Chasing Rainbows (17 page)

As she leaned back and closed her eyes, she heard the sound of soft splashing coming from next door. The image of Jake sitting naked in his bath instantly lodged itself in her mind. She lifted her arm and gently rubbed the soap over her skin, imagining him doing the same thing. The jaunty sound of “Camptown Ladies,” sung rather than whistled, carried through the wall. Jake’s voice was surprisingly good, she noted, low and soothing. She tilted her head back and closed her eyes once again, enjoying the steady, lulling rhythm of his voice.

After a minute, her thoughts began to wander. Was his tub the same size as hers? she wondered absently. It was perfectly snug and cozy for her, but wouldn’t he be a little crowded? Perhaps he managed it by keeping his arms and knees out of the tub, or by sitting up straight rather than lying back. Was he all slick and soapy, or had he already rinsed off? And what about his skin? Was it bronzed from the sun everywhere, or —

Annie dunked her head underwater, mentally cursing herself. She had doctored the boys for years and seen them in various states of undress, but not once had they stirred her senses the way Jake Moran did. Nor did he make her feel cold and itchy all over when he looked at her, the way Snakeskin Garvey did. When Jake Moran looked at her, she just felt warm and fluttery inside. But oddly enough, she didn’t mind it at all.

Searching for a distraction from her thoughts, she splashed water over the side of the tub and watched as Cat chased the bubbles across the wooden floor. Cat darted playfully around the room, immediately intrigued by the new game. Then she hit a slick spot and skidded across floor, landing with a dull thud against the wall that separated Annie’s room from Jake’s.

Jake’s singing abruptly stopped. “You all right in there?”

Annie ducked down into the water until it reached her chin. It was silly, but she couldn’t help it. She knew he couldn’t see anything, but the idea of talking to Jake while he was completely naked — while he knew she was completely naked — didn’t hold much appeal. “Fine,” she called back.

“What happened?”

“Nothing. Cat slid into the wall.”

“You still in the tub?”

“None of your damned business.”

She heard Jake’s low rumble of laughter from the other side, followed by soft splashing sounds as he resumed his bath.

Annie listened for a moment longer, then stepped gingerly from the tub, careful not to slip on the slick wooden floor. She padded across the room and lifted her clothing from her saddlebags, wishing she had time to wash the garments Jake had bought her. Resigning herself to wait and wash her clothing after their meal, she slipped into her old flannels and denims. She ran her fingers through her damp hair, twisted it into a knot, and tucked it under her battered felt hat. Finally she grabbed her holster from the bedpost and slung it low across her hips, then stepped into her boots.

She straightened and turned, catching a glimpse of herself in a looking glass as she did. The glass was foggy and of poor quality, but it confirmed what Annie had begun to suspect. She hadn’t paid much attention to her appearance for the past few years and it showed. No wonder the miners hadn’t been able to tell she was a woman. She looked about as feminine and desirable as a desert hen with feather molt. Well, she thought, there wasn’t anything she could do about it now.

Jake’s knock came just minutes later. She opened the door to find him looking crisp and clean, and even more unbearably handsome than usual. His hair was wet from his bath and curled up at his collar, the smell of soap and shaving tome clung to his skin. His long legs were encased in snugly fitted black pants, and his black boots were perfectly polished to a high, glistening sheen. He wore a matching, finely tailored black jacket, a crisp white linen shirt, a silk brocade vest of deep cobalt blue, and a silky black string tie knotted beneath his chin. The lines of the garments, simple yet elegant, suited him perfectly.

Annie became even more painfully aware of the poor assortment of rags that she had tossed over her own shoulders. Not knowing what else to do or say, she cleared her throat, immediately assuming the offensive. “’Bout time you showed up,” she said, stepping out into the hall to join him. “I was near starving to death.”

Jake grinned. “I take it that means you’re ready.”

“Don’t I look ready?” she bristled.

“You always look ready, darlin’,” he agreed, wisely choosing to refrain from commenting on her attire.

The town’s regular restaurant was closed due to the late hour, but the cafe adjoining the saloon appeared to be doing a booming business. The food was simple, served steaming hot and in generous portions. They each ordered a thick steak, cooked tender and dripping in its own juices, heaping mounds of fried potatoes and onions, stewed green beans, crisp corn dodgers, and hot coffee. Jake topped his meal off with a thick slice of apple pie. As tasty as the pie looked, Annie was too full to manage another bite and regretfully declined.

As their meal ended, they settled contentedly back into their chairs, relaxed and satiated, neither one ready to return to the hotel. Boisterous shouts and laughter from the saloon drifted in toward them, accompanied by the tinny sound of a badly tuned piano and the high-pitched laughter of the barmaids.

Their waitress sashayed toward them with a pot of coffee in her hand. Her face was pretty, Annie thought, but hard. Generous spots of rouge caked her lips and cheeks, and her skin was buried beneath a thick layer of powder. She gave Jake a coyly flirtatious smile and bent to refill his coffee cup. The woman’s top was so low cut, Annie was surprised that her bosoms didn’t spill over into the cup along with the coffee.

Ignoring her presence entirely, the waitress straightened and gave Jake a look that was rich with invitation. “You see anything else you want?” she cooed.

“I don’t suppose you could rustle up a whiskey for me?”

“Is that all you want?”

He smiled — pleasantly, Annie noted, but coolly. “It all looks mighty good, sweetheart. But I think that’s about all I can handle right now.”

The woman’s lips pulled down in a thick pout. “You let me know if you change your mind.”

As she watched her walk away, Annie couldn’t help but feel a slight stirring of jealousy at the way the woman had handled herself. There were certain kinds of women who could play up to men just fine, but Annie doubted that she would ever be one of them. While that knowledge had never bothered her before, it was beginning to rub her as raw as a prickly pear caught between her saddle and her britches.

“You liked her, didn’t you, mister?” she asked, unable to stop herself.

An expression of surprised amusement flashed across Jake’s face. “What makes you say that?”

“Why wouldn’t you? I reckon any man would take to a gal who comes siding up to him with her tail up in the air, acting as slick and frolicky as a rain-soaked filly in a bed of fresh grass.”

His grin widened. “Maybe I’m a little more discriminating than that. Maybe I don’t want just any rain-soaked filly.”

They fell silent as the waitress returned and set down his whiskey. Jake nodded his thanks and took a sip, his eyes never leaving Annie. As the waitress sashayed away, he asked, “Would it bother you if I did like her?”

Just like that, he had the drop on her. Annie suddenly felt as though she were standing on the precipice of a great, gaping canyon. One wrong word would send her plummeting over the edge. Faced with a question too complicated to answer, she simply shrugged her shoulders and replied, “I reckon it wouldn’t matter to me one way or another.”

“I see.” His gray eyes drifted over her like smoke. “What about you, Annie? Do men instantly fall under the spell of your beauty?”

Until that point, she had been enjoying their light banter, but her enjoyment immediately came crashing to an end. Unaccountably hurt by his teasing, she lowered her gaze to examine the edge of the table. “Ain’t no call to get nasty.”

“I meant that sincerely.”

She slowly raised her gaze to meet his. Although she wanted to believe him, the cold, hard truth of the matter was impossible to ignore. “There’s a looking glass in my room, mister. I look like something that fell off the back of a rag cart.”

“You’re a beautiful woman, Annie. I’m surprised no one’s told you that before.”

She shook her head. “My mother was beautiful,” she said after a moment. “But I don’t reckon I look anything like her.”

“What was she like?”

Relieved to have the subject shift off her looks and move on to a less painful topic, Annie thought for a moment, searching her mind for the distant memories. “Fine and proper. Always telling Hannah and me to mind our manners and act like little ladies. She had the softest voice, and an even softer laugh. She wore fancy, swishy gowns in all the colors of the rainbow, and when she walked, it was like she was floating across the room.”

“What happened to her? Where’s your family now?”

“I lost them when I was six. My father was a professor back in Philadelphia, but we came west one summer so he could do some research. Our wagon was crossing a stream when a flash flood hit, sending a wall of water down the canyon. I remember feeling the wagon overturn, hearing my mother scream, and feeling that rush of water against my face — but that’s all. The next thing I knew, I was on another wagon, part of an Army train headed west. They took me to a fort, and some folks who were passing through took me in.”

“The rest of your family died in the accident?”

“Yes.” Annie hesitated, wishing she could say more. But she had been young when the accident happened, too young to recall much of anything. All she had left were a few blurry memories of her family, and the tintype, Bible, and etiquette guide that had washed up downstream from the accident. Everything else had been lost forever.

“What about the family that took you in?” Jake asked.

“Doc Mundy and his wife? They were good folks. They took care of me, sent me to school, fed me lots of decent food, and patched me up when I was sick.”

“Doc Mundy and his wife,” he repeated slowly. “So that’s how you met Pete.”

There was an odd note in his voice, but Annie was too absorbed in her memories to pay it any mind. “The Mundys said they had always wanted a little girl, and since Mrs. Mundy couldn’t have any more children, they took me in.”

“What was it like to grow up with Pete Mundy?”

She smiled. “In some ways, it seemed Pete never grew up at all. He had a wild streak in him a mile wide. Rambunctious, the Doc and his wife called him. He could be ornery as the devil when the mood got on him, and twice as mean.” She paused, thinking. “He had trouble with school. People thought he was stupid, and he was determined to prove them wrong. It wasn’t that Pete was a bad man, just that he wanted things to come too easy. He was sure one day he’d be rich and famous, a feared gunfighter or some such thing.”

“Is that why he started the gang?”

“I suppose. After Doc and his wife died, Pete got even more wild. The papers made us out to be a vicious, bloodthirsty group of killers, but we really weren’t. Nobody in the Mundy Gang ever killed anybody, you know that, mister? Mostly Pete and the boys just hung around saloons, talking themselves up. Occasionally they’d steal some sickly cow that had strayed off from the herd, or steal gold dust by crawling around the saloon floor, but that was about all of their antics. Just harmless pranks and empty bragging, mostly. At least it was that way in the beginning. Sheriff Cayne was right about that. They were just a bunch of misfits with nowhere else to go.”

Jake regarded her steadily. “But that all changed, didn’t it?”

She sighed. “I reckon it did. All that outlaw talk just went to Pete’s head. He met up with some saloon gal out in Woodbine and fancied himself in love. He was just crazy about that gal. He started running around, happier than a blind dog in a butcher’s shop. Pete had never had a mind for details before, but suddenly he was coming up with all sorts of easy-money schemes, bank robberies and whatnot. He wanted to prove what kind of man he was, so he and the boys started pulling bigger and bigger jobs. That’s when I decided to leave.”

“You just took off?”

Annie bristled. “I didn’t run out on them, if that’s what you’re asking. I made my peace with the boys before I went. I told them they were headed for trouble, but they seemed so cocksure of themselves, so certain that everything was going to be all right that they wouldn’t listen.” She frowned, shaking her head. “It was like they had some secret that I wasn’t in on. Like they were a bunch of schoolboys who had stolen the teacher’s answer book.”

Jake looked as though he wanted to pursue the subject further but asked instead, “Why did you stay with the gang as long as you did?”

“Those boys were family to me. Good or bad, they were the only family I had. They looked after me, so I reckon it was only right that I look after them.” She thought for a moment, then shrugged her shoulders. “Besides, where else could I go? I didn’t have any other choice.”

Jake eyed her coolly over his whiskey glass. “We all have choices.”

“Really? And what exactly were mine?” she demanded. “I ain’t saying it was right or wrong of me to stay with the boys, ’specially once they started hurting folks, just that I didn’t know where else to go. I couldn’t hire on as a teacher, even though I know how to read and do numbers and all. Folks would think I was a bad influence on their youngsters. I figured no one would hire me to work as a store clerk for fear that I might rob the place. I might get work as a saloon gal, but that’s no kind of work for me. I ain’t got no interest in showing men a good time. The way I see it, men can find that easy enough without any help from me. Besides, there ain’t any men out there looking to make sure I enjoy myself, so the hell with them, right?”

A small smile tugged at Jake’s lips. “Absolutely, darlin’. The hell with them.”

“So can you see why—” Annie began, then stopped short as a slight movement at the bat-wing doors that separated the cafe from the rest of the saloon caught her attention.

She glanced up and immediately froze. Her heart slammed against her chest and her voice lodged in her throat.