Authors: Blazing Embers
Cassie considered this a few moments before she agreed. “I guess I’m safe enough from him. Is Blackie younger or older?”
“Older. He’s my firstborn. Rook’s my middle child, and Peggy’s my baby.” Jewel smiled and patted Cassie’s hand. “You having trouble seeing me as somebody’s mama?”
“I’m having trouble seeing you as Rook’s mama.” Cassie laughed along with Jewel, but another thought drove
the laughter right out of her. “Did you tell his wife that he was staying with me?”
Regret flickered in Jewel’s expressive eyes before she went to the window again and turned her back on Cassie.
“Jewel, what’s wrong now?” Cassie asked, wondering why her question had made Jewel so uneasy. “Has something happened to his wife or children?”
“No, I … well, I was going to lie to you again, but I guess you’re too good a friend to keep throwing lies in your face.” Jewel turned to Cassie again. She fidgeted with the sash at her waist, stalling for time; then she took a deep breath and said in a rush, “Rook isn’t married. He doesn’t have any children. The family I was talking about was my sister and brother-in-law.”
The sublime relief that poured through Cassie was as surprising as it was revealing, and it took every ounce of her strength to keep it from spilling out in a joyous shout or a sunny smile. Cassie stared at her folded hands, secretly gloating over the knowledge that no one called Rook Papa and no one wore his ring.
“Cassie, are you all right? Are you angry at me, hon?” Jewel asked, coming forward with outstretched hands. “Don’t be angry. When you jumped to the notion that he had a wife, I didn’t correct you ’cause I thought it would make you feel better if you thought he was a family man.”
“Feel better?” Cassie repeated, thinking of the misery she’d felt over lusting for what she’d believed was another woman’s husband.
“Yes, honey. No more lies from here on in. We’re friends. You’re helping me out, and I’m helping you out, and we’re going to be honest with each other. Right?”
Cassie nodded. “Right.”
“Good.” Jewel settled herself on the sofa again, all happy smiles and shining eyes. “So you like my place?”
“I guess so. I don’t like what happens in here, but I think it’s a pretty house.”
“Do you like my son too?”
“Which one?”
Jewel slapped playfully at Cassie. “Rook, of course. What do you think of him?”
Cassie surveyed the room as if she’d never laid eyes on it before. “I think he’s anxious to be heading out. He’s been feeling better every day. Won’t be long before he can ride off into the sunset.”
“Cassie, don’t let him ride off until I give the word,” Jewel ordered. “Like I said before, there are bounty hunters all around here. I don’t want one of them to shoot Rook. Once things calm down I’ll get Rook on a train out of here.”
“You tell him,” Cassie said. “I can’t make him do nothing he don’t want to do. He may be your baby boy, but he’s a growed man to me, and he don’t like taking orders from a backward girl.”
“I’ll tell him,” Jewel promised; then she reached out to run her hand over Cassie’s sleek hair. “And he doesn’t think you’re backward.”
“Oh, yeah?” Cassie asked, doubtfully. “Then how come he’s always pointing out how bad I talk?”
“I do the same thing, but I don’t think you’re backward. I know that Shorty didn’t teach you the right way to talk. I’m sure Rook understands that too.”
“He calls me names,” Cassie asserted.
“What names?” Jewel asked, her eyes taking on a sharper focus.
“I’m not sure what they mean. He’s educated and he uses it against me.”
“Oh, honey!” Jewel pulled her forward and planted a smacking kiss on Cassie’s forehead. “You listen to me,” she said, laughing under her breath. “You’re just as good as he is, and don’t you forget it. He might have gone to school longer and all that, but you’re a smart girl in your own way.” She kissed Cassie’s forehead again, and her expression grew soft and matronly. “You’ve got a lot to learn, honey. A whole lot. But I figure you’ll learn fast.” She winked wickedly. “He’s pretty, isn’t he?”
“I don’t know!” Cassie turned aside, embarrassed by the question. “I don’t look at men like that.”
“How’d you look at Boone Rutledge?”
“He’s a friend.”
“He’s pretty too, and his family’s got money.”
“That don’t mean nothing to me.”
“Do you think Boone is better looking than Rook?”
“How should I know? I don’t compare men like they’re horses at an auction.”
Jewel laughed lustily. “You’re as female as I am, and every female compares the males in her life. So tell me. Which one is prettier to your eyes—Boone or Rook?”
“This is crazy! I gotta go.” Cassie put on her bonnet and stood up in one swift motion. “I took Rook’s horse and he’ll be madder than a wet hen when I ride up on it.”
Jewel accompanied Cassie downstairs to the front door. Upstairs doors were opening and footsteps could be heard as “the girls” began stirring to life.
“I’ll be visiting in a few days,” Jewel promised.
“You’re welcome anytime,” Cassie said as she fit her boot into the dangling stirrup.
“Give him a kiss for me, Cassie.”
Cassie pulled herself up into the saddle and arranged her skirt around her as heat fanned up from her neck to her hairline. “I’m not giving him nothing of the kind!”
Jewel threw back her head and laughed. “You telling me that you’ve never thought about kissing that strapping son of mine?”
“ ’Course not! I’d just as soon kiss a pig!”
“Cassie Mae Potter,” Jewel said, suddenly earnest, although her eyes were twinkling, “I thought we’d promised not to lie to each other ever again!”
Cassie was at a loss for words, so she jerked Irish’s reins hard and turned the animal around.
“ ’Bye, honey!” Jewel sang out.
“Don’t ‘honey’ me!” Cassie flung over her shoulder, and Jewel laughed even harder.
“It’s almost like Jewel’s protecting Rook,” Cassie told Irish as they traversed the gentle slopes and clovered fields. “Do you suppose Rook’s part of his brother’s gang and Jewel just didn’t want to tell me that?”
The idea took root and bloomed, not prettily like sweet roses but grotesquely like poison ivy. The more she thought about it, the worse it got.
Rook was part of Blackie’s gang. He had done something—betrayed the outlaws’ honor code in some way—and Blackie had shot Rook when Rook was trying to make a run for it. Maybe Rook was stealing money the gang had stolen and got a bullet in his back for it. He might’ve stashed the stolen money somewhere before he’d ridden up on her land. Yes, that made sense … didn’t it?
“Jewel was trying to be straight with me, but blood’s thicker than water,” Cassie mused aloud. “She mighta thought I’d turn Rook in for sure if I’da known he was part of the Colton gang.” She reined Irish toward the road that led home. “Or am I letting my imagination run free?”
It seemed that nothing was black or white anymore; the world had become gray and fuzzy. Where had her trust gone? There had been a time when she’d taken people at their word and a handshake had been a sacred vow. No more. That trusting soul had vanished the moment she’d laid eyes on Shorty Potter’s lifeless body. These were wicked times, when a woman alone wasn’t protected but taken advantage of and left penniless. Although her heart
told her to trust Rook, her new self-reliant self told her to trust no one.
“Guess I’ll have to trust my hunches,” she murmured. “Trusting my heart will only get me into trouble.” She sighed wistfully and felt tears sting her eyes. “My heart doesn’t belong to me much these days. It belongs to Rook more ’n more lately.” Cassie wiped her tears away with an angry gesture. “He’s gonna ride off one day, and you’re not gonna pine for him like some lovesick spinster!”
Irish loped around the final bend and the homestead swept into view. It looked small and dilapidated, especially when Cassie compared it in her mind with a picture of Jewel’s fancy place. Maybe if she planted a few pretty flowers and nailed down those loose shingles—
“It’ll take more ’n that to make that toadstool a palace, huh, Irish?” She reached out to stroke the chestnut’s ears and felt the animal quiver with excitement. Looking up, she saw that Rook had come out onto the porch. “He makes you shiver and shake too?” she asked Irish, then laughed under her breath.
He’d probably been listening for the sound of approaching hoofbeats all morning, Cassie thought, but he’d waited until he could identify the horse and rider before he showed himself.
“Get ready,” she whispered to herself. “He’s gonna be fit to be tied.”
While she raised an inner shield as protection from his wrath, enough of her feelings were still exposed for her to appreciate his manly physique. He wore only loose gray trousers; his suspenders hung unused at his sides. Bare chested, he looked magnificent with the sunlight playing across his glistening skin. His bluish black hair was tousled and hugged his head in a cap of shiny waves. The hair on his chest made her think of the leafy branches of a tree spreading across his chest and narrowing to a solid trunk whose roots disappeared under his waistband. He propped a bare foot on the rickety porch banister and squinted in her direction. He thrust his fingers through his coarse chest hair in an unconscious gesture, and Cassie remembered
what that felt like—matted hair against hot, taut skin. Delightful differences … delightful.
“Thanks for letting me know you were lighting out this morning,” he called when she was within earshot. “Mighty thoughtful of you. Oh, and you’re welcome to take my horse any time!”
Rook’s biting sarcasm tickled her, but she kept her pleasure from showing as she swung out of the saddle. Rook watched her every move and followed right behind her as she led Irish around to the back of the house, past the budding garden and to the makeshift lean-to that served as the animal’s stall.
“Did you go deaf this morning, or are you still pretending I don’t exist anymore?” Rook demanded as she unsaddled the gelding.
“I’m not pretending nothing and I’m not deaf, but I wish I was. I wouldn’t be hearing your sassy mouth,” she said and grunted as the saddle slipped off Irish’s back and she took its full weight. She slung it to the ground, then removed the damp saddle blanket. “I didn’t ask if I could ride your horse ’cause I didn’t want to answer a bunch of questions. Besides, I figure I can ride any horse I take care of all the time.” Her glare was meant to sting; then she turned back to her long-legged ward.
“Oh, is that how you figured it?” he asked, snatching the bridle from her hand and hanging it on its peg. “Where’d you go?”
“Into town.”
“What for?”
“Personal business.”
“And you couldn’t tell me that this morning?” he asked, putting Irish on a long lead and tying it off.
“When I left this morning you was sawing logs. If I’d told you your long underwear was on fire, you wouldn’t have batted an eyelash.”
“You could have woken me up. You sneaked off. What did you think I’d do? Forbid you to ride my horse? You know I’d let you take Irish. It really riles me that you felt you had to sneak away from here as if I’d—”
“I didn’t wake you up just so’s I wouldn’t have to hear
all this!” She strode from the lean-to and went to throw some grain out to her growing chicks. She glanced up at Rook’s scowling face, which only served to fuel her temper. “Since when do I have to answer to you anyway? You’re not my lord and master. I’m a free woman!”
“Common courtesy,” Rook said, stepping directly into her path when she started for the house. “All I ask is that you be nice to me and give me the same courtesy you’d give someone like that banker’s son.”
“Boone again!” Cassie rolled her eyes heavenward and shouldered past Rook.
“Is that too much to ask?” Rook demanded.
“Is what too much to ask?”
“That you be polite to me. That you show me some respect!”
She turned around and flashed a crafty grin. “People in hell ask for water, but I don’t imagine they get it,” she said sassily; then she let out a cry of alarm as Rook swiftly closed the distance between them and grabbed her roughly by the shoulders.
“Did you go into town to see him? Did you?” He shook her a little and her hair spilled over his hands like strands of silk.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked, surprised by his burst of anger. “Can’t I go into town without asking permission and then giving you a report on my comings and goings?” She wriggled and he let go of her. “That’s better,” she mumbled, straightening her clothes and pushing her shining hair back from her face. “I didn’t go into town to see Boone, but even if I had, it wouldn’t be any of your business.” She looked past him to Irish. “Why don’t you brush him down and give him something to eat?”
“Who’d you see in town?” he persisted.
Cassie shifted her gaze from the stamping horse to Rook, noting his stubborn expression. She watched him closely, knowing that her next words would shatter his mule-headed composure. “If you must know,” she said, clasping her hands behind her back and twisting her body from side to side in a little-girl fidget, “I had personal business with Jewel.”
“Jewel?” he repeated stupidly.
“Yes, Jewel.” Cassie looked away for a moment to compose herself. She had a wild urge to laugh. “Jewel Townsend.”
“Oh, right.” He nodded and smiled, looking uncomfortable. “How is she?”
“Fine. She sends her love.”
“That’s … nice.” Wariness entered his eyes before he forced his gaze away from hers. He knelt beside a row of green-headed onions and batted away a ladybug. “Why did you decide to go visit her?”
“I wanted to ask her a few questions.” The suspense was building within her and she knew he must be almost ready to burst. Having the advantage over him gave her a feeling of heady power, making her bold and brassy. “I saw someone in town Saturday and I wanted to ask Jewel about him.”
“Him?”
She nodded and chewed on her lower lip to keep from grinning. “That’s right. You look a lot like your brother. You look so much like him that I thought he was you.”
Cassie laughingly mimicked his expression of openmouthed shock.