Blair somehow managed to remain calm until Mr. Gates took her back to the Chandler house—and then she saw Houston’s face. Her sister looked as if nothing in life mattered any more. Blair had been worried about Houston’s future, had been so concerned that she’d wanted to go out with Leander just to assure herself that her sister would be all right. And what she’d managed to do was destroy Houston’s entire future.
Blair begged her sister to answer, but Houston refused to speak to her, and even when Blair burst into tears, Houston wouldn’t relent.
Mr. Gates fairly pushed Blair up to her room on the third floor and locked the door behind her. Even when Opal came to the door and asked to see her daughter, Gates refused to open it.
Blair sat for a long time inside the dark room, her eyes too dry to cry since she’d been crying all day and quite a bit of the night. Now, she had to make a plan to get herself out of this mess. She wasn’t going to be forced to stay in this town and marry a man she didn’t want to marry, nor was she going to give up her internship at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
She sat quietly until she heard no more sounds from inside the house, and then she went to the window. As a child, she’d managed to climb to the ground by using the long, serpentine branches of the old elm tree on the east side of the house. If she jumped, she thought she could make the largest branch of the tree—and if she missed…She didn’t like to think of that.
Hurriedly, she packed a soft bag with a few clothes and tossed it to the ground, waiting a moment for the sounds of alarm. So far, so good. No one seemed to have heard her. She slipped into a divided skirt and climbed onto the window ledge, holding on with one hand and reaching as far as she could with the other. She could just barely reach the tree branches. She pulled back, knowing that there was no way that she could get to the tree except by jumping. She crouched in the window, and with one big leap, sent herself hurtling through the air, grabbing the tree branch as she went by.
She hung there, suspended in the air, and she could hear the slight cracking of the wood. It took several tries but she managed to get her legs around the branch just before her arms gave out. Using all her strength, while hanging upside down by her hands and ankles, and feeling the bark and sharp places scratch her skin through her clothing and hose, she managed to propel herself to the trunk of the tree. Once there, she took a moment to catch her breath before beginning the descent.
When she was finally on the ground, she looked back at the house with a feeling of triumph. They weren’t going to make her stay where she didn’t want to.
A sound to her left made her whirl about.
A match was lit and the flame showed Leander’s face as he held the match to a cigar. “Need some help with your bag?” he asked, when he looked at her.
“What are you doing here?” she gasped.
“Protecting what I’ve come to think of as mine,” he said, smiling.
“You were standing here while I was fighting for my life at the top of that tree?”
“Not quite the top, and I didn’t see that you were in any real danger. Who taught you to climb like that?”
“Certainly not you. You were too busy saving lives to learn how to climb trees when you were a boy.”
“What odd ideas you have about me. I can’t imagine where you got them. Now, if you’ve had your nightly exercise, I suggest that we get you back into the house. After you, my lady,” he said, making a sweeping bow toward the tree.
“I have no intention of returning to that house. There’s a train to Denver in a little while and I will be on it.”
“Not if I tell Gates. I’m sure that he’ll be after you with a shotgun.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“Do you forget that I was the one who started this in the first place? I don’t plan to let you leave Chandler now or ever.”
“I think I’m beginning to hate you.”
“You didn’t hate me last night,” he said softly. “Now, do you want a repeat demonstration of just how much you don’t hate me or do I help you back into your boudoir?”
Blair gritted her teeth. He had to sleep sometime and when he did, she’d be ready to escape.
“Stop looking at me as if you’d like to have me on a platter for breakfast and come on.” He grabbed the lowest branch of the tree and swung himself up, holding out his hand to her.
Reluctantly, she took his hand and let him pull her up. She did get some satisfaction from the fact that she did very little to help, and he had to pull her dead weight.
When they were at the roof, he helped her into the window, leaned forward and whispered, “How about a good-night kiss?”
Blair, with a little smile, leaned toward him as if she meant to kiss him and, at the last minute, slammed the window down so that Lee had to jump to keep his fingers from getting caught. From behind the glass, she puckered her lips into a kiss before she pulled the shade down to block him from view.
As she was smiling, she heard a crack of wood from outside, a muffled cry, then a heavy thud.
“He’s fallen,” she gasped, as she threw open the window and stuck her head out. “Lee!” she called as loud as she dared.
To her surprise, he put his head around the window jamb and kissed her quickly and firmly. “I knew you couldn’t resist me.”