The Temptress

by Jude Deveraux

  “Not like you do?”

  He looked back at her. “Are you mad at me about something? You seem awfully short tempered.”

  Red sat down. “Ty, honey, I’m gettin’ old and you’re the closest thing to a son I’ll ever have. I’d like to see you married and settled down with half a dozen kids. I’d like to think there’s an empty room in your house that’s for me if I ever wanta retire.”

  Ty took her in his arms and kissed her forehead. “Wherever I am there’ll always be room for you, but I can’t see me with a wife and kids.”

  She pushed away from him. “That’s because you’ve never been in love.”

  “Why, an hour ago I was so in love with Leora that—”

  “Hush! You know what I mean. Have you ever even asked a girl to a church social? Taken a girl out for a buggy ride and a picnic?”

  “Sounds mighty boring to me.”

  “Well, it ain’t,” she said, glaring at him.

  He looked out the window again. “You know, one day Chris and Prescott were singing and it looked like it might be an all right way to pass the time.”

  “You have a beautiful singing voice. Why didn’t you join in?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. I just don’t fit in with people like them. Hey! You got any pork in this place? I’d love four or five pork chops tonight.”

  “We got pork. Ty, are you gonna try to match Chris with that man?”

  He took a while to answer, turning back and looking at his drink. “It’s my job.”

  “But you’re reluctant?”

  “She deserves a lot better than him. She’s got spunk. She liked the rain forest and wasn’t scared to death of the place. She walked around while he huddled beside the fire. And she pulled her weight in work too. He treated me like a servant hired to wait on him but Chris always helped me unpack the mules.” He smiled. “Except for that first night.”

  He put the whiskey down. “Oh, hell, she’s not for me.”

  Red put her hands on his arms. “Why isn’t she? Isn’t she Mathison’s only kid? I bet if he thought she wanted you, he wouldn’t put you back in jail.”

  “It’s my neck if you’re wrong, isn’t it? Besides, she doesn’t want me. It was just that she thought I was the leader and the forest can make you feel as if there’s nobody else on earth. It was the time and the place. And the fact that there was no competition.”

  “So now that you’re out of the forest, she won’t be interested in you, is that it?”

  “I’m sure of it.”

  Red turned away for a moment. “You know something? I have more faith in this young lady. From reading her articles I think she’s not at all flighty. If she said she loved you, I think she does.”

  “For how long?” Ty asked in disgust. “Deliver me from the faithful love of a good woman.”

  “How about putting her to a test?”

  “Such as?”

  “Rory Sayers.”

  Tynan didn’t speak for a moment. “Is he here?”

  “At the hotel. Want to introduce your Chris to him?”

  “She’s not mine.”

  Red smiled at him. “You know what your problem is, Tynan? You’ve never had to work to get any female. Did you know that there are other things to do with a woman besides take her to bed? You’ve probably never spent five minutes talking to a woman who wasn’t a whore. I’ll bet that you don’t even know what to do with a girl outside the bedroom.”

  “I talked to Chris one afternoon in the forest.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “Red, what are you trying to do?”

  “I want you to do something that’s not so easy for you. I think you’re half in love with this Chris. Why don’t you take her out a few times, talk to her, get to know what she’s like? It’ll be practice for when you’re lookin’ for a wife.”

  “And what if she keeps saying she loves me? I’m not going back to jail for her or anybody else. And I’ll not be cheated out of the ten grand.”

  “There, you see, you can organize a few socials yourself. Take Chris and Prescott for a ride in the country. Help him court her. You’ll learn from him and he’ll learn from you.”

  “And what about Sayers? What has he got to do with all this?”

  “Don’t you think Rory would be a perfect match for your Chris? He’s rich, established, owns all that lovely timberland and Rory certainly doesn’t lack force. Maybe you could get Chris to marry him. I’m sure Mathison would approve and you’d get your ten thousand dollars.”

  Ty didn’t say anything but picked up his empty whiskey glass and refilled it. “I can’t see Chris and Sayers together.”

  “Oh, I can. Rory has so much personality and the women all adore him. You could take Chris and Rory and the handsome young man Mathison chose out in the country for the afternoon and just sit back and think about your ten thousand dollars. It’ll be the easiest money anyone ever made.”

  “Chris may not like Sayers. She’s got taste. She’s a real lady. All her underclothes have her initials on them, not big and gaudy like Susie used to wear, but tiny initials done in white on white cloth. And Chris asks a lot of questions. She finds out about people. If Sayers tries a line on her, she’ll see through him.”

  “But you’ll be there to smooth things over and help Rory over the rough spots, won’t you?”

  “Chris isn’t all that easy to fool. You know that she figured out I was in pain? Even guessed that my feet were blistered from the damn new boots. And she put it all together and figured out about my being in jail.”

  “Not like other women you’ve known, is she?” Red said softly.

  Abruptly, Ty put his half full whiskey glass down. “Look, I got things to do. I’ll see you tonight for supper.”

  “Yes, honey, you do that. Let’s eat at the hotel and invite your friends. Maybe I can help you get the money. I’ll make your Chris see what a charming gentleman has been chosen for her. And maybe we can invite Rory. He always livens up any gathering.”

  “Yeah, well, maybe. Chris won’t like him, though. He’s all hot air.” He put his hand on the door. “And she’s not my Chris.”

  “She is until you sell her to someone else.”

  “Why do I feel like I’ve been run over by a twenty-car train? I’ll see you tonight.”

  “At six at the hotel,” she called after him.

  • • •

  As Chris was dressing that evening, she noticed her underwear, looking at the initials on all of it and wondering when in the world Ty had had a chance to see it. He’s seen what’s under it, so what’s the difference in seeing the underwear, she wondered.

  As she examined the lovely blue velvet gown Red had loaned her, with its tight waist, the skirt fitting snugly around her slim hips, and a little bustle in back, she thought about what she’d heard from Tynan that afternoon. He seemed such an odd contradiction of confidence and insecurity, she mused as she left the room.

  At the foot of the hotel stairs waited Asher and another man who stepped forward instantly and introduced himself as Rory Sayers—and Chris felt that she knew all about him at once. He was the type of man her father had paraded before her for the first eighteen years of her life. He was handsome in a sharp sort of way: sharp nose, sharp chin, eyes a snapping blue. And he had more confidence than any six other men, confidence that Chris knew came from having had money all his life.

  There was coolness behind her smile as she took his arm and allowed him to lead her into the dining room.

  Dinner was a disaster. Rory dominated the meal, talking about everything that had been happening in the country in the last two years—the years that Ty had been in prison. And Tynan looked like a sulky little boy who was being punished by having to eat with the grownups.

  For just a moment, Chris closed her eyes and prayed for strength.

  “Of course you wouldn’t know about that, would you old man?” Rory said to Tynan who had his head bent over a plate heaped with pork chops. “You were a bit too busy over the
last two years to read the papers, weren’t you?”

  Before Tynan could reply, Chris said, “I beg to differ with you, Mr. Sayers. Mr. Tynan has read all my articles. Perhaps he was selective in his reading.”

  “Not Mr. Tynan,” Rory said with a smile. “I don’t believe he has another name.”

  Chris could take no more. She couldn’t stand the man’s smugness or his catty remarks. She stood. “I’m afraid you’ll have to excuse me as I have a splitting headache. Mr. Tynan, would you please escort me out into the fresh air? I think a walk will help clear my head.”

  Rory Sayers rose, presumptuously taking Chris’s arm. “I’ll take you, Miss Mathison.”

  With all the haughtiness she could muster, she jerked her arm from his grasp. “Sir, I only met you tonight. I do not entrust my safety to men I do not know. Mr. Tynan, would you mind?”

  Rory was aghast. “I’m afraid,” he said with emphasized tolerance for her ignorance, “that you don’t know this man. He’s—”

  Chris hadn’t traveled all over the United States on her own and not learned how to handle all types of men. “I have just spent a great deal of time alone with this man and I know all I need to know about him. I am especially aware of the fact that he has the manners of a gentleman.”

  She turned away to see Tynan standing beside her, an enormous grin on his face, his arm extended. “The lady has taste,” he said to Rory. “Sit back down and finish your meal. I’ll take good care of her.”

  With that, he led Chris out of the hotel and into the moonlit street. But as soon as they were outside, he released her arm.

  “Why did you do that?”

  “Because I can’t stand that type of man,” she said with feeling.

  “Type? But I thought all women liked that kind of man. Most all of them I’ve ever known do.”

  “But then you’ve never met a woman who could run away from home at the age of eighteen and become a newspaper reporter either, have you?”

  “No,” he said with a grin. “I haven’t. Do you really have a headache? Do you want me to take you back inside?”

  She stopped and looked at him. “If I promise not to be forward, will you take me for a walk?”

  “Forward?”

  “Such as pursuing you and asking too many questions and, in general, making a nuisance of myself.”

  He gave her a startled look, then grabbed her arm and pulled her into an alleyway. Before Chris could speak, he had her in his arms, holding her head against his chest. “Chris, you don’t understand, do you? Thank you for what you did in there tonight. If four men came up to me aiming guns at my head, I’d know how to handle them, but give me one spoiled rich boy and I’m at a loss. But you made me feel…”

  “Like a winner?” she supplied and tried to look up at him but he held her head against him. “Deja vu,” she whispered.

  “What?”

  “I have a feeling that I’ve been here before, in just this situation. Remember our first meeting?”

  “No man could ever forget a meeting like that. Chris, you have to go back inside. I can’t go walking with you in the dark.”

  Chris wanted to stay with him always and, had he asked, she would have climbed on a horse and ridden away with him—to live in the rain forest for all she cared. But she knew she had to obey him. He didn’t know how he felt about her and she wasn’t about to pursue him.

  “All right,” she whispered with great reluctance in her voice. “Let’s go.”

  He moved away from her slowly, not looking at her, and allowed her to go first back onto the street. Chris took one step around the corner and saw Rory with Asher coming toward them, and they had the look of a vigilante committee out to rid the world of whatever they considered vermin. She turned back to Tynan. “Kiss me,” she whispered urgently.

  Ty looked astonished for a split second then he lost no time obeying her, taking her in his arms and kissing her with a passion Chris had never before known existed. She completely forgot about the reason she’d asked Ty to kiss her but returned his passion, her arms going around his neck and pulling him closer—not that he could get closer as he wedged his thigh between hers.

  “Unhand her!” came Rory’s voice as he pulled Tynan away from Chris.

  For a moment, Chris was too stunned to even open her eyes, much less try to speak.

  “I should call you out for this,” Rory was saying.

  Chris was leaning against a building wall and was in such a state of euphoria that someone could have told her a bomb was about to explode under her feet and she wouldn’t have been able to move.

  “I’m ready when you are, Sayers,” she heard Tynan say in a voice deep with threat.

  Reluctantly, Chris began to surface because she sensed that this was an argument that she had to stop. But as she moved away from the wall, her eyes opened wide for a moment. The entire back of her dress was unbuttoned.

  Standing as straight as she could, not allowing the loose dress to fall forward, she confronted Rory Sayers with his backup of Mr. Prescott.

  “Mr. Sayers,” she said angrily. “I do not know you and, after tonight, I don’t believe I want to. You have no right to interfere in my life and I kindly wish you’d stay out of it.”

  “Chris,” Tynan said. “Stay out of this. This has been coming for a long time.”

  “I most certainly will not stay out of this,” she said with so much feeling that the front of her dress fell forward, but she caught it and hoped the men hadn’t noticed. If she ever got out of this, she was going to give Tynan a piece of her mind. Of all the audacious things any man had ever done to her, this was one of the worst. She was tempted to let Mr. Sayers have him.

  “Miss Mathison, I have to take offense at this. I have met your father several times and I cannot believe that he’d want his daughter pawed by a man of this sort in an alleyway.”

  Tynan took a step forward, and Chris put herself between the two men. “My father hired this man to protect me and he is doing just that. You, Mr. Sayers, are the unwanted person. As it happens, Mr. Tynan has just asked me to marry him and I have, quite happily, accepted. Now, I do believe that a man has a right to kiss his intended without being molested by the local bully.”

  Rory Sayers stepped back at that. “Bully? Pardon me, Miss, I had thought you were a lady of higher ideals than to take up with this…this criminal. I can only think that you know nothing about him.”

  “I know that he was put into jail for two years without any evidence.” Holding her dress, her back to Tynan, she advanced on Rory. “I know that he’s never known who his parents are and that he’s never had the advantages of money that you have had. And even though he’s not had a formal education, he speaks like a gentleman, reads Voltaire in his spare time, and he constantly puts his life on the line to help other people. Can you say the same thing, Mr. Sayers?”

  Rory straightened his back. “You are not the lady I took you for,” he said and after one look at Tynan, turned, Asher on his heels, and went down the street.

  “He can’t say those things about you,” Tynan said and started after the men.

  Chris planted herself in front of him. “Don’t you dare,” she said through her teeth. “Don’t you dare even think of going after him.” She began backing him into the dark alley. “Especially don’t you think of avenging my ‘honor’. What do you know of a ladies’ honor?”

  “Chris, I—”

  “Look at this!” she gasped, turning her back to him and showing him the unbuttoned dress. “How dare you try to remove my clothing!”

  “Oh,” he said with a slight grin. “I guess it’s just habit. I didn’t even think about it.”

  “Habit!” she gasped. “Whenever you kiss a girl you unbutton her dress?”

  “Well,” he said slowly, still backing up. “Most girls I kiss want their dresses off. You seemed to like it well enough.”

  “Of all the vain—I should have allowed Mr. Sayers to shoot you. You certainly well deserved it
.” She began to fasten her dress, struggling with the many tiny buttons.

  “He can’t shoot at all. All he can do is push a pencil around and flap his gums. Here, let me do that. I can button them as fast as I can unbutton them.”

  “And I guess you’ve had practice at that often enough,” she said as he turned her around and began to fasten her dress.

  “Sometimes you need to get into clothes real fast. There now, all done. I’ll pick you up tomorrow.”

  “Not on your life. Frankly, Mr. Tynan, this has gone far enough. You don’t want to go to jail and I’d like to get home to my father. I think that tomorrow we should start south toward my home.”

  “We can wait one more day. Look, Chris, you’re not going to make a fool of me in front of this town—and especially not in front of Sayers. You told him we were engaged and I want at least a day of acting like we’re engaged. I’d like to show these people that I can…”

  “Can get a ‘good’ girl like me?” she asked softly. She put her hand on his chest. “Tynan, perhaps I’ve misled you. Perhaps it was the rain forest, the feeling of being isolated, something that made me lose my sense of proportion, but now that we’re back to civilization, I think we should stay away from each other. After all, you would have to go back to prison if you touched me.”

  He took her upper arm in his hand and bent his face close to hers. “Right now Sayers is in a saloon telling half the people in this town that Nola Dallas is going to marry the murderer. And you’re the one who gave him that idea.”

  She smiled at him in such a way that he took a step backward. “Tomorrow is Sunday. How about church in the morning and I’ve been invited to the town picnic later. Shall we appear as an engaged couple? Just for the day, of course, and on Monday we can start the journey home. And then we’ll no longer be engaged. Does that suit you?”

  “Church?” he asked and even in the darkness, she could see his face turning pale.

  “Church,” she said firmly and slipped her arm through his. “We’d better get out of this alleyway or my reputation will be ruined, engaged or not. I’ll see you the first thing in the morning.” They were almost back at the hotel. “Cheer up, Mr. Tynan, I’ll make sure that you enjoy the day. Goodnight, dear,” she said to him as she smiled at a passerby. “You may kiss my cheek,” she whispered, “and don’t unbutton so much as a cuff, if you don’t mind.”