Bushedwhacked Bride (8 page)
At this pronouncement, Jessica went wide-eyed.
“And besides, Miss Jessie and I are gonna be right busy
sewing up her frilly new wardrobe,” Ma continued
smugly. “Why, we’ll be going into town tomorrow to pick
out all the fabrics and trimmings.”
Luke glowered. “I don’t think so, Ma. You’re forgetting
Miss Jessie’s our prisoner. What if she gives us up to the
law?”
“Miss Jessie ain’t gonna do that,” Ma protested. “Are
you, honey?”
Jessica thought quickly. The town, wherever it was, meant possible escape. “No, of course not. My lips are
sealed.”
“But they’re expecting her there, Ma,” argued Billy. “I
mean, ain’t they?”
Six sets of eyes focused on Jessica; she struggled not
to squirm.
“That’s right,” stated Luke. “Do they know your name in town, sugar?”
Jessica floundered. She had no idea how to deal with
these questions. “No, I don’t think so,” she answered
carefully.
“But how can they be expecting you, if they don’t
know your name?” asked a clearly perplexed Billy.
“Search me,” muttered Jessica.
Billy grinned. “May I?”
Hearing Cole’s insufferable chuckle, Jessica blushed, while a clearly outraged Ma tossed an ear of corn at her
youngest son. “Hush up, you little toad!”
As Billy ducked the cob, Luke leaned intently toward
his mother. “Ma, we still can’t be sure it’s safe to allow
Miss Jessie to go to town.”
“Yeah, she could expose us all to danger,” argued Wes.
Ma appeared torn. “If she does, I’ll give her a good
switching.”
“I won’t say a word,” declared Jessica. “Believe me.”
Now Cole leaned forward. “Go on and take her to
town, Ma. Truth to tell, if Miss Jessica should give us up,
breathe even one word of our whereabouts to anyone in town, I’ll be dealing with her—and it’s a reckoning she
won’t like.”
Cole’s arrogant assertion made Jessica shiver, and she
glared at him.
But once again his brothers weren’t pleased. “How
come you get to deal with her?” protested Billy.
“ ‘Cause I’m the eldest male in the family, and it’s up
to me to punish any traitors in our midst. Miss Jessie and I already have an understanding.” He flashed her a lethal
smile. “Don’t we, sugar?”
Jessica stared daggers at him.
Gabe turned to confront his mother. “Hey, how come Cole gets to have an understanding with Miss Jessie, and
reckon with her, and we don’t?”
“Yeah,
I
want to reckon with her,” asserted Wes.
But Ma only shook her head. “Boys, your older brother
is right. It’s only proper.” She turned to Jessica and patted her hand. “If you betray us, honey, Cole will give you the
switchin’, and worse, I reckon. Won’t you, son?”
“My pleasure,” Cole drawled.
Jessica burned in silent outrage.
Chapter Seven
“Can I trust you to go to town with Ma tomorrow?”
Long after dinner ended, after Ma shooed the boys off
to the bunkhouse, Jessica was sitting alone on the front porch swing when she heard the front door creak open, followed by Cole’s deep voice. She gasped slightly as he stepped outside and slid onto the swing beside her, his
weight rocking it. At once she became intensely con
scious of his male scent, the heat of his body next to hers
in the slight coolness of evening. She tried to scoot away,
but there was no place to go.
“I didn’t invite you here,” she said coldly.
He shoved his boots against the floorboards, setting the
swing into motion. “It’s my spread, not yours, so I don’t
need an invite.”
“It’s your spread?” she asked, bemused. “Not your
mother’s?”
“Nope. When my pa died, it fell to me.”
“Whatever. Will you leave now?”
“Nope.”
She ground her teeth.
“I brought you something.”
“What?”
“Here.”
In the darkness, Cole took Jessica’s hand, and she felt
something warm and furry slide into her palm. She
gasped, stroking the creature with her other hand, listening to a low purring.
“A kitten!” she cried, delighted.
“Yep, I managed to lasso one of Jezebel’s latest.”
Jessica held the kitten up to the moonlight; it was tiny
and jet-black, with sharply pointed ears and large eyes. As
she kept it aloft, it mewled pitifully. Lowering her hand, she
hugged the tiny furball to her chest, feeling touched, de
spite herself.
“Thanks, Cole,” she murmured. “She’s precious. I
wonder if her eyes will be yellow, or perhaps green—”
“Like yours, Miss Jessie?” he asked huskily.
Oh, he could turn a wicked phrase, making the simplest question sound sinful. Jessica’s heart pounded and she felt even more rattled by his nearness.
She forced out a laugh. “So, is this
your
present for me?”
He chuckled. “Well, maybe I felt obliged to compete with my brothers a bit.”
Jessica smiled at the memory. “Yes, Billy with his
flowers, Wesley with his candy, Luke with his ribbon—”
“And Gabe with his soap.”
They both laughed. “Yes, and offering me a mule!” Jessica declared.
Cole fell silent a moment. “I don’t think a mule suits
you, Miss Jessie. Matter of fact, I’d like to see you astride
a palomino, riding into the wind.”
The image took Jessica’s breath away, conjuring a pic
ture of the two of them riding together through a spectac
ular mountain pass. She forced a casual tone. “Are you
offering me a horse now, Mr. Reklaw?”
He chuckled again, a low, sensual sound. “Actually,
sugar, a horse isn’t quite what I’ve imagined offering you.”
Jessica reeled. “Stop it, Cole.”
“Cole,” he murmured. “I like the sound of my Christ
ian name on your lips.”
“Stop tormenting me or I’ll call you worse,” she warned.
His lazy laugh rolled forth. “Remembering our kiss, Miss Jessie?”
“The kiss you
stole!”
“So you are remembering it.”
“Certainly not,” she declared primly.
He leaned closer, and she felt his hot breath on her
ear. “I think you’re bluffing. And what if I call your
bluff?”
Jessica jerked away. “I’d best go in now.”
He grasped her wrist. “Not so fast. You haven’t an
swered my question.”
“What question?”
“Can I trust you to go into town with Ma tomorrow?”
She fell silent.
“You know she’s taken quite a shine to you, wanting to
make you up a new wardrobe.”
“I like her, as well.” Jessica sighed. “But more than
that, I’d just like to leave this place—and I wish you and
your brothers would simply allow me to do so.”
“Don’t you like us, Miss Jessie?” he teased.
“That’s not my point.” She gestured about them. “My heavens, I’m a captive here.”
“Yeah, that’s right, you’re a captive,” he mocked. “Sit
ting on the porch swing petting a kitten. Such torture.”
“This is not my home,” she argued. “I need to—well,
be on my way.”
“You mean to teach in town?”
Jessica bit her lip. She still had no idea how to answer
such questions. She recovered with a bit of bravado. “My
point exactly. I’m clearly wasting my time hanging
around here.”
“Well, sugar, I reckon we’re not willing to let you go.”
“I’ve noticed,” she said tersely.
“So tell me again—can I trust you tomorrow?”
‘Trust me with what?” she demanded.
“Not to run away. Not to give us up to anyone, or to let
on you’re expected.”
She released a long breath. “You can trust me.”
“I’d better be able to,” he went on sternly, “because if
you should betray us, break my ma’s heart, even hurt her
feelings, you won’t like it when I’m through with you,
girl.”
“All right!” she cried. “You’ve made your feelings
crystal clear.”
“Not yet,” he replied emphatically. “But I will.”
Oh, he’d done it again, rattling her with a devilish turn of phrase. Jessica dared not speak.
Quietly, he continued. “Like it or not, for now, you’re one of us, Jessie. And I demand absolute loyalty.”
Unsteadily, she asked, “Look, why are you making
such a big deal of this?”
“Big deal?” he repeated, sounding confused.
“Why are you turning this into a federal case? Didn’t I
say I’ll keep mum?”
“Why?” he repeated tensely. “Because if you betray us,
we could all be hanged. That answer your question?”
Jessica was growing exasperated. “You really overesti
mate me as a Mata Hari. I don’t even know where I am,
who I’m supposed to be.”
His voice took on a hard edge. “Then you’re not ex
pected in town?”
Jessica groaned. She kept putting her foot in her
mouth. Sure, she was confused—damn confused—but
that was no excuse to dig her own grave.
When she didn’t respond, he drawled cynically, “I
thought that was a lot of hokum you spouted at dinner, about being expected in town but no one there knowing
your name.”
Again she didn’t reply.
‘Tell me the truth now,” he ordered, his voice growing heated. “Don’t make me find out on my own, or you’ll be sorry. Are you expected or not?”
Jessica expelled a sharp breath. “All right, damn it, I’m
not expected in town. Are you satisfied now?”
Cole’s eyes blazed in the darkness. “Then you lied?”
“Well . . . let’s say I played along.”
He grasped her chin in his hand and regarded her
sternly. “Quit playing with
me,
and tell the damn truth. Who are you really? And where are you from?”
The explosive seconds ticked away. Jessica had no idea
what to tell Cole. Should she say she was from the year
1999, and she strongly suspected she’d somehow traveled
back in time? Surely he’d never believe that! She wasn’t even sure she believed it herself. But neither could she
explain this bizarre nineteenth-century world in which
she seemed to be existing. Perhaps she’d died and gone to
heaven—or hell.
“Well?” he demanded.
The two were regarding each other tensely when
abruptly both jumped at the sound of a loud
mrooow!
A
split second later, Jezebel landed on Cole’s thigh and
growled low at Jessica.
Relieved at the distraction, Jessica flashed Cole a stiff
smile and removed her fingers from the kitten’s fur.
“Guess Jezebel’s come for her baby.”
“Yeah,” he muttered.
The kitten mewled plaintively; then its mother picked
it up by the scruff of the neck and bounded off with it.
Another silence fell. “Cole, the kitten was sweet, but I really need to go in now—”
He grasped her wrist. “Not yet.”
“Damn it—”
“Stroll with me for a minute first.”
“Stroll? But I—”
“Sit here and bellyache, or get it over with,” he cut in.
“The point is, you’re coming with me, like it or not.”
Jessica ground out an expletive and Cole tugged her to
her feet.
Feeling burned by his touch, Jessica pulled her hand
free and started down the steps ahead of him. They
wended their way across the darkened yard. A night
breeze rustled through the trees, an owl hooted from its
high perch, and in the distance the moon backlit the soaring silvery shapes of mountains. In the skies above, hazy stars glowed softly.
Jessica shivered slightly. “This is very pretty. Now
where are we—”
“Just as far as the barn, sugar.”
They strolled over to the side of the huge, hulking
gray building. Jessica eyed Cole in perplexity. “What
now?”
He braced a hand on the barn and leaned toward her.
“Answer me something.”
“Yes?”
“What kind of woman are you really?”
Pulse surging, she eyed him suspiciously. “What kind
of question is that?”
He drew his lazy gaze over her. “I mean, just how innocent are you?”
“Innocent in what sense?” she mocked.
He edged closer and spoke huskily. “Are you a virgin?”
At once Jessica’s blood boiled and she shoved him
away. “Why, of all the asinine, insulting—”
Cole caught her by the shoulders and pinned her
against the barn. “Answer my question.”
“Hell, no! Why would you even ask it?”
He stroked her cheek in the moonlight. She flinched
from his touch. “ ‘Cause ever since this afternoon, it’s been eating at me that you sure don’t kiss like one.”
She laughed. “How many virgins have you kissed?”
“A few.”
“And how do virgins kiss?” she taunted.
“Not like you do, lady.”
“Well, it’s none of your business.”
His voice tensed. “The morality of the woman trying to
marry up with my brothers is damn well my business.”
“I’m not trying to marry up with them,” she gritted out.
“Answer my question, anyway.”
“Why? Are your brothers virgins?”
He chuckled. “I should hope not.”
“Then why should they expect to marry one?”
“Because men
marry
virgins.” Brazenly, he looked her
over. “Now, if you’re the other kind, we might just have to think up another arrangement for you.”
“Why you . . . !” With commendable restraint, Jessica
managed not to slap him. “What’s the other kind, Cole? A whore?”
He grinned, and even in the darkness she could see the
white flash of his teeth. “You said it.”
“And you can go to hell.”
Undaunted, he drawled, “I don’t think you’re a virgin,
Miss Jessie. Oh, you may blush like one, but you sass like
a seasoned line gal.”
“So what if I do? It’s still
none of your damned business.”
“Like none of your lies are my business?” he countered.
“What do you expect? You’re an outlaw and you kid
napped me. Stacked up against your sins, a few white
lies on my part seem pretty paltry. As they say, all’s fair.”
“Well, I’m
making
it my business,” he replied heatedly.
“I’m gonna find out all about you, Miss Jessie. I’m the
man who can find out.”
“You are an arrogant beast.”
“You know I’m really hoping you’re the other kind, be
cause, honey, I’ve got plans for you.” He pressed his
mouth to her cheek.
Jessica floundered and tried to push him away. She
might as well have been shoving a wall. He was so
strong, and much too close, his mouth hot and sensual on
her soft cheek, raising shivers.