Texas Rose TH2 (43 page)

But she wanted to know. All her soul screamed to know. She couldn't eat for wanting. And at the same time, she was afraid to find out.

When Jose dumped his glass of milk and it flooded across the table to Mr. Peyton's lap, Evie calmly cleaned up the chaos, soothed Jose's terror, offered the use of her bedroom so Mr. Peyton could change into dry trousers, and when all was calm again, she walked out the front door and didn't look back.

Chapter 33

Sending an apologetic look to Peyton, who had watched Evie's exit with perplexity, Tyler stood up, made his excuses, and went after her.

She was wandering aimlessly down the street, looking bewildered and sad. When Tyler caught up with her, she donned a bright smile and gestured to a bolt of cloth in the mercantile window.

"That would look nice on Maria and Carmen. Do you think they would wear matching dresses?"

Tyler grasped her shoulders and forced her to face him. "I'm not Peyton or Hale or any of those other men you've fooled with that face, Evie. I know what's worrying you, but worrying about it isn't going to make it go away. Now let's get back to the house before the kids' uncle thinks you're crazed and unfit to take care of them."

Evie searched Tyler's face. He had known enough pain of his own to recognize hers. The determined set of his jaw reassured her somehow. Tyler turned a smiling, easygoing face to the world, but he wore the same kind of mask she did. Only what was behind his mask had been shattered long ago, while she was still relatively whole. She thought maybe she was beginning to understand him just a little bit. He needed something to replace what had been lost, but he was afraid of it, afraid of suffering the pain again.

Her smile faltered, but she offered a brave face. "Kiss me, Tyler."

They were standing there in the eyes of the whole world, but Tyler didn't hesitate. Gently, he cupped her face with both hands and touched his lips to hers until they both moved closer together. Nothing could tell him that they had something special more than that small movement, that natural gravitation. It was a little frightening, but Tyler dropped his hands to Evie's waist and pulled her into his embrace for a brief moment before releasing her.

"Hold your chin up and let's beard the devil. What would Jane Eyre do if she were you?"

Evie didn't want to pretend that Mr. Peyton was Mr. Rochester, but she knew what Jane Eyre would do. Picking up the skirt, she sailed back down the street to confront the man directly.

Carmen was cleaning up the table and Daniel was embarrassedly entertaining their guest when Tyler and Evie returned. The boys were fidgeting, not wanting to miss anything, but reluctant to hang around the house on a Sunday afternoon. Evie sent them to change clothes and go play, put Maria in for a nap, and helped Carmen finish cleaning up. Carmen was old enough to know what was about happen.

When the children were out of the way, Evie set cups of coffee around the table, invited Daniel and Carmen to join them, and sat down beside Tyler to face the man who could take the children.

"We sent several telegrams, Mr. Peyton, but never received a reply. We had just about given up hope." Evie had learned to take the initiative a long time ago. It was the best way she knew to get what she wanted.

"I didn't receive any telegrams. I was probably already gone." Peyton's face clouded in memory of the letter that had sent him on this journey. "Angelina had written to me some months ago. It took me a little while to wind up my affairs, and finding transportation in this direction from California wasn't easy. I've gone through two horses in the process. I had no idea what I would find when I arrived here."

He looked up at Tyler and Evie. "The children have been blessed in finding someone as thoughtful as you to look after them. Had I come here and found my sister gone and her children scattered to the winds, I would have been desolate. Thank you for keeping them together."

"It's been our pleasure," Evie answered. "They are beautiful children, and I really don't know what I would have done without them."

"But you and your husband will be wishing to set up a home of your own," he said with understanding, sipping his coffee. "It is difficult for newlyweds to be suddenly endowed with four children."

Evie panicked, but Tyler placed his hand across hers and held it to the table, steadying her.

"My wife has always wanted a family, sir. She has none of her own, so she is being honest when she says it has been a pleasure. We can't help but be worried over the children's future. I know this has come as a surprise to you, and you'll need time to make plans. We'll be happy to stay until you say otherwise."

Peyton looked relieved. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, and his paintbrush rattled to the floor. He looked at it with bemusement, then leaned over and tucked it into his pocket again. Absentmindedly, he tucked the handkerchief back in without using it, either.

"I'll admit to a certain amount of consternation on my part. I'm a bachelor with no children to my name. Angelina was all the family I had left. I'll make provisions for them one way or another. There isn't as much money as there used to be, but I suspect it's cheaper living here than San Francisco, and I've got a little land nearby. We'll make it work." He smiled at Carmen, and she gave him one of those grave little looks of hers.

Evie clenched her fingers in disappointment at the mention of his lack of progeny, but he hadn't said he was taking the children away yet. She tried to keep her voice even. "I'll be happy to look after them in any capacity. Carmen is very good, but she is too young to shoulder all the responsibility of her younger brothers and sister."

Peyton leaned back in his chair and tapped his fingertip on the table as he watched the anxious faces around him. He cast a speculative glance at the boy with spectacles in his pocket and a crutch leaning against his chair, then to the young girl who sat close to him. But his gaze most often came back to the woman with the thick chestnut tresses of a woman he had known too long ago.

"You're quite right, of course. If it is no inconvenience to you, I'll ask you to go on as you are. I'll take a room at the hotel while I take a look around, reorient myself as it were. Tell me, Mrs. Monteigne," he couldn't help asking, "are you from around here?"

Tyler crushed Evie's fingers against the table to keep her from answering. "My wife was born in St. Louis. She never knew her parents, but it seems they come from these parts. That's not something we speak openly about, if you understand me."

Peyton drifted off on a memory of his own. "I used to hate this town. My mother was half Mexican, half Indian, and people around here despise what they call 'breeds.' It's a hard enough life without having your neighbors hate you. But I can remember one little girl who wasn't from around here. She went to school in St. Louis, and she didn't have the same kind of prejudices. She made me see that the rest of the world was different and that I could go out and find my own place in it. She probably saved my life, 'cause I was an ornery cuss back then. Mrs. Monteigne reminds me a little bit of her."

Tyler's fingers squeezed warningly around hers, but Evie was tired of waiting and being cautious. Jerking her hand free, she said, "Elizabeth Howell. Her name was Elizabeth Howell, wasn't it?"

Peyton jerked back to the present with a start and a sudden guilty look that he quickly erased. "Maybe so. Well now, I suppose I'd best go back to the hotel and see if there's room for me. It was a mighty fine dinner, Mrs. Monteigne. I'm obliged to you."

Evie rose with him. "My name is Evangeline Peyton Howell, sir. That's the name on my baptismal certificate. Would those names mean anything to you?"

"Evie!" Tyler stood up and grabbed her shoulders, but he knew better than anyone that there was no holding her back once she got rolling. She was throwing months of caution into the lap of a stranger, but he couldn't help but be curious at the stranger's reaction.

Peyton stared at Evie for a long time, then shook his head. "Elizabeth Howell married Randall Harding while I was in California looking for a gold mine. That's the last I heard of the lady. Perhaps you ought to talk to her." He pushed his chair under the table and gave the door an uneasy look as if he wished to walk out and keep on walking.

"Elizabeth Harding is dead, sir," Tyler said gently, pinching Evie on the arm to keep her quiet.

The man looked shocked, and the hand around the chair tightened until the knuckles whitened. He stared at the young couple on the other side of the table, then shook his head in a gesture of despair. In a moment's time, he seemed to wither into an old man. "I see." Without another word of explanation, he picked up his bag and walked out.

Tyler pulled Evie around and held her. She buried her face in his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his waist, but she didn't cry. She had cried those tears long ago. There weren't any more to shed.

"He's had a lot of nasty shocks, Evie. Let him go." Tyler rubbed her back gently.

Daniel couldn't hold his tongue any longer. "If they weren't married, Evie, he couldn't say anything that would jeopardize her reputation. He loved her. Anybody can see that."

That was true. James Peyton had known Elizabeth Howell a lot longer than he had known one Evangeline Howell Monteigne. His loyalty would lie with the woman he had loved. Evie straightened her shoulders and offered Daniel a small smile.

"My uncle is a very famous painter. Did you know that?" And with those enigmatic words, Carmen picked up the coffee cups and went to the sink.

* * *

"Excuse me, Mrs. Peyton, may I have a word with you privately?" Jonathan Hale lifted his hat and fell into step with Evie as she hurried from the schoolhouse to home.

"Why, go right ahead, Mr. Hale. I doubt that anyone will hear us as we walk. And the name is Monteigne now." Still annoyed with this little man for having called the sheriff the day she had gone to Tyler's room, Evie hurried along the boardwalk, her stiff pongee skirt sweeping over several layers of petticoats. She had needed lots of fortification when she had dressed this morning.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Monteigne, but that is precisely what I wished to talk with you about. It doesn't seem at all politic to be discussing your marriage on a public street."

"It doesn't seem at all politic to be discussing it at all, Mr. Hale," she rebuked him. She wasn't certain why she was feeling so irritated at the man. He had given her loads of invaluable information, and she really shouldn't provoke him. She was quite certain he had much more information if she could only pry it from him. The letter she had sent supposedly from St. Louis might have reached him by now, but there hadn't been time for a reply to go to her St. Louis address and return here.

"You are quite right, of course, but I can't help taking an interest in your behalf. As a good friend of Miss Howell's, you are my best connection with the lady. And I can't help feeling protective of any innocent woman."

Evie sent him a doubting gaze. "How very thoughtful of you, sir, but I am in something of a hurry. We will be at the house shortly, and there will be no privacy there at all."

"Very well. I understand that you and Mr. Monteigne were married by Mr. Cleveland?"

She didn't know how he'd come across that piece of knowledge, but she supposed the record had to be on file somewhere. "You understand correctly, Mr. Hale."

He sighed heavily. "I was afraid of that. I don't know how to put this delicately, my dear lady, but Cleveland is not really a minister. I have checked his credentials before. He has a large following on his circuit, but the man is a complete impostor. He will do anything for a dollar."

Evie felt a quiver of fear, but there had always been a question about the legality of their marriage. She kept walking. "How unfortunate. Well, then we shall just ask Mr. Brown to repeat the ceremony for us. We have been attending the Presbyterian church anyway."

Hale coughed and hurried to keep up with her. "Pray, think a moment before you do so, my dear. There will be those who will be scandalized that you and Mr. Monteigne have been living in sin all this time. It is quite common knowledge in these parts that Cleveland isn't the man to go to for a marriage. They will think the worst."

Rather than being shocked or fearful, Evie was getting angry. She sent Hale a baleful look. "People always do think the worst, don't you agree, Mr. Hale? They haven't a great deal better to do, I suppose."