When Buttons saw it was Buck, she dropped her new doll and ran across the room. She squealed when he lifted her high over his head.
“Go home now, all right?” Buttons, wearing a navy dress with a middy collar adorned with red stars, nodded rapidly in answer to her own question.
His smile faded. “Nope. Time to eat. You hungry?”
“Me go home. And Ankah, too.”
“Let’s go eat instead,” he said, knowing how Buttons could be once she got on a subject and wouldn’t let it go. As he shifted her to his hip, he tried to ignore the familiar weight in his arms.
When he stepped into the hallway, he met Kase coming up the back staircase carrying a tray laden with food. Kase Storm paused, nodded at Buck, smiled at Buttons, and disappeared into the master bedroom. Buck headed downstairs.
SHE noticed his limp again the minute he walked back into the kitchen and realized his wound must have been far worse than he had let on.
Annika watched with concern as Buck pulled out a chair. He sat down with Buttons on his lap and pulled his plate toward him.
“We saved you some,” Dickie volunteered, shoving the platter of fried chicken toward Buck.
Buck nodded at the same time he wondered why Annika was staring at him so intently. He let Buttons pick out the piece of chicken they would share, heaped his plate with vegetables, broke open biscuits and smothered them in chicken gravy, and then settled down to eat.
She pulled out a chair and sat across from him. “Want me to hold Buttons so you can eat?”
“No!” Buttons yelled.
Annika almost smiled. It wouldn’t be as easy for him to get away from the child as he might have thought. Now, if only she could find time to convince him that they belonged together, that with her beside him he could become anything he wanted.
The other men downed their meals in silence, intent on the food as they shoveled it down as if they were starving. She picked at a plate of vegetables, toyed with a chicken wing, and somehow got through the meal without staring at Buck Scott. When the others were finished, Annika cleared the table, served up the pie and coffee, and then waited as one by one the men complimented her as they left the table and went back to their chores. Finally, when she was alone with Buck and Buttons, Annika poured herself a cup of coffee and tried to think of something, anything, she could say to ease the tension between them.
“Go home?” Buttons asked again.
Annika felt her heartstrings tighten. She longed to ask, Yes, can we? but she refused to invite herself.
“Want some more pie?” Buck tried to divert Buttons’s attention. She shook her head no so hard she set her curls bobbing.
“You were limping,” Annika said.
He looked at her. Finally. “When I get tired my leg hurts. All that riding around in circles today didn’t do it much good.” He took a sip of coffee. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think your brother didn’t know what he was doing out there today.”
“He’s new at this.”
“Yeah. Right.”
“I’m glad you stayed to help.”
“This won’t work, Annika. No matter how many buffalo get loose, chickens you fry, or apple pies you bake.”
“You won’t even give it a chance?”
“Not at your expense.”
“Why don’t you let me worry about me?”
He rubbed his hand over his beard and then through his tousled curls. Buttons squirmed on his lap. He set her on her feet. She walked over to Annika and tugged on her apron until Annika lifted her onto her lap.
“We go home?”
“No.” Annika shook her head. “Buck says we have to stay here.”
“No!” Buttons began kicking the edge of the table.
With a helpless glance at Buck, Annika let Buttons climb down again. She ran off toward the parlor.
“Will she be all right?” His gaze followed the child.
“There are some toys and books in there for her. She’ll play alone for a while; she’s good at that.” She fingered the hem of the tablecloth, folding and refolding it, pressing it with her fingernail. “I’m not going back to Boston.”
He shook his head. “You’ll change your mind.”
A half smile curved her lips. She’d never go back, not now. She’d changed too much. She belonged here, if not with him, then near him. His child belonged here. She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“What will you do?”
“What do you care?” she said softly, purposely trying to push him to anger. Anything was better than his silence.
When he slammed his palms against the table, she jumped. Dishes rattled; a water glass fell over, spilling the remains of its contents. “I care, dammit. I care too much or I’d already have left here by now.” He was glaring at her, his eyes blue shards of ice as they bore into hers. “My life was just fine before you came along. I had my cabin, my work, I knew who I was and what I had to do.”
“You seem to have conveniently forgotten that you went looking for a wife and mother for Buttons and now that you’ve found one, you don’t want her,” she snapped back.
“I can’t afford her!”
Furious, Annika stood up and pushed back her chair. She leaned on the table, so close to his face that he was forced to meet her eyes. “I didn’t want to tell you this, because I know how you’ll react, but I have enough money to last me for the rest of my life. What you need to do is swallow your stubborn pride and face the truth. I can support us while you go to school and become a doctor if that’s what you want to do. If not, I’ll give every penny to my brother if that’s what it takes to make you happy.”
He slammed his palms down again and pushed himself to his feet until they were nose to nose. “Do you think that solves the problem? You want me to be a kept man?”
“No, I do not.”
“You do, too! You’re dangling medical school in front of me so you can buy me as easily as you do a new dress or hat or pair of shoes.”
She slapped him. Hard.
He grabbed her shoulders, but the table between them prevented him from doing more than shaking her slightly.
“Well, this is a delightful scene.”
They both turned in unison and found Kase standing in the doorway.
Buck let go of Annika.
She faced her brother just as defiantly as she had Buck. “Can’t we have even a minute of privacy here?”
“With all the yelling I didn’t think this discussion was secret.”
Buck strode to the back door and paused while he took down his hat and coat.
“I wouldn’t go anyplace if I were you,” Kase warned.
“Am I a prisoner?” Buck dared Kase to stop him.
“No, but there’s a buggy pulling up out front and I think the folks in it probably came to see you.”
Buck frowned.
“Who is it?” Annika demanded irritably. Wouldn’t they ever have more than a few moments alone?
When a loud knock sounded at the front door, Kase started off to answer it. “Better come with me, Scott,” he called out over his shoulder.
Buck cursed beneath his breath, shoved his hat and coat back onto the rack, and stomped after him.
Annika pressed her hands to her burning cheeks and sighed.
Then she followed the men to the front hall.
BUCK stood behind Kase Storm as he opened the front door.
“Hello, Leonard,” Kase called out. “What brings you over this way?”
Buck knew what had brought Storm’s neighbor to his doorstep. Seated in the buggy beside the well-dressed rancher who swung down off the high seat was Mary MacGuire, the old woman he paid to care for Patsy and beside her sat Patsy herself. Although he hadn’t seen his sister for nearly three years now, there was no mistaking her. Thick blond hair that fell to her hips in waves was partially covered by a poke bonnet that tied beneath her chin. Patsy was thinner than he remembered, her long arms and legs concealed by the sleeves and
skirt of her dress, but her swanlike neck and hollow cheekbones bespoke that thinness. She was dressed in faded calico, a dress he didn’t recognize, and a wool capelet.
Buck felt Annika’s presence when she moved to stand beside him and almost forgot himself as he started to slip his arm about her waist. He caught himself before he did, thankful that she did not seem to notice.
Annika paid him no mind, for she was curiously watching the occupants of the carriage as they alighted one by one. “Who are they?” she asked her brother.
“That’s Leonard Wilson,” Kase explained. “His ranch borders mine. I’ve never met the women.”
“I have,” Buck said.
Annika turned to Buck and noticed his blanched coloring and the intent way he was watching the emaciated blond woman with the regal air following the other two up the stairs. She immediately knew without asking that it was his sister—there was only one woman in the world who could look so much like both Buck and Buttons.
“That’s Patsy, isn’t it?” she whispered.
He merely nodded, never taking his eyes off his sister.
Hearing the commotion in the hallway, Buttons ran in from the parlor and tugged on Buck’s pant leg. When he didn’t respond immediately, she turned to Annika, who quickly lifted her up.
Kase and Wilson exchanged pleasantries. Mary MacGuire was introduced to Kase and then Annika, who studied the older woman for a long silent moment. She had never seen such a character before. The woman’s face was burned as dark as a berry by the sun and as lined as dry ground in late summer. Her hair was so thin that it was nothing more than gray wisps sticking straight out around her head. She clenched a thin cigarillo tightly between her teeth and squinted through the smoke. Even more amazing, Mary MacGuire was wearing a pair of trousers and a man’s leather vest and overcoat.
Buck had hired Mary to care for Patsy, but as Annika compared the two, she thought Mary looked far crazier than her charge. But then, appearances had proved to be all too deceiving of late. Patsy stood without looking at any of them as she studied the ceiling of the veranda. Neatly gowned and wearing a poke bonnet and short wool cape, she paid none of the others any mind until finally it was time to introduce Patsy Scott. Mary MacGuire placed her hand on Patsy’s elbow. Patsy scowled down at Mary and shrugged free, then resumed her regal stance, this time staring Buck right in the eye. “‘Pray you stand farther from me,’” Patsy ordered him.
Annika watched the exchange. Patsy’s odd tone sent chills down her spine. Buck held his breath and placed himself between Annika and Patsy. From what he could tell, Patsy wasn’t any more sane than the last time he’d seen her; she still thought she was the Egyptian queen, was still quoting from Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra.
Ever the host, Kase calmly said, “Shall we all go in?”
The strange party made its way into the front hall. Annika remained firmly planted beside Buck with Buttons held tightly in her arms. Kase looked from Buck to Annika to Patsy. He cleared his throat and suggested Mary and Leonard accompany him to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. “What do you think, Mrs. MacGuire?” he asked the older woman.
Mary gave Patsy a look of warning. “Behave yourself now, your highness, you hear?”
Patsy ignored her as she stared at a point over Annika’s shoulder.
Uncertain what his sister would do, or what she was capable of, Buck braced himself for a scene. “Maybe you should take Buttons to the kitchen,” he said aside to Annika.
“Buttons is her child, Buck. She should have the chance to see her,” Annika whispered back. Then she spoke directly to Patsy. “Shall we all go in the parlor?”
Patsy stared at Buck as if she had not heard a word Annika had said. She raised her head and in a clear, loud voice said to him, “O, never was there queen so mightily betrayed! Yet at the first I saw the treasons planted.”
Buck’s voice was filled with sadness. “I had to do it, Patsy. I had to see that you were safe for your own good and the baby’s.”
“Thou art turned the greatest lair,” Patsy said bitterly.
Annika watched the strange exchange, saw the faraway look in Patsy Scott’s eyes, and hugged Buttons closer. The child was arrested by the sight of the woman who looked so like her uncle and spoke in a way that commanded such attention.
Buck glanced up the stairs to the second story where Rose and Joseph slept, then toward the kitchen where he heard Kase talking to Wilson and Mrs. MacGuire. “Let’s get out of this hallway and into the parlor.”
Annika led the way. Buck waited until he was certain Patsy had followed her. He closed the door behind them. Determined to try to call her attention to Buttons, Annika said, “Patsy, this is Buttons. She’s your little girl.”
Patsy raised her brow, looked down upon Buttons with disdain, and then coolly said, “The child cannot be mine. Behold! The child born of Egypt was laid in a reed basket and cast upon the waters of the Nile. It is said she dwells now amid the great pyramids.”
Buck folded his arms across his chest, determined to show Annika the futility of her efforts. “This is the baby you tried to throw off the roof, Patsy, and if I hadn’t stopped you, she’d be dead now.”
Stunned by the revelation, Annika stared at Patsy, unable to believe the stiffly composed woman had ever been insane enough to try to kill her own child.
Patsy stared at Buttons and her eyes widened. “All strange and terrible events are welcome, but comforts we despise. Our size of sorrow, proportioned to our cause, must be as great as that which makes it.”
“What does that mean?” Annika whispered to Buck.
“She’s quoting Cleopatra again.”
“I was told to sacrifice the child, for as He called to Abraham, and bid him sacrifice Isaac, I being Egypt could do no less.” Patsy’s gaze began to shift rapidly back and forth between Annika and Buttons.
Buck turned to Annika. The sadness in his eyes was almost her undoing. “She mixes up stories in the Bible with Antony and Cleopatra. Those were the only two books we owned besides the medical almanac.”
As if the visit were ended, Patsy abruptly turned toward the door. “Our lamp is spent, it’s out!”
Buck turned to Annika, his expression grim. He looked down at his hands, then at her. “I guess you see now why I never told you everything about Patsy or the rest of my glorious family.”
“Oh, Buck. It doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me,” he said.
Annika guessed Patsy’s sudden arrival had been her brother’s doing, one more of his attempts to keep Buck at the ranch. She wished none of it had happened as she saw the deep sorrow on Buck’s face.
Patsy stood in front of the parlor door, unwilling to open it herself. “Your honor calls you hence,” she said to Buck.
He turned away from Annika and crossed the room to open the door for his sister. “Come on, Patsy. We’ll find Mary and you can go home now.”
As if he were no more than a servant, Patsy walked past him without acknowledgment.
Annika’s knees were shaking when she sank to the settee and laid her cheek against the top of Buttons’s head. She tried to blot out the recurring image of Patsy standing on the roof of Buck’s cabin threatening to throw the infant off. “I love you, Buttons,” Annika whispered as she picked up one of Buttons’s books, an alphabet primer.
Buttons smiled up at her. “Me love Ankah.”
They read for a few moments, Annika straining to hear the noise from the front hall that would signal the departure of Wilson and the others. She was just about to take Buttons up to visit Rose and Joseph when the rustle of material in the doorway gave her pause. Her heart jumped to her throat when she glanced up expecting to see Buck and found Patsy standing there alone instead.
As casually as possible, Annika stood up holding Buttons and slowly put the settee between herself and Buttons and the other woman.
“Hast thou affection for him?”
Patsy’s blunt question startled her, but Anni
ka managed to nod.
“And the child?”
“Yes. I hope you don’t mind, Patsy.” She wondered whether Patsy answered to her own name or to “Cleopatra.”
Patsy glanced back toward the door. Seemingly alive with an energy of its own, her waving blond hair swayed around her shoulders as she moved. She took a step forward until she was close enough to reach out and touch Annika. Only the settee separated them. Patsy looked left and right, her eyes wide like a creature who was being stalked by hounds. What ghosts haunted her mind? And why?
“Give me the child,” Patsy said.
Buttons understood the tone of the command and hid her face against Annika’s neck. Annika tried to protest. “I don’t think—” Where was Buck. How could Patsy have gotten away from him? Annika stepped back again.
“Give her to me!” Patsy’s voice lowered menacingly as she took a step forward. Her fingers curved as she extended her hands toward Buttons.
Footsteps pounded against the floor in the room overhead. Frantic now, Annika glanced at the wall behind her. There was no escaping through the parlor door but there was a window behind her. She prayed it wasn’t locked. If she could just get close enough to open it and set Buttons outside, the child could then ran around the veranda to the kitchen and alert the others.
Just as Annika backed into the corner and began to turn toward the window, Patsy dropped her hands to her sides and began to speak again. Oddly enough, her eyes held the clarity of sanity as she shook her head and softly said, “You would never understand. You don’t know what I saw. I could not live with it forever, and so it is far easier for me to be Egypt than who I was.”
As Annika tried to understand, she watched the blue eyes so identical to Buck’s glaze over again as Patsy appeared to be looking past Annika into a world of her own.
Buck rushed in the door. He pushed past Patsy and took Annika’s hand as he glanced between her and Buttons. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. We’re fine.”
“One minute she was right beside me and the next she was gone. I heard a noise upstairs and ran to see if she had found Rose and the baby. I should have watched her more closely. If she had hurt you...”
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