Walking on Air (9 page)

“Absolutely no need of a man at all, Mr. Valance. If it angers you that I refuse to say otherwise, I suppose you can shoot me.” She flicked a glance at his guns. “That is your expertise, correct? Shooting people?”

“I’ve never shot anyone who didn’t try to shoot me first,” he replied. Then he arched a black eyebrow, calling to her mind the shape of a raven’s wing. “And from this moment on, my name is Gabe. If you prefer, you can call me Gabriel. But I don’t think it’s fitting for you to address me formally any longer.”

Nan couldn’t argue the point. Laney would be home soon, and somehow Nan had to protect the child from the harsh realities of this impossible situation. Laney was a spirited girl and could easily become feisty if she thought Nan might be in peril.

“How am I going to explain this mess to my sister?” Nan asked him.

His firm lips tipped into a crooked grin. “Well, now, I’m thinking you should tell her the truth: that I came into your shop, asked you to marry me, and you simply couldn’t bring yourself to say no.”

“Laney will never believe that. She’s heard me say too many times that I have no use for men and that I abhor the institution of marriage.”

“You’d better make it convincing then. Otherwise I’ll have two wet hens pecking at me, and my patience may wear thin.”

“And if your patience wears thin?” Nan forced herself to look him directly in the eye. “I truly didn’t mean to harm Horace Barclay. His death was an accident. But I will tell you right now, if you ever harm Laney, by word or by action, I’ll kill you without blinking an eye.”

He nodded. “If I hurt your sister, by word or by action, I’ll help you slit my own throat.”

That wasn’t the response Nan had expected. Mentally teetering, she wasn’t prepared when he added, “Now that we’ve got that covered, we should spend what remains of our time alone discussing our sleeping arrangements.”

Nan gulped. “You may sleep on the settee or the floor.”

A muscle began to tic in his jaw. “Not on your life. We’re man and wife. We’ll share a bed.”

“But you said you had no intention—”

“And I meant it,” he inserted, cutting off her protests. “But that’s where I draw the line. If you insist, I’ll sleep in my trousers, but that’s all the compromise I’m willing to make on that front.”

Nan realized that her arms had gone stiff at her sides and that her hands were knotted into painful fists, her nails digging into her palms. “Do you truly think I’m so naive that I believe you won’t force yourself on me? Until this marriage is consummated, I can have it annulled at any time. You don’t strike me as being a stupid man. You’ve surely considered that and plan to make this union legally binding as soon as you possibly can.”

He turned toward the sitting room window, which looked out over the main street of town. “I’m content to leave things as they stand.” He drew his watch from his pocket and perused its face. “Hamm’s office should still be open. You’re free to head out of here and file for an annulment before he closes up shop, if you like. The same goes for tomorrow, and the day after that.”

Nan felt suddenly cold and hugged her waist. “The instant I filed for an annulment, you’d pay a visit to the marshal’s office and have me arrested! I’m not that stupid, Mr. Valance.”

“Gabe—or Gabriel,” he corrected. Then he slipped the watch back into his pocket and flashed her a grin over his shoulder. “I’d say we’re off to a good start, darlin’. We clearly understand each other. That’s more than a lot of couples can say after twenty long years of marriage.”

Nan couldn’t recall ever having hated anyone quite so much. She parted her lips to fling a nasty retort at him, but just then she heard the shop bell ring, and an instant later Laney’s light footsteps sounded on the stairs.

“Well?” he said, challenging her with his gaze. “I see no point in burdening that child with this, so either slap a smile on your face or make tracks for Hamm’s office.”

Nan forced her arms from around her waist, sent him a look that she hoped sliced through him like a knife, and then turned just as the apartment door flew open. When Laney bounded into the kitchen, Nan was beaming a smile that made her face feel as if it might crack.

G
abe had taken a chair at the far end of the kitchen table as Laney Hoffman entered the apartment and closed the door. He hoped he wouldn’t seem as intimidating if he was seated. Wearing a dark green dress, intricately pleated at the bodice and trimmed with pearl-like beads at the throat and cuffs, along with black patent-leather slippers with arch straps sporting shiny bows, the girl was window-display perfect from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. She greatly resembled Nan, with the same ivory skin, delicate features, lovely gray eyes, and golden hair. At twelve she was still coltishly thin, with only the merest hint of budding breasts, but Gabe knew she’d be a beauty soon who’d turn men’s heads just as her sister did now.

Gabe sensed, however, that the striking resemblance ran only skin deep. There was a spark in Laney’s eyes that Nan’s lacked, and as the girl listened to Nan’s disjointed, high-pitched, nervous explanation of how her sudden marriage to Gabe had come about that morning, Laney gave him a glare hot enough to melt sand and make glass. Laney wasn’t buying a word of her sister’s jerky explanations, and Gabe didn’t blame the kid. Nan was the most abysmally unconvincing liar he’d ever encountered.
Interesting.
He filed a mental note to remember that his wife fluttered her hands, got a squeak in her larynx, and couldn’t look a person in the eye when she spouted falsehoods.

After concluding her spiel, Nan gestured for Laney to sit down, and then started bustling around the sunny yellow kitchen, putting on a pot of coffee, warming a pan of milk for hot cocoa, and arranging cookies she’d baked last night on a serving tray. Aside from Nan’s twittered comments, directed over her shoulder as she worked, the silence was so marked that Gabe noted for the first time that the sitting room wall clock had an unusually loud tick. Laney, perched stiffly on a chair at the opposite end of the table, kept her gaze fixed on him, and to say her expression was filled with hostility would have been an understatement. He’d seen friendlier looks slanted down the barrel of a pistol.

Soon Nan was ready to serve the after-school beverages and treats. Because the recipients of her offerings sat so far apart, she arranged cookies on two dessert plates and then poured Gabe a cup of coffee and Laney some cocoa. Gabe eyed the dainty teacup she’d set before him, hoping his forefinger wouldn’t get stuck in the tiny handle.

“There we go!” Nan said brightly. “As you two enjoy the afternoon snack, perhaps you can become better acquainted while I go down to the shop to lock up and count down my till.”

That suited Gabe just fine. Judging by the fire in Laney’s eyes, he figured she had a peck of words backed up in her throat and that they would rain upon his head like bits of ice in a hailstorm the instant Nan left the room.

After the door closed, Laney sat stock-still, listening to Nan’s receding footsteps on the stairs. The instant the sounds indicated that Nan was down in the shop, well out of earshot, Laney leaned over her cookie plate, her dimpled chin, so very like Nan’s, jutting at him like that of a prizefighter asking for a solid punch. “That was a stupid pack of lies, every word of it!” she cried. “She doesn’t want any man mucking up her life, never has and never will, and if she ever changed her mind and decided to get married, it wouldn’t be to someone like
you
.” Gabe nearly winced as that barb struck home, but before he could get his mouth open to defend himself, Laney rushed on. “Do either of you really think I’m dumb enough to believe this?”

He definitely didn’t think the girl lacked intelligence. Just by searching her gaze, Gabe could see that she was sharper than a new tack. “Your sister didn’t lie,” he offered. “It sounds incredible, Laney, but that’s what happened. Every word Nan said is the absolute truth. I did come into the shop this morning. I did offer for her hand. And just as she told you, she couldn’t say no.”

Laney’s eyes widened until they looked as big as half-dollars. She couldn’t have looked more horrified—or more frightened—if he’d suddenly turned into a scorpion. “My
sister
?”

Oh, shit.
He never should have referred to Nan as the child’s sister. Everyone in Random believed that Laney was Nan’s daughter. “Well . . .” he began.

“You
know
! Don’t say otherwise! And somehow you coerced her into marrying you because of it! You know everything!” She was practically screaming. And everybody in town was going to know if he didn’t manage to get her to calm down and shut up.

“Yeah, okay, I know everything. You’re right, absolutely right. But if you don’t quit yelling, Nan will be flying up here in a panic. Give me a second here, okay?”

Laney subsided, but he had a feeling it was only temporary. Her use of the word
coerce
didn’t surprise him. Most kids would have fallen back on something simpler and more commonly used, but he suspected that Laney had an impressive vocabulary for a twelve-year-old and could spell every word correctly. Gabe had studied hard on his own after old widow Harper died, and over the years, he’d developed a handshake relationship with proper English. He could read almost anything, and use bigger words than he’d ever once imagined, but his spelling was still on the downside of passable. Laney Hoffman made him feel like a sow’s ear sitting across from a silk purse.

A stare-down ensued, and Gabe used the seconds that passed to weigh the situation. He’d never been much good at lying, not because it was a religious issue for him, but more because he considered himself to be an honorable sort, and telling falsehoods, in his estimation, was unethical. If a man wasn’t as good as his word, he wasn’t worth the powder it’d take to blow him to hell.

But his reluctance to lie to Laney went deeper than that. Gabe knew a straight shooter when he met one, and this girl was exactly that: a person who said what was on her mind, minced no words, and let the chips fall where they might. She deserved better than lies from him. Even worse, Gabe doubted he could get creative enough with a story to make her believe it anyway.

“You’re right,” he finally admitted again. “I know everything about your sister’s past, and I used that knowledge to force her to marry me. I told her that if she refused, I’d go to the marshal, reveal her true identity, and have her arrested.”

If he’d expected Laney to be scared at the idea of exposure, he’d figured wrong. Bright spots of angry color sprang to her cheeks. “
Why?
Are you hoping to lie around here, being good for nothing, while she supports you with her income from the shop?”

Gabe almost smiled. “I don’t need your sister to support me, cupcake. I have so much money stashed away in a Kansas City bank that I could live in high style until I’m an old man without ever turning my hand to an honest day’s work.”

Her brows, which, like Nan’s, were several shades darker than her golden hair, snapped together in a scowl. “Oh, sure you do. If that was true you’d have no need to force some woman to marry you. If you have that much money, you could find a wife on your own. So what do you want with Nan, anyhow? A man like you usually consorts with saloon girls, not proper ladies like my mama. And don’t call me cupcake!”

Gabe lifted the coffee cup to his lips to hide a grin. She had spunk, no doubt about it. “A man like me?” He took a slow swallow. “All that glitters is not gold, little lady, and the same goes for anything that appears to be all dark.”

After he spoke, he saw a shift of emotion in Laney’s eyes, but it quickly vanished, to be replaced by anger again. “Are you saying I shouldn’t judge you, Mr. Valance? You’re a gunslinger. I heard about your being in town at school today. A boy who went home for lunch got it straight from his father that you ate breakfast in the hotel dining room this morning.”

“Yes, I’m a gunslinger,” Gabe conceded. “And one of some repute, I might add. That doesn’t mean I like being what I am or that I ever wanted this kind of life for myself.” Gabe gave her a brief overview of his history, much as he had for Nan that morning. “Sometimes our lives can change direction at the turn of a leaf or the shift of a breeze,” he finished. “We don’t see it coming, but one incident can change everything.”

“Like what happened to Nan when she accidentally killed that fat old man?”

Gabe was heartened by the softening of Laney’s expression. “Exactly like that, only for each person, the pivotal moment is caused by different things.”

“How’d you learn to use a word like
pivotal
if you never went to school?” she asked.

Gabe allowed himself to smile slightly. “An old widow who’d once been a schoolmarm took me under her wing for about a year and did her best to smarten me up.”

“You didn’t learn words like that in a year.”

“No, but living with her for that short time opened up the world of books for me, and after she died, I hungered to learn more, so I studied on my own.”

“So you’re self-taught.”

“More or less.”

Laney took a bite of cookie and pocketed the morsel in her cheek. Her gaze locked with his, offering him no quarter. “I don’t believe what you said about marrying my sister to get a taste of how it feels to live like other folks. I’m sort of starting to like you, Mr. Valance. But like you say, things can change fast, and I can start hating you again real quick if you try to blow smoke in my eyes.”

Gabe had to laugh at that, and with some surprise, he realized that he was starting to like her, too. “If I told you the real truth, Laney, you’d never believe it.”

“Try me,” she challenged.

Gabe was tempted—oh, how badly he was tempted. But it was a crazy, incredible story that he still couldn’t quite believe himself. He finished his coffee in two big gulps, intending to end the conversation by going down to help Nan in the shop. But as he set the dainty little cup back on the saucer and pushed to his feet, he remembered the last bit of advice that the angel Gabriel had given him.
Listen to your heart.

At the time, Gabe hadn’t been able to recall a single time when his heart had spoken to him, but it was definitely speaking to him now. He sank back in the chair, studied Laney soberly for a long moment, and finally decided that having the little imp in his corner sure as hell couldn’t hurt, and might very well help him to accomplish his goals. “If you want to hear the truth—the
real
truth—it’s a long story, and it’s one Nan must never hear. If I tell it to you, will you give me your word that you will repeat nothing I say to her?”

Laney didn’t hesitate. “No. You’ve herded my sister into a marriage she doesn’t want, and for all I know, you’re up to a heap of no good. My first loyalty is to her, not to you.”

Gabe admired her for her honesty. Yep, she was a straight shooter if ever he’d met one. “What if, by telling you the story, I convince you that I mean Nan no harm? That I am, in fact, here to do exactly the opposite and try to help her?”

Laney swallowed the bite of cookie. Her gray eyes darkened with shadows. “Nan doesn’t need help.”

Gabe shook his head. “Ah, Laney, don’t lie to yourself after being so brutally honest with me. Look me in the eye and tell me, without blinking, that Nan is completely happy with her life, that there’s nothing more that she yearns for, nothing else that she once dreamed of but has now given up on ever having. Can you do that?”

Laney searched the depths of her untouched hot cocoa, her shimmery lashes feathering over her cheeks. “Well . . . she did tell me once that there was a time when she was still young and stupid that she believed she’d find her one true love.” Looking up again, the girl shrugged. “She doesn’t believe in all that nonsense anymore.”

“Do you think it’s all nonsense?” Gabe asked softly.

He listened to the clock tick while she struggled for an answer. “I don’t know. No, I guess I don’t think it’s nonsense.” She shrugged her narrow shoulders. “I love Nan with my whole heart, and if I can love
her
that way, it only makes sense to me that I could love someone else just as much, maybe someday even a man.”

Gabe was relieved to hear that. Being raised by a woman who disliked men and feared the institution of marriage could have affected Laney’s view of the world, its male population in particular.

“And babies,” Gabe ventured. “Don’t you think Nan’s ever wished she could have her very own baby? I know how much she loves you, and I’m not trying to take anything away from that, but having your own child—well, I think that’s something most women want, even if they never say so.”

Laney narrowed her eyes. “Are you saying you’re here to help Nan fall in love with somebody and have babies of her own before she gets too old?”

Gabe stood and carried his cup and saucer to the sink. “If you want to hear my story, cupcake, it isn’t going to happen here.” Ignoring her mean look at his use of the nickname again, he went on. “Nan will be coming back up any minute, and it’s very important that she never hears a word of this.” As Gabe rinsed his cup, he sent up a silent prayer that confiding in Laney wasn’t a huge mistake.
Listen to your heart
, Gabriel had told him. Well, Gabe sorely feared that his heart might be so rusty from disuse that it was talking nonsense. “Where’s your cloak?” he asked the child.

“Hanging on the hook downstairs by the door.”

Gabe turned from the counter. “Good. You can grab it as you go out with me to help get wood.”

Gabe went to collect the leather firewood sling that he’d seen lying by the sitting room hearth. Laney grabbed the sling near the woodstove. When they met again in the kitchen, she lifted her fair brows at him in question. “You don’t act like you’re any too happy about telling me this tale.”

Gabe saw no reason to deny the truth. “I’m afraid it may be a huge mistake, and if it is, I’m going to pay dearly.”

Laney considered that for a second and then nodded. “I won’t repeat to Nan any of what you tell me if you can convince me you’re actually here to help her.”

Not good enough, he realized. This tale was too far-fetched to gamble on the understanding of someone so young, however well-intentioned. “Look,” he said. “Let me put this another way. Will you promise to keep quiet about what I tell you, even if you don’t believe it, if I can convince you that I mean your sister no harm?”