Jessica walked into the bank the next morning, a determined step to her stride. She couldn't wait to get out of this town. The only happy person she had met was Eloise, who caught every eye in the dining room last evening as she served the meals. She hadn't thought to ask Eloise how close her wedding day was, but it must be soon. The blonde had bubbled and smiled at every diner, though once in a while she stared off into space, a dreamy expression on her face.
And today the man had promised her Cinnabar. He hadn't said how, though. Would he deliver the stallion to town? If so, she probably should delay their departure for a while, to give him a chance. Or maybe she would find Cinnabar on the trail. Would the man be with him?
A rancher in worn clothing stepped away from the teller window in front of Jessica, his shoulders slumped and a shattered expression on his face. Immediately a similarly dressed man moved out of line at the other window and laid an arm across the rancher's shoulders.
"Baker wouldn't let you extend, huh, Cam?"
"No," the rancher called Cam replied in a tortured voice. "The hell of it is, I could've paid what I thought it was I owed. But he said there were extra charges I agreed to in that paper I signed. I only wanted another month to pay them, but the teller said Baker wouldn't give it to me."
"Miss? Miss, you're next."
Jessica shook her head sadly in response to the overheard conversation as she stepped up to the window. A few seconds later, she stared at the teller behind the barred window in rage.
"What do you mean you can't let me have my money? I gave you authority yesterday to wire my bank and have the funds transferred. I wish to make a withdrawal immediately!"
"I'm sorry, Miss," the teller explained again in a patient voice. "There are no funds. Mr. Baker always handles that sort of thing and he'd have been the one to wire your bank. He hasn't notified me of any money to be released to you."
"Then I want to see this Mr. Baker immediately," Jessica fumed. "In fact, I asked to see him yesterday, but he apparently wasn't available. I insist on seeing him now!"
"Mr. Baker didn't come in until after you left yesterday, Miss Callaghan," the teller replied. "But he is in now and I'll ask him if he can see you."
"You will not ask," Jessica informed him. "You will tell him that I demand to see him!"
The man slouched against the door of the office located in the rear of the bank straightened and his lips curved into a smile under his blond mustache. This might be interesting. Things were running so smoothly these days, he could use a little excitement in his life.
He frowned slightly. Well, almost everything, but he could handle that later. Right now, a sable haired vixen with a body that made his hands itch stood in front of the teller's cage, patting her foot in anger. Wonder what it would take to turn that temper into the fiery passion he could sense under that lushly feminine exterior? It had been too long since any woman challenged his sense of masculinity.
"I'll take over now, Parkins," he called as he made his way across the room. "Harlin Baker, at your service, Miss," he said when Jessica swung around to fix him with a furious glare from eyes he found a delightful shade of warm brown. Though he could make out the golden flecks in them caused by her anger, they only highlighted a face that was a perfect match for that beautiful body.
"And who might you be, Miss?" he questioned with a raise of his brows.
"As if you couldn't hear the teller call me by name perfectly well," Jessica informed him with a haughty look. "You office is close enough to this teller window for that."
"I apologize, Miss Callaghan." Baker cupped his hand across his stomach and bowed. "It's a delight to see someone as lovely as you in our town. It's been much too dreary here lately."
"I'm not interested in what you think of my looks, Mr. Baker. I'm only interested in withdrawing the funds I had transferred here from my bank back in Wyoming and getting some supplies so I can be on my way. But you are right about one thing. This is a dreary little town."
Though he normally wouldn't have, Baker ignored the slur on the town — Baker town. Instead, he made his position in the town clear by allowing his pale blue eyes to wander over her and drink their fill.
Jessica drew in her breath with a gasp of indignation when his eyes lingered on her breasts, encased again in the tight bodice of her dark blue dress. Her palms itched with the desire to slap the smug sneer from the full lips partially hidden by the blond mustache. Only Ned's muttered "Jes" of warning stilled her right arm when it came up in preparation of doing just that.
Satisfied with Jessica's reaction, Baker's eyes went cold and he turned abruptly. "If you'll follow me, Miss Callaghan, we'll continue our discussion in the privacy of my office. There seems to be a slight problem over the transfer of funds you requested."
"Problem?" Jessica furiously stomped after him. She heard Ned following behind her, his limping steps hurrying to catch her.
At the door of his office, Baker paused and turned. "You might wish to have this discussion alone, Miss Callaghan," he said when he saw Ned beside Jessica. "After all, cowhands aren't usually invited into business discussions."
Jessica's head rose proudly and she cupped her hand into Ned's arm. "Ned is my foreman and my friend," she informed Baker in a steady voice. "There's nothing I keep private from him."
Jessica heard Ned give an almost silent snort and turned to meet his bemused gaze. The words of their conversation the previous day crept into her mind and, for just a second, she found the face before her fading. In its place she saw a dark, much younger countenance and felt a whisper of air tinted with a vaguely comforting masculine odor feather around her face.
Jessica quickly shook her head to clear it and looked back at Baker. "Ned will be joining us, Mr. Baker."
"As you wish," Baker said with a shrug. He led the way into his office and motioned for Jessica and Ned to take the chairs in front of his desk.
"No, thank you," Jessica said. "This won't take but a moment. I just need to know how soon my funds will be available for me."
Baker lowered his own body into the padded chair behind the desk before he faced her, with eyes faintly hooded.
"I guess that will depend upon how soon you can arrange for your mortgage payment on your ranch back in Wyoming to be paid, Miss Callaghan."
"What's that got to do with it?" Jessica asked. "That payment's not due for almost another month yet."
"Oh, yes," Baker mused. "I do seem to recall Mr. Olson's telegram stating that. But it also stated that he seems to have some doubt of your being able to make that payment. Therefore, he's put a hold on the funds you have deposited with him to assure he's not left totally without at least a portion of his money. You see, my dear, banks have to be careful about losing money. After all, the money we loan out does, in truth, belong to our depositors."
"He can't do that!" Jessica gasped. "He has no right!"
"Oh, probably not legally," Baker admitted. "But ethically, he has to protect his other depositors. I imagine he'd lose a court case over this matter, but you'll have to return to Wyoming and get an attorney to fight it for you."
"But that might take months! And by then I'll have the mortgage payment made. I need funds now to get supplies for my men."
"I'm sorry, Miss Callaghan," Baker said in a voice that belied just that. "There's nothing I can do. By the way, what is it that brings you to Baker's Valley? Surely it's not business that can't be taken care of later."
"It...it's not really business," Jessica said in a distracted voice. The worry in her mind crowded out the thought that Baker had no right to question her presence in the valley.
"It's...it's land," she said, giving him the story she and Ned had decided to use while they searched. "I thought maybe to sell out in Wyoming and start again here."
"There's no land available here, Miss Callaghan," Baker told her in a flat voice. "You might as well look elsewhere — perhaps far south of here."
"Why, of course there is," Jessica said in astonishment. "We rode over a lot of land on the way here with no one on it. We passed a few scattered, smaller ranches, but there's thousands of acres of vacant land."
"Some of that land belongs to the Indians," Baker informed her. "Though I have no idea why our government gave anything at all to those damned redskins instead of just completely annihilating them. And some of the land's free range, which the government has no intentions of selling. The smaller ranches holding on around here don't have enough acreage to even be profitable."
"Then why don't they use the free range?"
Baker rose to his feet. "I'm really very sorry I can't be of any help to you, Miss Callaghan. I...."
The office door opened with a bang as it hit the wall behind it. Jessica gave a start and turned quickly around to see a slightly smaller version of the man behind the desk framed in the doorway. But where Harlin Baker just missed being handsome because of the pale blue eyes set somewhat too close together, this man embodied all the word meant. Jessica couldn't quite quell a stir of feminine appreciation.
His blond hair brought thoughts of sunshine into the room and a fringed leather riding jacket fit his shoulders snugly. Though, if one went by his manner of dress, he had just come off the trail, the trail dust must not have dared settle on the jacket. Even his boots gleamed smartly and the hat he slapped against his snug trouser legs kicked up only a minuscule puff.
"Harlin, you old dog," he said in a strangely musical voice for his size. "You don't waste a moment, do you? Why, a beautiful woman rides into town and here you have her corralled already without giving the rest of us a chance to even meet her."
Rather than finding herself piqued at the man's obviously admiring gaze, Jessica felt a flush stain her cheeks. She immediately dropped her gaze when the man's brilliant blue eyes met hers, and studied the toes of her riding boots, sticking out from under the hem of her blue gown. Grasping her skirt, she quickly covered the offending boots she had been forced to don when she realized she had brought a dress with her, but no shoes.
"S...sir," she said in a small voice. "You have no right to say such things about me."
The man crossed the room in two strides and picked up her hand. Before she could stop him, he carried it to his mouth and dropped a kiss on the back of it, his mustache tickling her. He didn't hold her hand any longer than propriety allowed, but Jessica felt his fingertips brush her palm before he let go of it.
"I apologize if I've stepped out of line, dear lady," he said around the smile on his face. "Oh, not for calling you beautiful. I'm sure your own eyes confirm that to you each morning when you look in your mirror. But you are correct. I don't have any right to say such things to you on such short acquaintance, since we haven't even been introduced yet."
He backed up a step and imitated Harlin Baker's bow of moments ago. However, his bow seemed sincere and his voice echoed his sincerity when he raised his head again.
"David Baker, at your service, my dear. And I already know your name. Why, every man in town knows the name of the sable-haired beauty who rode in yesterday. Is there anything I can do for you, Miss Callaghan? I sensed somewhat of a strain between you and that brother of mine when I entered. I hope he hasn't done anything to upset you. A beautiful woman such as you should be treasured and protected from anything distressing."
Jessica shook her head in denial. "No. It's...it's not your brother's fault. There seems to be some problem back at my bank in Wyoming. I guess I'll just have to go back there and take care of it."
"What?" David said in astoundment. "And deny us the joy of your presence so soon? Surely there must be something we can do about that. You can't just come into our lives and leave so suddenly."
"Mr. Baker...."
"David. Please. And I hope soon you will allow me to address you as Jessica."
"Mr...David, then." Jessica looked around almost wildly for Ned and found him leaning against the office wall. When he gave her an encouraging nod, she drew in a steadying breath.
"David, I hadn't meant to stay in town anyway. I just stopped here to replenish our food supply. Someone stole our food pack, along with two of our horses, while we camped night before last."
"Stole them? Have you reported it to the sheriff?"
"Of course. Ned stopped over there yesterday after we arrived in town, but the sheriff didn't seem to think there would be much he could do about it."
"Such things should not go unpunished. Since I'm not without influence in town, I'll go over there with you again and make sure the sheriff gets right on this, my dear," David said as he tucked her arm in his and began to lead her from the office.
Jessica tugged against David's arm and threw a look over shoulder to where Harlin Baker still stood behind his desk. "But...but my funds."
David stopped and turned back to his brother. "Funds? Harlin, are you keeping Miss Callaghan from her funds?"
"It's not like that," Harlin replied in an exasperated voice. "David, we need to talk for a moment."
"Later, Harlin." David waved a hand at his brother. "Right now I'm going with Miss Callaghan. And then perhaps I can talk her into discussing her problems with me over lunch?"
"Lunch?" Jessica said. "But, Mr. Baker, I hardly know you."
"David, please. And if we have lunch together, it will give us an opportunity to correct that, now won't it?" he told her logically. "Oh, don't worry." He glanced sideways at Ned. "You will join us, won't you, sir?" he asked Ned. "I wouldn't for the world jeopardize Miss Callaghan's reputation."
"Well, I...."
"David," Harlin said in a warning voice.
"Harlin, I know we have some things to talk about, but you've got to admit they can wait. I can hardly leave Miss Callaghan in distress if there's some way I can help her, now, can I?" Ignoring the sputters from his brother behind him, David steered Jessica out the door and across the bank lobby.
Ned glanced once from Harlin to Jessica and David's retreating backs before he firmly placed his hat on his head and started after the couple. No, he wouldn't let Jessica's reputation be tarnished, and just maybe there was some way this chap could help her out. He had definitely seemed likable yesterday afternoon while they drank together.
"There you are," Ned said a while later as they approached the hotel. "Missed you at breakfast."
Jedidiah rose from the bench by the door and pulled his hat a little further down on his brow.
"Tol' Miss Callaghan I'd be 'round when she needed me. I don't cotton to spending too much time cooped up indoors, but I keep my word."
David pulled Jessica to a stop a few feet back from Ned and Jedidiah. "Do you know that old man?" he whispered in her ear.
Hearing the mockery in his voice, Jessica raised her head and glared at him. "What if I do?"
"Nothing," David assured her. "Well," he said when she continued to stare at him, "you just seem to have some unusual friends."
"Ned is not unusual," she almost spat at him. "And I've hired Jedidiah for a guide. Do you find some fault with that?"
"Since I don't even know the man, I can hardly answer that," David said with a frown. "I suppose those old mountain men ought to be worth something. I'm sure he's able to find his way around. He looks like he's spent enough time out of polite society."
"Oh!" Jessica said with an indignant snort as she drew her arm from his. "I'll have you know my Uncle Pete was a mountain man, and he was one of the most wonderful men who ever walked this earth!"
"I apologize, Jessica. I couldn't have known. Let's don't let a little thing like this spoil our lunch."
"Of course I won't," Jessica said sweetly.
When he reached for her again, she evaded his grasp and walked up to Ned and Jedidiah.
"Mr. Baker has kindly invited me and my friends to lunch," she said as she cocked her head at Jedidiah. "You will join us, won't you?"
The full beard hid the quirk of his lips, but Jedidiah's faintly sardonic chuckle sounded softly in her ears, reminding Jessica of her treatment of him the day before. She had the grace to blush slightly, but she kept her gaze on his face.
"Please," she added.
"Well now," Jedidiah said so quietly only she could catch his words. "Since you put it so pretty, little lady, how can I refuse?"
Jessica studied him for a second longer. Why did his choice of words stir something in her mind? But she shrugged and turned to lead the way into the hotel dining room, refusing again the offer of David's arm.
A half hour later, Jessica rearranged the food on her plate once again and finally shoved it back with a sigh. Inviting Jedidiah to join them hadn't been one of her better ideas. The tension at the table knotted her stomach until she could barely taste the succulent steak she had ordered.
She couldn't really blame David, she admitted to herself honestly. In an attempt to fill the long gaps of silence at the table, she had responded to his urgings to tell him how she had come to, as he said, his and his brother's fair town. David had given her his full attention, his manners impeccable and the admiration on his face a contradiction to the wry looks Jedidiah tossed at her now and then.
Not the true story about the gold did she tell him, though — it would take more than a handsome face and twinkling eyes filled with devilment to get that out of her. But the sympathy shining from those same blue eyes when she explained her desire to leave the sad memories of her life behind and start over almost had her believing the tale herself.
David had even once or twice tried to draw Jedidiah into the conversation, Jessica conceded to herself, his attempts meeting a blank wall. Jedidiah would only grunt a noncommittal answer and smack his lips more loudly around the next bite of food he shoved into his mouth.
Jessica glanced at Jedidiah. Why, he had even refused to remove his battered old hat inside the hotel. She watched him wipe the back of his mouth with his hand, then pull the linen napkin from his neck and sit back with a sigh.
"Mighty good," he said. "Almost forgot what store bought food tasted like."
"Mr...uh, Jedidiah," David said in a pained voice. "A hotel dining room is hardly a store."
"Same thing," Jedidiah said with a shrug. "Sells food a man don't have to trap or ketch himself. Store bought food."
Jessica couldn't quite contain her giggle and she had to bite her lip when Jedidiah dropped one eyelid in a wink at her. She heard David give a resigned sigh beside her and she hastily lifted her own napkin to her lips to hide her smile.
David raised his hand and immediately Ronnie appeared again by their table.
"We'll have four orders of your delicious strawberry shortcake, Ronnie," he said in an imperious voice.
"Oh, David, no," Jessica said. "Really, I couldn't eat another bite."
"Speak for yourself, Jes," Ned said with a contented sigh. "Bet me and Jedidiah have got enough room left to do justice to a piece of strawberry shortcake."
"Sure do," Jedidiah said with a nod.
"Four pieces, Ronnie," David repeated.
"Yes, sir," the woman said before she hurried away.
"Poor Ronnie," Jessica said as she watched Ronnie leave. "With all she's got to do, I wonder why she's waiting tables. That's Eloise's job."
"You haven't heard, Jessica?" David questioned. "No, I guess you wouldn't have, being newly arrived in town. You wouldn't be tuned in yet to our town's virulently swift grapevine. It sweeps like wildfire through the town when anything either bad or good happens."
From the corner of her eye, Jessica noticed Jedidiah straighten in his chair.
"What happened to her?" Jedidiah asked before Jessica could speak again.
"Did you know her, too, Jedidiah?" David asked with a raised brow.
Jedidiah quickly dropped his gaze. "Not hardly," he said as he speared a last piece of steak from his plate, though he didn't bring it to his mouth. "'Specially since I ain't been in town for a while. Used to know someone called Eloise, that's all."
"I hope the woman you knew fared better than our poor Eloise," David said sadly. "You see, she was found dead in her room at the boarding house this morning."
"Oh no!" Jessica gasped. "Why, last night she served us our dinner. How could she have gotten ill so fast?"
"It wasn't illness, my dear," David said with a slight shake of his head. "I'm afraid someone murdered her."
Though she had barely known Eloise, Jessica's face whitened and her stomach curled in horror. Eloise had been so sparkling and alive with anticipation for her future the previous evening. How could such vibrancy be snuffed out so quickly? Suddenly she realized the cause for the morose unhappiness on Ronnie's face she had noticed but been too busy to question on her way to the bank earlier.
"Do they know who did it?" she asked David.
"Not exactly," David said. "Though there are, again, rumors." He fell silent when Ronnie returned and set their shortcake in front of them.
Before Ronnie could move away, Jessica reached out and took the older woman's hand in hers. "I'm sorry, Ronnie. David just told me about Eloise."
"She...." Ronnie's voice broke on the word, but she straightened her shoulders. "She was a good girl, Jessica," she continued in a firmer voice. "Been with me for over three years. Almost like a daughter to me, she was."
"Did she have any family?" Jessica questioned.
"None," Ronnie said dejectedly. "Orphan, she was. Her parents were killed in a fire out on their ranch just before she came here and applied for the job. She and Tobias would have been married next week, though, and she'd have had a family again."
"Tobias? Oh, her young man."
"Right fine young man he is, too. I don't know if anyone's even told him yet. Him and his mute sister live so far out on that there ranch that it's hard to get to them."
"But someone has to tell him! If they were betrothed, he'll want to see she has a proper burial."
"Now, Jessica," David interrupted. "It's not your worry. I'm sure the sheriff has already sent someone out to the Jackson ranch."
"Me and Buster will see that she's buried proper, Jes," Ronnie informed her. "We've already ordered the box and the service will be day after tomorrow. We'll find some way to get word to Tobias so he can be there."
Jessica shoved her chair back. "Well, I'm going back over to the sheriff's office and make sure he sends someone out to that ranch right now. Her Tobias will never forgive everyone if he isn't sent word. And it's the sheriff's duty to inform loved ones at a time like this."
"Really, Jessica," David said as he rose to his feet. "This isn't a matter you need to concern yourself with."
"Death concerns everyone, David," she informed him frostily. "I'm surprised a man who seemed so sympathetic over a perfectly healthy woman's loss of a little bit of food and a couple horses turns a cold shoulder to this matter."
"I'm sorry, Jessica," David said as he humbly hung his head. "I guess it's just that I resent not having a little more time to spend with you. And I do want to help you out of your predicament."
Two sets of chair legs scraped the floor as Ned and Jedidiah rose to join them. Jessica gave a little start as Jedidiah grabbed his chair to keep it from tumbling to the floor after his abrupt shove.
"My problems can wait, David," she said, turning her attention back to him. "Some things are more important. Maybe we'll meet again and I do thank you for lunch." She held out her hand to him and David clasped it tightly for a second.
"We will see each other again, Miss Jessica Callaghan. You can count on that."
"Well, if you say so, David," she said and firmly pulled her hand free. "And I also thank you for your efforts to come up with an idea to help me out. But I truly don't see anything else to do except go back to Wyoming and sort things out. Goodbye."
"Goodbye for now, Jessica," he murmured as she turned away.
Outside the hotel door, Jessica felt Jedidiah grasp her arm. When she looked up at him, she found herself astonished at the cold blackness in his eyes.
"You don't need me right now, Missy," he informed her in answer to her questioning gaze. "If you'll tell me where to meet you, I'll be there when you git ready to go."
Jessica jerked her arm free and rubbed at the goosebumps spreading over the area his fingers had covered. "Uh...I...."
"We've got some men camped about a mile out of town on a creek that runs down from the hill," Ned put in when Jessica stuttered to a stop. "Guess we'll probably be there in the morning."
Jedidiah nodded and strode abruptly away.
For a long moment Ned stared after him, then responded to Jessica's tug on his arm.
"We were on our way over to the sheriff's office. Remember, Ned?"
"Yeah. Let's go."
As he walked beside Jessica toward the sheriff's office, Ned shook his head. He hadn't seen her so concerned about anything besides her own problems for months, though she wasn't usually that way. More than one family down on its luck back in Wyoming had felt her generosity. And Mattie never knew how many stray children she would find at the supper table — just that she had better have enough food to fill several empty stomachs, with scraps left over for an orphaned puppy or kitten.
Heck, Jessica had carried a picnic basket of food with her to school every day, never once bringing even an apple back home. And how many times had a dress Mattie sewed for Jessica shown up on one of the little girls perched at the heavily laden supper table, with Jessica insisting she had already tired of it?
He should have known her natural tendency to nurture the underdog would eventually surface again. The tragic death of the waitress and the fact the sheriff might not stir himself to notify the woman's betrothed angered him, also.
He couldn't help worrying a little at the inopportune timing of this latest crusade of hers, though. She did have that mortgage payment to make, which he guessed he could take care of with one telegram. She would be furious with him, but he wasn't about to see her ranch added to the list of losses she had so bravely born the last couple years.
Meantime, he wasn't in any hurry to leave Baker's Valley. Fate had thrown another loop into their lives — one Jessica wasn't even aware of yet. Suspicion nagged at Ned's mind and the promise he had made to himself years ago still held true. Pete's death didn't relieve Ned of the obligation he felt to repay the old mountain man for his own life.
Ned glanced down the street as they paused at the door to the sheriff's office, but he didn't see a sign of Jedidiah.