Read Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold Online
Authors: Ellen O'Connell
Tags: #Western, #Romance, #Historical, #Adult
“You should have seen the looks on their faces. Mr. Weinert puffed up like a toad and said I had to promise never to even introduce Nancy Lee to
that man
. I said I couldn’t do that, and that was the end of it.” Rob looked away across the dance floor. “Does that make you angry? I used him to get out of any commitment to her.”
“No, I never liked the thought of you married to her. It didn’t seem fair to wish you on somebody
nice
, but I wanted somebody better for you anyway.”
Rob met her eyes again. “Maybe by the time I get around to it again you’ll think I deserve somebody nice. The way Luke and Pete analyze every girl in town, I ought to be able to figure something out.”
They waited, smiling slightly, for a few minutes until a slow dance began and walked out to the floor. After the dance ended, they were almost back to where Cord was again waiting when Rob stopped to give her a hug, then started and pulled away as if he’d been burned. “What on earth was that?”
“That’s your nephew. He’s getting quite rambunctious lately.”
He was looking at her stomach as if it had just sprouted wings. Anne could feel an embarrassed flush starting.
“I didn’t know they did that.” He forced his curious gaze back to her face. “Anne, I’m glad….”
She gave him a quick kiss, “I believe you. Now go look for your nice girl.” As she sat down beside Cord, she said, “If you’re smart, you won’t act smug.”
“Now, Annie, would I act smug?”
They watched the dancers stomp through a reel and a polka, and she heard his voice, very soft and deep. “What do you think would happen if you and I just walked out there and danced?”
There was no use trying to convince him of less than the truth. “Well, a few people would leave. Walk right out of the hall. More would get off the dance floor and stand and stare.” She looked squarely at him then. “And everybody who matters would keep on dancing or watch and smile.”
There was no answer, and she decided he had changed his mind. When the first notes in a slow tempo came off Miss Maggie’s piano, she heard his voice again. “Dance with me, Annie?”
The lump in her throat almost but not quite kept her from answering. “I’d like that, love.”
Hand in hand they walked among the dancers. If their very presence didn’t scandalize, the way he pulled her close against him would. Not for the first time she pictured their child being born with a clear imprint of his father’s belt buckle somewhere on his small person. All night she had felt big and almost clumsy, but now the magic began again. From the summer until now, she had forgotten what it was like. She was light as air, graceful as a cloud floating across a summer sky. The power of him lifted her. Better music than Miss Maggie’s was in him, and it echoed in her heart.
Talking to friends near the punch bowl, Frank felt Ephraim’s hand on his shoulder, turning him. “Look.” They watched in silence. Several indignant couples hustled out of the hall. More left the dance floor with offended looks, but even as they left others took their places.
Noah Reynolds ignored Leona’s widow’s weeds, and she made no protest. When a fast look around showed Luke no girl he could count on, he hurried his sister Beth to the floor. The LeClercs, the Mileses, and surprise of surprises, the Stones, who had never before danced at a Mason social but occasionally deigned to drop by for a few minutes to grace an affair with their presence. In no time at all there were as many couples dancing as there had been. Frank felt Judith’s hand on his arm. “Should we?”
“No. I think when this is over you and Martha are going to get to say you told us so, and I’m going to stand here and watch and enjoy every minute of it. I think this might be something I’ve waited years to see.” Frank glanced sideways at his wife. “When are you going to tell me what happened last summer?”
Judith gave her serene smile. “Tonight, I think.”
The two tall blond men stood side by side, their wives’ arms tucked in theirs. Ephraim said, “He dances like he does everything else. He makes everybody else out there look clumsy.”
“Luke tells me lately half the girls he sees are curious about him.”
Ephraim laughed. “Too late. Even if they could get past the tigress, I don’t imagine anything else would interest him much.”
Whirling in Cord’s arms, Anne was aware of nothing but the floating sensation and the eyes of gold so close to her own and so somber.
“You know, Annie, a long time ago an old man told me beauty doesn’t mean much in a woman. It disappears with age. But he said some women have something better. They have a special glow that lasts all their life and just gets richer. You’re like that. You really shine.”
She could feel her eyes growing moist.
“Don’t cry.”
“I’m not.”
Her hand slipped from his shoulder to his face without conscious thought. He rubbed his cheek lightly against her fingers and kissed her palm. The scandal would last a hundred years, she thought, and willed her hand back to his shoulder. The smile started then, a real smile, teeth flashing oh so white in his bronze face. Her heart soared, and in truth, that night Anne Wells Bennett was not the only one who saw beauty in her fierce, dark man.
* * *
About the Author
Ellen O’Connell lives in Douglas County, Colorado. She raised, trained, and showed National Champion Morgan horses for over twenty years as Serendipity Morgans. She still keeps a Morgan mare, Serendipity B Wichin, although she now concentrates on rally, carting, and drafting competition with her dogs. Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold is her second novel. Her website is www.oconnellauthor.com.
Also by Ellen O’Connell
Rottweiler Rescue, a mystery for dog lovers
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