Chasing Rainbows (24 page)

His gray eyes drifted slowly over her. Then, mysteriously, he drew back. “Let’s get you in some dry clothes before you catch pneumonia.”

Annie nodded and pulled away, feeling flustered and clumsy. Before she could remind him that all of her belongings were as thoroughly soaked as she was, Jake gently set her off his lap and stood. He strode to his saddlebags and pulled out a clean set of woolen drawers, a pair of thick wool socks, two flannel shirts, and denim riding pants. “These will be big on you, but they’re dry. You can change behind the bushes while I see if I can find some wood for a fire.”

She accepted the clothing with a murmur of thanks and rose to change, Jake’s matter-of-fact attitude relieving her of some of her embarrassment. His clothes were far too large on her, just as he had predicted, but they felt vastly better than the freezing, wet garments she had worn earlier. The clothing was not only warm and cozy but smelled of Jake, wrapping her in his heady, masculine scent.

When she stepped gingerly out from behind the bushes, she noted that he had not only managed to start a campfire but had unsaddled the horses and put on a pot of coffee as well. Annie busied herself spreading out her clothing and possessions to dry, then she joined Jake in front of the fire. He passed her a hot cup of the steaming brew, as well as two flaky biscuits filled with ham and cheese, purchased from the cafe before they had left town.

She ate slowly, staring into the flickering flames of the fire. Her gaze moved next to Jake, studying him intently. Were his guns more prominent now than before, or was it just her imagination? He looked perfectly calm and relaxed, but there was a subtle readiness about him, as though he expected trouble at any moment.

“Do you think people come back from the dead?” she asked. “Like ghosts?”

“No.”

“Neither do I.”

“You’re talking about the Mundy boys.”

She let out a mirthless laugh and wrapped her arms around her knees, resting her chin on top of them. “Who else? The way I see it, there are only two questions to ask.” She let out a sigh and counted off the questions on her fingers. “One, who were those men who tried to rob the bank last night, and why were they dressed up like the Mundy Gang? Or two, why am I lying about the boys being dead?” She studied Jake for a long moment in silence. “Tell me, mister, which question are you asking yourself?”

“Both.”

A small, knowing smile touched her lips. “You still haven’t decided whether you can trust me or not.”

“Do you trust me?” he countered.

Annie studied him for a second longer, then turned and gazed off into the horizon. She thought about the kiss they had shared last night — and the one Jake had avoided just moments earlier by deliberately drawing back. “We’re at a funny stage, aren’t we?” she said. “Like two dogs sniffing each other, neither one quite sure about the other.”

Jake’s face split into a broad grin. “I would have put it differently, but yes, I suppose that’s true.” He thought for a moment, then said, “There is a third possibility, you know. You could be wrong about the boys being dead. Maybe they were shot up pretty bad, but they lived.”

She shook her head in instant, vehement denial. “I know what I saw. Those boys were dead.”

“All right. Let’s say the boys are dead. You think this Snakeskin fella could be behind the robbery? If he knew Pete Mundy and the rest of the gang, it wouldn’t be too hard for him to step into Pete’s place, would it?”

“Snakeskin?” Annie repeated with a shaky laugh. “Hell, no. The man never did have that kind of brains. He was nothing but a bully, plain and simple.”

A heavy silence fell between them. She thought for a moment, then announced briskly, “It’s time we talked straight with each other, mister.”

Jake arched a dark brow. “By all means.”

“Whoever is out there posing as Pete and the boys will likely come after me. Least it seems that they might, seeing as how they were in Two River Flats at the same time that I was. I agree with Sheriff Pogue. That’s just a bit too coincidental for my taste. They come after me, and it might just get rough.” Annie paused for a minute, frowning. “Fact is, there ain’t no call for you to put your neck on the line. Those men are my problem, not yours. If you want to ride off and just meet up with me in Cooperton, that’s fine by me. You can even wire the sheriff and say that you escorted me all the way there and get your roll back. I won’t say a word.”

Jake studied her for a long moment in silence, his expression unfathomable. “I’m in this for the long haul, remember?”

“You sure?” she asked, hoping her relief didn’t show on her face.

“I’m sure.”

“All right, then, let’s talk about the money I owe you. How much were those damages to the town hall?”

Jake named the figure.

Annie blinked, trying to hide her despair at the sum. “I’ll pay you back,” she swore. “But I won’t have the money until we reach Cooperton. I should be able to borrow at least that much against The Palace Hotel.”

“I can wait,” Jake agreed. He held her gaze for a long moment, then asked, “Is that what had you so upset a little while ago, the town hall burning down?”

Annie looked away, embarrassed. “Partly. That and everything else that’s been going on,” she admitted. “As long as those men are out there, robbing banks and stages and claiming to be the Mundy Gang, folks will never accept me, no matter what I do. I’m afraid I won’t ever get a chance to make myself respectable.”

A look of understanding crossed Jake’s features. He poured them both a second cup of coffee, then leaned back against a fallen stump, stretching out his long legs. “Why don’t you tell me about last night,” he suggested.

She lifted her shoulders in a listless shrug. “There ain’t much to tell. Folks just didn’t take to me the way I hoped they would.”

“Maybe it only seemed that way to you.”

She shook her head in vehement denial. “I know it. Trust me, mister. I was about as welcome as a flu bug at a kissing contest.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know.” She looked up at him, feeling both puzzled and hurt. “I was all gussied up real fine in that new dress and all, but they still looked at me and snickered behind my back. I heard ‘Outlaw Annie’ and laughing, but the kind of laughing that ain’t friendly. ’Specially among the ladies. Truth is, those ladies are a lot meaner than most outlaws I’ve ever run into. Especially the ones in those fancy hats. You ever noticed that? The fancier the hat, the meaner the lady. I tried to introduce myself, but they just turned their backs on me when I walked up.” She paused, shaking her head. “I reckon that maybe I had that coming, since I did run with an outlaw gang and all, but I figure every person deserves a chance to start over, don’t you?”

Jake took a sip of coffee and nodded. “I reckon they do.”

She mulled that over for a moment, then shrugged it off. “I decided that Cat and I should stay, just to hear the tunes and watch the folks dance.” She stubbornly brought up her chin. “And I wanted to show them that they couldn’t scare me away. I may not be as highfalutin as some of the folks in there, but at least I got enough manners to return a friendly howdy from a stranger.”

“How did that Dwight fella get involved?”

“Him?” Annie made a face of disgust. “That happened later, after I’d been there for a while. He swaggered over to me, his friends hooting and hollering and backing him up. He’d been drinking more than the rest. Had that hot, musty smell of whiskey on his breath, and his eyes were sort of glazed over. He had trouble walking, too. His legs were bent and wobbly, like they were carrying too full a load.”

“He cause any trouble for you?”

“Nothin’ that I couldn’t handle. He slurred something about wanting to dance with me, but I turned him down.” She illustrated her next words by tossing back her shoulders and tilting her chin. “‘No, thank you,’ I said, all proper-like, just the way Winston’s Guide says it ought to be done.”

“I take it Dwight didn’t take no for an answer.”

Annie nodded, working herself up as she related her story. “No, he didn’t. Maybe the men over in England have all read that book and know proper manners, but here in the West, it seems that a gal’s got to use a little more force to get her point across, if you know what I mean.”

Jake didn’t bother to contain his grin. “Exactly what kind of force did you use?”

“Oh, nothing much,” she replied breezily. “He tried to pull me out on the dance floor, so I slugged him in that fat gut of his. Not too hard, mind you, just hard enough to double him over and convince him to let go of me. That’s when Cat got into the mix.”

As if realizing that she was being discussed, Cat sauntered over and stepped into Annie’s lap, circling a few times to stake out her territory before she settled down. She looked at Jake, hissing at him less aggressively than usual. Then she shook her tail, regally giving Annie permission to continue her story. Annie did.

“I reckon Cat thought I was in trouble and decided to help me out,” she said, brushing her finger along Cat’s back. “She jumped onto that Dwight fella’s shoulder. The fool started howling and carrying on like a wolf had grabbed hold of him, not some sweet little kitty. He staggered back and knocked a couple of those fancy party lanterns into a pile of hay, just like I told the sheriff. That’s how the fire started.”

“I see.”

Annie chewed her bottom lip, worried. “You think I acted all right? You don’t believe I started that fire on purpose, do you?”

“I think you acted just fine.”

She didn’t miss the fact that he failed to comment on whether or not he thought she had started the fire deliberately. While that bothered her, convincing Jake of her innocence was only a minor part of what worried her. “But what if something like that happens when I get to The Palace Hotel?” she continued. “How am I supposed to prove that I’m a lady, and not just Outlaw Annie?”

“You don’t have to prove a damned thing. A woman is always presumed to be a lady unless she demonstrates otherwise. The burden of proof is never on the lady.”

Annie immediately brightened. “Really? Where did you learn that, some fancy law book?”

Jake grinned and shook his head. “That’s good Southern upbringing, darlin’. You just keep it in mind.”

They sat together in silence, sipping then coffee and mulling over their thoughts. “Who knows?” Annie said after a few minutes. “Maybe those outlaws who are pretending to be the Mundy boys won’t come after me at all. Maybe they’ll head north, or disappear out West. Could be it has nothing to do with me at all.”

“You really believe that?”

She managed a weak smile. “No, but I thought you might.”

“Listen, darlin’, we’ll get to that fancy hotel of yours, and everything will be just fine.”

Annie nodded, but she couldn’t quite convince herself that it was true.

And deep down, behind his cool gray eyes and cocky smile, she doubted if Jake Moran believed it either.

Jake didn’t know what to make of Annie’s story. He had spent the past few hours turning it over in his mind while they rode, but he came to no definite conclusion. Even now, as they stopped and searched for a spot to make camp for the night, he was still wrestling with it.

The problem was simple. He wanted to believe Annie. Everything he had seen indicated that she was completely sincere in her desire to start her life over again. And because he wanted to believe her, he was actually convincing himself of her innocence. Annie was simply too forthright and direct to fabricate an elaborate lie about the boys being dead. Granted, it was suspicious that she had been gone for hours before the Mundy Gang had tried to make a run at the bank, but that truly could have been a coincidence.

Nothing about Annie suggested the type of woman who would cover for a gang of cold-blooded killers. Looking back, Jake remembered the first time he had seen her, standing with a noose around her neck, staring down a hostile crowd with a mixture of anger and bravado. He remembered her storming in on horseback to face down a gang of deadly bandits, and risking her life for an abandoned alleycat. He remembered her gently reassuring him that it wasn’t entirely his fault that the South had lost the war. And finally the image of Annie that was carved most vividly in his mind, that of her stepping out from behind a tree in all her naked glory, her willowy limbs and soft curves concealed by nothing but a pine branch: That was one recollection he would carry with him to the end of his days. While none of those memories directly proved her innocence, they did tend to tip the scales more in that direction.

Jake was also listening to what his instincts were telling him. In his experience, instinct was as valid a tool as any other form of reasoning. The mind absorbed a lot that never came to the surface as organized thought. When he played a hunch, he was simply using knowledge that he had but wasn’t able yet to identify or put into words. And that instinct told him that Annie was telling the truth.

“Is this all right?” she asked, interrupting his thoughts as she gestured to a patch of grassy brush surrounded by tall cottonwoods.

He nodded in agreement and dismounted. They still had about an hour or so of daylight left, but he didn’t mind stopping early. He had had little sleep last night and was willing to bet that Annie had had even less. He glanced around, examining the campsite without much enthusiasm. What he wanted was a soft bed and a good meal. Maybe a plate of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, stewed tomatoes, fresh green beans, and a thick slice of chocolate cake for dessert. What he got, however, was considerably less. He rolled his blanket on the cold, hard ground and checked his saddlebags for supplies. Dried venison, apples, and a few pieces of hard maple candy.

He split the provisions between them and settled back to eat. The jerky was hard as leather and twice as salty; the apples were soft and mealy. Annie ate uncomplainingly but quickly, as though eager to have the chore finished. He did the same.

The meal over, he settled back and studied the horizon. At the moment, there was nothing but a light scattering of clouds overhead, clouds as thin and fine as homespun lace. But off in the distance, the sky hung low and black. The storm might push their way, it might not. If Jake remembered right, there was a series of shallow caves carved into the base of the canyon walls to which they could retreat for shelter if they needed it.