Banking on Temperance (18 page)

His reprieve was short-lived, however, as she moved into his line of sight. Temperance and Jake were laughing together as they stood in a corner of the room. Basil noticed the mistletoe strung up in each corner of the large room, but doubted if Temperance had yet figured out why Jake was corralling her into the corner. He resembled a border collie and Temperance was a sheep being herded.

Jake grinned as he said something to her and raised a hand up, pointing to the plant overhead. Temperance glanced up at it with surprise, and then her eyes locked with Basil’s. He caught her pleading gaze, but instead of dashing to her rescue, he merely lifted an eyebrow in her direction before he turned away.

“I think I’ll head outside for a smoke,” Basil said. “Want to join me, Joseph?”

Ginger glanced over at her brother. “Isn’t now about the time you take off, anyway?”

“I won’t entice Joseph to join me in a card game, if that’s what you’re worrying about. “We’ll go have a smoke and be back within ten minutes. I just need some fresh air. It’s too hot in here. I’m going to stay here at the dance a bit longer than usual tonight.”

Ginger’s beautiful smile lit her face. “I thought you might.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, nothing. Go, enjoy your cigar.”

Basil and Joseph left the room, but Basil had a strong feeling that his sister was aware of something he wasn’t. Or at least didn’t want to admit.

• • •

Temperance barely controlled her impulse to stomp her foot in frustration. Basil noticed her predicament with Jake and refused to help her. His behavior tonight, starting the moment he spied her walking with Ginger, was despicable. She moved beyond wanting to cry about an hour ago. Now she was just plain angry.

Jake stood by her side, patiently waiting for a response to his question. She turned her gaze back to him as Basil and Joseph left the room. “You want to kiss me in front of everyone in the room? Wouldn’t that be unseemly?”

Jake grinned at her. Good Lord, the man was even more handsome when he smiled. Temperance was having trouble focusing on what he was saying as her stomach jumped.

“Not at all unseemly. You are one of the prettiest girls in the room, for one thing. Second, you did agree to accompany me here tonight, so it’s expected. Third, and possibly most important, it must be done now if only to prevent the curse of the mistletoe from happening to you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Aren’t you familiar with the old tale? If a lady refuses to be kissed while under the mistletoe, she will not marry for at least the next year. We don’t want that to happen to you, do we?”

Temperance’s mind raced through all her possible responses. Of course, she didn’t want the curse to descend upon her. She needed to get her family to Oregon, and it seemed that marriage to someone was going to be the only way she could accomplish that. On the other hand, if she kissed Jake now, the entire town would begin to look upon their relationship as more than what it was. But wasn’t that what she wanted? To get everyone, including Jake, to see her as a potential bride? She turned her head from him slightly, so he would be unable to read the confusion in her eyes.

Why couldn’t she be under the mistletoe with Basil instead?
Because Basil’s not going to be the one to help your family get to where they need to be, Temperance, and Jake is. Buck up, and accept his kiss. It’s high time.

She smiled up at him and then lowered her eyes so he’d be certain to notice her long lashes, which were the only vanity she allowed herself. “Thank you so much for referring to me as one of the prettiest girls in the room. There are many lovely ladies here tonight, and I’m pleased you think I can hold my own with them.”

She squared her shoulders. “You are correct about the old wives’ tale, too. We certainly don’t want the curse of the mistletoe to land on my shoulders. I do plan to be married by this time next year. I’d appreciate it if you’d oblige me, Jake.” He may think she meant only a kiss, but she was hoping he’d oblige her by offering to marry her, too.

He placed one hand lightly on her cheek and she rose up on her toes to accept his kiss. It was just a slight kiss, barely more than a peck. She hardly had a chance to taste the saltiness of his lips. But it was a perfectly appropriate kiss for the occasion. After all, she didn’t want to swoon in front of the entire town. Which is what would have happened if Basil had been the one to kiss her. But yet, she expected to feel some kind of reaction to Jake’s lips meeting her own. Where was the spark, the shiver of delight racing down her spine, the dampness at her center?

She sighed softly and lowered herself back to the floor in disappointment. She could live without the excitement of a passionate marriage if it meant getting her family safely situated where they needed to be. She’d have to.

• • •

While Joseph comfortably lounged up against the hitching post outside the town hall, Basil paced back and forth, as if he were a toy that had been wound up.

“So the little spitfire is getting to you, is she?” Joseph asked as he inhaled deeply of the fragrant tobacco.

Basil stopped, and pivoted toward him. “No, she is not getting to me.” He ground out his cigar with quick, angry movements. “I know what she’s doing and it doesn’t bother me. She thinks Jake will marry her and then her family can join his wagon train heading out in the spring. But Jake’s already told me he wouldn’t take them on, for a variety of reasons. So while Temperance’s motives are plain as day, I know Jake’s only wanting someone to spend time with this winter, and come spring, he’ll be gone.”

“What is it that upsets you? The fact that she is spending time with Jake or the fact that she will be gone in the spring? Did you not have a hand in introducing them?”

“Yes, I guess I did, since Jake joined me at the public house for dinner one night last week. But I never intended her to latch onto him as quickly as she did. I thought she’d at least talk to me about him in private before agreeing to meet up at the dance tonight. I’ll bet he’ll even try to take her home, so they can spend some time alone together.”

“If he is any kind of man, he would see to it that she gets home safely.”

Basil shrugged his shoulders. “But with him, she’s not safe.”

“Then I would say you have created a problem. If you do not trust the man, you need to tell Temperance that she has drawn the wrong conclusion. It will be up to you to fix it.”

Basil was quiet for a moment. This latest development with Temperance was entirely his doing. He’d introduced her to Jake. She’d gotten the wrong impression of why they were at the public house the moment they sat down, and instead of putting a stop to it right then and there, he was too busy wallowing in the hurt she caused to his ego by showering immediate attention on Jake. He might put store in Jake’s reputation as a wagon master, but by no means did he consider Jake a trustworthy person when it came to women. In that regard, Basil placed Jake in the same category as himself.

He lifted his head and asked, “But how can I put things to right? I can’t dash in and save her from Jake’s clutches as he tries to seduce her. She wants Jake to take a shine to her, so she can go west on the wagon train with him.”

“Are you certain of that? I sensed something between you two the day Samuel was born. That kind of connection does not happen often in life, and you would be foolish if you ignore it and do nothing.”

“She’s told me often enough she has to fulfill her father’s last request and get her family to Oregon. I know she thinks her family has imposed on yours too much as it is, and now, with her mother expecting, if they don’t make the trip with Jake’s wagon train, they’ll have to impose further. I can’t see Temperance putting up with that.”

“Perhaps there is another option that you have not yet considered.”

“Such as?”

Joseph stared long and hard at his friend. “Ginger is right. Sometimes you are an ass.”

Basil glared back. He narrowed his eyes at Joseph and his spine stiffened. The December wind off the water whipped his hair around his head, matching his rampant feelings. He remained silent.

Joseph filled the void by stating the obvious. “You want this woman as you have never wanted a woman before, and you do not know what to do with your feelings.”

Basil shrugged. “So?”

Joseph let out a long breath. “At least you will admit it, if only to me.”

In an attempt to lighten the mood, Basil replied, “Hell, you’re the one who has visions about things and can see into the future. You, of all people, would see right through me if I didn’t confess.”

Joseph didn’t smile in return. “I do not need a vision to see what is in front of me. You might be an ass, but you are not stupid. Quit acting as if you are.”

“You want me to take control of her entire family?”

“They are a package, it seems. Have you not been doing that very thing since the day they arrived in town?”

“It’s not the same.”

“Is it not?”

Basil didn’t reply. Sometimes Joseph and his Indian ways really got on his nerves.

Joseph pulled his body up from its reclining position at the hitching post. “Are you ready to return to the hall? It has become quite chilly tonight with the wind kicking up.”

Basil began to walk away. “You go on back if you want. I need to take in some night air before I return.”

He walked down toward the docks, inhaling the sharp winter air, which was tinged with the scent of the Mississippi River. Men streamed on board the steamboats to try their luck with both the cards and the ladies. Good-natured laughter and a piano from somewhere on the boats wafted across the water in the stiff breeze, but he had no wish to join in their merriment. Joseph might be annoying tonight, but he did have one thing right and he had honed in on it as if he was an arrow and Basil was the mark.

Basil did want Temperance as he’d never wanted a woman before. There, he admitted it. But it was now too late. Whether intentional or not, he’d set things in motion to help her fulfill her father’s wish to get her family to Oregon and to safety. She would make Jake fall in love with her. How could he not, once she turned her affections to him? How could any man resist a woman such as Temperance? And, despite everything Jake told Basil about not taking a wagon full of women and children with him, he’d take her.

His thoughts went back to the one big love he’d had in his life. Rachel. He pursued her with a single-mindedness that drove all other distractions from his mind. Even with the knowledge that she had a multitude of lovers, not just him, he loved her still. But the emotion he had for Rachel was nothing compared to what he now was feeling for Temperance.

Rachel got away from him, by dying, before he declared his love for her. Was he willing to let Temperance get away, too? It was one thing to offer some modest assistance to help out a struggling family, but quite another to take on the burden legally. Did he really want to tie himself down, not just to her, but also to her mother, five siblings, and a new one on the way?

He always thought he wanted, someday, to have a wife and four or five children of his own. But if he married Temperance, he’d be starting off their life together with a large brood already in place. Was that what he wanted? The wind had no answers for him. Reluctantly, he turned back toward the dance.

Jake sat at the card table with a whisky in one hand and a winning combination in the other. He was on a roll so far this winter; that much was for certain. Not only did he usually walk away from the card table with more money than he started with, he also had a pretty and proper young lady to escort to various events in town, helping establish his career as a trustworthy leader. Already, he was almost completely booked for the wagon train he was taking west in a few more months.

He had his system for running an efficient train down pat, now that he’d taken four trains out so far. He hired five good, solid men to help him, and placed each one in direct charge of ten wagons. He oversaw all their activities, but the day-to-day operations of the wagons fell to these men.

If one wagon of the ten had to stop because of faulty equipment or illness, or to search for missing cattle, it didn’t hold up the entire train, only the ten wagons under that man’s care. They would eventually meet up again, at various campsites, when the larger train in front stopped to wash clothes or cook food for the week ahead. He was on the search now for one more reliable man to round out his efforts. He ran his fingers over his cards while he thought. The piano provided a musical background to the various conversations going on around him.

Yes, his efforts on the part of the wagon train were moving along nicely. And, he’d have to say, his relationship with Temperance was moving along, too. He expected to take his time with her. He placed his cards face down on the table and lit a cheroot, breathing in the aroma of the tobacco as he contemplated Temperance.

After all, she wasn’t one of the dance hall girls he’d been used to in St. Louis. No, Temperance reminded him more of the girls back home in Indiana. Especially the one sweet little one he thought he’d been in love with before he came west to hunt for gold. His plan when he left home was simple enough. He’d pan for gold for two years only, and give her time to grow into herself. She’d been just a young woman when he left. His triumphant return to Indiana was marred by her decision to marry someone else while he was gone.

So, he had money and success. He was admired by others and was able to make his way around the wilderness that was the western United States. But what he didn’t have was a woman, a wife. Perhaps Temperance could be that woman. He’d have to keep her in St. Louis, though, rather than out west, since all he did when he got to Oregon was turn around and head back to civilization for the winter. If he married, he’d want his woman near him for at least a good part of the year. Otherwise, what was the point?

She had an angle, though, to get her large family headed west. He didn’t mind sparking her this winter, but he’d be damned if he’d take that family, with all their bad luck, and without a man at the helm, on his wagon train.