Forget-Me-Not Bride (23 page)

‘If you would sign your names in the hotel register,' Mr Winthrop urged as they stepped into a large lobby. ‘This way, ladies. This way.'

As Susan stepped towards an enormous desk supporting an even more enormous book, Lilli saw that, unlike Kate, Susan had still not recovered from the near disaster of a few moments ago. Her face was pinched and white and the incipient moustache on her upper lip was beaded with sweat. Lilli's heart went out to her. After a lifetime without any beau whatsoever she finally had one and he had made it quite clear that he thought any young woman who became a mail-order bride was a young woman of regrettable morals. What on earth would his reaction be when he learnt that Susan was a mail-order bride? Would he be compassionately understanding or would he be appalled? And even if he were compassionately understanding, would pride prevent him from taking a mail-order bride as his own bride?

‘And now ma'am, if you please,' Mr Winthrop was saying to her.

She signed the register, wondering where her own beau was. She hadn't seen him anywhere on the platform when she had stepped off the train, nor had she seen Miss Kitty Dufresne. A quick inspection of the page she had just signed showed that neither of them had, as yet, signed the register.

As she turned away from the desk to allow Lettie to sign the register it occurred to her that perhaps Lucky Jack and Kitty Dufresne weren't staying overnight in the
White Pass Hotel
. If the decor of its lobby was anything to go by it certainly wasn't very elegant or refined. A giant sheet-iron stove, ringed by cracked leather chairs, held pride of place. The chairs were all occupied by disreputable-looking men and between each pair of chairs stood an enamel spittoon.

As one of the spittoons was put to use she suppressed a little shudder. No, Lucky Jack and Kitty Dufresne wouldn't be staying in the
White Pass Hotel
. They would be staying somewhere much more refined.

‘Wee Lottie's bag,' a familiar Scottish male voice said, depositing Lottie's travel-bag on the linoleum-covered floor by her feet. In the confines of the lobby he seemed even taller and more wide-shouldered, if that was possible, than he had aboard the
Senator
.

‘Thank you, Mr Cameron,' she said stiffly, wrenched from her thoughts of her much more pleasingly proportioned Greek god.

Ringan frowned slightly. He knew from the dismissive tone of her voice that she didn't want him to engage her in further conversation, but now that he knew so much more about her he found it impossible to turn away from her. It was now early evening and, after a days travelling, she looked tired. There was a smudge of soot on her cheek, legacy of their long train ride, and a silky tendril of curling hair had come adrift from her high-piled chignon.

Knowing now that without Lucky Jack Coolidge as a beau she would be obliged to marry some gold-grubbing prospector she hadn't even met as yet, he was far more understanding of the scene he had witnessed aboard the
Senator
. If Lilli Stullen believed herself to be in love with Lucky Jack then she certainly had no time to waste in which to capture his heart. Where, however, was Coolidge at the present moment? As Lottie had so tartly pointed out, he hadn't been at Lilli's side when she had disembarked from the
Senator
, and he wasn't at her side now.

If he didn't know where Lucky Jack was, he had a very good idea as to whose company Lucky Jack was in. And the person in question was dressed in the very best that Parisian couturiers could supply. Sure that Lilli Stullen had made a very grave error of judgement where Lucky Jack's intentions towards her were concerned, feeling intense pity for her predicament and boundless admiration for the way she cared so fiercely for Lottie and Leo's welfare, he said impulsively, ‘Would you care to have dinner with me tonight?'

The words were out of his mouth before his brain had had chance to realise what it was he was going to say. ‘The invitation extends to Leo and wee Lottie too, of course,' he added hurriedly, almost as taken aback as she was.

‘I …' She raised a hand to her hair and tucked the stray tendril back into her chignon. ‘I … it's very kind of you to invite me, Mr Cameron, but I don't think …'

Lottie and Leo had trooped off up the stairs towards the bedrooms in Marietta and Edie's wake. Susan and Mr Jenkinson were leaving the lobby by its main door, obviously intent on enjoying whatever sights Skagway had to offer. Kate and Lord Lister were deep in conversation, oblivious of their unprepossessing surroundings and the many pairs of male eyes turned pruriently in their direction.

Under normal circumstances, realising her lack of enthusiasm for his suggestion, he wouldn't have pressed her any further. He wasn't a man who had ever had to make an effort where women were concerned, rather the reverse, but this wasn't normal circumstances. Looking at her graceful figure; at the way she held herself tall and with pride, even when tiredness and circumstances were against her; at the heavy mass of her upswept hair, a mass that looked far too heavy for her slender neck to support, he felt his throat constrict.

Self-knowledge roared through his veins like a tidal wave. He had been deluding himself when he had told himself he had asked her to dine with him because he felt pity for her predicament and admiration for her loving care of Leo and Lottie. Pity and admiration were part of the compound of his feelings for her, but they were far from being the whole of it. He was fiercely sexually attracted to her.

His heart jarred against his ribs. Christ! He was
still
fooling himself! It wasn't just sexual attraction he felt for her, it was far, far more. He wanted to protect her; to take the look of anxiety from the backs of her eyes. He wanted to love her, comfort her, honour and keep her in sickness and in health. He wanted her to bear his children; children she would love and cherish just as exquisitely as she loved and cherished Leo and Lottie. He wanted to remain faithful to her for as long as he lived. He wanted to
marry
her. And she needed a husband. She
needed
his love and protection. ‘Miss Stullen, I …' he began, about to make quite sure that she did, at least, spend time with him that evening.

He was too late. Her eyes were no longer anxious and doubtful and they were no longer on him. No longer even listening to him, her face radiant, she was looking towards the hotel's entrance. Ringan had no need to turn around to know who it was who had just entered the lobby.

‘Howdy, Jess,' Lucky Jack said breezily to the
White Pass's
manager. ‘Gossip tells me Dawson's been emptying out whilst I've been away.'

‘Sure has,' Jess Winthrop said, striding across the lobby to shake vigorous hold of Jack's hand. ‘Dawson's beginning to die. Everyone who hasn't already made a strike is heading out to Nome. I'm tempted to head out in that direction myself. Reports are they're finding nuggets as big as boulders.'

Jack grinned. It was a story he had heard before. Many times.

‘We're dining at seven,' he said as he reached Lilli's side. ‘I've someone I want you to meet. Her name is Miss Kitty Dufresne and what she can't tell you about Dawson isn't worth knowing.' He glanced across at Ringan. ‘Perhaps you'd like to dine with us as well, Mr Cameron?' he asked, wondering just what the hell Cameron had been up to with Lilli. The Scotsman looked like a man who'd lost a hundred dollar bill and found a nickel.

Ringan shook his head. ‘No, thanks,' he said shortly. ‘Bye, Miss Stullen.' With a brief, polite nod of his head he took his leave of them, walking swiftly towards the foot of the wide staircase.

‘I'd love to meet Miss Dufresne,' Lilli said, her face upturned to his, her eyes glowing, Ringan Cameron immediately forgotten.

‘Kitty thinks it would be bad for your reputation if you were seen dining with her, but Jess has a private dining-room we can use,' Jack's eyes were still on Ringan as Ringan took the wooden treads two at a time in easy, athletic strides. ‘And she's rather looking forward to meeting Leo and Lottie. She's never had much contact with children, which is rather a pity. I have a feeling she'd be pretty good with them.'

More people were now entering the lobby, among them his two card-playing buddies. He touched her elbow lightly. ‘I have to go now. I've things to see to. I'll see you at seven.'

As he joined his cronies, disappearing with them into a room marked PRIVATE that led off the far side of the lobby, Lilli cupped the elbow he had touched. It was going to be all right. He had touched her in a way which was openly proprietal.
It was going to be all right
.

If she had hoped Lucky Jack would introduce her to Kitty Dufresne as his fiancée she was disappointed.

‘As the two of you are going to be seeing a lot of each other when we get to Dawson I thought tonight would be a chance for you both to get acquainted,' he said when all introductions had been made and they had all seated themselves around a large, round, candle-lit table.

‘We won't be seeing a lot of each other publicly,' Kitty said in a voice so fascinatingly throaty Leo stared at her goggle-eyed. ‘I think Jack has already explained to you why, Miss Stullen. But under the circumstances, and as I'm Jack's business partner, it won't do any harm for the two of us to be on friendly terms.'

‘No, of course not.' Lilli wasn't quite sure how to respond to such a startlingly frank statement. Didn't Kitty Dufresne
mind
that she wasn't socially acceptable? She thought of Marietta. Marietta certainly wouldn't mind. ‘I
want
us to be on friendly terms,' she said warmly, aware that Kitty and Marietta had much in common,

‘Then let's have some wine and drink to friendship,' Kitty said, touching the rim of her still empty wine-glass.

Lucky Jack obligingly began to pour a ruby-red wine into the wine-glasses, his gold earring gleaming in the candle-light, his fair hair glistening, pale as barley in September.

With difficulty Lilli wrenched her eyes aware from the blazing bravura of his handsomeness. There was Leo and Lottie to think of; proprieties to be observed.

‘Can I have some wine?' Leo asked, sensing the evening was like no other evening he had ever experienced and that anything was possible.

‘No, of course not,' Lilli chided, praying that Leo wasn't going to behave badly.

‘Perhaps Leo could just have a
taste
of wine,' Kitty suggested, ‘in water, of course.'

‘It's French,' Lucky Jack said, his eyes meeting Lilli's over the candle-flames. ‘It's good quality. A dash of it in water won't do any harm.'

‘Well … just a little dash,' Lilli concurred, wondering if she, too, should mix it with water. She had never drunk wine before and she didn't want it to go to her head.

Leo gave a sigh of pure happiness. He had known the instant he had set eyes on Lucky Jack's friend that she was a magic lady. And not only a magic lady, but a
royal
magic lady, for surely only queens wore lace and satin and diamonds.

Lilli, too, was very well aware of Kitty Dufresne's almost royal raiment. Her dress was of midnight-blue and daringly décolleté. There were diamonds at her ears and in her hair. Lilli had never seen a tiara before and only deeply bred good manners prevented her from staring in wonder at the feast of wealth winking and twinkling in Kitty Dufresne's Titian-red hair.

‘To your new life in Dawson,' Jack said, raising his glass towards Lilli and Leo and Lottie. ‘May you soon feel at home there.'

‘And may you soon come to love it just as much as I do,' Kitty added, smiling at them with such genuine warmth she won Lottie's heart as well as Leo's.

That Kitty really did love Dawson became blatantly apparent when Lucky Jack began to recount the remarks Jess Winthrop had made to him earlier on, in the lobby.

‘He says Dawson is beginning to die. That everyone is lighting out for Nome.'

Kitty laid down her fork and looked towards him. ‘I'm not going to light for Nome,' she said, an odd undertone to her voice.

Jack poured more wine into his glass. ‘It's not only Winthrop's opinion. Everyone's saying the same thing. There's already a tent city on the beach. Men are making fortunes. Buildings are going up. Saloons are opening. It's too late, now, for us to get in early as we did in Dawson, but …'

Kitty was very still. The big-hearted smile that had encompassed Lilli and Leo and Lottie like a ray of hot summer sunshine, was now gone. ‘I'm not interested, Jack. I've had it with opening new saloons in new towns. The money we've made and invested this last two years will see me through life. And the life I want is in Dawson. I've become
part
of the place, for God's sake. I've never called anywhere home before, but Dawson has become home. And whether it dies or not, I'm not leaving it.'

Lottie's eyes met Lilli's uncomfortably. The conversation had suddenly become embarrassingly serious.

Lucky Jack knew it had become serious too and he didn't like it. ‘We'll talk about Nome later,' he said, angry with himself for having broached just a ticklish subject when the Stullens were present. ‘How about livening things up and treating young Lottie to an ice-worm cocktail?'

As he leaned back in his chair, pressing the bell on the wall to summon a waiter, Lottie said incredulously. ‘A
what? A worm
cocktail? I don't believe it!'

‘White worms are a prime delicacy in Whitehorse,' Jack said, keeping his face straight with difficulty. ‘In fact they're so much of a delicacy I think Leo and Lilli should have an ice-worm cocktail as well.'

When the drinks were set on the table, white worms wriggling at the bottom of each glass, there were shrieks of horror, shrieks which quickly turned to shrieks of laughter when Kitty finally took pity on them and revealed that the ‘worms'were small pieces of spaghetti.