Quicksilver Passion (160 page)

You sure he ain’t in any trouble?”

No, I just want to talk to him.”

The Essex, miss. But maybe there’s something you should know . . .”

What?”

He hesitated, biting his lip.
Never mind.”

She was too upset to do more than nod at him, whirl, and flee back across the street to Wannie in the candy shop. Tonight when it was too dark for Cherokee to see her face plainly, Silver intended to get to the bottom of this!

Silver waited until after dark when Wannie was in bed and business at the Palace was in full swing. Then she put on her cloak, slipped down the back stairs, and out into the night. Silver was still afraid of the dark, but there was a harvest moon on this crisp night, and in her prim disguise, no man looked twice at her, much less tried to bother her.

It took all the nerve she had to mount those stairs at the Essex and stop before his door. Silver took a deep breath.
How
could she bear to have him
see
her face?
Then she noted how softly the light glowed from under the door, almost as if he were sitting before the fireplace in the dark. If only he wouldn’t light the lamps, he need never know.

Then she lost her nerve. She couldn’t do it, couldn’t have him see her this way. Let him live with the memory of her as she had been—if she had ever meant anything to him at all. A board creaked under her foot as she turned and walked away.

Like most people with sight problems, Cherokee’s hearing had become acute. He had been sitting staring into the glow of the fireplace when he heard a board squeak outside his door. Someone passing by? A thief checking to see if he was in?

Throwing caution to the wind, he went to the door and threw it open.
Nothing
. And then the faintest scent of wild flowers came to his nose. He ran out into the hall, forgetting that he didn’t want her to know of his handicap.
Silver? Silver, is that you? Come back!”

He could barely make out a slim form at the end of the hall. If he didn’t have to light the lamp, she need never know he was all but blind.

Silver stopped, trying to decide what to do. The hallway was barely lit by a coal oil fixture at each end. He wouldn’t be able to see her face. She would turn and say a few words to him, pretend she cared nothing for him. Then maybe he wouldn’t come back to the Palace and she wouldn’t have to risk having him see her ruined beauty. In the seconds before she hesitated and turned around, a million possibilities ran through her mind. Tomorrow she would flee Denver so he would never see her. Tomorrow ...

But oh dear God, there was tonight
—
only tonight
.

Cherokee?” She stood in the shadows of the dim hall as did he. For an electrifying second, they stared at each other and then she forgot everything, everything but him. With a glad cry, she ran down the hall and into his outstretched arms.

Silver! Silver, is it really you?” He crushed her against his wide chest as he lifted her off the floor and his mouth claimed hers, dominating, consuming with inner fire.
I’ve waited so long for this ... dreamed only of this!”

She didn’t want to think, she wanted only to feel, to experience the joy of love, of being loved. She let him crush her against him as if he were trying to pull her inside his very soul, and she kissed him again and again, dizzy with the scent of his tobacco and shaving soap and the salty, masculine taste of him. His shirt was rough against her face and his big hands burned into the small of her back.
Oh Cherokee, if you only knew how many times I’ve dreamed of this moment back in Buckskin Joe, dreamed of you riding in and me running out to meet you!”

A salesman came down the hall, stared at them curiously, and went on.

Cherokee said,
I think we need to get out of the hall.”

He swung her up in his arms and carried her inside his room, kicking the door shut.
Sweet darlin’, I won’t light the lamps, I want it to be as it was that long ago night, the moon full as a gold piece and you in my arms.”

She felt only relief as he sat her on the bed. At least they had tonight before he discovered her secret, and tomorrow seemed like a century away. He knelt on the floor before her, taking her small face between his two big hands.
I’ve tried to forget you, Silver, but I can’t. Whenever I closed my eyes, your face slipped into my dreams like the scent of your perfume.”

There was so much she wanted to ask, so many things to be said, and yet it was enough to say nothing at all—just to be and stay here in his strong arms, held protectively against his chest.

With the dawn she must leave forever, so he would never see her. But tonight he saw her only with his hands, his lips, his heart, and he must never know the truth. Tomorrow she would pack her things and run away. There was nothing else to be done. She didn’t want his pity.
Oh, Cherokee, my dearest, may I stay with you, be with you all night?”