Liam (9 page)

“Of course,” he conceded. “Take all the time you need. I’ve told your father I’d like a wedding the first part of July.”

“July?! That’s impossible. I couldn’t possibly be ready by then. I have to make a dress and find someone to stand up with me. And there’s—”

“Shh,” he placed two fingers lightly against her lips. “What’s wrong with the dress you’re wearing? You look quite lovely tonight.”

She blushed and looked at her lap. “You don’t have to say things like that. I know what people say about me.”

“What do people say?” He had no idea, other than Zach, but Liam’s taste in women was quite different than Zach’s.

She blushed again and shook her head.

“Eleanor, please look at me.”

She raised her head and met his eyes.

“I will never lie to you. When I tell you that you’re lovely, you can rest assured you are.”

How could anyone with half a brain not see her for what she was? Beautiful. Not in the conventional sense, though. Her beauty was subtle, quiet. But he saw it, there underneath the starchy façade she put up for the world to see. Liam saw beneath, to the real woman.

And he liked what he saw.

CHAPTER 6

The evening sped by. It seemed like Liam had just arrived when it was time for him to leave. He rose from the table where they’d sat and talked through dinner and over coffee.

“I’ve had a most enjoyable evening. I hope to do this again soon. Would Saturday next be amenable to you?”

“Oh, yes, that would be wonderful. I should be off these crutches by then. The doctor did say, just a couple of weeks and that would be about ten days wouldn’t it.”

“Seven. Don’t be in too much of a hurry. You want it to heal properly so you don’t have a limp afterward,” admonished Liam.

She pouted.

He thought it was adorable.

“I know but I’m so tired of these crutches already and it’s only been two days.”

“It’ll get easier. You’re already using them much better than you were when you first got them. By the time you don’t need them any longer you’ll be running with them.”

“Hmpft.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

Liam’s eyes followed her movement and suddenly her breasts filled his vision. Lush they would be. Would her nipples be pale pink or dusky rose. He snapped his eyes back to her face; sure he was as pink as the ribbon in her hair.

“Liam? Are you all right?” she asked, oblivious to the thoughts going through his head.

“Um, yes, I’m fine. We’re worried about you remember. You’re going to stay off your foot. Perhaps we can do this again and your father could join us. We could tell him together about the wedding.”

“I haven’t said yes to a July wedding?”

He raised his eyebrows and smiled. “Ah, but you haven’t said no, either.”

She let out a sigh. “You are insufferable, you know that?”

“Perhaps,” he conceded, and then he grinned. “But you like me anyway.”

She looked away, but not before he saw her smile. “I never said that.”

He chuckled and got up from the table. “I look forward to our next meeting. I’ll see you here on Saturday next.”

She nodded her head. “Yes. In the meantime, I’m going to be good and stay off my foot.”

He held out his hand and she placed hers in his. He kissed the top and then turned it over and kissed the inside of her wrist. He watched her closely for her response, and was not disappointed. Her nostrils flared and her eyes opened slightly and then closed. A sure sign of sexual arousal. Yes, she was
very
responsive. They were going to have a great time getting to know each other after they were married. Maybe he’d take her to Cheyenne for a honeymoon.

“Thank you for a lovely evening and a wonderful dinner. You’re quite the cook.”

“Thank you,” she started to get up.

“No, don’t see me out. I can find my own way and you need to get that leg up. I want it to heal almost as much as you do.”

She blushed again. It was so easy to make her blush. Why some man hadn’t snapped her up long ago he didn’t understand, but he was grateful. She was delightful and perfect…for him.

~*~

He’d been lucky and caught sight of this man Anderson leaving Fort Leavenworth. It’d been tricky staying out of his sight while following him to Deadwood, but it’d been worth it.

Richard Jordan watched Liam Anderson leave the large church tent. He never would have pegged him as a believer. That just showed how much you could tell about a person without knowing him. Very little.

He knew from his contacts in the fort that Anderson was the brother of the man whose woman Jordan killed. The brother had seen him and could identify him. It didn’t do a whole lot of good to start a new identity if someone could point you out as the old identity. But that didn’t matter anymore. Now it was personal.

Richard had to kill Jake Anderson and his family for good measure. Jake had taken away the pleasure of killing the Green woman. He’d had to shoot her and didn’t get to watch her die. What pleasure was there in that?

If he and John had just been a little quicker, there wouldn’t have been any witnesses to the death. Just like there hadn’t been for the others. They had a good thing going. John got to rape the women, and Richard got to kill them.

Usually he did it by strangling them. He loved to watch the life leave their body, feel them struggle and then stop as Morpheus claimed them. Watch as their eyes slowly registered that they were dead. It was intoxicating. Invigorating.

He hadn’t been able to indulge his passion since the Green woman in Blackwater, Missouri, because John made the mistake of having to have her the hard way: concious. She fought like a she devil and there was no time after he was done to kill her in the manner Richard would have preferred, so he shot her. Then Jake Anderson broke in and nearly caught him. Richard was sure he would have died that day if the man had gotten to him, but his luck held and he escaped.

Even now, luck was with him. He’d managed to stay out of sight for the one thousand miles he’d followed this particular Anderson brother, even on the train. And now he was within reach of his quarry. Three men to kill this time. All brothers. He’d never done brothers before, that he knew of.

Oh, he supposed he might have during the war, but that didn’t count. You didn’t really see them die. Except for him. His first man, boy really and it was…unintended. Once he saw him and knew he’d seen Richard kill the woman, well, there was no choice—he had to die. He just hadn’t planned on enjoying the act so much.

He’d shot him in the chest, but not the heart so the boy didn’t die right away. Richard got to hold him and watch the light leave his eyes. See the blood gurgle from his mouth. It had been most satisfying. Now he was going to have three men to do. How would he manage it? Would he have to kill them all at once or one at a time. One at a time would be more satisfying and probably safer. For the first one anyway. The other two would be alerted by the first death and they would be much harder to kill.

Men were harder to kill than women to begin with. They were stronger and fought back, if he didn’t surprise them first. Maybe he could use the children to lure the men one by one. No. That would only work once.
Think. Richard think
.

For now he needed to follow this brother back to the others. Find out where they lived and how. He had to plan. Taking out the family wasn’t going to be easy, but it should prove very satisfying.

He almost rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

~*~

When Liam arrived home, his children were asleep, but the rest of the family was up and wanting answers.

“Well,” said Becky. “How did it go? Did she say yes? Is she going to let you court her?”

“Let him get his coat off, would ya,” said Jake.

“Fine,” she pouted. “I’ll get you a cup of coffee while you get comfortable.”

Liam smiled at his little sister-in-law. Where before she never complained, she’d become quite the tyrant since she got pregnant, or maybe just since they all started living together. He remembered Mary had been much the same way. She’d been cranky as soon as she reached six months and the baby started moving in earnest. About the same place in her pregnancy as Becky was now.

“Here.” She set a cup of steaming coffee on the table in front of him. “So tell us.”

“All right,” said Liam. “The evening went fine. We had dinner in their tent and talked a lot. She didn’t want to go out because of her ankle.”

“So what does her father think?” asked Becky.

“Um, well,” he ran his hand around the back of his neck. “Her father wasn’t there. He’d been called away at the last minute and so we had dinner alone.”

Zach cocked an eyebrow. “No chaperone?”

“We’re both grown adults. We don’t need a chaperone,” growled Liam with a little more force than necessary.

“When are you going to see her again?” asked Becky, ignoring Zach.

“Saturday next. We hope to have dinner with her father. I’ve told her
and
him that I want a July first wedding.”

“That’s awfully quick. What’s the hurry?” asked Zach.

Liam looked down into his cup of coffee, rolling the hot cup between his palms to warm them. “School will be over for the summer and I want her here for the children. Also,” he paused not sure if he should give voice to his doubts. In the end he decided these people were his family and they should know. “I want to get it done before I change my mind.”

“Ah, now we’re getting somewhere,” said Jake. “You’ve decided you need a wife and don’t want anything to get in your way. Are you actually worried that you’ll decide differently? You’ve already said you find her attractive. Though for the life of me I don’t know why.”

Liam stared at his brother. “Why does everyone keep saying that? Even Eleanor believes she’s not attractive. She’s lovely. Rich, vibrant hair, skin, clear and kissed by the sun, full bow shaped lips…”

“My God, you really are attracted to the starched, stiff lady,” said Zach.

He felt himself blush. Zach was definitely right. He found Eleanor most attractive.

“She’d not starched and stiff when you get to know her,” said Becky. “She’s a very nice, caring woman. She’s always trying to help the girls at
The Gem
, even at the risk of Mr. Swearengen’s anger and her father’s as well.”

“Why would her father be angry at her for helping the girls to find God?” asked Jake. “I thought that was what preachers did.”

“It’s not just for them to find God. Eleanor goes there to see to their health, see if they need anything, generally just try to be a friend and keep them healthy. I don’t know if she even mentions God.” Becky paused for a breath and then continued. “Anyway, there’s an agreement between Mr. Swearengen and her father concerning the placement of their tent in camp. Mr. Swearengen would give them the corner lot that her father wanted in exchange for his agreement to stay out of
The Gem.
Eleanor’s argument is nothing was said about her visiting the girls at
The Gem
. So she keeps going and Mr. Swearengen keeps chasing her out.”

“I agree with Swearengen. That whorehouse,” Liam whispered, a habit, in case his children could hear, “is no place for a proper woman to set foot unless forced to.” He nodded at Becky. “Like you were with Billy.”

“So you’re going to forbid her to go?” she asked.

Liam smelled a trap. If he said what he wanted to, that he would forbid it and Eleanor would stop going, Becky would light into him. “I plan on keeping her busy here with the children, so she won’t have time to visit
The Gem
.”

She rolled her eyes as though she knew what he was thinking. “Keeping track of David and Hannah, is not going to keep a woman like Eleanor busy.”

“Well, hopefully, there will be other children.”

“Not for a while there won’t be,” said Becky.

She was right. This was likely to be a sore subject with Eleanor. He’d have to think on it some. He looked at his brothers for support.

Jake shook his head. “Don’t look at me. I don’t tell Becky what to do. She makes her own decisions or we decide them together.”

Zach just laughed. “You really think you’re going to have her quit tending to those women? Eleanor has been left to her own devices too long to change. Even her father can’t keep her under control.”

Liam sighed, afraid they were right. But he said, “I don’t know all the details yet, but she and I will come to an agreement that will include her
not
going into that whorehouse.”

Everyone laughed.

Except Liam.

CHAPTER 7

Finally! It was two weeks since she’d sprained her ankle. She’d slowly been putting more and more weight on it, while still using the crutches and kept it up as much as she could. But today, she’d walk without the crutches. As a matter of fact, she was going to walk all the way to Doc Cochran’s office and return the accursed things. Of course, she would thank him nicely for their use.

Liam came around to see her every two or three days and she had to admit she liked the attention. He made her feel as young as a school girl with her first crush. Only this was more than a first crush. She was falling in love with the man, much to her consternation. Yes, he wanted to marry her. No, he didn’t love her. Could she live with that? Or could she make him love her back? She was betting on the latter, though her womanly wiles were woefully lacking.