should stay. I bet dinner is on. Tess, is dinner on?"
"yes!"
"Something good?"
His eyes touched hers across the dusky night. She nodded, fighting for
speech.
"Turkey. Dressing. Squash. All sorts of things."
"And getting cold. I do declare. Gentlemen, good night," Jamie said
firmly.
He prodded the men.
"Move 'em, now, von Heusen, or they'll start turning into corpses."
"We're nine to one, you fool" -- "Nine to two. See my friend there? He
could hit the hair in a man's nose at a thousand yards, and he's faster
than greased lightning. You're out manned and outnumbered, you just
don't know it yet." "We'll see about that," von Heusen said angrily.
"Get those half-naked idiots up on your horses!" he ordered his mounted
men.
He jerked his mount around to face Tess and pointed a long finger at
her.
"You'll pay for this, Miss. Stuart. You'll pay dearly. I promise you."
He swung around again, and his men followed. They raced off into the
darkness, the horses' hooves pounding on the dry earth.
Silence and stillness fell over the small group on the porch. Jon Red
Feather slowly lowered his rifle. He stared at Jamie.
"What the hell took you so long?"
"Well, there were four of them in the carriage house!"
Jamie announced indignantly. He strode up the stairs. Tess was still
staring at him blankly when he tweaked her cheek and walked past her.
She managed to turn and follow him. He walked over't the table and sat,
then pulled off a turkey leg and bit into it hungrily. Looking up, he
saw Tess staring at him, Dolly and Jane on either side of her, and Jon
and Hank on either side of the women. He paused in mid bite
"Do you all mind?"
Tess stood in front of him.
"Where did you go? How did you happen to come back right then?"
He chewed before answering her.
"I left the saloon as soon as I met a few friendly people--and a few not
so friendly people. I knew he was coming out here. I didn't know he
intended to burn you out." He paused, looking past Tess to Jon.
"Seems strange, doesn't it? The man wants this property, but he doesn't
seem to care if he destroys it.
Makes you think, doesn't it?"
"Sure does."
"Makes you think what?" Tess asked irritably. "Tess, think about it.
It needs a little paint, a little shoring up here and there--but this is
a darned nice house. Solid, sound, big.
Then you've got the outbuildings, the carriages--and the horses. I
haven't seen enough to really make an estimate on the value of the
stock, but I imagine that we're talking hundreds and hundreds of dollars
in horseflesh alone.
And von Heusen doesn't care. He wants the property, but he doesn't care
if he burns it to the ground."
" He's a vile son of a bitch, that's why!" Tess stated.
"Well, yes," Jamie acknowledged with a wry grin.
"But there's more to it than that, I think."
Dolly took a seat at the table again and spooned up a mouthful of
squash.
"Vile, certainly! Why, our dinner has gone quite cold!"
"That's the spirit, Dolly," Jamie told her.
"Jori, sit. The turkey may be cold, but it's delicious."
"That's it?" Tess demanded heatedly.
"What do you mean, that's it?"
"Where did you go? What were you doing? You were supposed to be here!"
"Jon was here," Jamie said evenly.
"But" -- Jamie was buttering a roll. Jane and Hank and Jon sat and
picked up their forks. Jamie's butter knife went still and his eyes were
slightly narrowed as he stared at her.
"Miss. Stuart, I don't like the tone of this conversation. I came back
in time to save your hide."
"You wouldn't have had to rush back if you'd been here--where you should
have been! You want to be paid so highly, and you can't even stick
around!" He stood suddenly. His knife clattered against a dish.
"I
don't argue like this in front of others, Miss. Stuart."
" There is no argument!" she snapped.
"No, there isn't. I'll make it simple. Wherever I choose to go is my own
business, Miss. Stuart. You are not my keeper. And as to payment, hell,
yes.
Tomorrow we'll go into town and you'll turn over half interest in this
place to me."
She gasped aloud, stunned.
"Jamie, she doesn't understand what you're doing," Jon said, ignoring
the rising tensions and reaching for a roll himself.
"If you just explained" -- "Explained! Hell, I feel as if I'm up before
the judge and jury!"
"Judge and jury! I really don't give a damn what you do with your time,
but"
"You begged me to come here, Tess."
"Begged!"
"Begged!"
"Oh!" she cried. Then she wound her fingers tightly together.
"I don't argue in public either, Lieutenant!" she snapped. She was
shaking, she realized. She'd been so damned amazed and grateful to see
him, but she'd also been scared, and now she was furious and shaking and
she wasn't even sure what she did want. She turned, having no taste left
for dinner.
Angrily she began to stride for the door. "Tess!" He was on his feet,
calling to her. He really expected her to stop because he had commanded
her to. She didn't stop, she didn't turn, she didn't even pause. She
sailed straight for the front door. She would go to the carriage house
to make sure the fire von Heusen's men had started had been stamped out.
"Jamie, give her a minute," Dolly suggested.
"The hell I will!" Jamie snapped.
Before Tess heard the door slam in her wake, she thought she heard
Jamie's chair hit the floor as he pushed it over.
She started running toward the carriage house, anxious to reach it
before he could see her. She was at the side door when she heard the
front door to the house slam. She slipped into the eaniage house. She
inhaled and exhaled, but couldn't smell any smoke. All she could smell
was the fresh scent of the alfalfa hay that was being stored behind the
chaise.
She fumbled in the darkness to light the gas lamp by the door. When the
glow filled the carriage house, she went to check the wagon and the
printing press. She crawled into the wagon and gave a soft sigh of
relief as she saw that the printing press was fine. She sank down on one
of the bunks. "Tess!
Where are you!"
Jamie was obviously angry. She clenched her teeth and tried to ignore
him.
She stepped from the wagon and went to the buckboard. No flames had
lapped against it. The chaise, too, seemed untouched. Walking around,
she discovered a half burned bale of hay. It had been dragged into the
center of the room and lit. Von Heusen had meant it to be a slow fire.
He had really meant to be long gone when the place burned.
She moved away from the hay and from the faint, acrid smell of fire that
remained.
"Tess!"
He was still calling her, like a drill sergeant. With a sigh she
determined that she would have to open the door, but she hesitated with
her hand upon it. Where had he been? He'd been gone for hours. Had he
really enjoyed the saloon so much? What part of the saloon?
And why was she torturing herself so thoroughly over him? She couldn't
change the man.
The before twist the With a back.
was hat less, his shirt open at the neck, his hands on his hips, his
sandy hair tousled casually over a brow, but his manner anything but
casual.
"Why didn't you answer me?" he demanded. "Because I didn't want to speak
to you."
"It didn't occur to you that I might have been worried?"
"I could have been in and out of the carriage house all evening, and you
wouldn't have known. What, I'm supposed to be on a ball and chain if