Dreamkeepers (41 page)

“Sweetheart.” His voice was ragged in her ear. “I don’t know what I’ll do if you don’t believe me! Remember our first night together? I was coming to you that night when you called out to me. That was the happiest night of my life, darling. You told me over and over that you loved me. Have I lost you, Molly mine? Have I?”

The words rang in Molly’s ears. He had been coming to her! Her heart sang out and her arms went up and around his neck, giving him the answer he hoped for. He kissed her desperately and lovingly, going from her mouth to her eyes, to the curve of her neck, forgetting the day’s growth of beard was scratching the soft skin of her face. Molly gloried in the hurt of his rough face against hers, and sought his mouth with her own trembling lips.

“Darling, I love you. I love you so.” He murmured the magic words that set her heart aflame. “I knew I loved you even before that perfect night when you gave me the most precious thing a woman has to give a man. But now that I almost lost you . . .”

The happiness in Molly’s heart cried out . . .
he loves me! Can it really be true?
Her desperate heart wanted to believe it was true. The black eyes were staring adoringly into hers. He was gentle now, the relief plain on his face, and she put her palms up to his rough cheeks and he turned his lips into them.

“I love you, Adam. Through it all I loved you. That was why I was so desperate.”

The black eyes that could be so hard and cold were now warm and glowing and misted over as he hid his face against her breast. She felt him tremble as if with a chill and she pressed his dark head against her. His trembling ceased and he raised his dark head, trailing his lips across her cheek to her mouth. He rubbed her lips gently with his until he got just the degree of opening he desired and then he kissed her, earnestly and hungrily.

“I’ve something else I want to tell you, my darling.”

“What could you tell me that’s more important than this?” She held up her lips for another kiss.

He laughed softly and kissed her again, running his hand under the bedclothes and down over her breasts to her flat, sunken, empty stomach that was growling in protest.

“I’m going to have to get some food into you.” He gently caressed the empty spot. “But, first, I want no secrets between us, so I’m going to tell you something.”

She looked at him searchingly, suddenly frightened that what he had to tell her would snatch away her happiness.

“You remember the first day I came here and Herb told you about your father’s will?” She nodded. “Herb gave each of us a letter from your father. You took yours to the bedroom to read and I opened mine in the living room. My letter was a second will. It was dated after the one Herb probated and it was the valid legal will.” Molly’s face reflected her astonishment. “In the final will your father left all his files and charts, his notes and any other material connected with his work, to me. He left the money to you with no strings attached. There was a letter attached to the will. In it he told me that if I found it impossible to abide by the conditions of the will Herb had read to us, or if either you or I found the other to be physically repulsive, I was to show the later will to Herb and have it probated. I thought about it, love, and I was tempted, but what Charlie counted on, happened. I had seen you! You came out of the bedroom and stood with so much pride in front of me and gave me your decision, I thought you were adorable and meant to have you for my own.”

Molly eyed him disbelievingly. “You . . . didn’t have to marry me to get the files?”

“No, pretty baby,” he said with a laugh. “I didn’t marry you to get the files. I married you because I wanted to. Because I didn’t want you to get away from me before I had the chance to know you. To . . . find out if you could love me. I was pretty sure I would come to love you.”

“You did?”

“Yes, I did.” He kissed her.

“Remember the first time I tried to make love to you?” The color that came up in her cheeks told him she did. “After I had time to cool off I was glad you turned me down. I knew when you gave yourself to me it would be because you loved me. I haven’t had much love, Molly. Only from Dad, and now from you. The only true friend I have is Patrick, and now he is going to have to go on another expedition alone.” He laughed joyously at the look on her face and hugged her close. “You’re not going to get away from me, Molly mine. I’m staying with you or taking you with me from now on. Patrick can do the field work and I’ll stay at home with my wife and kids and take care of the paper work.”

Molly couldn’t believe she heard correctly. “You’ll not be leaving at the end of the year?”

“No,” he said emphatically. He rubbed her stomach gently. “Besides, you’ll be pregnant by then and I’ll have to stay home and rub your stomach and feel my son grow.”

He watched the color come up her cheeks and flood her face. His eyes danced with devilry. He loved making her blush. She was adorable and she was . . . his!

Molly’s arms reached out to him and wound around his neck, inviting his possession of her.

“Molly?” His voice questioned when he raised his lips from her clinging ones.

Her eyes told him the answer and he stood up, fingers working at the buttons on his shirt. Her eyes never left him as he hastily shed his clothing and lifted the blankets to slip in beside her. Her soft, white, bare body against his said she wanted him.

The old Indian slipped in the back door. Keeping his eyes away from the bedroom, he stoked up the kitchen stove, put a big log on the already glowing coals of the fireplace, and silently went out again.

A week later Patrick came in the ski plane to take them to Anchorage to see Adam’s father. A radiant Molly met him at the door. Her eyes sparkled with happiness. This was the girl he had expected to see the first time he came.

“Patrick, will you ever forgive me for the way I acted when you were here before?”

“I don’t ever remember being here before, Mrs. Reneau.” His blue eyes were merry with teasing. “You have a lovely wife, Mr. Reneau,” he said to Adam. “May I kiss her?”

“You may not!” Adam firmly pulled Molly back against him, folded his arms around her, and planted a quick kiss beneath her ear. “Her kisses are spoken for—for the next forty years.”

Later that day Molly and Adam walked hand in hand into the sitting room of his father’s apartment. The old man was sitting in his same chair and watched them come toward him.

“Hello, Papa,” Molly said and bent down to kiss his cheek.

“Hello, daughter, son.” His eyes went to their interlaced fingers, then twinkled up to their eyes. “Sit down, sit down.”

Adam pulled the big footstool up close to his father’s chair as he always did for Molly, but today he sat down on it and pulled her down onto his lap.

“She loves me, Dad,” Adam said with a kind of wonder in his voice.

“Well . . . ?”

“I love her,” Adam said simply.

The old man laughed loudly. “So Charlie’s plan worked, did it? I told him it would.” He grinned broadly, his faded old eyes lighting up at the news he had sprung on them.

“You knew about the will?” Molly gasped.

“Sure did. Charlie and I talked about it.”

A glance told Molly that Adam was as surprised as she was by this news.

“We—we came today to tell you,” she stammered.

Robert Reneau settled back, enjoying the situation he had created. “Charlie came to see me before he made out the will. I’ve known Charlie Develon for thirty years. The doctors had given him about six months on the outside and he was worried about his girl. Of all the men he knew, son, he chose you to take care of his most precious possession. He wanted to get the two of you together and was planning to have you come and work with him when he returned from the expedition. He was sure you’d want her and love her once you met her.” He paused to see what impact his words had made on them and smiled to see his son’s arms tighten about his young wife. “He told me the plan and I thought it was a good one, but . . . I knew my son. Put the screws on him to force him to do something and he’ll rebel, Charlie, I told him. So I persuaded him to make a second will giving my son a choice.”

“Why, you old rascal!” Adam exclaimed. “I didn’t know you even knew Charlie.”

“How could you plan our lives like that? Why . . . we might not have even liked one another. Think of what the year would have been like for us if . . . you had been wrong!”

“But we weren’t wrong. We were right.” The old man interrupted Molly gleefully. “The plan worked.”

“Yes, it sure did!” Molly said, and slipped her arms around her husband’s neck.

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Train from Marietta

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Prologue

1933

T
HE DOOR OPENED SUDDENLY
. Startled, Eddy reared up out of the chair, a glass of brandy in his hand. “Oh, it’s you. Come in, Uncle William.”

“Drinking alone?” The portly silver-haired man was dressed in gray, from his ten-dollar hat to the custom-made shoes on his feet. He surveyed the cluttered room. Little light penetrated the blinds that covered the large windows. Empty bottles littered the tabletops, and clothes were strewn over the backs of the chairs. The lingering smell of cigarettes and alcohol filled the air.

“Occasionally I drink alone, don’t you?” Eddy took another swallow from his glass as he settled back into his seat. “What brings you out this time of night?”

William Jacobs closed the door, then carefully removed his hat and hung it on the rack. “I wanted to catch you when you didn’t have a woman here.”

Eddy set his glass down on the table by the chair. “I’m not the womanizer you think I am,” he said with indignation in his voice.

“No. I think you’re just an easy mark for the little gold-digging flappers who hang out at your favorite speakeasy.”

“You’d know a thing or two about flappers, wouldn’t you?”

“You’d do well to remember, Edwin, which side of the bread your butter is on,” William said menacingly, one thick finger pointed at his nephew.

“Why don’t you remind me, dear Uncle,” Eddy said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Don’t get smart with me, you little bastard!”

“Don’t call me that!”

“You are one, you know.”

“How could I forget when you remind me day in and day out?” Eddy glared at his uncle.

“Well, I know that my sister slept with every Tom, Dick, and Harry that came along. You could be nothing else.”

“And don’t talk about my mother like that either.”

“I took care of her all her life. I’ll talk about her any way I want to.”

At this, the two men stared at one another in silence. They’d had this argument many times before; neither one was ever willing to back down.

“What’s on your mind?” Eddy finally growled. “I’m sure something is or you’d be with your lady love.”

“You know damn well what’s on my mind and you’d better listen. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll forget about my lady love.” William paused, then made his way through the clutter to where his nephew sat. “We’re in deep trouble, and you’re in it just as deep as I am. We’ve got to get some ready cash and soon. You’re going to help me.”

“I’ll do what I can, short of robbing a bank.” Eddy chuckled.

“What I’ve got in mind is easier than that and at no risk to you—”

“What do you mean, ‘no risk to you’? Who do you want me to kill?”

“I wouldn’t trust you to kill a grasshopper. You’d be sure to mess it up.”

“Then what do you want me to do?”

For the next several minutes, Eddy listened with increasing shock as his uncle laid out his plan. He could scarcely believe what he was hearing! Finally, he shot to his feet. “I will not do it!”

“You will do it, or you’ll be out of this fancy apartment on your ass and not get another dime from me. Look at the easy life you’ve had all these years. You owe me. Don’t forget that I’m the one who pays for this apartment and the clothes on your back. I’m responsible for you being accepted by the Tylers to court their daughter, Susie. If you had half the sense you were born with, you’d get her pregnant and marry her. Then you’d have it made, even if she’s not her father’s favorite daughter. If we don’t get one hundred thousand dollars soon, we could both land in prison.”

Eddy looked at his uncle as if he had never seen him before. “I just can’t do what you’re asking. I like her.”

“That’s got nothing to do with it. If you do what I tell you, no one will get hurt. And you don’t have to do it alone. Squirrelly’s going with you.”

“Squirrelly! You can’t be serious.”

“He’s going. At least he’s loyal and I can trust him.”

“You can’t trust me?” Eddy yelled.

“Keep your voice down, you fool. I’ve contacted a man in Texas who’s put me in touch with someone who knows every stick and stone in the territory. He’ll be a big help.”

“You know that Squirrelly has about as many brains as a bedbug.”

“He may not be very smart but he’ll stay in line. I’ll give him his orders.”

Eddy looked down at the floor as he pushed a hand through his curly blond hair. “I haven’t said I was going to do it. I’ve got to think about it.”

His anger boiling over, William snatched the brandy glass from the table and hurled it against the wall behind Eddy. Broken glass and brandy flew in all directions.

“Here’s something for you to think about, you ungrateful little whelp. Neither one of us will go to prison if we pay the money back. Which do you prefer? Who do you think will take the brunt of an investigation? A young whippersnapper like you or a respected businessman like me?”

“But—”

“No buts. It’s time for you to pay me back for all I’ve done for you. Well? Yes or no?”

Eddy’s shoulders slumped before he quietly said, “I’ll do it.”

“I thought you would.”

Eddy hated the gloating look on his uncle’s face. “Does your lady love know about this?”

“She knows.”

William walked to the door, picked up his hat, and put it on. He took a cigar from his coat pocket, bit off the end, and spit it out on the oriental carpet.