting voice that couldn’t have matched the frolic in those eyes nor the kisses-in-waiting shape of her lips any better.
“Miss Trice,” he said, his throat so parched that he didn’t know if the words would come forth. “Rhymes with kiss.”
She smiled and he saw dimples flirt with the curves of her lips. “You remembered!” she said happily as if he’d just uttered a verse of poetry.
“I couldn’t forget,” he admitted. “I’ve been thinking about it all day.”
He meant it, but she threw her head back and laughed as if he’s said something witty. “I think we’re going to do very well together,” she said confidently, holding out her elbow. Awkwardly, he took her arm, but the awkwardness soon passed and as they crossed the street together, he felt his uncertainty begin to melt.
“You’re much handsomer than you led me to believe,” she disclosed. “I wasn’t sure what to expect but I knew that any man who was willing to be so honest was very likely modest as well. I’ve never seen a man with green eyes like yours.”
He thought of Josephine’s description of his eyes as a cross between a snake’s cold capture and a tom cat ready to pounce. He hoped that wasn’t what Trice saw. He wasn’t quite sure what answer to make to a remark like that, but it didn’t matter. Trice sure didn’t need much to go on she chattered away as if everything she saw made her think of something else.
“Are we going to get married today?” she asked as they crossed the dusty street, Reilley shielding her with his body as they darted between horses and wagons. The Hotel Laredo, an impressive building with fresh paint and a broad porch, was just ahead. It was the most expensive hotel in town but Reilley was pleased with the appearance, and the bed linens were freshly washed.
“Yes, ma’am—Miss Trice. I’ve set it all up. Your luggage has been sent on to the hotel. It’ll be there for us, when we---“ he faltered.
“Would I be able to freshen up before we go to the rector? I’m sure I’m quite dusty.”
He took the hotel key from his pocket. “It’s on the second floor, room 205, just at the end of the hall.”
She looked at him curiously. “Aren’t you coming up?
“I—we aren’t wed yet,” he said hesitantly.
“Oh.” She considered this, holding the key in the palm of her hand. “But no one knows that.”
“Miss—it’s not proper for us to be in a room alone without being wed.”
“I don’t know if it matters so much,” she argued. “I’ve never—you see, I’ve never gone into a hotel by myself.”
“You traveled across the country by railroad alone, and you’re quaking about going into a hotel room?”
“You see,” she whispered, standing on the tips of her toes, “Mama always said that a lady doesn’t go into a public building without an escort.”
“I don’t know that your mama would think kindly of her daughter being alone in a room with a man.” But even as he spoke, he was walking toward the hotel, caught in the enchantment of those dark blue eyes.
No one noticed as they entered and walked up the stairs to their room. Trice handed him the key soberly. His hands were not quite steady as he unlocked the door.
Once inside, Trice removed her bonnet, revealing a thick swirl of hair the color of dark, golden honey. She hurried over to the window. “It looks so busy out there,” she announced.
Reilley kept his distance. “I reckon Boston’s mighty busy.”
“Oh, yes, very busy, but that’s different.”
She didn’t explain how it was different and he didn’t ask. He was trying, without much success, not to notice the endearing inlets of her waist, a hand’s span, he was sure, before her skirts flared out again in delicate folds of pink. Trice leaned closer against the glass. “I wonder . . . do women in Texas not wear stays?”
“Pardon?”
“Stays. Corsets. I have one on; in Boston, a lady daren’t go out in public without being laced. But the women I see walking . . . I don’t think they’re laced! If I can go without lacing, I’m going to absolutely adore Texas!”
She turned around to face him, her face alight as if she’d been handed presents. He didn’t know much about corsets but he was damned sure that the girls at the Lucky Liberty didn’t wear them.
“Would you mind?” she asked, sounding anxious. “If I went without stays?”
“Would I mind?” he repeated. “What’s it got to do with me? I sure wouldn’t want to wear them.”
She giggled. “Imagine a man being laced up,” she scoffed.
It was troubling enough imagining what was underneath all that pink. Trice. Rhymes with kiss. God Almighty, she was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen and he’d be able, in the sight of God, to undo those buttons and unlace those stays and roll down the stockings and everything that she was wearing would come off and there would be nothing between them---
Reilley grabbed his hat. “We’d better go find the preacher,” he said. “Fast. Your mama wouldn’t think me much of a gentleman if she knew what I’m thinking.”
Chapter Six
By the time they were pronounced man and wife, Reilley wanted to do nothing but take her back to the hotel room and cleave unto her, just as the Good Book said. But Trice said she was hungry, and thirsty, too, and Reilley just nodded. She read the menu as if it were a source of fascination, closed it, and said that she’d have what he was having.
Reilley, who could have eaten ashes and spit and not known the difference as long as he was staring at her, ordered steak for both of them.
Trice sighed happily. “That sound like a very Texan meal,” she breathed.
Reilley raised his eyebrows. “They don’t cook steak in Boston?”
“Yes, but this will be authentic steak,” she explained. ‘The cattle are here.”
“Some of them,” he replied, his desire easing for the moment as he laughed. She was an original, no doubt about that. “There are cattle all over.” “Were you ever a cowboy?”
“Years ago.”
“Do you miss the life?” She leaned forward. Her dress dipped a bit in the front, enough for him to notice the rising swell of her bosom beneath the pink lace of her bodice.
Reilley looked away. “Hell, no,” he said, and was instantly apologetic. “Pardon, Miss Trice, I know better than to talk like that in front of a lady.”
She leaned even closer, so closely that if he reached out, he could wind one of those honey-gold tendrils of hair around his finger. “I wish I
could curse,” she said wistfully.
Reilley laughed. “Go ahead,” he said.
“Mama always insisted that a lady never uses profanity.”
Reilley had the feeling that he and Trice’s Mama wouldn’t be on very good terms. But he was used to plain-speaking women like Josephine, who said what she thought in words that could make a cowboy blush.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said, matching her whisper. “When it’s just the two of us together, you say whatever you want.”
“Truly? You won’t be shocked?”
Reilley grinned. “Hell, no.”
He’d almost kissed her in the dining room, but she’d sat back in her seat, smiling contentedly. When they returned to their hotel room, dusk had begun to fall.
“Mama says it’s women’s punishment,” she told him.
“Punishment? What punishment?”
“I’m not sure. Mama didn’t provide details. She just said that when a woman marries a man, and they have children, it’s a woman’s punishment and must be borne.”
“Mama said that?”
“Yes. But she didn’t say what the punishment was. I think it’s something to do with babies,” she told him.
“I expect so. But it’s not punishment.”
Trice took off her bonnet. “I didn’t think so. Although it’s very peculiar with cats.”
“Cats?”
“Yes. You have kittens, so you know.”
“I—you mean when cats mate?” he asked guardedly. Innocence and candor were turning his bride into a temptress.
“Yes, you’ve seen what they do. It’s very odd. I don’t believe people do it the same.”
Before he could answer, she had stretched out on the bed, her bottom high up in the air, her back low and sinuous. “And she moves like this—“ Trice turned her head around to look at him.
Watching the lithe undulations of her body, Reilley knew that he wasn’t going to be able to follow Josephine’s advice if this continued.
“Are you well?” she asked, sounding concerned. “Your eyes look like you have a fever.”
Reilley cast caution to the winds. “Trice rhymes with kiss, I do have a fever, and damned if it isn’t you.”
“Are you going to kiss me?” she asked, sounding intrigued by the prospect.
“I’m going to do a hell of a lot more than kiss you,” he said. “But first I need to get you out of that dress.”
Undressing her was time consuming; buttons took an eternity. They laughed over the stays, but when he got them off, she breathed a sigh of relief. But then, as he removed her clothing, kissing the warm skin where the fabric had been, her merriment changed to something else; he heard the pattern of her breathing change and he knew that even pure girls felt passion.
“You, too,” she said softly, when she was naked, her hair spilling onto her shoulders. “I want to see you like this.”
“Now you’re talking about punishment,” he teased. But when he took off his clothes, her huge dark eyes never left his body. He thought of himself as leathered and rangy, but didn’t realize that she saw the knitting of sinew to bone and the lean, seamless expanse of flesh as perfection. His green eyes were dark and mysterious to her, like a forest to be explored, and his raven black hair, thick and straight was mussed from her searching hands. He felt shy and uncertain for a moment, almost as if he were the novice, but he leaped onto the bed beside her, then on top of her, as her legs parted instinctively.
Josephine was right. Take it slow and gentle. She had a mouth that was made to surrender kisses and she gave them up to him, her lips opening as he pressed his mouth and tongue deeper. Then, as her breathing altered again, her soft hands grew demanding, pressing into his back as if she were making him her captive. She moaned and begged as he kissed her breasts, calling out his name in tattered syllables. He couldn’t wait any longer but she didn’t want him to; as he entered her, she arched to meet him, gasping at first in bewilderment but then, soon after, in the surprise of someone who was ambushed by delight. He waited until her sighs and entreaties subsided into pleased, kittenish whimpers, and then his own passion unleashed within her.
Trice cuddled close. “That didn’t feel like punishment at all,” she said emphatically.
By the time they boarded the stagecoach for Liberty Bell, after spending two days in their hotel room, they’d learned that their appetites for one another were only whetted for more each time they made love. Her purity and inexperience were a tantalizing foil to her ardor and he found that his Boston bride was not at all prim and proper. But when they entered the stagecoach, her hair swept in a golden coil beneath a pert green bonnet, her lovely body adorned in a green and pink frock, his wedding ring on her finger beneath her gloves, she was as composed as if they were on their way to a tea party.
“I was afraid of you,” he admitted as the stagecoach lumbered into motion.
“Me?” She showed her disbelief. “No one has ever had reason to be afraid of me.”
“I didn’t know why anyone who lived in Boston would want to come this far just to marry someone like me.”
Trice’s eyes were downcast. “I knew someone who left Boston for Texas. He said that Texas was being built in his lifetime and the last page hadn’t been written yet.”
“Who was he?” Reilley asked, trying to conceal his jealousy. “Someone you were fond of?”
“Very fond. Someone in my family.”
“Did something happen to him?”
“He died.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
From the time they’d met, there had been no distance between them until now. But her reference to a dead family member seemed to bring her to melancholy. They rode in silence.
Then she sighed and mustered a smile. “Was he right?”
“About Texas? Sounds right. I don’t know much about the book part of it . . . I don’t know as I’d describe Texas as a book. Maybe a painting. The canvas keeps changing; new people always come into view.”
Her smile, once again, was bright. “And now I’m in the painting with you.”
He smiled back. “Yes, Trice Reilley, you’re in the painting with me.”
“Trice Reilley,” she repeated. “I hadn’t thought of that. Trice Winthrop is gone.”
Gerrit shook his head. “I don’t want her to be gone. I want her to be Trice Winthrop Reilley.”
“You do? Everyone always wanted me to change.”
‘Why would anyone want to change you?” She was just right as she was. Passionate, and fun-loving and full of the unexpected. Holding her tight after she had dressed, without the cumbersome obstruction of a corset in the way; teaching her curses and listening to her practice the words as if she were studying another language; watching her wrinkle her nose when she decided to sip from his beer at supper; brushing her hair before bedtime and reveling in the thick lucent waves tumbling over her shoulders . . . he’d never expected his mail-order bride to be an enchantress.
“You might,” she said seriously. “I can’t sew. I just learned to cook. I’m not much of a wife.”
Reilley’s eyebrows rose. “Really? After the last two days together, I’d say you’re very much of a wife.”
Her dimples showed in a smile. “Yes, but that’s . . . “
“Punishment,” he reminded gravely, hiding a lascivious grin that stripped off her finery with his eyes.
“Will you still think so when I mismatch the buttons on your shirts because I don’t sew well?”
“I’m 30 years old. Do you think I don’t know how to sew a button?”
“You surely didn’t marry so that you would sew your own buttons?” she inquired incredulously.
“I wasn’t thinking of buttons.”
She was silent as she considered this. There were times when her countenance was so open that her thoughts were plain to read. There were other times, such as this, when she seemed to be part of a greater mystery, one which he would perhaps never be able to decipher.
The stagecoach rambled on. The ride was rough and he was looking forward to being on his own two feet again.
After a time, Trice looked up at him, her expression open again. “I suppose sewing doesn’t matter as much as other things in marriage,” she suggested. She sounded hesitant, as if she needed to be reassured of something.
“No,” he agreed, “not as much.” He grinned at her. “I think we’ll do all right. We’ve done all right so far.”
Trice blushed. “Yes,” she agreed, “but what about when we’re in Liberty Bell?”
Gerrit tilted his head. “You look very pretty in that bonnet,” he observed. “I expect you’ll look just as pretty when we’re home.”
She studied him closely, her intriguing eyes fixing her gaze upon him. “I don’t know very much about anything besides bonnets and such,” she said finally. “Will you be disappointed in me?”
She was too young to have awakened in the morning burdened with the knowledge that the day would end in the same unwelcome solitude with which it had begun. He barely knew how to assure her that she was exactly what he wanted in a wife, a winsome woman who would be there waiting for him when he returned at the end of the work day. He’d been a bachelor long enough to fend for himself; he could cook after a fashion and sew his buttons if need be. He took his clothes into town for laundering, but it didn’t require much book learning to figure out how to fill a basin with water and wash them. He hadn’t sought a wife because he wanted a servant. He had what he wanted; he might not be able to frame pretty words around his feelings for her, but he felt them strongly just the same. It would be his work to make her understand that he loved her the way a cowboy loved a woman. Not with fancy clothes or poetry but with a strong back, hard-working hands, and a heart that would never fail her.
Regency Romance: Fallen Duchess (A Historical Victorian Murder Mystery Love Regency Romance) Page 30