by Norah Hess
"Now, that's the way I like to hear you talk," Bertha said, rising from the rocker. "I'm gonna go home now and get those lazy girls out of bed. They're gonna be plenty busy tonight. After the party is over, the single fellers are gonna come looking for some lovin'."
"Thank you for watching Jolie for me, and don't forget to come visiting," Laura said as Bertha opened the door.
"It was my pleasure, and I'll drop in on you once in a while. Don't forget, though, you can come calling on me. I get awfully tired just talking to the girls. They haven't got a good brain between the four of them. Poor souls, the only thing they know to talk about are men and the next new dress they're going to buy."
As the madam hurried away, Laura thought that the women of Big Pine didn't know what they were missing by not accepting Bertha into their midst. She turned back into the kitchen thinking that would never happen.
Chapter Eleven
Laura was late getting Taylor's supper packed. Jolie had fussed, wanting to be held some more after Bertha left. It had taken her quite a while to rock the baby back to sleep.
She had just spread a cloth over the basket when Fletch opened the door and stepped into the kitchen. His eyes widened a fraction when he saw Laura in her new dress. Anger came into them then, and he lowered his lids to slits as he studied her.
"Aren't you afraid you're gonna fall out of that thing?" he taunted sarcastically. "But then, maybe that's your intent. Start fights between the men who will be ogling you."
When Laura made no response, he sneered, "What's Beltran going to say about you showing yourself like that… looking like one of Bertha's girls?"
"Why should he say anything?" Laura was finally goaded into responding to Fletch's insults. "He's nothing to me. It's none of his business if I walk into the party buck naked."
"Since when?"
Laura's eyes shone wickedly. "Since I have my eye on a new man," she lied.
"Who?" Fletch demanded, going toward her, looking as though he might strike her.
"Go to hell, Fletcher Thomas." Laura's condemnation brought him up short. "I don't have to answer to you about anything. Just stay out of my life from now on."
Fletch glared at her for several seconds, then warned savagely, "I'll be watching you tonight. If you do one thing to shame Pa, I'll haul you out of there."
"I think not. The man I have in mind wouldn't like that."
Fletch continued to glare at her another few seconds, then mumbling some incoherent word, he snatched up the basket and slammed out of the cabin. Laura watched him stride toward the post, a wide smile of satisfaction on her face. She had given back as well as she had received.
"Your face looks like a storm cloud, son," Taylor said when Fletch stomped into his room and began transferring the food from the basket onto a tray. "Did you and Laura have words?"
"Yes, we had words. That one is getting way too smart with her tongue."
Taylor picked up a knife and fork and cut into a slice of beef "You've got to remember Laura's not just your little sister anymore. She's a grown woman, married and with a baby. I imagine she can talk any way she pleases."
"She could at least speak respectful to a person."
"It depends if a person is speaking respectful to her. Do you speak respectful to her?"
When Fletch made no answer to his father's question, Taylor asked, "What did you get into it about?"
"The dress she's going to wear to the wedding party."
"What's wrong with it? It was one of the prettiest dress lengths I've ever had in the store."
"I'm not saying that the material isn't nice, and so is the color. It's the way she made the dress. It shows too much of her… top."
"You mean her breasts?"
"Yes! It's not decent."
"I can't imagine Laura ever doing anything that wasn't decent."
"Hah!" Fletch snorted and walked back into the store.
For a moment Taylor stared unseeing at his supper. It had just struck him that his son was in love with Laura. "Ah hell, what a mess we're in," he whispered, pushing away the plate, his appetite gone. He stared up at the ceiling, wondering how it was all going to end. He finally decided he would speak to Butterfly about it tonight, but he doubted there was much she could do this time to straighten out matters.
It was shortly before seven when most of the people living in Big Pine began arriving at the tavern. Everyone was in high spirits, talking and laughing, children running about, squealing and carrying on in general.
"Bar the door, Fletch," Taylor called. "I don't want any of them tramping in here."
"I already have, Pa," Fletch answered, his attention on the three people walking toward the store. Actually, there were four. Daniel was carrying Jolie.
I hope she's bundled up good and warm, Fletch thought, then grew impatient with himself for caring.
His face wore a dark scowl when the three walked into the store, bright smiles on their faces, looking forward to an enjoyable evening.
Daniel gave him a big grin and said, "Maida's got your clean clothes laid out, Fletch. You can go on up to the cabin and change now."
Fletch looked at Laura's animated face, her sparkling eyes and smiling red lips, and decided that he wasn't going to attend the affair. He'd be sure to get into a fight over her before the night was over, and feed more fodder to the gossips.
He was about to announce his decision when he was reminded that if he was alone in the cabin Milly would hotfoot it over to join him. There would be no Daniel and Maida to keep her from saying, "Let's go to bed."
And what could he answer her? "I'm sorry, Milly, but I don't want you anymore. There's only one woman I want in my bed, and she's married to my father." When that word got out, tongues would really wag.
With a sigh of helplessness he pulled on his jacket, dreading the evening ahead.
By the time Laura settled Jolie in beside Taylor, and Daniel and Maida visited with him a few minutes, they entered the tavern almost at the same time as Fletch did. Daniel was just helping Laura and Maida out of their coats when he arrived.
Like a magnet Laura's eyes went straight to Fletch. How handsome he is, she thought, watching him hang his jacket on one of the pegs pounded into the wall for that purpose. He wore a new set of buckskins, the supple leather molding the muscles of his broad chest and long legs. He had laced the neck opening only halfway up, revealing a couple of inches of chest curls. His black hair waved loosely to his shoulders, and the moody look in his dark eyes made him all the more attractive.
He's the handsomest man here, she thought, then caught sight of Hunter O'Hara, the bartender. Hunter was handsome also. He was built much like Fletch, had the same curling black hair, worn long. But his eyes were the green of dark moss and somehow haunted-looking. A long scar on his right cheek gave a wicked look to his handsome face. Women were drawn to him as much as they were to Fletch.
As though the bartender sensed her studying him, he looked up from the tittering young women gathered around him and gave her a broad wink. She blushed but couldn't help smiling at him.
Fletch turned from hanging up his jacket and caught the interaction between them. He shot a dark scowl at Hunter, who ignored it. He glared at Laura then, and she glared back. When Milly came hurrying up to him, he gave her a smile that wasn't reflected in his eyes. But Milly, blind to anything she didn't want to see, grabbed hold of his arm and hung on.
Laura and Maida placed their wedding gifts on a table where other packages already lay. They talked to Justine and Tommy standing near the table a few minutes, then went and sat down on one of the benches that had been lined up against two walls. From under her lowered lids Laura saw that almost all eyes were upon her. The women who were already scornful of her became more so when they honed in on the neckline of the pale blue dress. That most of the other young women wore a dress cut equally as low, maybe even a little lower, didn't count. They didn't look as lush and lovely as Laura Thomas did.
Laura also
saw that most of the men in the tavern were ogling her, single and married ones. She looked across the room where Fletch and Milly had taken seats, and seeing them smiling at each other like lovers, she began to give the single men a little smile when she caught their eye. After all, every last one of them had courted her before her marriage, and it was only being polite to nod and smile at them, she told herself.
Maida whispered, amusement in her voice, "Are you flirting with those young men, you wicked gift?"
"Maybe just a little," Laura whispered back. "But actually I'm just being neighborly." At which Maida gave a snorting laugh.
But Fletch didn't see it as being neighborly. To his way of thinking, Laura was flirting with the men, plain and simple, and he wouldn't have it. He started to stand up, to go give her fair warning to keep her eyes and smiles to herself, then eased back down. There had come the scrape of a fiddle, the picking of a banjo, and the pounding on the beat-up piano in a corner. The same piano and the same player who had pounded it every night for the young men and trappers of the village to dance with the tavern whores.
When couples swarmed onto the floor and started dancing to the rollicking tune of "Camp-town Races," Milly urged Fletch to dance with her. He shook his head and sat watching the men who were trying to get up the nerve to approach Laura, who now sat alone. Daniel had grabbed Maida and they were hopping around on the floor like everyone else. At one point Adam Beltran stuck his head in the door, but Fletch gave him such a dark look he quickly pulled back and closed the door.
Since Fletch's return the young man had grown sorry that he hadn't spoken up a long time ago and denied that Laura's child was his. At first he'd given no thought to the possibility that sooner or later the big man would return, and perhaps beat him to a pulp. Now he had waited so long, he didn't know how to go about telling the truth.
The men continued to look at Laura, and Fletch continued to warn them off with dark, threatening stares. Then Hunter O'Hara, idle for a moment, walked from behind the bar and, making his way through the dancers, bent over Laura.
"Would you honor me with a dance?" He smiled down at her.
She darted a glance at Fletch and received a glowering look that dared her to dance with the handsome bartender. She gave Hunter a dazzling smile and said, "I'd love to."
As Hunter swung her smoothly onto the floor, gliding among the other dancers, he looked at Laura with a crooked grin. "I notice that the young bucks would like to ask you to dance but Fletch glares at them every time they make a move toward you."
"And you're not afraid of him?" Laura arched a questioning brow at him.
"No. Fletch and I have already tested our strength against each other. We're pretty evenly matched. He knows that he'd be in for one hell of a fight if we tangled. He also knows that Taylor wouldn't like it one bit, his fighting over his wife."
"In that case, then, let's enjoy ourselves." Laura gave Hunter a smile that set Fletch's teeth on edge.
He sat and fumed as the couple danced to every tune played in the next hour. Milly fumed also. All that good music going to waste while Fletch sat like a frog sunning itself on a log.
To Fletch's relief, the music makers finally took a break, wiping their sweaty faces as they headed for the bar. Hunter escorted Laura back to her seat beside Maida. "I have to go pour some drinks now, but we'll dance again, all right?"
"Yes, I'll look forward to it." Laura smiled up at him.
"Laura," Maida warned, "he looks pretty taken with you. Are you leading him on? There's going to be trouble. Fletch looks like a bear that's been shot in the rump."
"There's not going to be any trouble, Maida, and I couldn't care less how angry Fletch is. Let him take care of his business and I'll take care of mine."
"But the women are talking about you something fierce." Laura shrugged indifferently. "As if they don't always do that." Daniel returned with a cup of sweet cider for each of them and the subject was dropped.
The music makers returned to their instruments and began tuning up for another round of dancing. Fletch left an irate Milly and walked across the floor to join Laura and Maida and Daniel. He sat down next to Laura and practically growled, "The next dance is with me."
"I'm sorry, but it's already promised," Laura delighted in saying.
"Look, everyone will think it strange if I don't dance with you at least once."
That was just an excuse, Laura knew. He only wanted to get her on the dance floor where she couldn't get away from his threats and taunts. But he was right in one respect. It would be wondered why Taylor's wife and son ignored each other and didn't once dance together. The onlookers would come up with their own reasons, which would be many and varied.
When the music struck up again, and Fletch took hold of her arm and said, "Let's go," Laura stood up and they moved among the other dancers.
How good it feels to be in his arms, Laura thought. His own special clean male scent engulfed her, and she repressed the desire to lay her head on his chest, to lift her arm and curl it around his neck. Instead, she forced herself to hold her body stiff and well away from his.
They circled the floor once in silence. Then Fletch sneered, "If you're wondering why your friend Beltran isn't here, I saw to it that he didn't show up."
"Really? I hadn't noticed his absence."
Her tone told Fletch that she really hadn't missed Beltran. His fingers bit cruelly into her waist as he rasped angrily, "You remind me of a woman-chasing man. You tire of one lover, then move on to another. Now that you know all about lovemaking, you're choosing the older, more experienced ones."
"You mean like yourself?" Laura smiled up at him, wanting instead to slap his hateful face. "Is that what you think?"
"That's what I damn well know, you little bitch, and be warned that you can't play games with Hunter O'Hara. You won't be able to drop him so easily."
"What if I decide not to drop him? He's awfully nice… and handsome," she added.
"Then he'll drop you when he tires of you."
"What if he doesn't? What will you do about it? Will you challenge him to a fight?"
Fletch gave her a suspicious look. "I see you've heard that we've tangled before. We came out pretty even that time. It was just a case of pitting our strength against each other. But if we ever go at it again, I'll beat the living hell out of him. I'll have good cause to. I'll not let any man shame my father."
"Oh, really?" Laura's voice shook with the anger that had been building up inside her. "What about the way you have shamed him?"
"How have I ever shamed him?" Fletcher glared at her. "By seducing his wife."
Stunned by the truth of Laura's words, Fletcher could only look at Laura for several seconds. It had only struck him now that he had put horns on his father. He finally defended himself by saying, "I, unlike the other men, have known for some time that you and Pa don't have a normal marriage, so I don't feel that I shamed Pa in any way."
"Of course you don't," Laura snapped. "You wouldn't feel shame about anything."
The dance number came to an end, and before Fletcher could respond to her charge she stepped out of his arms and went back to Maida and Daniel who were still sipping their drinks. Fighting to keep his features from showing the rage inside him, Fletcher walked across the floor and sat down beside Milly. If he heard any of her complaints he paid no attention to them. When the music started up again and Hunter approached Laura and held out his hand for another dance, Fletch wordlessly stood up, pulling Milly up with him.
It was a slow dance this time, "Swanee River," and Hunter was very quiet. Laura knew by the way he talked, slow and soft, that he was from the South. She suspected that the song held sad memories for him. She looked up at him and asked softly, "Do you miss the Southland? Your home? Your family?"
She felt the ragged sigh that came up from his chest. "Yes, I miss it. I miss it terribly. But the life I once knew there is gone forever. As for family, they're all gone, and so is my home. While I was away f
ighting in the war the home place was burned and my father was killed trying to protect it. My mother died two weeks later from a broken heart."
"I'm so sorry, Hunter." Laura squeezed his hand. She lightly drew a finger down his scarred cheek. "Did you receive this in the war?"
"Yes, and a few other wounds also," Hunter said, bleakness in his eyes. "I spent two months in a Yankee hospital, more dead than alive."
When Laura's eyes grew misty in sympathy, he said huskily, "That was a long time ago, Laura. I'd almost forgotten it until the song brought it all back. Now smile and let's enjoy ourselves, make old Fletch squirm some."
They gave themselves over to the music, laughing and talking like everyone else. Laura was thinking that she had never enjoyed herself more when Hunter bent his head so she could hear him over the music and stomping feet as he said, "Another thing I have missed since coming north is being with a true lady. I enjoy your company very much, Laura Thomas."
"Thank you, Hunter. I enjoy the company of a gentleman for a change."
"Are you referring to Fletch?" Hunter grinned. Laura's laughter pealed out. "I sure am."
Fletch and Milly, dancing nearby, heard Laura's gay, amused laughter, and Fletch's arm tightened so hard around his partner's waist that she cried out. A few minutes later when Laura missed the couple on the dance floor, she looked across to where they had sat for most of the evening.
Milly sat there alone, a very cross look on her face.
A fast glance around the room showed Laura no sign of Fletch being in it. A pleased grin lifted the corners of her lips. He had gone off and left his lady love.
Where had he gone? Laura wondered. If he had returned to the cabin he shared with Daniel and Maida, Milly would have gone with him. Unless, of course, he had ordered her not to. He was rude enough to tell her not to follow him.
But whatever the case, a few minutes later Milly was dancing with one of the trappers, her body pressed tight against his, leaving nobody to guess who she would be spending the night with, or at least a good part of it.
