The Sheriff (Historical Romance) (13 page)

O
nce both were satiated, Winn immediately set his gasping lover back on her feet, and began hurriedly adjusting his clothing.

Already he was sorry he had taken such a foolish chance. Anxious to return to the dance before Kate had time to miss him, he felt his anger flare when Melisande deviled him by saying she would walk with him.

Winn grabbed her by the hair, forced her head back and said through clenched teeth, “Damn you, woman, you’ll do no such thing! And you’ll wait at least a half hour to return to the dance. Alone. Once you’re there, you’re to stay away from me. Don’t try to dance with me, don’t even look at me.” He gave her hair a hard yank. “You hear me?”

“I hear you!” Her eyes flashing, breasts heaving, she snarled, “But don’t expect me to stay in this
primitive gold camp forever while you dilly-dally with that uppity little Boston blonde.”

“You’ll have to be patient for a while. The girl’s not the easy mark I had hoped. Often as not, she turns down my invitations.”

“Surely you can charm—”

Interrupting, he said, “Even when she does agree to go out to dinner or the opera house, I feel like there are several pairs of eyes on us, watching my every move.”

“You’re imagining things, Winn.”

“No, no I’m not. There’s the protective little Chinaman that works with her. And the nosey Dr. Ledet. And especially the town sheriff. Marshal McCloud has the annoying habit of turning up everywhere we go. I strongly suspect his interest in Kate is more than a simple concern for her safety.”

“You think the sheriff wants her for himself?”

“I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.”

Melisande worriedly shook her head. “You can’t let that happen. If McCloud gets his hands on her, we’re sunk.”

“So you’re saying that big, sullen lawman could sweep her off her feet and I can’t?”

“If you can, do it,” she said. “Stop wasting time. Charm her, seduce her, make her marry you. And the sooner the better.”

“I’ll do what I can,” Winn said, and kissed her.

Kate had been anxiously looking for him all evening.

She had not seen him.

He was not here and the dance had been under way for more than an hour. Kate felt a great sense of relief. Obviously the sheriff was not planning to attend the street dance. Now she could relax and enjoy herself.

“No, please, I really must catch my breath,” she begged as a grinning, gap-toothed miner stepped up to claim the next dance.

“You’re not next, I am,” said a big man with curly salt-and-pepper hair, taking her arm.

“The devil you are,” said the gap-toothed fellow as he attempted to pull the struggling Kate into his arms.

An argument ensued.

Kate backed away as Deputy Jiggs Gillespie—on the floor dancing with Alice Hester—moved in quickly to settle the dispute.

“The young lady is dancing with neither of you.” The deputy fearlessly stepped between the two big men. “And you’ll both spend the night in jail if you cause me any trouble.”

Dancers stopped and stared.

Alice Hester beamed with pride.

Kate seized the opportunity to exit the dance floor. She hurried off the platform and left. Feeling warm, and tired from spinning dizzily about and having her
toes stepped on, she fanned herself as she walked away from the crowd, heading for the refreshment table that had been set up on the sidewalk in front of the Eldorado Hotel. There she eagerly accepted a cup of fruit punch from a painted, smiling woman behind the table. Then she turned and wandered on down the deserted sidewalk.

She stopped to drink her punch, not noticing that she was just outside the Golden Nugget saloon. With her back to the saloon’s slatted bat-wing doors, she stood and watched the crowd, searching for the one man she hoped she wouldn’t see.

She didn’t.

But when a chill suddenly skipped up her spine despite the warmth of the August night, Kate sensed the cause. She could feel his presence, and she knew without a doubt that he was close to her. Very close.

She tensed, waiting.

Travis had been standing at the bar when he’d looked out and seen her. He had tossed down his whiskey and walked out of the empty saloon.

Now he was directly behind her. He didn’t speak. Didn’t say a word. Just stood there waiting for her to turn and see him.

“I know you’re there,” she finally said.

“I know you know,” he replied in his low, rich baritone.

Kate squared her slender shoulders. She would not
be intimidated by Sheriff McCloud, and whirled about to face him. She felt her heart stop beating, then race madly.

He was strikingly handsome and awesomely male. He wore a well-cut frock coat as black as his neatly brushed hair, and a shirt as white as freshly fallen snow. His dark eyes and white teeth flashed in his smooth tanned face. Everything about him spelled excitement and danger. Kate felt herself swaying toward him and quickly caught herself.

Travis grinned cynically, and in his eyes was an impertinent gleam that shrewdly masked the fact that she absolutely took his breath away. She was unbelievably beautiful and fabulously female. Her golden hair framed her lovely face and fell in soft waves atop her bare shoulders. She wore a gown of pale blue with wisps of lace lining the low-cut bodice. Beneath that lace the tempting swell of her breasts rose and fell with her breaths, making him long to lean down and press heated kisses to the soft pale flesh until he felt her heart beating rapidly beneath his lips.

Kate finally broke the strained silence. “If you’ll excuse me, I’d better get back to the dance.”

“What’s your hurry?”

“My escort will miss me and be worried.”

“Oh? Where is your gallant protector?”

“At the dance, of course.” She was instantly defensive.

Travis looked over her head and squinted toward the crowded dance floor. “I don’t see him.” He lowered his gaze to meet hers. “You sure about that?

“I’m not a prisoner to be questioned by you, Marshal,” she told him haughtily. She shoved her empty punch glass at him. “Good evening to you, McCloud.”

“I’ll walk you back to the dance,” he said, slipping the handle of the cup around his little finger.

“Not necessary, Sheriff.”

He took her arm and told her, “You know, it might be wise to make your beau a little jealous.”

“Winn DeLaney jealous of you?” she said with a derisive smile. “That’s comical, Marshal.”

“You’re not laughing, Miss VanNam.”

Kate’s temper flared. She pulled her arm free and warned, “Leave me alone, McCloud. And I mean it!” She lifted her skirts and hurried away from him.

Tapping the cup against his trousered thigh, Travis stood and watched as she reached the crowd and began anxiously looking for her escort. With one shoulder resting against a porch pillar, Travis turned his head and saw Winn DeLaney emerge from an alley and hurry back to the dance.

“Kate,” Winn said, stepping up beside her, “there you are.”

“Yes, here I am, but where were you?”

“I’m sorry, my dear,” he exclaimed. “You were so busy dancing I didn’t think you’d miss me.”

“But where were you?”

Winn took her arm and ushered her onto the dance floor as the orchestra began a rousing rendition of “Oh, Susanna.”

“I was thirsty so I stepped across the street to have a quick beer,” he explained. “Say you forgive me.”

“I forgive you.”

“Thank you, Kate. Shall I get you a cup of punch? There’s a table set up—”

“I’m not thirsty.”

“No?” Winn flashed his most winning smile, leaned close and kissed the tip of Kate’s turned up nose. “Then dance with me,” he said, and took her in his arms.

They spun about the floor to the quick tempo of the tune, Kate having to hang on tightly, Winn keeping an arm wrapped securely around her waist. The floor was crowded with dancers.

Kate never noticed him.

But Winn did.

The town sheriff.

Standing just below the dance floor with his arms crossed, watching. Watching the dancers. Watching them. Watching Kate.

With his cheek pressed to Kate’s, Winn wondered if she was looking at McCloud over his shoulder. He sensed an attraction between McCloud and Kate, despite her open animosity toward the sheriff and Mc-Cloud’s seeming disinterest in her. On more than
one occasion he’d been aware that Kate and the sheriff were overly conscious of each other.

Laughing merrily now, Kate clung to Winn’s neck as he turned her rapidly about. Then she, too, caught sight of Travis McCloud. Her laughter stopped. She made a misstep.

“What is it?” Winn said against her ear.

“Nothing.” Kate tried to sound casual. “Just clumsy. Don’t let me fall.”

“No need to worry, I’ve got you,” he said. “I won’t let you go.”

The song ended.

Everyone applauded and called for more.

The fiddler in the five-piece orchestra began to play the first stirring strains of the hauntingly sweet ballad “Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms.”

“That’s more like it,” Winn said, and reached out to draw Kate back into his arms.

Before he could manage, a laughing, rotund woman who was more than a little tipsy grabbed his arm and insisted he dance with her. Winn gave Kate a helpless look. She smiled and turned to leave the floor, but bumped squarely into Sheriff McCloud. Travis didn’t ask permission. He took her in his arms before she could object. Kate struggled only briefly, then acquiesced so he wouldn’t cause a scene. She would, she decided, keep a stiff upper lip and endure.

That was her intent. Once she was in Travis’s
arms, however, that plan quickly changed. He was an incredibly graceful dancer and so easy to follow that she could sense his movements before they were made. He respectfully held her at arm’s length, yet she could feel the incredible heat and muscled power of his tall, lean body as if she were pressed flush against him.

He looked directly into her eyes as they swayed together to the beautiful love song. Much as she wanted this dance to be an unpleasant experience, it was not. Although she disliked him, she found it undeniably thrilling to be in his arms.

She was fascinated with Travis McCloud. Afraid of him, yet drawn to him. As they turned and sensuously glided across the floor, the crowd miraculously disappeared. There was only the two of them, dancing, moving together as one lithe body. They gazed into each other’s eyes, wordlessly communicating a message as old as time itself.

With her hand lightly clasped in Travis’s and folded against his chest, Kate looked into his dark eyes and felt them burning right through her clothes. Clothes that had suddenly become uncomfortably tight.

Kate was confused.

She was intensely uneasy, yet she was totally relaxed. She desperately wanted Travis to release her, yet at the same time she wanted him to hold her closer. So close she could feel his hard, ungiving
body pressed against hers. She was sure he felt the same even if he would never have admitted it.

Kate could tell he wanted to kiss her the way he had that night at the mansion. She also knew that Travis wished he didn’t want to kiss her. There was a mixture of physical yearning and puzzling melancholy in his beautiful eyes.

Instantly it was gone, replaced by the cool, cynical gleam she’d come to expect.

Travis grinned devilishly and said right out loud, “Taken any naked moonlight swims lately, Miss VanNam?”

“S
hh!” Kate scolded, and anxiously looked around to see if anyone had heard. She struggled vainly to free herself from Travis’s encircling arm, and muttered under her breath, “You are despicable and I will not spend one more minute dancing with you. Let go of me you…you…”

“Bastard? That the word you’re searching for?”

“Yes! That’s exactly what you are and I refuse to—”

“Better be careful, Kate. Your knight in shining armor is looking this way.”

Kate glanced at Winn. He appeared concerned. She waved a hand as if to say nothing was wrong. And forcing a smile, she said to Travis, “Why do you insist on harassing me, Sheriff? What have I ever done to you?”

“It’s not what you’ve done, it’s what you could
do,” Travis said, his grin slipping slightly, “if I let you.” That enigmatic look was in his eyes again.

Sensing she momentarily had the upper hand, Kate wasted no time pressing her advantage. Rising up onto tiptoe, she suggestively whispered in his ear, “Know what I think, Marshal? I think you’d like to take a naked moonlight swim with me.” She pulled back to judge his response.

But Travis was grinning impishly once more. “Only if you twist my arm.”

“And you’re afraid,” she added, taunting him, “that I might be taking those moonlight swims with Winn DeLaney.” Travis made no reply. “Aren’t you, Sheriff?” she needled. “Think about it when you can’t sleep.”

“I sleep like a baby,” he assured her.

“You won’t tonight.” Again she rose up on tiptoe and whispered, “You’ll lie there in the heat, miserable and perspiring. And while you’re burning up, I’ll be slicing through the cool, clear waters of the lake. Gloriously naked. And you’ll wonder if I’m swimming alone or if…” She lowered her lashes and let her words trail away.

She could tell she’d gotten to him when he said, “Don’t be a fool, Miss VanNam. You know nothing about Winn DeLaney.”

“I know enough,” she replied with a meaningful smile, intent on leaving the wrong impression.

The music ended.

Kate slipped out of Travis’s arms. Winn stepped up beside her and possessively took her hand. He turned to Travis. “Am I not the luckiest man alive, Marshal?”

“So it would seem.”

It was late. The dance had lasted until well past one in the morning. Now it was after 2:00 a.m.

Kate and Winn stood on the front veranda of the mansion saying their good-nights.

“I really must go in now,” Kate said for the second time.

“No, wait. I’m curious, my dear. What were you and the sheriff talking about while you danced?”

“Oh, I don’t remember. Inconsequential things like the weather, the turnout for the dance. Nothing, really.”

“Nothing? You looked angry, Kate. Did McCloud say or do something that…”

“No. Certainly not,” Kate said.

“You’d tell me, wouldn’t you?” When she nodded, he continued, “I’m not sure McCloud is a man who can be trusted, Kate.”

“Whether he can or can’t is of no importance to me,” she declared.

“You sure about that?”

“What’s this all about, Winn?” Kate asked, her brow furrowed. “I danced with the town sheriff. So what? I danced with at least a dozen miners as well.”

Winn smiled. “So you did. Enough about Mc-Cloud. Let’s forget about him.”

“He’s forgotten,” said Kate, wishing it were true.

“Let me come inside,” Winn murmured persuasively.

“No, Winn. I’m very tired and it’s late.”

“Just for a few minutes,” he coaxed. “You know I won’t take advantage of you. Don’t you trust me, Kate?” He clasped her waist lightly in his hands.

“Yes, I do,” she said, her own hands resting on his chest. “But I’m so sleepy I can barely hold my eyes open.”

Winn smiled, brushed a kiss to her lips and said, “I’d love to hold you while you sleep.”

Kate laughed it off. “Good night, Winn.”

She turned, went inside and closed the door behind her. Cal roused from a nap when she walked into the darkened drawing room. He followed Kate to the front window. She peeked out, saw Winn exiting the front yard, and sighed with relief.

She looked down at Cal, smiled and said, “You may stop that infernal rumbling, he’s gone.”

As if he understood, the cat rubbed against her skirts, meowed contentedly, then stretched out beneath the window to go back to sleep. Yawning, Kate didn’t bother lighting the lamp. She undressed in the darkness, drew on her nightgown and got into bed.

She turned onto her side, folded an arm beneath her cheek and thought about Sheriff McCloud. Her
eyelids closing, Kate smiled foolishly, sighed deeply and drifted toward slumber, recalling how handsome Travis had looked when she’d turned to face him on the sidewalk in front of the Golden Nugget. And how it had felt to be in his arms when they’d danced.

Her last waking thought was to wonder if he was now sound asleep, or if he was as wide awake and miserable as she had predicted.

It was hot—miserably hot—and there wasn’t a hint of a breeze to stir the warm air in his Spartan quarters behind the city jail.

Travis tossed restlessly in his bed, unable to fall asleep despite the lateness of the hour. The damnable heat was making it too hot to sleep. His restlessness had nothing to do with the fact that every time he closed his eyes he saw Kate VanNam as she’d looked when she had turned to face him on the sidewalk outside the Golden Nugget.

No, his sleeplessness had nothing to do with her.

“You won’t be able to sleep tonight,” she had taunted. “You’ll lie there in the heat, perspiring and miserable. And while you’re burning up, I’ll be slicing through the cool waters of the lake naked.”

“Damn you, lady!” Travis muttered aloud. “Think you can devil me? Lots of good old-fashioned luck to you!”

He convinced himself, as he lay there in the darkness, that the only reason he paid Miss Kate VanNam
any attention was to try and keep her off balance so that she wouldn’t fall under Winn DeLaney’s spell.

Travis considered himself a good judge of character, and he found DeLaney suspect. Something was not right. Why was DeLaney in Fortune? What was the man up to?

Travis mused on it, and not for the first time. He’d done his homework. Correspondence with San Francisco authorities verified what he strongly suspected. There was indeed a connection between the Cavalry Blue Mine Kate had inherited and Winn DeLaney’s arrival in Fortune.

Kate’s late aunt Arielle had accompanied her husband, Benjamin Colfax, a noted geologist, out here on Freemont’s earlier explorations. And the widowed Arielle Colfax had been living in San Francisco at the time of her death. From his own crime ledger, Travis had learned that around that same time, the assayist George McLoughlin had been murdered in San Francisco and his records stolen.

Winn DeLaney was from San Francisco. And DeLaney had shown up in Fortune less than six months after Arielle Colfax’s death, seemingly coincidental with Kate’s arrival. He’d immediately begun courting her.

Travis frowned. Pieces of the puzzle were missing. He’d have to investigate further. He couldn’t help worrying about Kate, even though she annoyed the hell out of him. She was so stubborn and combative
he couldn’t just come right out and warn her about her choice of companions. She would think he was jealous.

And maybe he was. No getting around it, he felt the blood zing through his veins anytime he caught sight of her gleaming golden hair. The sound of her soft, cultured voice never failed to warm the heart he had sworn would remain forever cold.

Travis felt his bare chest tighten. Holding her in his arms at tonight’s dance had been sweet agony. He had wanted her, desired her, yearned to make love to her. And she had tormented him, hinting that she allowed DeLaney to swim naked with her in the lake.

Travis cursed them both.

He sat up and swung his legs to the floor. He lit a cigar and drew the smoke down into his lungs. He rose, pulled on his discarded white underwear and stepped outside, hoping to catch a breeze.

There was none.

It was just as hot outside as it was in. Travis exhaled with irritation and sank down onto the stoop, his cigar clamped firmly between his teeth, his forearms resting on his raised knees. He sat there in the late night silence and vowed he would try to save Kate VanNam from herself where DeLaney was concerned.

But he’d be damned if he would allow the willful young beauty to get her soft hands on his heart.