Beloved (14 page)

242

Beloved

Diana Palmer

243

marriage. She didn't want to be anyone's one-night stand; not
even
Simon's.

The long drive down to Jacobsville wasn't as harrowing as
she'd expected it to be. Simon talked about politics and began
asking pointed questions about an upcoming
fund-raiser.

She wasn't comfortable with the new relationship between
them, so when he asked if she might like to help with
some proj
ects for the governor if he took on
the attorney general's job, she
immediately suspected
that he was using her helpless attraction to
him to win her
support.

She looked down at the small white beaded evening bag in
her
lap. "If I have time," she said,
stalling.

He glanced at her as they passed through the gaily
decorated downtown section of Jacobsville, dressed like a Christmas tree for
the
holidays with bright colored lights and tinsel.

^“
What else have you got to do lately?" he asked
pointedly.

She stared at her bag. "I might
do another exhibit."

He didn't ask again, but he looked
thoughtful.

The Hart ranch was impressive, sprawling for miles, with
the
white fence that surrounded the house and
immediate grounds draped with green garlands and artificial poinsettias.

“They haven't done that before," she commented as
they went
down the long paved driveway to the
house.

“Oh, they've made a number of improvements since Dorie
married Corrigan last Christmas and moved into their new house next
door to this one," he explained.

"Reluctant improvements, if I
know Callaghan."

He chuckled. "
Cag
doesn't go in much for frills."

"Is he still not eating
pork?"

He gave her a wry glance. "Not
yet."

It was a family joke that the eldest bachelor brother
wouldn't
touch any part of a pig since he'd
seen the movie about the one
that talked, a box office smash.

"I can't say that I blame him," she murmured.
"I saw the
movie three times myself."

He chuckled. It was a rare sound these days and she
glanced at
him with a longing that she quickly
concealed when his eyes
darted toward her.

He pulled up in front of the sprawling ranch house and
got out, noting that
Tira
did the same without
waiting for him to open her
door. Her
independent spirit irritated him at times, but he re
spected her for it.

When she started up the steps ahead of him, he caught
her hand
and kept it in his as they reached the
porch, where Corrigan and
Dorie greeted them
with warm hugs and smiles.
Tira
smiled au
tomatically,
so aware of Simon's big hand in hers that she was
almost floating.

"You're just in time," Corrigan said.
"Leopold spiked the
punch and didn't
tell Tess, and she got the wrong side of Evan
Tremayne's
tongue.
She's in the kitchen giving Leo hell and
swearing that he'll never get another biscuit."

"He must be in tears by
now," Simon mused.

"He's on his knees, in fact, groveling." Corrigan
grinned. "It
suits him."

They went inside, where they met Evan and his wife, Anna,
who was obviously and joyfully pregnant with their first child,
and the Ballenger brothers, Calhoun and Justin, with
their wives Abby and Shelby, all headed toward the front door together. They
were all founding families in the area, with tremendous
wealth and power locally.
Tira
knew of them, but it
was the first time
she'd met them face-to-face. It didn't
surprise her that the brothers had such contacts. They made friends despite
their sometimes re
clusive tendencies. All the same, the
party looked as if it had only
just started, and
it puzzled her that these people were leaving so
soon. They didn't seem angry, but with those bland expressions, it was
sometimes hard to tell if they were.

Tira
looked around for
Cag
and Key and just
spotted them going
through the swinging door of the
kitchen. In the open doorway

Beloved

she caught a glimpse of Leopold on
his knees in a prayerful stance
with a thin young redhead standing over
him looking outraged.

Tira
chuckled. Simon, having seen the same thing, laughed out
loud.

"This is too good to miss. Come on." He nodded
at other
people he knew as they wove their way
through the crowd and
reached the
kitchen.

Stealthily Simon pushed open the door. The sight that
met their eyes was pitiful. Leopold was still on his knees, with
Cag
verbally
flaying him while Rey looked on
approvingly.

They glanced toward the door when Simon and
Tira
entered.
Leopold
actually blushed as he scrambled to his feet.

Tess grimaced as she spotted Simon, one of the only two
broth
ers who actively intimidated her. "I
don't care what they say, I'm
quitting!" she
told him despite her nervousness. "He—" she
pointed at Leopold ''—poured two bottles of vodka in my special
tropical
punch, and Evan
Tremayne
didn't realize it was spiked
until he'd had his second glass and fell
over a chair." She blushed.
"He
said terrible things to me! And he—" she pointed at Leopold
again "—thought it was funny!"

“Evan
Tremayne
falling over a
chair would make most people
in Jacobsville giggle,"
Tira
stated, "knowing how he hates al
cohol."

"It gets worse," Tess continued, brushing back
a short strand
of red hair, her blue eyes flashing. "Evan thought the
punch was
so good that he gave a glass of it
to Justin Ballenger."

"Oh, God," Simon groaned. "Two of the
most fanatical tee
totalers in the county."

"Justin
got a guitar and started singing some Spanish song.
Shelby dragged the guitar out of his hands just in time," Tess
explained. She put her face in her hands.
"That was when Evan
realized
the punch was spiked and he said I should be strung up
over the barn by my apron strings for doing such a
nasty thing to
your guests."

"I'll speak to Evan."

Diana Palmer
                                                                          
245

^“
Not now, you
won't,"
Tira
mentioned. "We just met the
Tre-
maynes
going out the front door, along with both Ballenger
broth
ers and their wives."

"Oh, God!" Leo groaned again.

"I'll phone him and apologize," Rey promised.
"I'll call them
all and apologize.
You can't leave!"

"Yes, I can. I quit." Tess had taken off her
apron and thrown
it at Leopold. "You'd better learn
how to bake biscuits, is all I
can say. They—'' she pointed toward
Cag
and Rey ''—will prob
ably
kill you when I leave, and I'm glad! I hope they throw you
out in the
corral and let the crows eat you! That would get rid of
two evils, because the crows will die of food poisoning for sure!"
She stormed through the door and Leopold groaned
out loud.
Cag's
quiet eyes followed her and his face tautened
curiously.
"Leo, how could
you?" Rey asked, aghast.

"It wasn't two bottles of vodka," he protested.
"It was one.
And I meant to give it to Tess, just
to irritate her, but I got side
tracked and Evan
and Justin...well, you know." He brightened.
"At least Calhoun didn't get a taste of it!" he added, as if
that
made things all right. Calhoun, once a
playboy, was as bad as his
brother about liquor since his marriage.

"He left, just the same. But you've got problems
closer to
home. You'd better go after her,"
Simon pointed out.

"And fast!" Rey said through
his teeth, black eyes flashing.
"Like a
twister,"
Cag
added with narrowed eyes. "If
she
leaves, you're going to get branded along with
that stock I had
shipped in today."

"I'm going, I'm going!" Leopold rushed out the
back door
after their housekeeper.

"Isn't she a little young for a housekeeper?"
Simon asked his
brothers. "She barely looks
nineteen."

"She's twenty-two,"
Cag
said. "Her dad was working for us
when he dropped dead of a heart attack. There's no family and
she
can cook." His powerful shoulders lifted and fell. "It seemed

246

Beloved

Diana Palmer

247

an ideal solution. If we could just keep Leo away from her, things
would be fine."

"Why does he have to torment the housekeepers all
the time?" Rey asked miserably.

"He'll settle down one day,"
Cag
murmured. He looked dis
tracted, and he was glaring toward the back door. "He'd better not
upset her again. In fact, I think I'll make sure he doesn't."

He nodded to the others and went after
Leo and Tess.

"He's sweet on her," Rey said when the door
closed behind
him. "Not that he'll admit it.
He thinks she's too young, and she's
scared to
death of him. She finds every sort of excuse to get out
of
the kitchen if he's the first one down in the mornings. It's sort
of comical, in a way. I don't guess she knows that
she could bring
him to his knees with
a smile."

"She's very young,"
Tira
commented.

Rey glanced at her. "Yes, she is. Just what
Cag
needs, too,
something
to nurture. He's always bringing home stray kittens and
puppies...just like her." He pointed to a small
kitten curled up in a little bed in the corner of the kitchen. "She
rescued the kitten
from the highway.
Cag
bought the bed for it. They're a match
made in heaven, but Leo's going to ruin everything. I think he's
sweet on her, too, and trying to cut
Cag
out before she notices how much time he spends watching her."

"This is not our problem," Simon assured his
brother. "But
I'd send Leo off to cooking school if
I were you. No woman is
ever going to be
stupid enough to marry him and if he learns to
make biscuits, you can do without housekeepers."

"He made scrambled eggs one morning when
Tess
had to go
to the eye doctor early to pick
up her contacts,"
Rey
said. "The
dogs wouldn't even touch them!" He glared at
Tira
and Simon
and
shrugged. "Come on. We've still got a few guests who
haven't gone home. I'll introduce you to
them."

He led them into the other room and stopped suddenly,
turning
to look at them. "Wait a minute.
Corrigan said you weren't speak
ing to each other after
that newspaper stupidity."

Simon still had
Tira's
slender
hand tight in his. "A slight mis
understanding.
We made up. Didn't we?" he asked, looking down
at
Tira
with an expression that made her face
turn red.

Rey
made a sound under his breath and quickly changed the
subject.

Corrigan and Dorie joined them at the punch bowl, which
had
been refilled and
dealcoholized
.
Dorie looked almost as pregnant
as Anna
Tremayne
had, and she was radiant. Not even the thin
scar
on her delicate cheek could detract from her beauty.

"We'd almost given up hope," she murmured,
laughing up at
her adoring husband. "And then,
wham!"

"We're over the moon," Corrigan said. The limp
left over from
his accident of years ago was much
less noticeable now, he didn't
even require a cane.

"I'm going to be an uncle," Simon murmured.
"I might like
that. I saw a terrific set of
"O" scale electric trains in a San
Antonio toy store a few days ago. Kids love trains."

"That's right, boys and girls alike,"
Tira
murmured, not men
tioning that she'd bought that train set for herself.

"Did
you know that two of our local doctors, who are married
to each other, have several layouts of them?" Corrigan murmured.
“The doctors
Coltrain
.
They invited kids from the local orphanage
over for Christmas this year and have them set up and running.
It's something of a local legend."

"I like trains," Simon said. "Remember
that set Dad bought us?" he asked Corrigan.

"Yeah." The brothers shared a memory, not
altogether a good one judging from their expression.

"This isn't spiked, anymore?"
Tira
asked, changing the subject
as she stared at
the punch bowl.

"I swear," Corrigan said, smiling
affectionately at her. "Help
yourself."

She did, filling one for Simon as well, and talk went to
general
subjects rather than personal ones.