The Temptress (13 page)

“May I be of help?” Chris asked. “I've run my father's house for years.”

“We can't ask you…” Owen began, then halted. “Diana, I'd be eternally grateful if you'd help. Unity has her hands full and doesn't have the time. Five minutes ago, my gardener said he has to go to San Francisco to take care of a sick sister and he's hired his cousin to run my gardens, only I don't know this man and it'll take me days to tell him how I want things kept.”

“Leave it to me,” Chris said. “I'll take care of everything. Where are the gardeners? The old one and the new one? I'll get instructions from the old one and give them to the cousin—and I'll ask for references.”

Owen was looking at her with his head cocked to one side and Chris thought maybe she'd made a mistake. Diana Eskridge was supposed to be a mouse of a woman, not one who took over someone else's household. But then, men rarely thought anything about housework. A woman could run an army of servants yet a man'd think she didn't have sense enough to handle a twenty-dollar bill.

“Diana, I'd appreciate it very much if you'd help me with this. Domestic responsibilities are my downfall.”

Chris gave him a demure smile. “I'd like to help all that I can.”

“Al is waiting in the garden for me with his cousin. I give it all to you.”

Chris was glad for something to do and she went to the garden with a smile. Maybe she'd be able to find out something if she had access to some of Owen's time. He'd be more likely to tell her something if she were helping him in whatever way she could.

She was walking around a corner when she came face to face with the one man she did not want to see. “You!” she gasped. “Get out of here!” She turned on her heel and started back toward the house.

Tynan caught her arm. “Is that how you treat the new gardener? Will you tell Hamilton that you can't hire me?”

She stopped and glared at him. “I told you that I never wanted to see you again.”

“And I told you that you were my responsibility until I returned you to your father. I'm not leaving you alone until you're in his care.”

“You were also to bring me back in love with Asher. I can do that on my own. I'm staying here with Ash and I plan to fall in love with him.”

“Good. Great. Glad to hear it. I wish you both the best in the world, but you're staying near me too until I personally hand you over to your father.”

“That may be what you think but I'm going right now and tell Owen that you are unsuitable as a gardener. I'll tell him that you are untrustworthy, that you may use a gun to do the weeding.”

“I hope you do,” he said, starting to walk beside her. “I never wanted to be a gardener anyway. I'll just tell Hamilton the truth about who you are and we can go back to your father and we never have to see each other again. And I can get my pardon and you can have your wedding to the illustrious Mr. Prescott and I can get my money for playing Cupid. This suits me fine.”

She stopped. “I want to stay here and find out about Lionel. I made a promise to a dying woman.”

“Ah, I see, your promise to someone you don't know is sacred but my promise to your father isn't worth anything, is that it?”

“No, you're twisting my words. You have self-interest in this, I don't.”

“Enhancing the reputation of Nola Dallas with a story that will break the readers' hearts isn't self-interest?”

“Get away from me,” she said but she didn't walk toward the house any longer. “I am perfectly safe and I don't plan to get into any trouble. I'll write a letter to my father saying that you've fulfilled your obligations and he's to give you your pardon and the money. I'll even pay the money from my mother's estate. Now, will you go?”

“And leave you here to take care of yourself? If Hamilton is doing something illegal, do you think he'll stop at violence when he's been discovered? Someone has to protect you from yourself.”

“Asher can protect me.”

Tynan gave a sound that bordered on a laugh. “And who'll take care of him? You have a choice: either I stay here as the gardener and keep an eye on you, or we both leave now.”

Chris hid her fists in the folds of her skirt. “How did you find out where I was?”

He moved his face closer to hers. “Through wearing out three horses and two saddles. Lady, I have done nothing for the last few days but follow you and try to find out where you were. I finally got the sheriff to tell me something about it.”

“And what could he know?” Chris asked, glaring at him.

“More than you could guess. He's heard of Owen Hamilton. The man does some big business dealings, controls a lot of money. You're not dealing with a simpleton like Prescott who you can wrap around your little finger.”

“I can't wrap Asher—” She stopped because, walking through the trees, was an utterly beautiful woman with dark hair and eyes, a perfect figure, and a graceful walk that emanated sexuality. “Who is that?”

“My bodyguard. I thought since you could make up a new identity, I could too. Pilar has agreed to be my wife for the duration of this fiasco. I figured with your living with the brave Mr. Prescott, and me with Pilar, there wouldn't be anymore of what happened in the rain forest. I don't plan to go back to jail.”

“Wife,” Chris whispered. “Wife?”

Tynan narrowed his eyes at her. “Yeah, the gardener has a wife. Pilar will be helping out in the house and I'll be out here. Between the two of us, we should be able to watch out for you.”

“Where will you live?”

“In the gardener's house, of course. Look, Chris, if we're going to play this until you get your story, we'd better get started. Are you supposed to tell me what to do?”

“I would love to tell you what to do, Mr. Tynan,” she said with a false smile, turning away from him and starting back to the house.

“Don't you want to meet Pilar?” he called after her, laughter in his voice.

Chris kept walking.

“Diana!” Asher said sharply. “Your cousin was speaking to you.”

Chris looked up from her plate of food to gaze blankly at Owen Hamilton, for a moment not knowing who he was.

“You can see what a time I have with her,” Asher was saying. “She can be most exasperating at times.”

“Yes, well…” Owen said hesitantly. “How did you get on with the new gardener, Diana?”

Unity set a large bowl of carrots on the table. “Anybody that looks like him can get along with any woman. I'm not sure I ever wanta see Al's ugly ol' face again.”

Owen gave his housekeeper a look of reproach.

“He seems to know what he's doing,” Chris murmured. “I think he's worked on a farm.”

“I
don't think he's a farmer,” Lionel said. “I think he's a robber. I think he robs banks and kills people.”

“There are worse ways to go,” Unity muttered before leaving the room.

Asher was watching Chris intently, while she just looked at her food. Thirty minutes later, as everyone was leaving the table, he grabbed her arm. “Come outside with me, I want to talk to you.”

Asher practically dragged her into the garden, out of hearing distance of the house. “All right, who is this robber-farmer? Is it who I think it is?”

“Yes,” she said, “but I had no idea he was coming here. He says I am his responsibility until he turns me over to my father.”

“So now I have to deal with him again. Chris, I hope you aren't going to make a fool of yourself over him this time. I don't think it would fit meek little Diana's image to be seen following the gardener about.”

She was glad for the darkness to hide her red face. “No, I am not going to make a fool of myself again. Besides, he brought a woman with him. He doesn't want to have any more to do with me than I with him. Now, does that soothe your jealousy? Could we go in now? I'm awfully tired.”

Asher looked at something over her head and then he quite suddenly grabbed her and pressed his mouth to hers. Chris thought it was meant to be a kiss, but it didn't feel like one. Her eyes were open and his were staring at something behind her. She began to push away from him, but just then she heard someone whistling from behind her and she knew who it was. She grabbed Asher closer to her, trying to put some passion into the kiss. It seemed to work for Ash because his eyes closed and he began to pull her to him, but Chris was only aware of where Tynan was.

“Ah, newlyweds,” Tynan said as he passed them. “It's so good to see people in love.”

Chris pushed Asher away with some force, put her chin in the air and walked past Ty without a backward glance.

When Asher got to their room, she was slinging sheets onto the narrow fainting couch. “I
hate
that man! Absolutely, totally, completely hate that man. I wish he'd go back to jail and stay there forever. I'd like to think of him rotting away somewhere.”

“It didn't look to me as if you hated him,” Asher said stiffly. “It seemed to me that you were trying to use me to make him jealous.”

“Jealous! He said he couldn't stand to see me with other men, but he didn't really care. All he cares about is getting that money.”

“Maybe he was jealous after he'd just gotten out of prison and before he'd visited a…a place like Red's.”

Chris's eyes widened. “And before he'd moved in with the luscious Pilar.” She pounded a pillow with her fist. “I truly, sincerely hate that man. I wish I'd never seen him before in my life. I wish I never had to see him again. I wish—”

Asher caught her by the shoulders and turned her to face him. “Chris, you're protesting too much. I know a way to put him out of your mind.” He began to lower his head to hers. “You're obsessed with him because you have nothing else to replace him.” He touched her neck with his lips. “Spend the night with me. I'll make you forget him. I'll make you forget everything except us. We'll be a real married couple and when we leave here, we can go to your father and have a legal ceremony.”

Chris tried to enjoy the lovely way he was kissing her neck. He was a handsome man, he smelled good, there was absolutely nothing at all wrong with him—except that there was no spark. She could have fallen asleep standing up while he was kissing her. As it was, she suppressed a yawn.

“Please, Ash, don't rush things. I…I'm not sure of myself yet. I've just been through something awful with one man and I don't feel as if I can trust myself with anyone else. Please understand.”

He pulled away from her with a hurt look that made a thread of guilt run through her. She so hated lying for any reason whatever, and she especially hated lying to Ash who'd been so nice to her.

He stepped back. “All right, but I won't give up trying.”

“I hope you don't,” she said with a smile. There was no screen in the room, so she opened the wardrobe door and undressed behind it, all too aware that Asher was lying in the bed watching her. It made her nervous and a little frightened—but it did not make her want to climb into bed with him. She began to imagine how she'd feel if Tynan were lying in that bed, his shirt off, his hands behind his head, waiting for her. Even the thought seemed to make her skin glow.

She took a few deep breaths before she walked out from behind the door. Ash had on a long nightgown and he was watching her like a cat with a mouse. Chris said a soft good-night, blew out the lantern, and climbed onto the little couch. It was hard and uncomfortable, but it was better than the alternative.

She woke the next morning to Asher kissing her face and neck. For a moment, she enjoyed it until she remembered who he was. “For heaven's sake!” she said, pushing him away. “Really, Mr. Prescott, you must control yourself. I won't be able to stand this sort of thing every minute of the day.”

“I told you I planned to make you fall in love with me.”

“And you think this is the way? By mauling me at every opportunity?”

Asher stood. He was wearing a robe over his gown and his hair was tousled from sleep. “That's just what your gunslinger called it: mauling.” He turned away. “Well, today you won't have to stand my company because your cousin has asked me to drive twenty miles into town to pick up some supplies. You know, Chris, I think the man plans to get all the work he can out of us.”

“And what's wrong with that?” she asked, putting on her robe before removing the covers from her body. “We are asking him to support us. The least we can do is help.”

“You help in the garden with your outlaw and I get out of the picture. That should suit you just fine.”

“He's not mine. I didn't ask him here and I volunteered to help in the garden before I knew he was the gardener. You can't blame me for any of it. Can't we have an ordinary conversation? One minute you're asking me to marry you and the next you're accusing me of carrying on with another man.”

Asher didn't answer her but started dressing—behind the wardrobe door. Chris wasn't sure if he was modest or he was saving her delicate sensibilities. She chastised herself for criticizing every move he made. When he was dressed, he left the room.

Downstairs at breakfast, she began to see another Owen. Until now, he'd been the epitome of cordiality, but now he was giving instructions to Chris and Asher with the authority of a general.

“I want the north acre reseeded,” Owen was saying. “And I want all two hundred of those bulbs I ordered set by the end of the day. And, Whit, I'll give you a list of what I want from town. You're to take the wagon directly to the saw mill. You can do it all in a day if you don't dawdle. Lionel, eat those eggs. Unity, have you shown the new housemaid what to do? I want the ceilings upstairs washed.”

No one else at the table said much. Later, Asher escorted Chris outside. “You don't have to do this. Remember who you are and that we can go home any time you want. I don't want you working as a field hand.”

“How kind of you, but I don't mind working at all.”

Suddenly, Ash moved away from her. “Diana, even you aren't too stupid to do a little work. Now get over there and act like the woman you aren't.”

Chris turned to see Owen approaching with Tynan, both men seemingly unaware of what Asher was saying but she knew that, just as Asher had planned, they'd heard.

Owen said a few more words to Tynan, which she couldn't hear, then gave Ash an appraising look. “Come with me,” he said and Asher followed, leaving Chris with Tynan.

“I don't guess you could have volunteered to help with the washing, could you?” Ty said. “Or the horses? It had to be with the garden.”

She turned on her heel to glare at him. “If I'd known you were to be in charge of the garden, I would have shoveled coal first. Shall we get started and stop wasting time? I have more to do with my life than spend it listening to you insult me.”

“It seems to me that the man you claim as your husband was insulting you worse than I ever could.”

“It's part of the charade. Diana Eskridge was a woman who allowed her husband to bully her, so Ash and I are acting out a part.”

“You'd better work on it then, because you don't look like the type to take bullying from anybody. Every time he speaks to you in that tone, you look like you're about to set his hair on fire. Here, take this,” he said, handing her a box of bulbs. “You know how to plant?”

“You'd think he'd hire more than one gardener to do this. My father's garden isn't half this size and, when it was kept, he had four men taking care of it.”

“Ah, but he paid them a salary, they lived on his ranch and he fed them. Hamilton only has to give his poor grateful relatives a roof and food.”

“But he seems like such a nice man.”

“People aren't what they seem,” Ty said with a cold voice.

“Is that supposed to refer to anyone I know?” she asked, setting down the box of bulbs.

“Not unless you claim it. I thought I'd met a good girl who was different, but she wasn't. You're just like all the rest of them. You're excited by the reputation of a man with a gun, and you'll use him however you want, but in the end, when the chips are down, you'll side against him. No more good girls for me. You and Prescott were made for each other.”

“I didn't side with anyone else against you. You betrayed me! I trusted you and then at the picnic you shot a man. Do you know how I felt with all those people against me? They were looking at me as if I were a piece of vermin. A man on the street spit at my feet.”

Tynan looked at her for a long moment. “Yeah, I know how it feels. I've known all my life. Wait until a man spits in your face and then draws a gun on you.”

“Is that what Rory Sayers did?” Chris whispered.

“I twisted his arm to keep him from shooting me and the gun went off.”

“But why did the deputy take you to jail if it was all Rory's fault?”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “For the same reason you condemned me without any facts. By reputation. Because I'm not one of the ‘good' people like they are—like you are.”

Chris took a bulb planter from a tool box by Tynan's feet and began to dig in the soft earth to set the first bulb. “I think I was wrong.”

“No you weren't,” he said, kneeling beside her. “You were right. People like you and me don't mix. You deserve somebody like Prescott, not a nameless nobody like me.”

“I don't think I deserve anyone at all after betraying a friend,” she whispered, mostly to herself. “Tynan, do you think you could ever forgive me for not trusting you?”

He looked at her. “No,” he said simply. “It may take me a while to learn a lesson, but I do eventually learn it. I think that from now on I'll stay even farther away from girls like you.”

He moved away from her, leaving her to do the planting on that side of the plowed field by herself. The sun came out, making her perspire and the soil that was getting on her made her itch, but she didn't notice as she went over the events of the past few weeks. Since Tynan had popped out of the cabinet and held her nude body in his arms, she'd not been the same. She'd changed from a sensible young woman interested only in a story to an Amazon who pursued a man without shame. She'd thrown herself at him in the rain forest; she'd sworn to a woman who trusted her, Red, that she'd not betray him—yet at the first opportunity, that's what she'd done. She was acting like a spoiled little girl: one minute she hated him and the next minute she loved him.

Sitting back on her heels for a moment, she wiped her forehead and looked across at Tynan as he used a scythe to clear some underbrush. His shirt was drenched with sweat and she could see his muscles working under the thin cloth. He looked as if he'd gained some weight in the last few weeks. Against her will, she remembered the raw stripes on his back where he'd been whipped.

She thought of the way the townspeople had turned against her after she'd made one error of trying to help a man who looked as if he were guilty. How people everywhere must have treated a man who was always being accused of wrongdoing! How impossible all the “good” people made it for a man to stop doing wrong.