Rebecca Hagan Lee - [Borrowed Brides 02] (22 page)

The atmosphere in the office of David Alexander, attorney-at-law, grew increasingly colder as the day wore on. Tessa emerged from her bedroom about midmorning, wearing the bright yellow wool dress he’d bought her and set to work straightening the office and cleaning away the remains of breakfast. David looked up from the books and briefs scattered across his desk as Tessa prepared a lunch neither one of them wanted to eat.

He joined her at the table. She didn’t speak. She placed a plate of food on the table for each of them, then sat down across from him. She didn’t eat, David noticed, but poked at the vegetables on her plate, rearranging but not tasting them.

David thought about the lively meals he’d shared with Tessa and Coalie in the past few days. He hated this quiet. It reminded him of all the solitary meals he’d eaten since coming to Peaceable. He put down his fork. “Thank you,” he said, finishing his lunch and pushing back from the table.

“You’re welcome,” came the mechanical reply.

“You don’t have to go to all this trouble for me,” David said. “I can eat at one of the restaurants.”

“I don’t mind.” Tessa stared down at the boiled potato on her plate. She had always enjoyed cooking, and since leaving Chicago, she’d had little opportunity. David needed someone to take care of him, to see that he ate properly and got enough sleep at night. She enjoyed taking care of him.

“Still,” he protested, “you don’t have to do it. I can afford to have meals cooked and brought in.”

“It gives me something to do with my time.” She looked up and found his dark gaze studying her. “I’m used to being busy.”

He was thoughtful for a minute. “I can probably spare some time to start your reading and writing lessons tonight after dinner.”

“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Tessa told him, forcing herself to sound uninterested.

“Why not?” He asked the question out of curiosity; he wanted to know what she was thinking.

“Because I can’t be close to you anymore without wanting to touch you,” she answered honestly.

David felt as if she’d punched him in the gut.

Unable to tolerate the tension any longer, Tessa left the table and went back to her bedroom. She came out a few minutes later with an envelope. She handed it to David. “This might help you prepare for the hearing.”

David looked up at her. “Tessa, you hardly know me. You shouldn’t be so trusting where I’m concerned.”

“Why not?” Tessa asked. “You’ve been telling me to trust you for days.”

“That doesn’t mean you should. It only means I want you to.” David didn’t understand why he was so determined to warn her; he only knew he had to do it. He somehow felt he owed her that much honesty. She didn’t know him the way he knew himself. He was a liar, he’d been a spy during the war, and he had been accused of seducing an innocent girl. His past was full of half-truths and scandal. He didn’t deserve her trust. He wasn’t the trustworthy type. He was her lawyer, for God’s sake. Didn’t she know better than to trust a man like him? David studied her face, searching for a clue to what she felt.

He found it in the steadfast gaze of her china-blue eyes.

“I do trust you,” Tessa said softly. “Please open the envelope. I want you to know everything.”

David opened the envelope. Inside there were three photographs. He recognized the people in two of them. “Where did you get these?”

‘Two of them were in my brother’s coat pocket when he died.” Tessa leaned over his shoulder. “Those two.” She pointed out the pictures of Liam Kincaid and Arnie Mason.

David studied the photograph of Lee Kincaid. A frown creased his forehead as he thought about his last conversation with Lee. Tessa’s brother had asked for the picture. Lee neglected to mention the fact that he’d obliged him.

“Why didn’t you show me these before?”

“I know Liam Kincaid is your friend.”

David arched an eyebrow, questioning. He and Lee had been so careful. But she had known all along. And Tessa suspected Lee.

“I saw you talking to him at the bar in the Satin Slipper. The night I sneaked back to get these pictures. I was hiding beneath the stairwell.”

“You little idiot, you risked being caught twice.” David couldn’t keep the note of pride out of his voice.

“It was worth it,” Tessa said triumphantly. “I got the pictures and my mother’s rosary.”

“
I
got the rosary,” David reminded her.

Tessa ignored him. She preferred not to think about how he had gotten her rosary. She had it back in her possession and that was all that mattered. “I recognized Liam from this picture. I know he followed me to Peaceable, but I think he was after Arnie Mason, too. I think he wanted both of us.” She paused, looking at David, gauging his reaction to the news. “I know he’s a friend of yours, but I think maybe he killed Arnie Mason.”

Interesting. Tessa had been afraid of Lee, but not of Arnie Mason. David was silent.

Tessa continued, “I don’t understand why Eamon had these pictures in his pocket.” She took the envelope and pulled out the picture of Arnie Mason. “It’s not a very good picture, but I recognized him when I saw him at the Satin Slipper.”

“Did he know you?”

“I told him who I was,” Tessa replied. “I told him I was Eamon Roarke’s sister and that I’d come to Peaceable to take Eamon’s place at the Satin Slipper.”

Good God, David thought, no wonder Arnie Mason had gone to her room! David had read the Pinkerton dossier on Arnie Mason. He knew what the man was capable of doing, what he’d done in the past. Arnie Mason had probably gone to see how much Tessa knew about her brother’s business. If he was right about Mason, Tessa had walked blindly into a den of thieves.

“Did you tell Mason you’d come to take Eamon’s
room
or his
place
?” David realized the wording of her statement was very important. It could have made the difference between Arnie Mason killing her or letting her live. “Think, Tessa,” he urged. “It’s very important.”

Tessa closed her eyes, concentrating on her first meeting with Arnie Mason. “I said I’d come to take Eamon’s place.”

David grinned. “That’s it!” He stood up and swung Tessa around. “That’s it!”

“What?”

“Tessa,” David explained, “this is a police photo. A picture taken of criminals. Arnie Mason was in prison.” He pointed out the numbers painted across the front of Arnie Mason’s shirt. “That’s what the numbers mean. If I’m right, he didn’t go to your room just to…” David paused, wondering how to tell her. Then, deciding there was no easy way, he told her straight out. “He went to your room to silence you.” Seeing her blank expression, he added, “To kill you.”

“Oh.” Tessa’s knees nearly buckled. She was quiet for a moment or two before her anger began to build. “I thought he was a friend at first, but then I realized Eamon would never make friends with someone like that. He was mean and brutish. Coalie was afraid of Arnie. He’d heard some bad things about him and warned me to stay away, but it was too late. I’d already been friendly to him and he thought…”

David clenched his fists. It was a good thing the son of a bitch was already dead. “That’s why he went to your room that night.”

“Yes,” Tessa admitted. “He wanted to…you know… He tried to force me.”

“What happened?”

“I fought him off.” Tessa paused, remembering. “Then I saw a shadow moving behind him. The next thing I knew, Arnie was dead. Lying across me. Bleeding all over me.”

“What did you do?”

“I shouted for help.”

And I heard you, David thought. I heard you.

Tessa continued. “I looked up and saw Coalie at the foot of the bed. He’d been sleeping in the alcove behind the curtain. I screamed for him to get help. He ran out the door. Then, suddenly everyone came running in. I tried to explain, but some of the girls were screaming that I’d done murder, that I’d killed him. They wouldn’t listen to me.”

“So, Coalie came to get me while the deputies arrested you.” David’s voice was grim. He had the truth. Now all he had to do was prove it. And he had the proof if he could just persuade the judge and jury to put aside their bias against a saloon girl and listen to the facts. Someone had gone to a great deal of trouble to set Tessa up, but that someone had made a mistake. It hadn’t been necessary for the murderer to lure Arnie to Tessa’s room; he was going there anyway—to kill her. And whoever set Tessa up had written Arnie a note inviting him to Tessa’s room, not knowing Tessa couldn’t read or write.

“Why didn’t you tell me all this before?” David asked the question, but he already knew the answer.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t listen to me, that you wouldn’t take the word of a saloon girl. And if you found out I’d stolen Coalie, you’d think I was a liar as well as a criminal.”

It was the same prejudice he’d have to battle to save her.

* * *

David worked at his desk the rest of the afternoon, his feelings torn. He was relieved that Tessa had finally told him the whole truth about the night of the murder. That meant she trusted him. But he still wasn’t confident he could save her…and it was now more than a matter of professional pride. He had to find someone to help put the pieces of the story together at the hearing. The logical choice was Lee, but David wasn’t sure Lee would be able to testify unless his work in Peaceable was finished.

David took a deep breath. The only other logical choice was Coalie. Coalie could tell why he and Tessa left Chicago, and why they kept to themselves at the Satin Slipper. Coalie knew Tessa hadn’t had a relationship with Arnie Mason because he had slept in the same room; he was, in fact, asleep in the curtained alcove when Arnie entered the room. But there was a problem. David didn’t want to ask Coalie to testify, and Tessa was bound to object.

He stood up and grabbed his coat. He needed to talk to Lee.

* * *

Lying across her bed, Tessa breathed a sigh of relief when she heard him leave. She needed some room and some time to herself without David there. The living quarters were impossibly cramped under the circumstances.

Tessa wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. She was in love with David Alexander—her lawyer, but also for the time being her jailor. She was in love and living in another tiny, cramped apartment when all she ever really wanted was a home of her own and a family to share it.

Sweet Mary, how much more would she be forced to endure? Tessa almost laughed. She was in love with her jailor, her lawyer, and he didn’t return her love. He wanted her; she knew that. But most of all, he wanted to take care of her. Lord, how she hated that phrase. All her life people had promised to take care of her—her mother, her father, her brother. Then they’d died and left her alone with the memories of empty promises.

Tessa didn’t want anyone to take care of her. She could take care of herself, and she could take care of Coalie as well. What she wanted, what she needed most, was someone to love her and to share her life, someone who would accept Coalie as his own and give her other children to mother. She needed David. She wanted David and Coalie together and a home of her own, a little house with a yard and roses and maybe a few sheep scattered around, a place where she could lavish love and attention on her family. When this was over, when they’d found Arnie Mason’s murderer, when she was free to choose her own way of life, maybe then David would love her…

If
they found the murderer.

Tessa squeezed her eyes shut, blotting out her surroundings. She didn’t want to think about Arnie Mason’s murder any more. She tried not to think at all.

She pressed her precious silver and onyx rosary, her mother’s rosary, to her lips. She had finally found the man she could love. It was unfortunate that he was also her attorney, responsible for gaining her freedom. She needed all the help she could get.

Tessa felt the hot tears form behind her eyelids, then the dampness as they rolled down her cheeks, felt the lump in her throat as she struggled to recite the old familiar words. “Hail, Mary, full of grace…”

She curled her body into a tight ball, whispering into the soft cotton quilt.

* * *

“You’ve got to tell me what you’re working on.” David confronted Lee at the bar of the Satin Slipper. “It’s important.”

“You know I can’t do that,” Lee replied.

“You have to.” David sat on one of the barstools. “Tessa didn’t kill Arnie Mason. I know that.”

“Of course she didn’t,” Lee agreed, polishing glasses with a white towel. “She couldn’t have.”

“Then who the hell did?” David asked. “I have a pretty good idea, but that’s not enough. You know this town. I don’t just have to prove Tessa’s innocence; I have to give them a murderer. Otherwise they’ll hold her over for trial out of prejudice and ignorance. I have to find the murderer, and you have to help me.” David leaned over the bar. “Tessa’s life depends on it.”

“I want to help you, David. But if I tell you what I’m working on,” Lee reminded him, “
my
life could be in danger.”

“If you don’t tell me, my friend,” David said through clenched teeth, “I guarantee your life will be in danger.”

“It’s against regulations,” Lee hedged.

“Hang regulations! I know the regulations. And you know I won’t endanger your life if I can help it.”

“I’ll need a few days to make some arrangements. Then I’ll tell you,” Lee answered.

“When?” David demanded. “I need to know.”

“Soon.”

“Dammit, Lee, how soon?” David demanded. “Tessa doesn’t have much time.”

“Neither do I,” Lee muttered. He stared at a point over David’s shoulder. “Damn! She’s seen you.”

“Who?”

Lee looked to his right and nodded. “Myra.”

“Oh, hell.” David barely got the words out of his mouth before the owner of the Satin Slipper approached him.

“Hello, lawyer man.” Her voice was whiskey-rough, calculated to entice. “What brings you here this early in the afternoon?” She moved closer to David until she was almost standing beneath his arms. “I see you’re not drinking.” Myra eyed Lee disapprovingly.