Trilby

by Diana Palmer

  “Samantha may not like me,” she persisted.

  “Samantha adores you. Don’t look for trouble,” he added stiffly. He averted his eyes. It was difficult to face her now, with the passion that had exploded between them abruptly cooled. He’d never touched Sally like that. He’d never once wanted her so badly that he couldn’t stop. But Trilby had almost demanded him. He still tingled from the ecstasy he’d known with her.

  “I’ll go in now,” she said shyly. Her body was sore. She felt ashamed. She searched his face and let her eyes stray to his shirt. He hadn’t quite buttoned it all the way, and a goodly part of his broad, hair-roughened chest was visible. She averted her eyes quickly when she realized how it was affecting her to look at him. It disturbed her that she was so receptive to him physically. She’d always thought that she was rather cold. Now she discovered the buried sexuality in her body and was frightened and repelled by it.

  “I must go in,” she repeated nervously.

  “You’ll be comfortable and dry in here,” he said. “Sleep well, Trilby. If it helps, I’m sorry I let things go so far.”

  He sounded as troubled as she felt, and he looked unapproachable.

  “So am I,” she said stiffly. “Good night.”

  He nodded curtly and left her without even looking back.

  She went into her tent, weary with pleasure and sadness, and closed the flap.

  Thorn stood outside for a long moment, wavering. He should never have let it happen. The look on her face was going to haunt him. He’d done nothing but hurt her since the day they’d met. He wished he knew why he reacted as he did to her. His behavior with Trilby was inexplicable. Almost as if he loved her. He scoffed at that. He was growing fanciful in his old age, he thought as he went back to his own tent.

  Trilby hardly slept. When morning came, she felt dragged out and guilt-ridden. Julie looked wounded, and Richard was morose and unapproachable. When Julie went toward him, he actually walked away, leaving his pretty cousin in tears.

  Julie didn’t know that he’d lost his respect and affection for her in one night. By offering to give in to him, she’d given him the impression that she was any man’s for the taking. And a man of the world, of his social class, certainly didn’t marry a woman who was experienced or easy.

  He glanced at Trilby and felt sorry for the way he’d ignored her in Julie’s favor since he’d come out here. Trilby was the kind of girl a man married and cherished. You wouldn’t find her rooting around a man’s tent in the middle of the night asking to be taken. Yes, Trilby was just his sort, and it wasn’t too late to put things right. Julie could rant and rave if she liked, but no one would pay her much attention. He no longer wanted her. And he didn’t particularly care if she knew it.

  When they gathered around the campfire for breakfast, Richard seated himself next to Trilby and addressed himself to caring for her needs.

  “I’ve been rotten to you, haven’t I?” he said quietly. “I’m sorry, Trilby. I was infatuated with Julie, but I’ve had my eyes opened,” he added, with a vicious glare in Julie’s direction.

  Julie flushed and looked away. She’d never dreamed that Richard would react as he had to her impulsive gesture. All she’d meant to do was let Trilby hear them together. And it had been so sweet to kiss him, too. But he’d actually thrown her away once Trilby was past and ordered her out of his tent. Such cheap behavior told him what Julie truly was, he spat at her, and he wanted no part of a hussy.

  She’d gone back to the tent she shared with Sissy and cried herself to sleep. At least Sissy didn’t know what was going on. She’d been soundly asleep. But Trilby knew, she had to, and Julie hated the pity in the other girl’s eyes as much as she hated Richard’s sudden attention to her.

  Trilby could guess how he’d had his eyes opened, but it wasn’t the sort of thing a woman could say to a man. She directed her attention to her plate and forked scrambled eggs into her mouth. Everything she thought she’d felt for Richard had died a quick death.

  Thorn had gone to help attend to the horses. When he came back and found Richard sitting beside Trilby and apparently on good terms with her, he could have cursed.

  With a savage anger, he cleaned and loaded his rifle, keeping well away from the rest of the group. Trilby noticed his absence and began to feel that their intimacy had completely killed his interest. He might have decided that he didn’t even want to marry her, and that was terrifying. If she became pregnant what would she do? She would be ruined.

  As the day progressed, Thorn continued to ignore her, except for a glare now and again. She didn’t credit Thorn with jealousy of Richard’s sudden interest in her. She assumed because he was glaring at her that he held her in contempt now for her behavior of the night before. Her own guilt compounded the situation, and she began to avoid him, too. Which, of course, made a bad situation worse.

  The men went off by themselves to hunt in the afternoon. Sissy and Trilby were left with a subdued, wounded Julie, who wouldn’t speak and kept to herself in her tent.

  Trilby reluctantly told Sissy what had happened.

  “They were together all night?” Sissy asked.

  “I don’t know if they were or not, honestly. I’m almost certain that Julie did something to my tent to make it leak. Thorn came to see about me and we both heard her with your brother. I don’t know if anything happened, but Richard seems very angry with her this morning.”

  “Now you see what my dear brother is really like, don’t you?”

  Trilby nodded. “I’m afraid so.”

  “Finally,” Sissy said.

  “I’m going to marry Thorn. At least, I think I am. He asked me.”

  “Congratulations! Thorn will take care of you.”

  Trilby shrugged. “He doesn’t love me. Thorn, I mean. I don’t think any man I’ve ever known has loved me. But Thorn is well-to-do and we get along. I expect we’ll settle.”

  “Do you love him?” Sissy asked gently.

  Trilby looked at her bleakly. “That doesn’t matter.”

  “But of course it does.”

  She studied the other woman. “Where did you vanish to last night after supper?”

  “I was being serenaded. Didn’t you hear the flute?” Sissy asked, with forced cheer. “The flute?”

  She nodded. “It’s an Apache custom.” Her face fell and all her pretended gaiety dropped away. “I don’t know what we’re going to do. He feels just as I do, but we live in a world that doesn’t encourage people from different races to fall in love.”

  “You poor dear.”

  Sissy sighed. “I have the worst luck, don’t I?”

  “But he was ignoring you yesterday.”

  Sissy smiled at her. “Another custom. They’re a fascinating people. I told him that Dr. McCollum was one of my professors. He was impressed. I’m going to take another archaeology course in the spring, and if I do, I can come back out here with my class. We solicited pledges from our families to pay for the trip. We’ll get to stay for a whole two weeks. I’ll get to see him again,” she said huskily, already feeling the pain of parting.

  “See?” Trilby asked gently. “You have something to look forward to.”

  “Oh, yes. Except that I have to say goodbye first,” the other girl said, subdued. “I don’t know how I can. I love him,” she whispered fiercely. “Trilby, I love him so much!”

  Trilby didn’t know what to tell her. She hugged the other girl warmly, comfortingly, but her concern about Sissy showed in her troubled eyes.

  “Here, now,” Trilby said after a minute, diverted from her own woes by Sissy’s. “Let’s clear away the dishes. I’ll get some water from the stream.”

  Sissy dried her eyes and forced herself to smile. “Okay.”

  RICHARD WAS AS wild a man with a hunting rifle as Thorn had ever seen. Even Ben was nervous of his brother, dodging as the older man shot haphazardly into the brush.

  Thorn caught the barrel and threw it up just in time to spare one of the m
en a bad wound as Richard’s unplaced shot was aimed at him.

  “Watch yourself,” Thorn said shortly. “If you continue this carelessness, I’ll relieve you of that rifle.”

  Richard was indignant. “Like hell you will, sir!”

  Thorn didn’t blink. “I won’t have my men shot. If you don’t secure that rifle, I’ll secure you.” His hand dropped menacingly to the butt of his handgun. He didn’t say another word. He didn’t have to. The gesture was explicit.

  Richard laughed nervously. “You’re joking, of course.”

  “No.”

  “I wouldn’t have shot anyone, for God’s sake!”

  “I’m glad to hear it. Shall we get on?”

  The Westerner moved away with his own rifle in his free hand, his easy stride as menacing as that sidearm. Naki, who was standing nearby, gave Richard a cold stare before he turned and went along with Thorn to continue tracking their quarry.

  “Surely to God, he wouldn’t have shot me!” Richard whispered to Ben.

  Ben wasn’t certain of that. “You’d better be careful where you point that thing next time,” he said quietly. “Mr. Torrance told me about Thorn Vance. Yes, he’ll use the gun if he’s pushed, I think. He’s killed men, you know.”

  The older man’s face went even paler. “A savage like that shouldn’t be allowed loose!”

  “He’s a rich savage,” Ben replied. “And a bad enemy. If you accidentally shoot anyone, there’s no telling what he might do.”

  Richard got the point. He was intimidated by Thorn Vance. The older man had a sharp edge that he didn’t really want to test. For the rest of the day, he was a model guest, even disguising his contempt for the Indian fellow. He wouldn’t turn his back on that Apache, either, he thought angrily. He might have an enormous vocabulary, but that look in his eyes was as savage as the desert.

  Only Ben got a white-tail deer that day. He threw it over his saddle and proudly rode into camp with it. The men exclaimed over its beauty and the delicious meal that it would provide. Richard drawled that the head, mounted, would look nice over the mantel back home. Trilby didn’t look at it. She was too squeamish, and she loved animals.

  Sissy hugged her brother warmly and praised his skill. Julie was still in her tent. Sissy took her a plate at supper, but she wouldn’t eat.

  Richard knew what was wrong with her. He didn’t care if she was broody. She was a grown woman and it was she who’d come to him the night before. If she wanted to play the wanton, she was welcome to the consequences. He felt no guilt.

  He sat down beside Trilby and began to talk animatedly, not even sore about Thorn’s treatment of him earlier. He bragged about his other hunting expeditions and the big game he’d killed, hoping to impress the men.

  He didn’t impress Thorn, who sat a little away with a cup of black coffee cupped in his lean hands. The rancher was as morose as Trilby. He didn’t look at her or even speak to her. Eventually he went to bed after a walk about the perimeter of the camp. He didn’t say good night to Trilby, a noticeable omission.

  She stayed beside Richard, easing the ache in her heart with his gentle interest. Odd, she thought, that Richard had been her whole world just months before. And now he was nothing except camouflage to keep Thorn from seeing how miserable she was from his rejection.

  Just as the camp settled down that night, something disrupted the peace. The rain had long since ended. Trilby had gone back to her own tent and was almost asleep when sounds of movement disturbed her.

  A tall figure moved into the tent and knelt beside her. She jerked up, and a hand went gently over her mouth.

  “Be quiet,” Thorn said sharply, his deep voice urgent. “Get dressed as quickly as you can. Do you know how to fire a gun?”

  She shivered. “N-no,” she stammered, frightened by the urgency of his tone. Light glinted from the lamp outside the tent flap and in it she spotted Mosby Torrance.

  “Torrance, get the others,” Thorn called over his shoulder.

  “Yes, sir.”

  The older man moved away, but before he had she saw the glint of the steel-barreled Colt .45 in Thorn’s lean hand.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked at once.

  “Mexicans,” he replied tersely. “Naki was scouting down the mountain and ran into a party of them creeping up on us. We may have to make a run for it. I hope your friends have nerve, Trilby. Everything depends on it.”

  “Sissy and Ben will stand fast,” she said quietly. “I…don’t know about the rest.”

  “You don’t know if your beloved has nerve, is that it?” he asked coldly. “I think he’ll drop to his knees and beg if he’s overwhelmed, for what it’s worth, but I won’t let anything happen to him.”

  “What about Sissy?”

  “Naki will protect her with his life. I think you know that already,” he added.

  “Richard won’t like that.”

  “Damn Richard!” he said coldly. “Get up.”

  She did, still dressed, and fumbled for her shoes. She put them on quickly and wrapped up in her jacket. She was almost shaking when Thorn herded her out of the tent and into the shadows of the trees, where Mosby Torrance and a taciturn Naki had gathered the others.

  “I say, this is damned inconvenient,” Richard was muttering. “I don’t hear a thing.”

  “You won’t, until your throat’s been cut,” Thorn assured him. “These men are revolutionaries and they’re desperate. They have nothing. If they can capture one of you and hold you for ransom, believe me, they’ll do it.”

  “Can’t the army do something?” Ben asked.

  “There isn’t enough of it to cope with the numbers of revolutionaries,” Thorn told them. “It’s a long border. Come on. Move quickly and as quietly as you can. We’ll go down the back side of the mountain and hope that we can avoid them. If we can’t, it will mean a shooting scrape, I’m afraid.”

  “I’ll see to the women,” Mosby Torrance said, gathering Julie and Sissy and Trilby together. “Don’t worry,” he told Thorn as he leveled his six-shooter in a steady hand. “Nothing will get past me.”

  “I believe it, sir,” Ben said, and smiled.

  “Thank God we left Teddy at home,” Trilby said softly. “I’d hate him to be here.”

  “He’ll curse because he isn’t.” Torrance chuckled. “Come on, ladies.”

  Sissy threw one worried, distraught glance at Naki, but she knew he wouldn’t return it. Custom was too deeply ingrained in him. With a silent prayer for his safety, she followed the others.

  Naki had a huge knife in a belt around his narrow waist and a rifle in one lean hand. Looking at him, Thorn thought that it was easy to see why early settlers grew nervous at the mention of the word Apache. In his high-topped fringed moccasins and breechclout, his was a savage appearance. He was wearing a shirt, but it hardly detracted from his fearsome countenance. When they’d known it was going to come down to a fight, he’d dipped a finger into a pouch at his belt and brought it out with a smear of red color, so that now his face was painted with a red jagged lightning bolt, the red matching the color of the band of cloth around his head. He was as disturbing as the situation.

  “How many?” Thorn asked the Apache.

  “At least ten,” Naki replied quietly. “All mounted.”

  “You came back into camp alone, didn’t you? Maybe you led them here!” Richard accused wildly.

  Naki turned to the blond man with resigned irritation. “Mr. Bates, even an ignorant savage would be hard-pressed to justify helping his employer into the hereafter.”

  Richard flushed. It was disconcerting to hear an Indian using such precise English. The man didn’t even have an accent!

  “Can we outrun them?” Ben asked.

  “On these swaybacked, glorified packmules you’re riding?” Naki asked disbelievingly.

  Thorn glared at him. “Go ahead. Insult my horses.”

  “I thought I just did,” Naki replied. “Despite the…ah…inexperience of your guests
, proper mounts would have been wiser.”

  “Is it my fault that some of them would have fallen off proper mounts in less than five minutes?” the rancher growled. He popped his sidearm back into his holster with unnerving precision. “Let’s get going. Ben, you and Richard catch up with Torrance, please, and cover his retreat.”

  “And where will you be?” Richard drawled sarcastically.

  Thorn smiled. It wasn’t a pleasant smile, either. “Naki and I will welcome the visitors into camp.”

  Richard scoffed at that, but he went with the others. When they caught up with Torrance, he moved beside Trilby and took her arm, for all appearances her sole protector. Thorn glared down at him, but this was no time for jealousy. He motioned to Naki and they vanished back into the trees.

  “Are they really going to welcome the Mexicans, Mr. Torrance?” Sissy asked as they quickly made their way down to where the horses were tethered in a makeshift corral.

  Torrance glanced at her. She was closest to him, and the others were talking among themselves. This one thought like a man, he mused, and she showed no fear. He could tell her the truth, because she could take it.

  “No, ma’am, they aren’t,” he replied. “They’ll kill as many as they can and pin down the others to give us a chance to get away.”

  Sissy caught her breath. She looked back up the hill, grimacing. Naki could take care of himself, she knew, but to think of him being killed was insupportable.

  “The Apache is not careless, Miss Bates,” Torrance said perceptively.

  She turned back, flushing. “I was worried about both of them,” she argued.

  “Yes, ma’am. This way.”

  She followed him, unnerved by his quickness. Some of the people at the ranch seemed to feel that Mr. Torrance was too old to matter, but she wouldn’t have written him off at all; there was more to him than what showed.

  Trilby didn’t look back. She was afraid that her face would give her away. Thorn had cared enough to come and get her first, so that had to mean something. But for now, she was too worried about him to think.

  “You’ll be all right,” Richard said, smiling. “I’ll take care of you.”