Kady laughed as she thought of a ladies’ elegant tea being decimated by a couple of greedy boys seeing if they could stuff all the food into their mouths at once. “I think I will go. I’ll tell her all about the five Ms and how you played them one against the other and how I served you a rat for dinner.”
Suddenly, he grabbed her and pulled her up into his arms. “And what else are you going to tell her? What good things are you going to report about my character?”
Looking up at him, she caressed his whisker-stubbled cheek. “I shall tell her about how you saved the eagles and how you have done everything you can to make me welcome.” When he didn’t move, she knew he wanted more. “And I shall tell her that you love me.”
Smiling, he kissed her, but when she put her arms around his neck and started to want more, he pulled back. “My grandmother is very punctual. You’d better get out of here.”
Kady’s eyes widened. “I could wear the new dress you bought me,” she said, looking down at her long skirt that was dusty with age and food stained, as all her clothing was.
“Kady, my dear, you could go naked and still be the best-dressed woman in the world.”
Kady smiled at him in pure delight, for she knew that what he was saying was from his heart. Whenever she’d been to bed with Gregory, she had been careful to keep her modesty, always covering herself up, always thinking how unattractive her plump body was. It was amazing how in twentieth-century America one’s weight became the overruling factor of one’s life. But with Cole she felt beautiful. In fact, the whole town of Legend made her feel beautiful and desirable and as though she were worth everything.
With the smile of a temptress, Kady took Cole’s hand in hers and led him up the stairs. Maybe he was waiting for something from Kady, such as for her to tell him that she loved him, before he made an attempt at seduction. But maybe he was waiting for a signal from her.
“Why don’t you have a seat?” she said in her Mae West–imitation voice as she went to the big wardrobe and withdrew the many garments that a nineteenth-century woman was supposed to wear.
With wide eyes, and as though he were watching a striptease, Cole stretched out on the bed, shoved pillows behind his head, and watched Kady get dressed. For her part, for the first time in her life, Kady took an extraordinarily long time dressing in the clothes Cole had bought for her. She even propped each leg, one at a time, on a chair and very slowly pulled on the stockings that left the upper part of her thighs bare.
When she was dressed, she walked over to Cole, who was now staring at her oddly. And when he grabbed her head to pull her down to kiss her deeply—for the first time—she knew what his expression was. Smiling in satisfaction, Kady had to use all her strength to pull away from him.
“Hold that thought,” she said, breathless from the passion she’d just felt from him. “I, ah, I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
Cole was looking at her with such hot eyes that she wasn’t sure she could escape him. It took some strength to back toward the door and fumble with the latch behind her.
“Kady,” he said as she opened the door. “Remember that I love you.”
The way he said it made her heart start to pound. “And you won’t forget me?”
That made her smile. “I don’t think so,” she said, smiling in return. “You aren’t a man a woman forgets.”
As she stepped through the door, he called out to her, “Remember that the truth is in a person’s eyes.”
“Yes,” she said, then quickly closed the door to the bedroom. Another minute and she’d never be able to leave. She’d jump into bed with him and never get out.
Outside the house, Manuel had a nice, docile horse saddled for her, and to Kady’s surprise, she found she was to go to the Hanging Tree by herself, without so much as an escort. After many days of not being given any freedom, this seemed odd, but Manuel just pointed her down the main street of Legend, then told her to take a left on Eternity Road. The Hanging Tree was at the end of it.
With that the old man turned away and mounted the steps onto the porch, and when Kady looked back, he and Dolores were standing there, their faces filled with sadness. When she was mounted, Kady smiled at them, for she guessed that they were worried that she’d never return. But Kady knew how to get back to her own time, and she knew that she was not going to take that route. Not when Cole was waiting for her.
She hadn’t had much experience with horses, but the animal seemed to know where she was to go, so she just held on to the reins. As she rode away, she turned back and waved at Manuel and Dolores on the porch, and at Cole in the upstairs window. Some of the ranch hands had come in from the stables, and they, too, were watching her ride away.
As Kady turned the corner and was out of their vision, she looked at the road ahead. “Sure a bunch of gloomy Guses,” she said, then thought how nice it was to finally have freedom. She rode past the library and glanced up the short road toward the beautiful mosque, thinking of Cole’s saying he’d bury the treasure from the Lost Maiden Mine there.
It was a short ride down Paradise Lane, then a left onto the main road of Kendal Avenue, then another left onto Eternity Road. She passed the firehouse, the telegraph office, and one of the many tent cities, temporarily housing mine workers. She passed the Amaryllis Mine, then continued on the road, away from all human habitation and toward the mountains.
All along the way, people stopped what they were doing and waved at her, making Kady smile and wave back. “I guess I’m famous,” she said, laughing. “I guess I’m the woman who fed the town.” As she rode she wondered if someday she’d be written about in one of those tourist brochures that you purchase in ghost towns.
But she didn’t like to think of Legend as a ghost town, so she put that thought out of her head and concentrated on the scenery.
Once the town was behind her, in the distance she saw a carriage, a lovely thing with a roof on it and a man unhitching the horses. On the ground, sitting on a white tablecloth, was an elegant-looking woman surrounded by all the accoutrements of an old-fashioned afternoon tea. There was a silver teapot and cups so thin that even this far away, she could see the sun shining through them.
She dismounted some distance from the picnic, tied the horse in the shade near a grassy spot, and went forward to meet her grandmother-in-law.
Chapter 16
WHAT APPREHENSION KADY FELT ABOUT MEETING THE ONLY living relative of a man she was coming to care a great deal about was soon gone when Ruth Jordan put out her hand in warm friendship. She was a tall, thin woman, wearing an exquisite white dress with big sleeves and a slim, sleek skirt, showing Kady just how out-of-date the big-skirted fashions of Legend were. As the older woman smiled, Kady saw that her eyes resembled Cole’s. What else she could see in those eyes was pain, and Kady remembered too well the horrible tragedy that had befallen Cole’s family. In a very short time this lovely woman had lost everything, and from the look of her, she still hadn’t recovered from her losses.
“Here, my dear, you must sit down and tell me everything there is to tell about you and my grandson. I want to know everything,” she said graciously, motioning toward the cloth on the ground.