Dixie Virgin Chronicles: Catherine (Book 7)

by Webb, Peggy

  Tyler was genuinely interested in what the young man had had to say, and he’d stood there in the sawdust for fifteen minutes, listening as the carousel ticket seller had told his story between customers. The tale had been particularly boring, but Tyler hadn’t minded at all. In fact, he had acted as if he were having one of the most interesting conversations of his life.

  Catherine liked that about Tyler, his patience. Billy Joe had never been patient, not even back in the days when he had been charming.

  She lifted her face and saw it reflected in the mirrors of the carousel. She looked happy. What was more, she felt happy. It was a feeling that had eluded her for a long, long time. Oh, she was content. No question about that. She had her wonderful circus friends and her fabulous elephants. But that sunburst feeling of spontaneous joy had been absent for so long that she had thought she would never again recapture it. And now, here it was, as unexpected as violets in the snow, and just as beautiful.

  “I hope the night never ends,” she said.

  Tyler swung around, a look of bright expectancy on his face. Catherine caught her breath. She had seen that look before; it was the look of a man who wants to make love to a woman.

  Caution whispered through her mind, echoing from the deep, dark corridors of her past. For a moment she thought of adding some frivolous comment to take the edge of sincerity off her words. “I always say silly things like that when I’m on a carousel,” she could add. Or, “You should never believe a woman who spends all her time with elephants,” she might say. Anything to erase that look from Tyler’s face, anything to let him know that she was not serious.

  But what was the harm in one romantic comment?

  Tyler reached for her, and his hand was warm on hers, warm and strong and somehow reassuring.

  “The night doesn’t have to end, Cat.”

  He rubbed his thumb across the back of her knuckles, and she shivered. A small tingle ran along the back of her skin and grew to a full-fledged warmth that raced through her body. The unexpectedness of it took her breath away.

  She closed her eyes, imagining that the night never ended, that she rode for an eternity with Tyler at her side, the carousel horses spinning and swaying beneath them and the music filling their hearts with happy tunes.

  “All things end, Tyler.”

  “Not for me.” He held on to her hand, caressing her knuckles as he talked. “I’m accustomed to writing my own endings. With one stroke of my pen I can make the magic of this night last forever.”

  “I almost believe you.”

  “Believe me, Cat.” He leaned closer, so close she was mesmerized by his bright golden eyes. “Believe in me,” he whispered.

  His mouth was only a kiss away as the horses slowed and the music grew fainter.

  “Our ride is over, Tyler.”

  What kind of sorcerer was Tyler West? In one sun-drenched day and one star-spangled evening he had almost made her believe in his dream.

  “Come, Cat.” The carousel had stopped, and he helped her from the saddle. “Our next magic adventure awaits.” He draped his arm casually over her shoulders and led her through the crowd.

  She was acutely aware of his size, his strength. An arm as powerful as his could imprison her in one swift motion. His hands could break her arm, knock her to the ground, squeeze the breath out of her without any effort.

  Her breathing became ragged, and she stumbled.

  “Catherine?” Tyler stopped and studied her face. “Are you all right?”

  She knew she was being foolish. She was on the circus grounds; her friends were only a call away. Nevertheless, she couldn’t quite bring herself to meet Tyler’s eyes.

  “Catherine. Look at me.” Gently he tipped her face up with one hand. “Your eyes are as wide and blue as the sea. What’s wrong, love?”

  Billy Joe had never called her love, but he had called her darling once upon a time. She lifted her eyes to meet Tyler’s, and her breathing returned to normal. He was not Billy Joe, and now was not once upon a time. Now was Camelot. Now was magic.

  She smiled. “I guess I’m tired. It was silly of me to stumble.”

  “You know...”

  “I love silly women,” she finished for him, laughing.

  “Shall I take you back, Catherine?”

  “One more hour, Tyler. I want one more hour of magic.”

  “Then you shall have it.” He circled his arm around her once more, and this time she didn’t see ghosts. “Come, love. We’ll ride high enough to touch the stars.”

  He kept his promise. Sitting beside him on the Ferris wheel, swinging high above the circus grounds, she felt as if she could actually reach up and grab hold of the brightness that sprinkled the dark summer sky.

  “It’s beautiful up here,” she said.

  “The most beautiful thing up here is you.” Tyler caught a strand of her hair and brought it to his lips. “Do you have any idea how enchanting you are?”

  She thought of denying his compliment, of saying she didn’t want to be enchanting, of telling him enchantment always led to disillusionment. But she was in Camelot, at least for another few minutes.

  “Everything is enchanting in Camelot, Tyler. King Arthur decreed it, and Merlin carries it out.”

  “There is another decree.”

  The Ferris wheel drew to a stop, and she and Tyler were left swinging at the top of the world. “One we must not disobey,” Tyler said as he leaned closer.

  “What is that?” Her breath caught in her throat.

  “There’s only one way to hold the magic after the day is over.”

  She saw the brightness in his eyes, heard the change in his breathing. Slowly, ever so slowly, he reached out and traced her cheek with his hand.

  “We must seal the day with a kiss,” he said.

  “Tyler... I don’t...”

  He pressed one finger over her lips. “It’s the only way to capture the magic, Catherine.” His hand was tender as sunbeams on her cheek. “You want to keep the magic, don’t you?”

  “Yes, but...”

  “No conditions, my pretty one.” He was so close now she could feel his breath warming her lips, could see a tiny crescent-shaped scar high on his left cheekbone, could see the exact texture of his suntanned skin. “No more doubts.” She felt both his hands bracket her face. “One kiss, Catherine. Nothing more.”

  The summer night was balmy and full of magic. She was caught up in the enchantment, drifting closer and closer toward Tyler until their lips were almost touching.

  “Just one,” she whispered.

  He kissed her then, his lips warm and sweet and gentle. For one heady moment Catherine believed she had captured the magic, believed she could hold it forever like a star caught in a glass bottle.

  And then Tyler ended the kiss. Catherine sighed. Nothing lasted forever.

  Chapter Six

  Strange images haunted her dreams. One moment Cat was high above the ground, flying toward the sky with Tyler, and the next she was fighting off Billy Joe. Her dream shifted and she saw twenty-four teddy bears smiling at her. Suddenly the smiles turned to tears, and they were all crying out to her, calling for help.

  She awoke in a panic and then threw the covers back. There were noises outside, strange scurryings and desperate whispers.

  She hurried to the window and peeked out. The circus grounds were shrouded in darkness, the cat cages and the elephants only inky shadows in the late-night blackness. Cat held her breath, watching. Nothing moved.

  “I’m being silly again,” she said to herself, climbing back into bed where she fell into a restless sleep.

  “Angel’s gone!” someone called, and Cat sat straight up, glancing at the windows. It was light out, and the sound of pounding footsteps mixed with the cry, “Angel’s missing! She’s run away!”

  Cat bolted out of bed, grabbed her robe and ran toward her trailer door.

  Larry Lanphere raced toward her, out of breath.

  “Catherine, have y
ou seen Angel this morning?”

  “No. I just got up.” She didn’t want to believe what she was hearing. “What’s wrong?”

  “I wish to hell I knew.” The circus owner drew his hands through his uncombed hair. “Mickey was out early this morning—you know how he is—and he discovered the baby elephant missing.” Larry took her arm and hurried toward the elephant enclosure. He had to elbow his way through the curious crowd of circus personnel that had already gathered.

  Elmer and Elvira were standing in their chains, unusually docile. They didn’t even acknowledge Catherine when she approached. No purrs, no gentle nudges with their trunks. Nothing. Angel’s chain was empty.

  Cat stared at the empty chain, disbelieving her own eyes. There was no way Angel would have run away. Her baby had been spirited away in the darkness.

  She stared at the empty chain a while longer, grieving for her missing baby. Then Elmer feebly lifted his trunk toward her. She was spurred to action.

  “They’ve been drugged,” she said, hurrying toward Elmer.

  “How can you tell?” Larry asked, still outside the ropes.

  “Training. But something else, too. Look.” She bent over and scooped the evidence out of the sawdust. “Somebody used a tranquilizer gun on my elephants.”

  “That means Angel didn’t run off.”

  “Angel would never leave her herd. She’s been stolen.”

  “I’ll call the law.” Larry turned quickly and disappeared into the crowd.

  Cat leaned against Elmer, weak with fear. Who would want to steal Angel? For what purpose?

  “Everything will be all right,” she whispered to Elmer as she rubbed his trunk, and then she set to work trying to counteract the effect of the drugs on Elmer and Elvira.

  o0o

  The disappearance of Angel was the talk of the town. It made the morning news.

  Tyler was standing in his kitchen, smiling at a mockingbird outside his window and feeling good about himself and life in general when he heard the news on the TV.

  “Angel at large. A thousand-pound baby elephant is missing from the nearby circus. Circus owner, Larry Lanphere, says the playful pachyderm was discovered missing earlier this morning. Anyone sighting the elephant is requested to report it to the sheriff’s office. Catherine DeChello, the elephant’s trainer...”

  Tyler didn’t wait to hear the rest. Catherine was in trouble. Feeling like one of the heroes in his novels, he climbed into his fastest car and headed toward the circus. He didn’t bother with scenery or speed limits. Heroes couldn’t afford to dillydally, especially fearless swashbuckling heroes intent on taking on the whole town.

  And if Tyler knew Ocean Springs, he’d have to take on the whole town. The mayor and all his cohorts had predicted disaster when the circus came to town. What would they say now that a thousand-pound elephant was on the loose?

  The hullabaloo was even worse than Tyler had expected. When he arrived at the circus the first thing he saw was a flatbed truck surrounded by a restless crowd. The Reverend Melvin Dunwoody was standing on the truck bed, megaphone in hand, preaching in his best hellfire-and-damnation voice, very much aware of the TV cameras trained on him.

  “I warned against the circus. I told you it was nothing but the Devil and all his henchmen. I warned that a great evil would be let loose in this town. And I was right!”

  The crowd began to murmur their agreement.

  “I spoke the truth!” Reverend Dunwoody continued, pronouncing truth as if it were carved in stone with a capital T. “But nobody listened. Nobody cared. I was a voice crying unheard in the wilderness.”

  Tyler made his way through the crowd toward the truck. He wished he had worn his white Stetson. His size gave him some advantage, but he was looking for a dramatic edge. He figured he’d need it to stop the voice crying in the wilderness.

  “Woe unto us,” the Reverend Dunwoody moaned. “The evil is upon us. The Devil is in our midst. Somewhere out there is a wild elephant, waiting to devour us, waiting to crush our houses and our cars and our children. The Devil, let loose—let loose, I tell you, by a bunch of sleazy tent people out to take our hard-earned money!”

  The crowd roared, but Tyler could be heard above them all.

  “Enough!” he yelled, jumping onto the flatbed truck. Reverend Dunwoody swung toward him, the megaphone at half-mast.

  “Go home,” Tyler roared. “Go back to your houses and your businesses and let the authorities do their job.”

  The crowd stopped shifting and murmuring to listen to him. He took his Man of Steel pose and became his own creation, taking on the town with both guns blazing. “What we have here is nothing more than a baby elephant, lost and probably scared. It’s a thousand-pound problem. That’s all. Don’t compound it with mass hysteria.”

  The crowd settled back down, and he reined in his temper. Nothing would be accomplished by anger.

  “There are no sleazy people in this circus,” Tyler said. “Only decent, hard-working people trying to earn a living. Go home. There’s nothing you can do here.”

  The muttering crowd began to disperse. Reverend Dun- woody raised his megaphone to call his flock back, but Tyler interceded.

  “It’s over, Reverend. You’ve lost.”

  “It’s not over. As long as I have breath I’ll preach against the Devil and his cohorts, against that elephant-loving jezebel...”

  Tyler clamped a hand on his shoulder and squeezed hard.

  “Her name is Catherine DeChello, and don’t you forget it. Preach against the Devil all you like, but if I ever hear that you’ve uttered a word against her, I’ll see to it that all your breaths come mighty hard.”

  “Is that a threat?”

  “That’s a promise.”

  Tyler jumped off the truck before the Reverend Dunwoody had a chance to reply, and hurried on toward the elephant compound.

  An even bigger crowd had gathered, along with a second TV news crew. He recognized two aldermen, Clive Presley and Rafe Turner, whose opinions had arrived on the Mayflower and were routinely dusted off and brought out for the edification of the general public and the mortification of Tyler. Standing to one side were the sheriff and the circus owner, engaged in what appeared to be a heated debate.

  He pressed farther through the crowd and spotted the mayor, his bowler hat shoved back, his bald head shining and sweating in the sun, and his fat arms wind-milling with angry gestures. The object of his anger was Catherine.

  Tyler raced toward her as if somebody had fired rockets under his backside. Catherine seemed small and fragile beside the mayor. Small and fragile, but mad as a wildcat.

  “Mayor Tittle,” he said, reaching out to grab the hand that was gesturing angrily toward Catherine. “I see you’ve come down to keep the peace.”

  “Well, I...” The mayor shuffled his feet and turned turkey-red in the face. He and Tyler were old adversaries.

  “As soon as I heard the news, I said to myself, ‘Mayor Tittle will go right down to the circus and make sure that justice is done.’ Am I right?” All the while he was speaking, Tyler kept a tight grip on the mayor’s hand, edging himself between the mayor and Catherine.

  “Well, naturally I came.” Mayor Tittle finally got his voice back. “The welfare of Ocean Springs is always my major concern.”

  “Naturally,” Tyler agreed with false cordiality. He could feel the heat of Catherine’s anger behind his back. He figured if she had been a cat, she would have been spitting. Grinning, Tyler released the mayor’s hand. Catherine probably didn’t need rescuing, but he was going to rescue her anyway.

  “And I’m sure you’re equally concerned over the welfare of Ocean Springs’s guests?” Tyler continued smoothly.

  “Ocean Springs’ guests, sir?” The mayor had an irritating habit of addressing all his male constituents as “sir.” He fancied it an astute political move. Tyler thought it was pompous and affected and had told him so on more than one occasion. “We have no guests that I’m aware of.”<
br />
  “Indeed we do, Mayor.” Tyler gestured toward the circus wagons. “We have hundreds of guests who have come to this fair Southern city with nothing in mind except to provide some innocent entertainment for the townspeople.”

  Tyler stepped closer to the mayor, using his height to intimidate. Where Catherine’s fate was concerned, no tactic was too underhanded or dirty.

  “I’m sure I interrupted your kind reassurances to Miss DeChello that she and the circus have the town’s fullest cooperation and sympathies in the matter of the missing baby elephant.” Behind him, Catherine was tugging his shirt, but like all heroes, he planned to do the dirty work himself.

  “Indeed!” The mayor cleared his throat and wiped the sweat off his brow and tried to think of his most politically expedient move. None came to mind.

  Tyler saw his advantage and took it.

  “I’m also certain that you want to tell Miss DeChello how sorry Ocean Springs’s leaders are that this tragedy has occurred in their jurisdiction.”

  “Well, I was telling Miss DeChello that I thought it best if she took her elephants on to a safer place.”

  “He was ordering me to leave.” Catherine stepped from behind Tyler’s back, her color high and her eyes blazing. “I will not leave this city while Angel is missing.”

  “But Miss DeChello...”

  “Don’t you ‘Miss DeChello’ me.” Catherine advanced on the mayor, shaking her fist as she talked. “Now that somebody bigger and meaner than you is here...”

  “Meaner?” Tyler was so amused at her, he forgot about taking charge.

  “Hush up.” She whirled to glare at him.

  “Hey.” He held up his hands in mock surrender. “I’m the guy in the white hat.”

  “He called me a she-cat, and I called him a puffed up old toad. Now I’m Miss DeChello... and all because there’s another man around.” Catherine turned back to the mayor, her eyes sparking fire. “Now you listen to me, Mayor Toad...”

  “Tittle...”

  “I will not leave Ocean Springs until Angel is found. If she’s anywhere near here, she will try to come back to her herd. I have to be here when she comes back.”