The only reason he could fathom that Luna was so dead-set on keeping the land and not allowing for any negotiations from anyone was pure, old greed. She had the land, and by God, she wasn’t going to let go of it, come hell or high water.
He shook his head, perplexed by the nature of some humans. Of course, Luna had a mean streak. There was no denying that. She was a comely woman, but hard as iron inside. He had sensed that in her almost from the moment he set eyes on her. One of his best assets as a lawyer was his ability to see past people’s false fronts to the core of them.
Take Jennie Hastings. Her proud carriage and composed countenance were carefully constructed to obscure from view her trembling uncertainty and tender vulnerability. Much had been expected of her, he thought, and she had rebelled and struck out on her own. He couldn’t be certain, but he felt that she regretted some of the choices she had made and felt that she had done her son a disservice. When she looked at her boy, there was pride and love in her expression, of course, but also a shadow of sadness, a tinge of guilt.
A farm house came into view and Zach focused his attention on it. Not much, he thought. Probably no more than three or four rooms, but it had a nice wide, wraparound porch, a little well-house off to one side, and an outhouse in back of it, set beneath a handsome oak tree. To the south was a barn and lean-to with a corral attached. A pinto standing in the corral, raised his head, and nickered at them. Mercy returned the greeting.
He could picture Jennie and Oliver living here. It wasn’t too far from town, close enough for Oliver to attend school in Guthrie and for Jennie to come in to work at the dry goods store if she needed to keep that job for a spell. There were several groves of trees, pines and oaks, mostly, and he spotted a farm pond. It looked as if Good Time Charlie had done himself proud buying this spread, so why didn’t he tell his missus back in St. Louis about it? Why didn’t he write to her, bragging about what he had secured for his family, and send her and his son a couple of train tickets to the Territory?
It was hard to plumb a man he was never going to meet. All he knew was that something was rank about Charles Hastings. It seemed as if he were two men in one body – one man was soft-spoken and true to his doting wife Jennie and the other man liked to whoop it up in saloons and sport with women of questionable intentions.
Zach reined Mercy to a stop at the place where a narrow path curved from the main road to the small house. Should he pay a visit to the current occupant? He had mainly ridden out just to eyeball the property, but now that he was here …
The screen door popped open, slamming against the outside wall of the house, and a rangy, dark-haired man wearing nothing but a pair of trousers and suspenders stepped onto the porch. He held a rifle in one hand and shook it to make sure Zach saw it.
“Whatcha want?” he called out. “I don’t know you.”
“Howdy. I’m Zach Warner. I know Luna.”
One side of his mouth slid up. “That don’t put you in sparse company. Lots of people know her.”
“She told me you were living out here, but I don’t recall your name.”
“Parks.”
Zach nodded and tipped back his hat so the other man could get a better look at him. “Melvin Parks. I recall now. Luna is your – what?”
The smile disappeared. “I’m her cousin.”
Zach nodded again, slowly. “Gotcha. Her cousin.” He surveyed the property around him. “I have a law practice in town. You’re a rancher, are you?”
“I’m watching the place for her.”
“Watching what? The sun go up and the sun go down?”
Melvin gripped the rifle a bit tighter and swung the barrel so that it was no longer pointing at the porch ceiling but in Zach’s general direction. “I keep varmints off the property. Coyote, possums, mangy dogs, nosy lawyers.”
Zach chuckled. “That’s a good one.” He kept the rifle’s barrel in his peripheral vision, ready to duck or draw his own firearm. “I’ll tell Luna that you’re doing a fine job.”
“You don’t have to. She already knows it.”
“She comes out here often to check on you?”
“I don’t need checking on and I don’t need no company.” He waggled the rifle. “You ought to git.”
Zach touched the brim of his hat. “I’ll be going.” He started to rein his horse around, then paused. “One more thing … I was just wondering … does Luna know you’re buying whores at the saloon on a regular basis?”
Parks narrowed his eyes to black slits. “That ain’t none of your bidness.”
“I didn’t think so.” Zach pulled Mercy into a tight semi-circle and sent her trotting down the lane. He took all his mettle not to look over his shoulder. As the horse gained the main road, Zach glanced from the corner of his eye toward the house. Parks was nowhere to be seen. Zach released a long breath and nudged Mercy into a gallop, grateful to be returning home minus any bullet holes.
Melvin Parks smelled like a jailbird to Zach. He leaned forward to balance his weight better in the saddle. If he wasn’t a former convict, then he was hiding low so as not to be locked up. Where had he hooked up with Luna and why had he followed her here?
Zach decided he would wait a day or two and then speak to Luna again to see if he could shake loose from her a few more kernels of truth concerning her “Cousin Melvin.” He had to admit that he didn’t relish the thought of talking to Luna. She was hard to handle. Flirting and batting her eyelashes at him, trying to get him hot and bothered even with her husband in the next room. He didn’t know quite how to take her. Was she all talk or was she serious about hooking up with him some night under the sheets? Not that he was interested. That would compromise him as Jennie’s lawyer, for one thing, and for another she was married to a respected man in town and one that Zachary didn’t want to dishonor. And there was something about Luna that just didn’t sit right with him.
Zach reined Mercy to a walk as they reached the outskirts of town. He steered the big mare to the main thoroughfare and was heading for the law office when he spotted the dry goods store. On impulse, he stopped Mercy in front of it and swung out of the saddle. He tied her to the hitching post and strode into the store, the sound of his footfalls echoing in the high-ceilinged room.
He hadn’t gone ten steps before he’d seen two of clients. Stopping to chat with each woman and exchange pleasantries, he looked over their heads and scanned the area. Where was she? In the back, out of sight? Maybe bending down behind … He caught the scent of violets and turned his head to find that she was standing within a foot from him, a broom in her hands, a teasing light flickering in her eyes. He smiled and dipped his head. The two other women looked at her, said their “good days” and moseyed on outside.
“I do believe that you know practically every woman in this town,” Jennie said, sweeping the floor again. “Can I help you find something?”
“Oh … I …” he glanced around, realizing he had no purpose here. When he looked back at her, he was struck by the dimples in her creamy cheeks and the gloss of her ebony hair. Brushed into a center part, she had fashioned her dark hair into a thick braid that was coiled on top of her head. For a burning moment, he yearned to unpin her hair until it was loose and curling around her shoulders, brushing the tops of her breasts. God! He ran a hand down his face and glanced around the store again.
“Is there anything I can help you with?” Jennie asked, her tone gently concerned.
“Perhaps a companion for supper tonight?” Had he said that out loud? From the startled look on her face, he realized he had. What the hell was he thinking?
“Tonight? Wh-where?”
“Adam and Bertha Polk’s place,” he said, then glanced up at the ceiling, wishing he could turn back time or give himself a good kick in the ass. Either one would be a blessing. “I thought we could … talk about … things.” Why was he stammering like a tongue-tied boy? What in the hell was wrong with him? He caught sight of Bob McDonald and lurched toward him as if Bob w
as a glass of water and he was parched. “Bob! How’s it going? Is business good?” Zach held out his hand and pumped Bob’s big paw.
“Can’t complain. I know your business is brisk. I can tell by all the women who come in here and mention your name.”
“That’s what I was just saying,” Jennie said from behind him. “I told him that I think he knows every single woman in town.”
“Not every woman, no.” He chuckled or tried to and almost choked himself.
“You okay?” Bob asked.
“Sure, sure.” He sucked in a breath and wished to hell he hadn’t come in. Settle down, son, he told himself. What’s gotten into you? “Nice to see you, Bob, but I must be going. I just wanted to stop in …I thought I saw someone …anyway, I have to get back to the office now.”
“Okay,” Bob said, his bushy brows meeting and his lips quirking in amusement. “Don’t let me keep you.”
“Right, right.” Long strides took him to the door and he had almost made a clean escape when Jennie’s voice lassoed him, bringing him up short.
“What time will you collect me?”
His heart sank like a lead weight. Slowly, he pivoted around to face her. She had an expectant expression on her pretty face and he couldn’t say anything other than, “Six.”
Even as Zach drove the horse and buggy he had borrowed from Adam and Bertha to the Philpot Boarding House, he couldn’t fully understand how he had fumbled his way into a dinner date with a client. He didn’t mix business with pleasure. There were so many disheartened, downtrodden, lonely women flocking to Guthrie that he and Adam had agreed not to become personally entrapped by them. Although Adam and Bert often were tempted to offer a young, distraught woman lodging or a small loan, they resisted. And even though Zach might be attracted to a few of their clients, he had never asked any of them to dinner or to any social event.
Until today.
“What in the hell were you thinking?” Adam had asked when Zach told him who he was bringing to dinner at his house.
“I covered it up by telling her we wanted to discuss her case,” Zach had said. “Or I think I did. I don’t know what I was thinking …
“You weren’t thinking,” Adam had charged with a frown of disgust. “At least not with your brain. And you invited her in front of the McDonalds?”
“Yes.”
“It will be all over town.” Adam had groaned and smacked the heel of his hand to his forehead, then leveled a finger at Zach. “We will make it crystal clear at dinner that it is not social, but all business.”
Zach had nodded in total agreement …or nearly total. Obviously, even Adam had seen something in his expression and wasn’t convinced.
“What’s going on, Zach? What’s makes her so different that you’d step over the line for her?”
“I don’t know. For the life of me, I don’t even know why I asked her to supper. It just came out. She was looking at me – she has beautiful eyes, have you noticed? Anyway, the next thing I knew, the gavel had fallen.”
“At least you didn’t seal it with a kiss in front of the McDonalds,” Adam had rejoined, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
Zach pulled the horse and buggy to a stop in front of the boarding house. He was tying the reins onto the brake when the door opened and Jennie swept into view. She lifted a hand, closed the door, and descended the porch steps. Zach sprang from the buggy to help her up into the seat.
“Good evening,” she said, brightly, flashing her dimples at him.
‘Here, let me help you.” He took her gloved hand for balance as she stepped up into the buggy. The springs creaked slightly as she settled herself. Zach tried to ignore the feminine scent of her skin, how small her hand felt in his, and the creamy V of skin that showed in the neckline of her dusky rose dress.
Zach took his place beside her and gathered the reins. He cleared his throat and decided to set a business tone right out of the chute. “Adam and I don’t have any real news to deliver, but sometimes we think it’s helpful to simply go over what we do know about a case so that our client understands where we are and what our next steps will be.”
“I understood from Adam that he had turned my legal matters over to you. Has he changed his mind?”
He felt as if a trap door had sprung open beneath him. Damn! Adam had said that. “No, I just wanted his thoughts on … everything before we move forward.”
“I see.” Her shoulders bounced in a small shrug.
“How is Oliver doing?”
“Wonderful. Thank you for asking. Children are adaptable creatures. He has made several friends already. Dottie is watching him for me this evening.”
“Is he attending school?”
“Only for half a day until the end of June, but he enjoys it. His best friend so far is a blond-haired tyke named Joey North.”
Zach nodded. “Joey’s mother was a client of mine. They came here from Indiana, but decided to stay after the divorce was final. She met John Banner and they’ve set a summer wedding date.” He heard her soft laugh and glanced her way, but the shadows obscured her features. “What’s so funny?”
“You know everything about everyone – every female, that is. How do you keep them all straight?”
“Each case and each person is different. And I don’t remember them all. Karen North’s divorce was one of the more difficult ones. Her husband is an attorney and he fought the divorce with everything he had in him.”
“He still loved her and wanted to preserve the marriage?”
“No, he felt he owned her. It was that kind of union. He didn’t want her, but he didn’t want anyone else to have her either. If he had left her, I don’t think it would have been such a battle, but he didn’t like being discarded.”
“You see all kinds of unions, don’t you?”
“All kinds,” he agreed with a roll of his eyes.
“Except blissful ones – except for your personal friends like the Polks – and the McDonalds.”
“Would you describe them as blissful?”
“Wouldn’t you?”
He shook his head. “The only marriages I see that are blissful are the ones that just happened. Once they live with each other for a few months, the dew is definitely off the rose and you start seeing the thorns again.”
“You don’t think the Polks are happy?”
“Happy, sure. Blissful?” He shook his head. “Blissful is for people in fairy tales.”
“They aren’t blissful all the time, but —.”
“What kind of word is that anyway?” he interrupted, finding the whole conversation odd. It was making his stiff shirt collar scratch against his neck and droplets of sweat tickle his underarms. “Blissful.” He made a scornful sound. “Only fools are that. Living day in and day out with a woman is not for the faint-hearted.” Feeling a cold chill, he glanced sideways at the source. If she were carved from a block of ice, she couldn’t have delivered a more glacial glare. “Let me rephrase that —.”
“Don’t bother, Counselor. You have made your opinion crystal clear.” She patted her skirts and shifted her gaze to the street.
“We’re here,” Zach said, stopping the buggy in front of the Polks’ house.
“Thank heavens.”
Chapter 6
Settling into the front parlor after a fine supper of fried chicken, creamed potatoes, peas, applesauce, and sweet tea, Jennie sat on one end of the upholstered sofa and Zach sat on the other end. Their host and hostess chose matching rockers that bracketed the fireplace.
She had enjoyed the evening and the dinner conversation, which had been interrupted often with laughter. Adam and Zachary had exchanged stories about their early days fresh out of law school. Witnessing the camaraderie the two men obviously shared was touching and made Jennie feel closer to them.
Once, when Zach had chided Adam about his long-windedness, Zach had winked at Jennie. The gesture, however innocent, sent a current of warmth through her. For an instant, she felt guilty for feeling
the stirrings of attraction, but then she chided herself. She wasn’t married, and what was more, she hadn’t been married for quite a while, even though she had been unaware of it!
“I imagine you meet all kinds of people at the dry goods store,” Bertha Polk said, commencing to rock as she picked up an embroidery hoop from a basket beside the chair. “Guthrie is chockfull of unusual people. Just when I think I’ve seen it all, in walks someone with a story that would curl a porcupine’s coat.” She threaded a needle and set to work on the table scarf she was decorating.
Jennie smiled, wondering when they would speak about her case. Isn’t that why she was here? Now that supper was over, she assumed they would tell her about their plan of action and what they had recovered so far.
Adam pulled a pipe and small packet of tobacco from his trouser pocket, filled the bowl, and tamped down the shredded leaves with his thumb. “Guthrie has more than its share of adventure seekers and scoundrels.” He struck a match and laid the flame across the top of the pipe bowl. “Speaking of scoundrels, did you speak to the man living out on Luna’s land?”
Jennie sat straighter. “Did you?”
Zach nodded. “I rode out to have a talk with him. Melvin Parks is his name.”
Bert gave a derisive snort. “I’ve seen him in town a couple of times. He makes my hackles rise.”
“I get the feeling he has known the inside of a jail cell,” Zach agreed. “And I don’t think he’s Luna’s cousin. He says he is taking care of things around there until Luna can hire a ranch foreman.”
“You don’t believe him, do you?” Jennie asked.
“I didn’t believe much of what he said.”
“What do you think he’s doing there?”
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