Hell's Belle (29 page)

"So you've
stayed here before?"

"Yep, but I
never got to sit a spell."

Twila blinked in
confusion. He was behaving as though they were in their own home. This was
exactly the sort of conversation they'd have by the fire. "Sitting for a
spell" with Del Mitchell usually meant sparking and fondling. The prelude
to what would follow in bed.

"Sit a
spell?" she repeated.

Del grinned.
"Nobody's going to come knocking again, honey. We got our supper. Told
Anderson we'd be leaving by sunup. It's just us, all nice and cozy. Those
Vogels were decent folks and the guestroom was fine and all, but it was a
little awkward there. I know you wanted to stay over another night, but I
wanted—Twila? What is it? Are you truly feeling so poorly?"

He'd crossed the
small cabin to place his hands on her waist. Twila dragged her gaze up to his
face, seeing a mask of worry and concern.

Now, Twila. Get
it said while there are no young men like Henry Dobbs to overhear or give you
funny glances. Just settle it now. Tonight.

"I saw you at
the social, Del. You and that woman. Betty…wasn't that her name? Betty
something. The one you meant to marry. The one you remodeled your house
for."

"Oh." He
released Twila's waist and stalked to the hearth, scowling as he prodded the
burning logs with a piece of iron bar. "Hard to believe I'd run into her,
wasn't it? Spent all day scouring the damned town looking for Lucius and had to
turn the place inside out to find him, but the one person in that whole city
I'd never want to lay eyes on—"

"Where was
Lucius? Goodness, I forgot! You said he'd make his own way home, but you never
said what had detained him."

"Game of
cards, just like you figured. In a…well, a highfalutin' kind of establishment. Heard
he was winning big. Guess that's why he forgot about meeting us at the Vogels.
Sent a note to him when I took Caramel. He knows we've already started
back."

Twila made a
pretense of studying a stain on her skirts. "So I was right. It was
Betty."

"Twila, I
really don't want to talk about it. She's never been anything but a sore
subject, and—"

"She still
loves you, Delancy! I saw her talking to you. Saw how she had her hand on your
chest, the way she looked into your eyes." Tears clogged Twila's voice,
made a mockery of the brave front she tried to put on.

"
Twila
."

She wouldn't look
over at him. Then she felt his hand brush the hair on her nape, felt his lips
graze lightly over the tender flesh normally guarded by the curtain of tresses
around her shoulders. "I don't love
her
. I love you."

Her head jerked up.
"But she's the one you courted. You settled for me afterward, because you
felt sorry for me. And now there's a child to think about. I know you wouldn't—"

He hushed her
torrent of words with a kiss. A simple, slow, chaste kiss that made her
tremble, forced her eyelids to close against the tears. Forced her hands to
clutch at her skirts. It promised too much, that simple kiss.

"One minute of
staring at you across a floor littered with broken window glass and clothespins
was worth a month of courting Betty Lee."

Twila had to open
her eyes then. Had to see the truth of that statement. How could he possibly be
serious? Betty was everything Twila had never been—beautiful, confident,
intensely sexual in her appeal.

"I mean it,
Twilagleam. You make me feel more alive in the space between one heartbeat and
the next than she ever did. Everything revolved around Betty Lee. Flowers for
her, rides in the country for her, peppermint sticks for her. Everything
she
liked,
she
wanted. She liked having me known around Wadsworth as her fellow.
She liked the notion of us married and settled down together…or so she led me
to believe. But if there was ever truth behind that, it wasn't the same notion
I had of a life together."

Del swallowed and
glanced away, staring at a spot across the room before lowering his eyes to
meet Twila's gaze. "She told me the real reason she left was that she'd
been involved with someone else. I wasn't the only man she'd been intimate with."

Twila frowned.
"But I saw her face, Del. She truly still cares for you."

"Oh, that's
what she said, all right. But she left because she didn't think it would be
right to go ahead and wed me, since she'd been carrying on all along with
someone else behind my back. A man on my payroll."

"Oh,
Del!"

"A man who had
no intention of letting a minor thing like marriage vows put a stop to their
fun. Betty said she thought it was better to leave me at the altar than take
vows she'd only break. And she was certain the affair would go on, because she
was so enthralled. She said he was the kind who could make people do things. Bad
things. Nobody stood up to him. She reckoned she wouldn't have, either. Because
this particular fella was known for troublemaking and a gift of persuasion."

"
Jordan
?"
Twila squeaked out in horror. "She was talking about Jordan, wasn't she?
Oh, my God. He was your closest friend, Delancy."

Del abruptly put
his boots back on, claiming he needed to go outside. Call of nature. Twila knew
he needed a few moments of privacy. She nodded.

He opened the door
to the shack and stepped outside, but stopped. "She never named the man
outright. But that's the way she described him, and I'll be damned if it
doesn't fit. He scoffed at me once, saying if I'd had my eyes open, Betty Lee
never would have been able to deceive me, make me into a complete fool. And he
was right, cause I never saw it."

"I'm so sorry,
Del."

"I thought the
worst of it was her taking off with some fancy gambler." He snorted
sarcastically. "That wasn't even
close
to the worst of it. I
believe she really had been sleeping with Jordan Zoyer, that cocky bastard. My
eyes are open now, and I still mourn him anyway. How pathetic is that?"

She watched him
disappear into the trees and thought it wasn't pathetic at all. Astonishing,
yes. She couldn't believe Del could have listened to such a disgusting tale from
that woman. The harlot! Admitting she'd cuckolded him with one of his own men.
Twila couldn't believe it.

Delancy Mitchell
must have stood in line twice when they were handing out patience, she mused.
She'd never known another man as uniquely tolerant yet irascible as Del. For
all that he could be brash and decisive, he would give a horse a year until it
chose to trust him. He could lead one anywhere, without the need to jerk on its
reins. He could champion a confused female with little to offer, except instincts
where he was concerned.

She'd sensed that
first day at the Bell Emporium that he wasn't just another sauntering cowboy. He
was more than a devilishly handsome fellow admired by local prostitutes. She'd
sensed the honor and patience inside him, instantly believed and accepted that
he'd return to pay for the damages to the store. She'd never doubted that. His
honor would require it.

Perhaps it took
someone as unusual as he was to put faith in a female whose own family referred
to her so ungraciously. So coldly. Smirking at the nasty moniker they'd given
her, Hell's Bell. She wasn't a Bell anymore. Del wasn't still taken with his
old lover—in fact, he'd just been hurt by her again.

Things had changed,
in several ways. The accursed necklace was back with its owners. Del wasn't
pining over his past. They had a new life with a child on the way.

Twila removed her
clothes and slipped into bed on the cot. There were several blankets and a
quilt. She was drowsy but not yet asleep when he finally returned to the shack
and started undressing himself. She watched his muscles flex and admired his
taut nude buttocks as he squatted to tend the fire. Then he turned toward the
cot. Twila opened her eyes and her arms.

"Come to bed,
Del. I'm in my regular spot."

He joined her and
pulled her into a fierce embrace, whispering into her hair. "I should be
pissed at you for what you thought, Twila. Had it all figured wrong, didn't
you?"

"Well, I never
expected your story. I'm still having trouble accepting that Jordan would've
deliberately conducted an affair that was bound to hurt you."

"Don't mean
him. All afternoon you didn't want to look at me or say two words. Do you know
how scared I was? Kept worrying, what if something serious went wrong and you
lose the child? But you were shutting me out, or yourself away, because you
thought I wanted Betty Lee back."

"I was afraid,
Del. She's a striking woman."

Del snorted.
"You probably thought if I hadn't just found out I was going to be a
father, I would have arranged to meet her someplace when you went back to the
Vogels. Is that what you think, that I met her in secret, while claiming I was
out looking for your cousin?"

Twila pushed the
hair off his forehead. "No, I don't. That never occurred to me. You
wouldn't sneak off like that. You'd tell me. I thought maybe you just hadn't
worked out how to phrase it. I could tell she regretted her choices. That she
wanted another chance, and—"

"Don't you
think—"

"Don't I think
she deserves a second chance? No, I most certainly do not! Not only because you're
married to me now. She'd been secretly cavorting with someone you
knew
,
someone you paid and trusted. But beyond that, she humiliated you in front of
the whole town!"

"Oh, I
remember," he said, grinning.

"Why is that
funny?" Twila demanded, growing increasingly angry. How could he find any
of this amusing?

"Well, honey,
there are a few stories about how I dealt with that humiliation."

"I know. I've
heard a rumor or two."

He didn't look the
least surprised…or penitent. Actually, he looked almost boastful.
"Whatever you heard's probably true."

"You did
not.
"
He nodded. He couldn't know how vile the rumor was, then. "No, I'm sure
you didn't really…" He kept nodding. "Chocolate sauce and…? Oh, my
word!"

Twila couldn't
believe it. "You're trying to pay me back for being upset earlier. There's
no way the things they've said about you could all be true."

He sighed.
"Fraid they are, honey. Miss Minerva's Pleasure Palace for almost two
whole days and nights."

He still didn't
look the least abashed. "You actually had someone paint a picture of her
face on your…wherever." It wasn't a question this time.

"I did. And it
was my gut. Think my navel was one of her eyes. Pretty lousy ink likeness, but
that wasn't the point."

"You truly had
someone draw her face on you, then paid fallen women to eradicate it with
their…by…I can't imagine such a thing."

"Now,
Twila," he admonished, clucking. "I've had that little pink tongue of
yours over all my most intimate parts a time or two. I think you can too
imagine it. Reckon you're imagining it right now."

Twila nearly
choked. "Out of
spite
?"

He shrugged.
"I hoped it would be out of desire, or a willingness to please your very
randy husband. Because I got to say, all this talk of whores and that wild
adventure has got my blood up. But if you're feeling spiteful, go ahead and
lash out at me, honey."

She heard the
distinct emphasis he put on the word "lash" and frowned at him in
disapproval. "Delancy."

He tossed the
bedcovers off, leaving them both naked on the cot. "Go on, Twila. Consider
it my penance. For everything you thought I was going to do. Some folks
recommend punishing wicked sinners even before they sin, just to keep them on
the straight and narrow. So let me have it. Start…what was that you called it?
Oh yeah. Start
eradicating
."

"Del."

"That's a good
word for it, a real good word. It means rooting out, or eliminating."

"I know what
it means!" she all but shouted.

"Purging.
That's another way to look at it. Go ahead and purge that Betty Lee right out
of my system. I don't think there's a trace of her left in there, but let's
don't take chances. Go on, honey. From the root out. Promise I'll take it like
a man."

He closed his eyes,
sprawled naked in front of the fire like a helpless human sacrifice. Twila let
him wait. Finally he opened his eyes again.

"Are you
through teasing me?" she demanded, no longer frightened. Not really angry.
Just oddly exhilarated. To think this handsome man lay before her, pleading for
her undivided, very personal attention.

He shook his head.
"Oh no. Think I've got a good fifty more years of that left. Are you
through holding against me something I never wanted to begin with? You know I
don't still want her. That was finished before we met."

She shrugged.
"I love you, Del. And it's got nothing to do with the baby, either."

"You going to
love him or her, too?" Twila nodded. "You going to tell him or her
that feeling's got nothing to do with me?"