Tupelo Gold: Sweeter than Honey (Eclipse Heat Book 4) (6 page)

  The day after Thanksgiving Hamilton announced his trip to Wichita. Comfort’s holiday spirit fled and anxiety filled her. She’d worked tirelessly, making the house into a home.

She’d even begun to feel proud of her accomplishments and exultant at her holiday success. The dressing had seemed rather dry to her, but Hamilton had heaped such praise on it (and the bowl had been scraped clean) she claimed victory in her first attempt at ranch entertaining. 

Now all that confidence fled as she contemplated her husband’s solitary business trip.

“How long will you be away?” she asked, trying to seem unperturbed. She and Hamilton had just begun to reclaim the intimate friendship they’d shared for years. Comfort didn’t want to spoil the healing rift, but knowledge of his long ago infidelity stirred her repressed fear.

“I need to finalize things with the lawyer.” Hamilton crossed the floor, standing before her as he added, “He’s drawn up the adoption papers changing Jacob’s last name.”

Comfort asked quickly, “And Sally? Of course her name will be Quince, also. Right, Hamilton?” Her husband frowned uneasily. 

“There’s some question about her own pa claiming her,” Hamilton answered, not meeting Comfort’s gaze.

“What? Why didn’t you tell me before? Sally’s my daughter. No one else can claim her now.”

“I know that, Comfort. If things were decided, I’d take you and the kids to Wichita with me. With Sally’s pa having been located and him being interested in claiming her, I figure she’s better off here, ‘til I can straighten out this mess. Then, I’ll slap the Quince name on her as fast as the lawyer can write.” 

“Offer him money if need be. I don’t care the cost. I’ll sell everything I own if that’s what it takes. Please, Hamilton, don’t let me lose my girl.” Comfort could barely breathe, her lungs paralyzed by fear and panic. 

“This is exactly why I didn’t say anything to begin with. I knew you’d worry yourself sick over it. I’ve had the Quince attorney looking into it and I’m sure he’ll straighten things out.”

He gathered her in his arms and held her close, running his hand up and down her spine as she clutched him.

“Why would her father want her now when he made no move to claim her before?” Comfort could hear the desperation in her voice and Hamilton squeezed her roughly.

“Same deal as me, I’m guessing. After the Blain woman tried to pass off Sally as mine and I didn’t fall for it, she moved onto the next mark.”  His words were bitter, denouncing the woman’s scheme.

“So,” Comfort said slowly, “if you announce that Sally is yours, you could adopt her at the same time as Jacob?”

“I’m afraid that ship’s already sailed, Comfort,” Hamilton said regretfully. “At the time, I was more interested in proving I’d not been unfaithful more than once, than paying attention to the two kids. I probably handled it wrong, but what’s done is done.”

“Hamilton, I’m going to say this in the nicest possible way. That is a male attitude and it is a dumb attitude.

Nothing is finished until we’re satisfied with the outcome. We are all going to Wichita and I am bringing both of our children home with us. Now where is that picture of your mother?  Her middle name was Sarah if I remember correctly.”

Comfort straightened in his arms and stepped back. She had work to do.

* * * * *

Hamilton paced the hotel sitting room, waiting for Comfort and Sally to emerge from the bedroom. Jacob squirmed uncomfortably on the settee and pulled at the bow tie Comfort had insisted on. “This dad-blamed thing is choking me,” he complained. 

“You’ll live. I did,” Hamilton straightened his own tie and continued to walk back and forth across the floor.

“Well, what’s taking them so long?” Jacob had become accustomed to putting in a long day on the ranch, up with Hamilton and outside for work. The confinement in the Wichita hotel seemed to have him in a twist. 

“You should have left us back on the Double-Q. Sally and me could’ve looked after Comfort just fine.” His declaration was mutinous.

“It was your mama’s idea to come along. Son, I have to tell you right now. When a woman gets something in her head, you might as well say yes to her notion and get it over with.”

“She didn’t get her way over stayin’ in Eclipse.” Jacob stopped squirming and looked at him slyly. 

“That was different. That was something I wanted. When folks are married, they learn to bend to each other’s desires.” Hamilton grinned and stopped pacing.

“Like Sally and me work things out.” Jacob nodded. “Ma was gone most of the time. It was a good thing Sally had me to raise her.” 

“I’d known about you, you’d have been with me sooner. I hope you understand that.” Hamilton felt his heart squeeze as his six year old son painted a picture of a bleak childhood that had left him mature beyond his years.

“And Sally?” Jacob asked, finally coming to the core of his concern.

“Sally’s my daughter as you are my son. You’ll both have a home with Comfort and me until you’re old enough to strike out on your own.”

“So you didn’t bring us to Wichita to give us back?” Jacob asked. “Not me or Sally?” 

Hamilton was not given to demonstrative moments with his son. A handshake or a pat on the back was about his limit. But this was different. He scooped the boy from the sofa and sat down with him on his lap, hugging him tight in his arms. 

Jacob looked shocked, then indignant, then embarrassed.

“You’re my flesh and blood and I’ll not lose you again. Remember that.”

“And Sally?” Jacob persisted.

“Sally’s your flesh and blood and we’ll not lose her either. Stop worrying.” Hamilton would worry for both of them. He only hoped he could make his words true. Then, it all seemed a lot easier when Comfort and Sally entered the room.

“I’ll be damned.” Stunned, Hamilton stared at the two Quince females, both decked out in fine shoes, lovely dresses, and expensively coiffed hair. 

“Comfort,” he asked, “What are you about to do?”

“The children and I are going shopping to see what these stores have to offer. I might find something I want to add to the CQ’s inventory. I expect we’ll find something to buy while we’re out. We’ll leave you to your business, now.”

Sally grinned at him excitedly. Her hair had been pulled away from her face and coiled in a rather old-fashioned crown of braids on top of her head. At her neck, pinned to her collar, she wore Hamilton’s mother’s heirloom broach.

“I don’t know how you managed it, but somehow, you’ve made her into a miniature Cordelia Sarah Quince. She looks like my mother.” If he hadn’t known he wasn’t Sally’s pa, he would have sworn she was his child.

“You look real pretty, Ladybug,” Jacob told his sister. “I’ll watch out for the women.” Hamilton hid his grin as the six year old, trying to be a man, took his place at Comfort’s side.

“You look very handsome, too, Jacob.” Comfort smoothed his tie, then turned to Hamilton. “When we return, we’ll stop by the lawyer’s offices and wait for you. If there are any doubts about the outcome of your meeting, we will arrange to introduce our very Quince looking children.” Comfort’s jaw was set in a determined line. 

He nodded, getting the message loud and clear. Sally was going to be his daughter one way or another.

* * * * *

Comfort and the two children explored the shops in Wichita although a pall of worry hung over the family. Comfort stopped at an ice cream parlor for a treat after they were too tired to walk further. 

Her stomach was aflutter when they finished and found their way to the lawyer’s office. The clerk looked up expectantly when they entered and then ushered them into the inner room where Hamilton and the Quince lawyer conferred. 

Hamilton looked up with a tense smile on his face. Her heart plummeted at the same time she noticed the two people on the other side of the room.

Sally saw the woman at the same time and hugged up close to Comfort. Jacob stepped closer to his sister as if protecting her.

“Perhaps it would be best if the children waited in the outer room.”  Lawyer Kincaid cleared his throat importantly.

Comfort escorted the kids back to the front office and knelt in front of them. “I’ll be right back. Your papa has about finished his business. We’ll be going home soon.”

She left the children with the clerk and returned to the inner room where Hamilton waited.  Mr. Kincaid introduced the two other people as Will Talent and Mary Blain.  Comfort recognized the woman’s name as the person who’d kept the children after their mother died.

Without waiting for an invitation to speak, the Blain woman said brusquely, “You’ve caused me a lot of trouble and you need to pay me something for my time. Why I tracked down this fellow and brought him here to claim his daughter. Now you up and say she’s yours. That’s not the story you were telling before.”

The fellow in question cast his accomplice an uneasy look before he said, “If’n the girl’s mine. I want her.” 

“Well, she’s not yours.” Comfort clasped her hands in front of her demurely as she spoke to the lawyer. “My husband felt it would be better to present his encounter with Jacob and Sally’s mother as if it were a one night tryst. It was before our marriage but he didn’t want me to know he’d had a longer affair with another woman. When your message was received, he confessed to me. Of course we’re not separating the children.”

She looked at the other man and said, “I’m sorry for your wasted trip. Sarah is our child.”

The other woman harrumphed again about money lost and Will Talent said, “Hush up, Mary. I told you this wouldn’t work.”

“I’ll join the children,” Comfort said. “Hamilton, call me please when the adoption papers are ready for me to sign.” By sheer force of will, she forced the proceedings forward.

When Comfort hurried from the room, she was barely in time to stop Jacob’s escape through the front door. The clerk stood by the door holding it closed and arguing with him, trying to make him sit back down. 

“It’s okay Jacob,” Comfort remarked calmly. “We’re almost finished here. Then we’ll all go home.”

“You don’t understand. If Sally’s old enough to work now, she’ll want her for sure.” He looked at Comfort, afraid she wouldn’t protect Sally. Having met the Blain woman, Comfort could understand his fear.

Comfort stood with her arms around both children when the man and woman came through the outer office and left. Their loud squabbling left no doubt that Mary Blain had not been successful in her attempt to steal Sally back. Neither the awful woman nor her cohort, Will Talent, so much as looked at the kids on the way past.

“Come with me.”  Comfort led Jacob and Sally into Mr. Kincaid’s office as soon as Hamilton gave her the signal. As the kids watched, she and Hamilton signed the official papers making both kids, Quinces. 

Hamilton signed his name with a flourish and then walked across the room and scooped up Sally in his arms. “That’s it, your my daughter and carrying my mama’s name, Cordelia Sarah Quince. She’d be proud as punch to see this day.”

Sally studied him with a serious frown, and then smiled. “So, I can call you Pa, now?” 

Hamilton’s startled look changed to a big smile. “Little darlin’, you always could. I hope to hear you saying it often while we’re shopping today.”

Comfort held back her tears, grabbed Jacob’s hand and thanking Mr. Kincaid, hurried them from the law office. 

“Now, we get ready for Christmas,” she announced, suddenly ready to buy out Wichita.

Hamilton carried Sally, and Comfort linked hands with Jacob. They explored the streets of Wichita, all of them proud members of the Quince family. 

It was the day before Christmas and Comfort fussed around the house trying to make sure every last detail was perfect. 

“You’ve plumped those pillows three times already.” Naomi chided her for her restless wanderings. “What’s on your mind, Comfort? You should be happy, instead, every time you forget to play act, you look like someone shot Santa Claus.”

“Then my performance needs to improve. I will not let my disappointments ruin the children’s first Christmas on the ranch.”

Naomi, of course, jumped on that tidbit and worried at Comfort with questions until she capitulated and shared her distress. “Every day, Sally looks more like Hamilton’s mother, Cordelia. Both children have Quince features stamped all over them.”  

Naomi said nothing, waiting for the hurt to be said aloud.

“He lied to me, Naomi. He had a long affair with the children’s mother. It’s too obvious to ignore. At the same time that I’m thrilled that Sally is truly a Quince and his blood, I’m devastated by his deceit.”

Comfort laughed shakily, swiped tears from her cheeks, and waved away an offered handkerchief. She retreated to the kitchen, followed closely by her sister. Naomi filled two mugs with coffee, serving Comfort before she faced her across the table.

“Well if you don’t want to cry about it, which in my opinion is wasted effort anyway, then what’s to be done?” Naomi asked.

“Nothing,” Comfort answered flatly. “Hamilton has stated he strayed from our relationship once, which—given the circumstances of my marriage to another man at that time—is extraordinarily benign in the grand scheme of things. Had he admitted a longer affair, one spanning several years, I would have understood that too. But…”

“He lied to you.”

Comfort frowned at her sister, immediately feeling the need to defend Hamilton.

“I’ve known him a long time, Naomi and he’s never been a liar. He hated every secret tryst we ever conducted in the one room cabin he built so we’d have a place to meet.” She stopped and looked around the kitchen. “This part of the house is all we had then.” 

She blushed, remembering the first time they’d made love. Hamilton had made a nest of blankets in front of the fire. After he’d undressed her, he’d held her a long time, just talking to her, making her easy each step of the way. She’d fallen in love with him all over that day. Her lips trembled now, remembering their affair. 

“Well, of course he had enough sense to know it was wrong,” Naomi continued. “You would have been better off if he’d shot Owen Bailey the first time he saw evidence the animal beat you.”  

“He couldn’t do that. Owen had already contrived with rustlers to steal the Double-Q. At the time, if Owen had turned up dead, either Quincy or Hamilton would have been the first accused.”

Comfort grimaced at the reminder of her former brutal treatment, but then her expression changed as she remembered a secret she and Hamilton shared.

“Hamilton gave me the money to buy the Mercantile. I knew he couldn’t afford it. The Quince brothers were struggling to keep their cattle fed after a bad winter. Money was tight everywhere.

“After a particularly bad incident that left my arm in a sling, Hamilton said he’d had enough. I thought he intended to stop seeing me. Instead, he arranged for me to get money. Wired it to me and I pretended I’d inherited the funds.”

She rubbed her arm remembering the pain of the wrist Owen had broken.

“Hamilton helped me come to an agreement with Mr. Bailey, the old man who sold me his store. I’d clerked for him for several years, so he knew me and he didn’t like Owen any better than anyone else did.  I used Hamilton’s loan as my down payment. Since Mr. Bailey knew I could run the place, he agreed to let me pay the rest of what I owed, in payments over time. Owen was furious when he thought I’d cheated him out of my inherited money. But, I survived the beating that time too.”  

“I didn’t know any of that, Comfort.”

“Nobody does. I didn’t know Owen Bailey was a murderer but I knew he was a thief. It was only a matter of time until he was found out. I saw a way to gain some independence from him, and Hamilton helped me make it happen.

“He gave me my first chance at a real life, Naomi. If he’d slept with twenty women during that time, I couldn’t blame him.” Another tear trickled down Comfort’s cheek and she swiped it away.

“Hamilton had his own reasons for getting you clear of Owen Bailey and he benefited from the move as much as you did,” Naomi told her brusquely. “I know you paid the Quince brothers back their money, with interest no doubt, so don’t take on guilt where it’s not deserved.” 

Naomi looked at her shrewdly and added, “Comfort, if gratitude is the only reason you’re staying with Hamilton, you should leave. You don’t owe him any more than he owes you. You’re even.”

Comfort flinched. Her sister’s advice wasn’t what she wanted to hear.

“On the other hand,” Naomi paused and cleared her throat, “If Charlie Wolf McCallister told me something was true I’d believe him over any evidence ever produced that went against his word. If your heart says Hamilton’s telling you the truth and your head says his words don’t make sense, trust your heart.” It was unexpected advice coming from her usually skeptical sister.

*

Hamilton looked at his brother-in-law morosely and said, “Comfort thinks I lied to her.” He’d seen it in her face when she studied Sally and compared her features to his. When Charlie remained silent, Hamilton muttered, “She should know me better than that.” 

Charlie’s expression was one of stoic deliberation when he said, “Sally’s the spittin’ image of your mama.”

  “I know that,” Hamilton answered desperately, “but it can’t be true because I visited the kid’s mother one time only and unless the two are twins, there’s no way she’s mine.” 

Charlie tilted his head sideways and considered what Hamilton had just said. “You have the birthing dates and details?”

Hamilton shrugged. “No, but Jacob said she was five to his six.”

“Don’t suppose he might have had reason to change her age do you?” Charlie asked. “Now that the kids have had a steady dose of food, they’ve both filled out and grown some. Even before, Sally being a girl, was a mite smaller and more delicate than your boy. Easy enough to pass her off as younger.” 

Charlie puzzled over it aloud, forcing Hamilton to consider the possibility.

“If that’s the way of it, I’d be blessed for sure. I’ll talk to Jacob when my nephew, Alex, brings the kids home. Comfort wanted them out from under foot while she wrapped presents.” 

Charlie was one step behind him when Comfort greeted them as they walked through the kitchen door.

“I think Jacob and Sally are twins, Hamilton,” Comfort said, offering the same conclusion Charlie had reached. “How can we find out for sure?” 

* * * * *

Comfort lay next to Hamilton that night, running her fingers up and down his arm, letting her mind roam free. She was satiated from their lovemaking, and lazily contemplating what seemed obvious now. The kids were twins.

Jacob’s words at the lawyer’s office came back to her.

“Hamilton, Jacob once mentioned Mary Blain intended to put Sally to work when she was old enough.” The full import of those words made her shudder as she said them out loud.

“Sonofabitch. That’s why…”

“He’s been protecting his sister the best he could. Oh, Hamilton, he’s such a wonderful child. He’s brave, smart, and stubborn. He’s so much like you.”  

“Well, at some point,” Hamilton said gruffly, “we need to get the children to tell us the truth. It has to be bothering them to start life with us, harboring a mistruth.”

“How can we get them to share their secret?” Comfort wanted to know the truth. But in her heart she already did.

Hamilton hugged her close and growled, “I guess when Jacob trusts us enough, he’ll let us know. Until then, we have a five year old daughter and a six year old son instead of twins.”