Heartstrings (13 page)

WANTED

A tall, dark-haired, blue-eyed, and extremely intelligent man to sire a child. Wiling to pay $100 in gold for services. No marriage to woman demanded, and all fatherly obligations to
resulting child will be waived.

Men meeting requirements

please contact:

Miss Theodosia Worth

Wild Winds Hotel

Room Seven

Only the qualified need apply for interview.

“Miz Worth!” one of the men shouted, and knocked on the door. “You in there?”

The second Theodosia opened the door, the men’s revolting odor turned her stomach. Several were short, some had blond hair, a few had green eyes, and one had a bulbous nose that was a direct contrast to Upton’s long straight one.

She gave them a polite but reserved smile. “Thank you for responding to my advertisement, gentleman. I’m afraid, however, that none of you meet the requirements I have set. Good day.”

A booted foot kept her from closing the door. “I’m yer man, lady,” the owner of the foot announced. “When it comes to beddin’ women, there ain’t no requirement I cain’t meet. Now, lemme in!”

“You ain’t her man!” another of the applicants argued. “I am!”

The other men voiced similar declarations, and before Theodosia had time to realize what was happening, a fistfight began in the corridor. She seized the opportunity to slam and bolt the door.

The men in the hall began to bang on it, shouting curses that colored Theodosia’s cheeks. She managed to move the dresser in front of the door, but only when she heard the hotel manager and his two male assistants escort the men away did she feel a small measure of safety.

“I cannot comprehend why those men thought to answer my advertisement in the first place, John the Baptist.”

The parrot blinked one black eye. “I would like to conceive a male baby for Upton and Lillian,” he said, then blinked his other eye. “When it comes to beddin’ women, there ain’t no requirement I cain’t meet.”

“I specified quite clearly that I was seeking intelligent candidates,” Theodosia continued. “And did you hear their grammar? And their behavior—why, if not for their brawl, I might have been—”

She shuddered to think what might have happened, but she knew precisely what she would do to prevent the possibility from ever arising again.

Another circular was in order, and she had not a second to waste in having it printed and posted.

A
s Roman walked into the
Wild Winds general store, the scents of dried apples, stale cigar smoke, leather, and sour pickles drifted around him. A fat calico cat, curled up in a pool of sunshine on the wooden floor, licked its front paw while keeping a sharp eye on a cricket that chirped on the windowsill. Roman scratched the cat’s ears, then ambled to the counter and waited for the shopkeeper to finish stacking cans of food on the sagging shelves.

“Roman Montana!” Arlo exclaimed as he turned from the shelves. “Ain’t seen you ‘round here in almost two months. Not since you rebuilded ole man Bodine’s barn. Lord o’ mercy, Ben Bodine’s s’damned proud o’ that barn that he’s tuk to sleepin’ in it. Where you been?”

Roman withdrew a silky gold ribbon from a basket that sat on the counter. Twisting it between his fingers, he thought about golden hair. The ribbon was soft; Theodosia’s hair was softer.

He threw the ribbon back into the basket. “I’ve been around, working wherever there’s work.” He dug into his pocket and withdrew a thin roll of bills. “Put this in my account for me, will you, Arlo?”

Arlo took the money, counted it, and then made some quick calculations in his ledger. “Let’s see. This money added up with what you’ve already got here…that’s a grand total of forty-two dollars and eighty-six cents, Roman. Buildin’ yourself a right nice little nest egg.”

Nice wasn’t enough, Roman mused, deep frustration coiling inside him. Not counting the money he lacked toward the purchase of the land, he still needed money for the horses. In his head, he tried to add up how much money he had all together. Besides the money he had here in Wild Winds, he also had money saved up in seven other towns.

But adding eight figures in his head at once proved too difficult. He’d add them later, when he had paper and pencil. If he had a fair sum, he’d collect all the money and travel back to Templeton to make another payment to Senor Madrigal.

“You workin’ ’round here, Roman?” Arlo asked as he ran a dust rag over a jar of multicolored jawbreakers.

Roman leaned one slim hip against the counter. “Just finished a job for Oris Brown, but I’m looking for something else. Know of anything?”

Arlo scratched his neck. “Well, there’s Ralph Onslow. You know Ralph. He’s got that little boot shop down the street. Seems I heard he was lookin’ for somebody to go to Teak’s River and fetch him a new supply o’ leather. Wadja do for Oris?”

“Broke a horse for him,” Roman answered, tugging at his neckcloth. “The last time I was in town, he asked me about it. I got to his place late yesterday afternoon and started. He put me up for the night, and I finished working his horse this morning.”

“That fast,” Arlo murmured.

Roman shrugged. He’d never understood why it took some men so long to gentle a horse. As far as he was concerned, the only secret to it was winning the animal’s trust. And it was a hell of a lot easier to win a horse’s trust than a person’s.

The thought brought to mind Theodosia and her faith in him. For one short moment, he allowed himself to wonder if she was all right.

Arlo waved his hands in front of Roman’s eyes. “Roman? Did y’hear what I jest said? There’s somethin’ else you might want to do to earn a little cash,” he repeated, and chuckled. “Go read the poster that’s hangin’ over that table o’ fabrics.”

Curious as to what it was about the circular that so amused Arlo, Roman sauntered across the store and glanced at the flier.

The name
Theodosia Worth
fairly jumped out at him. He pulled the paper off the wall and scanned the wording.

Shock nearly knocked him off his feet. He couldn’t believe the woman would go this far!

And then amusement made him smile. The woman had gone this far because she didn’t have a lick of common sense to tell her not to.

Apparently, Theodosia’s passionate night with Dr. Wallaby had gone awry. Maybe the scientist’s brain was the only thing he had that was still in working order. “Arlo, when did you post this?”

“’Bout noon. That Worth woman come in here askin’ if she could put it up. Ain’t that somethin’? You ever heared o’ any woman stupid enough to actually make up a want ad for a lover? When she first come in here, I thought she was real smart. Dressed real good, talked with one o’ them London, England accents, and used a lot o’ big words. But for all her fancy talk, she ain’t got no sense. She—” A loud burst of laughter outside the store cut him short. “Well, what in the world? Let’s go see what’s goin’ on, Roman.”

Outside, he and Roman saw a group of men standing on the boardwalk in front of the cafe. A few were pointing to a sheet of paper stuck to the window, and all were nearly doubled over with laughter.

“Arlo, come see what that crazy woman done this time!” one man called. “Simon Hamm over there at the newspaper office just posted this up for her!”

The second Arlo read the flier, his laughter joined that of the other men.

But no one laughed as hard as Roman. His shoulders shaking with mirth, he looked at the circular once more and read:

WANTED IMMEDIATELY

A bodyguard to protect young woman from unscrupulous lechers. Willing to pay $100 in gold every month until services no longer needed. Contact:

Miss Theodosia Worth

Wild Winds Hotel

Room Seven

Would someone
please
apply?

He reread her first flier, which he still held. Only Theodosia Worth, an empty-headed genius, could have gotten herself into such a fix.

Still, he mused while rubbing his chin, her ridiculous predicament meant one hundred dollars in gold to the man she hired as her bodyguard.

He smiled.

His horse ranch had never seemed so close to being owned.

T
heodosia felt far too anxious
to eat the supper she’d ordered brought to her room. Wasn’t anyone going to answer her second advertisement? Surely Mr. Hamm had posted the fliers by now.

A loud knock on the door laid to rest her worry. “Well, it is about time, isn’t it, John the Baptist? I was beginning to think that there existed not a single man in this town who held the qualifications for a bodyguard.”

She smoothed her peach silk skirts and opened the door. In the dim corridor, his guns gleaming faintly, stood a huge man. “Have you come to apply for the position, sir?”

“Yeah.”

She stepped aside so he could enter. As soon as he did, she drew away from him and struggled with disgust. The man’s teeth had rotted nearly into his tobacco-stained gums, grime filled the pockmarks on his cheeks, and his hair was so greasy, it looked as though he’d combed it with a block of butter.

But she did not need her bodyguard to be attractive or clean, she reminded herself. She only needed a big, well-armed man to protect her, and this man was both.

He grinned at her. “I’m yer man, lady.”

She closed the door. “I shall be the judge of that, sir. Tell me, what experience have you had?”

His black eyes glittered as he stared at her bosom. “Experience? Well, I bedded my first wench when I was fourteen and ain’t let up since. Hear tell I’ve got some sixteen kids spread all over Texas and Mexico, so ya can be sure and certain that I’ll git yer belly blowed up real fast.”

“What?” Theodosia belatedly realized that this man had come in answer to her first circular, not the second. “Sir, you do not possess the intellectual characteristics I specified. What’s more, you do not have blue eyes. Please leave.”

Still grinning, he headed for the bed and lowered himself onto it. It groaned beneath his massive weight. “Pretend they’re blue.”

“I will do no such thing. You are not qualified.”

“Come here, little beauty, and I’ll show ya how qualified I am.” He stood and fumbled with the fastening at the top of his breeches. “Some girls I know call this my blue steel throbber, but there ain’t been no girl willin’ to pay a hunnerd dollars in gold to get her some of it.”

Keeping her gaze centered on his face, Theodosia swallowed to control her rising apprehension. “Sir, if you do not leave immediately, I shall be forced to summon the authorities and have you incarcerated. Debauched men such as yourself belong behind bars, where they can do no further harm to society.”

He laughed. “Only lawman we got is Deputy Pitts, and by noon he’s plumb snockered. By this time o’ the evenin’, he’s passed out on the floor o’ the jailhouse. Now, s’posin’ ya take off that dress? Or maybe ya need a little hep?” He lumbered toward her.

She grabbed her gold-filled velvet bag from the top of the dresser and swung hard, hitting him on the side of his face.

She might as well have hit him with a sack of whispers. Chuckling, he heaved her over his shoulder, carried her to the bed, and laid her down.

His beefy hands snatched at her skirts. She tried to kick him; he pinned her legs down with his own, grabbed at her breasts, and wet her neck with great sucking kisses.

Her all-consuming terror tore a long and desperate scream from her throat. It exploded into her ears and shot through her body, silenced only by the deafening crash of the door as it splintered from its hinges.

Roman burst inside.

Theodosia only had time to see the cold fury in his ice-blue eyes before he ripped her assailant off the bed. Mute with surprise and horror, she watched the man spin and slam his fist into Roman’s jaw.

Instantly, Roman sent him to the floor with a powerful kick beneath the man’s chin. He allowed the man to stagger to his feet, then grabbed his arm and twisted it until a sickening pop assured him he’d broken it.

The man shrieked with pain as Roman dragged him to the window and promptly pitched him through the glass. He hit the ground below with a dull thud.

Roman turned from the window, and with his lower sleeve, he wiped blood off the corner of his mouth. His shoulders heaving with exertion, he withdrew a flier from inside his shirt and held it out for Theodosia to see. “I believe you’re looking for a bodyguard, Miss Worth?”

Chapter Six

I
t was all Theodosia could do
not to throw herself into Roman’s arms. Never had she been so glad to see anyone, and she was honest enough with herself to admit that his rescue was only a part of her gladness.