Cougar's Prey (9781101544846) (35 page)

It didn't take long before Josiah became annoyed at the music and the loneliness of the saloon. He was looking for a distraction, something to take his mind off Pearl. Instead, he had an empty feeling in his stomach, and a growing sense of dread.

Without thanking the barkeep, who was busy shining glasses with a white towel, Josiah walked out of the saloon.

Night had fallen, but the darkness was not pure yet, not thick—the world was covered in shadows, not the blanket of pitch-black night. Still, he had waited long enough. He was going to find Pearl, or he was going home.

He unhitched Clipper, settled into the saddle, and turned to head back the way he'd come.

But a feeling came over him that slowed him down, like a pair of eyes was burning a hard hole into the back of his neck. Josiah looked over his shoulder quickly, reacting to his instinct.

He was certain he saw a man slip into the shadows of a thin alleyway between the doctor's office and the mercantile. With a swift jerk, Josiah turned Clipper back around and stopped at the mouth of the alley to get a better look. He eased his hand back and gripped the Peacemaker, ready to pull it if he had to.

There was nothing there. No sign of man or beast—a cat or a dog, maybe—intent on doing him harm.

Josiah exhaled lightly then, knowing his senses had been dulled a bit by the shot of whiskey and heightened at the same time by the experience of the night before, encountering Paul Hoagland in the street. The reporter's threat, that they were not through with each other, still weighed heavily on his mind.

It wouldn't have surprised Josiah to catch the reporter trailing after him, hoping for more of a story.

Unsure whether or not that was the case, Josiah spun Clipper back around and headed straight to Miss Amelia Angle's Home for Girls. He wasn't going to start living his life in fear that he was being spied upon by a worthless newspaper reporter.

He needed to see Pearl Fikes. Plain and simple: He wanted to get on with his life, and nothing was going to stop him. Not now.

A light burned in the window at the back of Miss Amelia Angle's Home for Girls. The light was not smoky and muted, but steady and bright. It appeared Miss Angle's house had been outfitted with gas lamps. Obviously, gas, used as an everyday fuel, was spreading to the farthest reaches of Austin; an occurrence that Josiah found interesting, but less notable than the presence of the moving shadows in the room of his focus. If Pedro had been correct, then it looked like Pearl Fikes was where she was supposed to be.

Josiah scrounged up a few suitable pebbles and tossed them up at the window. The house was three storeys, and the first couple of throws missed the window entirely, bouncing off the wood siding with a shallow, almost inaudible, thump. After a couple of more tries, he pinged a small rock off the window, light enough so the fragile glass didn't shatter.

Instead of tossing up another rock, Josiah waited. He could feel his heart beating in his chest even faster now. There was still a slight taste of whiskey in his mouth, as foreign as it was welcome. Wasting time in a saloon had become a necessary evil in Corpus Christi; now it seemed he had no aversion to the act like he'd had in the past. Not that he thought about the aversion a lot, but the change in his own attitude was a surprise to him.

A shadow moved forward in the room. Josiah palmed a rock and readied his next throw, determined to get Pearl's attention. He worried less about drawing anyone else's attention, and he was sure he wasn't the first man to toss pebbles at the boardinghouse windows.

Pearl appeared at the window, the steady gas light behind her. Her long blond hair glowed like golden straw. She wore a curious look on her face, but it didn't take a sighting scope to see recognition burst across it and curiosity change to unbridled happiness once she laid eyes on Josiah.

In response, Josiah waved, urging her to come down, and Pearl disappeared abruptly from the window.

The last time he had seen her was in the coach outside of the capitol building. Pearl had whispered to him,
I need you,
after which he had disappeared for the next four months and offered nothing in the form of communication. No letters, no telegraphs, nothing. He was fully undercover, taking his spy assignment from McNelly as seriously as he could. Ultimately, he didn't know what kind of reception to expect from Pearl, especially considering the changes that had occurred in her life while he had been away.

Josiah paced then, walking in and out of the shadows in the alleyway that edged the back of the boardinghouse.

Lights from the windows of the house shone down on the gravel, and the moon peeked in and out of the clouds overhead, providing a reasonably clear view of everything around him.

There was still noise about, even louder piano music from the saloon and a moderate amount of traffic pacing by on the main streets that intersected at the corner lot the boardinghouse sat on. Josiah could barely hear anything, his mind full of jumbled words as he searched for the right thing to say to Pearl.

I'm sorry
.

Maybe, he wasn't sure. Duty had called, and it had seemed the best thing to do, getting out of Austin, letting the hubbub die down.

He wasn't sure. It was a hard thing to say, even though Billie Webb was pushing him to say it aloud one way or another. He knew Billie had her needs for him to say so, but it just wasn't that easy. He loved Lily. Always had, always would. How could he love, Pearl, too?

That was the truth. He had barely given Billie a thought when he was in Corpus Christi, while Pearl had been on his mind almost every day. Pearl, Lyle, and Ofelia. That counted for something, he thought.
I missed you
would be the truth; easier to say.

Emotions were not a foreign territory to Josiah, but he preferred simpler terrain than he was standing on now. As it was, he knew he had to see Pearl, and that was that. Maybe he would know what he felt as soon as she appeared.

As it turned out, Josiah didn't have to say anything. Not at first.

Pearl rounded the corner, her hair flowing behind her unbound as she ran to him. She was dressed to be alone in her room, ready for the night, her bedclothes on, a fine robe, too, open and unbuttoned, fine red satin fluttering about like a flag on a windy day.

Josiah stopped pacing and grabbed at a breath, because the sight of Pearl immediately took it away from him.

Not only did he feel alive, but he saw the desire for him in her eyes even in the grayness of the night. He had not felt wanted in a long, long time, at least that he recognized. Not since he was with her last, on the night before leaving Austin. There was no comparison of how he felt with Pearl to his feeling in the company of Billie Webb. Billie made him nervous, and with Pearl, Josiah was beginning to feel like himself.

Pearl ran straight to Josiah, uncaring about where they were, or if anyone saw them—wordless, her eyes glistening. The force of her body against his knocked Josiah back two steps, off balance. He had to reach for Pearl and pull her close to him to regain steady footing.

Josiah buried his face in her neck. She smelled like a field full of Texas wildflowers: bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, daisies, and indigo. And her skin felt like velvet. He had longed for her touch without fully realizing it.

The world around them disappeared, and for a brief moment, it was as if they were the only two people who walked on the earth. Josiah was transported to the last moment they had truly touched, back to the barn on the estate, when they had made love for the one and only time.

Pearl was breathing heavily, and though he couldn't see her face, he could feel the wetness of her tears against his skin.

“I missed you,” he whispered.

Pearl pulled back and looked Josiah in the eye, their noses an inch apart. He didn't wait for her to respond. He could not restrain himself any longer. He kissed her as passionately and as deeply as he knew how. Happily, Pearl responded in kind.

Time stood still, and it was only when they both heard the clopping of a coming horse that they broke apart and scurried, holding hands, into the shadows of a carriage house.

A buggy passed by, heading out to the main street, its sole occupant a man dressed in dark clothes and a high hat, who paid them no attention at all.

Once the buggy was past, Pearl broke into a laugh. “I feel like a schoolgirl.”

Josiah smiled. Even in the darkness her eyes were alive and happy. “You look like one, too.”

“I am improper, Josiah Wolfe. And you should be ashamed of yourself for not calling on me at the appropriate hour.”

He was certain—almost certain—that she was playing with him, and he was very happy to find her in good humor, instead of scolding him or holding him in contempt for his absence.

“You look just fine to me, Miss Fikes.”

“You are a scoundrel. With whiskey on your breath, no less. How am I to be sure that this is the Josiah Wolfe I know?”

Josiah looked away, then, breaking her gaze. “I had to go away.”

“I know that. I understand. I also know you were on an assignment.”

“How did you know that, Pearl?”

“I still know people, Josiah, no matter that my circumstances have changed.”

“I'm sorry about that. I know it must be hard.”

“Hard?” Pearl asked, tilting her head curiously. “Hard was not knowing if you were dead or alive, or if you would ever come back to Austin for longer than a minute to retrieve your son and then disappear again.”

“I could never be in this town without seeing you. Unless you would no longer want to see me.”

“You've changed.” Pearl ran the palm of her hand across his cheek, letting it linger before pulling away.

“I'm sure we both have.”

The sound of a window being pushed open caught Pearl's attention. She put her index finger to her lips and moved in closer to Josiah, pressing against him, like she was trying to disappear into his body.

Josiah pulled Pearl closer. Her head fit comfortably under his chin, and he was able to see a person, an older woman, looking out the window, up and down the alleyway. It didn't take asking to know that Pearl was breaking the rules by being outside of the house after dark, not to mention in the arms of a man. She would most likely be put out on the street if she were caught.

Satisfied there was nothing outside, the woman closed the window and disappeared.

“She's still watching,” Pearl whispered.

“I had to see you. I couldn't wait another day, another hour,” Josiah said.

Pearl smiled, then leaned up to kiss him. Josiah responded, though still tense with the thought that someone might be watching them.

Finally, Pearl pulled back. “I should go back inside.”

“I'll call on you tomorrow. If you'd like.”

“I'd like that, Josiah. I'm anxious to see what's become of you in the daylight.”

“I'll try to behave myself.”

Pearl started to pull away, but hesitated. “How'd you find me?”

“Pedro. I went to the house first . . .”

“. . . But no one was there.”

“It hardly looked the same.”

“I imagine not. I have not returned since the day I left.”

“Pedro told me of your mother's health. I was surprised that she was in a sanatorium.”

“We have been most fortunate, Josiah. A benefactor has seen to our means, or else we would surely be out on the street. There was no money left. Nothing of my father's to hold on to to see us through difficult times.”

“Your mother was staking her future on Pete Feders.”

“She was wrong, Josiah. And that is the last I will speak of that. Do you understand? I am happy here. I would have been chained to Peter, if he had gotten his way. I have freedoms now that I never thought possible. I am in training for a teacher's position, and it is the most rewarding occupation I can imagine. There is no longer the need for me to be the belle of the ball, and you must know how much I hated that.”

“I didn't know, but I do now.”

They were talking in whispers, and every ten seconds or so, Pearl would look over her shoulder at the back of the boardinghouse to make sure she wasn't being seen.

“I really have to go, Josiah. I cannot jeopardize this life I have now, no matter how much I want to run off with you.”

“I understand. I'll be on the doorstep at the first appropriate hour.”

“Is that a promise?”

“Yes,” Josiah answered. “I promise.”