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Authors: Stolen Ecstasy

BOOK: Hannah Howell
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“I think, Laurie, that you are very grown up indeed.”
“Well, maybe. I don’t know. I do know it hasn’t been easy and it certainly hasn’t been much fun.”
“It never is.”
“I better get back in the house. The ladies will be leaving soon, and Mother will be looking for me.”
“Leaving soon, you say?” Leanne murmured as Laurie stood up.
“Yes. Even Patricia Spotford.”
Leanne muttered “Thank God” and rolled her eyes, which caused Laurie to giggle a little before slipping back into the house. Leanne then rose to take a walk so that she did not have to meet Lorraine’s visitors after they had had an earful about her. Besides, she conceded, she did not want to see the pretty widow, Patricia, again. This morning she had had her fill of the insinuations concerning Patricia and Hunter—vague references to thwarted love and chances for reconciliation. She had tried not to listen, but Patricia did seem to know a great deal about Hunter. It was hard to fully shake a flicker of doubt. Worse, she had a sinking feeling that Lorraine had scented blood, and Patricia would soon be very hard to avoid.
Shaking away that concern, she told herself she would worry about it if and when the need arose. There was something good she could think on, and that was Laurie. Laurie had broken free of Lorraine’s grip of her own accord, which could only be for the good of everyone concerned. She was sorry for the inner conflicts the girl had to struggle with, but she was pleased beyond measure that Laurie would not become just another Lorraine. She would not be doomed to the sort of bitter, lonely life her mother had made for herself.
Despite her efforts not to, for it only made her sad, she found herself thinking of Hunter. She wanted him back, needed him. This was the first time they had been apart since the bank robbery and it made her afraid. She feared the effects of his mother’s constant poison feeding on her doubts. Most of all, she feared how the time apart could affect Hunter, how it might make him begin to think again about marrying her. Telling herself it was foolish to think like that did not help. She needed Hunter, needed him home to prove all her fears were baseless.
Chapter Fourteen
 
A
COMMITMENT
I
NEED TO EXTRACT MYSELF
from.
The words seared through Leanne’s heart as she crushed the letter in her hand. He called her “a commitment”, “a difficulty,” and “a stumbling block.” That was almost as painful as reading his declaration of love to another woman would have been. It reduced her to little more than a nuisance.
Smoothing out the letter, she compared it to the brief note Hunter had left her when he rode off that morning, a time that seemed years ago instead of barely a month. The handwriting still matched. She had not imagined it did, nor was this some new trick by Lorraine to get her to leave. When Patricia had brought this letter to Lorraine, Lorraine must have seen it as manna from heaven. Hunter was not coming home to marry her. He was coming home to “extract” himself from a “commitment” and then marry Patricia Spotford.
She sprawled on the bed and stared blindly at the ceiling. She needed to plan her next step, but her mind refused to function. She wanted to weep and, despite firmly telling herself it would solve nothing, she turned on her stomach, buried her face in her pillow, and burst into tears.
It was a long time before she pulled herself free of the emotional maelstrom afflicting her. She felt drained, dead inside. Staggering to the washbowl, she bathed her face. She was just feeling able to cope when a soft rap sounded at her door. Before she could say a word, Lorraine strode into the room. Leanne cursed her weakness of a moment ago, knowing her bout of tears was easy to detect upon her face. But she squared her shoulders and faced Lorraine with cold-eyed calm.
“Your impeccable manners are slipping, Mrs. Walsh. I don’t recall telling you to enter.”
“Have you finished with the letter?”
“Quite finished. It’s on the bed. Help yourself.”
Moving to pick up the letter, Lorraine said, “If you wish to depart now and avoid a distasteful scene with my son, I will be sure to give Tarrant any message you wish to leave.”
I doubt your prim little mouth could form the message I feel like leaving that bastard,
Leanne thought, but smiled instead. “How kind. However, I am not sure leaving would be the wisest course for me.” Although, when Lorraine turned to face her, the woman’s expression was as remote as ever, there was a flicker of surprise and uncertainty in her cold green eyes.
“This letter makes it rather clear that there is no reason for you to linger here.”
“Isn’t there? One quickly comes to mind. A breach of promise suit.” The look of pure horror Lorraine could not fully hide gave Leanne some fleeting satisfaction.
“You can’t do that.”
“Can’t I? I have plenty of witnesses to Hunter’s declaration of his intention to marry me.”
“You don’t expect his family to be witnesses against him, do you? Those two saddletramps are not acceptable witnesses either.”
“You may be right on both counts, although I should like to think the Walsh men would not stoop to perjuring themselves in court. However, I don’t really need to involve them. I have other witnesses—ones who would not be questioned. I have Federal Marshal Tuckman and a deputy federal marshal.”
“Surely you don’t want a husband you’ve had to force to the altar.”
“No? According to you, I’ve already tried to trick him into marriage. A little public embarrassment and legal coercion should not bother me now.”
“How much will it cost to make you reconsider?”
Leanne wondered, almost idly, if she had ever been quite so insulted. Lorraine Walsh clearly had a lower opinion of her than even she had imagined, but it did not really matter now. It was time to end the conversation. Grasping the somewhat shaken woman by the arm, she pushed her out of the room, said “I will have to give that some serious consideration,” and shut the door in Lorraine’s face.
Sagging against the door, she listened to her footsteps hurrying down the stairs. Leanne was sure Patricia and Lorraine would be deep in consultation for quite a while. Now was the time to decide exactly what was the best thing to do.
For one brief moment, she considered playing out her threat to bring a breach of promise suit against Hunter. It had some delicious possibilities for revenge. She shook away the thought. It would be too painful. The anger she held now would not really sustain her. Nor did she really want a husband who would undoubtedly hate her. She certainly did not want monetary compensation.
There was, of course, the option of staying put and fighting for Hunter. All that brought to mind was his written declaration of love for Patricia. He had never made one to her. There really was nothing to fight for. She had already lost and she had neither the heart nor, she thought as she covered her faintly rounded abdomen with her hands, the time.
That left her with only one choice—to leave. But where could she go? All connection with Charity was severed. Now was not the time to go looking for her father. That would have to wait until after the baby was born. It left her with only one place to go—O’Malley’s. If she left immediately, she could get there before the really severe winter weather set in.
“But I can’t go alone,” she admitted and hurriedly went in search of Charlie and Jed.
 
Laurie frowned and edged the connecting door to the parlor open a crack so that she could hear better. Her mother and Patricia Spotford were very friendly lately. She found that extremely suspicious.
“Are you sure she didn’t see that a piece had been torn off the top?” Patricia asked as she watched Lorraine pace the room.
“Very sure. She accepted it as completely genuine.”
“Then why are you acting this way? Everything has worked to your satisfaction, hasn’t it?”
Sinking into a chair, Lorraine helped herself to a large glass of wine from the crystal decanter on the table in front of her. “Has it? How does a breach of promise suit sound to you?”
Laurie frowned, wondering what that was.
“She wouldn’t,” gasped Patricia.
“I can’t be sure of that. I think I underestimated her. She would have two lawmen as witnesses too. Think of the scandal.” Lorraine nearly drained her glass of wine in one swallow “God, I should never live it down.”
“You’re not thinking. If she plans that, it means she plans to stay around, you fool. Eventually she’ll see Tarrant again and a suit is the last thing you’ll need to worry about then. She’ll find out there’s no breach of promise, and he’ll find out about your little game.”
“
My
little game? You were very eager to jump in. Damn little bitch, she got me so upset by doing something I had never expected of her that I got confused for a moment. Well, I offered her money.”
“Did she take it?”
“She said she would have to give it some serious consideration.”
“Well, that’s something.”
“What if she doesn’t take it?”
“I wouldn’t worry until it happens. If you have a reasonable sum to wave under her nose, it might help.”
“I would have to go to the bank.”
“If you leave with me now, you can get to the bank today. Stay at my place, then come back here tomorrow.”
“Is there a need to rush around so?”
“He said he’d be gone about a month. It has been nearly that now.”
“Get your carriage ready. I’ll get Laurie, throw a few things in a bag, and we will be right with you.”
Laurie did not even bother to shut the door. She dashed into the hall, up two steps of the hall stairs and acted as if she was just coming downstairs when her mother stepped into the hall. Her mother snapped out a few orders as she hurried up the stairs, and Laurie reluctantly followed her upstairs. She did not want to make the trip. Something told her that being away for a night just now was not a good idea. Unfortunately, she could see no way to get out of it without raising suspicions.
 
“She’s gone now,” Charlie hissed.
Leanne stepped from her hiding place in the corner of an empty stall and moved to the stable door to peek out. She frowned as a moment later she saw Lorraine hurry out of the house, a foot-dragging Laurie in tow. They both carried small bags. After they got into Patricia’s carriage, the woman urged her team into a smart trot and headed off toward town.
“Now where are they racing off to? That doesn’t make much sense,” Leanne muttered.
“You ain’t making much sense neither,” Charlie growled. Jed nodded. “You come racing in here saying you gotta talk to us then babble something about Colorado. Then that woman calls out and you scurry to hide. What’s going on?”
Sighing, Leanne leaned against the inside frame of the stable door. “I want to go to my friend’s cabin in the San Juan Mountains—well, in the foothills really, not far from a pass through the mountains. It’s only a day or so from where we all started out together.”
“But Hunter will be back soon.”
“I know, Jed. That’s why I have to leave as soon as possible. I have no intention of being here when he comes back.” She almost smiled at their identical looks of total confusion. “There isn’t going to be a marriage between Hunter and me.” She was a little surprised at how much it hurt simply to say the words. “He has just written to that pretty little widow who just left to tell her he loves her and is going to break his promise to me to marry her.” The words tasted bitter in her mouth.
“Naw, I don’t believe it. Don’t make sense to me. You real sure, Leanne?”
“Please, Charles, please don’t make me keep repeating it.”
“Well, maybe you oughta wait a bit. Me and Charlie could beat some sense into him.”
“No, that really won’t work. No one likes to be dragged into something they don’t want. Look, you don’t have to come. I just didn’t want to go so far alone.” She almost mentioned her pregnancy, then decided that would not really be fair.
“You ain’t going anywheres alone. Me and Jed’ll take you.”
She hugged them both, smiling at their blushes. “Oh, thank you. You don’t have to stay there. You can come back here.”
“Don’t reckon we’ll do that. It’s been good here, good men, but”—Charlie shook his head —“Hunter’s done disappointed me.”
Jed nodded. “That he has. There is one problem. Not a big one. We’ll have to steal us what we need. Horses and everything.”
“Wait—Mrs. Walsh offered to pay me off. I threatened to take Hunter to court on a breach of promise. I didn’t mean it, but she made me mad and I knew she’d be horrified over the threat of scandal. I’ll just write a note saying I took the supplies I needed instead and, in writing, release Hunter from his promise. That’ll clear us. Just don’t take any of their best horses.”
She shook her head. “My wits must have gone begging. I completely forgot that the marshal took everyone’s horse except Hunter’s and Sebastian’s.”
“Well, they was stolen horses anyways. Lucky we didn’t get hanged for takin’ ’em.”
Seeing the way Charlie frowned, then Jed, Leanne realized that they felt they owed Hunter a lot. “You don’t have to stay up there with me,” she assured them.
“We’ll see about that when we get there. No matter what, you ain’t trotting off to the mountains all on your lonesome.” He nudged her out the door. “Get your things. Best we get going right now. It’s several hours before dark, and we can get a good start. Me and Jed’ll get the supplies and the horses ready.”
Without another word, she raced for the house. She knew as well as Charlie did that there was an even better reason for getting out of there as soon as possible. By some stroke of luck, they were the only ones on the ranch now that Lorraine and Laurie had left. The sort of all-round handyman, Jake, would have been there, but he had driven the buggy to take Molly visiting a sick neighbor. It was too good an opportunity to miss.
After packing only what was necessary, she paused to write two notes, one for Lorraine and one for Laurie. She only briefly thought of leaving a word or two for Hunter. There really was nothing to say. The note to Lorraine was easily written. The one to Laurie was harder. She felt bad about leaving the girl when she had such a need of someone to talk to, someone to listen to her. After placing each note on the proper dressing table, she grabbed her carpetbag and hurried out to the stables.
“We’re going to ride as hard as we dare without ruining the horses,” Charlie said as he swung her up onto her mount. “Get as much ground covered as we can before dark.”
“I don’t really think anyone will be following us, Charles,” she murmured as he and Jed mounted.
“Don’t want to take any chances. To be frank, Leanne, I don’t trust that Mrs. Walsh as far as I can spit.”
Neither did Leanne, so she just gritted her teeth and kept up with her companions. There was very little respite until dusk settled over the land, and she was impressed with the distance they managed to cover. She was also exhausted. When Jed lifted her out of the saddle and set her on her feet, she crumbled. She bent over slightly, rubbing her back where a mild but nonetheless uncomfortable ache had lodged. Suddenly she feared for the child she carried.

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