Wild Western Women Boxed Set Read online

  “Yes, at home before—”

  “Because I’m simply famished. I hear the hotel has a magnificent dining room. Will you accompany me?”

  “I suppose I could—”

  “Splendid!”

  She grabbed Amelia’s arm and urged her out into the light of the street. Sadie humphed behind them as they left. Eve’s heart twisted with pain and fear, covered with a smile, no safe place to land.

  Chapter Three

  Mark walked down Main Street from Silver Avenue, his chin tucked deep into the scarf wrapped around his neck and his thoughts buried in the surprise that was the last few days of his life. He should have been concerned about not drawing attention to the sack of donations he was taking to the bank or on the watch for needy souls from his congregation who could use a helping hand. Instead he thought of Eve.

  It was unlikely that the sun had actually been brighter or the air crisper and cleaner since she blew into town, but telling himself that was as futile as stopping the church bell from sounding when it was rung. Eve had been at the church for the better part of every day since Friday. She’d filled him with ideas for the pageant and decorating the church, and even given advice on the delivery of his sermon. Several members of the congregation had approached him after the service yesterday to say that it was the finest they’d heard in months. Their compliments were encouraging, but not half as encouraging as the pleasure in Eve’s eyes. She’d filled him with joy and possibility.

  He sucked in a breath of fresh air and tucked the bag of donations further under his arm. There was a spring in his step, no doubt about it. It was simple, really. He liked Eve deLaurent. A lot. She was beautiful, spritely, and energetic. She reminded him that he was a man—one with all the usual feelings and impulses that God had given to men. He may have dedicated his life to spreading God’s message, but since that was a message of love, he saw no reason to pretend anything other than that he liked the idea of The Indomitable Lady Eve in his life, regardless of the opinion of others. Even men of God had a right to love, after all.

  “Good morning, Reverend,” Eric Quinlan greeted Mark as the two of them reached the bank’s front door at the same time.

  “Morning, Eric.” And there was the twist that kept him from diving headfirst into the loveliness that was Eve. Her family troubles. “How is Amelia today?”

  Eric winced. “About as well as could be expected.”

  The two of them shuffled into the bank, shutting the door on the December chill behind them. The bank’s lobby was tiny—barely enough room to turn around in—and Lewis Jones was already ahead of them in line.

  “I just want you to know,” Mark lowered his voice and leaned closer to Eric, “that I keep encouraging Eve to spend more time with you and Amelia and little Darcy. You are her family, after all, and I get the feeling family is what she truly needs right now.”

  Eric sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I appreciate the effort, but between you and me, I think we’re fighting a losing battle.”

  Mark wished the statement had come as a surprise. “You’d think that two sisters would be eager to be together after so long apart.”

  “You’d think,” Eric agreed with a nod.

  “I can’t pretend that I understand Eve’s reluctance, but I know there’s something big causing it. She’s been through something that she won’t talk about. She should be turning to her sister for solace.”

  A grin tweaked the corner of Eric’s mouth. “Eve seems taken with you.”

  Mark glanced down modestly. “I won’t pretend I’m not taken with her too.”

  Lewis snuck a sidelong look at him as the old white-haired teller, Josiah, counted out his money.

  “But it doesn’t matter how well Eve and I get along,” Mark went on. He straightened and cleared his throat. “Eve didn’t come here to see me, and I won’t feel entirely comfortable until whatever is keeping her away from her sister is sorted out.”

  “And I won’t be able to enjoy a quiet night at home until Amelia stops wringing her hands over the whole thing,” Eric agreed.

  “So we’re on the same side then.” Mark nodded.

  “We most certainly are.”

  Lewis finished with his transaction and tucked his money into the inside pocket of his jacket. He turned to leave, but hesitated. He met Mark’s eyes and wrung his hands like he had something he needed to say, bad news he needed to deliver. His long face only made him seem dourer. Mark was certain Lewis was going to speak, but finally he shook his head and scooted around him to the door and out into the cold.

  “What’s gotten into Lewis?” Eric asked when he was gone. “He looked like a goat that ate a prize cabbage.”

  Mark chuckled at the analogy. He gestured for Eric to approach the teller’s window first.

  “Sadie McGee’s been giving me that look too. So did a couple of my parishioners after church yesterday when I introduced them to Eve.”

  Eric leaned on the counter as the teller set about completing his transaction. A lazy grin spread across his face. “Is that so?”

  “I may have been… enthusiastic in the way I introduced her. But can you blame me? Eve is so full of life and sparkle. She’s beautiful too, but that beauty comes straight from her soul. I spent hours talking to her on Saturday as we worked on the pageant. We didn’t notice it was nearly midnight by the time we stopped.”

  “Well, well,” Eric drawled.

  “It’s like waking up in paradise.”

  Behind the teller’s window, Josiah’s bushy eyebrows shot up.

  Mark laughed at the expression. “People have noticed, I suppose. I never thought anyone would care if I found a girl I took a shine to.”

  “You’re the reverend,” Eric reasoned. “Folks care about you because you care about them.”

  “Apparently everyone has an opinion.” Mark shrugged. “I don’t grudge them that opinion, but to be the focus of it? I suppose Eve is used to it, though, after a life on the stage.”

  On the other side of the window, Josiah had a coughing fit.

  Eric chuckled and took his deposit slip from Josiah. “My sister-in-law is a firecracker.”

  “She is.” Mark smiled for half a second before his shoulders dropped once more. He stepped forward to hand Josiah the bag of church donations. “There has to be a reason why Eve is holding Amelia at arm’s length.”

  Eric sighed. He took his hat off, ran his hand through his hair, then fixed the hat back in place. “I think I know what it is,” he said with a wince.

  Mark’s eyebrows rose. “What?”

  Eric glanced through the barred teller window, making sure they wouldn’t be overheard. “I only met Eve once before now,” he said, “and that meeting was as strange as hell. You know what we’ve told you about Amelia’s past?”

  “I remember.” Mark nodded. He’d not only heard all about the misfortune Amelia’s family had fallen into when her father died, he was one of the very few people in Cold Springs that knew that Darcy Quinlan was not Eric’s natural daughter. Amelia had needed to confess everything to him, had needed him to assure her that God had forgiven her for the sins of her past so that she could embrace her future with a clear conscience. He’d married Eric and Amelia privately after Darcy was born, making the charade they had been playing a reality.

  He blinked, a jolt running down his spine as the pieces fit together in his mind. “Do you think Eve was forced into the same situation by their mother as Amelia was?”

  Eric’s grimace softened to sympathy. “I don’t just think it, I know it. I also know it was much worse for Eve than it was for Amelia.” He thumped Mark on the back. “I know you’re not the kind of man to let that change your good opinion of her.”

  “I’m not. It doesn’t.” Although it did make certain things come clearer.

  “The point is,” Eric went on, “I think all that is still sitting plum in the middle of those two, even though they both kicked and screamed and got themselves out of it.”
<
br />   Mark nodded, mulling over a host of new ideas. Based on what he knew of Amelia’s past, he could have figured out that Eve had been a prostitute at some point. His mind and heart rebelled at the idea. Eve was too bright, too cheerful to have chosen that life. She was also too young. He wasn’t fool enough to ask, but she couldn’t have been more than twenty now. She’d told him that she’d been on the stage for two years. She had to have been pushed into prostitution when she was far too young to defend herself.

  But with an active saloon and dozens of mining camps and ranches in the area, he was no stranger to prostitutes. He’d counseled and prayed with enough of them to know how hard life had to be for a woman to end up in that profession, and that they found themselves in it when they were shockingly young. He also knew how badly most of them wanted out.

  “Hell,” Eric muttered as Mark stepped away from the teller’s window. “I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m sorry.”

  “No, it’s all right.” Mark took a deep breath and focused on the present. “I would have made the connection eventually. What concerns me is the present, and frankly, the present is concerning.”

  “You’ve got that right.”

  Josiah finished with the church’s deposit and handed a receipt through the barred window to Mark. A disapproving frown came with it.

  “Thank you, Josiah. You have a good day,” he said.

  Josiah replied with, “Hmph!”

  Eric scowled at the man and gestured for Mark to precede him out of the bank.

  “The way I figure it,” Eric said when they were out in the crisp December air, “Amelia and Eve are not going to smooth things out on their own. We’re going to have to help.”

  Mark nodded, frowning over the sticky problem. “I think you’re right.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Lewis leaning against the hitching post in front of the bank, waiting for him. Lewis straightened at the sight of them.

  “Eve won’t come out to the ranch,” Eric went on, “so Amelia insists on driving into town every day to see her.”

  “I was wondering about that,” Mark said. “I left the two of them at the church, working on costumes for the pageant with Rebecca Turner. I must admit I was surprised to see Amelia in town today.”

  “So was I. I don’t want my wife dragging herself out here all the time in her condition, and I especially don’t want her dragging herself back home again with a head full of steam and thunder because Eve’s been acting peculiar around her.”

  “So we need to figure out a way to get Eve out to the ranch.” Mark scratched the back of his head and thought over the problem.

  Eric shifted from one foot to the other. “She’d come if you came with her.”

  Mark shrugged. “I’d be happy to come. I’m just afraid if I’m there, Eve will do what she’s been doing since the moment she stepped into my church.”

  “Which is?”

  “She’ll hide behind me somehow.”

  A grin spread across Eric’s face. “Now, I have a hard time imagining that you’d be entirely put out about that.”

  Mark lowered his head with a sheepish laugh. “Like I said, I’m taken with Eve. I wouldn’t say no to a moonlight stroll with her, and a secluded hayloft at the end.” He snuck a sideways glance at Lewis, hoping the man hadn’t overheard. He cleared his throat. “As much as it pains me to say, I wouldn’t feel entirely right about courting your sister-in-law until things are sorted between her and Amelia.”

  Eric thumped him on the back. “You’re a good man, Mark. You’ve got a hell of a lot more patience than I do.”

  “We’ll just see about that.” He arched an eyebrow.

  “Why don’t you bring Eve out to our place for supper the day after tomorrow? Come a little early. Once we get the two of them in a room together, you and I will figure out a reason to make ourselves scarce. That ought to get the two of them talking.”

  “It will,” Mark agreed. “It remains to be seen if the talking will help, or land the both of us in trouble.”

  Eric laughed. “We’ll see.”

  He thumped Mark’s back one more time, nodded to Lewis, then strode off down Main Street to be about his business.

  Mark watched him go, mixed emotions swirling in his chest. He prayed that forcing the issue would get things out in the open, but his gut feeling was that there was more going on than one supper could fix.

  As he turned to head back to the church, Lewis stepped forward.

  “Reverend,” he said.

  “Lewis. How can I help you today?” he answered with a smile.

  Lewis shuffled, wringing his hands. “Reverend, there’s something I gotta tell you, something you gotta know.”

  “What might that be?” He showed concern on the outside, but prickles of irritation danced on the inside.

  “It’s that Indomitable Lady Eve,” he said. Mark’s suspicions were confirmed.

  He smiled anyhow. “There’s nothing to worry about, Lewis, although I appreciate your concern. Eve deLaurent is a lovely, kind woman and I am enjoying getting to know her better. That’s all.”

  “Yeah, but….” Lewis’s shuffling grew so intense Mark thought he might hurt himself. He scratched his head and tugged at his ear and stared off over Main Street to the saloon. “The thing is, I’ve seen her perform before.”

  “Have you?” A shot of curiosity zipped through him.

  Lewis nodded. “I did. Reverend, she was prancing around on that stage acting all flirty as she sang.”

  Mark’s curiosity flashed to protective anger so fast he had to take a breath. “Really?”

  Lewis couldn’t meet his eyes. “Yeah, and she was wearing a dress cut so low you could see her….” He finished his description by rounding his hands over his chest.

  It wasn’t a surprise. He may have worked for God, but he knew that stage shows could be racy. He knew actresses could be subject to all kinds of attention. But it was still a shock.

  “Are you sure it wasn’t just a mistake of the light on the stage?” he asked.

  “Well, I… I suppose it could have been.” Lewis glanced up. “But I’m pretty sure it was on purpose. There’s a picture of her on a poster up in the saloon and while it ain’t one of them girly pictures, it’s a sight to look at.”

  “I see.”

  “I just thought I should tell you because….”

  “Because?” he prompted.

  “Well, because you’re the reverend, and the reverend shouldn’t be stepping out with… a girl like that.”

  There is was. He had to give Lewis credit for being the first person with enough gumption to say it to his face.

  Not that it made him any less irate about people having an opinion about his personal life or disparaging Eve’s character.

  He smiled through his ire. “Lewis, what did Jesus say to the people when they were trying to stone the woman caught in adultery?”

  Lewis hesitated, chewing on his lip. “That he who is without sin should throw the first stone?”

  “Correct. And what did He say to the woman?”

  “Uh, go and sin no more?”

  “Exactly. A man’s past is his past. A woman’s too. Miss deLaurent’s past is behind her. Don’t you think the Christian thing to do, the kind thing to do, would be to let her get beyond it?”

  Lewis dropped his shoulders and heaved a sigh. “I suppose so, but folks is going to talk.”

  “Sure they will,” Mark answered, patting Lewis’s arm. “And I’m sure you’ll be the first one to tell them their talk is nonsense. Am I right?”

  “Well, I might.”

  Mark had the feeling that was the best he was going to get. “Thank you, Lewis. I hope to see you at the pageant later this week.”

  Without waiting for a reply, Mark stepped around Lewis and into Main Street. He took a deep breath and headed on toward the church. One way or another, something had to change.

  Chapter Four

  “Mrs. Turner, this is posi
tively the most beautiful brocade I’ve ever seen,” Eve declared from her position atop a footstool in a workroom off the main body of the church. She turned a few inches as Rebecca hemmed the wise man’s costume she modeled.

  “Why, thank you,” Rebecca answered with a shy smile. “Mr. Upshaw, the tailor, donated it.”

  “It is absolutely exquisite. Our wise men will be the most regal that the American West has ever seen.” Eve finished by striking the pose she used in her curtain calls. “I think I would make an excellent wise man, don’t you?”

  Rebecca responded with a modest laugh.

  Behind her, Eve heard Amelia sigh with impatience. “It’s a church pageant, Eve, not a bacchanal.”

  Eve’s smile slipped. The burr of disappointment that had made its home in her gut grew bigger. She’d pinned so many hopes on having a lighthearted afternoon with her sister, but the waters had muddied almost from the moment they set eyes on each other.

  Without turning to look at Amelia, Eve said, “It’s just a bit of fun. Mark certainly doesn’t mind the infusion of spirit in his pageant.”

  “Don’t you mean Rev. Andrews?” Amelia muttered behind her back.

  Eve swallowed the urge to snap back. It was none of Amelia’s business what she called her new friend.

  “I would have thought you would enjoy a return to showmanship,” she said as if all were right as rain. “We used to put on theatrical performances for our parents when we were young,” she informed Rebecca.

  “Is that so?” Rebecca stuck the last pin into the hem of the brocade robe and stood. She looked past Eve to where Amelia sat.

  “It is.” Eve stood straighter, chin raised and arms held wide, and recited, “‘I wandered lonely as a cloud, that floats on high o’er vale and hill.’ Amelia, you say the rest.”

  “I thought you believed our childhood theatricals were silly and utterly ridiculous.” Amelia refused to play along.

  Acute, gnawing frustration—the kind she had spent years running from—boiled in the cauldron of Eve’s gut.

  “Perhaps they weren’t silly. They were quite diverting, really,” she insisted, to herself as much as Amelia. “I know! After the pageant you and I should put on a small concert for Eric and Mark. It could be like old times.” She twisted on the stool to face Amelia and gauge her reaction.