Her pantomime of a demure pregnant matron brought down the house.
“Ask Roy!” Jim hollered. “He’d give you the shirt off his back and let you live with his mama!”
In a heartbeat, Roy was flying toward Jim and all hell broke loose. He grabbed Jim by his shirt collar and yanked him out of his chair. Before he could give his actions a second thought, he answered with his fists, clipping Jim on the jaw.
In return, Jim’s poker buddy whirled Roy around and smacked him in the chin, sending him backward against the bar. Several chairs tumbled as the two men just plowed through them, and glass shattered as Roy’s whiskey bottle smashed to the floor.
Flouncy screamed, and Carl jumped over the bar and picked Roy off the floor. “Get a hold of yourself, Roy!” he said, walking him toward the door. “They was only teasing you.”
“Tease me, then,” Roy announced, yanking his arm free and slamming his hat onto his head. “Just leave the woman out of it.”
He glared at the men standing around, quiet. Jim was still on the floor, rubbing his jaw. Then, without another word, Roy turned on his boot heel and stomped out of the Lalapalooza.
Out on the sidewalk, he cursed himself for being all kinds of a fool. For letting that woman get to him again. He’d been fine, just fine, until they’d brought up her name.
Then he remembered. He hadn’t been so fine. He’d been moping into the bottom of a whiskey glass.
This had to stop. Now!
With new resolve, he straightened himself and marched toward the center of town. He was going to confront her once and for all, and this time he wasn’t going to turn tail and run like he did last time. No siree! This time he was going to see his task through till the very end.
Till he got Eleanor Fitzsimmons back on an eastbound train.
He snorted. Heck, it didn’t matter if the train were eastbound or westbound, or if the train went all the way to China, for that matter. He just wanted her out of his hair.
He nodded at the people who said hello to him, but tried not to let his concentration be broken. He sensed he would need all his mental acuity for the coming confrontation.
Oh, he knew women, all right. Eleanor would probably bat her eyelashes at him and simper and apologize. His mother, no doubt, would take her side, berating him for being a cruel insensitive brute. Between them, they’d do their best to play him like an old fiddle, plucking and sawing at him until he sang the tune they wanted!
By the time he reached Isabel’s door, he was in a regular swivet, so that even the color he was staring at incensed him. Red! Was his mother trying to be conspicuous? She might as well hang a big sign outside the place reading Shady Ladies Within!
He took a deep breath and banged on the door.
In two seconds his mother swung open the door, her expectant smile quickly turning to wide-eyed concern. “Roy!” She grabbed him by the arm as if she expected him to topple over, then tried tugging him over the threshold. “What happened to you? You look terrible!”
He dug in his heels. “Just a little altercation at the Lalapalooza.”
Her nose twitched. “Good heavens—you’ve been drinking!”
He laughed. “That’s what goes on at the Lalapalooza, I’m afraid.”
Sweeping him with a head-to-toe glance, she frowned and asked, “Does rolling on the floor also go on there regularly?”
His jacket and pants were covered with dust. Roy slapped self-consciously to get rid of some of it, and Isabel gave him another tug.
“Come inside, I’ll brush you off.”
He squinted into the doorway. “Is Eleanor here?”
She nodded. “Yes, she’s upstairs right now.”
“I want to speak to her.”
To his surprise, his mother suddenly burst into tears. Tears!
Roy was stunned. He looked quickly behind him to make sure no one was watching and rushed inside, shutting the door firmly behind him. “For heaven’s sake, Mama, what’s wrong?”
She lifted a perfectly pressed lace handkerchief to her eye and sniffed. “Everything is wrong! I’m so sorry, Roy. I feel so responsible for busting up your engagement.”
“Well you shouldn’t. You only tried to tell me the truth.”
“Oh, I know…but I had no idea you didn’t know about her.”
Roy tilted his head. “Ellie didn’t use guilt to make you give her this job, did she?” He wouldn’t put it past her!
“Oh, no! I needed the help anyway. And she paid me money for taking her in. Twenty dollars.”
Roy rolled his eyes. Twenty dollars? His twenty dollars?
He felt sick.
“You should have turned her out on the street. I can’t imagine she’s much help to you.”
“Oh dear. I suppose you heard about Emily Crouch’s shirtwaist.”
He raised a brow. “What about it?”
“Oh, well…there was a little trouble with Mrs. Crouch at the drugstore this morning. It seems that the shirtwaist Ellie finished wasn’t…” Isabel sniffed. “But I still say it wasn’t all Ellie’s fault that the front buttons popped off.”
Roy had a hard time not laughing, but the thought of Mrs. Crouch’s calamity just seemed to set off Isabel’s tears again. “Oh, why does it seem that I just can’t make anything work out right, Roy? For Ellie, for you….”
He’d never expected contrition from her, but now it seemed to seep out of her every pore. “I’ve always felt so horrible for leaving my two little boys on the prairie, Roy. You don’t know how a thing like that tugs at a woman’s heart. For years, every time I closed my eyes at night, I saw those big blue eyes of yours blinking up through your dark lashes. Times were that I thought I could have walked all the way back to Nebraska to see you, my heart ached so.”
The desperation in her eyes and the emotion in her voice embarrassed him. He always thought he’d savor seeing her repentant, but he didn’t. “Please, that’s all in the past….”
She shook her head fiercely. “No, Roy, in my heart I don’t think I’ll ever be able to put it in the past. I know you thought I was heartless, Roy, but I wasn’t. And when I first came back a month ago, and saw your blue eyes staring at me again, I realized how guarded I had become. Instead of falling apart all those years I missed you boys so, I tried to get on with life by making it as pleasant as I could.”
“Good, I’m glad….”
She grabbed his hand. “But I did want to do something nice for you, to make up for all that hurt I had put in your heart. Ellie asked me for a job a month ago, and I sent her back to your house, hoping to play matchmaker.”
He sighed raggedly. “You told me about that. It’s okay.” He’d expected Ellie’s tears, but not his mother’s. He wasn’t prepared for this encounter at all. “I forgive you everything,” he blurted out, backing toward the door. “I think I’ll be going….”
She held firm on his jacket sleeve. “No—I’m sure you came here to see Ellie.”
He shook his head frantically, trying to cut her off, but she was already turning toward the small back stairwell. “Ellie! You have a visitor!”
Roy’s heart thundered in his chest as he waited to hear that familiar voice.
Instead, Ellie answered with a laugh—the bright laughter that had first caught his attention weeks ago. “Just a second, Parker!”
“It’s not Parker, Ellie,” Isabel warned, wiping her eyes.
“Oh.” There was a moment of hesitation. “Just a moment, then.”
Parker? Roy looked at his mother for confirmation.
Isabel nodded. “Your brother’s been over often.”
So that’s where Parker had been getting himself off to! Roy was amazed. He’d noticed his brother’s absence a few times, but he’d never expected that Parker was running into town every chance he got to visit here.
“Will you have some tea?” Isabel asked him, but before he could say yes or no, she grabbed him tightly by both arms and gave him a little shake. “Oh, Roy, it would make me
feel so much better if you patched things up with Ellie. I do so want to see you happy!”
Happy! That word again!
“Actually, I just came here on business.” All he wanted to do was speak his piece and clear out.
His mother’s face went slack with disappointment. “Oh.”
He took off his hat and banged it against his pant leg. Just then he heard the floor above him squeak, and a footstep on the stairs.
It seemed like years since he’d seen her, and now he couldn’t help watching closely as she made her way cautiously down the narrow staircase. He saw the bottom half of her first, and he was shocked by how much more obvious her condition seemed to him now. What had it been…a month and a half since she’d first come to Paradise? When she’d stepped off the train he hadn’t noticed that she was carrying a child. In part, probably, because she’d been trying to hide it.
Then again, he’d been distracted by how pretty she was.
Something similar happened to him now. His first glimpse of her brilliant red hair was a shock, and he froze, unprepared for the onslaught of emotions that began tussling in him again. He dreaded another confrontation and hoped she wouldn’t cry and plead to stay with his mother now when he informed her that she would have to go. The last thing he needed was two crying women on his hands!
He prayed she wouldn’t tearfully ask him to take her back.
He also prayed she would.
She came to the bottom of the stairs and turned, sucking in a surprised breath when she saw him standing there. “Roy!” Her green eyes sparkled in their old way, only there was doubt and dread mixed in with the old friendliness.
Then she looked over at Isabel’s tearful expression and sucked in a breath. “What’s happened?” Her face went white. “Has something happened to Parker?”
Parker again!
“No,” he bit out, more forcefully than he’d intended.
His mother shook her head. “No, Roy and I were just…talking.” She turned to put on a cape and brushed past Roy. “I have to go to the mercantile to hunt for some fabric. Heaven knows they probably won’t have anything, but it’s worth a try I suppose.”
He frowned as she disappeared through the door, then turned back to Ellie with more trepidation than he should have felt.
To his surprise, her expression had fury in it. “What happened?” She tapped her foot like an angry schoolmarm. “What did you say to reduce your mother to tears? Were you berating her for taking me in?”
“No!” Lord knows he would have liked to, but he hadn’t even gotten that far!
“Good. Because you have no right to come barging in here and taking your anger at me out on her!”
He tossed his hands out in frustration. “I haven’t taken my anger out on anybody yet!”
She jumped on the small opening he’d given her and marched up to him until they were standing toe-to-toe. “But you intended to, didn’t you?”
He sputtered in confusion for a moment, but before he could spit out a coherent answer, she brayed in displeasure. “Roy, you’ve been drinking!” She stepped back, her hands on her hips. “And look at you! You look terrible!”
He shrugged. “I just got in a fight over at the Lalapalooza.”
Her angry stance dissolved as her hand moved to her mouth in surprise. “Oh, no—were you hurt?”
He shook his head, amazed at what a good job she could do of pretending to care for him. He almost believed her. “I nearly got thrown out, though. Thrown out, Ellie,” he repeated for emphasis, “of the bar I’ve been going to since I took my first drink.”
“What happened?”
He let out a snort of laughter. “I was defending a lady’s honor.”
Her face went slack. When he said nothing more, she sighed. “I knew there was probably talk around town. A hush usually falls over a room when I go into the stores here. I was hoping it was because I’m still a stranger, and not because people were being malicious.”
Frustration battled with sympathy in him. Even good people could be so damn cruel! He could well imagine the reception she’d been getting all over town.
But then, what did she expect? “Is it malice when people are just reacting to the truth?”
Ellie’s round face looked stricken. “No, I suppose not.”
Roy shifted uncomfortably. He reminded himself that he was here on a mission, plain and simple, and that he needed to get on with it.
Then he remembered something his mother had said. “Parker’s been coming here a lot?”
Ellie smiled that sweet smile of hers. “Do you object to Parker’s visiting here for some reason?”
“Of course!”
“He’s just being nice to me.”
That’s what Roy objected to. “He’s always had a soft spot for you—I’d hate to see him be taken advantage of.”
Her expression turned stony. “He won’t be.”
“I’m not so sure. It’s hard to tell what you’ll do—but whatever course you take, it’s usually the one most liable to put people out.”
“Put you out, you mean?”
“Yes.”
Her cheeks heated with fresh rage. “Oh, I see! I’m supposed to beg your permission from now on before I see anyone or go anywhere.”
“I didn’t say that,” he replied. “But now that you mention it, it might have helped if you’d left here with the money I gave you.”
She laughed. “I’ve never thanked you for that, did I? It was so kind of you to help me start my new life.”
“Then why the heck didn’t you start it in Omaha or somewhere else?”
“Because if I’d used the money for train fare, I would have been broke when I reached my destination. So I gave the money to your mother to train as an apprentice for one month, and she graciously took me in.”
Roy’s face burned. He should have either kept his money or given her enough to send her back to where she came from. In fact…
He reached into his jacket for his wallet and pulled out several larger bills.
Ellie stepped back, clasping her hands behind her back. “No, Roy!”
Her stance only made her belly stick out that much more, and the reminder of her child only made him that much more determined to give her the money.
He jabbed the bills toward her. “You could go back to New York with this.”
“I don’t want to go to New York.”
“Chicago, then.”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t accept a nickel from you, Roy. You’ve done too much already.”
Too much? All he’d managed to do was wedge her firmly in the middle of his town, in his mother’s house, in his brother’s sympathies!
If the truth be told, it was that last part that really bothered him. What if Parker went and did something really foolish, like marrying Ellie because he felt sorry for her? Roy would have to spend the rest of his life with Ellie as his sister-in-law. That would be too much! He’d have to leave town himself rather than live with a situation like that, and he had no intention of being the one who was drummed out of Paradise.
“Take the money,” he commanded.
She smiled at him. Smiled! “No thank you, Roy. I’m doing very well right where I am.”
All he could tell was that she was doing a bang-up job of irritating him. “But you just said you’re being snubbed in this town, that no one will talk to you. Rumors are flying around the Lalapalooza, and they aren’t pretty.”
Her chin jutted stubbornly. “Parker says all that will change after the dance.”
Roy blinked. “The dance?”
“At the school,” she told him. “It’s the fall dance to raise money for a library. Parker’s taking me.”
Parker was insane. “You can’t go to that.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re pregnant!” he thundered. “There’s enough gossip about you as it is. You don’t have to flaunt your condition in everyone’s faces when they’re already straining to be ci
vil.”
She chuckled. “That sounds like something Cora Trilby or Munsie Warner would say.”
“It is what they’ll say, believe me.”
“Parker says that if I hold my head high and go to the dance with him, people will tire of gossiping about us.”
Us—as if she and Parker were an item. Roy felt heat flood his face. “Parker doesn’t know what he’s talking about. You two showing up together there will be like throwing kindling on a bonfire.”
Ellie shrugged and let out a wispy sigh. “We’ll see.”
Roy gaped at her, amazed by her complacency. Then he realized that he was still standing there with a wad of bills jutting out toward her. Money that she had no intention of taking.
Mumbling a curse, he shoved the bills into his pocket.
“Are you going to the dance?” she asked, as if they were having a pleasant social conversation.
“I’ve always gone to them before,” he said curtly.
“I’m looking forward to it,” she said, her eyes twinkling. “It’s been a long time since I’ve danced.”
“No it hasn’t,” he blurted out. “We just—”
His mouth snapped shut. For a moment, he was nearly blinded by the memories of holding Ellie in his arms, the two of them turning and swirling through apple trees dusted with white. The whole world had seemed so sparkling and fresh that morning, like a wide-open sunkissed ballroom put there for their pleasure. They’d danced and spun and laughed until they were dizzy.
Didn’t she remember?
“Roy? Are you all right?”
He looked back down at her, frowning.
“You were weaving.”
Her bow lips turned up at the corners, and in that moment, he knew. She did remember. She was just teasing him, taunting him, and for some reason he wanted to take the bait. He suddenly couldn’t help imagining how different things might have been if he’d never found out the truth, if he and Ellie were standing here right now planning on continuing their dance into the future together. He could have swept her into his arms and practiced a few steps right then and there, and held her tight until he couldn’t resist stealing a kiss and…
He turned, suppressing a groan. “Tell my mother I had to leave,” he said, rushing out the door before he could look into those captivating green eyes again and relinquish all claim to common sense.
Liz Ireland Page 20