Reed stayed in his chair and lit his pipe, something he rarely did in the morning, and watched his son eat. Usually, Leander ate slowly and carefully, but today he was wolfing food as if there were no tomorrow. He seemed to be lost in a world of his own, a world of happiness and plans for the future.
“I’ve been thinking about that women’s hospital lately,” Lee said, as he bit into a two-inch-thick biscuit. “Actually, Houston made me think of it. Maybe it’s time that I start looking into building the thing, or maybe I’ll buy that old stone warehouse at the end of Archer Avenue. With some work and some money, that place could be just what I need.”
“Houston had this idea?” Reed asked.
“Not really, but she helped. I have to get to the hospital, and later I’m to meet Houston. I’ll see you.” He grabbed an apple and, at the doorway, he paused to look back at his father. “Thanks, Dad,” he said, just the way he did when he was a boy, and today he reminded Reed of the boy he’d once been, before he took on the responsibility of planning marriage.
All morning, Lee whistled at the hospital and his cheer was infectious. Before long, the entire hospital was smiling and grumbling less about the work to be done. The young prostitute who’d tried suicide the day before benefited the most from Lee’s good humor. He talked to her about the joy of being alive and then got her a position on the nursing staff at the women’s clinic, promising to watch over her and to help her in the future.
At ten minutes to eleven, he jumped in his carriage and drove downtown to pick up a basket that he’d had Miss Emily prepare at her tea shop.
“So it’s true,” Miss Emily said, smiling and making her pink-and-white face crinkle into tiny tissue paper wrinkles. “Nina has been talking about her lovesick brother all morning.”
“My sister talks entirely too much,” Lee said, but he was smiling. “I don’t know what’s so unusual about my being happy, because I’m marrying the most beautiful woman in the world. I’ve got to go,” he said, as he rushed out of the shop.
He left his horse and buggy to the care of the Gates’s stableboy, Willie, took the steps two at a time and raised his hand to knock.
“You can go in,” came a voice from the shadowed side of the deep porch. “They’re expecting you.”
Leander looked into the shadows and saw Blair there, her face turned away, but he could see that her hair was straggling and her face streaked. He went to her. “Has something happened? Is Houston all right?”
“She’s fine!” Blair snapped, starting to rise.
Lee caught her arm. “I want you to come over here and sit down so I can look at you. You don’t look well at all.”
“Leave me alone!” she half cried, half shouted. “And don’t touch me!” She jerked away from him, ran down the stairs and out of sight around the house.
As Lee was standing there in open-mouthed astonishment, Houston came onto the porch, pulling on gloves of white lace.
“Was that Blair shouting? You weren’t having another one of your arguments, were you?” she asked.
Lee turned to her with a look of pure joy, his eyes going up and down her, as if he wanted to drink in all of her. “It was Blair,” he said in answer to her question.
“Good,” Houston said, “I was hoping you’d see her. She’s been like that all day. For some reason, I think she’s been crying. I thought you might know what was wrong with her. She won’t answer any of my questions.”
“I’d have to examine her,” Lee said, as he helped her into the carriage, but as soon as he touched her, he couldn’t seem to let go, and held onto her waist.
“Lee! People are watching.”
>
“Yes, of course,” he grinned, “but we’ll soon remedy that.”
He didn’t trust himself to speak much on the way out of town, only occasionally glancing at Houston, noting the way she sat so far to the side of the carriage, away from him as she always had until last night. He couldn’t help smiling to himself to think that this cool young woman was the same one who hadn’t been able to resist him last night.
He hadn’t slept much, but had lain awake reliving every moment he’d spent with Houston. It wasn’t so much the sex, he’d had that with women before and hadn’t fallen for them, but it was something about her attitude that had made him feel wonderful, powerful, as if he could do anything.
He drove them to a secret place he’d found once when he’d been called to set the broken leg of a prospector and been caught in a summer storm. It was a secluded place amid enormous rocks, with tall trees swaying overhead, a spring trickling out of the rocks. He’d never brought anyone here before.
He stopped the carriage, jumped out, tied the horse and went to get Houston. As he lifted her in his arms, he let her slide down and pulled her close to him, hugging her so that she couldn’t breathe. “I thought about nothing else but you last night,” he said. “I could smell your hair on my clothes, I could taste your lips on mine, I could—.”
Houston pulled away from him. “You what?” she gasped.
He touched the hair at her temples with the backs of his fingers. “You aren’t going to be shy with me today, are you? You aren’t going to be the way you were before last night, are you? Houston, you’ve proven to me that you can be different, so there’s no need to go back to being the ice princess. I know what you’re really like now, and I can tell you that if I never see that cool woman again, I’ll be even happier. Now, come here and kiss me like you did last night.”
Houston pushed free of him. “Are you saying that last night I wasn’t like I usually am? That I was …better?”
Smiling, he advanced on her. “You know you were. You were like I’ve never seen you. I didn’t know you could be like that. You’ll laugh at this but I was beginning to believe that you were incapable of any real passion, that beneath your cool exterior was a heart of ice. But, if you can have a sister like Blair who starts fires at the least provocation, surely some of it had to rub off.”