Rebecca Hagan Lee - [Borrowed Brides 02] (18 page)

When she and Coalie arrived in Peaceable needing a place to stay, one of the men at the train station told them the Satin Slipper had rooms to let. And Tessa took that as a sign. Somewhere up above, Eamon was looking out for her.

Until she met Arnie Mason…

Tessa shifted in her chair. “Now that you know the truth about Coalie, what do you plan to do?” she asked David, her eyes mirroring the anxiety she felt at revealing so much. “Send him back to Chicago?”

David shook his head. “How can I, when I don’t know where he is?” he asked, meeting Tessa’s gaze. “Wyoming’s a big territory,” he elaborated. “I wouldn’t know where to begin looking.”

They both knew he was lying, that he need to look only as far as his family’s ranch outside Cheyenne. But the fact that he was willing to pretend lifted Tessa’s spirits.

“You’re not going to tell Liam Kincaid?”

“No.” David gazed at her, his dark gaze penetrating. “If Liam Kincaid wants to know where Coalie is, he’ll have to ask somebody else. I won’t volunteer the information.” David knew that Lee wouldn’t ask about Coalie’s whereabouts. He wasn’t interested in the boy. He was interested in Tessa or, more specifically, in keeping his promise to Tessa’s dead brother. “You don’t have to worry about Liam Kincaid.” David told her the truth. “I don’t believe he’s after Coalie.”

“Is he after me?” Tessa asked. “Do you work with Liam Kincaid?”

“Not anymore,” David answered truthfully, “though I did during the war. I can’t tell you what Liam’s doing, Tessa, but I can tell you not to worry about him. He’s not your enemy.”

She looked up at David, studying his face, probing. “Are you my enemy?”

David shook his head. “No.” His lips formed a half-smile. “I promise I won’t hurt you. I only want what’s best for you. I want to take care of you.”

Tessa shuddered in reaction. She didn’t want him taking care of her. Or making promises he couldn’t keep. She’d learned from bitter experience that the people who promised to take care of her always died. Tessa could take care of herself and Coalie. She didn’t want David Alexander on her conscience.

* * *

David watched as Tessa sipped her tea. She’d come to Peaceable on the run. And from the moment of her arrival, all her efforts, all her concern had been for Coalie, never for herself. It was remarkable. She was remarkable. David knew her secret, and he admired her all the more for having kept it.

Tessa Roarke had taken an innocent child away from the man who hurt him. She hadn’t ignored the situation but had taken matters into her own hands, despite the law and the hardships. And by working in the Satin Slipper Saloon, she had knowingly sacrificed her reputation to provide for that child.

David Alexander wished he had done the same. He took a drink of strong tea, trying to see his way clear once again, but his mind filled with memories of things he wanted to forget

It had been raining in Washington as he exited the theater through the stage door after spending several minutes chatting with the actors.

He would have liked to stay longer, discussing the finer points of the Shakespearean drama, but it was late and he had a long day ahead of him. Pulling his evening cape around him to ward off the rain and chill, David had stepped into the alley.

He saw her sitting on a wooden packing crate shivering in the downpour only seconds before he heard her crying. David walked over and touched her shoulder. Startled, she looked up. David recognized her—Caroline Millen, Senator Warner Millen’s daughter. He remembered meeting her at one of Millen’s social evenings; the senator had introduced them. It had been his daughter’s first formal gathering, and Millen had asked David to escort Caroline to dinner. As he stood in the theater alley he studied her face. She couldn’t have been a day over sixteen.

He spoke her name.

She stopped crying long enough to answer him.

He introduced himself, offered her his handkerchief, and asked her what she was doing outside in a downpour.

Caroline Millen had kept his handkerchief and skillfully avoided answering his questions. He had known something was wrong when he offered to drive her home, but he hadn’t known how wrong.

David had found out a month later when Senator Millen barged into his town house, waving David’s linen handkerchief and demanding satisfaction.

Pregnant and frightened, Caroline Millen had named him as the father of her child.

He tried to explain that he’d come across Caroline crying in an alley behind the theater, but the senator wasn’t listening to explanations. His daughter was ruined, and someone was going to pay.

David had paid. He’d told the truth and he’d paid for it. He wasn’t the baby’s father. He didn’t love Caroline, didn’t even know her, and he absolutely refused to marry her.

But Warner Millen would have none of that. David would marry his daughter or be damned.

David refused, knowing that in the end Caroline, too, would regret such a marriage.

He should have known better than to cross the influential Washington politician. Senator Millen had the power to ruin him and he used it. The scandal had cost David his career, his social standing in Washington, and his reputation. He’d paid a high price for his principles, but Caroline had paid an even higher one.

After being sent away from Washington and her family, she’d given birth to a healthy baby girl, but lost her life in the process. And the baby…

David closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in an effort to ward off the throbbing. When he learned the Millens had refused to accept their grandchild, David had tried to find her, but the Millens blocked him at every turn. They buried their daughter and her indiscretions along with her. And they allowed the baby to be sent to an orphanage.

Caroline had insisted on naming the child Lily Catherine Alexander, and the thought of a child bearing his name, growing up in an orphanage, thinking she was unwanted, haunted David.

He’d made every attempt to find her—had spent the past year writing letters, making inquiries… David frowned. He’d done everything except marry Caroline Millen. And it hadn’t been enough. Looking back on it now, he thought perhaps he should have made her his wife, but he’d been angry, hurt. At the time, he’d felt that marrying Caroline would be the same as admitting he seduced her. David hadn’t been ready to do that. He was innocent. He didn’t want to be named as a seducer of young girls or manipulated into a loveless marriage. So he had placed his pride above the welfare of an unborn baby, and he regretted it. He’d regretted it since the day he learned of the little girl’s birth.

Lily Catherine wasn’t his child, but that no longer mattered to him. He wanted her.

Why hadn’t he stolen her away, as Tessa had taken Coalie? Why hadn’t he done something besides wallow in self-pity? Why hadn’t he taken care of them? He squeezed his eyes shut trying to forget.

“David?” He opened his eyes and found Tessa standing over him. “Are you going after him?”

For a moment, before he realized she was talking about Coalie, David thought Tessa had read his mind.

“Not if you don’t want me to,” David answered, “or unless we need him for the hearing.”

“I’d rather he stayed where he is for now,” Tessa replied softly. She’d miss him. She missed him already, but for the time being, Coalie was better off at the ranch. She was sure of it.

“All right,” he agreed, thinking not just of Coalie but of the little girl in the orphanage. “But only for a while longer.”

Coalie’s empty chair stood out like a beacon at supper that night. Tessa’s gaze returned to the chair time and time again. It was also a very visible reminder that, with Coalie gone, she was alone with David Alexander. Very alone. That made her nervous. Jumpy. If only he would stop watching her. He’d watched her all evening the way Greeley studied a mouse before pouncing.

Tessa pushed her chair back from the table and abruptly stood up. She picked up her empty plate, then held out her hand for his. “Are you finished?”

“Yes.” David offered her his plate.

She practically snatched it out of his hand, then carried the dishes to the sink and set them in the dishpan under the water spout. Tessa scraped a bar of soap over the grater, brushed the slivers into the dishpan, and pumped the handle up and down as hard as she could. The cold water gushed out, bounced off the plates, and splashed up, soaking the front of Tessa’s green dress. “Thunderation! See what you made me do?” She whirled around to face him.

David nearly choked on his coffee. The wet fabric clung to her chest. David could see the trail of tiny indentions across her breasts and knew it was the lace at the top of her chemise. Fully dressed as she was, the wet calico did nothing more than hint at what lay beneath the fabric, but it was a vivid reminder of Saturday’s bath ritual. The memory of her body silhouetted against the sheet tortured him.

He had to force his next words around the lump in his throat. “You should change your dress; you might catch cold.”

“And wash dishes in one of my brand-new dresses?” Tessa was appalled. “I will not!”

David finished his coffee and carried the cup to the sink. “Wouldn’t you like to try them on for size?”

She would. She had wanted to ever since David unloaded the rest of the supplies. Tessa had unpacked the boxes and crates, delighting in the variety of canned goods and the thoughtful luxuries he’d ordered. She had almost everything put away when he brought in the last two big cartons. David had set them on the table, glancing at the labels.

“These are for you,” he’d told her. “I ordered a few things from Mary’s seamstress in Cheyenne.”

“More clothes?”

“You can’t keep wearing the one green dress,” he replied. “Oh, and there’s a couple of pairs of denims for Coalie and some shirts.”

Tessa looked stricken.

“Don’t worry. Mary’ll buy him some more. Go ahead,” he urged. “Try the dresses on.”

“No, I can’t. I’ve work to do.”

She’d stubbornly refused to open the packages earlier in the afternoon, but now she wanted to. She had reason to.

But still she protested. “The dishes…”

“I’ll do the dishes,” David promised.

Tessa looked askance at him.

“Come here.”

Tessa moved closer to him.

“Turn around.”

She did.

She felt his hands on her back as he quickly unbuttoned her dress and loosened her corset laces. It was a husbandly task. An intimate task. Yet it was something David Alexander had done for her a number of times. Something Tessa trusted him to do. She liked the warm feeling it gave her to know he’d done it without being asked. And up to now he’d always acted the gentleman.

“There,” David said. “You’re undone. Now you can go try on your new dresses.”

“Thank you.”

“Any time,” he replied, smiling down at her. “Go on. I’ll take care of this.”

She hurried across the room and grabbed the stack of boxes off David’s desk.

“Be careful,” she warned when David dropped his cup and the forks and spoons into the pan with a clatter, “or we’ll be buying more new crockery.”

“I know how to wash dishes.” He saw the skepticism in her expression and decided to prove it. He walked to the stove and removed the new copper kettle full of boiling water. Returning to the sink, he tipped the spout over the dishpan and poured, testing the water from time to time, until he got it hot enough.

Tessa watched, amazed. He did know how to do dishes. “Why didn’t you say something earlier?” she demanded. “I thought you must’ve had a woman come in to clean before I got here. I didn’t know you did the work yourself.” She pinned an accusing stare on David. “I’ve been washing all the dishes since I got here when we could’ve been taking turns.”

David unbuttoned his cuffs, then turned to look at her. “I thought you wanted to.”

“Hmmf,” Tessa snorted, glancing upward. Only a man would say such a thing. “You thought I wanted to wash dishes?”

“Yes, and if you don’t go try on your new dresses, I’ll think you want to wash these.” David smiled his most devastating smile and rolled up his sleeves.

Tessa watched as he revealed the bronzed muscles of his forearms. She remembered the feel of his arms pressed against her. Turning, she left without another word, hurrying to her bedroom, where she slammed the door.

David allowed himself to relax. It was a relief to have Tessa out of his line of vision. The strain of holding his body in check was more than any one man should have to bear. He couldn’t seem to keep his gaze off her. He’d made a valiant effort, but he’d failed. She fascinated him.

It was all he could do to keep his hands off her. He wanted to taste her, to feel her. In the state he was in, David didn’t know how he’d make it through the night knowing they were alone, just the two of them together. He wanted to make love to her all night long. Even now he envisioned her taking off the green calico dress and the wet chemise. He saw her loosening the long satin laces of her corset, pictured the lovely pale, almost translucent skin, of her neck and arms and her long, long legs. Plunging his hands into the hot dishwater, David scrubbed a plate with a good deal more vigor than was necessary.

“I like the little pink flowers.” Tessa spoke from the doorway.

David whirled around, dripping sudsy water onto the floor. “What?”

Tessa giggled, a deep throaty giggle that took David by surprise. She moved to stand in front of him. “I said I like the little flowers on the plates.” Her heart seemed to beat a little faster at the picture he made standing there so tall and unbelievably handsome with a white dish towel draped over one shoulder. “You looked as if you were going to scrub the flowers off.”

“You look…beautiful.” He reached up for the end of the towel and dried his hands.

The yellow wool day dress fit her like a second skin. The soft fabric lovingly molded her curves in all the right places, and the color accentuated her vibrant red hair.

Tessa blushed. She’d heard many compliments when she worked at the Satin Slipper, but none so sincere or so flattering as the one David Alexander had uttered.