Her Montana Man (12 page)

sick, will you, Aunt Liza?”

His fear of losing her made her all the more determined to see that he didn’t. “You don’t have to worry

about that. I won’t get sick, and I won’t leave you. Not ever.”

He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her neck as he had so often when he was younger,

trapping her hair in the hug, but she didn’t care. She didn’t take his trust lightly. She would do everything

in her power to see that he had a good life.

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A tap sounded at the door. Eliza kissed his cheek and stood. “That’s probably Daniel. You mind your

manners at Mrs. Harper’s, and I’ll come for you later.”

“Yes’m.”

After Daniel and Tyler had gone, she finished her hair, pinning it up and completing her ensemble with

her timepiece and a lace collar Jenny Lee had crocheted.

She took a seat at the south corner of the dining room, well away from the kitchen where the other hotel

employees normally sat. From her location she could see the foyer and noticed Ward greet several dinner

guests.

Royce appeared promptly at seven. She observed as he gave his bowler to Ward, who placed it under

the counter. Her brother-in-law spotted her and made his way to the table.

“Good evening, my dear.” His polite tone belied the repulsive way his eyes raked over her. He aligned

the silverware to his satisfaction and placed the napkin in his lap.

She didn’t respond audibly to the greeting or the glower, but her skin crawled.

He picked up the menu and looked it over. The hotel purchased fresh meat and vegetables, and Lilibelle

planned menus with adequate choices. The portions were generous and the meals tasty. She wondered

what he would find to criticize.

He scanned the list of dishes. “Black needs to put a gun to the customers’ heads to charge these prices.”

She looked away. She’d already seen the fare and knew what she was having.

Her wandering gaze caught upon Jonas entering the dining room with Silas Bowers who ran Silver

Bend’s local paper, the
Big Sky Sentinel.
The two men seated themselves at a table about three away

from where Eliza sat, and both men glanced over at the same time.

Polite greetings were exchanged, with her brother-in-law even getting up to greet Silas with a

handshake. Jonas offered Royce his right hand by raising the arm with the sling. Royce gave it a firm

shake. Watching, Eliza winced, but Jonas held a polite smile.

Royce wouldn’t be visibly rude in front of Silas or where anyone could witness. He was vigilant in

making a good impression. He sat back down and placed his hand over Eliza’s in what was meant to

look like a reassuring gesture, but one that she recognized as possessive. She wanted to jerk away, but

forced herself to be still.

“You earned my displeasure with the Vernet, Eliza Jane. That was a stupid thing to do.”

“It was the least I could do for Nora.”

“You had to have known you would pay.”

Nadine worked her way through the tables to theirs.

“How are you, this evening? What can I get for you?”

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“Fine, thanks,” Eliza replied. “I’d like the rainbow trout with rice, please. And tea.”

Royce ordered roast beef.

Nadine moved to take orders at another table.

The banker, Ed Phillips, and his wife took a table nearby. Royce greeted him like an old friend, and they

chatted for a moment.

Royce turned his attention back to Eliza. “I’m removing thirty days from your reprieve,” he said in a low

voice.

“What do you mean?” she asked warily.

“I’ve moved up our wedding date. You now have two months to prepare yourself. We’ll make the

announcement at the end of June and be married the end of July.”

Taken aback by his announcement, she forced herself to keep her voice level. “That’s scandalous! My

sister’s only been gone a few days.”

“She’s been out of the picture far longer than that. She was on her deathbed for an eternity, dragging out

that whole messy ordeal, but she was missing from the public. Most of them hadn’t seen her for months.”

At his callous cruelty, anger roared through Eliza’s veins. Heat stung her neck and face. She wanted to

pick up something big and heavy and wallop him. “If there was any justice in this world, you would be

struck by lightning right this very moment.”

Royce smiled. “That fire is seductive, as you well know. I can hardly keep my hands to myself when you

talk that way.”

Eliza thought she was going to faint. Discreetly, she dipped the corner of her napkin in the glass of cold

water sitting before her and dabbed the moisture against her temples and at the base of her throat. She

could still carry out her plan. She had perhaps six paydays with which to make do before she had to cut

and run. Six weeks to deal with this man and pretend that she was succumbing to his blackmail. She

could do it.

“You’re concerned about what people think,” she said, “but they’ll think you’re disloyal to Jenny if you

announce you’re marrying me so soon.”

“Nonsense. They’ll understand a man’s need to take a wife, and respect that I care enough about my

family to keep it intact.”

The images that flashed through her mind made her want to run screaming from the dining room. But she

couldn’t. She had to take care of Tyler. Eliza sneaked a glance at Jonas and found him observing them.

She managed a weak smile.

Royce noted their interaction and reached for her hand once again. “You’ll be sorry if you cross me.

And your loose morals are unattractive. Stay clear of that man. He wouldn’t want you if he knew

everything I do about you. You’re fortunate I want you. But then my cravings are a trifle more…

unconventional
.”

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Nadine brought a tray with their food, and Eliza withdrew, wiping her hand on her napkin in her lap,

wishing she had soap and water.

The trout was delicious, but her stomach was in such a state, she barely picked at her meal. Royce, on

the other hand, ate his with gusto. When he finished, he dabbed at his pencil-thin mustache with the

napkin, then drank his coffee.

Upon Nadine’s return, Royce instructed her to place their meals on Sutherland’s tab. “And add the

Phillips’s dinners, as well. Your meals are on me,” he called over to Ed.

The couple thanked him profusely.

Of course he buttered up the banker. The fact that Royce was using Sutherland money however he

pleased rankled Eliza. He had to keep the man safely in his pocket for the future.

“Good business,” he said to Eliza.

She looked away. Tacky business. Nowhere near the same class as her father.

“Is that all you’re eatin’?” Nadine asked her.

“It was delicious, I’m just not very hungry,” she replied.

“My dear sister-in-law is suffering,” Royce told the other woman. “Grief, is so disabling, you know. It

pains me to see Eliza Jane like this. That’s why I want to be here for her whenever I can.”

Nadine nodded and took away their plates.

“Are you ready to leave?” Royce asked, standing.

“I believe I’ll stay and enjoy another cup of tea,” she told him loud enough for the nearby couple to hear.

“Tea comforts me in my grief.”

Though his eyes held enmity, he bowed politely. “Very well, my dear. Have a good night, and send for

me should you need anything at all.”

He spoke to Ed again and then left the room.

Nadine had brought her a ceramic pot, so she poured a fresh cup of tea and added a cube of sugar.

Once she knew Royce was well on his way, she stood to go.

Jonas and Silas had finished their supper and stood in the foyer, deep in conversation.

Eliza used her key to let herself into the office and grab the shawl she’d left across the back of a chair.

Jonas spotted Eliza Jane heading for the door. Her stilted demeanor over dinner had him puzzled. Some

of the looks she’d given Royce had to have singed his hair. “Goin’ out?” he asked.

Silas had headed out a moment before.

“I’m going to gather up Tyler at Ada’s,” she replied.

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“Wait for me. I need to stop by Doc’s and it’s right on the way.” He leaned behind the front desk to

grab his hat and settled it on his head.

The cool night air felt good on Jonas’s face, but Eliza pulled her shawl up over her head.

He had noticed the undeniable change that came over her when Royce Dunlap was around. She

seemed…
irritated
when she looked at him or spoke to him. Resentful even, but that didn’t match what

Jonas knew of her character. And that baffling here-and-gone glimmer of panic in her eyes whenever her

brother-in-law was mentioned disturbed him.

“Everything all right?” he asked.

“Yes, of course.”

They were headed east on Main Street, passing first the square window at the
Big Sky Sentinel
where

everything inside was dark. And then a few feet later the batwing doors of the Silver Star where light

spilled out onto the boardwalk and music jangled from a piano. He recognized Curly Jack’s lively

rendition of “Golden Slippers.”

They crossed the street and Jonas pointed down the adjacent block. “I want to stop at Doc’s for a

minute.”

She joined him, walking alongside him toward the small square house.

Jonas paused at the curb, fighting back the disturbing images that assailed him every time he set foot on

this property. He’d gone in there the night he’d been shot. He’d seen for himself that the place had

changed over the years. But seeing it still hadn’t erased the memories or the trauma.

Whenever he saw the house, whenever he thought of his childhood, he thought of that night.

“S

omething wrong?” she asked.

Jonas tried to shake off the memories. “Takes me a minute,” he answered, then stepped up to the brick

sidewalk.

“What takes a minute?”

“To remember who I am.”

“What are you talking about?”

He looked down at her. She’d lived here all her life. He figured she’d heard the stories. “You don’t

know what happened in this house?”

She shook her head.

He glanced from her to the light glowing behind the yellow-and-white checkered curtains. He saw the

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rooms as they’d been back then. Remembered his mother’s sewing basket and the picture of a sailing

ship that had hung on the wall above the heating stove.

“When I was growin’ up my father was a cavalry doctor. Gone treatin’ soldiers for months at a stretch.”

He paused, caught up in the past. “My mother took care of the house and did all the normal things like

cookin’ and laundry. I helped with chores. She raised me pretty much by herself. Did a fine job of it,

too.”

“Obviously.”

Her comment distracted him briefly, but he returned to his subject. “Used to read of an evenin’.

Sometimes I read to her while she sewed. One night a bunch of outlaws, no older than some of the boys

in this town, now that I look back, they got themselves shot up in a gunfight. Came here ’cause someone

told ’em it was the doc’s house.

“My mother told ’em there was no doctor, that my father was gone. Most likely they were drunk.”

Jonas remembered his fear vividly. Remembered feeling helpless. “One of ’em told her to fix his friend’s

wound or he’d put a bullet in her head.”

He turned to find Eliza Jane watching him, listening in earnest for his next words.

In his head, he’d relived that night a million times. He’d dreamed the images over and over again, exactly

as they’d happened. But he’d never told anyone. Old-timers in Silver Bend, the people he mingled with,

already knew the story. He did find it interesting that the incident was so well forgotten in the community

that she’d never heard it.

“I saw the whole thing happen,” he told her. “Watched it all. They just laughed and jostled me back and

forth between ’em like a rag doll. Wasn’t anything I could do.”

“It hurts me just to hear this,” she said, and her voice was a little shaky. “How old were you?”

“Ten.”

“Only a couple years older than Tyler.”

Jonas had never looked at a young boy and compared his own age at the time, but now that he did, he

understood exactly why he’d been defenseless. He nodded.

“My mother begged them to leave, but they wouldn’t stop shoutin’ and threatening her. It was when one

of ’em held the gun to
my
head that she ended up doing the best she could.”

There had been so much blood. His mother’s hands and her dress had been saturated with it.

“Fella died right there on the floor. Then the one holdin’ me let me go…and shot her.”

He’d run to where she lay, the blood seeping from her chest only adding to the crimson patches already

soaking her clothing.

Jonas stopped breathing for a moment, his eyes closed against the suffering.

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“I’m so sorry, Jonas,” Eliza Jane said softly from beside him.

It had taken only a few brief sentences to explain the horror that had changed his life—and his