Claudia Dain (28 page)

"Everything's different around here since he came to town," Nell said, hanging up the dish towel next to the stove.

"I'd have to agree," Sarah said. "Bill's paid more court to Anne in the last week than he has in the previous month. And then there's the way Charles has been acting, if what you say is true...."

"Oh, it's the truth, believe me. I haven't been talked down to like that by a man since, well, since..."

"Since Tim was around?"

"I'd rather not discuss it," Nell said a little stiffly.

"I don't blame you," Sarah said, slipping an arm around her sister's waist and giving her a quick hug. "Let those memories stay dead, as dead as I hope he is."

"That's not a very nice thing to say."

"Maybe not, but it's the truth and I felt like saying it. For once."

"What's the matter with everyone lately?" Nell sighed, frowning. "First Anne and then Charles and now you."

"We could blame Jack." Sarah grinned, putting away her broom and taking off her apron. "Or we could thank him."

"Thank him? What for? I know it's because of him that Anne's got her back up and Charles near bit my head off."

"And for the first time in years, you're looking at him twice. Now, I do think Jack's too wild for Anne. I meant that, but if he's the one who put a touch of bite in Charles, then maybe it's a good thing he came to town."

"I am not the least bit interested in Charles Lane," Nell said, her posture stiff and forbidding.

"Well, then, in the spirit of all this free-talking that's been happening around here, you might just want to tell him that."

Nell faced her sister, her arms crossed and her chin up.

"I just might."

Anne walked into the middle of it, when her mother was as fit to fuss as she'd ever seen her. Anne had about had the fight kissed out of her and was not eager to renew the battle concerning her interest in Jack Scullard. Anne's lack of eagerness didn't matter a thumbnail to Nell.

"I suppose he kissed you again," she began, more angry at the moment at Charles and his presumptions than with her daughter and a stolen kiss or two.

Anne fought the blush that heated her breasts and throat "I kissed him," she said as forcefully as she could manage. She was using Jack; she wasn't going to let him take the blame for it. At least not without a bit of kick.

"Don't be ridiculous, Anne. You know I'll never believe that about you, though I am willing to believe that he didn't force you. You are attracted to him, that's obvious enough, though I can't see why."

"Have you really looked at him, Nell? Beyond the stubble and the guns he carries?" Sarah asked.

"Of course I've looked at him and what I see is a hard man with a dangerous reputation."

"Nell," Sarah said with a crooked smile, "you've been without a man for too long."

"Nonsense. In fact, in some ways, he reminds me of Tim."

"Jack is like my father? How?" Anne hardly remembered her father; he had left for good before she was five.

"You know I don't like to discuss your father, but, yes, some things they share."

"Like?" Anne pressed.

"Like"—Nell stalled—"they both hunt men and seem to get a good deal of pleasure out of it."

"And?"

"They both have that quality, that toughness caught up with shy charm, that women find so attractive."

"It sounds like a bad thing."

It did. She didn't want to tangle with a man who was like her father. That meant she really was following the same trail her ma had. How many nights had she lain in bed, crying for the home and the pa she'd lost, vowing that she'd never let it happen to her again? Enough nights to make her attraction to Jack impossible. But she didn't need him, not that badly. It was only attraction. She wasn't going to let it go any further than it already had. But she wasn't going to be put off just because her mama didn't like him.

"It is," Nell said softly, turning away from her daughter. "I want you to stay away from Jack; he's not right for you."

"I think he is," Anne said quietly, but there was a firmness to her reply that made both older women sigh in frustration. "And I
did
kiss him."

When Nell turned around to argue further, Sarah spoke.

"You go on, Nell, and have your talk with Charles. I'll talk with Anne. I feel responsible for this, with my meddling."

"Fine." Nell sighed, smoothing down her hair, preparing for her next battle. Lord, life had been so much more peaceful before Jack Skull had come to Abilene. "Thank you," she said as she left.

Anne faced Nell with all the openness of a penned mule.

"I
did
kiss him," she repeated.

"I believe you," Sarah said. "And I'll bet my shoes he kissed you back."

Anne failed completely to contain her blush. "He did."

"Man would be a fool not to and Jack Skull is no fool, but, Anne, he's a man grown, hard and dangerous, just like your ma said." Sarah held out her hand and kept talking before Anne could interrupt her with arguments, "Don't fool yourself, Anne. Just 'cause a man knows how to talk sweet, it doesn't mean he'll be sweet. How do you think he got the reputation he has? Being nice? No, he's killed time upon time and learned to trust no one. If a pretty girl shows him that she likes him, well, he'll take her up on it and who can blame him? I don't and I'm the one who put him on your trail. But, Anne, I wanted you to have a proper courting, with more than one fella knocking on your door. You've had that. But your real beau is Bill and Jack might be scaring him off. You don't want that 'cause Bill's the one who'll marry you. Jack's not the type."

"How do you know?" she asked.

She didn't want to marry anyone, but how did a woman know when one man was the marrying kind and another wasn't? If her aunt could see that in a man, why couldn't she see it in her? She wasn't the marrying kind and all they talked about was when she was getting married.

"Experience. I've seen too many like him. Your pa for one. Roy for another. Even my own pa; he could charm prairie dust into lying quiet in a tornado."

"That sounds more like Bill than Jack; he'd more like shoot the dust out of his path."

"Maybe so," Sarah said, "but he's the man who's got himself tangled up in your blood and that's the difference. You want a man you can manage and that's not Jack."

That wasn't any man. A man just couldn't be managed, not reliably and not well. She knew that, even if Sarah didn't. That's how she was smarter. She had to be smarter. She wasn't going to end up like all the women of her family, losing her heart to a man, giving herself to him in marriage, and then getting left. No one was going to leave her. Not again. Not ever again.

She was going to be the one to do the leaving and she just wasn't ready to leave Jack yet. Not just yet. And he wasn't tangled up in her blood either; no such thing.

She'd cut him loose when the time was right. She still needed him now to push Bill off, that's all. Her blood had nothing to do with it. She was smarter than that.

* * *

"He was there, but I never did see him with Elsa, just Widow Blake, who was healthy when I left her," Jack said.

Charles leaned back in his chair until he was propped against the wall. "Yeah, it looks bad, him being there and there being another killing. Course, you were there, too."

"I wondered when you'd get to that," Jack said easily, leaning back in his own chair in the sheriff's office.

"Couldn't ignore it, not and do my job."

"Yeah, I guess not."

The silence filled the space between them, each man thinking of what had to be asked and what would be answered.

"You do it?" Lane asked.

"Nope," Jack said.

"Didn't figure it that way, not when you been doing so much talk about finding the killer. Doesn't figure, to pull down so much attention on yourself. And this killer, he don't make his courting known. You haven't exactly made a secret of what's going on between you 'n' Anne."

"And what do you figure is going on?"

"A mighty fine courting, if you're an honorable man."

"And if I'm not?"

Lane shrugged and banged his chair legs down on the floor. "A man could get hanged for doing what you're doing to a girl like Anne."

"What am I doing?"

"Getting her thinking of marriage, for one."

"For one?"

"For two, getting her ready for what comes after."

Jack grinned and lit a slim cigar. "You must think my kisses are real convincing."

Lane snorted. "Don't matter what I think. It's Anne you're firing up. You've got that gal strung from here to Kansas City, obvious as moonlight on snow."

Jack got up and walked to the door; it was time for supper and he was hungry. And he was tired of talking about Anne, a gal that was using him for her own ends without a thought to him. Yeah, she was a nice girl, but nice girls had their own weapons. Trouble was, she didn't have the first idea what she'd stirred up in him and he wasn't thankful for it. Not a bit. Wonder what she'd do if he acted on all the urges she'd sparked in him. Might be fun to find out.

"Do I need to get a rope ready?"

"Only if you want to pull her off me. I didn't start this."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning I'm on the job till her aunt pulls me off. Marriage was never part of the deal," he said and walked out the door.

Jack missed Nell by five minutes, which was just as well. She'd come for Charles.

She'd combed her hair, gotten herself a fresh handkerchief, which was lightly sprayed with precious cologne, and brushed the worst of the dust off her boots. Charles noticed every bit of it and tucked his shirt in a little tighter. Then he finger-combed his hair. Then he pushed in his desk chair and they faced off, like the two adversaries they suddenly were. She started it.

"I came to see if you want to apologize."

"Apologize? For what, Nell?"

She sniffed her reluctance and turned away from him slightly, giving him her profile. "For being unnecessarily unkind to me before."

"You mean when I wouldn't let you join that necktie party forming up on the street for Jack? Excuse me, Nell, but I don't let the kind of wild talk that was going on out there build any wind. It's a wind that kills and has nothing to do with the law."

"You're doing it again."

"So are you."

They didn't say anything for a while after that. Nell was regrouping and Charles was waiting for the next assault. It came.

"You never used to talk to me like this before, before
he
came. You used to be so polite and kind; I always felt I could count on you, Charles. I always thought we were friends. Old friends."

He couldn't help thinking just then about how well Jack was doing with Anne after less than two weeks. He'd known Nell for the better part of twenty years and wasn't half so far. Could be that Sarah was right; Jack knew how to commence a courtin'.

"You did? Old friends, huh? Why, I can remember times when you wouldn't say hello to me if you bumped into me on the street. Is that what old friends do?"

"You know I never did any such thing," she said.

"I know damn well you did."

"Stop cussing. Is that how you talk in front of a lady?"

"What is it you want to be, Nell, lady or friend?"

He'd moved closer to her, the long length of him towering over her. She'd never quite realized how tall he was or how muscular. His body was still hard, his stomach flat, even after all these years. She pulled her own stomach in and lifted her chin.

"I would hope that I could be both," she said.

"Or you could be something more," he said gruffly, crowding her until she found herself backing up. Her breath lifted up into her chest, and stayed there.

"Nell! What on earth are you doing in here with the sheriff? I'm certain he has important business to see to," Daphne snapped from the open doorway.

"And I'm seeing to it right now," Lane said, still looking at Nell. She felt her nipples rise up against the fabric of her cotton dress.

"Charles Lane!" Daphne barked. "My daughter has better manners than to loiter in a jailhouse with no proper escort. This is hardly appropriate—"

"Miss Daphne," Charles interrupted, "I've got things to say to your daughter and I'd like to say them in private. If you'll excuse us?"

"I most certainly will not! If you have anything to say to my daughter, you will do so in the proper way at the proper time and—"

"Miss Daphne? I ain't waitin'. Nell will be home later."

He ended the conversation by slamming the door in the old woman's face. Nell was speechless, her breath rising to get caught in her throat; she'd never seen Charles like this before, why, he was almost... wild.

Daphne was far from speechless.

"Charles Lane," she said from behind the closed door, "your manners have gone straight to the devil since that bounty hunter came to town."

Charles slid home the bolt without once taking his eyes off Nell. Leaning back against the door, he crossed his arms and smiled.

"Yes, ma'am, Miss Daphne. Yes, ma'am."

* * *

"Heard you were back," Shaughn O'Shaughnessy said, putting the beer down in front of Jack.

"I'll bet you did," Jack said, reaching for his drink. "You serve food here? I'll pay you double not to have to go to the Demorest." He wasn't feeling up to staring that woman down just to get a plate of grub, It was shaping up to be a long day.

"Yeah, my ma'll serve up something sometimes, something simple; not like what you'd get at the Demorest."

"I'll take it," Jack said. "Whatever you've got."

"I'll tell her."

O'Shaughnessy was back after a few minutes with a plate of food.

"You got lucky; this just came out of the skillet."

The plate was piled high with beefsteak and fried potatoes seared golden brown.

"Thank your ma for me. It's a nice spread."

Jack took the plate and sat at one of the gaming tables in the corner of the room. The old man who usually slept there was gone. O'Shaughnessy swept the floor behind the bar. The saloon was empty but for the two of them. Jack couldn't have been happier.