They were silent for a while. Lauren didn’t move. Jared was still planning to bring on a riot in Pueblo. He was selling out to the Vandivers and his mother for the railroad.
“At least promise me this.” Rudy spoke quietly. “Don’t do anything until you’ve given me some warning. Let me see what can be done from this angle.”
“All right, Rudy. I promise. But I don’t know how long I can hold them off. They’re ready to go. Just be forewarned. When they do it, I’ll have to be there. You understand that.”
Rudy hesitated for just a moment. “Yes,” was the curt reply.
Lauren was crushed. How could he? Maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he could convince them not to destroy the community. She heard their boots shuffling toward the front door and forced her face into a smile before they could see the distress on it.
Jared came to stand in front of her and said quietly, “Lauren, I must leave for Coronado in the morning. You’re to stay here until I can come back and get you.”
“No. I want to be with you.” Her voice trembled, but she didn’t give in to the tears she felt gathering in her eyes. He was running away from her again!
“I… I’m going to be very busy with the railroad and you’d be bored in town. Here you have Gloria and the kids to keep you busy.”
Her eyes beseeched Rudy for support, but he was concentrating on lighting a cigar and wouldn’t meet her eyes. She turned back toward Jared. “I’m going back with you, Jared. I don’t care how busy you are. If you don’t take me with you, I’ll just follow on my own.” She raised her chin a fraction, and he saw the resolve in her steady, blue-gray gaze.
“Dammit!” he cursed, and slammed his fist into his palm. He turned toward his brother as if seeking an ally. Rudy had become even more fascinated by his cheroot. Jared muttered sourly, “All right. Get packed tonight.”
* * *
Besides Rosa, Pepe, and her piano, Lauren was not happy about seeing anything in the house in Coronado. It was truly one of the most beautiful houses she had ever been in, but her mother-in-law cast such a cold foreboding on the atmosphere that it could never be considered a comfortable home.
Olivia’s greeting had been polite, if not exactly warm. Carson complimented Lauren on the healthy bloom in her cheeks. Lauren met Olivia’s green eyes over his shoulder as he hugged her, and wondered if Olivia knew the reason for the glow she had taken on. She reasoned that the older woman did. It was after Jared’s first night w
ith her that Olivia had provoked the argument between them that culminated in their separation.
Lauren recognized the subtlety Olivia had used to drive the wedge between her and her husband. She was capable of anything to ensure that her own greedy plans come to fruition. She would even jeopardize the happiness of her son. Perhaps she did love him. But it was a jealous, self-gratifying love. Olivia Lockett had to be in control. Wasn’t that the reason her marriage to Ben had been so disastrous? Ben was not a man who could be controlled. Olivia was learning that Jared wasn’t so easily manipulated, either. Not like Carson Wells.
“Carson, thank you. I can always rely on you to make me feel beautiful even when I’m covered with trail dust.” Lauren laughed and hugged the plump man again. He evoked her pity, and she couldn’t quite decide why.
The next few weeks went by smoothly and uneventfully. Olivia went to the bank every day. Jared went out on pursuits of his own, sometimes riding out to check on the progress of the railroad. The track moved closer to Coronado daily. If the spring weather held and there wasn’t too much rainfall, it would probably be completed sometime in the early fall.
Lauren spent long hours at the piano.
She missed Elena more than she could have imagined. There were no laughing children to break the staid atmosphere of this house. There were no disruptive calamities that reduced everyone to a state of mirth. There wasn’t the serene presence of Maria… Maria. Her friend. Ben’s love. Perhaps Rudy was right. Maybe her death had mercifully brought them together again.
There was no more discussion of the Pueblo riot. Lauren could almost imagine that she had dreamed the whole ugly episode. Was it even possible that Olivia had changed her mind?
* * *
One afternoon in early March, Lauren sat at a small table in Ben’s office composing a letter of commendation to the Ladies of Texas Freedom who had so generously donated fifty pounds of cornmeal to be distributed to the needier citizens of Pueblo.
She heard Jared’s spurs jingling on the parquet floor in the hall just before he stood framed in the doorway. The sight of him never failed to accelerate her heartbeat. Never had anyone loved as much as she did. Of that she was positive.
He was wearing his cowboy garb and looked much as he had the first time she saw him. She put her fountain pen down and started to get up and go to him.
“No, stay there.” Puzzled by his words, she sat back down and watched him close and lock the door.
“Jared?” She laughed a bit nervously. His expression was so intent it was almost frightening. “What are you doing?”
“Do you know how many times I’ve fantasized about you looking just the way you do now? You nearly drive me crazy with that prim and proper countenance, the eyeglasses perched on your nose, back straight as you bent over some damn thing or another. It’s become a driving ambition of mine to ruffle those calm feathers.”
He advanced into the room, pausing only to fling his black hat into a chair. He strode purposefully to the large picture windows and pulled the drawcord on the heavy drapes, plunging the room into deep shadows.
As though stalking prey, he came toward her chair with measured steps and drew her out of it. He sat down where she had been and pulled her onto his lap facing away from him.
“Can your feathers be ruffled, Mrs. Lockett? Since that day I sneaked into your room and spied on you, I’ve wanted to do this.” He placed his lips against the nape of her neck and traced a path of warm kisses from there to her earlobe, tantalizing it with a capricious tongue.