Deborah Camp (44 page)

“No, of course not, but one can’t keep this sort of thing under wraps. Our bank would be most happy to sublease and take care of all of this for you. You’d be given a stipend and—”

“Why in name of all that’s holy would I settle for a stipend when the whole dang thing belongs to me in the
first place?” she asked sharply. Boone cleared his throat and wiped his face again.

“I’m trying to save you from the aggravation of—”

“Making money is an aggravation I’m looking forward to, thank you kindly,” she said with a saucy smile.

“Quit interrupting!” He slammed a fist against the table and the condiment jars danced in place.

Cassie stared openmouthed at him while an inner voice warned her not to push Boone too far. He might break, the voice reasoned, and the last time he broke Shorty Potter was shot in the back and left to bleed to death. She glanced around as if her attention had been elsewhere during his outburst. Then she smiled disarmingly at her flushed dinner companion.

“Forgive me, Boone. What were you saying to me?” Her voice was as smooth and soothing as aged bourbon.

“I’m sorry for raising my voice to you,” Boone said, relaxing visibly as he gathered in a deep breath and exhaled it. “But this is important. A diamond mine isn’t the same thing as raising chickens or taking in stray dogs. Diamonds are big business and not meant to be handled by a lady like yourself. You need a man to deal with this, and I’m offering my services. A sublease is the best way to go. You’ll be given a fair amount and you won’t have to worry your pretty head about anything other than what you’re going to spend your money on.” He chuckled and patted her hand where it rested on the table. “Just don’t spend it all in one place, sweetheart.”

Cassie left her hand where it was, although she had the urge to wipe it as if it had been contaminated.

“I won’t,” she promised with a smile that wasn’t quite genuine. “You’re saying the bank would lease my mine and work it for me?”

“That’s right,” Boone said enthusiastically, pleased that her inferior feminine intellect had finally grasped the intricacies of his business deal.

“And the bank would pay me for the lease,” she went on.

“Right, right.” Boone pumped his head up and down in
approbation as if he was encouraging a child who had just counted to ten for the first time. “Easy as pie!”

“How much?”

His head stopped bobbing for apples. “How much what?”

“How much would the bank pay me?”

“Well, that all depends. But it would be a fair price.”

“Give me an around-about figure,” she urged.

“Mining for diamonds is expensive,” Boone began, “and the bank would have to pay the cost of it. We’d probably be able to pay you four or five hundred for the lease.”

Cassie smiled, but Boone didn’t notice that the smile never reached her eyes.

“That’s a lot of money,” Boone said. “More than you’ve ever had at one time, right?”

“Right.” Her beaded purse was in her lap and Cassie held onto it, needing something to occupy her hands. She wanted to slap Boone’s face or, better yet, scratch his eyes out for treating her like an imbecile. “But I was thinking I’d let another friend help me.”

“What friend?”

“Jewel.”

“The town whore?”
Boone’s voice cracked and he craned his neck forward until he looked like a turtle coming out of its shell.

“She might be the town whore to you, but she’s my friend,” Cassie reminded him. “What’s more, she’s a businesswoman and knows all about fair prices and the like.”

“But she doesn’t have a bank behind her!”

“No, she has several.” She waited a moment to let that sink in. “I believe she banks at your family’s establishment and she has accounts in Fort Smith, Chicago, and New Orleans.”

“But—but—but she’s a woman!” Boone argued, spewing spittle in her direction.

Cassie blinked and leaned back in her chair, amused by his babbling. “That she is, and so am I. I trust her.”

“And you don’t trust me?” he asked, partly challenging and partly mocking.

“I haven’t known you as long as I’ve known Jewel,” Cassie said noncommittally. “I’m going to tell Jewel about the mine tomorrow.”

“She’s coming out to see you?”

“No. I’m coming into town again tomorrow afternoon.”

“We’ll have to see each again,” he said, scowling at the white linen tablecloth. Then he looked up as another notion struck him. “A bank offers more security than any individual. I don’t think you’re using good sense.” He wiggled a finger at her. “I must say this, Cassie. You don’t have a head for business. You must allow me to intervene for you. We’re friends, and I can’t allow you to go to a woman of questionable standards with information such as this.”

Cassie glanced in the direction of the dining-room windows and saw that it was dark outside. She wondered if Boone had realized his slip of the tongue a moment ago when he’d noted that he’d
have
to see her again if she came into town tomorrow. Not want. Have to. Such a chore, she thought with a tiny sigh. That’s what she was and always had been to Boone Rutledge. A task he dreaded.

“It’s getting late. I should be heading back.” She placed her hand on the edge of the table and had started to rise from her chair when Boone reached across and put his hand over hers.

“Wait! I want an answer.”

“To what?” Cassie asked.

“The sublease.”

“No. I don’t care for that idea. I’m sorry, Boone, but I think Jewel will be a good—”

“Marry me!”

“Wh-what?” She laughed the word. “Boone, be serious!”

“I am serious.” His hand was a vise on hers. “We’ll get married this week. I love you. I’m desperate to have you!”

Desperate, maybe. Cassie smiled at her own thought but shook her head firmly at Boone and forcibly removed her
hand from under his. He’d held it so tightly that her skin was white where his fingers had cut off the circulation.

“This is all too sudden and my head is spinning,” she admitted, rising from the chair and forcing him to follow suit. “I can’t think about marriage right now. I’ve got too much on my mind.”

“That’s the point,” he said, cupping her elbow in one hand and urging her across the dining room and out into the hotel lobby. “As your husband I’ll take over those responsibilities and decisions. You won’t have to worry your—”

“Pretty little head,” she finished for him. “So you’ve told me.” Cassie stepped outside and breathed deeply of the fresh, quickly cooling air. “Will you walk with me to the livery stable? I left my rig there.”

He nodded, frowning at his own whirling thoughts, and set a brisk pace down the numerous steps to the street below. Cassie almost had to trot to keep up with him; she knew he was walking off steam and searching his mind desperately for an alternate plan at the same time. She also knew that he would eventually come upon the only solution she would leave for him. It would be a while before his “superior” intelligence would be able to catch up with her “inferior” female intellect.

They reached the livery in thoroughbred time, leaving dust clouds behind them. Pulling Cassie up short and almost dislocating her shoulder in the process, Boone made his final attempt at wooing her.

“I thought that you loved me.” His lower lip protruded past his overhanging mustache. “Were you merely toying with my emotions?”

“Of course not!” Cassie rolled her eyes in abject exasperation. “I told you I didn’t expect a proposal. A woman has to think about these things carefully.”

Boone pushed back his coattails, shoved his hands into his trouser pockets, and rocked back on his heels. “Just like a woman,” he coded. “She has to think long and hard about a marriage proposal, but a business proposal?” He shrugged in what was almost a belligerent manner. “For that she makes up her mind plenty quick, as if it were of
no importance.” Thrusting his face close to hers, Boone lowered his voice to a near-threatening tone. “This decision will affect your whole life, Cassie. Don’t take my offer lightly!”

“I’m not.” Cassie walked into the livery stable and addressed the stable hand. “That buckboard and swaybacked gelding are mine. Hitch him up for me, will you?”

“Yes, ma’am. Have him ready in no time.” The youngster ran over to Hector and began urging the lumbering horse toward the buckboard.

“How much do I owe you?” Cassie called to him as she dipped her hand into her purse, paying no heed to Boone’s sighing and spoiled-child posturing.

“Two bits, ma’am.”

“Two bits! That’s robbery!”

The boy shrugged. “We fed your horse some oats.”

“Were they dipped in silver?” Cassie shot back.

“I’ll pay the two bits, for crying out loud!” Boone said, fishing the money out of his pocket and flipping one coin after another toward the boy, who caught each in midair.

“I don’t want you paying my bills,” Cassie protested. “If you’re such a good businessman, you should know that two bits is way too much for the care of a—” She snapped off the rest of her tirade, realizing that she was offending Boone. She strove to correct her mistake with a smile and a downward sweep of her lashes. “You know best, of course. What do I know of livery prices? I didn’t even have a horse until lately.”

“That’s better,” he said approvingly and sandwiched one of her hands between his. “Now, about my marriage proposal. We could be so very happy. I know my family will love you as much as I do.”

Don’t bet on it, Cassie told him silently.

“We’ll move into our own house in town and you’ll have my sons and daughters—”

I shudder at the thought.

“—and you can devote yourself to giving us a happy home—”

And that will give meaning to my wretched life?

“—and we’ll sell off Shorty’s land outside of town—”

At a fair price, I’d reckon. Fair to you, anyways.

“—because you won’t be needing it.”

Thanks for making that decision for me and saving my pretty little head to hang bonnets on.

“So, what do you say?”

Is it my turn to speak, Mastah Boone?

“Cassie, I asked you a question.” He squeezed her hand until she thought her bones would crumble into powder.

“It sounds lovely, but I have to sleep on it.” She was giddy with relief when the livery hand brought Hector and her buckboard. “Boone, I have to go now. I’ve got a long ride home.”

“Promise you’ll think about my offer?”

“Yes.”
Anything
. Just let go of my hand before you mangle it! She breathed a sigh of relief when he released her hand to cup her elbow and help her up onto the buckboard seat. “Thank you,” she said graciously. She took up the reins, barely resisting the urge to flap them wildly and scream, “Giddyap! Let’s go while the going’s good!”

“You’ll have an answer for me tomorrow? I’ll come out to your place and—”

“No,” she said, cutting off his suggestion. “I’ll tell you my decision when I come to town to visit Jewel tomorrow.”

“What?” He stumbled backward as if she’d punched him in the gut. “You’re not going to tell that woman about … about …”—he glanced over his shoulder to make sure the stable boy wasn’t within hearing distance—“about the diamonds, are you?” he finished in a hissing whisper.

“Yes. I told you I’d set my mind on that.”

“But if we marry—”

“Jewel will be your partner as well as mine,” Cassie said with a bright smile.

The blood drained from his face, leaving his skin ashen except for the reddish freckles. He balled his hands into fists at his sides and his eyes burned with a hellish fire. Cassie kept smiling, although her lips felt wooden. Little
by little she had prodded and pushed Boone to this point. She knew exactly what he was thinking and feeling, and she knew beyond any doubt that her plan was on its way to completion.

As she expected, Boone nodded decisively but made no further attempt to detain her.

“Take care on your way home,” he cautioned, touching two fingers to his brow in a salute that had a finality to it which made Cassie’s blood run cold.

“Good evening, Boone.” She released the brake and flicked the reins. Hector set off with a jiggle, a jangle, and a jolt. “I had a lovely time!” she called over her shoulder before the darkness swallowed her.

Cassie was grateful for the long ride home because she had much to think about and minute details to sort through. Her plan was not complex, but it called for a large dose of courage on her part. She reasoned that she might have to kill Boone to save her own life and she wondered if she’d have the backbone to commit such a sin.

“You’ll have to do it,” she told herself, making Hector lay back his ears in an effort to hear what he thought was a command. “If it’s your life or his, you’ll have to kill him.”

She’d never shot anyone before, although Shorty had told her not to hesitate if she was ever threatened.

“Don’t wait to see the whites of their eyes,” her pa used to say. “Shoot the bastards and then eyeball ’em after the smoke clears.”

Being told to defend herself and doing it were two different things, a more gentle voice pointed out to her. Taking a man’s life in cold blood! A lady just didn’t—

“I ain’t no lady!”

Hector broke into a grudging trot, thinking that Cassie’s strident tone was meant for him. She tugged back on the reins and he gratefully resumed his plodding stride.

No, by gum, a lady she wasn’t. Not that type, anyways. Not the type who’d lay down like some beat dog and let some bully lord it over her. The same bully who’d smashed her world into smithereens by murdering her sweet, harmless pa!

She might end up in hell over it, but if killing Boone Rutledge was the only way she could make him pay for shooting Shorty, then she’d do it. She’d kill him dead and not regret it for a minute!

Rook remained supine in bed where he and Cassie had rediscovered each other on a new and more committed level. He grinned happily, thinking over each delicious minute and feeling sixteen again. He went over all the things he wanted to tell her the next day and wished to hell she was with him that very second so that he wouldn’t have to keep every wonderful sensation he was feeling bottled up. He might not have the courage tomorrow to confess how deliriously happy he was to have been her first lover and that he wished she had been his. If he had it to do over again, he knew now that he would gladly save himself for a woman like Cassie, because he’d discovered that loving meant so much more when the intentions were honorable and everlasting.