My Heart's Desire (29 page)

Mustering what dignity she could, Rennie replied, "I made it this far without your advice, Mr. Sullivan."

His voice was cold. "You made it this far
against
my advice, Miss Dennehy, and before you forget, without my help you'd be dead. Now, what are you wearing under there?"

"Flannel drawers and woolen leggings."

Satisfied, Jarret turned away and mounted. "Stay close," he said. He snapped Zilly's reins and urged her forward.

The ride back to Echo Falls was accomplished with little conversation. Except for a few terse directives on how Rennie should handle her mount, he was silent. Rennie only asked once for a halt so that she could relieve herself. After that Jarret stopped at regular intervals. Rennie assumed it was because he didn't want to hear from her again.

The sky was relentlessly blue. The beauty of it was lost on Rennie. She had a headache from the constant glare of the sun on the snow. When she tried to shield her eyes she slipped in her saddle. When she tried to close them altogether she grew afraid.

Once Jarret slowed Zilly as the path widened and let Rennie come abreast. Without a word of his intention he took Rennie's hat off her head and replaced it with his. He adjusted the brim low so that it shaded her eyes, then urged Zilly forward again. A moment later Rennie's fashionable fur piece went sailing and skittering down the mountainside. She thought she heard him mutter, "Damnedest thing I ever saw," but she wasn't sure.

Sometimes they traveled under a green and white canopy of pines. Snow drifted down as their movement below gently jostled the boughs. Looking up, entranced by the balanced beauty of the snow on the greenery, Rennie caught a clump of it right in the face. She sputtered, spitting out snow and a pine needle, and rubbed her face clean. When her vision cleared she saw Jarret had stopped and was looking back at her, not impatiently this time, and not with vicious amusement, but with an odd, almost indulgent expression in his eyes. It vanished the moment Rennie intercepted it. She believed she had mistaken the look.

They reached Echo Falls in the early afternoon. A few heads turned as they rode along Main Street. A merchant sweeping off the sidewalk in front of his store waved to Jarret. Rennie kept her head low and her shoulders hunched. As they approached Bender's Saloon she pulled her horse up.

Jarret halted. "What are you doing?"

"This is where I'm staying."

"No, it isn't." He raised his hand, cutting her off. "No arguments."

She simply didn't have the energy to argue. "All right."

He made a small concession. "I'll tell Jolene where you'll be." He dismounted, tethered Zilly and the packhorse, and disappeared into the saloon. A few minutes later Jolene joined him on the sidewalk.

Jolene's welcoming smile was incongruent with the worried, searching gaze she turned on Rennie. "I'll visit later today," she said, "just to see how you're settlin' in."

Rennie nodded. "I'd like that."

Jolene laid her hand over Jarret's forearm and gave him a gentle squeeze. "I'll see how you're doin', too."

"I'm not one of your charities," he said, stepping off the sidewalk.

Rennie noticed that Jolene was not put out in the least by Jarret's cold shoulder. "That's right," she said. "I'm your friend."

He halted in his tracks, turned, and gave Jolene a light, quick kiss on the cheek. "Don't let me forget that."

"As if I would." She waved to Rennie. "Don't let him bully you, honey."

Rennie nodded, but there was no conviction in it. She lifted her hand in response to Jolene's farewell and nudged Albion forward. She didn't think the sudden unsettled feeling in her middle was due to hunger.

Rennie slowed again as they came upon Mrs. Shepard's boardinghouse.

Jarret turned back and rapped out impatiently, "What is it now?"

"Isn't this where I'm staying?"

"No. Did I say it was?"

"No. I just assumed. But where—"

"My place." Without bothering to see if Rennie was following, he gave Zilly a kick and started again.

Rennie brought her mare abreast of his. "Wouldn't it be better if I stayed with Mrs. Shepard?"

"It'd be a whole lot better," he said. "Except she doesn't have any room. She never does when the snow flies. All the miners who can afford it pack up their tents and head for her place. Besides that, Jolene's expecting you to be with me."

"I don't think I want to stay with you."

He shrugged. "Nothing's keeping you in Echo Falls. You can leave for Denver any time you want. I saw Duffy back at Bender's. Once he's sober, he'll take you back."

"I'm not going to Denver. I'm going to Juggler's Jump."

"Not today, you're not."

Her sigh was an unhappy surrender. She stared straight ahead as the trail began to climb. "I suppose that means I'm staying with you."

"I suppose it does."

* * *

They had shared a house before. Rennie had no difficulty seeing how this was going to be different. From the outside the rough log cabin looked no bigger than the parlor room of her home; from the inside it appeared even smaller. A stone fireplace took up most of the length of one wall. A small table with two chairs—one of them askew on slightly uneven legs—was situated near the hearth. There was a sink and pump, a large iron stove, open shelves with a mismatched assortment of dishes, and a larder mostly filled with canned goods. At the foot of the Boston rocker was a braided rag rug, frayed at the edges and stained with muddy footprints at the center. A storage bench, doubling as a window seat, offered the only other place to sit.

Opposite the fireplace was a narrow, rough-hewn pine ladder that led to the loft. Nearby a curtain partly shielded the wooden bathing tub. And as if she didn't already know, Jarret made a point of mentioning the privy was outside.

"Wood's over there," he said, indicating the canvas sling beside the fireplace. "There's more out back. You better start a fire while I take care of the horses and get the rest of our things. You can do that, can't you?"

She nodded.

"Good." He took back his hat, ducking his head as he went outside.

Rennie closed the door after him and leaned against it. "Yes, I can build a fire," she muttered to herself. "But I don't know if I have enough strength to strike a match, let alone lift the wood." She forced herself to push away from the door before she simply melted down its length. Setting one foot in front of the other, her mind devoid of anything but her task, Rennie managed to have a fire blazing in the hearth by the time Jarret returned.

He checked her work, carried in some more wood from the shed, and fired up the stove as well. "Can you get your things up to the loft?"

Her look at the ladder was skeptical, but she was game. "I can do it." She picked up her bedroll and belongings. "Where will you sleep?"

He paused long enough in his unpacking of their foodstuffs to point out the window bench.

Rennie's eyes went from his six-foot-plus frame to the four-foot-maybe seat. "That's ridiculous." She was about to argue, but he silenced her with a single, unamused look. Shaking her head at his unreasonable stance, Rennie went to the ladder. It took her several trips to carry all her things to the loft. She was actually grateful that some of her belongings were still at Bender's Saloon. She couldn't have made another trip up or down the ladder.

"Are you ever going to take off your coat?" asked Jarret as she approached the stove. "I'm not going to attack you, you know."

Stung by his tone, Rennie slowly unfastened her redingote. Until her exertion back and forth to the loft, she had been cold. She didn't tell him that.

Jarret pointed to a row of pegs near the front door where his own coat was hanging. "Over there."

Rennie hung it up. "Can I help you?" she asked. He was making noodles, cutting the dough in even strips and dropping them into boiling water. Pan gravy was simmering on another burner.

"Can you cook?"

"No."

"That's what I thought." He jerked his chin toward the table. "You can set that. Look around, you'll find everything you need."

She would have bit her own tongue rather than ask him to show her where anything was. When she needed something that was beyond her reach she simply dragged a chair over to the shelf, stood on it, and got it down herself. That brought another caustic remark from Jarret.

"Don't be a martyr," he said, watching her push the chair back. "Next time say something."

Rennie finished setting the table, and then sat in the rocker, her back to Jarret and her feet on the stone apron of the fireplace. What pins remained anchored in her hair, she finally removed. She combed out her hair with her fingers, letting it fall over her shoulder as she carefully sifted through the knots and tangles.

Jarret banged the table as he set down the kettle of noodles. He saw Rennie jerk. He was sorry for that but glad she stopped her tuneless humming. It was just a little too cozy with her sitting in front of the fire, the polished colors of her hair in full flame while she idly rocked and sang to herself. "You can't carry a tune," he said.

She wasn't at all offended. "I know. Absolutely tone deaf." She stopped rocking. "I'm sorry. It bothered you, didn't it?"

"No," he said shortly. At least not the way she thought it did.

His answer hardly mattered to Rennie. She had already decided she would never do it again. She continued to rock and fiddle with her hair.

"Dinner's ready," said Jarret. "It's not much, but it'll hold us until Jolene brings some fresh supplies from town."

Rennie started to coil her hair.

"Leave it," he said. "Your headache will go away faster if you leave it down."

She pocketed her pins and made a loose braid, then joined Jarret at the table. Her mouth watered as he set a heaping portion of the noodles and gravy in front of her. She bowed her head in prayer, and when she looked up she saw Jarret was watching her. Misinterpreting his attention, Rennie touched the swollen left side of her face. "Does it look as bad as it feels?" she asked.

"Worse."

She simply nodded, accepting the fact, and dropped her hand. She picked up her fork and began eating. The thick noodles were tender, and the gravy wasn't bland as she had thought it might be, but richly seasoned with paprika and onion.

Jarret watched her a moment longer. The lines at the corners of his eyes were more deeply etched. His dark brows pulled together in a thoughtful frown. "You're not at all vain, are you?"

Rennie had no idea what he was getting at. Her guard went up. Her eyes were wary, and her laughter hinted at her vulnerability and self-consciousness. "I'd have to have something to be vain about, wouldn't I?" She dropped her gaze and began eating again, hoping it was the end of the subject.

It was, but only because Jarret didn't know how to tell her that her hair was a bewitching combination of colors and textures, radiant even beyond the firelight. Not only didn't he know how to tell her, he wasn't certain he wanted to. As a result they ate their meal in silence.

It was dusk when Jolene arrived. Rennie was sitting at the window seat, reading one of the yellowed newspapers that had lined a shelf before she confiscated it. She started to get up to help Jolene with the supplies she brought, but Jarret motioned her down again.

"I'll help her," he said. "It won't take all three of us. There's not that much." He shrugged into his coat and stepped outside. A few minutes later Jolene preceded him into the cabin, her arms filled with offerings from Bender's. Jarret stomped, shaking snow off his feet, dropped his own load on the table, and helped Jolene with her cape.

Rennie's eyes widened at the flannel shirt and snug jeans Jolene was wearing.

Seeing Rennie's expression, Jolene looked down at herself and laughed. "Got no drawers but the flimsy kind, and it's no kind of weather for them. I can't abide the wind blowin' up under my skirts and chillin' my—"

"Jolene," Jarret said warningly.

"My bottom," said Jolene, dimpling. "What did you think I was going to say?"

Jarret merely rolled his eyes at her and continued to put things away.

Jolene turned the rocker toward Rennie, sat down, and propped her feet on the edge of the window seat. "The girls are soberin' Duffy up. Should be tomorrow or the day after that he'll be able to take you back to Denver, or at least as far as Stillwater, where you can get the train."

"Ask him if he'll take me to Juggler's Jump."

Jolene hesitated, half expecting Jarret to interrupt. When he didn't she said, "Are you sure that's what you want to do? You had a glimpse yourself how the land lays between here and there. Why not go back to Denver and take the train that goes out that way?"

"The accident destroyed the track at the Jump. Shortly after the search ended, snowdrifts prevented crews from reaching and repairing it. Parts of the pass are blocked miles before the Jump. An engine can't get close from either direction. There hasn't been any service on that route for a month."

Jarret rested one hip on the edge of the table and stretched out a leg in front of him. "Are you telling me Northeast Rail doesn't have enough manpower, to say nothing of money, to have those tracks cleared and repaired? And as for a search party, do you really expect me to believe that one word from you can't get a hundred men out there?"