Fool's Gold (38 page)

She looked levelly at him, her eyes soft and warm. ‘I don’t want it. My home, my life, is here, in California.’

‘Then sell it. Set up your own business again. You could be an independent woman.’

‘Don’t make me beg, Jack.’

She stepped closer to him and he had to fight the desire to touch her. With a boldness she had not known she possessed she unfastened the waist of the black skirt and, as it fell in a shadowed heap around her ankles, stepped out of it and into his arms. He bent his head to hers and kissed her with all the pent-up emotion of the months since she had first come into his life.

The feel of his half naked body against hers had a curiously exciting effect on Alicia and she responded with a passion she had not thought herself capable of. As his hand gently brushed against her breast, all thoughts of gritting her teeth and going through with it for his sake were forgotten and she was shaken to find how his touch aroused her.

Had he unbuttoned the blouse or had she? She didn’t know. She didn’t care.

He eased her back on to the bed. His lips left her mouth and travelled down her throat, her shoulders, arousing the most delicious feelings; when she leaned over and kissed his shoulder his flesh was hot and smooth beneath her lips.

With eager hands he slid the thin chemise down, then drew back for a moment, his lips parted, breathing erratic, to gaze down at her body, glowing golden in the soft lamplight. The moment he’d longed for ever since the day at the
agua caliente
.

‘Alicia, love,’ he muttered thickly. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes.’

‘You don’t have to do this.’

‘I know,’ she said, her words barely audible. ‘But I want to. Oh, I want to …’

It was true. She wanted him with a desperation she had never before experienced.

He gazed into her eyes a moment longer, then lowered his head and gently dropped a kiss on her soft breast. She shuddered.

‘I’ll try to be gentle,’ he promised.

But it was not a night for gentleness as he unleashed the passion she had carried untapped within her for so many years. His mouth, moving from her lips to cover her aching body with kisses, lit a fire in her that matched the flame in him. In the rough wooden bed, there was no room any more for doubt.

*

In the cool of the dawn she had slipped out of the room with only a backward glance at the sleeping figure in the bed. She had not woken him. They had said all there was to say in the early hours of the morning, wrapped in each other’s embrace.

Turning hungrily to her again, he had grinned that boyish grin and whispered: ‘The condemned man ate a hearty breakfast.’ She had shivered fearfully.

Now, head high, she crossed the deserted main street. Consuela Leon was waiting to let her back into the hotel through a side door.

*

They were first in the courtroom with Brenchley and Crocker. She sat with Letitia and Consuela on either side and Revel, the Senator and the Reverend Cooper behind. So many good friends, she thought, and tears prickled behind her eyes. But even they could not console her if she lost him now, lost him when she had only just found him.

She heard the bustle of arrival behind her and blinked back the tears in time to greet her husband with a smile as he took his seat at the front.

Crocker had only just got to his feet to address the Coroner when the clerk hurried in. The jury was coming back!

They filed in and sat down, all save the elderly gentleman at the front.

‘Has the jury reached its verdict?’ demanded the Coroner.

‘We have, your honour.’ He adjusted his watch chain over his ample stomach and the court seemed to hold its breath. ‘Accidental death.’

A roar of approval went up throughout the courtroom and men and women alike rushed forward to shake Cornish by the hand.

Murray was banging on the table with his gavel, but no one took any notice. Alicia stood as if transfixed while the crowd ebbed and flowed around her. Before she could reach his side, Jack had been hoisted on to someone’s shoulders and the mob rushed him out of reach, sweeping past her and out onto the street.

Revel found her standing in the deserted street with Letitia, like a leftover from a hiring fair that no one wanted.

‘Come on!’ he urged, dragging her behind him. ‘If we hurry we can get down to the levée before them.’

He led her away from Garrison’s and down to Front Street, then, at sight of the crowd streaming onto the Embarcadero, they ducked down a side alley and there was the
Tresco
, just beginning to get steam up. Revel pushed her up the gangplank and into the cabin just as the crowd appeared.

They carried Jack Cornish shoulder-high along the levée and up the gangplank. As he caught sight of Revel he shouted anxiously: ‘My wife?’

‘Safe on board!’

‘Thank God! Thought I’d lost her again!’ At last the crowd grew tired of shouting and cheering and lowered him to his feet. He waved to them cheerily. ‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ he said with a broad grin, ‘I look forward to entertaining you all at Tresco and showing you my gratitude for your support — but not for a week or two, I beg of you. I’m planning a belated honeymoon!’

There was a great roar of approval as he leapt up the gangplank and shouted to Captain Bateman to cast off.

As the paddles began to churn their path through the muddy brown waters of the Sacramento, he stepped into the cabin.

They looked at each other for a long moment.

‘You don’t lose me that easily,’ she murmured.

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Fool’s Gold
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