“I’m not sick.” She wouldn’t turn to face him. She was as still as a dead thing. “I’m just... just too ... sore.”
Chase scowled. What the hell was she trying hide?
“I’m going to dress you, Jessie, and then I’m taking you to Cheyenne to see the doctor.”
“For a little soreness? Don’t be ridiculous.”
She tried to make her voice light, but there was an unmistakable effort behind each word. He shifted his weight on the bed, and the movement made her face flush with heat. Not now! It’s got to stay down! But her body wasn’t listening. She felt the bile rising and clamped her hand to her mouth. She turned so quickly then that her legs slammed into Chase’s hip. If he hadn’t jumped to his feet she would have knocked him over.
Jessie was off the bed in a second and dashing for the tin pail in the corner. He watched her, dazed as she knelt over the pail, retching. Finally he got his thoughts together enough to grab a blanket from the bed and drape it over her shoulders. She was hardly aware of him.
Chase could think of nothing else to do at the moment, so he left the cabin, walking outside to give her some privacy. Jessie, hearing him go, cursed him for not going sooner, before he’d witnessed her illness. Assuming he was gone for the day, she stumbled back to the cot and fell asleep.
Chapter 35
WHEN Jessie woke the second time that day, she stirred hesitantly, then relaxed. It was over. The awful nausea was gone for the day.
Her first thought was of food. Her second was of Chase. Had he gone on to work? Had he gone for a doctor? Oh, Lord, she hoped not. At least he wasn’t there, so she had time to think. What could she tell him? That she had an illness that struck only in the mornings, or an allergy?
She sat up and stretched, then stared, unbelieving, at the table across the room.
“I thought... you had gone,” she said uncomfortably.
“Did you?”
She didn’t like his calm reply at all.
“Let’s just say I stuck around out of curiosity,” he said blandly. “I wanted to see if you would have another miraculous recovery, like yesterday.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You could at least be a little sympathetic.”
He got up from the table and came to stand by the side of her bed, gazing at her steadily. Jessie grew nervous under the look and couldn’t meet his eyes for long.
“You’re pregnant.”
“I’m not!” She said it much too quickly and reiterated more calmly, “really, I’m not.”
“Of course.”
He sat down on the bed and drew her blanket away from her. “You’ve got beautiful breasts,” he said casually, touching them gently. “Strange, but they’re a lot fuller than they were the last time I touched them.”
Jessie slapped his hands away. “Don’t be absurd!”
“You’re trying my patience, Jessie.” He gripped her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes. “I’ve been around women most of my life. When I was a kid, before my mother married Ewing, half her clientele were pregnant women. It happens to be the only time in a woman’s life when she has a legitimate excuse for a new wardrobe. Those women discussed their complaints freely, unaware that I was around. You think I can’t figure that’s why no one ever sees you in the mornings anymore?”
She shoved his hand aside, furious that he was more knowledgeable about the subject than she had been. “Leave me alone.”
“You were going to let me take off without knowing, weren’t you?” he continued relentlessly. “You were going to face this all alone?”
“It’s my business, not yours.”
“It most certainly is my business!”
“Oh, really?” She sat back. “What difference has been made, now that you know? Nothing has changed.”
“We’re getting married.”
“No.” She shook her head slowly. “I considered it when I first knew, but that was before I found you in bed with a whore.”
“Nothing happened, Jessie. I was drunk.”
“I know that. But the intention was there. When I do settle on a man, he will never even look at another woman. The one thing I will not tolerate is unfaithfulness. It would be like—never mind that.” She wouldn’t think of her parents now. “You— you have always had your pick of any woman you wanted. So you’ll always be a philanderer.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Jessie,” Chase said softly. “You’d be quite enough to satisfy me.”
She grew flustered under his steady gaze. “This discussion has reached an end.”
“This discussion is about my child.”
“My child!” she retorted. “I’m the one who’s suffering for him. I’m the one who’ll bear him. And I’m the one who’ll raise him.”
“You plan to raise him without a father? I know what that’s like, Jessie, and no child of mine is going to be raised that way.”
“You have no say in it!”
“We’ll see about that!”
They glared at each other for a long, tense moment. Jessie was furious. She hadn’t expected him to be so bossy. Chase was just as furious. He realized that Jessie had done everything she could to keep the child’s existence from him, and she’d nearly succeeded.
Chase got up abruptly. “Get dressed.”
“With pleasure,” she replied stonily, but it wasn’t until she was fully dressed that she noticed what was missing. “Where’s my gun?”
“In my saddlebag.”
“What?”
“I have rendered you a woman at the mercy of a man’s whims.” He said it lightly, but he was deadly serious. “You’re coming with me, Jessie, and for once you’re powerless to say otherwise.”
“Coming with you where?” she demanded.
“To Cheyenne. I told you, we’re getting married.”
“Chase.” She kept her voice level, though she wanted to scream. “You can’t force me to marry you. You’ll only be wasting your time on such a long ride, not to mention my time.”
“I don’t think so, Jessie. Now, do you walk outside and mount up, or do I carry you?”
Jessie stalked past him and out the door, stiff with anger. But if she’d thought to dash for her horse and take off ahead of him, she had to forget it, for Chase was right behind her. He took charge of Blackstar’s reins from the start.
For the first several hours of that long ride to Cheyenne, Jessie simply fumed. But there were many more hours and she gave those to clear thinking. By the time they reached town, she had pretty much made her resolves.
Late though it was, Chase rode directly to the church. They dismounted together, and then Chase drew his gun on her. But Jessie had expected that. She was amused but managed to hide it. It was so ironic. Hadn’t she considered getting him to the altar in the same way that night she had decided to marry him? And now here he was, ready to march her up the aisle with a gun in her back.
She stayed silent while he roused the preacher, while he positioned her in front of the altar, while the first words were said. She knew the preacher couldn’t see the gun at her back. Her silence continued right up until it was time for her to respond.
Chase gritted his teeth, waiting to hear Jessie speak. But she was being stubborn. He pressed the gun against her spine, not really expecting it to do any good, but as he did, her answer came out clearly and loudly. Chase was so surprised, it took him a moment to make his own responses. They were married in no time, and Jessie even hastily scrawled her name across the marriage certificate before she walked out of the church without waiting for Chase.