Deborah Camp (18 page)

She knew he was going to kiss her and she knew she wanted him to. Regina released a whimper a moment before his mouth swooped to hers. As their lips met, all resistance went out of her and self-gratification became her primary objective. She combed his hair back with her fingers and opened her lips to the rapier thrust of his tongue. The rawness of his kiss surprised her, titillated her, made her crave more and more of him. His arms tightened around her waist like a band
of steel, and Regina loved his strength almost as much as she loved being his weakness.

“Regina, Regina, Regina,” he whispered between kisses, each more demanding than its predecessor. “Let me taste you.” His mouth left hers to trail down her throat. His tongue wet the material over her breasts and found one of her tightly gathered nipples. “So sweet. I’d love to take one of these into my mouth.”

She shuddered. “Don’t talk like that,” she said, automatically, while a naughty voice in her mind begged him to continue.

“No more secrets, Regina, and no more lies. Let’s be honest. I want to make love to you and you want me to. Say it.” He stared into her eyes. “Say it.”

“I … no.” She swallowed a moan and averted her gaze from his simmering grin. He nibbled her earlobe and his breath tickled. She raised her shoulder to shelter her ear.

“I know another secret of yours.”

She smiled, her emotions still in turmoil, her good sense trying valiantly to prevail.

“I remember you, Regina.”

“Remember me?” she repeated, smiling into his blue eyes and wondering if he thought she was prettier than any other woman he’d held. Why did he want her so desperately? she wondered. Why her when he could have any available woman in Eureka Springs?

“I remember you from Dodge City. Wild Irish Rose.”

She felt as if she had been floating and was suddenly dropped to earth. Regina pushed away from him as panic billowed in her chest. She stared at him, hoping against hope that her ears had deceived her. “I don’t know what—” She swallowed hard and her throat ached. “You’re wrong.”

“No, I don’t think so. I heard you sing at the Gold Star. Eric was with me. You can’t fool me with all that talk about being so dead-set against saloons and saloon girls. Those were the days, huh? I bet ten dollars was nothing to you back then.”

Another whimper escaped her, this one born of pain, not passion. Somehow she managed to retreat from him. She witnessed his amusement, his confusion, his motion for her to rejoin him, but she could only comprehend her own fear at being found out.

“Regina, come on. Where are you going?”

Blindly, she turned and ran. She heard Theo call after her and she hurried faster. Racing around the bend, she collided with Eric. He steadied her, keeping her upright.

“Hey! Where’s the fire, Regina? I was looking for you and Theo. Have you finished your—Regina?” He leaned down a little to examine her wide eyes. “What’s this? What’s happened?”

“Nothing.”

“No, something’s wrong,” he insisted.

“Regina, damn it all, get back here!” Theo came into view, his face set in grim lines, his fists swinging at his sides.

“What have you done to her?” Eric demanded of his cousin. “She’s shaking like a leaf.”

“She’s overreacting, as usual,” Theo answered on a sigh, then noticed Eric’s mounting anger. “What are you glaring at?”

Eric bared his teeth in an uncharacteristic rage. “Theo, if you’ve behaved badly with her, I’ll—I’ll—”

“You’ll what, cousin?” Theo stepped closer, sandwiching Regina between his and Eric’s out-thrust chests.

Daring glinted in Eric’s eyes. “Sometimes, Theo,
I worry about you.” Then he edged backward to examine Regina’s face. “Miss Regina, are you all right? Has Theo done something untoward?”

“Theo hasn’t done anything she didn’t want him to do,” Theo said, almost snarling. “She doesn’t need your protection, Eric.”

“Eric, please take me home,” Regina implored, wanting to defuse the explosive situation.

“You
did
insult her, didn’t you?” Eric charged. “Miss Regina isn’t one of your saloon trollops, Theo, and I won’t stand by and allow you to treat her as such.”

Theo barked a laugh. “Fold up your tail feathers, Eric. You’re on the verge of getting them plucked.”

“Why, you arrogant …” Eric stepped around Regina and threw a punch.

Agile and alert, Theo sidestepped Eric’s fist, grabbed his wrist, and pushed him off-balance.

“Stop, please!” Regina gripped Eric’s lapels and made him look at her. “Nothing happened, Eric. Please, don’t do this. No fighting. Not on my account, please.” When he continued to glare at Theo, Regina jerked on his lapels and made him look at her. “Eric, if you want to do something for me, then take me home or help me hitch Gardenia to the wagon. Please?”

Eric covered her hands with his. “Very well. Come along, Regina.” He fit an arm about her shoulders and guided her from Theo.

“Running away takes more out of you than facing your past,” Theo called after her. “Remember that, Regina.”

Eric squeezed her shoulder. “Don’t pay any attention to him. I don’t know why he’s being such an ass. He’s been brought up better, but he’s always been a bit of a hellion.”

Regina didn’t trust her voice to speak. She concentrated
on one thing: getting away from Theodore Dane and his talk of the Gold Star Saloon. She angled a look at Eric, wondering if he remembered her, too. He smiled fondly at her, and she knew he hadn’t made the connection between her and the saloon singer. But it was only a matter of time, she knew, before Theo told Eric—told everyone—her damning secret.

The next day Regina tried to forget the confrontation with Theo and to ignore the niggling fear in the pit of her stomach. She punched bread dough to vent her frustration and wondered if she should strike a deal with Theo Dane: his silence for her willingness. She shuddered. No, no. She refused to stoop to that level.

“Regina?” Lu entered the kitchen, eyeing her with some amusement. “You’re certainly giving that dough a pounding.” Lu sat at the kitchen table. “Want to tell me about the picnic? What happened between you and Mr. Dane that made you want to leave before the games of skill? They were quite amusing.”

“I don’t blame you if you’re mad at me for taking Eric away from the picnic. I just had to get away and Eric was kind enough to bring me back to town.”

Lu laughed softly. “Now why would I be mad about that? I’m glad Eric took you home if that’s what you wanted. I’m just wondering what happened that made you want to leave so quickly. What did Mr. Dane do, Regina? Wasn’t he a gentleman?”

Regina released a harsh laugh. “Gentleman? Theodore Dane? Ha!” She punched the dough again. “Theodore Dane is a scoundrel, a wastrel, an animal!”

Lu removed the bread dough from her and
placed it in a bowl. She draped a towel over it. “Let that poor lump rise and sit yourself down here, Regina. We should talk.”

Regina wilted onto the chair. The strain of the past hours weighed on her and she was appalled when she felt the sting of tears. She fought them back, refusing to surrender to her self-pity.

“What did he do?” Lu asked.

“He … he kissed me.”

“And that’s what sent you flying away from the picnic?”

“No, not exactly.”

“Then what?”

Regina examined Lu, knowing she was her most trustworthy ally. “Before I came here, I worked in Dodge City.” Regina took a deep breath and released it in a gush of words. “I worked in a saloon. Singing.”

Surprise visited Lu’s face, then was gone. She captured Regina’s hands and squeezed them in a show of support. “That’s not so awful, Regina.”

“It isn’t? Lu, I was a saloon girl.”

“Then you know firsthand what a terrible place a saloon can be and how it breeds sin and corruption. Who else should lead the fight but one who has fought in the trenches?”

Regina eased her hands from Lu’s, feeling unworthy of the woman’s unquestioning allegiance. “I don’t think everyone would see it that way, Lu. I’m a hypocrite.”

“That’s not true,” Lu said, her voice soft, sweet, sincere. “Regina, you’re being unfair to yourself and I can’t allow that.”

“I drank, too.”

Uncertainty diminished Lu’s smile. “You tried liquor? Well, many have tasted it and then wanted nothing more to do with it.”

“I drank it nearly every night. I enjoyed it.” Regina
slumped in the chair. “I was just like Mama … just like Jack. It runs in our blood, Lu. But I know it and I won’t make the mistake Mama did. I won’t poison myself with it.”

“You say you enjoyed drinking liquor? Then why did you stop?”

“Because I realized what was happening to me. I needed a drink to steady my nerves before I sang each night. So I quit.” She gave a quick shrug. “I quit to save my life.”

“Good for you. You have great courage.”

“I have the potential for disaster running in my veins, Lu. I don’t want anyone else to know about my work at the Gold Star.”

“I won’t tell anyone, dear.”

“Yes, but Theo Dane probably will.” She nodded at Lu’s shocked expression. “He remembers me from those days.”

“Do you remember him?”

“The faces back then are a blur in my mind. I remember nothing but singing and getting off the stage.” She covered her face with her hands in a moment of mortification. “Oh, Lu. I wish to heaven I’d never gone into that saloon. I don’t know what made me do it. I was hungry, penniless, and I couldn’t find work. The sign in the saloon window beckoned me. I thought I’d work just long enough to get one month’s pay and then I’d buy a stage ticket and go somewhere else.”

“But you didn’t.”

“I stayed on because I didn’t know where I could go. I felt so lost and alone. Then I read a newspaper published by the W.C.T.U. There was an article in it by Teddy Bea praising Mrs. Nation’s work. It inspired me so that I struck out for Eureka Springs to dedicate my life to fighting liquor and its awful temptations.” She sucked in a long breath and felt oddly cleansed. Lu’s smile
was a benediction. “I don’t want anyone to know about my fight with liquor or my leanings toward it. I want to forget those awful days … forget they ever happened.”

Lu’s expression became regretful. “I’ll honor your wishes. Regina, you never did anything else at the saloon besides sing, did you? You don’t have to answer that,” Lu said quickly. “I shouldn’t have … it’s none of my affair.”

Regina patted Lu’s hands. “I never went upstairs with any of the gents, if that’s what you’re asking. I was asked many times, and the saloon owner tried to make me please some of his more favored customers, but I refused.”

“Good for you,” Lu said, beaming. “I think you should be proud, instead of thinking so poorly of your character.”

“If I had stayed much longer, I would have drunk enough to forget myself and my integrity. Liquor has a way of wiping out everything but lust for it.”

“Regina, do you really believe this craving for liquor is somehow passed on?”

“I’m not sure, but it’s possible.”

“I worry about Annie.”

“Lu, I’m not a doctor, so don’t take my theories as gospel. All I know is that liquor seems to find a soft spot in Jack and me, just like it found one in Mama.” She sat back, recalling Theo’s cruel teasing. “If you hear anything around town, you must tell me at once, Lu. I wouldn’t be surprised if Theo Dane isn’t telling everyone about my saloon days this very minute.”

“I don’t think so,” Lu said, shaking her head. “He’s mischievous, but he’s not mean-spirited.”

“Eric said he’s a hellion.”

“I’m sure Eric was exaggerating.”

“I don’t want to be attracted to a hell-raiser.”

“But you are, aren’t you? I can see it so clearly, Regina. You could fall in love with Mr. Dane, given the slightest push.”

“Oh, he’s pushed enough already,” Regina said. “He’s the pushiest man I’ve ever been around. He just never lets up.”

“Then he’s just as attracted to you, too. That’s nice.”

“No, it isn’t. Now that I know he remembers me from the saloon, I understand why he’s been so interested. He thinks I’m loose.”

“No, Regina,” Lu protested.

“Yes, he does.” Regina lifted the cloth to check on the dough, then dropped it back into place. “I don’t want to talk about him anymore. Let’s talk about you … and Eric Carmichael.”

“Me and—” Lu snapped her jaws shut and shook her head. “Oh, no, you don’t.”

“You two like each other.”

“Yes, he’s a nice man.”

“And?” Regina goaded with a smile.

“And I’m a married woman.”

“But you do find him attractive.”

“Yes, but I can’t allow myself any involvement with another man, Regina. Jack is my husband.”

Regina traced the pattern in the tablecloth with a fingertip. “Perhaps you should think about divorcing Jack.” When Lu made a choking sound, Regina glanced up to see the other woman’s eyes fill with tears. “Oh, Lu. Don’t cry. I didn’t mean to upset you.” She hitched her chair closer and put an arm around her sister-in-law.

“I’ve thought about divorce,” Lu said brokenly. “But I don’t know if I can go through with it. What’s worse? Being the runaway wife of a drunk or a divorced woman? Each is something I never wanted to be.”

“I know, I know,” Regina comforted, patting the woman’s shoulder. “It’s a dilemma.”

“We all have our crosses to bear,” Lu whispered.

“Yes,” Regina agreed, and felt the weight of her own.

A
petition, of all things!

Standing before the hallway mirror, Regina adjusted her blue bonnet over her blond hair with a series of agitated jerks.

“What are you going to do?” Lu asked behind her, wringing her hands and peering over Regina’s shoulder into the mirror.

“I’m going to confront the Hampfs, of course, and demand to see that petition.”

Bitsy stood on Regina’s other side. Joy was behind them. Worry hung in the room like a vapor.

“Are you sure about this, Bitsy?” Lu asked.

Bitsy nodded. “When I delivered the linens to the café this morning that was all the talk. The petition, the petition, the petition.” She flung up her hands and rolled her eyes. “One fella even asked me if I was going to sign it, like I’d be in favor of closing this boardinghouse so I’d get myself thrown out in the street.” She forced a laugh. “I told him I’d just as soon dance naked than sign that hateful paper.”