Bonds of Matrimony (24 page)

           
“Have
a good evenin’, Cochrane,” he drawled.
 
And then he followed the blond up the stairs.
 
Her hips swung with exaggeration as she moved slowly toward
the second floor.
 

           
Tears
threatened to spill while her stomach threatened to bring up Elisa’s delicious
dinner.
 
She turned furiously and
pushed through the doorway, hurrying to untie her horse and get home.
 
She raced away, hoping Marcus wasn’t
following her.
 
She couldn’t stand
it if he saw how humiliated she was.
 
And it was only partly his fault.

***

When she had walked through
the door of Chantal’s, he had nearly come out of his seat.
 
And sitting across from him with that
cigar between her luscious lips, he wanted nothing more than to be at the pond
with her again.
 
He studied her
while she looked over her cards.
 
How had he ever believed she was a boy?
 
Regardless of the hat, trousers, and cigar, he could still
see the hint of her breasts and the purely feminine face.
 

And when she looked at him, he
wanted to throw her over his shoulder and take her upstairs.
 
Damn her for being so beautiful and
coming to Chantal’s tonight.
 
It
didn’t matter if they were in Texas or England.
 
She was still a lady, even if she didn’t want to be.
 

And she was a damned tease,
too.
 
She knew how badly he wanted
her, and yet she still sat across the table from him smoking her cigar and
beating the pants off of the other men at the table.
 
And then there’d been the fire in her eyes when her brother had
stormed in.
 
She was full of
contradictions.
 
And she was more
of a complication than he wanted or needed.
 

He could see the hurt in her
eyes when he followed Virginia upstairs.
 
But it was his first reaction to the feelings she stirred.
 
He couldn’t have her.
 
But he would be damned if he’d deny all
women.
 
He was no monk.
 
And he figured that maybe Virginia
could scratch the itch that had been bothering him since the encounter at the
pond.

Instead, he stood unmoving
while Virginia placed a trail of kisses from his collar bone down his flat
stomach.
 
Then he pulled her to her
feet and buttoned his shirt.

“What are you doing, Webb?”
she asked.
 
He had been with Virginia
before, and she was usually very eager to satisfy.
 
But it wasn’t her he wanted satisfaction from anymore.
 
And as soon as her hands and mouth
touched his body, he knew that she couldn’t help him.
 

“Not tonight, honey.
 
This isn’t what I need tonight.”
 
He paid her, although she tried to
refuse to take his money.

“I didn’t do anything,” she
said.

He simply dropped the money
on the bed and walked back downstairs and out of the saloon.
 
Thankfully, there was no sign of either
Fairfax the whole way home.

CHAPTER 12

A week had passed with no
contact with Colton Webb.
 
Contrary
to popular belief, absence had not made the heart grow fonder.
 
Instead, she was able to put him out of
her mind more easily.
 
She spent
the mornings with Marcus and Tom, helping feed the animals and clean up the
barn.
 
Then she would spend the
afternoons with Elisa, Reese, and her grandmother, working in the garden and
preparing a large dinner for the family.
 

She was beginning to grow
accustomed to rising with the sun and working all day.
 
It was hard, exhausting work, but she
loved every moment of it.
 
Marcus
admitted that he hated to put his younger sister to work on the ranch, but he
knew that she would be happier working with him, and in truth, he was short on
men anyway.

And so the routine had been
established when she woke one morning to the smell of coffee and bacon.
 
She dressed hurriedly, certain that she
had overslept.
 
But when she
stumbled into the kitchen while binding her hair at the nape of her neck, she
found only Elisa, humming as she moved awkwardly around the kitchen.
 
She flipped eggs with one hand while
she rubbed her protruding belly unconsciously.

“What’s that you’re
humming?” Chase asked sleepily, enjoying the domestic picture that her
sister-in-law made.

Elisa smiled brightly at her.
 
“Mr. John Phillips Sousa.
 
He’s composed these beautiful patriotic
songs that have become quite popular.
 
There will be a small band playing this evening; you’ll get to hear them
then.”

“A small band this evening?”

Elisa stopped flipping and
rubbing and stared at Chase with something just short of amazement.
 
“And you consider yourself an
American?” she teased.
 
“Have you
no idea what day it is?”
 
She
waited for a response, while her sister-in-law looked on, dumbfounded.
 
“It’s the Fourth of July.”

Still nothing from Chase.

“It’s the American
Independence Day,” she explained.
 

“I had no idea.
 
And why will there be a band playing
the music of this Mr….?”

“John Phillips Sousa,” she
finished for her.
 
“There is a
large celebration in Cloverdale this afternoon.
 
People will travel from all over the county to join in the
festivities.
 
There will be an
afternoon picnic and games.
 
Some
will swim in the watering hole.
 
And after the sun goes down, there will be music and dancing.”

Chase couldn’t get the image
of the first dance of the Season out of her mind.
 
Although Elisa certainly looked excited about the day’s
festivities, she was skeptical.
 

“What about the chores?” she
asked, already preparing to make excuses to not attend.

Elisa grinned in
response.
  
“No reason to
waste the morning.
 
We’ll get an
early start and then come in and clean up after lunch.”
 
She studied the eggs for a moment and
then met her eyes.
 
“It’s a
wonderful time, Chase.
 
It will be
your first taste of American tradition.”

“I’m sure it will be
delightful,” she responded, not nearly convinced.

***

Try as she might, Chastity
couldn’t maintain her sour mood.
 
The sheer giddiness of her sister and grandmother was contagious.
 
As they climbed out of Mr. Wainwright’s
automobile, she gazed across the grassy lawn, smiling at the sight of all those
Texans enjoying themselves.
 
Children raced after each other between trees, stopping only long enough
beside their mothers’ picnic blankets to grab a snack or sandwich.
 
On the opposite side of the lawn, a
group of men were kneeling beside chairs while they removed sparkling
brass-colored musical instruments from leather cases.
 

“Didn’t I tell you it would
be magnificent?” Elisa whispered over her shoulder.
 

“You were correct,” Chase
answered softly.

To their left stood a large
watering hole.
 
Squeals of children
and adults alike reached them as they leapt into the water and splashed each
other playfully.
 
Chase closed her
eyes and tried to imagine her mother and father enjoying themselves that way,
and the image forced her to suppress a giggle.
 
Her grandmother, on the other hand, was looking longingly
toward the water.

Marcus must have noticed her
expression as well.
 
“Grandmother?”
he suggested, offering her his arm.

She grinned and latched onto
him, and the two of them started toward the swimmers.
 
Reese hesitated a moment and then followed.

“Finally,” Elisa sighed, “a
moment alone.”
 
She took the
blanket she had brought from the house and shook it out.

“Are you feeling a bit
smothered?” Chase asked with a sympathetic smile before taking the blanket from
her hand and spreading it out on the ground herself.
 
With Elisa’s rapidly increasing middle, she was having a
hard time bending and kneeling.
 
Chastity
was happy to be of some use to her.

She shook her head
quickly.
 
“Oh no.
 
I only meant that I’d been hoping to
have some time to speak with you alone since you…galloped up our driveway,” she
laughed.
 

She shaded her eyes and
turned to look for her grandmother.
 
“I know that I’m probably a bit of a shock to you.
 
I didn’t know you well at Rosewood; and
I was a girl then and you were probably paying more attention to my brother
than his bratty little sister.”

Elisa interrupted her.
 
“You haven’t changed since the day my
father and I moved to Rosewood.
 
Stubborn, opinionated, beautiful, and passionate.
 
That isn’t what I have on my mind.
 
It’s something a bit more personal.”

“Oh?”

“When you raced Marcus
toward the house that evening, I couldn’t help but notice Colton Webb’s fascination
with you.
 
He couldn’t take his
eyes off of you.”

Chase stood in silence,
still making a pretense of scanning the crowd for the rest of their
family.
 

“Have you noticed that he
pays quite a bit of attention to you?” she asked with an irritatingly forward
manner.

“Mr. Webb pays attention to
everything and everyone,” she answered, dismissing Elisa’s observation.

“Chase, I want to speak to
you about this…woman to woman,” she added softly.
 
“Not as your brother’s wife.
 
But as a friend who has made some observations and would
like to help you.”

Now she had her full
attention.
 
“Help me?” she
asked.
 
Was she assuming that
Webb’s advances were unwelcome?
 
Did she have some warnings for me against this dangerous womanizer?
 
How did Elisa intend to help her?

“Yes.
 
Help you.
 
Your brother, bless him, is quite dense when it comes to
women.
 
And he’s especially blind
when it comes to his sisters.
 
I
think that he was quite possibly the only person on the porch that evening who
couldn’t sense the tension between you and Colton.
 
He prefers not to see it.
 
He and Colton had a falling out recently, and he doesn’t
have anything good to say about his competitor.”

“I’m aware of that.
 
But really, Elisa, I don’t know what
tension you are referring to.
 
Perhaps you simply—”

“Don’t insult my
intelligence, Chase.
 
I know what I
saw.
 
And before you think that I
am judging you or him, I have to assure you that I’m not.
 
In truth, I have always been fond of
Colton.
 
He’s honest and hard
working.
 
And between you and me,
he’s extremely handsome.”

And
his kisses are capable of melting a woman
, she thought to herself.

“When Marcus told me you
were coming to live with us, would you like to know what my first thought was?”
she asked, trying a different angle.

“That you were looking
forward to the extra help with the baby coming?” she guessed.

Elisa laughed.
 
“That was my second thought.
 
My first thought was that I couldn’t
wait for you to meet Colton.
 
When
I first met him here in Texas, I once asked Marcus if he didn’t agree that he
was the perfect match for you.”

This time, Chase was the one
who laughed.
 
“And what did Marcus
say?”

“He said that if your mother
and father ever managed to find you a husband, he would be a noble, not a
rancher.”
 
She smiled,
remembering.
 
“I had said to him,
‘And you think that Chase, unlike you, would marry the man they selected for
her?’
 
He laughed and said probably
not.
 
I can’t tell you how many
times I started a letter to you intending to tell you about him.”