“Doesn’t appear so,” Jake commented.
“Fool dog.” But Lucius rubbed the pup’s belly when he rolled over. “Grows on you, though.” He squinted up at Jake. “Something around here seems to be growing on you, too.”
“Somebody had to bring her back.”
“Reckon so.” He waited until Jake crouched to scratch the puppy’s head. “You want to tell me how Miss Sarah came to look like she’d been in a fist-fight?” “She looked like she was in a fistfight because she was in a fistfight.”
Lucius snorted and spit. “Like hell.”
“With Carlotta.”
Lucius’s cloudy eyes widened, and then he let out a bark of laughter that had Lafitte racing in circles. “Ain’t that a hoot? Are you telling me that our Miss Sarah went in and gave Carlotta what for?”
“She gave her a bloody nose.” Jake looked over with a grin. “And pulled out more than a little of her hair.”
“Sweet Jesus, Id’ve given two pints of whiskey to’ve seen that. Did you?”
Chuckling, Jake pulled on Lafitte’s ears. “The tail end of it. When I walked in, the two of them were rolling over the floor, spitting like cats. I figure Carlotta outweighs Sarah by ten pounds or more, but Sarah was sitting on her, skirts hiked up and blood in her eye. It was one hell of a sight.”
“She’s got spunk.” Lucius pulled out his whiskey and toasted Sarah with a healthy gulp. “I knew she had something in her head when she tore out of here.” Feeling generous, he handed the bottle to Jake. “Never would have thought she’d set her mind on poking a fist into Carlotta. But nobody ever deserved it more. You seen Alice?”
“No.” Jake let the whiskey spread fire through him. “Sarah’s got the idea that it’s not fitting for me to talk to the girl until she’s covered up or something.”
“I carried her in myself, and I don’t mind saying I ain’t seen no woman’s face ever smashed up so bad. Took a belt to her, too, from the looks of it. Her back and shoulders all come up in welts. Jake, you wouldn’t whup a dog the way that girl was whupped. That Carlotta must be crazy.”
“Mean and crazy’s two different things.” He handed Lucius the bottle. “Carlotta’s just mean.” “Reckon you’d know her pretty well.”
Jake watched Lucius take another long sip. “I paid for her a few times, sometime back. Doesn’t mean I know her.”
“Soon plop my ass next to a rattler’s.” Lucius handed the bottle back to Jake again, then fell into a fit of coughing. “Miss Sarah, I didn’t hear you come out.”
“So I surmised,” she said with a coolness that had Lucius coughing again. “Perhaps you gentlemen have finished drinking whiskey and exchanging crude comments and would like to wash for supper. If not, you’re welcome to eat out here in the dirt.” With that she turned on her heel, making certain she banged the door shut behind her.
“Ooo-whee.” Lucius snatched back the bottle and took another drink. “She’s got a mighty sharp tongue for such a sweet face. I tell you, boy, you’ll have to mind your step if you hitch up with her.”
Jake was still staring at the door, thinking how beautiful she’d looked, black eye and all, standing there like a queen addressing her subjects. “I ain’t planning on hitching up with anyone.”
“Maybe you are and maybe you ain’t.” Lucius rose and brushed off his pants. A little dirt and she’d have them off him again and in the stream. “But she’s got plans, all right. And a woman like that’s hard to say no to.”
Sarah spoke politely at supper, as if she were entertaining at a formal party. Her hair was swept up and tidied, and she’d changed her dress. She was wearing the green one that set off her hair and eyes. The stew was served in ironstone bowls, but the way she did it, it could have been a restaurant meal on fancy china.
It made him think, as he hadn’t in years, of his mother and how she had liked to fuss over Sunday supper.
She said nothing about the encounter in town, and it was clear that she didn’t care to have the subject brought up. It was hard to believe she was the same woman he’d dragged off the floor in the Silver Star. But he noticed that she winced now and then. He bit into a hunk of fresh bread and held back a grin. She was hurting, all right, and more than her pride, from the look of it. As he ate he entertained thoughts of how he would ease those hurts when the sun went down.
“Would you like some more stew, Lucius?”
“No, ma’am.” He patted his belly. “Full as a tick. If it’s all the same to you, I’ll just go take a walk before I feed the stock and such. Going to be a pretty night.” He sent them both what he thought was a bland look. “I’ll sleep like a log after a meal like this. Yessir. I don’t believe I’ll stir till morning.” He scraped back his chair and reached for his hat. “Mighty fine meal, Miss Sarah.”
“Thank you, Lucius.”
Jake tipped back his chair. “I wouldn’t mind a walk myself.”
Sarah had to smile at the way Lucius began to whistle after he’d closed the door. “You go ahead.”
He took her hand as she rose. “I’d like it better if you went with me.”
She smiled. He’d never asked her to do something as ordinary, and as romantic, as going for a walk. Thank goodness she hadn’t forgotten how to flirt. “Why, that’s nice of you, but I have to see to the dishes. And Alice may be waking soon. I think she could eat a bit now.”
“I imagine I could occupy myself for an hour or two. We’ll take a walk when you’re done.”
She sent him a look from under lowered lashes.
“Maybe.” Then she laughed as he sent her spinning into his lap. “Why, Mr. Redman. You are quite a brute.”
He ran a finger lightly over the bruise under her eye.
“Then you’d best be careful. Kiss me, Sarah.”
She smiled when her lips were an inch from his.
“And if I don’t?”
“But you will.” He traced her bottom lip with his tongue. “You will.”
She did, sinking into it, into him. Her arms wound around him, slender and eager. Her mouth opened like a flower in sunlight. They softened against him even as they heated. They yielded even as they demanded.
“Don’t be long,” he murmured. He kissed her again, passion simmering, then set her on her feet. She let out a long, shaky breath when he closed the door behind him.
With Alice settled for the night and the day’s work behind her, Sarah stepped out into the quieting light of early evening. It was still too warm to bother with a shawl, but she pushed her sleeves down past her elbows and buttoned the cuffs. There were bruises on her arms that she didn’t care to dwell on.
From where she stood she could hear Lucius in the shed, talking to Lafitte. He’d become more his dog than hers, Sarah thought with a laugh. Or perhaps they’d both become something of hers.
As the land had.
She closed her eyes and let the light breeze flutter over her face. She could, if she concentrated hard enough, catch the faintest whiff of sage. And she could, if she used enough imagination, picture what it would be like to sit on the porch she envisioned having, watching the sun go down every evening while Jake rolled a cigarette and listened with her to the music of the night.
Bringing herself back, she looked around. Where was he? She stepped farther out into the yard when she heard the sound of hammer against wood. She saw him, a few yards from the chicken coop, beating an old post into the ground. He’d taken his shirt off, and she could see the light sheen of sweat over his lean torso and the rippling and bunching of his muscles as he swung the heavy hammer down.
Her thoughts flew back to the way his arms had swung her into heat, into passion. The hands that gripped the thick, worn handle of the hammer now had roamed over her, touching, taking whatever they chose.
And she had touched, wantonly, even greedily, that long, limber body, taking it, accepting it as her own. Her breath shuddered out as she watched him bend and lift and pound. Was it wrong to have such thoughts, such wonderful, exciting visions? How could it be, when she loved so completely? She wanted his heart, but oh, she wanted his body, as well, and she could find no shame in it.
His head came up quickly, as she imagined an animal’s might when it caught a scent. And he had.
