“Enjoy them.”
Tessa met his knowing brown-eyed gaze. The expression on his face and the way he spoke to her, in that deep purr, told her that David Alexander had had more to do with choosing the gifts than Coalie.
She shivered at the thought and a warm feeling settled deep inside her.
* * *
“Mr. Alexander!” Coalie’s call echoed up the hall a few minutes later as David sat in the office at the jail. “Tessa wants you to come here.”
“I’ll be right there,” David answered. He looked at the sheriff. They’d heard Tessa’s spontaneous oohs and aahs of delight through the thick door separating the cells from the office.
“She sounds right pleased with all them female frills you bought her,” the sheriff commented, pouring himself a cup of steaming hot coffee. “Probably wants to thank you.”
David shrugged. “She had to have a decent dress to wear.”
“You coulda borrowed some of your sister’s,” the sheriff reminded the younger ma
n. “Hell, I was going to suggest you borrow some of my wife’s. That Harris is a good deputy, but he don’t know beans about how to treat a woman prisoner. He left her sitting back there wrapped in a blanket all day. He coulda got something from some of the women in town.”
“I doubt if she’d have accepted anything,” David admitted, “or if the women would have loaned any clothes to a woman accused of murder. This way she has something of her own. She’s not beholden to anyone.”
“Except to you,” the Sheriff pointed out.
David’s fulminating glare spoke volumes.
A different man might have retreated from that look, but Sheriff Bradley scratched his head and changed the subject. “Wonder what Myra’s got against that little girl in there? Renting her room to someone else is one thing. Giving away her personal belongings is something else. Makes you wonder, though, doesn’t it?”
David didn’t get a chance to answer. Coalie’s shout interrupted once again. “Mr. Alexander, Tessa says to hurry. It’s cold back here.”
“Take these.” Sheriff Bradley tossed the ring of keys at David. “In case you need ’em. I want to finish my coffee while it’s hot.”
David caught the keys, then opened the thick door and followed the hallway back to the holding area.
“What is it?” he asked.
Tessa stood near the cot holding a green calico dress and several small white garments clutched against her chest. “I need help with these,” Tessa told him, blushing as she held out the underclothes.
“Coalie can help you.” David held up the ring of keys, selected the one with her cell number, and unlocked the door.
“Coalie’s a little boy.”
“I’m a grown man,” David reminded her.
“I know,” Tessa agreed. “You know about these things. Coalie doesn’t.” She paused a moment, then shifted the clothing against her so David could see the white laces of the corset.
“He lived in a saloon,” David said. He couldn’t believe it. She actually thought Coalie had never seen women in underclothes and corsets while living in the Satin Slipper?
“I kept him away from the other women as much as possible,” Tessa said. “And I made sure he didn’t see…” She blushed even redder and tightened her hold on the clothing.
“Tessa never let me see her unmentionables,” Coalie told David. “Just dresses and nightgowns. And I only saw her when she was all covered up.”
“Coalie said you bought these clothes,” Tessa explained to David. “He said you asked for a bonnet, a pair of shoes, a green dress and for all the foundation garments. Including ladies’ unmentionables.”
“I did.”
“He knows all about unmentionables,” Coalie piped up, extolling David’s virtues, fascinated with the forbidden topic.
“Then you should understand why I can’t get dressed without help,” Tessa said to David. “Not if you expect me to wear this.” She nodded toward the dress. “I have to wear a…you know…or the top won’t fit properly.” She lowered the garments and the blanket a fraction so he could see her problem. “Please.”