feel against him.
Like silk. it felt like silk. And it looked like the sun, so blond
against the bronze of his skin. And she felt like silk, her body so
slick with all that had been between then, covering him.
Her face lay against his chest. She didn't say a word, and she didn't
seem to want to look at him.
"Are you all right?" he asked her, softly smoothing back a tendril of
her hair.
She nodded against him.
"Did I--hurt you?"
She shook her head, but still she didn't say a word. "You're not crying,
are you?" he asked her.
"No!" she said in muffled, indignant protest. "Women do, you know."
"Women do!" she repeated, speaking at last. She sat up, and her eyes met
his.
"How many women do you--did you ... Oh, never mind!" She started to
pull away. Her breasts swung heavy and fascinating before him, and he
quickly laughed, pulling her back. His voice was husky when he spoke.
"I've never, never, been in a--er, circumstance like this one before."
"Like" -- "With a virgin," he said flatly.
She flushed crimson. He pulled her close to him. She was wiggling and
squirming, ready to retreat now that it was all over, despite the way
she had played the seductress so boldly. He didn't want to lose her.
"Tess!"
"What? Will you please" -- "I didn't go back to Eliza that night,
either.
The whole thing was a show" -- "Eliza is in love with you."
"Eliza is in love with a lot of people." She Paused, tossing her hair,
studying him with her enormous eyes.
"And what about you?" I m not in love with anyone, he said. Agam"~e felt
her pulling away. He tightened his hold around her. But I am your eyes.
And I love the way you fight until the bitter end, though I could also
strangle you for that same quality. I love the way you think, and I love
the way you take ~ of the people around you, and I even love the way
your ~Yes flash when you're jealous."
"I'm not jealous" -- "Then nosy. You were damned determined to I had
taken my bath."
"Because" -- She broke off, staring at him. i He grinned.
"Because you weren't about to come near me had been near another woman,
was that it?"
He laughed again, hugged her close and rolled her over in the hay.
"Never fear, my feisty little love. When I am near you, I will never
find the need for another."
His lips closed over hers. He stroked his hand down the length of her,
touching her openly and intimately. A sound rumbled in her throat
against his kiss. He ignored her. All the fires of hell were burning
inside him again, and this time he need not be so slow, so careful. She
had learned about tenderness. She was ready to learn about the tempest.
Later, when dawn neared, she slept. Jamie stared at the rafters as the
first pale light of day appeared, impressed by the eagerness and
complete abandon with which she had approached lovemaking. He had never
known a feeling of such relaxation, of physical bliss as her sleeping
body against his.
She had learned many things this night. She slept with her knee slightly
curved upon him, her hair tangled around his shoulders and chest. He
touched a strand lightly, and it was almost as if the gold and honey
touched him back, as if it gave him warmth. He looked at her face, so
beautiful, so perfect, her lips just slightly parted, cherry red in the
first rays of light, tempting. He stroked her shoulder and her back. She
moved against him, and he felt the warmth of her breath upon him as she
sighed softly.
She had learned so much. But he had lea rued a great deal that night,
too.
He had learned that he'd never really made love before. He'd had women,
but he had never really, truly made love. He'd never wanted anyone like
he'd wanted her.
Wanted her still. Who had taught whom? he wondered.
He kissed the soft skin of her back and wondered again at the ripple of
longing that went through him. Then he sighed. He had to wake her up and
let her go hack to the house before the morning began, before the ranch
came alive.
Tess sitting primly by his side.
Morning had changed things amazingly, he thought. Since he had awakened
her, she had been distant. She had donned her flannel gown, and with it
a peculiar silence. She hadn't seemed remorseful about anything; she had
been cool and quiet. She hadn't sneaked back to the house; she had
walked very calmly. She had promised him she would be ready in thirty
minutes. When he had pressed his lips to hers on first awakening, she
had responded with warmth, but already there had been that widening
within her eyes, as if she thought that something very grave had gone
on, something she hadn't quite realized at the time. He'd almost braced
himself, waiting, but she hadn't anything to say to him at all. She had
dressed quickly and walked to the house. Her chin was high, and she
wasn't about to hide anything, but then again, Jamie thought, maybe she
wasn't about to do anything again, either.
I never wanted to rush it! he reminded himself in silence. But he still
hadn't found the right words to say to her, and she sat by him quietly
as they rode into town. They didn't five words.
It was early, and the streets were nearly still. Only a pass- by or two
walked the plank sidewalks in front of the bank and the barbershop and
the offices of the Wiltshire Sun. Tess bit her lip and looked at the
newspaper office, but she remained silent on that point.
"Mr. Barrymore's office is fright ahead. He was always Joe's solicitor."
"Well, then, fine, we're going to go see Mr. Barrymore." He helped her
from the wagon. She was dressed for ll~ ring in light-blue-and-white
checked muslin, with a matching wide-brimmed bonnet.
The touch of her fingers against his seemed electric. She met his eyes
and flushed.
"We need to talk," he told her.
"I need to get to the newspaper," she retorted.
"So hurry along now, will you?"
"Eager to turn it all over to me, eh?"
"I shall resent it to my dying day," she said sweetly, "but then, you
are better than von Heusen."
"Such a compliment!" he teased, bowing low as he opened the door to the
lawyer's office.
Tess started to reply, but instead smiled at the tall, lean man behind
the desk.
"Mr. Barrymore, how are you?" she inquired, walking forward, reaching
out her hand. The man rose instantly to his feet. He reached out for
Tess's hand, but his eyes were on Jamie. Jamie winced inwardly,
realizing this man had been in the saloon the other night when he had
met von Heusen's boys.
Tess didn't see the recognition in his eyes.
"Mr. Barrymore, this is Lieutenant Slater. Lieutenant, Mr. Barrymore,
who has helped my family for years."
Mr. Barrymore was still staring at Jamie. "Mr. Barrymore!" Tess said
more sharply.
"Oh, my dear, my dear, I am so glad to see yo
u! Of course, you know that
Joe left everything in your name" -- "That's why I'm here," Tess said.
"Of course, of course" -- "No, you don't understand. I want to turn over
half my holdings to Lieutenant Slater."
"Half your holdings?"
"Half."
At last, Mr. Barrymore looked at Tess. The pen he held in his hands
nearly snapped as he stared at her.
"Half?"
"Half."
He cleared his throat and stared at Jamie.
"That will make you a very rich young man."
"I intend to pay the lady, but the money is going to be due to her in
payments over the next few years. Can we draw up a schedule?" Jamie
said.
Tess stared at him then.
"You're going to pay me?"
"Of course. You didn't think I was just going to whisk away your
property." "Yes, but" -- "Tess," he said softly.
"You're--I mean, the land is worth it."
He thought she was going to leap to her feet and scream. She managed not
to.
She leaned over the desk and smiled at Mr. Barrymore.
"Make sure he pays the premium price then, will you?"
"Well, yes," Mr. Barrymore said nervously. He looked at amie, then he
looked at Tess, then he cleared his throat.
"You're sure this is what you want, Tess?"
"And Mister--er--Lieutenant Slater, would you, uh, like ~,to explain how
you want these payments to be made?" . Certainly," Jamie said. He
rattled off sums and amounts, and Mr. Barrymore began to write quickly.
"And When we're done with this," Jamie said, "I need to make and Miss.
Stuart is go' rag to do so, too. In the case deaths, the property is to
be equally divided in between my two brothers, Cole Slater and and in
case of their deaths, to their heirs."
smiled at Tess reassuringly.
"Oh, yeah, and Mr. I want you to make sure you talk about this. I the
whole town to know that there's just no way, no at all, the Stuart
spread is ever going to be up for sale.
understand me?" stayed silent for a long moment, then he be" You got it,
Lieutenant Slater. Damn, but it! Oh, excuse me, Tess.
I plumb forgot you were there!" amusing," Tess said with a stiff smile.
"They'll know, all right, they'll know ... " Mr. Barrymore was writing
quickly.
"I must hand it to you, Lieutenant, you do seem to know what you're
doing with property and the law. Though it ain't surprising, not one
bit. You sure do know what you're doing with those Colts of yours. Why,
in all my life, I've never seen anything like the shootin' you did in
the saloon the other night" -- "Shooting?" Tess interrupted, sitting
straight. "Oh, my, yes, you should have seen him! Some of those
hooligans of Mr. yon Heusen's come in and they were giving Hardy a bad
time, but the Lieutenant here, he stood right up to them." Mr. Barrymore
slapped his hand hard on his desk and hooted with laughter.
"It was a joy to these weary eyes, Tess, it was! Didn't you tell Miss.
Stuart about it, Lieutenant? Hell--heck, boy, if it had been me, I'd
have told the whole damned--darned--world about it!"
"I didn't seem to have the chance, Mr. Barrymore. When I got home, a few
more of Mr. yon Heusen's boys were at the ranch.
And someone needed to tell those fellows that it wasn't a good thing to
play with matches."
"You shot yon Heusen's men in the saloon?" Tess asked, staring at him.
"Sure," Mr. Barrymore said cheerfully.
"Why, you would have heard about it if you'd gone into the paper, Tess.
The lieutenant was sitting with Ed Clancy and Dec?" Tess stood and
stared at Jamie.
"I think I'll take a little walk over to the Wiltshire Sun right now.
I'm sure, Lieutenant Slater, that you know exactly how you want
everything worded. Then Mr. Barrymore can draw up the papers and I will
come back and sign them. Excuse me, will you?"
Jamie and Mr. Barrymore both stood quickly, but Tess was already at the
door.
She stormed out, feeling her face red, wondering if she should be
furious with the man or if she should run back and kiss him. She wasn't
going to do 167 either--she was going to see Ed and find out exactly
what had happened.
She walked into the Wiltshire Sun office as if she were a battleship.
Harry, the printer, looked up from his plates.
Edward, at work at his desk, also looked up. The naked joy in his eyes
as he saw her made her first questions flee. He leaped up to hug her,
nearly breaking ~ery bone in her body.
"I knew you were all right, Tess, because I saw Slater.
But, girl, it does an old body good to see you!"
" Thank you, Edward, thank you!" she told him.
Harry, toothless and shy, was standing behind him.
"And you, too, Harry, come here. Let me give you a big, sloppy kiss
right on that jaw of yours!"
He flushed a bright red from his throat to his white, tufted hair, but
he accepted a kiss and hugged her tightly in return.
"We just kept doing the paper, Miss. Tess. Even when they tried to tell
us that you weren't coming back, we just kept the Sun going out on
schedule.
Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, we had a W~tltshire Sun out on the
street!"
"And I'm so grateful and so proud of both of you I" Tess assured him.
Edward cleared his throat.
"Well, I didn't exactly have the news of the nation going out," he
admitted.
"Ah, hell, I didn't really have the balls to print too much. Von Heusen
was breathing down my neck, and I" -- "You kept it going," Tess said.
"And I'm grateful." She gloves and headed for her desk.
"Am I in time a story for the Tuesday edition?"
"Yes, yes, Miss. Stuart! I'll clean out the presses, I'll" -- "I've just
got one story," Tess assured him.
"But it's an one. I want it on the front page." smiled at Edward and
inserted paper into the new typewriter she had insisted they buy. She
closed her pausing for a moment, smelling the ink on Harry's Then she
smiled and started to type. She described the small wagon train, then
she described the attack. She described the attackers, who had looked
like white men painted up to look like Comanche. She wrote about being
saved by the cavalry, then she wrote about Chief Running River and how
he had sworn his people had not had anything to do with the attack. Then
she wrote that she knew she was an eyewitness. and a survivor. She ended
the piece with a bold accusation.
"Certain tyrants in this town will stoop to any means to bring about
their chosen results. This town has been mercilessly se'tzed upon. We've
seen our friends and neighbors disappear. Some say it was the war, but
the war has ended, and all good men are trying to repair broken fences
and lend a helping hand. In this town, however, we have been met by
evil. Yes, my friends, evil lives in man. The evil that killed a man
like Joe Stuart. Joe Stuart's death must not be in vain. We must band
together and fight the evil. It does not come from the war. It comes
from a man, and no matter how he threatens, we can beat him--if we stand
together." She left it at that. She hesitated for a moment, searching
for better words, then shrugged. She had said what she wanted to say.
She pulled the sheet of paper from the machine and handed it to Edward.
"Read this over for me, will you, Ed?"
His eyes were already racing over the piece. He was a swift.
proofreader, and he quickly came to her final paragraph.
His fingers trembled, and the paper wavered within them. "Tess" -- "I
want it out tomorrow," she said.
"Tess, he'll come after you lock, stock and barrel" -- "He already left
me for dead once," she said.
"But, Tess" -- "Print it, please. And now tell me--what happened at the
saloon the other night?"
Edward stared, trying to change his train of thought quickly as she was
changing the conversation.
"The 169 night? Why, Miss. Tess, I was just in a little need of
companionship-"
"Not that, Clancy, not that! I want to hear about the lieutenant."
"The lieutenant?"
"Slater, Edward Clancy! Jamie Slater and the yon Heusen men and the
blazing guns."
"Oh, it was something, Tess. Honest to God, but it was something!"
"Something? Fine. What? Tell me about it, please!"
"Why, he just-come into the bar, and we all kind of greeted him" --
"Everyone in the place stared at him, wondering if he was : dangerous or
not "
"Right, right. Doc and I were playing cards and we invited him over for
a whiskey. He started asking questions right away, then yon Heusen's
guns came in. One of them had Hardy the bartender by the throat when
Jamie Slater him to stop. The man laughed. Then they were all
threatening to shoot up Slater, but that Slater, he had their number!
Before you know it--one, two, three, four! All of were lying on the
floor and choking and crying and on like babes. And Slater just stepped
over them, as a cucumber, and walked over to the barber and got a shave
and a bath.
"Well, of course, yon Heusen's fellers, they were threat- right and
left, but those boys lit out of town as as Doc patched them up, lit
straight out of town, they Don't know if they went back to yon Heusen or
if they away for good. I ain't seen a one of them since. Of one young
feller, he ain't gonna be ridin' anywhere a while, he kind of took his
shot in the posterior sec- if you know what I mean." I think I know what
you mean," Tess said. She gave Ed kiss on the cheek.