Delilah's Flame (17 page)

Clement winked at his daughter. “So you want to know all about Mr. Stanton, do you? He’s attractive, unmarried...”

Lilah blushed, more out of exasperation than embarrassment. She already knew those things about Tabor Stanton. “You know that isn’t what I mean.”

“Do I?” Clement raised his brows.

“Have...have you known Mr. Stanton long?” Surely her father hadn’t forgotten Tabor Stanton was one of the men responsible for crippling him. She couldn’t understand why the man had even been allowed in the house.

Clement shook his head. He never spoke of the accident. Lilah had suffered nightmares about it for years afterwards, and he didn’t want to reawaken the memory.

“I met Mr. Stanton for the first time yesterday.” He made a conscious effort to keep his expression cheerful. “A long time ago I knew his father. Stan died a few months back and left a letter to be delivered to me—a sort of payment for an old debt. The young Mr. Stanton came here to deliver the letter and carry out one of his father’s last requests.”

Lilah fell back in her chair and gasped softly. Tabor Stanton was the wrong man. His father, dead even before her encounter with Tabor, was the guilty one. Her pulse fluttered wildly. How could she have made such a mistake? Dear heaven! How could she make up to Tabor Stanton what she had done?

“Lilah...” Clement’s voice carried concern. “Are you feeling faint again? You’ve turned pale.” He wheeled about, ready to call Ching to attend her.

Lilah caught his arm. “I’m all right, Papa,” she said weakly. “It’s too warm in here with the fire.”

“Oh,” Clement said, relieved. “Is that it? I’ll have Ching put it out.” He looked around at Ching and nodded. “Stanton’s a likeable young man. Sounds like he really knows horses. If he does, I’m thinking about offering him a job. You know Gus is leaving next month and I’ll be without a trainer.” Seeing Lilah’s face blanch even more, he stopped. “Lilah...”

She rose quickly. “I’m going out for some air, Papa. I’ll see you at dinner.” Trembling uncontrollably, she hurried out, aware both her father’s and Ching’s eyes followed her every step.

In the downstairs parlor Lilah rang for tea and paced from window to window until it arrived. With shaking fingers she took the cup the servant poured, finding some solace in sipping the warm, fragrant brew.

What a grand mess she had created. And all for nothing where Tabor Stanton was concerned. Her father was thinking of offering him a job. Her mind jumped from thought to thought. How could she allow that? Maybe he wouldn’t take it. What if he did? She couldn’t let that happen even if she had wronged him.

If he saw that stallion...Lilah shuddered as the ugly consequences reared their heads. She had to make sure Tabor didn’t go near the stables.

By hell’s fire! She gulped her tea. The stallion was Tabor’s. But how could she possibly take back the horse she had presented her father? She couldn’t. What she could do was make sure Tabor Stanton left Damon House tonight and never came back. Later she could find a way to pay him for the animal and to compensate him for the time spent in jail.

Her chaotic mind raced on. She only needed to get his address, and the money could be sent anonymously with a note explaining a mistake had been made. That should satisfy him. The thought calmed her a little. Now she only had to think of a way to make him leave. That was the solution. If she simply kept her head, she could straighten everything out.

Whatever the cost, she couldn’t allow her father to find out how she got that horse or that she was Delilah. Since her return from the tour, her father’s doctor had confided his concern that Clement’s heart had weakened. He was not to become overly excited. She couldn’t possibly let him learn the daughters he valued above everything else had danced and cavorted in saloons throughout California. Or that his elder one had entertained men in her hotel rooms. It would be too much for him. Lilah clamped her teeth and clenched her small fists. Somehow she
would
make sure Tabor Stanton’s visit tonight was his last to Damon House.

Her eyes narrowed as she remembered the way Tabor had lured her to the bed that night in Yuba City, pretending to be asleep. She remembered how he had pressed his advances on her, covered her face and breasts with kisses, touched her in forbidden places. A warm and wicked shiver rippled through her flesh. She could almost feel his hands and lips touching her again. No. Lilah stiffened her spine. She refused to admit that she liked his touch or that her mounting excitement had anything to do with a desire to see him again.

Her only interest in Tabor was to get him away from the Damon family, permanently. She rubbed her hands together thoughtfully. She knew the perfect way. As attracted as he was to loose women like Delilah, he wouldn’t know what to make of one who was virtuous and respectable and had her cap set on marriage.

Lilah’s sly smile belonged on Delilah’s face. Tabor Stanton would turn tail and run the minute he realized a woman had singled him out for matrimony. Her brows curved wickedly. Especially one who would lose her fortune by doing so. She would give him a strong dose of that bitter medicine tonight.

When the door chime sounded and Wan showed Tabor into the drawing room where Lilah waited with her father, Dinah, and Aunt Emily, she was quite ready for the next melee.

Dinah wore a deep-cut gown of bottle green, and dangling emerald earrings. Emily was dressed in blue taffeta set off by a sapphire-and-diamond brooch. In her high-necked, long-sleeved gown of pristine white lawn fashioned with a modest bustle, Lilah looked subdued beside them. If she could have managed to appear mousy without arousing suspicion, it would have suited her better. Subdued, however, would have to do.

Clement introduced the women properly, since all had met Tabor in awkward circumstances the first time around.

“This is Emily Dearborn, Lilah and Dinah’s aunt from London,” he said to Tabor. “My daughters lived in London with Emily for ten years. I must credit her with forming them into the lovely creatures they are.”

Tabor smiled at the small-boned blond lady, whose mannerisms were typically English. She looked like a pleasant woman and he detected a keen mind behind her proper face.

He kissed Emily’s hand. Lilah couldn’t help fuming as she recalled he had once casually done the same to her.

“You must have been little more than a girl yourself ten years ago,” Tabor said, releasing Emily’s hand.

Emily blushed. “What wonderful flatterers you Americans are.”

“And this,” Clement went on, rolling closer to Dinah, who stood nearest him, “is my younger and sometimes quite impulsive daughter, Dinah.”

Tabor smiled at Dinah Damon, a lovely green-eyed girl with hair a brighter, deeper color than her sister’s. Clement seemed to treat her as if she were a child but she looked almost as old as Lilah.

“If you are referring to the interruption when we were in your library, I found it a charming distraction.” Tabor nodded to Clement. “Miss Damon,” he said, lifting Dinah’s hand to his lips. “This time is also a pleasure.”

“Are you French?” Dinah asked, her eyes glittering with interest. He was attractive, in some ways more than Barrett. How could Lilah help but be drawn to him?

“A little, perhaps, back along the line,” Tabor answered, his eyes lingering on Dinah in the way of a man who knows how to enchant women. “Actually I’m second-generation American. I did live in Paris a year. I adopted some of the customs I most admired.”

Lilah’s brows flickered. Mr. Stanton was more worldly than she had realized. It really didn’t matter, though. She knew his suave manners did not run deep. Underneath was an insolent boor. He did have a certain manly appeal some women might find attractive. Devoid of his tan and dressed in a tailored suit, he might be able to pass himself off as a gentleman. She, however, found his rugged looks offensive. Barrett, fair-skinned and slim, was by far the more attractive man.

Of course Barrett didn’t cause her heart to lurch, or goose bumps to form on her skin. But why should he? she questioned as Tabor stepped closer. Barrett hadn’t placed her entire family in jeopardy.

“I’m sure you remember Lilah,” Clement said, eyes twinkling as he watched this second meeting between the two. He definitely thought he saw sparks flying between them. Lilah was embarrassed, he supposed, about having tumbled into a stranger’s arms.

“Indeed I do,” Tabor replied, taking Lilah’s hand and pressing it between both his own, pleased to feel a slight tremble in it. “I’m happy to see you recovered.” He squeezed her hand lightly, then quickly released it.

Lilah blushed, though she had sworn she would not. Why had he spared her a kiss on the hand? Did he find Dinah and even Aunt Emily more attractive? And why was she complaining? That was what she wanted, wasn’t it? That Tabor not find her appealing.

“I’m glad you could come to dinner, Mr. Stanton,” she heard herself saying. “I’d hoped for a chance to thank you properly for sparing me a bad fall.”

Tabor’s breath caught in his throat. Just being near Lilah Damon made him feel like a foolish schoolboy. Yesterday he had thought she looked like an angel. Tonight confirmed his impression. She was stunningly sweet, soft, and gentle. She wasn’t the kind of woman who usually appealed to him. In days past, he had known his share of sporting women and had always been careful not to involve himself with anxious virgins or ladies who had their wedding veils ready.

He had better watch his step. Lilah Damon made him feel like breaking every rule he had ever set for himself. Those innocent eyes, that melodious voice, the shining red-gold hair—he felt as if he had known her a long, long time. Other warm feelings long lost inside him stirred to new life, some he had thought he would never feel again, those for family, children, a lifetime love.

“So you were a naval officer, Mr. Stanton.” Emily Dearborn and Dinah kept the conversation clipping by asking Tabor so many questions Lilah began to wonder if both had forgotten their manners. With the added exchange between Tabor and her father, she learned an amazing amount about the man she had wronged.

“A lieutenant, ma’am,” he said, offering Emily a special smile.

“With the Union,” Clement supplied.

Tabor nodded. “My ship was part of the Atlantic Blockading Squadron until it was sunk. Later I was part of the American embassy in France for a year. When the war was over I’d had enough of the sea and politics. I resigned my commission.”

“I presume you speak French,” Emily said, her eyes resting admiringly on the dark-haired young man.

How unlikely, Lilah thought, remembering the difficulty she and Dinah had learning the language. Irritably she tapped her toe on the carpet beneath the table.

Tabor had both her aunt and her sister sitting up and taking notice. What could they possibly see in that cowboy that made them act like a pair of coquettes? Aunt Emily was actually flirting. Thank goodness Dinah hadn’t gone to those lengths. As it was, Lilah’s attempt to make Tabor feel uncomfortable at Damon House was being thwarted. But now Emily was about to embarrass him by making him admit to his lack of education?

“Yes, ma’am,” Tabor answered, and gave Emily another melting smile. “My mother raised me alone. My father went his own way before I was half-grown. Mother kept me to the books. She was an educated woman and thought her son should be too. I suppose I was reading the classics when other boys my age were romping and hunting. Of course my uncle saw I got to those things too. Now I’d like the chance to thank my mother for her perseverance. I put up quite a fuss about having to learn French, but it did get me the assignment to Paris.”

“So your mother is no longer living?” Emily asked.

He looked briefly sad. “She died a number of years ago. She was a fine lady. I miss her.”

“Yes, I understand,” Emily remarked, thinking of her late husband. “I’m sure your mother would be pleased at the man you’ve become.”

“I like to think so,” Tabor said gently.

Lilah gritted her teeth, tense with guilt and frustration. Clearly Tabor and his mother had been separated from his father many years. It sounded as if Stan Stanton had deserted his wife and child. If that were true, both Tabor and his mother had also been victimized. That made her offense against Tabor even worse. She prayed the talk wouldn’t lead into an account of his father. If it did, Dinah might guess who he was. Nervously she searched her mind for a new topic.

Fortunately Dinah spared her the necessity of finding one. “The political life in France must have been terribly exciting,” Dinah chimed in. “Don’t you agree, Lilah? Please tell us some of your experiences, Mr. Stanton.”

Tabor complied, giving Dinah an amusing account of a minor crash between the American and Spanish ambassadors’ carriages.

Silently thanking Dinah, Lilah listened as she stared down at her plate and the dinner she had all but neglected. Tabor Stanton was full of surprises. Occasionally during the evening she too made a comment, but she was careful not to present herself as too clever or interesting. Mostly she bit her tongue as it became clearer and clearer that Tabor was no empty-headed cowpuncher. When she had met him as Delilah, she had assumed he’d been an ordinary sailor and had only the few dollars in his pocket. Now she knew he had been a commissioned naval officer, an embassy aide, and owned part of a cattle ranch near Monterey.

“How fascinating,” Dinah said as Tabor finished his story.

Lilah sighed deeply, inadvertently drawing the unwanted attention of everyone at the table. She had to immediately smile to assure everyone she wasn’t bored. How she wished she had given the detectives time to ferret out all this information about Tabor, instead of learning who and what he was too late. It was good to know Tabor wasn’t in need of a job. But that wouldn’t stop her father from offering him one. If Clement was impressed with a man’s ability, he was unremitting.

Tabor, seated beside Lilah, heard her sigh, then responded to her smile. She wasn’t a chatterbox like her younger sister and her aunt. She spoke only if she had something of significance to say. He liked that.