She wished she could be so sure, but she couldn’t help feeling that, by praising Will, she’d somehow blundered in the captain’s eyes.
How had he attracted the admiration of such a woman? Will could only marvel as he climbed the steps to the porch of the National Hotel, where lamps glowed through the windows. It wasn’t fully occupied, despite what the clerk claimed. The staff hoped to impress her. So did Captain Harris and his men. Truth be told, so did he.
“I’m glad you were with me tonight, Will,” she said, pausing on the porch. “It was good to have a friend in the room.”
“You can always count on my support, Kate,” he promised.
Still she hesitated, watching him, as if she was hoping for more from the evening. His heart started a fierce tattoo, calling him to action. Slowly, carefully, he bent and brushed his lips against hers. Once again, he was certain the earth trembled.
But this time the quake was inside him.
“Good night, Will,” she murmured with a soft smile. Then she slipped into the hotel.
Will walked back to the government buildings. Good thing no one else was about, or they might have commented on the swing in his step. How could he not be optimistic when she looked at him that way, encouraged his kiss?
He was directed to his commanding officer’s quarters on the south side of the blockhouse. One look at Harris’s face, and all confidence fled.
“You wanted to see me, sir?” he asked, coming in and closing the door. The room was perhaps ten feet wide and a dozen long, and it had been filled with a wooden bedstead, campaign chest, washstand, and folding camp chair. Harris had removed his jacket and was giving it a good brushing, suspenders flexing with his cotton-clad shoulders.
“I wanted to talk to you about the conversation at dinner,” he said, running the stiff brush down the wool.
Perhaps someone had misspoken. “If I said anything untoward, I apologize.”
Harris gave the coat a good shake, studying it as if it had offended him. “It wasn’t what you said. It was what Mrs. Tremaine said and you did not say. It is clear the lady has feelings for you.”
Hope shot skyward, like a grouse flushed from the grass. It fell as quickly. “Mrs. Tremaine is grateful for the work the Army is doing in the park, sir,” Will said. “Nothing more.”
“She made her gratitude abundantly clear.” He lowered the coat and met Will’s gaze. “It is unbecoming of an officer to raise a lady’s expectations when he has no intention of meeting them. I assume, therefore, that you harbor feelings for Mrs. Tremaine.”
He could deny it. He should deny it. If anyone had the right to know how he felt about Kate, it was her, and before anyone else. Yet, if he denied it, Harris might reassign him elsewhere in the park, forcing him from Kate’s side.
And he would make himself a liar.
“I admire Mrs. Tremaine more than I can say, sir,” he answered.
Harris hung the coat on a peg against the wall with maddening calm. “Does she know about the incident in Oregon?”
He would never have called the tragedy an incident, but Will kept his head high. “I plan to tell her soon.”
“Good.” Harris turned to him. “That may well put an end of the matter.”
The words were a bullet to his hopes. “I fear as much, sir.”
Harris closed the distance between them. “If not, then consider your next steps carefully. The Army thought enough of you to give you a second chance. The gift came with the demand of loyalty. I do not expect us to stay in Yellowstone long. Kate Tremaine does not strike me as the sort to follow the drum. You will have to choose between your career and her.”
23
Kate wasn’t sorry to leave Mammoth Hot Springs behind. The National Hotel was beyond what she had imagined, but the long corridors seemed too empty after the bustle of the Geyser Gateway. And that dinner last night could never compare with Alberta’s cooking. Kate may not have convinced Captain Harris to issue a ten-year lease, but she had achieved one of her objectives. Mr. Boyne and his wagons had headed south, fully loaded, early that morning.
Now she rode beside Will, sun rising over the plateau on their left and anointing the dusty ground with patches of gilt as the shadows from the mountains retreated. Following the winding way south, all she could smell was pine and fresh water. A hawk called overhead before diving for prey against the gold of aspen.
“With this shipment and Alberta’s canning, we should have plenty for winter,” she told Will as the horses walked past a white tumble of rocks that were all that remained of an ancient slide.
“Then it was worth the trip,” he said. He tilted back his head and took a deep breath, as if relishing the cool air as much as she did.
“What did Captain Harris want last night?” she asked.
He dropped his head and aimed his gaze on the road. “He wanted to know my intentions toward you.”
“Your intentions?” She started, and Aster balked. She urged the mare forward. “Who does he think he is, my father?”
“He was more interested in protecting the Army’s reputation than yours,” Will said with a shake of his head.
“And should I applaud him for that?” she demanded.
“No,” he assured her. “But his point is well taken. I have no right raising your expectations, Kate.”
She still wasn’t sure whether to be insulted by the captain’s interference. But Will’s words made the air seem chillier. “So, you have been dallying with me.”
“No, I . . .” Now Bess sidestepped, as if she felt her master’s agitation. He patted her and eased her back along the road.
“I meant I have no business entertaining the notion of courting a lady unless she knows what she’s getting into,” he said, hand tight on the reins.
Courting. Her nerves tingled. The first kiss could have been the result of the
