Dixie Virgin Chronicles: Catherine (Book 7)

by Webb, Peggy

  “A beautiful woman like you should never go into the darkness without an escort. Preferably me.” He smiled at her.

  “Don’t move. Don’t come any closer...”

  “...and don’t make any loud noises. I remember.” He smiled again. “You’d be surprised at how much a man in my profession can recall.”

  Tyler West was hard to ignore. Although Catherine busied herself by leading Angel into the roped-off area and hooking the chain back around her leg, she found herself sneaking a peek at the man standing beside her trailer. He looked better in person than he did on the jackets of his books. But then, Billy Joe had once looked appealing, too.

  Cat was no longer fooled by appearances. She finished hooking the leg chain, then thought up another chore, merely for the sake of avoiding further conversation with Tyler. He was not deterred.

  “For instance, I recall how I felt the first time I ever saw you,” he said. “I even remember what I was thinking. I was thinking that you had arrived in Ocean Springs just in time to save me from a fate worse than death...boredom.” He took a step closer. “It’s destiny. That’s what it is. Both of us young and vital. Both of us in the entertainment field.”

  He had such an expectant look on his face that she almost laughed. If Tyler West expected her to admit she knew he was a successful novelist, then he was sadly mistaken. She wasn’t about to admit any knowledge or interest in him. Let him expire from boredom.

  There was a long silence as she filled a water bucket. Curiosity made her turn around. Tyler was looking so aggrieved that she decided to be generous and put his mind at ease.

  “I know who you are. I’ve even read your books.”

  “You should go out with me, Catherine. I’m every bit as dashing as the heroes in my books.” His smile was boyish and charming.

  “Good for you.” She carried the water bucket to Angel, keeping her back to Tyler, staunchly resisting his charm.

  “Now is that any attitude to take? Just think of all the excitement you’re going to miss if you keep turning me down.”

  “My answer is no and will always be no.” She faced him, hands on her hips. “And I would appreciate it if, in the future, you wouldn’t follow me and hide in the hay. You upset Angel.”

  “I never hide, Catherine.” He came as close to her as he could get, looking handsome and debonair and determined, all the things that reminded her of a man she’d rather forget. “And I make it a point never to loiter in the hay unless I have a willing woman at my side.”

  An image of the shadow in the haystack loomed in Catherine’s mind, and for a moment she lost control.

  “That wasn’t you in the haystack?”

  “Catherine, you’re pale. Did someone follow you?”

  “No. I’m just being silly. I imagined shadows, that’s all.”

  “One of the things I love most in this world is silly women. They’re always in need of a good strong man.” Tyler propped his foot on the stake that held the ropes in place and leaned his elbow on his knee. “I’ll be your bodyguard, Catherine.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t need a bodyguard.”

  His gaze raked over her and his eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled. “Any woman with a body like yours needs a bodyguard, sweetheart. And it might as well be me. I know just what to do with a beautiful body.”

  Tyler’s ability to laugh at his own arrogance saved him from Catherine’s wrath. Since Billy Joe she had become an expert at deflating male egos and demolishing male assumptions. If she really wanted to, she could send Tyler West away in a manner that would ensure he never came back. Strangely enough, though, she didn’t want to. Maybe she was lonely. Maybe she was healing. Maybe she was just plain crazy.

  “I’ve decided to be generous, Tyler. I won’t have Elmer sit on you for that outrageous remark, but I might have him hose you down if you keep it up.”

  He chuckled. “Do I get to pull off my clothes first? I always did fancy a naked romp with a beautiful elephant tamer.”

  “You’re impossible.”

  “I try.”

  Cat found him easy to laugh with as long as he stayed on his side of the rope. Best of all, he had made her forget about seeing shadows in the hay.

  While she was still laughing, Mickey the Clown, whose trailer was parked closest to hers, passed by and called out, “Show time, Cat.”

  “It is that late already, Mickey?”

  “Sure thing, doll. I’m up. Better get those pets of yours hustling.” Mickey hurried toward the Big Top, adjusting his bulbous nose as he went.

  “You’ll have to leave now, Tyler.”

  “Cat? I like that name. It suits you.”

  “Quit stalling. I can’t unchain the elephants and bring them out with you around.”

  “I’ll leave, but not for long. I’ll be back.”

  “Don’t bother.”

  “It’s no bother at all. I helped you get into that red costume this evening; it’s highly likely I’ll have to help you out of it.”

  Shaking her head in amusement, she unchained her elephants and led them toward the Big Top.

  o0o

  Tyler didn’t go far after he left Catherine. He stopped by the Big Top to buy himself a show ticket, then crammed it into his pocket and hurried to the teddy-bear booth. Wayne Stevens was leaning on the counter, staring hopefully into the sparse midway crowd.

  “Good evening,” Tyler said.

  Wayne perked up. He smoothed back his slick hair and grinned. “How are you, sir?”

  “Well now, Wayne, I’m going to tell you a story.” Tyler plunked a wad of bills on the counter and picked up four balls. Taking careful aim, he knocked four stuffed cats off the shelf, one after the other. Wayne Stevens whistled.

  “It’s like this, Wayne,” Tyler said, picking up four more balls. “There’s a certain beautiful elephant trainer who won’t even give me the time of day. I’m not used to being turned down, especially not twice in a row. So I’ve decided to shower her with gifts.”

  He knocked down four more cats, then picked up another handful of balls. “Since I don’t have time to run down to the jeweler and select a diamond trinket or two, I’ve decided to shower her with teddy bears.”

  “All right!” Wayne pulled eight of his brightest colored bears off the shelves. “How many did you have in mind?”

  “How many do you have?”

  “‘Bout a hundred or so.”

  “I don’t have time to win a hundred, but we’ll just see what I can do in the next fifteen minutes.”

  Tyler ended up with twenty-four teddy bears. He reached over the counter and clapped Wayne on the shoulder.

  “Tell you what. If you can get a few of your friends to deliver these bears, I’ll pay you a handsome sum.”

  “I don’t guess I need to ask where you want me to have them delivered.”

  “I guess not.” Tyler handed Wayne an impressive roll of bills. “Make sure they’re waiting for her when she leaves the Big Top.”

  “Sure thing, Mr. West.”

  Tyler left Wayne in charge of the gift bears, and went toward the Big Top, whistling. He had timed things perfectly. Catherine was just entering the center ring as he slid into his front-row seat.

  He was enthralled. He found himself leaning forward in his seat, mesmerized by the way a small slip of a woman handled several tons of elephant. Elmer, Elvira and Angel were putty in her hands. Heck, he was putty in her hands.

  Tyler laced his hands behind his head and leaned back in his seat. Usually, when a woman turned him down once, she never got another chance. But here he was, twice rejected, still chasing after the elusive Catherine. What was it about her that made him keep on trying? Granted, she was the best looking woman he’d ever seen, but he knew enough about women to know that looks didn’t count for everything. Personality was big on his list. Warmth and a sense of humor were, too. His elephant tamer had all those qualities.

  But it was something else that drew Tyler, an eleme
nt of mystery. Catherine DeChello was a puzzle to him. She was like a half-formed idea for a book—fascinating, mercurial and elusive. He wouldn’t be satisfied until he had captured her. He wouldn’t rest until he knew her as intimately as he knew each novel he wrote.

  Catherine finished her act with a finale that brought even Tyler to his feet: she lay in the sawdust underneath the bull elephant, while he lifted one gigantic foot over her face.

  The crowd gasped with relief when Catherine finally emerged, unharmed. Tyler hated to admit that even he felt weak with relief. “Damned fool thing to do,” he muttered to himself as he sat back down.

  Catherine led her parade of elephants from the tent, and Tyler stayed behind, waiting until she had time to get back to her trailer and chain her pets. He didn’t fancy sharing her attention with anybody, certainly not Elmer.

  He sat through two more acts, then slipped from the tent and made his way to Catherine’s trailer. A full moon and a sky bright with stars lit his way.

  She was standing some distance from her trailer, outside the roped-off area, clutching a pink teddy bear to her chest and gazing toward the dark pasture. The moonlight set sparkles dancing on her sequined costume so that she was surrounded by a shimmering aura.

  Smiling at his good fortune, Tyler approached her from behind and put his hands on her shoulders. She stiffened.

  “Fancy finding my own angel.” He caressed her bare shoulders, trying to soothe away her resistance. “Did you fall out of the sky, or do angels like you travel abroad all the time?”

  She whirled around, pulling herself out of his grasp. “Don’t ever do that again.”

  “Do what?”

  “Sneak up on me like that.” Catherine’s eyes were huge, and she held the teddy bear in front of her like a shield as she took another step backward.

  Tyler was startled by the intensity of her reaction. There was something more going on here than mere rejection of unwanted advances. He prided himself on being a good judge of people, of being able to see what ordinary folks could not. And what he was seeing now shocked the hell out of him. He was seeing fear.

  Keeping his movements slow and relaxed, he stepped away from Catherine, far enough to be outside the space that seemed to threaten her.

  “I’m sorry, Cat. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

  “I’m not scared.” Her face belied her words.

  “I’m glad, because I’m certainly not somebody to be afraid of.” He put his hands into his pockets and smiled. “Sometimes I like to think of myself as an irresistible hunk of rippling rawhide, but I’m just a teddy bear at heart.”

  That brought a smile to her face. She relaxed her grip on the teddy bear.

  “I don’t suppose you know where this came from, do you?” She asked, rubbing her hands over the pink furry face. Tyler envied the teddy bear.

  “As a matter of fact, I do. I was strolling down the midway, minding my own business, when that little fellow grabbed my hand, looked up at me and said, ‘Hey, mister, do you know a beautiful lady who might be willing to give a nice teddy bear like me a good home?’ And I said, ‘Let me see now...hmm.’ Suddenly I thought of you. You don’t mind if I think of you as beautiful, do you?”

  “No.” Catherine’s smile grew wider.

  “And then this little fellow tugged my hand again and said, ‘I don’t want just any beautiful lady. I need somebody who will cuddle me and rub my fur and take me into her warm bed so I can watch over her and feel like a hero.’ That’s when I thought of you, Cat. I think you can make a bear feel like a hero.”

  “Thank you.” She curtsied, laughing now.

  “I was all set to bring one lonely pink bear to you when he looked up at me with his button eyes and said in his teddy-bear voice, ‘Reckon that beautiful lady could take in a few of my friends, too?’ ‘How many friends?’ I asked, and he said, ‘Twenty-three.’ Is that pushy, or what?”

  “I think it’s adorable. All of the bears are adorable. Thank you, Tyler.”

  “You’re welcome, beautiful lady.”

  “When I came back from the show and saw all of them lined up on my trailer steps, I thought you might be the one who had sent them.” Her face clouded again. “But for a minute I thought...” Her voice trailed off, and she glanced behind her shoulder into the darkness.

  Tyler wanted to take her into his arms and soothe away her fears, but he dared not touch her. Not yet. The more he saw Cat, the more mysterious she became. She was like a bright and shining diamond seen through layers of veils. Each visit he glimpsed another facet.

  “What did you think?” he asked, careful to keep his voice low with just the right hint of friendly interest.

  She was so still, looking off into the darkness, that at first he thought she hadn’t heard him. Then she turned, smiling.

  “Nothing. I’m being silly again.”

  “With two dozen teddy-bear guards you can be as silly as you like. Teddy bears are very indulgent. See how that little fellow is smiling at you.”

  “I can see that.” She touched the teddy bear’s face again, tenderly, just the way Tyler imagined she would touch his face once he got past the wall she kept erecting between them.

  He could wait, though. She was worth waiting for.

  “Sometimes, when a man has rescued twenty-four lonely teddy bears and brought them to live with a beautiful lady, that beautiful lady invites the rescuer in for a cup of coffee.”

  Cat studied him with big eyes. Her face looked like a night-blooming flower in the moonlight.

  While he waited for her reply, there were no sounds except for the sweet song of cicadas and the quiet intake of her breathing.

  When the silence grew long and threatened to grow uncomfortable, Tyler said, “Sometimes, of course, the lady is exhausted from doing two shows and just wants to go inside her trailer with her teddy bears and climb between cool cotton sheets and listen to the sounds of the night.”

  He took his hands out of his pockets and held one out to her. She hesitated only briefly before she reached out to him. Her hand was as soft as a dandelion in his, silky and almost weightless. Tyler leaned down and kissed the inside of her palm. There was a small jerk when his lips made contact, and then her hand settled into his. He thought he heard Cat sigh. Or it might have been the wind whispering through cicada wings.

  “Good night, Cat.”

  “Good night, Tyler.” She pulled her hand out of his and raced toward her trailer, her costume glittering in the moonlight.

  Tyler stood watching her trailer long after she had disappeared inside. He had struck out royally on all counts. Catherine had refused all his offers, and yet he felt as buoyant as if his last and his greatest novel had been selected for a Pulitzer Prize. He walked away, whistling.

  He drove slowly on the way home, with the top down, taking the time to enjoy the scenery and the wind in his hair. Thoughts of Catherine drifted in and out of his mind. He would have her: he knew that. But time was getting short. Soon the circus would be leaving.

  As Tyler parked his car in the garage he decided he would serenade her. That was a romantic thing to do. The only trouble was, he couldn’t sing. He sounded like a cross between a bullfrog with a bellyache and a rejected bear in heat. Still he fancied the idea of standing underneath Catherine’s window with the sunrise at his back, plucking a guitar and crooning a love song. What a romantic way to wake up the lady of his choice.

  Tyler believed that nothing was impossible. Singing and guitar lessons were out, of course. He didn’t have time. The obvious choice was to play a tape and lip sync the words. His favorite singer of love ballads was Linda Ronstadt, but he’d look rather foolish, big man that he was, standing under Catherine’s window sounding like a woman. He’d have to go through his collection and find somebody else. Not Justin Beiber or one of the current young heart throbs. Frank Sinatra, maybe. Nobody could beat Old Blue Eyes when it came to singing love songs. He wondered if his taste in music dated him, but then decided that
he was too young at heart to ever feel out of date.

  Whistling, he bounded up his steps two at a time and entered his house. With the windows open to the night, it smelled like honeysuckle and pine. He inhaled until he felt fairly drunk with the scent, then he hurried to his office. His muse was calling his name. That tricky little witch had eluded him for two weeks now, and suddenly she was sitting on Tyler’s shoulder, singing her siren song. Wasn’t that just like a woman?

  Tyler turned on his computer and began to work.

  o0o

  From: Catherine

  To: Joanna, Belinda, Molly, Bea, Janet, Clemmie

  Re: News from the Circus

  I don’t like performing as much as I’d thought I might, but I do love these circus people and will do what I can to help them out – at least until they find another performer for the elephant act and until I decide what I want to do about my future. But circuses like this will soon be a thing of the past, and I don’t want a future of being on the run from Billy Joe.

  Bea, I really like your idea about having my own clinic, but I don’t know where I’ll settle down yet, so that has to be filed under long-term plans.

  I met a man who almost makes me want to file him under long-term plans. Tyler West, the writer. He’s good looking, clever, exciting and really sweet, though I suspect he’d be horrified to hear I’d called him that. When I came back from the Big Top last night, I found twenty-four teddy bears he’d delivered to my trailer! Now that’s sweet! I’m glad the circus will be in Ocean Springs for a long gig. And for the first time since I took the job, I’m wishing I worked in a permanent building instead of a nomadic tent!

  Still, I don’t know what I’d do if I were here in Ocean Springs permanently. Tyler West is the most appealing man I’ve met in a very long time, but last night I realized I haven’t put what happened with Billy Joe Wainwright behind me. I actually thought I saw someone following me in the dark!

  Bea, I understand exactly what you were saying when you talked about your bad history with your daddy. Intellectually, it’s easy to come to terms with the past; but emotionally, it’s something else, entirely.