Lilac Temptress (22 page)

Slowing their pace as the melody
faded, Drake knew that he didn’t want this dance to end. He wanted
to savor every second of his holding her.

Sierra pulled away reluctantly and
curtsied.

He bowed his head, thanking
her.

Sierra acknowledged Drake’s striking
appearance, with his shoulder length hair sodden and curling
against the nape of his neck, and his flashing blue eyes showing
his heated passion for her as if they were the only ones standing
there. His skin looked feverish and she knew she must have been
blushing herself. She hadn’t realized until that moment that they
had worked up considerable warmth between them. Drake took her
moist hand to his hot lips and kissed the back of her
palm.

* * *

Girard watched Drake with Sierra as
they lit up the courtyard. Drake was positively taken with her and
Girard wondered if Drake was finally conquered—was he finally
falling in love? Sierra wasn’t that brazen and overly aggressive
woman Girard had first seen dancing on a stage in Jadesville,
taunting and baiting men. In fact he thought she was the complete
opposite—genuine, a breath of fresh air, and a woman who didn’t
realize just how indisputably sublime she was.

Girard finished his drink. His
intrusive eyes didn’t belong in the same place with them. And if he
sat any longer he was certain his staring would become wild,
irrational and envious.

“
I don’t think he likes
me.” Sierra watched Girard as he made his exit.

Drake glanced in the direction of his
friend. “Girard is like a brother to me. We’ve known each other a
long time. Our families have done business together since we were
children. He occasionally takes on the role of brother’s keeper.
Don’t mind him too much. It is just the way he is at
times.”

Sierra apprehensively nodded her head
at Drake.

Drake glanced across the courtyard. It
seemed as if Kyle had disappeared and Daniel had retired for the
night already. “I would love nothing more than to stay here with
you all night and dance until my feet are raw, however we must get
some rest. We leave bright and early tomorrow. I’ll walk you to
your room.”

Drake accompanied her upstairs. He
didn’t want to be a gentleman. He wanted to carry her to his bed
and make love to her all night long, but instead he bowed his head,
allowing her to enter her room before walking away.

Chapter 9

Sierra stared in fascination at the
city teaming with activity as they set out for the train station
early the next morning. The open-air fish markets, which carried
fresh seafood from the wharves, and street merchants stocking
tables with vegetables, sweet fruits and fresh cut flowers,
captivated her.

She spotted Haitians with pushcarts
that flaunted jangling huge earrings, voodoo trinkets and incenses.
She leaned her upper body lethargically against Kyle’s back while
he steered Shadowcaster not far behind Drake, Girard and Daniel,
who rode their steeds onward in the direction of the train
station.

A kaleidoscope of trim-cut people
moving down the streets, on horseback, in carriages, or simply
strolling, impressed her. Not even with all the visitors passing
through or town harvest festivals, had Jadesville ever become this
lively.

“
Kyle, look over there,”
Sierra said pointing, her eyes narrowing as she tried to put the
scene unfolding before her, into better focus.

Kyle spotted a shoddy looking woman
struggling with a portly man, who held onto her arm with a death
grip, at a produce stand.

“
Stop for a moment. We must
help her since it doesn’t appear as if anyone else on the street
will,” Sierra pressed. Adrienne had taught her better than to turn
a blind eye on any woman in distress. Besides, she couldn’t stand
to see a woman roughhoused by a man.

“
We’ll fall behind—what if
she doesn’t want our help? We should mind our own business like
everyone else,” Kyle replied.

“
I’ve never known you
to not to help a
lady
in trouble,” Sierra baited him, her tone
reproachful.

“
We don’t know these parts,
or what trouble we could be getting ourselves into,” Kyle
countered, annoyed by her persistence. Sierra always rushed into
things headlong, he thought wearily.

“
Kyle, if you don’t stop
this infernal beast I shall jump off!” Sierra swore
vehemently.

Realizing the moot point of fighting
her further, Kyle grunted, stopped and dismounted his steed
hesitantly, and then proceeded to extend his hand to help his older
sister down.

Dodging the moving coaches and wagons,
Sierra raced across the road to the vendor stand to assist the
distressed woman. But her feet couldn’t move swiftly enough to
prevent the violet scene from happening before her eyes. In the
time it took for her to catch her breath, she watched the man
backhand the tattered woman, sending her hurling to the
ground.

“
You disgusting coward! You
dare strike a woman like that!” Sierra yelled at the man as she
knelt to the ground to help the woman up. “Are you injured?” Sierra
asked, tenderly touching the woman’s red cheek.

The woman stared at her blankly, but
said nothing, and by the look of confusion in the woman’s eyes,
Sierra realized that the frightened woman did not speak English.
This woman very well could have been Portuguese or Italian for all
she knew.

“
Every morning she comes!
She takes and she takes, and she does not pay!” The man said in his
defense, his unrecognizable accent thick and heavy. “She thinks I
do not see her, but I do! You come to assist a thief, young lady.
Please step aside while I take from her what is my due!” The man
reached for the woman and dragged her to her feet by her arm. The
woman staggered, wobbling in fear.

Sierra jumped between the man and
woman. “If you insist on harming her then you must go through me to
do so!”

“
Very well then—if I must,”
the man said, thrusting the woman aside and manhandling Sierra by
the collar of her riding habit.

“
Take your hands off
me, you horrible, slovenly pig!” Sierra yelled furiously. The man
frowned at her scornfully. He stood far too close to her and his
rank breath almost made her pass out. Out of the corner of her eye
she saw the woman hurriedly escape down the street and then
disappear into the crowd.
Good, she is
safe from him.

“
Now you’ve let her get
away!” the vendor said, escalating his voice. “My produce was
hidden in her frock!” How do you expect to pay me for what she
took?” he ranted at Sierra.

“
That will be enough, sir!”
Suddenly standing beside them, Drake revealed his revolver by
pressing back his frock coat. “I suggest you let go of the lady or
deal with the likes of me.”

Immediately the man unhanded Sierra
and stepped back.

Humiliated, Sierra realized her
actions had been rash and that this scene must appear very
unsettling, but she felt even more mortified to find Girard and
Daniel, exposing their firearms, standing by Drake’s
side.

Kyle watched helplessly as the vendor
stayed deadly still and silent.

“
Kyle, see Sierra back to
the horses,” Drake commanded.

“
But—” Sierra disputed
him.

“
Do as I say. I will deal
with this man.”

Sierra gazed at Daniel who nodded in
agreement with Drake. Girard was quiet, but his disapproval at what
she had done was evident by the grimace on his face.

“
What was the woman’s
injury to you, sir?” Drake concealed his revolver before attracting
attention on the city streets. Girard and Daniel hid their arms
from view as well.

Sierra heard Drake speaking with the
man before Kyle pulled her away, completely out of earshot. She
glanced back only to see Drake paying the man who now smiled a
toothless grin. It seemed to her that Drake was settling a
debt.

* * *

Despite her troubled morning, Sierra
was saddened by their departure from New Iberia; the city had
offered many new experiences. Still Morgan City and New Orleans,
awaited, lifting her spirits considerably. At the pace they were
moving they’d be in New Orleans by evening, she
reasoned.

It wasn’t long before the group
reached the train station for their departure.

“
Is it good to put him on a
train? Are you sure they will take good care of Shadowcaster? I
mean—you and your friends, did part with your horses.” Kyle stared
after the men loading Shadowcaster onto a car at the back-end of
the train.

“
We never planned to keep
them. Shadowcaster will be fine, Kyle. The trip is not a long one,”
Drake assured him with a pat on his back, careful to avert his eyes
from Sierra. He hadn’t looked at her since the incident with the
farmer. He didn’t want her to detect how agitated he had been by
her actions, and was afraid that if she called him out on what she
saw in his eyes, he would be forced to chastise her in front of the
others.

“
Good. Shadowcaster has
never been on a train before. As a matter of fact, I haven’t
either!” Kyle said with a jittery laugh, catching Drake’s
attention.

“
Gentlemen, if you will
board now, we will depart in fifteen minutes,” the conductor held
out his arm pointing them up the stairs of the passenger
car.

Sierra hastily brushed past Drake and
stepped up the stairs onto the train as the train attendant helped
her. Drake frowned at her back, feeling her contempt as she passed
him and he didn’t like it. Kyle glanced after Shadowcaster one last
time as he boarded the train behind Drake and Girard. The men were
escorted to their compartments. Drake rode in a separate
compartment with Girard and Daniel, and Sierra and Kyle were
settled together in their own.

* * *

Sierra silently stared out of the car
window. Nature seemed ruthless and fierce. The train tracks ran
through unrelenting swamps of tremendous magnolias, and cypress
trees covered with swaying moss. Huge spirals of vines tangled the
trees together, leaves swaying with the wind. Algae surrounded
trunks, knee-deep in murky water. Birds took to flight from the
shadows. Every now and then an alligator emerged from the still
slimy water to sunbathe, its eyes looking at the train unkindly
before sinking underwater again.

She gazed at Kyle, who lie fast asleep
beside her and then she burst into tears. She cried long awaited
tears of happiness because she was finally leaving and taking
control of her own life. Going forward, she would live the way that
she pleased. She cried tears of sorrow for the friends that she had
left behind, like Adrienne whom she’d likely never see again. She
cried because she wanted to hate William but could not, even though
he withheld what she wanted most of all—to know about her parents.
She thought about waking Kyle to seek his comfort, but she knew
Kyle would not understand, and so she let him rest.

She envied how Kyle was free from
worry. He could drift and settle like the wind; he would handle the
move effortlessly, fearlessly, she thought. Nothing seemed to
bother him. He wasn’t conflicted and he appeared
unaffected.

He couldn’t remember their parents, so
he didn’t mourn them like she did. She remembered the scent of her
mother—lilacs—and her father’s endearing nickname for
her—princess—or how he had amazed her with his coin behind the ear
magic trick; the secret of which he’d never shared and now she’d
never know. What would her parents think about her forsaking
everything she knew based on blind faith? Would they agree with
what she had done? What did it matter anyway? They were a distant,
faded memory, she thought despairingly.

She needed to get out of the small
space. She wiped her tears, stood and stretched her limbs. She
walked down the corridor until she nearly reached its end and then
opened an adjacent door where she spotted small square tables and
adjacent seats along the walls near windows. Drake sat having a
drink at a table a few feet ahead of her. She wanted to sit with
him, needed to talk with him, and listen to him tell her not to
have any doubts or fears and that everything would be all
right.

“
Pardon me miss, would you
allow me the honor of buying you a drink?” a man with a pleasant
voice asked, walking up behind Sierra.

Sierra turned to face a well-dressed,
tall, attractive, and distinguished gentleman who had a hint of
gray in his dark hair at each temple.

“
I’ve already done the
honors,” Drake said, coming up behind Sierra.

“
Mr. McCalister,” the man
said in a friendly tone, lifting his brow, surprised. “Good to see
you. I didn’t know that this lovely lady was with you.”

“
Sierra, my darling, this
is Mr. Darrell Casey, a very well-known trader along the Gulf of
Mexico.” Drake slipped his arm around Sierra’s waist. Sierra smiled
pleasantly at Darrell even though her stiff body alerted Drake that
she was vexed.

“
McCalister, you are a
lucky devil,” Darrell grinned widely. “But then, you always were.
Excuse me.” Darrell took Sierra’s hand, kissed the back of it, and
walked away.