But the day had come when serious business had taken Longarm to Austin and Billy had said, since Longarm was going to be so close, why didn’t he go on down to Mason and have a quick look around. However, he had admonished Longarm to give the matter no more attention than it deserved. But there had been complexities to the situation that had intrigued Longarm as a lawman and made him anxious to find out just how deep the corruption ran.
And besides, there was Hannah Diver. She was the sixth youngest of Dalton Diver’s ten daughters. People said that old Dalton Diver raised daughters the way other folks raised cattle, for profit, and that he was doing considerably better than most cattlemen. Diver made no attempt to deny or disguise the fact. He was straight-up direct about the way he went about marrying off his daughters. Hannah had been a good example. Before he would let her many Gus Home, who was considered, but not proven, to be an outlaw, he had made the man purchase a good, comfortable cabin on deeded land, furnish Hannah with a good milk cow and laying chickens, and provide her with a horse and buggy as well as a saddle horse. In addition he was to give Hannah a vegetable kitchen garden plowed up and planted, put five hundred dollars in the bank in her name, and pay Dalton Diver the sum of one thousand dollars.
Gus Home had lived up to every commitment, except he’d been called away right after the marriage, leaving Hannah frustrated and disappointed and angry as hell. She had told Longarm that her mother, before she’ddied, had talked to her about her wedding night. Hannah had said, “Momma told me that a lady gets deflowered on her wedding night. That her husband comes along and plucks her like a rose. That I’m a bud just waiting to flower and that my husband is going to be the one who makes me open up. Well, I ain’t been deflowered and I ain’t been plucked and I damn sure ain’t opened up! My daddy takes good care of his girls, and I’m gonna send him after that damn Gus Home if he don’t get back here and tend to his business!”
Longarm’s correct name was Custis Long, and he had been a deputy United States marshal for a good deal longer than he liked to think about. It seemed that he had been based in Denver, listening to Billy Vail, the chief marshal, tell him where and when he was heading out on another job, for nearly as long as he could remember. He had been shot, he’d been stabbed, he’d nearly been burned to death, he’d nearly died of thirst, of hunger, of bad whiskey, and lack of ammunition. Along the way there had been plenty of women, but there never had been one like Hannah. For one thing, he was pretty sure that she was a virgin and he had never, to use her word, deflowered a virgin. For another, she was married, technically, and Longarm had never knowingly taken another man’s wife. But without splitting hairs, he felt that, circumstances being what they were, he would not be acting against his own code of honor if he helped this young lady out—sort of stood in as a surrogate for her missing husband as it were. He had asked himself if he would have been so eager to do the good turn if Hannah were not quite so delectable-looking, but he had avoided answering the question because he didn’t think it applied. Hannah already had the body she had, and nothing was going to change the way she looked. Besides, he had told himself, there was an excellent chance that she was going to be a widow before anybody deflowered her. And the woman was curious as hell. She was burning up to know what it was all about, and Longarm had never been one to deny a beautiful woman anything that was within his power to give.
He now said to Deputy Melvin Purliss, “Just hang on a minute. Let me step back inside and tell Mrs. Diver-“
“Home. She married Gus Home, you’ll recollect.”
“Home then.” He stared at Purliss, thinking that what made him the best of Bodenheimer’s three deputies was that he was not blood kin of the sheriff. Of the other two, one was a first cousin and the other was a nephew. The relationship showed in both of them. Longarm put his hand on the door latch and said, “You wait here, Purliss. I’ll be back right quick.”
“You want me to tighten the cinch on yore horse?”
“I don’t want you going near my horse. Is that clear? Don’t touch any of my stock.”
The deputy looked sullen. “You ain’t got to be so cranky about it.”
Considering what he was about to have to leave behind, Longarm thought that he had full right to be a hell of a lot crankier than he’d shown so far. He said, “Melvin, this better not be another wild-goose chase, or I’m likely to be of a great mind to put you and Bodenheimer and the rest of your bunch in federal prison. How’d you like to spend some time in Kansas, Melvin?”
Purliss backed away, looking down at the ground. He hacked and spat and said sullenly, “Ain’t no need to take it out on me. I just doin’ what I’m told.”
“Well, now, I’m telling you to stand right there and don’t do nothing. Don’t make no noise and don’t move out of that spot. Understand?”
Without waiting for an answer, he swung the door open slightly and then slid through and closed it behind him. It was a little after one o’clock on a bright, fall day. Hannah had fixed him a good lunch of stew with meat and vegetables and fresh-baked bread. That, along with a bottle of the Maryland whiskey that he favored and the scent and feel of her, had more than filled him up.
She was still in the bed, lying exactly as he had left her, her light brown head shiny against the white of the pillowcase. He crossed the room and eased down on the side of the bed. Her eyes had been closed, but now they fluttered open. She said, “We gonna do it now?”
The words were more painful than any bullets that had ever pierced his hide. He winced, trying to think of something to say. “Not just this minute, Hannah, darlin’,” he said. “I got to run a little errand. But I will be back here tonight.”
“Oh, you!” she said angrily. “You ain’t no better than the rest.” She suddenly flung the covers off her and sat up on the bed. Longarm was suddenly face-to-face with those swelling breasts again. His mouth hungered for the taste of her cherry nipples, and the crotch of his jeans suddenly became too tight. With a swift move he leaned down, turning his head sideways, and took each one of them in turn in his mouth, holding them each a long moment, feeling them going more rigid as he caressed them with his tongue.
Hannah began trembling slightly. She said, “Ooooooooh. Is that part of it?”
Longarm raised his head up. “Yeah,” he said huskily.
“I like that,” she said, her hazel eyes looking excited. “That feels goooood.”
“Try this,” he said. He put his mouth over hers, trying to force it open gently with his tongue. She pulled back until she could see him.
She said, “Are you aimin’ to put your tongue in my mouth?”
“Yes,” he said, having difficulty controlling his voice. “That’s the idea. Then you do with your tongue what you want to.”
He leaned in to kiss her again, taking her in his arms.
This time her lips were soft and open and her tongue was a darting, exploring probe. When he finally pulled back she was breathing hard.