Aundy (Pendleton Petticoats - Book 1) (15 page)

“I’m perfectly fine, as you can see,” Aundy said, taking another step back from Garrett. She needed to put some space between them before she succumbed to the desire to be wrapped in his arms again. “You shouldn’t be here this late. It’s not proper.”

Garrett laughed and gave her a pointed look. “Says the woman who dressed as a man and went places, no doubt, that no lady should.”

Aundy had the grace to blush although she kept her back straight and held his gaze.

“How about I drink a cup of your tea and you tell me what adventure led you to finding our Chinese friend?”

Nodding her head, Aundy led the way to the kitchen where she turned up the lamps, made tea and took a plate out of the refrigerator. Sprinkling cinnamon and sugar on what looked like flat pancakes, rolling each one up into a tidy bundle, she handed the plate to Garrett.

“What’s this?” he asked, studying the unfamiliar dish.

“Lefse. It’s Norwegian,” Aundy said, sitting at the table with a cup of tea. “Try it, you’ll enjoy it.”

Garrett took a bite and his eyes lit up at the flavors.

“What is it again?” he asked, devouring his first piece and starting on a second.

“Lefse. It’s made with potatoes and flour, mostly. My grandmother made the best lefse,” Aundy said, looking wistful and lost in her memories.

Smiling at her, Garrett cleaned his plate then took a drink of tea, waiting for Aundy to explain her evening’s actions. When she sat quietly sipping her tea, he decided she wasn’t going to volunteer any information.

“Why did you dress like a man?”

“Because no one will give me the information I want when I ask them dressed as a woman,” Aundy said, a spark of defiance flashing across her face and settling in her eyes.

“Fair enough. Where did you go?”

“I went to the saloon around the corner from where I tied Bell.”

“You went to the saloon,” Garrett said, trying to digest that information. “What did you do at the saloon?”

“I walked up to the bar and asked the bartender how to get to the Underground,” Aundy said, sipping her tea. She nearly choked when Garrett smacked the top of the table with the flat of his hand.

“You what?”

Clearing her throat, she sat a little taller in her chair and leveled her gaze to his. “I asked how to get to the Underground.”

“Why in blazes would you want to go there? It’s no fit place for a lady like you, Aundy. Not at all,” Garrett said, looking at her like she’d taken leave of her senses.

“So I discovered,” Aundy said, remembering the things she’d seen and heard, wishing she could block the memories from her mind.

Trying to calm down so she’d keep talking to him, Garrett drew in a few deep breaths before he continued. “You asked the bartender and he gave you directions.”

“I suppose you could call what he said directions, although I wasn’t sure at first I’d ever find the end of the corridor and come out anywhere. It cost me two bits to get that piece of information,” Aundy said, shaking her head. “I had no idea there was a city beneath the city, so to speak. I think I even saw a candy shop down there.”

“Yeah, you did,” Garrett said, hoping that was all Aundy saw. “You found your way there, then what?”

“I got close enough to several groups of men to listen to their conversations, but didn’t have any luck in finding what I was looking for, so I went into a saloon and ordered a sarsaparilla. I was standing at the bar when one of the women who worked at the establishment began conversing with me.”

Garrett’s eyes widened and he fought down his shock. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he imagined the look on Aundy’s face when one of the saloon girls sidled up next to her, thinking she was a man. “You mean one of the working girls propositioned you?”

Aundy could see the amusement on Garrett’s face and felt her temper flare. “I didn’t see anything amusing about the situation then or now. It was quite unsettling and disturbing.”

“I’m sure it was,” Garrett said, drinking his tea to hide his grin.

“I suggested she move along and she asked me what I was doing in the saloon. When I told her I was looking for information, she pointed out a patron who turned out to be most helpful. I concluded my business and tried to work my way back up to the street, but by then I found myself completely turned around. I kept walking and ended up in a corridor that took me to a set of stairs. I tripped over the injured man on the top step,” Aundy said, absently rubbing her shoulder.

Washing up after removing her disguise, she couldn’t help but notice the bruise already forming on her shoulder and it ached. Hitting the door probably wouldn’t have done much damage, but the fact that wretched Ashton Monroe shook her like a rag doll by the same shoulder compounded the problem.

Garrett stood from his chair and walked around the table, pulling down the edge of Aundy’s robe and gown until it revealed a large bruise. As she slapped at his hands and voiced her disapproval of his actions, she quickly tugged her clothing back in place.

Forcing himself to step back, he really wanted to pull her clothing down and cover the discolored skin with soft kisses. What he’d seen of Aundy’s creamy neck and shoulder, beyond the bruise, made his temperature spike and muddled his thoughts.

Regaining his seat, he raised an eyebrow at her.

“I hit the door pretty hard,” she said, glaring at him, miffed at his forcibly baring her bruise and making her skin tingle at his touch. She didn’t know what he was trying to do to her, but she sincerely wished he’d stop. She could barely keep her thoughts together with him sitting across the table, let alone when he put his hands on her bare skin. Yet, there was a part of her that wished he’d do it again.

“Then…” Garrett prompted.

“I couldn’t just leave him there. What if whoever beat him up came back? What if he was truly about to die? Although I suppose if he was, he wouldn’t have been able to get up and walk with my help,” Aundy said, thinking as she talked.  “When I said I could either take him to the Doc or home with me, he chose me and you know the rest of the story.”

“What, may I ask, was so important for you to do, that required you to don men’s clothes, go places no respectable woman should go, and endanger yourself in the process?” Garrett asked, clearly upset with her behavior.

“I wasn’t in any danger. You said yourself I’m a pretty good shot and I wore my gun. It seemed to me if you didn’t cause trouble, you could stay out of trouble,” Aundy said, thinking she’d handled herself well.

“So you agree that Mr. Chinaman, who is right now sleeping in a room in my parent’s home, is trouble. That he did something terrible resulting in him being beaten so badly it will take weeks to fully recover,” Garrett said, giving Aundy a calculating stare.

Wishing she could squirm in her seat, Aundy instead shook her head. “No, I don’t think he did anything to get in trouble, although I don’t know that for a fact. You know what I meant, though.”

“Dang it, Aundy. What if one of them decided to pull a gun on you? Were you prepared for a gunfight? Or a fistfight? Even worse, what if one of those men down there found out you’re a woman? There’s no telling what would’ve happened to you. You have no idea what some of them are capable of,” Garrett said, feeling fear tighten his chest again as thoughts of what might have happened filled his head.

Reaching across the table, he grasped Aundy’s soft fingers in his rough callused hands. “Please promise me you’ll never do that again.”

Aundy didn’t want to promise anything. She didn’t think she’d ever have a need to dress as a man or venture beneath the city again, but she didn’t like the way the promise smacked of conceding some of her freedom.

At the look on Garrett’s face, a look that made her heart quicken and her stomach flutter, she nodded her head. “I promise.”

“Thank you,” Garrett said, squeezing her hands before letting them go. “Now, what information was so important you couldn’t just ask me or Pops?”

“I could have asked you, but I needed to do this on my own, Garrett. You and your family have been so good to me, taken such good care of me, I need to start standing on my own two feet. I can’t depend on you for everything. If I’m going to run this farm, I need to learn to be self-sufficient.”

“You are one of the most stubborn, hard-headed women I’ve ever met, Aundy Erickson,” Garrett said, running a hand through his hair, sending the dark locks into a state of complete disarray. His movements made Aundy want to run her fingers through it as well. “Your ability to be self-sufficient would never be in question. If you need help, ask for it. We’re more than happy to give it. You’ve been through so much since you’ve arrived here and handled it all in stride. Growing up in the city, without any rural background, you’re going to have questions and need some help. Never hesitate to ask.”

“I know, but I’ve imposed on all of you too much as it is,” Aundy said, feeling tears prick the backs of her eyes. She would not cry. Giving in to her emotions, as jumbled as they were, was not going to help prove she could care for herself and Erik’s farm. Her farm.

“You’ve never imposed on us. Ever,” Garrett said, wishing Aundy wasn’t so obstinate. “Regardless of all that, what information were you searching for?”

“I wanted to buy something and no one would talk to me about it. Dressed as a man, I didn’t have a bit of trouble making the deal.”

“What did you buy?” Garrett asked, trying to think of anything Aundy would have purchased in the Underground that could possibly be beneficial to the farm.

“I don’t think you’re going to like my answer,” Aundy said, hesitant to tell Garrett about her sheep. He’d been quite vocal, when she and J.B. were discussing the pros and cons of raising sheep the other day, about how much he disliked the “stinky little boogers,” as he referred to them.

“What did you do?” Garrett asked, pinning her with his silver gaze.

“I made arrangements with a man to buy something he wanted, quite desperately, to sell.”

“Which was?”

Aundy hesitated, taking a deep breath before answering. “Sheep.”

Garrett let out a whoosh of air and sat back in his chair. Blinking his eyes twice, he was sure Aundy couldn’t have said what he thought she did.

“Did you say sheep?”

“Yes,” Aundy whispered, staring down at the cloth covering the table.

“Smelly, nasty, bleating little sheep?”

“Well, I don’t know about the smelly, nasty or bleating part, but yes, I did agree to purchase sheep.”

“Woman! What are you thinking? Did you sign papers, make payment? Is the deal final?”

“Not yet. Mr. O’Connell was under the impression I was helping out a new widow and should call Mrs. Erickson Monday morning to make arrangements for the sale.”

“O’Connell? The whiskey drinking Irishman? Why he’ll…” Garrett yelled, his eyes flashing fire.

Aundy reached across the table and clapped a hand across his mouth. “Shh. You’ll have Dent and the boys in here if you don’t quiet down. Not only should you not be here, especially with me dressed like this, but I’m not quite ready to impart the knowledge to them that we’ll soon be raising sheep.”

“Fred will quit,” Garrett said, stating a fact Aundy already knew. He’d made it perfectly clear that he had no interest in tending sheep, so it was a gamble Aundy had to make.

“I’ve taken that possibility into consideration.”

“Did you also take into consideration that a lot of the neighbors around here hate sheep? Not just dislike them, but hate them. I know many people in the area raise sheep, but our neighbors are all wheat growers and cattlemen. If you think about it, there isn’t one little lamb to be found from here all the way to Pendleton. You could be asking for a lot of trouble,” Garrett warned, but he could see the stubborn set to Aundy’s chin and knew she was not going to change her mind.

“I’ll handle any problems should they arise.”

“Did you at least talk to Dent about your plans?” Garrett asked, trying to be reasonable with his neighbor, but thinking the woman had lost her mind. Sheep. Of all the things she could have done, decided to raise or grow, of course she’d pick sheep.

This was going to be disastrous.

“Not exactly,” Aundy said, realizing it might have been a good idea to involve Dent in her decision, but she was sure he, like Garrett, would have done his best to dissuade her from buying the sheep and she’d already made up her mind.

“Look, Aundy, I think you…”

Placing her hand over Garrett’s mouth again, Aundy fought the tremor that shot from her fingers up her arm and spiraled down to her toes. The feel of his lips beneath her fingers made her wish he’d take her in his arms and kiss her again in the very worst way. She didn’t want to think about why she wanted, needed, him to hold her. She just knew that she did.

“I’m not changing my mind, Garrett. It’s my decision to make and mine alone. If it’s a mistake, I’ll face the consequences,” Aundy said, yanking back her hand like it was singed and getting to her feet. “I do appreciate your concern and you riding over here to make sure I made it home without incident. I’d be happy to take care of the Chinese man if you think he could be moved.”

“Leave him be. It gives Ma someone to fuss over,” Garrett said, wondering how Aundy’s fingers had started a fire that burned from his lips all the way to the tips of his toes. He could hardly function with his thoughts so centered on Aundy’s lips and his desire to kiss them until neither of them could think.