Spirit's Song

by Madeline Baker

  “What did I tell you?” Kaylynn said, pushing her plate away.

  Jesse nodded. “You were right.”

  The girl, Cora, came in to the clear the table a few minutes later. “Mrs. Moseley thought you might want to wash up. Kevin filled the tubs in both of your rooms.”

  “Tell Mrs. Moseley thank you for me,” Kaylynn said. “A hot bath sounds wonderful.”

  “Yes, miss.”

  Kaylynn stood up. “Come on,” she said, offering Jesse her hand.

  Jesse took her hand and stood up. “I’m not sure my staying here is a good idea.”

  “Why not?”

  He shrugged as he followed her up the stairs.

  “But I want you to stay. Please, Jesse.”

  He nodded. If she wanted him to stay, he would.

  She paused at the top of the stairs. “I’ll meet you in the library in…hmm, an hour?”

  “An hour,” Jesse said.

  Smiling, Kaylynn kissed him on the cheek, then went into her bedroom and closed the door.

  Jesse stared after her a moment, then went into the room that was to be his during his stay.

  He stood in the middle of the floor and did a slow turn. He had stayed in some nice hotels in his time but never, in all his life, had he stayed in a room as elegant as this one.

  He locked the door from force of habit. He looked at the bed, reluctant to sit on it, and then he shrugged. What the hell. Sitting on the edge of the mattress, he took off his boots, thinking they could use a good polishing. Rising, he shucked his clothes and tossed them on the bed, then padded naked into the bathroom.

  Steam wafted from a porcelain tub. There were several clean towels folded on a shelf, topped by a bar of finely milled soap.

  He stepped into the tub and sat down, a low sound of pleasure rising in his throat as the hot water enveloped him. Head back, arms resting on either edge of the tub, he closed his eyes, imagining Kaylynn in her own room, reclining in her own bathtub. The thought flowed through him, hotter than the water that covered him.

  Muttering an oath, he opened his eyes, scattering the images. He had known she came from a well-to-do family, but seeing her home, the way she lived, made him realize anew just how wrong he was for her. He would never fit in her world. She deserved a man who came from a similar background, one who had similar interests.

  He glanced around the room. A man could get used to this kind of life right quick if he wasn’t careful, he mused. So he’d have to careful.

  * * * * *

  Kaylynn drew her finger across the surface of the water, spelling Jesse’s name, wondering if he was also taking a bath. The thought made her warm all over. Jesse. He loved her. Had made love to her. She smiled, and then giggled. She’d never been in love like this before. He was in every thought, every hope for the future…

  They would buy a house. He would get a job, maybe working for her father in the bank. They would make love every night, take walks in the park, have Sunday dinner with her parents.

  It would all be so wonderful, unless Jesse wanted children. A familiar ache filled her heart, and her arms felt suddenly empty. She had wanted children, dozens of them, but it wasn’t to be. Maybe, if Jesse was agreeable, they could adopt a child. There were so many children who needed love. She had gone to the orphanage with her mother on several occasions. It had broken her heart to see the babies that had been abandoned by the very people who should have loved them the most. It wasn’t fair, she thought, that she should want a child so badly and be unable to conceive when there were hundreds of women who had children and threw them away.

  She shivered, aware that the water had grown cold. Stepping from the tub, she wrapped up in a towel. It was soft against her skin and smelled faintly of soap and sunshine.

  Going into her room, she opened the drawers in the bureau. Everything was as she had left it. On one hand, she had been upset when Alan insisted she leave everything behind. On the other hand, she had been glad to know that her furniture and belongings would be there, waiting for her, when she came back to visit. When she married, she had been certain they would return to visit her parents at least once a year. She had been certain of so many things when she married, she thought sadly, and wondered how she could have been so wrong.

  She pulled on her undergarments, then moved to the armoire. She had left several dresses behind, too. She ran her hands over them now, enjoying the feel of the soft wools, the cool silk.

  After months of wearing nothing but buckskin, it seemed odd to have a choice of so many fabrics, so many colors. Pink muslin. Blue silk. A pale-yellow challis. Stripes and plaids and prints.

  Blue had always been her favorite color. The silk felt cool and delicious against her skin. She put on a pair of stockings and half-boots, then brushed her hair until it gleamed.

  She looked at herself in the full-length mirror and smiled at her reflection. It had been almost a year since she’d seen herself so clearly. She looked older, thinner. What would her parents think?

  She tied her hair back with a white ribbon, then went downstairs, eager to see Jesse, but he was nowhere to be found.

  Going into the kitchen, she asked Mrs. Moseley if she knew where he had gone.

  “I believe he went to the stable, to check on his horse,” Mrs. Moseley said.

  “Of course,” Kaylynn said. “Where else would he be?” Going into the pantry, she grabbed a couple of carrots, then went out the back door and ran down the path to the stable.

  She found Jesse in the barn, brushing the roan. “I should have known I’d find you here,” she said, grinning.

  Jesse shrugged. He felt a sight more comfortable out here, with his horse, than he did in the house.

  Kaylynn glanced at the watch pinned to her shirtwaist. “My parents will be home soon.”

  “I reckon they’ll be glad to see you.”

  “I hope so.”

  “Why wouldn’t they be? You’re their daughter.”

  “I know, but they didn’t want me to marry Alan. My mother wanted me to marry the son of an old school chum of hers.” Rodney Farnsworth had been a nice guy, with dark-brown hair and blue eyes. He had been sweet and polite, and she had liked him a lot, but he hadn’t fit her image of Prince Charming. She wondered now if she might not have been happier with the toad than the prince. “I guess my marrying Alan upset them more than I thought.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I thought we’d keep in touch, through letters, you know, that Alan and I would come back to visit, but…” She sighed. “I wrote home every month. In six years, I think I got two letters from my mother and one from my father.”

  Jesse rested his arms on the roan’s back. “I’m sorry, Kay.”

  She shrugged, as if it didn’t matter, but he knew it did. He could see the hurt, the uncertainty, in her eyes. Putting the curry comb aside, he drew Kaylynn into his arms. Damn, but it felt good to hold her. He wished he had the right to lay her down on a pile of sweet-smelling straw and kiss her until she saw nothing, wanted nothing, but him. But this was not the time or the place. He didn’t belong here, and all the wishing in the world wouldn’t make it so.

  He held her for a long time, one hand moving up and down her back, until, with a sigh, she moved out of his arms.

  “We should probably go back to the house,” she said. “My parents will be home soon.” She reached for his hand and squeezed it tight. “I’m glad you’re here. I know it’s silly, but I’m really nervous about seeing them again.”

  Jesse nodded. He would stay, for her. He would meet her parents, endure their scrutiny and their questions, do anything Kaylynn asked of him because he couldn’t do anything else. He wondered if she knew the power she had over him.

  Hand in hand, they left the barn and walked up to the house. They entered through the kitchen, because it was closer.

  “There you are!” Mrs. Moseley exclaimed. “My, my, I’m so glad you’re here. I didn’t know if you wanted me to tell your mother and
father you were home, or not.”

  “They’re here?” Kaylynn asked.

  “Just came in. They’re upstairs, dressing for dinner.”

  Kaylynn’s nails dug into Jesse’s palm. She glanced down at her dress. “How do I look?” she asked.

  “Beautiful,” Jesse said.

  “You look fine, child,” Mrs. Moseley said, beaming at Kaylynn. “I’ve prepared all your favorites for supper. Go along now. Lord, this is a happy day.”

  Kaylynn nodded. Clinging to Jesse’s hand as if it were a lifeline, she left the kitchen and went into the back parlor. Her parents always spent a few minutes there before dinner, discussing the day’s events over a glass of wine.

  Moving to the liquor cabinet, she withdrew four crystal goblets and filled them with wine. Her hands were shaking so badly, she was surprised she managed to get the wine into the glasses.

  She heard footsteps in the hall, the sound of her mother’s voice, and then her parents were there, her mother slightly ahead of her father, and they were both staring at her as if she’d come back from the dead.

  They had both aged in the last six years. Her father’s hair, once a dark brown, was graying at the temples. There were worry lines in her mother’s brow that hadn’t been there before.

  “Kaylynn.” Her mother took a step forward, one hand outstretched, and then she rushed forward, tears streaming down her face as she enveloped her daughter in her arms.

  Jesse stood back, watching the play of emotions move over William Duvall’s face as he watched his wife and daughter embrace. Tears glistened in the man’s eyes.

  Kaylynn looked over her mother’s shoulder and smiled at her father, and he crossed the room, wrapping his arms around both women.

  “Katydid,” her father whispered hoarsely. “Thank God you’re home.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Later that night, Jesse sat at the dinner table across from Kaylynn, feeling like a fish out of water. Never in all his life had he seen such an array of silver and crystal and china. A fine white cloth covered the table. Tall white tapers burned in a pair of crystal candlesticks. An elderly man clad in a black suit hovered in the background, making sure platters were passed, wineglasses filled.

  He slid a glance at Kaylynn’s parents. Her father sat at the head of the table. He was a tall, spare man, with shrewd green eyes and graying brown hair. He looked to be in his late fifties.

  Elizabeth Duvall was a few inches shorter than her husband. Her dark-red hair was coiled in a neat bun at her nape. Her eyes were a lighter shade of brown than her daughter’s. She looked slight, almost frail.

  “Jesse, would you like anything else?” Kaylynn asked.

  He shook his head. He had to agree that Mrs. Moseley was a fine cook. There was succulent roast beef, chicken and dumplings, potatoes and gravy, sweet corn, freshly baked biscuits that melted in his mouth. Just when he thought he couldn’t eat another bite, she brought out a seven-layer chocolate cake, and an apple pie, still warm from the oven.

  Kaylynn clapped her hands with delight.

  “Which will it be, miss?” the butler asked, hovering at Kaylynn’s elbow.

  “Both!” she exclaimed.

  William and Elizabeth Duvall beamed at her. Earlier, when the first rush of excitement at Kaylynn’s homecoming had passed, they had spent an hour in the parlor while Kaylynn and her parents got reacquainted. She had not told her parents that her husband abused her. She had not told them about the time she had spent with the Indians. Jesse listened, saying nothing, as she explained that she had decided to come home for a visit, and that the stage had been attacked by robbers and that Jesse had kindly agreed to see her safely home. In answer to their question, she explained that Alan had not been with her when the stage was held up because he had stayed in San Francisco to see to several urgent business matters.

  She went on to say that she and Jesse had become good friends during the journey, and that she had invited him to stay with them while he was in the city.

  Besides leaving out the fact that she had been captured by Indians, she neglected to mention Jesse’s line of work as well. He guessed he couldn’t blame her for that. It troubled him that she hadn’t told her parents they were in love, but he couldn’t fault her for that, either. He was not the kind of man her parents would ever accept as a son-in-law. Her father and mother had both been stiffly polite, but Jesse had been acutely aware of her mother’s revulsion, her father’s misgivings. Well, he couldn’t blame them. He wasn’t the kind of man he’d want his daughter to marry, either, if he had one.

  His gaze moved over her now. Here, in her own home, surrounded by those she loved, Kaylynn fairly sparkled. Between alternating bites of chocolate cake and apple pie, she caught his gaze, and smiled.

  When dinner was over, they went into the formal parlor. Jesse had the feeling Kaylynn’s mother had chosen this room to more clearly demonstrate to her daughter just how unsuitable and out of place he was, just in case Kaylynn might be harboring any ideas about him she shouldn’t be having.

  Feeling like a mustang in a room full of thoroughbreds, Jesse sat down on a dainty damask-covered sofa beside Kaylynn.

  Her mother sat on a spindly chair. Her back, which was ramrod straight, did not touch the back of the chair.

  “So, Mr. Thunder,” Elizabeth said, smoothing her cream-colored skirts, “how long will you be staying with us?”

  Jesse swallowed a grin. She didn’t really want to know how long he was staying, but how soon he was leaving.

  “I’m not sure.”

  Kaylynn looked at her mother. “I told Jesse he was welcome to stay as long as he wished.” She glanced at her father, who was standing beside the fireplace, looking handsome and distinguished in a forest-green smoking jacket. “That’s right, isn’t it?”

  Elizabeth’s hands fluttered in the air. “Of course, dear.”

  “Naturally, Katydid.”

  Kaylynn smiled at her parents. “That’s what I thought.” She turned to Jesse and patted his hand. “We have a lot of sightseeing to do. Jesse’s never been to New York before.”

  William and Elizabeth exchanged worried looks, neither of which was lost on Jesse.

  Elizabeth cleared her throat. “Tell me, Mr. Thunder…”

  “Jesse. Just call me Jesse.”

  Elizabeth smiled, but there was no warmth in it. “Of course. Jesse. Tell me, what is it you do for a living?”

  Jesse looked over at Kaylynn. “I’m a bounty hunter.”

  “A bounty hunter?” Elizabeth repeated.

  “He hunts outlaws,” William explained. “For money. Isn’t that right?”

  Jesse nodded.

  “I see.” Elizabeth looked at Kaylynn, obviously wondering if her daughter knew what sort of man she had brought into their home. “It sounds…dangerous.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Jesse replied. “It can be.”

  There was an awkward moment of silence.

  Elizabeth came to the rescue with a complete change of subject. “I’m sure your friends will all want to see you while you’re here, Kaylynn. What would you think about having a party, say, two weeks from Saturday?”

  “That isn’t much time to plan,” Kaylynn exclaimed.

  “A party is just what we need,” Elizabeth said. “Things have been dreadfully dull this summer.”

  A fancy party, Jesse mused. One more way for her parents to show Kaylynn that he wouldn’t fit in, that he wasn’t good enough for her. As if he didn’t already know that.

  “I’d love it!” Kaylynn said. Two and a half weeks would give her plenty of time to find a dress and take Jesse sightseeing. “How’s Grams?”

  “She’s fine now,” William answered. “She was quite sick a few months back.”

  “She was? Was it serious?”

  William shook his head. “No.”

  “Good.” Kaylynn looked at Jesse. “We’ll have to visit her soon. I want you to meet her.”

  Jesse nodded.

  “
We’ll need to get invitations out as soon as possible,” Elizabeth remarked. “Tomorrow, I’ll speak to Mrs. Moseley about the menu.”

  “I can’t wait!” Kaylynn exclaimed, excited at the prospect of seeing all her old friends again, of wearing a new gown. Of dancing with Jesse. She smiled at the thought of seeing him in evening clothes. He’d look divine. “I can’t wait!” she said again. “Oh, Jesse, won’t it be fun?”

  “Fun,” he said.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Kaylynn took him shopping the next day. It was an ordeal Jesse hoped never to endure again. He didn’t know which was worse, waiting while she picked out fabrics and patterns at her favorite dressmaker’s, or being measured for clothes of his own. She picked out several shirts and cravats, wool trousers in gray and brown and black, a suit of evening clothes.

  “Just charge it to my father’s account,” she said as they prepared to leave the shop.

  “No,” Jesse said. “I’ll pay for it now.”

  “But…”

  Jesse silenced her with a look. “I can afford it.”

  Apparently realizing she had hit a sore spot, Kaylynn went outside to wait while Jesse settled the bill.

  “I’m sorry,” she said when he joined her on the boardwalk.

  “I pay my own way,” he said, taking her arm.

  “I’ll remember that,” Kaylynn replied with a toss of her head.

  “See that you do, woman,” he replied with mock ferocity.

  Walking down the street, he was aware of being stared at. Some people were openly repulsed by his scarred face, some merely curious. He felt naked walking around without his gun, but Kaylynn had asked, with a sweet, winning smile, if he would please leave it home. He’d have done anything she asked just to have her smile at him like that.

  The city itself was a busy place, filled with people in a rush. Hacks and cabs and carriages crowded the street. Men and women hurried along the boardwalk. Factory smoke filled the air, along with the shouts of the draymen, the sound of horses’ hooves and carriage wheels. In the distance, a clock relentlessly chimed the hour, scolding those who were late.