At first, all he could see was the shimmer of sunlight and a brilliant flash on her hand, blinding him. Then, as she changed the angle, he saw it.
His pulse sped up. "Shit! You are insane."
She wore Stoddard's prized diamond ring. Everyone who'd ever met the man had seen it. When he played cards, he twisted it around and around his finger. And everyone knew Stoddard loved it, especially for having won it off some visiting German prince.
Ellie snatched her hand back. "He can have it back after he gives me my divorce. In fact, I don't want a divorce anymore."
"What?" Thaddeus jerked the reins, and Lucky whinnied.
"No, I want an annulment. Complete and utter. Like we never were married."
That made sense to him. But the ring. Jesus, that ring! "He will hunt you down and skin you alive," Thaddeus said.
Ellie crossed her arms across her chest mutinously. "He's already hunting me down."
True. "How come I never saw it before?"
"I move it around. Sometimes I keep it in my bodice, sometimes in my hair, if my bun is tight enough, sometimes in my drawers. I'm sure that's why he had me strip on that infernal boat; he was looking for it."
"What did he say when he didn't find it? Wait. Where was it?" Thaddeus had a disturbing image of where she might have hidden it, even when naked.
"As luck would have it, it was in your bag at the time you tossed me on the train. So, you had it all along. And Jack wasn't too pleased that he couldn't find it, but if he killed me, he knew he'd never retrieve his precious jewel." She looked down at the ring again.
"He was coming back to give me a thorough search after his gaming tables closed, but luckily for me, you arrived first, and Jo ended up having that particular pleasure."
Capturing Ellie's hand, Thaddeus took a long, hard look at the ring. It was a beauty, but it wasn't worth dying for. Perhaps if he returned it to Stoddard, all other debts would be forgiven. Any reasonable man would be grateful.
There was his answer. Stoddard wasn't reasonable. He was crazy half the time and insane the rest.
He let her hand drop. At least he knew the real reason why she'd jumped off the train—not because she didn't want to go to Charlotte's house without him, but because she'd put her security in his bag without telling him.
"Don't put that damn thing in my bag again. Understand?"
She nodded, slipped it off her finger, and tucked it back into her dress. He didn't think with the lack of material, that it was the safest place, but that wasn't his problem. No, his problem was getting them to Boston without losing her again and then making sure Reed agreed to help get her legally un-married.
Riding all day, they stopped once for food, which they ate sitting in the tall grass outside of a town. He couldn't take her into a decent restaurant dressed like that. As it was, Thaddeus had to look elsewhere than at her nearly see-through gown while they talked, or his brain went entirely blank. In doing so, he learned about everything she'd been through in the previous year, and he told her a slightly whitewashed version of his own adventures.
If they hadn't been on the run for their lives, it would have been quite a pleasant picnic.
"I know we're doing things all backward, riding during the day, but maybe that's why this is working," she offered. "Jack wouldn't expect us out in daylight."
"You may be right." It was precisely what he'd been thinking. "Or we are just unbelievably lucky. But we do need to sleep and this horse can't go on forever."
He figured it was a calculated risk if they slept in a real hotel. After all, they were hours from Stoddard's boat and they could have ridden in any direction. When the first chance came around dinnertime, he took it.
"Come on, darlin'. Let's get a room. And I need a cigarette and a drink."
She wrinkled up her nose, but he ignored whatever she was taking offense to and secured a room for him and his "wife."
With the way she was dressed, though, Thaddeus was fairly certain the desk clerk, who couldn't keep his eyes off her, took her for a harlot. Not that he'd tell Ellie that. She would fry his griddlecake to a crisp if she thought people were mistaking her for someone like Jo.
He led the way up two flights. "Sure glad I'm not carrying you. Not that you weren't light and all," he added, pushing open the door and letting her sashay past him.
While he lit the lamps against the deepening dusk, she glanced at the tidy bed and the cheerful curtains, the polished furniture and the clean braided rug.
"This is nice. It reminds me of Fuller's."
He laughed. "Why did you ever need to go into a hotel room in Spring City? You had a perfectly good house of your own."
She blushed. "I own it."
"Own what?"
"The hotel."
"Excuse me for being dense," he said, drawing the drapes before lying down on the bed and putting his hands behind his head, "but I thought Mr. Fuller owned Fuller's."
"Take off your boots if you're going to lie on that quilt, Thaddeus."
He started to lower his feet, then stopped himself. "Ellie, a man in my position does not remove his boots unless he absolutely has to. I've had to make too many quick exits, and if I lost my boots every time, why, I'd be the sorest-footed man in America."
"Hmph," she said, acquiescing to his logic and continuing her examination of the room, picking up a lace doily from the dressing table, then replacing it.
He relaxed again. "So, how do you come to own Fuller's?"
"The same way I own nearly all of Spring."
She sighed and sat in the rocker in the corner, folding her hands in her lap.
He didn't like her being by the window, but since he'd already pulled the curtains, it was probably all right.
"Daddy helped the Fullers out when they couldn't pay the bank. Same story with the mercantile, Drake's barn, and with Riley's family."
"Riley?"
She nodded. "In that case, I had a bit of a personal interest, as you can imagine."
Thaddeus's whole body tensed at her personal interest in Riley.
"I stepped in to make my father buy out their mortgage and give the Dalcourts a break from the bank's threats."
"I suppose you couldn't let your fiancé lose his family home."
"You're right, even if I never had any intention of living there."
He raised an eyebrow at her questioningly.
"They don't have indoor plumbing, except a cold tap at the kitchen sink," she reminded him. "Can you imagine?" She shook her head in amazement.
"I mean, bathing in the middle of that... of Josephine's bedroom is one thing, on a single solitary basis that I hope never to repeat in all my livelong days, but a life of bathing in the kitchen in a tin tub?" She shuddered. "That would not be for me. No, sirree."
"So, you were betting on Riley making a lot of money as a doctor and building you a big modern house?"
She frowned. "No, silly, I have a lovely house, as you said. I didn't need another one."
"But you had your cap set for Riley, nonetheless."
"I had to. He made Papa feel as though I'd be all right. Riley was focused, knew what he would do with his life, and he was stable as a rock. Besides, you didn't offer me anything better."
"Me?" He almost sat up but willed himself to lie still. "I didn't even know I was being considered." He tried to make light of it.
She blushed. "You couldn't be, not really. Daddy didn't like the idea of you. I mean, not you exactly, but your lack of—"
"Prospects?" Thaddeus supplied.
"Something like that. He could put his mind at rest after I got engaged to Riley."
"I see." It was starting to sound less as though Riley had been a choice of her heart, after all. He smiled. And if only she knew how well he'd done financially, despite his lack of "prospects."
Even though his fortunes had been up and down, he was about to come into something steady—or would if he could get to his appointed meeting sometime before the turn of the goddamned ce
ntury!
Breathe, he told himself. He decided tonight that he was going to let old grudges go. He was in a comfy hotel room with Ellie, who was dressed indecently underneath his coat. And that very morning, she'd offered herself to him.
Swinging his legs onto the floor, he stood up. Stretching his sore muscles, he considered what he wanted to tell her. Slowly, he got to his knees in front of her chair, leaning back on his heels and resting his hands on his thighs.
"Darlin', I didn't have much to recommend me to your father when I was eighteen. But now—"
She leaned forward, the coat gaping open, giving him an astounding view inside the front of her dress, right down to her navel, and she kissed him. Easy as pie.
He pushed her back into the chair and held her arms firmly on the armrests.
"Damnation, Ellie! Every time I go in for the first move, you beat me to it. Let a man take control once in a while."
She didn't smile. "Let a man take control!" she scoffed. "I'll never do that again."
He figured she was referring to her father. Before his illness, Elijah Prentice was considered the type of man who would manage ants at a picnic. Thaddeus could imagine the restrictive rein he kept on his only daughter.
Yet Thaddeus was not Elijah; he didn't want to control her every move. In fact, he was quite interested to find out what she was like when she wasn't on the run and in fear for her life. However, by the look on her face, he'd gone and said precisely the wrong thing.
"If you don't like my kiss, just say so. In fact, why don't you see if they have another room?" she said, tossing her tangled hair over her shoulder. "I'm sure between the two of us, we can afford it. Or you can find some whore to bunk with for less money than a hotel room, I'll warrant."
He sighed and returned her glare with a level gaze of his own. Why was she going all uppity on him now? Instinctively, he knew she was scared of something.
"I'm not going to go find another woman, Ellie, and I liked your kiss just fine. But I swear you are the most difficult, orneriest woman I've ever met." And desired, he wanted to add. "Why are you so ill-tempered?"
She flounced as well as any female ever did while trapped in a chair. "What have I got to be so darned happy about? My mother died when I was three—"
"Lots of people lose their parents. I did," he interrupted.
"You were a heck of a lot older when that happened. And you had Charlotte. I had no siblings and an elderly father who scared everyone in town. Folks would look at me and say, 'There's that Eliza Prentice, so stuck-up,' even when I wasn't doing anything but walking down Main Street. People only tolerated me for my father's money, and frankly, that can wear on a person."
She struggled against his hold. "Difficult and ornery, indeed! I had nothing else but my temper and my snappish reputation."
"You had me." That slipped out without him thinking it through, but it didn't win him back her lovely smile. Quite the opposite.
"You had sex with me and forgot!" Her tone resonated with scorn, but she stopped fighting him.
He puffed out his cheeks and then expelled his breath. This was not going well. How could he start over? He couldn't.
Releasing his grip on her arms, he said, "Ah, hell, Ellie. I was drunk."
"I thought I loved you." The words were out of her mouth in a rush, and her eyes widened as if she wished she could retrieve them. Then she crossed her arms and glowered at him again.
Silence. What could he say? She had loved him? Unlikely, though he could believe she felt something for him, they'd had so much fun together, flirting and laughing. But love? She was looking at it now through the misremembered haze of years gone by and ruffled emotions.
Still, it felt good to know that all the time he was fantasizing over this beautiful girl, she'd had feelings for him, too.
He had to ask: "And now?"
She shook her head, managing to look disdainful and delectable at the same time. "And now I don't."
Hm! He wasn't so sure her feelings for him were all gone.
"So if I kiss you, you wouldn't enjoy it?"
She paused, as if considering, but then the smallest of smiles played across her lips. "I didn't say that. I'm a woman, after all."
"And if I took you in my arms and pulled you close."
She laughed at him. "I'd slap you."
He leaned in closer.
"And if I tossed you on that bed, undressed you, and made love to you?"
She stopped laughing. "Thaddeus, I have no doubt you could do what you say. I also know many folks would think you capable of that. After all, your reputation is that of a rascal, at least a bit of one. But I know you'd never do anything against my will. I trust you with my life and my virtue. I always have."
He sighed. He'd already dallied with her "virtue" and apparently made an absolute hash of it. And he supposed he was worse than a cad to attempt anything again.
"Jesus, Ellie. You take all the fun out of it."
She cocked her head. "Oh, not all the fun, surely?"
She was teasing him after all. Her eyes danced like pale blue flames, inviting, flirting with him. Perhaps his advances wouldn't be unwelcome.
He moved closer until he could feel her breath on his mouth. Slowly, keeping his eyes on hers in case she got angry and hauled off to slap him as she'd threatened, he kissed her. Not too hard, not too soft, just to tell her that he meant business.
After a moment, she returned the kiss, increasing the pressure against his mouth, then voicing a sensual sound that fired his blood.
He lifted his head and leaned his brow against hers. All the air seemed sucked out of the room; at least, he was having trouble drawing any into his lungs, and by the look on her face, she felt it, too. After a moment, however, he felt her tense as if she were putting on armor, like she had the day he nearly walked out on her at the Grindels' boarding house.
She sat up taller, which caused him to draw back.
"Unlike yourself, Thaddeus, I've been lonely a long time."
He assumed she was referencing him having had relations with Jo, and naturally, she presumed there were other ladies with whom he'd fornicated. And of course, she was excusing herself from reacting to his kiss. She turned her head away.
"Even before Riley fell in love with Sophie," Ellie said, not looking at him, but at some distant memory that played out over his right shoulder, "I knew I was not what he wanted—like being second best before there was a first best."
Her voice held not a trace of self-pity. "He and I had an understanding concerning getting married, but we didn't share any... any passion. Not like what sparked between him and Sophie. As soon as my father died, I let Riley go. And there's been no one since."
He was elated that she hadn't had feelings for anyone since Riley. However, there was so much wrong with everything else she was saying, he didn't know where to start. He began by taking her hand and telling her the truth.
"I never thought you were second best." He could have added, "I've loved you since forever," but he wasn't about to make a fool of himself in front of her.
She looked at her hand in his, then up at his face. "I believed you were my friend, at the very least, but then you stopped speaking to me."
"When you got engaged to Riley, I lost two friends," he confessed, his voice gruff, remembering again the anguish of his youthful heart. "I couldn't stand being in Spring City or laying eyes on either of you. My sister wondered for years why I never went home, or almost never."
He had been a coward when it came to the raw, painful feelings that came up at the sight of Ellie or Riley.
"Because of me?" she asked.
He nodded. So much for not making a fool out of himself.
"I had no idea you cared for me like that, especially when you said nothing after we... you know, in your barn."
He groaned. How much had that damned whisky cost him? But she had to know that she was absolutely in a class by herself. And if she didn't, he would make sure she understood.
He lifted her hand to his lips and turned it over, searing her palm with a kiss. He heard her gasp.
"I think I behaved even worse after that night," she said, "and the funny thing is that people let me get away with behaving terribly. The more they accepted from me, temper-wise, the more I knew they didn't care a dang about me, and the worse I got."
She reached out and touched his hair, which seemed to Thaddeus a most intimate act.
"Except for you," she added, "and then, after you were gone, Riley. It didn't matter what I did or said, he always saw through it. He was so patient. That infuriated me, actually. The man was like a saint."
Thaddeus didn't want to hear any more about Saint Riley. Leaning closer, he said, "I'm not such a patient man, darlin'."
He stood up and pulled her to her feet before kissing her again. He could feel his blood pulsing erratically through his body. He pulled away and looked into her crystalline blue eyes.
"I wish I hadn't been such an absolute imbecile that night after the dance. If I could take it back and do it over, I would."
She nodded, but he wasn't sure if she was agreeing or simply being kind. Maybe, given the opportunity, she wouldn't do it over, not with him, not at such a young age, even if he had been sober.
Breaking away, she went to the washstand and poured some water in a bowl. She used the towel hanging on the stand to dab at her face. It took a moment for him to see she was crying faintly and trying to hide it. Then she dried her face and turned to him.
"So much of my life, wasted," she said bitterly.
At first, he didn't know how to respond, except to comfort her. Closing the space between them, his eyes never leaving hers, he ran his thumb along her smooth cheek and then over her full lower lip, which he could feel trembling. He ended by holding her chin in his hand and making her look at him.
"Any life that brought us to this point, right here, can't have been wasted. And right now, there's no place I'd rather be than in this hotel room with you. I'd like to make up to you any squandered time. If you'll let me?"
He left it as a question. Would she let him? Holding his breath, he counted the seconds with each hopeful beat of his heart.
An Inescapable Attraction Page 14
