Authors: Patricia Hagan
But tame her he did, until she was whimpering beneath him with inexpressible rapture. She clung to him tightly for a very long time, not wanting it to end.
Finally he rolled away but held her in his arms, her head tucked against his shoulder.
“Stay with me,” he whispered, as the wind through the night. “Stay with me, April, and be my woman.”
She blinked. “Are you,” she began in wonder, “asking me—?”
“To be my woman,” he interjected. “Nothing more, but nothing less. There’s a war on, April. I’ve a job to do. I’ll keep you safe, but I want you with me.”
“But…but I have something to do, also, and we agreed…” She felt her brain whirling wildly. It had all been settled! She would leave in the morning, return to Alabama, and try to help her father. Rance had promised to set her free. Yet now he was asking,
not telling her,
to stay with him. “I just don’t understand.”
He turned on his side, staring down at her face which was bathed in the pale light from the window. He brushed back golden tendrils of hair, kissed the tip of her nose. “I want you, April. I need you. That’s all I can honestly tell you right now. When the war is over, we’ll see what happens.”
“But Vanessa—”
He sighed, exasperated. “April, you can’t handle her by yourself, and with the war, nobody else is going to have time to help you. Wake up. If you go back there and get yourself in trouble, as much as I care for you, I won’t be able to do anything about it. I’ve got a job to do for the South.”
She nodded. As desperately as she wanted to go home, she could see the wisdom of his words. Hesitantly, she asked the question that was burning in her mind. “But will you help me when the war is over? Would you return with me then?”
He rolled once more to his back, staring upward into the darkness. “I don’t like to make promises unless I know I can keep them. Like I said, April, I want you, and I need you, and if everything works out for us, then, yes, I probably will. More than that, I just can’t promise.”
“Then that has to be enough.”
He was silent for a moment, then asked softly, “Are you sure?”
“I think so. I’ve hated you, Rance, you know that, but all the time I was hating you, a part of me was struggling against that, crying out that there was something between us…some kind of caring. I kept saying, ‘another time, another place, and perhaps it would have been right for us,’ but the part of me that hated overshadowed everything else.”
“There were times that I didn’t like you,” he admitted, his voice softly amused. “You can be quite a handful, April, but I considered you a challenge, like a wild pony. Just when you think you’ve got him broke, he throws you. I wonder if I would ever feel in control of you.”
She turned to trail her fingertips through the thick mat of hair on his chest. “You don’t want to control me. Not really. If I were all sweetly obliging, then you wouldn’t want me.”
“Perhaps.” He caught her hand, raised her fingertips to his lips, and kissed them. “One day, we’ll find out.”
Quickly, roughly, he gathered her in his arms and pressed his mouth upon hers. The kiss was long, stirring. He laughed softly as he pulled away. “We’ve got a hard day tomorrow. We’re leaving, heading south. We need to get some sleep.”
“You want me to sleep with you?” She pretended to be horrified. “What will Trella think?”
He muttered some obscenity as he reached to pull the folded blanket from the foot of the bed to spread over their naked bodies. She cuddled against him, a wave of peace settling over her. At last, she had given in to the secret cries of her heart.
The first waves of sleep were rocking her gently, and she had to struggle awake when the knocking began. Rance called out gruffly, “Yes? Who’s there.”
“Clark. I need to talk to you.”
Rance uttered an oath, then called, “Can’t it wait until tomorrow morning?”
“No,” Edward replied firmly. “I need to talk to you now.”
“Oh, damn!” Rance threw back the blanket and sighed, “Wrap yourself up in the blanket and go back to your room. Trella will be wondering where you are, and Edward obviously has some business to discuss. No telling when I’ll get to bed now.”
She nodded, disappointed. It had felt so wonderful to fall asleep in his strong arms. She pulled the blanket from the bed and wrapped it about her tightly, then opened the door, surprising Edward. Ducking her head with embarrassment, she whispered a good night and moved quickly down the hall. Behind her, she heard the door close, the lock snap.
She was almost to her room when she remembered the clothes she had left behind. They would have to be packed. She turned around and padded back to the door. She was just about to knock when her hand froze at the mention of her name.
“I thought she was leaving.” That was Edward’s voice. “All of a sudden, things look pretty cozy. What’s going on?”
She leaned closer to hear Rance say in a flat tone, “Nothing to concern you. April wants to stay with me, that’s all.”
There was the sound of an exaggerated sigh, then, “What’s the matter? Are you afraid if you let her go, you might find out later that you want her and then it’ll be too late?”
“Something like that,” came Rance’s comment. “Look, Clark, it’s not going to hurt anything having her along. You’ve got Trella. We look like two nice married couples. You and me alone look suspicious. Folks will start wondering why we aren’t in uniform. With the women, we’re more easily accepted as businessmen.”
There was a long period of silence. April could not move. Rance made their union sound like a business arrangement.
She stood frozen, listening again. “There was a paper in the President’s desk which gave the location of a nearby federal cavalry unit. We can round up our men and shouldn’t have any trouble stealing them,” Rance was saying. “Then we change the cavalry brand to artillery and sell the Yankees their own horses. They’ll bring top price.”
“Quite a nice profit,” Edward agreed. “Then we take the money and go to Mexico and get prime stock for our Rebel cavalry. A nice deal all the way around.”
April clamped her teeth together. So! Rance was stealing from the Yankees, then selling stolen horses right back to them, using the money to buy horses for the Confederacy and selling to them. He made it sound so noble, wanting to supply the South’s cavalry with the best possible horses, when all the while he was making a tidy profit on stolen stock! Despicable! Oh, how she ached to scream it all out so that everyone in the hotel would know.
His words came flooding back and a new realization slapped her full in the face. “I want you. I need you. I want you to be my woman.” He had not said “I love you. I want you to be my wife.” Damn his charm! Damn his handsome face! Damn his wonderful body!
And damn me most of all, she thought, a smothering wave flowing over her. Damn me for being so weak as to even think about falling in love with a scheming bastard like Rance Taggart.
No more!
She whirled around and stalked down the hall.
No more! I’m going home. No matter what awaits me there, I’m going home.
And a little voice inside whispered that she was not running only from a man she considered a traitor—she was running from the man who threatened to conquer her heart, her soul, her whole being.
She could not let that happen.
Edward got up and went to pour them another glass of whiskey, then returned to sit on the edge of the bed. Twirling his drink around in his hand, he watched the lantern’s glow catch the amber liquid and create dark, mysterious dancing shadows. “Have you ever stopped to think how much money you’d be making off this stinking war if you
charged
the Confederacy for the cavalry horses?” he asked thoughtfully, lifting his gaze to stare at Rance.
“Yeah,” came his friend’s quiet answer. “I have to admit I have. It’d mount up to a tidy sum. A man could get rich doing what I’m doing.” He drew on his cheroot, watched the smoke spiraling upwards.
“Others are becoming profiteers. Why not you?”
Rance gave him a sharp look. “I happen to believe in the Confederacy. And the only reason I’m not in gray and toting a gun and killing Yankees is because I feel I’m doing the South a greater service by providing the Confederacy with good horses.”
He brought his feet down from where they had been propped on the table, the heels hitting the wooden floor loudly. “I’m also hurting the North by stealing from them and then selling what I steal right back to them.”
“Hell, don’t get mad with me. I feel the same way. I just wondered if you ever thought about the way you could be making money.”
Rance was quiet for a moment, then murmured, “I think of a lot of things.”
“Right now, I’ll bet you’re thinking about April and wondering if you’re doing the right thing in bringing her along. I thought she was hell-bent to get back to Alabama. How come she wants to stay?”
“I asked her to. She agreed. I guess she feels the same as I do, which is
not
knowing what she feels. There’s something between us that makes her want to find out which way we’re headed. If she goes home now, we’ll never know.”
Edward gulped down his drink and stood. “I reckon I’d better get to bed now. One more question?”
“You’re pushing your luck, Clark. I don’t like anybody nosing in my business.”
“Sorry. But I have to ask this. Do you love April?”
Rance stared at him, eyes narrowing. Finally, he said flatly, “I can’t say as I do. And I can’t say as I don’t. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Makes sense to me. That’s the only person who’s supposed to understand. Do you follow me?”
“Yeah,” Edward laughed shortly and set his glass down before walking to the door. “It’s your way of saying I’ve stuck my nose in your business enough for one night.”
“Exactly.”
“See you in the morning.” He gave a snappy salute and walked out, grinning.
Rance poured himself another drink and went to stand at the window and stare out at the night. The storm had long ago abated, and a half moon had risen to cast a silvery sheen upon the sleeping city. A beautiful night. He wished April were still here. It had felt good to wrap his arms about her and feel her body snuggled next to him.
He thought about waking her and asking her to come back to his bed but decided against it. She needed to sleep. The White House activities had been exhausting for her. Let her rest. Tomorrow was only the beginning of many days together, with long nights of passion to follow.
With a confident smile on his lips, he went to his bed and lay down. One more night sleeping alone could be endured. All he had to do was think about what lay ahead with her in his arms.
It was good, he thought sleepily, that she had agreed to stay.
Because he had never intended to let her go, anyway.
Chapter Twenty
April could make out Trella in the other bed. She stood inside, her back pressed against the closed door, until she could hear the even breathing that told her the girl was sleeping soundly. Then she walked over and sat on her own bed, commanding her screaming brain to calm down, to think, to plan.
There could be no mistake this time. When Rance discovered her missing, he would search for her. There was enough time between now and dawn that she should be able to put much distance between them. Washington was a busy place, with many roads out. He would not know which she had taken, and that was in her favor. He would surmise that she was heading for Alabama, but that was a long way off, and he was caught up in his traitorous war activities. He might not have time to go after her.
And, she thought with a triumphant smile, this time she would be smart. No barging in at Pinehurst. She would not even prowl about to see what was going on. No, this time she would go into Montgomery and seek help there. If the authorities did not care enough to give her aid, then she would try again to get in touch with Uncle James. And maybe a minister would help—surely there would be
someone
to sympathize with her plight.
She would disguise herself. If Rance were angry enough to go after her, he would not have even the slightest chance of finding her, because she would be in disguise. The confidence surging through her made her smile. There was no need to stay a moment longer, to need to pack. She wanted nothing to remind her of this time with Rance.
She quickly donned a plain dress and then opened the door quietly and stepped into the hall. Glancing about, she moved quickly to the stairs and downward. To her left, in the main lobby, she could see a few people milling about. She would not take a chance on seeing anyone who might know her, remember her. It was far better to be unseen.
She turned to the right and made her way down the narrow, shadowy hallway past the kitchen, past the storage rooms, into the alley directly behind the hotel.
She stepped out into pitch darkness, bumped into a garbage barrel and sent an annoyed cat screaming to distant places.
She stiffened, commanded herself to calm down. A long night lay ahead, and excitement could cause mistakes. Perhaps the most formidable task would be just getting out of Yankee Washington. Women did not move about at night unescorted unless they were prostitutes. So, while she needed to cover as much distance as possible before morning, she knew she had to move carefully.