Lucky Penny

by Catherine Anderson

  “Oh.” Brianna lowered her lashes and caught her lower lip between her teeth. As ill-timed as it was, David ached to taste those shimmery lips and do a little nibbling as well. His Shamrock was so damned beautiful and fine. On her best day, Hazel Wright could never measure up. “I’m sorry, David.”

  Why Brianna was apologizing, he didn’t know. “Don’t worry about it. Let’s just enjoy our meal.”

  Everyone chose the special of the day, but with Hazel glaring at him from across the room, David didn’t feel much like eating, and he noticed that Brianna picked at her food as well. Only Daphne and Sam, who was always served his own meal on the floor, seemed to enjoy the fare. David was relieved to pay the bill and leave.

  Once on the boardwalk, he could breathe easy again. Hazel Wright had a nasty streak he’d never glimpsed when courting her. He had a bad feeling she meant to cause trouble, and for the life of him, he couldn’t think how to handle the situation. David had unknowingly done the woman a serious wrong. He’d had good intentions, but there was no way in hell he could explain the situation without stirring up gossip that would embarrass his wife and hurt his daughter. As soon as he and Brianna moved into town, they needed to agree on the story they meant to circulate about their marriage, separation, and recent reunion. Then David would talk with Hazel and hopefully assuage her anger. That wasn’t a discussion he wanted to have with Brianna tonight, though. It should be an evening of celebration, and David didn’t want to spoil it for her.

  Once in the wagon and headed for home, David had little to say. He knew Brianna was upset, and he couldn’t rightly blame her. Daphne crawled in the back with Sam on some blankets David kept there to give the dog a cushioned ride.

  “That woman,” Brianna ventured in a low voice. “Is she part of that life you had planned?”

  David sighed. “Yes. Her name is Hazel Wright. She’s the new schoolteacher.”

  “Do you—?” She made tight fists in the folds of her silk skirt. “Do you love her?”

  Not wanting to answer too quickly because he needed Brianna to understand that he’d thought deeply about his answer, he finally said, “No. It wasn’t like that between us, at least not for me.”

  “Of course you would say that.” Tears sparkled in her eyes. “Oh, David, I feel terrible. Daphne and I—we’ve ruined everything for you, haven’t we?”

  “No, damn it, you haven’t.” David shifted his grip on the reins and clucked his tongue to the team. “I’m thirty, Shamrock. On the second of June, I’ll be thirty-one. I kept waiting for the right lady to happen into my life. I wanted—hell, I don’t know—magic, I guess you could say, the kind of all-or-nothing love that Ace and Joseph have with their wives. But it just never happened. I’ve always wanted children. I started thinking about how time was wasting, and when Hazel came to town, I decided maybe that was as good as it was going to get.”

  “So you decided to marry her?”

  David knew their whole future, if they even had one to look forward to, depended upon his answer. “Not exactly. I toyed with the idea, I’ll admit, but when it came right down to it, something always held me back. I knew if I asked her to marry me, I’d be settling for second best. A part of me wanted to do just that, but another part of me wanted to wait.”

  “For what?”

  “For—” David didn’t want to scare the sand out of her, but at the same time, he wanted to be absolutely honest. “I didn’t know what I was waiting for until I met you.”

  “Me?”

  He slapped the reins against the horses’ rumps. “Yep. One look into those green eyes of yours, and I was a goner.”

  “That is preposterous. Don’t wax poetic with me, David Paxton. I’ve agreed to this absurd arrangement. There’s no need to pretend with me in private.”

  David wasn’t pretending, but she obviously wasn’t ready to hear how he really felt. He’d bide his time, play the game, and then, when it felt right, he’d make her listen to him. Hazel Wright was a mistake he’d nearly made, and nothing more. Well, she was also a huge problem, but over time, maybe she’d settle down and accept the offer of some other man. God knew there were plenty standing in line to win her favor.

  Chapter Nineteen

  T

  hat night, David tucked Daphne into bed again and told the story about the time Eden and Joseph had gotten into a quarrel while cleaning the kitchen and broken nearly every dish in the cupboard. Brianna sat on the opposite side of the mattress, attending the tale, which pleased David because he’d noted her reaction to the heated exchange that had occurred during supper at Ace’s house. Both his daughter and wife needed to understand that as vocal and volatile as the Paxton-Keegan clan could be, physical violence never took place.

  “Was Uncle Ace angry when he had to buy all new dishes?” Daphne asked, her eyes round with worry.

  “Well, he wasn’t exactly happy, but he was making good money by then at the tables, so he could afford new dishes and wasn’t what I’d call angry.”

  Brianna cleared her throat to get David’s attention. When he met her gaze, she said, “Remember that morning by the fire when you told me what to do if you told a spooky story ever again?”

  David recalled exactly what he’d said, that she should tell him to shut his damned mouth, but the tale he was telling wasn’t spooky. He went back over the details and realized Brianna didn’t want her daughter to know about her uncle Ace’s gambling.

  “How did Uncle Ace make money at the tables?” Daphne asked. “Was he a waiter at a restaurant?”

  David wasn’t about to lie to the child, and he disagreed with Brianna’s judgments. Ace’s gambling profits had saved his family from poverty, and David was extremely proud of all the sacrifices his brother had made. To him, it wasn’t a shameful thing that he wanted to hide from anyone, least of all Daphne.

  “For a long time, Uncle Ace swept barroom floors and emptied spittoons to keep a roof over our heads. Grandma Dory helped by doing laundry and cleaning other people’s houses.”

  “Just like Mama,” Daphne said, snuggling deeper under the quilt.

  “Yes, just like your mama.” David met Brianna’s gaze. “Your grandma Dory was brave and industrious. She did whatever she could to keep her kids fed. That’s a very admirable trait in a lady. And Uncle Ace—well, he was only eleven when he had to start supporting us, so he had a lot of responsibility placed on his shoulders at a young age.”

  “I’m almost that old!” Daphne exclaimed.

  “Yes, you are. In five more years, you’ll be as old as Ace was when he became the man of the house.” David chose his next words carefully. “Problem was, sweeping floors and emptying spittoons didn’t bring in much income, and your uncle Ace was too smart to keep doing that for long. While he worked in the saloons, he watched the men play poker, and slowly but surely, he learned to be a professional gambler.”

  “What’s a professional gambler?”

  David met Brianna’s gaze again. “It’s someone who can shuffle cards so fast you can barely see his hands move, and he knows how to count the cards as well. Uncle Ace learned when he was still only a boy, and he started winning a lot of money playing poker. Before we knew it, we were living high on the hog. He bought us a beautiful house in San Francisco, and us younger kids went to parochial schools, where nuns taught us.”

  “What happened then?” Daphne asked.

  David tugged the quilt up under her chin. “Well, when Aunt Eden and Uncle Joseph broke all the dishes, Uncle Ace had plenty of money to buy new, for starters. We were all very glad about his success at the tables. Before that, we had only beans to eat, sometimes with a ham hock in the pot to add flavor if we were lucky. When Uncle Ace started winning at cards, we had wonderful meals, nice clothes, went to fine schools, and had beautiful horses in our stable, just like my pa back in Virginia before the war.”

  Daphne searched David’s face. “So how come do you look sad, Papa?”

  David thought about that for a moment. “I
guess because your uncle Ace gave up some of his life for us. All his younger years were spent taking care of his family, leaving him no time to think about himself, and the gambling life was a hard one that eventually led him to a way of living that he never would have chosen for himself.”

  “He’s happy now, though. Right?”

  “By the grace of God, yes, he is.” After saying that, David remembered that he had something in his shirt pocket for his daughter. He plucked it out and held it up. “Surprise!”

  Daphne gasped and jerked upright, her blue eyes almost as bright as the copper penny that now dangled from a fine gold chain. “Oh, Papa! You went to the jeweler’s!”

  David chuckled. “I did. He drilled a hole in our lucky penny, and he made sure the chain is long enough for me to wear. It’ll probably hang down to your belly button.”

  Daphne grabbed the chain and pulled it over her head. As David predicted, the coin hung low, but she squealed with delight. “I can wear it under my frocks. It will be our special secret.”

  David bent to kiss her forehead. Then he settled her back under the quilt. “It’s time for a little miss I know to close her eyes now and go to sleep.”

  Daphne groaned, but she was smiling as she folded her small hand over the penny. “Thank you, Papa. What a lovely good-night gift.”

  “You’re very welcome.” Sam jumped up on the bed just then and sprawled beside the child. David chuckled. “It appears to me you’ve stolen my dog.”

  Curling her arm over Sam’s neck, Daphne pressed her face against his ruff. “He’s still yours, Papa. He just loves me a lot, too.”

  After studying the dog for a moment, David shifted his gaze to Brianna. “I suppose that’s true. I’m learning that our hearts have a huge capacity for love.”

  After getting Daphne settled in for the night, David left Brianna to get ready for bed while he rode Blue back into town. It was late. The shops were all closed, and the houses surrounding Main Street were mostly dark. From the windows of Roxie’s came only a dim glow, telling David that the place was now closed to customers while Roxie cleaned up and prepared for the morning rush. Only a few men were on the boardwalks, walking back and forth between the Golden Slipper and the Silver Spur in search of another drink, a luckier card game, or female company. The scent of cigar smoke drifted on the night air.

  David had made arrangements for his deputies to handle the marshaling duties the last couple of days, so he knew Rory Eugene Cobb, his junior man, was either monitoring the saloons or doing paperwork in the office. The kid, half Mexican and as pretty of feature as any girl, had a tough edge and a good head on his shoulders for someone only twenty-one. Now that trouble occurred less frequently in No Name, David trusted him nearly as much as Billy Joe, who’d been with him much longer.

  When David stepped inside the office, Rory leaped up from the desk, his pitch-black, curly hair glistening in the newly installed electric lighting. “Marshal Paxton, what brings you here? I thought you were spending tonight out at the ranch.”

  David stepped over to the desk to shuffle through office mail he hadn’t had a chance to open. Nothing important. To Rory, he said, “I just stopped in to borrow one of the extra cots.”

  “A cot?” Rory arched a thick brow. “What the hell do you need with a cot?”

  David straightened away from the desk. “None of your damned business, son, and so far as you know, I never took one.”

  Minutes later, David was lugging the folded cot up the dress-shop stairs and struggling to get it through the doorway of the apartment. A good deal of cussing rent the silence because the spring mattress kept slipping off the frame. He regretted the lack of electricity on the second floor as he felt his way through the kitchen to the blue bedroom. Once inside, he slid the cot under the bed. He figured Clarissa Denny had extra bedding and pillows stored somewhere, but he’d hunt them up tomorrow night when he needed them. His and Brianna’s pretend marriage was about to be put under a public microscope.

  Daphne would have to learn to knock before she entered her parents’ bedroom. That would give David time to collapse the cot and shove it under the double bed so his daughter never realized her parents slept apart. If she barged in unannounced, David would think up a quick white lie. Maybe he could say he snored and kept Brianna awake, so they had decided on separate beds. At six, Daphne would believe whatever he told her, just as she had when he’d collected rocks to cover those three graves out on the prairie. Not graves, in her mind, but special monuments.

  The memory made David smile. He stepped to the window. The blind was up. With the back of his hand, he pushed away the frilly lace curtain to stare at the sky, a blaze of brilliant starlight against black velvet. When his gaze settled on one pinpoint of brilliance, he was tempted to revert back to childhood and make a wish. But as a man who’d seen the shadows in Brianna’s eyes, he knew it would take more than wishing to make things right between them.

  The following day, David helped Brianna move into the dress-shop apartment. Brianna discovered the hidden cot right away, and later, when David entered the bedroom, he saw that she’d set out blankets, linen, and a pillow on the foot of the bed. It would be a pain in the ass to make up the cot every night, but there was no way around it.

  During the child’s nap, David sat with Brianna at the kitchen table to relate to her the story he and Ace had decided would be appropriate to tell everyone about his and Brianna’s marital history. “When I called Ace from Denver, he needed something to tell our family, so we talked it over and came up with a fairly good tale.”

  “Which is?”

  “We’ll just say we had a serious misunderstanding shortly after our wedding and separated. Then, a few months ago, we started communicating by mail, realized that our parting was a mistake, and decided to meet to see if we could sort out our differences. Our love for each other prevailed, and now we’re happily reunited as husband and wife.”

  Brianna nodded. “That sounds believable.”

  “Any changes you’d like to make before I go public with it?” he asked.

  “Am I to understand that even your family was told this lie? Is that why the women asked me no questions, because they believe we were somehow married before Daphne was born?”

  David rubbed a hand over his eyes. “I know that part isn’t going to sit well with you, but I honestly think the fewer people who know the truth, the better.”

  “I don’t feel right about lying to your mother and brothers, not to mention their wives,” Brianna protested. “But apparently you took my vote out of the equation when you talked to Ace that night on the phone.”

  David reached across the table to take her hand. “If you’re dead set on telling my family the truth, I’ll abide by your wishes, but I think it’d be a mistake. I trust Ace to keep it under his hat. But when you tell a secret to too many people, someone is bound to let it slip sooner or later. No one in my family would ever do it intentionally, and I feel bad about lying to them, too. But our first concern has to be for Daphne. Neither of us wants our daughter to be hurt by the mistakes we made one long-ago night in Denver.”

  Denver, Denver, Denver. Until recently, Brianna had never even visited the town, but David remained convinced that he’d once met her there. He believed in that so strongly, in fact, that sometimes it was difficult for Brianna to keep the facts straight in her own mind. She had even caught herself thinking of David as Daphne’s actual father. For a woman in her position, that was dangerous.

  Last night as she lay awake, waiting for David to return from town, she’d found herself wishing that his version of her past was the truth. It would be so lovely to feel secure in this marriage, to know that the rug couldn’t be yanked out from under her at any moment.

  “I’ve never been a very good liar,” she told him.

  That brought a grin to David’s face. “You’re lousy at it, actually, but for Daphne’s sake, we’ll both carry it off.”

  “People are already whispering,
I think.” Brianna glanced down at the street, where shoppers scurried from one store to the next. “When I open the shop tomorrow, I fully expect a dozen women to drop in just to get a good look at me.”

  “Don’t worry about that. People are going to talk. There’s no avoiding it. But with me being the marshal and my family being so well respected in the community, the buzzing will die down pretty fast.”

  “And what about Hazel Wright?”

  David frowned at her. “What about her?”

  “Don’t you think she’ll be very upset, and justifiably so, if she believes you courted her when you knew you were a married man?”

  “Shit.” He raked a hand through his hair. “You’re right.” His eyes went as dark as storm clouds. “Ace and I didn’t think about that. What’ll I tell her?”

  Brianna considered the question. “Tell her that we had long been discussing divorce in our letters, and you thought you’d soon be free to marry.”

  The creases in his brow vanished. “That’ll work. The last time we talked, I was getting itchy feet, so I said something about having to make plans before I proposed officially.”

  Imagining David about to propose to that woman put a bad taste in Brianna’s mouth. “So we’re agreed? We were going to divorce and changed our minds.”

  He nodded.

  Brianna took a bracing breath. “So now it starts. As of today, we begin living a lie.”

  “Yes,” David replied. The emotion in his blue eyes tugged at her and made her want to believe in magic again. “Who knows? Maybe if we do it well enough and long enough, it’ll no longer be a lie. I’m coming to care for you. Maybe in time you’ll come to care for me.”

  Oh, how Brianna wished it were possible for this to become a real marriage. This man had wormed his way past most of her defenses, and she was starting to fall in love with him. Rationally, she knew that was a mistake. The only reason David wanted so badly to make this marriage work was because he cared deeply for Daphne and wanted her to have a normal, happy childhood. He would do anything to protect his child—anything, even it meant sacrificing his own life. He’d proven that.