by Merry Farmer
Rupert blinked. It wasn’t the response he expected. “Why? I relish the chance to show Bonneville up in front of a crowd.”
Her answering laughter was full of irony. “Men and their competitions.” She shook her head, then zeroed in on his eyes again. “Bonneville plays dirty. He’s always played dirty. Men have been seriously injured in baseball games before.”
Rupert wasn’t the least bit surprised. He crossed his arms in imitation of her. “So? I can play dirty too.”
She blew out a breath in disgust. “That isn’t the point.”
“What is?”
Her stare hardened. “You could get hurt, or worse.”
“I can take care of myself.”
Her show of strength weakened to something closer to pleading. “Rex suspects there’s something between us.”
The news wasn’t entirely unexpected, but it sent a wave of concern through Rupert nonetheless. He could take care of himself, but if what he’d witnessed from across the church yard was any indication, Bonnie could be in more danger than she suspected. Adding jealousy to an already touchy situation was like pouring oil on a fire.
Bonnie went on. “He…well…Rex and I have an odd understanding.”
“Yes, I know. I don’t like it.”
Her anger flared at his interruption. “He suspects an attachment between us, and he thinks that it could be useful in his efforts to get an heir out of me.”
Rupert snorted. “If that’s so, the man doesn’t know the basics of how babies are made.”
“He’s impotent,” Bonnie hissed. “Has been for years. He started coming around my Place to make it look like he was anything but. He pays me to make it look like he’s a real Casanova.”
A deep whirlwind formed in Rupert’s gut, spreading through him. “Do you mean…are you saying…” He shifted his weight, letting his arms drop and his voice soften. “Bonnie, are you telling me that you haven’t been a whore all these years?”
She swallowed and glanced down, letting her arms drop as well. “Not since the fire in Denver. I organized things, I kept a roof over all of our heads and made sure we were fed, but the other girls are the ones who…who brought in the money.”
The warm sensation flooding Rupert expanded, making him feel oddly lighter than air. “So…in the last, what, eight or nine years…you haven’t actually been with any men…but me?”
Slowly, she dragged her eyes up to meet his, then shook her head.
Joy beyond anything he thought he could feel pulsed through him. He reached for her. “Sweetheart. You know you can’t marry Bonneville now. Not when we—”
She backed away, holding up her arms to ward him off. “I need his money,” she said with as much frustration as misery. “How many times do I have to tell you? I owe it to my girls not only to provide better lives for them, but to pay them back for all those years they kept me from having to sell myself to get by.”
Rupert froze with his arms still extended. Every time he thought he understood her thoughts and actions, another level of understanding hit him. Everything was always so much more complicated than he thought it could possibly be.
No sooner had that thought occurred to him then Bonnie went on with, “And now Rex tells me that if I want to keep you around for a while so you can do the job of getting me with child, then he’d be happy to tolerate you.”
“What?”
“Up until the job was done. Then he threatened to have you killed if you didn’t disappear.”
Rage made Rupert hot. He clenched his fists. “And did you slap him for threatening to kill me or for him suggesting I be your stud.”
“Both,” she answered in a tone so dark that for that moment, their rage was shared. It was a terrible way to feel close to someone.
“I’ll tell you what,” Rupert said after a deep breath. “I’ll make a bet with you.”
“Rupert, this is no time for bets,” she shot back.
He ignored her. “I’m going to play in this baseball game, whether you like it or not.”
“Rupert—”
“Furthermore, I am going to win it.”
“You don’t understand the way Rex’s team plays,” she insisted.
“I know men like that. Those cheats who stole my claim were exactly the same sort of men.”
Bonnie snapped her mouth shut, evidently remembering enough about that sad chapter of their lives to be rendered speechless.
“I will win,” Rupert went on, “and when I do, you’ll drop this farce of an engagement to Bonneville and stay with me.”
“Rupert, I can’t just—”
“But if Bonneville wins, you can waltz on over to the church and marry him, and I won’t say a single other thing about it.”
For the second time in as many minutes, Bonnie was speechless. The fire in her eyes told Rupert she wanted to argue with him, but a deeper look of calculation—and sadness—sat behind the initial frustration. “You…you’d let me marry him if he wins, and you won’t try to stop me?”
Rupert sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “Lord help me, but no, I won’t try to stop you. If he wins,” he added.
She bit her lip. She took in a few steadying breaths. She stared at him long and hard. Then she answered, “All right. It’s a deal.”
Triumph soared in Rupert’s chest. “Good. Because I intend to win the heck out of this game and get back to the way things are supposed to be between you and I.”
He hoped she would ask what that was, but instead she just stood there blinking, her face pinched with a hundred different emotions.
Her distress softened his heart. “It’ll be okay, Bonnie.” He reached out to rub her arm, even though he wanted to squeeze her tight and never let her go. “Somehow, it will be okay. For you and for your girls.”
She looked him right in the eyes and said, “Rex holds the deed to my Place.”
It was like a punch in the gut.
“I thought George Pickering gave you the money to build your Place.”
Bonnie shook her head, hesitated, then shrugged. “George was generous. He gave me enough to provide the bank in Denver with proof of my intent so that they would review my loan application.”
“You took out a loan to build your Place?”
She nodded. “And a few years ago, we came within inches of defaulting. Rex gave me the money I needed and more, but in exchange, I had to sign the deed over to him. It was supposed to be until the loan was paid off.” She paused. “I’ve only got one year left to go. Until then, the Place technically belongs to Rex.”
Too many things made sense to Rupert all at once. Money was easy enough to come by. That was the sticking point in this whole situation, the thing he couldn’t quite wrap his head around. Bonnie was smart enough to find money anywhere. But a house? A place of business? Tolerating a bunch of friendly, industrious whores sitting in church on a Sunday was one thing. Letting them transact business on your property was something entirely different. Without the physical structure of Bonnie’s Place itself, the safe haven his passionate, earnest, self-sacrificing wife was trying to make for her girls was sunk.
Worse still, with the deed in his hands, Rex controlled the situation. He must have known he controlled it too. With or without marriage, he could kick Bonnie and her girls out any time he wanted to. Rupert supposed the only reason he hadn’t already pulled the rug out from under Bonnie was because he still needed something from her. But if she refused him whatever he wanted, if she, say, went back to her long-lost husband, foiling the man’s plans to trick the world into thinking he had an heir, it would be a disaster. Bonnie was far, far more trapped than he dared to imagine, and at the moment, he couldn’t see a way out.
“Come on,” he said, low and uncertain. “We’ve got a baseball game to catch.”
A baseball game that, if he won, would give him exactly what he wanted while destroying everything the woman he loved had devoted her life to.
She nodded and took a step past him. At
the last minute, he reached for her and pulled her into his arms. He cradled her body against his, smoothing his hands over her curves as his mouth covered hers. This was no kiss for good luck. It was a merging of hearts that ran through his blood and into his soul. His lips crushed hers, but behind the passion was tenderness, devotion, and bone-deep love. He loved her with everything he had, so much that he was beginning to see how vital it was that he lose her.
Haskell as a town took its baseball very seriously. Everyone in town, with very few exceptions, were in the stands on either side of the diamond, bubbling with excitement, as Bonnie made her way through on shaky legs. Everything in her life had taken such horrible turns in the past few days that she had gone numb. It was impossible to go forward with her plan to marry Rex. It was equally impossible to forget everything and run away with Rupert. It seemed like no matter what she chose to do next, she would lose.
So she’d given up, surrendered control of the situation, and staked everything on a bet. Rex or Rupert. She couldn’t decide. The baseball game would decide for her.
“My, you look awfully pale for a brisk, sunny day,” Lucy Faraday greeted her as Bonnie sank onto the empty seat at the end of the grandstands closest to home plate.
“I’m fine,” she answered by rote, knowing she was anything but.
“Here. What you need is a baby in your arms.” She handed over her and Gideon’s youngest, a two-year-old girl named Dorothy.
Bonnie was forced to think fast as Dorothy squirmed into her lap. She was immediately fascinated with the brooch pinned to Bonnie’s collar and reached for it. “No, no, sweetheart.” Bonnie took Dorothy’s hand and kissed it to distract her.
“Pretty,” Dorothy said, her smile so big and innocent that Bonnie couldn’t help but smile in return. Maybe holding a baby was what she needed.
“I saw you talking to Rupert Cole just now,” Lucy said. She wore a sly grin, though her eyes were fixed on the baseball players getting in a final practice on the field. Gideon played for the Eastside Eagles, but for this final game he would serve as umpire, along with George.
Bonnie sent Lucy a sideways look, pretending to put all of her energy into playing with Dorothy. She had been talking to Rupert, so there was nothing she could say—or was willing to say—that would add to the conversation.
“He’s a nice man, Rupert Cole,” Lucy went on. A twitch at the corner of her mouth joined the mischievous glint in her eyes.
“Yes,” Bonnie answered, shifting Dorothy to face her so they could play patty-cake.
“You should see some of the house designs he’s put together. He handed a bunch of them in yesterday, two days before we asked for them.”
Even though she was busy making faces at Dorothy, Bonnie’s cheeks flushed hot. “Oh?”
“Yes,” Lucy went on. “Papa is convinced his company is the right one to build the houses he wants out in The Village. And he has half a mind to cut a new street through the meadow north of Elizabeth Street to start a whole new neighborhood.”
“Haskell is growing.” Bonnie still didn’t look directly at her. The crack of a bat drew Dorothy’s attention to the baseball diamond just as the men were heading back to their benches to start the game.
“It most certainly is. I think—and Papa agrees—that King Cole Construction could stand to make quite a bit of money if Mr. Cole’s partner agrees to the deal Papa wants to offer them.”
Finally, Bonnie shifted to look at her friend. Lucy’s smile had turned downright smug. In a way, Bonnie couldn’t blame her. Looked at in simplest terms, Rupert would be quite a catch for any woman. The money he stood to earn from the construction deal—if Skipper King agreed to it—could very well be all she needed to keep her work with the girls going.
If the contract came through.
If Rupert agreed to share his hard-earned money with her.
If Rex didn’t own the deed to her Place.
She hid the agony that had her near tears by lifting Dorothy and repositioning her yet again so that she could watch the baseball game. Her whole life was like trying to hold a toddler still now. She could try a hundred different means to get it to settle down and behave, but something always threw a wrench in the works.
“Here, let me take her back.” Lucy reached over and plucked Dorothy off of Bonnie’s lap. “I expect you’ll be wanting to pay attention to the game.”
Bonnie sent Lucy what she hoped looked like a grateful smile and not a grimace. Lucy was right. She did want to pay attention to the game. Everything she had was riding on it.
The Wolves had a slightly better record than the Bears in the regular season, so were considered the home team for the final game. That meant that the Bears came up to bat first. True to form, Rex’s team began the game the way everyone knew they intended to continue with it. The lead-off batter pointed a sharp finger at Solomon, who took the mound to pitch, then immediately fired a hit straight at his head with a resounding crack. The crowd gasped, Solomon only barely managed to duck, the batter sprinted to first, and the contest was underway.
“Ooh, I hate watching when Bonneville’s team is playing,” Lucy said five minutes later when the same batsman barreled shoulder-first into Sean Ridgeway at third. Sean was slow to get up, but insisted that he wasn’t hurt when George called out to check from home plate. Bonnie was grateful that Trey, captain of the Wolves, had put Rupert out in right field.
That didn’t keep him out of harm’s way when the Wolves came up to bat, the Bears having scored one run. Rupert must have convinced Trey he was a good batter, since he was second in the line-up. That didn’t stop Bonnie’s stomach from clenching as he approached the plate, though. Sure enough, the first pitch thrown at him was literally thrown at him.
“Ball!” George shouted as Rupert dodged. George straightened and warned the pitcher, “I don’t want to see that again, Alfelt!”
“See what?” the pitcher shouted back.
Rex’s low, menacing laugh at Bonnie’s side made her jump out of her skin. “Your friend had better watch out,” he said with a gloating grin.
“If you hurt him…” Bonnie began, but her voice was shaking so hard she couldn’t finish.
Rex put on a mock innocent face and blinked at her in affront. “Me? I’m not going to do anything.”
“Your men, then.”
The exchange ended there as a second ball was pitched to Rupert. This time he managed to hit it, even though it was high and inside. It wasn’t a pretty hit, though, and Rupert was thrown out before he could make it to first.
“I’ll tell my men to be careful where they hit him,” Rex carried on as Rupert walked off the field—cursing, by the looks of things—and Sam Standish came on. Rex leaned closer to Bonnie. “If he’s going to help you and I, he needs at least one part to be in working order. Pity it’s not his face.”
Fury swept up over Bonnie so fast that she had to grip the edge of the bench to keep from flying off the handle. She pinned her eyes on the game, not giving him the satisfaction of snapping back at him. Thank God that even if she did lose her bet with Rupert, she wouldn’t have to go to bed with Rex.
“Although,” Rex murmured, almost as if sensing her thoughts, “it seems like much too much trouble to ask a stranger to contribute to the family, shall we say, when we’ve got family right here who would jump at the chance to cozy up with the new Mrs. Rex Bonneville.”
Rex glanced across the gap between the benches behind home plate and the ones where his team and supporters sat. His son-in-law—and third cousin—Rance Bonneville sat watching the brutal game with a look of bloodlust in his eyes. His wife, Vivian, who Bonnie knew was already carrying the next generation of Bonnevilles, even though they hadn’t made the information public yet, sat stiffly at his side. Rance kept nudging her with his elbow and staring at her chest.
Bonnie tasted bile at the back of her throat. She wondered how long it would be before Rex suggested Rance act as the stud in his grand scheme. At least that way, he could
be certain his heir was a true Bonneville. As far as Bonnie was concerned, Rance was already one of her Place’s most frequent visitors, though the girls usually drew straws to see who was unlucky enough to be his sweetheart for the night. The only reason she hadn’t banned him from her Place was because, as several of her girls had confirmed, he was fast money.
Rance must have sensed her watching him, because he turned and caught both her and Rex staring. The grin that crossed his face was enough to make Bonnie wonder if Rex had already laid out his plans to his son-in-law-cousin. She swallowed and forced her attention back on the game, blocking out anything Bonneville that wasn’t on the field.
Ignoring Rex worked. By the time another inning had passed, he was called away to consult with his team captain. Bonnie breathed a sigh of relief and released the tension she hadn’t realized she’d been holding in her back and shoulders. Until Lucy leaned closer to her.
“Please tell me you aren’t really going to marry that man,” she whispered.
At just that moment, one of the Bears hit a long fly ball into right field, where Rupert caught it.
“We’ll see,” Bonnie replied.
The game continued to stay close. By the third inning, the Wolves were up by a run. By the fifth, the Bears had pulled ahead by two. The crowd rose to their feet every time a solid hit was made. They cheered and booed for good plays and for underhanded tactics. Al was tagged out at second, and when he returned to the Wolves’ bench limping, a disapproving murmur rose from the crowd, all of whom suspected foul play.
By the seventh inning the sun was sinking lower on the horizon, and the Bears’ tactics with it. One of Rex’s men slid into home so hard that he crashed into George, sending him toppling. The Wolves’ players jeered and shouted that the runner was out, that he’d targeted George specifically so that no one could prove he wasn’t safe, but since George really hadn’t seen one way or another, the run was allowed. George dragged himself to his feet with a wince, and the score was tied.
