by kps
"Would have what, darling?" Dev questioned. "Gotten rid of your company earlier? Well, I wanted to surprise you, and it certainly looks as if I have. Do you make it a habit to entertain any outlaws passing through, Mrs. Cantrell, or just this particular bastard?"
Jenny gasped, looking as though she'd been struck. Her heart was pounding madly; the sarcasm in Dev's voice cut through her like a knife's blade. How many times had she imagined this moment, when he would walk in and take her into his arms, when he would whisper how much he'd missed her? Despite the way Beau's presence must look, couldn't Dev wait for an explanation before embarrassing her with jealous insinuations? "Sally, dear, would you fetch the coffee, please?" she requested in a soft, tightly controlled tone. "Mr.
Cantrell is undoubtedly a little damp, especially around the ears."
Sally had lost her happy expression. In Dev's voice and in Jenny's taut, nervous features she saw a gathering storm. Surely Dev couldn't think that ... that Jenny and Beau Stanner were involved in any way? How could he jump to the worst conclusion when the girl had been so miserable without him? Sometimes, she thought with a tight-lipped, disapproving frown, men could be burden-some creatures. The good Lord must have given women an extra dose of patience to endure their antics. And where was Luke at a time like this? "Yes, ma'am," she replied, casting a sympathetic glance at Jenny before she headed for the kitchen. "Won't take me but a minute!"
"Please, Dev, sit down," Jenny insisted, her eyes pleading with him to understand. "Beau ...
Mr. Stanner will be leaving us shortly. Won't you, Mr. Stanner?" The least he could do was help her out of this situation, a situation caused by his embarrassing presence!
Beau seemed in no hurry to leave or to correct Dev's impression that he'd walked in on an unfaithful wife and her lover. Beau strolled back around the table and settled comfortably into his chair again before offering an explanation of his own in a most insincere voice. "It's true, Cantrell. I will be leaving shortly. There's no reason for a fuss on my account. Your wife has been an angel of mercy for the past week or so. I envy you the fact that you're here to stay while I ... unfortunately, have to face the bitter cold again." He had slyly managed to insinuate that his stay had been warm in more ways than one.
"That's right, Dev." Jenny hurried on before Dev could make another sarcastic remark. A chair scraped midway down the table's length as Dev roughly jerked it out and sat down, and Jenny's mouth tightened as she glowered furiously at her unwelcome guest. "Mr. Stanner has been ... ah ... recuperating from an injury. He appeared at our door in the worst storm and …" She sounded so apologetic, so full of excuses that Jenny suddenly realized she was beginning to feel angry at both of
them. What had she done wrong, except to help someone who had needed immediate care?
"What kind of injury was it, Stanner?" Dev sat back and glared at the outlaw. "My wife is an excellent nurse, but if your supposed wound is below the waist, I'd be within my rights to shoot you."
"Devlan Cantrell-how dare you imply ... I refuse to listen any longer!" Jenny furiously jumped up from her chair and tossed down her linen napkin. "Beau Stanner, I expect you to leave now. And the next time you've been wounded, find someone else foolish enough to take you in!"
Jenny turned to face Dev, her arms crossed and only accentuating the furious rise and fall of her breasts against the dark blue velvet gown. "And as for you, Mr. Cantrell-" she interrupted a scathing rebuke to call for Sally. The kitchen door opened and Sally appeared, carrying a silver tray and matching decanter of steaming coffee.
"Sally, exactly where did Beau Stanner sleep for the past ten days?" Jenny inquired.
"Why, in the barn, with my Luke keepin' an eye on him." Sally's expression was prim and a touch righteous as she sternly gazed at Dev. "Where else would a man with a price on his head be staying?"
Dev opened his mouth, but Jenny cut him off. "And how often was he in the house?"
"Just for his meals, when he was well enough to walk. I wasn't about to make Luke wait on him hand and foot."
"And," Jenny concluded her defense with an indignant stamping of her foot, "how often was I in the barn alone with him?"
"Why, never!" Sally's mouth rounded into a shocked O. "Heaven forbid! As if you could trust a man like him. Oh, Devlan … do you think Luke and I weren't careful that no harm should come to your wife?" Sally looked highly offended at the idea. "Jenny and I went out there, trampin' through all that heavy snow once a day to change the bandages on that man's shoulder, not," she sniffed disdainfully, "that he's been the least bit grateful for saving his worthless life!" Then her wrath turned on Dev. "And you, you come stompin' in after three months of playing the rich gentleman in New York and act like it was yesterday you left. If you only knew how much this poor girl miss-s-"
"That's enough, Sally, thank you," Jenny interrupted, before Sally revealed too much that was private. She wanted neither of these two to know the state of her affections. "Please serve the coffee to these two ... gentlemen." Both Dev and Beau were quiet, each of them looking sheepish and introspective, and Jenny took advantage of the silence to go to the china buffet and pull Beau's gun from the top drawer. Exercising caution, she flipped the chamber open and emptied the bullets into her palm, then crossed to his seat and held it out to the outlaw. She couldn't keep his only means of defense, but she'd ... be damned if she'd hand him a fully loaded weapon!
At the door, Jenny paused and stated, "You may both leave in each other's company for all I care. I have no more patience left to deal with either of you." With a toss of her head and an angry rustle of petticoats, she left them to deal with each other. A few minutes later the sound of a furiously slammed door resounded from the upper story of the house, elegantly emphasizing Jenny's mood.
"It's a fine way you picked to repay the lady for saving your worthless hide!" Sally said audaciously, with little care for her own safety in chiding a man who'd reputedly shot others for less disparaging remarks. She splashed the scalding coffee into his cup and added, "If I'd been the one to find you, bleeding all over the snow, I'd have left you for wolf bait, Mr. Beau Stanner!"
On the other side of the table, she was equally careless in pouring Dev a cup and even more scathing in her contempt. "Shame on you, Devlan Cantrelll" she snapped. "One letter in all the time you were gone, and all the while you were probably chasing every skirt in New York! You've turned into such a fine dandy, I wouldn't blame Jenny if she never spoke to you again." Sally sniffed and exclaimed, "Men!" then raised her nose and headed stiffly for the preferred companionship of her pots and pans.
The side of Dev's mouth twitched in stubborn anger. He'd probably deserved every word of chastisement, but he didn't relish the fact that Stanner had witnessed it. Through the mist of steam rising from his coffee, he glared at the outlaw, blaming him for his disrupted home-coming.. .
"Okay, okay, I'm leaving," Beau protested. "Stayed too long in one spot, anyway." He stuck his gun in his belt and stood up, then stretched to test the soreness of his shoulder. His coat hung in the hall, his mount was saddled and waiting in the bam, and he had only one thing left to do. "You don't deserve that girl, Cantrell," he claimed with a hint of envy coloring his voice. "Push her too far, and you'll lose her. There's always someone around to appreciate a fine woman."
"Like you, I suppose," Dev said with a smirk.
"Me ... or somebody 'just as smart. Remember that, mister; not everyone's as blind or as careless as you." Then, with a cocky grin, he added, "Don't bother gettin' up. I can see myself out!"
Dev sat at the table for the next fifteen minutes, staring into his coffee while Stanner's parting taunt nagged at him. He had been a fool to react so emotionally; a part of it had been the effect of his own guilty conscience. Since it was tinged a dirty gray. from the indulgences of the past few months, he'd wanted Jenny to be a little less lily-white, a little less of the angel she'd probably been. Hell, he cursed himself, he knew she hadn't done anything. It was the shock of s
eeing Stanner here, the last man on earth he could have expected to find with Jenny. "No excuses, Cantrell," he said aloud. He'd just have to find some way to make it up to her.
Upstairs, Jenny had changed into her flannel night-gown, furiously brushed out her hair and climbed beneath the covers. With the comforter tucked beneath her arms and a sulky pout on her mouth, she looked just like a little girl who'd been reprimanded and sent to bed early.
Briefly she wondered what was happening downstairs. There had been no loud sounds. of quarreling, so she could only assume Beau had left peaceably.
How could Dev have accused her of being unfaithful with someone like Beau Stanner?
Especially when he'd been at liberty to indulge in whatever entertainments were available in civilization while she'd been neatly tucked away in the middle of nowhere with only Sally, Isa, and Luke for company. If Dev had secured her within the confines of a walled convent, her virtue couldn't have been better protected!
He looked so different from the Dev who'd gone East twelve weeks ago. Physically, his lean, almost spare figure had filled out. No doubt due, Jenny thought irritably, to an overindulgence in rich foods and wine. He had grown a very dashing, narrow mustache that gave his face a Continental, almost rakish appeal. It was the sort of effect a woman might have suggested, a woman like the green-eyed blonde Jenny had seen in her dream the night she'd tried to test her psychic abilities.
There was something else, something about his personality that she couldn't quite put her finger on. He'd been sure of himself before he'd left, a self-reliant man if she'd ever seen one, but now he seemed more ... gentle-manly. No, that wasn't it, he'd hardly acted the gentleman downstairs just now. Polished-that was the quality she'd seen! Dev's manners, the way he carried himself, everything about him bespoke a ... A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts, and Jenny absently called out, "Come in," half-expecting to see Sally, come to console her about the injustice of Dev's accusations.
But it was Dev's tall, broad-shouldered figure that filled the doorway. "Mind if we have a talk?" he asked, closing the door behind himself.
"I haven't much choice, have I," Jenny replied tartly, "since you're already in. I suppose now that you've dealt with Beau Stanner, you've come to accuse me of seducing Luke!"
If Jenny hadn't been when he arrived, she was now in the mood to do battle. She looked very indignant and self-righteous, and it would take every ounce of charm he possessed to talk her out of this one. He approached the bed, suddenly noticing the pale blue flannel gown she was wearing. Flannel? On Jenny? That was rather like wrapping a diamond in a ball of cotton.
Dev couldn't help the smile that tugged at the comers of his mouth. Despite its austere design, the gown, with its small, rounded collar and row of tiny buttons fastened to her throat, made her look young and vulnerable. "You look very innocent dressed like that, almost ... virginal."
"One cannot look almost virginal," Jenny retorted stiflly, fixing her gaze at the end of the bed. "One is either a virgin, or one is not. Perhaps you meant almost virtuous, but I assure you I am not dressed this way to appear innocent in your eyes. I've no desire to convince you of my innocence."
Then, for the first time, she glanced at him, a quick flash of hauteur from wickedly narrow eyes. "The true reason, you see, is that my husband has been away for a very long time.
What good are lace and satin when the winter is cold and my bed is empty?"
Dev grinned at the saucy tone of the challenge and promptly settled next to her on the bed.
"Had I known the loss of my body heat drove you to such extremes, my dear, I'd have been home before the first snowfall. But now that I'm here, I can remedy the situation immediately."
Jenny quickly retreated to the middle of the bed and eyed him warily, poised for further flight if he should make another move. "I've grown accustomed to it now, thank you," she insisted and then observed spitefully, "If you think I care to take you back into my bed, then you'd pest take a good look in the mirror. Aside from that silly mustache you've grown, your head is swollen twice its size!"
Neither her chilling sarcasm nor Jenny's irreverent opinion of his recently grown mustache seemed to have any effect on Dev's mood of tolerant good humor. He ran a finger lightly over the neatly trimmed, pale brown whiskers and commented, "I've gotten quite a few compliments on this; you'll like it once you've had a chance to get used to it." He grinned and added an ironic, "It grows on you," then neatly turned the subject back to their relationship. "It's good to know you've missed me, Jen, Maybe it's true that absence makes the heart grow fonder." His hand reached out to close over hers.
Jenny retrieved her hand and scowled. "The only thing I've become fond of is sleeping alone.
What makes you think you can just stroll back, unannounced, into my life and disrupt it?"
"Because I wasn't happy in New York, with you halfway across the country. Oh, I tried awfully hard to have a great time for myself-too hard, I think." His voice was bitterly self-critical. "When I woke each morning, I found myself wondering what you were doing. At a party I'd suddenly see your face, instead of my dancing partner's and …"
"And when you made love, I suppose it was me you held!" Jenny broke in, obviously skeptical of his sincerity.
There was no use denying it. He was guilty as hell about the liberties of the past three months; it would only show on his face if he lied. "All right, if it's a total confession you want-yes, I made love to other women. I won't try to excuse myself by reminding you that our original agreement included no loyalty oaths. I already knew by the time I'd reached New York that I was in love, but I was too damned stubborn to admit it!"
Jenny was stricken... she'd heard nothing beyond the word "women." Women, the plural form of woman. She'd resigned herself to the possibility of an affair, but Dev had admitted casually to multiple infidelities. "Don't!" she cried, turning her face away and shutting her eyes tight against the sting of tears. "I don't want to hear about your ... your women!"
Jenny had closed her mind away from hearing what he was really trying to say, that he loved her, that he'd come back to her. In desperation, Dev seized her wrists and jerked her body around until her face was only inches away from his own. Her eyes, startled open by the suddenness of the act, stared back at him in sullen resentment.
"If you're not going to listen to what I have to say, I've only got one last question, and you'd better think hard before you answer. Do you still want' an annulment?" Jenny's mouth was set tightly, sealed by stubbornness and a wild, rebellious desire to deny he existed, much less could hurt her so easily. In frustration, Dev gave her a shake, just hard enough to get her attention before he demanded, "Damn it, Jenny, do you? If so, I have the papers on me. All they need is a signature, and you'll be free of me ... if that's what you really want." He released one of her hands, dug the folded papers from the breast pocket of his coat, and tossed them past her to the bed.
Jenny admitted only one thing. In a tiny, choked voice, she said, "You're hurting my wrist."
Then she bit her lip, and as Dev gave a defeated sigh, the first of her tears splashed onto the hand he was about to release. "I ... I never wanted it to end ... I only ... thought you should have the right to be free, and, "Jenny was crying hard now, her feelings coming out in a torrent of words that ran together, broken only by short, sobbing breaths "you were honorable ... very honorable to m ... marry me when I needed you, but now that there's no rea-"
"Jen?" Dev pronounced her name in a tone as reverent as a lover's caress, gently raising her chin until her eyes were staring into his. "Forget about the baby, forget about everything but what you feel now. Do you still need me ... do you still want me?" He held his breath, waiting to hear the answer, the only answer he was willing to accept.
Jenny's mouth trembled, unable to express what she , felt. Instead, she closed her eyes and nodded. A moment later she was in his arms, and Dev's lips were kissing away the hurt and the tears and feeling of loss that h
ad assailed her. He held her close until she grew quiet and then searched his pockets for a fresh linen handkerchief to offer her.
"I must look a fright," Jenny finally said, dabbing at the last traces of her tears. "Swollen eyes, a red nose, and a flannel nightgown-hardly the most alluring combinationl"
"You look beautiful," Dev insisted, and the look in his eyes made Jenny believe him. He reached past her to retrieve the papers and held them for a moment. "Should I put these away in case you change your mind?" he teased.
Her answer was an emphatic no. "Tear them up,"
Jenny glanced toward the fireplace and then grinned at him, "or better yet, bum them!"
"All right, Mrs. Cantrell," Dev agreed, pulling her out of bed. "You may have the honor-we'll make a ceremony out of it." Dev carefully held back the screen while Jenny tossed the legal documents into the flames. She was contentedly watching them disappear into ashes when Dev placed a small, silk-covered black box in the palm of her right hand.
"Go ahead, open it," he urged when she seemed hesitant. "It's something to commemorate the occasion."
With the delight of a child at Christmas, Jenny carefully pried open the hinged lid. There, set in the satin, was a pair of matching wide, gold wedding bands. She snapped the lid shut and began to cry again.
"You don't like them?" Dev asked, perplexed. "Jenny .. honey, don't cry, we'll pick out a new set, whatever style you like! I just thought ... well, I thought you'd like something better than what I could afford when we got married."
Jenny circled his neck with her arms, hugging him close. Against the rough wool of his coat, her voice was muffled
but audible. "I love them, silly! Dev, you'll have to learn there are many reasons for a woman's tears, or you'll never survive marriage!" She drew back, so that he could slip the ring onto her finger. When it was in place, she held her hand to the light, admiring the intricacies of the carved band, and then, with very solemn expression, pulled the matching band from the box and slipped it on his ring finger. Dev smiled, pitching the box into the fire; it had served its purpose.
