Love's Revenge (Entangled Scandalous) (9 page)

In the darkened hall she began to comprehend her situation. Fear enveloped her like a cold shroud. For the first time, she admitted to herself that it was possible that she could lose Andy.

Chapter Ten

“Where is she?” Stephen strode down the upstairs hall, his voice echoing loudly back at him in the narrow space.

“She’s gone out, sir.” Fiona stopped dead at the entrance to Andy’s room, a pile of clean laundry in her arms.

“Out where?”

“She said she wanted to get a few things for the boy. I’m not sure where she went exactly.”

“Damn.” Stephen turned on his heels. “Peg?” He took the steps two at a time, pivoted in the entry hall, and marched to the back of the house where he threw open the kitchen door. “Peg?”

“Lordy, what’s all the commotion about?”

“Where has she gone?” Stephen demanded.

“Who?” Peg looked puzzled.

“Katherine.”

“She said she wanted to pick up warmer clothes for Andy, so I told her to try Chamard on Larimer or the Empire Clothing House.”

“You let her go out?”

Peg stopped rolling out the crust for the pie she was making and placed a balled fist on each of her hefty hips. “Listen here, Stephen, my boy. I ain’t about to hold the girl captive in this house because you can’t work yourself up to telling her something she shoulda known all along.”

“Peg...”

“If I was you, I’d be afraid she’d find out from someone else and if she does, she ain’t going to give you the boy without a nasty fight. Least if you tell her—”

“If I tell her... What am I going to tell her?”

“The truth is what you’re to be telling her.”

He laughed bitterly. “Just give me a little while longer. I spoke with Otto Mears. He says Morse went back to Silverton after the hearing. I’ve got to head there early next week. Winter is almost here. It won’t be long before all the passes are closed and there will be no traveling until spring.”

“Ah, don’t tell her fer sure, then.” Peg used a flour-covered hand to push back a graying strand of red hair. “With any luck, this time Morse’s men will finish what they started and when you’re dead, Kate can just take Andy back with her. That’ll make life a mite bit simpler for you, won’t it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’ve seen the way you look at her.”

He looked away, out the back window of the kitchen where Dusty and Andy played with a newly whittled spinning top.

He felt he had to protest. “You were dumbstruck yourself when you first saw her. She’s a very beautiful woman. It’s hard to overlook that.”

“That simple, eh?” Peg brushed off the flour on her hands and walked around the big pine table until she was in front of him. She was almost as tall as him and broad at the shoulders from years of mining.

“I’m not a fool. I’ve knowed you going on ten years now. This one, she’s a fighter. And you know it too. I ain’t never seen the look you have on your face when you look at her ever, not even before.”

“Don’t say that, Peg. Do you think I’d ever betray Lizzie?” Guilt drove his anger.

“Ah, you see it that way.”

“What other way is there to see it?”

“If I got to tell you, you ain’t ready to hear it.” Peg resumed rolling out the pie crust. “Well, are you going after her then? I’d try Merseberg & Zalinger’s over on Blake as well. Seems I may have mentioned that, too.”

He didn’t care that he slammed the kitchen door on his way out. Andy and Dusty looked up briefly as he passed before returning to their game. He headed for Larimer. What the hell was Peg babbling on about?
The look on his face.
The woman was hallucinating.

…

Kate inhaled deeply. The crisp mountain air cleaned her soul and lifted her spirits. It was good to be outside the house. She had been cooped up for almost a week now. Stephen had come and gone. Even Peg and Dusty had gone out on errands, but she had spent her days at needlepoint and reading. It felt like sinful idleness. She was used to being involved in so many things. Her volunteer work, her father’s business, Andy...

Even Andy needed her less these past few days. The boy was enamored of Dusty and she had to admit the miner kept her in stitches as well with his tales of the West.

Dusty and Peg had been a surprise. The warm-hearted souls shared one thing in common—a rabid devotion to Stephen Worth. Peg would watch Stephen as she herself watched Andy. Mirrored in Peg’s eyes, there was the same concern, the same love—and the same pain.

Kate couldn’t look at Andy without thinking of Lizzie. Why was there the same pain in Peg’s eyes when she watched Stephen?

She stopped in front of the store Peg had recommended and studied the display window. A boy’s gray-checked wool suit trimmed in gray gallon was displayed with knee-high spats. The small ensemble was a copy of a man’s Norfolk hunting suit. It piqued her interest. Andy was just out of dresses and into shirtwaists. He had grown so quickly it pained her. Now she had to anticipate buying him still more grown-up things.

She reached for the door to the Empire Clothing House and a small brass bell announced her arrival.

“May I help you, miss?”

“I was interested in the child’s suit in the front window.”

“Yes, miss. It’s a lovely garment. Fine, fine fabric. We sell it with matching hose, and a cambric shirt with a large fold-over collar. We also recommend a silk bow tie.”

“Yes, yes I see it. I think I’ll take them... All of them, please.”

“Thank you, miss. We’ll have the package delivered directly.” Before she could provide an address he said, “And if I do say, it’s good to see Mr. Worth back in Denver after all this time.”

“He’s not been in Denver for a while?” She tried to sound nonchalant. “Do you know where he has been?”

The woman wrapping the package gave the clerk a silencing look.

“Sorry, miss. Don’t know. I can’t keep up with the comings and goings of everyone. Denver’s a pretty big city now, as you see.”

What I can see is that you know where he’s been and will not tell me
. For the first time in a while, Kate remembered the Pinkerton man her uncle had hired. When would they hear from him? Surely if a shop clerk knew where Stephen Worth spent the last two years, the Pinkerton man should have found out by now.

“Is there anything else you’d like, miss? We have wonderfully warm coats for children. Denver winters are very cold.”

“No, thank you,” Kate said curtly. “We won’t be here this winter.”

Her response flustered the young man. “Yes, yes of course. Have a good day then.”

“Thank you, I will.”

As the door slammed behind her, Kate inhaled deeply. She had to calm herself before she went home.

…

Stephen saw her before she saw him. She had on a violet walking suit. The one she had worn the morning they had arrived a week ago. The weather was mild and she had chosen not to wear a hat. He smiled. How unlike her. As she walked out from under the striped awnings on the far side of Larimer, the sun repeatedly kissed the top of her head.

For the first time since the ball, she had not pulled her hair tightly into a bun, but had piled it in loose curls. She had crimped the hair nearest her face, and several strands played in the light breeze, brushing her cheek and caressing her ear.

Peg’s words came back to haunt him.
I’ve seen the way you look at her
. How did he look at her? As if he envied the curls that whispered in her ears and kissed her cheeks? He did.

They had spent a week in close quarters and he found he did not leave or return, did not take a step in the house, without being aware of her presence. The house smelled of her perfume and echoed with her voice.

Kate’s voice and that of his son’s intermingled so as to be inseparable. The thought of separating them, which he had avoided thinking about, now disturbed him.

Hurting her had become repugnant. He had grown to care about and to understand her fears. But that was only half of it. The other was much more personal and unexpected. He suspected that separation from this woman would be as painful for him as separation from his son had been.

Unexpectedly, Kate had helped him manage the memories he had of Lizzie. She held the promise of a future that was free from guilt, free from hate. She had accepted Lizzie’s tragic death and moved on from it. Perhaps he could as well. With Kate he felt both guilty and grateful.

He needed to win her over. Not just for Andy’s sake but for his own.

…

Kate stopped on the boardwalk in front of what a sign happily proclaimed was Edward E. Achert’s Curiosity Shop. “Welcome. Welcome,” came a raspy voice. Above her head a brightly-colored caged parrot squawked the greeting. She approached the window. Inside, several kittens rolled and tumbled as they fought over a strand of yarn.

She could not resist. She stepped from the bright sunlight into the shop. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but once they did, she smiled. The store was alive with the twitter and chatter of all manner of animals from the warmly familiar to the intriguingly exotic. The tin ceiling served to heighten the creatures’ racket. It was as if she had entered a party. Goldfish swirled in their aquarium as if dancing. A snake slithered closer to the glass to get a better view of the newcomer. She laughed for the first time in a long time.

“Good day to you. Good day.”

She turned to return the greeting only to find herself facing another colorful bird. “Good day to you, my feathered friend. And how are you on this fine day?”

“Fine day... Fine day,” the bird mimicked.

She laughed, delighted. What other wonders did the store hold?

She approached a cage lined with straw. A ball of fur without head or tail occupied one of the corners. She tapped lightly on the cage, only to have a small white face with sparkling black eyes emerge from the mass of brown and white fur.

“And what are you, my furry friend? An overweight mouse?”

A white-haired bespectacled man approached Kate. “It’s a Cavy, miss. A guinea pig. Come all the way from the Andes in South America.”

“I’ve never seen such a creature in my life.”

“Would you like to hold him? He’ll not bite.”

“Yes, I would.”

The man reached in and, sliding a hand under the animal’s black fur belly, lifted him out.

Kate held out her hands. “He’s as soft as he looks, isn’t he?” She gently stroked the small animal, and it relished the attention.

The man smiled. “They make good pets, especially for the little ones. Do you have a child that might like one?”

“Yes, my son...” She paused, aware that the term could be challenged. “He’d love one, but I’m afraid that the poor creature would be manhandled. The boy is only two, you see, and not quite aware of how delicate a small animal can be.”

The man put the guinea pig back in its cage. “Perhaps a bird then? The cage will protect the boy from the bird and the bird from the boy.” He laughed. “I have a beautiful pair of lovebirds.”

Kate followed him to the far wall where a small cage held two beautifully colored birds. They sported bright yellow bellies which contrasted with their lime green backs and black heads. She was fascinated as they groomed one another, caressing each other with their red bills.

“Are they always so attentive to one another?” she asked.

“Yes, miss. They mate for life and I’ve never seen a pair that weren’t affectionate. Guess that’s why they got their name.”

Kate blushed. “Yes, no doubt it is.” She watched the birds a moment longer and then added, “But I don’t think a small boy would quite appreciate them.”

“Perhaps something more along the lines of the guinea pig, but bigger?” The shopkeeper walked toward the back of the store and she followed like a child expecting a present.

She rushed to a small raised pen where several blond puppies romped, tumbling and rolling over one another in their attempt to gain the attention of the humans.

“Oh, they’re adorable. What breed are they?”

“We’re not sure, miss. Part hunting dog, that’s for sure. They can smell their food before they ever see me bringing it.”

A familiar voice interrupted them. “I’d say they’re mostly Golden Retriever. I used to breed them for hunting in England.”

What was Stephen doing here? Following her?

“Yes, sir. Now that you say it, I believe you’re right. They’d be a good addition to any household.”

The conversation was interrupted by the ring of a bell on the front counter of the store, summoning service.

“If you’ll excuse me for a moment,” the shopkeeper said.

She nodded, then almost called the man back as Stephen took a step closer.

“I think this one has too much ambition for his own good.” He leaned over and scratched a lively puppy who had almost managed to escape the high-sided pen. The eager pup’s two front paws were over the top of the sideboard and his belly balanced precariously on the wooden barrier. Stephen picked the pup up and was slathered with the dog’s affectionate licks.

“Whoa, boy. I think you deserve a much more attractive object for your affections.” He handed the pup off to Kate. She took the squirming dog without thinking. The pup scrambled up the bodice of her dress and slobbered her with its tiny tongue. She had to laugh and found the more she laughed, the more excited the puppy became.

“Help,” she pleaded, and looked up, still giddy. Stephen was laughing too. For the first time since she met him he seemed young, not just in years but in spirit as well. The lines that had etched themselves deeply around his eyes appeared less severe when they were crinkled with laughter. “Don’t just stand there laughing,” she implored. “Do something, please.”

He reached out to take the dog from her but touched her hand instead. The dog stopped his squirming and began to lick Stephen’s hand as he folded it over hers.

She had not expected the touch. Not now when she was happy for the first time in weeks. Not now when this man was acting so appealing, so warm. She had not had time to steel herself for the touch and its effects.

He secured his hold and came closer until only the pup was between them. The puppy quieted himself by laying his head against Kate’s breast.

The pup’s quick heartbeat mimicked her own. Stephen cupped her hand as she cradled the dog. Slowly, he rubbed his thumb against its palm.