Deborah Camp

by To Seduce andDefend

  What bothered Zach most was that Jennie Hastings obviously thought that he saw her as a thorn in his side. Usually, people he worked for were happy with the outcome he wrangled for them in court. Most of them came to Guthrie as a last resort. They were trapped in a bad marriage and were desperate to escape from it. Some of them were teary-eyed at having to call it quits, but the vast majority were dancing jigs and buying him drinks when the gavel ended their ordeal.

  Divorced. In Guthrie, that was a beautiful pronouncement and it was the reason Zach had left Kentucky to seek his fortune in Indian Territory. At present, he was one of about ninety lawyers in Guthrie, a town that barely existed until the Land Run of 1889. Overnight it had grown to ten thousand people.

  Jennie Hastings wasn’t going to be happy with the outcome of this case, Zach thought as he rocked back and forth in the saddle. She would not be in a dancing mood or want to buy him a shot of whiskey. He didn’t think there was much chance that anyone could charm, shame, or berate Luna Lee into relinquishing her hold on the ranch she’d inherited.

  Zach slowed Mercy to a walk as they drew near the fancy house with tall, white pillars supporting a red-tiled portico roof. It was a stately residence for a recently retired judge and his new wife. Silas had married Luna a month ago, soon after Luna had discovered through Adam that she was a widow. The town was still buzzing about it. Luna had certainly done well for herself. The fact that she was thirty years her husband’s junior also hadn’t gone unnoticed by town gossips.

  For a woman who had come to Guthrie with nothing, she’d done well for herself. Working as a laundress and then as a hostess in a hotel restaurant, Luna had managed to marry up, not once, but twice. Zach hadn’t spoken to her since she had returned from her honeymoon with Judge Bishop. Folks around town said she was acting uppity and spending money like she was growing it in her garden.

  The judge was a wealthy man, mainly because he and his former wife had been frugal. They had both liked to have money more than they liked to spend it. Edith Bishop had taken ill shortly after Zach moved to Guthrie and had died that winter. The heartbroken judge retired and went to visit his married son in Dodge City. Folks said he would stay there and never return. He and his wife had moved from Kansas to the Territory a few years before the Land Run and the judge had worked in the circuit court.

  To most everyone’s surprise, he did return to Guthrie, but he shut himself away in the small house he had shared with Edith. A few widow women dropped by to invite him to church or to bring him a pie or some other enticement, but he kept to himself. Then one night he went into town for a good meal and he met Luna.

  They had become “friends.” He was lonely and she had been abandoned by her husband. Anybody paying any attention could tell that the judge was smitten, but he had possessed too much integrity to openly court a married woman.

  Mercy stopped in front of the house, but Zach didn’t make a move to dismount. He studied the house, his thoughts tripping back to when he had met Luna last fall. She had flirted with him, saying she might need a divorce attorney because her husband had deserted her. He met up with her again a few weeks later at a dance on the outskirts of Guthrie. That night he had imbibed a bit too much and was leaving when Luna materialized from the darkness. She wound her arms around him, touched him in an intimate manner, and then pulled him with her into a barn on the property. In one of the horse stalls, she unbuttoned his trousers and pleasured him. It had all happened so fast and, on his part, been totally unexpected that he hadn’t known what to feel about it or about her.

  Even now, remembering those hot, heavy-breathing minutes in the horse stall with her made him squirm inside. He had been with his share of forward women, but he had anticipated their caresses and kisses. Luna had come at him like a sidewinder. He hadn’t seen her coming.

  With a heavy sigh, he dismounted and tied the reins to a hitching pole. As he approached the house, the front door swung open and a woman dressed in a black dress and a white apron smiled at him. On closer inspection, he saw that he knew her. He had been her attorney when she had divorced an abusive husband.

  “Good afternoon, sir. What can I do for you?”

  “It’s Inez Rainwater, isn’t it?”

  She nodded, smiling shyly.

  “It’s good to see you again. Are you doing okay? No trouble with your ex-husband?”

  “No, sir. Thanks for asking. I’m doing fine.”

  “That’s good to hear. Could you tell Lu–Mrs. Bishop that I’d like a quick word?”

  “She expecting you, sir?”

  “No, but I believe she will see me.”

  “Come in, please.” She stepped back to allow him to enter the foyer. “Wait here, please.” She motioned to chairs and a settee backed against one wall.

  “Thank you.” He didn’t sit, but moved around the foyer to study a large oil painting of the Grand Canyon and another of a pastoral scene featuring waving wheat and a herd of bison. A porcelain urn, a good four feet high, sat on a short round table in the center of the foyer. Ivy, roses, and some other flower he couldn’t name spilled out of it. He removed his dark brown Stetson and ran a hand through his hair.

  The tap of shoes sounded and grew louder, but they were not the footfalls of a woman. Judge Silas Bishop swung around a corner and beamed at Zach. He held out his hand in a hearty greeting.

  “Look who the cat dragged in,” the judge said, his bass voice booming from his barrel-shaped chest as it had on the bench. “Good to see you, Warner. What brings you to our humble abode?”

  “Hello, Judge.” Zach shook his hand. “Nice house. Very nice”

  “Luna picked it out. Theodore Wilson, the banker, built it, but his wife died just before it was finished and he didn’t have the heart to move into it without her. She had been sickly her whole life, poor thing.”

  Zach nodded, recalling the sad story. “I don’t mean to bother you, Judge. I was hoping to speak to your wife. I have some news about her former husband.”

  The judge’s bushy, white brows met as he peered at Zach through his thick glasses. “Good news or bad news?”

  “I don’t rightly know. It all depends on —.”

  “Were you here yesterday?”

  “Yes. I spoke to your gardener and he said that Luna was visiting relatives.”

  “That’s right.” The judge beamed and hooked his thumbs in his vest pockets as he rocked back on his heels. “She never meets a stranger. I love that about her! She is busy all the time. Going here and there, visiting friends, checking on relatives. I’m a happy man, Warner.” He clapped a hand onto Zach’s shoulder. “When are you going to settle down with a good woman?”

  “I’m happy for you, Judge, but marriage isn’t something I have a hankering for.”

  “You haven’t met the right woman. Once I got to know Luna, I realized that she had become the light of my life. I was a broken man after Edith went to her Great Reward.” A shadow passed over his features. “Did you know my first wife?”

  “I didn’t have the honor, sir. She had taken ill when I first moved to Guthrie.”

  “She was nothing like Luna. Edith was quiet and shy of strangers, but we had a good life together. She was a dutiful wife and mother. We both loved to read and Edith wrote poetry. She had a way with words. We had a nice, comfortable routine. When she passed, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I hadn’t been alone since the day I was born!”

  Zach nodded, thinking of his own parents who had married in their teen years and were still together. Even though they had never been happy with each other, they had stuck it out rather than be alone. “It must have been lonely for you, sir.”

  The judge seemed lost in dark thoughts, but then he shook his head and a smile crept up his face again. “Luna is full of spirit and my life is brimming.” He let out a bark of laugher and ran his hands up and down the front of his shirt. “I feel young again!” He leaned closer to Zach and lowered his voice to a conspiratorial rasp. “She’s a wildcat
in bed and I can barely —.” His gaze lifted from Zach’s face to focus on someone behind him. Straightening, the judge extended a hand toward the staircase. “Here comes my bride!”

  Zach turned to see Luna descending the stairs. He was glad for the interruption because he didn’t wish to hear about the judge’s adventures between the sheets.

  “My, my, as I live and breathe! Zach Warner has come a calling. Did you bring me a wedding present?”

  “I am remiss, I’m afraid,” Zach said, bowing his head as she approached. “Thank you for allowing me to barge in like this. I wanted to speak to you about … well, I have some information to share with you about Charles Hastings.”

  Her gaze sharpened and her brown eyes darkened to near black. “I can’t imagine there is anything about him I care to hear.”

  “If you could just spare me a few minutes, I’d be most grateful, Mrs. Bishop.”

  Her expression softened as Zach knew it would when he said her married name. She was right proud of it and probably wouldn’t pass up the chance to let him see how she had landed in tall cotton. Luna moved to stand beside the judge. She hooked an arm in his and pressed her large breasts against his forearm. “Silas, honey, would you tell Inez to bring a tea tray into the parlor?”

  “Yes, my dear.”

  “And then you go on upstairs for your afternoon nap. I’ll be up in a little bit to –.” She lifted her face to his and pursed her pink lips. “Tuck — you — in.” She breathed out the last words slowly. Zach figured each word had increased the tempo of the old boy’s pulses.

  With a red face and wide eyes, the judge chuckled lustily. He waved a farewell to Zach and hurried to the back of the house to find Inez.

  “Come on, Zach. Join me in the parlor.” Luna turned on her heel and moved languidly to the front room, her curvaceous hips swaying seductively. She wore a black and white striped dress that sported a white pleated blouse and black velvet piping. Her auburn hair was gathered into a black lace chignon. A hell of a change from the woman he’d first met, he thought. That night at the dance she had filled out a yellow dress, belted at the waist, and fraying slightly at the cuffs.

  “Charles Hastings is in my past. I don’t care to know anything about him.” She sat on a red velvet, tufted-back settee and arranged her skirts just so. Looking up at him from beneath her lashes, she smiled. “Did you really come here to relay some news about him or did you just want to see me again? Oh, I don’t blame you for having remorse about what you let slip away.” Her voice dipped to a husky whisper. “I have a little twinge of remorse, too.”

  Zach laughed at her lack of modesty. “I do have some information to impart.”

  She wrinkled her nose in distaste, and then looked past him. “Bring the tray in here, Inez. Pour two cups of tea for us. What do you take in yours, Zach?”

  “Just sugar,” he said, moving aside to allow the woman to set the tray on the sofa table. He glanced at Luna and caught her studying him. “This is all very civilized. It’s been a spell since I had a cup of tea with a lady.”

  Luna tipped back her head and laughed – a big, brassy laugh that belonged in a saloon instead of a parlor. The maid poured the tea and then left them alone. Zach sat in an upholstered chair across from Luna. He laid his hat on the floor and took a sip of the warm, sweet tea before he spoke again.

  “You knew that Charles was married when he came here,” Zach said. “Well, his ex-wife —.”

  “Is this about her showing up in Guthrie a couple of days ago? Did she think she was a widow instead of a divorced woman?”

  Zach sat in a chair and balanced the cup and saucer on his knee. “How did you know about that?”

  “Honey, nothing much happens in this town that I don’t know about,” Luna said with a smile of self-satisfaction. “When is she leaving?”

  “Not for awhile. She believes the land Hastings bought should belong to her and her son.”

  “And how in the hell did she get that lame-brained idea? You and Adam Polk didn’t tell her that I would feel sorry for her and let her have my land, did you? Because if you did, then you better fix your mess. She needs to go on back to Missouri. There’s nothing for her here.”

  “She would like to meet you —.”

  “No.” Luna shook her head with conviction. “Nope. I have no business with her. I don’t want to be bothered by her, and she had better not step one foot on this property. You hear me?” She narrowed her eyes and all pleasantries left her features. “If she knows what’s good for her, she will give me a wide berth and go on back to her people in Missouri.”

  “What’s the harm in her getting the facts from you, Luna? I’m curious myself.”

  “About what?” Her eyes narrowed to ebony slits.

  “He never breathed a word about any of this to her when he returned to St. Louis. Makes a man wonder why he divorced her in the first place. Did you meet him before or after he was divorced?”

  “I’m not sure when we first met, but there isn’t any mystery about why he wanted to take up with me.” She smiled, showing small, ivory teeth. “I’ve always turned heads. I turned yours one night, didn’t I?”

  He shook a finger at her in admonition. “Don’t try to lead me astray, Luna. Did Mr. Hastings ever talk to you about his marriage to her? Did he tell you he was a father and that —.”

  “You remember that night, don’t you, Zach?” she interrupted, her voice like a purring cat’s. “Tell the truth, have you ever had it that good before or since? I’m a hard woman to forget. I know it. You know it. Charles Hastings knew it.”

  Zach sat back in the chair and sipped the tea. The town gossips were right. Luna had become full of herself. She’d always been confident in her feminine wiles, but she was downright insufferable now. “I’m not saying she has a right to speak to you, but I think it would be decent of you to hear her out and answer her questions. Once she understands what’s she’s up against, I imagine she will go back to St. Louis.”

  “Like I said, I have nothing to say to her.”

  “Who do you have living on that spread?”

  She looked away from him and brushed lint off her skirt. “Who said anybody was there?”

  “I heard in town that a relative of yours was living there.”

  “Yeah, that’s right.” She gave a half shrug. “Not that it’s anybody’s business. I could have a monkey shacked up with a moose out there and it wouldn’t be anybody’s business but mine!”

  Zach smiled, intrigued by her fit of pique. “So, is this relative of yours the monkey or the moose?”

  She looked away again, pursing her lips to keep from grinning. “Damn you, Zach Warner,” she whispered, then let loose another spate of laughter. “He’s a distant cousin, that’s all. He ran up on some hard times. He’s looking after the place until he can line up some work for himself.”

  “There you go,” he said, soothingly. “Was that so hard? I swear, you’re touchy now that you’re a newly married lady.”

  “You’re fishing for information and I can’t figure out why you’re so interested in my business all of a sudden. Maybe you’re trying to find a leg for that gal to stand on, huh? She must be willing to pay you a tidy sum or you’re thinking you’d like to bed her down. Otherwise, I don’t think you’d have even troubled yourself with this fool’s errand.”

  He laid a hand over his heart. “I’m wounded.”

  She laughed again, throwing back her head.

  “Tell me something, Mrs. Luna Bishop. What does the new wife of a retired judge want with that spread? Would you consider selling it to my client for a reasonable sum?”

  “I want to keep it because it’s mine. All mine. I’m making money on it right now. Ben Tallchief is running his cattle on it and paying me monthly grazing rights.”

  “Sounds to me like you’re being greedy. You won’t even consider a compromise that —.”

  “Greedy?” she spat out. “I earned that land! I had to sleep with Charles Hastings.
He was about as exciting as a wet blanket. He didn’t even want to make love by the light of a lamp! Had to be pitch black or he couldn’t get any lead in his pencil. So, don’t you accuse me of getting something for nothing.” She jabbed a thumb at her chest. “I earned it!”

  He was quiet a few moments, allowing her words to echo between them. “Interesting.”

  “What?” she demanded. “What’s so interesting?”

  Zach waved a hand in a casual dismissal. “Nothing, nothing.”

  “So what if my time with Charlie wasn’t a bed of roses? That’s no big thing. If I didn’t take up with a man until I couldn’t find anything aggravating about him, why I’d be a nun!”

  Zach nodded and fed her more rope. “You didn’t love him?”

  “I never said that. You’re putting words in my mouth now.”

  “You did love him.”

  “We made a good pair.”

  “Just not in the bedroom. But who cares about that, right? He was a damn good provider and a hard worker. He put food on the table and probably treated you like a queen.”

  “Who in tarnation have you been talking to? Oh, wait. Did the former Mrs. Hastings say that Charlie was a saint?” She whacked the flat of her hand on one knee and giggled. “That’s it! She has been feeding you a line of bull! Or maybe she is such a dishrag herself that she thought Charlie was prime husband material.”

  “She’s no dishrag,” he muttered, then wished he hadn’t when Luna fixed him with a sharpened glare. “She’s naïve,” he said, attempting to correct his mistake of inserting a personal opinion in a business discussion. “She is an innocent party in this unfortunate matter.”

  “Unfortunate? It’s not unfortunate for me.” Luna shrugged and set her cup and saucer on the tray. She stood up and waited for Zach to stand, too. “It’s good to see you. I’m still waiting for that wedding present, though.” Sin glimmered in the dark pools of her eyes. “When you’re ready to give it to me, just let me know.”