The Sheriff (Historical Romance) (11 page)

W
inn DeLaney whistled as he hurried back to town.

But as soon as he reached the Bonanza Hotel, he yawned sleepily and entered the lobby. Dwayne, the clerk on duty, looked up, saw Winn and reached for his room key.

Handing it across the counter, Dwayne commented, with a sly grin, “All tuckered out after another evening with that pretty Kate VanNam, Mr. DeLaney?”

Winn said nothing, just smiled, turned and climbed the stairs. He paused outside the door of his suite. He took a deep breath. He cautiously looked around and, seeing no one in the corridor, reached out and opened the door. A door that he had purposely left unlocked. He quickly stepped inside.

He immediately smiled with pleasure.
Winn DeLaney closed the door and leaned back against it, pleased with what he saw.

A straight-backed chair that had been turned around to face away from the door was six feet away. And there in the shadowy, lamplit room, a woman sat straddling it. She was smiling at him. She had clear olive skin, ruby-red lips, emerald-green eyes and dark, dark hair that was held off her face with a flashing golden dagger.

The dagger was her only adornment.

The woman was naked as she sat astride the chair, her strong thighs widely parted, her heavy breasts looking like succulent melons. She was a sight to arouse any man’s passions. The habitually cool, calculating Winn DeLaney took one look at her and was instantly excited.

He anxiously came to her, thrust his hands into her lustrous dark hair, yanked her head back, bent and aggressively kissed her. His tongue searched and found fervent answer, a seeking, sucking response that quickly set his heart to hammering. Her lips beneath his were blazing hot, and all logical thought quickly burned away in the sexual heat.

While her generous mouth devoured his in a kiss he felt down to his toes, the woman’s nimble fingers found the buttons of his shirt and swept it apart. When finally she ended the prolonged kiss, a totally conquered Winn DeLaney sank weakly to his knees before her as if to worship her.

The woman laughed throatily and sat up straighter
so that her naked breasts rested on the chair’s top edge and were fully accessible to him. She arched her back and boldly invited, “See anything you’d like to taste, Mr. DeLaney?”

“Oh, Melly,” he managed to gasp.

Again she laughed as she placed a hand in his golden hair and guided his face to a waiting nipple. Anxiously, he opened his mouth and began to suck greedily, noisily.

“I start to work at the Whiskey Hill Saloon tomorrow night,” she casually told him, her red-nailed fingers toying with a lock of his gleaming hair while he suckled her. “I suppose I’ll be expected to laugh and flirt with the miners I serve drinks to.” She purposely needled him by adding, “You won’t be jealous if I’m required to do more than flirt, will you, Winn?”

Winn’s lips released the wet nipple and he abruptly raised his head. “Don’t torture me like that, Melly. Promise me all you’ll do is serve drinks, nothing more. Swear it. Tell me you’ll behave. You know how jealous I am.”

“What about your behavior? What have you been doing with that little Boston blonde before I got here?”

“Nothing. Not a thing.” He cupped her face in his hands. “You’re the only woman for me, you know that. I’m crazy about you, Melly.”

“That may be, but I don’t like the idea of you being with her, and I don’t like the idea of having to
serve drinks to a bunch of dirty miners in a smoky saloon.”

“It’ll only be for short while, my love.”

“It had better be,” she warned, and, moving his hands from her face, urged him back to his feet. “Stand up, Winn. Let’s get you undressed.”

He rose, and while he shrugged out of his jacket and shirt, she unbuttoned his trousers. In seconds his clothes lay on the floor and he was as naked as she. He stood before her and shuddered when she looped her arms around him and pressed kisses to his bare abdomen.

Knowing her well enough to realize that she was not yet ready to get into bed, that she preferred making love the first time somewhere else, Winn took her arms from him, stepped around and sank down onto the chair behind her.

She sighed and squirmed and clung to the twin newels of the chair as his hard, heated flesh surged against her naked buttocks and he crushed her up against the chair’s back. Sliding his lips up and down the side of her throat, he slipped his hands under her heavy breasts and plucked at the peaking nipples with his fingertips. Winn listened and murmured in agreement as she told him exactly how she wanted him to make love to her.

“I want it right here in this chair, Winn DeLaney,” she commanded. “I want to climax in this chair. It’s up to you to figure out just how to go about it.”

“That should pose no problem, my love,” he said, brushing kisses across her bare shoulder.

He raised his head, straightened, reached up and plucked the decorative golden dagger from her dark hair. Melisande waited, tensed. She trembled when his hand, clutching the dagger, came up in front of her.

“Lick it,” he said.

“Now, Winn,” she half protested, but was eager to do anything he might suggest.

“You heard me, Melly,” he said, knowing she would do as ordered. That’s what he liked best about Melly. Nothing shocked her, nothing repelled her. In the realm of sex, she was willing to do anything he wished. “You know the dagger’s not sharp,” he said. “You won’t get cut. I’d never hurt you. Now, lick the blade.”

Melisande put out her tongue and licked the tip of the dagger.

From just above her ear, he said, “Put it in your mouth. Suck on it. Pretend it’s me.”

Her heart racing, her face flushed, Melisande lifted a hand, placed it over his and carefully guided the dagger’s dull tip into her mouth. As she did so he whispered, “Ah, yes, gold, precious gold. Soon, darling, we’ll have the gold.” He carefully took the dagger out of her mouth. He murmured, “Isn’t the thought of all that gold enough to bring you immediate sexual fulfillment?”

“You really believe we’ll get the gold?” she asked, panting now.

“I know we will,” he said, and very carefully drew the tip of the dagger around each of her diamond-hard nipples before lowering it and placing its flat edge between her parted thighs. While he cautiously pressed the gleaming blade against her wet, throbbing flesh, he spoke of all the lovely nights to come when they would be so rich they would make love in a bed fashioned from gold.

Melisande climaxed as Winn regaled her with tales of the wealth that would soon be theirs. When she collapsed back against him, Winn dropped the golden dagger to the floor, lifted Melisande up, bent her forward over the chair and entered her from behind. Once he was inside her, he brought her back down onto his thighs.

And he made urgent love to her.

Melisande’s bare bottom slapped up and down atop his thighs while the chair banged up and down against the floor.

“Gold,” she murmured as he thrust deeply into her. “Bright, shiny gold.”

“Gold,” he groaned. “Valuable, spendable gold.”

“Our
gold,” she gasped, her second climax rapidly coming on. “More gold than we can spend in a lifetime.”

“And all of it ours. Just yours and mine,” he moaned, his own release starting.

“Gold!” they cried out together in orgasmic ecstasy, and when both collapsed forward against the
chair back, Winn swept Melly’s dark hair up and kissed the blue trinity tattoo on the side of her neck, which was glistening with sexual perspiration.

“L
ook, Trav, over across the street,” said Doc Ledet, gesturing out the front window as he walked into the jail. “There they are again. That sweet Kate VanNam and that well-heeled San Francisco fellow.” He smiled, admiring the pair. “They’re off to the Bird Cage to see that Shakespearian troupe perform this evening. Kate told me about it last week. My, my, aren’t they just the handsomest couple you’ve ever laid eyes on?”

Travis never turned his head, never glanced out. “Doc, I’m in a bit of hurry here,” he said, lifting his battered, bloody right hand.

“Oh, sorry, sorry,” murmured the white-haired physician, and set his black bag down atop Travis’s desk. “Have a seat and I’ll fix you up good as new.”

“Thanks.” Travis sat down, clasped his wrist and gently placed his throbbing right hand on the desk.

Opening his black bag, the doctor said, “It looks to me like Winn DeLaney is pretty well smitten with that little golden-haired girl.” He waited for Travis to comment. The sheriff said nothing. “Wouldn’t you say so, Trav?”

Travis rolled his eyes.

“Sheriff?”

“Beats me, Doc.”

“Well, it’s just my opinion, of course, but I really believe DeLaney is more than a little sweet on Kate. No sir, it wouldn’t surprise me if he soon proposed marriage. And she could do a whole lot worse, if you ask me, so if they—”

“Doc, I hate to interrupt these newsy bulletins, but I haven’t had any supper and it’s coming up on eight o’clock.”

The doctor nodded. Then, squinting, he leaned close, studied Travis’s injured hand, shook his white head and reached into his bag for a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a roll of bandages.

“The hand is already badly swollen,” the doctor said, as he cleaned Travis’s bruised, bloody knuckles with the alcohol. His white eyebrows rising, he asked, “Is it throbbing yet, son?”

“A little,” Travis replied, and shrugged his wide shoulders.

The physician released a long sigh. “You know, Trav, you ought to try and avoid getting into so danged many fistfights. You’re not a kid anymore. Besides,
you can’t expect to lick the whole town and if you—”

Again interrupting the talkative physician, Travis said, “Doc, what do you suppose a man like DeLaney is doing in Fortune?”

“What do you mean?” The doctor was puzzled by such a foolish question. “I understand Mr. DeLaney is a very successful entrepreneur. I would imagine he travels extensively.”

“Exactly. What’s a ‘successful entrepreneur’ like DeLaney doing in a little mountain mining town?”

“Winn DeLaney says he buys and sells gold mine claims,” said the doctor with great authority. “Purchases and sells claims all the way up and down the western side of the Sierra Nevada foothills. From the far southern fields on up here through the northern diggings. There,” he said, “that should do it.” He tossed the soiled gauze away and began wrapping a clean white bandage around Travis’s hand.

“Has he bought any claims since he got here?” Travis asked.

“Well, I’m not sure. He might have and—”

“Doc, you pride yourself on knowing everything that goes on in this town. If he had bought or sold any claims in or around Fortune, you’d have heard about it.”

The doctor stopped wrapping Travis’s hand. He screwed up his face in thought. “You know, you’re right. DeLaney hasn’t really bought or sold much of anything. What the devil
is
he doing here?”

With his good hand, Travis opened the bound leather crime ledger resting on his desk. He said, “Doc, in this ledger is the record of an assayist’s murder that took place in San Francisco several years ago.”

“What’s this got to do with DeLaney?”

Travis shrugged. “Nothing. But DeLaney was in San Francisco at the time of the murder.”

The two discussed Winn DeLaney, Kate VanNam and Kate’s great-aunt Arielle Colfax. They talked about the fact that Arielle’s husband, Benjamin Colfax, had been with John C. Freemont when he’d mapped out the area in 1844.

“You think DeLaney believes there’s gold in the Cavalry Blue, Travis?” Doc Ledet asked. “You figure that’s what he’s after?”

“Don’t know,” said Travis, his eyes narrowing. “I do know that since he’s been in Fortune, DeLaney’s done nothing other than diligently court Kate VanNam.”

“That’s true. But he couldn’t have come here just to court Kate. After all, what were the chances of him finding a pretty young lady like her in a rough mining town like Fortune?”

“My point exactly.”

“You think Delaney somehow knew that Kate was…”

“Finish up, will you, Doc?” Travis prodded. “I may need this fighting hand again before the night is over.”

“Yoo-hoo! Miss VanNam, you in there? Is anybody home?”

Kate was in the back of the house on a late Sunday afternoon when she heard someone calling her name. It was clearly a woman’s voice, so Kate dropped what she was doing and hurried toward the front door. Cal, the cat, beat her there.

Kate paused before the closed door, smoothed her uncombed hair back off her face, looked down and frowned at her bare feet. She was afraid that if she took the time to put on shoes and stockings, her unexpected visitor would leave, so she yanked the door open.

A tall, slender woman with chestnut hair, green eyes and a friendly smile stood on the porch with a covered plate in her left hand.

The woman stuck out her right one and said, “Kate VanNam? I’m Alice. Alice Hester.”

“I’m so pleased to meet you, Alice,” Kate said, and warmly shook the offered hand.

“Hope I haven’t come at a bad time,” said the woman, her wide-set green eyes sparkling. “Doc Ledet said it would be okay if I visited you this afternoon.”

“Oh, Alice, yes, by all means, come in, come in,” Kate said, delighted. “You’re welcome here anytime.”

“Well, thank you.”

Staring at the young woman, whose face was too
thin, but whose flashing green eyes made her almost pretty, Kate told her, “You’re the very first woman I’ve met since arriving in Fortune.”

“I know, and I apologize for not coming up sooner,” Alice said, stepping into the corridor and handing the covered plate to Kate. “It’s a pie, Kate. An apple pie. I hope you like apple.”

“Apple is my all-time favorite, Alice. I can’t afford the pies at Hester’s Bakery so I…so…” It suddenly dawned on her who this was. “Hester! Alice Hester! You must be the Mrs. Hester of Hester’s Bakery!”

“That I am, Kate,” she said, her eyes twinkling. “The Mrs. Hester that charges a dollar-fifty for a pie. Still glad to meet me?”

“You know I am,” Kate assured her, directing her into the drawing room. “You must excuse the looks of the place. It needs a bit of fixing up. Well, more than a bit. But please, won’t you have a seat here on the sofa while I go cut us each a slice of the pie?”

“None for me,” said Alice, making a face. “You bake pies all day every day and you lose your taste for pastry of any kind.”

Kate smiled, nodded. “I’ll be right back. Do sit down.” She caught the curious Cal starting to leap up onto the sofa to more closely examine their guest. “No,” she warned, and snapped her fingers at the cat. He hissed, looked at her coldly, but turned and padded out of the room while both young women laughed.

Kate hurried out to the kitchen. When she returned, she apologized for the lack of furniture and for the ruined carpets.

“Why, this place is a palace,” Alice said. “Wait until you see where I live.”

“I fully intend to have the mansion restored once I can afford it,” Kate explained. “I know it will be very expensive, since I’ll have to hire craftsmen out of San Francisco.”

“Maybe not,” Alice offered thoughtfully. “There’s this skinny, toothless old sourdough in Fortune that is an amazing carpenter and talented jack-of-all-trades. Built all the shelves in my bakery. Nothing he can’t do in the way of building and remodeling.”

“Really? What’s his name?”

“Blankenship. H. Q. Blankenship.”

“The name’s familiar,” Kate said, trying to recall where she’d heard it. She snapped her fingers again. “I know! He helped me get Chang Li to the doctor’s office when Chang Li was badly beaten. He was the only man who offered.”

“That’s old H.Q.,” Alice declared.

“He’s a bit strange,” said Kate.

Alice chuckled. “A couple of years ago the state board of health tried to have H.Q. sent to the lunatic asylum down in Stockton. The asylum was founded to treat those driven mad by the goldfields. The board claimed H.Q.’s madness had to do with ‘his speculative and gambling spirit.’”

Kate was astonished. “That being the case, everyone in Fortune needs to be in the asylum. Including me!”

Both women laughed. When they quieted, Kate said, “They never really locked him up, did they?”

“No. Sheriff McCloud went before the board and vouched for H.Q. Told them the old sourdough was perfectly sane and a harm to no one. He said they could hold him responsible should H.Q. prove him wrong. H.Q. was so grateful, he’s been on his best behavior ever since. And, naturally, he thinks the sheriff hung the moon.”

“Naturally,” Kate said, adding, “I’ll definitely call on Mr. Blankenship when I start my restoration.”

She took a seat beside Alice. For a long moment the two young women simply stared at each other in wonder, each clearly starved for the companionship of another woman. Then, realizing they were gaping, they laughed, threw their arms around one another and embraced as of they had known each other for years.

In that instant they became friends.

Alice Hester stayed at the mansion until almost sunset, and Kate was glad she had turned down Winn’s invitation to go for an afternoon buggy ride. She hadn’t realized just how much she had missed having a female friend, especially someone as likable and as cheerful as Alice Hester, who, she soon learned, had plenty to complain about, but didn’t.

The two talked and talked, eagerly getting to know
each other. Kate told her new friend how she’d traveled all the way from Boston to claim the inheritance left her by her great-aunt Arielle Colfax.

Then, eager to know more about Alice, Kate prompted her to talk about herself. She learned that her new friend had been in Fortune for the past three and a half years. She had arrived from her Missouri home with her bridegroom, Elmer Hester. They’d been in Fortune for less than six months when Elmer was killed in a mining accident. Left alone with no money to get back home, she’d opened a bakery.

Alice laughed now when she said proudly, “I make more money than most of the miners!”

“Good for you!” Kate declared.

“And,” Alice confided, “I’ve a new fellow in my life. For the past six months he’s been my beau. He’s a good man. A little shy and quiet, but he treats me like a queen and I’m quite fond of him.”

“Why, that’s wonderful,” said Kate. “Is he a miner?”

Alice shook her head. “No. He’s a brave lawman.”

Kate felt her heart mysteriously squeeze in her chest. This lively, enterprising widow was Travis McCloud’s sweetheart? Kate swallowed hard and tried to sound casual when she said, “Oh? So your beau is the town sheriff?”

“Yes,” Alice said with a shy smile.

“Ah…that’s…nice,” Kate managed to reply.

“Well, deputy sheriff,” Alice corrected.

“Oh.” Kate felt relief flood her. “I thought you meant…”

“Travis? That big, handsome devil? Heavens, no. A man like Travis would never look twice at a woman like me. My beau is Jiggs Gillespie. You know him?”

“I’ve never actually met him, but when I came up-river on the steamer, Deputy Gillespie was on board escorting a prisoner to jail.”

“That’s my Jiggs,” Alice said proudly, then talked at length about the quiet good times the two of them had together.

When she concluded, Kate couldn’t keep from asking, “Is there a special woman in Sheriff Mc-Cloud’s life? Not that I care. I’m just curious.”

“I hear whispers that Valentina Knight, the Creole beauty who owns the Golden Nugget, frequently entertains the sheriff.” Alice raised her eyebrows and lowered her voice. “But you want to hear the most exciting gossip about Travis?”

“Yes.”

“When he was very young, he fought a duel over a woman. Killed a man for the love of a beautiful lady. Isn’t that the most romantic thing you’ve ever heard?”

“It is,” Kate murmured, dying to know more. Instantly she wondered who the woman was and what
happened to her. Why had there been a duel? But she kept her own counsel.

“…and hope you and your handsome beau will attend.”

“Sorry? What? What did you say?”

“I said, will you be coming to the street dance the first Saturday in August?”

“I wouldn’t miss it,” Kate replied. “Everybody will show up for the dance, won’t they?”

“You bet.” Alice laughed. “The miners are amazing. They dig all day and dance all night. So be prepared to dance with every male in Fortune.”