the foresight to also nail the shutters closed so that they couldn’t be forced from the inside.
Cole mistakenly thought Lacy had put Ben up to it, knowing how she felt about him, and Lacy shivered remembering the harsh, furious accusations he’d thrown at her all through the long night until some of the ranch hands rescued them the next morning. Lacy was compromised, and Cole was forced to marry her—not only to spare her reputation, but to save the family’s good name.
He’d been glad enough when she’d left. If that was so, then why, she wondered, did he want her to come back now? She didn’t dare think about it too much. With any luck, it wasn’t purely because of his family. There was a small possibility that he’d actually missed her.
She’d bluffed him into agreeing to her terms, to sharing a room. But remembering that night he’d stayed in her bed, she had faint misgivings about the wisdom of her actions. Despite her longing for a child and the depth of her love for him, she dreaded its physical expression. Well, she thought, that was a bridge she’d cross when she had to. Meanwhile, going home had a delight all its own. She was getting tired of the high life.
Chapter
Three
Katy Whitehall opened her eyes to a blinding whiteness. She groaned and turned over, shielding her eyelids from the sunlight coming in through the white curtains.
Her long dark hair lay in tangles around a white face, and huge green eyes opened, wincing. She tried to lift her head, groaned again, and fell back onto the pillows with a resigned sigh.
The door opened and Cassie came in, shaking her gray head, glowering down at the young woman as she put a cup of hot tea on the bedside table.
“Told you, I did,” she said in her deepest drawl, her black eyes accusing. “Told you that firewater would give you the devil’s own headache. Shameful, that’s what it is, coming in here in the wee hours of the morning. Mr. Cole would horsewhip you, was he here to see!”
“Well, he isn’t. He’s in San Antonio, selling cattle.” Katy dragged her slender body into a sitting position, her small breasts outlined under the pale fabric of her gown. She pushed back the weight of her hair and reached for the tea.
“Maybe he’s gone to see Miss Lacy, as well,” Cassie ventured, her hands on her broad hips.
Katy eyed her carefully. “Think so?”
“Well, miracles happen, don’t they?”
Katy forced a smile as she sipped the sweet tea. “So they say. Ben shouldn’t have done that to them,” she murmured.
“One joke too many,” Cassie agreed. “Left alone, they might have come to marriage all by themselves, for the right reasons.” Her dark face puckered as she pursed her lips. “He used to watch her, when she first came to live here,” she reminded Katy. “My man Jack Henry said he’d be mechanicing and he’d see Mr. Cole watching her like a chicken hawk, them dark eyes just fiery and full of longing.”
“You read too many of those outrageous novels,” Katy chided, giggling as the old woman shifted uncomfortably and averted her eyes. “You know very well that Cole’s immune to women. If he wasn’t, he’d have married long ago. He never was around girls very much. It was always business.”
“Had to be, didn’t it?” Cassie defended him. “After Mr. Bart died, weren’t nobody else to take care of his place. Ben were too young, and Miss Marion never had no business head.”
“Thank God Cole did, or we’d all be out looking for work.” Katy stretched, shuddering as the movement hurt her head. “I never should have had that third drink,” she moaned, holding her forehead in both hands.
“Mr. Turk had words with that young man who brung you home last night,” Cassie volunteered suddenly.
Katy’s heart jumped, but she didn’t look up immediately. Her big green eyes widened. “Turk did?”
Cassie smiled. Katy was only twenty-one; every single emotion showed on her face. Cassie had always known how she felt about Turk, but it wouldn’t do to encourage her. Cole wouldn’t stand for it. He’d already made that clear.
“Mr. Cole told him to watch out for you,” the old woman said.
Katy glowered. “I don’t need watching.”
“Yes, ma’am, you do,” came the hot reply. “Carousing all hours, drinking in public, cussing like a sailor…You’re shaming us all! Your poor mama won’t even go to her bridge club because she’s so afraid somebody will say something about you to her!”
The younger woman sat up straighter. “Well, Danny Marlone doesn’t think I shame him,” she replied, hiding her sudden vulnerability to her mother’s pride in blustering.
“He’s a gangster!” Cassie was off and running now, her eyes huge in her face. “Yes, he is—One of them Chicago mobsters, right down to that striped suit he wears and them fancy cigars he smokes and that big fedora! He’s not the man for you! He’s leading you off into hell!”
Katy sighed wearily. “Danny’s a nice man. He’s just a northerner, and that’s why you don’t like him. I like him a lot. He’s good to me. He buys me things,” she added, touching the diamond necklace he’d given her just last night. She smiled. “He’s very generous.”
Cassie’s eyes narrowed. “And what you giving him in return, girl?”
Katy actually blushed. “Not…that!” she burst out, sitting straighter and then groaning when it hurt her head. “I’m not sleeping with him!”
“Maybe he’ll expect you to, what with presents like that,” Cassie replied gruffly. She turned and went to the door. “Miss Marion has rode into Floresville with Mrs. Harrison to get her hair fixed, on account of Mr. Ben ain’t brought her runabout home yet. She say she be back about noon. Which it nearly is.”
She closed the door with a bang, and Katy glared at it. Danny was not a gangster. Not really. He might have done a few shady things, and he did run a speakeasy in the Windy City. But he was slick and Italian and handsome, and she liked being seen with him. She especially liked having Turk see her with him. Because she knew the foreman didn’t like it, and that made her blood sing.
Damn Turk! she thought, dashing aside the covers, headache and all, to get to her feet. Damn him! Letting Cole order him around, heeding that warning to keep his hands off the boss’s sister! She’d gone right through the roof when Ben had told her that. He’d overheard a hot argument between Turk and Cole, with Cole coming out on top, as usual. Turk had added that he liked women, not little girls, and that he didn’t have any interest in young Katy in the first place! Oh, how that had cut. It had cut her young heart to shreds. She’d been avoiding Turk ever since, and when she’d gone to that party in San Antonio and met Danny Marlone, she’d encouraged him like crazy. For the first time, she’d used her femininity to attract a man. It didn’t help that she began to wonder if it might even work on Turk. It was too late now. Cole had seen to that.
Sometimes she hated her big brother’s tyranny. Cole had been like this as long as Katy could remember. Always in charge, always throwing out orders. Ben had worshipped him for a long time, although her baby brother was beginning to lose that enchantment as he aged. But Lacy…Oh, poor Lacy. The older woman would wear
