“It's blackmail!”
“Yeah.”
Ten minutes later Jack left the room with the court order in his pocket and a smile on his face. He met the sheriff on the stairs and nodded a greeting as they passed.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
AFTERNOON TURNED INTO evening. Gloria fixed dinner for herself and Peter and made a pretense of eating with him. He was unusually quiet, and when she suggested he get ready for bed, he went willingly. She put him in the sleeping bag on the cot, and before she'd finished reading him a bedtime story, he was asleep. It was only seven o'clock, but to Gloria it seemed like the middle of the night.
She washed the dishes and put the roast in the warming oven of the cookstove. After that she filled the firebox and that of the potbellied stove with fuel Jack had left in the woodbox. She suddenly understood how the pioneer woman, alone with her children in an isolated cabin, must have felt as she waited for her man to come home from a dangerous mission. Almost without realizing it she went to Jack's old leather jacket hanging on a peg beside the door and buried her face in the soft lining. The familiar smell of his maleness brought a flood of tears to her eyes. She turned out the gas light, plunging the room into darkness, and took up vigil beside the window.
Minutes turned into hours. She became chilled, and reached for the jacket to drape about her shoulders. She found herself obsessed with the memory of Jack's face, especially his beautiful green eyes. She had seen those eyes in so many different moods; they had laughed, teased, smiled, grown fierce with anger. She found she could not bear to think of them looking into hers with icy coolness in their depths, or into another woman's with warmth and love. She wondered if she would be able to bear the loneliness if she went away from him for good. It's lonely now, knowing he'll be back, she told herself, but how would it be if I knew he'd never… She shook her head, not wanting to think about it. She strained her eyes toward the horizon, watching and waiting for a moving speck, anything that would mean Jack was on his way home.
When she finally saw headlights in the darkness, she didn't know if she was sorry or glad; they could mean the two men were coming back, or they could mean Jack had returned. But soon she could see that it was one vehicle and not two separate ones. The lights came steadily forward, at times bright, at other times blurred, as the wheels stirred the light, fluffy snow.
When at last she could see the outline of the Jeep, such an overwhelming gush of relief swept over her that at first she felt weak and sagged against the window. By the time the Jeep had stopped in front of the building, new life had surged through her and she flung open the door and vaulted out onto the snow-covered porch.
“Jack!”
The lights and the motor were turned off and the door opened almost at the same time. Gloria jumped off the porch into knee-deep snow and struggled to reach the man getting out of the car.
“Jack! Oh, Jack—”
“Gloria, baby! What's wrong?” He came to meet her. She threw herself into his embrace. He clasped her to him, trying to hold her up out of the snow. Her arms were around him and her face pressed against his chest.
“I love you! Oh, I love you, Jack!” She sobbed. “I was so afraid they'd find you and hurt you. Don't leave me again!” Her arms tightened fiercely.
“It's all okay, baby. Everything's taken care of. Oh, my God! You'll freeze! You don't even have on a coat.” He lifted her up in his arms and walked carefully, searching with his booted foot for the steps in the snow, then carried her into the building and kicked the door shut. “It's pitch-black in here.”
“Did you hear what I said? I said, I love you.” Gloria's voice was loud and insistent. “I want to live with you. I don't care if it's here…or in a shack…or on the road…. I'll get Peter to school somehow. Did you hear me, Jack?” she went on anxiously. “I love you…you idiot! Say something! Have you changed your mind about me?”
“Yes, I heard you, sweet and pretty girl. And I'll never hear words more beautiful,” Jack said softly, and stood her on her feet. “And, no, I've not changed my mind about you. The day was a year long while I was trying to do what I had to do so I could get back to you.” He wrapped her in his arms and strained her to him. “Say it again, sweetheart.”
“I love you…Peter loves you. We need you,” she whispered hoarsely, breathlessly.
“And I love you.” He felt as if he would weep. “Oh, sweetheart, we've got to get a light on and get you out of those wet jeans. Stay right here.”
Jack found his way to the gaslight and lit it. Gloria blinked against the brightness, then her mouth dropped open as she gazed in stunned silence at the stranger looking back at her.
Handsome? No, beautiful. The curly dark hair was cut and styled to cover just the tops of his ears, and was lightly dusted with snow. His cheeks were flat, clean plains that sloped to a strong, square chin beneath his wide mouth. But for the moment his quizzical green eyes commanded all her attention; they were all that was familiar to her.
“Jack!” she moaned. “Say something so I'll know it's you.”
“Glory, Glory, sweetheart—”
“You're a…stranger!”
“No. I'm the same. I'm the same on the inside.”
“But…you loved the beard.”
“I love you more.”
“I don't know if…I like it.”
He laughed, and the sound bounced into every corner of the room. “It'll take two years to grow another that long.”
Gloria couldn't take her eyes off him. “It'll take some getting used to. Why did you do it?”
“I decided I couldn't face the next fifty years without you, and if you wanted a conventional husband, complete with clean-shaven face, three-piece suits and a briefcase, that's what you'd have—if I was lucky enough for you to accept me.” The words fell from his lips softly and sincerely.
“I don't know what to say!” She ran to him and threw herself in his arms. “I'm sorry, darling. I don't want you to change. I want you like you are.” Slim arms wrapped themselves around his neck. He saw her lips trembling into the shape of syllables that were surely endearments, but her tears made them unintelligible, so that what reached his ears was the strangled rasping of a sob.
“Silly girl. I've not changed. What's on the outside of me doesn't change what's on the inside. I love you. I'll make a home for you and Peter wherever you want it to be.”
He held her so tight she could scarcely breathe. She turned her face and nuzzled the warm flesh of his neck. The crackle of the fire was the only sound she heard above the beating of his heart. Her arms slid from his neck to wrap around his waist. She pressed her full length against him.
“Darling,” he groaned huskily. “You're wreaking havoc with my self-control. If I start kissing you the way I want to kiss you, I'll not be able to stop. We've got to get you out of these wet clothes or you'll be sick.”
She raised her head to look at him. He was so close, she could see every little detail of his face: the smoldering green eyes, the strong nose, the sensual curve of his mouth. She could smell the masculine smell of his body, and an aching stirred inside her. Then his lips were against hers, rough and demanding with an insistence that sent her blood thundering through her ears. His hands moved down her back, touching her hungrily, urgently. Naked desire left her trembling in his arms.
Jack was breathing heavily. He moved his lips from hers and they traveled over her face and then, as if compelled, back to her mouth. He kissed her deeply.
“Glory, Glory…” He clasped her shoulders and pushed her from him. “Go get out of those wet clothes,” he said almost crossly while his eyes lovingly devoured her.
She sat on his lap in the armchair beside the potbellied stove. The lamp was turned low, so that most of the room was in shadows. Gloria had put on her gown and robe, and Jack an old jogging suit and sheepskin slippers; the Indian blanket covered them. Her fingers moved gently over his face, tracing his lips, his brows. They were peacefully content to be together.
“I've got a lot to tell you,” Jack murmured.
“I've something to tell you too. Two men were here today. I didn't go to the door.”
“Good girl. In this case it would have been all right. I saw them down by Ethel's. They said they'd been here and there was a good plume of smoke coming out the chimney, so they knew someone was here. They're neighboring ranchers looking for a cat that's been bringing down their calves.”
Gloria raised herself up so she could look at him. “I thought Marvin had sent them out here to hurt you.”
“No, pretty girl. You can forget Marvin. I scared the pants off him. He'll not give you any more trouble.”
“You what? Marvin isn't scared of anything. He'll hire thugs—”
“I scared him with the power of the press.” Jack laughed at the puzzled look on her face and pressed her head to his shoulder. “I talked to a friend of mine in Chicago and he suggested I run a bluff. But it really wasn't a bluff; I was prepared to drag him through the courts for mentally abusing that child. He's so set on a political career, he backed off and called the judge in Ohio and told him he was relinquishing custody rights and would allow me to adopt Peter. For the child's good, of course.”
“Of course! Oh, Jack. Do you mean we don't have to worry about Marvin?”
“That's just what I mean, pretty girl.” He kissed her lingeringly. “Glory, it's time I bared all the secrets of my sordid past, if you're going to share my future.”
“I don't care about your past,” Gloria said, suddenly frightened that what he would tell her would snatch away her happiness.
“I want to tell you…before I start making love to you. I may never stop.” He punctuated the words with soft, loving kisses.
He proceeded to tell her about his marriage to his high-school sweetheart and how, because of their immaturity, the marriage had been doomed from the start. He told her about the divorce, and his wife's subsequent remarriage to a man with underworld connections that eventually led to her and his daughter's death.
“I felt I had failed Wendy. My spirits were at the lowest ebb of my life when I came here to Hangtown. My little girl had died in a faraway place….” He paused and buried his face in her hair, then continued in a husky whisper. “I didn't care for anything or anybody. I was living in a kind of limbo until I met you and Peter. I kept thinking that if I could break out and reach you, I'd find peace.”
“Oh, Jack! Oh, darling…” Gloria stroked his head. “And I was so nasty to you, so narrow minded!” Her face was against his, and she felt his wet lashes against her skin.
“She was just a little girl and she's gone.” There was anguish in his voice.
Gloria cradled his head in her arms and kissed him on his brow. “No, darling. She isn't gone. She'll always be in your heart—as you'll be in mine.”
“I fought back the only way I knew how—in the courts. I had a small real estate business and spent everything I made trying to get custody of Wendy. When it was over, I just drove out of town. I'd bought Hangtown several years before while I was out here on a hunting trip. So I came here and holed up, licking my wounds.”
Gloria looked at him, her amber eyes filled with love. “I don't know that I would have done differently, under the same circumstances.”
“I really am kind of a hippie, sweetheart. I own two apartment buildings in Chicago, and the rent money goes to pay the mortgages. There's a little left over, but not a lot. We can live here, and I'll get a job, or we can run Ethel's motel, and someday maybe turn this town into a tourist attraction. It's your choice.”
“Are your intentions honorable, Mr. Evans?”
“Right at the moment? No way! Later, like tomorrow, we're jumping the broomstick together.”
“Like the pioneers?”
“Like the pioneers.”
“I've decided.” She giggled happily. “We can run Aunt Ethel's motel for now—then, later, I want to live right here in Hangtown. After all, how many women have a town all to themselves?”
“You're sure?”
“I was never more sure of anything in my life. Oh, darling, I'm so glad Peter and I came out here.” Gloria's eyes became misty. “Jack, my sweet, wonderful bear of a man! Thank you! Peter and I were so afraid we'd have to go back to Ohio.”
“The only man you'll ever have to obey again is me,” he growled, and began to kiss her. “Hummm…you taste so good.” His hand moved up under her gown and stroked the naked flesh of her thigh and hips. “Can we go to bed now?”
“Jack, be good. It's almost like kissing a stranger. I miss your beard!”
“You miss my beard?” His head came up and laughing green eyes caught laughing amber ones. “Good God, woman! For weeks you've been telling me I looked like a hairy ape. It cost me thirty bucks to get my hair cut and styled and my beard shaved off. I did it to please you, and almost froze my face on the way home.”
She let out a girlish little gurgle of laughter.
“Poor baby,” she crooned tenderly. “You can grow it back.” She pulled his head down to hers and kissed him firmly on the lips. “But forget the earring!”
“Is there no pleasing you, little squirrely worry-wart?” he demanded, pinching her bottom gently.
“Yes. Did you notice that Peter is sleeping on the cot?”
“You bet! It's the first thing I noticed when I turned on the light.”
“Well…?”
Jack laughed joyously and hugged her close. “There's more I want to tell you, and I'd better do it now. Once I get you in that bed, there'll be no more talking.” He began to kiss her and nuzzle her cheek with his nose. “Someday when we've made our fortune, we'll build a house right here in Hangtown.”
“You're going to open up the town?”
“We'll have to wait and see about that. This is our town. We'll populate it ourselves.”
“Ahhh…nice….” She breathed against his cheek. “Can we get started now?”
“You wouldn't mind living out here?”
“Not as long as you're here and we're working on our…project of…populating the town.” She stroked the dark curls back from his forehead, loving the freedom to caress him. This precious intimacy was making her light-headed with happiness.
“Our house will have two stories and plenty of bedrooms for Peter and his brothers and sisters. One for Aunt Ethel, too, if she is able to come.” His voice grew husky as his lips moved over her face, but he continued determinedly. “It'll have a high-pitched roof, gables, a big porch with gingerbread, and a chandelier from Austria—all straight out of the 1870s. How does that sound?”
“Fine, but we've got to make our fortune first,” she whispered, her lips taking up the kissing. “You can tell me about it tomorrow. Right now I'd rather find out what it's like to have a…sex maniac make love to me.”
“You're not going to forget that, are you?” He laughed joyously and got to his feet with her in his arms.
“No. And I'm not going to let you forget it either. I hope we're snowed in for a week,” she said saucily, her amber eyes sparkling. She placed a little string of kisses along his jaw, and her fingers burrowed beneath his shirt and pulled at a tuft of hair on his chest. “Ya think you're pretty tough, don'tcha, big man?”
“I'm tough enough to handle you, mama chick. I'm from the Big Windy.”
“Yeah…yeah…play it again, Sam.”
“You're cruisin' for a bruisin', babe.”
He dropped her on the bed and stood over her. She looked up at him with adoration in her eyes, but her voice was mockingly stern.
“Well, get on with it, tough guy, or I'll…break your arm!”
FOR MY READERS:
GLORIA'S YUMMY CAKE
1 package chocolate cake mix
¾ cup butter or margarine
½ cup evaporated milk
1 16-oz. package caramels
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup nut meats
Optional: 1 cup coconut
Whipped cream
1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Prepare chocolate cake batter according to directions on package. Bake 2/3 of the batter in a 9 × 13 pan and let cool.
3. In a double boiler melt together butter or margarine, milk, and caramels. Allow to cool and spread on cake.
4. Sprinkle chocolate chips and nut meats on top of cake. Coconut may be used instead of chocolate chips and nuts.
5. Dribble the remainder of the batter on top and bake for 15 minutes.
6. Allow to cool and serve with whipped cream.
More
Dorothy Garlock!
Please turn this page
for a preview of
On Tall
Pine Lake
available in January 2007.
Prologue
NONA LOOKED DOWN at the package Mr. Dryden had given her.
“I wasn't expecting a package.”
“It was delivered by a postman in a truck about an hour ago. I heard someone pounding on your door and went out into the hallway. The postman asked me if Nona Conrad lived there and when I said yes he asked me to give you this package.”
“Thank you, Mr. Dryden.” Nona tried to make out a return address, but the writing was smeared. “Mabel is doing some shopping this afternoon. Maggie won't be home until late. She wanted to see her friends one last time before we leave. I'm sorry you were bothered with this.”
Nona went back into the apartment clutching the package. What in the world could it be? I haven't ordered anything. She opened the heavily taped package only to discover another package inside with a letter addressed to her on top. Pulling off the letter, she opened it and to her amazement discovered it was from her half-brother, Harold. She quickly scanned the contents of the letter and then slowly read it again with a puzzled look on her face.
Dear Nona,
I know we have not been close in the past and I am sorry for it. Please keep this package until you hear from me. DO NOT OPEN IT UNLESS SOMETHING SHOULD HAPPEN TO ME! Regardless of how you feel about me, I do have feelings for you and Maggie and want to make up for the wrongs that I have done you. You are the only person in the world that I feel I can trust. I will explain everything when I see you. For the sake of our father, I'm asking you to do this one thing for me. I promise that I will have your money and Maggie's from our father's estate soon.
Wishmakers Page 31
