Fool for Love (Montana Romance) (20 page)

Eric nodded, thinking it over.  Curtis was right as usual.  The hotel was much finer than his ranch house.  Amelia stood with one hand on her stomach and the other on her hip, looking damn similar to Delilah.

And why not?  He brightened.  Delilah and Amelia would get along like a pack of squirrels sharing nuts.  They had some mighty big things in common.  Maybe it wasn’t all bad when women talked in secret.

“I think that sounds like a right good idea,” he said.  “What do you think?”

“I’m not opposed to staying at the hotel for a night or two,” Amelia began, opening her mouth to continue.

“It’s settled then,” Curtis cut her off, arms and smile spread in satisfaction.  “The happy couple will stay here at the hotel for a while to settle in.”

“Well now, it might be fine for
Amelia
to stay put and make some friends in town,” Eric countered before Amelia could snap back at Curtis for interrupting her, “but I’m eager to take a look at things back at the ranch.  Everything I’ve heard has got me worried, Curtis.  I should head out this afternoon and take a look.”

“Nonsense.”  Curtis laughed.  “Stay here in town and visit with your beautiful wife.  I can handle things at home.”

Eric frowned.  “But you said that things were bad, that we’re on the verge of bankruptcy.  Michael told me that half the herd froze to death last winter and Jacinta said the place was in a ‘state’.  I need to take a look.”

“It’s not so urgent that you need to abandon your wife to her own devices.  With clever eyes like those there’s no telling what mischief she might get up to.”

A poke of anxiety stabbed Eric’s gut.  He snuck a shaded look at Amelia.  It was clear as day she wasn’t at all pleased with him.  If he did leave her alone in Cold Springs she might just run like she’d wanted to all along.  She’d only promised to go as far as Montana with him and now here they were.  She could leave at any time.

Hellfire.

He sucked in a breath and plunked his hat on his head.  The choice was easy when there was no choice at all.  He smiled as if he hadn’t a care in the world and stepped close to slide his arm around Amelia’s waist.

“You’ve sold me, Curtis.  I can’t think of anything I’d rather do than show my darling wife the sites of Cold Springs and introduce her to the citizens of the town.”

“Perfect!” Curtis exclaimed.  “Delilah, book these two lovebirds a room.”

“I’ll book it when
they
say they want it booked,” Delilah said, hard as stone.

“As for me,” Curtis ignored her, “Since you’re back early, I’ll just ride on home and make sure the ranch is looking tip-top and ready to welcome you back with open arms.”

Curtis fixed his own white hat on his head, nodded to the ladies, and headed for the door.

“Yeah, you do that,” Eric called after him.  “Come back later and let me know everything I need to know about the place to sort it out.  Maybe the contracts from Benton Chase will have shown up by then too.”

Curtis didn’t hear him.  He was already out the door and charging down the steps.

“Benton Chase?” Delilah asked.  Her hands shifted to her hips and she put on her sharpest schoolmarm look.

“Eric met a Canadian gentleman on the ship home who owns a distribution business,” Amelia explained.  “They agreed to work together.”

“Amelia set it up,” Eric added, his grin growing.

Delilah gawped at him.  “Land sakes, boy!  I don’t know whether I should smash you over the head with a fire iron for being a fool or laud you as a genius!”

“My head’s already been smashed enough,” he muttered, no clue what she was talking about.

Delilah turned to Amelia.  “My dear, once things are settled down a mite, you and I need to sit down and have a very long talk.”

“I believe we do,” Amelia answered, far too mysterious for Eric’s liking.

“It’s amazing this one has walked the earth this long.”  Delilah shook her head at him and headed back behind her hotel desk.  “Let’s get the two of you a room.”

It took no time at all for Delilah to sort out one of her finest rooms for Eric and Amelia.  She escorted them up the grand staircase and down the hall to the spacious room herself.

“Does Lewis have your things at the station?” she asked as Amelia took in the room’s furnishings, running her hand along one of the bedposts with a frown.

“Yeah.  Want me to go get them?” Eric asked.

“I’ll take care of it.  You take care of your wife.”  She nodded to Amelia before turning to swish out of the room.

As soon as the door clicked shut behind her, Eric felt out of his depth and ridiculous for it.  He tossed his hat onto the chair under the window then turned to flop backwards onto the bed, throwing his arms out to the side.

“Well, that was just about the most exhausting-”

“Why are you here, Eric?”  Amelia dropp
ed her arms and rounded on him.

Eric blinked and propped himself up on his elbows.  “I live here.”

“No you don’t.”  Amelia took a step closer to the bed.  “You live on the ranch you’re always telling me so much about.  The one that’s miles from here.  The one that’s in trouble.  Why didn’t you ride off right away to check up on it?”

“What if I wanted to stay here with you?” he barked.  His frown shifted to a grin.  “Come over here and cuddle with me.”

“I will not cuddle with you now or any time soon!” she snapped, fists on her hips.

“It might relax you a bit,” he coaxed.

She didn’t budge.  “Do you want me to go get one of your
friends
to cuddle with you?”

The humor he’d tried to bring to the afternoon flattened.  He pushed himself to stand.

“Is it so hard to believe that I want to be with you and only you?  Forever?”

Amelia crossed her arms, staring out one of the room’s windows with a huff.  The anger hard on her face melted to something he liked even less, misery.

“What I find hard to believe,” she started up again a few seconds later in a softer voice, “is that after all these weeks, after the stress you’ve gone through at the very thought that your ranch is in trouble, you would be content to … dally with me instead of galloping off to see it.”

“I like spending time with you,” he insisted.  He sidled closer to her, rubbing a hand on her upper arm.  “You know I do.”

He bent toward her, reaching to circle his arms around her back.

She squirmed out of his grasp before he could kiss her.

“Now is not the time, Eric,” she said.  Her face frowned but her eyes were anxious.

“I’ve got no objections to a little afternoon intimacy if you don’t.”  He pivoted to follow her.

“How can you think of those things with so much else going on?”  Just like that she was back to being ornery and upset.

He was too tired to wrestle with her.  “All right,” he sighed.  “You got me.  What do you want me to do?”

“I….”  She hesitated, swaying from foot to foot and resting a hand on her belly.  She’d gotten bigger since they’d set out from London.  “I want you to go out to your ranch and find out what your cousin Curtis is not telling you.”

“You do.”

“Yes.”

Eric rested his weight on one leg and his hands on  his hips.  “You want me to go out to the ranch.”

“Yes!”

“You want me to leave you here by yourself while I ride all the way out to the ranch.”

“Yes!”  She was exasperated, that much was certain.

“What are you gonna do while I’m gone?”

“I don’t know.”  She shrugged and threw out her hands.  “I’ll pay calls and get to know your friends.  I’ll visit the West’s store that Charlie keeps telling me about.  I’ll take a walk around the town and familiarize myself with my surroundings.”

“Huh-uh.”  Eric shook his head.  “You’re not doing any of that.”

“What?”

“Not alone at least.  And not until the train is good and gone.”

Amelia hissed out a breath and crossed her arms above her belly.  She shook her head.

“You think I’m going to leave, don’t you.”

“Well if you put it like that, yeah!” Eric said.

Instead of looking contrite or embarrassed at being caught, Amelia went bright red with fury.

“You think that after the lunch we just ate, after listening to the slick evasions of your cousin, that I would walk out and leave you to the wolves?”

Eric balked.  “What’s wrong with Curtis?  He’s family!  He’s just looking out for my best interests and his.”

“Only his, you mean.”  She took a step closer to him.  “Didn’t you listen to a thing he was saying, or rather not saying?”

“Yeah, I listened to him all right.”  A sharp, sour knot formed in his stomach.  “He’s been busting his ass to keep the ranch from going under altogether while I was out wasting my time in your rainy, miserable country!”

“So he says!”

“Yeah!  He says so!”

Amelia growled with frustration, stomping her foot.  “Really, Eric!  How stupid can you be?”

It stung.  It bit.  It raked him and left him raw.  That’s what she’d been hiding.  That’s why she wanted to leave.  That’s why nothing he could say to her or do for her in the last month had made a single dent.

“Yeah, I’m stupid all right.”  He crossed to the chair to retrieve his hat, squashing his hat on his head.  “I shoulda figured that one out sooner.”

He straightened his coat and strode toward the door.

“Where are you going?”  She rushed after him, still madder than a cat in a cracker barrel.

“I’m going for a walk,” he said and pulled open the door.

“Fine.  Then I’ll come with you.”

He spun to face her.  “What, I’m not too stupid for you to be seen in public with me?”

She opened her mouth to argue but stopped, stock still, eyes wide.  The pink that rose to her cheeks would have been precious if his heart wasn’t already dragging somewhere around his boots.

“I never said-” she tried to backtrack.  Her shoulders dropped.  “Oh dear.  I’m sorry.  I’m terribly sorry.”

“Are you?” he asked.

He didn’t wait for an answer.  He turned and marched on down the hall.

Amelia clenched her teeth over the frustration that had crept up her back to her skull as she scurried to keep up with Eric.  He shot out of the hotel and into the sunny Cold Springs street.  His strides were wide and firm, as if he knew exactly where he was going.  She kept up with him until she spotted a cluster of half-dressed whores lingering around the front of a building hung with a sign that read “Saloon”.

Her courage faltered.  The primped and preening women perked up to watch Eric and get a look at her.  It wasn’t hard to imagine any one of those women being her mother or Olivia or Eve.  Or her.

Eric slowed down halfway along the dusty street, shoulders dropping as he turned to wait for her to catch up.  Amelia held a hand over the mound of her stomach and pushed forward.  The simple act of moving was far more of a challenge than it should have been, especially with those women watching her.

“This is Main Street,” he said as if giving a tour.  He held out his arm for her with a rugged sigh.

Amelia took his arm, darting a glance to the saloon girls.  She straightened her back, squared her shoulders, and tipped her chin up.  If they were going to judge her, she’d rather have them believing she was a snob th
an knowing she was one of them.

“When Pop and Mama and I moved up here about twenty years ago, before Christian, before Phin, and before Michael, this was all there was of the town.
It’s grown a heap since then.”

There was no enthusiasm in his explanation.  He held her arm and pointed things out with all the energy of a bored trail scout.

“That there is Michael’s store.  And over there is Phin’s bank.  That’s the jail right next to the saloon – convenient placement – and the courthouse across that way where Christian does all his business.”

As Eric spoke Christian stepped out of the jail, shaking his head, and headed toward the courthouse.  He either didn’t see them standing at the other end of the street or was too busy to care.  When he reached the courthouse door he was met by the shrew, Jacinta Archer.

Amelia scowled.  She hadn’t noticed the woman turn the corner onto Main Street, but now it was hard to miss her as she stormed up to Christian.  Amelia waited, expecting some new sort of fireworks, but once the garish woman reached Christian she put on a smile and spoke to him in tones too low for them to hear across the distance.

“Is there a reason that woman would have to speak to your friend?” she asked.

“Jacinta works for Christian,” Eric explained.

“Really?”

“Yeah.  She does secretary work and record keeping and the like.  Christian has a big old bunch of files full of everyone’s marriage certificates and deeds and claim papers and the like.”  He faced her and rushed on with, “There has never been anything between me and Jacinta anywhere but in her own mind.  So if you’re sore because of the scene she made earlier, you’ve got nothing to worry about.”