Fool for Love (Montana Romance) (37 page)

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  Amelia’s voice shook and she tried to push past him toward the door.

Curtis caught her with both hands, yanking her close.  “Don’t you now?  After sneaking in here to read all the gossip that my good friend Jacinta uncovered for me.”

“Let me go,” Amelia whispered.  He held her so close she could feel the warmth of his body, breathe in his scent.  She could feel his intentions in the tilt of his head toward her.  She had felt those same intentions radiating from Nick.

“Why would I want to do that?  Why would you want me to?  From what I understand you like a man who knows what he wants.  And I know exactly what I want, sweet cousin.”  He stroked the back of his fingers across her cheek.

“I don’t want you,” Amelia said in a hoarse whisper.  “Take your hands off of me.”  She didn’t want him, in spite of his advances.  They stirred nothing in her.  It should have been a victory – she was not a whore, she had never been a whore – but fear kept her from rejoicing.

“I’ll tell you what,” Curtis said, face dipping closer to hers.  He bit his lip.  “Now that I know who you really are and what you’re really about, maybe we can work out a deal.  I don’t blame you for pulling the wool over my simple cousin’s eyes to get what you want.  Your family lost your land so you went looking for more, didn’t you.”

“No.  I don’t care about land.”

“Sure you do, sweetie.  All you Brits think about is land and big houses and servants, right?  Well that’s just fine by me.  If you want a piece of this ranch I might just be willing to give it to you, as long as you give me a piece of something else.”

His hand slipped from her forearm down to her waist and around to her backside.  Amelia gasped and grabbed his hand, trying to push it away.  Curtis squeezed her backside, but his fingers inched perilously close to the deed.  She pried at his fingers, but he resisted.

She switched tactics and urged his hand up toward her breast and away from the deed.  He took the bait and left her back alone, cupping her breast until it hurt.

“I knew it,” he murmured against her ear.  His lips brushed the skin of her cheek.  “I knew that you were nothing more than a cheap fox on the prowl.  What else are you looking for, honey?  Money?  ‘Cuz I have more of that than the King of Spain.”

The comment cut like lightning through her fear.  Curtis didn’t have any money.

“You know, I always did think you were the finest woman I’d ever laid eyes on,” Curtis continued, his mouth slipping closer to Amelia’s.  His other hand snaked around to her backside, landing her in exactly the same spot she’d just sacrificed her pride to get out of.  “In a few months, without any damn baby in you, you’ll be finer still.  It’ll be easy as pie to keep my dear, dumb cousin in the dark.  He wants me to move out to one of the huts?  It’ll be that much easier to rendezvous.  Or maybe I’ll send him back to England or China this time so that the two of us can-”

“So that the two of you can what?” Eric’s voice boomed from the doorway.

Curtis stiffened and jumped back, pushing Amelia away.  Amelia reeled, unable to see straight with the force of shock that hit her.

“Eric!” Curtis said with as cheery a voice as he could fake.  “Why, I didn’t see you there.”

His statement rang as false as tin.

“I noticed!”  Eric’s face and neck were red and his eyes flashed with such fury that Amelia’s knees went weak.  “What the hell is going on up here?”  His demand was directed fully at her, no compassion, no quarter.

Amelia couldn’t speak.  Her body and soul were frozen in horror at what Eric had seen, what he must have thought he saw.  Curtis was as calm as a pond.  He’d planned it.

“Cousin Amelia was upset,” Curtis flew into an explanation with his typical cunning.  “I was comforting her.”  He stepped closer to p
ut an arm around her shoulder.

“Like hell you were!”  Eric sucked in a breath and glared at Amelia as she jolted away from Curtis.  “Money and land?  That’s what you want?”

He had been standing there long enough to hear the entire conversation.  Amelia thought she would be sick.

“No, I never-”

Eric didn’t wait for her explanation.  He spun on his heel and marched into the hallway.  When she heard his footsteps on the stairs her heart stopped.  He was leaving.  Her body and soul unfroze and jolted to action.

“Eric, stop!” she cried as she dashed out into the hall and down the stairs.  “It’s not what you think!”

“Isn’t it?”  He stopped at the landing to the second floor and spun to face her, towering over her.  “Because it looked like he had his hands on you and it looked like you were fine and dandy with that.”

“He did, but I wasn’t-”

“But nothing!”

Eric clenched his jaw and his fists and continued down the stairs to the first floor and out onto the porch.  Amelia followed as fast as she could, but her back was aching and desperation made her weak.

“Eric, I swear-”

“That’s not the first time I seen you two all cozy.  What were you doing up in his room, huh?  And don’t think I didn’t see your clothes all over his floor.”  Amelia shut her gaping mouth and blinked.  “I know Curtis is a slob, but I thought you at least would try to hide the evidence.  How many times did you sneak up there?  How long has this been going on behind my back?”

“Nothing has been going on behind your back!  I was looking for a different room to stay in!”  Her fear tumbled over into anger.

“Why the hell would you need a different room?”

“Because we’re not married.  It isn’t right until we-”

“Yeah?” he glowered.  “It’s not right for us to share a bed, but you and Curtis-”

“I didn’t know it was his room!”

“Right.  Goddammit, Amelia!  I would expect this kind of cheap trick from Curtis, but….”  He stopped and shook his head.  “No, I should have known.  Sure as hell, I should have known.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”  Frustration and panic pumped through Amelia’s veins in one confused jumble.  She knew this feeling, this feeling that everything was about to fall apart, far too well.  This time she would fight it.

“Have you ever seen me behave inappropriately in any way toward Curtis?” she demanded.

“I don’t know!” he shouted.  “You’re awful chummy with him.  You stopped telling me what a snake you thought he was as soon as we moved out here and you started smiling at him all the time.”

“I was trying to get him to confide in me!” she argued.

“I see, that’s what you call it now.”  He broke free of her and strode on toward the barn.  “Why don’t you just leave!” he shouted over his shoulder.  “That’s what you’re always trying to do anyhow, right?”

“No, it’s not!”  But it was.  How the truth stung!

Curtis dashed out onto the porch before Amelia could reply and called, “Wait!  Eric!  Where are you going?”

“I’ve got work to do!” Eric shouted in reply without stopping.

“We should have told you sooner, Amelia and I.  It would have spared you so much pain.”

Amelia whipped to face Curtis, blood draining from her face.  Eric stopped and turned to glare at the both of them.

“What are you doing?” she said, breath coming in short, shallow gasps.

Curtis rushed across the yard toward her.  When he reached out to her Amelia scrambled away, refusing to turn her back on him as she would refuse to turn her back on a rabid dog.

“Amelia and I have been lovers for a while now,” Curtis said, fake contrition painting his face.

“He’s lying!” Amelia said.

“And why should I believe you?”  Eric crossed his arms and stared between the two of them.  He was speaking to both of them.  She could see the flash of hesitation in his eyes.

“I would never do anything to hurt you, Eric,” she grabbed her opportunity.  “You know I wouldn’t.  I have been trying to keep you out of harm’s way all this time, trying to keep you from whatever machinations he has brewing.”

“This whole time you’ve been trying to leave me,” Eric countered her.  “You tried to leave in New York and you’ve been trying to leave since then.  I should have known when you kept refusing to marry me.  Well, now’s your chance.”

“No!  I refuse to leave you, Eric Quinlan!”  The lightness in her soul grew a hundredfold.  “And I refuse to let you believe this man’s lies!”

Eric shifted his weight.  His shoulder’s sagged.  Amelia had never seen him look so tired.

“I knew who you were when I asked you to come back to Montana with me.  I knew where you came from and what you’d done.  Your mother told me you’d do a runner on me. ”

Amelia’s heart dropped into her stomach.  “She did what?”

“She said you didn’t know what loyalty was.  I told her, told myself, I didn’t believe her, that you had a good heart and would stick by a man when he needed you.  But the warning signs were all there, weren’t they.  You were awful quick to go to my bed too and I didn’t even notice.  And you were right,” he said to Curtis.  “I’m the biggest fool there is.”

“You’re not a fool and he’s lying,” Amelia said, wanting to scream.

Eric didn’t hear her.  “I’m done playing the fool,” he said.  “I’m done missing the truth that is right in front of my face.  You don’t want me here,” he pointed at Curtis, “and you don’t want me at all.”  He turned to Amelia, eyes full of hurt.

“We should have told you.”  Curtis tried again to reach out to Amelia.

“Don’t touch me!” Amelia shouted.  “I am not a whore!  You can’t use me for your own ends then toss me aside like garbage!”

She backed up further.  She should have said those words to Nick.  She should have taken his letter and thrown it back in his face, pursued him and pursued justice far beyond the Hamilton’s ballroom.  It wouldn’t have changed anything, but it would have salvaged her pride.

“I’m through with being lied to,” Eric said, his energy fading.  “None of this means anything to you, does it, Curtis?”

“Of course it means-”

“I thought you were the only family I had, that this ranch was our home and that someday we’d make something of it that would make Pop and Mama proud.  But you don’t care about any of that, do you?”

“Of course I-”

“I don’t even know what you care about.  It doesn’t matter to me anyhow.  You can have it.  You can have the whole stupid lot of it.  I’m through with you.”  He turned his fierce glare on Amelia.  “And I’m through chasing a whore who doesn’t want me anyhow.”

It was the last, definitive blow.  Amelia felt everything she was, everything she had been, shatter and fall around her.

“I am not a whore!” she said, heart expanding in her chest.  “And if you believe a single one of the lies my mother or Curtis or Jacinta Archer has told you, then you are a fool!  I refuse to leave you, Eric, now or ever.”

A spark of surprise, of blessed hesitation, flashed through Eric’s eyes.  Amelia stared him down, refusing to look away.  Her past took on a whole new meaning.  She was used to fighting for what she wanted, even when it was impossible.  She would win this battle.

“Eric,” Curtis interrupted the crackling tension between her and Eric.  “Surely we can work something out.  If you don’t want the ranch or Amelia anymore, I understand.  You’ve always been like a brother to me-”

“And you’ve always been like a knife in my back, haven’t you.”

The spark of possibility was gone.  Eric’s anger rushed back in.

“Well, I wouldn’t say that,” Curtis fumbled.  “And as for Amelia, well, if she refuses to leave then I’ll take care of her here real good.”  He slid closer to her.

Amelia backed away, bristling with the poison in his twisted words.

“You’re welcome to all of it,” Eric grumbled, turning away.  He marched on to the stable where Titan was already saddled as though he’d intended to ride out into the pasture.

“Eric, don’t go!” Amelia shouted after him.

“Let him go, sweetie,” Curtis cooed beside her.  “Let him go.”

Amelia spun toward him and smacked him hard across the face.  Curtis reeled and she cried out, hand stinging.

“I’ve known some bastards in my day, Curtis Quinlan, but you are far and away the most vicious!”

He cradled his jaw, chuckling.  “You give me what I want, sweetheart, and no one gets hurt.”

“Clearly it’s too late for that!”

She turned to stop Eric, but he had already mounted.  With a final glare at Curtis, not looking at her, he kicked Titan to a run.

“Eric!  Stop!”  Amelia ran after him, but it was useless.  She ached with heartbreak and exertion.  Sense took over and she cradled the mound of her stomach, bursting into fresh tears.  She couldn’t run after Eric.  She couldn’t go back to the house either, not with Curtis there alone.  The only thing she could do was walk on.

She walked as fast as she could without putting herself or her child in any more danger, down the driveway to the road.  Curtis didn’t follow her, didn’t even call out to her.  It was as much a relief to escape from him as it was a misery to leave the ranch.  She was leaving her heart behind.

By the time she reached the road, her back and feet ached and she was covered with dust.  The Montana countryside was silent and sullen around her.  She stopped and looked up and down the road.  She had nowhere to go, nothing to take with her.  She was without hope and without friends.  There was nothing to do but head for Cold Springs.  Maybe Charlie would loan her the money for a train ticket to anywhere else.