He walked over to the bed, cows and sunlight forgotten.
He didn't know how it was possible, but she seemed even more innocent and vulnerable lying there, the sheet kicked off, her arms and legs flung every which way. She also looked more alluring than ever. Her chemise was pulled up to reveal one leg half way up her thigh.
Lily was an absolutely voluptuous creature. Even waked out of a deep sleep at an early hour, he felt himself growing uncomfortably rigid. Clearly the sensible thing to do was pull the sheet over Lily and yell for Dodie to hustle her off to some other bedroom.
Instead he sank down on the side of the bed and put an extended index finger into Lily's open palm.
It was a tiny, insignificant action, but his response was momentous. His entire being seemed to be covered with pins and needles. He had a powerful urge to reach out and consume this woman, to make love to her until his body no longer hardened at the thought of her tenderness or her purity.
He pulled his hand back. That was exactly the reason he was forcing her to leave the Little Corner of Heaven. Men like him would look at her and think only of satisfying their physical needs. Zac was certain Lily would become a wonderfully satisfying lover, but she needed much more than that, more than he or any man of his ilk could give her.
He heard footsteps in the corridor. It would be Dodie. Good. It was time Lily moved. He was feeling terribly vulnerable. He wasn't sure just how long he could be responsible for himself.
He was vaguely aware of the steps growing louder, of them hurrying. He smiled to himself. He bet Dodie didn't trust him either. He reached over to pull Lily's chemise down over her leg when the door flew open and Sarah Thoragood burst into the room followed by Mr. Thoragood, Bella Holt, Dodie, and several of the girls.
Zac had never had occasion to wonder what an avenging fury looked like, but if he had, he wouldn't have needed to wonder any longer. Sarah Thoragood's face was so red and misshapen with fury he could hardly recognize her.
"Lecher! Carnal beast! We have caught you in your foul nest with the broken body of your innocent prey!"
For once in his life, Zac was speechless.
"Satan will devour your soul in hell! He shall rip your body with his talons, and you shall spend eternity in everlasting torment!"
Zac managed to find his tongue at last. "What the hell are you screeching about?"
"I always knew you were a depraved libertine, but I never thought you would sink so low as to ruin this innocent who trusted you with her life and her body."
"You're crazy!" Zac said. "Plain Nuts." He turned to Dodie, "Do you know what she's carrying on about?"
"They think you slept with Lily," Dodie said, her eyes hard as agate. "Did you?"
Zac's gaze went from Dodie to Lily to the rumpled sofa back to Lily and the invading chorus of furies. "You think . . . " He glanced back at Lily. She was asleep in his bed in nothing but her chemise. Here he was standing over her half undressed.
"No, I didn't sleep with her. I know what it looks like, but nothing happened."
"You expect me to believe that you, a debauched, immoral, depraved, lecherous despoiler of women would--"
"What she's trying to say," Dodie interrupted, "is that the circumstantial evidence is against you."
"You fornicator! You vile seducer--"
"I don't care what it looks like," Zac interrupted, trying to ignore Mrs. Thoragood, "I didn't touch her. If I'd wanted to do anything like that, I could have done it long before now."
"Aha!" Sarah Thoragood screeched, "You're proud of your powers to seduce, to despoil, to de--"
"I didn't want to go to a hotel," Zac said. "I thought it would only be a couple of hours before you came and took her off to your room."
"I was coming when they burst in on me."
"Just in time to catch you in your heinous crime," Sarah shouted.
Lily stirred. Zac didn't know how she'd managed to remain asleep this long.
"Remove yourself from her sight before she wakes," Sarah intoned. "The poor fallen angel will be stricken with enough remorse without having to face the instrument of her downfall."
"Zac?" Lily called, her eyes half open, trying to focus on the scene before her, her mind obviously finding no logical reason why all these people should be in Zac's bedroom. "What are all these people doing here?"
Dodie hurried forward to cover Lily.
"We've come to rescue you from this reprobate," Sarah Thoragood announced. "We understand your shame, we share your pain, but we shall not forsake you. This man shall be made to pay for what he has done. He shall--"
Zac had practically hurled himself across the room. He clamped his hand over Sarah Thoragood's mouth before she could say any more. Sarah's wide-eyed, horrified gaze indicated she feared Zac meant to despoil her on the spot.
"If you don't want me to do violence to your wife," Zac hissed to Harold Thoragood, "you'll shut her up before Lily figures out what she's saying. I don't care what you think of me," he hissed at the terrified Sarah, "but if you say one more word in front of Lily, and I'll pitch you out that window."
Dodie was helping Lily into a robe offered by one of the girls.
"They've come to make sure I don't keep you here any longer," Zac said. "Apparently Bella can't wait to get you back to her rooming house."
"It's all very fine for you to want to spare her feelings," Mr. Thoragood said at his most pompous, "but I will not be party to a lie."
"I can pitch you out right behind your wife," Zac threatened.
"Nobody is going to pitch anybody anywhere," Dodie said. "Things are in a mess, and they've got to be sorted out before anybody leaves this room."
She walked over to the door and closed it. "Everybody sit down, and don't you open your mouth," she said, pointing at Sarah Thoragood, "until we get a chance to hear what happened last night."
"Nothing happened," Zac said.
"That's not true," Lily said. "A great deal happened."
Everyone stared at Lily, expressions ranging from horror to fury.
"I told you--" Sarah Thoragood began.
"Shut up!" Dodie commanded. Zac turned on the woman. Sarah retreated behind her husband.
"Now tell us what happened," Dodie said to Lily.
"Zac took me for a wonderful ride on a yacht. We had a beautiful dinner. I asked him why. He said it was to show me a good time, but it wasn't true. That wasn't what he wanted at all."
"See, I told you!" Sarah started again. "I--"
Zac flung back the curtains and opened to window to the alley below. Sarah's eyes grew huge, and the words died in her throat.
"He wanted to tell me he wasn't going to let me perform in the saloon any more. He also said I ought to marry some sober and boring millionaire."
"Is that all?" Mr. Thoragood asked.
"Why didn't you come back earlier?" Dodie asked.
"Zac wanted to, but I asked him to stay a while longer. It was such a beautiful night. I didn't want it to end. Besides, if I was going to have to live in a hotel and become a lady's companion, I wasn't going to rush to do it."
Dodie cast Zac a glance that contained tightly controlled amusement.
"But what are you doing in Mr. Randolph's bed?" Mrs. Thoragood demanded, being careful to keep her husband between herself and Zac.
"I don't know," Lily confessed. "I fell asleep. I woke up when you were yelling at Zac."
"What's your explanation?" Mr. Thoragood asked Zac.
"I had no place to put her," Zac said. "She's been sleeping in Cora Mae's room, but the silly girl came back. Dodie wanted me to give Lily my bed and go to a hotel. I started to, but Tyler doesn't like being awakened at dawn. He invariably wants to know more than I want to tell him. I figured Dodie would be up in a couple of hours. Lily could then move to her room."
"Where do say you slept?" Mr. Thoragood asked.
"On the sofa."
"Did he?" Mr. Thoragood asked Lily.
"Are you deaf?" Zac demanded. "She just told you she was asl
eep the whole time."
"If Zac said he slept on the sofa," Lily said, "then that's where he slept."
"I'm afraid that's not good enough," Mrs. Thoragood said.
"I don't think so either," Dodie said.
"What!" Zac said rounding on his friend.
"I don't think it's enough," Dodie repeated. "You've compromised Lily's reputation. Nobody will believe she's innocent after what you did."
"I fully agree with Miss . . . with this person," Mr. Thoragood finished, embarrassment making his face pink.
"My name is Dodie Mitchell, and despite the fact that I live in a saloon, I do have a sense of what's right and wrong. That goes for the rest of the girls. Isn't that true, girls?"
A chorus of assent greeted Zac's stunned ears.
"I don't think anybody here is looking for a testimonial to your sense of morality," Zac snapped. "It seems what's needed is a little bit of faith in mine."
"That's the crux of the problem," Dodie said. "It seems no one has any."
"Now just a minute."
"What Miss . . . Mrs.--"
"Miss," Dodie supplied.
"---Miss Mitchell is trying to say is that your poor reputation has compromised Miss Sterling."
"He's ruined her," Sarah shouted.
"I don't think that's a problem," Dodie said. "Zac has always insisted that any man who ruined one of his girls must marry her. Haven't you, Zac?"
"Always. I never let--"
Zac broke off. He saw the strange light dancing in her eyes. "Damn you, Dodie. If you think for one minute I'm going to--"
"You don't have any choice," Bella said. "When I was here, you said time and time again it was one of your rules you would never break."
"You were here?" Mrs. Thoragood gasped.
"You said there could be no exceptions," Bella continued, ignoring Sarah Thoragood's stunned question.
"Just a few weeks ago you made sure Josie got married," Dodie reminded him
"Yeah, I remember that," Leadville Lizzie said.
"But I didn't ruin Lily," Zac said. "I didn't even touch her."
"Nobody's going to believe that," Mr. Thoragood said. "As much as I regret to say it, I agree with Miss Mitchell. You must marry Lily."
"He can't do that," Lily said, her attention rapt. "Zac doesn't want to get married."
"It's about time you struck a blow for the home team," Zac said, relieved. "I thought you were going to leave me to get out of this all by myself."
"I couldn't keep quiet. They're talking about my marriage, too."
"Glad you noticed that."
"Zac doesn't love me," Lily said. "He doesn't even really like me. I do nothing but cause him trouble."
"That's not true," Zac replied, feeling every foolish complaint he'd ever uttered coming back to haunt him like cackling demons. "I like you a lot," he said, even though he knew hostile ears were hanging on his every word. "I told you that last night."
"What else did he tell you last night?" Dodie asked.
"He said he wouldn't kiss me because he might like it too much. But then he did. And he did, like it, I mean."
Zac wondered what it was about women that made them divulge the very things they should have taken to the grave with them.
"That's not exactly how--"
"Did you press your attentions on Miss Sterling?" Mr. Thoragood demanded. He seemed to be working up to his hellfire-and-damnation voice. His words echoed around the room.
"I damned well did not," Zac replied incensed. "She asked me to kiss her."
Bella gasped. The girls giggled. Mrs. Thoragood seemed incapable of words. Dodie was trying her best to smother a laugh. That's the only reason Lily was able to get a word in.
"That's true. I'd never been kissed, and I asked him to show me what it was like. I asked him to hold me as well. I liked both very much. Zac does it very well. But then I imagine he's had a lot of practice."
Sarah Thoragood turned purple with indignation. Dodie lost her battle with the laugh.
"You actually asked him to do these things?" Mr. Thoragood said, not quite as shocked as his wife.
"He said I would have to marry someone very proper," Lily explained. "The only proper people I know don't like kissing and holding hands."
"I should think not!" Mrs. Thoragood said.
"I'm afraid this shows a great want of delicacy on your part," Mr. Thoragood said.
"Now just a damned minute," Zac said. "I won't have anybody talking about Lily that way."
"I don't see any solution except for him to marry her," Dodie said.
"I regret to say I agree with you," Mr. Thoragood said.
"Marry him!" Sarah Thoragood practically screeched. "He's a lecher, a seducer, a--"
"Woman," Zac thundered, "you call me a lecher and a seducer one more time, and they'll be the last words that pass your lips."
"Don't you threaten me," Sarah Thoragood exclaimed. "I have God on my side."
"He'd better be at your side if you don't shut your mouth. This is all nonsense about me marrying Lily," he said, whipping around on Dodie. "Do you actually think I violated her?"
"It doesn't matter if you did or didn't," Dodie said. "You've ruined her."
"I think it matters a hell of a lot."
"So do I," Lily said. Unfortunately, Zac thought she sounded more wistful than scandalized. That wasn't going to help their case a bit.
"Miss Mitchell is right," Mr. Thoragood said. "At this point the truth doesn't matter. It's only what people will believe happened."
"You can say that and still call yourself a minister?" Zac exclaimed.
"I'm a realist, and I say you must marry Miss Sterling without delay."
"No!"
"You can't refuse. It's your own policy," Dodie said.
"I said ruined girls must marry. I didn't ruin Lily."
"You might as well have."
Zac was beginning to wonder if this wasn't all a bad dream and he'd wake up later with a tremendous headache. "Why don't you all wait outside," he said, angrily. "Lily and I will engage to ruin each other as thoroughly as we can. Then we'll have something to talk about."
"Mr. Randolph!" Mr. Thoragood thundered. He had achieved full hellfire-and-brimstone decibels. "Are there no depths to which you will not sink?"
"I don't know. You got any depths I don't know about?"
"Don't pay him any attention," Dodie said to Mr. Thoragood. "He's just trying to be obnoxious to distract us." She turned back to Zac. "The important thing is to protect Lily. You know that. You've ruined her, so you can't do anything but marry her."
"Don't be absurd."
"Do you think any of your proper young men will marry her when they hear about this?"
"Who's going to tell?"
"There are ten people in this room right now. Then there are the crew of the yacht, the cab driver, and anybody else who might have seen you. Then there's Lily herself."
"What do you mean?"
"She's so innocent she'll tell on herself like she just did a minute ago."
"I'll talk to her, teach her what to say."
"And make her like the rest of us," Dodie said, "sifting through the truth looking for the parts it's safe to tell, to color, to ignore. Is that the kind of person you want her to become, the kind of person you want to make her? I thought her innocence was what you liked best about her."
Maybe it wasn't what he liked best, but it was the quality that had first drawn him to her. That and her ability to see the best in others, to want to help them whether they deserved it or not. That and her silver mantel of hair, her ridiculous habit of quoting her father.
"Lily doesn't want to marry me," Zac said. "She came out here looking for her freedom, not a husband."
"What about it?" Dodie asked Lily. "Could you marry this rogue in gilt wrapping?"
"I'm sure any woman could marry Zac," Lily said. "He's very nice and really sweet when he wants to be."
"The girl is bewitched," Sarah Thoragood excl
aimed. "You must have doped her."
"I did not," Zac exclaimed. "I don't want her to marry me, remember!"
"Would it be so bad to be married to me?" Lily asked.
"It would be terrible," Zac said. "You'd expect me to get up early and learn to milk some damned cows you're bound to come up with sooner or later. You'd sing and dance until every man in the place was ready to shoot, knife, or bite his neighbor just to get a smile from you. You'd have whole armies of men following you down the street wherever you went. You'd have this bloodsucking preacher and his passel of furies yapping at my heels, invading my bedroom, accusing me of things I've tried my damnedest not to even think about doing. You'd have me going crazy trying to fight the lot of them to keep you to myself."
"It sounds like love to me," Dodie said. "I say we call for a preacher and do the deed."
Chapter Sixteen
"I must agree that despite the deplorable way he chose to state it," Mr. Thoragood said, "it does sound as though Mr. Randolph cherishes an affection for Miss Sterling. That relieves my mind considerably. I would also remind you I'm a preacher, and I'm already present."
Zac could see the jaws of Hell closing around him. Every word he uttered seemed to bring him closer and closer to extinction of the only kind of life he'd ever wanted.
"Lily doesn't want to marry me," he said, not caring that his desperation sounded in his voice. "She wants her freedom. I'll be a tyrant of respectability. I'll keep her locked away in this room. I'll never let her downstairs while there's a single man in the place. I won't let her have anything to do with those females over there."
The girls giggled.
"I won't even let her set eyes on Dodie. She'll be forbidden to work. The only people who can visit will be Mrs. Thoragood and her carefully chosen friends."
"I hope I will be one of those friends," Bella said.
"Probably. You're getting to be more of a self-righteous bitch than I ever thought possible."
"There's no call for vulgarity," Mr. Thoragood said.
"You charge in here and accuse me of violating the one woman I wouldn't touch if my life depended on it, and you call me vulgar! If I were you, I'd take another look at that Bible you've been reading. I don't think you got a good translation."
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