Thunder on the Plains (46 page)

“I didn't even know he worked for the U.P. until last fall when I went out to the camp and he helped protect me and Stuart from an Indian raid!”

“
Stuart
knows about this?”

She closed her eyes and turned away. “No. He knows only that Colt is a U.P. scout. He doesn't know I went out there just to see him. This was the first time I saw him after the Indian raid last summer. It was my first time out after those horrible winter snows.”

“And after all those months you rode out there and lifted your skirts for the man? God, Sunny, as common as he is, even
he
must think you're easy! The man is probably laughing right now over the fact that he fucked Sunny Landers, the richest woman in the country!”

“Stop it!” she screamed. She whirled. “You don't know anything about it! We've loved each other for ten years, Vince. Ten
years
! We've been friends all that time. It wasn't just a sudden thing. It was beautiful. Colt loves me, and I'm going to
marry
him! If you're so worried about the money, I'll have him sign an agreement that he can't touch any of it if something happens to me. He'll
gladly
sign it, because he doesn't
care
about that! Why can't you understand that? Why can't you let me be happy? Why do you have to make it sound so ugly when it was so beautiful and right?”

She couldn't help the tears. She covered her face and wept, sinking into a chair. She heard Vince pacing, felt him come to stand near her.

“You want to know why? I'll
tell
you why!” He grasped her wrists, wrenching her hands away from her face. “It's because I don't intend any more shame to come into this family! It's because you're the only one who can prove to the world that your mother was a good woman—by being an honorable woman yourself! It isn't you I hate, Sunny; it's what you
represent
! I truly do care about you, and that's why how you conduct yourself and whom you marry means everything when it comes to what
others
think of
you
!”

Her shoulders shook with her sobs, tears streaming down her face. “I don't understand,” she said, shaking her head. “What in God's name are you talking about, Vince?”

For the first time in her life she saw a flash of true concern in his eyes. “I'm not the bad guy you think I am, Sunny.
I
have feelings and pride too,
family
pride! And because you're
part
of this family, I care about the decisions you make. Do you want to know why I was so angry when you inherited so much? It wasn't you personally, Sunny. It was the fact that you were
her
daughter! If your mother had been an honorable woman, I could have accepted Father putting her on such a pedestal! But she
wasn't
honorable, Sunny. She was a
prostitute
, one of the most beautiful, highest paid prostitutes in New York City—the kind who cater only to the
wealthy
!”

She wondered if she might faint. She could feel the blood draining from her face. She stared at him a moment, a thousand thoughts converging at once in her mind. “You're lying,” she whispered.

He let go of her wrists, straightening and running a hand through his hair. “I wish to hell I were.” He almost groaned. He walked over to the hearth. “Stuart and I resented her when Father brought her home—I guess because we were young enough that we hated anyone who Father thought could take our real mother's place. Your mother was…truly beautiful. There's no argument about that. She was young and always smiling. Father really did love her. But he
paid
for her, Sunny! She was the daughter of a prostitute he used to visit when he went to New York.”

“My God.” Sunny covered her face again.

Vince sighed deeply. “Now you know Father wasn't the saint you thought he was. Stuart and I found out when we got a little older. Father was always a little evasive about Lucille's background, so we hired an investigator behind his back, did some checking. When we found out the truth, we couldn't help hating her. Her mother had already sold her to men—actually groomed her for what she was to be. When Father bought her, she was still pretty ‘fresh,' you might say. He fell head over heels for her, paid thousands for her, told her if she'd marry him and never see other men, she'd live the life of a queen. She kept her promise. The few friends of Father's who knew about it were warned to keep their mouths shut or suffer the consequences. They knew Father could ruin them in an instant, and that he'd do it. In fact he
did
underhandedly bankrupt a couple of them for spreading rumors about Lucille that Father quickly put down, saying they were false. Most people believed Lucille was the sweet, pure thing that Father passed her off to be, because she was the prettiest thing who had ever graced Chicago, and the sweetest. It would have been hard for
anyone
to believe what she had been. My God, you're just like her, beautiful and sweet. Now you've let yourself be just like her in another way—the way I feared most. Like mother, like
daughter
!”

Sunny cringed at the words. She shook her head. “It's not the same,” she sobbed. “Colt and I love each other. Blaine has never touched me. Colt is the only man who ever has.” She gasped in a sob and faced him, rising. “I'm
not
a whore, Vince! How in God's name can you say that about me! I'm not like her!”

“Aren't you? What did you let Colt Travis do to you? How
willing
were you? You aren't even
married
to the man! And you were wearing Blaine's engagement ring, for Christ's sake!”

She turned away, stumbling back to a chair, feeling ill. Was he right? What did she really know about men? Was Colt thinking of her that way? Was what she had done that ugly and sinful? It had seemed so beautiful, so right. He loved her, didn't he? Yet even if what they had done was right because of that love, what would he think of her if he knew about her mother? Would he ever trust her again? Would he look at her and see a whore? She could not bear for Colt Travis to look at her with eyes like that, to have him be ashamed of her. Suddenly, it wasn't that Colt was not good enough for her—it was
she
who was not good enough for
him
.

She sank back into a chair. “Did Father…really love me?”

Vince jammed his hands into his pockets, walking to a window to look out at the lights of Omaha. “He worshipped you. He would never have wanted you to know. We confronted him with it, and he threatened us with full disinheritance if we ever said anything about it, especially to you. After a while people never said a word about it. Your mother was dead, and you were sweet and beautiful and innocent, a child who won people over with just a smile. You looked just like Lucille, and you were the be-all and end-all to Father.”

He turned to face her, but she kept her hands over her face. “Now maybe you understand the hard feelings between us and Father,” he told her. “And you understand why it's so important, Sunny, that you do everything in your power to bring honor to this family and put an end once and for all to some of the ugly rumors that are still whispered. The few who know are waiting for you to make a wrong move, eagerly looking for a hint of your mother in your blood. Can you imagine what they'll think if you bring that half-breed home? It's bad enough, him being a worthless Indian. Add to that what some of them know about your mother, and they'll think you chose him because he's wild and wicked. They'll think that when it comes to men you'll sleep with
anything
. Why in hell do you think Stuart and I were so happy you finally got engaged to Blaine? You couldn't have picked better. He might even end up governor of New York. He's wealthy, educated, well-mannered, a man of the world. Marry Blaine, Sunny, and save your reputation. It will help salvage people's memory of your mother. After all, she did treat Father well and was true to him. You can make up for all the shame, Sunny. And I think you owe it to me and Stuart. We didn't intend to ever tell you, but when I found out where you'd gone, and then you told me you weren't marrying Blaine, I knew I had no choice. Stuart doesn't know what I'm doing. This is between you and me. I like you, Sunny. I always have. For God's sake, my blood runs in your veins. I want only what's best for you. If that means putting an end to this Colt Travis thing and you hating me again, then I'll do it. Give it up! I don't want any more shame in this family or any more hideous gossip. Can't you imagine the headlines in the society pages if you tell the world you're marrying a half-breed scout who's worth no more than a month's railroad pay? Give it up, or I'll make sure there
is
no Colt Travis!”

Sunny felt her blood going cold. She raised her eyes to look at him. “What do you mean?”

His jaw was set rigid, a determined look in his eyes. “I mean that I'll do whatever it takes to make sure you do the honorable thing. Colt Travis is out there facing a lot of danger. One stray bullet, and he's dead. I'm sure I can find someone among all those itinerant railroad workers who would take a few thousand dollars to knock off a man whom no one would miss. With all the trouble out there, it would be easy to blame it on the Indians.”

She slowly rose, shaking. “You wouldn't!”

He held her eyes firmly. “You'd better believe I
would
! Some men will take money for anything, Sunny. You know that firsthand. Take my advice and marry Blaine. Give up this thing with Colt Travis. I won't say anything to Blaine. He'll never know. Hell, it won't be so bad. He's a handsome, obliging man. He certainly isn't the type to be cruel in bed. In no time at all you'll forget Colt Travis, especially once you have a couple of kids. As far as Travis, what's he going to do about it?
You're
the one with the money and the power. You can shut him up plenty fast if you need to. But then, I imagine he won't do anything anyway. He'll figure you used him for a fling and gave him a damn good time for a day or two. A man like him should marry some common farmer's daughter, or maybe an Indian woman. He's not made for the likes of you, and you know it. And face it, Sunny. Even if you did marry him, the people in your circle would cut him down so fast he wouldn't know what hit him. He'd never survive. He'd end up hating you and everything you stand for. Without even trying, you'd
destroy
him. Is that what you want?”

She turned away, grasping the arms of a chair to keep from falling. All her fantasies about her mother and father were shattered, along with her own pride. She sank back into the chair. “Get out,” she told Vince, her voice low and firm. “I've never hated anyone as much as I hate you at this moment. Get out, and don't ever step foot in this house again.”

He let out a deep sigh. “Sunny, in time you'll know I told you for your own good. You'll realize I care about you. I didn't want to do this. For God's sake, you must know that, or I would have said something a long time ago, or when I sued you over the will. There are a hundred different times I could have told you, but I didn't.”

“And Stuart knows too, then.”

“Yes.”

“What about Vi, and Eve?”

“No. We've never told our wives.”

Sunny rubbed her forehead. Now she understood some of the looks she would get at times from certain of her father's business associates. They had all been waiting, mouths watering, waiting for her to prove she was like her mother. So many things were clearer now.

Colt! How could she bring him into her life! She already knew it would have been hard for him, but she never realized it would be this bad. Vince would surely tell him about her mother. After what she had let him do to her, he would lose his respect for her, think she was just a harlot at heart. But she would never get the chance to even know that. If she continued to see Colt, Vince would have him killed. Just knowing he existed, even if she could not have him, was better than Colt Travis being dead. She had no doubt whatsoever that Vince would hold true to his threat. She could never live knowing she was responsible for Colt suffering pain and death.

Still, even alive he would be dead to her now. Her precious, beautiful, gentle, loving Colt. He could not hold her again, touch her again, be one with her again. She would never know the glory and ecstasy of belonging only to him. She would never again ride free and happy in the prairie sun with Colt at her side, the wind in her hair, joy in her heart.

“Just leave,” she told Vince.

“What are you going to do?”

She looked up at him, a new coldness in her eyes, a hatred Vince never thought she was capable of showing. “You leave me little choice. I'll marry Blaine, but I won't do it for you.” She rose again, facing him boldly. “I won't even do it to save Colt's life, although you know I don't want him to die. I'm doing it for my mother.”

He frowned in surprise. “Your
mother
!”

She swallowed at the pain in her throat. “I knew Father better than you or Stuart or anyone else. I don't care what you say about her. Father loved her, and I believe she loved him, even if he
did
buy her! I know by the way Father talked about her, and by how fiercely he apparently tried to protect her! If he visited her mother on his trips to New York, it was because he was lonely after
your
mother died. He was just a man like any other. He fell in love with Lucille, and I imagine her mother, horrible person as she must have been, was the one who
made
him pay for her.”

She rose, looking up at him with a tear-stained face. “I'll marry Blaine to put a stop once and for all to the rumors about my mother. I'll show the world what an honorable daughter she and Bo Landers had. I'll give up Colt, not because he means little to me, but because he means
everything
to me! He's the only man I'll ever truly love, Vince, and no matter what you say, I
know
he loves
me
more than Blaine could ever
hope
to love me. Colt Travis is more man than Blaine will ever be, and certainly more man than
you
! You're a man without a heart, Vince Landers, and apparently a man capable of cold-blooded murder! If you hire someone to kill Colt, his blood would be as much on your hands as the man who pulls the trigger!”