Echoes of the Heart (44 page)

           
She
sat quiet for a moment while her blood boiled then jumped up to face him
red-faced ready to pounce.
 
“I suppose
you think I will just drop all my plans so you can use me as a chattel.”
 
She felt perspiration bead on her forehead.

           
He
stood firm while his jaw tensed.
 
“You
forced me into this agreement.
 
You will
not force me to be a wife to drag around and use when you have the notion.
 
I’m not going anywhere with you.”

           
His
face remained free from emotion as he grabbed his coat.
 
“You know, Rae, you can be a real bitch!
 
I must have been crazy to think we could be
together.
 
I’ll see you again when hell
freezes over.”
 
He reached for her and
pulled back her head to kiss her mouth in a brutal attack then pushed her away
while she groped for control.
 
She knew
she could be a shrew.
 
He didn’t have to
tell her.

           
He
aimlessly tossed a ring box in her direction then turned on his heel to storm
out of the room, slamming the door so hard it vibrated the walls.
 
Rigid footsteps echoed from the hallway while
her eyes blinked back tears. Refusing to cry, she stomped about the room
tossing her belongings into trunks.

Raeden thought
this might happen, another fight when he did not get his way.

He
won’t get another chance to coerce me into something I can’t do.
 
Her eyes kept glancing at the small box on
the floor and her inquisitiveness intensified.
 
What could it be, another ring?
 
She wanted to leave it but curiosity drove
her to look inside and see what it held.

An enormous
Marquise diamond sparkled up at her encircled by blood red rubies set in 18k
platinum.
 
Exquisite.
 
Five stones, smaller in size, adorned the
wedding band.
 
She turned the rings
watching the facets reflect the light from the window, nearly mesmerized by the
effect.
 
He certainly has good taste.
 
This must have cost a small fortune.
 
She could not leave it behind
.
 
I
will take this as a memento.
 
I deserve
it after putting up with such a pompous peacock!
 
He just stood there and called me a bitch, for
Christ sake!

           
She
tossed the small box inside her suitcase and clasped the lid, ready to
leave.
 
After the bellhop brought down
her luggage, she had the concierge hail a cab.
 
She had to leave town.
 
She didn’t
trust him.
 
Hadn’t he told her he always
sticks to commitments?
 
As her husband,
he could force her but he would never crush her resolve.

           
Arriving
at her home, she jumped from the hansom.
 
“I need your assistance inside.
 
There’s a big tip if you hurry.”
 
Pulling her skirts to her knees, she charged into the house, dress
billowing to the sides, a relief to find the house empty.

Her room looked
ransacked after she finished throwing everything into trunks.
 
After calling the driver to load her
belongings, she went to retrieve Arte and her gear from the stable and tied him
alongside.

           
Out
of breath with beads of sweat on her forehead, the driver stared as if he
thought she had escaped from an asylum.
 
It didn’t matter as long as she vanished from
his
clutches.
 
No one would
stop her.

           
With
Arte secured in a holding pen at the train station, she exchanged her ticket
for one the following morning and arranged to have her trunks held in storage,
taking along only what she needed for one night and the trip.
 

They drove to
Maxwell’s Boarding House where she rented a room for one night including meals.
 
The driver left smiling with a handsome tip.

           
She
plopped on her bed and dropped to the pillow then released her breath.
 
Let him find her now, his little meek wife!

           
Raeden
fumed for a while imagining ways to get even for this ruse.
 
Then she began taking in her surroundings and
glanced around the small quaint room, sparsely furnished with only a small
bureau, wooden chair topped by a thin cushion under a narrow writing table and
a lamp stand next to her adequate bed.

Adorned by only
one picture on the wall overlooking the street, a sparkling clean window
curtained in eyelet muslin matching her bedspread added to the room’s simple
charm.

           
Since
leaving Cash’s hotel room in such a hurry, she decided to bathe in the shared
bathroom at the end of the long hallway to the right of her room.
 

She leaned back in
the tub luxuriating in the hot water ebbing all the morning’s tension.

A rumbling in her
middle reminded her she had skipped breakfast and lunch.
 
After slipping into a fawn-colored walking
dress, she made her way to the café several blocks from the boarding house and
had a pastry with coffee then visited a nearby bookstore to purchase copies of
her favorite magazines and the new novel
Alice
in Wonderland
for the journey to New York.

           
Later
in the evening, after dining with the guests, she retired to her room and sat
curled in a quilt clad in her nightgown, leafing through a magazine unable to
concentrate.
 
She switched off the light
and lay down with her thoughts.
 
Suddenly
tired from the lack of sleep she had been receiving Raeden hugged a pillow to
her chest.
 
A wave of loneliness washed
over her before she fell into a deep sleep.

Forty-seven

Half-crazed, Cash
stormed from the hotel room in the morning, animosity growing with each step, asking
himself how she could turn on him with such vehemence after the closeness they
had shared the past few days.
 
Did she
mean all those things she said?
 
Her
stubborn nature remained a sore spot.
 
Perhaps he could coerce her into submission.
 
Though he knew she might bend to his will if
he forced her, he could never break her completely.

           
He
walked for nearly an hour cooling his temper then entered a pub and had a
double scotch for breakfast while his mind raced.
 
He needed Raeden, craved her, loved her, an
obsession like no other woman he had had in the past.
 
Her desire for him he could arouse from her
so easily drove him mad with passion to have her.
 
He knew he must attempt a different tactic to
convince her.
 
What?

           
Leaving
the bar, he retrieved Rabbit to take a long ride into the snow-covered
fields.
 
Riding should clear his
head.
 
It seemed Raeden wanted him on her
own terms.
 
It’s impossible.
 
No woman
would ever turn him into a lovesick coward.

           
He
gave the cowpony her head to race kicking up snow through the open fields
surrounding the city, the cold wind in his face cooling his temper.
 
No woman had ever been able to make him this
angry.
 
Why the hell didn’t he just leave
her alone in the first place?
 
Because he
could not, that’s why.

           
The
hotel room empty of Raeden’s belongings did not surprise him when he
returned.
 
Best let her cool off and
himself as well. The way he felt now, he might strangle her with his bare
hands.
 
He would see her tomorrow at her
parents’ home. She must realize her ambitions were nothing compared to the fate
of an entire race of people facing extermination.

           
After
a meal in the hotel dining room, he laid awake in bed with a derelict notion
when the essence of Raeden’s perfume wafted from the bed linens where she had
slept—loneliness.

***

Raeden felt the
burn of bruised lips from the brutal kiss she had received before escaping from
that savage as she breakfasted at the boarding house, waiting the six a.m.
train.

           
Burdened
by only a small bag of essentials, including her pistol, she boarded to her
stateroom in a dust blue traveling suit, exhilarated at being on her way at
last to New York City and the life she had dreamed of for years, feeling smug
in her defiance of Cash.
 
She wondered if
he knew of her disappearance, confident he would not follow since he had a
commitment in Washington.

           
Still
fearful of strange men, she planned to take meals in her room and wore the
rings Cash had discarded to ward off the possible advances of any
admirers.
 
She twisted the rings in the
sunlight reflecting through the window and watched the colored flashes circling
the small room while an ache echoed in her heart, worse than the first time she
had left him.
 
Sudden unexpected tears
pooled in her eyes.

           
[MSOffice1]
 

***

Cash sat up in bed
with a start, sensing something wrong then scrambled into his clothing and rode
directly to Raeden’s house.
 
Cynthia
answered his knock and invited him inside.
 
He stepped into the foyer glancing around for a glimpse of Raeden, his
temper rising as each minute passed.

           
He
tried to keep his voice calm, but he felt mad as hell.
 
“Is Rae here?
 
I need to speak with her.”

           
Cynthia
appeared disconcerted.
 
“No, she’s
not.
 
I just noticed her belongings gone
and just assumed … Cash, is something wrong?”

The muscles in his
neck tightened spreading to his jaw.
What
is she up to now?
 
“She’s not with
me.
 
Do you have any idea where she might
be?”
 
When
I get my hands on her, I’ll strangle her pretty little throat!
 
Heat rose up his neck and he had the
sudden urge to put his fist through a wall.

           
Cynthia
paused for a moment looking bewildered then her face perked.
 
“She did mention New York.
 
She had planned to leave just before New
Year’s Day.
 
Maybe she went to another
hotel to wait.”

Cash clenched his
fists and flung a look so intense and hostile Cynthia jumped back, blue eyes
agape.
 
He unclenched his fists sorry he
had frightened her and attempted to keep his voice calm but his temples pulsed
and his face felt hot.

“Let us know when
you find her.
 
I’m worried.
 
She has always had a way of stirring up
trouble.”

           
Rage
ignited almost out of control.
 
“You had
better hope I do
not
find her.”
 
He walked to the stable and found no sign of
her mount then turned and swore under his breath, swinging into the
saddle.
 
“Shit.”

           
He
rode to the train station checking for the bay but saw no sign of Arte.
 
Then he entered the station to check the
schedule with the ticket master to learn indeed a train left the same morning
with connections to New York City and said he had seen a young woman matching
the description Cash gave him boarding the train.

           
Cash
slammed his fist on the counter and his eyes glared in rage while he snapped at
the man.
 
“How could you let a young lady
ride all the way to New York without a chaperone?”

           
The
agent cringed and stepped out of his reach, his eyes wide with fear.
 
“I’m sorry, sir.
 
It’s not our business.
 
Perhaps you would care to purchase a ticket
and go after her?”

           
“I
already have a ticket.”

He spun on his
heels then rode to the nearest sleazy pub and sat at the bar with two other men
drinking early in the morning.

Not much later,
his nerves unwound only slightly as he looked at a half-empty bottle of scotch
whiskey on the bar before him and poured another tall glass.

           
Somehow,
he managed to find his hotel room and cursed Raeden as he fell, fully clothed,
in a stupor onto the bed.
           
 
A head pounding like a base drum and a mouth
full of fur greeted Cash when he woke that afternoon.
 
The light coming in the window made him
squint with pain.
 
He drank several
glasses of water and collapsed back on the bed.
 
He thought of how a bludgeoned pugilist must feel as he rose slowly to
shed his wrinkled clothing to take a hot steamy bath.