The Maverick's Bride (6 page)

Emma half listened to Cissy, whose conversation—as usual—focused on herself. Sounds in the hallway below were of greater interest at the moment. She wondered if Adam were now inside the house. What had he come for? What was his wife like?
Clarissa.
How long had they been married, and when would she arrive in the protectorate? Did they have children? He would wish to be near his children, she felt sure as she remembered the sight of him holding the small African boy he had rescued.

“I miss Dirk so much my insides ache with longing,” Cissy was saying. “Every waking moment I think about him, Emma. I mourn him. He’s probably at his post by now, standing guard against the enemy—us.”

Emma took Cissy’s delicate hand in hers. Of late, the German kaiser had been causing Queen Victoria no end of trouble. Safeguarding a claim to inland territory coveted by both the Germans and the British had led her father and his associates to build the railway. The ivory trade was essential to the realm.

“Oh, Emma,” Cissy cried, “do you hate the kaiser because he wants to stop the spread of the empire? I don’t! I can’t make myself care about him at all. Dirk is a German, he’s good and kind and he loves me.”

“I know, Cissy, but you must do your best not to think about him. You and Dirk enjoyed three happy weeks together. Now you have your whole life ahead.”

At a knock on the door, Emma took up her shawl and hurried across the room. In the hall, a servant held out a silver tray bearing a pen, an inkwell, and an envelope. She read the words written on it in a bold black hand:

Miss Emma Pickering

With a glance at Cissy, she took out the note and opened it.
Emma, please come down. I need to talk to you about the subject we discussed last night. Adam King

She let out a breath. Of course she could never agree to see the man again. To preserve a fragile peace, she must obey her father.

“What is it, Emma?” Cissy called. “Am I wanted?”

“It’s nothing,” Emma replied. “I’ll be with you in a moment.”

She must send her polite regrets at once. It was one thing to disobey her father by following God’s leading to become a nurse. It was quite another to pursue her own willful yearnings into the arms of a married man.

Picking up the pen, she dipped it into the inkwell on the silver tray and wrote on a clean sheet of paper.

Dear Mr. King,

I cannot speak with you again. Please forgive me.

Emmaline Pickering

She blew on the ink to dry it, then she slipped the letter into the envelope and thanked the servant. The man nodded and set off down the hall toward the stairs.

“Was it from him?” Cissy rose from her chair. “Did Mr. King send up his calling card?”

“He asked to speak with me. I wrote that I couldn’t go down.”

Emma moved to the washstand and surveyed her reflection. Her cheek bore a pink bruise and her lips were still swollen. She poured cool water into the basin and splashed it on her face.

Why must she honor her father by complying with his wishes? Look what he had done to her. His mistreatment was insufferable. Yet suffer she would. The opportunity to ask Adam about a mission hospital had been lost. She would have to pry the information from Mr. Bond, even though he probably knew little beyond railroads and waltzing.

Praying for peace, Emma stepped to her trunk and took out a beige traveling skirt and a white blouse. Cissy helped Emma into her corset and began to lace it up the back.

“You ought to go down to him. Father has no right to tell us what we may and may not do.”

“He is our father, Cissy.”

“Yes, but we’re grown women now. We must be allowed to make up our own minds.”

Cissy tightened the laces, then Emma slipped on her chemise and pulled her tangled waves of hair through it. She fastened her petticoat and skirt at her waist, while Cissy began to dress. Emma was buttoning her blouse when a sharp ping sounded at the window.

“Whatever can that be? A monkey?” Cissy stepped to the window and gasped. “Upon my word, Emma! It’s your cowboy. He’s…he’s…”

Emma hurried to her sister’s side. As they crowded onto the balcony, they saw Adam on the grass below, spinning a looped rope over his head. His face was lit with the golden light of early morning, and Emma caught her breath at the glow in his blue eyes. Suddenly he released the rope, and both girls drew back as it sailed through the air, landed on the tin roof and slipped around a projecting drainpipe.

“Emma—oh, dear—he’s climbing up here!” Cissy squealed, clutching her sister’s arm.

Watching the rope pull taut against Adam’s weight, Emma
gripped the curtain as if the thin lace might somehow hide her. She could not let him see what her father had done.

“Cissy, what can we do?” she cried. “If Father sees Adam climbing up to our balcony, he’ll have the poor man tossed in jail.”

“I can’t bear it. I’m going into the sitting room!”

“Wait, Cissy. Stay with me!” But it was too late. Her sister fled and Adam was halfway up the wall.

Adam hoisted himself onto the balcony, swinging one leg at a time over the rail. Not an easy task for a man with spurs on his boots and a six-shooter at his side. One thing he knew for sure—he hadn’t been spotted by a compound guard.

The sight of Emma Pickering peering out from behind the curtain confirmed his decision to see her again. Her green eyes shone with a mixture of apprehension and joy. Her thick wavy hair gleamed like a field of wheat rippling in the wind. He had done the right thing.

“Good morning, Miss Pickering.” He took off his hat and leaned against the white window frame.

“Mr. King, did you not receive my message?” She was almost breathless. “I cannot speak with you.”

“I got your note, but I need to talk. Mind if I come inside?”

“Indeed, sir, you may not take another step!”

“Can we just talk for a minute or two?” he asked.

“Mr. King, I have already told you I’m unavailable. Now please let yourself down by that…that rope thing, and—”

“My lasso?” He began coiling his lariat.

“Sir, this is unseemly.”

Adam studied the intriguing eyes peering at him around the curtain. Emma was edgy this morning. Almost frightened. Different from the bold young woman he had met yesterday.

He couldn’t let that concern him, he decided as he tucked away the end of the rope. Last night after he left the consulate, he had made up his mind to keep things strictly business with Emma Pickering.

“I’ll leave after I’ve had my say,” he told her. “This is important.”

“Speak quickly, sir. My father must not find you here.”

“With all due respect, Emma, do you think I’m concerned about what your father thinks?”

“You may not care, but I do. What do you want from me?”

“I need a nurse.”

Her face suffused with surprise. “A nurse? Are you ill?”

“Not for me. I have a friend—at my ranch.”

“Your wife is surely tending to this friend in your absence.” She paused a moment. “You are married, are you not?”

“Not the last time I looked.”

“Really? Well, then…” Her eyes deepened in concern as she let the curtain drop a little. “What sort of illness does your friend have? Can you describe it?”

Adam looked away, his attention skirting across the tops of the palm trees. How could he explain the situation without scaring her off?

“It’s not an illness. It’s more like…” Searching for the right words, he turned back to Emma. But at the first full sight of her face, he reached through the open window and pulled the curtain out of her hands.

“Emma, what happened to you?” He caught her arm and drew her toward him. “Who did this?”

She raised her hand in a vain effort to cover her cheek and eye. “It’s nothing,” she protested, trying to back away. “Please, Mr. King, you must not…not…”

Even as she tried to speak, he stepped through the balcony
door and gathered her into his arms. Brushing back the hair from her cheek, he noted the swelling and the darkening stain around it.

“Emma,” he growled. “Who did this to you?”

She fell motionless, silent in his embrace as he stroked her tender skin with his fingertips. No wonder she had shied like a scared colt. She hadn’t wanted him to know. The sight of a drop of dried blood on her lip stopped him cold.

“Bond,” he snarled, his voice hardening in anger. “He did this to you, didn’t he? I swear, if I see that lousy—”

“No!” Emma’s eyes flew open as she backed out of his embrace. “No, it wasn’t Mr. Bond. He never touched me. Please…please, Adam, just go away now.”

“Emma, you have to tell me…” Realization flooded through him. The pompous, nattily dressed English railroad tycoon had struck his own daughter.

Without stopping to weigh consequences, Adam drew his six-shooter from the holster and pressed it into her hands.

“Take this, Emma,” he told her. He squeezed her hands around the pistol. “This country is wild. It’s filled with animals and people who prey on others.”

“No.” Emma held the gun awkwardly, as if it were a dead thing. “Take this weapon and leave me, I beg you. Our train leaves at eight, and you have no place here.” She set the weapon on a table. “Please, sir. You must go.”

“I want you to come with me,” he told her. “I need your help. Emma, I’ll take care of you.”

“I don’t need anyone to take care of me,” she shot back. “I have my own plans, and God is watching over me.”

“Emma!” Both turned toward the open door where Emma’s sister stood, eyes wide.

“What is it, Cissy?”

“Emma, go with him!” Cissy crossed the room toward them. “Run away with him, Emma. It’s your chance to escape—to become a nurse, as you’ve always wanted. You’ll be safe at last and you can have your dream.”

Cissy stopped halfway across the floor, her arms held wide in a pleading gesture. Emma turned back to Adam.

“Come on,” he urged her. “Let’s get moving.”

“Do it, Emma!” Cissy insisted. “I shan’t tell Father where you’ve gone. I’ll say I woke to find you missing.”

A loud banging rattled the door. Adam reached for his gun and found it missing.

“Emmaline!”

Cissy gasped. “It’s Father! Emma, you must leave at once. Go with Mr. King.”

Emma glanced at him and shook her head. “No. I can’t go with you, Adam.”

“Emmaline, Priscilla—open this door at once.”

“Adam, get out of here!” Emma flew at him, pushing toward the window. “Don’t you see? I must stay with Cissy—and it will only be worse for us if he finds you here.”

Adam hesitated for an instant, an attempt to decipher the expression on Emma’s face. Her green eyes were filled with fear, but he saw determination there as well. He had to leave her alone to face her tormenter. Before he could change his mind, Adam stepped out onto the balcony and swung over the side.

“Emmaline?” Godfrey Pickering strode into the suite, barking an order to the man behind him. “Wait in the hall, Bond. I may need your assistance.”

As the door swung shut, Emma spotted the younger man brandishing a revolver. She faced her father as he advanced.

“Where is he?” Godfrey demanded, his voice hard. “Where’s King?”

“Adam King?” Emma struggled to feign surprise. She stepped back toward the curtains and her fingertips grazed the gun on the table behind her. “Whatever would make you think we know where Mr. King is?”

“Honestly, Father.” Cissy put on her best pout. “We’ve just been eating our breakfast and dressing for the train.”

“Priscilla, do not lie to me.” Pickering strode across the room and flung open the wardrobe doors. “Adam King was here—at the consulate. We know that.”

“He did send a note,” Cissy ran on. “He wanted to speak with Emma, but she refused him.”

Pickering glowered at Emma. She brushed a hand over her swollen cheek. “Cissy is telling the truth, Father.”

“Emmaline, if I learn you have lied to me, you will never know the end of my anger.” Her father pulled a derringer from his coat pocket before calling out again. “If you’re in here, King, I shall see you dead before I rest.”

As their father stormed out of the room, both girls turned to the window. The gravel road was empty, only a faint cloud of dust in a thin trail above it.

“You should have gone with him, Emma.” Cissy’s arm stole around her sister’s shoulder. “He swore to protect you and he has an ill friend in great need of your help.”

Remembering the letter she had read the day before, Emma wondered who this
friend
could be. A woman? A mistress? Surely not. Or could that be the sort of evil Nicholas Bond had been referring to?

Adam had told her he was not married. But Nicholas had branded him a liar. Which man had spoken the truth?

Emma closed her eyes and breathed out a sigh. As she inhaled, she drank in the morning—the fresh air and the lingering scent of leather.