Deborah Camp (24 page)

Elise shivered, wanting his mouth on her, tugging at her breasts, torturing her nipples, which were already puckering beneath her chemise.

“I want to see your whole body bathed in sunlight,” he whispered. “Then in moonlight. Then in sunlight again.”

“Oh, Blade, I want you so.” She pressed her mouth hungrily to his and felt her body melt, making itself a giving vessel for his.

“Someone’s coming!” Penny called from the porch yard. “I think it’s Miss Peppers!”

Blade muttered an expression foul enough to make Elise blush. She scrambled off his lap and buttoned her dress while he strode almost angrily to the door.

He turned back to her, his face grim, his eyes still shining with desire. With a weary sigh, he
shrugged his suspenders up onto his shoulders. “Damn poor timing, but we can’t be rude.”

“Of course not,” Elise agreed, though she was glad that he was irritated at the intrusion.

He waved and stepped out onto the porch. “Good morning, Airy. Come inside. There’s still coffee in the pot.”

Elise set a clean cup and saucer on the table and poured black coffee into the cup. Airy entered, pulling off her gloves and yanking at her sunbonnet ribbons.

“I tell you, I’m mad enough to eat the devil, horns and all.” She slapped her gloves inside her bonnet and threw the whole mess into the rocker. “I know who did it, too. I know as sure as I’m standing here.”

“Who?” Blade asked.

Airy glared at him as if he’d called her a bad name. “Don’t you play stupid with me, Blade Lonewolf. You know who did it, too, and it’s high time we both stopped going blind around him.” She pressed upward on her tiptoes in a feeble attempt to be at eye level with Blade. “Some things are more important than land or other worldly possessions. Things like honor and doing what’s right.”

“Sit down, Airy, and have a cup of coffee,” Elise urged. “And do tell us what you’re so upset about.”

Airy plunked herself down into a chair. “My still was smashed last night.”

“Your moonshine still? Who did it?” Elise asked with a gasp.

Airy closed her eyes and swiveled her head around, so that when she opened her eyes again,
she focused them squarely on Blade. “Tell her, big man. Tell her who did it.”

Blade folded his arms against his chest and chewed on the inside of one cheek. Then, with a shake of his head and a grimace, he turned away from the two women. “Mott.” The name carried clear as a bell.

“Judge Mott?” Elise repeated. “Why would he smash your still, Airy?”

“ ’Cause he doesn’t like any woman to make money, that’s why. He thinks alls we’re good for is cooking, cleaning and having babies. He thinks we all need to get a man and let the man make the money. Why, he’s been fuming about me and Dixie’s still since last year. Last night he sent over a couple of his field hands to smash it up.”

“You saw them?”

“I didn’t have to see them,” Airy said. “Some things you just know—like you know a good man from a bad man without him saying a word. Lloyd Mott is bad plumb through.”

“Oh, dear, and Adam lives with him.” Elise picked up a dishcloth and twisted it into a tight cord. “Blade, do you agree with Airy? Is Adam in danger living with that man? I never liked the looks of the judge. He’s got those awful black eyes that reflect no light.” She realized she was rattling. “Blade?”

He straddled a chair. “I’ll help you rebuild the still, Airy. We’ll make it better than it was before.”

Airy landed the flat of her hand against the table. “You with me or agin me, Lonewolf? I’m here to tell you I’m declaring war on that old devil.”

“War?” He smiled indulgently. “You think the judge will take cover when he hears about me and you joining up and forming a war party?”

Airy grinned. “Then you’re with me, are you? By damn, I knew you’d land on the right side if somebody goosed you and made you jump.”

He held up a cautionary hand. “I’m not interested in wars, Airy. Besides, I’ve got more to lose than a whiskey still.”

What did he have to lose? Elise wondered, and hoped he or Airy would reveal the details without her having to ask.

“I know what you got invested,” Airy allowed. “But will you surrender everything for this here land? Will you go around with your tail between your legs? Will you let the whole town see that you’d lick the judge’s boots just to keep hold of this here—” Airy clamped her jaws together. “I see I’ve riled you.”

Elise glanced at Blade and swallowed hard. Yes, he was riled. No doubt about it. The veins in his neck stood out and a dark tinge of red stained his neck and face. He’d bunched his hands into tight fists, dangerous fists.

“Blade, Airy, don’t go on like this,” Elise pleaded. “Airy, you’ve had a bad morning, finding your still destroyed and all. Blade, you understand that Airy didn’t mean what she said. She’s upset, that’s all.”

“She meant it,” Blade said, his lips barely moving.

Airy shrugged. “I ain’t going to lie. I meant every word.”

“Airy!” Elise said, shocked. “You don’t think so lowly of Blade. I know you don’t!”

“I don’t think lowly of him a’tall,” Airy said. “I just think that if he don’t stand up on his hind legs now, I’m going to have to change my opinion of him.”

“Airy, I am very close to asking you to leave my home,” Blade said, his voice deeply dangerous.

“Let’s calm down, please.” Elise set a cup in front of Blade and poured him some coffee. “Why do you think the judge smashed your still, Airy?”

“Because he as much as said he was going to at church a few Sundays ago. Came up to me after the service and told me I shouldn’t be allowed inside the chapel, seeing as how I sold moonshine. I told him that Crack Metzer and Enis Holstrom should be barred as well, since they’d both been making whiskey a lot longer than me.” She blew at the coffee before taking a sip. “Then he told me that Crack and Enis got families to feed and I was only feathering my nest for me, myself and I. He looked me square in the eye and said he wouldn’t be surprised if’n my still were put outta business.” She swallowed more hot coffee, her eyes watering as the scalding liquid went down.

“Well!” Elise looked from Airy to Blade. He stared moodily at Airy. “Sounds as if he did everything but leave his calling card, wouldn’t you agree, Blade?”

Blade remained stoic and silent.

“I heard tell that he busted up all your tools, too.” Airy leaned on one elbow and narrowed an eye at Blade. “What did you do to him to make him strike back at you?”

Elise waited, but it was obvious Blade wasn’t about to answer. She did. “He asked the judge to send Adam to school. The judge didn’t appreciate the advice.”

Airy sat back in her chair and crossed one thin leg over the other. Her split skirt hiked up enough to display the tops of her scuffed boots. “I can see you’re fuming with me, Blade Lonewolf, and I do
regret that. I reckon I regret it as much as you regret making a deal with Mott. I told you not to shake hands with the man. I told you it would bring you nothing but grief.”

Penny’s laughter chimed in the distance and Blade’s expression softened. He glanced out the door, then returned his damning gaze to Airy.

“It was a good trade. I have no regrets.”

“Oh, what you got for that money bettered your life, it’s true, but you’re lying about having no regrets. Every time you look at that man, you regret having to treat him better than you would a mangy dog.”

“Excuse me, but what deal are you talking about?” Elise broke in, her patience exhausted. When Airy stared at her in openmouthed shock, she braced herself and swung around to Blade. “Would you please tell me, Blade?”

“It’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“Good, then it won’t hurt me when you tell me,” she insisted.

Airy hooked an elbow around the back of her chair and sipped her coffee. “Why, shoot, Blade, I thought sure you would have told your wife about your deal with the judge. I didn’t know it was a big secret.”

“It’s no secret, but it’s not yours to pass around either.”

“What?” Elise demanded. “I gather that you’ve promised some land to the judge. Or have you rented some to him?”

Blade drew in a chest-swelling breath. “The judge gave me some money and I put my land up as collateral. The note’s due soon.”

“And if he don’t pay up, the judge gets his land,” Airy added with a frown of concern.

“
All
of the land?” Elise asked, then gasped when Airy and Blade nodded. Numbly, she stood and crossed the room to the doorway. The land undulated before her, then blurred. The land. Their livelihood. The bedrock of their new family. She wiped aside the tears that had gathered in her eyes, and realized that the parcel of soil and grass and trees was more than property. Blade loved the land, and Elise and Penny had begun to think of it as their home. Would they lose it? A spear of bright hope cut through her gloominess and she pivoted to face Blade again.

“But you’ll be able to pay the judge back, won’t you?” she asked.

Blade stared morosely into his coffee cup. “I don’t know. It doesn’t look good.”

Elise covered her heart in reaction to a stab of pain there. “Oh, Blade … n-not the land. He can’t take your land.”

“I mean to talk to him about giving me a little more time. I figure he’ll be reasonable.”

“Ha!” Airy slapped the table. “Yeah, he’ll be as reasonable as a stepped-on rattler!” She aimed a finger at Blade and squinted as if leveling him in her sights. “He’s licking his chops already and anticipatin’ adding this sixty acres to his holdings. He might let you share crop, if you smile and say ‘Pretty please.’ ”

Pieces began to fall in place as Elise stared at Blade. Suddenly she understood his reluctance to cross his neighbor and his request that she stay away from the judge’s home. But there was one big piece missing from the puzzle.

“Blade, why did you need money? Why did you have to borrow from that man?” She spread out her hands and looked around at the meager cabin
and furnishings. “What did you need so badly?”

His eyes seemed sunken in their sockets, and the skin around them appeared to be bruised. “A better life, like Airy said,” he rasped, then cleared his throat. “And something I could not give my wife,” he added, his voice hoarse, raw. “A child.”

S
ympathy for him closed her throat. Elise looked from Blade to Airy, and the older woman pushed herself up from the chair.

“You did your part, Blade. The good Lord just didn’t want it to happen that way. Guess He wanted Penny and Elise to share this home with you.” She came around the table and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You’re the worst I ever saw about blaming yourself for happenings that you had no say so in, one way or t’other.”

Elise smoothed her damp palms down her rust colored skirt
I should be comforting him
, she thought.
Not Airy
. Her reluctance and awkwardness served to illuminate her dubious place in his life. His lovemaking had thrilled her, answered her craving for him, but she remained in the dark about where she stood. By his side or in the background?

How did one reach a man with such pride? How could a woman truly know her man if he showed his heart in glimpses and guarded it zealously? And to be truthful, she was angry at him for not having confided in her before now. He might not have told her if Airy hadn’t spilled the beans, leaving him no choice.

“I should be going,” Airy announced. She patted Blade’s shoulder again before retrieving her hat and gloves. “I got all stirred up and came over here in a huff. Probably said things I shouldn’t have.” She smiled at Elise. “Hope y’all don’t hold it agin me. I get so mad sometimes …” She shook her head and laughed.

“Don’t be silly, Airy.” Elise placed an arm around the woman’s bony shoulders. “We don’t blame you one bit for being mad, and we sure don’t hold it against you.”

“I’ll help you rebuild the still.”

Airy and Elise both turned back to Blade. He ran a blunt fingertip around the rim of his coffee cup, and a smile poked at one corner of his mouth.

“You don’t have to,” Airy said. “Me and Dixie built it before. We can agin.”

“You need lumber?” He glanced up to see Airy’s considering expression. “I got some to spare. I’ll bring it around to your place.”

“Much obliged.” Airy grinned. “You forgive me, I guess.”

He settled back in the chair, arms akimbo, legs apart. “I stopped listening to your prattle years ago.”

Airy’s eyes flashed with humor. “Guess that’s why you do so many darn fool things. If’n you’d been listening to me, you’d be a rich man by now.”

They all shared a laugh. Elise escorted Airy outside and waited until the older woman and her mule were well on their way before she went back in. She was surprised to find Blade emerging from the other bedroom, a packet in his hands. She recognized the collection of envelopes immediately from her snooping in the trunk.

“Now that you know, you should know it all.”
He dropped the bundle on the table. “Come here and sit down.” His voice was low, his tone resigned. He sat in one of the chairs and removed several sheets of paper from the top envelope. He pushed them toward Elise when she joined him.

“What’s this?”

“The agreement the judge drew up. I signed it. It’s all legal and binding.”

Her hand trembled as she reached for it. “You didn’t want me to see this … to know about it.”

Blade moved his empty cup aside and folded his arms on the table. “It wasn’t any of your concern.”

“Oh, no, not any of my concern at all,” she said with biting sarcasm. “I just live here.” She unfolded the document and began to read. When she reached the pair of signatures at the bottom, she swallowed hard. “You should have signed this in blood.” The judge would control all of Blade’s land if Blade didn’t repay him. Folding the paper again, she handed it back to him. “Julia approved of this?”

“It was her idea.”

Animosity churned in Elise and she sat sideways in the chair to avoid looking at Blade. This had been Julia’s solution to her childless state, to put everything Blade owned on the auction block? Incredible!