Return to Whispering Pines

by Scarlett Dunn

  “I am not a tart! I am a widow!” Leigh shrieked in a tone that equaled Charlotte’s.

  The judge stood and threw his napkin on the table. “Charlotte, apologize at once.”

  Jack was watching Frank during this little scene. It seemed as though Frank couldn’t take his eyes off the judge’s woman. “I think Frank likes what he sees.”

  “And I thought he was in love,” Morgan said wryly.

  “I guess you were right, it was opportune for him to be in love with a judge’s daughter,” Jack replied.

  “I will most certainly not apologize,” Charlotte told her father. On the chair beside Leigh, Charlotte saw the fur-collared cape, exactly like the one she was wearing. She pointed to the cape. “Where did you get that?”

  Leigh realized Charlotte was wearing the same cape. “It was a gift from Robert.”

  Charlotte was aghast. She had selected the garment herself and it was very expensive. “Father, how could you buy her the same cape?”

  “Charlotte, stop this nonsense! I said this is not the place for this discussion!” The judge was appalled that his daughter was behaving like a harpy in front of the other diners.

  Charlotte was not to be deterred, and she hoped she shamed her father so he would end this foolishness. She eyed Leigh again. “Just how old are you?”

  “I will soon be nineteen,” Leigh replied.

  Charlotte’s sharp intake of breath could be heard over the totally silent room. “Father, you are marrying someone the age of your own daughter? Have you taken leave of your senses?” She didn’t wait for a response; she turned and stormed out of the restaurant.

  Frank didn’t move. His eyes remained fixed on Leigh’s lovely décolleté. He found the judge’s woman very appealing indeed. But instead of standing there ogling the woman, he was smart enough to seize another opportunity to ingratiate himself with the judge. He leaned over and whispered to the judge.

  “Thank you, Frank.”

  Frank smiled at the beautiful young woman, and said, “Nice to meet you, Mrs. King.” He left the restaurant in search of his angry wife.

  The judge took his seat and urged Leigh to sit down.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t tell your daughter about us. When you straighten this out, I will be in my room, but don’t come back until you do.” Leigh grabbed her cape and walked away.

  “Guess the judge’s day just took a turn for the worse,” Jack said.

  “I’m tempted to arrest them for disturbing the peace,” Sheriff Trent said.

  “I’d pay to see that,” Jack replied.

  “I’d pay you to do it,” Morgan said.

  The three of them had their best laugh of the day.

  Fifteen minutes later, Frank returned alone, and joined the judge at his table.

  Jack, Morgan, and Sheriff Trent finished their meal, and Jack said, “I guess we’d best get back to Whispering Pines.”

  “I know a U.S. Marshal, and he’s a reasonable man. I think I will contact him before the judge contacts someone. Once I explain to him what is going on, he might be inclined to see things our way,” Sheriff Trent said.

  “It can’t hurt,” Jack said.

  After they paid for their meal, they were headed to the door when they saw the waitress deliver a tray of food to the judge’s table. They heard the judge say to Frank, “I appreciate this, son.” Frank stood and grabbed the tray of food.

  Jack, Morgan, and Sheriff Trent lingered in the hotel lobby, waiting to see where Frank was going. Frank headed up the staircase with the food.

  “You don’t think he’s taking dinner to the judge’s girlfriend, do you?” Sheriff Trent asked.

  “I wouldn’t put anything past Frank,” Morgan said.

  “I can’t believe the judge would trust Frank with his woman,” Jack said.

  They walked around the staircase and heard Frank knocking on a door. “Mrs. King, I have your dinner.”

  Sheriff Trent smiled. “I think things are going to get mighty interesting around here.”

  * * *

  On their way back to Whispering Pines, Jack and Morgan discussed the judge and Frank. No closer to understanding why the judge had made the decision he did, they were tired of trying to figure it out. Morgan needed to change the subject before he decided to turn his horse back toward Denver. “I’ll meet you in town tomorrow morning and bring a few of my men to start work on the new jail and hotel.”

  “I’m sure Webb and some of the other men in town will have things cleaned up and be ready to start building,” Jack said.

  “I didn’t even ask you how your dinner went last night with Clarissa,” Morgan asked.

  “Not so good.”

  Morgan eyed his friend. He suspected he had more on his mind than Frank. “I thought you liked Clarissa’s cooking.”

  “I wasn’t talking about her cooking. Her cooking is fine. But she said her father wanted to talk to me and he wasn’t even there. She wanted to talk to me alone.”

  It was no secret that Clarissa had her sights set on Jack, so Morgan wasn’t really surprised at her tactics to get him alone.

  Jack glanced at him and arched his brow. “Clarissa wants to get married.”

  “Does she have a man in mind?” Morgan said, grinning.

  “Very funny. Yeah. She wants to marry me.”

  “Aside from her very poor taste in grooms, did she say why she decided this now?”

  Jack thought about Clarissa’s reasoning. “Not really. She just said that we’d spent enough time together and it was time to marry.”

  “What’d you say?”

  “I told her I wasn’t ready to marry.”

  Morgan laughed. “That’s not what Granny says.”

  “Granny had me married off the day she realized I wasn’t going to die after she dug that slug out of me.” Jack remembered Granny telling him all about Addie while he was recuperating. She’d insisted that Addie was the right woman for him.

  “Granny told me I was ready for marriage before I had given it a thought. Her plans worked out pretty good for me,” Morgan reminded him.

  “Yeah, I’d say you’ve done well in your choice of a wife.”

  Morgan thought about the day he saw his wife get off that stagecoach just as he was about to hang her brother. “Jack, I don’t think it was a choice. I think it was part of God’s larger plan for my life. I never gave much thought to destiny, but it makes a man wonder. I think the way the children have taken to you is part of God’s plan. Maybe it’s your destiny to be involved in their lives. I think it’s possible Granny knows something we don’t. Maybe Addie is the one for you.”

  Jack didn’t know how this conversation got sidetracked from Clarissa to Addie and the children. “You’re starting to sound like Granny.”

  “I’ve learned not to dismiss some of Granny’s more fanciful notions.” If Granny was convinced Jack would marry Addie, he wasn’t about to disagree with her. He figured she was more in tune to God’s plans than anyone else he’d ever met.

  “Clarissa’s a pretty woman, and she’s a good cook,” Jack said, redirecting the conversation back to the matter at hand.

  “Uh-huh.” Morgan wondered if his friend was trying to talk himself into finding a reason to marry Clarissa.

  “I like her father, he’s a good man,” Jack continued.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Maybe I should think about it,” Jack mused.

  “Think about what?”

  “Marrying Clarissa.”

  “Do you love her?”

  Jack knew the answer to that question without even thinking about it. “No.”

  “There’s your answer.”

  Jack pulled his horse to a halt. “Did you know when Rose stepped off that stagecoach that she was the one for you?”

  Morgan reined in his horse. “I knew there was something special about her. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I knew it was love right off, but I’d never seen anyone so beautiful. I never expected someone a
s pretty as her to have grit too. But she stood up to me and gave me the devil over trying to hang her brother.”

  Jack understood Morgan appreciated a person who stood for what they believed. “When did you realize you were in love with her?”

  Morgan remembered the very moment he knew he was a goner. “The first time I kissed her. That girl could kiss. I knew I couldn’t allow another man to find out how good she kissed.”

  Jack thought of Addie’s kisses. He’d felt just like Morgan. Maybe all of the Langtry girls were good kissers. Prescott knew how good Addie kissed. He’d kissed her right in the middle of town, and Jack didn’t like it. But it wasn’t because he was in love, he just didn’t want Addie’s reputation ruined.

  “What about Addie?”

  Jack felt like Morgan was eavesdropping on his thoughts. “What about her?”

  “Do you think you might love her?”

  “It seems she’s engaged to Prescott.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah. She didn’t mention that.”

  “She didn’t mention an engagement to Rose.” Morgan thought if Addie was engaged, she would have told her family.

  “Beats me why she didn’t tell anyone. Maybe she thought Prescott wouldn’t come to Whispering Pines.”

  “Does he want her to go back to Boston?”

  Jack had thought about that last night. If she went back to Boston, he’d never see her or the children again. “I don’t know.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Frank knocked on Leigh’s door, and when there was no response, he said again, “I brought your dinner.”

  “I didn’t order dinner.”

  “I ordered dinner for you,” Frank said.

  Inching the door open, Leigh saw the judge’s son-in-law holding a tray full of food. “Why did you bring me dinner?”

  Frank could see she had been crying. “Thought you might be hungry.”

  Leigh stuck her head out the door and looked around. “Where’s your nasty wife?”

  “Charlotte’s not so bad. She was just caught by surprise. Anyway, she’s home. I’m alone.” Frank thought she was even lovelier than he first thought. He was curious to know what she was doing with an old man. He smiled at her. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

  “Given the circumstances, I don’t think that would be proper.”

  Frank gave her his charming smile. “Don’t you think it’s a little late to worry about being proper?”

  Frank pushed the door wider with his shoulder, walked into the room and kicked the door shut with his boot. “The judge told me he’d been spending his nights in your room. I doubt you two are playing cards in the wee hours of the morning, so let’s not start off our relationship by lying to each other.” He walked across the room and placed the tray on a table.

  Leigh didn’t move. “What do you mean by that?”

  Frank walked back to her and grinned. “I think you know.”

  Leigh took a step back to place some distance between them, but she backed into the wall.

  Taking one step forward, Frank braced his arm on the wall beside her head. “I saw how you looked at me. You don’t really want an old man for a husband, do you?”

  Leigh’s eyes flicked over his face. “Why would you ask such a question?”

  Frank leaned in a little closer. “Your eyes gave you away.”

  When the judge introduced them, Leigh had thought the judge’s daughter had certainly snagged a handsome husband. She stared into his blue eyes. His boldness appealed to that part of her that wanted to be just as daring.

  Frank smiled when she didn’t offer a denial. “You’ve been with an older man. Does he make you happy? You are a very young woman, and you will outlive him.”

  Averting her eyes from his, she said, “I have no choice in the matter.”

  Frank leaned down and covered her mouth with his. When she didn’t pull away, he crushed her to him.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him with equal passion.

  When Frank pulled away, he said, “That’s what I mean. You want me and I want you. You don’t have to marry the judge. There may be a way we can help each other out.”

  Leigh was clutching his shoulders, wanting to believe he might be offering her another way to survive, but it would be risky. “You’re married.”

  “I married for a specific purpose. I think you are doing the same thing.”

  “What else am I supposed to do? I have no family, no way to make a living unless I want to work in a saloon.”

  “I understand your reasons. But there may be another way.” He nibbled on her neck. “I like the way you taste.”

  Leigh placed her hands on his chest and was waiting when his lips met hers again. Within seconds, her pent-up desires were released on the promises of a complete stranger.

  Later, Frank walked to the untouched tray of food and picked up a cold biscuit. He stuffed it in his mouth, walked to the bureau, and picked up the pitcher of water. After he poured himself a glass, he turned back to Leigh. “I’ll give you a cut of the money we get from the bank. Once we are convinced they are not going to connect me with the robbery, you can tell the judge you’ve changed your mind and take the next stage back to Colorado City. I’ll meet you there.”

  When Frank first met Charlotte, he thought he might really learn to love her and be faithful to her. Those feelings lasted right up to the moment he saw Leigh. Like his wife, Leigh was young, but when the judge introduced them, he could tell by the way she looked at him that she was not as naïve as Charlotte. She was more beautiful than his wife, and she knew how to dress to entice a man, showing off her mouthwatering curves. Frank appreciated what she had to offer and he wanted her. Charlotte provided him respectability, and he would benefit from that union as long as he needed the judge. He was attracted to his wife, but it was a different kind of attraction when he saw Leigh. She appealed to him on a primitive level. He had to have her.

  “How do you know your plan will work?” Leigh asked.

  “After that scene in the dining room, I don’t think there is any question it will work.” Men and women alike enjoy a catfight between two women.

  “What will happen after the robbery?”

  “As I said, I’ll meet you in Colorado City.”

  “But you will still be a married man,” Leigh reminded him.

  “We will go somewhere and start over.” Frank had no intention of leaving permanently, not as long as his marriage was serving his purpose. He had Morgan LeMasters where he wanted him, and he was going to see that through first.

  “Why couldn’t we go to Colorado City together?” Leigh asked.

  “I have other business here, but I will be there as soon as I can.”

  “What happens to me if you don’t show?”

  “You could always tell the judge you changed your mind and want to marry him. Or, you sell that rock on your hand and take off to another city.”

  * * *

  The judge was in the parlor drinking when Frank returned home. Frank joined him and poured himself a drink.

  The judge couldn’t wait for Frank to sit before he asked. “What did she say?”

  “You’re going to have to give her some time. She’s very upset because you didn’t tell Charlotte.”

  “I didn’t know how to tell Charlotte. You saw how she acted tonight, like a spoiled child. I knew she wouldn’t understand.”

  “Leigh did agree to meet you for dinner tomorrow night.”

  The judge swiped his hand across his face. “Thank you, Frank. I’ve been so worried. I didn’t know what I was going to do if she wouldn’t forgive me.”

  “Have you talked with Charlotte?”

  “I tried. She won’t even answer her door. Ruth has already given me the devil over this. Charlotte went crying to her, and she is on Charlotte’s side. Neither one is speaking to me right now.”

  “I’ll talk to Charlotte and Ruth.” Frank was definitely going to have the judge in hi
s corner after tonight. “Mrs. King is a fine woman, and I can see why you want to marry her.”

  “She makes me feel young again.” The judge didn’t admit he was in love with Leigh. The truth was, he’d never loved Charlotte’s mother as much as he loved Leigh. “Man to man, I can tell you she excites me like no other woman I’ve ever known.”

  Frank couldn’t disagree with him there. His immediate attraction to the judge’s girlfriend was inexplicable. “I understand.”

  “Charlotte’s married now, and I don’t want to spend the rest of my life alone. I want to take Leigh around the world and enjoy what time I have left.”

  “Sounds like you have it all planned out,” Frank said.

  “I’ve had a lot of time to think about it.” Since he’d met Leigh, most of his time was spent thinking about his future with her. The judge stood and slapped Frank on the back. “I owe you, Frank. Let’s go in the kitchen and see what we can find to eat. We didn’t get to enjoy our dinner.”

  “I wish I’d known you were going to eat at the hotel. I would have told Charlotte I preferred eating at home.” Frank was convinced he was going to be the judge’s best friend before this was over. In return for Frank’s help, the judge would certainly keep him from the gallows.

  * * *

  “Honey, I understand why you are angry with your father. He should have told you about his girlfriend.” Frank had no intention of asking Charlotte to work things out with the judge, at least not for a few days. He had his own plan, and the only way it was going to work was by stoking the flames of his wife’s anger. “I don’t think she’s the type of woman a man in the judge’s position should have for a wife. Just think of all the gossip. But, honey, I’m in no position to talk to the judge. You have to understand my future—our future—is in his hands. He could have the sheriff from Whispering Pines arrest me and I could be hanged.”

  “But, don’t you see, she’s not his girlfriend. Did you see that ring on her hand? She’s his fiancée. That diamond cost thousands of dollars. And the cloak he purchased for her, I know how much that cost. He’s spent a fortune on her already.”