Deborah Camp

by To Seduce andDefend

  “Well, hello, Ruby. It’s nice to meet you. Are you looking for anything in particular?”

  “I got to buy me some corset laces.”

  “Those are right over here.” Jennie led the way to the section of wall where laces of all kinds hung on pegs. “We have black, white, cream, and pink.”

  “Black is good.”

  “One set?” Jennie removed a pair of black laces and handed them to Ruby. She realized the woman’s cheeks weren’t naturally pink, but were rouged. Her mouth was also rouged.

  “Yeah, that’s all I need.”

  “They are a nickel. You can pay up at the front.” She craned and stood on tiptoe to see the register area. “Yes, Rachel is there.”

  The customer took the laces from her. “Thanks.” She took one step closer and dipped her head in a conspiratorial gesture. “I wanted to tell you something private.”

  Jennie glanced toward Rachel again, but she had her back to them. “Is this about Stella Carlson?”

  “Naw, I didn’t know her. She worked at the Lantern and I wet whistles at the Blue Belle. This is about your mister.”

  Dread chilled her. She almost wished she could tell the woman to keep whatever she had to say to herself, but she knew her curiosity would not allow that. “Charles? What about him? You knew him?”

  “Charlie, yeah. When I heard about you coming to town and all, it just ate at me. They say you didn’t have no notion that he’d divorced you and married Luna. Is that true?”

  Jennie nodded, feeling that she was being stripped bare by a stranger.

  “That’s terrible. And he came back home to you and never said a word about Luna?”

  Jennie nodded again and wished she could tell her to leave, but the woman was also a customer and it was Jennie’s job to be polite and helpful to her.

  “You poor thing.”

  “I appreciate your concern, but this is a private matter and I’m at work and--.”

  “He was a gentleman and timid as a bird. He was lonely when I first saw him and I felt so sorry for him. I could tell he was missing someone real bad.”

  Unexpected emotion squeezed her heart and she blinked to hold back tears. Charles had missed her? Charles had been lonely for her? Just as she had yearned for him to return to her and Oliver?

  “That’s the first I’ve heard of that,” she admitted. “All anyone else has told me was that he was dancing and having a fine time with Luna Lee.”

  “That came later,” she said, still whispering. “First few months, his chin was scraping the ground, he was so low. He’d buy one drink and sip it all night while he listened to Claire sing sad songs. He loved them sad songs.”

  Jennie smiled, nodding. “Yes, he was partial to those.”

  “Weeks went by and then one night he came in with Luna Lee and she was hanging on him like a cheap suit. I knowed what was going on. Luna has a knack for knowing what a man is lacking and giving it to him. He was a moth to her flame.”

  Now we’re back to that, Jennie thought, not interested in hearing anything else about how smitten her husband had been with Luna. She pasted a polite smile on her lips and smoothed her hands down her apron front. “Yes, others have told me about that. Is there anything else I can help you find in the store?”

  “Things changed again after they got married,” Ruby said as if Jennie hadn’t even spoken. “He got sad again. Dragged hisself into the saloon without Luna and wanted to listen to more heartbreaking songs. I asked him once, ‘Honey, what’s got you so down? You’re a newlywed, ain’t ya’?’ And you know what he told me?”

  “What?” Jennie asked, halfway afraid of the answer.

  “He said that he had sinned and was going to hell.”

  The answer rocked her back on her heels. She wasn’t sure she believed the woman. Charles had never been one to talk much about heaven and hell or of sin and redemption.

  “That’s what he said,” Ruby confirmed, evidently reading the disbelief on her face. “I told him that everyone sinned now and then and he shouldn’t kick himself too much about it. But he said – and he had tears in his eyes, I swear he did – he said that he would never be forgiven or forgive hisself. I felt sorry for him. Then when I heard about you and all, I understood what he was talking about that night.”

  With some difficulty, Jennie gathered her wits about her and gave her a sincere smile. “Thank you for taking the time to seek me out and share this with me –.”

  “Ruby.”

  She nodded, finding it odd to call this stranger by her first name. “Ruby.”

  “I’m glad to do it. It just kept eating at me, like I said. I would see you every once in awhile around town, sometimes with your little boy, and I wanted to pucker up and bawl.”

  “That’s very kind of you.” Jennie marveled that this woman she didn’t know had felt such sympathy for her and Oliver. She had thought all this time that many of the people on the streets of Guthrie were snickering at her for being a blind fool. But this woman had changed her opinion. Perhaps people actually were on her side and felt she was a wronged party in a sordid affair of which she’d had no knowledge. “It means more to me than I can say.”

  “Glad to do it,” Ruby said, then leaned closer still to whisper, “You got a precious little boy. I bet you’re mighty proud of him.”

  “I am,” Jennie said, almost choking on her tears. “As was his father.”

  #

  Oliver sat tall in the saddle and grinned from ear to ear as he reined his mount to a stop right in front of where Zach was standing in the corral behind Jesse’s City Stables. After three riding lessons, he was handling the horse with ease and no sign of fear or trepidation.

  “That’s the way to do it, pard,” Zach praised him, lifting one gloved hand to stroke the horse’s white-blazed face. “What do you think, Diamond? Is he ready to learn how to rope a calf.”

  Oliver bobbed up and down in the saddle, making Zach laugh. “Yes, yes! Let’s start now!”

  “We’ve done enough for today. Your mama is expecting you home for supper, so we need to shake a spur. Get on down and let’s unsaddle her and give her a brushing and some feed.”

  Crestfallen, Oliver swung a leg over and slid to the ground. “Come on, Diamond,” he said in a “woe-is-me tone.” Zach tried not to laugh aloud as he followed Oliver and Diamond into the stables and to one of the two stalls Zach leased for his horses. The boy was a quick learner and he was proud of him. He never showed fear and he was gentle with the horse. Zach figured he would learn how to rope as quickly as he had taken to the saddle.

  He was seeing more and more of Jennie in Oliver. The things he said and the way he said them. The way he set his jaw when he didn’t like what he heard or saw was just like his mother. He had a big, soft heart like her, too.

  Oliver upturned a bucket, stood on it, and began loosening the cinches. Zach removed Diamond’s bridle and then helped Oliver lift the saddle off and set it on the saddle tree. Even though they had done this routine together only a few times, they moved as if they had saddled and unsaddled horses for years. Oliver tugged off the saddle blanket gave it to Zach to fold as Zach handed Oliver a brush. While Oliver brushed Diamond, Zach poured some oats into the feed trough for the horse.

  “Mr. Warner?”

  Zach looked around the horse to see what Oliver needed. The boy nodded toward the stall door. Inez Rainwater stood outside the stall, her dark eyes glinting as she rocked nervously from foot to foot. Moving around the horse, Zach paused to rest a hand on Oliver’s shoulder.

  “I need to speak to this lady. You finish up, partner, and I’ll take you home.”

  “Okay.”

  Not bothering to hide his surprise and curiosity, Zach nodded a greeting to Inez. “Are you looking for me?”

  “Yes, Mr. Warner. I hope you don’t mind. I wanted to talk to you without anybody nosing around or seeing us.”

  He glanced around. “We’re alone here. Is there a problem I can help you with?”
<
br />   “I have something to tell you about Mrs. Bishop.”

  She was talking so low that Zach had to crane forward to catch her words. His heart kicked when he realized she was about to tell him something that could obviously get her into trouble if Luna found out about it. Why else would she be here?

  “I’m listening,” he said.

  “I heard you and her arguing the other day at the house.”

  “You were hanging out laundry,” Zach said. “I’m sorry if that upset you. I shouldn’t have lost my temper.”

  “She can drive any man to it,” Inez said, her eyes snapping.

  Zach smiled and waited. Let her talk, he told himself. It’s her show.

  “The judge, he hired me. He’s good to me. She is never happy with anything I do. I am a dog to her.”

  His anticipation began to wane. She was here to complain about Luna as an employer, that was all. Shifting his weight to one foot, he drew in a deep breath and resigned himself to hearing a litany of how Luna didn’t appreciate a good maid.

  “I am not the dog.”

  “Of course you aren’t.”

  “She is the one who barks. All the time, she barks at me.”

  Zach looked over his shoulder to make sure Oliver was doing all right. The boy stood on the bucket and ran the brush through Diamond’s black mane.

  “The judge is so good to me. He deserves to be treated with respect because that is how he treats people.”

  “Judge Bishop is a good man,” Zach agreed, turning back to face her.

  “He’s smart, too.”

  “Very.” Zach shrugged. “He was a judge for many years before retiring.”

  “So, I think he must know that she wasn’t really married.”

  His mind suddenly sharpened to a razor edge. “What? Why would you say that?”

  “That Hastings man married too soon. He wed Luna four months after he got his divorce.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  She tapped a finger against her temple. “When I got divorced, you told me I could not marry for six months.” She tapped her temple again and narrowed her eyes to slits. “I remember because I think that I will never marry again, so I didn’t care about that. But Luna and that man, they married before six months was up.”

  Zach tried to get his head around what she was claiming. “He divorced Jennie Hastings so that he could marry Luna.”

  “When I decided to divorce my husband, I went to the court to see how it was done. One of the days I was there, that Hastings man was there getting his divorce. Luna was there, too, but she didn’t go near him in the courthouse. I saw her looking at him, though, and giving him a wink now and then. Later, I saw them hugging each other outside.”

  Zach was gripping her upper arms and leaning into her face before he even realized he’d moved. “Are you sure about this, Inez?”

  “I was in that courthouse in March. I know because my birthday is the twelfth of March and my husband forgot all about it and stayed out all night and came home the next day smelling like whiskey and cheap perfume. The day after that, I go to the court to see what this divorce is all about. That’s when I saw you, too. I saw you fighting like a cougar for the women.” She grinned and her dark eyes sparkled in the dimming light in the stables. “That Hastings man, he married Luna in June, yes? That’s what the judge told me. In June, and that man left Guthrie and her the very next month.”

  Listening closely, he checked off the information she delivered, one by one. If she was right, and she was crafting a mighty good case, then this might be the loophole he’d been praying for. He caught himself nodding, speechless for a few moments. “You think the judge knows about this?”

  She spread out her hands in a wide shrug. “How could he not? He is smarter than me and I know about it.”

  Before he could stop himself, he kissed her forehead before he let her go. “Inez, you are an angel in disguise. I’ll check on this, and if you’re right, you might have just given that boy in there and his mother one hundred and sixty acres and a home.”

  Inez ducked her head. “You helped me, so now I help you.”

  Zach rested a hand on her shoulder and she looked up again. “That’s what friends do for each other and I count you as a friend, Inez Rainwater.”

  She dipped her head again, but not before he saw her smile from ear to ear. “I have to go,” she whispered, then hurried away.

  Zach turned around to Oliver, who had climbed off the bucket and was now sitting on the saddle and pretending he was riding the range. He felt like he might burst. He wanted to take Oliver to the boarding house and tell Jennie about Inez Rainwater’s amazing revelation. But he couldn’t. He had to do some research first to see if Inez’s theory held up. No use getting Jennie’s hopes soaring only to find out that Inez was wrong about her dates.

  But if he was a betting man – and he was – he would bet the farm that Inez Rainwater’s memory was as true as the North Star.

  Chapter 14

  Sitting in the buggy she had borrowed from Gloria Philpot, Jennie felt a peace steal over her as she gazed at the gently undulating land and the small, tidy house in the distance. The brown pony pawed at the dirt road and flicked his tail at blue flies. Since Zach had shown her the land, she had borrowed Mrs. Philpot’s buggy twice to come back to admire the ranch. After a week of ups and downs, she had asked Mrs. Philpot again for the horse and buggy as a way to soothe her nerves.

  “Why are we just sitting here, Mama?” Oliver asked.

  Continuing her study of every tree, every patch of wildflowers, and every fleeting shadow as the sun and clouds played hide-and-seek, Jennie placed an arm around Oliver’s shoulders and hugged him closer to her side. “I like to come out here and look at the land your papa bought. It’s so pretty, isn’t it? See that half-circle of trees behind the house? And look at that big patch of sunflowers by the fence.”

  “Are we going into the house this time?”

  “No. We can’t be on the property. It’s not ours – yet.”

  “But it will be soon, won’t it?”

  “It will be yours someday, I hope, Oliver. That’s what Mr. Warner and I are trying to arrange.” She glanced down at him and saw him heave a sigh and stick out his bottom lip. Laughing, she tickled him. “Do you think your mama is a silly goose to come out here and sit and look at the land and the house?”

  “Stop, stop,” he said, giggling as she continued her tickling attack.

  “Okay.” She kissed his cheek and gathered up the reins. “I suppose we should get back to town.” But the land drew her attention again and she let the reins go slack in her lap. “Look at that hawk, Ollie. How beautiful.”

  “Somebody is on the porch, Mama.”

  Her gaze snapped from the hawk to the porch where a man now stood, naked from the waist up. He stretched, then shaded his eyes and looked in their direction. Flustered, Jennie snatched up the reins and tugged, the pony into a tight turn. Panic bubbled in her and she told herself to calm down, even as she looked over her shoulder to make sure the man was still on the porch and not coming toward them across the field. He wasn’t on the porch anymore.

  “Where did he go?”

  “Back inside.”

  He’s getting a gun or rifle to shoot at us! her mind screamed at her. She urged the pony to continue turning, finally getting the buggy headed back toward town. Looking over her shoulder again, she couldn’t see anyone, and she puffed out a breath as she laid the reins over the horse’s back.

  “Getup, getup,” she said, and the pony cantered.

  “What’s wrong, Mama?”

  “Wrong? Nothing’s wrong. We’re going back home, that’s all.”

  “Are you afraid of that man on the porch?”

  “Afraid?” She laughed, and then realized that the laugh was stilted and her tone had crept up an octave. Oliver was looking at her with wide eyes and a worried frown. “Of course not, Oliver.” She ruffled his hair. “We need to get the buggy bac
k to Mrs. Philpot. It will be time for supper before you know it.” She gave herself a minute to settle her frazzled nerves before she spoke again. “How are your riding lessons coming along?”

  “I’m going to rope cattle soon.”

  “Oh my! Really? You’ll be careful, won’t you?”

  “Mr. Warner says we will rope barrels and fence posts first.”

  “That’s good. Do you have fun with Mr. Warner?”

  “He knows everything, Mama. How to ride, rope, brand, and spit.”

  “S-spit? Oliver, it’s not polite to spit in public. You know that, don’t you?”

  “Mr. Warner told me that already, Mama. But a man has to know how to spit anyways.”

  “He does?” She glanced at him and saw that he was completely serious. She shrugged, figuring it was some kind of male ritual.

  “Mr. Warner says I can call him ‘Partner.’”

  “Is that what you want to call him?”

  He nodded vigorously. “We call each other that.” Thrusting out his small chest, he tucked his chin and said in a deeper voice, “Pahrrrdnerrr.”

  Jennie laughed at his exaggerated drawl and Oliver laughed with her. “You’re turning into a cowboy right before my eyes.”

  “By the time we move into our ranch, I will be riding and roping.”

  “You’re learning very fast.”

  “Mama, did Papa have another wife?”

  The joy vanished from her. From the corner of her eye, she could see Oliver gazing intently at her. Her first inclination was to fib, but she couldn’t do that to Oliver or to her own sense of decency. “Yes. Yes, he did.”

  “But he didn’t have another little boy, did he?”

  She bit her lip to keep from sobbing and shook her head. Tears blurred her vision and she blinked them away and swallowed the rest of them.

  “Why did he need another wife?”

  “I don’t know for sure, Oliver. The important thing is that you were his only child and he loved you very, very much.”

  He gave a quick shrug. “Okay.”

  Jennie smiled, loving the simplicity of innocence. Something brown flashed to the right of them. “Look, Ollie, a deer!”