Deborah Camp (40 page)

“A miracle,” he agreed, then started to turn away before Zanna’s tightening hand on his arm stopped him.

“Yes, that’s correct,” Zanna said, speaking loudly enough to make heads turn and other voices fade into silence. “I want everyone to know that Mr. Adams is not only a free man, but also an innocent one. He never committed any crimes. He was framed. While I hold no ill will toward the other hanging husbands, I think it’s important for everyone to understand that Mr. Adams is no longer in their company.” She turned her gaze up to his and saw the glimmer of gratitude in the hazel pools.

“Good for you, Grandy!” Stubby shouted and everyone applauded.

“Will you be leaving us now?” Mrs. Timmons asked when the applause had died out.

“I … leaving?” Grandy ran a finger around his collar and avoided Zanna’s steady gaze. “Not right off, no. I’ll be around.”

“Let me get you a drink of something, partner,” Elmer said, his eyebrows jumping up and down meaningfully as he draped a sociable arm around Grandy’s shoulders and started to lead him away from the women’s circle.

“Zanna,” Lucy Burnett said, leaning closer to her hostess, “is it true that Duncan’s in Houston? Mrs. Timmons said she heard he was under the weather. Does he have a head cold, do you know? Have you seen him around?”

“Well … I …” Zanna shrugged, unsure how to answer.

“Shall I tell you what I’ve heard?” Grandy said, hanging back as Elmer tried to pull him away from the gossiping women.

“Yes!” Mrs. Timmons said, eyes wide with curiosity.

“Do tell,” Lucy begged.

“I heard…” Grandy’s whisper carried loud and clear. “I heard he has a bad case of the galloping crotch rot!”

“No!” Mrs. Timmons fell back in her chair, hands pressed over her heart.

“My word!” Lucy covered her gaping mouth.

“Grandville!” Zanna scolded, but she couldn’t keep from smiling.

“That’s what I’ve heard,” Grandy said with a shrug. “It’s all over town. I’m surprised you ladies hadn’t already heard about it.”

“Well, as a matter of fact,” Mrs. Timmons said, recovering quickly from her shock, “I
did
hear something about Duncan visiting a woman of questionable reputation …”

Zanna shook a scolding finger at Grandy as Elmer finally managed to haul him away. Grandy replied with a wicked wink.

“You know, Zanna,” Lucy said, touching her hand and making her join the circle of gossip and rumor, “I think you and Mr. Adams are the best match that’s been made from the Scyene jail.”

“I don’t know about that …” Mrs. Timmons pursed her lips and thought a moment. “Agatha Daryrimple did herself proud with that older gentleman. I hear they’re mighty happy and expect to make money hand over fist in San Francisco. Agatha’s hoping to have a child real soon.”

“A child?” Zanna repeated, jealousy spearing her heart and making her stiffen all over.

“Yes,” Mrs. Timmons said. “Isn’t that wonderful?”

“Oh, yes.” Zanna smiled, her gaze dropping to her lap where her hands were worrying around her hanky. “Having a baby with the man you love is—”

“—the best thing that can happen to a woman,” Lucy finished for her.

“Will you be having children soon, Zanna?” Mrs. Timmons asked.

“I don’t know.” Zanna looked up to search the guests for the one man who could make her dreams come true, but he was nowhere in sight. Her heart leaped in fear. Was he gone? Had he chosen this time to ride away while she was too busy to notice? Was the dance they’d shared his final farewell?

“Zanna, are you all right?” Lucy asked in sudden concern. “You look as if you’ve had a bad shock.”

“No, I’m fine.” Zanna shook off her panic, telling herself she couldn’t allow herself to get so upset every time Grandy wasn’t within reach. “But I really
must
help Darnella.” She stood up, smiling an apology at the other two women. “Enjoy yourselves and please excuse me.”

Darnella frowned good-naturedly when Zanna sidled up next to her at the serving table.

“Now what is this? Grandy Adams said you were to enjoy yourself and here you’re back already.”

“Darnella, I’m not in the mood to talk to Lucy or Mrs. Timmons.
Especially Mrs. Timmons. She as much as called me a trollop when I married Grandville and now she’s treating me as if I were princess of the county.”

“That’s because he’s not a hanging husband anymore,” Darnella said. “She still acts like I don’t even leave footprints when I walk. Who you looking for, hon?”

“Grandy. Have you seen him?”

“Sure. He’s off with Elmer and Stubby. I think they slipped over to the stables for a little smoke and rotgut. You know them boys,” she added with a heavy sigh. “They’re not supposed to drink, but they manage a sip now and then. ’Course Grandy can drink what and when he wants now, can’t he?”

Zanna nodded and picked up a knife to slice off rounds of cheese.

“I think it’s grand of him to stay friends with Elmer and Stubby. He doesn’t have to now that he’s not one of them.”

“He’s a good man. He wouldn’t snub them just because of that,” Zanna said, the compliment coming easily and naturally from her.

“Oh, Zanna,” Lilimae said, bustling up to the table. “I heard about that fire y’all had. What got burned?”

“Just the hay field.”

“Oh, my!” Darnella’s eyes grew huge. “What started it?”

Zanna shrugged. “We weren’t here when it started. It was the night of the round-up party.”

“Fires are so scary,” Darnella said, rubbing her hands up and down her chubby arms.

“I think it’s wonderful that Grandy’s staying here even though he doesn’t have to anymore,” Lilimae said with a sly smile. “You two fell smack into it, didn’t you?”

“Into what?” Zanna asked.

“Love. He’s crazy about you, isn’t he?”

Zanna threw down the knife as frustration, anger, and helplessness funneled inside her like a tornado. “Lilimae,
how you go on!” Seeing the shocked expressions on Lilimae’s and Darnella’s faces, she turned her back on them. “I’m sorry … I just … never mind.” She grabbed at Lefty as he sauntered past. “Lefty, please dance with me. Please?”

Lefty’s face turned beet red, but he ducked his head in a polite nod. “Sure ’nuf, boss lady. Be glad to.”

The night was scented with honeysuckle blossoms, stirred by a sighing breeze. It was moonless and cloudy enough to hide the stars.

As she sat in the porch rocker, Zanna’s body was bone tired, but her mind was alive with questions. All that remained of the barbecue were a few jugs of cider. She’d encouraged folks to take home leftovers and they had, so nothing in the way of food remained. Echoes of laughter and music floated through Zanna’s mind as she rocked back and forth.

Would Grandy leave tonight? When morning came, would she be alone? Maybe she should try to sleep … perhaps if she closed her eyes, she would doze. When she opened them again, would he still be there?

“Zanna?”

Grandy’s voice sounding behind her made her jump all over. “Good Lord! You scared the wits out of me. I didn’t hear you roaming around inside.”

“I could hear your chair squeaking.” He came outside and put a hand on her shoulder. “Why aren’t you in bed asleep? You must be worn out.”

She sat still, staring.

“Are you going to answer me?”

She shook her head.

“Why not?”

“You won’t like my answer.”

He came around to drop to his haunches in front of the rocker. “Tell me anyway. Why aren’t you in bed asleep?”

She couldn’t bring herself to look at him, so she kept
staring straight ahead at the black night. “I’m afraid you won’t be here when I wake up.”

He hung his head, shaking it slowly as he released a long sigh. “Zanna, Zanna … do you think I’d just sneak off without telling you?”

“I don’t know what to think anymore.” She slid her hands to the ends of the chair arms and gripped hard. “All I know is that you will leave someday and. I’ll have to make other plans. I feel as if I’m standing on the edge of a cliff waiting for somebody to push me over it.”

“I won’t leave you high and dry, Zanna. I’m staying until this mess with Duncan is settled.”

“It will never be settled.”

“Yes, it will be. I’ll see to it. You’ve got a friend in me, honey. Friends don’t leave friends in the lurch.”

“Duncan stayed away today because he’s afraid of you. I don’t believe for one minute that he was in Houston.”

“I don’t think he’s in Houston, but I don’t think he’s afraid of me, either. He’s too stupid to be afraid. No, I figure he didn’t come to the barbecue just to get folks talking about him. He loves being the center of attention. By not showing up, it makes folks wonder if he knows something they don’t.”

“You know what’s really troubling me, don’t you?”

“No. Tell me.”

Her throat tightened as emotion surged through her. “I’ve come to care for you more than I ever thought possible. I was thinking earlier of how I resented your company at first … and now … now I crave it. I don’t want you to think of me as a desperate, lonely woman who clings like a choking vine—”

“Zanna, I don’t …”

“—but I miss you so much at night, Grandy.” She covered her face, ashamed at being so brazen. “I shouldn’t have said that. A lady would never … but it’s true! May I be struck dead this second if I’m not telling the absolute truth.”

“Zanna, look at me.” He clasped her wrists and forced her hands away from her face. “Don’t be ashamed of your feelings.”

“But you don’t want to hear—”

“And don’t tell me what I do or don’t want to hear,” he interrupted, then closed his hands over hers. “I miss you, too.”

She stared at him, wondering if she should be pleased. “Are you saying this because you feel sorry for me?”

“No, I’m saying this because I feel sorry for me.” He smiled and inched closer until his ribs were pressed against her knees. “I decided to wean myself away from you, but I’ve been miserable. I lie in bed and think of your body, your breasts …” His gaze drifted down to where the loose bodice of her nightgown covered her straining nipples. “And your belly.” Lower still went his hungry gaze. “And your angel-soft thighs and the scent of you … oh, Zanna.” His voice broke on her name.

His arms circled her waist and pulled her forward so that he could nuzzle between her breasts.

“Grandy … Grandy … make love to me,” she whispered, raking her fingers through his hair and raining kisses on the top of his head. “Just one more time before you go.”

She slid from the rocker to her knees and opened her mouth wide for the powerful thrust of his tongue that sent all rational thought from her mind. Emotion ruled her, making her clutch his back and moan shamelessly for a more intense mating than his tongue could provide. He too, was acting on pure passion. She could tell by the restless roaming of his hands upon her back, her hips, her thighs.

He stood up and pulled her to her feet. His mouth swooped to hers again and tempted her to follow as he backed into the house, across the front room, and toward her bedroom. Zanna framed his face with her hands, holding him steady while she drank desire from his lips. He
gripped her waist and lifted her onto the bed, then unfastened his trousers before joining her in their marriage bed.

“I can’t get you out of my mind,” he murmured feverishly while his mouth touched off sparks along the side of her neck, behind her ear, across her collarbone.

Rising to his knees, he gathered the hem of her nightgown and slid the garment up and over her head, exposing her white, soft skin to the magic of his hands and the dampness of his mouth. He stoked her inner fire with tongue strokes across her tender nipples. Zanna was so enthralled that she felt none of her usual modesty. She didn’t try to shimmy under the top sheet as she’d done before. This time there were no rules, no forbidden places, no secret sins. She thought nothing of pushing his trousers down his hips, then murmuring impatiently while he completed the task. When he was finally exposed to her, she reached instinctively to hold him, to fondle him, to arouse him until, she could feel his sexual power straining for release.

“My beautiful man,” she said, curling up to meet his descending mouth.

Never had a man kissed her with such tenderness, such devotion. The gentle sucking seemed to pull her soul inside of him. His pursed lips moved to her eyelids, her cheekbones, her earlobes, the tip of her nose. When he kissed her mouth again, he did so smiling as if his enjoyment was so keen that he couldn’t keep from grinning. He covered her soft breasts with his callused hands as he settled his lower body between her thighs. Taking one nipple into his mouth, he bathed it lovingly, then moved to the other. When her nipples were like dewy buds, he strained upward on locked arms. Zanna gripped his forearms and lifted her buttocks off the mattress, anticipating his first mighty thrust.

Ecstasy was hers.

When he had sown his seed in her, Grandy shifted to one side. He flung one arm across her soft belly and held
her against him, but he turned away so she wouldn’t see the tears in his eyes.

At the instant of his release, a thought had speared his mind and brought the sudden emotion. Why had he considered leaving her just when he was at the pinnacle of his own happiness? Perhaps he was now finally admitting to himself that he had no intention of allowing Suzanna Sullivan Adams to break her marriage vows.

For he knew he’d never love like this again. His patience had paid off tenfold and his reward had been a love of a lifetime. Leaving her now would be like tearing out his own heart.

She’d come such a long way, he thought, recalling the night when she’d been as responsive as a fallen log to his attempts at lovemaking. He couldn’t deny a sense of pride when he remembered the gradual awakening of her sensuality, but he couldn’t take all the credit. She was a strong woman, a survivor. She deserved so much, having suffered so immeasurably, and Grandy wanted to be the one to lavish her with love and spoil her beyond measure.

Unwittingly, she’d made him better understand his mother and her predicament. While he still couldn’t completely forgive his mother for turning her back on him, at least he could understand her sense of hopelessness. Women had a hard row to hoe. It was a man’s world and women had a devil of a time fitting into it. So often—too often—women ended up victims of the men they were trying to help, to love, to save from themselves.