Quicksilver Passion (143 page)

Gray Dove hesitated.
I—I don’t even know who fathered her, Jake. You know how I was about men.”

She was hiding something. He saw fear in her eyes.
I remember how you was about men, all right. I always said if you had as many stickin’ out of you as had been stuck in you, you’d look like a west Texas cactus. I’ll bet you got callouses on your back from lying with a man on top of you.”

Duchess?” the voice called again.

Jake gestured.
Tell ‘em to come in. You’re gettin’ mighty uppity with a governess for a bastard kid.”

Come in,” Gray Dove said.

A woman came into the room leading a small girl by the hand. The kid look as Injun as her mother, Jake thought boredly. There was no telling who fathered her, the way Gray Dove used to get around.

Miss Jones, this is my—my partner.”

Jake looked at the girl and yawned as he scratched himself. She looked like a governess all right, plain and prim, peering at him through thick spectacles, drab hair pulled back in a no-nonsense bun. But there was something that tugged at his mind, Maybe it was the way she was staring at him, all wide-eyed.
Gal, ain’t we met some place before?”

She looked a little faint.
I—I don’t think so, Mister—?”

Dallinger,” he said, grinning,
Jake Dallinger. Funny, I have a thing about faces. I’d swear you look familiar.”

The girl had recovered her poise.
I don’t think so, but then I remind everyone of their school teacher or old maid sister.”

The little girl came over and stared up at him.
Have you known my mama a long time?”

Jake didn’t like kids but he smiled at her anyway. If he got on the good side of the kid, she’d most likely tell him all the secrets of this place.
A very long time.”