Ana Seymour (18 page)

“What is the problem, then?” Kate asked gently.

Carter shook his head, and his voice sounded thick when he answered. “I don’t know what to tell you, Kate. I don’t think Jennie wants you to know that anything’s wrong.”

“Jennie knows me well enough to realize that if she’s not happy, I’m going to be aware of it. And she’s
not
happy, Carter.”

“I know. I can’t say that I’ve been having much fun lately, either.”

“So what exactly is the matter?”

Carter leaned forward to place his elbows on his knees and let his head drop into his hands. “It was just a mistake. That’s all. Jennie never wanted to marry me. She’s happy here with you and the baby and her silverheels.”

“I don’t see her inviting the miners to bed with her every night,” Kate said dryly. “Somewhere along the
line you two must have decided that it was a good idea to get together.”

Carter looked embarrassed. “We may have let ourselves get carried away by…you know…”

Kate laughed and patted her hand gently on Caroline’s stomach. “Yes, I
do
know, Carter. Believe me. But unlike my whirlwind lover, you’re still here. Not only here, but married. So why aren’t you two deliriously happy?”

He didn’t look up at her. “I don’t know.”

Kate gave an exasperated sigh. “Well, criminy, man. Have you asked her?”

He straightened up. “She acts as if she doesn’t want to talk to me.”

Caroline started to whimper and Kate picked her up and put her against her shoulder. “Is this the dynamic young lawyer who came to make a name for himself in our humble town? Is this Carter Jones, future governor of the state? I thought talking was your business.”

Her outburst drew a reluctant smile. “Most of the people I face in court aren’t as prickly as Jennie,” he said.

Kate glanced over him. “You’re a lot bigger than she is, Carter. I can’t believe you’re scared of her.”

His smile broadened. “She’s meaner than she looks.”

Kate made absentminded circles on the baby’s back and rocked back and forth as she shook her head at him and said, “My sister’s not mean, Carter. And she’s not scary. But she is stubborn.” As he opened his mouth to agree, she held up one hand to stop him. “So if you’re in love with her, you’re going to have
to convince her of that. And it might take some convincing.”

She stood, shifting Caroline to the other shoulder and arranging the blanket with her other hand. Then she continued, “I have faith in you. I think you really are going to get that governorship someday. And I believe you can work things out with my sister, that is…if you love her. Do you?”

“Yes.” His answer was unequivocal.

Kate smiled. “Good. Because Jennie loves you, too, and that’s all that counts. The rest is details.”

Kate had taken the baby and gone up to her room for the night, but Carter still sat on the settee where she’d left him. Her words kept going through his head.
Jennie loves you, too,
she’d said. And suddenly he realized with blinding clarity that she was right.

In spite of her mistrust of men and her resolve to stay independent, Jennie had come to him willingly. She’d entrusted him with her body, and then with her heart. She’d married him, not out of fear that he’d tell her sister about them. They’d both known that that was an empty threat. There was only one reason she would have agreed to become his wife.

Neither one of them had spoken the words. That was part of their problem. After all their misunderstandings about her job at the mine and Kate’s baby, he should have taken her in his arms and told her that he loved her. He should have taken her to bed and shown her how much she meant to him. Instead, he’d let the wall of silence grow so tall between them that it now seemed almost as if they were strangers.

But it was not too late. He heard her down the hall, saying good-night to Barnaby and then mounting the
stairs. Soon she’d be slipping into her bed—
their
bed. And he’d join her there. It might take some convincing, Kate had said. Well, that was all right with him. He stood, turned off the lamp and made his way out of the parlor.

Hell, sometimes convincing could even be fun.

Jennie turned, startled, when he came into the room just behind her. “I thought you were down talking with Kate,” she said.

“Kate’s gone to bed. I heard you finish up with Barnaby and decided to join you.”

She looked a little surprised, but she said simply, “Oh.”

He walked across the room, took off his jacket and hung it on the clothes tree. Then he started to unbutton his shirt. Jennie watched him warily.

“Aren’t you going to get undressed?” he asked her.

“Ah…yes.” She looked over at the light burning brightly on her dresser.

Carter followed the direction of her gaze. “Do you want me to put it out?”

“I will,” she said, walking over to do so. The room plunged into darkness.

He’d have preferred having this conversation while he could see her face, but the darkness might suit his purposes as well. “Little Caroline is blossoming,” he said.

Jennie sounded relieved at his choice of topic. “Yes, she is. Kate’s a good mother.”

“You will be, too.”

Jennie didn’t answer.

Carter finished removing his clothes, then crossed
over to where she was fumbling in the dark with her own more complicated apparel.

“Do you need some help?” he asked, his voice low. In the dim light he could see her shake her head, but nevertheless he turned her around and began unfastening the hooks at the back of her dress. “Of course, there’s one particular requirement to being a good mother,” he continued.

“What’s that?” she asked.

He finished with the hooks and slipped the dress off her shoulders, then turned her around to face him. “You have to have a baby.”

His low tone vibrated somewhere deep in her midsection. His hands were running up and down her arms, raising a chill on her skin. Suddenly it was as if all the distance of the past few days had dissolved and they were back the way they had been together the night of their wedding.

But could she allow herself to go back there? What about all the hurt that had come since? She pulled away from him. “I’m just as happy being an aunt,” she said.

“Well, I’m not.” He pulled her back into his arms and brought her close to him, the silk of her shift slipping against his bare skin. “I want us to make our own baby, sweetheart.”

His low-spoken words reverberated in her head as his lips claimed hers. She went up on her toes and pressed into him as his tongue began to weave magic inside her mouth.

She made a sound of acquiescence and desire and he pulled her up tighter. Their bodies pressed together below, his aroused manhood hard against the silk hollow
of her abdomen. “Ah, Jennie,” he whispered, bending to lift her in his arms.

Then he froze as someone knocked hard on their door.

“Jennie, Carter!” It was Kate, and she sounded frantic.

Carter put Jennie down and pulled a shawl off the bed to wrap around himself. Then he opened the door. Kate stood on the threshold, a baby bottle in one hand and one of Caroline’s blankets in the other.

“She’s gone!” she said, half sobbing.

Jennie ran to the door. “What are you saying, Katie?”

Kate took a deep, shuddering breath. “I went downstairs to warm the milk for Caroline’s nighttime bottle. And when I came back up, her crib was empty.”

C
arter had an immediate suspicion as to the whereabouts of the baby, but he didn’t say anything as he and Jennie helped Kate look through the upstairs rooms. They roused the miners, who then got dressed to aid in the search.

“I’ll have to wake Barnaby,” Jennie said as they finished the upstairs and started down. “He’ll be so upset.”

But Barnaby’s room was empty, and Carter’s fears were confirmed.

“They’ve taken them both,” Jennie cried as Kate gave a wail.

Carter tucked his shirt inside his trousers and said grimly, “I don’t think so.” When both women looked at him questioningly, he explained, “Barnaby’s taken Caroline. I don’t think there’s anyone else involved.”

“Why in the world would you say such a thing?” Jennie asked, indignant.

Carter sighed. “Because he wants to protect her. I’ve seen him watching her. He doesn’t want her to be subjected to the same kind of taunts he’s had.”

“But that’s crazy,” Kate gasped.

Carter raised an eyebrow. “Yes, but going through abuse like that can make you think strange things. With all due respect, Kate, you’ll never really know exactly what it feels like. By the time you had to endure slurs of that type, you were an adult. It’s a lot different when you’re a child.”

“We won’t let Caroline be subjected to anything like that,” Jennie said firmly.

Carter turned to her. “How are you going to guarantee that? Do you plan to keep her locked away in this house her entire life? No, Barnaby knows what little Caroline might have in store for her. He just isn’t using his head too well as to what to do about it.”

“Where could he have taken her?” Jennie asked, her voice shaken.

Kate had tears streaming down her face. “Are they outside somewhere? It’s nighttime…and it’s cold. She needs her bottle,” she ended with a broken sob.

Jennie put her arm around her sister, then looked up hopefully as the front door opened. But it was only the three miners, who’d been looking around the outside of the house. “No sign of them,” Dennis said, shaking his head.

Carter’s mind was whirring. If Barnaby had decided to escape with Caroline he hoped the boy would be smart enough to know that he’d need to find shelter, at least at night. The most logical place to find refuge would be one of the mines dotting the surrounding canyons.

“Has Barnaby been up to the Longley mine with you fellows?” he asked the miners.

“He’s been there with me,” Jennie answered. “Just last week.”

“Well, it’s a place to start looking,” Carter said.
He turned to Kate. “Do you want to trust us to find him, Kate, or would you like me to go into town and get the sheriff?”

Kate shuddered. “There’s already been far too much talk about us in town. Let’s try to find them on our own first.”

Carter nodded his approval. “You stay here in case he comes back or you get some news. Dennis, Brad, Smitty and I will head up into the hills and check all the nearby mines.”

“I’m going, too,” Jennie said quickly.

Carter walked over to her and planted a kiss on her mouth. “I won’t
tell
you no,” he said with a small smile. “But I’ll
ask
you to stay here with Kate. She’s not in any shape to be left alone.”

It was obvious from one look at Kate’s trembling form that Carter was right. Jennie put an arm around her and said, “Come on, Katie. We’re going to go make some coffee. We’ll all be needing it.”

The women headed back toward the kitchen. Carter sent Smitty to fetch Dr. Millard and Dorie, then briefly sketched out a strategy with Brad and Dennis on how best to cover the nearby territory. Carter himself would go up to Longley. He didn’t know if it was the affinity he’d always felt with Barnaby or just a wild hunch, but somehow he was almost certain that that was where he would find the misguided young fugitive.

He didn’t have to walk all the way to the mine. He’d been on the trail only about twenty minutes when he heard the sound of something around the bend. At first he thought it might be an animal, but
then he heard a tiny mewing that was unmistakably a small and unhappy baby.

He closed his eyes in relief and waited for the boy to walk toward him.

“She’s too little,” Barnaby said with a hiccup in his voice. He’d evidently been crying.

“She certainly is,” Carter said, reaching to take the baby from his arms.

“I think she’s missing her ma. I fed her a whole bottle but she kept crying.”

Carter tried not to show all the anger he felt for the worry Barnaby had put them all through. There would be time enough to deal with it all rationally. The important thing was that they both were safe. “Babies need their mothers all the time when they’re this tiny. It was very wrong of you to take her off like that.”

Barnaby hung his head and said in a low voice, “It was because of what you said.”

Carter jerked back in surprise. “What I said?”

“The other night. I couldn’t sleep and I was going down to the office to see Jennie, but you and she were arguing and you told her that a baby without a name has no chance for happiness.”

Carter’s chest constricted. “Oh, Barnaby…”

“So I was going to take her to live in the mountains like Mr. and Mrs. Sheridan did before they came to Vermillion. Then it wouldn’t matter if she didn’t have a name.”

Carter couldn’t believe that his heedless words had been the cause of all this. “How were you planning to feed her and take care of her?” he asked, wondering just how many hours Barnaby had spent since that night planning this.

“I found my own food for years before I came to
the Sheridans. I’d hunt for us. She can have mushy food now. I asked Dr. Millard.”

Carter winced as he remembered how attentive Barnaby had been to every detail of the baby’s care. Perhaps he should have suspected that the boy was thinking about something like this.

Caroline had fallen asleep in his arms. He rocked her gently and found the sensation comforting. “Children need more than food to be happy, Barnaby. They need love. You and I know that better than most people,” he concluded gently. All the anger had drained out of him.

“I love her, Carter,” Barnaby whispered, his head hanging. “I love her something fierce.”

Carter hesitated, then shifted the baby to one arm so that he could put the other around Barnaby’s small shoulders. “I know you do, lad. But you’ll have to promise me that you’ll never do anything this crazy again. The way you can best help Caroline grow into a happy young lady is to do your best to be a responsible member of our family.”

“You mean Jennie and Kate and you and me and the baby?”

“Yup, that’s what I mean. We’re a family. We have to support each other and love each other and stay together.”

“And can we keep the boys from calling Caroline bad names?”

Carter turned to walk down the path, keeping one arm around the baby and the other around Barnaby. “We’ll do our best. But if a bad name or two slips through, she’ll have her big brother to cheer her up.”

It had turned quite cold and Barnaby was dressed in only a shirt It made Carter sick to think about what
might have happened if they hadn’t been able to find him. There’d be snow in the mountains any day.

“Carter?”

“Yes, son?” Barnaby’s steps were flagging and Carter knew the boy must be exhausted, but he didn’t want to slow down.

“Maybe you could give Caroline your last name.”

Carter was touched by the boy’s suggestion, but he said, “Caroline has a perfectly good last name, Barnaby. It’s Sheridan. It’s a better one than mine, to tell you the truth.”

“I like Jones. It’s a nice name.”

Carter smiled a little sadly. “Yes, it is. I like it, too.”

They were silent for several minutes, then Barnaby said, “Could I have it?”

“Have what?”

“Could I be a Jones? I’m not saying I’d be your kid or anything like that…”

The prickling behind Carter’s eyes felt suspiciously like tears. He blinked rapidly. “I’d be honored for you to have my name, Barnaby, if that’s what you want.”

“Would it really be my name? I mean legal-like?”

Carter ruffled the boy’s hair. The lights of town had come into view below them. “Say now, aren’t I a lawyer? We’ll make it more legal than if you’d been born that way.”

“Barnaby Jones. I like the sound of that,” he said happily.

“I do, too,” Carter replied. In fact, his name had never sounded so sweet.

Jennie stayed with Kate and Caroline all night. The baby had awakened as soon as Carter and Barnaby
got down from the mountain and they’d been unable to calm her down. Kate was still shaky and exhausted and Jennie was afraid to leave her alone, she explained to Carter with a little sigh of regret. Now that the excitement was over, both had hoped to be able to continue where they had left off when Kate interrupted them.

“We’ll talk in the morning,” Carter had whispered to her. “I don’t intend on going into the office tomorrow until I’ve said some things I need to get off my chest.” Then he’d given her a brief kiss good-night and let her go on down the hall to Kate’s room.

Jennie wished they could talk tonight, but Kate’s grateful look when she walked into her bedroom was worth the delay. Still, as she sat watching over Kate and her niece she couldn’t help wondering what the new day would bring. She had a feeling that she was going to like what Carter had to say. In fact, since he’d joined her earlier that night and they’d kissed, much of the tension of these past few days had miraculously dissipated.

I want us to make a baby,
he’d said. Jennie might be still naive, but she was smart enough to know that a couple didn’t do that by sleeping at opposite ends of the bed the way she and Carter had been doing. The mere thought stirred her and made her want to creep down the hall and crawl into bed next to him. But she had Kate and the baby to think about first.

Tomorrow, she thought sleepily. She had some things to say to him, as well.

Barnaby had apologized to Kate and asked everyone to forgive him for all the trouble he’d caused. He was so obviously contrite that no one had the heart
to suggest further punishment. In fact, when he asked if he could stay home from school for a day, Jennie had agreed.

She and Carter were both waiting for the opportunity for their private talk, but things weren’t working out in their favor. First, Dr. Millard had come by to check over Caroline and be sure she’d suffered no ill effects from her exposure to the night air. Dorie had come along with him with news from town for Kate and Jennie.

They all sat around the dining room table waiting for her father. “The Wentworths, father and son, had a shouting match yesterday in the middle of the street right in front of the bank,” Dorie reported with glee. “I don’t know who won, but Lucinda swooned in the middle of it and didn’t revive until they carried her over to Papa’s office.”

Carter had smiled at the gossip, then had pulled his watch from his pocket and looked ruefully at Jennie.

Unfortunately, when Dr. Millard came downstairs after checking the baby, he accepted Jennie’s half-hearted offer of a cup of coffee, and Dorie declared that she wouldn’t mind another of Jennie’s cinnamon buns.

Jennie returned Carter’s look with a helpless shrug. Before long it would be time for her to head up to the mine.

Then, just as the Millards finally got up to leave, there was a knock on the front door, and Barnaby appeared in the dining room entryway to announce, “There’s a bunch of people from town here to see you, Jennie.” He sounded scared. “You didn’t tell them about last night, did you?”

She assured him that no one knew about their adventure
of the previous evening, then said, “You might as well tell them to come in here. There’s more room than out in the hall.”

He disappeared for a minute, then returned followed by Mrs. Billingsley, Miss Potter, Mrs. Wentworth and at the tail end, Lyle. Jennie forced herself not to groan, and managed to say calmly, “Good morning.”

As usual, Mrs. Billingsley led the charge. “It’s just as well you’re here, Mr. Jones, because perhaps we’ll be able to get this straight once and for all. We had an agreement to allow this establishment to operate if certain undesirable elements were not to be present.” She looked pointedly over at Kate, then gestured to Margaret Potter, who pulled a folded paper from her reticule.

“Undesirable elements such as my sister?” Jennie asked, steaming.

“Fornication is against the law in this town, Jennie,” Miss Potter said.

Carter stood and gave the ladies one of his lawyer smiles. “Well, then, it’s a wonder the Vermillion jail’s not full to overflowing, isn’t it? Perhaps I can clear this problem up. Some time ago I obtained a license for Sheridan House as a multiple residence. It doesn’t require business zoning. Its presence here is perfectly legal.”

Jennie looked at Carter in surprise. He’d never told her about the license. But then, they hadn’t been communicating too well recently.

Mrs. Billingsley looked as if she wanted to spit as she turned on him and said, “Are you aware, Mr. Jones, that while you’re working hard at your office every day, your
wife
is spending time unchaperoned
at Longley mine surrounded by dozens of those coarse miners?”

Jennie’s mouth fell open as Carter dropped all pretense of a smile, pulled himself up to his full height and answered, “My wife has a job at the Longley mine. I’m incredibly proud of her for being able to work there and also be completely responsible for the running of Sheridan House all these months. She’s a remarkable woman, ladies. If you all worked as hard as she did, you wouldn’t have so much time for your vicious gossip and petty meddling.”

Mrs. Wentworth gasped. Henrietta Billingsley pointed a finger at her and shouted, “Don’t you dare swoon, Lucinda.”

Lyle stepped up to put an arm around his mother. “I told you ladies to let me handle things.”

Mrs. Billingsley made a harrumphing sound at the back of her throat “A big help you’ve been, Lyle. You said the child would never be brought back here. The truth is you’ve always been so besotted with Kate that you can’t see these girls for what they are.”