Fool for Love (Montana Romance) (18 page)

“Why, I’m just fine.  And call me Mabel, for heaven’s sake.  Our ranch is next door to Eric’s.  We’ll be neighbors.  What a pretty accent you have!”

The other woman, Miss Jones, turned to Eric.

“Does Jacinta know?”

“No, Jacinta does not know,” Eric huffed.

“Oh dear,” Mabel laughed.  “I trust we’ll see you home soon,” she said to Eric and Amelia.  “Come along children.  I think there’s a storm rolling in.”

The only clouds in the sky were white and wispy.  A lump of curiosity lodged in Amelia’s throat.

“Who is Jacinta?” she asked Charlie once they had stepped up onto the string of covered porches that served as a sort of sidewalk in front of the town’s businesses.

Charlie’s first and most telling reply was a deep laugh.

“Don’t you start,” Eric warned her.

Charlie ignored him.  “Jacinta Archer is….  Oh no, wait.  Here she comes herself.”

Amelia pivoted to follow the line of her glance, searching the now busy street for anyone who fit the name Jacinta.

“Hang back if you want to see a show,” Charlie whispered, taking her arm and drawing her to the side.

Amelia’s bewilderment lasted for another two seconds before a shriek sounded from the street.

“Eric!  You’re home!”

The source of the cry stood out from the rest of the pedestrians like an orange in a bowl of walnuts.  A tiny woman of at least thirty in a bright puce dress danced on the balls of her feet before running full force along the street to meet their group.  She had carrot-red hair underneath an ostentatious bonnet replete with feathers.  Her pale face was split by a smile that bordered on ecstasy.

“Oh Eric, how I’ve missed you!” the woman launched into a breathless greeting, grabbing the lapels of Eric’s coat as if she could hold him in Cold Springs forever.  Amelia’s brow darkened at the inappropriate gesture.

“Jacinta,” Eric said and squirmed to get away.  It was to no avail.

“You were gone ever so much longer than you said you would be, and without sending me a single letter!  How cruel!  And I have been so concerned about you, so
worried
, what with the troubles at your ranch and all.”

“What tr
oubles?” Eric interrupted her.

“With the cattle and the ranch hands and the state it’s in.  I’ve been so terribly worried for you.”

“What state?”

“But you’re here now!”

Jacinta ignored the pale cast that came to Eric’s face.  Amelia couldn’t ignore it.  She stepped forward, inching to his side.

“Never mind all of that business stuff and nonsense,” Jacinta went on.  “You’re home!  You’re home and that’s all that matters!  Oh you must come over to mother’s house for supper.  Right away.  I’m sure we have so much to talk about!  The town is changing by leaps and bounds, although nobody knows how or why.  So many people have been moving in that they’re building a new school, and I hear there are plans to build a new church too!  Imagine that!  A new, beautiful church, perfect for weddings and christenings and
weddings
and, oh, so many things!”

Beside Amelia, Eric’s friends fought to hide their snickers.  As taken aback as Amelia was by the woman’s antics, she couldn’t condone laughing at her.  Jacinta’s enthusiasm reminded Amelia too much of
her sister Eve’s vivacity.

Eric cleared his throat and removed Jacinta’s fists from his lapels.  He took half a wavering step back then said, “Jacinta, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.  This is Amelia.”

Amelia thought of Eve and smiled as Eric swept an arm around her back and brought her forward.  “How do you do?”  She offered her hand to Jacinta.

Jacinta blinked rapidly, as if noticing Amelia’s existence for the first time.  Her lips curled into more of a sneer than a smile.  The resemblance to Eva vanished.  The cold light in the odd woman’s eyes reminded Amelia of her sister, all right.  Her sister Olivia.  Jacinta’s pale red eyebrows rose in question and her smile remained plastered in place, just as Olivia’s did when she was looking down at someone.  She stared at Amelia’s hand without reaching for it.

“I do rightly well,” she answered with a tight, unfriendly nod.

Eric cleared his throat.  “Amelia is my wife.”

Amelia was sure she heard a collective intake of breath from Eric’s friends behind her.

Jacinta’s smile dropped.  “I’m sorry, what?”  The notes of treacle sweetness in her voice evaporated with each syllable.

“Amelia and I were married over in England,” Eric said.  For a change he winced as though the ruse were a bad idea.

“You were
what
?” Jacinta demanded, all traces of civility gone.  Her pale cheeks splotched red, giving Amelia a glimpse of the dragon beneath the frills.

The similarity to Olivia called up every bitter instinct Amelia had.  Whatever inclination she’d had to be accommodating to the woman disappeared.  “Eric and I are married,” she said.

“I didn’t ask you,” Jacinta replied, mouth tight.  “Eric?”

“Yeah,” Eric drawled.  He rested an arm around Amelia’s shoulder.  “We’re married.  And we’re having a baby too.”

“A what?”  Jacinta’s question was downright hostile.  She glared at Amelia’s stomach, sucked in a breath, then snapped straight.  “But what about…?  I always assumed…?  So many plans were being made!”

“Well, now, Jacinta,” Eric began.  He didn’t have a chance to go on.

“Well look who the cows dragged home, girls.”  The exchange was interrupted by the appearance of a group of women dressed in colorful skirts and shawls, corsets, and not much else.  “If it isn’t Eric Quinlan.”

“Hellfire,” Eric grumbled.  He rubbed a hand over his face and stole a sideways glance at Amelia.

“Welcome home, Eric,” another of the girls, spritely with a child-like voice, piped up.  “We missed you.”

There wasn’t a shred of doubt who these women were.  Amelia stared at her Montana counterparts, heart racing.  They were loose and tan with sloppy hairstyles and too much rouge.  They were one step away from where she stood now.

She tried to shrug off Eric’s arm and step away, but he held her fast.

“Good morning, ladies,” he greeted them with a tip of his hat.  “I trust you’ve kept out of trouble while I was gone?”

“Yes.  Oh, yes,” the whores answered in a bunch.

“Really!” Jacinta huffed in outrage.

Before Eric could say another word to the whores, Amelia broke away from him and pivoted to Charlie.  “I’m afraid I need to sit down.”

“Amelia.”  Eric turned to follow her.  “They’re just friends.”

“Like Jacinta?”  Amelia stared him down.

“I’ve never been so insulted in all my life!” Jacinta squeaked.

Charlie was clever enough to know when to step between a man and his pretend wife.

“Let’s go over to the hotel and have a lemonade,” she said.  “I’m sure Delilah will want to know we’re back.”

She lurched forward, one hand on her enormous belly, and took Amelia’s arm as she passed.  They marched to the end of the covered sidewalk and stepped into the hard dirt of the street.  Amelia glanced over her shoulder as the gaggle of whores laughed to each other, blew goodbye kisses to Eric, and sauntered on their way.  They left a cold knot in her stomach.

“Now wait just a minute!”  Eric chased after Amelia.  “Whe
re do you think you’re going?”

“I’m not finished speaking to you!”  Jacinta scurried after him.

Michael, Christian, and Phineas exchanged looks of masculine cluelessness before following.

“I’m sorry I hurt your feelings, Jacinta,” Eric said over his shoulder as he strode to catch up to Amelia and Charlie, “but Amelia and I are married now and there’s not another woman in this world that I care to look twice at.”  His statement was as much for Amelia as for Jacinta.

Jacinta stopped her pursuit with a half scream.  She stomped her foot, kicking up a small cloud of dust.

“You’ll regret this Eric!”

“Why, Jacinta, what could have such a pretty girl like you upset on a fine day like this?” a new voice called across the street.

The odd parade shuffled to a stop.  Amelia turned to see a thin man in a smart gray suit and white, wide-brimmed hat crossing the street to join them.  He had Eric’s smile, but his eyes were deep-set and shaded.

“Curtis!” Eric cried out in relief.  He broke away from Amelia and Charlie and rushed to greet his cousin.  “Boy am I glad to see you!” he said, sweeping Curtis into a bear-hug.

Amelia’s heart paused, trembling in her throat as she watched.  At last, this was Curtis.

“Eric!  The fearless traveler has returned!”  Curtis hugged Eric with great thumping blows to his back.  When the two men stood apart from each other Curtis added, “I wasn’t expecting you for at least another week.”  A smile lit his face.  It was closer to January than July in Amelia’s opinion, but Eric didn’t bat an eyelash.

“Well I sent you a telegraph from
Denver, didn’t I?” Eric said.

“Did you?” Curtis replied.  Immediately he let it drop.  He nodded to Charlie and Eric’s friends, his smile settling on Amelia.  “Hello, who have we here?”  A spark danced in Curtis’s eyes as he started toward Amelia.

“This is Amelia.  I mentioned her in the telegraph, remember?”  Eric walked his cousin to meet her.

“I received your telegraph,” Curtis took Amelia’s hand to kiss it, “but I was imagining some plump English muffin, not this vision of loveliness I see before me.  Curtis Quinlan, at your service, m’lady.”

Amelia’s back prickled at the greeting.  Her mother would have loved Curtis Quinlan.

“This is insufferable!” Jacinta snapped at the scene.  “I’m not staying here in the middle of town just to be insulted by the Quinlans and their English muffin!”

“Jacinta.  Darling.”  Curtis switched his attention back to the quivering ball of indignation Jacinta had become.  “If I have insulted you, then I beg your forgiveness.  You are still the brightest and prettiest rose Cold Springs has to offer.”  He reached for her hand and brought it to his lips with a flourish.  “Come, have lunch with us at the hotel.  My treat.”

Jacinta swayed on her spot, not pulling her hand out of Curtis’s.  She flashed a look as sharp as daggers at Eric and then Amelia.  Her vicious scowl made Amelia catch her breath.

“Thank you kindly for the invitation, Curtis, but I’m afraid Mother needs me at home.”  She managed a smile for Curtis.  “Some other time, perhaps.”

“Why certainly.”

Curtis kissed her hand again, smile as big as the mountains, teeth as white as their snowy caps, then let her go.  He turned back to Eric and Amelia and the others without a second thought.

“My offer still stands.  I’d like to treat you to lunch at the hotel.  All of you.”

Jacinta hovered on her spot, glaring at Amelia, before spinning and stomping off with a huff.

Amelia wasn’t sorry to see her go, but the encounter left her with western butterflies roiling in her gut.  She placed a hand on her ever-growing stomach for a moment before catching herself and moving it.

“We were just on the way to the hotel for some refreshment,” she said.

“Why then, let me escort you, dear cousin.”

Curtis slid up to her side and took her arm away from Charlie before she could protest.  He wasn’t much taller than her, but he seemed to dwarf her with his presence.  There was nothing inherently wrong with his smile or the light in his eyes.  He wasn’t a handsome man like Eric.  In fact, something didn’t seem quite right in the way his face was put together, as though his jaw were crooked.  He had a certain attraction though, the kind a flame had for a moth.

“Curtis, you have no idea how much a sight for sore eyes you are.”  Eric clapped a hand on his cousin’s back as they strolled across the street toward a modest hotel at the far end of the street.

Charlie fell back to walk alongside her husband.  Christian whispered something to Phineas.  Amelia had the feeling that Eric’s friends had become their Greek chorus.  Things had certainly taken enough turns to be a classic tragedy.

“I’m pleased to see you as well, cuz.”  Curtis reached an arm around to pat Eric’s back.  “it’s been a tough winter.”

“That’s exactly what I wanted to talk to you about.  Michael said that half the herd froze to death last winter?  And that a bunch of the ranch hands left?”

They stepped up the stairs leading to the hotel and Eric’s voice rose with each step.  He rushed to hold the door so that Amelia and Curtis could step through.  The gesture seemed all wrong to Amelia.  Eric was anxious and stoop-shouldered, lowering his head as they passed like a cab driver holding a carri
age door open for his betters.

“Things have been tough,” Curtis said as they
crossed into the hotel lobby.

He rolled his shoulders and shook his head, sending a shaded glance at Michael as he and Charlie entered the hotel.  Charlie was distracted by her husband fussing over her and didn’t notice the look, but Amelia sensed she wouldn’t have been happy if she’d seen it.

“I’m sure Michael told you about how rough the winter was, how every ranch from here to Denver suffered losses.  I’m sure he also told you about how ranch hands from half a dozen farms and ranches in the area tried to band together to demand higher wages and shorter working hours.”