Longarm shook his head and said, “Sorry, I sure haven’t. But I reckon she’s bound to be all right. Nothing’s going to happen to her here on the train-“
He stopped abruptly, realizing that not everyone on board this train was really what they were pretending to be. His discovery tonight was proof of that. “Tell you what,” he went on. “I’ll take a look around, see if I can find Janice. Will you be all right here?”
Julie nodded. “Worried, but all right. Actually, I think I ought to come with you.”
“Nope,” Longarm said firmly. “I want at least one of you ladies where I know I can find you, where I know you’ll be safe.”
She clutched at his arm. “You don’t think Janice is safe?”
“I didn’t say that. We’ve got to eat the apple one bite at a time, and I reckon the first bite is to find your sister.”
He stepped out of the compartment and closed the door softly behind him, taking with him the image of Julie standing there with her lower lip caught between her white teeth, the worried frown creasing the tanned skin of her forehead.
Longarm knew that Janice was not behind him on the train, since he had just come from that direction. There were several passenger cars between this one and the engine, including the one where Senator Padgett’s compartment was located, so he decided to work toward the front. If he had to, he could always bring the conductor and the porters in on the search, but he wanted to avoid raising that much of a commotion if at all possible.
As it turned out, he didn’t have to go far at all. He made his way through the next car without seeing any sign of Janice, walked through the car after that with the same lack of results, then opened the door onto the platform between cars and saw two shadowy figures standing there in the moonlight. He recognized the sort of feathered hat that Janice preferred perched on the head of one of the figures. Standing next to her was a short, slender man. Longarm opened his mouth and was about to say something when the man suddenly threw his arms around Janice and pulled her against him.
Longarm stiffened and reached for his gun, but the sound of a wet, sloppy kiss, followed by the sharp crack of a slap, made him pause. Maybe he wasn’t interrupting anything except an ill-timed romantic overture.
“How dare you!” Janice said shrilly. “Unhand me this instant, Mr. Mercer!”
Longarm’s eyes widened in surprise, but now that he came to think of it, the gent on the platform with Janice was undoubtedly built like Leon Mercer. A grin plucked at Longarm’s mouth as he watched Janice put her hands against the man’s narrow chest and shove him away.
“I swear, I don’t know what you were thinking of, Mr. Mercer!” said Janice, her voice a mixture of irritation and exasperation.
“Neither do I, Leon,” Longarm said dryly as he stepped forward onto the platform and pulled the door shut behind him. No point in sharing this little domestic drama with anybody in the car behind him who happened to be awake at this late hour. “And you, Miss Janice,” he went on, “I didn’t expect to catch you sparking on a train platform with a respectable gent like Leon here.”
“Custis!” exclaimed Janice. “What are you doing-I mean, how did you-I wasn’t sparking with anyone!”
“Reckon I was mistaken, then. Sure looked to me like you and Leon were pretty wrapped up in each other.”
“Well, it wasn’t my idea, I assure you!”
Mercer said quickly, “It was all my fault, Marshal. I … I’m afraid I behaved like a dreadful cad. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I … I forced myself on poor Miss Cassidy.” His voice was miserable and embarrassed, but it took on a moonstruck tone as he looked at Janice and added, “She was just so lovely, standing there in the moonlight, and I couldn’t help myself.”
Janice sniffed. “I suppose all men have such animal urges, but I expected better of you, Mr. Mercer. You’re a gentleman. You should be able to control those impulses!”
Her injured tone might have struck Longarm as a little more genuine if he hadn’t remembered the way she had hauled his manhood out of his trousers and played a tune on it the very first day they met. The blushing-virgin act wasn’t very convincing now. Still, if she didn’t want Leon Mercer to kiss her, she had every right to stop him.
Mercer gulped uneasily in the face of Janice’s anger. “You won’t tell the senator about this, will you? Either of you?”
“Well … I suppose it wouldn’t serve any purpose to humiliate you,” Janice allowed grudgingly. “Just as long as I have your assurance that it will never happen again.”
“Never!” Mercer said hastily. “I swear it!”
She gave him a little smile. “I suppose I should be flattered, in a way. Why, to provoke such a response from a man I’ve always considered a bit of a cold fish …”
“That’s exactly what I am,” Mercer said. “A cold fish. But you are a beautiful woman, Miss Cassidy. A very beautiful woman.”
Janice lifted her chin. “Thank you. Now, you run on back to the senator, and we won’t say anything more about this. It will be as if it had never happened.”
“Thank you, Miss Cassidy. Thank you so much.”
For a second, Longarm thought Mercer was going to ruin things by slobbering all over Janice in his gratitude, but then he backed off and disappeared into the next car, heading back to Padgett’s compartment.
Janice chuckled and stepped over to Longarm, sliding her arm around his. “Can you believe that?” she asked. “I was just standing there talking to him, and suddenly that mousy little man had his arms around me, and—I swear it!—his tongue was halfway down my throat!”
“Leon got a mite carried away, all right,” Longarm said. “But he was right about one thing—you do look beautiful in the moonlight. And in any other light I can think of.”
Janice snuggled against him so that he could feel the warm, heavy weight of her breast on his arm. “Why, Custis, what a lovely thing to say. But I was just wondering … how did you happen to open that door at that very moment?”
“I was looking for you,” Longarm told her. “Your sister’s mighty worried about you.”
“Julie sent you out looking for me?” Janice sounded surprised. “There was no need for that. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself!”
“Yes, ma’am, I’m sure you are. But I reckon sisters are supposed to worry. That’s part of what makes ‘em sisters.”
“I suppose so. I just came out here for a breath of fresh air, you know … and then I ran into Mr. Mercer and we began talking. He surprised me. He’s really a very charming man when he wants to be, quite funny and intelligent. But he’s just so wrapped up in his work most of the time!”
“Leon’s the dedicated type, all right,” said Longarm. “You threw quite a scare into him tonight. I don’t figure he’ll ever bother you again.” He urged Janice gently toward the door. “Now we’d better get back to your sister, so that you can put her mind at ease.”
Longarm led her back to the compartment where Julie was waiting. When Julie opened the door and saw her sister standing there, she threw her arms around Janice and hugged her tightly. “I thought something terrible must have happened to you! Don’t scare me that way again!”
“Oh, poo, it didn’t amount to anything,” Janice protested. “I simply had to fend off the amorous attentions of the senator’s assistant, Mr. Mercer.”
Julie leaned back and stared at Janice. “Mr. Mercer?” she repeated. “Are you sure?”
“He was kissing me passionately. I think I’m usually aware of who’s doing something like that.”
Julie laughed. “I might have expected such a thing from the senator himself … but Mr. Mercer?”
Longarm leaned against the compartment door, which he had closed behind him, and watched the two of them dissolve into a fit of giggles. After a moment he reminded them he was there by saying, “I sort of had in mind doing some passionate kissing of my own …”