Kady had run from the office so fast she’d nearly knocked the stove over. Thank heaven it hadn’t been lit or she might have set herself on fire. “At least I would have been able to cook something,” she muttered, as she trudged down the street.
After the cold night in the schoolhouse, she’d had no more luck the morning of the second day. She’d started knocking on the doors of houses. Once she’d looked into the kind eyes of a gray-haired woman and asked her for something to eat. The woman’s face had dissolved into pity, and Kady felt the woman had been about to speak when her husband appeared by her side, glared at Kady, and said, “We don’t take kindly to beggars in this town,” then shut the door in Kady’s face.
So now Kady was walking toward the church to meet Cole. What attitude should she take? That everything was fine and she needed no help? Should she keep her pride at all costs?
Odd how pride fled when one’s belly was involved. When she got back to the twentieth century, maybe she’d write a book titled Time Travel: The New Weight-Loss Plan.
Dignity, she told herself as she walked along the road, she must keep her dignity. There was a long hill just behind the firehouse, crosswise of the road, with a short hedge running atop the ridge. As Kady walked up and over this hill, past the hedge, the town seemed to change. The part of Legend that she’d seen was pretty, but on the other side of the hedge, the town seemed to blossom into heaven. The road forked right and left and the church stood to the left. On the right was a perfect little building with a big porch and round-topped windows. A sign across the front said Legend Library. To the right of the library was a long dirt drive that led up a slight hill, and Kady had to blink twice at what she saw at the end of the drive. Unless she missed her guess, the beautiful white building, with the distinctive dome top, was a mosque.
She’d certainly never heard of a mosque in the Old West! she thought as the turned toward the church. Flowers grew beside the perfectly kept road, and the churchyard was a blanket of tiny blue blossoms amid the luxurious grass. Obviously, Legend’s mines were prospering if they could afford to keep public buildings in this state.
As she neared the church, she could hear singing, and it made her smile. Perhaps the church people would have more pity on her situation. Perhaps she could talk to the pastor and he could help her find employment. Why hadn’t she thought of that before?
Slowly, Kady climbed the steps of the church and sat down heavily in the shade of the porch overhang to wait for Cole. He would, of course, buy her a meal, she thought, then smiled at the prospect.
She didn’t have to wait long, for he rode up on his horse just minutes later, and the sight of him made Kady feel relief. He was her friend; he’d help her.
“Am I late?” he asked anxiously. “I thought I was to meet you at two.”
“No,” she said, smiling, wishing with all her heart that her hair were clean and she had on something other than a filthy, torn wedding dress. “I’m early.”
He took his time dismounting, slowly came up the stairs, then hesitated as though deciding what to do. “I’m to rehearse my solo for the service tomorrow. The pastor is leaving town for a couple of weeks, so we need music to fill up the time. After a couple of songs from me, they’ll be begging for his return.” He was grinning at her, not a care in the world, as though he didn’t see what a mess she was.
He took a step toward the door, then turned back and sat down on the step beside her. “Are you all right?”
Part of Kady wanted to say that yes, everything was grand, but her stomach growled, so she couldn’t lie. “No, nothing is all right.”
He took her dirty hand in his big, warm, clean one. “Want to tell me about it? How’s your new job?”
“I have no job!” she said passionately, but when he glanced at the half-open church door, she quietened. “No one would hire me. No one anywhere, not in a public kitchen or private. I even applied at the laundry, and they turned me down too.”
“Family owned,” he said, making her look at him in question. “The laundry is Mr. Simmons’s, and he has six daughters, so he’d not want to pay an outsider.”
Kady looked at him hard. Was he missing the point? “I couldn’t find any job anywhere,” she said evenly. “No one would hire me.”
“Did you try the mines?”
She blinked, then said in a steady, slow voice as though explaining to an idiot, “I tried the Tarik Mine, but I didn’t go to the others because they were too far away. I’m on foot. And in this dress it’s a bit difficult to get around.”
“Ah, yes. Bet you the manager was nice, but his foreman sent you away.”
“Yes,” she said, looking at him in wonder, since he still didn’t seem to be understanding what her problem was.
“Last month the foreman’s girlfriend in Denver married someone else, and he’s, well, a bit off women at the moment. Doesn’t want to see any of them.” Cole put her hand back in her lap. “Rotten luck that you tried the Tarik first. I’m sure the Lily or the Amaryllis needs a cook. And what about the jail? It’s a couple of miles out of town, on the way to Denver, but maybe they need someone.” He glanced at the church door. “I have to go now. Thanks for coming, and I’m very glad to see that you’re all right.”
For a moment Kady sat there in stunned silence. He couldn’t be going to leave her just like that, could he? “Cole!” she hissed at him, making him turn back, his body half inside the church.
“Yes, Miss Long?” he whispered so he wouldn’t disturb the people singing in the church.
“I am not all right,” she said. “I’m not all right at all.” Then, to her disgust, she began to cry. Turning her face away so he wouldn’t see her, she looked back when he handed her a clean handkerchief. He had seated himself beside her and was waiting with a small frown on his face. No doubt he was annoyed that she was keeping him from choir practice. She was in danger of starving to death, and he was worried he’d be late for choir practice!
“I don’t mean to keep you here, but I . . . I need help,” she said, the words foreign to her. Even in the kitchen she refused to ask the men to lift the huge copper stockpots; she liked to do things by herself.
“What can I do to help you?” he asked softly.
“I can’t find a job,” she repeated. “No one needs a cook; no one will even give me a chance to prove that I can cook.”
He was silent.
Kady blew her nose. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”
“I don’t know what to say. You’ve made it clear that you don’t want me to protect you, so there is nothing I can do. I can’t very well force someone to give you a job, now can I? It’s not as though I own the town.” He chuckled at this thought.
“But couldn’t you put in a good word—”
“If I did that, later you would hate me. You’d think I’d interfered in something that was none of my business and you’d hate me. Miss Long, I value your friendship too much to do anything to jeopardize it.”
He patted her hand, glanced toward the church door, and looked as though he was going to leave again.
Kady grabbed his arm. “I wouldn’t hate you no matter what. You’ve lived in this town all your life and—”
“Actually, I came here when I was four.”
“That doesn’t matter!” she gasped, then took a breath to calm herself. “All I’m asking is that you talk to some people.”
He looked at her in sympathy. “The problem is that there are ten people for every job. When we needed a new schoolteacher, every man’s wife and half the daughters in this town wanted the job. The town council had a devil of a time choosing just one person. It’s the silver, you see. Legend is fairly rich in silver, and everyone wants to be here in hopes of striking it rich.” His face lit up. “I could take you to Denver. Maybe there you’d find—”
“No! I can’t leave here because I must find the rocks where I came through. If I’m ever to get back, that’s the way.”
Turning away, he looked
out toward the lovely lawn in front of the church. “Ah, yes, Gilford.”
“Gregory,” Kady said. “The name of the man I love is Gregory.”
Cole kept his face turned away, but she could see a tiny smile playing at the corner of his lips, as though what she’d said were a great joke.
But none of this was a joke to Kady, she thought as, once again, she buried her face in her hands. “You have to help me. I’m hungry. I haven’t had anything to eat in—”
She broke off because Cole let out a rather loud belch.
“I do beg your pardon,” he said, his hand to his mouth. “Beans. It’s the only thing Manuel knows how to cook. It’s beans for breakfast, beans for lunch, beans for supper. Beans and—”
“I can cook something besides beans,” Kady said brightly, looking up at him with pleading eyes. “I can cook anything.”
Cole looked at her with the eyes of a man explaining the very simplest concepts of life. “You are an independent, self-supporting woman, and I respect that. I know you take a great deal of pride in being able to care for yourself with the help of no one else on earth, so how could I—”
“Cut it out,” she snapped. “You don’t need to make me grovel. So you were right. At least you were right in this time and this place.”
“Is that an apology? A full apology or half of one?”
“It’s all you’re going to get, so be thankful for it.”
Cole gave her a little grin.
“Stop gloating and take me out and buy me the biggest meal this town has to offer. It’ll be my final meal before I become your food slave.”
He arched an eyebrow. “As opposed to what other kind of slave?”
“Just feed me and let’s go.”
But Cole didn’t move, and his face lost its teasing look. “Kady, I can’t give you a job.”
“Because I said—”
Taking both her hands in his, he looked into her eyes. “You may have noticed that Legend isn’t like other mining towns. No, that’s right, you said you’d never been to a mining town, so you’ll just have to trust me that it is different. Other towns have a lawlessness about them that we don’t allow here in Legend.”
She didn’t understand. “It’s illegal for me to cook for you?”
“No, of course not. It’s just where I live.”
At that she looked at him. He was clean, and the blue cotton shirt he had on had been ironed within an inch of its life. Somehow, she couldn’t imagine Cole Jordan living in a shack.
“I live in a place out of town, that way,” he said, nodding toward the east. “There are no other houses near me, and, well, Miss Long, it just wouldn’t look right for you and me to live there alone with just old Manuel and a few ranch hands for chaperons.” His eyes showed sadness. “After choir practice I can take you out for a meal, but I really don’t know what else I can do. I can’t force anyone to hire a cook they don’t need. I’d give you all the money I have, but the whole town would know in a minute, and, well, your reputation would suffer.” His voice lowered. “This is a town full of men, and if you were taking money from me, they might think you were a different kind of woman than what you really are.”
Kady had a vision of drunken cowboys, liquored up after a trail drive, tearing down the door to her cheap hotel room and . . . She shook her head to clear it. “Too many movies, Elizabeth Kady,” she heard her mother’s voice saying in her head.
Cole pressed her hands in his. “I really don’t know how to help you.” He glanced at the door to the church. “I must go now. After choir practice, we can talk more. Maybe I can persuade someone to take you in. Some people in town owe me favors, so maybe—”
Kady’s grimace made him cut off. “Charity,” she said under her breath and imagined how uncomfortable it would be to live as an unwanted guest in a stranger’s house.
It was at that moment that Kady changed her attitude. Extraordinary problems called for extraordinary solutions. As Gregory’s handsome face flashed before her eyes, she thought how his mysterious dark looks were such a contrast to Cole’s blue-eyed blondness, Cole’s open and guileless face.
She loved Gregory, loved him very much, but he wasn’t here. He wasn’t even born yet, and she wouldn’t be doing him any favor if she kept her pride and starved to death before she could get back to him.
After taking a deep breath to give herself courage, she straightened her shoulders and looked into Cole’s candid blue eyes. “Is your marriage proposal still open?” she asked, and instantly she could see the shock on his face.
“You’re engaged to marry someone else.”
“Desperate times call for desperate measures.”
Cole gave her a look that said, Thanks a lot.
“You know what I mean.”
He looked down at her hands, still resting in his. “I offered marriage in the heat of the moment. I felt grateful to you for saving me, but now I wonder what people would say. I’m afraid they’ll—”
“Why, you low-down, lying bastard!” she said, snatching her hands from his. “Here I am starving, starving! mind you, and all you can think of is what this overly manicured little town will say. Let me tell you, Mr. Jordan, that this town isn’t worth thinking about. They’d let a lone woman starve to death before they’d sully their pristine reputations.”
She was so angry she forgot about her hunger and exhaustion and stood, which allowed her to look down at him. “Right now I wish I hadn’t saved that overly muscled neck of yours. And when I’m found dead in some alley, my death is going to be on your head!”
With that utterly magnificent riposte, she grabbed her train, slung it over her arm and started down the stairs. Unfortunately for her self-esteem, she tripped over Cole’s big feet and went tumbling forward. But he caught her in his arms and pulled her back to sit on his lap.
Kady was so angry she wouldn’t look at him, but held herself as rigid as possible.
“I guess I do owe you a favor.”
“No one has to marry me as a favor,” she said through clenched teeth. “And put me down before one of your ‘Legendary’ saints sees us together.”
Her play on the town’s name made him smile. “Too late,” he said, his smile widening.
Kady rolled her head back to look up at the entire choir of Legend, Colorado, as they jammed themselves together in the doorway to stare in open fascination at her and Cole.
“I’m afraid that now I have no other choice except to marry you,” he said. “Now that I have—”
“So help me, if you say that you’ve ruined my reputation, I’ll throw up on you.”
For a moment Cole looked at her half in amusement, half in shock, then he glanced up at the choir, still staring as though they were natives seeing their first peep show. “If you will excuse us, Miss Long and I need to discuss a few matters in private.”
When the spectators were gone, Cole looked back at Kady, opened his mouth to speak, but instead, looked down at her. The way she was positioned in his arms made the tops of her breasts push up out of the dress until they were nearly popping out of the neckline. And the tight dress showed off every curve of Kady’s lush figure. She might be thought to have a “weight problem” in the late twentieth century, but she’d already been in this century long enough to know that here a woman was supposed to look like a woman.
“Touch me and you die,” she hissed, her nose a quarter inch from his.
For a moment he just looked at her; then with a sigh of reluctance, he slowly set her back on the porch step beside him. “You are right,” he said after a while. “I do owe you. I owe you my life, and I did offer to marry you, so I must—”
He stopped when he saw Kady’s tight-lipped glare.
“I would be honored to marry you,” he said solemnly. “Honored and pleased. And I want you to know that I respect your unusual circumstances, so you are under no obligation to perform your wifely duties. Unless you want to, that is,” he added.
Kady hadn’t really tho
ught that far ahead. Right now she wanted a meal, a bath, and a bed, in that order. Her anger at this man was taking the last of her energy.
Kady drew a deep breath, but no matter how much she tried to calm herself, her voice still came out with a nervous tremor. “Yes,” she said in a tiny voice.
“Pardon? I couldn’t hear you.”
She glared at him. “I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there is something about you that I truly dislike. Only starvation would make me marry you.”
He gave her a smug little smile. “Maybe I could find another man to take care of you. I’m sure someone somewhere would be willing to marry you.”
She ignored his snide remark, refusing to think of what might befall her if she found herself married to a man who didn’t own a badge for continuous church attendance. “I want to remind you that you owe me,” she said levelly. “I saved your life and as for my wifely duties, if you try to force me to do anything I don’t want to, I’ll—”
The voice that cut her off was angry. “I do not force women or harm them in any way,” he said, his jaw clenched. “I am marrying you as a necessary way of protecting you. It is as you say, I owe you. Now, if you are through disparaging my character, would you like to go into the church and get married or not?” he asked. “You are free to leave if don’t want to marry me.”
Kady knew she’d been put in her place. Maybe she was making more of this than there was. He had told her he thought she was beautiful, but that had obviously not sent him into uncontrollable lust. As he’d said, he could have forced her when they were alone near the Hanging Tree, but he hadn’t.
LEGEND Page 8
