Twice Blessed (29 page)

“Where did he get this?” Noah growled. He balled it up and threw it at the far wall.

She looked out the window toward the courthouse. “The only place he could have gotten that would have been from Lewis. I know Lewis doesn't hold onto all the wanted posters that come to Haven. He concentrates on the ones issued in Cincinnati and Louisville.”

“Because he doesn't expect any other criminals to come to Haven.”

“Yes,” she whispered as her throat threatened to close and leave her to gag on her own lies.

“Are the rest of these pages wanted posters?” He bent to pick up another.

She grasped his hand, halting him. When he frowned at her, she said, “I need to tell you something, Noah. Something very important.” She forced a swallow past the lump in her throat. “Something I should have told you before.”
Closing her eyes as she tried to gather her waning courage, she said, “Or last night.”

“What is it?” He caught her hands in his. When they trembled against his rough palms, he asked, “What did Gilson say to you?”

“It isn't Gilson. It's—” The breeze shifted, and the odor of decaying food struck her like a blow. “Let's talk about this downstairs.”

“A good idea. We need to decide what we're going to do now that Gilson has come to Haven.”

Emma was so tempted to let him change the subject to that important topic, but she could not remain silent. If one of these pages had contained a description of her, Mr. Baker might have revealed that to Gilson also. She hurried down the stairs even more swiftly than she had gone up them, not wanting Noah to see her fear that if there was a five-year-old wanted poster for him in that debris, could there be one only a couple of years older which described Emma?

Shadows darkened the corners of the store—of
her
haven. Noah's hand on her elbow steered her to the rocking chair. When she sat, he pulled another chair closer. Something she had said or done must have revealed to him that she was not willing to share what she had to say with anyone other than him.

A fist pounded on the front door. She looked toward the door to see Lewis's face pressed to it. With a glance at Noah, she rose and went to the door. She unlocked it and stepped back as he burst into the store.

“Noah, you told me that you wouldn't sneak away!” he shouted. “I thought I could trust you, but I turn my back for a minute—”

“For four hours,” Noah said coming to his feet and walking toward the sheriff. “If I'd been planning to take Belinda and leave town, don't you think I would have done it as soon as you fell asleep on Emma's sofa?”

“You should have wakened me if you were leaving the house.”

“I should have.” He sighed as he put his arm around Emma's waist. Smiling down at her, he said, “I saw Laird Gilson's carriage out in front of the store, and I didn't want to wait even the time it would have taken to wake you. I didn't want Emma to have to face him by herself, but she'd dealt with him by the time I got here.”

“Gilson?” Lewis's brow rutted with concentration. “The man who had the warrant sworn out for your arrest?”

“I think he hoped to get here to see me dragged away in chains.”

“Noah!” she moaned. “Don't even jest about such things.”

“I have to, sweetheart.” He tipped her face toward him and kissed her gently. “Joking at Gilson's expense is the only way to keep me from hunting him down and choking him with my bare hands.” His smile returned as he said, “I trust you didn't hear that, Lewis.”

“Not a word.” The sheriff took a deep breath and released it with a long sigh. “I hope you can fight this, Noah.” He brightened. “Why don't you and I go to see Judge Purchase?”

“He's the local judge,” Emma explained, wondering why she had not thought of this herself. It might be as simple as she never felt comfortable around Judge Owen Purchase. The judge was a genial man, but she could not forget that, if he knew the truth, he would be the one to send her back to Kansas to hang. “He sometimes rides a circuit, but he has been overseeing cases in Haven all winter.”

“Do you think he'll see me?” Noah asked.

“We can call on him, and then you'll know.” Lewis's grin became even broader. “He'll have to hear the case here first because you were arrested in Indiana instead of Illinois.”

“True.” Noah's smile did not dim as he added, “I know you wanted to talk to me, Emma, but can it wait?”

“I guess it must.”

He kissed her again so swiftly that she did not have a chance to put her arms around him before he had released her and was walking out of the store with Lewis. Closing the door behind them, she locked it again. She needed to tell Noah about why she was in Haven, but she could not in Lewis's hearing.

Tonight … tonight when they were alone, she would tell him.

“Emma!”

She whirled as she heard Sean's distressed voice. She did not want to think what else might be wrong now.

The door from the storage room struck the wall as it was shoved open. Sean ran into the store. Before she could chide him for being so thoughtless, she saw the paper he was holding in his hand. It was the letter from the Children's Aid Society.

“Where did you get that?” she asked.

“It fell out of your apron pocket when I was hanging your apron back up in the kitchen.” His voice broke as he cried, “Why didn't you tell me that they'd looked for Maeve and couldn't find her? Why did you hide it where you thought I wouldn't ever see it?”

“Sean, I will explain. Just not now. I have to—”

He threw the page on the table. “You told me you would let me know when you got an answer back from them. You promised me you would.”

“I know I did, but—”

“You lied to me.”

“I didn't want to upset you when there was no real news. They—”

“Can't find Maeve!”

“I know.” She started to put her arms around him to offer him the comfort she needed so desperately.

He flung out his hands, knocking her arms away. The epithet he snarled at her shocked her motionless. Grabbing the letter, he raced out of the store. The storage room door slammed as viciously as it had opened.

She started to follow to calm him, then paused. What could she say to him? That she had gone against her better judgment in protecting him? That she had been urged to keep this secret until she had good news for Sean?

This she could not blame on Noah. It had been her choice. What had she said all day at the store? That this was just a horrible mistake.

It was, and this horrible mistake was one she had made all on her own.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Noah came into Emma's bedroom, which was much smaller than his at the farm. And lacier, he noted with a smile, something many of her friends would find unexpected about the competent storekeeper. Even through the shadows of the unlit room, he could see lace dripping from the white curtains and along the pillowcases that leaned up against the simple headboard.

He undid his collar and placed it on her dresser. He turned back to the bed and touched the wooden headboard. With a sigh, he recalled her delight with the bed he had made especially for them. When he had imagined sweeping her up into his arms and bringing her up here to her bed, it had not been because he could not return to his own home without Lewis Parker trailing after him like Emma's dog, who followed her cats endlessly about the yard.

Cursing Gilson would do no good now. The man was here and was determined to do whatever he could to discredit Noah and take Belinda away forever. Gilson must have some trick prepared, for he would not have come to Haven, where Noah was sure to have garnered allies, unless he was ready to discredit him completely. Or was it as simple as Gilson could not resist watching gallows built for Noah?

No, he did not want to think of the future tonight. Tonight, he wanted to lose himself in the love Emma offered him. He turned as the door opened. The light from the lamp in the hallway glowed like the morning sun on Emma's golden hair.

“Noah?” she asked quietly. “Are you in here?”

Instead of answering, he tugged her into the room and up against him. Kicking the door closed, he did not need light to know how her eyes brightened at his touch. That memory was followed by one of the sight of them closing as she offered her lips to him. The familiar sensation of need flowed through him whenever her face came into his mind, and he knew it was more than her lips that he wanted.

“Sweetheart,” he murmured, “you've enchanted me with your magic. Now I'm going to spin you a spell of mine.”

She ran her fingers along his unyielding chest where his shirt had fallen open, but said, “Noah, we need to talk. I must tell you—”

“Later. For now, I want to hold you and be within you.”

“Noah …” Her voice faded as he pressed his mouth to the base of her neck. She quivered and slid her hands up along his chest to dip over his shoulders.

He leaned her back on the bed where a wide swath of moonlight streamed like a cool river. Shadows danced as the tree beyond her window moved in the breeze. When she held her hand up to him, he let her draw him down over her soft curves, which soon would be against his mouth.

He released her hand and snatched the pins from her hair, which dropped onto the coverlet to add a golden warmth to the moonlight. Gently he brought her mouth to his. His tongue traced her lips, savoring each inch. When she moaned and clutched his arm, heat riveted every muscle and burned deep within him. He ached to discover how fiercely it burned inside her.

When he teased her lips apart to taste again the silken slickness, her gasp burst into his mouth. He rolled onto his back, bringing her to lie atop him. His hand against her back kept those beguiling curves against him.

“My beautiful wife,” he whispered before she pressed her mouth to his.

She gave him no time to say anything else, silencing him again and again as he had her by the door. She finished unbuttoning his shirt and hooked a finger under each suspender holding it in place. When he teased the half circle of her ear with his tongue as she was lowering his suspenders along his arms, she paused to bring his mouth back to hers. Her eager breath fanned the fire within him into an inferno.

He drew back her gown to find even more of the lace that surrounded them. When she pushed him away and knelt to pull off her dress, he chuckled.

“Don't stop there, sweetheart,” he said as he sat back against the pillows and folded his arms in front of him. He relished the sight of her bare skin luminous in the moon's cool radiance.

“You want me to undress myself?”

“I want to
watch
you undress.”

With a smile that was brighter than the moonlight's, she shook her hair back and ran her fingers along the lace at the top of her shift and down to the top hook on her corset. He held his breath as he watched her fingers—as he became her fingers, stroking that silken skin and gliding down over her alluring breasts—unhook it slowly. Had he been mad to allow her to undress herself? She seemed intent on tormenting him with such slow, deliberate motions.

She tossed her corset aside and ran her hands up her sides. When he reached out to do the same, she slapped his fingers away.

“You said you wanted to watch.” She slipped one finger under the left strap of her shift and, lowering it, smiled. “So watch.”

“You're a devilish woman.”

“And I plan to bedevil you tonight.” She dropped the right strap off her shoulder.

He laughed when she sat back and began to undo one shoe. When she dropped it to the floor, he murmured, “You're going to have Lewis running up here to see what's going on.”

“I suspect he knows.”

He was amazed when she balanced one foot on his shoulder. Her eyes glittered with longing as she rolled down her stocking. She slid her foot down his chest to rest on his leg as she put her other heel on his opposite shoulder. His breath pumped in tempo with her fingers drawing down her stocking along her lithe leg. Again her foot glided along him in a teasing caress. As she laughed and rose to her knees to lower her stockings over the side of the bed, he wondered how much longer he could resist this temptress. She drew one arm out of her shift, then the other. Holding it to her breasts with one hand, she lifted the hem.

He knew he could endure no more of this taunting pleasure when she drew it up along her. Grasping her, he tore the shift from her hands and threw it away along with the shreds of his self-control. Her delighted laugh vanished beneath his mouth as he pulled her into his arms and beneath him.

Kicking off his boots, he tasted the downy skin between her breasts. His tongue inched along her as he reached to undo his trousers.

“No,” she whispered, “I want to see you undress.”

“Next time, sweetheart. A man can prevail against such temptation only so long.”

She laughed with joy. Each breath brushed against his naked skin. Within seconds, his clothes were tossed aside as well. He leaned over her, and she moaned as her naked legs entwined with his.

As if he had never touched her before, he kissed her while his fingers moved along her, creating the scintillating fire that scorched him. Lingering on the gentle upsweep of her breast and then stroking the curve of her hip, his fingers wandered across the softest skin along the inner length of her leg. She writhed against him, and his mouth covered her gasping lips.

When he probed deep within her, she whispered, “Please.”

“Please what?” he whispered against her ear. In her most intimate depths, she quivered, and his yearning threatened to escape his tight control.

“Don't wait any longer. Please.”

His breath caught on the jagged edge of indescribable pleasure at the very second he joined them together. Hearing her gasp, he brought her lips back to his as they moved in the undeniable rhythms of love. A voice whispered endearments, but he was not sure if it was hers or his or simply the fused symphony of their hearts. The melody wove around and through him, escalating into a rhapsody. Then, as he heard her give herself to the ecstasy, everything exploded into a wanton abandonment of all his senses but the pleasure he wanted to share only with her.