Catherine took aim and, firing quickly, emptied her weapon, hitting every target from the glass bottles to playing cards.
Cody studied her for long moments before he gave her a nod. “Are you any good with moving targets?”
“Better than with still ones,” replied Catherine. “Usually the things I shoot at back home are not stationary.”
He laughed. “No. I’m sure they’re not.”
For the next few minutes he had two of his men throw clay pigeons into the air, one after the other, then both at the same time. Catherine hit them all, emptying her gun again and again, until she was out of ammunition.
“Very impressive, m’dear! I’d like to offer you a position with my show. The pay is good, and you’ll get to see the country, maybe the world.”
“Now, Bill—” began Duncan with a frown.
Catherine placed her hand on her husband’s arm. He stopped speaking and looked at her. She smiled at him before turning to Buffalo Bill. “Mr. Cody, while I appreciate the offer, and tempting though it may be, I must decline. I would never leave Duncan or our children for any reason, even to become part of your famous show. You see, they are my life. They are everything to me.”
The man chuckled. “I had to try.” Cody looked at Duncan. “You’ve got yourself a good woman there, son.”
Duncan relaxed and covered her hand as it lay on his arm. It was a sign of unmistakable possession for Bill’s benefit, but also, she knew, a bit of comfort for Duncan. “I know I do. Wish we could stay a little longer, but I’ve got reservations for dinner, and we need to dress.”
“Of course. I’m so glad you and Catherine stopped by. And Catherine,” Cody turned to her and took her hand in his, brought it to his lips and kissed the top of it. “If you should ever change your mind, the offer will always be open.”
They took a cab back to the hotel where they dressed for dinner. Catherine wore the beautiful dress Duncan bought her. It was so lovely, she felt like a fairy princess in it. She’d make sure to save it for Lizzie. When she got to be fifteen or sixteen, she’d have something wonderful to wear to the dances. And Catherine would make sure there were plenty of dances for her daughter to attend, even if she had to organize every one herself.
Duncan looked at her across the table. “What do you want to do tomorrow?”
Catherine had just taken a bite of her second brownie when he’d asked the question. She held up her index finger while she continued to chew. Finally she swallowed. “You do that on purpose—”
“I don’t,” he chuckled.
“—every time. You wait until I’ve taken a bite of something and know I can’t answer you, and then you ask a question. You do. I’m tempted not to answer,” she said pertly.
“But…” he said with a knowing smile.
“But, I want to go see the dinosaur that young bellhop was talking about. It sounds amazing.”
He nodded decisively. “If that’s what my pretty little wife wants to see, then that’s what we’ll do.” He finished his coffee and put the cup down. “Are you ready to go back upstairs?”
“Yes.” She’d finished her last bite of brownie and was thoroughly content. “I feel like a cat that’s eaten all the cream and now just wants to lie in the sun and sleep.”
Duncan cocked his eyebrow. “I actually had a more vigorous activity in mind.”
She smiled back at him. “I’m always ready to make love to you, my handsome husband.”
They rose and Duncan followed her out of the dining room. Excitement filled her, so much so, she could barely keep to a walk across the Grand Rotunda to the staircase. Once they were up the stairs and in their room, Duncan was behind Catherine, pulling her to him, next thing she knew, his hands were busy with her buttons.
“You have too many of these—”
She pulled quickly away. “Don’t you dare rip off my clothes! I happen to like this dress and it’s new and can’t be replaced. Now be nice and unbutton me please.”
Knowing how much Duncan liked it that way, she’d worn her hair down at dinner, with the sides pulled back by gold combs. All she had to do was reach up and lift her hair to give him access to her back.
“Now you just go over to the bed, put your hands behind your head and pretend it’s the first time I took my clothes off for you.
“Remember? I was so embarrassed and when I tried to turn away, you shot off the bed and eased my fears.”
She paused. “There is no fear, now. Instead, I’m going to tease you, and you can’t do anything about it but watch.” She smiled her most seductive smile. “Are you ready, big man?”
He walked to the bed, took off his boots and lay down. “I’m ready when you are, beautiful lady.”
Catherine slowly let her dress fall into a heap on the floor. Her corset was a surprise for Duncan. She hadn’t let him see the black lace confection, having dressed behind the screen that evening.
“How do you like it?” She watched him squirm on the bed. “Think it was worth the money?”
“Every penny,” he croaked.
Next she pulled down her bloomers and revealed her stockings. They went midway up her thigh where she’d tied them with black ribbon to match her corset. She’d planned on having the chance to do this for Duncan and, truth be told, for her. Giving them time for each other and adding a little something extra to their intimacy, was the purpose of this honeymoon. She intended to take full advantage of that and of her husband.
Besides she needed to get him softened up before she told him her news. He wasn’t going to be happy she’d waited to tell him. As a matter of fact, he could be downright angry about it, because he wouldn’t have wanted her to make the trip, sleeper car or not.
She sashayed over to the bed and raised her right foot, resting it on the bed near Duncan’s feet, giving him full open view of her naked mons. Then she untied the ribbon and rolled her stocking down and off her foot. She did the same thing with the other stocking.
Putting both feet on the floor, she spread them apart and started on the hooks down the front of her corset. Slow, very slow, she undid them one by one. Duncan did his best, he really did, and he lasted longer than she thought he would, but suddenly he was there, undoing the last of her hooks and bending to take one dusky nipple in his mouth.
“You are a minx, and I love you for it,” he said, moving to the other nipple.
She ran her fingers through his hair and then pulled his head up for a searing kiss.
“You, my love, have too many clothes on.” She worked at the buttons on his shirt, while he undid his belt and the buttons on his pants.
Soon, they were both naked and she had a finger on his chest, walking him backward toward the bed. When he reached it, she gave him a gentle push down.
She followed him to the mattress. “Now, my darling, you are mine.” She lowered her head, took his lips with hers and proceeded to show him what being hers meant.
He didn’t seem to mind at all.
CHAPTER 4
It was the nineteenth of June and Duncan was running out of time. They were enjoying the coffee that he’d gotten for them from the dining room when he said, “Cat, I need to talk to you.”
“I need to talk to you,” she said at the same time.
“You go first,” they said together.
Both of them waited for the other to start.
“All right,” said Duncan, taking a deep breath. “I’ll go first since I’m on a timetable. I received a letter.” He got his coat took the letter out of the pocket where it had rested since he’d received it and handed it to her.
She looked up at him then at the envelope in her hand. Dread crossed her features before she schooled them.
“Read it.”
She opened it and took the letter out.
April 2, 1893
Dear Mr. McKenzie
I don’t know whether this letter will find you but my name is Philip Nelson. This is not going to be easy for you to hear, so I’m going to
just say it. You are my half-brother.
Her gaze darted to her grim-faced husband. Finding out he had a brother after all these years was devastating. She continued reading.
My father had an affair with your mother, one Molly McKenzie. None of this was known until my father’s death two weeks ago.
At that time, it was discovered that you were his son and he’d kept track of your exploits as an adult for some time, which is how I have found you.
I’m not going to mince words in this letter. We must meet. You have inherited the family stud farm in Kentucky and need to take possession of said farm.
I will be at the family summer home in Chicago for the summer, beginning on June 1st. Please arrange to meet with us on June 20th to discuss the farm and the requirements of the inheritance.
Sincerely,
Philip Nelson
“Well?” asked Duncan. “What do you think?”
She slowly lowered the letter to her lap. Feeling betrayed, she tried to keep the anger from her voice but was unsuccessful. “I think you brought me to Chicago under false pretenses. Why did you think you had to trick me to get me here?”
“I don’t know.” He ran his hand through his hair, pacing back and forth across the rug in front of her. “I was so surprised and angry when I got the letter. I made an immediate decision for us to come. I went to the telegraph office and sent the telegrams to reserve the room, arrange to see Bill Cody, and to confirm that I would be meeting my brother on the twentieth. My brother, Cat. I was afraid you wouldn’t come with me and I need you here. I need your support, no matter what happens at the meeting tomorrow.”
“You have that, Duncan. You always have it. There wasn’t any need to get me here under false pretenses,” she glanced at the mussed bed where they’d made love until dawn and then looked up at Duncan with a softer tone. “although I have to admit I’ve enjoyed it immensely.”
Duncan sat in the chair in front of her and took her hands. He pressed a kiss to her palms. “It wasn’t entirely false pretenses, Cat. I did want to bring you on a honeymoon. I wanted you to meet Bill, have wanted you to for a long time. I knew he’d be amazed by your skill.”
He watched her blush. Even after all this time, she still didn’t take a compliment in stride.
“Coming now,” he said, “this quickly, and under the guise of showing the horses to new buyers, well, that was a false pretense. I’m sorry.”
She searched his eyes. “You’re not going to sell King George?”
His hands squeezed hers. “No. I wouldn’t do that to you. I know how much he means to you.”
Catherine frowned. “Then why? Why let us fight? Why make me think…”
“Because I knew if you thought I was going to sell him, you’d come. No matter what, you’d come and I needed you here!” His insecurities shone through his cry.
“You didn’t think I’d be by your side if you ask me to?”
Rising suddenly, unable to face the disappointment in her gray eyes, he walked across their sitting room to the open casement windows searching for the right words to explain his actions. He laughed shortly before facing her. “Cat, I’ll admit I haven’t been thinking too straight, since I got that letter. I always thought my father died before I was born. It never occurred to me that my mother had had an affair with a married man. Everything I always believed was a lie. How we lived, the money she got every month…all a lie.”
Duncan turned away and looked out the window, his shoulders hunched, reminding Catherine of a lost little boy. She got up, went to him, and put her arms around him. “Duncan, whatever this is about, whatever you need to do, we’ll do it together. I love you. I will always be here for you and be by your side.”
He turned around and buried his face in the softness of her neck. “I know that. I don’t know what I was thinking. I love you, Cat.”
She felt her eyes moisten at the sincerity in his avowal of his feelings.”I love you too, my love. I have some news of my own.”
He hugged her close before pulling back and looking down at her. “What news do you have, my beautiful wife?”
She hesitated, still unsure how he’d take her news on top of everything else. “I’m pregnant.”
His mouth opened but no words came out.
She shrugged and laughed nervously. “I knew if I told you before we came, you would have made me stay at home. So you see. We both had secrets for this trip.”
She watched the play of emotions cross his face from incredulous to concerned in a heartbeat. “I…I don’t know what to say. Are you all right? Was the trip too hard on you? Maybe you should sit down.”
“Duncan, I’m fine.” She laughed, relieved. She should have known that he would accept this child as easily as he had the others. Yes, they wanted to get the business on sound footing before they had more children, but sometimes God has other plans. “We have plenty of time to talk about the baby. Right now we have more pressing concerns. What are we going to do tomorrow when we meet your brother?”
They sat again at the table and talked, forgetting about breakfast until Catherine’s stomach growled loudly.
“Guess I’d better feed you two.”
“I’m not eating for two yet.” She swatted his arm in play.
“Tell that to the hotel’s brownie baker.”
She laughed as they left to go downstairs to breakfast.
They reached the gates of the World’s Fair at ten o’clock. Not wanting to be jostled about by the crowd when it first opened, they thought arriving an hour later was long enough to wait. They were wrong. The crowd going into the fairgrounds was huge, even with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show just steps away.
Catherine read in the flyer that the fair was supposed to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ first voyage and included a huge reflecting pool representing the ocean he had to cross.
As soon as they were through the crowd and had taken time to admire the pool, they headed for the Field Museum, where the dinosaur was located. The skeleton was a good twenty feet tall, called a Tyrannosaurus Rex, which translated to King of the Lizards. It stood on two feet and its front arms were so short as to be useless, they wouldn’t have helped him kill anything, nor could they hold anything, so Catherine was at a loss to understand what purpose they served. Its massive head was all teeth. This thing was a definite predator.
She shivered looking at it. “If I saw one of those, I’d die on the spot. I’d be a snack for the horrible thing.”
“You wouldn’t just stand there and die. You’d go down fighting, like I would.” Duncan laughed, studying the massive creature. “In the end, we’d both lose, but we wouldn’t stand by and let him kill us.”
“You’re right, but I know the first thing I’d want to do is run. I don’t think something this big is going to be shot down with my pistol. Maybe, if I hit it in the eyes, I’d get lucky and it would go through to the brain.”
Duncan led her away from the dinosaur. “What else would you like to see while we’re here? There are more than a hundred buildings to explore. More than fifty countries and forty three states are represented here.”
“Did Colorado send something?”
“I believe so, we’ll have to look for it. In the meantime, why don’t we go to the exhibit for Philadelphia? It says in the program,” he waved it in front of her, “they sent the Liberty Bell. The actual bell, Cat.”
Catherine tucked her hand through his arm. “Sounds good, then I want to go to the food pavilion. I want to know what’s new, and maybe get some recipes.”
“Okay, let’s go there first.”
Once in the pavilion, they sampled all kinds of new foods. They got each of the kids, the wranglers, and Bridget, packs of chewable gum called Juicy Fruit. There was something called Cream of Wheat, which was an easy replacement for Catherine’s cornmeal mush. She was sure Ian would like the variety, and she would like the ease of preparation.
They also saw a black woman, d
ressed as a slave, wearing a bandana on her head covering her hair, and a white apron, cooking pancakes from a prepared mix. She just added water to the dry mix, stirred it up and cooked the pancakes on a long, flat grill. She was surrounded by people wanting to taste the fluffy looking flapjacks.
In another pavilion, they found Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. Duncan grinned at Catherine and tried some, declaring it very good. The last of the food items they tried was a sweet concoction of popped corn, caramel and peanuts, mixed together and served in a small bag. It was luscious, and Catherine could have stood there all day and eaten it, but Duncan finally pulled her away.
“Let’s stop and rest for a bit. I don’t want to tire you and that new baby out.”
“I’m fine, honey. We’re fine. Let’s go see some of those historical things you like.”
History of all kinds interested Duncan. He wanted to see the Viking ship that was sent by Norway. It was a complete ship with all the oars and the sail. The ship was a replica of a real ship that had been found under a burial mound in Norway in 1880.
At the Louisiana exhibit, all the attendees were given cypress seedlings to plant when they got back to their homes. Catherine declined the gift, saying it would never survive the winter, even if it made it through the dry summer of the mountain valley where they lived in Colorado.
By the time they finished with the Louisiana pavilion, the day was done and so were Duncan and Catherine. “What do you say we have dinner and go to bed early?” she suggested. “Maybe just read.”
He looked over at her and saw the exhaustion on her face. Babies always made her tired, though she’d never admit it. “Sounds good to me. I like the idea of lying beside you reading, or maybe,” he paused, “playing strip poker.” He waggled his eyebrows for her benefit.
She laughed. His antics always made her laugh because it was so rare for her staid, serious husband to be in a playful mood.
Tame A Honeymoon Heart Page 3
