Nissa jumped down. Tugging her gown over her full hips, she grinned. “I’ll be, Adam. You convinced her to come. I should have guessed a looker like you would be able to twist any gal’s heart, even Gypsy Elliott’s.” Without giving him a chance to reply, she went on. “It’s about time you stopped by, Gypsy.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Gypsy replied, not sure what else to say.
“You’re lying, and we both know it, but it’s nice to meet you, too.” Nissa’s infectious grin broadened to reveal a pair of gold teeth. “That ain’t a lie. Whatever else my life offers, I don’t have to hide behind propriety.”
Gypsy smiled. “You don’t seem to be hiding much here.”
“Not on the floor,” she said as she yanked on the shoulder of her dress to let it fall farther down her pudgy arm. Again she winked at Adam. “In the cribs, the gals get used to lying in a man’s ear while they’re lying in his arms. Right, laddie?”
Heat warned Gypsy she was blushing. Before Adam had burst into her life, she had not blushed in years. Coming to the Porcelain Feather had been a mistake. She should leave right away.
She gasped as Nissa linked arms with her. “C’mon, Gypsy. Let me show you around the place.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Scared we’ll ruffle your sensibilities?”
Gypsy was about to reply when her eyes were caught by Adam’s amusement. He must have set this up. Nissa had not been surprised Gypsy was here, only that Adam had persuaded her to come.
“What few sensibilities I have left after my years in the north woods don’t ruffle easily.” Gypsy arched a brow in Adam’s direction.
“Good girl,” Nissa crowed. “C’mon.” Over her shoulder, she added, “Come along, Adam. Let’s see what entertainment we can find for your Gypsy. We ain’t used to the jacks bringing their own gals with them. This should be fun.”
Fun was the last word Gypsy would have chosen. As she stepped beneath the ring of lanterns, she understood a beast’s fear when it was caught in one of the traps set by the jacks. As Nissa chattered, she led Gypsy on a sinuous path between the tables, which were cramped with men.
A pain-filled screech froze Gypsy in midstep. She scanned the room, sure someone was strangling a woman.
“Don’t look like that, Gypsy.” Pointing toward the end of the bar, Nissa said, “That’s just Lolly. Lolly Yerkes. Fortunately the loggers like looking at her enough to put up with her singing.”
Gypsy stared at the blonde, who wore a short wrapper. The singer stood with her foot on a bottle so the men had a view of her silk stockings topped by a lacy garter. Waving her hands like an opera diva, she continued to make that horrid sound. Cheers met every trill.
Laughter came from behind Gypsy. When she glanced back, she gasped. Where was Adam? Blast him for bringing her here and leaving her with Nissa!
Her flush of fury vanished. It must be almost impossible to maneuver through the crowd with his crutch.
But where was he? She searched the room. Every male face was familiar. She was astonished to see Chauncey Lewis, the camp’s inkslinger, with the young blond singer perched on his knee.
He was not the only man with a woman draped over him. Peabody should know better than to cavort with some whore while his wife was at his farm raising his six children alone.
Where was Adam? Once she found him, she would leave. This was no place for her. The jacks were going to be embarrassed to see her here. Farley would be furious if this upset the men. Not that she was worried about his sending her on the hay trail, but if Daniel heard about this …
“Nissa, I think—”
“Lost Adam, haven’t we?” gushed Nissa. “Go on over to the bar, Gypsy, and I’ll round up your gentleman. Have yourself a drink on the house.”
“Thank you.”
Nissa grinned. “Don’t thank me, dearie. This should make for an interesting evening.” She vanished into the crowd.
Knowing it was useless to try to find Adam in the packed room, Gypsy turned to the rough bar. It was crowded, but her elbow in the back of a logger gained her enough room to fold her hands on the scarred top. Posters of half-dressed women were nailed to the wall behind a vast collection of whiskey bottles. A keg of beer sat to one side, a damp spot on the floor where the foam had spilled over the rims of the tin mugs.
“Gypsy!”
She glanced over her shoulder, not surprised to see Oscar when she heard his voice break. Smiling, she asked, “Is it always this crowded?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He blushed to his roots and fled.
“Ma’am?” she repeated. He always called her Gypsy. This was going to cause all kinds of trouble.
“What’ll you have?” The burly bartender must have noticed she had no drink.
Glancing at the whiskey the men were downing as if it tasted as good as her apple pie, she said, “Nothing, thank you.”
“Then move away.” His tiny eyes nearly popped from his head. “What are you doing here? Ain’t no place for a woman who don’t work here.”
Wanting to agree, Gypsy pushed through the crowd. There was scarcely room for twenty people in the room, and more than three times that number must be packed into it. Every breath she took was flavored with sweat and whiskey. Finding Adam among this press of flesh wrapped in stinking wool might be impossible, even for Nissa.
An arm slithered around her, and she tried to pull away. It clamped tightly to her, tugging her against a hard body. Bold fingers settled on her waist.
“Well, well, little lady, don’t think I’ve seen you about afore. What do you say to finding a place to get better acquainted? I—” The man choked as if he had swallowed his drink the wrong way. “Gypsy!”
She pulled away and said coldly, “Good evening, Benson.”
His face became as red as the coals in the blacksmith’s shop. Shocked that she had seen two jacks blush tonight, she left him stuttering. She had to get out of here. Now!
She elbowed through the crowd. The men let her pass, but their amazed gazes pierced her. She had learned a lesson tonight. Listening to Adam was a sure way to find herself neck-deep in trouble.
Another hand grabbed her arm. Trying to shake it off, she snapped, “I’ve got nothing for sale tonight.”
“For free then?”
“Adam!”
He grinned as he folded his arms on top of his crutch. “Where did you go?”
“Where I went isn’t as important as where I’m going.”
“At least let’s have a drink, Gypsy. It’s a long, cold ride to camp. I’d like something to warm my belly for the trip back.”
“That’s not a good idea. I’m making the jacks uncomfortable.”
“Gypsy—”
“Let her go,” answered a high-pitched voice.
Gypsy stared at the woman who slunk around Adam and leaned one bare arm on his crutch. It was Lolly, the woman who had been screeching on stage. Beneath her short wrapper, her bright garter rubbed against Adam’s leg in an open invitation.
Lolly ran her fingers along his arm and whispered, “Let your kingbee cook go. I’ll show you some real heat in the kitchen.”
Adam brushed her fingers off and looked at Gypsy. When he saw her trying to hide a smile, he wondered if he would ever understand her. One minute, she was fleeing from the saloon as if the devil were on her tail. The next, she was ready to laugh at Lolly.
“You warned me about kitchen skills, Gypsy,” he said with a chuckle. To Lolly, he added, “Not tonight, darling.” As he reached for Gypsy’s hand, the blonde stepped between them. He frowned. “Lolly, I said I’m not interested.”
“Maybe you’re no man after all. She’ll never do anything for you. Cold as a Michigan winter, she is.”
Gypsy said quietly, “Mr. Lassiter said he wasn’t interested. Why don’t you crawl away and bother someone else?”
“Why don’t you get out of here?” Lolly’s voice rose to a screech. “We don’t want your type here.”
“Watch it, Gypsy,” Adam warned as he drew her back from Lolly. “Let’s go.”
“And I was beginning to have fun,” she said with a chuckle.
“Just be care—”
He swore as Gypsy was spun away. She screamed when Lolly clawed at her. Shouts erupted all over the room. He reached out to keep Lolly from hurting Gypsy, and ducked when a fist came at him.
No, not at him. Lolly rocked back and collapsed into a pile at his feet. Looking past her, he saw Gypsy shaking her hand and rubbing her knuckles.
“Nice hit,” he said.
“Couldn’t have done better myself,” Nissa said, shoving her way through the clump of men.
Gypsy blinked, glancing from Lolly to Adam’s grin to the astonishment on the jacks’ faces. What was she doing? She had never been in a saloon brawl. This was insane!
Embarrassment flooded through her when she saw how fury tightened Peabody’s lips. Chauncey grumbled something to Bert.
Nissa flung her arm around Gypsy’s shoulders. “You all right, dearie?” Her chuckle rumbled around the stub of her cigar. Tapping ashes onto the floor next to Lolly, she waved the cigar at the men. “Show’s over, boys. Drink up a round on me.”
Cheers met her words, and the men surged almost as one toward the bar. Nissa signaled to two of her women. They came to wake Lolly.
Peabody did not go to the bar. “Gypsy, are you crazy? You shouldn’t be here.”
“I did—”
Stepping between her and the irate bull of the woods, Adam said, “I brought her. If you’ve got a problem, talk to me.”
“You both should have known better.”
Wagging her finger, Nissa chided, “Simmer down. Gypsy did just fine without you butting in like two old goats.” She patted Gypsy’s arm. “C’mon. You need a drink. Might put some color back into your cheeks.”
Gypsy shook her head. “No, thank you. I’m going home.”
“Just when the fun’s begun?”
Pushing her hair back under her bonnet, she retied the ribbons. “For me, the fun’s over.”
Laughter twinkled in Adam’s eyes as he offered his arm. Too low for anyone else to hear, he said, “I didn’t think when I asked you to go for a spin that you’d leave Lolly with a spinning head.”
She groaned. “I can’t believe I hit her.”
“Looks as if you had experience.”
“My brother taught me to defend myself.” She opened the door, but faltered as the wind buffeted her. She usually did not go out after dark in order to avoid this bone-numbing cold. When Adam pulled her collar up around her ears, she smiled.
“The Porcelain Feather Saloon isn’t quite what you expected, is it?” he asked.
“It’s everything I expected. This was one time the jacks didn’t have to exaggerate.”
Entwining his gloved fingers with hers, he said nothing. She raised her gaze to meet the honesty in his blue eyes, which were as warm and bottomless as a summer pond. The noise from the saloon muted to a whisper as he lifted her hand to his lips. The soft caress of his mustache sent a mesmerizing stream of fire through her as his lips teased her fingers with a brief, questioning kiss.
“Adam,” she whispered.
“Yes?”
“This isn’t the place.”
He smiled. “My dear Gypsy, this is indeed the place. A quick word to Nissa and a coin, and we could have any crib for a delightful tryst.”
She jerked her hand away and stamped toward the sled. His laughter added to her fury, but she was angry at herself. When was she going to learn?
“Are you planning on charging all the way back to camp?” He laughed.
“There’s no need for your evening to end. I can walk back.”
“Alone?”
At his amazement, she faced him. His mustache was already white with his frozen breath, but his eyes burned as hotly as the stove.
“Who would hurt me here?” she asked. “Other than Lolly.”
He did not laugh.
“What are you suggesting?” His silence unnerved her. “None of the jacks would hurt me.”
“No?”
“No! Don’t try to scare me just so you can …”
Adam shoved his crutch under his arm and followed her through the softly falling snow. “Scaring you just so I could take you back to camp was not my primary intention. Didn’t you want honesty?”
“Yes, but why are you trying to frighten me?”
“So you’ll know that just because these men work with you doesn’t mean you can trust them.”
Gypsy pressed her hand over her heart, which she feared had forgotten how to beat. If Adam even had a suspicion of the truth … no, he could not. She had burned the letter.
“Don’t be silly,” she chided, hoping he did not hear the tremor in her voice. “No one wants to hurt me.”
His gaze, now as cold as the wind, raked along her, and she longed to pull back into the shadows. “These men might respect you, Gypsy, but they can’t ignore that you’re an incredibly lovely woman. Glenmark was an idiot to send you up here to be a temptation to his men.”
“I’m tired of listening to this nonsense. Why don’t you go back to the saloon and give all the boys a good laugh?”
His crutch whipped in front of her. Using it like a shepherd’s crook, he herded her to him. He did not touch her as he bent to whisper in her ear, “Don’t be blind to the darker side of a man’s soul, Gypsy. I can’t be the only man who looks at your soft lips and hungers to taste them.”
An involuntary shiver coursed through her. His fingers settled on her shoulder, stroking her arm in a sinuous invitation. She put her hand over his and closed her eyes as his finger grazed her cheek and swept along her lips.
“So soft your lips are.” His velvety tone whipped her heart to a frantic beat. “Even when they snap at me, I want them on me.”
The cold scoured the heat from her face, but did not lessen the fever within her. Snow caught on her eyelashes and whitened her coat as he stepped away to climb onto the sled. He brushed snow off the seat and held out his hand to her. Silent, she watched her fingers rise to touch his.
He drew her up beside him. Slipping her arm through his, he reached for the reins and turned the sled into the night.
The voices and music from the tavern followed them only a short distance into the forest. The metallic song of the runners was nearly lost beneath the clump of the horse’s hoofs on the packed snow. With snow whitening the tired drifts, the night closed around them.
Adam said quietly, “You might not have enjoyed the evening, but Nissa did.”
“More than Lolly.”
“Do I owe you a thank-you for defending my honor?”
With a laugh, she retorted, “I suspect I’m too late to save your honor, Adam.”
“Undoubtedly.”
She did not move away when his arm curved around her shoulders. The gentle pressure against her sleeve teased her to lean against him as she stared at the spiral of snowflakes. Even his thick coat could not soften the hard muscles of his shoulder.
Her muted heartbeat and the puff of their breaths in a soft, gray fog could not disturb the night’s peace. It was as if nobody existed beyond the sled.
Adam pulled back on the reins and steered the sled up onto a shallow embankment.
Sitting straighter, Gypsy looked about in bafflement. “Why are you stopping? We’re still half a mile from camp.”
“Exactly.” He wrapped the reins around the dash and propped his cast on the curved board. Facing her, he said, “No one can hear us there. No one can hear us at Nissa’s place. Maybe now you’ll explain why you turned as gray as the snow when I said something about someone hurting you.”
“You were threatening me.”
“I wasn’t threatening you.” He took her hand and slowly closed it into a fist. “I’ve seen you take care of yourself. What are you afraid of?”
Re
aching for the reins, she said, “You’re making something out of nothing.”
He caught her wrists in his wide hands. With a hushed laugh, he drew her fingers back. “Now, now, Gypsy, that’s no attitude to take when I want to help you.”
“By scaring me? You think that’s helping me?”
“Helping you isn’t the only thing I want,” he whispered huskily. He pulled on her arms to tilt her toward him. His arm encircled her waist and drew her along the seat. When her leg touched his, she gasped. He laughed again. “See, Gypsy, it isn’t the only thing you want, either.”
“I’m glad you’ve become such an expert on my feelings tonight.”
“I have no idea how you feel tonight,” he whispered as his fingers tipped her face back so her gaze met his shadowed eyes, “but I sure would enjoy finding out.”
His lips touched hers in a fleeting caress, then drew back. She moaned a protest. Her breath burst outward in a pleasured gasp as he recaptured her lips. Eagerly he explored each soft texture, warming the skin scraped by the cold. He cradled her against his arm to surround her with desire. As he tantalized the corners of her lips with his tongue, his gloved hand splayed along her back. Her fingers sought upward to twist through the sable strands drifting over his collar.
Fire burned on his lips as he boldly drew aside her scarf which closed her coat beneath her chin. She melted against him, wanting his skin against hers, relishing the warmth of his hair sifting over her hands. She wanted …
Gypsy groaned again as she tugged away. She snatched the reins from the dash and slapped them on the back of the horse. The startled horse whinnied before dragging the sled onto the road. Without speaking, she shoved the reins into Adam’s hands.
“I guess this means you don’t appreciate my attempts to seduce you.” He laughed with an iciness that matched the night air.
“It’s too cold here.”
Watching the rough road, which was crisscrossed with sled marks, he put his arm around her shoulders and drew her to him. “Do you mind if I insult you?”
“Do I have any choice?”
“None.” His fingers brought her head onto his shoulder as he relaxed against the back of the seat. Laughter remained in his voice as he said, “When I first saw you, I was sure that, despite your assertions, you satisfied the jacks’ hunger for things other than apple pie.”
Anything for You Page 8
