Ana Seymour (12 page)

Jennie felt the heat of a blush rising around her neck. She wondered what a boy of Barnaby’s age knew about front porch swings and such. She was more or less certain he’d be shocked to learn that she’d already been considerably more intimate with Carter than mooning on a porch swing.

“He just said he wanted to talk with me. It’s probably some kind of legal stuff.”

Barnaby grabbed one of the puddings off the tray. “I don’t think so. Can I have this one? It’s the biggest.”

Jennie nodded and turned to carry the rest of the desserts into the dining room where the miners and Carter were laughing over some story, just as they had the nights he’d stayed here. They had been enjoyable evenings, she thought with a touch of regret. The fastidious Carter was such a good foil for the rough-and-tumble miners. And he always gave as good as he got.

She handed around the puddings, noting that Carter looked especially handsome tonight. He was letting his hair grow longer so that it looked a bit shaggy, making him seem less formal and austere. Jennie was hit with a sudden urge to run her fingers through it, which almost made her drop the dish of pudding she was handing him.

She had trouble concentrating on the conversation, impatient to be alone with Carter and hear what he had to say. But the miners were enjoying the renewed
acquaintance with their friend, and it was almost eight o’clock before Carter made a rather deliberate show of looking at his pocket watch. Immediately Dennis got to his feet and said, “C’mon lads. Carter didn’t come over here tonight to see our pretty faces.”

Smitty and Brad shuffled up more reluctantly and followed Dennis out of the room, as Carter gave him a little salute of thanks.

Barnaby had schoolwork to attend to and had gone up to his own room, which left Carter and Jennie alone at the big dining room table.

“Would you like to go sit back in my office?” she asked, suddenly nervous. He had that look in his eyes again.

“No. I haven’t had a chance to tell you that you look lovely tonight”

“Thank you. I was thinking the same about you,” she said a little shyly.

“I look lovely?” he asked with a lift of his eyebrow.

She nodded. “I mean…I like your hair longer like that.”

Carter laughed. “I haven’t had time to visit the barber. I’ve been too busy thinking about the problems of a certain young lady in town who seems to have cast some sort of spell over me.”

“Who is she?” Jennie asked, relaxing. Unlike their abrasive meeting yesterday or their tension-racked encounter at the hotel in Virginia City, this time he was teasing, flirting with her. This wasn’t as hard as she’d thought

“Oh, you wouldn’t know her,” he answered.
“She’s one of those women who spend nights in hotels with strange men.”

“A hussy.”

“Mmm.” His laugh was gentle, his eyes warm. Jennie felt herself sliding once again under the influence of his charm.

“I’m surprised you’re thinking about her so much, if she’s such a lost cause,” she said.

“Oh, I don’t know that I’d say she was beyond redemption. I have it on good authority that her reputation as a fallen woman is highly undeserved.”

“Ah, the poor thing. Town gossip can be so cruel.” It felt good to joke about the scandal after so many months of fighting it.

Carter grew serious and reached his hand across the table toward her. “No one knows about that night, Jennie. There’s no reason to worry about it.”

She laughed. “I’m not worried, Carter. The only reason I care a fig about my reputation is because I know people like Mrs. Billingsley could make life miserable for Kate and her baby if I’m not careful. Otherwise, I wouldn’t care if you published an account of that night in the newspaper.”

He took her hand and gave it a squeeze that she felt as a tingle all the way up her arm. “You’re a remarkable woman, Jennie Sheridan. I’ve never met anyone quite like you.”

She let her hand rest in his, relaxed and content. In spite of her resolutions earlier to never count on a man for support, the warmth and strength of his fingers around hers felt good. It was purely a physical
sensation, she told herself. Nothing more. It changed nothing.

But as she sat listening to his entertaining account of the cases he’d dealt with that day, Jennie realized that there was something about being with him that made her feel more complete than she had since she’d lost her parents all those months ago.

The evening had passed quickly, and she hadn’t told him about her job after all. After their other more highly charged encounters, they seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement to keep the mood light and upbeat. Carter had made just one reference to her job search, and she’d told him that for the time being she wouldn’t be looking in town anymore. He’d seemed relieved that he wouldn’t have to go into his arguments against her maid idea again, and they’d moved on to another topic.

Neither realized how much time had passed when the miners stopped at the door of the dining room to say good-night. They’d already finished their game, and Jennie and Carter had not even moved out of the dining room.

Carter had hastened to take his leave. It appeared that he hadn’t wanted to test the limits of their pleasant, innocent meeting by being alone with her when the rest of the household had retired upstairs.

Jennie, too, had been relieved when he left immediately after the miners said good-night. Or at least she told herself she was relieved. But she found the memory of their talk pleasantly stimulating as she worked on the meal the next day at the mine. When
she got home, she took the time to take a bath before getting ready for the evening, just in case he might decide to drop in again. And it was not totally a surprise when he did.

That night she told him that if he planned on stopping by to visit “the silverheels” again the next night, he might as well arrive a half hour earlier and take supper with them. He’d clarified that it was not the miners he’d come to visit and then promptly accepted the invitation with the condition that he be allowed to bring some wine.

By the next week, they’d established a pattern, and Carter flat out demanded to pay a weekly sum of three dollars for board alone, no room, which made his visits now expected and no longer subject to Jennie’s invitation. She hadn’t told him that the extra money was no longer as crucial as it had once been. In fact, she’d never told him about her job at the mine. It was easier having that part of her life be a little secret between herself and the crew of miners she fed each day, all of whom were now dubbed silverheels, much to their delight

Some evenings Carter joined the card game, but most nights, he’d tell the miners to go ahead without him. “I’ll just help Jennie with the dishes,” he’d say. “Perhaps join you later.”

And then he and Jennie would clean the kitchen together while he entertained her with tales of his life back East and his first couple jobs as a fledgling attorney. He didn’t tell her that he’d come West because he’d finally determined that a man with no name would never have real opportunity to get ahead
in the old-money, old-society East. In a raw state like Nevada, a man’s deeds were more important than his name.

“I’ll pay you for another week,” he said as they finished up kitchen duty after his tenth day of dining with them. Jennie paused a moment as she reached up to put away a platter. “That is, if the arrangement is working out to your satisfaction,” he added.

She put the platter in place and turned around. “It’s just that I was wondering if instead of the money this next week, I could ask you to do me a favor.”

Carter put his hands on his hips. “Hell’s bells, woman. Haven’t I been begging you to let me be of some help to you for weeks now?”

He was smiling, but Jennie could tell he was serious. But that didn’t make her request any easier to voice. She was enjoying the friendly, less intense pattern into which their relationship had fallen, and she was reluctant to bring up the memory of that time when they both had almost spoiled things beyond repair. “I want to see Kate again,” she said slowly. “She’s getting near her time, and I have to know she’s all right”

Carter’s smile died. It was obvious that he, too, was remembering what had happened the last time they’d gone to see Kate together. But that time the storm had
forced
them to stay overnight “We could pick a day that looks really fair,” she said, her voice small.

He stiffened, but hesitated only a moment before answering, “Of course I’ll take you. We’ll leave early in the morning so that we’ll have the whole day to get there, have a nice visit and get safely back.”

She nodded. The simple thought of setting out alone in a carriage with him had started her heart pounding. But Carter sounded as if he were anxious not to get trapped again. “I could ask for Dr. Millard’s carriage and wait until Sunday, if it would be too much trouble,” she said, unsure.

“Not at all. We’ll go tomorrow.”

His voice was businesslike, controlled. There was no evidence that he was feeling any of the nervousness that was suddenly making Jennie’s dinner sit uncomfortably in her middle. They’d been able to maintain a friendly, arm’s length relationship these past several days. Perhaps this would work. And she
did
want to see Kate. She’d have to arrange to prepare food ahead of time up at the mine and ask the silverheels to pitch in and serve it themselves. “I’ll need a day to get ready. Could we go Wednesday?”

“Wednesday it is,” Carter agreed.

They looked at each other across the kitchen, self-conscious for the first time in days. Carter’s gray eyes were inscrutable. Jennie couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Her own head had suddenly flooded with the memories of the kisses they’d shared at the hotel on their last trip.

“We’ll just go early in the morning and be back by midafternoon,” Jennie said again, lightly.

“Yes.”

“And if it looks as if there might be a storm that day, we simply won’t go. We’ll put it off.”

Carter walked across the room and put his hands on her upper arms, turning her to face him. It was the first physical contact they’d had since the night he’d
held her hand across the table. “We won’t let anything happen, Jennie,” he said quietly. “It’ll be just fine.”

She nodded, her throat closing. “I hope so,” she said. Then she slipped out of his grasp and continued putting away the plates.

P
art of Jennie’s sour humor was undoubtedly due to the fact that she’d stayed up until past midnight the previous evening getting the meat pies ready for the silverheels to take to the mine with them. She’d arranged with the mine foreman to take the day off, but she’d agreed to send up food that was ready to eat so that she wouldn’t lose out on a day’s pay. It had meant that she’d had to get Carter out of the way immediately after supper so that she could start in chopping the vegetables and meat and cooking the pies.

She’d awakened still tired. Carter had done his best to lift her spirits, stopping at one point to leap out of the carriage and pick her a bouquet full of wildflowers. But just as her spirits had started to rise, they’d arrived at the hospital and her mood plummeted once again. Kate had looked sallow and listless, her stomach now an impossibly huge bulge under the rough hospital blanket.

Lyle had been there, and this time had not offered to leave to give the sisters a chance for privacy. It
had given Jennie an odd feeling. It was as if
she
were the visitor, the intruder, while Lyle was family. She came away with the distinct feeling that the arrogant banker’s son had somehow seized possession of Kate while she was too weak to fight any longer for her independence. And there didn’t seem to be a thing Jennie could do about it.

On the way out, she’d been accosted by an officious hospital administrator who had demanded to know when further payment could be expected for Kate’s bill. It had been a real pleasure to pull out her reticule and plunk forty dollars cash into the man’s hand. But that meant her entire hard-earned mine salary was gone. And it had covered only the first installment on the hospital bill. Once the actual birth came, the sum would be staggering.

Carter tried to draw her out as they headed back up the mountain road toward Vermillion, asking the source of her lack of animation, but she didn’t feel like burdening him with her troubles. She’d done her duty and seen Kate—though her sister hadn’t seemed all that pleased to see her. Now Jennie just wanted to get back home without any further distress.

“Are you cold?” Carter asked. There was a late fall chill to the air. “There’s a blanket underneath the seat. Why don’t you get it and cover up? Maybe you can even sleep a little.”

She gave him a grateful smile. “I’m afraid I haven’t been very good company today, Carter. You’ve been so nice, and I’ve been something of a grouch.”

“You look a little tired. I think you’re still working too hard.”

“I’m sleepy. It must be the rocking of the carriage.”

The small tandem rig Carter had hired was much older and more worn than the one they’d had on their previous trip. It was all the livery had available, he’d explained apologetically when he’d arrived to fetch her early that morning. But Jennie found the back and forth sway of the old carriage oddly soothing.

“Take a nap if you want. It would probably be good for you.” He reached under the seat and pulled out a gray wool blanket, then shook it with one hand and tucked it around her. Its warmth was comforting. She pulled it tight around herself.

“You’re a nice man, Carter Jones,” she said sleepily. “I wasn’t so sure when I first met you and you were trying to send my sister away, but I’ve decided to forgive you for all that because you’ve been so good to me lately.”

Carter smiled. “Perhaps I have ulterior motives.”

His voice was teasing, but she answered him seriously. “No. If you had ulterior motives, you would have taken advantage of me that night when you had me alone at the hotel. You wouldn’t have…stopped when you did.”

His smile had faded. He paused a moment as if deciding whether he dare let the conversation continue in this direction. Finally he said, “I didn’t want to stop, that’s for sure.”

She hesitated as well, then said. “I know. And I almost wished you hadn’t”

It was as far as they could take it. Both knew that any further declarations along that line would take them on a path they were determined not to follow. Jennie leaned against the buggy hood and closed her eyes. She was exhausted.

Perhaps she would take that nap after all. It would be better than continuing to think how her sister had looked helpless and resigned while Lyle acted as if he were in charge of her care. And it would be better than continuing to sit close to Carter, wondering what it would be like if he suddenly stopped the carriage and took her in his arms.

This old rig does certainly wobble
was her last thought before she drifted off to sleep.

She was awakened by a crash and a sudden jolt forward, then to the side. “Lord ‘a’ mercy!” she exclaimed, her eyes flying open as she slid down the seat that was now tilting crazily to the right.

Carter held on to the carriage stanchion with his left hand and reached for her with his right. “Damnation!”

“What happened?”

“The blasted thing just fell apart.” With his arm still around her waist to prevent her from slipping out of the carriage, he swung his head over the side. “I think the axle’s broken clear through.”

Now wide-awake, Jennie was suddenly aware that his hand was flat on her soft stomach and that he was holding her against him in a most intimate posture. “I should probably get down,” she said.

“I don’t want you to fall. Hold on there until I can
lift you down.” When she had taken hold of the other stanchion, he climbed nimbly over her and jumped to the ground, then reached up and lifted her out of the carriage.

She laughed. “I’m not a rag doll, Carter. I could have gotten down by myself.” He didn’t smile in response to her laughter, and as he put her down, the reality of the situation began to dawn on her. “Is it really broken?”

Carter was already on his knees looking under the carriage. He stood up, dusting off his hands. “It’s really broken. Clear through. If it were a wheel I might be able to fix it, but not this.”

“Do you think someone will come along?” She looked up and down the narrow road. It was already darkened by the late afternoon shadows of the trees.

“I don’t think we can count on it. This road just goes up to Vermillion, then stops. It never has much traffic.”

“So what does that mean? We have to walk home?”

He shook his head. “It’s fifteen miles or more. You’d never make it.”

She started to bristle. “I can walk as far as you can, I suspect.”

For the first time since the breakdown, Carter smiled. “I suspect you can. But those shiny shoes of yours would be a sorry sight after the first couple miles.”

Jennie swept aside her skirt to look ruefully down at her patent slippers. What devil’s vanity had possessed her to take a cross-country trip dressed as if
she were going to a dance? She thought about the serviceable leather boots she wore each day up to the mine. They were sitting neatly at the bottom of her wardrobe back home.

He walked over to the horse, which looked at least as old as the carriage itself and in about the same shape. “This nag could carry you, but not both of us. I could send you on ahead riding her and walk home myself. Could you ride her without a saddle, do you think?”

“I’m not sure, but it doesn’t matter because I’m not leaving you,” Jennie said firmly.

Carter ran a hand over the horse’s flank. “These reins would work, just gather them up and hold them shorter. And we have the blanket to put over her back.”

“I’m not leaving you,” she repeated.

He sighed. “The only sensible thing to do is go back, hire another rig and start again in the morning.”

“Go back to Virginia City?”

“Yes.”

They were silent a moment as each had their own thoughts on what it would mean to spend another night alone together in a hotel.

“How far back is it?”

“About four miles, I’d say. Downhill. We’ll be back there before dark.”

Carter started unhitching the horse. “I’ll lead her and you can ride. That way those pretty shoes of yours won’t get worn down.”

Jennie took another disgusted look at her feet. “I’m sorry,” she said, resigned.

“No, I’m sorry that I couldn’t get us a better rig today. You’re going to start thinking I planned this, just like I planned the storm the last time we traveled together.”

Jennie took a quick look at the sky. It was a cloudless day, though not too warm. The sun was already sinking, kicking up a late afternoon breeze. She shivered. “We could rent the rig and travel back tonight.”

“In the dark? On this road? No, thank you. One broken axle per trip is enough for me.”

He reached to pick up the blanket from the tilting carriage seat, then arranged it over the horse’s swayed back. Jennie eyed the setup doubtfully, bit her lip and held her hand out to him. “All right, then. Help me up on the beast.”

By sundown, they still hadn’t reached Virginia City.

“Are you holding on all right up there? You won’t slide off going down this hill?” Carter asked her just before the road changed to a steeper descending grade.

Jennie nodded, unconcerned about the road. “Barnaby and the miners will be worried. I hope they saved some of the meat pies for supper.”

“Meat pies?” Carter’s mind was obviously on the task of navigating the hill, not on the stomachs of the people who were safely back in Vermillion.

Jennie stretched her back. It
was
awkward perched sideways on the horse this way, holding on to the long carriage reins that Carter had coiled neatly between
the horse’s shoulder blades. “I’d just as soon walk for a while,” she told him.

He reviewed the situation for a moment, then nodded and reached up to help her down. The brief contact as she slid into his arms made them both stiffen. In spite of the friendly evenings they’d spent recently and the polite distance they’d maintained throughout the drive today, that instant heat was hovering just below the surface. Carter recognized it immediately, though in his experience it had never been quite this instantaneous or quite this compelling.

He hoped Jennie was less aware. In particular he hoped that her naĈveté would make it unlikely that she would notice his body’s all too obvious signs of arousal. He stepped back from her quickly. “Steady?” he asked, keeping his voice light.

She held on to his upper arm just a minute for support, then let go. “Yes. But you’re right about these shoes.” She kicked one lightly in the dirt of the road.

“Do you want to get back up on the horse?”

“No.” She sighed. “I want to be home in bed.”

Carter wanted to be in a bed at the moment, too. Or at least, his body did. He lifted his face to the increasingly chill breeze and tried to cool down. He looked down to see that her shoulders were shaking. “Let’s pick up the pace,” he said. “You’re going to take a chill.”

Once again Jennie stood in the middle of the plush lobby carpet of the International as Carter secured rooms for the night. There was the same shining mahogany
reception desk, the wrought iron torch lamps, the elegant cage elevator. Just like the last time.

Carter walked over to where she was waiting and handed her a key. “My room is next to yours again.” He spoke in a rush as if embarrassed. “But it’s only because I don’t feel comfortable with you alone here. If you should need anything, I want to be close by.”

She nodded. He’d proved honorable enough before when, goodness knows, she’d given him enough opportunity not to be. She wasn’t going to start to question his motives now.

“And I ordered you a bath,” he added, smiling and making a vague gesture at the horse blanket she’d finally pulled around herself when the cold had become too intense toward the end of their walk. It smelled of horseflesh.

“What should I do with this?” she asked, wrinkling her nose in distaste.

He took it from her. “I’ll have the hotel laundry deal with it.”

He disappeared for a moment, then returned without the blanket. There was something to be said for having a man to take charge of things, Jennie thought. It wasn’t that she wouldn’t be capable of handling it all by herself, but it was nice to depend on someone else for a change.

She’d better not get used to it though. Tomorrow she’d be back in Vermillion, running the household and cooking for the miners and worrying about her bills. This one night of having a man to take care of her was just make-believe, like the fairy stories her
mother used to tell. In those tales, the handsome prince had always taken care of the beautiful princess.

Kate had thought Sean Flaherty a handsome prince, Jennie reminded herself.

Still, she was enjoying her one night of pretend, she decided, as she luxuriated in the warm bath Carter had had sent up for her. Afterward, she donned her same dress, not so unhappy now that she’d worn her blue silk instead of a more sensible traveling outfit. Carter’s eyes, when he came for her to go down to supper, told her that her efforts to look renewed and fresh had been successful.

They went down together to take the same corner table they’d had before in the dimly lit hotel dining room. Carter ordered them another delicious meal. This time without asking her, he’d asked for wine—a whole bottle, though Carter drank the larger share. But when he suggested a brandy following dinner, she shook her head. The wine had taken away the last of the chill from their cold walk and left her pleasantly groggy.

“Well, if we’re going to get an early start in the morning, I should get you to bed.” He spoke loudly, in a businesslike tone that woke her up.

It was the same long, dark hall. She remembered walking down it that last time, wondering if he was going to kiss her. Then she’d all but invited him to do so, and he had. And they’d ended up in her bed on the verge of something that she still couldn’t fully imagine.

“So we’ll start early,” he said again as they neared
her room. His voice was altered, raspy. He was remembering that other night, too. She was sure of it.

“Yes, I have to get back.” She couldn’t quite say why she still hadn’t told him about her job at the mine. She’d avoided the subject for so many nights that it had become harder and harder to find a way to explain it. Her secrecy would seem to imply that there
was
something wrong in the arrangement.