That left only one possibility. Could Candace have put the idea into her head? How many times had Candace hinted that it was time and past time for Josh to think about getting married and settling down? As if he weren't already perfectly settled. And marriage was for fools, as Candace well knew.
The girl looked up at him with those cornflower eyes, the picture of innocence, and Josh began to doubt again. No, she wasn't hinting, not yet at any rate. Even Candace had not had enough time to set such a plan in motion. And what if she had? Josh wondered, surprising even himself. Would that be such a bad thing? The girl was pretty and sweet-tempered, and she could bake a mean apple pie. But Josh still hadn't decided whether he wanted to get married or not. He stood abruptly. "You can't stay here," he announced.
Felicity stared at him in surprise. "I know that," she said. How well she knew it, too. She should not even be here now.
"There's a widow lives on the next ranch," he began reasonably. "She's gone now, to Dallas, but as soon as she gets back…" His voice trailed off as he experienced a strange reluctance to complete the sentence.
Nodding her understanding, Felicity rose, too. "Meanwhile, I'll try to make myself useful around here," she promised in an attempt to mollify him.
Unfortunately, her offer had the opposite effect. "No," he said a little too sharply. "I mean, no, you don't have to do anything. Just consider yourself a guest."
"But I-"
"How did you like those pies, Mr. Josh?" Candace inquired slyly from the kitchen doorway.
Josh and Felicity glanced up at her in surprise, and she studied their faces carefully. Having taken her meal in the kitchen, she had heard everything, including the private conversation between Josh and Felicity. That was why she had chosen this particular moment to interrupt. Josh was already running, and no one had even started chasing him yet. The man was certainly suspicious. She would have to be very careful.
"The pies were delicious," Josh admitted grudgingly, imagining the gleam of satisfaction that would be in Candace's eye.
"Maybe we'll plan a treat for breakfast, too," Candace remarked with apparent casualness. "Do you know how to make Bear Sign, miss?"
Felicity's forehead wrinkled a moment until she remembered that Bear Sign was the cowboy's slang for doughnuts. "Oh yes, I know a special recipe…"
Josh swore silently. Of course she did. "Well, if you ladies will excuse me," he said, the sarcasm thick in his voice.
"Why, certainly…" Felicity began, but stopped when she realized she was speaking to his back.
"Don't pay him no nevermind," Candace advised, moving over to place a comforting arm around the girl's slender shoulders. "We haven't had a lady around here in so long that he's forgotten how to act. He liked the pie. I could tell. Apple pie is his favorite in all the world," confided the woman who had taken him from his mother's body. "And he's got a lot on his mind just now, what with the spring roundup starting. There's this Mexican bandito name of Ortega who shows up about this time every year, too, to bedevil us. Mr. Josh just can't help being grouchy."
Felicity gave Candace a grateful smile. The woman seemed determined that Felicity not grow discouraged. If only Candace could provide her with some answers about what her future held.
As they left the room, Candace hummed softly as she envisioned exactly what that future was going to be.
Asa Gordon read the telegram again and muttered a very satisfying curse before crumpling it and tossing it into the wastebasket. He leaned backward in his desk chair and closed his eyes wearily, but the words of the message still teased against his eyelids. "Found Storm." "Lost them." Someone was going to be very angry about this piece of information. Someone had already spent several years and several thousands of dollars on the search, and now to come so close without making contact.
Gordon's chair squeaked as he swiveled to view the framed picture that hung behind his desk. The large, staring eye. The Eye That Never Sleeps. He himself had lost more than a little sleep over this particular case, and now he would lose even more. But he would not give up. His client would continue to pay, he knew, and Asa Gordon had never yet failed to satisfy a customer. Even if he had to travel all the way from Philadelphia to Texas himself, he would find Felicity Storm.
Chapter Three
Crullers, Josh thought sourly as he strolled aimlessly around the ranch yard. Of all the crazy things. She'd made a bushel basket full of them, and before dawn, too. He'd never seen the men so excited about anything as they had been that morning at breakfast when Cookie had displayed the delicately twisted and fried strips of dough that melted in a man's mouth.
Josh took one last drag on his cigarette before throwing it down and grinding it out with the heel of his boot. He had hoped that his customary evening walk would clear away the disturbing images of his men gazing raptly at the lovely Miss Felicity, both at breakfast this morning and again at supper, when she had treated them to a batch of Spotted Pup. The dish of rice and raisins sweetened with brown sugar had turned the already-smitten ranch hands into sniveling idiots. Josh was beginning to think he was the only sane man left on the place. Even Grady had gone all goggle-eyed.
Not that Josh could blame them, of course. The girl seemed to get prettier every time he saw her. Her eyes no longer held that startled, wary look that made him think she was ready to bolt at the slightest provocation, either. In fact, she appeared to be almost at ease eating with the men now, as if she somehow belonged there at the ranch. Josh had to admit he was rapidly getting used to seeing her golden loveliness every time he glanced down the long table.
For one crazy moment he pictured a row of towheaded children seated along that table. He smiled wistfully.
"Evening, Mr. Josh," Candace called, coming across the ranch yard to where he had paused near the barn.
Josh quickly wiped the smile from his face and watched her progress through narrowed eyes. She looked as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. Josh knew that look. She was coming to plant a few ideas in his head, and Josh was willing to bet that those ideas concerned a certain Miss Felicity Storm. He waited patiently for the inevitable.
Candace slowed her pace a little, sensing his wariness. Her Joshua was not a stupid man. He already knew what she was up to. It was a little game they played. She would let him know, very subtly, what she wanted him to do, and then she would feign total ignorance when he questioned her about it. Of course, she would then feel obligated as his mammy to give him her considered opinion in the matter and trust that his natural good judgment would lead him to make the proper decision.
They had played this game for years. Had she been his real mother, she could have given him advice outright. Had she been merely his servant, she would not have dared to advise him. Since her true status lay somewhere in between these two clearly defined areas, she had devised this method of guiding him. She had never tried to guide him on such an important matter, however, and Candace knew a slight quiver of apprehension as she approached him.
"I was just wondering if there was anything special you'd like to wear for tomorrow so I can make sure it's ironed proper," she said with just the right degree of subservience. Josh would have liked to irritate her by pretending he'd forgotten the photography session scheduled for tomorrow, but since the other men had talked of little else all day- except maybe crullers-he could not. "Whatever's already clean will be fine," he said, knowing his lack of enthusiasm for the girl's project would satisfactorily annoy Candace.