Leander spoke next. “I don’t think you ever know a person. I’ve known Houston most of my life, but the Houston I knew and the one who’d blow out the side of a jail aren’t the same woman. A few years ago, I took her to a dance and she wore a very becoming red dress, but Gates had said something that had hurt her feelings and she kept clutching her cloak so every inch of that dress was covered. She was so nervous by the time we reached the dance that I said that if she wanted to keep wearing the cloak it was fine with me. Damned if she didn’t spend the whole evening sitting in a corner looking like she was about to cry.”
Houston’s hand paused as she held a flower. It was odd how the same episode could be seen in two ways. Now that she looked back on it, maybe she had been silly to be so upset about a red dress. Now, she seemed to remember that Nina Westfield often wore just that shade of red that had caused Houston so much anguish that night.
Smiling, Houston continued with the flowers.
“If she was gonna break out of the mold, she could’ve done it with less danger to my hide,” Kane said. “You don’t know what it’s like to have somebody tell you that they’ve just lit dynamite under your feet and there ain’t nowhere you can run.”
“You can stop bragging,” Edan said. “You loved what she did and you know it.”
Houston’s smile grew broader.
Leander laughed. “Too bad you didn’t get to see what happened after the explosion. Everybody thought another mine had gone up and we ran out of our houses in our underwear. When we saw the jail, with half of it blown away, we just stood there; not one of us could understand what had happened. It was Edan who first remembered that you were in the jail.”
A little laugh escaped Houston, but she got it under control.
“Listen,” Edan said, “as soon as I saw that jail, I knew Houston was involved. While the rest of you’ve been worshipping at her feet over the years and telling yourselves what an ice princess she is, I’ve been following her around. Under her prim little exterior is a woman . . . Well, you wouldn’t believe some of the things that woman does on a regular basis.”
Houston had more difficulty controlling her laughter. Edan sounded half-appalled, half-admiring. She thought of the time he’d hidden and watched the pre-wedding party. The day he’d told her that he’d seen it, she hadn’t allowed herself to think about anything except that he’d heard about their plans for the mines, but now she thought of the boxer, and the cancan, and, oh Heavens, Fanny Hill. At the time, she’d been terrified that Kane would find out some of the things that she did, such as The Sisterhood’s stag parties, and infiltrating the mine camps, but, in the end, he’d caught her in nearly all of it and her life hadn’t ended. The night she wore that red dress, she was sure that if she showed it to anyone, her reputation would be ruined and she wouldn’t be a fit wife for Leander.
But look at what she’d done in the last few months! There was the time she had climbed down the rose trellis in her underwear. Then there was inviting all those people to live with them and telling Kane—who had to support them—about it later.
The more she thought, the more the laughter bubbled inside her. Before they were married, she was quite sure who was marrying Kane Taggert. He requested a lady, and she was sure that she could fill the bill. But when she began to remember the things she’d put him through, and all the times he’d said, with that special look of disbelief on his face, that he’d had no idea what he was getting when he married a real true, deep-down lady, Houston could no longer control her laughter. It exploded from her in a sound that made the vase on the table tremble.
She grabbed the
side of the table and kept on laughing as her knees grew weak.
Immediately, the men came running out of the room.
“Houston, honey, you all right?” Kane asked as he took her arm and started to pull her upright. But it was like trying to get a piece of seaweed to stand.
“I covered my red dress because I didn’t want anyone to think I wasn’t a lady,” she cried, “but then I blew out the side of the jail.” She put her hands over her stomach as she fell the last few inches to sit on the floor. “Was my hat on straight?” she asked. “Was it on straight the night I challenged the boxer to a muscle showdown?”
“What’s she talkin’ about?” Kane asked.
Edan was beginning a smile, and it broadened as he said, “You lost it while you were dancing.” He started to laugh. “Houston, I took a bottle of whiskey with me that night because I thought I’d be bored watching a ladies’ tea party.” By the time he finished, he was on the floor with Houston.
“And Miss Emily!” he gasped. “I can’t walk past her shop with a straight face.”
Houston was laughing too hard to speak clearly. “And Leander! I was so careful all those years. I never let you know about Sadie or any of the other things.”
Leander, smiling, watched. “You know what she’s talking about?” he asked Kane.
Rafe answered. “This sweet little empty-headed lady that looks too delicate to do anything but embroider, regularly handles a four-horse wagon.”
“I can drive twelve,” she declared and that sent Edan and her into new peals of laughter.
“And she has a right that can flatten boys as big as she is,” Kane said with pride, “and she can leave her own weddin’ to follow her pigheaded husband when he’s made an ass of himself in front of the whole town, and she can pay my mistress to get outta town and she can scream.” He stopped when he said the last and began to look embarrassed.
Leander looked down at Houston on the floor, her arms around Edan, both of them weak with laughter, and he turned to Kane, saw the way the man was watching Houston with a mixture of pride and love. “And to think that I called her an ice princess,” Lee murmured.
Kane rocked back on his heels, his thumbs in his belt loops and said, “I melted the ice.”
Both Lee and Rafe shouted with laughter, as much at Kane’s pride as at his words.
Rafe nodded down at Houston. “You better do somethin’ with that piece of ice ’fore she melts and runs down into the cracks in the floor. I don’t think you wanta lose her.”
Kane stooped and lifted Houston into his arms. “I ain’t never lettin’ this lady go.”