“Cal,” he said.
“Congratulations, Captain.” She hated when he called her Cal. She wanted him to call her by her real name. She wished she could be a woman for him.
He flicked his cigarette away from him and stepped down on the ground. He grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her away from the banquet hall for a secluded spot under the oaks near the corral.
Under the spreading branches of the oak, Callie found herself sitting on a low branch watching him. He paced back and forth, the moonlight shining on his hair, reflecting from his eyes.
He paused and studied her. “I wanted to say good-bye.”
Her heart sank. “Where are you going?” She willed herself not to cry.
“I’m leaving for New Orleans in a few days.”
Callie’s throat went dry and her voice cracked. “Are you coming back?”
“Yes, I should only be gone for six weeks.”
Relieved, the tightness in her chest eased. He would return. “What about the Comanche?”
“That problem isn’t going away. They’ll be here when I return.”
“Will Lieutenant Cooper lead the unit?” She shuddered. Cooper didn’t like her.
“Are you telling me if I leave for six weeks, I’ll return and find everyone gone?”
“Lieutenant Cooper isn’t like you. He doesn’t like ....” Her voice trailed away.
“We can be honest with each other.” Luc stopped pacing and smiled at her.
“He’s not fair like you are. He doesn’t like the colored soldiers.”
Luc shrugged. “He’ll be fine. Lieutenant Cooper may be difficult, but he’s fair, too.” He touched her cheek running his fingers down the line of her chin. “Just stay out of his way.”
“How can I stay out of his way? If he’s in charge while you’re gone, he’s my commander.”
“Other than routine patrols along the river, I doubt that you’ll see any action that will put you in danger. Lieutenant Cooper isn’t a man who craves excitement like me.”
His fingers on her cheek were like fire trailing along her skin. She leaned into his touch. “I don’t think you should do this, sir.”
“Do what?”
“Touch me.” She nearly choked on the words.
“I think of touching you all the time. At night when I’m alone, I dream about it. The way you smell, the way you look at me. You’re making me insane.”
She knew she should run, but her feet couldn’t seem to move. “Lieutenant.”
“Captain,” he corrected her.
“You can’t talk like this. I’m a lowly scout and you’re an important officer.”
He laughed. “You’re wrong. I’m as much of a pawn of the Army as you are.”
She stood facing him. He was so close the heat of his body scorched her skin. “You can’t be dreamin’ about me. I won’t let you.” She started to walk away, but he stopped her and she faced him again knowing if she didn’t leave now, she would never leave him.
“Won’t let me!”
“Captain, you are ....”
He stopped her next words with a kiss that cut off her breath and sent her blood flaming through her veins like hot liquid fire. She almost stopped breathing. His lips were soft and demanding. She didn’t want to respond, but found herself kissing him back with the same intensity.
She should stop this, but couldn’t. The kiss went on and on until her knees grew weak and her skin tingled. Her breasts swelled and her clothes felt tight. She wanted to rip off her shirt so he could touch her more intimately.
“I’ll miss you,” he whispered against her hair, his breath fanning across her ear and cheek.
She braced her hands against his chest and pushed with all her strength. Her breath came in struggling gasps. “No.” She didn’t know what else to do except run away.
* * *
Luc watched her run toward the stable. He fought not to run after her. He sat down on the branch Callie had sat on earlier. The bark was still warm from her body.
He didn’t understand why he was so attracted to a shy young woman who had no sophistication and whose whole world was wrapped around her need to provide for her family. The women in his past had been sophisticated, charming and as sexually adventurous as him.
The women he’d frequented knew he wasn’t interested in marriage, and family, but only in sexual fulfillment. They understood the rules of the game. Callie was an innocent and he wanted her more than any woman he’d ever wanted in the past. They were as different as night and day. So what about her intrigued him so? What was it about her that made her worm her way into his brain?
She could live in a soldier’s world as an equal. She understood the demands of the life and could fight at his side without thinking about her role as a woman. She didn’t faint at the sight of blood, and was just as likely to pick up a gun and use it as he was.
He liked the solitude and figured that Callie did, too. She was a woman who could take of herself. So why was he attracted to her? She wasn’t the most beautiful woman he’d ever known, yet she was beautiful with her soft curly black hair and chestnut brown eyes. Callie was a true innocent. She had no idea of the allure she could have if she weren’t pretending to be a soldier.
Major Adams’ oldest daughter Gloria was a pretty enough woman with her red hair and comely figure. She understood his life as a soldier. She would have made him a fine wife and Major Adams would have been thrilled, but frankly she bored Luc to tears. Even though she was well-suited for his lifestyle, deep in his heart, he knew he couldn’t marry a white woman born in the United States. In Europe his black blood didn’t matter. In Europe, he would have been considered exotic and desirable. French and Italian women loved the exotic. But those women wouldn’t have understood his life as a soldier.
So why Callie? She was as far removed from the women he knew as France was from China. Yet he couldn’t still his burning attraction for her. He fought it, he bargained with himself, yet his thoughts were consumed with her. Maybe this six weeks away from her would be a good thing. Maybe then he could control the fire in his belly and return to his normal life.
Reggie approached. “Well, Captain Delacroix, I didn’t get a chance to congratulate you.”
Luc could tell that Reggie’s words came stiffly. “Thanks, Reggie.” Reggie was jealous and Luc didn’t blame him. Reggie had been in the army as long and performed with the same dedication, but Luc had managed to move ahead while Reggie was still mired in being a second lieutenant. Reggie didn’t deal well with people because he looked down his nose at everybody. Luc doubted he’d go much beyond full lieutenant. He might even make Captain, but he’d be a long time making the grade.
“I hear you’re off to New Orleans for a few weeks.” Reggie leaned against the trunk of the tree and looked toward the distant Rio Grande, moonlight glistening off the water.
“Some personal business.”
“You’re taking your sister with you?”
“Esme has decided she needs to paint Texas and has decided to stay. She wants to try her hand at being a school marm.”
Reggie’s eyebrows rose. “I beg your pardon.”
“She’s going to open a school for some of our recruits. She thinks everyone needs to read.”
“Darkies don’t need to read. If they can even learn.”
“Reggie, remember when you’re on patrol that those darkies stand between you and a Comanche bullet. Perhaps, you shouldn’t be so vocal about your bigotry.”
Reggie glanced at him. “Why do you care so much about them? You weren’t even raised in the South, but in Europe.”
Luc frowned. Why did he care? He’d never lived his life as a black man. Only a handful of people knew that his mother had black blood. Even in her, the black blood was so muted, that if she hadn’t been required by law to wear a turban, no man would have known her background much less cared.
“Europe is different, Reggie. I man is judged by who he is, not what he is. Character, not col
or, is more important.”
Reggie started to laugh. “Are you telling me you’ve met black men in Europe who acted as equal to you or I.”
“Some of the most prominent scholars in Europe have black blood. And you would be amazed at what they’ve accomplished when they don’t have to deal with bigotry.”
Reggie waved his hand and snorted. “Captain, I’ll believe that when I see it. Now if you’ll excuse me, some of us have to work for a living and I have an early morning patrol. Major Adams says he’s received another complain about missing cattle from one of the ranchers. I have to make us look like we care.” He headed toward his quarters.
That in and of itself was Reggie’s main problem. He simply didn’t care. Maybe Luc’s problem was that he cared too much. Caring too much lead him to living a lie. A lie that he’d perpetrated for so long, he’d forgotten. When was the last time he’d thought about being a black man. According to the law in the United States, but one drop of black blood made you black. He didn’t feel black, didn’t look black and didn’t have to live black, and yet one law condemned him to second class citizenship forever.
He glanced at the stable. What would Callie say if she knew the truth about him? Would she embrace him, or castigate him for hiding who he was? Would she understand?
Chapter Eleven
Esme watched as Luc and Callie ride off together side by side. Callie took the lead and little puffs of dust rose from her horse’s hooves and drifted off with the wind. Luc turned and raised his hand and Esme waved back. She was sorry to see him go, but he had to make his peace with their father. Esme had twisted General Hammond around her little finger until he had agreed to allow Luc a furlough. When Esme wanted to, she could bend any man to her will.
Insuring that Callie was ordered to accompany Luc had taken a mountain of manipulation on her part, and she was tickled at her success. Once they were together then nature would take its course. Then they would realize they loved each other. Incurable romantic that she claimed herself to be Esme thought her time at Fort Duncan would be deary and boring. Oh how she hated being wrong.
She stood on the porch twirling her yellow parasol, the wind rustling the matching silk of her gown. Ivory gloves encased her hand and she wore a broad-brimmed hat with a veil to shield her face from the burning sun. Despite a generous lathering of glycerine and lilac lotion, her skin felt tight. She wanted a bath with the water treated with the special oils she’d had created for her in Paris. Maybe then her skin would feel less dry. Frenchwomen were prized for their beautiful, luminous skin, and Esme had made a study of the women she knew and distilled from them their beauty secrets and then had her own lotions made to her exact specifications. She prided herself on her flawless skin. She might be thirty-two, but she knew she looked barely twenty-one.
As the riders left the Fort, Esme shaded her eyes with her hand.
General Hammond joined her on the porch “My dear, you have the most sly smirk on your face.”
She gave him a coquettish look over her shoulder. “Monty, my sweet general, whatever do you mean?”
“I think you are plotting something. Does your brother have a sweetheart in New Orleans that you want him to marry? Was this trip was just an excuse to get him there. Not that I mind, he’s one of my best officers and he needs a good wife if he is to rise further in the ranks.” “Perhaps he will find love in New Orleans, but our father is more important.” She slid her arm around his. “But let us talk of more pleasant things.” On the overland trip from Corpus Christi, she had almost told the general the truth about her and Luc, but didn’t. Luc had built a life he wanted in the army and Esme would do nothing to harm him, and everything to aid him. If the General thought he needed a wive, that maybe it was time she put her mind to that, as well.
The General’s weathered face looked hurt. “I would have been willing to speak to your father.”
She patted him on the arm. She liked this man and would have taken him as a lover in a minute if not for the fact he was Luc’s superior. “How sweet of you? You are so gallant, but this is something Lucien must do alone.”
The General took a cigar from his pocket and glanced inquiringly at Esme. She gave her permission for him to smoke. “I’m surprised, you didn’t try to do something yourself. You’re very determined.”
She grinned at him. “I’m just a poor woman, weak and defenseless, subject to the winds of fate.” How she hated woman like that. Early in her life she had determined to be strong and powerful for herself and to let no man use her. She would use them and she had learned how blind men could be when they thought they were getting what they wanted from her when the reverse was true.
He laughed. “Pardon me for being so forward, but there is nothing defenseless about you.”
The General was such a good-looking man. But he saw through her a little too easily. She had to try harder to keep him dazzled and unaware of her true motives. She put a finger to her lips. “Sh! You must guard that secret with your life.”
He laughed as he lit the cigar and puffed on it for a few seconds. “Marry me.”
For a second, she was startled at his boldness, although not surprised by his question. “You are much too young for me.”
Fragrant smoke enveloped him. He puffed for several more seconds and then stared at the end of the cigar. “I need a wife who is astute and savvy. With you at my side, I could go as far as I want, maybe even be President.”
His ambition was showing. He wanted to retire because he’d seen a future for himself in politics. Esme burst out laughing. “I would not be the type of First Lady who would be embraced by American society.”
“Who could not adore you.”
“I am very scandalous.”
He studied her with a serious expression on his face but a glint in his eyes. “I know. That’s why I want you.”
She tapped him gently on the arm. “Monty, trust me. I would eat you alive. If you are searching for a wife, I will find one for you.” How she loved match-making. She thought for a moment. “You seem to be very enamored of French women. I have a friend, Maud Lafayette-Deavers who resides in Baltimore. She is a widow, and also rich, titled and very passionate about soldiers. She has a great sense of adventure and is more than your match. When you return to Washington you will contact her. She is young and beautiful and from what I understand, quite skilled in many things.”
“Skilled at what?”
She smiled. “The womanly arts, my dear. Trust me, you will adore her and forget me in a second.” She snapped her fingers. “I will write you a letter of introduction today. When you return to Washington, you will post to Baltimore immediately and make an appointment to meet her. And when you have swept her off her feet and she is ready to surrender, you will send me a note of thanks and then invite me to the wedding.”
He kissed her hand. “You are a scheming, manipulative, shrewd, and much too intelligent woman.” His tone was admiring. “I would be forever in your debt.” He winked at her. “But a man must think of his legacy.”
“She will give you the most beautiful intelligent children. Trust me.”
His frowned slightly. “So what do I owe you for this favor?”
Ah! A man who understood the technique of give and take. She thought about what she wanted, of how Callie thirsted for an education. “I would like a room in order to hold classes for your soldiers.”
He frowned. “Classes. What type of classes?”
“Reading, writing, arithmetic. Your soldiers would be much better soldiers if they had some skills. And what better way to sniff out information about your ... little problem with confidential information. Trust me, your soldiers are not stupid. They know something is going on, they just don’t know they know it. And as you already know, men want to tell me everything.” She knew he hadn’t intended to tell her about the spy at the Fort, but the information had leaked out. “I will find out who is your spy and relay the information to Luc to send on to you. Don’t you think that a
n adequate compensation for finding you the perfect wife?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “I don’t want to put you at risk.”
“It would be an honor to serve you.” She ran her hand gently up his arm and tilted her head at him with unspoken promise. “I won’t take any chances. And I shall be a model of discretion.”
“But a school!”
She pouted at him, twirling her parasol. “Monty.” She touched his cheek with the tip of her gloved finger. “I’m asking such a little thing in exchange for your legacy, for the woman who will keep your bed warm on cold Washington nights and give you little children who will carry your name and your legacy into the future.”
He looked grave as though he still wasn’t convinced. “I’ll talk to Major Adams.”
“Make it happen for me, darling.” She turned and cast a look back over her shoulder. “If you’ll excuse me, darling, I’m going to ... bathe.” Let him think about her naked, water sluicing down her bare skin, touching places he would only dream about.
She walked toward Luc’s quarters. Using her parasol to shade her eyes, she glanced back and saw the General rushing toward Major Adam’s office.
Men, she thought. She might not be able to lead a horse to water and make it drink, but men were an easy task. One had to wonder who was the stupid beast.
She walked toward Luc’s quarters, her mind working at a furious pace. She owed a favor to Monty, though he didn’t know it. He’d made it possible for Luc to go to New Orleans even though Monty could ill spare him considering the problem of the traitor. So Esme would start the groundwork and she would do her best to find the spy and hand him over to Luc.
She shivered with delight. She loved intrigue. She would make a good spy herself. Not that she would admit such a thing to Monty.
The spy could be anyone. As she passed the Post Store, several soldiers lounged on the steps, one eating from a can of beans. One of the men smiled politely at her. She studied them. Was the spy of these men? If not, then who?
After The Lies Page 15
