Blackwood's Woman (5 page)

If he went to her now, would she accept him into her home? Into her bed? Into her body? J.T. shuddered with the force of his longing. Closing his eyes, he breathed deeply, drawing the fresh night air into his lungs. Opening his eyes, he took a last look at Joanna's silhouette in the window, then he closed the double doors, turned around and walked across the room.

He fell into the bed. Lying on top of the covers, he stared up at the dark ceiling.

Only the faint moonlight illuminated his room.

He had to stop thinking about Joanna. He had to stop wanting her. He'd come home for a good, long vacation, the first in years. He wasn't going to allow some debutante to ruin his stay at the ranch. He would steer clear of her and she'd steer clear of him. And he'd make sure Elena didn't interfere.

* * *

Joanna and Elena sat in cane-seated rockers on the front porch of the bunkhouse.

Numerous potted geraniums lined the edge of the wooden porch and a trailing ivy vine sat nestled on a rough-hewn table between the two women. Elena downed the last drops of tea, then set the tall crystal glass on the table.

"So, are you going to tell me what happened between you and J.T. yesterday?"

Elena asked.

Joanna smiled at her friend. She had met Elena and Alex at an art exhibit in Albuquerque. Alex was a sculptor, whose finest work was exquisite pieces of his beautiful young Navajo wife. The three had become instant friends and they had F:/…/Beverly Barton - Blackwood's Wo…

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10/31/2009 tiful young Navajo wife. The three had bec Blackwood's Woman ome instant friends and they had been thrilled to learn that Joanna had only recently moved to Trinidad.

"Come on, Jo. J.T. isn't talking." Elena crossed her arms over her chest and grunted in disgust. "Sometimes that brother of mine makes me so angry."

"I have a feeling that your brother makes a lot of people angry."

"I thought you two were friends now. That is what you said when you called last night and told me he had come by and apologized."

"We're on friendly terms," Joanna said. "I'm afraid we got off to a bad start when we met. We offended each other."

"How?"

"How?" Joanna stared at Elena, whose big brown eyes had widened with her question.

"Yes, how did you and J.T. offend each other?"

"Well … I misunderstood something he said and did. I thought he was… But he wasn't."

"He came on to you, huh?" Elena laughed, creating soft lines around her full lips.

"J.T.'s pretty irresistible to the ladies, and he knows it. What did you do, slap his face?"

"No, I pulled my gun on him."

Elena's laughter filled the air. She doubled over in the rocker as she covered her mouth with her hand. "I love it. I absolutely love it. You pulled your gun on J.T.

Blackwood, who is a private security agent, a former Secret Service agent and an ex-soldier. Good grief, Jo, I'd give a million dollars to have seen the look on his face."

"He was surprised." A hint of a smile played at the corners of Joanna's mouth.

"Okay, so he came on to you and you put him in his place. That's how he offended you. How did you offend him? Did you tell him you didn't find him the least bit interesting and were totally immune to his masculine charms?"

"No. Not exactly." Joanna sipped on her tea, running her fingers up and down the side of the cold, sweating glass. "Despite the fact that I don't like Mr. Blackwood and am not interested in him, I can't say I'm completely immune to him."

"I knew it!" Elena slapped her hands together exuberantly. "You do find him irresistible, don't you?"

"Don't go jumping to conclusions. I just admit that he's very … well, he's very masculine. But I don't like his type, Elena, and I told him so."

"Hey, I can't believe J.T.'s ego is so fragile he couldn't take a rejection. Come on.

Give. There has to be more to it than that."

"He said you wanted to find him a wife and I said I wasn't available. He took it the wrong way. He thought I was prejudiced, that I wasn't interested because he was part Navajo." Joanna looked down at her lap, uncertain she could face her friend. "I tried to explain, but he wouldn't listen. He said it didn't make any difference."

"That idiot! He's my brother and I love him dearly, but sometimes…" Elena laid her small hand on Joanna's shoulder. "J.T.'s all mixed up about a lot of things concerning his heritage. He's not really a white man and he's not really a Navajo. I think that's one of the reasons he left Trinidad and the ranch when he was eighteen and joined the army. No matter how hard his grandfather tried to erase everything Navajo from J.T.'s life and from his memories, that part of him still existed."

"Perhaps there's more to it than that." Joanna caught Elena's hand and squeezed.

"Maybe some woman he loved broke his heart by refusing to marry him because he was part Native American."

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"I can assure you that no one has ever broken J.T.'s heart. He's never been in love."

Elena sighed. "I'm not sure J.T. knows how to love. His grandfather gave him everything money could buy, but he never gave him any love and warmth or genuine caring."

"He must have been a very sad, lonely little boy growing up with such a stem old man." Joanna did not want to think of J.T. as a child—an unloved, emotionally neglected little boy.

"Our childhoods were so different," Elena said. "I grew up on the reservation. My father farmed and raised a few sheep. We never had much money, but we were happy and I was loved by my parents. And I was taught a fierce pride in my Navajo heritage."

"And your brother grew up here, on his grandfather's ranch. Wealthy and unhappy."

"The only unhappiness in our lives, before my father died, was Mother's sadness in having lost her son."

"Elena?"

"Yes?"

"I noticed Mr. Bl—your brother wears a silver-and-turquoise ring. Do you know where he got that ring?"

"I wondered how long it would take you to ask about the ring," Elena said.

"You noticed, too, didn't you, that his ring is identical to mine?" Joanna held up her right hand; afternoon sunshine glinted off the ring's surface.

"The first time I met you, I saw your ring. I wondered about it, but didn't ask. I thought perhaps you'd bought it somewhere out here in New Mexico, and several times, after we became friends, I wanted to say something to you about the ring."

Elena reached over and traced circles around the three turquoise stones adorning the ring. "I thought it was an odd coincidence. I've never seen another ring identical to the ones you and J.T. wear."

"Where did he get his ring?"

"Where did you get yours?" Elena asked. "Did you buy it after you came to New Mexico?"

"No. The ring has been in my family for years."

"Ah. I see. And J.T.'s ring has been in our family for years."

Joanna's wildly beating heart soared. J.T. was related to Benjamin Greymountain.

Somehow she'd already known. But how was it possible that two men, related by blood, could be so very different?

"Whose ring does J.T. wear?" The moment she'd said his name, she wished she could call it back. Calling him J.T. seemed far too intimate. By referring to him as Mr. Blackwood, she could keep an emotional distance.

"When my mother grew very sick and we knew she was dying, J.T. came to the reservation to see her. I was fifteen and had never met my brother. But the moment I saw him, I knew him." Elena's eyes glazed with tears. "I hadn't seen the ring before that day, but my mother had kept it—saved it—for her son. The ring had belonged to her father and his father before him. Her grandfather was a silversmith."

"What was your mother's name before she married?" Joanna asked.

"Mary Greymountain from the Bitter Water clan."

"Greymountain?"

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10/31/2009 na nodded. "You have heard this name b Blackwood's Woman efore … before you came to New Mexico?"

"Yes. My great-grandparents knew a Navajo silversmith named Benjamin Greymountain—"

"My great-grandfather!"

"Yes. Your great-grandfather—J.T.'s great-grandfather—made this ring." Joanna lifted her right hand with her left and stared at the silver-and-turquoise band. "This ring belonged to my great-grandmother."

"Ah. That's why you came to New Mexico, to Trinidad, to paint. You came in search of the ring's mate, didn't you? You knew Benjamin Greymountain had made an identical ring for himself. There was love between my great-grandfather and the woman he made the ring for. Isn't that true?"

"Yes. I have her diary. My great-grandmother. Annabelle Beaumont. She wore this ring until the day she died. I found it in a leather pouch when I found the diary."

"You wear Annabelle Beaumont's ring and J.T. wears Benjamin Greymountain's ring," Elena said. "It is a sign, is it not? I knew, somehow, when I saw your ring, that you were the woman for my brother."

"But I'm not, Elena," Joanna protested. "Your brother is cold and hard and cynical. He's filled with a rage that frightens me. I'm not the woman for him. I want

—I need—a gentle, kind man. A man who wouldn't try to control me, to possess me, to exert power over me."

"J.T. needs a sweet, tender woman to teach him how to love." Elena smiled at Joanna. "You could be that woman, if you're brave enough to try to tame the devil."

"I'm not that brave."

Elena turned her head at the sound of horse hooves. Joanna looked up just as J.T.

rode by on his big Appaloosa. He glanced at the two women, nodded and tipped his hat. For one brief moment, his golden brown eye met Joanna's green glare. Heat suffused her body. Tremors racked her stomach.

He rode on, not looking back. Joanna jumped up out of the rocker and walked inside her house. Elena glanced from her brother's retreating back to the open front door through which Joanna had disappeared.

Chapter 3

« ^ »

J
.T. Blackwood had been home exactly one week when Elena finally persuaded Joanna to come to dinner. Joanna had known it was a mistake from the moment she'd agreed, but she also knew that Elena wouldn't leave her in peace until she accepted. Although she and J.T. had done everything possible to avoid each other, an occasional encounter had been unavoidable. And Elena, more convinced now than ever that Joanna was
the woman
for her brother, had taken every opportunity to throw the two of them together.

J.T. had shown up on the trail Joanna took for her morning horseback ride.

They'd both gotten a good laugh over the fact that Elena had been the one to suggest the trail to J.T., saying he hadn't ridden over that part of the ranch in years. But J.T.

had decided to finish his ride by taking another trail, and Joanna had been greatly relieved.

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Elena had tried to turn a routine trip into town for groceries into a foursome luncheon date. When Joanna realized J.T. had been included in their plans, she'd apologized for changing her mind at the last minute and stayed at home. She'd driven into Trinidad by herself the following day to pick up her art supplies.

J.T. had only one more week of vacation. Surely she could survive another week. If she could live through tonight's dinner, all she had to do was continue avoiding the man. Maybe now would be a good time to take another trip. She'd been thinking about going back to the reservation to work. One of Elena's cousins, Joseph Ornelas, had promised to introduce her to the old shaman, James Bonito, who, people claimed, was a hundred and ten years old. She'd give anything to paint the man. She could leave tomorrow and stay away until J.T. had returned to Atlanta.

Tonight was the first time she and J.T. had agreed, beforehand, to see each other.

Joanna berated herself for taking so long to get ready for a simple dinner with friends. She didn't want to admit that what J.T. Blackwood thought about her actually mattered to her. But it did.

Had Annabelle Beaumont worried so about her appearance when she had sneaked off for her clandestine meetings with Benjamin Greymountain? Had her heart drummed so fiercely? Had her nerves rioted in fear and anticipation?

What had it been like, Joanna wondered, to have Benjamin as a secret lover?

What would it be like to have J.T. as a lover?

Joanna shook her head, loosening her French twist. Damn, what a thought! She didn't want J.T. to be her lover. When she took a lover, he would be kind, understanding and tender. He would be the exact opposite of J.T. Blackwood. She wanted and needed a man who would allow her to set the pace, to be in control, to take charge. J.T. would possess her without loving her. He would take her with fury and passion, but without his heart ever being involved. He would always be the one with the power. Joanna could never allow a man to have power over her, to bend her to his will.

Busily, she adjusted her hair, curling the loose tendrils about her face, softening the severity of the French twist. She checked her appearance in the mirror one last time, and approved of the image she saw reflected. She'd chosen to wear a thin chambray skirt with a ruffle around the ankle-length hem, and matched it with a simple short-sleeved white blouse. She picked up the silver-and-turquoise belt she'd bought from a Navajo silversmith and slipped it around her waist.

She took her time walking from the bunkhouse to the main house, humming to herself—something she'd done since childhood to shore up her courage. For the first time since she'd arrived in Trinidad, Joanna Beaumont regretted coming to New Mexico.

She had found a peace here she'd thought she would never know again, and she'd built a successful career doing something she loved. Her life had been content. Why hadn't J.T. Blackwood stayed in Atlanta for the rest of his life, or at least continued to avoid her as he'd done the past few years?