Yesterday's Magic (29 page)

“Mrs. Wainwright, it’s a pleasure.” He pulled
out the chair next to Bella and sat down.

Something flashed in Delilah’s eyes before
she turned away from the table. Delilah was a smart girl. It wasn’t
territorial—a
keep your paws off
look. No, it was a
warning—a
do you know what the hell you’re doing
look.

No. She didn’t. But she couldn’t let that
stop her. Bella took a deep breath. “Mr. Toomay,” she said, “I was
hoping that you weren’t going to disappoint me.”

“I don’t disappoint beautiful woman,” he
said. “Ever.” He shifted his chair closer, so close that his arm
touched hers. His tone was suggestive, his manner almost
possessive, as if it were a foregone conclusion that she’d not only
end up in his bed but when she left it, she’d be satisfied. Her
empty stomach rolled and she thought it was likely that Snake might
need to bleach his floor again.

The man was so damn full of himself. But then
again, being Bad Magic, he had the advantage over most everyone
else.

“It was an unexpected pleasure to bump into
you yesterday,” he added. “For a few extra dollars, the
housekeepers at the hotel were eager to confide that you’re
somewhat of a stranger to Mantosa as well.”

Well, she hadn’t planned on that. “Yes, I
arrived just a few days ago.”

“Well, then it appears that my trip is
well-timed.” He leaned close enough that it wasn’t difficult to
tell that the man had eaten onions in the recent past.

Bella drank her whiskey. She meant to take a
sip but the feel of Toomay’s hot breath on her skin had her taking
a gulp. It burned all the way down and settled in her empty stomach
like a simmering ball of fire.

Delilah returned to the table and set down
Toomay’s drink. This time she didn’t even glance in Bella’s
direction. She was just feet away when the saloon doors opened and
Jed walked in. His gaze settled immediately upon Bella and
Toomay.

Toomay lifted his glass in Jed’s direction.
“Why, Sheriff, for a lawman, you seem to spend a fair amount of
time in the saloon.”

Jed lifted a shoulder, doing some kind of
half-shrug thing, as if he couldn’t be bothered giving Toomay a
full shrug. It was an 1877
Fuck You
. “You can be assured
Toomay that as long as you’re here, I won’t be far away.”

“Now I’m going to start thinking that you
don’t like me,” Toomay said. He leaned back in his chair, far
enough that the legs came off the floor.

Jed sauntered over to the table and braced
both arms on the scared wood. His big, strong, hands were splayed
wide. He leaned forward. “Why don’t you leave Mantosa before you
give me a good excuse to put you in jail?”

No.
Bella fought the urge to spring up
from the table. Jed could ruin everything here if he wasn’t
careful. Toomay couldn’t leave. He had to die tomorrow night.

The legs of Toomay’s chair hit the wood floor
with a sharp crack. The man stood and leaned forward, until he and
Jed were practically nose to nose. They were like dogs, squaring
off over a fresh piece of meat.

Damn. She was so scared she could barely
think. Jed needed to be careful. He had no idea the kind of trouble
Toomay could cause. She stood up. Both men turned.

“Uh . . . I was really hoping to have a nice,
quiet lunch.” Okay, it was lame. But it was the best she could do.
Toomay put a proprietary hand on the back of her neck. His touch
was cold and she felt a shiver run down the length of her
spine.

“My apologies, Mrs. Wainwright,” Toomay said.
“I shouldn’t get distracted especially when we were just getting to
know one another better.”

Jed’s neck turned red. He looked at her and
she could see the question in his eyes.
Do you want my
help
?

She was going to kill Jed, that is, unless
Toomay turned him into a frog first. “Sheriff, if you don’t mind,
we were just about to have lunch,” she said.

He stood there, his blue-gray eyes searching
her face. It was the same intense look he’d given her the night
they’d made love. The
are you sure
look. She couldn’t stand
it. She looked down at her hands. Finally, she heard the
floorboards creak as he shifted his weight.

“Don’t test me, Toomay,” he said. Then he
walked away, the heels of his boots made sharp, quick clicks. Bella
risked a look up. In the mirror, she saw that Yancy’s eyes were
following Jed as he pushed open the saloon doors and walked out.
Yancy tipped his head back, finished his drink, and carefully set
the empty glass back on the shiny bar. Then he turned and followed
his friend.

Delilah came out with plates heaped high with
pork and potatoes. She sat them down with a thud. Toomay picked up
his fork and began to eat. Bella picked up her fork and pushed the
food around her plate. She didn’t speak again until Toomay had
finished scraping his plate clean.

“So, Mr. Toomay,” she asked, “are you
planning to be in Mantosa long?”

“Long enough,” he said. He motioned for
Delilah to bring him another drink. “More snow is on the way. I’m a
man who likes to be inside with a fire warming my back and a
willing woman warming my bed on those kind of nights.”

And if the woman wasn’t willing, he’d just
beat the hell out of her.
Bella fought to keep her eyes from
showing her disgust.

“I hope I haven’t shocked you, Mrs.
Wainwright.”

She shook her head. “I don’t shock that
easily, Mr. Toomay.”

He threw back his head and laughed. “I bet I
could shock you.”

He was the one who was in for a big surprise.
“Speaking of shocking, I heard there was a shooting in this bar
last night,” she said.

Toomay shrugged. “Most unfortunate. Some men
are very poor losers.”

It made her sick to think that a man had
killed his best friend and Toomay had engineered it all. Bad Magic
gained strength from the suffering of others. “Will you be here
again tonight?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I’ve other business to
attend to but I’ll be back tomorrow night.” He ran his tongue
across his teeth. “Might I expect to see you?”

She forced a smile. It felt as if her face
was going to crack. “Yes, I believe you will,” she said. She pushed
her plate away. “I’m sorry but I really do have to be getting back
to my aunt’s store.”

“Until tomorrow, then,” he said.

Bella had been back in the store for about an
hour when she heard the front door open. She looked up and saw
Yancy Tate stroll in. His face was red and his eyes were bloodshot
but he seemed steady enough as he walked to the counter.

“Hello, Yancy,” she said.

He glanced around the store which was empty.
“Anybody in the back?” he asked.

“No.”

“Good. I don’t necessarily want anybody
repeating what I’ve come to say. It’s about Jedidiah.”

Her heart sank. She didn’t want to talk about
Jed, she didn’t want to think about him. She wanted to forget that
she’d ever been fool enough to think that she could spend the night
in his bed and not want a thousand more nights there.

“Jedidiah McNeil can be an ass,” Yancy
said.

Bella smiled. “You won’t get an argument from
me.”

“I imagine by now you’ve heard the story
about how his father left his wife for a younger woman and then
when she moved on, he married another woman barely old enough to
leave her father’s house.”

“Yes.”

“What you likely don’t realize is that when
Jed came home to try to talk some sense into his father, the two of
them had a terrible fight. Jed ended up with a broken arm. His
father swung a piece of wood at him and caught him just right.”

Bella felt dizzy. She braced her arm against
the counter top, needing the solidness of the thick wood. “He told
me that he’d broken his arm but he didn’t say it was during a fight
with his father. How awful.”

“I imagine it was. I truly believe that
Jedidiah thought his father might listen to him. I think it hurt
him terribly when his father turned on him. I was there that day,
sleeping in the cell. Jedidiah didn’t see me and to this day, he
doesn’t know that I saw everything.”

“Was he badly injured?”

“I think his arm hurt like a son-of-a-bitch
but even so, he was so much physically stronger than his father
that I know that even with a broken arm, if he’d chosen to strike
back, he could have hurt him badly. But he walked away. In his
heart, I think he didn’t want to damage the relationship too much
because he was still hopeful that in time his father would realize
that he was acting like a fool.”

“Yancy, why are you telling me this?” Bella
asked.

“Because of what I saw earlier. Jedidiah
cares for you. I don’t know exactly what has happened between the
two of you. I followed Jedidiah out of the saloon and tried my best
to get him to talk to me, but he wouldn’t. He’s a private man,
Bella. He holds his troubles close to his heart. But I’ve known him
for a long time and he’s aching for you. I’ve never seen him act
this way over a woman.”

Bella pinched the bridge of her nose and
willed herself not to cry. “It’s probably better this way, Yancy.
In a month, he’ll forget about me.”

Yancy shook his head. “You don’t know
Jedidiah like I do. It might take a bit but he’s going to realize
how he feels about you. In the meantime, I don’t want you making a
mistake that will be difficult to undo.”

“Mistake?”

“Stay away from Rantaan Toomay. He’s nothing
but trouble.”

She studied Yancy. “Just why is it, Yancy,
that you choose to let an entire town think you’re a drunk?”

He raised an eyebrow. “I am a drunk.”

She shook her head. “You may drink too much,”
she said, “but you still know exactly what you’re doing and what’s
going on around you.”

He smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I
might know but I’m not expected to react—not expected to right any
wrongs, not expected to fight anybody’s battles, not expected to
save anybody’s life.”

She remembered that Jed had told her that the
war had changed Yancy. “You’re trying to help Jed, maybe even
trying to help me.”

He put his hand on the doorknob. “Yes, well,
I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anybody,” he said, his tone
even, his voice serious. Then he opened the door and left the
store.

Stay away from Rantaan Toomay.
It was
no doubt good advice. Too bad she couldn’t take it.

***

Bella had never spent much time watching the
twenty four hour weather channel but by mid-afternoon, she felt
like she’d give away her entire shoe and purse collection for an
accurate, scientific estimate of how much snow was expected.
Instead, what she got was a bunch of home-spun conjecture.

According to Wymer, his horses were off their
feed—which was a sure sign that a big snow was coming. Snake had
stopped in for some groceries and he wasn’t convinced a big snow
was on the way because his knee had been feeling pretty good
lately. However, Mrs. Dempsey, the dressmaker, said the ache in her
elbow told her that everybody should thank their lucky stars if
less than a foot of snow fell.

She could not be stranded in the country
tomorrow. She knew her father had made it to town. But she didn’t
know how far outside of Mantosa that he’d been camped. And maybe
he’d used a little magic to bypass blocked roads. She hadn’t
thought to get those kind of details before her frantic flee from
the twenty-first century. She’d almost died in one snowstorm. She
most certainly would have if Jed hadn’t rescued her.

He’d probably leave her out in the snow this
time. The man was seriously pissed at her. She understood his
dislike for Toomay. Anybody with half a brain would dislike that
man. But he couldn’t have it both ways. He’d made it clear. Nobody
was supposed to know that they’d spent the night together. Which,
in her mind, gave him little opportunity to express any opinion
about how she spent her free time or who she spent it with. Even if
it was with the devil or the closest thing to him.

By late-afternoon, three or four inches of
fresh snow was already on the ground. When Thomas Bean came into
the store and mentioned that he was on his way to see Freida, she
made a quick decision.

“Thomas, can you do me a favor. I’m worried
about how much snow we’re going to get because I certainly want to
be able to open the store tomorrow. Can you let Aunt Freida know
that I’m going to stay in town tonight? I’m hoping that Elizabeth
could stay over.”

The tall man stroked his chin. “That might be
a good idea,” he said. “My old dog was turning in circles this
morning with his nose pointed at the North Star. That’s a sure sign
that we’re in for a big one.”

Whatever.
“Thanks, Thomas. I
appreciate it.”

Once he’d left, Bella spent the remaining
hours straightening up a corner of the store that she’d not yet
tackled. It was a collection of tablecloths, blankets, sheets, and
towels with a few wagon spokes and thick ropes thrown in just to
make it a challenge. There were some customers, but as the evening
drew near, she noticed that the street was pretty empty. The snow
was falling more steadily and if she had to guess, she thought
people were home, waiting out the storm.

She put the closed sign in the window and
turned down the lamps. Instead of putting out the fire in the stove
like she had the previous two nights, she added more wood. She was
hungry but she didn’t want to go to the restaurant for dinner. No
doubt some well-meaning person would guess that she was staying at
the store. Granted, there’d been no more issues of vandalism at the
store since that first morning when Aunt Freida had discovered that
the back door had been tampered with but she didn’t want to give
anybody ideas by advertising that she was alone here.