A Restless Wind (27 page)

     “That new sheriff sure isn’t having any trouble knowing what to say to her.”

     Jesse looked around at Pierce who had removed his hat and was brushing his hair back.  He replaced the hat.

     “She’s never alone,”  Jesse said, frustration finally finding expression in his voice.

     Pierce shrugged.  “Then you don’t have any choice.  You’ll have to force your way through a crowd.”

     Jesse lifted a dark brow as he thought it over.  He finally sighed and shook his head slowly, one corner of his mouth quirking into a faint smile.  He looked at the man beside him and said,  “There are a few things I have to do first.”

     When Hetty awoke that morning, it was to see the ground covered with white.  But the snow that had come so suddenly late last night was quickly melting away under the bright morning sun.   Streams of melting snow ran along the road ditches.  The road itself was a mass of muddy hoof prints and deep wagon wheel tracks.

     It was late in the year but it felt like Spring.  It was warm enough to sit on Amaline’s front porch.  Sunlight poured onto the porch, gleaming on the wood floor as Hetty sat on the swing, slowly rocking it back and forth.

     Amiline had sold her other house and bought this smaller one across town.  Sara was there with her daughter.  So was Lieta and Pierce.  Adalia Sweet and Alva Peasley, out for a morning stroll, had just joined them.

     Hetty got to her feet, and standing at the rail, lifted her face to the sound of wild geese flying overhead.  Their cries grew louder as they passed directly overhead.

     So much had happened.  There were so many changes.  Everyone was busy planning Pierce and Lieta’s wedding.  And Sara had gotten reacquainted with the father she had not seen since she was a very young girl.  Amiline was still getting settled in her new home.

     After four weeks it seemed that Hetty’s life was the only one that had not changed.  It was settling back into the same old patterns.  Of course, some things had irrevocably changed.  It had been four weeks since she had seen Jesse.  Four long weeks.

     After recovering from his wounds, he had ridden away from Eminence and she hadn’t heard from him since.  Not a single word.

     She had shamelessly thrown herself at him.  And now?  Apparently, after
fooling
with her, he couldn’t even give her the time of day.  Or he would have come to her by now.

     He had found time to visit with Sara.  And the Forbes.  But he had avoided her.  That’s what he was doing.  Avoiding her.  Four weeks.

     She watched the tiny specks of the geese disappear into the distance.  The migratory flight of the birds seemed to be telling her something, too.  The geese knew it was time to move on.  Why couldn’t she understand that?

     “This weather won’t last,”  she heard Alva Peasley say.  “People are saying it’s going to be a long, hard winter.”

     “It seems like everyone is out on the street,”  Adalia Sweet commented as she watched the passers-by.

     It was true.  Neighbors were visiting.  Children were having snowball fights. 

     “And look, here comes Jesse McLaren,”  Amiline informed them all.

     Hetty couldn’t help looking, too.  As she caught sight of Jesse, her heart did a strange little leap.  He brought his black horse to a halt at the edge of the veranda.  The morning light was full upon him as he sat not fifteen feet away from her.   He tipped his hat
to Sara.  And to Lieta.  He greeted the other women sitting on the veranda.  And Pierce.

     “Morning, Mrs. Sweet.”

     Adalia bristled without returning the greeting.

     He nodded politely to Alva who hesitated before stiffly returning the nod.  As for Hetty, his gaze merely lingered on her for a moment or two.

     He didn’t ride on.  He remained at the rail.  He removed his hat and raked his fingers through hair that gleamed black as a raven’s wing in the morning sunlight.  He rested his hat on his knee as he exchanged pleasantries with Amiline, and laughed at something Sara was saying to him.  The low, quiet sound of his laughter made Hetty’s gaze linger against her will.

     “Won’t you have a glass of lemonade with us, Mr. McLaren?”  Amiline invited.

     “We have a pitcher of sweet tea, as well,”  Lieta informed him.

     “I was hoping you would ask me to join you,”  he said.

     Adalia Sweet gasped.  Alva’s hand went to her bodice.  But that didn’t stop Jesse from throwing one long leg over the front of his saddle and sliding to the ground.

     His spurs jangled softly as he climbed the porch steps.  He stopped in the square of sunlight on the porch, tall and broad-shouldered and heart-stoppingly
handsome.  His range coat was open and he was holding his hat at his side.

     “You’re always welcome here, Mr. McLaren,”  Lieta informed him.  “What brings you to Eminence this morning?”

     “Why, the company of the town’s most charming women, I believe, is enough to bring any man running.”

     Amiline laughed lightly while Lieta poured a glass of lemonade.

     “We haven’t seen you in a while, Mr. McLaren,”  Lieta remarked pleasantly as she handed the glass to him.

     Leaning against the rail behind him, Jesse held the glass and said,  “I’ve been up to Wolf Ridge.  I had some business there.”

     “And did you take care of your business?”  Amiline asked.

     Hetty stole another glance at Jesse from beneath her lashes.  She noted that his hair had been recently trimmed, though it was still worn roguishly long.  Long enough to curl over the collar of his range coat.  He was also cleanly shaven.  She remembered when she had lovingly kissed that jaw.  And how-

     She quickly pushed the disturbing thoughts away, and looked at Pierce who sat on the rail with his hands resting idly between his knees.  Lazily interested in the talk around him, Pierce was listening to Jesse.

     “Everything’s taken care of,”  Jesse said, sidling a glance in Pierce’s direction.

     Pierce nodded, his strong profile highlighted by the sunlight.  Hetty thought she detected a faint smile before Pierce turned his face aside.

     She glanced across the road in time to see the curtains of Neva Mendenhall’s parlor window flicker slightly.  She looked back at Jesse as he conversed with the other women.

     “That’s what a bad reputation will do to a man, I reckon,”  he replied to something Lieta had asked him.

     Hetty learned that Jesse had gone up North to buy some cattle, was surprised to learn that he was forming a partnership with Pierce and John Forbes.

     “I think I did very well,”  he said and took another sip of lemonade.

     “Did you?”  Sara spoke up.  “I expect before long you will acquire a reputation as a respectable cattle rancher.”

     Jesse breathed another soft laugh.  “I’m working on it.”

     He pulled up a chair and sat down across from Hetty.  She drew her dress aside.  He was being presumptuous, she thought.  And improper.  Adalia Sweet had noticed it.  Her mouth was pinched so tightly together, it looked like a crowbar couldn’t pry it open.

     Hetty sat down in one of the porch chairs, a little further away from Jesse.  She might have thrown herself shamelessly at the man in the past, but that didn’t give him the right to sit so close to her.  For four entire weeks he had avoided her.  What was she supposed to think?

     She was supposed to think the truth.  That he had bedded her and then he’d moved on.  Forgotten about her.  It made her think the man really was a wolf with women. 

     When Hetty caught Jesse staring at her, she lowered her gaze.  Against her will she felt a warm stirring of desire rise up when she recalled the passion they had shared.  Is that what a mere look from the man did to her?  Still did to her?

      “Even outlaws can settle down,”  Sara was saying.  “Eventually.”

     “You’re right, Sara,”  Lieta agreed.

     “I know of one or two,”  Pierce joined in.

     The conversation was completely beyond Hetty.  It was as if they all shared some secret and she was the only one left out.

     She looked around at every one of them.  Sara hid a smile.  And so did Lieta.  Amiline shared a glance with Pierce.

     As for Jesse, he was looking directly at her.  The slight breeze teased his black hair.  And, in spite of her resolve to be unaffected by him, his smile melted her insides very much like the snow was melting right now from the rooftops.

     Jesse’s look lingered.  It was entirely too intimate.  Hetty reminded herself that it had been four weeks.

     She walked to the far rail, her wide skirts sweeping up gold- and rust-colored leaves as she moved.  She turned and watched Jesse from a safer distance.

     But he rose from his chair.  Following her across the porch, he leaned against the rail beside her.  Again, something stirred inside her at his very potent nearness.

     Stop this, Hetty told herself sternly.  He can’t just walk back into my life and act as if the past four weeks had never happened.  What did he want from her?  she asked herself, even while she was afraid to know the answer.

     “Well, here’s to new beginnings, Mr. McLaren,”  Amiline said and lifted her glass of lemonade in a toast.

     The warmth of the sunshine pooled around Hetty.  And Jesse standing beside her.  He turned and looked straight at her.  She did her best to avoid looking back at him.  Really, she thought, his boldness was completely disconcerting.

     Jesse watched how the sunlight lit Hetty’s copper-tinged hair.  Her familiar scent, like sweet elderberry flowers, wrapped itself around him.  He knew he couldn’t live without her.  He knew he needed her in his future as much as he needed his next breath.  Maybe he had known it all along.

     He noticed that the curtains moved in the window across the street.  The whole town would talk, of course.  But he didn’t give a damn.  He also noted that as he watched Hetty, her chin lifted the slightest bit.  The time for
foolin’
really was over.

     “I was out talking to your uncle this morning,”  he said to her.

     “Were you?”  Hetty asked, surprised.

     “I was.”

     “You talked to him about cattle, I suppose?”

     “Yes, about that.  And about something more important to me.”  He looked straight into her eyes, never wavering, never hesitating.

     “I wanted him to know that my intentions toward you will always be entirely honorable.”

     Her brows lifted as she stared at him.  She didn’t know what to say.

     “I asked him for permission to call on you.”

     “Permission to
what
?” 

     “Call on you,”  he repeated.

     “And his answer?”  she asked.

     “He thought maybe you needed some time for settling in before I approached you.  But when I rode by here, I got impatient to see you.  I can be impatient sometimes.  Impulsive you might call it.”

     “Did you.”  Hetty ignored Adalia Sweet who was staring at them in disbelief, with her scrawny neck stretched out exactly like a vulture.

     “I did.”

     Hetty’s gaze shifted away from Jesse to the shadows of the leaves dancing on the wall in the sunshine.  She glanced around at the other people on the porch.  There was no help there.  Amiline had her embroidery hoop in her lap.  Sara was braiding her daughter’s hair.  Lieta and Pierce were sitting close together and talking amongst themselves.  No one seemed the least bit interested in Jesse’s announcement. 

     “And have you thought what people would say?”  she asked, beginning to realize their complicity.

     “Some people would condemn, of course.”  He looked into her eyes.  “But mostly I’m wondering what you would think.”

     “What I-  ?”  she faltered and looked around once again.  “I seem to be on my own here,”  she said.

     “There’s a chance for an argument there,”  he said enigmatically.

     She stared at him, thoroughly confused.

     “I know my reputation was bad,”  he went on.  “And I’m not saying that I didn’t earn some of it.  A good part of it.”

     Adalia was staring down at her glass as if she had just discovered that the lemonade was sour.  She looked up again as Jesse reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a brown paper package tied with twine.  He handed it to Hetty.

     Hetty stared down at the package as she took it into her hands, but didn’t say anything.  She lifted her face, questioning.

     “While I was up North, I picked up some flower seeds for you.”

     “Flower seeds?”  she echoed.

     He nodded.  “Hollyhocks and sweet Williams and some others.”

     Amiline’s fingers were poised over her needlework.