Thunder on the Plains (12 page)

“How do I look?”

Mae shook her head. “Do you know how women envy you? I would hate you myself if I didn't know how nice you are, Miss Landers. When I was first hired, I thought you would be bossy and rude to me, but you've made my job so pleasant.” Mae smiled, a gentle smile in a plain face. She was slight of build, her coloring pale, her hair a light brown.

“Thank you, Mae,” Sunny answered. “That was a very nice thing to say. Did my father get home yet?”

“No, ma'am. He's still at his office, I think.”

Sunny wished her father would not put in so many long hours. She did as much for him as she could, and would be with him now if he had not insisted she accept this date with Ted Regis. The man seemed concerned that his workload was interfering with Sunny's social life, and she could not convince him that she would rather be with him, going over books and helping plan his railroad investments.

She went to the door to leave, hearing a commotion downstairs as she stepped into the hall. She recognized Eve's voice, and her heart fell. What did the woman want now? Vince and Eve hardly ever came to visit, and Vince was often conspicuously absent from board meetings where his father was in attendance. The two men had hardly spoken since the argument over Bo's railroad investments. Stuart, on the other hand, had apologized and helped his father convince at least two men on the board of directors for the freighting and supply companies to make a contribution toward his father's project.

“Her date can wait,” Eve was saying loudly to Mrs. Seymour downstairs.

Sunny looked over the balcony rail to see an embarrassed-looking Ted Regis running his fingers nervously between his collar and his neck. Eve was already heading up the stairs, skirts rustling, her steps deliberate and stomping. Eve had given birth to a third child the past summer, another daughter. The birth had been difficult, leaving her weak and sick for several weeks. But she was fully recovered and as ornery as ever, motherhood having done nothing to soften the woman.

Mae watched in wide-eyed fear as the woman came to the top of the stairs. She had never liked Eve Landers, who was rude and demanding. “Leave us!” the woman barked. Mae scurried past them to the backstairs that led up to her own room, but Sunny held Eve's eyes boldly.

“I was just leaving for the theater, Eve,” she told the woman. “It's very rude and unmannerly of you to barge in on us this way. What on earth do you want?”

“We'll talk alone.” Eve stormed into Sunny's bedroom, and Sunny reluctantly followed, closing the door. “
I
think it's very rude and unmannerly of
you
to keep us in the dark on some of the things your father is up to.” The woman looked her over scathingly, her jealousy of Sunny's beauty obvious.

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“I'm talking about your father investing a good sum of money from Landers Enterprises into some fly-by-night company called the Pennsylvania Fiscal Agency. It's already done now. Vince came home and told me about it, but don't tell me you didn't know he was going to do it!”

Sunny pulled on her silk gloves. “Of course I knew, but as owner and founder of Landers Enterprises, it's my
father
's business in whom he confides in when he makes investments.”

“Things like this have to be brought up before the board! You know that!”

“The board is there only to help run the business and make certain policy decisions, Eve. My father might not be able to control all the funds of the subsidiaries anymore because he gave them over to Vince and Stuart, something, I might add, that he now regrets doing. But he
does
have control over the parent company,
and
over the railroads, thank goodness. As a seventy-five percent stockholder, he can make certain investments of his own choosing without consulting
anyone
. When it comes to investments that have to do with the railroad, he doesn't bother taking it to the board because Vince and most of the others have made it very clear how they feel about the idea! They don't want any part of it, so my father is making sure they
have
no part in it!”

Eve glowered at her, her face darkening with rage. “That man is going to bankrupt us!”

“The Pennsylvania Fiscal Agency is a very solvent company founded by Thomas Durant. Do you really think anything Mr. Durant creates and supports is going to be a fly-by-night company, as you put it?”

“Mr. Durant is as crazy as your father when it comes to this ridiculous transcontinental railroad! I swear, both men would sell their
teeth
for it!”

“Mr. Durant is a very wealthy man. He and Father have some excellent connections in Washington, and are on very good terms with Abraham Lincoln, who just might be our next president! They know what they're doing, Eve. They have vision. They see far beyond the small world you and Vincent live in!”

“Oh, yes,
you
would know! It's
you
he takes to New York and Washington with him,
you
he confides in, instead of his
sons
!”

“Vince made it very plain what he thought of his father's dreams, Eve. This is the way he wanted it, so don't come crying when Father goes ahead with certain investments without consulting people who don't
give
a damn!”

It was the first time Sunny had used a swear word. Eve's eyes widened, and she straightened, surprised not just by the word, but by Sunny's firm retort. Always before it had been easy to make the girl shiver in her shoes, but in the last few months Sunny had changed dramatically. It worried Eve, who had been sure that once Bo Landers died, it would be easy to browbeat Sunny into giving up control of what she received in Bo's will.

“I suppose you think that just because Father has been seeing a doctor about his heart, it's time to stop him from spending too much money before he dies,” Sunny said coolly. “That way there will be more left for you when he's gone.”

“It's something that must be considered,” Eve answered. “The man is getting senile, Sunny. Can't you see that?”

Sunny struggled against tears at the thought of her father's somewhat failing health. She forced herself not to show her panic in front of this woman who would love to see her crumble. “I'm only sixteen, Eve. Would you say I'm senile?
I
think the same way
he
does. I see nothing wrong in his investments, so that makes him no different from me. Father is as bright and creative as he ever was! And I won't have someone in my house who is waiting with baited breath for him to die! Now, get out!”

Eve's face turned even darker. “I see he's training you well. He's making a real
man
out of you, isn't he? When are you going to be a woman, Sunny? When are you going to learn to leave the business world to men, take a husband, have children, and let the
men
make the decisions?”

“Is that what
you're
doing by being here trying to talk me into changing my father's mind?”

“This is the only way I have of doing my part. I'm not privy to the board meetings and the books like
you
are! And God knows you're the only one who might be able to talk some sense into Bo Landers!”

“I don't need to. He's doing some very sensible things, as far as I'm concerned. I told you once to leave. Shall I get the butler to show you out forcefully?”

Eve sucked in her breath and shook her head. “You poor thing,” she scowled. “You might be beautiful and feminine on the outside, but you're becoming ugly and domineering on the inside.” The woman turned and stormed out, failing to notice Mae Bitters scurry away from the door where she had been listening. Sunny struggled against an urge to scream and weep. She knew Eve's words were meant to deliberately undermine her self-confidence and create self-doubt, and she would not let that happen. If she folded now and wept as she wanted to, Eve would win.

She took a deep breath, holding her chin high, and marched out of the room and down the stairs just as Eve slammed the door on her way out of the house. Sunny walked up to Ted, who still looked embarrassed. Mrs. Seymour stood quietly by, accustomed to the rancor in the Landers family.

“I'm very sorry for the interruption, Ted,” Sunny told him. “It's a family matter and it has been settled. We can go now.” She took his arm. “Tell me, do you think of me as ugly and domineering?”

The handsome, blond-haired young man looked at her in surprise. “Why on earth would you ask a thing like that, Sunny? You're the most beautiful, nicest girl I know.”

Sunny smiled victoriously. “Thank you,” she answered. “Shall we go?”

***

LeeAnn Harding answered a knock at the door of the boardinghouse where she worked, which was in the tiny town of Denver City. It was 1859, and in just the one year since she had come here, the little settlement had grown rapidly. Gold had a way of creating towns out of the earth like mushrooms.

She gasped and smiled with joy when she saw Colt Travis standing on the porch, holding a fistful of wildflowers. “Colt!”

“Hi, LeeAnn.” Colt smiled the melting smile that made the eighteen-year-old girl's heart rush. He held out the flowers and she took them, her eyes misting.

“Oh, Colt, where have you been?”

In an instant he swept her into his arms. Colt breathed deeply of the smell of her dark hair, enjoyed the feel of her against him. “I'm sorry I was away so long. I just had to think about some things before I came back here and asked you to marry me.”

She leaned back, his arms still around her. “
Marry
you? Oh, Colt, do you mean it?”

“Sure I do.” He studied her dark eyes, aching for her. Ever since rescuing LeeAnn from her predicament in the foothills a year before, he had been unable to stay away from her. The pitiful way she had been orphaned had tugged at his heart, and they both shared a loneliness each could understand in the other.

LeeAnn had no family to return to back in Ohio, from where her father had brought his wife and daughter to Colorado in hopes of finding riches. Colt had brought her to this crude settlement along Cherry Creek, where a woman whose own husband had just died took her in. Joanna Scott's husband had left her enough money to have a real frame house built, and she had begun renting out rooms. LeeAnn worked for the woman to help earn her keep.

“I missed you, LeeAnn. I wasn't sure I was ready to marry and settle, but now I know it's time. I can't think of anybody I'd rather settle with than you, if you'll have me.”

Her eyes teared. “Did you think that I wouldn't?”

He studied her eyes, wanting her, needing her. He leaned closer, meeting her mouth in a kiss that quickly became hotter, more searching. Someone else flashed into Colt's memory for just a moment, a girl with white-blond hair and amazingly blue eyes, but he quickly dismissed the thought. Sunny Landers was just a fond memory, a pretty young woman he would never see again and who could never have shared his world anyway.

He kissed LeeAnn's mouth once more, then moved his lips to taste her sweet neck. LeeAnn fit him perfectly. She came from a simple background, a family that had little money. There was nothing about her life that would draw her attention from her husband or would interfere with living a normal, quiet life on a little farm out on the Plains. He still had the full $750 that Bo Landers had paid him, plenty of money to start a homestead. He wanted nothing to do with searching for gold. He would get richer than most of the prospectors by growing food to sell to them.

“I've found a nice piece of land where we can settle,” he told her. “I've even started building a cabin. You don't mind, do you?”

LeeAnn studied his handsome face, her heart racing at the thought of being Colt Travis's wife. She didn't care about the fact that he was half Indian. She had never known anyone as handsome or as kind, as brave and skilled. When she was in his arms she was not afraid of anything.

“Why would I mind? It sounds wonderful!” She finally pulled away, sniffing the flowers, and Colt moved into the narrow hallway, closing the curtained door. “I can't wait until Joanna returns,” LeeAnn was saying. “She'll be so happy for me.” She turned and looked at Colt again. “She's been so good to me, Colt.” She sighed, looking him over. “I was so afraid you wouldn't come back.”

His eyes moved over her in a way that made her shiver with desire. “We got to know each other pretty well, LeeAnn. How could you think I wouldn't come back, after telling you I loved you?”

She looked down, reddening. “I don't know. You're so…so wild and free and all. I thought maybe you felt I was trying to pin you down, taking away your freedom or something.”

“I'm twenty-two years old, LeeAnn. I've been wandering with no aim in life since I was fourteen. There comes a time when a man has to own up to his manhood, his needs. I went off to be alone in the mountains for a while, wanting to make sure I was doing the right thing—not because of me, but because of you. I didn't want to do something that would hurt you any more than you've already been hurt. I thought I'd see if I could stay away, but I couldn't. I know what I want now. I want a wife, kids. I want to settle.”

She looked up at him, her eyes misting with love and joy. “When?”

“Whenever you want. Today isn't too soon as far as I'm concerned. Is there a preacher in this pitiful place?”

“Yes.” Their eyes held, their hearts racing, their desire intense. “Just let me bathe and change first, and I'd like to find Joanna. She should be there. She's been like a mother to me.”

He nodded. “Whatever you want. Actually, I was hoping you'd agree to today. I set up camp just outside of town. It's just a tent, but I thought we ought to be alone.” He grinned suggestively. “You know what I mean?”