Rachel sat back, her face hot. She should have known better. “This time you will do as I say, Jessica.”
Jessie grinned, unconcerned. “Will I?”
“Yes, you will, if you want to keep on running this ranch.”
“Don’t mess with me, Rachel,” she warned softly. “You know nothing about ranching. And the men wouldn’t listen to you, anyway.”
“I didn’t think they would, but I’m in a position to bring in outside help if I deem it necessary.”
“My men take orders from me!”
Rachel’s voice rose, too. “Your men can be fired and new ones hired.”
“You have no right!”
“But I do, Jessica,” Rachel said more gently. “I am your guardian.”
Jessie was furious. “When will you get it through your silly head that my father only made you my guardian so you could see what a proper young lady he’d made of me? He brought you here to spite us both. He knew I didn’t really need you. He raised me to stand on my own—like any man!”
“Whatever the reason,” Rachel said stiffly, “I am here, and I do have the authority to do exactly as I said.”
“Why, damn you?” Jessie shouted, losing control. “What is really behind this?”
“Twice this last month you have left the ranch and gone off where you couldn’t be reached for days. That is totally irresponsible behavior, Jessica.”
“That won’t wash and you know it,” Jessie hissed. “Mitch Faber was left in charge, and Jeb could handle anything else that might have come up. So you’d damn well better have a better reason than that!”
“Where you went is reason enough,” Rachel said obdurately. “It is unthinkable that you should venture into an area forbidden to whites. I thought your Indians were friendly. If I had known they were not, I would have put my foot down sooner.”
“Utter nonsense. You think I could go there if I weren’t welcome?”
“You might be welcome, but other whites are not. I will not have you associating with Indians who are hostile to whites. It has obviously been a bad influence on you, and the influence will not continue.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“For God’s sake, Jessica, your behavior here is bad enough, but there, you apparently throw every civilized convention to the wind. I have never heard of anything so appalling as your bathing naked in a creek with an Indian in plain view.”
Jessie stood up so quickly that her chair went skidding backward across the floor. Bright spots of color stained her cheeks, and her eyes were wide and sparkling with fury.
“The bastard had to tell you that, didn’t he?” Jessie cried furiously. “And I suppose he told you about Little Hawk, too? Of course! That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? Isn’t it?”
“Jessica, calm down.”
“Calm down? When you’re threatening to take the ranch out of my control because of the distortions that bastard told you? What else did he tell you?”
“This much is certainly enough, don’t you think?” Rachel tried to keep her own voice down.
“No, I certainly don’t think it’s enough, not when he twisted innocent happenings into…what did you call it? The most appalling thing you’d ever heard of? What the hell is wrong with my taking a bath in a creek? I do it here every chance I get when I’m alone. There, the village is too close, and White Thunder accompanies me so I won’t be disturbed. He didn’t watch me, for God’s sake! He’s like a brother!”
“This Sioux brave was not like a brother,” Rachel said stonily.
“So I was asked to marry? So what? I refused. If you want to get on your high horse about something, ask your friend about what he conveniently didn’t tell you!”
“If there is more, I’m sure it will only confirm my opinion that you should not go there again, Jessica,” Rachel said quietly. “An Indian camp is still no place for a young white girl. I will not relent on this.”
Jessie glared, so furious she was shaking. Unfortunately for Chase, he picked that moment to step into the kitchen.
“There’s enough shouting going on to wake the dead. What’s the trouble?”
Jessie turned eyes on him as stormy as anything he’d ever seen. She picked up her plate and threw it at his head. He ducked, and it bounced off the wall to the floor.
“You rotten sonofabitch! You just had to get her all fired up, didn’t you? It wasn’t enough that you dragged me back here, you had to malign everything that happened! But you forgot to include yourself in those tales, didn’t you?”
“That’s enough, Jessie,” Chase warned darkly.
“Enough?” she shrieked. “You were the one so hot to carry tales to her! Why didn’t you tell her the rest of it? If she ought to know about my appalling behavior with the Indians, then she ought to know that her trusted friend seduced me—not once, but twice! I mean, if we’re going to wash the dirty laundry, we might as well include everything. Or wasn’t the loss of my innocence as important as my sinful conduct with the Indians? Bastard! When you start something, do it right!”
With that Jessie stormed past Chase, shoving him so forcefully that he slammed back into the cupboard by the door, shattering two of the glass panes. A moment later, the door to her room closed just as forcefully, the sound as loud as a gunshot.
“What’s going on?” Billy called from down the hall.
“Go back to bed, Billy,” Rachel ordered sharply.
He did, without question. Chase would have loved to do the same. The silence that followed was eternal. He was afraid to look at Rachel, afraid to see the accusation in her eyes.
Rachel waited awhile, giving him a chance to speak. When he didn’t, she said, “Was she telling the truth?”
He started to speak, but no words would come.
Rachel let out a small cry before she implored, “Chase, you didn’t! Not my Jessica!”
He winced but still couldn’t answer. He finally faced her. The look in her eyes made him feel about an inch tall. She didn’t wait any longer for an answer, but ran past him, crying.
Chase stood there for several long minutes. Was there anything he could salvage?
Chapter 23
“WHAT would you do, Goldy? Would you marry a woman just ’cause you felt a lil guilty?” Chase asked.
The horse snorted. “Sorry, old fella. Forgot you don’t like to be called Goldy. But it was a good question, huh?”
Chase was propped against the wall in Goldenrod’s stall, sitting trustingly at the horse’s feet, a half-empty bottle of whiskey beside him. He’d found the unopened bottle in the tack room after searching high and low in the kitchen. It was undoubtedly Jeb’s stash. He would have to remember to replace it.
Opening the bottle again, Chase drained another half inch and eyed his horse seriously. “I mean, shoot, that lil’ minx never made me feel bad, did she? It’s that damn Rachel who’s got me feeling like a louse. And you know what she’s gonna say soon as she gets ’round to it?”
Chase belched, then laughed. “Not that. No, Rachel’s gonna say, ‘You ruined her, now you marry her.’ You think she might hold a gun at my back? No, not Rachel. But she’s got another weapon, that damn face of hers, that damn look that says I stabbed her in the back.” He took a deep breath. “Why the hell don’t I just ride out of here?”
Chase tried to stand but didn’t succeed until he’d tried several times. He eyed his saddle on the railing as if it were an ornery critter giving him trouble. And it did. He couldn’t get it off the railing. Finally he leaned against it and spoke to his horse again.
“Looks like I might need to sober up first. But I’ll be back, Goldenrod. I’ll saddle you up, and then we’ll hit the trail. I can’t marry that hellion. It’d be like tying myself to a cyclone.”
Chase made his way out of the stable and around to the stream behind the house. He fell in and for a moment thought he might be drowning. The water was only a foot deep, however. After a considerable bit of splashing, he pulled
himself to the edge of the stream and lay there, letting the icy water chill him.
Unbidden, an image of Jessie came to mind. Not the Jessie of tonight but of last night. She had been a tempest then, too, but a passionately loving tempest.
Would it really be so bad being tied to her? he wondered. She was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen. And wasn’t he tired of drifting? Rachel had said it was time he settled down, and, well, maybe it was. With some effort, couldn’t he tame the hoyden?
Jessie was too furious to cry but too upset not to. That left her with a choked feeling that was keeping her awake, tossing and turning. Being awake, she heard the soft knock clearly. She wasn’t pleased.
She didn’t bother to pull on a pair of pants but answered the door in the oversized long-sleeved shirt she usually slept in. She didn’t care what Rachel thought of that. In fact, she considered taking the shirt off and letting Rachel think she slept nude.
She was glad she hadn’t carried through with that rebellious thought, however, when the door opened to reveal Chase in the hall. Jessie slammed the door shut, but it hit his shoulder and bounced open again. She was forced to step back as he shoved his way in rudely, closing the door behind him.
“Get out,” she said.
“In a minute.”
“Now!”
“Keep your voice down, damn it. You’ll have Rachel in here, dragging us to the preacher tonight. She’s ready to. I need to sober up before that happens.”
“That won’t happen, not for any reason!” she assured him. “You stink! You’re drunk! Is that what gave you the courage to bust into my room in the middle of the night?”
“I’m not that drunk, not anymore, anyway. Not enough that I don’t know what I’m doing.”
She lit the lamp by her bed, then swung around to face him. The sight of him wearing only pants, his hair sopping wet, stopped her fury for a moment. “What’d you do, fall in the creek?”
“As a matter of fact…” His grin filled in the rest of the explanation, but Jessie wasn’t amused. “I changed clothes, though,” he offered sagely. “Didn’t want to be dripping water all over your floor.”
“Well, you forgot to dry your hair. You think it’s appropriate, you coming here half-dressed?”
His grin widened. “I wouldn’t talk about being half-dressed, not the way you answered your door.”
Jessie glanced down at the cotton shirt that came only to the top of her knees. “I didn’t invite you here, so just get the hell out. You’ve caused enough trouble for one day.”
“I have?” His humor fled. “And what have you done?”
“Paid you back and nothing else,” Jessie said coldly. “No more than you both deserved.”
“Oh, well, I’m glad to hear I wasn’t the only victim of your vicious attack,” Chase replied sarcastically. “Especially since I’m the one who’ll end up paying for it.”
Jessie flared. “You think you’re the only one hurt? Because of what you told her, she may try to deny me control of the ranch if I go north again. Well, if I had to lose a friend, it was only fair that you both should lose one, too—each other.”
“And you think that’s the only consequence?”
“What’s the matter, Summers?” Jessie purred. “Wasn’t she understanding? Did she hurt your feelings?”
“You really don’t care that you hurt her, do you?” he asked tightly.
“I don’t recall making love by myself,” Jessie retorted. “I don’t recall making the first move either time. So who’s responsible?”
“I warned you what would happen if she found out, Jessie.”
Jessie began to laugh, surprising him. “So that’s why you’re here. Well, I hate to relieve your mind, Summers, I really do, but that isn’t one of your worries. All you’ve done is lost her respect. Why you want the respect of a whore is beyond me, but—”
“She’s not a whore, Jessie,” Chase said harshly.
“Don’t you tell me what she is or isn’t! I know better than you ever could!”
“I didn’t come here to fight with you again. I came to ask you to marry me.” It took her aback, but she recovered.
“Well, you asked. Now you can go tell her you were a good boy and did as she told you.”
“She didn’t send me here, Jessie. She hasn’t said anything yet. She left the kitchen in tears, and I haven’t seen her since.”
“Then what are you doing, being noble?” she sneered. “Or are you just trying to score a few points by doing right by me before you’re told to?”
“What’s wrong with our getting married?” he asked reasonably, knowing every reason she would think of.
“What do you take me for?” she demanded. “You think I can’t remember that the thought of marriage scares you?”
“That was before,” he insisted.
“Like hell. Nothing’s changed. You want to marry me as much as I do you, and that’s not at all. So get out of here and stop bothering me with this drunken nonsense.”
“It’s not nonsense, and I told you I’m not drunk. Rachel is going to insist we marry, anyway, so why not deny her the chance to make a big issue of it?”
“Why? And spoil her righteous fun? How often does a whore get to be righteous?”
“You’re not being serious, Jessie,” he said wearily.
“Because there’s nothing serious about this!” she snapped. “I may have to give in on some things, but marrying you? I’d take off from here and make myself scarce for as long as necessary before I’d let her force me to marry someone I can’t stand.”
“You didn’t feel that way last night.”
“I was a fool last night.”
That made him angry. “Maybe we both were fools. But the fact remains that there’s a special spark between us, Jessie.”
“Don’t kid yourself. You just happen to be the first man who touched me. You won’t be the last, believe me.”
He reached her in two strides and grabbed her, his eyes dark with anger and desire. “What happens with you and me doesn’t happen with just any two people,” he said huskily. “You can deny it, but you know you want me, Jessie. Marry me. Say yes.”
He wouldn’t let go of her, so she punched him, hard enough to gain her release but only surprising him. She followed that with a stinging slap.
“Does that prove I don’t want you?” she cried, her chest heaving. A lump in her throat made it difficult to get the words out. “You might give a good tumble, but I sure as hell wouldn’t marry you for that. It takes a little respect to make a marriage, and I’ve got none for you!”
“Then maybe I ought to give you some,” Chase growled, a threatening glint in his eyes.
Jessie backed away, but not quickly enough. He caught her wrists and dragged her to the bed, but his intention was not what she thought it was.
“Damn, but I’ve wanted to do this since I first met you,” he told her. His voice held pure satisfaction.
He pulled her onto his lap. Jessie gasped at the first stinging blow to her backside. Another followed, and another. She wanted to scream but refused to give him the satisfaction. She fought instead, struggling and squirming to get off his lap, but he threw one leg over both of hers, clamping her legs between his, and pressed the palm of his free hand into her back to hold her immobile. Her struggling had caused her shirt to rise, and his hand was striking bare skin.
Jessie had to bite her lips to keep from crying. He wouldn’t stop.
“I’d like to say this hurts me more than it does you, but it doesn’t,” he said as he continued to hit her glowing backside. “Someone should have done this a long time ago, Jessie. Maybe then you wouldn’t be so quick to throw punches anytime you feel like it.”
Her eyes were overflowing with tears, but he couldn’t see that. He saw only the fiery red of her bottom. Forgetting why he had been so brutal, he leaned over and kissed the injured area.
Jessie didn’t feel it. She was burning too much to feel anything but pain. Ch
ase didn’t know that, either, and he was annoyed with himself for feeling the need to comfort her at all. He lifted her off his lap and onto the bed. Then he stood up and stomped to the door. He opened it and was even out in the hall before he remembered the note in his back pocket and pulled it out. He went back inside just as Jessie was sitting up, her back to him, her glorious hair spilling around her. The sight stirred him, and every muscle in his body stiffened.
“I have something for you,” he said. He dropped the note on the bed, but she didn’t turn around. “It would have been a wedding gift, but since it cost me no more than the turn of a card, why don’t we call it payment for pleasures received. That way, we’re even.”
He had hoped for some kind of response to his cruel barb, but he got nothing, not even a glare. She wouldn’t look at him. He left the room and closed the door behind him. He was not going to let it bother him. His parting shot hadn’t been any meaner than many things she had said to him. It would not bother him. He was free of her now.
Chapter 24
JESSIE didn’t sit a horse too comfortably for a week, and every time she rode, she thought of Chase. He had left that following morning. She had stayed in her room until after he was gone, and he hadn’t come to say good-bye. He had argued with Rachel before he left, and Jessie couldn’t help but hear most of it.
“I asked her to marry me. She refused. Damn it, Rachel, what more could I do?”
“You could have left her alone!” Rachel had actually screamed at him. “I trusted you!”
“What do you want from me, Rachel? It happened. You think I didn’t regret it when I found she was a virgin? But it was too late to stop.”
“You didn’t want to stop!”
Their voices lowered after that, and Jessie didn’t hear any more until the final slam of the door when Chase left the house. She was curious about his attempt at being noble. They both knew that she was the one who hadn’t let them stop. Yet he let Rachel think he was wholly to blame. Stupid. What was he trying to prove?
Jessie thought a lot about that in the weeks that followed. She couldn’t help but think about it. Rachel reminded her of it constantly with her woebegone, pitying expressions. It was absurd. The woman acted as if the most heinous of crimes had been committed. How could she be such a hypocrite, whore that she was? The loss of virginity had not mattered to Jessie, but Rachel acted as if she’d been raped.